Name of the Goths

[akoddsson]

Hails Micheal.


--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, Michael Erwin <merwin at ...> wrote:
>
> I understand that the Vistulan (Weilbark) Gothic culture predates 
its Scandinavian, if not its Gotlandish, parallels. 

The other way around, I think, as Gotland shows an archeaological 
record that is older than the Vistula-culture's record. 

> If the mainland had not been Slavicised - if the mainland had 
preserved most Gothic place-names - then we could compare Vistulan and 
Gotlandish place-names. But it was, so we can't.

True. This could perhaps just that the Vistula-culture was a less than 
permanent settlement for the Goths, as opposed to the older Gotland, 
which has been continuously inhabited by Goths and their descendants. 
If the Vistula-region were the Goths' aboriginal homeland, then why 
would it have totally disappeared? Descendants of other Germanic folk 
often still inhabit regions once inhabited by their forbarers. While 
some individuals or families move, their percentage almost never seems 
to have been high enough to have decimated their original homeland. 
This is appearantly not so in the case of the Vistula-culture. Why? 
Had it been their original homeland, one suspects that they would have 
put up a harder fight to keep it, enlisting whatever neighbors they 
could to this cause, and thus have some living descendants there. Now, 
while we do not know for certain what happened to the Vistula-culture, 
its disappearance should make us suspicious. We should also bare in 
mind that the Goths of Gotland, while still inhabiting their homeland, 
have been forced through conflict and threat to make compromises with 
their more numerous Gautish and Swedish neighbors, whom could 
certainly be aggressive at times. We know that Gotland was eventually 
compelled to join Sweden, as was Gautland, as a single nation. Likely, 
they had no real choice. Still, their descendants still live there. 

Regards,
Konrad







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