[gothic-l] Introduction

[Bertil Häggman]

First of all thanks to Tim for opening this
new list for ancient Germanic history.

Although a long time subscriber to the Gothic-L
I think maybe I should provide a few biographic
details.

Am a Swedish author, member of the Swedish
Writers' Union (born 1940). One of my interests is ancient
Germanic history mainly concentrating on migrations.
Have published rather extensively since 1995 on
the subject both at home and abroad. Director
of the Nordic Peoples' Migration Project (NPMP)
200 BC - 550 AD.

An interesting but not so well known macrohistorian
was Franz Borkenau (1901 - 1957), who had much
in common with Oswald Spengler and Arnold
Toynbee. His unpublished material was brought
to the public by the publication of _End and Beginning -
Generations of Cultures and the Origins of the West_ (1981).

He was of the conviction that the first use of the pronoun
"I" in northern Europe was found in a runic inscription
of about 400 AD from Denmark: "I, Hlegestr from Holt,
made this horn". Sych a statement, so Borkenau, contrasted
sharply with the Greek and Latin expressions. A Roman
crafstman would write for instance "Gn. Manlius faber hoc cornu
fecit" (The craftsman Gn. Manlius made this horn).

The Danish inscription reflected the Western attitude toward
the world (and society). It was individualism, self-assertion,
and activism. Use of the first-person pronoun became obligatory
by 1000 AD in the Scandinavian languages and later spread to
English, German, and French (the last resisted until the 1600s).
Gothic, for instance, lacked the independent pronoun, but the
post migration era have them.

I will return from time to time to Borkenau, who could offer a number
of fascinating reflections.

Germanically

Bertil Haggman





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