Scandinavian Origins of the Goths

[JoatSimeon at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/24/01 12:27:32 AM Mountain Standard Time,
hwhatting at hotmail.com writes:

> 4. I would take the presence of King Rodulf at Theodoric's court not as
> evidence for the invention of the Scandinavian version, but as evidence that
> at least the Gothic elite never lost the connection to their ancestral

-- I agree with this.

We should keep in mind that it really isn't that far from the Danube to the
Baltic; perhaps a month's travel on foot or horseback.  And only slightly
longer to Italy.

Migration-period graves from Scandinavia include large amounts of Roman and
East Roman coinage and artifacts, probably the result of mercenary service
and plunder as well as trade.  Scandinavia in early historic times was
usually in continuous contact with both Western Europe and the eastern
Mediterranean, and there's no reason to believe it wasn't, if on a smaller
scale, in earlier times.  The amber route from the Baltic to the Adriatic is
ancient, for example.