[gothic-l] Ancient geographic world view and gothia

[keth at ONLINE.NO]

On Fri, 06 Jul 2001 13:17:20 -0000 <dirk at smra.co.uk> wrote:
>For the discussion of placenames I thought it would be usefull to get
>an understanding of what sort of 'mental' map people of the ancient
>world had.
>
>Under the following link there is a list of ancient maps.
>
>http://www.thrudheim.org/sahsginotas
>
>Of some interest is the map 205 IT, World Map, Strassburg 9th Cent.
>
>The map shows the world divided in three segments by a river called
>Tanais. In the 'European' segment are listed among others: Alamannia,
>Gothia, Saxonia, Frisia, Italia. The general map outline, i.e. three
>segments Europe, Asia, and Africa with the river Tanais dividing Asia
>from Europe is a standard medieval world view, meaning that the name
>Tanais does not really need to refere to any specific river like
>Danube, Don or Dnjepr, although it is usually understood to refer to
>the Don.

I'd like to add that in Snorri's "Heimskringla" a reference to the
Tanais or "Tana-kvisl" is made as an important river in the world
geography. One often sees it stated that Snorri's world model
was the "T"-map. That is, a world divided into 3 parts, so that the
3 parts put together look somewhat like the letter "T":


           Europe ----- Asia
                    |
                    A
                    f
                    r
                    i
                    c
                    a



>
>Also interesting is map 206, The Albi or Merovingian world map of the
>8th century (the oldest world map). Interestingly, this map lumps all
>people north of Italy and east of Gallia together in a 'Gothia'.
>
>Map 205JJ, Isidore, 8th century presents the standard devision of the
>world. According to Isidore Scythia/Gothia have been named by Magog,
>son of Japhet.

That is something we have not discussed sufficiently yet:
Biblical etnogenesis, and its influence on early medieval
conceptions on how the world became populated.

Here is the Biblical model:



           Japhet ----- Sem
                    |
                    C
                    h
                    a
                    m

Here Noah's son "Cham" is seen as ancestor of Egyptians or
of peoples living on the African continent. "Sem" is the
ancestor of Arabs and Jews (semites), and "Japhet" must
then represent the "Europeans".

I should like to read Japhet as, first, "Japet"
and then shortening the last vowel, obtain "Japt".
I think this is sufficiently close to "Gapt" to make it
interesting.

Due to their early contact with Christianity, the
biblical view on etnogenesis may have influenced the
legends of the Goths and created the ancestor "Gapt" or "Japet".


>At the end of the known world, is the land of Barbaria,
>so called on account of the wild tribes inhabiting it. Enumerated
>among these tribes are the Alani, the Dacians, the Goths and the
>Suevi.
>
>These maps demonstrate vividly just how little even the better or the
>best informed people had about the geography of Europe let alone the
>World. I think that it is always important to bear this in mind when
>trying to locate (real or imagined) place names from sagas on a modern
>map.
>

What is important to rember is also that the tradesmen who often
used ships, may have had a much better view of geography than
the monks in their library who tried to constuct their maps
based on written tradition. The mariners used a different
way of transmission: the oral method, where younger people
went on sea-journeys with older more experienced sailors,
and they were then shown in practice what landmarks were important
to observe, and thus they learned to find the various ports
in actual practice. There may have been far less contact
between these two groups than one usually thinks. Thus,
these old maps may not have been terribly important for the
actual practice of navigation.

Best regards
Keth



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