[gothic-l] Re: Beowolf--the Goth?

[andreas.schwarcz at UNIVIE.AC.AT]

On 28 Jan 2001, at 0:56, trbrandt at post9.tele.dk wrote:

> Why did the author connect the Geatic king Hugleik dying in Frisia
> around 520 AD with the Ostrogothic king Ermaneric dying in the Black
> Sea region around 375 AD - and the mythical Hama? Why should we care
> about Ermaneric and Brisings' necklace unless they represent the
> background of our hero?

> Are our problems with the Geats/Getes/Getae/Getorum all results of
> the same old and wellknown mistake?
>
> This makes the Geats a tribe with Eastgermanic connections settled
> around the Bay of Helgoland from Jutland to the Rhine or in England.
> Therefore they could tell about Beowulf swimming home. However we
> should not expect a tribe from this area to fight against the Swedes
> around Uppsala as well as we should not expect a tribe from Western
> Sweden attacking the Francs as early as around 500. Therefore the
> narrator of Beowulf must also have mixed up stories about Hugleik and
> the Geats with Scandinavian stories about the Swedish Goetes.
>
> Just an idea! It includes of course many misunderstandings and many
> unreliable historians - but this has always been the problem with the
> dragonkiller Beowulf.
>
> Troels Brandt

Hello Troels Brandt,
I like your conclusions and I think you are right. We must not forget
that a heroic poem is not historiography and that it may use
teleological means and shortenings for its story. It may take peoples
and persons from the fourth century and make them close relatives
of persons in the fifth. It tells us something about tradition, but
nothing about actual genealogy or family relations.
Regards
         Andreas Schwarcz
>
>
>
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ao.Univ.Prof.Dr.Andreas Schwarcz
Institut fuer oesterreichische Geschichtsforschung
Universitaet Wien
Dr.Karl-Lueger-Ring 1
A 1010 Wien
Oesterreich
tel.0043/1/42-77/272-16
fax 0043/1/42-77/92-72
email andreas.schwarcz at univie.ac.at

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