Geats History On Geats And Goths On Gautar And Geatas

The earliest mention of the Geats may appear in Ptolemy (2nd century A.D.), where they are referred to as Goutai. In the 6th century, they were referred to as Gautigoths and Ostrogoths (the Ostrogoths of Scandza) by Jordanes and as Gautoi by Procopius. In the Norse Sagas they are referred to as Gautar, and in BeowulfThis article describes Beowulf the epic poem. For the person Beowulf see Beowulf (hero For other uses, see Beowulf (disambiguation . Beowulf is a traditional heroic epic poem in Old English alliterative verse. At 3182 lines, it is far more substantial tha as Geatas.

Beowulf and the Norse sagaThe Norse sagas or Viking sagas (Icelandic: slendingasogur , are stories about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking voyages, about migration to Iceland, and of feuds between Icelandic families. They were written in the Old Norse ls name several Geatish kings, but only HygelacHygelac (Old Norse Hugleikr (d. 516) is the king of the Geats in the first part of Beowulf''. He is the son of Hrethel and has the brothers Herebeald and Haethcyn. His sister is married to Ecgtheow and has the son Beowulf. The hero Beowulf is consequently finds confirmation in Liber Monstrorum where he is referred to as Rex Getarum, concerning a Viking raid into FrisiaFrisia (or more commonly " Friesland") is a region along the southeastern coasts of the North Sea. Frisia extends from the northeastern Netherlands across northern Germany to southwestern Denmark. Western Frisia is roughly identical with the Dutch provinc which is also described in Beowulf. Shorty after the events related in this epic, Jordanes described the Geats as a nation which was bold and quick to engage in war.

The Geats were formerly politically independent of the SwedesThe Swedes are a people of Germanic origin, having their primarily geographical location on the eastern side of the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Identification, or the identity, as Swedes are today resting on a variety of factors, where Swed, whose old name was Svear (Sweon or Sweonas in OE). However, starting in the 500sCenturies: 5th century 6th century 7th century Decades: 450s 460s 470s 480s 490s 500s 510s 520s 530s 540s 550s Years: 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 Events and Trends Clovis I, king of the Franks, defeats the Visigoths at the battle of Vouill, the Geats slowly lost their independence and became tributaries of the Swedish kings. This has been explained with their involvement in the Gothic wars in southern Europe, which naturally depleted their numbers (see Nordisk familjebok).

In the 11th century, they had been integrated in the Swedish kingdom and beginning with Stenkil the Geats provided several Swedish kings, who to this day still formally call themselves svears och götars konung (king of Swedes and Geats, or Rex Sweorum et Gothorum).

In Scandinavian history writing there is a distinction between Svenskar (modern Swedes) and Svear (ancient Swedes, the Old English Sweon(as)) since the latter term excludes the Geats.

2 On Geats and Goths

It is a long-standing controversy whether the Goths were Geats. Jordanes claimed that the Goths came from the island of Scandza. He also claimed that on this island there were two tribes called the Gautigoths (cf. Geat/Gaut) and the Ostrogoths (cf. the Swedish province of Östergötland). Today, Jordanes' claim is supported by Polish archaeologists who claim that the Gothic finds are similar to those of southern Sweden[1]. Moreover, in Ostrogothia, in Sweden, there is a sudden disappearance of villages prior to the appearance of Goths in Poland. Modern archaeological research consequently supports the authenticity of their tradition[2].

For more, see the article on Goths.

3 On Gautar and Geatas

The general identification of the Geatas of Beowulf as the Gautar/Götar of southern Sweden is usually based on the observation that the EA diphthong of the Anglo-Saxon language was the equivalent of the AU diphthong of Old Norse and the Ö monophthong of modern Swedish.

correspondence
Anglo-Saxon	Old Norse	Swedish
bread	brauð	bröd
leaf	lauf	löv
east	austr	öst
dream	draumr	dröm
dead	dauðr	död
read (red)	rauðr	röd
neat (head of cattle)	naut	nöt
ceap (purchase)	kaup	köp
eage (eye)	auga	öga

etc.

Thus, Geat is the Old English form of Old Norse Gaut and modern Swedish Göt.

This correspondence seems to tip the balance for most scholars. It is also based on the fact that in Beowulf, the Geatas live east of the Dene (across the sea) and in close contact with the Sweon, which fits the historical position of the Gautar between the Daner and the Svear.

Moreover, the story of Beowulf, who leaves Geatland and arrives at the Danish court after a naval voyage, where he kills a beast, finds a parallel in Hrólf Kraki's saga. In this saga, Bödvar Bjarki leaves Gautland and arrives at the Danish court after a naval voyage and kills a beast that has been terrorizing the Danes for two years (see also Origins for Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki).

However, since the 19th century, several other nations have been suggested to correspond to the Geats, such as the Danes (Curt Weibull), the Jutes (Pontus Fahlbeck 1884), the Goths and the Gotlanders, (See e.g. the OED which identifies the Geats through Eotas, Iótas, Iútan and Geátas) with the Jutes referred to in the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. '

These hypotheses have been suggested in spite of the fact that, in Beowulf, the Geats are clearly distinguished from both Jutes Eótenas and Danes. Thus any identification between the Geatas and these two nations is refuted by the epic itself.

In addition, the reconstructed root for both Geat and Gaut is *Gaut-, whereas the reconstructed root of Goth and Got(-land) is *Gut-. The root of Jute is usually regarded as unknown.

Even if the identification made in this article is generally accepted, the matter is not dead and it will continue to raise harsh feelings even in the future—especially in Sweden, where the debate about Sweden's history prior to the 11th century is infected.

Some conspiracy theorists of the highly controversial Götaland theory deny the connection between the Geats and the Gautar, and consider the established version of history to be a fraud. Since Beowulf depicts the Geats and the Swedes as two opposing tribes, and as they want to make the Svear (whom scholars place in Svealand) synonymous with the Gautar in Götaland, they have to argue that Geat and Gaut aren't related. Unfortunately, their argumentation is limited to referring darkly to Curt Weibull, who speculated that the Geats were the same the Danes (who are also described as a different tribe from the Geats in Beowulf, save a single kenning where the Geats are called " East-Danes", cf. Danish as a generic name for Scandinavians in Old English). For such a discussion see the following link (the text is in Swedish): http://home.swipnet.se/dx/vaggan/skolan.htm

Home > Geats

1 History

2 On Geats and Goths

3 On Gautar and Geatas

4 See also

Topics: Geats, History, On Geats And Goths, On Gautar And Geatas...