Hercynian Forest
The
Hercynian Forest was an ancient and dense forest that stretched eastward from the
Rhine River. The ancient sources are equivocal about how far east. All agree that the
Black Forest formed the western side of the
Hercynian.
The name is cited dozens of times in several classical authors, but most of the references are non-definitive, as the author is assuming the reader would know where the forest is. The earliest is in
Aristotle (
Meteorologica), who refers to the
Arkunia ore (Hercynian mountains) of Europe, but tells us only that rivers flow north from there.
During the time of
Julius Caesar, this forest blocked the advance of the
Roman legions into
Germania. His few statements are the most definitive. In
De Bello Gallico (
Book 6, Chapters 24 and 25), He says that the forest stretches along the
Danube from the
Helvetii (present-day
Switzerland) to
Dacia (present-day
Romania). Its implied northern dimension is nine days march. Its eastern dimension is indefinitely more than 60 days march. The concept fascinated and perhaps frightened him a little. He entertains old wives' tales, such as
unicorns in the endless forests of Germania. The Romans may have drawn that conclusion from the horns of
narwhales used by the Germans. Very likely, today's concept of an endless Black Forest descends from Caesar. His name for the forest is the one most used:
Hercynia Silva.
Pliny the Elder in
Natural History, which also includes geography, places the eastern regions of the
Hercynium jugum in
Pannonia (present-day
Hungary) and Dacia (Book 4 Chapter 25). He also gives us some insight into its composition. It contains gigantic oaks, he says (Book 16 Chapter 2). But even he is subject to the mythological aura exuding from the gloomy forest. He makes mention of unusual birds, which have feathers that "shine like fires at night". Medieval bestiaries named these birds the
Ercinee.
Edward Gibbon noted the presence of
reindeer and
elk in the forest. The wild
bull was present also: the
aurochs, bos primigenius, which the Romans called the urus and ureox. The aurochs has became extinct since Roman times. It has, however, been genetically reconstituted in the forests of northeast Poland and Belarus.
In the Roman sources, the Hercynian Forest was clearly part of ancient Germania. We do find an indication that this circumstance was fairly recent; that is,
Posidonius states that the
Boii, who were
Celtic, were once there (as well as in
Bohemia). In fact Hercynian has a Celtic derivation.
Julius Pokorny lists Hercynian as being derived from *
' "oak" (quercus). He further identifies the name as Celtic. Proto-Celtic regularly loses initial (prevocalic) ', hence
(H)Ercynia (the
H- being a Latinization); the corresponding
Germanic forms have an
f- by
Grimm's Law:
English fir,
Gothic fairguni "mountain". The assimilated
would be regular in
Italo-Celtic, and Pokorny connects the
Celtiberian ethnonym
Querquerni.
It is possible that the name of the
Harz Mountains in
Germany is derived from Hercynian, as Harz is a
Middle High German word meaning "mountain forest." The name of
Pforzheim (
Porta Hercyniae) in southwest Germany is also derived from Hercynian.
*
Białowieża Forest*
Myrkviðr*
Broceliande
