Germanic peoples
The
Germanic peoples are groups of people identified by their use of the
Germanic languages that are descended from
Proto-Germanic (spoken during the final centuries BC, the
Pre-Roman Iron Age of
Northern Europe).
Various etymologies have been formulated. Latin
Germani is first used by
Julius Caesar, and is thought to be a loan from the
Celtic name for the Germanic tribes: the word is an
exonym. There is also a Latin adjective
germanus (from
germen, "seed" or "offshoot"), which has the sense of "related" or "kindred" and whence derives the
Portuguese irmão and the
Spanish hermano, "brother". If the proper name
Germani derives from this word, it may refer to the Roman experience of the Germanic tribes as allies of the Celts. The name may also derive from one of the principal proto-tribes of Central Europe, the
Hermunduri.
Another possible derivation is the one proffered by the
Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (1966), which relates the name to Old Irish
gair, "neighbor", which actually means "near". The Welsh is
ger.
McBain's
An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Languagerelates the word to Irish
gearr, "cut, short" (a short distance) and states the
Proto-Celtic root to be *gerso-s, further related to ancient Greek
chereion, "inferior" and English
gash. Here the etymological trail becomes more obscured. English
gash leads to the Greek word
character, which is an engraving for an identity sign of some sort. There is no clear root for this word. It could be a
Proto-Indo-European root,
*khar-, *kher-, *ghar-, *gher-, "cut",from which also
Hittite kar-, "cut". Or, it could be a
pre-Indo-European root, related perhaps to
Egyptian kha-, "cut", or the Indo-European root could derive from the pre-Indo-European root.
Apparently, the Germanic tribes did not have a self name that included all Germanic-speaking people but excluded all non-Germanic people, except for generic
þiuda- "people", while non-Germanic peoples (primarily Celtic and Roman) were called
walha- (this word lives forth in names such as
Wales,
Welsh,
Cornwall,
Walloons,
Vlachs etc.). The self-designation is continued in many personal names (such as
Thiud-reks, and also in the ethnonym of the
Swedes (from a cognate of Old English
Sweo-ðÄ"od). The adjective
þiudiskaz, referring to the language, continued in
German "Deutsch" (meaning German), English
"Dutch", Dutch
"Duits" and
"Dietsch" (the latter referring to Dutch, the former meaning German). Danish
"Tysk" (meaning German), was not introduced until the 9th century, originally designating the language of the people in contrast to the Latin language. From ca.
875, Latin writers refer to the German language as
teutonicus.
In English,
German is first attested in
1520, replacing earlier use of
Almain or
Dutch. Dutch is now used in the English language to refer to the inhabitants of the Netherlands.
The concept of "Germanic" as a distinct
ethnic identity was hinted at by the early Greek geographer
Strabo [
1], who distinguished a
barbarian group in northern Europe similar to, but not part of, the
Celts.
Posidonius, to our knowledge, is the first to have used the name, around
80 BC, in his lost 30th book. Our knowledge of this is based on the 4th book of
Athenaeus, who in ca. AD
190 quotes Posidonius as saying that "The Germani at noon serve roast meat with milk, and drink their wine undiluted".
By the
1st century A.D., the writings of
Caesar,
Tacitus and other
Roman era writers indicate a division of Germanic-speaking peoples into tribal groupings centred on:
* the rivers
Oder and
Vistula (
Poland) (
East Germanic tribes),
* the lower
Rhine river (
Istvaeones),
* the river
Elbe (
Irminones),
*
Jutland and the Danish islands (
Ingvaeones).
The Sons of
Mannus Istvaeones,
Irminones, and
Ingvaeones are collectively called
West Germanic tribes. In addition, those Germanic people who remained in Scandinavia are referred to as
North Germanic. These groups all developed separate dialects, the basis for the differences among
Germanic languages down to the present day.
The division of peoples into West Germanic, East Germanic, and North Germanic is a modern linguistic classification. Many Greek scholars only classified
Celts and
Scyths in the Northwest and Northeast of the Mediterranean and this classification was widely maintained in Greek literature until Late Antiquity. Latin-Greek ethnographers (
Tacitus,
Pliny the Elder,
Ptolemy, and
Strabo) mentioned in the first two centuries AD the names of peoples they classified as Germanic along the Elbe, the Rhine, and the Danube, the Vistula and on the Baltic Sea. Tacitus mentioned 40, Ptolemy 69 peoples. Classical ethnography applied the name
Suebi to many tribes in the first century. It appeared that this native name had all but replaced the foreign name Germanic. After the
Marcomannic wars the Gothic name steadily gained importance. Some of the ethnic names mentioned by the ethnographers of the first two centuries AD on the shores of the Oder and the Vistula (
Gutones,
Vandali) reappear from the 3rd century on in the area of the lower Danube and north of the Carpathian Mountains. For the end of the 5th century the Gothic name can be used - according to the historical sources - for such different peoples like the
Goths in Gaul, Iberia and Italy, the
Vandals in Africa, the
Gepids along the Tisza and the Danube, the
Rugians,
Sciri and
Burgundians, even the Iranian
Alans. These peoples were classified as Scyths and often deducted from the ancient
Getae (most important: Cassiodor/Jordanes, Getica approx. 550 AD).
 |
Gravegoods from various North French and Rhineland sites, up to the 6th century (British Museum, London) |
See
Germanic mythology,
Germanic paganism,
Migration Period artThe Germanic tribes were each politically independent, under a hereditary king (see
Germanic king). The kings appear to have claimed descendancy from mythical founders of the tribes, the name of some of which is preserved:
*
Angul —
Angles (the
Kings of Mercia, according to the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, other Anglo-Saxon dynasties are derived from other descendents of
Woden)
*
Aurvandil —
Vandals (uncertain)
*
Burgundus —
Burgundians*
Cibidus —
Cibidi*
Dan —
Danes*
Gothus —
Goths*
Ingve —
Ynglings
*
Irmin —
Irminones*
Longobardus —
Lombards*
Saxneat —
Saxons*
Valagothus —
ValagothsOrigin
Regarding the question of ethnic origins, evidence developed by archaeologists and linguists suggests that a people or group of peoples sharing a common material culture dwelt in northern
Germany and southern
Scandinavia during the late European
Bronze Age (
1000 BC-
500 BC). This culture group is called the
Nordic Bronze Age and spread from southern Scandinavia into northern Germany. The long presence of Germanic tribes in southern Scandinavia - an
Indo-European language had probably arrived by
2000 BC - is also evidenced by the fact that no pre-Germanic place names have been found in this area.
Linguists, working backwards from historically-known
Germanic languages, suggest that this group spoke
proto-Germanic, a distinct branch of the
Indo-European language family. Cultural features at that time included small, independent settlements, and an economy strongly based on the keeping of livestock.
The southward movement was probably influenced by a deteriorating climate in Scandinavia ca
600 BC - ca
300 BC. The warm and dry climate of southern Scandinavia (2-3 degrees warmer than today) deteriorated considerably, which not only dramatically changed the flora, but forced people to change their way of living and to leave their settlements.
At around this time, this culture discovered how to extract
bog iron from the
ore in
peat bogs. Their technology for gaining
iron ore from local sources may have helped them expand into new territories.
The Germanic culture grew to the southwest and southeast, without sudden breaks, and it can be distinguished from the culture of the
Celts inhabiting the more southerly
Danube and Alpine regions during the same period.
The details of the expansion are known only generally, but it is clear that the forebears of the
Goths were settled on the southern
Baltic shore by
100 AD. According to some scholars, along the lower and middle
Rhine, previous local inhabitants (see
Nordwestblock) seem to have come under the leadership of Germanic figures from outside.
The early Germanic tribes spoke
mutually intelligible dialects, and shared a common culture and
mythology (see
Germanic mythology), as is indicated by
Beowulf and the
Volsunga saga. One example of their shared identity is their common Germanic name for
non-Germanic peoples,
*walhaz (plural of *walhoz), from which the local names
Welsh,
Wallis, etc. were derived. A second example of a recognized ethnic unity is the fact that the Romans knew them as one and gave them a common name, Germani, the source of our
German and
Germanic (see Etymology above).
In the absence of large-scale political unification, such as that imposed forcibly by the
Romans upon the peoples of
Italy, the various tribes remained free, led by their own hereditary or chosen leaders.
For the global genetic make-up of the Germanic peoples and other peoples, see [
2] and [https://www5.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html]
Collision with Rome
By the late 2nd century, B.C., Roman authors recount
Gaul,
Italy, and
Iberia and
Lusitania were invaded by migrating Germanic tribes, culminating in military conflict with the armies of the
Roman Empire. Six decades later,
Julius Caesar invoked the threat of such attacks as one justification for his annexation of Gaul to Rome.
|
Map showing the distribution of the Germanic tribes in Proto-Germanic times, and stages of their expansion up to 50 BC, AD 100 and AD 300. The extent of the Roman Empire in 68 BC and AD 117 is also shown. Note: the large area in south-western Poland, the Przeworsk culture, is here assumed to be Germanic, others consider it to have been Slavic, or mixed |
As
Rome expanded to the
Rhine and
Danube rivers, it incorporated many
Celtic societies into the Empire. The tribal homelands to the north and east emerged collectively in the records as
Germania. The peoples of this area were sometimes at war with Rome, but also engaged in complex and long-term trade relations, military alliances, and cultural exchanges with Rome as well.
The
Cimbri and
Teutoni incursions into Roman Italy were thrust back in 101 BC. These invasions were written up by Caesar and others as presaging of a Northern danger for the Empire, a danger that should be controlled. In the Augustean period there was — as a result of Roman activity as far as the Elbe River — a first definition of the "Germania magna": from Rhine and Danube in the West and South to the Vistula and the Baltic Sea in the East and North.
Caesar's wars helped establish the term Germania. The initial purpose of the Roman campaigns was to protect Transalpine Gaul by controlling the area between the Rhine and the Elbe. In 9 AD a revolt of their subject Germanics headed by
Arminius (along with a decisive defeat of
Publius Quinctilius Varus in the
Battle of the Teutoburg Forest) ended in the withdrawal of the Roman frontier to the Rhine. At the end of the 1st century two provinces west of the Rhine called
Germania inferior and
Germania superior were established. Important medieval cities like
Aachen,
Cologne,
Trier,
Mainz,
Worms and
Speyer were part of these Roman provinces.
The
Germania by
Gaius Cornelius Tacitus, an
ethnographic work on the diverse group of Germanic tribes outside of the Roman Empire, is our most important source on the Germanic peoples of the 1st century.
Migration Period
Main article: Migration Period
|
2nd to 5th century migrations. |
During the
5th century, as the Western Roman Empire lost military strength and political cohesion, numerous Germanic tribes, under pressure from invading Asian peoples and/or population growth and
climate change, began migrating en masse in far and diverse directions, taking them to
England and as far south through present day
Continental Europe to the
Mediterranean and northern
Africa. Over time, this wandering meant intrusions into other tribal territories, and the ensuing wars for land escalated with the dwindling amount of unoccupied territory. Wandering tribes then began staking out permanent homes as a means of protection. Much of this resulted in fixed settlements from which many, under a powerful leader, expanded outwards. A defeat meant either scattering or merging with the dominant tribe, and this continued to be how
nations were formed. In
Denmark the
Jutes merged with the
Danes, in
Sweden the
Geats merged with the
Swedes. In England, for example, we now most often refer to the
Anglo-Saxons rather than the two separate tribes.
Role in the Fall of Rome
Some of the Germanic tribes are frequently blamed in popular depictions of the
fall of the Western Roman Empire in the late
5th century. Professional
historians and
archaeologists have since the
1950s shifted their interpretations in such a way that the Germanic peoples are no longer seen as
invading a decaying empire but as being
co-opted into helping defend territory the central government could no longer adequately administer. Individuals and small groups from Germanic tribes had long been recruited from the territories beyond the
limes (i.e., the regions just outside the Roman Empire), and some of them had risen high in the command structure of the army. Then the Empire recruited entire tribal groups under their native leaders as officers. Assisting with defense eventually shifted into administration and then outright rule, as Roman of government passed into the hands of Germanic leaders.
Odoacer, who deposed
Romulus Augustulus, is the ultimate example.
The presence of successor
states controlled by a
nobility from one of the Germanic tribes is evident in the
6th century - even in Italy, the former heart of the Empire, where
Odoacer was followed by
Theodoric the Great, king of the
Ostrogoths, who was regarded by Roman citizens and Gothic settlers alike as legitimate successor to the rule of
Rome and
Italy.
Conversion to Christianity
The
Ostrogoths,
Visigoths, and
Vandals were
Christianized while they were still outside the bounds of the Empire; however, they converted to
Arianism rather than to orthodox
Catholicism, and were soon regarded as
heretics. The one great written remnant of the
Gothic language is a translation of portions of the
Bible made by
Ulfilas, the
missionary who converted them. The
Lombards were not converted until after their entrance into the Empire, but received Christianity from Arian Germanic groups.
The
Franks were converted directly from
paganism to
Catholicism without an intervening time as Arians. Several centuries later, Anglo-Saxon and Frankish missionaries and warriors undertook the conversion of their
Saxon neighbours. A key event was the felling of
Thor's Oak near
Fritzlar by
Boniface, apostle of the Germans, in
723. Eventually, the conversion was forced by armed force, successfully completed by
Charlemagne, in a series of campaigns (the
Saxon Wars), that also brought Saxon lands into the Frankish empire.
Assimilation
"Germanic" as understood today is a linguistic term. Modern ethnicities speaking Germanic languages are usually not referred to as Germanic peoples, a term of historic scope. Outside of Scandinavia, present-day countries speaking a Germanic language have mixed ethnic roots not restricted to the earliest Germanic peoples. English speaking nations such as the
UK,
USA or
Australia are not usually considered "ethnically Germanic".
Germanic peoples were often quick to
assimilate into foreign cultures. Established examples include the Romanized
Norsemen in
Normandy, and the societal elite in
medieval Russia among whom many were the descendants of Slavified Norsemen (a theory, however, contested by some Slavic scholars in the former Soviet Union, who name it the
Normanist theory).England is similarly considered an example of assimilation, where elements of the culture of the
Angles,
Saxons, and
Jutes merged with that of the indigenous
Celtic speaking Britons, resulting in an English identity for the inhabitants of that land. The later (mid-11th century) arriving
French-speaking Norsemen similarly altered what was known as Anglo-Saxon England and set the English language on the path from
Old English to
Middle English.
As in England,
Scotland's indigenous Brythonic
Celtic culture succombed to Germanic influence due to Teutonic invasion; while the
Scottish Highlands and
Galloway retained a
Gaelic heritage due to the recent invasions from
Ireland which supplanted the British culture there, the
Scottish Lowlands became English speaking. The
Scots language is the resulting Germanic language now spoken in Scotland and similar to the regional variation of English in the north of England,
Geordie (or
Northumbrian). The
Orkney Islands and
Shetland Islands, though a part of Scotland, were historically
Scandinavian in culture, though they no longer speak their native language
Norn as an influx of
Scots speaking lowland Scots resulted in its displacement.
France saw a great deal of Germanic settlement, and even its namesake the
Franks were a Germanic people. Entire regions of France (such as
Alsace,
Burgundy and
Normandy) were settled heavily by Germanic peoples, contributing to their unique regional cultures and
dialects. But most of the languages spoken in France today are
Romance languages, while the people have a heavy
Gallic substratum that predates Latin and Germanic settlement.
Portugal and
Spain also had a great measure of Germanic settlement, due to the
Visigoths and the
Suevi (
Quadi and
Marcomanni), who settled permanently. The
Vandals (
Silingi and
Hasdingi) were also present, before moving on to
North Africa, where they were absorbed into the local population. Many
Spanish words of Germanic origin entered into the
Spanish language at this time and many more entered through other avenues (often
French) in the ensuing centuries.
Italy, especially the area north of the city of
Rome, has also had a history of heavy Germanic settlement. Germanic tribes such as the
Visigoths,
Vandals, and
Ostrogoths had successfully invaded and sparsely settled
Italy in the 5th century AD. Most notably, in the 6th century AD, the Germanic tribe known as the
Lombards entered and settled primarily in the area known today as
Lombardy. The
Normans, a partially Germanic people, also conquered and ruled
Sicily and parts of
southern Italy for a time.
Germany itself assimilated
Slavic and
Baltic peoples to the east in medieval and modern times (
Ostsiedlung); after
World War II their descendants spread to other parts of Germany as
Vertriebene. Going farther back, most of the current territory of Germany was occupied by Celtic and
Nordwestblock tribes who were eventually linguistically assimilated into the Germanic peoples.
*
Confederations of Germanic Tribes*
List of Germanic peoples*
Norse clans
*Beck, Heinrich and Heiko Steuer and Dieter Timpe, eds. Die Germanen. Studienausgabe. Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter 1998. Xi + 258 pp. ISBN 3-11-016383-7.
*Collins, Roger. Early medieval Europe. 300-1000. 2nd ed. Basingstoke: Macmillan 1999. XXV + 533 pp. ISBN 0-333-65807-8.
*Geary, Patrick J. Before France and Germany. The creation and transformation of the Merovingian world. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1988. Xii + 259 pp. ISBN 0-195-04458-4.
*Geary, Patrick J. The Myth of Nations. The Medieval Origins of Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press 2002. X + 199 pp. ISBN 0-691-11481-1.
*Herrmann, Joachim. Griechische und lateinische Quellen zur Frühgeschichte Mitteleuropas bis zur Mitte des 1. Jahrtausends unserer Zeitrechnung. I. Von Homer bis Plutarch. 8. Jh. v. u. Z. bis 1. Jh. v. u. Z. II. Tacitus-Germania. III. Von Tacitus bis Ausonius. 2. bis 4. Jh. u. Z. IV. Von Ammianus Marcellinus bis Zosimos. 4. und 5. Jh. u. Z. Berlin: Akademie Verlag 1988 -1992. I: 657 pp. ISBN 3-05-000348-0. II: 291 pp. ISBN 3-05-000349-9. III: 723 pp. ISBN 3-05-000571-8. IV: 656 pp. ISBN 3-05-000591-2.
*Pohl, Walter. Die Germanen. Enzyklopädie deutscher Geschichte 57. München: Oldenbourg 2004. X + 156 pp. ISBN 3-486-56755-1.
*Pohl, Walter. Die Völkerwanderung. Eroberung und Integration. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 2002. 266 pp. ISBN 3-170-15566-0. Monograph, German.
* Todd, Malcolm. The Early Germans. Oxford: Blackwell 2004. Xii + 266 pp. ISBN 0-631-16397-2.
*Wolfram, Herwig. History of the Goths. Berkeley: University of California Press 1988. Xii + 613 pp. ISBN 0-520-6983-8.
*Wolfram, Herwig. The Roman Empire and its Germanic peoples. Berkeley: University of California Press 1997. XX + 361 pp. ISBN 0-520-08511-6.
*
Germanic Roots of Great Britain, A Genetic Study
