[gothic-l] Re: Names of Heruls

[dirk at SMRA.CO.UK]

--- In gothic-l at y..., "Einar Birgisson" <einarbirg at y...> wrote:
> --- In gothic-l at y..., dirk at s... wrote:
> > --- In gothic-l at y..., Tore Gannholm <tore.gannholm at s...> wrote:
> > >  
> > Hi Tore,
> > 
> > that is all very nice, but the problem is that Procopius sometimes 
> > reported reliable information and sometimes he reported a mixture 
> of 
> > fiction and fantasy. Sometimes it is easy to tell the two appart, 
> but 
> > often it isn't. That is why Procopius has to be interpreted 
against 
> > the background of other sources, evidence and theory.
> > 
> > Consider the following exerpts from Procopius, and you will see 
> that 
> > he had no clear idea about where or what Britain was and where or 
> what 
> > Thule was.
> > 
> >   Einar; Hæ Dirk..                                                 
>  
>  When reading the chapter in Dewings translation when Procopius is 
> describing the travel to Thule, it seems pretty obvious that he 
means 
> Scandinavia.. 
> And when descriping the customs of the northern tribe 
Skriðfinnar(the 
> northern Lappish tribes) he was very accurate. When describing the 
> midnight sun,he was accurate.  
> Skriðfinnar were just in Scandinavia but not in The British Isles. 
> 
> We can not describe any midnight sun in the British Isles,because 
> there is none.  We can rule out Iceland as Thule in the connection 
to 
> this travel of the Heruli up North. There are just five countries in 
> northern Europe with a midnight sun; Iceland,Greenland,Norway,Sweden 
> and Finnland. Well and northern Russia of course.
> 
> I mentioned Skriðfinnar in one of my previous letters on the         
 
> Germanic-L. Procopius description was very similar to the 
description 
> of Skriðfinnar in the Old Icelandic literature. And the name was 
> exactly the same. So he did not mix anything up there. And the 
> midnight sun in northern Scandinavia is a reality,you cannot 
> deny.                 
> So a Thule with a midnight sun and the tribe Skriðfinnar can just be 
> Scandinavia. So simple is that.
> 
> Bless,bless. Einar.                                                  
 

Hi Einar,

unfortunately it is never as simple as that. 

Procopius, as educated Greek had access to the writings of ancient 
geographers. Every educated Greek knew about the the story of the 
mid-night sun in Thule and Scandza and every educated Greek expected 
this description to come up in a report about these areas. The same is 
true for several tribal names. Procopius simply copied the 
relevant passages from the sources at his disposal, showing off his 
education and satisfying the expectations of this readers. 

I cited his report about Britain not because I think that he confused 
it with Thule, as you seem to have mis-understood me; but because it 
shows that he new very little about northern Europe in general and the 
location of Thule and Britain in particular. This, is by the way the 
accepted interpretation. 

cheers,
Dirk

 




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