[gothic-l] Re:Ablabius found

Fri Mar 22 00:16:09 UTC 2002

Dear Tim!

I know Inger E. Johansson personally. She is a very studied woman with
very rapid reactions and possibility to connect things very rapidly, and
she is an exellent knower of classical sources and has an BA in history
from the university of Linköping. Her problem is that she thinks ahead
of most people, and what is obvious to her is not to an ordinary human,
because he has not  made all those mental connections with other sources
that are nessecary to understand what she means, and  on what that is
founded. Accordingly our chats are long and time- consuming interfolied
   by many questions  of details from me before I grab what she is
aiming at. Finally I mostly can conclude that she is right, even if her
original statement sometimes seem to be more exaggerating than what she
really meant.

It is not true she can not verify, but she refuses to say too much of
her results on line, but if anyone will use her material and refer to
her she is willing to deliver personally to that person. In this case
however she is herself working with it and I am aware of her material.

Her original idea the author Ablabius is the Praetorian Prefect of Rome
she proposed to me. I did myself check every one of her sources and
found still more evidence for this in other sourceplaces. This is all
published in my book and I totally agree with Inger that this is the
most probable Ablabius.I had no objections to that proposal during my
disputation lecture from neither Tore Nyberg, Torsten Capelle or Anders
Hultgård. I still however find it very important to check everything she
proposes because of the risk of misunderstanding her declarations.

I have known these new sources for a while but have not checked the
content still but I will indeed, I promise, because these documents, if
   they are what proposed, strengthen indeed my former conviction that
this indeed is "the" Ablabius. I will however wait with a judgement of
that untill I have myself read everything-also in the book.

Her copies are identical with the content in part of the referred book
Forntida Svenska legender written by Pater Stephanus of Skänninge
(Östergötland). The book exists indeed but is hard to get access to. It
is also mentioned in "Tusen sevärdheter i Sverige" by the Swedish
Tourist Society (STF) 1960. It was exhibited in Linköping 1964 or 1965
at the library there. Gad Rausing has written an article concerning the
Early Christian struggle in the 400's which is based on  materiel from
the Swedish Legendarium. This text that Rausing uses is also reproduced
in the above mentioned book by Pater Stephanus but there are also a lot
of other classical writers translated. Part of the texts, like this one,
are also able to find in the so called "Valesian excerpts"(de Valesiske
utdrag) in Ammianus Marcellinus edition of 1877. The referred part
concerning Ablabius relates his intimate knowledge of Goths and  of the
imperial family. It covers the period from 310 when Constantine the
great still was only a claimer of the imperial throne (a Caesar) till
his death in 338. If it is his original text that is related I dare not
say before I have been able to check with the claimed manusripts in the
referred monasteries. It takes some time and also a lot of permissions
and money and also a very good specialist in old handwritings. Of this I
know only what Inger has told me. It may be a future project. As far as
this texts concerns it is a referate of his life with interesting
episods with Goths and not claimed to be a history of the Goths. It of
course is not written by Ablabius in  these editions and how much of the
material that is taken from Ablabius own writings I dare not say. Be it
enough to say that these documents, if verified, increases the
probability Ablabius was Ablabius.

I hope this will sooth rumours about Inger who indeed is quite serious
in her intentions, even if she has problems formulating herself in
debates in a convincing way. She is a very special, but also very kind
and positive and educated woman.

Kindly
Ingemar

> Message: 6
>    Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 21:01:12 -0000
>    From: "yeshua666" <scatha at bigpond.com>
> Subject: Ablabius found!!
>
> Any of you who read soc.history.medieval would be familiar with
> Inger E. Johansson - a Swedish kook who likes to make wild claims
> about her amazing research and then runs away when asked for evidence
> (she claims people keep stealing her ideas - she also claims that
> some of her posts in which she is caught telling lies are actually
> forgeries.  We suspect she needs some professional help).
>
> Anyway, her latest claim is that Jordanes' major source for his
> *Getica* - Ablabius - is not lost at all:
>
> "Ablabius isn't lost, his work still exist in two monestries I have
> been told and also seen photocopies of(I will return to this later)
> one on an island in Greece where only monks live and one in a monestry
> on the border between Irac and Turkey.
>
> The photocopies I have seen have the same text as exists in a Swedish
> 13th Century source, mostly forgotten.... Forntida Svenska legender
> written by Pater Stephanus of Skänninge(Östergötland) where he
> translated into Swedish information given by early historians. The
> book still exists in one copy privately owned in Linköping. I saw it
> once when my class and one of our teachers were allowed to see it in
> 1960's. I have photocopies of parts of it. In those copies special
> information regarding Konstantin the Great's chapel in Arles and
> Konstantin the Great's mother and Ablabius himself is
> given."
>
> What do you make of these claim?
>
> Tim O'Neill
>

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