Gothic ("Gutiska razda" or "Gutrazda") was a continental Germanic
language spoken by the Visigoths and Ostrogoths in many areas (most
notably Spain and Italy) throughout antiquity and the early Middle Ages;
while Gothic appears to have become functionally extinct sometime in the
eighth century, some form of the language may have continued to be
spoken in the Crimea until the sixteenth or seventeenth century. The
Gothic Bible, translated from a lost Greek exemplar sometime ca. 360 CE
by the Gothic bishop Wulfila, represents the earliest substantive text
in any Germanic language. Gothic itself remains the only significant
representation of the East Germanic branch of languages, which have
since died off completely. Other extant works in Gothic include an
exegesis of the Gospel of John known as "Skeireins", a partial calendar,
and some minor fragments. Unfortunately, all extant texts are
incomplete, so it remains unknown to what extent the extant fragments
are written in idiomatic Gothic, as well as exactly what dialect of
Gothic they might represent. This translation of "Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland" seeks to transport Carroll's seminal work into the
fourth-century Germanic world by Gothicizing both the language and
environment of the original text. Why translate "Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland" into such an ancient and idiosyncratic language? In part,
because Alice-itself a textbook of idiosyncrasies-lends itself well to
linguistic flights of fancy, and in part because the dearth of available
Gothic reading material has occasioned the production of new literature
in this important East Germanic language. "AÞalhaids" is to date the
longest text written in Gothic in more than a thousand years.
