[gothic-l] Goths in the East

[Bertil Häggman]

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Well, not all Goths migrated westward and
of course the origin of the meaning of Rus is
one of the great debates of the 20th century.
In Russia-Ukraine it is claimed that Rus is
of Slavic origin (the anti-normanists) and earlier
at least  Scandinavian researchers connected
Rus with (mainly) Swedish vikings. Gaardarike
was even for some time called 'Sweden the Great and
the Cold' (Svithjod in mikla edha in kalda, Heimskringla 4.9)
The theory among normanists is that the origin
of the Rus is to find in Roslagen, a province north
of Stockholm. But if the Rus came from Sweden
there is no other evidence of a people named Rus
in Sweden at the time of Viking travel in Russia.

The basis of the Second Great Gothic Kingdom was
naturally created during the time the Goths resided
in the area. The most famous Gothic ruler was of
course Ermanarik. His kingdom was destroyed by
the Huns between let us say 370 and 380 AD. Some
Goths migrated, other remained in the East. One of
the Gothic kingdoms in the East was on Crimea.
After the fall of the Huns the remaining Goths
created a new kingdom. Their Slavic neigbours called
the Gothic masters Rus ("The Red-Blond People).

The Goths of the Great Kingdom in the East demonstrated
the same qualities as the Goths elsewhere: a military and
naval strength coupled with a remarkable inability to maintain
the political and cultural independence. There was a over-
willingness to integrate with other cultures and giving up their
ethnic identity, their religion, their language and culture. In
the east the mechanisms of decline were slower than in the west.
The result was a total Slavization of these Goths and a religious-
cultural dependence on Byzantium.

The Viking influence in Russia was limited and only possible
within the framework of the Gothic kingdom of the Rus which
already existed when the Vikings arrived.

Gothically

Bertil

> If you mean the origin of the name "Rus", "Russia", as I understood it, the
> word "Russian " at first meant not Slavs or Goths but the Vikings who set up
> the Rurikid kingdom in parts of what is now Russia. A Byzantine emperor
> (Constantinus Porphyrogenitus?) wrote a book called "Description of Russia",
> including a list of names of several rapids which were navigation hazards on
> the river Dnieper on the trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople;
> it lists "Slavonic" names and "Russian" names, and the Russian" names are
> distorted versions of Old Norse, e.e. "ulborsi" = "holm-fors" = `island
> cataract'. (The correcponding "Slavonic" name is "ostrobuniprakh" = modern
> "ostrovnyy porog".) Perhaps those Vikings included some from Gotland; but the
> Goths as we know them were likely long gone away west. I read that the word
> "Rus" came from an Old Norse word meaning "rowers", or perhaps"men from
> Rodhrsland"..



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