List_of_Germanic_peoples

List of early Germanic peoples

List of early Germanic peoples

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The list of early Germanic peoples is a register of ancient Germanic cultures, tribal groups, and other alliances of Germanic tribes and civilisations in ancient times. This information comes from various ancient historical documents, beginning in the 2nd century BC and extending into late antiquity. By the Early Middle Ages, early forms of kingship had begun to have a historical impact across Europe, with the exception of Northern Europe, where influences from the Vendel Period (from AD 550 to 800) and the subsequent Viking Age (until AD 1050) can be seen in the Germanic context.

The associations and locations of the numerous peoples and groups in ancient sources are often subject to heavy uncertainty and speculation, and classifications of ethnicity regarding a common culture or a temporary alliance of heterogeneous groups are disputed. It is uncertain whether certain groups are Germanic in the broader linguistic sense or whether they consisted of speakers of a Germanic language.

The names listed below are not terms for ethnic groups in any modern sense but the names of groups that were perceived in ancient and late antiquity as Germanic. It is essentially an inventory of peoples, groups, alliances and associations stretching from the Barbaricum region east of the Rhine to the north of the Danube (also known as Germania), especially those that arrived during the Migration Period.

Settlement area reconstruction of Germanic tribes in the Provincial Roman Period

In alphabetical order

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

The present list is largely based on the list of Germanic tribal names and its spelling variants contained in the first register of the Reallexikons der Germanischen Altertumskunde.[1]

The first column contains the English name and its variants, if one is common, otherwise the traditional ancient name. The second column contains ancient names of Latin and Greek authors, the latter both in transcription and in Greek. The third column gives a brief description followed by a location.

The fifth column gives important sources of tradition for the group in question. The few main ancient sources for names and location of Germanic tribes are not linked. These are:

More information Name, Ancient name ...

Ancestors

Map 1: Indo-European migrations as described in The Horse, the Wheel, and Language by David W. Anthony

Possible ethnolinguistic kinship

Expansion of early Germanic tribes into previously mostly Celtic Central Europe:[8]
   Settlements before 750 BC
   New settlements by 500 BC
   New settlements by 250 BC
   New settlements by AD 1
Some sources also give a date of 750 BC for the earliest expansion out of southern Scandinavia and northern Germany along the North Sea coast towards the mouth of the Rhine.[9]
Map 3: One proposed theory for approximate distribution of the primary Germanic dialect groups, and matching peoples, in Europe around the year 1 AD:
North Germanic peoples:
  North Germanic – Norsemen: Suiones/Swedes, Geats/Scandinavian Goths, Gutes, Danes, Raumarici, Arothi, Adogit, others
West Germanic peoples:
  North Sea Germanic – Ingvaeonic peoples – Jutes, Angles, Saxons, Chauci, Frisians, others
  Weser–Rhine Germanic – Istvaeonic peoples: Franks, others
  Elbe Germanic – Herminonic/Irminonic peoples: Suebes/Alemanni, Swabians, Hermunduri/Thuringians, Marcomanni, Quadi, Bavarians, others
East Germanic peoples:
  East Germanic – Vandilic peoples: Goths, Burgundians, Vandals, Gepids, Rugii, Buri, Herules, others

East Germanic peoples (Vandilians)

Map 4: Gothic associated regions and archaeological cultures
  Götaland
  the island of Gotland
  Wielbark culture in the early 3rd century
  Chernyakhov culture, in the early 4th century
  Roman Empire

North Germanic peoples (Norsemen)

Map 5: Possible map of Scandza, with a selection of tribes
Map 6: Relief map of the Faroe Islands
Map 7: Travels of the first Scandinavians in Iceland during the ninth century AD or CE, Settlement of Iceland time
Map 8: A map of the Eastern Settlement on Greenland, covering approximately the modern municipality of Kujalleq. Eiriksfjord (Erik's fjord) and his farm Brattahlid are shown, as is the location of the bishopric at Garðar, Greenland.

West Germanic peoples

Map 9: Depiction of Magna Germania in the early 2nd century including the location of many ancient Germanic peoples and tribes (by Alexander George Findlay 1849)
Map 10: Early Roman Empire with some ethnic names in and around Germania
Map 11: Suebic migrations across Europe
Map 12: Lombard migration from Scandinavia
Map 13: Old Saxony. The later stem duchy of Saxony (circa 1000 AD), which was based in the Saxons' traditional homeland bounded by the rivers Ems, Eider and Elbe. Saxon tribes (after later Saxon expansion) and their lands are also shown.
Map 14: Migration of Angles, Saxons and Jutes towards Britannia, today's England, and their settlement in the 5th and 6th centuries AD
SpaldingNorth & South Gyrwa
Map 15: The tribes of the Tribal Hidage. Where an appropriate article exists, it can be found by clicking on the name.
Map 16: Subdivisions of Mercia, almost all of them matched Middle Anglian individual tribes or groups of tribes, except for the Middle Saxons; see Tribal Hidage
Map 17: Approximate location of the original Frankish tribes in the 3rd century (in green)
Map 18: Salian settlement in Toxandria in 358 where Julian the Apostate made them dediticii
  Roman Empire
  Salian Franks
  Germanic tribes east of the Rhine

Germanic peoples or tribes of unknown ethnolinguistic kinship

Eight tribes or peoples are only mentioned by the Old Mainland Saxon wandering bard, of the Myrgingas tribe, named Widsith – Aenenes; Baningas; Deanas (they are differentiated from the Danes); Frumtingas; Herefaran; Hronas or Hronan; Mofdingas and Sycgas (not to be confused with Secgan, short name for the work in Old English called On the Resting-Places of the Saints about saints' resting places in England).

Ancient peoples with partially Germanic background

Germano-Celtic

Germano-Slavic

Ancient peoples of uncertain origin with possible Germanic or partially Germanic background

Mixed peoples that had some Germanic component

Celtic–Germanic–Iranian

Possible Germanic or non-Germanic peoples

Germanic or Slavic

Germanic or Celtic

Germanic or Dacian

Germanic or Iranian

Germanic or Balto-Finnic

Mythical founders

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
Further information: Eponymous ancestor

Many of the authors relating ethnic names of Germanic peoples speculated concerning their origin, from the earliest writers to approximately the Renaissance. One cross-cultural approach over this more than a millennium of historical speculation was to assign an eponymous ancestor of the same name as, or reconstructed from, the name of the people. For example, Hellen was the founder of the Hellenes.

Although some Enlightenment historians continued to repeat these ancient stories as though fact, today they are recognised as manifestly mythological. There was, for example, no Franko, or Francio, ancestor of the Franks. The convergence of data from history, linguistics and archaeology have made this conclusion inevitable. A list of the mythical founders of Germanic peoples follows.

See also

Notes

  1. [1]
    Heinrich Beck et al. (editor): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. volume 36/37 (register volume 1 and 2): Authors, keywords, subject index, abbreviations, 2nd edition. de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019146-2, p. 20 ff.; "PDF; 499 kB" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2013. Retrieved 2013-09-21.. In: degruyter.com, Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  2. [2]
    Tacitus, Germania 28; Strabo 4, 3, 4.
  3. [3]
    Cornelius Tacitus: Germania. Transmitted and explained by Arno Mauersberger. VMA-Verlag, Wiesbaden [1981?], p. 142, DNB-IDN 810365324 (Latin, German; licensed edition of Dieterich's publishing house accountant, Leipzig).
  4. [4]
    Maurits Gysseling: Toponymisch Woordenboek van België, Nederland, Luxemburg, Noord-Frankrijk en West-Duitsland. Ghent 1960, DNB-IDN 560536216, p. 956 (kantl.be, Retrieved 5 December 2017; Dutch).
  5. [5]
    Tacitus, Germania 28.
  6. [6]
    Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico book III, 11: […] Treveros, qui proximi flumini Rheno sunt. ("The Treveri who live near the Rhine.")
  7. [7]
    L. S.: Visbu´rgii. In: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. 2 volumes. Edited by William Smith. Walton and Maberly, John Murray, London 1854, OCLC 1000689106 (perseus.tufts.edu, Retrieved 5 December 2017).
  8. [8]
    Kinder, Hermann (1988), Penguin Atlas of World History, vol. I, London: Penguin, p. 108, ISBN 0-14-051054-0.
  9. [9]
    "Languages of the World: Germanic languages". The New Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago, IL, United States: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 1993. ISBN 0-85229-571-5.
  10. [10]
    Muir, Bernard James (1989). Leođ: Six Old English Poems : A Handbook. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9782881243578.
  11. [11]
    Jedin, Hubert; Dolan, John Patrick, eds. (1969). "Handbook of Church History". Burns & Oates. p. 12.
  12. [12]
    Aubenas, Joseph Adolphe (1845). "Revue de bibliographie analytique: Ou Compte rendu des ouvrages scientifiques et de haute litterature".
  13. [13]
    James Westfall-Thompson, Feudal Germany (1928), p. 167ff. ("Old Saxony" chapter).
  14. [14]
    "For the Saxon “nation” was really a loose collection of clans of kindred stock." in James Westfall-Thompson, Feudal Germany (1928), p. 167ff. ("Old Saxony" chapter).
  15. [15]
    James Westfall-Thompson, Feudal Germany (1928), p. 167ff. ("Old Saxony" chapter).
  16. [16]
    James Westfall-Thompson, Feudal Germany (1928), p. 167ff. ("Old Saxony" chapter).
  17. [17]
    "For the Saxon “nation” was really a loose collection of clans of kindred stock. For example, the Nordalbingians alone were divided into lesser groups: Holsteiners, Sturmarii, Bardi, and the men of Ditmarsch." in James Westfall-Thompson, Feudal Germany (1928), p. 167ff. ("Old Saxony" chapter).
  18. [18]
    Johnson, Charles F. (1899). English Words. Harper & Brothers – via Internet Archive.
  19. [19]
    Wyatt, Louise (15 February 2018). Secret Hayes. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 9781445672212.
  20. [20]
    Hazlitt, William (1851). "The Classical Gazetteer: A Dictionary of Ancient Geography, Sacred and Profane".
  21. [21]
    Jones, Gwyn (2001). A History of the Vikings. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192801340.

References

  • Thorsten Andersson: Altgermanische Ethnika. In: Namn och bygd. Tidskrift för nordisk ortnamnsforskning. 97 (2009), ISSN 0077-2704, pp. 5–39 (PDF; 9.7 MB; total year).
  • Otto Bremer: Ethnographie der germanischen Stämme. In: Hermann Paul (editor): Grundriss der Germanischen Philologie. volume 2, part 1: Literaturgeschichte. 2nd, improved and enlarged edition. Karl Trübner Verlag, Strasbourg 1900, pp. 735–930.
  • Ernst Künzl: Die Germanen (= Theiss WissenKompakt). Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 3-8062-2036-0.
  • Günter Neumann: Namenstudien zum Altgermanischen (= Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde – Ergänzungsbände. volume 59). Edited by Heinrich Hettrich, Astrid van Nahl. de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-021044-6, urn:nbn:de:101:1-2016061717834.
  • Rudolf Much: Die Germania des Tacitus. 3rd considerable adult edition. Edited by Wolfgang Lange in collaboration with Herbert Jankuhn and Hans Fromm. Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 1967, DNB-IDN 457642858.
  • Rudolf Much: Deutsche Stammeskunde. 3rd verb edition. Scientific association. Publisher, Berlin/Leipzig 1920, DNB-IDN 580772896; outlook Verlag, Bremen 2015, ISBN 978-3-86403-235-6.
  • Heinrich Beck et al. (editor): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. 2nd edition. de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 1972–2008.
  • Hermann Reichert: Lexikon der altgermanischen Namen. Publisher of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-7001-0931-8.
  • Ludwig Rübekeil: Völkernamen Europas. In: Ernst Eichler et al. (editor): Namenforschung. Ein internationales Handbuch zur Onomastik. volume 2, de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 1996, ISBN 3-11-020343-X, pp. 1330–1343.
  • Moritz Schönfeld: Wörterbuch der altgermanischen Personen- und Völkernamen nach der Überlieferung des klassischen Altertums (= Germanische Bibliothek. department 1: Elementar- und Handbücher. series 4: Wörterbücher. volume 2). Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 1911, DNB-IDN 362646430; Reprints each as 2nd, unchanged edition: (= Germanische Bibliothek. series 3 [much 2]). Winter, Heidelberg 1965, DNB-IDN 454448473; Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1965, DNB-IDN 454448465.
  • Ernst Schwarz: Germanische Stammeskunde (= Germanische Bibliothek. volume 5). Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 1956, DNB-IDN 454606672; reprint: VMA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-938586-10-5.
  • Alexander Sitzmann, Friedrich E. Grünzweig: Altgermanische Ethnonyme. Ein Handbuch zu ihrer Etymologie. Using a bibliography by Robert Nedoma editor of Hermann Reichert (= Philologica Germanica. volume 29). Fassbaender, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-902575-07-4.
  • Reinhard Wenskus: Stammesbildung und Verfassung. Das Werden der frühmittelalterlichen gentes. 2nd, unchanged edition. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne/Vienna 1977, ISBN 3-412-00177-5.
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