The list of early Germanic peoples is a register of ancient Germanic cultures, tribal groups, and other alliances of Germanic tribes and civilisations in ancient times. This information comes from various ancient historical documents, beginning in the 2nd century BC and extending into late antiquity. By the Early Middle Ages, early forms of kingship had begun to have a historical impact across Europe, with the exception of Northern Europe, where influences from the Vendel Period (from AD 550 to 800) and the subsequent Viking Age (until AD 1050) can be seen in the Germanic context.
The associations and locations of the numerous peoples and groups in ancient sources are often subject to heavy uncertainty and speculation, and classifications of ethnicity regarding a common culture or a temporary alliance of heterogeneous groups are disputed. It is uncertain whether certain groups are Germanic in the broader linguistic sense or whether they consisted of speakers of a Germanic language.
The names listed below are not terms for ethnic groups in any modern sense but the names of groups that were perceived in ancient and late antiquity as Germanic. It is essentially an inventory of peoples, groups, alliances and associations stretching from the Barbaricum region east of the Rhine to the north of the Danube (also known as Germania), especially those that arrived during the Migration Period.
In alphabetical order
The present list is largely based on the list of Germanic tribal names and its spelling variants contained in the first register of the Reallexikons der Germanischen Altertumskunde.[1]
The first column contains the English name and its variants, if one is common, otherwise the traditional ancient name. The second column contains ancient names of Latin and Greek authors, the latter both in transcription and in Greek. The third column gives a brief description followed by a location.
The fifth column gives important sources of tradition for the group in question. The few main ancient sources for names and location of Germanic tribes are not linked. These are:
Finnaithae (old name for Finnveden, the name derives from an old Germanic word for hunters – finn, they were not necessarily Finnic or Saami) (they lived in Finnveden, Western Småland)
Hocings (tribe or clan of Hnæf, son of Hoc Healfdene – Hoc, the Half Dane, mentioned by Widsith, may have been the same chieftain known as Haki by the Norsemen, mentioned in the Ynglinga Saga)
Doelir (possibly a tribe that lived inland, in the valleys of Dalen, Telemark, Tokke, Telemark, many of the counties were based on older tribal lands or territories)
Filir / Fjalir
Firdir (tribe that lived in today's Sogn og Fjordane county, Firdafylke was one of two historic counties, many of the counties were based on older tribal lands or territories)
Heinir / Heiðnir (Chaideinoi / Haednas) (in Hedmark, Norway)
Horðar (in Hordaland, known before as Hordafylke, many of the counties were based on older tribal lands or territories) (not originating from the Charudes/Harudes in Jutland)
Vikings (in the Western Europe) / Varangians (in the Eastern Europe) (generic word for warriors, marauders and traders of Scandinavian or Norse i.e. North Germanic origin that went to or returned from other lands regardless of the tribe, they were not a specific Norse tribe or a Norse ethnic group, their arising in History is called Viking Age) (they contributed to the formation of the Rus’ people and Kievan Rus' loose federation that was ruled by the VarangianRurik dynasty) / Ascomanni (name for the Vikings by Adam of Bremen)
Old Swabians (Danube Suebi that migrated westward) (they had a close relation with the Upper Rhine Alemanni and were descendants from common ancestors but they migrated in an East towards West migration route through the Danube from what is today's Moravia and from there from the Elbe basin in even older times, until they settled in Swabia) (ancestors of Swabian German speakers)
Sedusii (a Germanic tribe that dwelled across the eastern region of the Rhine river and was part of the Suebic tribal confederation, mentioned by Julius Caesar)
Varini / Warini / Auarinoi (may have been the same as the Varini, a variant name in Greek) / Viruni / Quirounoi? or Oúírounoi (possibly a mistaken transliteration of the Greek Ούίρουνοι = Oúírounoi – Viruni in Latin) / Warni / Viruni / Pharodini? / Farodini? (may have been the same as the Varini or Viruni)
Ambrones (possibly the Imbers / Ymbers / Ymbrum of Widsith, tribe that dwelt in Jutland or in the Emmer (Ambriuna) river region; also they could have lived in the Island of Amrum, in the Atlantic coast, or in the island of Imbra, now known as Fehmarn, in the Baltic coast)
Caulci (possibly a North Sea Germanic tribe mentioned by Strabo, he wrote that they lived close to the Ocean – the North Sea, they are mentioned along with North Sea Germanic tribes – Ingaevones)
Chaubi (possibly a North Sea Germanic tribe mentioned by Strabo, he wrote that they lived close to the Ocean – the North Sea, they are mentioned along with North Sea Germanic tribes – Ingaevones)
Eudoses / Eutes / Euthiones (ancestors of the Jutes or a variant name of "Jutes"; Eutes > Iutes > Yutes > Jutes) (Endoses? possibly a variant of the name "Eudoses")
Mainland Saxons[15] / Continental Saxons (the variants Ga, Gao, Gau, Gabi, Go, Gowe, Gouw, Ge were the word for Gau – Old Saxon or Old Low German and Old High German term (in modern times Kreis) equivalent of the English Shire, regional administration, many times they matched a tribal land or territory, Old English had some traces, some Germanic cognates like Ga / Gа̄ or Ge, of this meaning which was ousted by Old EnglishScire – Shire, from an early time)
Holtsaetan / Holtsaeten / Holtsati / Holsatians / Holcetae (Holt Saetan – "Forest / Wood Settlement" or "Forest / Wood Settlers" – from which Holstein originate its name, and not from "Forest Stone"[18]) (a Nordalbingian tribe, North of the Elbe river, part of the Saxon tribal confederation)
Thietmaresca / Thiadmariska / Men of Ditmarsch (in Dithmarschen)
Sturmarians (Sturmarii / Sturmera)
Bardi / Bardongavenses (they lived in Bardengawi / Barden gawi / Bardengau or Barden Gau)
Gretingun / Gretingas (they lived in Gretinga / Gretinga ga)
Guottingi / Guddinges / Gotingi (a Gothic tribe that merged and assimilated to the Saxons) (they lived in Guotinga or Guotinga ga or Gotinga ga, Göttingen region)
Hartinas (lived in Hartingowe or Hartin gowe)
Hasi (they lived in Hasigowe or Hasi gowe)
Hastfalon / Astfalon (they lived in Hastfalagowe or Hastfala gowe)
Maerstem
Nordsuavi (in Suavia) (a Northern Suebi / Suevi tribe that merged and assimilated to the Saxons)
Nortthuringun (a Northern Thuringian tribe that merged and assimilated to the Saxons) (lived in Nortthuringowe or Nort Thurin gowe)
Salii / Salians (before formation of the Franks) (originally they only inhabited the northern Low Rhine area, in Salland) (later, those that stayed in Salland, were conquered and assimilated by the Saxons)
Salian Franks (originally they inhabited the northern Low Rhine area, specifically today's Salland, later they expanded in the Low Countries, and most stayed there; even later, many migrated outside Eastern Austrasia, that included Rhineland, and beyond Silva Carbonaria and the Arduenna Silva, outside the original area of Frankish settlement where Gallo-Romans were the majority, scattered throughout the territory of the Kingdom of the Franks, roughly today's France, especially the northern regions, Western Austrasia and Neustria, they were later assimilated by the Gallo-Roman majority) (later, those that stayed in Salland, were conquered and assimilated by the Saxons)
Germanic peoples or tribes of unknown ethnolinguistic kinship
Eight tribes or peoples are only mentioned by the Old Mainland Saxon wandering bard, of the Myrgingas tribe, named Widsith – Aenenes; Baningas; Deanas (they are differentiated from the Danes); Frumtingas; Herefaran; Hronas or Hronan; Mofdingas and Sycgas (not to be confused with Secgan, short name for the work in Old English called On the Resting-Places of the Saints about saints' resting places in England).
Ancient peoples with partially Germanic background
Daliterni (mentioned solely by Avienius in his 6th c. Ora maritima as a tribe on the river Rhône;[20] they have been connected to the Dala, a Rhôhne tributary flowing through Leuk, and to the better attested Veragri, a Gallic tribe located in present-day Switzerland, in the Valaiscanton; without naming the Daliterni, Livy refers to tribes in Valais as gentes semigermanae, i.e. half-Germanic peoples)[21]
Germani Cisrhenani / Tungri? (a collective name for 7 tribes) (names' etymologies of many of the tribes were Celtic; Belgic people? Chiefs anthroponyms were also Celtic)
Kvenir[22] / Kvænir mentioned in Egils Saga / Kvanes / Cwenas mentioned by Ohthere[22] (more probably they were the Kainulaiset, that dwelt in Kvenland, a probable reference to Saami peoples also called Scridefinnas / Screrefennae or speakers of a related Uralic language) (over time their name became confused with the Old Norse word kván or kvæn – "woman", genitive plural kvenna, and became mistakenly confused with the legendary Amazons, a mythical all-women tribe that had relations with the Gargareans, a mythical all-men tribe)
Mythical founders
Many of the authors relating ethnic names of Germanic peoples speculated concerning their origin, from the earliest writers to approximately the Renaissance. One cross-cultural approach over this more than a millennium of historical speculation was to assign an eponymous ancestor of the same name as, or reconstructed from, the name of the people. For example, Hellen was the founder of the Hellenes.
Although some Enlightenment historians continued to repeat these ancient stories as though fact, today they are recognised as manifestly mythological. There was, for example, no Franko, or Francio, ancestor of the Franks. The convergence of data from history, linguistics and archaeology have made this conclusion inevitable. A list of the mythical founders of Germanic peoples follows.
^Heinrich Beck et al. (editor): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. volume 36/37 (register volume 1 and 2): Authors, keywords, subject index, abbreviations, 2nd edition. de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019146-2, p. 20 ff.; "PDF; 499 kB" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2013. Retrieved 2013-09-21.. In: degruyter.com, Retrieved 5 December 2017.
^ a bCornelius Tacitus: Germania. Transmitted and explained by Arno Mauersberger. VMA-Verlag, Wiesbaden [1981?], p. 142, DNB-IDN 810365324 (Latin, German; licensed edition of Dieterich's publishing house accountant, Leipzig).
^Maurits Gysseling: Toponymisch Woordenboek van België, Nederland, Luxemburg, Noord-Frankrijk en West-Duitsland. Ghent 1960, DNB-IDN 560536216, p. 956 (kantl.be, Retrieved 5 December 2017; Dutch).
^L. S.: Visbu´rgii. In: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. 2 volumes. Edited by William Smith. Walton and Maberly, John Murray, London 1854, OCLC 1000689106 (perseus.tufts.edu, Retrieved 5 December 2017).
^Kinder, Hermann (1988), Penguin Atlas of World History, vol. I, London: Penguin, p. 108, ISBN 0-14-051054-0.
^"Languages of the World: Germanic languages". The New Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago, IL, United States: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 1993. ISBN 0-85229-571-5.
^ a b cMuir, Bernard James (1989). Leođ: Six Old English Poems : A Handbook. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9782881243578.
^ a b cJedin, Hubert; Dolan, John Patrick, eds. (1969). "Handbook of Church History". Burns & Oates. p. 12.
^Aubenas, Joseph Adolphe (1845). "Revue de bibliographie analytique: Ou Compte rendu des ouvrages scientifiques et de haute litterature".
^James Westfall-Thompson, Feudal Germany (1928), p. 167ff. ("Old Saxony" chapter).
^"For the Saxon “nation” was really a loose collection of clans of kindred stock." in James Westfall-Thompson, Feudal Germany (1928), p. 167ff. ("Old Saxony" chapter).
^James Westfall-Thompson, Feudal Germany (1928), p. 167ff. ("Old Saxony" chapter).
^James Westfall-Thompson, Feudal Germany (1928), p. 167ff. ("Old Saxony" chapter).
^"For the Saxon “nation” was really a loose collection of clans of kindred stock. For example, the Nordalbingians alone were divided into lesser groups: Holsteiners, Sturmarii, Bardi, and the men of Ditmarsch." in James Westfall-Thompson, Feudal Germany (1928), p. 167ff. ("Old Saxony" chapter).
^Johnson, Charles F. (1899). English Words. Harper & Brothers – via Internet Archive.
^Wyatt, Louise (15 February 2018). Secret Hayes. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 9781445672212.
^Hazlitt, William (1851). "The Classical Gazetteer: A Dictionary of Ancient Geography, Sacred and Profane".
^Livy. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, 21:38.
^ a bJones, Gwyn (2001). A History of the Vikings. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192801340.
References
Thorsten Andersson: Altgermanische Ethnika. In: Namn och bygd. Tidskrift för nordisk ortnamnsforskning. 97 (2009), ISSN 0077-2704, pp. 5–39 (PDF; 9.7 MB; total year).
Otto Bremer: Ethnographie der germanischen Stämme. In: Hermann Paul (editor): Grundriss der Germanischen Philologie. volume 2, part 1: Literaturgeschichte. 2nd, improved and enlarged edition. Karl Trübner Verlag, Strasbourg 1900, pp. 735–930.
Ernst Künzl: Die Germanen (= Theiss WissenKompakt). Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 3-8062-2036-0.
Günter Neumann: Namenstudien zum Altgermanischen (= Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde – Ergänzungsbände. volume 59). Edited by Heinrich Hettrich, Astrid van Nahl. de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-021044-6, urn:nbn:de:101:1-2016061717834.
Rudolf Much: Die Germania des Tacitus. 3rd considerable adult edition. Edited by Wolfgang Lange in collaboration with Herbert Jankuhn and Hans Fromm. Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 1967, DNB-IDN 457642858.
Rudolf Much: Deutsche Stammeskunde. 3rd verb edition. Scientific association. Publisher, Berlin/Leipzig 1920, DNB-IDN 580772896; outlook Verlag, Bremen 2015, ISBN 978-3-86403-235-6.
Hermann Reichert: Lexikon der altgermanischen Namen. Publisher of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-7001-0931-8.
Ludwig Rübekeil: Völkernamen Europas. In: Ernst Eichler et al. (editor): Namenforschung. Ein internationales Handbuch zur Onomastik. volume 2, de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 1996, ISBN 3-11-020343-X, pp. 1330–1343.
Moritz Schönfeld: Wörterbuch der altgermanischen Personen- und Völkernamen nach der Überlieferung des klassischen Altertums (= Germanische Bibliothek. department 1: Elementar- und Handbücher. series 4: Wörterbücher. volume 2). Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 1911, DNB-IDN 362646430; Reprints each as 2nd, unchanged edition: (= Germanische Bibliothek. series 3 [much 2]). Winter, Heidelberg 1965, DNB-IDN 454448473; Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1965, DNB-IDN 454448465.
Alexander Sitzmann, Friedrich E. Grünzweig: Altgermanische Ethnonyme. Ein Handbuch zu ihrer Etymologie. Using a bibliography by Robert Nedoma editor of Hermann Reichert (= Philologica Germanica. volume 29). Fassbaender, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-902575-07-4.
Reinhard Wenskus: Stammesbildung und Verfassung. Das Werden der frühmittelalterlichen gentes. 2nd, unchanged edition. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne/Vienna 1977, ISBN 3-412-00177-5.
External links
Germania of Tacitus
A speculative Findlay map of 1849
Strabo's work The Geography (Geographica). Book 7, Chapters 1 and 2, are about Germania.