[gothic-l] Re: Trailing the Eruli in the North

[andreas.schwarcz at UNIVIE.AC.AT]

Dear Dirk, 
I did not use a translation, but the authoritative Latin text edited in 
the MGH by Mommsen. And Jordanes does not start with the 
Scerefennae, he starts Getica 20 with the gens Adogit: "In cuius 
parte arctoa gens Adogit consistit, quae fertur in aestate media 
quadraginta diebus et noctibus luces habere continuas." You will 
agree that the "pars arctoa" and the region of continous light in 
midsummer is not in the south of Scandza. It always pays to read 
the texts, not only the translations. And "contempto proprio regno" 
is a very literary description of someone who had left his own 
country for the court of Theodoric. Cassiodorus wrote for the court 
of Ravenna, who would have been more flattered by the decription a 
voluntary joining of a foreign king than by the arrival of an exiled and 
deposed king, and we cannot tell from his wording what really 
caused Roduulf's journey. "Quibus" is a relative pronoun which 
could apply to all seven peoples or only to the Ranii. You can 
translate it both ways or as "among those was Ruduulf king", 
which is even more indistinct.
Kind regards
                   Andreas
Ao.Univ.Prof.Dr.Andreas Schwarcz
Institut für österreichische Geschichtsforschung
Universität Wien
Dr.Karl Lueger-Ring 1
A-1010 Wien
Österreich
Tel.0043/1/42-77/272-16
Fax 0043/142-77/92-72


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