Jelling is a small town in Jutland/Gutland which is of little significance today. But a bit more than a thousand years ago it was the center of the newly formed kingdom of Denmark. The first recognized members of the Danish royal family had their main base in this village of Jelling. They left behind significant monuments in the form of a massive grave site – it is actually the largest ancient grave in Denmark showing the family had immense wealth and power so they could give such a burial for their founding member.
Old harnish for dogs
The biggest attraction of the town is the large Rune Stones standing outside the church. There is one big and one small – the biggest one is the youngest one erected by Harald Bluetooth ( CARRUTHERS ANCESTOR). On this stone the name Denmark is first written down anywhere in the world making it kind of a birth certificate of Denmark.
You can go and explore the outside monument area day or night and there is free access to go and see the burial mound and the stones which are covered in a glass cage to protect them against the Danish climate which can be rough for a stone over time.
Remains of an ancient bridge
The importance of the site has led to the foundation of a branch of the Danish National Museum right opposite the monument area. The museum is free to enter so if you come during the visiting hour of the museum you should go inside and get a bit more of the store of the area and the oldest history of Denmark.
Viking locations around the country
Places in Denmark named after gods
The museum is an interactive museum which should be able to entertain kids for a while. There are only a limited number of actual ancient artifacts on display – probably because you have only found a limited number of artifacts in the area of Jelling which were only used as the main royal seat for a short period and only had a limited permanent population in ancient times.
Gold relief at the museum
Sliver line indicating the burial place of an old man – possibly the first Danish king
The displays and stories are both in Danish and English making it possible to follow for most visitors to the museum. It is good to visit the place either before or after a visit to the monuments outside – but you can enjoy the outdoors without the museum as well if you come outside opening hours.
OFFICIAL AND REGISTERED CLAN CARRUTHERS CCIS -1983 CLAN OF OUR ANCESTORS
Everybody knows what a Viking is. Well … more or less. These images may vary widely in detail and accuracy, but the general idea is there. There have been many magnificent warrior cultures in history – the Scythians, the Visigoths, the Sarmatians, the Pechenegs, the Mamelukes, and on and on – but very few have attained the household name status the Vikings have.
But what does the word “Viking” actually mean? It may come as a surprise to some, but this very question has become the topic of intense debate recently. It is increasingly common to find posts with comments lighting up over “Viking” being a verb not a noun, or Vikings not really being Scandinavian, or any number of challenges to what has long been taken for granted.
Here is an example of the online articles implying that the word Vikings should not be used as a noun:
Other articles erroneously state that the term Viking did not appear until centuries after the Viking age ended.
There is just one problem. Multiple Viking runestones would say otherwise.
Aside from proving that people will argue about anything – even 9th century grammar or the DNA of a 1000 year-old grave – what can we learn from a closer look at some of these issues? How did Vikings come to be called Vikings? What did they call themselves, and what were they called by the people around them?
‘Viking’ in Old Norse
‘Viking’ was used as both a verb and a noun. The noun and plural versions in Old Norse were spelled víkingum,víkingar and víkingr. The ‘r’ on the end is a grammatical feature of Old Norse for denoting a masculine noun. Today the spellings (such as the “r”) is dropped in English transliteration. For example, today people write the name of the god Freyr as Frey. In Old Norse spelling, víkingr was an individual who was a seaborne raider/adventurer …which today is properly spelled as Viking. Víkingum and víkingar were the plural spellings …which again, today is properly spelled as Vikings.
There has been a lot of discussion over the origins of this word. One of the most prevalent explanations is that it derives from the root word vík, which meant a bay (somewhere víkingr were likely to launch out of). A similar theory links it to the geographical location in southwest Norway called Vík, where many Vikings hailed from. However, Vikings were also from Sweden, Denmark, and numerous other places, so the “Vík region” theory is not especially satisfactory.
It should be noted that there are several other Old Norse aquatic terms that also contain the root vík (such as vika – a sea mile, or víkja – to travel by sea ), and so it is fair enough to say that the word víkingr arose from this general family of vík terms, without expecting much more specificity than that.
Noun usage seen on runestones
Víkingr and other forms of the word, such as víkingum or víkingar (plural version of the word Viking), appear as nouns describing Scandinavian seaborne raiders in the sagas, Eddic poetry, and runestones. Just a few examples of such Viking Age runestone inscriptions include:
“Tóki, Tóki the Viking, raised the stone in memory of Gunnarr, Grímr’s son. May God help his soul!” (Sm 10 runestone)
“Hvatarr and Heilgeirr(?) raised the stone in memory of Helgi, their father. He traveled to the west with the Vikings.” (G 370 runestone)
“Asrathr and Hildung/Hildvig/Hildulf erected this stone after Fretha, their kinsman, … he died in Sweden and was first …. of every Viking.” (DR 216 runestone)
There are many other examples besides these, but here we see literally carved in stone the term “Viking” being used as a noun denoting people. From the context, it does not seem that “Viking” referred to everybody, though, but specifically to some type of traveling warrior / raider / pirate (and eventually trader and settler).
Common misunderstandings of the verb usage
In English, words that end in ‘–ing’ are usually verbs in progress, such as talking, walking, writing, and so forth. However, the word ‘Viking’ is a “loan word” coming to us from another language. So, it is a mistake to attach such a meaning from this ‘–ing’ suffix, just as it is a mistake to see ‘-king’ as the suffix describing the Viking as the king (or superlative) of whatever “vi” might be. That being said, víking could also be a verb in Old Norse. This verb meant the act of seaborne raiding or adventuring. So, Vikings would go víking, or in other words, a seaborne raider would go out and raid by sea. In many historical fiction books, this is rendered “to go viking.”
There is no evidence to suggest that the verb was more prevalent than the noun or adjective.
What Vikings Called Themselves, and What Other People Called Them
People tend to look at the past through the lens of their current cultural values, beliefs, and expectations. However, it is essential to remember that in our ancestors’ times many of the ideals, concepts, and information we now take for granted had not developed yet. Today, one of the strongest ways people identify is by their nationality – we are Americans, Norwegians, Irish, and so forth. But, while many of Europe’s nations began to form and organize in the Viking Age (circa 793-1066), national identity was then only in its embryonic stages.
At the dawn of the Viking Age, the Nordic peoples of Scandinavia shared a common language, culture, and faith (though with significant regional variations). However, they did not share a strong sense of common identity, as evidenced by their constant wars, raiding, and competition – even within the geographical boundaries of their homeland. They were divided into numerous tribes (such as the Jutes, the Zealanders, the Svear, the Geats, and many more). Their societies were arranged in small units (usually with strong kinship bonds), and their allegiance was to local chieftains or petty kings. The first “King of All Norway,” Harald Fairhair (who inspired the TV character of a similar name), did not consolidate power until a century into the Viking Age, and the political boundaries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden would not solidify for several centuries after that.
So, while Vikings used the term víkingr for a seaborne adventurer, early medieval Scandinavian peoples had no overarching name for themselves. They did not think that way. Instead, they identified themselves by family, clan, and tribal loyalties. During the Viking Age, these intimate groups formed larger and larger networks and affected greater and greater changes far from home.
Vikings might not have had a common term for themselves, but their enemies had many. The English and the French tended to call them all Danes. Archeology is abundantly clear, though, that the “Great Heathen Army,” the “Army of the Seine,” and these other large forces were not just Danes but mixed companies from locations wherever Vikings roamed.
English monks, writing in Latin, also adopted the word, Wiccinga/Wiccingi (the Old English form of ‘viking’ in Latinized singular and plural forms). This capitalization in the manuscripts strongly suggests the Vikings were known by that name, and that it is not just a generic descriptor. One of the few named Viking groups from the period, the Jomsvikings (Vikings of Joms), also had chosen the name for themselves.
There were other names in other places. In Ireland, the Vikings were called “the Foreigners.” In the east – Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Byzantine Empire, Bulgaria, and the Mediterranean – Vikings were called Varangians (“sworn companions”) and Rus’. To the Moors of Spain and the Arabs around the Caspian, they were called Majūs.
Looking at this map your see Denmark and then on the other side of Sweden you see the Island of Gotland. Denmark was called Jutland and gotland was Gutland. Jutland and Gutland were one in the same. The lighter green area was all land. It is assumed that the longboats that our ancestors made, were made so they could get through those narrow paths from one end of Gutland to the others.
was
The Viking Diaspora
Within a few centuries of the first raids, Vikings controlled significant holdings in more than a dozen lands and had traveled through what are now more than 40 countries. In every case, the Vikings wasted no time in blending with local populations. We have accounts of Vikings being Norse-Irish and Norse-Slavic by the mid-9th century. The Vikings became an indelible part of England and even ruled it for a time. Desperate to control their Viking problem, the French gave Rollo Normandy – only for these “Normans” to spread to Italy and even the Holy Land. Vikings founded Iceland, colonized Greenland, and set up lasting residence in islands all over the North Atlantic.
This dynamic movement did not just occur in one direction. Though thousands of Vikings stayed abroad and formed new, permanent communities, many others brought their loot and military experience back home to Scandinavia. This influx of wealth and warriors created the political and martial power that gave rise to kings like Harald Fairhair, Harald Bluetooth, Gorm the Old, and Saint Olaf the Stout.
For our present discussion, though, this dramatic and dynamic movement of people introduces problems of terminology. It is cumbersome and anachronistic to refer to these people by names such as Danes, Norwegians, or Swedes when they were from many different places in the Viking world, like Dublin, the Danelaw, the Orkneys, Novgorod, the Faroes, or Iceland.
The terms ‘Norse’ and ‘Nordic’ are useful when describing the Vikings as an ethnicity or discussing their culture, but these terms are imprecise in terms of time (that is, we could be speaking of the Norse of the year 1000 or the year 1). Also, the term ‘Norse’ has traditionally been used primarily for Norway or western Scandinavia. Indeed, the term “Norsemen” taken narrowly as “Norwegians” excludes Danes, Swedes, and even women. “Northmen,” too, is quite vague. In many ways, we are at the same disadvantage in labeling these people as their contemporaries were.
Were Vikings Exclusively Scandinavian?
In the fall of 2020, a news story was picked up by a large number of mainstream media outlets describing newly-published DNA research suggesting that Vikings were not exclusively “blonde” Scandinavians, but included individuals from southern Europe and beyond. This was a sensational story that got a lot of traction. We know that in 500 ad, they were most blondes and red headed men and women. In the 900’s dark haired people were showing up on their boats.
However, it is really nothing new. Vikings traveled very widely and took people with them (voluntarily and involuntarily) as they went. Their society was ultimately a meritocracy (that is, a person’s place was based on what they offered to the society), especially in diaspora. It should come as no surprise whatsoever that Viking bands were diverse, especially compared to settlements inland.
The sagas and Eddas have always described the back and forth flow of people in and out of Scandinavia. The biggest hero in the Vikings’ favorite story, Sigurd Fafnir’s Bane, was a Hun (that is, a people who were originally horsemen from the plains of Asia). Snorri Sturluson and Saxo Grammaticus (medieval writers who give us some of our oldest written Viking lore) both try to tie the Yngling Dynasty of Sweden to the survivors of Troy.
However, despite this level of integration (stated in the broadest and vaguest terms by the news stories) the Viking bands were still overwhelmingly Scandinavian, as their culture, technology, and two centuries of archeology maintain. The Viking Age was a phenomenon generated from northern seas, and it is in that context that the term ‘Viking’ makes sense. At the same time that Europe was experiencing Viking expansion, there was also raiding (by land and sea) from the Moors, Saracens, Turks, and Magyars. The Medieval Europeans did not call these other threats by the same names they called Vikings, but understood them to be different peoples. In this regard, “Vikings” and the other titles they were known by have long been an indicator of a specific people.
The Modern Coining of the Name, “Viking”
In the late 18th-early 20th centuries, the western world started to branch out from its obsession with Greece and Rome and take a fresh look at their medieval past. Fueled by the Romantic aesthetic, the rediscovery and translation of the Eddas and by amazing archeological discoveries like the sensational Oseberg ship burial, the Vikings took the popular imagination by storm. But while the historical importance of their contributions was reappraised and the value of their artistry reestablished, there was still the same uncertainty of what to call them.
It was at this time that historians and writers (including the popular Romantic novelist, Sir Walter Scott) began the wholesale application of the term ‘Vikings.’ Yes, the term used to mean a seaborne adventurer, but it was their longships and their profound ethos that had led to this unprecedented time of exploration, trade, conquest, communication, and influence. It seemed fitting that these people should be called after their own word for what made them so powerful and impactful. The term ‘Viking’ was never meant to replace the term ‘Scandinavian’ (or any other term). It was meant to specifically refer to those 8th-11th century Scandinavian adventurers who shattered their world’s boundaries and catalyzed global history. But we know from archeology and the written record that these adventurers were not just ‘raiders’ on longships. Instead, they were also traders and settlers, made up of entire families of pioneers and armed migratory communities. In this way, men, women, children, and the elderly were all ‘Vikings.’
The name stuck. Today, it is the most common name by which they are known in popular culture. It is also accepted and used by most scholars, museums, universities, writers, and experts (though these same scholars fully understand the term’s limitations).
Controversy
Not everyone is happy, though. A movement insists that calling Vikings “Vikings” is inappropriate because only seaborne raiders were Vikings and only when they were raiding (i.e. to be used as a verb or “vocation” only). Detractors point out that most people living in Scandinavia in the 8th-11th century were farmers and shepherds and probably never went anywhere. Thus, they attack the term Vikings for being imprecise and misapplied. Unfortunately, they can only offer alternatives that are also imprecise and misapplied
Scandinavian society of the Viking Age was divided into three classes – jarls (aristocrats), karls (free landholders) and thralls (slaves and servants). The majority of society were free landholders. This central class’s rhythm of life was to tend their farms and plant their crops in the spring, then go raiding and trading (that is, “go viking”) in the summer to increase their wealth and status, and then return to their farms for harvest. They would shelter indoors for the winter, telling stories which reinforced the whole process. There were professional soldiers in Viking times, but it was these free landholders that formed the bulk of the armies. That is how the Viking assaults on Europe grew so exponentially – they had skilled manpower available that could provide for themselves. While some of the larger armies after 830 deviated from this model, it was still normative throughout the Viking Age.
Thus, many, many Scandinavian males in the Viking Age had indeed been víkingar, and this was a vital part of their personal identity. Archaeology also maintains that women and families played a role in these efforts, especially in the Viking Diaspora. So, it is not unreasonable that the term ‘Viking’ could be applied to them, too.
Conclusion
Today, an American man or woman might spend their early twenties in the Marine Corps. Even this relatively small percentage of their life makes them a Marine forever. They will always carry the pride, identity, and skills, and you will always see the marks of those experiences in how they dress, how they talk, and how they carry themselves. It would have been the same for Vikings. We see in the sagas, people are referred to as “a great Viking,” even when they have settled down in a farm in Iceland. That kind of pride is permanent.
The Vikings have always been a mysterious and misunderstood people. They have been known by many names – Foreigners, Heathens, Varangians, Rus, Majūs, Wiccingi, Danes, Northmen, and now Vikings. What they were called was always based on how they were perceived and what aspect of their character the reaction was based on. For us today, it is their impact on the history of the world, their boldness, ethos, determination, and their ability to bend realities to their will that are their most important features. It is not their tribal identities but rather their collective achievements and common contribution that makes them special, and that is why they are called Vikings.
So to be called a Viking meant you had a job, you were a Pirate!
OFFICIAL AND REGISTERED CLAN CARRUTHERS CCIS -1983
SVEND I HARALDSSON THE FIRST VIKING KING OF ENGLAND WITH THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 1013
In 1012, England had finally secured peace and security against foreign attackers, having endured a three-year Viking raid which had culminated in the brutal murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury. But any hopes of enjoying a long spell of peace and quiet were rudely shattered in early 1013 by the arrival of an invasion force led by the King of Denmark, Svend Forkbeard.
Svend’s army conquered England so quickly that by Christmas he was in control of the kingdom, but how did he achieve this feat of arms? Was it through defeating English armies on the battlefield and subjugating the survivors? Or was it through a mass change of allegiance on the part of the English nobility and clergy?
The apocalypse was not slow in arriving. In the spring of 1013, less than a year after Thorkell
the Tall stopped attacking them, a new and more deadly enemy returned to menace the
English. Svend Forkbeard was back. No one knows exactly why Svend chose to invade
England in 1013. He had taken part in raids on England in the 990s and in the previous
decade, but those were plundering raids, whereas what he now proposed to do was outright
conquest. One leading theory is that he feared that AEthelred would fund an attempt by
Thorkell the Tall to become King of Denmark, like he funded Óláfr Tryggvason’s campaign
to become King of Norway in 995, which had disrupted Svend’s hegemonic rule over
Scandinavia. Óláfr ruled Norway for four years before being killed at the battle of Svolder by
a naval coalition comprised of Svend’s navy, his Norwegian son-in-law Eiríkr Hákonarson’s
forces, and Svend’s Swedish allies.
Whatever his reasons for invading England were, Svend and his invasion fleet initially sailed
to Sandwich on the south coast, before going north to the mouth of the river Humber in
northern England and landing at Gainsborough. At this point it became clear that Svend had
been in contact with several English nobles before his arrival as he was welcomed by the
locals with open arms. To secure their loyalty, Svend had his son Cnut marry AElgifu of
Northampton, the daughter of Ealdorman AElfhelm. Her family wielded a huge amount of
influence in northern Mercia and southern Northumbria at that time due to their large estates
and extended family networks. They had suffered a major setback during the palace coup at
AEthelred’s court in 1006 when Ealdorman AElfhelm was murdered, and his sons were
blinded. As a result, they had an axe to grind against AEthelred and his supporters,
particularly Eadric Streona, who had risen to prominence at their expense. In short order,
most of northern and eastern England joined Svend, and provided him with all the supplies he
needed.
The reasons why the English people switched their allegiances go deeper than cultural links
and blood feuds between rival noble families though. They had suffered huge amounts of
death and destruction at the hands of Viking raiders in the previous twenty years, whilst
AEthelred had utterly failed to fulfil his duty as King and defend them from attack. When
Svend arrived, he offered them a new deal which was that if they accepted him as their king,
then in return he would stop the Viking raids. They were more than happy to accept it since
AEthelred had failed to uphold his responsibilities to them, and they thought Svend would be
able to keep his word. In addition to this, there were also family and cultural links with
Scandinavia in the Danelaw of eastern England which helped to smooth over any issues in
that region.
Svend and his army now moved south and started pillaging once they left the lands held by
his new subjects. This was enough to frighten the populations of Oxford and Winchester to
surrender without a fight in return for a promise of protection, and the rest of England soon
followed suit and surrendered to Svend. The only place which stayed loyal to AEthelred was
London. Thorkell the Tall also remained loyal to him, but that was scant consolation for
AEthelred as the rest of the kingdom decided that they would prefer to have Svend as their
king instead of him. AEthelred, along with Emma and their children, sailed with Thorkell the
Tall to the Isle of Wight where they spent Christmas, before sailing for Normandy and exile.
AEthelred’s sons by his first marriage stayed behind in England and lay low, awaiting
developments. After AEthelred had departed, London submitted to Svend, who then
demanded hostages from the entire English nobility as a safeguard against treachery.
So, that was that. Svend had conquered England, a kingdom with far more people, money,
and land than his own, in a matter of months. The principal reason why he had been so
successful was because instead of fighting him, the English decided to change sides and join
him in his campaign against AEthelred. As the political and military momentum had shifted
in Svend’s favour due to his seemingly unending series of successes, he attracted more and
more defectors who were eager to join the winning side before it was too late. The result was
that as 1013 drew to a close, Svend enjoyed the support of most of the English nobility and
clergy, with no signs of resistance to his rule in sight.
As 1014 began, Svend was secure on the English throne. All he needed to do to make his new
title legitimate in the eyes of the rest of Christian Europe was to hold a coronation. AEthelred
was in exile in Normandy with his ducal in-laws, who were not particularly inclined to be
helpful in supporting a campaign to reconquer England. Even if AEthelred could gather an
army, cross the Channel, and get ashore without being intercepted, his chances of success
looked hopeless whilst Svend’s grip on England was so strong. But for all that things looked
set in stone, the wheel of fortune was still turning…
OFFICIAL AND REGISTERED CLAN CARRUTHERS SINCE 1983
Preserving the Past, Recording the Present, Informing the Future
The Megalith Grave at Ansarve, Tofta Parish,Gotland
A megalith structure can be described as a collective grave built of large stones usually erected on end, close together, and covered with one or more capstones, thus forming an inner chamber where corpses were deposited. They were collective graves for an extended family or corporate decent group, and used over an extensive period. Such graves are found mainly in Western and Northern Europe (Portugal, Spain, France, Britain, Ireland, West Germany, Denmark and Sweden). They are often located close to the coast, and in Scandinavia they are often associated with a Neolithic way of life, including cultivation, domesticated animals and a certain type of pottery (Funnel Beaker Pottery). They usually have initial dates to the Scandinavian Early Neolithic3400–3300 BC.
The only megalith construction on Gotland (Fig. 3) which archaeological excavations confirm as being such a structure is located on the western part of the Island, in Tofta Parish, about 20km south of Visby. Due to shore line displacement and isostatic uplift ,it is situated about 1km from the current coastline, beside the road leading to the old fishing campsite at Gnisvärd (Fig. 2). When it was built and used, it was located directly on the shore. Today, the grave consists of four 1.2 metre high granite blocks. Three stones make up the wall of the chamber on the northern side (Fig. 4). Approximately 1.5m to the south stands a single large block, which comprises the southern wall of the same chamber. There are vertical entrance stones on the east corner side of the chamber, and the grave is bounded by a rectangular outline of limestone slabs bordering a stone pavement which surrounds the chamber stones. Based on its typological features, this structure is interpreted as a rectangular dolmen dating to the end of the Scandinavian Early Neolithic
c.3400–3300 BC(Bägerfeldt 1992.7)
Tab. 1. The Neolithic in Scandinavia (calibrated values).
Fig. 1. Map of Gotland Island during the Scandinavian Early Neolithic, with the location of the An- sarvemegalith, the possible megalith at Licksarve, and other Funnel Beaker Settlements.
Despite the archaeological excavations and their conclusive results, the structure is still not entirely
recognised as being a megalith. It is situated close to two of the largest Bronze Agestone ship settings on the Island, which makes up one of Gotland’s main archaeological tourist sites. The County Administration
have set up a board which gives information about the stone ship settings and Bronze Age society, and as a small remark at the end of the text, the ‘possible’ mega-lith structure situated on the other side of the narrow road is mentioned: “…if it really is a Megalith, it is the most Eastern mega-lith structure found in Northern Europe”.In the Swedish archaeological digital site inventory, FMIS (hosted by the National Board of Antiquities), the grave is described as a ‘stone setting’, with a cist/chamber, and it is not indicated as a dolmen. The description was written in 1976, is vague, and has not been updated since, although earlier (1912) and subsequent (1984)archaeological investigations have been carried out at the site.
TOP – Fig. 2. Location of the ‘Tof-tadösen’ megalith situated at the current 15 masl line.The light soil areas of Got-land indicated in white.
BOTTOM- The current state of the megalith at Ansarve(photo Paul Wallin)
Several archaeological excavations have been carried out on both the megalith and the stone ship set-tings at this important prehistoric site, but the results have not really been placed in a context together, since the structures have been treated separately, due to their disparate chronology. In a way, the narrow road which divides the large stone ship set-tings and the megalith structure today also divide this site, even though the remains are only thirty metres apart. However, the site, including all the re-mains, is collectively known as Ansarve hage (pastureland). It must have been an important ritual site, since monuments of a ritual nature from various periods are located here, and re-use of the dolmen is also indicated. It appears as if the stone ship settings are ‘moored’ at the megalith structure, and in doing so, they are both attached to an ancient important place, but also, due to the monumentality of the ships, distract attention from the older site.
The megalith: discovery, description, excavations and results
The megalith was first ‘discovered’ in the early 1900sby an army doctor
Karl Bolin. He and a head-teacher, Hans Hansson, excavated the site in 1912. They excavated (scooped out!) (Fig. 5) the chamber and found three human lower jaw bones, which according to Nils Lithberg (1914.94 ) they collected from this excavation. They also mentioned a smaller cistin side the chamber made from sandstone plates (Lithberg 1914.94 ). Such internal structures are common in megalithic graves on the mainland (Blom- qvist 1989). Based on the geographical dispersal of flint artefacts on the Island of Lithberg, it was concluded that “As regards finding such megalithic graves on this island, this is the ultimate spot ”
(Lith- berg 1914.94 ).
A few notes on the excavation from 1912 are inclu-ded in Lithberg’s dissertation Gotlands stenåder
(The Stone Age of Gotland, 1914), and additional in-formation on bone remains from the site was disco- vered by Lindqvist in 1990s (1997 ).
We recently rediscovered a note on these bones in a museum store-room, which states, “
Tofta parish, Ansarve hage, 3 graves with unburned bones (1717 and 2511 grams) and one grave divided in three divisions of (29, 38 and 76 grams). Found at excavation in1903. No osteological analysis. Stored in box 6818
”.The 1903 date is nine years earlier than the excavation by Bolin and Hansson, which might indicate that an earlier excavation may have been carried out by Bolin and Hansson, or possibly Oscar Wennersten, who was active at that time. However, this is speculation, and the date may simply be a later error.
It was not until 1984 that the next archaeological investigation was carried out at the site. A rexcavation was initiated by Göran Burenhult within the project ‘Archaeological prospecting methods’, which was linked to Inger Österholm’s project ‘Stone Age Gotland’. The excavation was carried out by students from Stockholm University, including the authors of this paper (Wallin and Martinsson-Wallin 1997 ).The aim of the investigation was to “shed light on whether the megalith tradition had been adopted on Gotland ” (Bägerfeldt 1992.7 ).
The structure consisted of a rectangular chamber(approx. 1.5 x 3m) of four granite boulders on edge
One of the side stones and the cap stone are missing, but according to oral tradition, at least, the cap stone was removed to a nearby farm, probably during the second half of the 19th century (Lith- berg 1914.94 ).
The chamber is surrounded by a rectangular frame (approx. 5 x 7m) of limestone slabs on edge (Fig. 4). The structure was interpreted as a rectangular dolmen which on typological grounds was dated to the late Early Neolithic to Middle Neo-lithic,c.3600–2900 BC (Lang 1985.38–39; Bäger- feldt 1992.7–22; Wallin and Martinsson-Wallin1997.23
). It has been suggested that the impetus to build such a monument (or a group of immigrants carrying this tradition) came from the nearby Island of Öland to the south, directly from Western Scania, or possibly from Schleswig-Holstein in North Germany
Among the interesting features found in situ in the structure are two lime stones placed on edge, indicating an entrance facing east (Fig. 6). A rectangular slab of sandstone with zigzag ornamentation was also found close to the short side enclosure (Bäger- fält 1992.22)
. The artefacts from this excavaion consist of 249 flint flakes, of which three are of south Scandinavian flint (one scraper), four stone axes (trindyxor), and four amber fragments, of which two were found in the chamber. A bronze tutulus dated to Montelius period II (c.1500–1300 BC), was also found inside the chamber.
The main bulk of the bone remains recovered in the1984 excavation derived from the ‘scoop-out’ in the1912 excavation, found outside the chamber in the north to north-eastern sectors of the structure (Fig.5). Thus there is no way of knowing in what posi-tions the bodies were placed in the grave. The boneremains recovered in the excavation consisted of 547 teeth, and 5950 bone fragments, with the total weight of the latter being about 23kg (Wallin and Martinsson 1986; 1992; Wallin and Martinsson- Wallin 1997
).
These remains were osteologically analysed and were shown to derive from a total of thirty-one individuals, of whom sixteen were adults, four juveniles, eight infants II, and three infants I. Of the adults, four could be determined as female and three male. The dental condition was generally good: only five teeth had caries, although tartar was found more frequently, and heavily abraded teeth were very common. Only a few fragments were identified as faunal remains: pig (1), seal (8), dog (3), and fish(4) (
Wallin and Martinsson-Wallin 1997 )
A subsequent inventory in the store at The Historical Museum in Stockholm in the 1990s, yielded 4371grams of bone remains (SHM inv. 31173), which were analysed by Lindqvist (
1997.362
). This bone material consisted of fourteen teeth and 246 bone fragments, with the total weight of this material be-ing 4371 grams. Lindqvist did not mention or question the discrepancy regarding the years of discovery – 1903 was indicated for these bones, as mentioned above – but took for granted that the mate-rial came from the 1912 excavation. All types of bone from the human body are represented, but fragments of the large bones are most common, and small bones such as finger and toe bones are under-represented. Lindqvist (
1997.362
) was able to identify at least eight individuals among these bones. However, judging from the total MNI, this does not necessarily mean that there are individuals in addition to the thirty-one that the previous investigation indicated. The estimation is that the megalith was a collective burial site for between thirty to thirty-five individuals of both sexes and all age groups. The bones were generally in good condition, but ostephytis was found on vertebrae, scapulae and phalangespedis. A clavicle has a cut which had healed, and some of the cranial bones are unusually thick, which according to Lindqvist (
1997.364
) could indicate an aemia due to tapeworm, for example, which that cause loss of vitamin B–12.
To the east of the chamber, but still within the out-line of the rectangular demarcation, a complete hu
man skeleton was discovered in the pavement. The remains are of a woman, aged approx. 40 years (Fig.8). She was on her back, and the remains differed from others in that her dental condition was poor –three molars showed traces of caries; all the lower molars on the left side were missing (pre-mortem),since the alveolus had re-ossified (closed). During re-construction of the crushed cranium, a rounded hole was noted in the left side of the parietal bone (Fig.9). The suggestion is that this was a trepanation, with signs of an ongoing infected healing process, which may have caused death. The skeleton was
14
C analysed, and dated to the late Bronze Age; if correct, this makes the burial an anomaly, since cremation was the prevailing method of disposing of the dead in this period. Trepanations occurred in Scandinavia
TOP: Sandstone with zig zag pattern
MIDDLE Skeleton of woman found in the pavement outside the chamber
BOTTOM : Possible trepanation and infection area onthe skull of a woman found in the pavement out- side the chamber (photo Paul Wallin).
during the Neolithic, but as far as we know, they are not known in Bronze Age settings. This needs to be investigated further, and further dating of this skEleton is needed to verify the Bronze Age connection, since the date had a range of ±230 years, and may be erroneous. If the woman has a Bronze Age con-nection, this monument may have been re-used when the stone ship settings were being erected in the vicinity. The find of the bronze tutuli and the combined dating of bones from the chamber (c.1980–1400 BC) are also indicative of subsequent re-use of the site. The dating of the megalith is based on six bone samples that have been radiocarbon da-ted. Three were carried out by conventional 14C following the 1984 excavation, and three additional AMS-dates were carried out by Lindqvist on the earlier excavated material. The earliest date on mixed bone material from the 1984 excavation indicate a date to the early Bronze Age, a date in line with the bronze tutulus. A bone from the female outside the chamber indicates the late Bronze Age, which is inline with the stone ship settings erected directly adjacent to the megalith. A charcoal sample from under one of the stones indicates a date to around AD500, but seems to be out of context. However, the later AMS dates show great agreement with the typo-logical dating of the grave type, and all three dates fall within the time frame 3300–2900 BC cal. 2 sig-ma. The date of the bones indicates a late Early Neo-lithic or early Middle Neolithic initial phase of the structure (Lindqvist 1997.356 ). These bones also show 13C values that indicate a higher intake of terrestrial food in comparison with the analysed skeletal remains from the Pitted Ware burials (Eriksson 2004 ).
The investigations thus suggest that this site was utilised as a burial site, and possibly for ceremonial/ritual activities from the Late Early Neolithic/ Middle Neolithic until the Late Bronze Age. At least, the Bronze Age connection is reinforced by a stray find in the vicinity of another Bronze Age tutulus (Mn945, SHM inv. 6207) and an Early Bronze Age cairn situated in the vicinity. This gives us another perspective on the characteristics and complexity of this site that goes beyond the scope of this paper, and which has been discussed elsewhere.
Other possible megalith structures on Gotland –a detective story…
In the early 20th century, the archaeological literature on Stone Age sites on Gotland indicates that there may have been another megalith, situated at Licksarve farm (Fig. 1) approx. 3.5km north-east of the Ansarve site
( Lithberg 1914 ).
The following was written on a photo taken by the archaeologist O. Wennersten, which we found in the Gotland Museum archives: “A Dolmen at Tofta, Lixarve” . Further investigations in the archives and also a recent site visit have indicated that it is very likely that this was a megalith originally containing at least sixteen individuals of both sexes and various age groups (Sigvallius 2001; Wallin 2010).
TOP Picture from the possible megalith at Licksarve (photo Gotland Museum Archives).
BOTTOM Drawing of the possible megalith at Lick- sarve (from a letter sent to The Board of National An-tiquities – ATA, Antiquarian Topographic Archive).
In the site inventory, it is described as a destroyed stone ship setting (FMIS), which are very common on Got-land, whereas megaliths are not. Documents also indicate that a farmer requested permission to remove the structure to make way for a barn, and compensation if not granted permission. The Board of National Antiquities denied his request, and compensation, but since the barn was built the farmer probably moved the burials found at the structure and placed them in a heap of stones some 10–15m south of the megalith stones. Due to road works in 1999, the heap was excavated, revealing the skeletal remains of sixteen individuals.
The bones were analysed and found to come from both sexes and various age groups, thus fitting the megalith concept of a burial site for an extended family or corporate decent group. The bones have not yet been dated, but dating could solve the puzzle. Itis very likely that the farmer dared not move the actual stones, but moved the bones and surrounding pavement and heap of soil that is indicated to have been part of the structure. That the stones were sur-rounded by a heap of soil is indicated by a drawing in the letter to the authorities requesting the removal of the grave This discovery also poses further questions regarding other sites that feature stones of megalith dimensions that have nevertheless been classified as destroyed stone ship settings. Dating the bones from this site and re-dating the bones from the Ansarve site – as well as an inventory of ‘suspicious’ stone ship settings – are on the agenda for further research
Megaliths and the Neolithic transition on Gotland Island
To conclude: it has now been established that there is one definite, and another very probable, megalith structure on Gotland Island, as well as at least ten locations with Funnel Beaker pottery. Both of these features are linked to the Neolithic process in Scandinavia. However, it is also possible that a complete Neolithic transition may not have occurred on Got-land, and due to the isolation of the place and the natural landscape and resources, it is likely that marine subsistence was important throughout prehistory. A combination of husbandry, small-scale farming and a hunting and gathering strategy probably prevailed even up to historical times. Gotland was populated c.9000 years ago, but we do not know where these groups actually originated, and if the descendants of these original settlers were still in the majority on Gotland during the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The finds from Gotland and the ancient DNA from people who lived on the Island in the mid-Neolithic point to the fact that Gotland had various contacts and interactions throughout prehistory. So far, it has been a matter of debate as to whether the Western Megalith Culture actually did spread to Gotland, but it has been established that this way of life did so, and that it probably originated from Öland, South Eastern Scania, or the German Baltic coastal areas. There might be other locations with megaliths that could feature destroyed structures that erroneously have been defined as destroyed stone ship settings. A new inventory of this type of site is also of interest in order to carry out more de-tailed osteological analyses, radiocarbon dating, isotope analyses and ancient DNA sampling on excava-ted bone material excavated from the Mesolithic and Neolithic, and the Bronze Age. This is needed to obtain in-depth understandings of the internal and external relationships of the people who populated Gotland and to see the importance of this island in the Baltic Sea region
OFFICIAL AND REGISTERED CLAN CARRUTHERS SINCE 1983
Preserving the Past, Recording the Present, Informing the Future
Unusual Iron Age Burial With Warrior And Sword Discovered In Gotland
Archaeology students from the Uppsala University have uncovered the remains of an Iron Age warrior in Sweden.
The find made during excavations in Buttle Änge on the Swedish island Gotland has been described as “rather unusual” and the deceased may not have been from Scandinavia.
The man who scientists think may have served in the Roman army was discovered in the midst of a limestone burial.
“I was present when the femur and a piece of the hip bone were excavated. You have to be very careful when digging this type of material so we had to carefully remove the soil with brushes. Eventually, we found spurs down at the feet. And when we brushed at the belly of this individual, it appeared as a piece of bronze that we carefully continued to brush forward”, student Gustav Randér told the newspaper Dagens Nyheter, describing the situation as “absolutely fantastic”.
The man who scientists think may have served in the Roman army was discovered in the midst of a limestone burial.
At the site there was also an 80-centimeter-long bronze sword with bronze fittings. In addition, part of the sword sheath was also preserved in the form of wood remains on both the top and bottom of the bronze sword. At the bottom is a decoration on the ski that has the shape of an acorn.
According to Alexander Andreeff Högfeldt, a doctor of archeology at Uppsala University the sword seems to be inspired by those used on the continent, and the object reveals interesting details about the life of the sword bearer.
“We know from written sources from the Mediterranean world that Germans, that is Scandinavians, served in the Roman army. So it is very possible that this person learned weapons technology from the Romans”, Alexander Andreeff Högfeldt mused.
Andreeff Högfeldt described the find as “rather unusual” and said that warrior skeletons like this may be found once every 30 years
he details about the owner of the sword, however, remain scarce. He appears to be a man with a strong jaw and solid bone structure, who lived sometime during the 300s-500s.
Scientists have announced further investigations and research will be carried out in the future.
Preserving the Past, Recording the Present, Informing the Future
In 2017 Clan Carruthers CCIS started part 2 of the Carruthers DNA projects. For almost 15 years people have been contributing their DNA samples to make connections. We took that data, and other data people had, to see where it took us. At this point we found Forensic DNA would give us what we need, with a price of $800.00 – $1500.00 per test.
We were interested in the Scottish line, but the Genetic Genealogist told us we were connected to the Beowulf Vikings. Here we are 4 years later working on the Norse DNA project.
There is something called the Beowulf epos, from the beginning of the 500s, which is the oldest known Germanic epos, by some regarded as the Germa-nic-speaking peoples counterpart to the Greek Iliad and Odyssey.
Historians and linguists have tried in various ways to interpret and t the epic
into the Swedish history without much success. However, it is now proven that it has its home in the Gotlandic history. Together with the Gotlandic picture stones and Guta Saga the Beowulf epos
constitutes Gotland’s nest historical records.
The Gotlandic picture stones indicate intensive contacts with the literary world of the time. From these sources you can also read the historical relationship between the Gotlanders and they in the beginning of the 500s immigrating Heruls (Svear). The Beowulf epos is the ancient Germanic world’s great epic poem.
According to professor Björn Collinder: “The Beowulf Epos argues well its place among epics in world literature. And it contains lyrical passages of great beauty”. ”A fastidious reader discovers in the Beowulf epos some contradicto-ry details. But the contradictions are not worse than those found in the Gospels and the Acts.”
“The Beowulf epos contains much that is difficult for contemporary people to
understand. The Epos writer could make do with hints when it came to events and inherited legends which were renowned for his audience. ”“To understand and appreciate the Beowulf epos we must put ourselves in the ancient Germanic view on life and death, danger and glory, and it should not be entirely impracticable.”
Since several people, who figure in Beowulf, are also mentioned in other independent tales, we must assume that they are historical, and if so should the rest of the characters also be historical. From Gregory of Tours reference in Historia Francorum, we know that Hygelak died in battle in Friesland about the year 521. Although we have no other source that says that Beowulf has lived, it should still have been so. His name was probably not Beowulf but, according to Collinder, rather Älf-here (Alvar, Avair). He is the prototype of a Scandinavian hero, stronger and braver than any of the fighters of his time and wiser than most, and he is a good king, with all that it implies.
The Sagas refer briefly to the wars between Gotlanders and Danes, and Gotlanders and Frisians, between Skilngs (Svear) and Danes, the Danes and Frisians and Danes and Heathobards. The only conflict told in detail is between Gotlanders and Skilngs (Svear),
which is described in a story inside another story. Interestingly, in the verses 2472- 2473 it says: “There was hostility and strife
between Skilfings (Svear) and Gotlanders, discord and violence across wide
waters.”
We can now connect Beowulf with the Guta Saga
“Many kings fought against Gutland while it was thought to be heathen; the Gotlanders, however, always held the victory and constantly protected their rights. Later the Gotlanders sent a large number of messengers to the Svear, but none
of them could make peace before Avair Strabain from Alva. He made the first
peace with the king of the Svear. When the Gotlanders begged him to go he answered: “you know that I am now most doomed and ill-fated. Grant me then, if you wish me to expose myself to such peril, three wergilds ( “Mansbotwergild’, fines according to the old Nordic law was paid by a murderer or his kin to the slain family, which then declined to exact blood vengeance”), one for myself, a second for my begotten son and a third for my wife.’ Because he was wise and skilled in many things, just as the tales go about him. ”Beowulf has historically been dated to the beginning of the 500s.
The battles between the Svear and Gotlanders should have been in the first
half of the 500s. Procopius information that the Heruls (Svear) would have
immigrated to the Lake Mälar area about the year 512 .
By comparing the various testimonies I have dated Avair Strabain to mid 500s.
In the Beowulf epos the geographical framing is Denmark and the land of the
Geats (older source Geta) Gotland. The main characters are Beowulf and to some extent, his uncle Hygelak, Rex Getarum.
The story begins by describing
the monster Grendel who haunts the Danish king. Then it tells how Beowulf decides to help the Danish king and makes his way on a two-day voyage across
the open sea, after which he kills Grendel. The story continues to talk about the wars between the Geats and the Svear, who are still at that time not known
as Svear but Skilfings, and ends with a description of the death of Beowulf
when he tried to rob a grave.
In the story it is presupposed that the audienceis familiar with contemporary history. Many people and events mentioned in
This by wide waters has been difcult for previous researchers to explain as
they have not been aware that this was with the Gotlanders. However, if we talk about Svear and Gotlanders it falls completely natural. In addition, it says in verse 2954, when the Svear talk about the Gotlanders: “toresist the men from the sea.”
Thus the audience was expected to know how Hama some hundred years earlier and in another part of the world had stolen the Brisinga jewel from the Gothic King Ermanarik. This suggests that the Geats stood in close relation to the Goths. Even the
Goths’ rich culture has given the Gotlanders a lot of new injections, reflected
in the Gotlandic society, when the Goths moved on to the Black Sea.
The archaeological and linguistic testimony suggests that the Goths, the oldest name is Gutans and their kingdom Gutthiuda, had close relationship with the Gotlanders. In addition, we must not forget that the Gotlanders, along with the tribal kinsmen the Ostro-goths were Christians of the Arian faith, and that parts of their bible are now preserved in Uppsala, the Silver Bible. It is therefore very likely that Gotlanders were familiar with Christian doctrine already at this time. Even, according to several archaeologists, some contemporary burial customs on Gotland suggest Christian elements. It is interesting to note that the Bible was translated into Gotlandic by the Goths 1200 years before it was translated into Swedish. Since the Beowulf poem holds quite some Christian expressions
and thoughts, it did not fit into the idealized image of the Swedish pre-Chris
–tian times that among others, Tegnér tried to produce. This should be a cause to the poor circulation of what we then thought was a Swedish epos. The Heruls (Svear) had at their immigration early 500s the Æsir belief and would therefore be promoted as ‘barbaric’. The archaeologist Gad Rausing has attacked the problem with Beowulf and the Geats in a very conscientious way. He has, as probably the only researcher,
actually traveled ‘Beowulf’s way’ and identied the geographic characteristics. He has published his findings in Fornvännen 80 (1985) . Already Grundtvig, Danish cultural personality from 1783 to 1872, guessed at
the time that the Geats in the Beowulf epos could be the same as the Gotland-ers. ( *** We now know that they are DNA matches ) Since he did not elaborate on this assumption and did not come with good reasons for this conclusion, other scholars regarded it as uninteresting. It was at that time the scholars had decided that the Geats ought to be the Götar in Västergötland. However, some scholars protested to this Västgöta position as it clearly says in the Beowulf epos that the battle between Svear and Geats occurred over open water and the Geats also were called the men from the sea. As we know, there are not any open water between the Lake Mälar area and Skara in Västergötland. We have, however, vast waters between Gotland and the Lake Mälar area.
“The lay of Beowulf describes the court of king Hrothgar, who resided in
the largest and most magnicent of halls, who rewarded his warriors with golden rings and with magnificent arms, among which ring-swords are specifically
mentioned (verse 2042), in terms which suggest the Roman Iron Age or the Migration Period.
Apparently the Sköldunga kings had conquered Denmark some generations
earlier and the dynasty appeared well established when an enemy, Grendel, attacked. “So Grendel became ruler”. The war lasted for a long time, twelve years being mentioned. Finally Beowulf, with fourteen companions, came from Geatland to Hrothgar’s aid. The description of his voyage and of his landfall is quite clear: Away she went over the wavy ocean, boat like a bird, breaking seas, wind-wet-ted, white-throated, till the curved prow had ploughed so far – the sun standing right on the second day that they might see land loom on the skyline, then the shimmer of cliffs, sheer fells behind, reaching capes.
Apparently they sailed across the open sea, making their landfall as planned onthe second day out on a coast of high white cliffs with capes reaching far outinto the sea. Modern commentators have always found this description incom-
patible with their ideas of Danish geography and topography, the site of He
–orot usually thought to have been Leire, far inland from a coast conspiciouslylacking in cliffs and headlands.Few commentators, if any, have been sailors familiar with northern waters and
few, if any, appear to be familiar with Danish topography. The passage has been
taken to be a late addition to the saga, since it appears to describe a crossing
of the North Sea and a landing beneath the white cliffs of Dover. Actually, the
passage proves that the waters crossed were not to have been the Channel, andthus strongly suggests that the poem was not composed in Britain.
Either you cross at Dover, where the Channel is narrow and the crossing a
matter of hours, even in an open row-boat, to land beneath the famous cliffs,or you cross elsewhere, either north or south of the narrows, where the passagemight require two days, but where there are no white cliffs.
Can any conclusion be drawn from the actual distribution of the Danish archa
–eological material of the Iron Age, in conjunction with the geographical features described in Beowulf? Obviously, mere map-reading is not good enough.
For any conclusion to be valid the observations must have been made in the
field or at sea. The geographical features being seen as Iron-Age man saw them,
on foot, from horse-back or from a comparatively small, open boat.
In Denmark, the richest burials of the early Iron Age are concentrated in the
southern part of Lolland island. This concentration of wealth probably mar-ked the political center of the country or, at least, the territory of the politically and economically dominant families.
In the Later Roman Iron Age, the fourth and fifth centuries, the rich burials
were concentrated in south-east Sjaelland, with Himlingøje as the type locality, with seven ‘royal’ mounds and a great number of rich burials without mounds. There is a number of rich cemeteries in the area, such as Valløby, Varpelev and others. The same district, centering on Stevns, appears to have remained the
richest part of Denmark all through the Migration Period, 500s and 600s. At
least, it has yielded the greatest number of gold objects of this period, inclu-
ding the largest of all gold rings known from Denmark, found at Hellested on
Stevns. The numerous paved roads and fords which cross the valley and thestream almost separating Stevns from the rest of Sjaelland also indicate that thearea was of special importance, nothing similar having been found anywhereelse in Scandinavia. The center of economic and, probably also of political
power shifting from Lolland to east Sjaelland may have been caused by the first appearance of the Danes in the country. According to the sagas, they came
from central Sweden, where they can be traced in many placenames, such as
Dannemora, Danderyd and even Danmark, now a parish in Uppland.
Beowulf is silent on this point, even though Hrothgar only belonged to the
fifth generation of the Sköldunga family, (i.e.the fth generation after the con-quest?) and ve generations cover no more than 100-150years.
However, the riches described do t what we know of economic conditions on Stevns in late
Roman Times or in the early part of the Migration Period. Everything suggests that, at this time, the royal residence had not yet been moved to Leire but was still somewhere in southeast Sjaelland. The description of Beowulf’s landfall and of his subsequent march to Heorot leaves little doubt:… the shimmer of cliffs, sheer fells behind, reaching capes. A coastguard, usually posted on these cliffs, met the hero on the beach and accompanied him and his companions to Heorot. Paved Roman roads being still in use in 700s England, there would have been no particular reason for mentioning them, had the poem been composed in that country.
Denmark was different. There, paved roads of Iron Age date are few indeed,
and there is but one single area in Scandinavia, corresponding to the description: high white cliffs jutting into the sea, a neighbouring beach for landing, a paved road leading to the royal residence of late Roman times or of the early part of the Migration Period: Stevns Klint in Denmark. The white chalk cliffs of Stevns rise straight out of the sea, more than 40 m high, facing east. Behind them stretch down, bordered in the west by a river valley about 500 m wide, running almost the whole way from Køge Bay to Faxe Bay, separating Stevns peninsula from the rest of Sjaelland. This valley and its river is crossed by a number of prehistoric paved roads and fords, those at Varpelev, Elverhøj, Harlevand Kari-se I dating from the end of the Late Roman Iron Age and the beginning of the
Migration Period.
Down one of these marched Beowulf and his companions
on their way to king Hrothgar.“There was stone paving on the path that brought the war band on its way.” This passage also proves that the scene can not have been set on Rügen, the only other place where white chalk cliffs face the Baltic Sea, since it lacks the paved roads and the rich Iron Age of Beowulf’s tale.
The description fits the picture of the Iron Age settlement pattern outlined by
Nylén, a situation where sea-borne attacks might be expected at any moment and where, in consequence, farms and settlements were always at some distance from the shore
But what conclusions can be drawn as to the land of the Geats, Beowulf’s country? As mentioned previously, the account of the voyage has been taken to describe a crossing of the North Sea and a landfall in Britain. The factual evidence of the saga having been thus disposed of, the land of the Geats could be located anywhere in south Sweden or in Denmark and it has even been suggested that the waters separating the land of the Geats from that of the Swedes might have been lake Vänern and the lakes of central Sweden. But if we accept the description of the actual voyage, with the wind directions prevalent in the South Baltic Sea in early summer, and the time stated, a different explanation appears more plausible.
Apparently, Beowulf made his land fallon the second day out from the land of the Geats. It is expressly stated that he used sail. There is no indication as to the size of the ship. However, since the band comprised but fifteen men, the vessel must have been quite small, nothing
to compare with the Nydam boat or with the Sutton Hoo ship. The Nydam vessel, some 25 m between perpendiculars, and close on 18 m on the waterline,
appears to have had fifteen pairs of oars. The minimum crew must then have
been 62 men, two watches of 30 oarsmen and one helmsman each.
The Sutton Hoo vessel appears to have had 20 pairs of oars, and consequently a minimum crew of 82.Beowulfs vessel must have been very much smaller, presumably a square-rigged boat with 3 pairs of oars, with an overall length in the order of 10 m. Such a boat would have had a waterline of about 7-7.5 m. The distance from Cape Hoburgen, the southern tip of Gotland, around the southern tip of Öland and Utklippan island, between the Hammers of Scaniaand of Bornholm, the latter a high cape visible from a great distance, and onwards, along the Scanian coast but largely out of sight of it, to the cliffs at Stevns, is 229 nautical miles. For this distance to be covered in 48 hours, an average speed of no more than 4.8 knots is required, well within the capability of a Gotlandic sixern (tremänning) of today in the prevailing fresh easter lies of early summer ,
However, when returning home, Beowulf is reported first to have sighted the
“cliffs of the Geats”, probably cape Hoburgen and the ”raukar” at its foot. If Beowulf calculated his landfall as do modern sailors, i. e. from the moment
the 36 m high Hoburgen sank into the sea to the moment he raised 40 m high
cape Stevns and his eye-level, in an open boat, was about 2 m above the water-line, his sailed distance was no more than 198 nautical miles and the required average speed no more than 4.1 knots. It thus appears likely that the island of Gotland was the land of the Geats. Today, the natives of Gotland, in high Swedish the ‘Gotlänningar’, call them-selves ‘Gutar’.
In the early Middle Ages, the spelling of Guta lagh, the Gotland Law, proves the pronunciation to have been “Gutar”, without “au” diphtong. This has been taken to prove that the name “Geats” can not have referred to the Gutar but only to old norse ‘gautar’, modern high swedish ‘götar’, the peo-ple by the ‘Gautelfr’ in modern Västergötland. This may be true – but we do not know how Beowulf himself pronounced the word written ‘geat’. This spelling, which indicates a diphtong, is recorded from the Beowulf manuscript, whereas the Liber Monstrorum, also from an Anglo-Saxon scriptorium but older by 200 years, has ‘Getae’, without a diphtong. The scribes spelled the names as they, themselves, pronounced them, in their own local dialect. We can not draw any conclusion as to how the Geats of the early sixth centu-ry pronounced their name or that of their country from the way west-Saxonscribes of the eighth and tenth centuries spelled them.In Scandinavia, summer nights are very short and never quite dark. Even so, in
the days before light-houses, any prudent sailor would schedule his passage soas to pass cape Öland, Utklippan and the Hammers in daylight.
This means setting out from cape Hoburgen in the late afternoon, spending the rst night at
sea between Gotland and Öland, passing cape Öland and Utklippan in daylight, with a second night between Utklippan and the Hammers, passing the latter in the early morning hours and making a landfall at Stevns in the afternoon of the second day, at the expected time, “the sun standing right on the second day”. There are numerous large mounds and cairns on Gotland, mostly dating from
the Bronze Age. However, Ugglehaug in Stenkyrka parish dates from the Migration period and so probably also do the mounds at Havor in Hablingbo and
a few others, all of a size to compare favourably with the contemporary royal
mounds of Sweden, those of the Ynglinga kings, thus testifying to the power and wealth of the families who built them. There are but three kinds of men: the living, the dead and those who sail the
sea. After his final battle, lying mortally wounded on Earnanes, the cape of the
eagles, the childless Beowulf felt no ties to the living. He chose to rest where his monument could be seen from afar and where he would be remembered by his equals, those who sailed the sea, rather than being buried inland, close to the settlements, as was the usual custom. He ordered young Wiglaf.
Bid men of battle build me a tomb fair after fire, on the foreland by the sea
that shall stand as a reminder of me to my people, towering high above Hronesnes so that ocean travellers shall afterwards name it Beowulf’s barrow ,bending in the distance their masted ships through the mists upon the sea. Today, one of the southern parishes on Gotland is named Rone. Beowulf’s‘Hronesnes’ has been taken to be derived from Anglo-Saxon ‘hron’, whale. This word is not known from any other Germanic language. Although whalingis usually associated with the Atlantic, until recent times it played a very import-ant part in the economy of south Scania, of Öland and of Gotland. The dolphins, (Phocaena phocaena, L.) who enter the Baltic Sea in spring and leave in the autumn, were netted by the thousands. Their meat, fat, bone and hides were all utilized.
The derivation of the name ‘Rone’ is not known. It appears as ‘Ronum’ and‘Rone’ in the fourteenth century (Karl Inge Sandred, pers. comm. 10.2.1984).It may be no more than a coincidence, there being no linguistic evidence either way: can possibly ‘Rone’ be derived from ‘hron’ as ‘the place where dolphinsare caught?’ It is suggestive that a hill on the next headland to the north, now called cape Nabbu, called Arnkull, Eagle Hill.
Preserving the Past, Recording the Present, Informing the Future
Landscape Genealogy is the study of what was happening on various pieces of land. One can study the landscape genealogy of the house and land ones owns. Here we study, through the ages, the place where the Carruthers Ancestors lived. From about 3500 BC to 1000 AD you can see the different era the ancestors lived and survived.
The Indo-Germanic immigration
There have been a few waves of immigration to Gotland which can be seen in the archaeological material. One wave arrived about 3500 BCE. It was a civilization that corresponded to the megalitic culture, but designed under different conditions and
with other practices. It was probably conict and upheaval, and finally a cultural fusion. One partic-
ular tribe, who were skilled astronomers, came evidently to Gotland. The Pitted Ware culture, which
flourished on Gotland from about 3500 to 2800 BCE had begun
Astronomical calendars
Already with Astronomical calendars 5000 years ago the Gotlanders showed that they were special. We can follow how they absorbed developments from all over the world.
Bronze Age about 1800 – 500 BCE
The extensive trade relations convey inuences from outside. From southern cultural centers – Egypt,Crete, Mycenae – spiritual impulses stretched their effects also to the Baltic Sea region and Gotland. Both the external design of the graves and the lavish burial gifts bear witness to a rich and self conscious upper class.
The large, higharched cairns from the Bronze Age group up with predilection along Gotland’s shores.Close to them lie stone ships rom the Late Bronze Ageand the oldest Iron Age. It is the most magnificenttomb orm rom prehistoric time that Gotland has tooffer. Te map prepared on the basis o the NationalHeritage Board antiquarian stocktaking on Gotland1938-40Source: Det forntida Gotland 2nd PicturePart of the depository find from Eskelhem’s rec-tory. top bit to bridle with cheek bars. In the middle pierced disc with rattle sheets, bottom right round reinornation. Photo Ivar Andersson
Late Bronze Age, 1000-500 BCE
Late Bronze Age culture occurs suddenly and is very similar to Phoenician culture as well as Mycenaean. During the Late Bronze Age, which occurred around 1000-500 BCE, the Gotlandic trade was intensified. Many of those of Gotlandic design inherent objects are reminiscent of a large number of foreign products imported in the Early Bronze Age.
This provides a perspective of far greater scope. Trade had become what we in modern
guage would call international. Not that the Gotlandic merchants always personally visited the areas where these objects have been produced. By their own and others activities and initiatives they had been members of the mercantile community, in a business eager with merchant wagon loads and crafts, that were busy to crisscross Europe. It was not only with its neighbors to the west, south and east and the nearest outside those located business circles the Gotlanders were connected. We also have in the Volga region from the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age the old Achmulova grave field,
Capuan bronze bowl from Sojvide, Sjonhem
The coming of the Iron Age
There is a new culture that emerges with modest Iron Age graves. It had its roots in the south, but especially in the southwest, in northern Germany , where the iron at that time came into general use in the manufacture of small tools and jewelry. This culture was based heavily on influences from the Hallstatt culture in the heart of the continent, but was strongly locally colored. It is from this north German circuit the Gotlanders become familiar with the most important of all metal techniques, namely the way to process iron.
Probably they imported the metal first as pig iron.
Gotland’s oldest Iron Age culture should be considered to have been simultaneous with Bronze Age period VI.
Snakehead armring of gold, type B from a treasure nd at Burs in Källunge.
Gotlands Museum
Gotlandic trade expansion
As a monument from this Gotlandic trade expansion can be found in Estonia and Latvia as well asin the Västervik area in Sweden stone ships of Gotlandic type. The Gotlanders were, from what we can read from the archaeological material, present with their Merchant Emporiums there and further down towards the Vistula area when the Gothic federation was formed. Probably the Gotlanders played a signicant role in this formation, hence we have the
same name for Gotlanders and Goths, Gutar andGutans, Guthiuda.
Celtic Iron Age 300 BCE to zero
During the Celtic Iron Age 300 BCE to zero there seams to be close Gotlandic commercial relations with the Celtic empire. The equipment that the Gotlandic warrior wore was, however, virtually the same as the East Germanic tribes on the continent in the Vistula area had. It had little in common with Celtic weapons.
Drinking Horn Fittings of bronze. These seizures
sat on the horn end of the clip. The use of horns as drinkingvessels were a Germanic custom. In the Roman workshopsthey made even drinking horns of glass for sale to the Ger-
manics. The Roman prole rings on the rod ends alter the
course of the Roman Iron Age, and one can therefore use these
in chronological typology. Many of these seizures are in the
ground from the Roman Empire, but some may also have
been made on Gotland, where seizures are widely distributed
Celtic La Tène artefacts
The Gotlandic artefact population is at this time Celtic La Tène characterized and exhibit almost excessively rich ornamentation, especially characterized by hemispherical rivet heads differently grooved and cross ornated with pearl lines and grooved surfaces of plates and other items. Everything is made with superior technology, both in bronze as in iron. It is particularly the belt garniture ( group C about 50 BCE – zero), which changed design.
It may be due to late inuence from Schleswig-Holstein in parallel with the previous group B (
c. 100-50 BCE), where ring types dominate. Now are the artificial combinations of iron cast in bronze gone, and in many cases the rough technical procedure. It should be recognized, however, that there are good works also from time Group B, but these can not be matched with subsequent group.
Roman contacts, First century
The Gotlanders seem to have controlled the amber trade with trading Emporiums in the Vistula area. Roman contacts with the Gotlanders during the first century is also evident in the picture stones.
Roots of the oldest picture stones are dated by archaeologists to this particular time.
Provincial Roman wine ladle with strainer, pottery
and bronze ttings for two drinking horns from woman’s grave
from the early Roman Iron Age at Skällhorns, Källunge parish.
The Stavgard area
with its old harbour at Bandelunda in Burs was for a long time the center for this part of Gotland and with continuity can be dated back to the Stone AGe. The Stavgard district includes the largest known building foundations from the Roman Iron Age ‘Stavar’s house’ (
67×11 metres), an ancient harbour which at least goes back to the beginning of our era and the in 1984 excavated burial mound ‘Gods-backen’ ( see ‘Cairns’ above ), which from the Neolithic period has functioned as a grave mausoleum.
The Baltic Sea Region
In the history of Gotland are some of the key threads in the development of the entire Baltic Sea region gathered. This is a meeting place for Gotlanders, Curonians, Kievan Rus’, Danes, Slavs, Svear and later Germans. Gotland has through its position as a continental outpost in the north or Nordic outpost to the south, on the border between Eastand West, a cultural key position. Gotland plays a similar role for the Baltic Sea region as Cyprus and Sicily have played as intersections for the Mediterranean countries’ trade relations and cultures.
Markomannic influence
During the first two centuries CE the Marcomannis
developed into a leading Germanic cultural area in Central Europe, who in good agreement with the Romans maintained vibrant mercantile relations with the Roman provinces in the south and became cultural mediators between the Roman Empire and the rest of the Germanic world including Gotland.
There was an important trade route along the Elbe which brought lots of Roman industrial products, especially precious vessels of silver and bronze, up to the North.
Gotlandic Early picture stones
The earlier Gotlandic picture stones are mostly connected with the Iberian peninsula and southern France. The Ibero-Celts are the most likely bearers of the pictorial agenda that is introduced on Got-land for the earlier picture stones. In the Iberian peninsula, the Vadenienses, an old Ibero-Celtic people have left very special grave-stones, decorated with blades of ivy, corn ears and specially designed horses. It was a people of fighters and horsemen, who to every horse had two warriors, one to ride and the other to fight on foot to help protect the horse and knight. Their most common form of grave decoration during the pre-Christian Roman period is exactly of the same character as the early stones on Gotland. They contain a lot of signs that could be understood as sun and moon.
The moon is often made as bulls horns. This whole style is unique for the Iberian peninsula
and depends probably on Celtic inuence among the Romans.
Picture stones showing travel
During the 700s and 800s the picture stone art had its heyday. The mighty monuments, some over three metres high, now depict in horizontal sequences an epic content. It might be an episode from the deceased’s life or a passage from a Nordic hero poem, Helge Hundings banes saga or Brage the Olds Ragnars drapa or something else. There are many suggested interpretations. The pictures appear in very poor relief, which was initially enhanced by painting in vivid colors. The style is rigorously ornamental-ly decorative but lives together with a fascinating expressionism. For the Gotlandic art history these picture stones have an outstanding importanceas fragments from the ancient art we have had in wood and fabric, but that time has claimed.
Macedonian Renaissance
The most authoritative source on the first ofcial Christianization of the Rhos is an encyclical letter from the Patriarch Photius, datable to early 867.Refering to the Rhos-Byzantine War of 860-861Photius informs the Oriental patriarchs and bishops that, after the Bulgars turned to Christ in 864,the Rhos followed suit so zealously that he found it prudent to send to their land a bishop. Photius remembers the invasion upon the Empire by the race which in cruelty and blood thirstiness left all other peoples far behind, the so-called Rhos, and adds that now indeed, even they have changed their Hellenic and godless religion for the pure and unadultered faith of the Christians, and have placed themselves under the protection of the Empire, becoming good friends instead of continuing their recent robbery and daring adventures.
Photius’ letter allows us to fix more exactly the time of the appeal by the Rhos to Byzantium. He mentions Rhos’ affairs just after stating that the Bulgarians adopted Christianity. The baptism of the Bulgarian King Boris took place in 864, but his envoys had already been baptized in Constantinople at the end of the year 863.
It is interesting to note that at that time the Gotlandic Varangian Ingr’s daughter Indrina becomes the mistress of Emperor Michael III and married to future Emperor Basil I. On 19 September 866 Michael and Indrina had ason Leo, the later Leo VI.
According to Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos, grandson to Indrina, (905-959), who wrote a
biography of his grandfather, Basil I the Macedonian(867-886), it was his ancestor who persuaded the Rhos to abandon their pagan ways. He narrates how the Byzantines galvanized the Rhos into conversion by their persuasive words and rich presents, including gold, silver, and precious tissues. He also repeats a traditional story that the pagans were particularly impressed by a miracle. A gospel book was thrown by the archbishop into an oven and was not damaged. The Gotlanders are accordingly present in Miklagarðr from the beginning of the Macedonian Renaissance, that resulted in the Macedonian art, a period in Byzantine developement of art which began following the death of Emperor Theophilus in 842 and the lifting of the ban on icons, iconoclasm.
The Gotlanders are the first to make crucixes in wood from crucifixes made in ivory in Miklagar∂r (Constantinople). And the first Baptismal fonts in stone are also made in Gotland. The Gotlandic Merchant Republic was an independant republic ruled by Gutna althingi, and not part of Scandinavia.
To sum up the Byzantine influence
In the sense of its cultural development Gotland is in the 800s-1100s very closely linked to the Byzan-tine Macedonian Renaissance art ( 867- 1056 ).
The Gotlandic merchants in Miklagar∂r have in 866 so eagerly conversed to Christianity that the patriarch Photios found it necessary to send a bishop to Gotland. In 911 the Gotlandic Varangians obtained a very favourable document that confirmed their living quarters in Miklagar∂r. This was confirmation of an earlier trade agreement from the 860s. It was signed by Emperor Leo VI, who was the grandson to the Gotlandic Varangian Ingr, and 15 named
Gotlandic merchants. In 912 the Arabic author al-Marwazi writes that now had the Gotlandic merchants fully embraced the Christian faith and abandoned their wild pagan ways and raids.
The Gotlander’s stay in Miklagar∂r coincides with the Macedonian Renaissance. It sets its mark on the early Gotlandic churches in the 900s and 1000s. We know from the Patriarch Photios, in his cir-cular letter in 867 to the eastern bishops, that the Gotlanders had, after the Bulgarians, accepted the Christian faith.
Jordanes writes
:“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. But how or in what wise we shall explain hereafter, if it be the Lord’s will.“ “And at the farthest bound of its western expanseit has another island named THULE, of which the Mantuan bard makes mention: And Farthest THULE shall serve thee.” It was not just in the sense of national pride that he could say “Scandza insula quasi ofcina gentium aut certe velut vagina nationum” (
Scandza, as from a hive of races or a womb of nations ).It is as much a telling characteristic of a world history that says that the Goths came from the island Gothi scandza or just Scandza which is straight ou tof the Vistula mouth and looks like a lemon leave. In addition, he says that ‘Gothiscandza’ was located at the side of THULE.
Preserving the Past, Recording the Present, Informing the Future
*** Let us remember that the lighter color green along with the army green was Gutland/Gotland. The blue is the estuary of water that was a major tradeway highway of people. This is one reason they made the long boats. It ws easier to travel back and forth, from one end of their homeland to another on the long boats. ***
Gotland the home of the Varangians was an independent Merchant Farmers’ Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its relations mainly east and south.
From the archaeological findings we can establish that trade relations between Gotland and the Roman Empire were intense. The early history is a piece of myth, oral tradition and fragmentary records. From all this can suddenly emerge a pattern, the outline of a process that may
not be scientifically inviolable, which it never really can be. Yet it is nearer the truth than you could ever reach with ‘scientific accuracy’.
If you take the Guta Saga, written down about 1220,and the Beowulf Epos, written down in the 700s, as serious as Snorri Sturluson’s ‘Nordiska kungasagor’, written down about 1220, has been honored – i.e. as evidence in lack of better sources, there will open up a new, breathtaking perspective regarding Gotlandic, Swedish and Scandinavian history during the Roman time of the emperors and the Migration Period. Yes also that of Europe.
Already in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age there are signs of Gotlandic trading Emporiums on the east coast of the Baltic Sea and all the way to the river Volga. Trade, especially amber trade, experiences in the Bronze Age a large bloom. The Gotlanders seem to have controlled the amber trade with trading Emporiums in the Kaliningrad-Vistula area.
The extensive trade relations convey inuences from outside. From southern cultural centers, Egypt, Crete, Mycenae, spiritual impulses stretched their effects also to the Baltic Sea region and Gotland. A new way of burial appears in the Lake Mälar area in the 500s, as well as the introduction of the Roman calendar.If we accept that the Heruli settle in the Lake Mälararea at this time, as mentioned by Procopius, it explains a lot. Actually this in fact explains the rise of the Vendelera, which in the Lake Mälar area starts first half of the 500s and continues until the beginning of the Middle Ages.
On Gotland it starts about 50 years earlier and is explained by the Gotlanders’ close contacts with Theoderic’s Gothic kingdom. With the discovery that the Beowulf epos is about the Gotlanders in combination with the Heruls immigration to the Lake Mälar area we have been able to shed new light on the Gotlandic history. Indeed the history of the whole Baltic Sea region has come in a whole new light. We now have a link between the Beowulf epos, Guta Saga and the archaeological finds from the 400s and 500s.
*** Some of these finds is where the first “Grouping” of Carruthers CTS11603 genome was found. Cinchester was one location that they know a group of Carruthers-Gotlanders came ashore, and then on the east coast of Ireland, and then to the Clyde River in Scotland. ***
Roman gold coins known as solidi have been found on the three Baltic Sea islands: Bornholm, 150,Öland 298, Gotland 270 + 47 on the Gotlandic market place Helgö in Mälaren. The latter have been intended as raw material and are according to the researchers most likely derived from Gotland. It is obvious here to see Helgö and then Birka as Gotlandic trading venues, as implied by the archaeological sources. Gotland’s importance for trade and culture in the
Baltic Sea region during the first millennium can also be illustrated by the coin ands in Gotland.
King of the Goths or Gotland/Gutland
From the 500s until the 1000s the Gotlanders have, according to Swedish researchers, been considered to rarely be mentioned in ancient sources. They are, however, well known in Arabic and Byzantine sources as al-Rus’ and Varangian merchants.
The word Varangian was used by Arabs, Greeks and Kievan Rus’ for the merchants from the islandin the Baltic Sea region ( the Gotlanders ). It probably came from the old Norse word ‘vár’, which means‘ union through promise’, and was used by a group of men to keep them together in an association, and under oath observe certain obligations to support each other in good faith and to share the resulting profits.
It was a common word, when trading adventures were undertaken by Gotlandic tradesmen on the Russian rivers. They closed a business contract with each other and pledged to defend each other. Another meaning of the word was for the Gotlanders who acted as mercenary soldiers to the rulers ofKhazaria, Miklagarðr ( Constantinople ) and Garðaríki( Kievan Rus’). The Gotlandic Varangian Guard became an elite unit of the Byzantine army formed under emperor Basil II in 988.
At that time was also the official Christianization of the Kievan Rus’ by Vladimir I of Kiev. There were no Vikings in the Baltic Sea region. The word Viking is not known there. The Vikings were warriors from Denmark, the west of Sweden and Norway, and the Viking Age starts with the attackon Lindisfarne in 793. There is a clear line in the river Elbe between Vikings and Varangians .
East of the river Elbe there is no mention of Vikings, only Varangians. In the Baltic Sea region the Gotlanders, after the signing of the trade and peace treaty in the 550s,controlled the trade under Svea protection on the areas controlled by the Svear. End 700s when silver from the Islamic Caliphate started to flow, the Gotlanders entered the Russian rivers all the way to river Volga and the Kaspian Sea. The Gotlandic Merchant Farmers were on the Russian rivers called Varangians and al-Rus’ ( expeditions of rowing ships ). It is documented in Byzantine sources that from late 800s and forward there were larger Gotlandic contingents stationed in Miklagarðr. As mentioned above, it is only in the early 500s that sources start to talk about some powerful people in the Lake Mälar area, except for Tacitus Sitones who he considers degenerated as they were ruled by a woman.
1st. Prokopios tells us about the Heruli or Earls who settle next to the Gauti.
2nd. Snorri tells us about the Asia men who introduce a new religion and settle in Sigtuna.
The excavations at Old Sigtuna reveal major changes in the early 500s with large increase in people and horses.
3rd. The Beowulf epos talks about the conditions in the Baltic
Sea region and the antagonism betweenthe immigrant Svear and the Gotlanders.
The real name of the island in the Baltic Sea is Gutland or the island of the Gutar. In the trade treaties from the 1100s it is called ‘Gutniska kusten’( Gotlandish coast), and the people are called Gutar. The Couronians called the Gotlanders for Gudi. Jordanes talks about Gothi scandza as the linguists have translated with the ‘Gotlandic coast’, or the coast where the Gotlandic trading colonies were located on the southern shores of the Baltic Sea.
The word Scandza means just the coast, later ‘Gutniska kusten’, which is the island Gotland. The word Gotland is a Latin form that alludes to the Roman name for the Goths, who called them-selves Guthiuda and Gutans.
The Gotlanders were thus independent until the end of the 1300s and then self-governing
first under pirates ( including removed foreign kings ).From 1530 until 1645 Gotland was a tributary state under the Danish king. All that time the Gotlandic Merchant Farmers’ Republic functions de jure
The Gotlanders choose things judges and the large Gotlandic ‘national seal’ with the ewe is used until they later in the 1500s do not want to acknowledge a too uncomfortable Danish decision. Instead they explain that the seal has been lost. On paper the Gotlandic Merchant Farmers’ Re-public exists until the beginning of the 1600s but is gradually abolished.
The Gotlandic Merchant Farmers’ counted their birth position and their social class socially higher than burghers and peasants of other nations. The difference can obviously be explained, that they were aware, that they had a higher form of freedom, namely to be free from land lords and liability to taxation. The Gotlandic society before the 1600s was considered to be an ‘ethnie’, a group with a perceived common origin, language and history. The governor of Tobolsk, Siberia’s capital, Count Matjev Gagarin ( 1711-1719 ) was considered to be of Varangian origin and higher than Tsar Peter who was just a Romanov.
The Gotlanders had early close contact with the Byzantine Ortodox Church and a trade agreement was signed with the Emperor in Miklagarðr ( Constantinople ) dated in the year 911. The document was signed by the Emperor Leo VIand Karl, Ingjald, Farulf, Vermund, Hrollaf, Gun-nar, Harold, Kami, Frithleif, Hroarr, Angantyr, Throand, Leithulf, Fast, and Steinvith. The treaty regulates the status of the colony of the Gotlandic Varangian merchants in Constantinople.
The text testifies that they settled in the quarter of Saint Mamas. No one was able to force their will on the Gotlanders, not even the Catholic Church. The Gotlanders are one of the few peoples who themselves determined the conditions for the con-nection to the Pope and the Catholic Church.
It is important that we are aware that the Gotlanders had experience of many Christian and non-Christian doctrines of faith. Åke Ohlmarks, among others, believes that there is evidence of Arian-Christian graves on Gotland as early as the 500s. The Bishop in Linköping, who the Gotlanders con-cluded contracts with, “because he was closest to them”, seems not to have been able to interfere in the decision making in the Gotlandic Church. He was only contracted to perform dedication ceremonies and tours of inspection as required. He did not even have a say in the selection of priests, although he protested to Rome. Even the compensation, that the bishop received, was decided by the Gotlanders. As earlier mentioned the Gotlandic Merchant Farmers’ counted their birth position and their social class socially higher than burghers and peasants of other nations.
Preserving the Past, Recording the Present, Informing the Future
CLAN CARRUTHERS INT SOCIETY CCIS HISTORIAN AND GENEALOGIST
Information about Tore Gannholm, whose work has been valued by all researchers at Clan Carruthers CCIS
I have researched the Gotlandic history since 1990 when I came with my first book “Gutarnas historia”.At that time it said in Swedish history books: “Gotland is seldom mentioned in the written sources why it was considered that Gotland had no real history, as there lived only peasants.We still suffer badly from earlier generations ’‘Swedish – centered’ historical research. History was always written by the victors. The ‘history’ of the defeated and that of conquered territories is usually being ignored or even misinterpreted. This is true, not only for Gotland but for all those landscapes which were conquered in the 1600s and also, mutatis mutandis, for those parts of the old Sweden which were lost. Who now knows anything about the Middle Ages of Karelia or of Ingermanland or, for that matter, of Finland? When Gotland was annexed by Sweden in 1679 it was the winners history that became ruling. Gotlandic history became irrelevant. To understand the history of Gotland, one must fully realize that Gotland was an independent Merchant Farmers’ Republic, and the hub of the Baltic Sea region, which from time immemorial had its relations mainly east and south. The Gotlandic history is misleading and difficult to understand if it is bundled with the Swedish history, which so far has been done. They both have their separate history. There are some deadlocks in Swedish history which have blocked the view for a broader perspective. I here think of the Roman sources about the Baltic Sea region. In the 1600s when Sweden was a super-power they had to give it a story that matched its position in the world and when they in the Roman sources found peoples and places that started with an ‘S’ they immediately concluded that it must be ‘Svear’ and the ‘Scandinavian peninsula’. The Roman name for the Scandinavian peninsula was, however, still in the 500s THULE. This historical picture was created by Johannes Magnus, and continued by Olof Rudbeck in ‘Atlantica’. Still today many writers without thought are copying these old delusions that the Roman writers would have written about some mighty Svear at the beginning of our era.It is not possible to study Gotlandic history or Gotlandic world-uniqe churches in any Swedish university as there are no such subjects. However on internet I have over the years been able to discuss history with scholars in various countries. As regards the world-unique Gotlandic Medieval churches Professor Emeritus Jan Svanberg has been my mentor since early 1990s and I have followed him on various excursions to churches in Gotland, in Sweden, in Russia and in southern Europe. I have also arranged excursions with Jan as guide to Gotlandic churches. After the book-release of “Gotland the Pearl of the Baltic Sea” in august 2013 I started with the project of the Gotlandic churches with Jan Svanberg as my mentor. I realized something was wrong with the dating and could soon prove that they were up to 200 years older that available research showed. I worked 8 hours a day seven days a week for two years. I used three computers to access my research material that I had scanned and is available in pdf on my server. I had book release on ”The Gotlandic Merchant Republic and its Medieval Churches”.
It is said that around the year 245 AD the Ostro-Goths lived near the Danube estuary into the Black Sea led by their first king of the Amal lineage, Ostrogotha, who was famous for his patience. In any case, he was famous, his reputation reached all the way to England as he is mentioned in the famous Widsith poem from about 800 AD: “East-Gotan frodne and godue, fæder Unweness”. Jordanes calls, however, his son Hunuil.
Dacia was a Roman province in the early Roman Empire, which stretched north of the Danube. Most of its area belongs to Romania today. Dacia was conquered by Emperor Trajan 101-106 AD but already in 270 AD Emperor Aurelian chose to evacuate Dacia and pull the border of the Roman Empire back to the Danube, which was far easier – and less expensive, to defend. Some sources say that the Romans effectively lost Dacia already around 250 AD – Dacia was fairly quickly taken over by the Western Goths, among which the Visi-Goths were the dominant tribe. Then, Moesia, Thracia and Macedonia became targets for Gothic plunder. Beroe and Abrittus are marked in red.
It is also said that the Goths through twenty years received an annual sum of money to protect the Roman border against the Sarmatians. But Emperor Philippus Arabs, who ruled 244-249 AC stopped payments, prompting the patient king Ostrogotha to lose patience and lead his Goths into the nearby Roman provinces, Dacia, Moesia and Thracia in order to loot.
In 249 AD the Roman general Decius made rebellion against Emperor Philippus and had himself declared emperor by his troops. Philippus was killed in a battle near Verona. Goths under King Cniva took advantage of the prevailing chaos and were preparing to lay siege to Nicopolis on the Danube, when they were surprised by the freshly made emperor and had to escape through the difficult terrain of Balkans, however, here they received reinforcements and turned surprisingly against their pursuers and attacked and plundered their camp near Beroe, which today is called Stara Zagora, and then it was the Romans, who had to flee. It was the first time a Roman emperor fled in a confrontation with the Gothic barbarians.
Then the Goths conquered Philippopolis, which today is called Plovdiv and returned to their homeland laden with booty and important prisoners.
Details from the Ludovisi sarcophagus, a Roman sarcophagus found in a grave near Porta Tiburtina in Rome. It is dated to around 250 AD. It was discovered in 1621 and named after its first modern owner, Ludovico Ludovisi. The sarcophagus is now displayed in Palazzo Altemps in Rome, which is a part of the National Museum in Rome. The motive is a Roman victory over barbarians, in all likelihood Goths. Note their curly hair; both Sidonius Apollinaris and Jordanes mention that the Goths had curly hair. All the Goths have beards. Photo Wikipedia.
From upper left to lower right:
A Goth is mortally wounded by a spear in the chest.
A Roman lifts the head of a dying Goth by the beard. Above a Got lifts his sword, he is wearing a kind of hat.
A Goth is struggling desperately against superior forces surrounded by fallen comrades.
A heap of fallen Goths in the bottom of the motive, all dressed in tight pants and with curly hair and beard.
Emperor Decius and his son Herennius Etruscus soon sought to wash away the humiliation at Beroe by moving their troops across the Danube and attack the Goths. The decisive battle took place in 251 AD on the swampy terrain of the small town, Abrittus, which today is called Razgrad, in northeastern Bulgaria. The Roman writer Sextus Aurelius Victor recounts: “After he had ruled for two years Decius and his son Abrittus died because of treason while pursuing the barbarians over the Danube. Many reports tell that his son fell in battle, while he pushed in a too daring attack; the father, however, strenuously argued that the loss of a single soldier seemed him too little to matter. And then he resumed the fight and died violently struggling in a similar way.” His body was never found. Decius was the first Roman emperor, who died in battle against the kingdom’s external enemies.
The Byzantine theologian and historian Zonaras narrated: ” – he and his son and a large number of Romans fell into the marshland; all of them perished there, none of their bodies to be found, as they were covered by the mud.”
Details from the Portonaccio sarcophagus, which is a Roman sarcophagus found in the Portonaccio neighborhood of Rome It is dated 180-190 AD and can be seen in Museo Nazionale Romano.
Top: A barbarian woman with one breast exposed. In several columns and reliefs, Germanic women are shown with one breast exposed and the hair in disorder. It may be thought to have been a particularly advanced Germanic fashion from the Migration Period, but it is more likely that it should demonstrate the harsh treatment that the legionaries gave the subdued’s women, as a symbol of the Roman armies’ omnipotence.
Bottom: A barbarian warrior and his horse are in trouble in the bottom of the battle. All Germans, Goths and Dacians are shown with curly hair and beard. – Wikipedia.
The Romans raised an outcry when it became known that Gallus – the new emperor after the disaster at Abrittus – paid the Goths to keep the peace. However – unfaithful to their leaders’ agreements – some groups of Goths continued to loot in the Roman province Elyria (Albania). However, they were quickly beaten by a general named Aemilianus, who then was proclaimed emperor. Gallus was murdered by his own soldiers, who then joined the usurper’s army; but soon after he too was murdered, and the empire came into the hands of Valerian and his son Gallienus. But in 260 AD Valerian led a daring expedition in the war against the Persians and never came back.
Battle scene between Romans and Germans on the Portonaccio sarcophagus. One of the Germans, Dacian or possibly Gothic warriors is still standing. He could be a typical Gothic warrior armed with spear and shield – with curly beard and hair, dressed in tight pants held up by a belt, like the typical Germanic trousers found in Thorsbjerg Mose near Slesvig. Photo: Wikipedia.
During these fifteen years from Ostrogotha’s raids into Moesia and Thracia until Emperor Decius’ death in the battle of Abrittus, other Goths along with other barbarians conducted massacres and looting many places in the Roman Empire. Heruls, Goths and Eudoses, which probably also were Goths, from Crimea sailed across the Black Sea and captured the great city of Trebizond, where they abducted a large number of prisoners and took a big prey. The same fate befell the large and splendid cities of Bithynia, Chalcedon and Nicomedia. It is said that they were all fortified with strong garrisons, but for fear of Gothic terror, resistance was rarely attempted.
However, the most known and infamous Gothic raid was the conquest and looting of Athens in 262 AD. A fleet of five hundred ships – it is said – led a large army of Goths and Heruls through the Bosphorus and Hellespont. On their way to Athens, they destroyed the city of Cyzicus, which stood at the coast of Asia Minor between the Bosphorus and Hellespont, and they burned down the famous Temple of Diana in Ephesos, with its hundreds of tall marble columns and many beautiful statues – one of the ancient Seven Wonders.
Then the Gothic pirates crossed the Aegean Sea, anchored off Athens and plundered the famous city – Plato and Socrates’ birthplace – completely. But at least they did not burn the city, and we know that they left many distinguished and beautiful buildings and artworks, which first would be destroyed by the Turks many years later.
Battle scene between Romans and Goths on the Portonaccio sarcophagus. A bearded bareheaded Gothic warrior armed with shield and spear in battle against a similarly bearded Roman legionary equipped with helmet and sword. As several other Goths, he is wearing a cape held together by a buckle on the chest. Photo: Wikipedia.
When they had finished looting of Greece, they went to the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Maybe they thought of invading Italy. But however, Emperor Gallienus, Valerian’s son, had finally woken up to action and led a large army against them. The expedition leaders began to quarrel among themselves, and one of the Heruli leaders, Naulobatus, went into Roman service with all his men. He was very well received by the emperor, who gave him the rank of consul. The remaining Goths divided into two groups. One group went to Greece’s east coast and from there by ship to Thracia, and from there they traveled over land home to their villages. The other group continued to ravage Moesia another year without meeting significant resistance because of continued rivalry between the Roman generals.
In 268 AD, Emperor Gallienus was assassinated, and Claudius was appointed to emperor. In his time Greece was attacked by an invading army of thousands of Goths, who had emigrated from the area near the mouth of Dniester at the Black Sea, bringing their wives and children. The invasion army landed near Thessalonica and was soon engaged in grueling battles with Claudius forces. Thousands of Gothic prisoners were sold as slaves; many young men were enrolled in the imperial armies. A plague ravaged both Goths and Romans. The rest of the Goths fled into the Balkan mountains. For this victory, Emperor Claudius earned his name of honour, Gothicus.
The barbarian peoples along the borders of the Roman Empire in the fourth century by Peter Heather: “The Fall of the Roman Empire – A new history”. Jordanes narrated that after the Goths had arrived in the Black Sea area, they divided themselves into two groups, which usually are called respectively Tervingi – Visigoths – Western Goths and Greutungi – Ostrogoths – Eastern Goths. But the most likely is that there were many Gothic tribes, who had emigrated from the overpopulated original Gothic area in South Scandinavia and around the Baltic. Tervingi and Greutungi were only the names of dominant tribes. It is not even sure that for example, Tervingi and Visigoths represented the same tribe. We know, for example, that also Eudoses and Rugi were part of the exodus. Moreover, as Procopius writes about the barbaric peoples, he had met: “All these, while they are distinguished from one another by their names, as has been said, do not differ in anything else at all. For they all have white bodies and fair hair and are tall and handsome to look upon, and they use the same laws and practice a common religion.” Vandals, Gepids, Scirii, Burgundians and Angles talked all a dialect of Gothic and also resembled each other, so technically one could call them all a kind of Goths.
On His deathbed, Claudius appointed a young man named Aurelian as emperor. Very soon the empire was again attacked by new hordes of Goths led by a chief named Cannabaudes. Aurelian concluded a settlement with the Goths so that the province of Dacia, which today mainly is made up by Romania and the eastern part of Pannonia, which is today’s Hungary, was finally abandoned to the Goths against that they provided two thousand cavalries to the Roman army, and sent young men and women of noble families to the Roman Empire as hostages. The result of these agreements were the Goths lived in peace with the Roman Empire in the following fifty years.
A Goth – or could it be a Persian – is taken away captive of the Roman cavalry – Motif on Constantine’s mother Helena’s sarcophagus in Pio-Clementine Vatican Museum in Rome. He has curled hair and beard and is dressed in robe and pants. However, these pants are unusual being knee short – Wikipedia.
The Goths broke the peace in 322 AD when a unified army of Eastern and Western Goths and several Slavic tribes led by King Aliquaca invaded the Roman provinces south of Danube. But however, Emperor Constantine, who later earned the name of honour, “the Great,” responded by crossing the Danube and defeat them on their own territory. The emperor offered however honorable peace terms, the Goths were allowed to keep all their possessions and privileges against that the king should send his son as a hostage to Constantinople, and that Gothic forces should participate in the Imperial Army. When Constantine a year later fought the decisive battle against his rival, Licenius at Hadrianople, he was therefore assisted by a large Gothic army under Aliquaca. The victory at Hadrianople gave Konstantin power throughout the Roman Empire and made it possible that he could declare Christianity as the religion of the state.
Around 350 AD the Goths on the banks of the River Dnieper chose Ermanaric of the Amal lineage as king. Not since Ostrogotha, they had had an Amal as king. Ermanaric made no attempt to invade the provinces of the Roman Empire, but he made his Gothic kingdom to the center of a great empire. The Roman Ammianus Marcellinus wrote that he ruled “extensive large and fertile areas”; Jordanes wrote that he ruled the country Oium and compared him with Alexander the Great. Through many generations, his fame survived in Scandinavian, German and Anglo-Saxon sagas and poems. In “The saga of Hervarar and Kong Heidrek” the Goths’ capital is called Arheimar and located at the Danpar river, which is the Dnieper. The name Árheimar has been interpreted as Oium, as place names with the suffix -heim in many cases have been reduced to -um.
Scene from Heidreks Saga – Hjalmar’s farewell to Orvar Odd after the fight on Samsø. Painted by Mårten Eskil Winge – Wikipedia.
In this saga, Heidrek unfairly usurps the throne of Reidgotaland. He kidnaps the Hunnish princess Sifka, rapes her and sends her pregnant back to the Huns, her son with Heidrek is given the name Hlød. When Heidrek dies in the Carpathians, he is succeeded by his son Angantyr. But his second son Hlød, who had grown up among the Huns, requires his heritage and attacks with a great Hunnish army of mounted warriors. The Goths are assisted by the old Geatian King Gissur, and the war ends in an epic battle on the plains of the Danube, where Angantyr kills his brother Hlød.
We can understand from sagas and poems that Ermanaric was admired as a great conqueror and ruler, but he was also bitterly hated by the subjugated peoples as a cruel tyrant.
In the western part of the Gothic area along the Black Sea, King Athanaric of the Western Goths reigned. Since the time of Constantine the Great, they had faithfully complied with the agreement to protect the empire’s eastern border and to send several thousand soldiers to the Roman army each year. However, Athanaric made the mistake to support the wrong emperor. A general named Procopius rebelled against Emperor Valens, and temporary he got the power in Constantinople. Athanaric sent his Gothic troops to Thrace to support Procopius in the belief that he was the real emperor. However, Valens came back strongly, overcame his rival and his Gothic troops, whom he reportedly sold as slaves. Moreover, Valens then went over the Danube with his legions and made war and plunder on the Goths, however, without he was able to win a decisive victory.
After three years of war between the Western Goths and the Romans King Athanaric met with Emperor Valens in 369 AD on a barge on the Danube and agreed to peace terms; among others, Valens agreed to Athanaric’s requirement to deliver the Gothic Christians, who had sought refuge in Constantinople.
Preserving the Past, Recording the Present, Informing the Future
In the Gothic Bible is a Lord’s Prayer, as we well know. No, the Gots or Goths of Gutland / Gotland are no heathen pagans. They were some of the early Christians. The Lords prayer is written in two of the Gots dialects and English.
Atta unsar þu in himinam,
Fader vor du i himlen.
Father our, you in heaven,
Weihnai namo þein.
Helligt være navnet dit.
hallowed be the name yours,
Qimai þiudinassus þeins.
(lad) Komme kongeriget dit.
(let) come kingdom yours.
Wairþai wilja þeins,
(lad) ske viljen din,
(let) be done will yours,
swe in himina jah ana airþai.
Som i himlen og på jorden.
As in heaven and on earth.
Hlaif unsarana þana sinteinan gif uns himma daga.
brød vort dette daglig giv os (i) disse dage.
bread our daily give us in these days.
Jah aflet uns þatei skulans sijaima,
og forlad os hvilken skyld vi måtte være (have).
And forgive us which guilts we may (have).
Swaswe jah weis afletam þaim skulam unsaraim.
Samt vi forlader skyldene vore.
And we forgive them that have guilts against us.
jah ni briggais uns in fraistubnjai,
og ikke bring os i fristelse,
And not bring us into temptation.
ak lausei uns af þamma ubilin.
Men løs os fra det onde.
but deliver us from evil.
Unte þeina ist þiudangardi jah mahts jah wulþus in aiwins.
thi dit er kongedømme og magt og herlighed i evighed.
For yours is kingdom and power and glory in eternity.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen
Gothic text from “Deutche Sprache gestern und heute” by Astrid Stedje.
Gothic – Danish – English
Gothic, as spoken by both the Western as the Eastern Goths was a Germanic language closely connected to modern Scandinavian, German and English. Thanks to the Gothic Wulfila Bible, which was written in Italy in the sixth century and the Fleming Busbeccq’s notes about his meeting with representatives of a small group of long-surviving Goths in the Crimea, whom he met in Constantinople in the 16. century, we have a fairly good knowledge of the Gothic language.
The Gothic Bible is a translation from Greek to Gothic of the four Gospels in the New Testament, as well as a part of Paul’s letters. It contains almost nothing of the Old Testament.
We recognize the majority of words from German and Scandinavian. Atta means father as in “æt”, the old Danish word for family or lineage. Unsar we find the German “uns” (us). þu we find in Danish and German “du” and English “you”, in similar to “in” German and English and “i” in Danish. Himian similar to “himmel” (sky) in Danish and German. In the first syllable of Weinai we recognize the German Weinacht (Christmas Eve) Namo means “name” as in English and German and “navn” in Danish. Wilja is corresponding to “vilje” in Danish, “will” in English and “wille” in German. The preposition ana is corresponding to the German “an”, which also has been used in Danish and is still in use in compound words and phrases as “anledning” (occasion), “angive” (inform) and “anliggende” (matter) as well as the English “on”. Hlaif corresponds to “leve”, an old Danish word for bread, as well as the English “loaf”. Aflet and afletam gives associations to the Danish “aflede” (divert). Gif is equivalent to “giv” in Danish, “to give” in English and “geben” in German. Himma corresponds to the old Danish “hine” (these) Daga corresponds to “dage” in Danish, “days” in English and “Tage” in German. Skulans means guilt, as a scowling (“skule” in Danish) person may look like a guilty person. Ak means “but”, indicating that a traditional Danish or German exclamation of sorry “ak-ak” or “ach-ach” originally could have ment “but-but”. Lausei corresponds to the Danish “løse”, German lösen and English “lose”. Ubilin corresponds to “Übel” (evil) in German. Mahts corresponds to “magt” in Danish, “might” in English and “Macht” in German. þiudan-gardi has two parts, the first one is something with þiu , which is “king” in Gothic, and the other has to do with -gardi , which is “gård” (farm or enclosure) in Danish, geard in Old English and “gard” in Old Saxon – here it refers to a type of category.
The Gothic Bible also includes the Christmas story from Luke ch. 2: Warþ þan in dagans jainans, urrann gagrefts fram kaisara Agustau, gameljan allana midjungard.
Literal translation: It came to pass and in days those, (that) there went out decree from Caesar Augustus (that) should be taxed all (in) the world.
Crimean-
Gothic
Flemish
Danish
German
English
broe
brood
brød
brot
bread
plut
bloed
blod
blut
blood
stul
stoel
stol
stuhl
chair
hus
huys
hus
haus
house
wingart
wijgaert
vin
wein
wine
reghen
regen
regn
regen
rain
bruder
broeder
broder
bruder
brother
schwester
zuster
søster
schwester
sister
alt
oud
gammel
alt
old
vintch
wind
vind
wind
wind
silvir
zilver
sølv
silber
silver
golltz
goud
guld
gold
gold
kor
koren
korn
korn
grain
salt
zout
salt
salt
salt
fisct
visch
fisk
fisch
fish
hoef
hoofd
hoved
kopf
head
thurn
deure
dør
tür
door
stern
star
stjerne
stern
star
sune
zon
sol
sonne
sun
mine
maen
måne
mond
moon
tag
dag
dag
tag
day
oeghene
oogen
øjne
augen
eyes
bars
baert
skæg
bart
beard
handa
hand
hånd
hand
hand
Extract from the list of words that the Fleming Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq heard from two representatives of the Goths on the Crimea during a dinner in Constantinople around 1560. Krimgotisk by Poul Erik Jørgensen.
Note that the word for world, midjungard, is very similar to the Scandinavian Midgard.
There are three genders in Gothic namely masculine, feminine and neuter, as in modern German and old Danish. There are two times, past and present, as well as four kasus, namely nominative, accusative, genitive and dative and also, of course, singular and plural.
In Crimea lived Goths until about the 16. century. The Flemish Ogier Ghislain de Busbecqs, who was ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire in Constantinople 1560-62, has in his report provided us with knowledge of their language. He became aware that two representatives of the Goths on Crimea, whom he had heard of, were visiting Constantinople to present some cases for the Sultan. He managed to invite them to a dinner, during which he questioned them about their language and culture.
The definite article in Gothic was very similar to English. Busbecq told: “in front of all the words he puts tho or the”.
In Danish, we have retained the “sw” sound associated with sister in the names for the spouse family, “svoger” (brother in-law), “svigerfar” (father in-law), “svigermor” (mother in-law) and “svigerfamilie” (family in-law).
The two Gothic representatives also told Busbecq several other words that were not so similar to Flemish and German.
A page of the Wulfila Bible. It is also called “codex argenteus”, which means “Silver Bible”. It is believed that it was written for the Ostrogothic king of Italy, Theodoric the Great. Originally the Bible was translated from Greek to Gothic by Bishop Wulfila in the Balkans in the third century. It is written with the special Gothic alphabet, which was also created by Wulfila. It is called the silver bible because it is written with ink, which contains silver and gold on costly thin parchment. It was originally stored in the Benedictine monastery in Werden in Germany. It was looted by the Swedes in the Thirty Years’ War, and after a turbulent period it ended up in the University Library in Uppsala in Sweeden.
It is seen that Gothic differs from Danish and other Germanic languages by a number of words ending with -a, giving the language an exotic southern touch. The famous king of the Ostro-Goths was for example called Totilla and it sounds almost Mexican at least Spanish. It is believed that this frequent -a ending was an abbreviation, which replaced older, longer and more laborious endings. It is very imaginable that Spanish and to some extent Italian have the frequent -a endings from Gothic. Jordanes, who himself was a Goth, called occasionally the Heruls for “Erulos” which -os ending also sounds Spanish and Mediterranean, but Jordanes had never been to Spain, so it originates probably also from Gothic.
Preserving the Past, Recording the Present, Informing the Future
Capuan bronze bowl from Sojvide, Sjonhem
King of the Goths or Gotland/Gutland
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