Goths

This article is about the Germanic tribes. For the late 20th century youth subculture, see Goth. "Gothic" has various other applications, some of them relating to Goths.

Invasion of the Goths: a late 19th century painting by O. Fritsche portrays the Goths as cavalrymen.

The Goths were an East Germanic tribe which according to their own traditions originated in Scandinavia (specifically Götaland and Gotland). They migrated southwards and conquered parts of the Roman empire. Two closely related tribes, the Götar and the Gutar, who remained in Scandinavia and are often called Goths¹, are separately treated, as Geats and Gotlanders.

History

Our only source for early Gothic history is Jordanes' Getica, (published 551), a condensation of the lost twelve-volume history of the Goths written in Italy by Cassiodorus. Jordanes may not even have had the work at hand to consult from, and this early information should be treated with caution. Cassiodorus was well placed to write of Goths, for he was an essential minister of Theodoric the Great, who apparently had heard some of the Gothic songs that told of their traditional origins, related in turn by Jordanes with the remark "for so the story is generally told in their early songs, in almost historic fashion." The Gothic bards accompanied themselves on a stringed instrument that Latin writers associated with the cithara, which was more familiar to them.

They were settled for some time in the Vistula Basin (called Gothiscandza by Jordanes), whence they migrated towards the south-east. They battled with, and temporarily subjugated, the ancestors of the Slavs (there were many Gothic loanwords in proto-Slavic), who lived between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea and ultimately settled in 'Scythia' a vast undefined region that includes modern Ukraine and Belarus (called Oium by Jordanes). A united tribe until the third century, it was during that period that they split into the eastern Goths or Ostrogoths and the western Goths or Visigoths.

Though many of the fighting nomads who followed them were to prove more bloody, the Goths were feared because the captives they took in battle were sacrificed to their god of war, Tyz [1] (http://www.northvegr.org/lore/grimmst/009_03.php)(the one-armed Tyr), and the captured arms hung in trees as a token-offering. Their kings and priests came from a separate aristocracy, according to Cassiodorus/Jordanes, and their mythic kings of ancient times were honored as gods. Their mythic lawgiver, named Dicineus, traditionally dated about the 1st century BC, ordered their laws, which they possessed by the 6th century in written form and called belagines.

A force of Goths launched one of the first major "barbarian" invasions of the Roman Empire in 267 (Hermannus Contractus, quoting Eusebius, has "263: Macedonia, Graecia, Pontus, Asia et aliae provinciae depopulantur per Gothos"). A year later, they suffered a devastating defeat at the Battle of Naissus and were driven back across the Danube River by 271. This group then settled on the other side of the Danube from Roman territory and established an independent kingdom centered on the abandoned Roman province of Dacia, as the Visigoths. In the meantime, the Goths still in Ukraine established a vast and powerful kingdom along the Black Sea. This group became known as the Ostrogoths.

The Goths were briefly reunited under one crown in the early sixth century under the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great, who became regent of the Visigothic kingdom for nearly two decades.

For the later history of the Goths, see Visigoths and Ostrogoths.

Origins

Explaining the origins of the Goths, Jordanes recounted:

The same mighty sea has also in its arctic region, that is in the north, a great island named Scandza, from which my tale (by God's grace) shall take its beginning. For the race whose origin you ask to know burst forth like a swarm of bees from the midst of this island and came into the land of Europe. [...] Now from this island of Scandza, as from a hive of races or a womb of nations, the Goths are said to have come forth long ago under their king, Berig by name. As soon as they disembarked from their ships and set foot on the land, they straightway gave their name to the place. And even to-day it is said to be called Gothiscandza. Soon they moved from here to the abodes of the Ulmerugi [ Rugians ], who then dwelt on the shores of Ocean, where they pitched camp, joined battle with them and drove them from their homes.

In the 1st century, Tacitus located the Gothones in Northern Poland:

Beyond the Lygians dwell the Gothones, under the rule of a king; and thence held in subjection somewhat stricter than the other German[ic] nations, yet not so strict as to extinguish all their liberty. Immediately adjoining are the Rugians and Lemovians upon the coast of the ocean, and of these several nations the characteristics are a round shield, a short sword and kingly government.

Due to the central role that the Goths have played in history, their origins have been discussed for a long time. Although no alternative theory has been proposed for the appearance of Germanic tribes in northern Poland, some historians have expressed doubts that the Goths originated in Scandinavia. This is due to the fact that, disregarding Jordanes, the earliest literary evidence for the Goths (Tacitus and Pliny the Elder) puts them at the Vistula in 1st century AD.

On the other hand, the German scholar Wenskus has pointed out that if Jordanes had wanted to invent a fictive past for the Goths, he would have claimed that they were descended from a prestigious location such as Troy or Rome. He would not have placed their origins in the barbaric North. Moreover, he was writing for fellow Goths who were familiar with their traditions. Besides Jordanes' account, there is both linguistic and archaeological support for the Scandinavian origin.

Archaeology

In Poland, the material culture associated with these Goths (or better Gothones) is typically identified with the Wielbark Culture [2] (http://www.muzarp.poznan.pl/archweb/gazociag/title5.htm), and during the late Nordic Bronze Age and early Pre-Roman Iron Age (ca 600 BC - ca 300 BC), this area had influences from southern Scandinavia [3] (http://www.arkeologi.uu.se/publications/opia/gothicabstract.htm). During this period the warm and dry climate of southern Scandinavia (2-3 degrees warmer than today) deteriorated considerably, which not only dramatically changed the flora, but forced people to change their way of living and to leave settlements. In fact, the Scandinavian influence on Pomerania and northern Poland from period III and onwards was so considerable that this region is sometimes included in the Nordic Bronze Age culture (Dabrowski 1989:73)[4] (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gothic-l/message/5322).

The Goths are believed to have crossed the Baltic Sea sometime between the end of this period, ca 300 BC, and AD 100, and in the traditional province of Ostrogothia, in Sweden, archaeological evidence shows that there was a general depopulation during this period. The settlement in Poland probably corresponds to the introduction of Scandinavian burial traditions, such as the stone circles and the stelae, which indicates that the early Goths preferred to bury their dead according to Scandinavian traditions. The Polish archaeologist Tomasz Skorupka states that a migration from Scandinavia is a regarded as a matter of certainty:

Despite many controversial hypotheses regarding the location of Scandia (for example, in the provinces of Västergotland, Östergotland, island of Gotlandia), the fact that the Goths arrived on Polish land from the North after crossing the Baltic Sea by boats is certain.[5] (http://www.muzarp.poznan.pl/muzeum/muz_eng/wyst_czas/Goci_katalog/index_kat.html)

However, the Gothic culture also appears to have had continuity from earlier cultures in the area[6] (http://www.muzarp.poznan.pl/archweb/gazociag/title5.htm), suggesting that the immigrants mixed with earlier populations, perhaps providing their separate aristocracy. The Oxford scholar Heather suggests that it was a relatively small migration from Scandinavia (1996:25). This scenario would make their migration across the Baltic similar to many other population movements in history, where migrants have imposed their own culture on an indigenous one. This culture shifted south-eastwards towards the Black Sea area from the mid-2nd century. There, they appear to have imposed themselves as the rulers of the local, probably Slavic, Chernyakhov Culture (ca 200 - ca 400).

There is archaeological and historical evidence of continued contacts between the Goths and the Scandinavians during their migrations.

Linguistics

According to at least one theory, there are closer linguistic connections between Gothic and Old Norse than between Gothic and the West Germanic languages (see East Germanic languages and Gothic). Moreover, there were two tribes that probably are closely related to the Goths and remained in Scandinavia, the Geats and the Gotlanders, and these tribes were considered to be Goths by Jordanes (see Scandza).

The word "Geats" (Anglo-Saxon Geatas) and the Swedish word "Götar" (East Norse Gøtar) both represent the expected outcome of proto-Germanic *Gauta-. This form is related to the reconstructed root *Gut- which seems to be the origin of "Goth," which appears earliest in forms such as "Gutthones" in Greek ethnography.

Philologists have reconstructed *Gut-þiuda, the "Gothic people," as a likely original form of the name. This form also appears in the Gothic Calendar (aikklesjons fullaizos ana gutþiudai gabrannidai). Besides the Goths, this way of naming a tribe is only found in Sweden (see Suiones and Suiþioð).

The reconstructed root *Gut- is identical to that of Gotland, an island in the Baltic Sea, and the number of similarities that existed between the Gothic language and Old Gutnish, made the prominent linguist Elias Wessén consider Old Gutnish to be a form of Gothic. The most famous example is that both Gutnish and Gothic used the word lamb for both young and adult sheep. Still, some claim that Gutnish is not closer to Gothic than any other Germanic dialect.

The fact is that virtually all of those phonetic and grammatical features that characterize the North Germanic languages as a separate branch of the Germanic language family (not to mention the features that distinguish various Norse dialects) seem to have evolved at a later stage than the one preserved in Gothic. Gothic in turn, while being an extremely archaic form of Germanic in most respects, has nevertheless developed a certain number of unique features that it shares with no other Germanic language (see Gothic language).

However, this does not exclude the possibility of the Goths, the Geats and the Gotlanders being related as tribes. Similarly, the Saxon dialects of Germany are hardly closer to Anglo-Saxon than any other West Germanic language that hasn't undergone the High German consonant shift (see Grimm's law), but the tribes themselves are definitely identical. The Jutes (Dan. jyder) of Jutland (Dan. Jylland, in Western Danmark) are at least etymologically identical to the Jutes that came from that region and invaded Britain together with the Angles and the Saxons in the 5th century AD. Nevertheless, there are no remaining written sources to associate the Jutes of Jutlandia with anything but North Germanic dialects, or the Jutes of Britain with anything but West Germanic dialects. Thus, language is not always the best criterion for tribal or ethnic tradition and continuity.

Interestingly, the Gotlanders (Gutar) did have oral traditions of a mass migration towards southern Europe written down in the Gutasaga. If the facts are related, that would be a unique case of a tradition that survived in more than a thousand years and that actually pre-dates most of the major splits in the Germanic language family.

References

• Mastrelli, Carlo Alberto in Volker Bierbauer et al, I Goti, Milan: Electa Lombardia, Elemond Editori Associati, 1994.

• Graf E.C. Oxenstierna: Die Urheimat der Goten. Leipzig, Mannus-Buecherei 73, 1945 (later printed in 1948).

• Bell-Fialkoff, A.: The Role of Migration in the History of the Eurasian Steppe, London: Macmillan, 2000.

• Findeisen, Joerg-Peter: Schweden - Von den Anfaengen bis zur Gegenwart, Regensburg: Verlag Friedrich Pustet, 1998.

• Heather, Peter: The Goths (Blackwell, 1996)

• Hermodsson, Lars: Goterna - ett krigafolk och dess bibel, Stockholm, Atlantis, 1993.

• Kaliff, Anders: Gothic Connections. Contacts between eastern Scandinavia and the southern Baltic coast 1000 BC – 500 AD. 2001.

• Nordgren, I.: The Well Spring of the Goths : About the Gothic peoples in the Nordic Countries and on the Continent (2004)

• Nordgren, I.: Goterkällan - om goterna i Norden och på kontinenten, Skara: Vaestergoetlands museums skriftserie nr 30, 2000.

• Rodin, L. - Lindblom, V. - Klang, K.: Gudaträd och västgötska skottkungar - Sveriges bysantiska arv, Göteborg: Tre böcker, 1994.

• Schaetze der Ostgoten, Stuttgart: Theiss, 1995. Studia Gotica - Die eisenzeitlichen Verbindungen zwischen Schweden und Suedosteuropa - Vortraege beim Gotensymposion im Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm 1970.

• Tacitus: Germania, (with introduction and commentary by J.B. Rives),Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999.

• Wenskus, Reinhard: Stammesbildung und Verfassung. Das Werden der Frühmittelalterlichen Gentes (Köln 1961).

External links

• "The Goths in Greater Poland" by Tadeusz Makiewicz (http://www.muzarp.poznan.pl/archweb/gazociag/title5.htm)
• "Jewellery of the Goths", by Tomasz Skorupka, on a Polish museum site (http://www.muzarp.poznan.pl/muzeum/muz_eng/wyst_czas/Goci_katalog/index_kat.html)
• "The Germans" by Richard Hooker (http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MA/GERMANS.HTM)
• Summary of "Gothic Connections" by Anders Kaliff (http://www.arkeologi.uu.se/publications/opia/gothicabstract.htm)

Notes

Note 1: E.g. translations from Old Norse (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Volsunga/), Anglo-Saxon (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/9701) or Latin (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/anskar.html) and the Primary Chronicle and modern scholarly works on Germanic tribes [7] (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0595336485/qid=1112684815/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-0307554-5723364?v=glance&s=books).

See also

• Migrations period
• Gothic language
• Gothic alphabet
• Geats
• Gepidae
• Jutes
• Visigoth
• Ostrogoth
• Crimean Goths
• Ulfilas;Codex Argenteus
• Sava the Goth

Compare Gothic architecture, which has no historical connection with the Gothsbg:Готи da:Goter de:Goten es:Godo eo:gotoj fr:Goths he:גותים it:Goti nl:Gothen pl:Goci pt:Godos ru:Готы sv:Goter