[gothic-l] Goths, Eruli in the East

[Tore Gannholm]

>The Harvard Professor Omeljan Pritsak in his pathbreaking
>_The Origin of Rus'_ has brought up the extensive East
>Scandinavian/East Germanic cultural traces and connections
>between the Goths, Eruli in the east and Scandinavia.
>
>He also points to the extensive contacts between Goths/Eruli
>plus many others and the steppe peoples. He also notes
>that the Goths/Eruli and other East Germanic peoples can be
>regarded as the predecessors and the models of the Vikings.
>Here Pritsak establishes an important link between the Goths
>in the east and the later vikings. It is thus important to see the
>whole period 150 AD to around 1250 AD in its totality.
>
>Of course the contacts between the steppe peoples and the East
>Germanics took many forms. There were military campaigns and
>clashes, combined piratical expeditions into the territories
>of the sedentary states, Germanic trade expeditions to the east,
>joint settlement  and founding of kingdoms on the ruins of the
>west Roman empire (Alans were the most prominent allies
>in this). But we must not forget both the First and the Second
>Great Gothic Kingdoms in the east.
>
>It is unfortunate that there is not a wealth of extant sources of these
>highly interesting interrelations. I have just had a very interesting
>exchange with an Italian scholar who pointed out the traces of
>Iranian culture in Gothic Italy and he has promised to provide me
>with further details as times go by.
>
>The problem of course in the early times is that neither group,
>with some exceptions, were literate. One can however believe
>in the possibility that they developed similar ideologies. For example
>there is indications that Gothic mercenaries in Roman service
>worshiped the Iranian war god Mithra. Steppe myth can have
>been reintroduced in Scandinavia which had fallen into oblivion
>in the agricultural life in Scandinavia but was taken up through the
>contacts with the practicing Nomads. The Poetic Edda provides
>ample examples that Attila became the main hero of Germanic epic
>even going so far as to being presented as the embodiment of
>an ideal ruler, although he and Ermanarik fared less well than Rolf Kraki,
>for example.
>
>Bertil Haggman


Bertil,
The following from Samuel Laing, Heimskringla the Olaf Saga indicates 
the links between the religion of the Vikings and early Christianity:

"It will also be observed that in all the forms of heathenism that 
existed before Christianity, the priesthood, whether hereditary or 
dedicated by selection to their vocation, were all a 
temple-priesthood. They belonged to particular services, gods, and 
temples; and not to any territorial district like a parish, or to any 
particular group of people like a congregation. Christianity, 
however, from the first appears to have been altogether 
congregational. The bishops, elders, and deacons belonged to 
particular congregations in particular localities, within which they 
taught and governed in things spiritual. If the Christian church lost 
this original and characteristic formation at Rome, it was by 
imitating and adopting, some centuries after its first establishment, 
the former heathen establishment of a temple-priesthood, a pontifical 
college, and a pontifex maximus.
Odinism appears to have been formed, like early Christianity, and no 
doubt an imitation of it, upon the congregational principle. The gode 
had under his charge a certain portion of territory called a godord, 
similar to a Christian parish. The inhabitants of this locality paid 
him certain dues as their priest and local judge. Each godord appears 
to have had its own Thing, or court, for administering the laws of 
the general or district Thing, for  apportioning  dues or taxes, and 
the levies of men and ships. To this early and complete arrangement 
of the country and population into godords, or parishes, may be 
ascribed the great military and naval achievements of the pagan 
Northmen. It was an effective military arrangement of the whole 
people. As an arrangement connected with religion, its principle is 
evidently congregational, and derived from Christianity in the early 
ages when it had no hierarchy. The godord, that is, the right to 
jurisdiction and certain dues for civil and ecclesiastical functions 
within a locality, appears to have become a saleable transferable 
property at last, just like an advowson to the cure of souls in an 
English parish at the present day. So perfectly similar were the 
arrangement of Odinism and Christianity, that a century after the 
establishment of Christianity and Christian church institutions in 
Iceland, Bishop Isleif held a godord as quite compatible with his 
functions. The apostolic succession also, if it may be so termed, 
from the twelve original "goder" the companions of Odin, or a 
qualification derived from them, appears to have been considered 
necessary for holding the office of "gode", just as a true apostolic 
succession is considered in England at the present day. These are 
coincidences with the Christian church which  can scarcely be 
accidental."


According to some theories the Heruls brought that religion with them 
to the Lake Mälar Area in the beginning of the 6th century.

Tore






-- 

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Tiny Wireless Camera under $80!
Order Now! FREE VCR Commander!
Click Here - Only 1 Day Left!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/WoOlbB/7.PDAA/ySSFAA/wWMplB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>. 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/