Germanic peoples
This article is about Germanic peoples as an ethno- 1
linguistic group. For the term Germanic as used in
reference to Germanic-speaking countries in Europe,
see Germanic-speaking Europe. 1.1
Germanic Thing (governing assembly), drawn after the depiction
in a relief of the Column of Marcus Aurelius, 193 CE.
The Germanic peoples (also called Teutonic, Suebian or
Gothic in older literature) are an Indo-European ethno-
linguistic group of Northern European origin,[1] identi-
ed by their use of the Germanic languages which di-
versied out of Proto-Germanic starting during the Pre-
Roman Iron Age.[2]
The term Germanic originated in classical times, when
groups of tribes living in Lower, Upper and Greater Ger-
mania were referred to using this term by Roman authors.
For them, the term was not necessarily based upon lan-
guage, but rather referred to tribal groups and alliances
who were considered less civilized, and more physically
hardened, than the Celtic Gauls living in the region of
modern France. Tribes referred to as Germanic in that
period lived generally to the north and east of the Gauls.
Germanic tribes played a major role throughout the his-
tory of Europes development.[1]
Modern Germanic peoples include the Afrikaners,
Austrians, Danes, Dutch, English, Flemish, Frisians,
Germans, Icelanders, Lowland Scots, Norwegians,
Swedes and others (including diaspora populations, such
as most European Americans).[3][4][5]
1
Ethnonym
Germanic
See also: Germania
In approximately 222 BCE, the rst use of the Latin term
"Germani" appears in the Fasti Capitolini inscription de
Galleis Insvbribvs et Germ(aneis) which may simply be
referring to Gaul or related people but this may be an in-
accurate date since the inscription was erected in about 18
BCE despite referencing an earlier date. The term Ger-
mani shows up again, allegedly written by Poseidonios
(from 80 BCE), but is merely a quotation inserted by
the author Athenaios who wrote much later (around 190
CE).[6][7][8][9] Somewhat later, the rst surviving detailed
discussions of Germani and Germania are those of Julius
Caesar, whose memoirs are based on rst-hand experi-
ence.
From Caesars perspective, Germania was a geographi-
cal area of land on the east bank of the Rhine from Gaul,
which Caesar left outside direct Roman control. This us-
age of the word is the origin of the modern concept of
Germanic languages, but it was not dened strictly by
language. Under other classical authors this sometimes
included regions of Sarmatia as well as an area under
Roman control on the west bank of the Rhine. Also,
at least in the south there were Celtic peoples still living
east of the Rhine and north of the Alps. Caesar, Tacitus
and others did note dierences of culture which could
be found on the east of the Rhine. But all of these cul-
tural notes were around the theme that this was a wild and
dangerous region, less civilised than Gaul, a place that re-
quired additional military vigilance when traversing the
region.[10]
Caesar used the term Germani, for a very specic tribal
grouping in northeastern Belgic Gaul, west of the Rhine,
the largest part of which were the Eburones, making clear
that he was using the name in the local way. These are the
so-called Germani Cisrhenani, whom Caesar believed to
be closely related to the peoples east of the Rhine, and
descended from immigrants into Gaul.[11] Tacitus sug-
gests that this was the original way the word "Germani"
was used as the name of a single tribal nation west of
the Rhine, ancestral to the Tungri (who lived in the same
area as the earlier Germani reported by Caesar), and not
a whole race (gentis) as it came to mean. He also sug-
gested that two large Belgic tribes neighbouring Caesars
2 2
Germani, the Nervii and the Treveri, liked to call them-
selves Germanic in his time, in order not to be associated
with Gaulish indolence.[12] Caesar described this group
of tribes both as Belgic Gauls, and Germani. Gauls are
associated with Celtic languages, and the term Germani is
associated with Germanic languages, but Caesar did not
discuss languages in detail (though he did say that Belgic
Gaul was dierent from Celtic Gaul in language). The ge-
ographer Ptolemy described the place where these people
lived as Germania, which according to his accounts was
bordered by the Rhine, Vistula and Danube Rivers, but he
also circumscribed into Greater Germania an area which
included Jutland (Cimbrian peninsula) and an enormous
island known as Scandia (the Scandinavian peninsula).[13]
While saying that the Germani had ancestry over the
Rhine, Caesar did not describe these tribes as recent
immigrants, saying that they had defended themselves
some generations earlier from the invading Cimbri and
Teutones. (He thereby distinguished them from the
neighbouring Aduatuci, whom he did not call Ger-
mani, but who were descended from those Cimbri
and Teutones.)[11] It has been claimed, for example by
Maurits Gysseling, that the placenames of this region
show evidence of an early presence of Germanic lan-
guages, already in the 2nd century BCE.[14] Celtic culture
and language was however clearly inuential also, as can
be seen in the tribal name of the Eburones, their kings
names, Ambiorix and Cativolcus, and also the material
culture of the region.[15] (In these early records of appar-
ent Germanic tribes, tribal leader names of the Cimbri
and Sigambri, and tribal names such as Tencteri and
Usipetes, are also apparently Gaulish, even coming from
the east of the Rhine.)
The etymology of the word Germani is uncertain.
The likeliest theory so far proposed is that it comes
from a Gaulish compound of *ger near + *mani
men, comparable to Welsh ger near (prep.), Old
Irish gair neighbor, Irish gar- (prex) near, garach been a form of Celtic.[28] The source of this confusion
neighborly.[16][17][18][19] Another Celtic possibility is
that the name meant noisy"; cf. Breton/Cornish garm
shout, Irish gairm call.[20] However, here the vowel
does not match, nor does the vowel length (contrast with
inscriptional Garmangabi (UK) and Garma Alise, G-
257)). Others have proposed a Germanic etymology
*gr-manni, spear men, cf. Middle Dutch ghere, Old
High German Ger, Old Norse geirr.[21] However, the
form gr (from PGmc *gaizaz) seems far too advanced
phonetically for the 1st century, has a long vowel where
a short one is expected, and the Latin form has a simplex
-n-, not a geminate.
The term Germani, therefore, probably applied to a small
group of tribes in northeastern Gaul who may or may not
have spoken a Germanic language, and whose links to
Germania are unclear. It appears that the Germanic tribes
did not have a word to describe themselves, although
the word Suebi, used by Caesar to broadly classify Ger-
manic speakers was likely Germanic in origin.[22] They
CLASSIFICATION
did however use the term walhaz to describe outsiders
(mainly Celts, Romans and Greeks).[23] Roman authors
frequently employed the term barbarian from the Latin
derivative barbarus (inherited from the Greek barbaros
which means foreign) when describing Germanic peo-
ples. Such a term presupposed a distinctive Roman in-
tellectual and cultural superiority and their ethnographic
treatises on the various barbarian tribes ascribed spe-
cic attributes of barbarism to each one so as to delineate
the dichotomy between barbarism and civilization.[24]
The more the Romans increased their presence along the
periphery of their Empire, the more trade and employ-
ment for the barbarians became available, resulting in
an economic boom along the corridors of the Danube
River, which subsequently increased the Roman focus
upon the Germanic peoples.[25] Use of the modern term
German or Germanic is the result of 18th and 19th cen-
tury classical philology which envisioned the Germanic
language group as occupying a central branch of the Indo-
European language tree.[26]
1.2 Teutonic
Further information: German language, Theodiscus and
Teutonic (disambiguation)
Latin scholars from the 10th century utilized the adjec-
tive teutonicus, a derivative of Teutones) when referenc-
ing East Francia which in their vernacular was connoted
Regnum Teutonicum for that area and all of its subse-
quent inhabitants. Modern speakers of English still em-
ploy the word Teutons when describing Germanic peo-
ples as a result.[27] Historically, the Teutones were only
one specic tribe, and may not have even spoken a Ger-
manic language. For example, it is postulated by some
scholars that the original Teutonic language may have
whereby Teutons are lumped into the same category as
the others comes from their contact with the Romans in
the second century B.C. when they, along with the Cimbri
and the Ambrones led a frightening attack against the Ro-
mans. Teuton was the byword the Romans applied to the
barbarians from the north and which they used to describe
subsequent Germanic peoples.[29] Under the leadership
of Gaius Marius, who built his career on barbarian an-
tagonists (like many who followed), the Teutones became
one of the archetypal enemies of the Roman Empire.[30]
2 Classication
By the 1st century CE, the writings of Pomponius
Mela, Pliny the elder, and Tacitus indicate a division
of Germanic-speaking peoples into large groupings who
shared ancestry and culture. (This division has been ap-
propriated in modern terminology about the divisions of

One proposal for the approximate distribution of the primary
Germanic dialect groups in Europe around AD 1:
North Germanic
North Sea Germanic, or Ingvaeonic
Weser-Rhine Germanic, or Istvaeonic
Elbe Germanic, or Irminonic
East Germanic
Germanic languages.)
Tacitus, in his Germania wrote[31] that
In their ancient songs, their only way of
remembering or recording the past, they cel-
ebrate an earth-born god, Tuisco, and his son
Mannus, as the origin of their race, as their
founders. To Mannus they assign three sons,
from whose names, they say, the coast tribes
are called Ingvones; those of the interior,
Herminones; all the rest, Istvones.
Tacitus also species that the Suevi are a very large group-
ing, with many tribes within it, with their own names.
The largest, he says, is the Semnones, the Langobardi
are fewer, but living surrounded by warlike peoples, and
in remoter and better defended areas live the Reudigni,
Aviones, Anglii, Varini, Eudoses, the Suardones, and
Nuithones.[32]
Pliny the Elder, on the other hand, names ve races of
Germans in his Historia Naturalis,[33] not three, by dis-
tinguishing the two more easterly blocks of Germans, the
Vandals and further east the Bastarnae, who were the rst
to reach the Black Sea and come in contact with Greek
civilization. He is also slightly more specic about the
position of the Istvaeones, though he also does not name
any examples of them:
There are ve German races; the Vandili,
parts of whom are the Burgundiones, the
3
Varini, the Carini, and the Gutones: the In-
gvones, forming a second race, a portion of
whom are the Cimbri, the Teutoni, and the
tribes of the Chauci. The Istvones, who join
up to the Rhine, and to whom the Cimbri [sic,
repeated] belong, are the third race; while the
Hermiones, forming a fourth, dwell in the in-
terior, and include the Suevi, the Hermunduri,
the Chatti, and the Cherusci:[34] the fth race is
that of the Peucini, who are also the Bastern,
adjoining the Daci.
The remote Varini are listed as being in the Suebic or
Hermionic group by Tacitus, above, and the eastern Van-
dalic or Gothic group by Pliny, so the two accounts do
not match perfectly.
In these accounts and others from the period, empha-
sis is often made upon the fact that the Suebi and their
Hermione kin formed an especially large and mobile na-
tion, which at the time were living mainly near the Elbe,
both east and west of it, but they were also moving west-
wards into the lands near the Roman frontier. Pomponius
Mela in his slightly earlier Description of the World[35]
places the farthest people of Germania, the Hermiones
somewhere to the east of the Cimbri and the Teutones,
and further from Rome, apparently on the Baltic. Strabo
however describes the Suebi as going through a period
where they were pushed back east by the Romans, in the
direction from which they had come:
the nation of the Suevi is the most consid-
erable, as it extends from the Rhine as far as the
Elbe, and even a part of them, as the Hermon-
duri and the Langobardi, inhabit the country
beyond the Elbe; but at the present time these
tribes, having been defeated, have retired en-
tirely beyond the Elbe.[36]
By the end of the 5th century the term Gothic was used
more generally in the historical sources for Plinys Van-
dals to the east of the Elbe, including not only the Goths
and Vandals, but also the Gepids along the Tisza and
the Danube, the Rugians, Sciri and Burgundians, even the
Iranian Alans.[37]
3 Linguistics
Further information: Germanic substrate hypothesis,
Proto-Germanic and Spread of Indo-European languages
Linguists postulate that an early proto-Germanic lan-
guage existed and was distinguishable from the other
Indo-European languages as far back as 500 B.C.E.[38]
The earliest known Germanic inscription was found at
Negau (in what is now southern Austria) on a bronze hel-
met dating back to the rst century BC.[39] Some of the
4 4 HISTORY

other earliest known physical records of the Germanic times designate the Frankish language (and its descen-
language appear on stone and wood carvings in Runic dant Dutch) as Istvaeonic, although the geographical term
script from around 200 AD.[28] Runic writing likely dis- "Weser-Rhine Germanic is often preferred. However,
appeared due to the concerted opposition of the Chris- the classical "Germani" near the Rhine, to whom the term
tian Church, which regarded runic text as heathen sym- was originally applied by Caesar, may not have even spo-
bols which supposedly contained inherent magical prop- ken Germanic languages, let alone a language recogniz-
erties that they associated with the Germanic peoples ably ancestral to modern Dutch.[52] The close relatives
pagan past.[40] Unfortunately, this primitive view ignores of Dutch, Low German, Anglo-Saxon and Frisian, are
the abundance of pious runic writing found on church- in fact sometimes designated as Ingvaeonic, or alterna-
related objects (ranging from inscriptions in the door- tively, North-Sea Germanic. And Frankish, (and later
ways of churches, on church bells and even those found Dutch, Luxembourgish and the Frankish dialects of Ger-
on baptismal fonts) when Christianity was introduced into man in Germany) have continuously been intelligible to
the Germanic North.[41][42] An important linguistic step some extent with both Ingvaeonic Low German, and
was made by the Christian convert Ullas, who became some Suebian High German dialects, with which they
a bishop to the Visigoths in AD 341; he subsequently form a spectrum of continental dialects. All these dialects
invented an alphabet and translated the scriptures from or languages appear to have formed by the mixing of mi-
Greek into Gothic, creating the earliest known transla- grating peoples after the time of Caesar. So it is not clear
tion of the Bible into a Germanic language.[43] if these medieval dialect divisions correspond to any men-
From what is known, the early Germanic tribes may have tioned by Tacitus and Pliny. Indeed, in Tacitus (Tac. Ger.
spoken "mutually intelligible dialects derived from a 40) and in Claudius Ptolemy's Geography, the Anglii, an-
common parent language but there are no written records cestors of the Anglo-Saxons, are designated as being a
to verify this fact.[44][45] Despite their common linguistic Suebic tribe.
framework, by the 5th century AD, the Germanic peo- By AD 500 west Germanic speakers had apparently de-
ple were linguistically dierentiated and could no longer veloped a distinct language continuum with extensive
easily comprehend one another.[44][46] Nonetheless, the loaning from Latin (due to their ongoing contact with the
line between Germanic languages and Romance speak- Romans), whereas the east Germanic languages were dy-
ers in central Europe remained at the western mouth of ing out.[53] West Germanic languages include: German,
the Rhine river and while Gaul fell under German domi- Yiddish, Dutch, Luxemburgish, Frisian, and English.[54]
nation and was rmly settled by the Franks, the linguistic North Germanic languages are Swedish, Danish, Norwe-
patterns did not move much. Further west and south in gian, Faroese and Icelandic.[55][56] Later manifestations
Europe-proper, the linguistic presence of the Germanic of the western Germanic languages and their pursuant ty-
languages is almost negligible. Despite the fact that the pological characteristics are due in part to the activities of
Visigoths ruled what is now Spain for upwards of 250 the Hanseatic League where trade necessitated a lingua
years, there are almost no recognizable Gothic words bor- franca from the mainland of Scandinavia all along the
rowed into Spanish.[47] navigable shores of the North Sea, and within the Baltic
Sea.[57]
The Germanic tribes moved and interacted over the next
centuries, and separate dialects among Germanic lan-
guages developed down to the present day.[48] Some
groups, such as the Suebians, have a continuous recorded 4 History
existence, and so there is a reasonable condence that
their modern dialects can be traced back to those in 4.1 Origins
classical times.[49] By extension, but sometimes contro-
versially, the names of the sons of Mannus, Istvaeones, See also: Indo-European migrations and Nordic Bronze
Irminones, and Ingvaeones, are also sometimes used to Age
divide up the medieval and modern West Germanic lan-
guages.[50] The more easterly groups such as the Vandals
are thought to have been united in the use of East Ger- Archaeological and linguistic evidence from a period
manic languages, the most famous of which is Gothic. known as the Nordic Bronze Age indicates that a common
The dialect of the Germanic people who remained in material culture existed between the Germanic tribes
Scandinavia is not generally called Ingvaeonic, but is that inherited the southern regions of Scandinavia, along
classied as North Germanic, which developed into Old with the Schleswig-Holstein area and the area of what is
Norse. Within the West Germanic group, linguists asso- now Hamburg, Germany.[58][59] Additional archaeologi-
ciate the Suebian or Hermionic group with an Elbe Ger- cal remnants from the Iron Age society that once existed
manic which developed into Upper German, including in nearby Wessenstedt also show traces of this culture.[60]
modern German.[51] Exactly how these cultures interacted remains a mystery
but the migrations of early proto-Germanic peoples are
More speculatively, given the lack of any such clear ex- discernible from the remaining evidence of prehistoric
planation in any classical source, modern linguists some- cultures in Hgelgrber, Urneld, and La Tene. Climatic
4.2 Early Iron Age
Map of the Nordic Bronze Age culture, around 1200 BCE
The gilded side of the Trundholm sun chariot
The Dejbjerg wagon, National Museum of Denmark
change between 850 BCE to 760 BCE in Scandinavia and
a later and more rapid one around 650 BCE might have
triggered migrations to the coast of Eastern Germany and
further toward the Vistula.[59]
5
The cultural phase of the late Bronze Age and early Iron
Age in Europe (c. 1200-600 BC in temperate continental
areas), known in contemporary terms as the Hallstatt cul-
ture expanded from the south into this area and brought
the early Germanic peoples under the inuence of early
Celtic (or pre Celtic) culture between 1200 BCE to 600
BCE, whereupon they began extracting bog iron from
the available ore in peat bogs. This ushered in the Pre-
Roman Iron Age.[59] Stretching from central France all
the way to western Hungary and then from the Alps
to central Poland, the Hallstatt culture also constructed
sophisticated structures and the archaeological remains
across parts of France, Germany and Hungary suggest
their trade networks along the North Atlantic, Baltic Sea
and up and down central Europes river valleys were fairly
elaborate as well.[61]
4.2 Early Iron Age
Further information: Pre-Roman Iron Age
In Northernmost Europe in what now constitutes the Eu-
ropean plains of Denmark and southern Scandinavia is
where the Germanic peoples most likely originated; a re-
gion that remained remarkably stable as far back as the
Neolithic Age, when humans rst began controlling their
environment through the use of agriculture and the do-
mestication of animals.[62] By as early as 750 BCE arche-
ological evidence gives the impression that the Germanic
people were becoming more uniform in their culture.[44]
As the population of the Germanic people grew, they mi-
grated westwards into coastal oodplains due to the ex-
haustion of the soil in their original settlements.[63] In
the second millennium BCE, the Germanic tribes ex-
panded into the adjacent regions between the Elbe and
Oder rivers.[64]
By approximately 250 BCE additional expansion further
southwards into central Europe took place and ve gen-
eral groups of Germanic people emerged, each employ-
ing distinct linguistic dialects but sharing similar language
innovations they are distinguished from one another
as: North Germanic in southern Scandinavia; North Sea
Germanic in the regions along the North Sea and in the
Jutland peninsula NW Europe, which forms the main-
land of Denmark together with the north German state
of Schleswig-Holstein; Rhine-Weser Germanic along the
middle Rhine and Weser river (which empties into the
North Sea near Bremerhaven); Elbe Germanic spoken by
the people living directly along the middle Elbe river; and
East Germanic between the middle of the Oder and the
Vistula rivers.[65]
Concomitantly, during the 2nd century BCE the advent
of the Celtic culture of Hallstatt and La Tene arose in
nearby territories further west but the interactions be-
tween the early Germanic people and the Celts is thought
to have been minimal based on the linguistic evidence.[66]
6 4 HISTORY

Despite the absence of the Celtic inuence further east- spective, and were not nearly as dierentiated as the Ro-
wards, there are a number of Celtic loanwords in Proto- mans implied. In fact, the Germanic tribes are hard to
Germanic, which at the very least indicates contact be- distinguish from the Celts on many accounts simply based
tween the people of Gaul and the early Germanic cultures on archaeological records.[75]
that resided along the Rhine river.[67] Nonetheless, mate-
rial objects such as metal ornaments and pottery found
near the areas east of the lower Rhine are connoted as 4.3 Pytheas
Jastorf in nomenclature and are characteristically distin-
guishable from the Celtic objects found further west.[68] The rst news about the Germanic world are contained
in the lost Pytheas work. It is believed that Pyth-
It is not clear if the rst occurrence of the term Ger-
eas travelled to Northern Europe, and his observations
mani in Roman ethnography is either a reference to Ger-
about the geographical environment, traditions and cul-
manic or Celtic according to modern linguists, but it is
ture of the Northern European populations were a cen-
probable that the clear geographic demarcation appear-
tral source of information to later historians, possibly
ing between the two peoples may have been made for the
the only source.[76] Authors such as Strabo, Pliny and
sake of political convenience by Caesar.[69] Caesar de-
Diodorus cite Pytheas in disbelief, although Pytheas ob-
scribed some tribes more distinctly than others but gen-
servations are substantially correct. Though Pytheas was
erally considered most of them as being from Germanic
not the rst explorer of those lands (for example Himilco,
stock. However, the archaeological evidence in some of
Phoenicians, Tartessians), he was the rst to describe
the regions creates an ethnographic problem in clearly de-
these populations, and it is fair to say that much of the
lineating the indigenous people based strictly on Roman
Germanic peoples history enters into view through Pyth-
classication. Nonetheless, there are scholars who assert
eas, particularly since he was also the rst to distinguish
that there was an eventual linguistic Germanization that
the 'Germanoi' people of northern and central Europe
occurred during the 1st century BCE through something
as distinct from the 'Keltoi' people further west.[77][78]
they call the elite-dominance model.[70] Archaeologists
Along with a couple of predecessors (namely, Polybius
are unable to make denitive judgments which accord the
and Posidonius), the work of Pytheas over the Celts and
observations of the Roman writer Tacitus. Enough cul-
early Germans inuenced scores of future geographers,
tural absorption between the various Germanic people
historians and ethnographers.[79]
occurred that geographically dening the extent of pre-
Roman Germanic territory is nearly impossible from a
classication standpoint.[71]
Some recognizable trends in the archaeological records Jutland
exist, as it is known that, generally speaking, western Ger-
manic people while still migratory, were more geograph-
ically settled, whereas the eastern Germanics remained
transitory for a longer period.[72] Three settlement pat-
terns and solutions come to the fore, the rst of which
is the establishment of an agricultural base in a region Vercellae
Noreia
Arausio
which allowed them to support larger populations; sec-
ond, the Germanic peoples periodically cleared forests to Aquae Sextiae

extend the range of their pasturage; thirdly (and the most

frequent occurrence), they often emigrated to other areas
as they exhausted the immediately available resources.[73]
War and conquest followed as the Germanic people mi-
grated bringing them into direct conict with the Celts
who were forced to either Germanize or migrate else- Migrations of the Cimbri and the Teutons during their war with
where as a result. West Germanic people eventually set- Rome
tled in central Europe and became more accustomed to
agriculture and it is the various western Germanic people
that are described by Caesar and Tacitus. Meanwhile, 4.4 Bastarnae
the eastern Germanic people continued their migratory
habits.[74] Roman writers characteristically organized and Main article: Bastarnae
classied people and it may very well have been deliber-
ate on their part to recognize the tribal distinctions of the
various Germanic people so as to pick out known lead- The Bastarnae were known even to later Roman authors
ers and exploit these dierences for their benet. For the as a Germanic people, which if correct would make them
most part however, these early Germanic people shared a the rst to reach the Graeco-Roman world, living in the
basic culture, operated similarly from an economic per- area north of the Danubes mouth in the Black Sea. The
Bastarnae rst appear in the historical record in 179 BC,
4.5 Collision with Rome
when they crossed the Danube in massive force. They did
so at the invitation of their long-time ally, king Philip V
of Macedon. They remained a presence in that area until
late in the Roman empire.
4.5 Collision with Rome
Main article: Germanic Wars
Late in the 2nd century BCE, Roman sources recount the
migrating Germanic people of Gaul, Italy and Hispania
who invaded areas considered part of Imperial Rome.
Unsurprisingly, this cultural confrontation resulted in war
between the Roman Republic and the Germanic tribes;
particularly those of the Roman Consul under Gaius Mar-
ius.[44] The Cimbri crossed into Norticum (Austria) in
113 BCE looking for food and usable land when they
confronted and defeated a Roman army. A combined
force of Cimbri[80] and Teutoni squared o against ad-
ditional armies from Rome in 109 and 105 BCE, van-
quishing them in the process.[81] Their further incursions
into Roman Italy were thrust back in 101 BCE at Vercel-
lae by the Roman army.[82] These earlier invasions were
written up by Caesar and others as presaging of a North-
ern danger for the Roman Republic, a danger that should
be controlled.[83]
Julius Caesar describes the Germani and their customs in
his Commentarii de Bello Gallico, though it is still a matter
of debate if he refers to Northern Celtic tribes or clearly
identied Germanic tribes.
[The Germani] have neither Druids to pre-
side over sacred oces, nor do they pay great
regard to sacrices. They rank in the num-
ber of the gods those alone whom they be-
hold, and by whose instrumentality they are
obviously beneted, namely, the sun, re, and
the moon; they have not heard of the other
deities even by report. Their whole life is oc-
cupied in hunting and in the pursuits of the
military art; from childhood they devote them-
selves to fatigue and hardships. Those who
have remained chaste for the longest time, re-
ceive the greatest commendation among their
people; they think that by this the growth is
promoted, by this the physical powers are in-
creased and the sinews are strengthened. And
to have had knowledge of a woman before the
twentieth year they reckon among the most dis-
graceful acts; of which matter there is no con-
cealment, because they bathe promiscuously in
the rivers and [only] use skins or small cloaks
of deers hides, a large portion of the body be-
ing in consequence naked.
They do not pay much attention to agri-
culture, and a large portion of their food con-
7
sists in milk, cheese, and esh; nor has any one
a xed quantity of land or his own individual
limits; but the magistrates and the leading men
each year apportion to the tribes and families,
who have united together, as much land as, and
in the place in which, they think proper, and the
year after compel them to remove elsewhere.
For this enactment they advance many reasons-
lest seduced by long-continued custom, they
may exchange their ardor in the waging of war
for agriculture; lest they may be anxious to ac-
quire extensive estates, and the more powerful
drive the weaker from their possessions; lest
they construct their houses with too great a de-
sire to avoid cold and heat; lest the desire of
wealth spring up, from which cause divisions
and discords arise; and that they may keep the
common people in a contented state of mind,
when each sees his own means placed on an
equality with [those of] the most powerful.[84]
Tacitus described the Germanic people as ethnically uni-
form or unmixed with a distinct character and he
even generalized them by claiming that a family like-
ness pervades the whole. He also reported that their eyes
were stern and blue and they had ruddy hair with
large bodies that rendered them capable of powerful
exertions.[85] This image portrayed them as a fearsome
people worthy of Romes full attention. Caesar was wary
of these barbaric people of Germania and invoked the
threat of expansions such as that by Ariovistus' Suebi as
justication for his brutal campaigns to annex Gaul to
Rome between 58-51 BCE.[86] Both Ariovistus and an-
other notable Germanic warrior king named Maroboduus
attempted to rule their warrior-based empires in auto-
cratic fashion but were killed by the treachery of other
warrior-nobles amid their societies who strove for their
own glory.[87]
An intense Roman militarization, greater than ever be-
fore, was begun under Caesar to deal with the barbarian
tribes along the frontier particularly since he feared
that the Celtic Gauls between Rome and the Germanic
people would not be able to defend themselves.[88] One
major Celtic people who were forced from their home-
land in modern southwest Germany and Bohemia were
the Boii, a migration which had major impacts on Rome
and many other peoples. Later, Caesars attention in 58
BC was drawn to the movements of the Boiis old neigh-
bours the Helvetii, another population group forced into
Gaul from the direction of modern southwest Germany
and west Switzerland.[89][90] When the Gaulish Arverni
and Sequani elicited assistance from the Germanic Suebi
(who came to them from east of the Rhine into Gaul)
against their Aedui enemies in 71 BC, the Suebi essen-
tially remained in situ and were able to expand further into
the territory along the periphery of the Roman frontier.
Meanwhile, Celtic culture and inuence in Gaul began to
wane during the rst century BC as a result.[91]
8 4 HISTORY

Roman expansion along the Rhine and Danube rivers re-

sulted in the incorporation of many indigenous Celtic so-
cieties into the Roman Empire. Lands to the north and
east of the Rhine emerge in the Roman records under the
name Germania. Population groups from this area had
a complex relationship with Rome; sometimes the peo-
ples of Germania were at war with Rome, but in some
cases, they established trade relations, symbiotic military
alliances, and cultural exchanges with one another.[92]
Nevertheless, the Romans made concerted eorts to di-
vide the Germanic tribes when the opportunity presented
itself, encouraging intertribal rivalry so as to diminish the
threat of an otherwise formidable enemy.[93] Over the fol-
lowing centuries, the Romans sometimes intervened, but Roman map of Germania in the early 2nd century
often took advantage as their neighbors slaughtered one
another, sometimes using Roman-inuenced techniques
of war. More instances of Germani ghting Germani ap- 100 CE. According to historian Thomas Burns, major
pear in the works of Tacitus than between Romans and hostilities between the external Germanic peoples of the
Germani.[94] But it was Caesars wars against the Ger- north and Rome did not commence in earnest until the
manic people that helped establish and solidify the use reign of Trajan (AD 98117), who used the full weight
of the term Germania. The initial purpose of the Roman of Roman might to attack the Dacians.[98]
military campaigns was to protect Transalpine Gaul from
any further incursion of the Germanic tribes by control- In the absence of large-scale political unication, such as
ling the area between the Rhine and the Elbe.[95] that imposed forcibly by the Romans upon the peoples of
Italy, the various tribes remained free, led by their own
hereditary or chosen leaders. Once Rome faced signi-
4.6 Roman Empire period cant threats on its borders, some of the Germanic tribes
who once guarded its periphery chose solace within the
Further information: Roman Iron Age Roman empire itself, implying that enough assimilation
and cross-cultural pollination had occurred for their so-
In the Augustean period there wasas a result of Roman cieties[99][100]
not only to cooperate, but to live together in some
activity as far as the Elbe Rivera rst denition of the cases.
Germania magna": from the Rhine and Danube rivers in By the middle to late second century AD, migrating Ger-
the West and South to the Vistula and the Baltic Sea in manic tribes like the Marcomanni and Quadi pushed their
the East and North. In 9 CE, a revolt of their Germanic way to the Roman frontier along the Danube corridor,
subjects headed by the supposed Roman ally, Arminius, movements of people which resulted in conicts known
(along with his decisive defeat of Publius Quinctilius as the Marcomannic Wars; these conicts ended in ap-
Varus and the destruction of 3 Roman legions in the sur- proximately AD 180.[101] Not long thereafter, larger con-
prise attack on the Romans at the Battle of the Teutoburg federations of Germanic people appeared, groups led by
Forest) ended in the withdrawal of the Roman frontier tribal leaders acting as would-be kings. The rst of these
to the Rhine. Occupying Germany had proven too costly conglomerations mentioned in the historical sources were
and with it, ended 28 years of Roman campaigning across the Alamanni (a term meaning all men) who appear in
the North European plains.[96] At the end of the 1st cen- Roman texts sometime in the 3rd century AD.[102] This
tury, two provinces west of the Rhine called Germania in- change indicated that the tribalism of the Germanic peo-
ferior and Germania superior were established by the Em- ple was being abandoned for consolidated rule. Mean-
peror Domitian, having previously been military districts, while, Rome adapted itself due to the arrival of the Ger-
so as to separate this more militarized zone from the manic tribes. Emperor Severus Alexander was killed by
civilian populations farther west and south.[97] Impor- his own soldiers in AD 235 for example (for negotiat-
tant medieval cities like Aachen, Cologne, Trier, Mainz, ing peace with the tribes of Germania through diplomacy
Worms and Speyer were part of these two militarized and bribery against the wishes of his men) and the gen-
Roman provinces. eral Maximin elected in his place. Maximin was himself
The Germania by Gaius Cornelius Tacitus, an not Roman but was ethnically the child of a Germanic
ethnographic work on the diverse group of Ger- Alan and a Goth. Military expediency trumped aristo-
manic tribes outside of the Roman Empire, is our most cratic privilege when it came to securing the Empire and
important source on the Germanic peoples of the 1st a series of professional military emperors followed as a
[103]
century. Germanic expansions during early Roman times result.
are known only generally, but it is clear that the forebears Around AD 238, the Goths make their rst clear im-
of the Goths were settled on the southern Baltic shore by pact on Roman history, having moved from the Baltic
4.7 Migration Period 9

sea to the area of the modern Ukraine. And sometime dominate the once Roman Britannia.[112]
in AD 251, they defeated a Roman army in the Balkans,
killing the emperor Decius in the process. Close to the
same time that the Goths were ghting the Romans in 4.6.1 Battle of Adrianople
the Baltics, there is also the rst mention of the Franks
around AD 250.[104] Perennial internal conicts among Further information: Battle of Adrianople
several successive emperors of both the eastern and west-
ern Empire during the 4th century AD resulted in civil During the fourth and fth centuries AD Roman emper-
wars and damaged the overall quality of the Roman army; ors did their best to stave o the advance of the Ger-
the ghting also depleted the elite from within their o- manic tribes. While the rulers in the Eastern Empire were
cer corps. To compensate for their losses the Romans able to endure the frequent clashes without serious con-
recruited inferior untried Roman civilians and sought re- sequences to their territorial dominion, this was not the
placements from across the frontier region by militarily case in the Western Empire. For upwards of two cen-
procient barbarian troops, a development which further turies, the Roman emperors fought and conned the Ger-
strengthened the position of the Germanic peoples.[105] manic tribes to Rhine-Danube frontier and in far-away
Attempting to control the periphery of the Roman empire Briton, but all that changed in AD 378 when the Visig-
meant nding innovative ways of dealing with the Ger- oths destroyed as much as two-thirds of the Roman army
manic people, so the Romans enlisted them as foederati of the East under emperor Valens.[113] Roman historian
(federates) and by the late fourth century, the majority Ammianus Marcellinus referred to the damage inicted
of the Roman military was made up of Germanic war- by the Germanic tribes at Adrianople as an irreparable
riors. Federating whole tribes of Germanic people into disaster and ended his account of Roman history with
the Empire marked a whole new phase of encroachment this battle. Subsequent historians like Sir Edward Gib-
and facilitated the fragmentation of Rome from within its bon (among others) ascribe a similar signicance to this
own borders.[106] event and call the Battle of Adrianople a watershed mo-
Among the Romans, the Germanic presence in the mili- ment between the ancient world and the medieval one that
tary was so extensive for example, that the word barbarus followed; for not only did this battle reveal Romes weak-
became a synonym for soldier and the imperial bud- ness to the Germanic tribes and inspire them[114] accordingly,
get of the military was known as the cus barbarus. [107] never again were they to leave Roman soil.
Barbarians (Germanics) composed the mobile army of
emperor Constantine with many of them, particularly
the more organized ones like the Franks and Alamanni,
4.7 Migration Period
reaching levels of high command. An example of such
Further information: Migration Period
prominence shows in the fact that in AD 350 the Frank-
Before considering the later migration of various Ger-
ish general Silvanus was the high military commander
of Gaul.[108] Warriors and leaders among the Germanic
peoples had an advantage over their Roman counterparts
as they knew and could dexterously traverse both worlds,
whereas the Romans despised barbarian culture and cus-
toms and were unable to secure trust amid the Germanic
soldiers on their payrolls. In this way, the ethnic and
regional ties within the evolving bureaucratic Roman-
Germanic world began to favor the 'barbarians.[109]
Roman Britannia was contemporaneously under constant
threat during the 3rd and 4th centuries AD by northern
Picts as well as the Germanic Saxons who sailed from
north of Gaul to the eastern coast of the British Isles. Late
in AD 367, the Roman garrisons in Britannia collapsed
as the Germanic barbarians poured into the region from 2nd century to 5th century simplied migrations
all directions.[110] Attempting to permanently reestablish
control on Britannia, the emperor Valentinian sent an ex- manic peoples in the 5th century, it is worth noting that
perienced Roman commander who was able to beat the the rst recorded great migration of a Germanic tribe oc-
invaders back after a year-long war and gain control of curred sometime at the end of the 2nd century when the
Londonium, but it was a Pyrrhic victory, for the Ger- Goths left the lower Vistula for the shores of the Black
manic invaders had burned down standing settlements, Sea.[115] For the next couple hundred years, the restless
ravaged cities on the isles, interrupted trade and annihi- Goths were a menace to the Roman Empire.[116] Be-
lated entire Roman garrisons.[111] By the middle of the tween the 2nd and 4th centuries the Goths slowly ltered
5th century, the Picts, Scots and Anglo-Saxons began to deeper into the south and eastwards, making their way
to what is now Kiev in Ukraine and pressuring Rome in
10
the process.[117] The arrival of the nomadic Huns along
the Black Sea corridor in AD 375 further accelerated the
Goths exodus across the Roman border.[118] Germanic
people from the northern coasts of Europe had been mak-
ing their way into Britain for several centuries before the
larger-scale incursions took place.[119]
By the 5th century AD, the Western Roman Empire was
losing military strength and political cohesion; numer-
ous Germanic peoples, under pressure from population
growth and invading Asian groups, began migrating en
masse in far and diverse directions, taking them to Great
Britain and far south through present day Continental Eu-
rope to the Mediterranean and northern Africa. Over
time, this wandering meant intrusions into other tribal
territories, and the ensuing wars for land escalated with
the dwindling amount of unoccupied territory. Roam-
ing tribes of Germanic people then began staking out
permanent homes as a means of protection. Much of
this resulted in xed settlements from which many, un-
der a powerful leader, expanded outwards.[120] Ostro-
goths, Visigoths, and Lombards made their way into Italy;
Vandals, Burgundians, Franks, and Visigoths conquered
much of Gaul; Vandals and Visigoths also pushed into
Spain; Vandals additionally made it into North Africa;
the Alamanni established a strong presence in the mid-
dle Rhine and Alps.[121] In Denmark the Jutes merged
with the Danes, in Sweden the Geats and Gutes merged
with the Swedes. In England, the Angles merged with the
Saxons and other groups (notably the Jutes), as well as
absorbing some natives, to form the Anglo-Saxons (later
known as the English).[122] Essentially - Roman civiliza-
tion was overrun by these variants of Germanic peoples
during the 5th century.[123]
A direct result of the Roman retreat was the disappear-
ance of imported products like ceramics and coins, and a
return to virtually unchanged local Iron Age production
methods. According to recent views this has caused con-
fusion for decades, and theories assuming the total aban-
donment of the coastal regions to account for an archaeo-
logical time gap that never existed have been renounced.
Instead, it has been conrmed that the Frisian graves had
been used without interruption between the 4th and 9th
centuries and that inhabited areas show continuity with
the Roman period in revealing coins, jewellery and ce-
ramics of the 5th century. Also, people continued to live
in the same three-aisled farmhouse, while to the east com-
pletely new types of buildings arose. More to the south
in Belgium, archaeological evidence from this period in-
dicates immigration from the north.[124]
4.8 Role in the Fall of Rome
Some of the Germanic tribes are frequently credited in
popular depictions of the decline of the Roman Em-
pire in the late 5th century. Professional historians and
archaeologists have since the 1950s shifted their inter-
pretations in such a way that the Germanic peoples are
4 HISTORY
Map depicting the Germanic kingdoms of Europe in 526 and the
Eastern Roman Empire.
no longer seen as invading a decaying empire but as be-
ing co-opted into helping defend territory the central gov-
ernment could no longer adequately administer.[125] Ger-
manic tribes nonetheless fought against Roman domi-
nance when necessary. When the Roman Empire refused
to allow the Visigoths to settle in Noricum for instance,
they responded by sacking Rome in AD 410 under the
leadership of Alaric I.[126] Oddly enough, Alaric I did not
see his imposition in Rome as an attack against the Ro-
man Empire per se but as an attempt to gain a favorable
position within its borders, particularly since the Visig-
oths held the Empire in high regard.[127][128]
At about the same time Alaric was sacking the Empires
capital, there was a Roman exodus from the British Isles,
a departure which provided the Germanic Angles and
Saxons the opportunity to occupy and control the eastern
coastlands of Britain, the southern regions of Sussex, and
move into the valley of the Thames.[129] While Germanic
tribes overran the once western Roman provinces, they
also continued to strive for regional ascendancy closer to
Romes center; meanwhile the threat along the periph-
ery from the Huns created additional diculties for the
Empire.[130]
Individuals and small groups from Germanic tribes had
long been recruited from the territories beyond the limes
(i.e., the regions just outside the Roman Empire), and
some of them had risen high in the command structure
of the army. The Rhine and Danube provided the bulk
of geographic separation for the Roman limes. On one
side of the limes stood 'Latin' Europe, law, Roman order,
prosperous trading markets, towns and everything that
constituted modern civilization for that era; while on the
other side stood barbarism, technical backwardness, illit-
eracy and a tribal society of erce warriors.[131] Then the
Empire recruited entire tribal groups under their native
leaders as military ocers. Historian Evangelos Chrysos
claims the implications concerning the recruitment of the
barbarians into the Roman army during the migration
period were enormous and relates that it
4.9 Early Middle Ages
oered them experience of how the im-
perial army was organized, how the govern-
ment arranged the military and functional lo-
gistics of their involvement as soldiers or of-
cers and how it administered their practical
life, how the professional expertise and the so-
cial values of the individual soldier were cul-
tivated in the camp and on the battleeld, how
the ideas about the state and its objectives were
to be implemented by men in uniform, how the
Empire was composed and how it functioned
at an administrative level. This knowledge
of and experience with the Romans opened
to individual members of the gentes a path
which, once taken, would lead them to more
or less substantial aliation or even solidar-
ity with the Roman world. To take an ex-
ample from the economic sphere: The ser-
vice in the Roman army introduced the indi-
vidual or corporate members into the mone-
tary system of the Empire since quite a sub-
stantial part of their salary was paid to them in
cash. With money in their hands the guests
were by necessity exposed to the possibility of
taking part in the economic system, of becom-
ing accustomed to the rules of the wide mar-
ket, of absorbing the messages of or reacting to
the imperial propaganda passed to the citizens
through the legends on the coins. In addition
the goods oered in the markets inuenced and
transformed the newcomers food and aesthetic
tastes and their cultural horizon. Furthermore
Roman civilitas was an attractive goal for ev-
ery individual wishing to succeed in his social
advancement.[132]
Assisting with defense eventually shifted into administra-
tion and then outright rule, as Roman government passed
into the hands of Germanic leaders. Odoacer (who com-
manded the German mercenaries in Italy)[133] deposed
Romulus Augustulus, the last emperor of the West in
AD 476.[134] Odoacer ruled from Rome and Ravenna,
restored the Colosseum and assigned seats to senatorial
dignitaries as part of the process of consolidating his
rule.[135] The presence of successor states controlled by
a nobility from one of the Germanic tribes is evident
in the 6th century even in Italy, the former heart of
the Empire, where Odoacer was followed by Theodoric
the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, who was regarded by
Roman citizens and Gothic settlers alike as legitimate
successor to the rule of Rome and Italy.[136] Theodoric
ruled from AD 493526, twice as long as his prede-
cessor, and his rule is evidenced by an abundance of
documents.[137] Under the Ostrogoths a considerable de-
gree of Roman and Germanic cultural and political fusion
was achieved.[138] Germanic kings worked in-tandem
with Roman administrators to the extent possible to help
ensure a smooth transition and to facilitate the prof-
11
itable administration of once Roman lands.[139] Slowly
but surely, the distinction between Germanic rulers and
Roman subjects faded, followed by varying degrees of
cultural assimilation which included the adoption of the
Gothic language by some of the indigenous people of the
former Roman Empire but this was certainly not ubiq-
uitous as Gothic identity still remained distinctive.[140]
Theodoric may have tried too hard to accommodate the
various people under his dominion; indulging Romans
and Goths, Catholics and Arians, Latin and barbarian cul-
ture resulted in the eventual failure of the Ostrogothic
reign and the subsequent end of Italy as the heartland of
late antiquity.[141]
According to noted historian Herwig Wolfram, the Ger-
manic peoples did not and could not conquer the more
advanced Roman world nor were they able to restore it
as a political and economic entity"; instead, he asserts that
the empires universalism was replaced by tribal par-
ticularism which gave way to regional patriotism.[142]
Nonetheless, the entry of the Germanic tribes deep into
the heart of Europe and the subsequent collapse of the
western Roman Empire resulted in a massive disrup-
tion to long established communication networks, a sys-
tem that had in many ways bound much of the continent
together for centuries.[143] Trade networks and routes
shifted accordingly, Germanic kingdoms and peoples es-
tablished boundaries and it was not until the appearance
of the Arabs in Iberia and into Anatolia that Europeans
began reestablishing their networks to deal with a new
threat.[144]
4.9 Early Middle Ages
The transition of the Migration period to the Middle Ages
proper took place over the course of the second half of
the 1st millennium. It was marked by the Christianization
of the Germanic peoples and the formation of stable
kingdoms replacing the mostly tribal structures of the Mi-
gration period. Some of this stability is discernible in
the fact that the Pope recognized Theodorics reign when
the Germanic conqueror entered Rome in AD 500, de-
spite that Theodoric was a known practitioner of Ari-
anism, a faith which the Council of Nicaea condemned
in AD 325.[145] Theodorics Germanic subjects and ad-
ministrators from the Roman Catholic Church cooper-
ated in serving him, helping establish a codied system
of laws and ordinances which facilitated the integration
of the Gothic peoples into a burgeoning empire, solidi-
fying their place as they appropriated a Roman identity
of sorts.[146] The foundations laid by the Empire enabled
the successor Germanic kingdoms to maintain a famil-
iar structure and their success can be seen as part of the
lasting triumph of Rome.[147]
In continental Europe, this Germanic evolution saw the
rise of Francia in the Merovingian period under the rule
of Clovis I who had deposed the last emperor of Gaul,
eclipsing lesser kingdoms such as Alemannia.[148] The
12 4 HISTORY

Merovingians controlled most of Gaul under Clovis, who, The various Germanic tribal cultures began their trans-
through conversion to Christianity, allied himself with the formation into the larger nations of later history, English,
Gallo-Romans. While the Merovingians were checked by Norse and German, and in the case of Burgundy,
the armies of the Ostrogoth Theodoric, they remained the Lombardy and Normandy blending into a Romano-
most powerful kingdom in Western Europe and the inter- Germanic culture. Many of these later nation states
mixing of their people with the Romans through marriage started originally as client buer states for the Ro-
rendered the Frankish people less a Germanic tribe and man Empire so as to protect it from its enemies further
more a European people in a manner of speaking.[149] away.[163] Eventually they carved out their own unique
Most of Gaul was under Merovingian control as was part historical paths.
of Italy and their overlordship extended into Germany
where they reigned over the Thuringians, Alamans, and
Bavarians.[150] Evidence also exists that they may have 4.10 Post-migration ethnogeneses
even had suzerainty over south-east England.[151] Frank-
ish historian Gregory of Tours relates that Clovis con-
Further information: Romano-Germanic culture,
verted to Christianity partly as a result of his wifes urg-
Romanization (cultural) and Germanic-speaking Europe
ing and even more so - due to having won a desper-
ate battle after calling out to Christ. According to Gre-
gory, this conversion was sincere but it also proved polit-The territory of modern Germany was divided between
ically expedient as Clovis used his new faith as a means Germanic and Celtic speaking groups in the last centuries
to consolidate his political power by Christianizing his BCE. The parts south of the Germanic Limes came un-
army.[152][153] Against Germanic tradition, each of the der limited Latin inuence in the early centuries CE, but
four sons of Clovis attempted to secure power in dierent were swiftly conquered by Germanic groups such as the
Alemanni after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
cities but their inability to prove themselves on the battle-
eld and intrigue against one another led the Visigoths The Germanic tribes of the Migration period had settled
back to electing their leadership.[154] down by the Early Middle Ages, the latest series of move-
ments out of Scandinavia taking place during the Viking
When Merovingian rule eventually weakened, they were
Age.
supplanted by another powerful Frankish family, the Car-
olingians, a dynastic order which produced Charles Mar- The Goths and Vandals were linguistically assimilated to
[164]
tel, and Charlemagne.[155] The coronation of Charle- their Latin (Romance) substrate populations (with the
magne as emperor by Pope Leo III in Rome on Christmas exception of the Crimean Goths, who preserved their di-
Day, AD 800 represented a shift in the power structure alect into the 18th century). Burgundians and Lombards
from the south to the north. Frankish power ultimately were assimilated into both Latin (French & Italian) and
laid the foundations for the modern nations of Germany Germanic (German Swiss) populations.
and France.[156] For historians, Charlemagnes appear- The Viking Age Norsemen split into an Old East Norse
ance in the historical chronicle of Europe also marks and an Old West Norse group, which further separated
a transition where the voice of the north appears in its into Icelanders, Faroese and Norwegians on one hand,
own vernacular thanks to the spread of Christianity, after and Swedes and Danes on the other. In Scandinavia,
which the northerners began writing in Latin, Germanic, there is a long history of assimilation of and by the Sami
and Celtic; whereas before, the Germanic people were people and Finnic peoples, namely Finns and Karelians.
only known through Roman or Greek sources.[157] In todays usage, the term 'Nordic peoples refers to the
In England, the Germanic Anglo-Saxon tribes reigned ethnic groups in all of the Nordic countries. In Great
over the south of Great Britain from approximately 519 Britain, Germanic people coalesced into the Anglo-Saxon
to the tenth century until the Wessex hegemony became or English people between the 8th and 10th centuries.
the nucleus for the unication of England.[158][159] Scan- On the European continent, the Holy Roman Empire
dinavia was in the Vendel period and eventually entered included all remaining Germanic speaking groups from
the Viking Age, with expansion to Britain, Ireland and the 10th century. In the Late Medieval to Early Mod-
Iceland in the west and as far as Russia and Greece in ern period, some groups split o the Empire before a
the east.[160] By AD 900 the Vikings secured for them- "German" ethnicity had formed, consisting of Low Fran-
selves a foothold on Frankish soil along the Lower Seine conian (Dutch, Flemish) and Alemannic (Swiss) popula-
River valley in what is now present-day France, thereafter tions.
establishing the Duchy of Normandy, a territorial acqui-
sition which provided them the opportunity to expand be- The various Germanic Peoples of the Migrations period
yond Normandy into Anglo-Saxon England.[161] The sub- eventually spread out over a vast expanse stretching from
sequent Norman Conquest which followed in AD 1066 contemporary European Russia to Iceland and from Nor-
wrought immense changes to life in England as their new way to North Africa. The migrants had varying impacts
Scandinavian masters altered their government, lordship, in dierent regions. In many cases, the newcomers set
public holdings, culture and DNA pool permanently.[162] themselves up as over-lords of the pre-existing popula-
tion. Over time, such groups underwent ethnogenesis, re-

sulting in the creation of new cultural and ethnic identities
(such as the Franks and Galloromans becoming French).
Thus many of the descendants of the ancient Germanic
Peoples do not speak Germanic languages, as they were to
a greater or lesser degree assimilated into the cosmopoli-
tan, literate culture of the Roman world.[165] Even where
the descendants of Germanic Peoples maintained greater
continuity with their common ancestors, signicant cul-
tural and linguistic dierences arose over time; as is strik-
ingly illustrated by the dierent identities of Christian-
ized Saxon subjects of the Carolingian Empire and pagan
Scandinavian Vikings.
Afrikaners are descended from 17th century Dutch settlers to
South Africa.
More broadly, early Medieval Germanic peoples were of-
ten assimilated into the walha substrate cultures of their
subject populations. Thus, the Burgundians of Burgundy,
the Vandals of Northern Africa, and the Visigoths of
France and Iberia, lost some Germanic identity and be-
came part of Romano-Germanic Europe. For the Ger-
manic Visigoths in particular, they had intimate contact
with Rome for two centuries before their domination of
the Iberian Peninsula and were accordingly permeated
by Roman culture.[166] Likewise, the Franks of Western
Francia form part of the ancestry of the French people.
The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain resulted in Anglo-
Saxon, or English, displacement of and cultural assimi-
lation of the indigenous culture, the Brythonic speaking
British culture causing the foundation of a new Kingdom,
England. As in what became England, indigenous Bry-
thonic Celtic culture in some of the south-eastern parts
of what became Scotland (approximately the Lothian and
Borders region) and areas of what became the North-
west of England (the kingdoms of Rheged, Elmet, etc.)
succumbed to Germanic inuence c.600800, due to
the extension of over-lordship and settlement from the
Anglo-Saxon areas to the south. Cultural and linguistic
assimilation occurred less frequently between the Ger-
manic Anglo-Saxons and the indigenous people who
resided in the Roman dominated areas of England, par-
ticularly in the regions that remained previously uncon-
quered. Anglo-Saxons occupied Somerset, the Severn
valley, and Lancaster by c.700 where they remained dom-
13
inant. Over time, the Anglo-Saxons, with their distinct
culture and language, displaced much of the extant Ro-
man inuence of old.[167]
Perhaps the nal incursions by Germanic people which
altered in some ways the ethnographic map of Europe
was made by the Vikings. Between the 8th and 11th
centuries, these Scandinavian/Norse traders and pirates
ravaged most of north and central Europe as well as the
British Isles, spreading eastwards as far as Russia and into
Byzantium. While their initial exploits were generally
raids for plunder, they later settled and mixed with the
indigenous people of Europe, which resulted in both con-
quest and colonization.[168] Other examples of assimila-
tion during the Viking Age include the Norsemen, who
settled in Normandy along the French Atlantic coast,
and the societal elite in medieval Russia; among whom,
many were the descendants of Slavied Norsemen (a the-
ory, however, contested by some Slavic scholars in the
former Soviet Union, who name it the Normanist theory).
Known for their unique ships, there is evidence of the
Viking presence all over mainland Europe as no lands
with navigable waters or coastlines escaped their pillag-
ing. Vast territories in eastern England were overrun and
occupied by the Vikings and the Danish King, Canute,
eventually succeeded to the English crown. Archeologi-
cal remains on North America even exist which give evi-
dence to the dynamism and territorial ambitions of these
Germanic warriors.[169]
Between c. 1150 and c. 1400 most of the Scottish
Lowlands became English culturally and linguistically
through immigration from England, France and Flan-
ders and from the resulting assimilation of native Gaelic-
speaking Scots although Lowland Gaelic was still spo-
ken in Galloway until the 18th century. The Scots lan-
guage is the resulting Germanic language still spoken in
parts of Scotland and is very similar to the speech of
the Northumbrians of northern England. Between the
15th and 17th centuries Scots spread into more of main-
land Scotland at the expense of Scottish Gaelic although
Gaelic maintained a strong hold over the Scottish High-
lands, and Scots also began to make some headway into
the Northern Isles. The latter, Orkney and Shetland,
though now part of Scotland, were nominally part of the
Kingdom of Norway until the 15th century. A version
of the Norse language was spoken there from the Viking
invasions until replaced by Scots in the 18th and 19th
centuries.[170]
5 Culture
5.1 Law
Further information: Germanic king, Sibb, thing
(assembly), Germanic law, Germanic warfare and
Romano-Germanic culture
14
Germanic bracteate from Funen, Denmark
Common elements of Germanic society can be deduced
both from Roman historiography and comparative evi-
dence from the Early Medieval period.
A main element uniting Germanic societies was kingship,
in origin a sacral institution combining the functions of
military leader, high priest, lawmaker and judge. Ger-
manic monarchy was elective; the king was elected by
the free men from among eligible candidates of a fam-
ily (OE cynn) tracing their ancestry to the tribes divine
or semi-divine founder.
To a large degree, many of the extant legal records from
the Germanic tribes seem to revolve around property
transactions.[171] In early Germanic society, the free men
of property each ruled their own estate and were subject
to the king directly, without any intermediate hierarchy
as in later feudalism. Free men without landed prop-
erty could swear fealty to a man of property who as their
lord would then be responsible for their upkeep, including
generous feasts and gifts. This system of sworn retainers
was central to early Germanic society, and the loyalty of
the retainer to his lord generally replaced his family ties.
Early Germanic law reects a hierarchy of worth within
the society of free men, reected in the dierences in
weregild. Among the Anglo-Saxons, a regular free man
(a ceorl) had a weregild of 200 shillings (i.e. solidi or
gold pieces), classied as a twyhyndeman 200-man for
this reason, while a nobleman commanded a fee of six
times that amount (twelfhyndeman 1200-man). Simi-
larly, among the Alamanni the basic weregild for a free
man was 200 shillings, and the amount could be doubled
or tripled according to the mans rank. Unfree serfs did
not command a weregild, and the recompense paid in the
event of their death was merely for material damage, 15
shillings in the case of the Alamanni, increased to 40 or
50 if the victim had been a skilled artisan.
The social hierarchy is not only reected in the weregild
5 CULTURE
due in the case of the violent or accidental death of a man,
but also in dierences in nes for lesser crimes. Thus the
nes for insults, injury, burglary or damage to property
dier depending on the rank of the injured party.[172]
They do not usually depend on the rank of the guilty
party, although there are some exceptions associated with
royal privilege.[173]
Free women did not have a political station of their own
but inherited the rank of their father if unmarried, or their
husband if married. The weregild or recompense due for
the killing or injuring of a woman is notably set at twice
that of a man of the same rank in Alemannic law.
All freemen had the right to participate in general assem-
blies or things, where disputes between freemen were ad-
dressed according to customary law. The king was bound
to uphold ancestral law, but was at the same time the
source for new laws for cases not addressed in previous
tradition. This aspect was the reason for the creation of
the various Germanic law codes by the kings following
their conversion to Christianity: besides recording inher-
ited tribal law, these codes have the purpose of settling
the position of the church and Christian clergy within so-
ciety, usually setting the weregilds of the members of the
clerical hierarchy parallel to that of the existing hierarchy
of nobility, with the position of an archbishop mirroring
that of the king.
In the case of a suspected crime, the accused could avoid
punishment by presenting a xed number of free men
(their number depending on the severity of the crime)
prepared to swear an oath on his innocence. Failing this,
he could prove his innocence in a trial by combat. Cor-
poral or capital punishment for free men does not gure
in the Germanic law codes, and banishment appears to
be the most severe penalty issued ocially. This reects
that Germanic tribal law did not have the scope of exact-
ing revenge, which was left to the judgement of the fam-
ily of the victim, but to settle damages as fairly as pos-
sible once an involved party decided to bring a dispute
before the assembly. A fascinating component of early
Germanic laws were the varying distinctions concerning
the physical body, as each body part had a personal injury
value and corresponding legal claims for personal injury
viewed matters like gender, rank and status as a secondary
interest when deliberating cases.[174]
Generally speaking, Roman legal codes eventually pro-
vided the model for many Germanic laws and they were
xed in writing along with Germanic legal customs.[175]
Traditional Germanic society was gradually replaced by
the system of estates and feudalism characteristic of the
High Middle Ages in both the Holy Roman Empire and
Anglo-Norman England in the 11th to 12th centuries, to
some extent under the inuence of Roman law as an indi-
rect result of Christianisation, but also because political
structures had grown too large for the at hierarchy of a
tribal society. The same eect of political centralization
took hold in Scandinavia slightly later, in the 12th to 13th
5.2 Warfare 15

century (Age of the Sturlungs, Consolidation of Sweden, gather more soldiers for longer periods, but there was no
Civil war era in Norway), by the end of the 14th cen- systematic method of gathering and training men, so the
tury culminating in the giant Kalmar Union. Elements death of a charismatic leader could mean the destruction
of tribal law, notably the wager of battle, nevertheless of an army. Armies also often consisted of more than 50
remained in eect throughout the Middle Ages, in the percent noncombatants, as displaced people would travel
case of the Holy Roman Empire until the establishment with large groups of soldiers, the elderly, women, and
of the Imperial Chamber Court in the early German Re- children. War leaders who were able to secure ample
naissance. In the federalist organization of Switzerland, booty for their retainers were able to grow accordingly
where cantonal structures remained comparatively local, by attracting warrior bands from nearby villages.[176]
the Germanic thing survived into the 21st century in the
Large bodies of troops, while guring prominently in the
form of the Landsgemeinde, albeit subject to federal law.
history books, were the exception rather than the rule of
ancient warfare. Thus a typical Germanic force might
5.2 Warfare consist of 100 men with the sole goal of raiding a nearby
Germanic or foreign village. Thus, most warfare was
[176]
Further information: Germanic Wars, Gothic warfare, at their barbarian neighbors. According to Roman
Anglo-Saxon warfare and Migration period spear sources, when the Germanic Tribes did ght pitched bat-
Historical records of the Germanic tribes in Germania tles, the infantry often adopted wedge formations, each
wedge being led by a clan head. Legitimacy for leaders
among the Germans resided in their ability to successfully
lead armies to victory. Defeat on the battleeld at the
hands of the Romans or other barbarians often meant
the end for a ruler and in some cases, being absorbed by
another, victorious confederation.[177]
Though often defeated by the Romans, the Germanic
tribes were remembered in Roman records as erce com-
batants, whose main downfall was that they failed to join
together into a collective ghting force under a unied
command, which allowed the Roman Empire to employ
a divide and conquer strategy against them.[178] On oc-
casions when the Germanic tribes worked together, the
results were impressive. Three Roman legions were am-
bushed and destroyed by an alliance of Germanic tribes
headed by Arminius at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest
in 9 AD,[179] the Roman Empire made no further con-
centrated attempts at conquering Germania beyond the
Rhine.
During the 4th and 5th centuries AD, Visigoths and Van-
dals militarily organized themselves to suciently chal-
lenge and sack Rome in AD 410 and again in AD 455.
Then in AD 476, the last Roman emperor was deposed
by a German chieftain, an event which eectively ended
Roman predominance in western Europe.[180] Germanic
Osterby Head, a bog body with a Suebian knot tribes eventually overwhelmed and conquered the an-
cient world. That military transition was additionally
east of the Rhine and west of the Danube do not begin spurred by the arrival of the Vikings from the 8th to 10th
until quite late in the ancient period, so only the period centuries, giving rise to modern Europe and medieval
after 100 BC can be examined. What is clear is that warfare.[181]
the Germanic idea of warfare was quite dierent from
For an analysis of Germanic tactics versus the Roman
the pitched battles fought by Rome and Greece. Instead
empire see: Roman infantry versus Gallic and the Ger-
the Germanic tribes focused on raids. Warfare of vary-
manic tribes
ing size however was a distinctive feature of barbarian
culture.[176]
The purpose of these was generally not to gain territory, 5.2.1 Weaponry
but rather to capture resources and secure prestige. These
raids were conducted by irregular troops, often formed Weapons used by the Germanic tribes varied. Some of
along family or village lines, in groups of 10 to about them used axes, throwing javelins, spears, bows and ar-
1,000. Leaders of unusual personal magnetism could rows along with swords. Most of the swords used by the
16
Germanic warriors were those captured from Roman sol-
diers until the 4th century when German blacksmiths be-
gan making the best steel in Europe.[182] Body armor was
rarely worn and when it was, it was light by comparison to
what the Romans employed; only war leaders wore hel-
mets on the battleeld.[183] Commandeering of Roman
weaponry was widespread and the acquisition of the supe-
rior Roman armaments allowed the Germanic leaders to
exert their power in ways not previously available. It also
meant erce inter-Germanic rivalry which constituted the
larger power blocks of the Germanic world.[184] Much
like their predecessors, the Vikings too used axes, swords,
long knives, spears, oblong shields, leather or metal hel-
mets and mail or leather coats for protection; the latter
being luxuries most could not aord.[185]
5.2.2 Tactics
To the greatest extent, Germanic ghting units consisted
of infantry who would emerge from cover and attack,
but they also utilized skilled cavalrymen at times, some-
thing the Visigoths used decisively to aid in their victory
at Adrianople. Calvary warfare was limited in north-
ern Europe due to the lack of suitably large horses for
mounted troops. Caesar provided his Germanic armies
with Roman mounts to enable them greater mobility and
to enhance their ghting eciency.[186] Unlike their west-
ern Celtic neighbors, the use of chariots was not picked
up by the early Germans.[187] Notwithstanding the use
of an occasional fortied position, the Germanic war-
riors preferred to ght in the open and normally assumed
the oensive rather than ght defensively.[188] Embold-
ening themselves for erce attacks, the Germanic war-
riors would rouse themselves to a high-pitched level of
excitement and charge headlong against their enemies,
which while eective for ambush operations, lacked in
terms of the organizational skill needed for prolonged
siege warfare.[189] The berserker mentality employed by
the Germanic tribes against Rome was still in eect dur-
ing the Viking era of the 8th and 9th centuries as they
too believed that by summoning their gods and working
themselves up, they would possess superhuman strength
and be protected during battle. Such resolution led them
to believe that dying in such a manner was heroic and
would transport the fallen ghter straight into Valhalla
where they would be embraced by the warrior maidens
known as the Valkyries.[189][190] The later military devel-
opment of armored knights and fortied castles was a re-
sponse in part to the relentless plundering and raiding by
the Vikings, which meant that the Germanic tribes who
had settled mainland Europe and the British Isles had to
adapt themselves so as to combat another Germanic tribe
of interlopers.[191]
5 CULTURE
5.3 Economy
Traces of the earliest pastoralism of the Germanic peo-
ples appear in central Europe in the form of elaborate
cattle burials along the Elbe and Vistula Rivers from
around 40003000 BCE.[192] These archaeological rem-
nants were left by the Globular Amphora culture who
cleared forests for herding cattle and sometime after 3000
BCE began using wheeled carts and plows to cultivate
their lands. Central to survival for their assistance in till-
ing the soil and supplying food, cattle became an eco-
nomic resource to these early people.[193] Germanic set-
tlements were typically small, rarely containing much
more than ten households, often less, and were usually
located by clearings in the woods.[194] Settlements re-
mained of a fairly constant size throughout the period.
The buildings in these villages varied in form, but nor-
mally consisted of farmhouses surrounded by smaller
buildings such as granaries and other storage rooms. The
universal building material was timber. Cattle and hu-
mans usually lived together in the same house.
Although the Germans practiced both agriculture and
husbandry, the latter was extremely important both as a
source of dairy products and as a basis for wealth and so-
cial status, which was measured by the size of an individ-
uals herd.[195] The diet consisted mainly of the products
of farming and husbandry and was supplied by hunting
to a very modest extent. Barley and wheat were the most
common agricultural products and were used for baking
a certain at type of bread as well as brewing beer. Evi-
dence from a Saxon village known as Feddersen Wierde
near Cuxhaven, Germany (which existed between BC 50
to AD 450) shows that the Germanic people cultivated
oats and rye, used manure as fertilizer, and that they prac-
ticed crop-rotation.[196]
The elds were tilled with a light-weight wooden ard, al-
though heavier models also existed in some areas. Com-
mon clothing styles are known from the remarkably
well-preserved corpses that have been found in former
marshes on several locations in Denmark, and included
woolen garments and brooches for women and trousers
and leather caps for men. Other important small-scale
industries were weaving, the manual production of ba-
sic pottery and, more rarely, the fabrication of iron tools,
especially weapons.[197] Corded Ware culture and the
Funnelbeaker culture (circa. 29002300 BCE) of these
north and central European peoples coincide one another
and provide evidence of how they lived, traded and buried
their dead.[198]
After 1300 BCE the societies of Jutland and Northern
Germany along with the Celtic people experienced a ma-
jor revolution in technology during the Late Bronze Age,
shaping tools, containers and weapons through the im-
proved techniques of working bronze. Both the sword
and the bow and arrow as well as other weaponry prolif-
erate and an arms race of sorts between the tribes ensued
as they tried to outpace one another. Trade was taking
5.4 Kinship patterns
place to a greater degree and simple gems and amber from
the Mediterranean indicate that long-distance exchange
of goods was occurring.[199] When the Iron Age (1500
1200 BCE) arrived, the Germanic people showed greater
mastery of ironworks than their Celtic contemporaries
but they did not have the extensive trade networks during
this period that their southern neighbors enjoyed with the
Greco-Roman world.[200]
Widening trade between the Germanic tribes and Rome
started later following the Empires wars of conquest
when they looked to the Germanic people to supply them
with slaves, leather and quality iron. One of the reasons
the Romans may have drawn borders along the Rhine, be-
sides the sizable population of Germanic warriors on one
side of it, was that the Germanic economy was not ro-
bust enough for them to extract much booty nor were they
convinced they could acquire sucient tax revenue from
any additional eorts of conquest. Drawing a distinc-
tive line between themselves and Germanic people also
incentivized alliances and trade as the Germanic people
sought a share of the imperial wealth.[201] Roman coinage
was coveted by the Germanic people who preferred sil-
ver to gold coins, mostly likely indications that a mar-
ket economy was developing. Tacitus does mention the
presence of a bartering system being observable among
the Germanic people, but this was not exclusive, as he
also writes of their use of gold and silver for the pur-
pose of commerce, adding rather sardonically in his text,
that what they exchanged was nothing more than petty
merchandise.[85] Such observations from Tacitus aside,
ne metalwork, iron and glassware was soon being traded
by the Germanic peoples along the coast of the North Sea
of Denmark and the Netherlands.[202]
5.4 Kinship patterns
The writings of Tacitus allude to the Germanic peoples
being aware of a shared ethnicity, in that, they either
knew or believed that they shared a common biological
ancestor with one another. Just how pervasive this aware-
ness may have been is certainly debatable, but other fac-
tors like language, clothing, ornamentation, hair styles,
weapon types, religious practices and shared oral history
were likely just as signicant in tribal identity for the
Germanics.[203] Members of a Germanic tribe told tales
about the exploits of heroic founding gures who were
more or less mythologized. Village life consisted of free
men assembled under a chieftain, all of whom shared
common cultural and political traditions. Status among
the early Germanic tribes was often gauged by the size of
a mans cattle herd or by ones martial prowess.[204]
Before their conversion to Christianity, the Germanic
peoples of Europe were made up of several tribes, each
functioning as an economic and military unit and some-
times united by a common religious cult. Kinship, espe-
cially close kinship, was very important to life within a
tribe but generally was not the source of a tribes iden-
17
tity. In fact, several elements of ancient Germanic life
tended to weaken the role of kinship: the importance of
the retinues surrounding military chieftains, the ability of
strong leaders to unite people who were not closely re-
lated, and feuds and other conicts within a tribe that
might lead to permanent divisions. The retinue (often
called comitatus by scholars, following the practice of
ancient Roman writers) consisted of the followers of a
chieftain, who depended on the retinue for military and
other services and who in return provided for the retinues
needs and divided with them the spoils of battle.[205] This
relationship between a chieftain and his followers became
the basis for the more complicated feudal system that de-
veloped in medieval Europe. A chieftains retinue might
include close relatives, but it was not limited to them.
Eventually the rising power of individual chieftains and
kings from among the military leadership of Germanic
tribes and confederations curtailed and in many ways re-
placed the power once enjoyed by tribal assemblies.[206]
A code of ethics in battle prevailed among the Germanic
kin. According to Tacitus, the greatest disgrace that can
befall a warrior of a clan among the Germanic tribes was
the abandonment of their shield during combat, as this
almost certainly resulted in social isolation.[207] Within
tribal Germanic society, their social hierarchy was linked
intrinsically to war and this warrior code maintained the
delity between chiefs and their young warriors.[208]
Feuds were the standard means for resolving conicts
and regulating behavior. Peace within the tribe was
about controlling violence with codes identifying exactly
how certain types of feuds were to be settled.[203] Those
closely related to a person who had been injured or killed
were supposed to exact revenge on or monetary payment
from the oender. This duty helped rearm the bonds
between extended family members. Yet such feuds weak-
ened the tribe as a whole, sometimes leading to the cre-
ation of a new tribe as one group separated from the
rest. Clans of Germanic people consisted of groupings of
about 50 households in total with societal rules for each
specic clan.[209] Recent scholarship suggests that, de-
spite the obligation to take part in feuds and other customs
involving kinship ties, extended families did not form
independent units among the early Germanic peoples.
Though most members of a tribe would have been more
or less distantly related, common descent was not the
main source of a tribes identity, and extended families
were not the main social units within a tribe. Traditional
theories have emphasized the supposedly central role in
Germanic culture of clans or large groups with common
ancestry. But there is little evidence that such clans ex-
isted, and they were certainly not an important element
of social organization. As historian Alexander C. Murray
concludes, kinship was a crucial factor in all aspects of
barbarian activity, but its uses and groupings were uid,
and probably on the whole not long lasting.[210] Internal
competition within the factions of a tribe occasionally re-
sulted in internecine warfare which weakened and some-
time destroyed a group, as appears to have been the case
18 5 CULTURE

for the Cherusci tribe during Romes earlier period.[211] of pan-Germanic solidarity, but this started to change
[218]
The most important family relationships among the early noticeably by the 5th century AD at Romes expense.
Germanic peoples were within the individual household,
a fact based on the archaeological evidence from their 5.5 Marriage
settlements where the long-houses appeared to be cen-
tral in their existence. Within the household unit, an in- Based on the writings of Tacitus, most of the barbar-
dividual was equally bound to both the mother and the ians were content with one wife which indicates a gen-
fathers side of the family.[212] Fathers were the main g- eral trend towards monogamy. For those higher within
ures of authority,[209] but wives also played an important their social hierarchy however, polygamy was sometimes
and respected role. Some Germanic tribes even believed solicited on account of their rank.[219] Of note, Tac-
that women possessed magical powers and were feared itus observed that the wife does not bring a dowry to
accordingly.[213] Tacitus describes how, during battles, her husband, but receives one from him and wedding
Germanic warriors were encouraged and cared for by gifts related to a marriage consisted of things like oxen,
their wives and mothers. He also notes that during times saddles and various armaments. Revealing the warlike
of peace, women did most of the work of managing the nature of their society, Tacitus also reported that wives
household. Along with the children, they apparently did came to their husbands as a partner in toils and dangers;
most of the household chores as well. Children were to suer and to dare equally with him, in peace and in
valued, and according to Tacitus, limiting or destroying war.[219]
ones ospring was considered shameful. Mothers ap-
parently breast-fed their own children rather than using The age at rst marriage among ancient Germanic tribes,
nurses. Besides parents and children, a household might according to Tacitus, was late for women compared to
include slaves, but slavery was uncommon, and according Roman women:
to Tacitus, slaves normally had households of their own.
Their slaves (usually prisoners of war) were most often The youths partake late of the pleasures of
employed as domestic servants. [209]
Polygamy and con- love, and hence pass the age of puberty unex-
cubinage were rare but existed, at least among the upper hausted: nor are the virgins hurried into mar-
classes. [214]
When a certain number of families resided riage; the same maturity, the same full growth
on the same territory, this constituted a village (Dorf in is required: the sexes unite equally matched
German). The overall territory occupied by people from and robust; and the children inherit the vigor
[220]
the same tribe was designated in the writings of Tacitus of their parents.
as a civitas, with each of the individual civitas divided into
pagi (or cantons), which were made up of several vici. In Where Aristotle had set the prime of life at 37 years for
cases where the tribes were grouped into larger confeder- men and 18 for women, the Visigothic Code of law in
ations or a group of kingdoms, the term pagus was applied the 7th century placed the prime of life at twenty years
(Gau in German).[215] Extensive contact with Rome al- for both men and women, after which both presumably
tered the egalitarian structure of tribal Germanic society. married. Thus it can be presumed that ancient Germanic
As individuals rose to prominence, a distinction between brides were on average about [221] twenty and were roughly
commoner and nobility developed and with it the previ- the same age as their husbands. Tacitus, however, had
ous constructs of folkright shared equally across the tribe never visited the German-speaking lands and most of his
was replaced in some cases by privilege. [182]
As a result, information on Germania comes from secondary sources.
Germanic society became more stratied. Elites within In addition, Anglo-Saxon women, like those of other Ger-
the Germanic tribes who learned the Roman system and manic tribes, are marked as women from the age of twelve
emulated the way they established dominion were able to onward, based on archaeological nds, implying that the
[222]
gain advantages and exploit them accordingly. [216] age of marriage coincided with puberty. Evidence of
Germanic patriarchy is evident later in the 7th century
Important changes began taking place by the 4th century AD Edict of Rothari of the Lombards which stated that
AD as Germanic peoples, while still cognizant of their women were not allowed to live of their own freewill and
unique clan identities, started forming larger confedera- that they had to be subject to a man and if no one else,
tions of a similar culture. Gathering around the dominant they were to be under the power of the king.[223] For
tribes among them and hearkening to the most charis- Germanic women of later antiquity, marriage obviously
matic leaders brought the various barbarians tribes had its appeal given their reduced status otherwise.
closer together. On the surface this change appeared
to the Romans as welcome since they preferred to deal For Germanic kings, warrior chieftains, senators and Ro-
with a few strong chiefs to control the populations that man nobility, a certain degree of intermarriage was un-
they feared across the Rhine and Danube, but it eventu- dertaken to strengthen their ties to one another and to
ally made these Germanic rulers of confederated peoples the Empire, making marriage or connubium as the [224] Ro-
more and more powerful. [217]
While strong, they were still mans connoted the bond, an instrument of politics.
not federated to one another since they possessed no sense Earlier treaty terms in the late 4th century AD had [225] for-
bidden foreign Goths to intermarry with Romans.
5.6 Religion 19

Some of the marriage attempts of the 6th century AD oerings. Captives might have their throats cut and be
were deliberately planned for the sake of royal succession. bled into giant cauldrons or have their intestines opened
Imperial policy had to be carefully charted between the up and the entrails thrown to the ground for prophetic
Roman-Germanic claimants to kingship and the mainte- readings.[229] Spiritual rituals frequently occurred in con-
nance of Roman imperial administration as the federated secrated groves or upon islands on lakes where perpetual
Germanic kings attempted to put their stamp on Roman res burned.[230]
rule and replace Roman armies with their own warriors.
Many of the deities found in Germanic paganism ap-
Roman leaders were not oblivious to the clever tactics (in-
peared under similar names across the Germanic peoples,
termarriage and ospring) employed by Germanic chief-
most notably the god known to the Germans as Wodan or
tains and adopted creative treaties to either appease them
Wotan, to the Anglo-Saxons as Woden, and to the Norse
or temper their ambitions.[226]
as inn, as well as the god Thor known to the Ger-
mans as Donar, to the Anglo-Saxons as unor and to the
5.6 Religion Norse as rr. Pagan beliefs amid the Germanic tribes
were reported by some of the earlier Roman historians
Main articles: Germanic paganism, Continental Ger- and in the 6th century AD another instance of this ap-
manic mythology and Germanic Christianity pears when the Byzantine historian and poet, Agathias,
Prior to the Middle Ages, Germanic peoples followed remarked that the Alamannic religion was solidly and
unsophisticatedly pagan.[231] Christianity had no rele-
vance for the pagan barbarians until their contact and in-
tegration with Rome.[232]
While the Germanic peoples were slowly converted to
Christianity by varying means, many elements of the pre-
Christian culture and indigenous beliefs remained rmly
in place after the conversion process, particularly in the
more rural and distant regions. Of particular note is the
survival of the pagan fascination with the forest in the
retention of Christmas tree even today. Many of the
Germanic tribes actually revered forests as sacred places
and left them unmolested. Conversion to Christianity
broke this pagan obsession with protecting the forest in
some locations and allowed once migrant tribes to settle
in places where they previously refused to cultivate the
soil or chop down trees based on religious belief. To that
end, the Christianisation of Germanic peoples facilitated
the clearing of forests and therewith provided a broad
and stable basis for the medieval economy of Central Eu-
rope by leveraging the vast forest resources available to
them.[233] The Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Vandals were
Christianized while they were still outside the bounds of
Roman bronze gurine depicting praying German with a Suebian the Empire; however, they converted to Arianism rather
knot. than orthodox Catholicism, and were soon regarded as
heretics.[234] The one great written remnant of the Gothic
what is now referred to as Germanic paganism: a system language is a translation of portions of the Bible made
of interlocking and closely interrelated religious world- by Ullas, the missionary who converted them.[235] The
views and practices rather than as one indivisible religion Lombards were not converted until after their entrance
and as such consisted of individual worshippers, family into the Empire, but received Christianity from Arian
traditions and regional cults within a broadly consistent Germanic groups sometime during the 5th century.[236]
framework.[227] It was polytheistic in nature, with some
underlying similarities to other Indo-Germanic traditions. The Franks were converted directly from paganism to
Nevertheless, there is little cultural uniformity among Catholicism under the leadership of Clovis in about AD
the Germanic people concerning religion. Archaeolog- 496 without an intervening time as Arians.[237] Eventually
ical ndings suggest that the Germanic barbarians prac- the Gothic tribes turned away from their Arian faith and
ticed some of the same 'spiritual' rituals as the Celts, in AD 589 converted to Catholicism.[238] Several cen-
including human sacrice, divination, and the belief in turies later, Anglo-Saxon and Frankish missionaries and
spiritual connection with the natural environment around warriors undertook the conversion of their Saxon neigh-
them.[228] Germanic priestesses were feared by the Ro- bors. A key event was the felling of Thors Oak near
mans, as these tall women with glaring eyes, wearing Fritzlar by Boniface, apostle of the Germans, in AD 723.
owing white gowns often wielded a knife for sacricial When Thor failed to strike Boniface dead after the oak
20 7 GERMANIC ANTIQUITY IN LATER HISTORIOGRAPHY

hit the ground, the Franks were amazed and began their contain R1a1a, R1b-P312 and R1b-U106, a genetic com-
conversion to the Christian faith.[239] bination of the haplogroups found among current Ger-
[245]
Eventually for many Germanic tribes, the conversion manic speaking peoples.
to Christianity was achieved by armed force, success- Haplogroup I1 accounts for approximately 40% of
fully completed by Charlemagne, in a series of cam- Icelandic males, 40%50% of Swedish males, 40%
paigns (the Saxon Wars), that also brought Saxon lands of Norwegian males, and 40% of Danish Human Y-
into the Frankish empire.[240] Massacres, such as the chromosome DNA haplogroups. Haplogroup I1 peaks in
Bloody Verdict of Verden, where as many as 4500 peo- certain areas of Northern Germany and Eastern England
ple were beheaded according to one of Charlemagnes at more than 30%. Haplogroup R1b and haplogroup
chroniclers,[241] were a direct result of this policy. R1a collectively account for more than 40% of males
In Scandinavia, Germanic paganism continued to domi- in Sweden; over 50% in Norway, 60% in Iceland, 60
nate until the 11th century in the form of Norse paganism, 70% in Germany, and between 50%70% of the males
when it was gradually replaced by Christianity.[242] in England and the Netherlands depending on region.[246]
However this might simply be because of more ancient
similar settlement patterns of pre-Germanic, Celtic and
certainly pre-Roman, populations once established, are
6 Genetics often dicult to change and that post-agriculture popu-
lations became more xed and genes often don't corre-
spond necessarily to either language or culture. Nonethe-
less, the presence of R1b-P312 and R1b-L21 among the
modern Germanic speaking population is reective of the
Germanic presence in former Celtic regions in the Alps,
the Netherlands, and lowland Britain where they likely
absorbed people along the way.[247] Peaking in northern
Europe, the R1b-U106 marker seems particular inter-
esting in distribution and provides some helpful genetic
clues regarding the historical trek made by the Germanic
people.[248]

7 Germanic antiquity in later his-

toriography

Further information: Germanic studies

After the decline of Germanic paganism in the High Mid-

Distribution of Y-chromosomal haplogroup I1a in Europe.
It is suggested by geneticists that the movements of Ger-
manic peoples has had a strong inuence upon the mod-
ern distribution of the male lineage represented by the Y-
DNA haplogroup I1, which is believed to have originated
with one man, who lived approximately 4,000 to 6,000
years somewhere in Northern Europe, possibly modern
Denmark (see Most Recent Common Ancestor for more
information). There is evidence of this mans descen-
dants settling in all of the areas that Germanic tribes
are recorded as having subsequently invaded or migrated
to.[243][244] However, it is quite possible that Haplogroup
I1 is pre-Germanic, that is I1 may have originated with
individuals who adopted the proto-Germanic culture, at
an early stage of its development or were co-founders of
that culture. Should that earliest Proto-Germanic speak-
ing ancestor be found, his Y-DNA would most likely be
an admixture of the aforementioned I1, but would also
dle Ages, the cultural identity of Europe was built on the
idea of Christendom as opposed to Islam (the "Saracens",
and later the "Turks"). The Germanic peoples of Ro-
man historiography were lumped with the other agents
of the "barbarian invasions, the Alans and the Huns, as
opposed to the civilized Roman identity of the Holy
Roman Empire.
The Renaissance revived interest in pre-Christian
Classical Antiquity and only in a second phase in pre-
Christian Northern Europe. Early modern publications
dealing with Old Norse culture appeared in the 16th
century, e.g. Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus
(Olaus Magnus, 1555) and the rst edition of the 13th
century Gesta Danorum (Saxo Grammaticus), in 1514.
Authors of the German Renaissance such as Johannes
Aventinus discovered the Germanii of Tacitus as the
Old Germans, whose virtue and unspoiled manhood,
as it appears in the Roman accounts of noble savagery,
they contrast with the decadence of their own day.

The pace of publication increased during the 17th cen-
tury with Latin translations of the Edda (notably Peder
Resens Edda Islandorum of 1665). The Viking revival of
18th century Romanticism nally establishes the fascina-
tion with anything Nordic. The beginning of Germanic
philology proper begins in the early 19th century, with
Rasmus Rask's Icelandic Lexicon of 1814, and was in
full bloom by the 1830s, with Jacob Grimm's Deutsche
Mythologie giving an extensive account of reconstructed
Germanic mythology and his Deutsches Wrterbuch of
Germanic etymology.
The development of Germanic studies as an academic
discipline in the 19th century ran parallel to the rise of
nationalism in Europe and the search for national histo-
ries for the nascent nation states developing after the end
of the Napoleonic Wars. A Germanic national ethnic-
ity oered itself for the unication of Germany, contrast-
ing the emerging German Empire with its neighboring ri-
vals, the Welsche French Third Republic and the "Slavic"
Russian Empire. The nascent German ethnicity was con-
sequently built on national myths of Germanic antiquity,
in instances such as the Walhalla temple and the Hermann
Heights Monument.
These tendencies culminated in Pan-Germanism, the All-
deutsche Bewegung aiming for the political unity of all of
German-speaking Europe (all Volksdeutsche) into a Teu-
tonic nation state. Contemporary Romantic nationalism
in Scandinavia placed more weight on the Viking Age,
resulting in the movement known as Scandinavism. The
theories of race developed in the same period identied
the Germanic peoples of the Migration period as mem-
bers of a Nordic race expanding at the expense of an
Alpine race native to Central and Eastern Europe.
8 See also
List of Germanic peoples
Nordic race
9 References
[1] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 296.
[2] Germanic Peoples. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Retrieved 25 January 2012.
[3] Minahan, James (2000). One Europe, many nations:
a historical dictionary of European national groups.
Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 769. ISBN 0-313-
30984-1. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
[4] Pavlovic, Zoran (2007). Europe. Infobase Publishing. p.
53. ISBN 1-4381-0455-3. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
[5] Germans. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Columbia
University Press. 2013. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
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[6] The Order of The Teutonic Knights of St. Marys
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of The Term Germanic, Stable URL: http://www.
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[7] Rbekeil, Suebica, Innsbruck 1992, 161f.
[8] Stmpel, Gustav (1932). Name und Nationalitt der Ger-
manen. Eine neue Untersuchung zu Poseidonios, Caesar
und Tacitus (in German). Leipzig: Dieterich. p. 60.
[9] Feist, Sigmund (1927). Germanen und Kelten in der an-
tiken berlieferung (in German). Baden-Baden.
[10] Heather (2012). Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of
Rome and the Birth of Europe, pp. 58.
[11] De Bello Gallico 2.4
[12] "Germania" chapter 2.
[13] Manco 2013, p. 207.
[14] Lamarcq, Danny; Rogge, Marc (1996), De Taalgrens:
Van de oude tot de nieuwe Belgen, Davidsfonds page 44.
[15] Lamarcq, Danny; Rogge, Marc (1996), De Taalgrens:
Van de oude tot de nieuwe Belgen, Davidsfonds page 47.
[16] Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology 1966
[17] McBains An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Lan-
guage
[18] Schulze (1998). Germany: A New History, p. 4.
[19] German, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Et-
ymology. Ed. T. F. Hoad. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1996. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford Univer-
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[20] Partridge, Eric, Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary
of Modern English, p. 1265
[21] Mallory; Adams, The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-
European and the Proto-Indo-European World, Oxford, p.
245
[22] L. Rbekeil, Suebica. Vlkernamen und Ethnos, Inns-
bruck 1992, 187214.
[23] The Order of The Teutonic Knights of St. Marys Hospital
in Jerusalem - 1190-2012, The History of The Term Ger-
manic, Stable URL: http://www.imperialteutonicorder.
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[24] Burns 2003, pp. 1516.
[25] Burns 2003, pp. 232233.
[26] Burns 2003, p. 19.
[27] The Order of The Teutonic Knights of St.
Marys Hospital in Jerusalem - 1190-2012, The
Term of Teutonic or Deutsch, Stable URL:
http://www.imperialteutonicorder.com/id43.html
[28] Dalby (1999). Dictionary of Languages, p. 224.
[29] Detwiler (1999). Germany: A Short History, p. 3.
22
[30] Burns 2003, pp. 6667.
[31] Tac. Ger. 2
[32] Tac. Ger. 38-40
[33] Plin. Nat. 4.28
[34] The Cherusci people are the progenitors of Arminius, who
once a Roman general, betrayed his erstwhile Roman le-
gions by attacking them using the combined forces of Ger-
manic tribes in 9 AD at Teutoberg Forest, a move which
ended the Roman Empires eorts to expand east of the
Rhine. See: Steven Ozment, A Mighty Fortress: A New
History of the German People (New York: Harper Peren-
nial, 2005), 2021.
[35] III.3.31
[36] Geography 7.1
[37] The Order of The Teutonic Knights of St. Marys
Hospital in Jerusalem - 1190-2012, The Classica-
tion of The Germanic Race, Stable URL: http://www.
imperialteutonicorder.com/id43.html
[38] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 300.
[39] Todd 1999, pp. 1213.
[40] Halsall (1981). The Old English Rune Poem: A Critical
Edition, p. 15.
[41] Antonsen (2002). Runes and Germanic Linguistics, p. 37.
[42] As late as the 10th century there is evidence of runic writ-
ing on a stone monument erected by the rst Christian
king of Denmark, Harald Bluetooth. In the text, Harald
honors his parents using runic script and on the other side
of the stone is a depiction of 'Christ in His Glory', incorpo-
rating a runic inscription which extolls Harald for acquir-
ing Denmark and Norway and for converting the Danes
into Christians. See: Moltke (1985). Runes and Their
Origin: Denmark and Elsewhere, pp. 207220.
[43] Bauer 2010, p. 44.
[44] The Order of The Teutonic Knights of St. Marys Hos-
pital in Jerusalem - 1190-2012, The Pre-Roman Iron
Age, Stable URL: http://www.imperialteutonicorder.
com/id43.html
[45] The New Encyclopdia Britannica, 15th edition, 20:640
642
[46] Lucien Musset, The Germanic Invasions, the Making of
Europe 400600 AD, ISBN 1-56619-326-5, 1993 Barnes
& Noble Books, pp. 1213
[47] Ostler (2006). Empires of the Word: A Language History
of the World, p. 307.
[48] Dalby (1999). Dictionary of Languages, pp. 224225.
[49] Robinson, Orrin (1992). Old English and its Closest Rela-
tives, pp. 194195.
9 REFERENCES
[50] The Order of The Teutonic Knights of St. Marys
Hospital in Jerusalem - 1190-2012, The Classica-
tion of the Germanic Race, Stable URL: http://www.
imperialteutonicorder.com/id43.html
[51] For more info, see: Ostler (2006). Empires of the Word:
A Language History of the World, pp. 304314.
[52] Wightman, Edith Mary (1985). Gallia Belgica, Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press, pp. 12
14.
[53] Of the Germanic languages, the only well-attested east
Germanic language was Gothic. See: Don Ringe, A Lin-
guistic History of English: From Proto-Indo-European to
Proto-Germanic (New York: Oxford University Press,
2006), 213.
[54] These combined West Germanic languages are spoken as
a primary tongue by more than 450 million people today.
See: Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 300.
[55] Dalby (1999). Dictionary of Languages, p. 225.
[56] Only a mere 20 million people or so currently speak the
North Germanic languages as their native tongue. See:
Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 300.
[57] Kurt Braunmller, Was ist Germanisch heute?" Sprach-
wissenschaft 25 (2000): 271295.
[58] Kinder & Hilgemann (2004). The Penguin Atlas of World
History, p. 109.
[59] The Order of The Teutonic Knights of St. Marys Hospi-
tal in Jerusalem - 1190-2012, The Bronze Age, Stable
URL: http://www.imperialteutonicorder.com/id43.html
[60] The New Encyclopdia Britannica, 15th edition, 20:67
[61] Cunlie 2011, p. 309316.
[62] Waldman & Mason 2006, pp. 296297.
[63] Leo Verhart, Op zoek naar de Kelten, 2006,ISBN 90-
5345-303-2, pp. 8182.
[64] Bury 2000, p. 5.
[65] The New Encyclopdia Britannica, 15th edition, 22: pp.
641642.
[66] Leo Verhart, Op Zoek naar de Kelten, Nieuwe archeologis-
che ontdekkingen tussen Noordzee en Rijn, ISBN 90-5345-
303-2, 2006, p. 67
[67] Colin Well, Celts and Germans in the Rhineland in The
Celtic World, edited by Miranda Green (New York, Rout-
ledge, 1996), pp. 603611.
[68] Bogucki & Crabtree, eds. (vol. 2) 2003, p. 152.
[69] Adams, Douglas Q.; Mallory, J. P. (1997). Germanic
languages. Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Tay-
lor & Francis. ISBN 9781884964985.
[70] Rolf Hachmann, Georg Kossack and Hans Kuhn (1986).
Vlker zwischen Germanen und Kelten, pp. 183212.
 23

[71] Leo Verhart (2006). Op Zoek naar de Kelten, Nieuwe
archeologische ontdekkingen tussen Noordzee en Rijn, pp.
175176. ISBN 90-5345-303-2
[72] Bury 2000, p. 6.
[96] Cunlie 2011, p. 384.
[97] Mary T. Boatwright, Daniel J. Gargola, and Richard J. A.
Talbert, The Romans: From Village to Empire (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2004), 360.

[73] Bury 2000, pp. 67. [98] Burns 2003, p. 183.

[74] Bury 2000, pp. 79. [99] An interesting tidbit about the 4th century Gothic Tervingi
proves telling in this regard; they are most famous among
[75] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 301. scholars of Classical Rome and pre-modern Europe be-
cause the majority of them sought asylum inside the heart
[76] The only ancient authors we know by name who saw of the Roman Empire in 376 AD. See: Heather (2012).
Pytheas text were Dicaearchus, Timaeus, Eratosthenes, Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth
Crates of Mallus, Hipparchus, Polybius, Artemidorus of Europe, p. 594.
and Posidonius, as Lionel Pearson remarked in review-
ing Hans Joachim Mette, Pytheas von Massalia (Berlin: [100] The texts of the chronicler Marcellinus demonstrate that,
Gruyter) 1952, in Classical Philology 49.3 (July 1954), pp. at the very least, military cooperation between the Ger-
212214. manic tribes and the Romans took place at times since he
makes reference to a "pactum vicissitudinus reddendae".
[77] Osborne (2008). Civilization: A New History of the West- See Bury 2000, p. 10.
ern World, p. 38.
[101] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 304.
[78] Cunlie 2011, pp. 68.
[102] Geary 1999, p. 109.
[79] Burns 2003, pp. 5152.
[103] Collins 1999, pp. 23.
[80] Plutarch writes of these Cimbrian warriors with sky blue
colored eyes, see: Truces et crulei oculi. -- Germ. IX. [104] Waldman & Mason 2006, pp. 304305.
Plutarch (in Marius, XI). Cited from Francis B. Gum-
[105] Collins 1999, p. 46.
mere, Germanic Origins: A Study in Primitive Culture
(New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1892), 58 fn. [106] Bury 2000, p. 61.
[81] Ozment (2005). A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the [107] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 305306.
German People, p. 18.
[108] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 306.
[82] Woolf (2012). Rome: An Empires Story, pp. 105107.
[109] Pohl 1997, pp. 3435.
[83] Cunlie 2011, pp. 369371.
[110] Bauer 2010, p. 45.
[84] Gaius Julius Caesar, Commentarii De Bello Gallico, VI.
XXXXI [111] Bauer 2010, pp. 4546.

[112] Bury 2000, pp. 129130.

[85] Tacitus, The Agricola and the Germany of Tacitus, p. 48.
[113] Katz (1955). The Decline of Rome and the Rise of Medi-
[86] Pagden (2001). Peoples and Empires, p. 22.
aeval Europe, p. 88.
[87] Todd 1999, pp. 3435.
[114] Katz (1955). The Decline of Rome and the Rise of Medi-
[88] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 302. aeval Europe, pp. 8889.

[89] Todd 1999, p. 23. [115] Bury 2000, p. 16.

[90] The tribal Helvetii lend their namesake to the formal epi- [116] Bury 2000, pp. 1633.
thet for the nation of Switzerland the Helvetic Confed- [117] Kishlansky et al. (2008). Civilization in the West, p. 166.
eracy (or Helvetia). See: The Encyclopdia Britannica
(2015), Helvetii. Stable URL: http://www.britannica. [118] Manco 2013, p. 204.
com/topic/Helvetii
[119] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 26.
[91] Todd 1999, pp. 2324.
[120] Edward James, The Northern World in the Dark Ages,
[92] Waldman & Mason 2006, pp. 301302. 400900, in The Oxford History of Medieval Europe,
edited by George Holmes (New York: Oxford University
[93] Ozment (2005). A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the Press, 1995), pp. 6067.
German People, p. 19.
[121] Drinkwater (2007). Alamanni and Rome 213496: Cara-
[94] Pohl (2002). Die Vlkerwanderung. Eroberung und Inte- calla to Clovis, p. 81.
gration, p. 16.
[122] T.D. Kendrick (2013). A History of the Vikings, pp. 60
[95] Wolfram 1997, pp. 3637. 63.
 24 9 REFERENCES

[123] Pagden (2001). Peoples and Empires, p. 37. [147] Pohl 1997, p. 33.

[124] J.H.F. Bloemers & T. van Dorp. Pre- en Protohistorie van [148] Kitchen (1996). The Cambridge Illustrated History of Ger-
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[149] Kitchen (1996). The Cambridge Illustrated History of Ger-
[125] More recent academic work from the likes of Peter many, p. 20.
Heather supports this argument. (See: Heather, Pe-
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and the Birth of Europe). Conversely, historian Bryan
Ward-Perkins paints a dierent picture altogether. Ward- [151] Edward James, The Northern World in the Dark Ages,
Perkins states that, The invaders were not guilty of mur- 400900, in The Oxford History of Medieval Europe,
der, but they had committed manslaughter. (See: Ward- edited by George Holmes (New York: Oxford University
Perkins, (2005) The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civiliza- Press, 1995), pp. 6667.
tion, p. 134.) The two titles alone speak to their divergent
[152] Bauer 2010, p. 173.
positions.
[153] For a period of upwards of 1300 years since the Frank-
[126] Davies (1998). Europe: A History, p. 229.
ish king Clovis was converted to Christianity (he ruled
[127] Bury 2000, pp. 6566. Gaul in what eventually became modern France), eighteen
monarchs of France have been Christened with a French
[128] Not only was Alaric I able to establish a Gothic confedera- derivation of his Latin name Ludovicus or Louis in mod-
tion comprising Theruingian and Greuthungic peoples, he ern French. See: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christianity: The
also was able to play the eastern and western Roman Em- First Three Thousand Years (New York: Penguin, 2011),
pires o against one another for his benet. See: Collins p. 324.
1999, pp. 5354.
[154] Bauer 2010, pp. 178179.
[129] Davies (1998). Europe: A History, pp. 231232.
[155] Kitchen (1996). The Cambridge Illustrated History of Ger-
[130] Davies (1998). Europe: A History, p. 232. many, pp. 2428.
[131] Roberts (1997). A Short History of the World, pp. 146 [156] Bury 2000, p. 239.
147.
[157] Edward James, The Northern World in the Dark Ages,
[132] Chrysos 2003, pp. 1314. 400900, in The Oxford History of Medieval Europe,
[133] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 307. edited by George Holmes (New York: Oxford University
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[134] Ward-Perkins (2005). The Fall of Rome: And the End of
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65.
[135] ODonnell (2008). The Ruin of the Roman Empire, p. 105.
[159] J.M. Roberts, A History of Europe, pp. 121123.
[136] Santosuo (2004). Barbarians, Marauders, and Indels:
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[137] ODonnell (2008). The Ruin of the Roman Empire, pp.
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[138] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 308. [162] Sykes (2006). Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic
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[139] Ward-Perkins (2005). The Fall of Rome: And the End of
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[140] Ward-Perkins (2005). The Fall of Rome: And the End of [164] Evidence exists that for 2nd and 3rd century Goths as well
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lation displacement throughout Roman-occupied Europe
[141] Wolfram (1988). History of the Goths, p. 332. occurred. See: Heather (2012). Empires and Barbarians:
The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe, pp. 587588.
[142] Wolfram 1997, p. 308.
This quite likely contributed to their linguistic assimilation
[143] Cunlie 2011, p. 442.
[165] Ostler (2006). Empires of the Word: A Language History
[144] Cunlie 2011, pp. 442444. of the World, pp. 306307.

[145] Heather (2014). The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian [166] Pidal R. Menndez, Manual de Gramtica Histrica Es-
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[146] Heather (2014). The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian [167] Wickham (2009). The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating
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[168] Clements (2005). A Brief History of the Vikings: Last Pa- [195] Kishlansky et al. (2008). Civilization in the West, p. 164.
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[196] Osborne (2008). Civilization: A New History of the West-
[169] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 310. ern World, p. 39.
[170] Ferguson (2010). The Vikings: A History, p. 240. [197] The Order of The Teutonic Knights of St. Marys Hos-
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[171] Oliver (2011). The Body Legal in Barbarian Law, p. 27.
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[172] E.g. If a freeman steal from the king, let him pay nine- den der Brder vom Deutschen Haus St. Mariens in
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[173] E.g. reduction of the weregild to half the regular amount
if the man responsible for the killing is employed by the [198] Waldman & Mason 2006, pp. 313314.
king in the laws of thelberht of Kent, paragraph 7.
[199] Waldman & Mason 2006, pp. 314315.
[174] Oliver (2011). The Body Legal in Barbarian Law, pp.
203226. [200] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 315.

[175] Wolfram 1997, p. 310. [201] Manco 2013, p. 202.

[176] Geary 1999, p. 113. [202] Waldman & Mason 2006, pp. 315316.

[177] Geary 1999, p. 112. [203] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 318.

[178] Archer et al. (2008). World History of Warfare, p. 105. [204] Geary 1999, p. 111.

[179] J. M. Roberts, A History of Europe, pp. 6566.
[180] Daniels & Hyslop (2014). Almanac of World History, p.
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[181] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 836.
[182] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 321.
[183] Waldman & Mason 2006, pp. 321322.
[184] Heather (2005). The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New
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[205] Encyclopdia Britannica (2015). Comitatus, Stable
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[206] Todd 1999, pp. 3132.
[207] Tacitus, The Agricola and the Germany of Tacitus, p. 49.
[208] Heather (2003). The Visigoths from the Migration Period
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[185] Santosuo (2004). Barbarians, Marauders, and Indels: [210] Murray (1983). Germanic Kinship Structure: Studies in
The Ways of Medieval Warfare, pp. 143144. Law and Societies in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages,
p. 64.
[186] Todd 1999, pp. 3637.
[211] Todd 1999, p. 30.
[187] Todd 1999, p. 37.
[212] Todd 1999, p. 32.
[188] Bmont & Monod 2012, pp. 485486.
[213] Williams 1998, p. 79.
[189] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 322.
[214] Young, Bruce W. (2008). Family Life in the Age of Shake-
[190] Warriors were physically adept and owed much of their
speare. Greenwood Press, pp. 1617.
esprit de corps to the loyalty existing between themselves
and their tribal chieftains. After forming a shield wall, [215] Bmont & Monod 2012, pp. 410415.
they would then hurl a single spear in unison as a sacri-
ce to Odin. Fighting thereafter normally devolved to a [216] Pohl 1997, p. 34.
gang raid and individual combat. See: Waldman & Ma-
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The Ways of Medieval Warfare, p. 9.
[191] Waldman & Mason 2006, pp. 322323.
[218] Ward-Perkins (2005). The Fall of Rome: And the End of
[192] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 312. Civilization, pp. 5051.
[193] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 313. [219] Tacitus, The Agricola and the Germany of Tacitus, p. 52.
[194] This and the following information is based on P.J. Geary, [220] Tacitus (by commentator Edward Brooks). 2013. The
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formation of the Merovingian World (New York: Oxford Footnotes 121122.
University Press, 1988), 44 . and M. Innes, Introduction
to Early Medieval Western Europe, 300900 (Abingdon [221] Herlihy, David. 1985. Medieval Households. Harvard
2007), 7172. University Press. 7375
 26
[222] Green, Dennis Howard and Siegmund, Frank. 2003. The [246] J. D. McDonald (2005). Y Haplogroups of the World.
Continental Saxons from the Migration Period to the Tenth
Century. Boydell Press. Pg. 107
[247] Manco 2013, pp. 208209.
[223] Bury 2000, p. 281.
[248] Manco 2013, pp. 209210.
[224] Wolfram 1997, p. 105.
[225] Wolfram 1997, p. 88.
10 Bibliography and further read-
[226] Wolfram 1997, pp. 106107.
[227] Ewing, Thor. (2008). Gods and Worshippers in the Viking
and Germanic World. Page 9. Tempus.
[228] Burns 2003, p. 367.
[229] Williams 1998, pp. 8182.
[230] Williams 1998, p. 82.
[231] Drinkwater (2007). Alamanni and Rome 213496: Cara-
calla to Clovis, p. 117.
[232] Burns 2003, p. 368.
[233] Arnold H. Price, The Germanic Forest Taboo and
Economic Growth, Vierteljahrschrift fr Sozial-und
Wirtschaftsgeschichte 52. Bd., H. 3 (1965): pp. 368
378. (Accessed 14 September 2015) from JSTOR. Stable
URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20729190
[234] Santosuo (2004). Barbarians, Marauders, and Indels:
The Ways of Medieval Warfare, pp. 1416.
[235] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 327.
[236] Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 497.
[237] Encyclopdia Britannica, Germanic Peoples
Stable URL: http://www.britannica.com/topic/
Germanic-peoples
[238] Pohl 1997, p. 37.
[239] Levison (1905). Vitae Sancti Bonifatii archiepiscopi mo-
guntini, pp. 3132.
[240] McKitterick (2008). Charlemagne: The Formation of a
European Identity, pp. 103106.
[241] Wilson (2005). Charlemagne: A Biography, p. 47.
[242] T.D. Kendrick (2013). A History of the Vikings, pp. 118
123.
[243] Genographic Project of National Geographic
[244] New Phylthatetic Relationships for Y-chromosome Hap-
logroup I: Reappraising its Phylogeography and Prehis-
tory, Rethinking the Human Evolution, Mellars P, Boyle
K, Bar-Yosef O, Stringer C, Eds. McDonald Institute for
Archaeological Research, Cambridge, UK, 2007, pp. 33
42 by Underhill PA, Myres NM, Rootsi S, Chow CT, Lin
AA, Otillar RP, King R, Zhivotovsky LA, Balanovsky O,
Pshenichnov A, Ritchie KH, Cavalli-Sforza LL, Kivisild
T, Villems R, Woodward SR
[245] Manco 2013, p. 208.
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Wolfram, Herwig. History of the Goths. Berkeley:

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ISBN 0-520-05259-5

Wolfram, Herwig (1997). The Roman Empire and

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phy and Empire in the Roman West. Malden, MA:
Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. ISBN 978-1-118-78510-2
Woolf, Greg. Rome: An Empires Story. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-19932-
518-4

11 External links
"Germanic Races and Languages". The American
Cyclopdia. 1879.
30 12 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

12 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

12.1 Text
Germanic peoples Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_peoples?oldid=722928750 Contributors: Damian Yerrick, Andre En-
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MartinHarper, Mic, Zeno Gantner, Flamurai, Looxix~enwiki, Ahoerstemeier, Snoyes, Djnjwd, Andres, John K, Ruhrjung, Lukobe, Johan
Magnus, Ilyanep, Schneelocke, Dwo, Hashar, Tom Peters, Karl Schalike, Adam Bishop, Jallan, Boson, Haukurth, Tpbradbury, Paul-
L~enwiki, Tuomas, EikwaR, Pietro, Qertis, Dimadick, Rogper~enwiki, Amphioxys, Robbot, RedWolf, Naddy, Sam Spade, Pingveno,
Rbates, Ghaz~enwiki, GreatWhiteNortherner, Nagelfar, Snobot, Graeme Bartlett, Jao, Jyril, Wiglaf, Bradeos Graphon, Kenneth Alan, Gil-
gamesh~enwiki, Grant65, Edcolins, Chowbok, Gadum, Jackcsk, Beland, Nogger, Lev, Ron7, Burschik, Zeman, Zondor, Lacrimosus, Cun,
Mike Rosoft, Jayjg, CALR, An Siarach, Discospinster, Florian Blaschke, EliasAlucard, LindsayH, Dbachmann, Stbalbach, Bender235,
CanisRufus, El C, Kwamikagami, Jpgordon, Bill Thayer, Dungodung, Giraedata, Juzeris, La goutte de pluie, Martg76, Jumbuck, Arthena,
Andrewpmk, Scarecroe, Snowolf, Saga City, Deacon of Pndapetzim, Jheald, Ndteegarden, Cosal, Dejvid, JALockhart, Angr, Simetrical,
Woohookitty, PoccilScript, Commander Keane, Matijap, Kelisi, Hailey C. Shannon, Dangerous-Boy, Rchamberlain, GraemeLeggett, Yst,
Meehawl, Magister Mathematicae, BD2412, Qwertyus, Kbdank71, Nahabedere, Dpr, Dpv, Angusmclellan, Seidenstud, Dimitrii, Koavf,
Enzedbrit, Tombseye, MarSch, Eyu100, Oblivious, Ligulem, Sferrier, Nandesuka, FlaBot, Awotter, Jax-wp, Talessman, Ewlyahoocom,
Chobot, DVdm, Gwernol, Roboto de Ajvol, JWB, Hairy Dude, Antoin, RussBot, Manicsleeper, Pigman, Gaius Cornelius, Thane, BG-
ManofID, Veledan, The Ogre, Bloodofox, Welsh, Daanschr, XGustaX, Nick C, Elizabeyth, Kortoso, Zouden, Botteville, Maunus, Ccgrimm,
Igin, Clarifer, Jth299, Johann7ogan, Deville, Andrew Lancaster, Reyk, Brina700, Fram, Hayden120, Pdraic MacUidhir, Curpsbot-
unicodify, Che829, Junglecat, Rhion, Doctor Hesselius, Roke, Marquez~enwiki, Attilios, SmackBot, FocalPoint, Musungu jim, NSLE,
David Kernow, PJM, Wakuran, Kintetsubualo, Flamarande, Srnec, Rune X2, Commander Keane bot, Sloman, Gilliam, Ohnoitsjamie,
Hmains, Hraefen, Chris the speller, Aucaman, TimBentley, Rex Germanus, Enkyklios, Jprg1966, Fplay, MalafayaBot, BrendelSignature,
Royboycrashfan, Can't sleep, clown will eat me, OrphanBot, Rrburke, Britmax, JesseRafe, Khoikhoi, Iblardi, Salt Yeung, Megalophias, Stor
stark7, Gnome of Fury, Cyberevil, SashatoBot, Kashk, Fergus mac Rich, Cyberstrike2000x, The Man in Question, A. Parrot, Hernan43,
NJMauthor, Tartessos75, SQGibbon, Mr Stephen, Gizmo II, InedibleHulk, Udibi, Mariule, Matthew.priem, Dl2000, Keycard, OnBe-
yondZebrax, Dekaels~enwiki, Laurens-af, Joseph Solis in Australia, Casull, Igoldste, Gil Gamesh, Maleabroad, JoannaSerah, Tawkerbot2,
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Darthscott3457, Flammingo, FilipeS, Future Perfect at Sunrise, Travelbird, Red Director, R-41, Dusty relic, Tkynerd, DumbBOT, Star-
ionwolf, Ulritz, Energyfreezer, Barticus88, Biruitorul, Jobber, Zickzack, Mojo Hand, Missvain, Folantin, Escarbot, The Person Who Is
Strange, AntiVandalBot, Gioto, Benjaburns, Flibjib8, Smith2006, Goldenrowley, Brendandh, Gdo01, Storkk, Snowballa68, Ghmyrtle, Ani
td, Chibi kain, JAnDbot, Liam D, Kentykentkenton, CEngelbrecht, Sigurd Dragon Slayer, VeronicaPR, Magioladitis, Wizymon, VoABot II,
Xn4, BillDeanCarter, rdRuadh21, Berig, Philg88, Baristarim, Ekotkie, Vytal, Crazytail3, Globe01, R'n'B, CommonsDelinker, J.delanoy,
Frinkus, Bogey97, Jerry, Being blunt, Omnivore Oprah, Gurchzilla, Wiki1609, 83d40m, Bfergus, Olegwiki, Fjbfour, Omgshiftplusone,
Prof. Heizer, Swoof, 1812ahill, VolkovBot, Macedonian, Magnvss, Kyle the bot, Chienlit, Wallace1297, Rokus01, Philip Trueman,
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zon, Nilzern, Mallerd, AlleborgoBot, Logan, Hasam, Munci, Dylansmrjones, MatthewTStone, Romuald Wrblewski, DionysiusThrax,
SieBot, Scarian, WereSpielChequers, Caltas, Jingiby, Trigaranus, FOOFhead, Tiptoety, Fiftwekid, Wombatcat, Lightmouse, ASprigOf-
Fig, Ceejus, Kumioko (renamed), Reginmund, Kentynet, Marbas~enwiki, Scotia1297, Denisarona, -The Bold Guy-, TFCforever, Lu-
cius Sempronius Turpio, ClueBot, SenseOnes, Asentreu~enwiki, Plastikspork, Kneperle, Saddhiyama, Drmies, Der Golem, Skpperd,
Wikihistorian, XCassX, Niceguyedc, Rivalin, LizardJr8, Parkwells, Tiretabletelephone, DragonBot, Tomeasy, Ni'jluuseger, Knightlymon-
goose, Roanokesurvivor, Hans Adler, Michael.palomino-at-gmx.ch, Modelships, AnimalLover323, BobPeck (rename), Desreas, SoxBot III,
Otr500, BodhisattvaBot, Dthomsen8, NellieBly, ZooFari, Notuncurious, Addbot, BShelper, SirSexalot, The Chronist, Aaronjhill, HP1740-
B, PaunchyPaul, Holt, AnnaFrance, LinkFA-Bot, Jaggsan, Lemonade100, GC8124~enwiki, Dayewalker, Sindinero, Zorrobot, David0811,
Okadoz, Jarble, Legobot, Luckas-bot, Yobot, Ptbotgourou, Podomi, Yngvadottir, Iroony, Againme, Backslash Forwardslash, AnomieBOT,
1exec1, Hayden4258, Jim1138, IRP, Historian19, ArthurBot, LilHelpa, Xqbot, Sionus, Mononomic, Getovermanaged, Phusg, Agericeno,
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Flatronwide, Gergergtegergergergergerger, LittleWink, Smuckola, BRUTE, le ottante, Railsafety, Jauhienij, Cnwilliams, FoxBot, Iwill-
survivethismess, Titulcia, Begoon, Theo10011, Canuckian89, Watisctie, WillNess, Sheodred, Whisky drinker, Beyond My Ken, Winto-
nian, EmausBot, John of Reading, WikitanvirBot, Abrawak, Dewritech, FAEP, PBS-AWB, Alpha Quadrant, Cabolter, Alpha Quadrant
(alt), H3llBot, Highvale, Michael Fleischhacker, Wabbott9, 2ravens, L1A1 FAL, Kobalt04, Obotlig, , Dng23, Rbz321, Morgengave, TYel-
liot, Yankeewave, Elgor008, Gom1896, Fideco, ResearchRave, ClueBot NG, SgtPetsounds, MelbourneStar, Jeremyborn, Jcocteau, Alphas-
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Gualtieri, Torvalu4, Bachware, Prophet of Hell, JYBot, Davidlwinkler, Dexbot, Hmainsbot1, Webclient101, Hwr007, Lugia2453, Jid-
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Beetsyres34, Ww2manin, Atotalstranger, Ionchari, Library Guy, Kezzer16, Archsouls, MickeyCool34, Derekitou, Dannis243, Jb1606,
Yezohtz2, HavelockWilltravel, Prinsgezinde, KasparBot and Anonymous: 489

12.2 Images
File:Boerfamily1886.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Boerfamily1886.jpg License: Public domain
Contributors: Photographer: Joseph Rauscher, Source: National Archives, as presented by the Swaziland National Trust Commissions
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