Tribes, peoples and their leaders

[ualarauans]

Hails Daweid!

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, David Kiltz <derdron at ...> wrote:
>
> In this context, Tacitus chapter VII of his Germania) comes to 
mind:
> "[Germani] Reges ex nobilitate, duces ex virtute sumunt". 'They
> choose their kings by birth, their generals for merit'. So, while
> there seems to have been some sort of inherited status, it 
apparently
> did not, originally, entail power or authority to rule, as a king
> would later in the middle ages. As Tacitus puts it:
> "Nec regibus infinita aut libera potestas, et duces exemplo potius
> quam imperio, si prompti, si conspicui, si ante aciem agant,
> admiratione praesunt."
> 'These kings have not unlimited or arbitrary power, and the 
generals
> do more by example than by authority. If they are energetic, if 
they
> are conspicuous, if they fight in the front, they lead because they
> are admired.'

Yes, these excerpts are really good primary evidence. How do you 
think, what Germanic words could stand for prototypic items of 
Tacitus' "reges" resp. "duces"? May we suggest that the primeval 
hereditary "rex" (< peacetime chieftain) of the Germani was termed 
with a Celtic loanword *ri:kiz (Go. reiks), implying the borrowing 
of the Celtic form of rule, as you mention, as well, just another 
vestige of a strong influence of the Celts on the would-be Teutons? 
Or maybe this "king" was called *kuningaz ("descendant of a [noble] 
kin") because he was chosen by his nobility ("reges ex 
nobilitate..."), while the (at first only temporarily elected) 
wartime leader of the people (PG *þeuðô) was, as you say, *þeuðanaz. 
A leader of some particular armed unit (*xarjaz – a proto-
Gefolgschaft formed of initiated youth?) was called *xarjanaz, or, 
to use a more Germanic-spread equivalent, *xarja-tugan (OE heretoga, 
ON hertogi, OS heritogo, OHG herizogo > Herzog)? The latter may have 
been a calque from Greek STRATHGOS, Latin dux exercitus in times of 
the very first contacts between Germania and the Antique world. 
Later on, the Germanic word was calqued by the Slavs as voje-voda, a 
military commander by the side of a kune.dzi (< *kuningaz). 
Different cultures prove to have been interacting long ago :)

> Formations on *_-i/anaz_ seem to refer to leaders (duces) of 
certain
> entities, such as *_xarjaz_ or *_theuðô_.
> Now, what about the meaning of *_theuðô_ and *_xarjaz_? Judging 
from
> their Indo-European relatives authors such as Kim McCone and others
> have concluded we're dealing with two different groups here.
> Apparently, in Indo-European speaking societies of Europe, there 
were
> age-groups (a phenomenon well known around the world). According to
> those authors, the *_xarjaz_ consisted of young men, temporarily
> living outside or at the fringes of the tribal community. These
> 'Jungmannschaften' would form bands of warriors and raid other
> territories.

It has also been observed that the way of life distinctive for 
members of a *xarjaz comes to the surface when we look at its 
derivate verb PG *xarjôjanan, lit. "to behave as a *xarjaz" > ON 
herja, OE hergian, OHG herion which yield today's English "to 
harry", "to harrow"; German "verheeren". That is, it didn't mean "to 
defend" or "to protect" (what, inter alia, German bundeswehr or 
Hungarian honved seem to imply) but rather the opposite. Imagine a 
modern country maintaining a "Ministry of Offence"! It didn't happen 
by chance that ON Herjann became a part of the Odinistic 
mythological complex. This name was not applied to, say, Tyr (PG 
*Teiwaz), who probably was a divine patron of *þeuðô, or maybe 
rather *fulkan "armed people" (cf. OCSl. pluku "army", "military 
campaign" < Go. *fulk N.-a).

> They would also serve as a first line of defence in case of enemy
> incursions. A leader (dux) of such a band would be called a
> *_xarjanaz_. The _theuðô_ consisted of the older, married, settled
> members of a tribe. A wartime leader of that entity would be the
> *_theuðanaz_, possibly assuming command over the entire armed
> contingent of a 'tribe', if necessary. However, these were hardly
> permanent institutions.
> 
> While things become progressively more speculative here, we might 
see
> in the bifurcation (hereditary king - wartime leader) an olde
> inheritance from Indo-European times. It emerges e.g. from the 
Vedas,
> that there were peace chieftains and war chieftains (to use a North
> American term here). Typically (just as with North American 
Indians),
> the peace chieftain would administer the inner affairs in time of 
no
> or little conflict. His office was typically hereditary. In times 
of
> major conflict (relative to the size of such communities), military
> chieftains were chosen.

It would seem possible to extrapolate this model upon Germanic pre-
historical institutions as well. In words, it probably could look as 
follows (please correct if I misrepresent something):

a) "king", i.e. "peacetime leader" ("rex ex nobilitate" in 
Tacitus') - PG *ri:kiz (esp. in Celtic-influenced areas?), 
*kuningaz // Go. reiks, *kuniggs

b) "commander-in-chief", "wartime leader" ("dux ex uirtute") - PG 
þeuðanaz // Go. thiudans

c) "leader of young troublemakers", "Gefolgschaftsfuehrer" ("feralis 
exercitus" in Tacitus') – PG *xarjanaz, *xarjatugan, probably also 
*druxtinaz // Go. *harjans, *harjatuga (or *harjatauha M.-an?), 
*drauhtins

> If we assume for a moment that the picture given above reflects, at
> least to some degree, the reality among Germanic tribes in the 
first
> few centuries AD, we might speculate that the Goths changed their
> leadership model to a permanent 'war chieftain' or _thiudans_. I.e.
> they adopted a slightly different model of governance. This seems 
to
> be confirmed, again, by Tacitus who writes: "Trans Lygios Gotones
> regnantur, paulo iam adductius quam ceterae Germanorum gentes, 
nondum
> tamen supra libertatem."
> 'Beyond the Lygians dwell the Gothones, under the rule of a King; 
and
> thence held in subjection somewhat stricter than the other German
> nations, yet not so strict as to extinguish all their liberty'. The
> Gothic _thiudans_ would thus seem to have acquired the status 
typical
> of a later, medieval 'king'. That process was later repeated in the
> West, but with the term *_kuningaz_/ king rising to prominence.

That's a very ingenious observation! So, thiudans as an old word 
for "commander of the thiuda's armed forces" becomes now a "leader 
of the whole thiuda both in peace and war", i.e a "king" as we know 
it from later ages. The old words for the "peacetime leader", Go. 
reiks and probably *kuniggs, keep the meaning "one of a noble 
descent", "an aristocratic person charged with some minor 
administrative functions" and that is more or less the semantics we 
meet in Wulfila's.

Time goes on, and West-Germanic Herzogs, too, begin to feel that, 
having an army under their command, they actually don't need this 
old institute of a peace chieftain ("he talks too much, and he has 
no real power"), that they'd be happier ruling the people on their 
own, not asking someone's particular consent to preparing and 
starting their wars... That is, they take the way their East-
Germanic brethren entered a time ago. The Germanic peoples along the 
Rhine limes get more and more aggressive under their leadership. But 
the new bosses don't want to formally break the age-long tradition. 
They prefer to keep the old name *kuningaz for themselves. This is 
the source of the discrepancy between East- and West Germanic power 
terms (thiudans vs. kuning).

Sorry for a sort of belletristic above. Could it really have been a 
process roughly like this?

> Lastly, _reiks_ (and its relatives) is probably an early loan from
> Celtic into Germanic. The word expressing a concept, possibly
> peculiar to a Celtic form of rule.
> 
> David Kiltz
> 
> P.S.
> I'm sorry not to be able to give more precise references at the
> moment, as all my books are packed in cardboard boxes, ready to be
> moved...

Ualarauans






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