[gothic-l] Re: Heruls - Religion

[trbrandt at POST9.TELE.DK]

Hi Dirk

--- In gothic-l at y..., dirk at s... wrote:
> --- In gothic-l at y..., trbrandt at p... wrote:

> > This could be the royal Herulian family -
> > according to Procopius a Gothic tribe. But please keep this out
> > of the argumentation at this stage, as I did not use it.
>
> Again, I belief that the name Ases simply means wooden beam or
wooden
> idol, (see Wolfram's  Rom und die Germanen). Tanais is apparently
the
> river that separated Europe from Asia in medieval thinking. I
suspect
> that medieval authors could have re-interpreted the name Ases as
Asia,
> as the meaning for wooden idol was lost.

I answered this in my other posting.

>
> One problem that I see with the Heruls as transmitter of a
Wodan/Odin
> cult to Scandinavia is that by 500AD I would have thought that the
> Heruls had adopted either a form of Christianity or some pagan
Roman
> cults given that they were often employed as mercenaries in the
Roman
> army. The Germanic people which came in direct contact with Rome
> adopted Christianity, with the Eastern tribes tending to adopt
> Christianity even earlier and more thoroughly than the western
tribes.
> It has been argued that the Langobards adopted Arian Christianity
when
> they were subject to the Heruls in Pannonia, possibly through the
> contact with the Heruls.
>
>
> cheers,
> Dirk

You are guessing too much about the religion of Heruls. The first
Herulian mercenaries we know were probably Western Heruls (together
with Bataves). In the next 75 years the Eastern Heruls joined the
Huns. In the great battle between these Heruls and the Lombards
Procopius explained the Lombardian victory in 508 with their
Christian faith - opposite the Heruls. Procopius description of the
Heruls (an earlier host of gods (553 in Illyria)) makes no room for
Christianity, although the Herulian mercenaries known by Procopius
were forced to baptise after settling in Illyria. However their royal
family had left for Scandinavia before this baptism. The story about
the Illyrian Heruls, who against the will of Justinian had to send
for a new candidate of royal blood in Scandinavia more than 1000
kilometres away leading to the final disaster for the "Christian"
group, indicate that even this group kept remains of their former
ancestorcult. Please read Procopius and not the Goffart-
interpretation - as you remember.

You are also welcome at my homepage, if you want to read my arguments
about the Heruls:
http://www.geocities.com/troels_brandt/heruls.html

Regards
Troels


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