[gothic-l] Re: Langobards

[faltin2001]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "gazariah" <brahmabull at h...> wrote:
> Quiet here lately.
>
> I am trying to get an idea of the origins and early history of the
> Langobards. Can they really be thought of as a Germanic ethnic (sub)
> group, or is Langobard the name of a confederation? Would it make
any
> sense to talk about a Langobard dialect? If so, do we know anything
> about their dialect?
>
> Hoping for enlightenment,
> Gazariah


Hi Gazariah,

there are several rather recent books on the Langobards, including
the volumes by Wilfried Menghin, Ralf Busch and an upcoming book
edited by Walther Pohl.

About the origins of the Langobards, they are first mentioned at the
lower and middle Elbe in the first century AD. Their own origin
history traces their beginnings back to Scandinavia as was done so
often if no real sources and memory was available. Certainly, no
Langobards or Winnili (as they claimed to have been called earlier)
are ever mentioned in Scandinavia, and archaeologists can trace them
only to the lower Elbe.

However, the link between the later Langobards and the Langobards
mentioned by Tacitus and Ptolemy may not be as straight foreward as
was believed in the past. Nowadays, scholars speak of a new
ethnogenesis of the Langobards in lower Austria and/or Pannonia,
which incorporated large numbers of Thuringians, Heruls, Saxons,
Bulgarians and other groups.

BTW, it has now been demonstrated that the area of Nordendorf near
Augsburg in Bavaria was populated by Langobards from Pannonia, which
may partly explain the later close ties of the Langobards with the
Bavarians. Hence, the early Langobardic kings were mostly of
Thuringian decent and the later once were of Bavarian decent. The few
remainders that exist of Langobardic show that it was closely related
to Bavarian and had gone through several common innovations.

Cheers
Dirk






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