[gothic-l] Migration from Scandinavia?

[Bertil Haggman]

Dear listmembers,

The Polish historian Jozef Kostrzewski and the German
scholar Reinhard Wenskus have both supported a migration of the Goths
from Scandinava. The former believed the Goths came
from Oestergoetland. The latter that there was a migration
from Oestergoetland, Vaestergoetland and the island of
Gotland. One thing from Jordanes remains clear. The
Goths of Gothiscandza came from the north and here
was their original home (see _Schaetze der Ostgoten_,
1995).

Other theories have been put forward. Stanislaw Kujots has
suggested that the Goths migrated from the island of Gotland
to the area of Ilmen Lake and then along the Dniepr to Crimea.
Not doubt a rather radical thesis as those who promote the
idea either that Gothic culture was a local phenomenon or
that the Goths migrated to Gothiscandza from the west.

J.Kmiecinski has put forward the thesis that there is great
similarity between the stone circles placed to mark graves
and the same in Scandinavia. Another question is if
the Goths, rather than landing in Gothiscandza, landed in
Pomerania.

For more on Kmiecinski's theory see "Die Bedeutung der
Germanen oestlich der Oder waehrend der ersten Jahr-
hunderte nach Christ im Lichte der neueren Forschungen",
Studia Gotica, 1972.

It is important not to let some archaelogical researcher theories
presented determine the whole picture of the first Goths south
of the Baltic Sea.

Gothically

Bertil




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