[gothic-l] Re: Eruli in the West

Wed Feb 13 13:17:31 UTC 2002

On 13 Feb 2002, at 8:33, faltin2001 wrote:

> > That there were connections in the fifth century between 
> > Scandinavia and Bohemia is testified by archeology (see Tejral and
> > Arrhenius) and the Longobardic kings from the Gausi.  
> 
> 
> Hello Andreas,
> 
> I think that this link of Langobardic kings (ex genere gausus) with
> Scandinavia is very tentative indeed. The Edictus Rothari mentions in
> its king list the following names with 'ex genere'.
> 
> 1. rex agilmund, ex genere gugingus.
> 10. audoin, ex genere gausus.
> 12. clep, ex genere beleos.
> 14. agilulf, turingus, ex genere anawas.
> 16. hariwald, ex genere caupus.
> 17. rotari rex, filius nandinig, ex genere harodos.
> 
> I think there firstly arises the problem of what the respective names
> (gugingus, gausus, beleos, anawas, caupus, harodos) are really
> refering to. Some authors have opted for names of clans, others for
> names of gods or areas. Thus, Agiulf, who is actually called a
> Thurginian may have been a member of a certain clan named 'Anawas'.
> Cleph and Hariwald seemed to have been members of clans with the names
> Beleos and Caupus, respectively. For Rothari the possibility exists
> that 'harodos' referes to the Harudes tribe, mentioned already at the
> time of Ceasar, but also a link to one of the names of Wodan was also
> suggested. 
> 
> However, with Agilulf being a Thuringian, it is also possible that the
> 'ex genere harodos' of Rothari refered to the pagus Harudorum (the
> Harudian area) in north Thuringia, which was the area were the
> Thuringians who joined the Langobards in their move to Italy actually
> came from. Thus, some authors (I think Hauptfeld, Lotter and Menghin?)
> have argued that Audoin was most likely also a Thuringian, with links
> to the pagus Harudorum and the Saxons who took over the area after
> 533AD and who joined the Langobards in Italy, because of these links
> with Audoin. In addition, a god Gaut was apparently also worshiped as
> founder god among the Saxons, in the form of Hatha-Gaut, and probably
> also known among the Thuringians.
> 
> cheers,
> Dirk
Dear Dirk,
ex genere of course defines a prominent family and its name may 
express a genealogy going back to Gaut as well as an ethnic 
connotation. But in contrast to Agilulf Audoin is not called a 
Thuringus (but also not a Gaut). He was a Longobard by his father, 
the connection to the Thuringians went over his very prominent 
mother.  

Hauptfeld p.128, formulates it this way:
"Die gautische Herkunft seiner Familie dürfte ebenso wie die 
harudische Abstammung des späteren Langobardenkönigs Rothari 
aus dem thüringischen Bereich stammen," and points out that 
according to the Historia codicis Gothani 5,9 Audoin was a half-
brother both of the Thuringian king Herminafred and the former 
Longobardic queen Ranicunda. His mother Menia was the widow of 
the Thuringian king Bisin.

Well, if you talk about a "gautic descent", the Gausus may apply 
either to the line of the mother, if she is very prominent (and we do 
not know from where Menia came before she married Bisin) or to 
the father. Anyway it gives a family tradition, not an ethnic 
desciption of the person itself. But the family tradition may have 
had a connotation with the Gauti, as the grave goods in the 
princely graves of Bohemia have some connection with Scandinavia.

Kind regards
                       Andreas     
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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