[gothic-l] Whence the Eruli

[Bertil Haggman]

Understand that it is important for you
to point out that the Eruli used local
ships. For reason unknown to me some Ukrainians
are not very happy with a Scandinavian connection
(in contrast to many Russians).
What does not surprise me is that you are alone
when it comes to the settlement area of the
Eruli. All leading experts point to the Sea
of Azov as settlement area.

If there were "masses" of Eruli it is natural
that they preferred country settlements to the
city. One has only to read Tacitus _Germania_
to draw such a conclusion. Later, however, when
in Italy and Spain the Goths had grown fond
of city life.

It is quite possible that there has been a "tremendous
amount" of excavations but these reports do not
seem to have reached the United States or
western Europe.

We are not discussing "myth of origin" but
Prokopios. Based on some flimsy "myth"
they crossed all of Europe and Denmark to
settle on the southern Scandinavian peinsula.
That does not seem likely.

Well, Viktor Rydberg wrote much else than
Germanic history, but then you would
not know, as you probably cannot read any
Scandinavian language and certainly would
not be interested in reading his prose and poetry
in translation.

Bertil Haggman


> When speaking of raids which utilized the
> fleet of the Bosporan Kingdom, the notion is that
> Goths, Eruli (and others) marched from their
> settlements further north to the point of embarkation.
> There were also raids starting from coastal points
> further west (e.g. Olbia, Tyras) and here the
> settlements were much closer. Unlike Scythians and
> Sarmatians before them, it does not appear that the
> Germanic masses here were interested in "urban
> living".

> A tremendous amount of mostly published
> excavations have been done here for all historical
> periods. No significant Gothic or Erulic material
> (other than occasional discrete object finds)  has
> been discovered. The sequence of dominant cultures
> here (Sea of Azov)is: Scythian and Maeotian (the
> latter now considered Indo-Aryans), Sarmatian and
> Alanic, Hunno-Bulgar and by then we are in the early
> middle ages.

> If they shared a "myth of origin" similar to
> the one recorded for the Goths (and for many other
> Germanic populations if one believes Rydberg) they may
> simply have thought they were "going home".



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