Rugians
The
Rugians (Latin
rugii) were an
East Germanic tribe whose ultimate origins have been traced to
Rogaland in
Norway, whose population probably was the
Rugii that
Jordanes mentioned as a tribe that still remained in
Scandza. The connection is further supported by the fact that an old name for the province was
Rygiafylke (
y is an umlaut of
u, like the German
ü in
Rügen). However, at the time of Jordanes, there were many Rugii in Italy whose tribe had made a long journey to arrive there.
Long before this mention of the Scandinavian Rugians, a group had settled at the estuaries of the
Oder and the
Vistula, from where they are said to have been pushed away when the
Goths arrived from Scandinavia.
The Rugians remained for a while in
Pomerania, where they are said to have given their name to
Rügen. In the beginning of the
4th century, they moved southwards and settled at the upper
Tisza in what is now modern
Hungary. They were later subdued by the
Huns and took part in
Attila's campaigns in 451, but at his death they rebelled and created a kingdom of their own in what is presently
Austria.
They were defeated by king
Odovakar in 487, and joined the Ostrogoths. Later they joined the Ostrogothic king
Theodoric the Great when he invaded
Italy in 489. In Italy, they formed their own division and disappeared with the
Ostrogoths. Their name, however, was frequently misapplied in Latin sources to
Rus of the 10th and 11th centuries.
