[gothic-l] Pre-Viking Raids

[Bertil Haggman]

Migrational research has shown for the period 200 - 500 AD that
were probably not large populational movements. It was
rather raids by the ruling stratum. Their purpose: conquering
areas and peoples. Vikings and Varangians were no peoples.
They were from Halogaland, Vaestergoetland and Scania,
for instance, people who could finance the raids.

It could be that the Eruli and other "tribes" were local warrior
clans from mainly the southern part of Scandinavia. Maybe they
were under the leadership of the Ostrogothic Amals. The
migrations were highly organized and not random.

These clans or groups did not leave Scandinavia for good.
The Eruli with probable Scandinavian background likely
left relatives back home. When they returned they once more
merged with their original culture but at the same time
influenced it. Thus imported traditions, craftmanship, customs
and usages were spread and these sometimes remained for generations,
even centuries. The returning Eruli could very well have provided the roots of
the privileged stratum in the early Middle Ages in some provinces on the
southern Scandinavian peninsula.

Erulically

Bertil


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