[gothic-l] Re: Goths, Gauti, Goetaland, Gotland

[Tore Gannholm]

>--- In gothic-l at y..., "Bertil Haggman" <mvk575b at t...> wrote:
>>  _The Role of Migration in the History of the
>  > Eurasian Steppe - Sedentary Civilization vs. -
>>  'Barbarian' and Nomad, (ed. Andrew Bell-Fialkoff),
>>  London: Macmillan, 2000, 355 pp.
>>  ______________________________________
>>
>>
>>
>>  As others before him Bell-Fialkoff also point to
>>  the fact that Sweden historically "looked" east and
>>  south, not west (which was the way Norwegians
>>  "looked", for instance). The other side of the Baltic
>>  was the traditional area of interest. The natural
>>  thing, which i so obvious that it is not mentioned
>>  by the editor, is that if you want to go southeast
>>  from Goetaland you end up in the Vistula delta
>>  and the surrounding area. The ethnogenesis occured
>>  eccording to Wolfram between the rivers Oder
>>  and Vistula.
>>
>>  Gothically
>>
>>  Bertil
>
>Hæ Bertil.
>
>Thanks for your info.
>I dont know what to belief about the origin of the Goths.
>I think we have a very complex problem here.
>I think that many Continental scholars are against the idea of a
>Scandinavain origin. Partly because they are not so much of a experts
>of Scandinavian history as they are of the Continental one.
>There can be other reasons too.
>Icelandic archaeologists claim that there are no remains to be found
>showing the activity of Celtic people in Iceland.
>Genetic scientists have another story to tell.
>So lets be cautious beliefing any firm statements from anyone
>whatever expert he is considered to be.
>
>The above you say about the Swedish "looked" to the east and south
>must be a outdated view. Traditionally there have been migrations
>from Sweden to present day south/south west and eastern part of
>present day Norway.
>And to the coastal areas around Trondheim.
>And all these areas are to the west.
>And Viking activity of the Swedish in the West is much more than
>generally believed.
>To solve this question we have to define what people lived in south
>and south west Norway.
>And the ruling families settling Iceland were definetely not
>Norwegians.
>
>According to Ottar the merchant then Norwegians must have been the
>people living in coastal areas of present day west Norway.
>That later changed when they managed to gain influence and rule the
>eastern territories as well. But all that happened after 900 A.D.
>
>Cheers Einar
>

Einar,
You are right in one way. However we are talking about different 
millennia. In the late Vendel period early Viking age it is very 
different. I still maintain that the prelude to the Viking age is the 
immigration of the Heruls to Lake Mälar area and their expansion in 
the Baltic with Gotlandic and Svear colonies in present day Baltic 
states and later on into the Russian river system and to Norway, 
British isles-Island.

Bertil is talking about the Bronze age and the Roman Iron age.

If you have read Anders Kaliffs book "Gothis Connections" you can see 
that there was a common culture in present day Poland, Gotland and 
some coastal areas of eastern Sweden.
This is how it looked like when the Wielbark culture was formed. The 
claim by many is that the Wielbark culture was an indigenous formed 
culture will therefore include Gotland and some coastal areas of 
eastern Sweden.

There was probably much movement within this cultural area. It looks 
very much like the Gotlandic merchants were very influential and 
probably dominated the amber trade. We have archaeological proof for 
Gotlandic trading colonies from the Bronze age and forward in this 
cultural area. Why some continental scholars are so much against 
Gotlandic involvement I don't know.

Just look at what we dig out from the earth every year.
Just now they are showing parts of the "Spilling viking treasure" at 
the Historical museum in Stockholm, the largest viking silver 
treasure found in the world.

Tore
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