[gothic-l] Re: More on the Gothic-Slavic link

[andreas.schwarcz at UNIVIE.AC.AT]

Dear Sigmund and dear Dirk,
as Sigurd wrote himself, he confused Jordanes and Adam of 
Bremen. Helmold of Bosau cites in his turn again Adam of Bremen, 
Gesta Hammaburgenis Ecclesiae Pontificum, lib.2, cap.21:

Sclavania igitur, amplissima Germaniae provintia, a Winulis 
incolitur, qui olim dicti sunt Wandali, decies maior esse fertur 
quam nostra Saxonia, presertim si Boemiam et eos, qui trans 
Oddaram sunt, Polanos, quia nec habitu nec lingua discrepant, in 
partem adieceris Sclavaniae. ... Eius latitudo est a meridie in 
boream, hoc est ab Albia fluvio usque ad mare Scythicum. 
Longitudo autem illa videtur, quae initium habet ab nostra 
Hammaburgensis parochia et porrigitur in orientem infinitis aucta 
spatiis usque in beguariam, Ungriam et Greciam.

Helmold, Chronica Slavorum, cap.2:

Ubi igitur Polonia finem facit, pervenitur ad amplissimam Slavorum 
provinciam, eorum qui antiquitus Wandali, nunc autem Winithi sive 
Winuli appellantur. Horum primi sunt Pomerani, quorum sedes 
portenduntur usque ad Odoram.

As you can see for yourself, both Adam and Helmold are learned 
clerics from the high middle ages, who show off their erudition by 
citing the ancient Vandals, by then dead and extinct for half a  
millenium. This is quite the established way to cite ancient peoples 
in ethnographic descriptions in the high middle ages and to equate 
them with contemporary peoples. You will be shortly able to read 
how the Vandals were treated in medieval and early modern 
literature in the Neue Pauly, because my young Viennese collegue 
Steinacher wrote the relevant lemma about them for this new 
encyclopedia and this volume it is just being printed. Both Adam 
and Helmold are primarily interested in the conversion of the Slavs 
living east of the river Elbe and their Slavinia reflects the ethnic 
situation in the high middle ages, when wide parts of Northern 
Germany were inhabited by Slavic peoples. For that I would 
recommend Joachim Herrmann, die Slawen in Deutschland. Berlin 
1972, and Welt der Slawen. München 1986. 
By the way, the Vandals, were not Goths, but the Gutones seem 
to have been under Vandal dominance for some time. 
Archeologically the Vandals are sought in the area of the so-called 
Przeworsk culture, the Goths in the Wielbark culture east of it 
during their first centuries of existence.

Kind regards
                       Andreas Schwarcz      

   
Ao.Univ.Prof.Dr.Andreas Schwarcz
Institut für österreichische Geschichtsforschung
Universität Wien
Dr.Karl Lueger-Ring 1
A-1010 Wien
Österreich
Tel.0043/1/42-77/272-16
Fax 0043/142-77/92-72

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