According to a tale related by
Jordanes in his
Getica,
Gothiscandza was the first settlement area of the
Goths after their migration from
Scandza during the first half of the 1st century CE. He claimed that the name was still in use in his own day (c. 551).
Jordanes' account
Jordanes relates that the
Germanic peoples tribe of Goths were led from
Scandza by their king
Berig. As soon as they had set foot in the land, they named the area
Gothiscandza. The slowest of the three ships carried the
Gepids, who settled in the "province of Spesis on an island surrounded by the shallow waters of the
Vistula. This island they called, in the speech of their fathers, Gepedoios".
They soon moved to the settlements of the Rugians ( Ulmerugi, a Germanic tribe which had arrived in the area already before the Goths), who lived on the coast, and they chased them away. Then they defeated their new neighbours, the Vandals.
After some time, when at least four generations of kings had passed after Berig, and Filimer was the king of the Goths, their numbers had multiplied. Filimer decided that everyone was to leave Gothiscandza and move to a new region named Oium (Scythia).
The reliability of Jordanes for early Gothic history has been called into question.
Etymology
One interpretation of Gothiscandza is that is a Latinised form of the Gothic
gutisk-andja, "Gothic end (or frontier)", since the Goths' territory extended to here.
[Adrian Room, Placenames of the World, 2nd Ed. [1] Quote: "a Gothic name, from Gutisk-anja, "end of the Goths," as these people's territory extended to here.", 142] Another interpretation is that
andja means "cape" so that the whole word means "gothic peninsula". It is also possible that the word is a product of conflation of the words
gothic and
Scandinavia.
[Sigmund Feist, A Gothic Etymological Dictionary (translation), Brill, 1986, , 158] Herwig Wolfram mentions "Gothic coast" and "Gothic
Scandia" but prefers the latter, thinking that the former is "linguistically questionable".
[Herwig Wolfram. History of the Goths (transl. by Thomas J. Dunlap), University of California Press, 1988, , 38, 386]
Identification
History and linguistics
In the 1st century AD, the mouth of the
Vistula was indicated as the land of the
Gutones (Pliny the Elder) or
Gothones (
Tacitus):
The names given by Pliny and Tacitus appear to be identical to * Gutaniz, the reconstructed Proto-Germanic form of Gutans, the Goths' and the ' name for themselves.
The Gothiscandza theme was revived in German scholarship by Gustav Kossinna.[Martin Steinkühler (Author), Hans J. Schuch (Editor). (1997) Von Gothiscandza zu Danzig: Aus über 1000 Jahren wechselvoller Geschichte. Westpreussisches Landesmuseum: Münster-Wolbeck, Germany, pp. 12–23]
Archaeology
In the 1st century a new culture appeared at the mouth of the Vistula, called the
Wielbark Culture replacing the local
Oksywie culture. The most salient component of Scandinavian influence in the 1st century AD is the introduction of Scandinavian burial traditions such as stone circles and the stelae, showing that those who buried their dead preferred to do so according to Scandinavian traditions.
However, there is also archaeological evidence of previous Scandinavian influence in the area during the Nordic Bronze Age and the Pre-Roman Iron Age,
In the 3rd century AD, the Wielbark culture spread into Scythia, where it formed the Gothic Chernyakhov culture.
Norse mythology
Norse mythology presents at least two traditions that may be connected to Gothiscandza. The first one, the
Gutasaga, may refer to the migration of the Goths and the second one, the legend of Dag the Wise, of raids from Scandza.
The Gutasaga
The
Gutasaga relates that when the
had multiplied so that the island (
Gotland, i.e.
Goth-land) no longer could support them, they drew lots so that one third of the island's inhabitants had to leave and settle in the south. They eventually settled in the land of the
Greeks.
- over a long time, the people descended from these three multiplied so much that the land couldn't support them all. Then they draw lots, and every third person was picked to leave, and they could keep everything they owned and take it with them, except for their land. ... they went up the river Dvina, up through Russia. They went so far that they came to the land of the Greeks. ... they settled there, and live there still, and still have something of our language.
Ynglingatal
The legend of Dag the Wise may convey traditions of attacks by the
Suiones in the 2nd or 3rd century. In Scandinavian sources, the territory is called
Reidgotaland, a name that followed the Goths during their migrations in the
.
External links
