[gothic-l] The Formation of the Goths

[andreas.schwarcz at UNIVIE.AC.AT]

On 21 Jan 2002, at 16:31, Bertil Haggman wrote:

>
> This is the beginning of the memoria, the Amal tribal
> history of the Goths, which Cassiodorus recorded and
> which Jordanes preserved for posterity. As late as the
> sixth century Theoderic the Great insisted that his family
> had originated in Scandinavia and had made the long
> trek from there by way of eastern Pomerania and the
> Vistula to the Black Sea, thence to Pannonia and Moesia,
> and finally to Italy. In view of the enormous energy that
> scholarship has invested in defending or refuting the
> Scandinavian origin of the Goths, one could ask why
> we do not believe Theoderic and accept his claim - of
> course not as hard fact but as motif of a saga..."
> 
> When rereading the above section of Chapter 2 of Wolfram
> (1988) I was struck by the similarity of the middle ground
> taken by Professor Wolfram similar to that of Professor
> Hermodsson in _Goterna_.
> 
>
Dear Bertil;
I am really struck by your way of distorting a scholarly view. Let me 
complete the sentence on p.37 of Wolfram's book after your dots:

"..., the more so since the picture of a Gothic migration from one 
end of Europe to another certainly does not do justice to historical 
reality."

If you read on in this chapter, Wolfram clearly states that the story 
about Berig does not belong to the Amal genealogy. Wolfram also 
points out that Jordanes-Cassiodorus dates Berig's landing to 1490 
BC. He analyses the breaks in the Gothic tradition, but also the 
literary constructions made to reconcile conflicting traditions and 
learned erudition with orally transmitted heroic chants. You cannot 
build Gothic history on the motifs of mythic stories. 

If you cite, cite completely. Else people might think you are 
distorting your citations voluntarily to support your point of view. 
But maybe you were confused by Wolfram's sometimes rather 
difficult style and did not understand him. 
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


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Get your FREE credit report with a FREE CreditCheck
Monitoring Service trial
http://us.click.yahoo.com/ACHqaB/bQ8CAA/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/