[gothic-l] Re: Migration theories

[dirk at SMRA.CO.UK]

Hi Bertil,
I agree, it cannot be more than a theory. However, Procopius wrote 
many things which we know are wrong. See the example below:

" ...Now the Vandals, dwelling about the Maeotic Lake [the Sea of 
Azov], since they were pressed by hunger, moved to the country of the 
Germans, who are now called Franks, and the river Rhine, associating 
with themselves the Alans, a Gothic people..."   (Vandals are not 
attested at the Sea of Azov and the Alans were no gothic people, I 
think)

The speaker at the British Museum, based her assessment of the Gothic 
migration from Gotland/South Sweden on the lack of archaelogical 
evidence for this migration and the migration to the Black Sea on the 
relative abundance of archaeological evidence... However, with
regards 
to the Eruli, I guess cohesiveness of a small people should also not 
be underestimated. In fact the speaker herself mentioned examples in 
history were a migrated people showed remarkable degrees of 
cohesiveness over a long period of time, like the Siebenbuerger 
Sachsen in Transilvania, who flourished for some 900 years without 
blending into the native population....

Dirk 

--- In gothic-l at egroups.com, Bertil Häggman <mvk575b at t...> wrote:
> Dirk,
> 
> An interesting theory concerning the Eruli,
> but as long as she cannot provide any
> acceptable evidence I think there is
> no reason to abandon facts from
> classical sources: that the Eruli migrated
> from Denmark and that some of them, according
> to Prokopios remigrated and settled close
> to the Gauti in the 6th century..
> 
> Othe theories have been tried concerning
> the Eruli. One by a Swedish Professor of English 
> with an amateur interest in ancient Germanic
> peoples. He has put forward the theory that
> the Eruli were something of modern soccer team,
> roaming Europe as armed bands for hire. Thus
> the Eruli was not a people.
> 
> Erulically
> 
> Bertil
> 
> > I attended an interesting lecture at the British Museum the other
> > day. 
> >  The speaker presented material about migrations in history and 
> > illustrated most of her points with reference to Germanic 
migrations 
> > and especially the Goths. The speaker placed various types of 
> > migrations on a continuum with a full scale migration of an
entire 
> > people on the one end and the migration of a small but powerful 
elite 
> > towards the other end. The speaker said that while the Gothic 
> > migration to the Black Sea was probably of the first type, the 
first 
> > migration of the Goths from Gotland and/or Southern Sweden was 
> > probably of the second type. Thus, she suggested that only a 
chieftan 
> > or royal family with their retainers migrated from somewhere 
'north
> > of 
> > the Baltic Sea' to establish their rule among the Germanic people 
> > living in the Vistula region of modern Poland. She even
postulated 
> > that some migrations (she mentionen the Eruli as a possible
> > candidate) 
> >  consisted of nothing more than the re-adoption of a 'famous and
> > heroic 
> > name' by new people. In other words she explains the 'appearance' 
of 
> > Eruli in far affield places and in particular the re-migration to 
> > Denmark with the simple adoption of that name by a new tribe or
at 
> > best the movement of a small group of people (a chieftan with 
> > retainers) instead of an entire people. I found these points
quite 
> > interesting.


-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
Get FREE long-distance phone calls on Tellme!
Dial 1-800-555-TELL, say "Phone Booth"
http://click.egroups.com/1/9816/8/_/3398/_/971869297/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>.
Homepage: http://www.stormloader.com/carver/gothicl/index.html