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

[Tore Gannholm]

Troels,
Perhaps it is not so strange.
Theoderik tried to get all possible support from relatives and friends in
the Baltic area to help him fight the Franks.
If Hugleik leads a Gotlandic-Danish army in Frisia, Gregor of Tours might
see them as Dani.

If we accept that Beowulf is about Gotland and that the Goths emigrated
from Gotland, all this with the Brisinga necklace and Frisland makes sense.
We must not forget the Gotlandic tradition with golden necklaces. The
famous Havor necklace from the first century that was stolen from the
Gotlandic museum (Fornsalen) and still is missing.

A similar golden necklace can be seen on a mosaic with Alexander the Great
called the Alexander Mosiac from Pompeij or Herculaneum. It is now on a
wall in the museum in Naples Italy. It depicts the Perser king Dareus with
the golden necklace as the symbol of power.

Furthermore the latest theories from the University of Uppsala is that the
similar golden necklaces such as the one found at Vittinge in Västergötland
also are made in Gotland. (Fornvännen 1996/1 Sagan om ringarna av Erik
Nylén)
Tore



>
>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?
>
>Once this necklace - Brisingamen/The sun - was probably told to
>belong to Freja, but in the Christian version this cannot be the
>reason. Even to day elected mayors and chairmen of clubs sometimes
>wear a golden chain as a symbol of power. The royal crown was without
>doubt earlier a ring around the neck (or sometimes a helmet?).
>Ingemar Norgren has written an article about the ring as an important
>Germanic symbol of oath and power. The above mentioned necklace in
>Beowulf was probably the "crown" of the people of Hugleik -
>the
>unknown Geats.
>
>If so the authors idea behind the Geats could be that they had been
>in contact with Ermaneric near the Black Sea region.
>
>In a report from the camp of Attila all the followers of the Huns
>were called Goths by Priscus, and in cronicles from that time (a.o.
>Jordanes) Goths in the Dacian region were sometimes confused with the
>Getes, who were an earlier Tracian tribe like the Dacians.
>
>The episode of Hugleik took place 50 years after the army of Attila
>was disbanded. At this time Gregory of Tours called the people of
>Hugleik Dani and Liber Monstrorum called them Getorum.
>
>Around 1000 AD Dudo wrote: "... the Getae, also known as Goths,
>Sarmatians and Amacsobii, Tragoditae and Alans ...".
>(http://orb.rhodes.edu/ORB_done/Dudo/chapter02.html ). These people
>seem to be followers of the Huns together with Rugians, Heruls and
>Gepides. He also told about Danes being Dacians from Dacia, where
>both Attila, the Goths and the Getes settled.
>
>Dudo wrote his "Gesta Normannorum" at the same time as our
>version of Beowulf was written down. Are the names in our version of
>Beowulf based on the same information as Dudo? Were the Geats of
>Hugleik a Gothic tribe or one of the tribes Ermaneric subdued?
>
>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
>
>
>
>
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