The etymology of the Old Germanic toponyms

This handbook of Old Germanic toponyms is a comprehensive collection of Germanic, possibly Germanic and non-Germanic geographical names of Magna Germania and the adjacent provinces; names attested before 600 AD were included only (exceptions were made when needed for etymological discussion). The selection of headwords is based on Reichert`s Lexikon der altgermanischen Namen (LAN), which has become a standard reference work for all Old Germanic onomastic studies and comprises about 3.000 names and roughly 26.000 attestations. In LAN, no etymological discussion was included. Hence, a commented bibliography like this handbook, sums up the current state of research on the toponyms. The lemmata are cited in the same manner as in LAN (without ending) and they are arranged alphabetically. In the articles, the current state of research concerning the localization of the ancient places (, rivers, forests and mountains) and concerning the etymology and word formation of the toponyms is documented and critically discussed.The articles are structured as follows: Reference: In the first line, a reference to LAN is given (LAN Vol. I: onomastic data, Vol. II: indices, bibliography, amendments). Attestation: The second paragraph contains the attested forms of the toponym as well as information on case, number, and deviant readings. When the number of attested forms of a name was very high, only the oldest ones were cited in the handbook of toponyms; the full evidence is listed in LAN. Context and Localization: The third paragraph gives information on context and localization. Despite this handbook s predominantly linguistic approach, the crucial extra-linguistic, i.e. historical, archaeological and geographical data, are included in the discussion. The following etymological section critically sketches the relevant research literature. The linguistic and extra- linguistic analysis of a toponym is often complicated by concurring etymologies, ambiguities in a toponyms linguistic affiliation, lack of archaeological and/or historical evidence, the erratic quality of the manuscripts, misspellings, miscalculations, the problem of distorted maps, etc.