Jordanes on Herulos and Dani
In Constantinople around 550 AD, both Jordanes and Procopius wrote on Dani in Scandinavia. Jordanes wrote in Latin, and Procopius wrote in Greek.
Jordanes told about the tribes on the island of Scandia in the Northern Ocean: “In the northern part of the island the race of the Halogians (AlogiR) live – There are the Scrithifinni – But still another race dwells there, the Sweans, who, like the Thuringi have splendid horses – Then comes a throng of various nations”.
The tribes on the island of Scandia following Jordanes – rather randomly placed by the author. We can place Halogi, Scrithfinni, Finn Haith and Finni Mitissimi north according to their names. Sweans and Switheudi around the lake Malern – as we believe that they are Swedes. Gautigoths and Ostrogoths in the Gota countries. Dani in Scania and some people with names, which remind of modern Norwegian place names, Raumarici and Agadii as good as possible in Norway. The rest I have placed rather randomly.
Later following Jordanes: “Switheudi, cogniti in hac gente reliquis corpore eminentiores: quamvis et Dani, ex ipsorum stirpe progressi, Erulos propriis sedibus expulerunt (quibus non ante multos annos Hrodwulf rex fuit, qui contempto proprio regno ad Theodorici Gothorum regis gremium convolavit et, ut desiderabat, invenit),-“ which in Theedrich Yeat’s translation to English sounds: “The Switheudi are of this stock and excel the rest in stature. However, the Dani, who trace their origin to the same stock, drove from their homes the Erulos, who claim to be predominant among all the nations of Scandia because of their tallness and over whom Hrodwulf was king not many years ago. But he despised his own kingdom and fled to the embrace of Theodorici, king of the Goths, finding there what he desired.”
“This stock” must refer to “other race” above, “Sweans, who like Thuringi have splendid horses”; and Dani, “who trace their origin to the same stock”, had an especially tall body height – which Switheudi too had – and probably Thuringi, whom they are connected to. Apparently, Jordanes simply meant that Switheudi and Dani had common ancestry, which was different from the Halogian’s, Goth’s and Finn’s descent.
To get the connection to Thuringi with the splendid horses, we must believe that Sweans and Switheudi are the same people.
The Latin is somewhat unclear, and it has been argued that it can also mean that the Heruli expelled the Danes from their settlements. But since Heruls are not mentioned in any Scandinavian historical sources and Danes are known to have inhabited these regions since then, we must believe that the sentence means that Dani expelled Herulos.
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Dolichocephalic man skull from Vester Egesborg on Stevns on Sjælland from Roman Iron Age- From Danmarks Oldtid by Johannes Brøndsted.
It is also not clear whether it was Dani or Herulos, who claimed sovereignty because of their body height, but as skeletons from Denmark from this time rather suddenly indicate fairly large body size, one must assume that it was Dani, who were the tall ones; Moreover, Jordanes tells that the Dani were of the same descent as Switheudi, who were tall – so it is natural that the Dani also were.
It is also unclear, whether Hrodwulf was king of Herulos or Dani, but the royal name Rodulf is later repeatedly associated with Heruls, so we must believe that he was king of Herulos.
It is not directly mentioned, where the Heruli settlements were located; but as Jordanes explicitly is talking about the inhabitants of the island of Scandia, that is the Scandinavian Peninsula, we must believe that the Heruli or some of them originally lived in Skåne, Halland or Blekinge and was expelled from there.
Jordanes also does not tell, when this expulsion took place.
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