[gothic-l] The Gothic Name

[andreas.schwarcz at UNIVIE.AC.AT]

On 22 Jan 2002, at 14:53, Bertil Haggman wrote:

> So why not end the fruitless quarrels and
> "believe" Theoderic the Great, who derives his origins and those of
> his Goths from Scandinavia."
> 
> Couldn't agree more about what Professor Wolfram is writing.
> 
Dear Bertil,
finally you acknowledge the authority of Wolfram! I would not have 
thought this could ever happen. But you should really get your 
citations right. Wolfram's sentence ends with a question mark after 
Scandinavia (Wolfram, Goths, 1988, p.21). And Wolfram writes this 
passage in a chapter about the names of peoples and geographical 
regions connected in one way or other with the Goths in literature 
and the written sources. And I fear I must disappoint you. He also 
gives an answer to this question at the end of the chapter p.23:

"The special forms of the Gothic name mark periods in the history 
of that people; they designate various Gothic ethnogeneses, 
among which the Scandinavian Gautic one lacks almost all 
evidence. It is therefore possible to attach a geographical and 
chronological meaning to the ethnic terms. Hereafter, whenever the 
Gutones and Guti are mentioned, these terms refer to the Goths on 
the Continent before their migration to the Black Sea. The people of 
the third century before the division will simply be called 
Goths."...and on p.24: "The Gothic-Gautic peoples of the Baltic-
Scandinavian north will be mentioned for the sake of completeness, 
but a historical discussion of these peoples can hardly go beyond 
the listing of their names."

I would really advise you to read the whole book, not just give 
citations out of connection. Wolfram does postulate a Scandinavian 
connection for the Amals, a view not shared by Heather, but argued 
by Wolfram on his analysis of the Amal genealogy. The stone 
circles show connections in cult and maybe family connections of 
ruling elites on both sides of the Baltic. Even one of the ruling 
families of the Longobards was "genere Gausus". But that does not 
mean that there were not different peoples on both sides of the 
Baltic. Each ethnogenesis produced a people with a different 
history and we cannot put these all into one bag and call them 
Goths. That is the main point Wolfram makes and you cannot cite 
that away.

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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