[gothic-l] The Scandinavian Origin (to Axeage)

[B. Gendler]

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"Axeage " <axeage at hotmail.com> wrote:

> I also believed that by the time the Visigoths arrived and settled in
> Spain and southern France, and the Ostrogoths in Italy that they were
> no longer the same people (racially and ethnically) who crossed the
> Baltic from Scandinavia due to intermarriage with iranians, huns,
> slavs, romans, etc...but so far, all anthropological evidence I have
> seen indicates otherwise.

  We do know that they mixed, however, and not always through marriage
either. Wulfila for instance, was not of Gothic descent. His ancestors were
captives. Through the generations, their standings changed, so that by the
time of Wulfila, he was considered a "Goth."
  One thing to consider, apart from that, is that many of the peoples with
whom the Goths mixed with were more probably other Germans with genetic
origins similar to those of the Goths, i.e. Scandinavian, than say Iranians,
for example. We could probably expect more of a mixing with Germanic peoples
because the linguistic barrier would not be as great. This pertains mostly
to joiners. Marriages probably took place within the tribe, or by plundering
the women of other tribes.
  A large influx of non-Gothic Germans into the Gothic nation would alter
their genetic pool very lttle. As Bertil has shown us, most of these other
tribes that the Goths would have had contact with also had Scandinavian
origins.
     Gendler.

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