Reiks at war

[Ingemar Nordgren]

Hi Lothian,

I am not a linguist but as far as I know they were reiks also when
leading a war expedition. Their sacral king, however, was never
allowed to leave  his own territory when the people  was permanently
settled, but had to order a reiks to take command. During the
wandering, according to Getica at least, the þiuðans was sacral king
and he used 'kings of the army' to lead parts of the united army (like
e.g. Cniva as Wolfram suggests) but  I do not know their title in
Gothic. Later, after the split between Greutungi/Ostrogoths and
Vesi/Tervingi the Ostrogothic king  seems to have behaved like an 
odinistic king while the Vesi had a kindins, family-leader or
clan-chief, executing the functions of a sacral king.The Ostrogothic
king accordingly seems to have been a reiks continously and from
Alaric also the Visgothic king was a reiks, but within  Gutþiuða the
tribal chiefs  were reiks/kunigaz and so was the kindins (for his own
tribe only). Draughtin, Sw. drott, normally  is the second in command
to the king, he is an earl/jarl, but drott  may as well be used to
mean a king, a ruler. I never, however, saw this title in connection
with an Eastgermanic people. Accordingly I dare not say if it ever was
used with the Goths. The classical authors use dux when describing the
leaders just below the king.

Best wishes
Ingemar


--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "the_lothian" <the_lothian at ...> wrote:
>
> Greetings,
> 
> I am so glad I found this site.  I am in the process of writing a 
> historical novel set during the reign of Constantina I.  My goal is 
> to make it as historically accurate as  possible.  In line with that, 
> I know that the Goths had Reiks, which I think were similar to tribal 
> chiefs.  I know that when the Goths went to war the war-chiefs 
> carried the title of Draughtin.
> 
> My question is, did Draughtin replace Reik as the title or was it 
> added to the title?
> 
> In example:
> Would Reik Larry become Draughtin Larry when they went to war, or 
> would he become Draughtin-Reik Larry, (like Governor-General) at war.
> 
> Is there anyone reading these who can help?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Tom
>


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