[gothic-l] Re: Huns, Sarmatians, Alans...

[czobor at CANTACUZINO.RO]

Hi Nikolai,

>From the point of view of the language, the thinks are (almost) clear:
Goths, Gepids, Vandals and Burgundians were East-Germanic peoples.
Lombards (or Langobards, or Longobards) were a West-Germanic people 
who settled in northern Italy. They were eventually assimiled by the 
local Romanic population, so that later "Lombard" meaned 
North-Italian, and sometimes Italian in general.
Scythians, Sarmatians and Alans were East-Iranic peoples who lived in 
today's Ukraine.
Rus was initially the name of a Scandinavian (Swedish) group that 
settled in East Europe, subdued the local East-Slavic tribes and 
established thus the Old Russian state, known also as the Kievan 
state, because it's capital was at Kiev (now the capital of Ukraine). 
Later the Scandinavic "Rus" were assimiled by the Slavs, so that the 
name Rus or Russian became the name of the Eastern Slavs in general.
Later these splitted in three peoples:
- Veliko-Russians ("Great Russians"), known today as Russians;
- Malo-Russians ("Little Russians") or Ukrainians;
- Belorussians ("White Russians").
Regarding the Huns, they (or at least their core) were an Altaic 
people, Turkic or Mongolian.
"Kurgen" (or, more correctly, Kurgan) refers to a prehistric culture 
of East Europe (approx. 6000-2000 BC), characterized by funeral heaps 
named "kurgan" in Russian. The bearers of the Kurgan-culture are 
currently identified with the Proto-Indo-Europeans.
Regarding the "really good books in English", I am sorry but I can not 
help you. Most of my information is from books that are written in 
other languages. BTW, a very good book about the Kurgan culture was 
written by Marija Gimbutas (an American archaeologist of Lithuanian 
origin), and it was originally in English (I have a translation). The 
title in English should be "Civilization and Culture".

Francisc

--- In gothic-l at y..., Nikolai <gothologist at y...> wrote:
> > Certainly Alans accompanied the Vandals in their
> > peregrinations but similar 
> > processes would have applied to the Sarmations, Huns, etc who
> > were caught up 
> > in the various movements resulting in the Visi/Ostrogothic
> > entities of the 
> > fifth and sixth century.  While I have seen the term used,
> > it's rarely 
> > accompanied by a concise definition of what it would mean to
> > an individual of 
> > Sarmation, Alan or Hunnic extraction.  
> 
> Since this hath come up a number of times, loosely, ...I want to
> ask a question. Ok, 2 questions.
> 
> 1. What exactly is the dividing line between this group (Rus,
> Kievan, Sarmatian, Scythian, Alan, Hun) ...and this group (Goth,
> Gepid, Vandal, Burgundian, Lombard, Germanic, etc.)?
> I mean culturally, linguistically, ethnically, whatever. I
> always thought of the groupings of people as different as
> Egyptians and Mongolians. Are they much more closely tied
> together somehow? 
> 
> And 
> 2. Anyone know of any really good books pertaining mostly to the
> Huns, Sarmatians, Kurgens, etc.? ok... let me rephrase that.
> Really good books In English.
> This is my first semester in Deutschkurs, so it will be about a
> year before I can adeptly read anything in Deutsch. And My latin
> sux, my spanish is rusty, and I know about 3 words (orally) in
> Russian.
> 
> Yes, yes... I'm linguistically illiterate, but I am slowly
> catching up.
> 
> 
> 
> =====
> äî ñâèäàíüÿ.
> Nikolai
> ^^O^^
> http://www.geocities.com/gothwitches
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GothicMichiana
> "Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, 
fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dreamed before." ~ 
Edgar Allen Poe
> 
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