[gothic-l] Heruli and Iceland(Island)

einarbirg at YAHOO.COM einarbirg at YAHOO.COM
Wed Sep 5 18:36:22 UTC 2001


I am icelandic and I have been trying to find the roots of the 
icelandic nation.(By the way the name of the country is ISLAND not 
iceland.The englishmen started to use this name in the 16th century I 
think. This IS has nothing to do with ice.)The heruli went to 
scandinavia in the 6th century according to procopius.Where they went 
exactly is irrevalant.Propably in danish territory.Then they went to 
norway in the 8-9th centuries(or before!).They went in the footsteps 
of other germanic tribes that had settled there before(south and 
south west norway).They came with theirs tradions and their wolf 
names.Well in the end of the 9th century they had to(or choose) to 
leave the country because they opposed the ruling of the new powerful 
norwegian king.Then they settled in iceland.The structure of the 
first icelandic society was all of german origin(not nordic).They had 
german law among other things and the first law was called 
Úlfljótslög.Úlfur means wolf.The first settler of iceland was 
according to legend Ingúlfur.Later that mame changed to Ingólfur.It 
has been a more or less accepted truth that the nation was norwegian 
in origin and the book of settlement cited as proof of this.Today 
that source is not accepted valid and this issue has be debated more 
or less all this century.I will mention author Barði Guðmundsson in 
this aspect.Genealogical research shows clearly that this old and 
always unsupported theory is invald.It has just been taken for 
granted that we are from Norway because the old books say 
so.Law,litterature,althing and the general structure of the first 
society point directly to germanic origin(not nordic) though there 
were influences from nordic culture and celtic as well.So the wolf 
tribe ended in island and preserved there their great germanic 
heritage,litterature and poetry.In the german poet nibelungenlied the 
connecton beetween Hungary(former heruli territory) and Island in a 
very mythical perspective (of course) is obvious.Some myths in 
Hungary seems to connect hungary with the heruli and iceland.


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