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Wikipedia / List of early Germanic peoples

The list of early Germanic peoples is a catalog of ancient Germanic cultures, tribal groups, and other alliances of Germanic tribes and civilizations from antiquity. This information is derived from various ancient historical sources, beginning in the 2nd century BC and extending into late antiquity. By the Early Middle Ages, early forms of kingship had started to shape historical developments across Europe, with the exception of Northern Europe. In Northern Europe, influences from the Vendel Period (c.AD 550- 800) and the subsequent Viking Age (c. AD 800- 1050) played a significant role in the Germanic historical 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.

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:

Linguistic predecessors

Proto-Indo-European speakers

Possible ethnolinguistic kinship

East Germanic peoplesEast Germanic peoples (East Germanic peoplesVandilians)

Goths / Gothones / Gutones / Gautae / Geats

Goths / Hreidgoths

Greuthungi (direct ancestors or an older name of the Ostrogoths)

Ostrogoths / Hreiðgoths (at the time of the Migration Period and Decline of the Roman Empire, they founded the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Pannonia, northern Illyria and Italia) (they were assimilated by the Italo-Roman majority)

Thervingi (direct ancestors or an older name of the Visigoths)

Herules, East Germanic (East Germanic Herules)

Lugians (Longiones?) (=Vandals?)

Vandals / Vandilii (at the time of the Migration Period and Decline of the Roman Empire, they migrated towards West allied with a Sarmatian Iranian people, the Alans, and founded the Vandalic Kingdom first in the Southern and Western regions of Hispania, Iberian Peninsula, the Hasdingi Vandals, settled in Gallaecia, the Silingi vandals settled in Baetica, roughly today's Andalusia; sometime after many left Hispania, and migrated to North Africa) (they were assimilated by the Hispano-Roman majority in Hispania, however their ethnonym was the origin for the name of the region Andalusia – (V)andalusia and for the Arabic name of Hispania and the Iberian Peninsula – Al-Andalus) (they were assimilated by the Berber majority and African-Romans in North Africa, including the Moors, in the narrow sense, the descendants of the Mauri)

Sciri

North Germanic peoplesNorth Germanic peoples (NorsemenNorsemen)

East North Germanic (East Scandinavians)

Goths, Scandinavian (Scandinavian Goths)

Suiones / Sviones / Suehans / Suetidi / Suetides (ancient Swedes) (Svíar): Wægmunding clan; Ynglings / Scylfings clan (Scylfingas / Skilfingar)

Normans – they were formed by the merger and assimilation of a North Germanic-speaking minority and Frankish (West Germanic) minority with a Gallo-Roman majority, ethnogenesis of the native people inhabiting Normandy, in France

West North Germanic (West Scandinavians)

Old Icelanders (formed by the merger of several West North Germanic tribes with the addition of Celtic Gaels that settled in Iceland) (they were organized in clans in the Icelandic Commonwealth – Icelandic clans: Ásbirningar; Haukdælir; Oddaverjar; Sturlungar; Svínfellingar; Vatnsfirðingar)

West Germanic peoplesWest Germanic peoples

Elbe Germani (Herminones / Hermiones / Irminones)

Baemi-Baenochaemae

Chatti-Mattiaci (originally they were an Elbe Germanic people later assimilated by the Istvaeones or Wesser-Rhine peoples, it was by the merger of the Istvaeones tribes with the Chatti and related tribes that the Franks were formed)

Batavi-Cananefates

Suebes / Suebi or Alemanni (synonymous with the Suebes in the broad sense) (large tribal confederation)

Hermunduri

Campi (tribe on the river Cham or Chamb, tributary of the Regen, close to Cham city)

Thuringians (Thuringii / Toringi) (formed by the merging of Hermunduri tribes, a tribal confederation part of the Elbe Germanic peoples) (some Turcilingi or Torcolingi were assimilated to the Thuringians) (some Thuringians joined the Longobardian migration towards south)

Lombards / Langobards / Longobards (Vinili) (Elbe Germanic Lombards) (they lived in Lüneburg Heath) (at the time of the Migration Period and Decline of the Roman Empire, they founded the Lombard Kingdom) (they were assimilated by the Italo-Roman majority, however their ethnonym was the origin for name of the region Lombardy – Lombardia)

Marcomanni

Quadi / Coldui / Danube Suebi

Semnones

North Sea Germani (Ingaevones / Ingvaeones)

Angles / Anglies

Chauci

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")

Jutes

Frisii

Frisii (Frisii Maiores) (possible ancestors of the Frisians)

Saxons (Old Saxons)

Mainland Saxons / 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 English Scire – Shire, from an early time)

Later Saxons (after merger and assimilation of several North Sea Germanic and Elbe Germanic peoples and tribes)

Nordalbingi (Nordalbingians) / Nordliudi / Transalbingians (North of the Elbe, called before Alba or Albis river, in Holstein) (the original land of the Saxons) (their land included the Limes Saxonicus and the Danish March)

Angarians / Angrians (same as the Angrivarii or Angarii) (in Angaria) (in the plain of Old Saxony south of the Elbe and along Weser river valley)

Phalians (in Phalia) (in the plateau of Old Saxony)

Eastphalians (Ostfalahi) (in Eastphalia)

Westphalians (Westfalahi / Westfali) (in Westphalia)

Anglo-Jutes-Saxons (Anglian-Jutish-Saxonian tribes, organized in Tribal Hidages, tribal lands) (new ethnolinguistic group formed by migration toward and settlement of Germanic tribes in Britannia, today's England, and also by assimilation of the conquered British Celts)

Angles (Island Angles)

Northumbrians (North of the Humber estuary)

Southumbrians (South of the Humber estuary)

East Angles / East Anglians (in East Anglia)

Middle Angles / Midlanders (in Mercia, roughly today's Midlands)

East Middle Angles / Middle Angles Proper (roughly in today's Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and South Oxfordshire)

Gyrwas / Gyrwe (Angle tribe or clan that dwelt in the fen) (in the Fens) (near Peterborough region)

Suth Gyrwas / Suth Gyrwe

Willas / Wille

Wixnas

Lindisfaras (Anglian tribe that lived in Lindisfarona Tribal Hidage, Lindsey and North Lincolnshire)

Mercians / Mercians Proper (they founded the Kingdom of Mercia, with Mercian conquests of other Middle Angles in the 7th and 8th centuries AD, "Mercian" and "Middle Angles" became almost synonymal)

North Mercians (the Mercians dwelling north of the River Trent, roughly in today's East Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire)

South Mercians (the Mercians dwelling south of the River Trent, roughly in today's South Staffordshire and North Warwickshire)

Outer Mercians (an early phase of Mercian expansion, possibly 6th century AD, roughly in today's South Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and North Oxfordshire)

Pecsæte / Pecsætan (Anglian tribe that lived in today's Peak District, roughly in North Derbyshire)

Hwiccians / Hwincas (Hwicce) (roughly in today's Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and South Warwickshire)

Westernas

Magonsæte / Magonsætan (roughly in today's Herefordshire and South Shropshire)

Wreocensæte (Wrekinsets) (Wrēocensǣte, Wrōcensǣte, Wrōcesǣte, Wōcensǣte, Wocansaete) (Anglian tribe that lived in Wocansaetna Tribal Hidage) (roughly in today's Northern Shropshire, Flintshire and Cheshire)

Jutes (Island Jutes)

Cantwara / Centingas (Kentish / Kentish Men, in Cantwarena Tribal Hidage, Kent)

Wihtwara (Wight Islanders) (Wihtgara Tribal Hidage) (in the Isle of Wight)

Saxons (Island Saxons)

East Saxons (East Secsenas) (in Essex)

Middle Saxons (in Middlesex, roughly in what is today's Greater London, Hertfordshire, Surrey)

Geddingas-Gillingas-Mimmas

Noxgaga / Noxga gā (gā is cognate of Gau) (Berkshire / Thames Valley Saxons)

Suther-ge (ge is cognate of Gau) (Surrey)

South Saxons (South Saxons') (Sussex)

West Saxons (in Wessex)

Weser-Rhine Germani (Istvaeones)

Sicambri / Sigambres / Sugambri

Franks / Hugones (formed by the merging of Wesser-Rhine Germanic tribes – Istvaeones tribes and by the merging and assimilation of the Chatti and related tribes) (at the time of the Migration Period and Decline of the Roman Empire, they founded the Frankish Kingdom) (those living in what is today's West Central Germany and the Low Countries, mainly Ripuarian Franks, are the ancestors of the Franconian Germans (traditionally they spoke Franconian languages) and many of the Dutch, those living in what is today's France, mainly Salian Franks, were assimilated by the Gallo-Roman majority, however their ethnonym was the origin for another ethnonym "French" of the French people)

Ripuarian Franks (originally Rhine river banks Franks, Eastern Austrasia Franks, Rhineland Franks in Rhineland, Hesse, Palatinate and also in Upper Franconia, that before was Thuringian)

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

Germano-Celtic

Norse-Gaels (Austmenn – "Eastmen" – "People of the East", people who had come from the East – Scandinavia; Gaels of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man were called Vestmenn – "Westmen" – "People of the West" – British Islands) (people of mixed Gaelic and Norse ancestry and culture that was formed in the Viking Age)

Norn people (Norðr – People of the North Islands)

Sodor people (Hebridians-Manese Norse-Gaelss) (Sodor – People of the South Islands)

Hebridians Norse-Gaels

Ireland Norse-Gaels

Germano-Slavic

Ancient peoples of uncertain origin with possible Germanic or partially Germanic background

Mixed peoples that had some Germanic component

Celtic–Germanic–Iranian

Bastarnae, an ancient people who between 200 BC and 300 AD inhabited the region between the Carpathian Mountains and the river Dnieper, to the north and east of ancient Dacia – possibly they were originally a Celtic tribe later mixed with Germanic peoples and Sarmatians (a group of ancient Iranian peoples) – one possible origin of the name is from Avestan and Old Persian cognate bast- "bound, tied; slave" (cf. Ossetic bættən "bind", bast "bound") and Proto-Iranian *arna- "offspring")

Possible Germanic or non-Germanic peoples

Germanic or Slavic

Germanic or Celtic

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)

Germanic or Dacian

Germanic or Iranian

Germanic or Balto-Finnic

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.

See also

Notes

References

  • Thorsten Andersson: Altgermanische Ethnika. In: Namn och bygd. Tidskrift för nordisk ortnamnsforskning. 97 (2009), , 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, .

  • 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, , .

  • 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, .

  • Rudolf Much: Deutsche Stammeskunde. 3rd verb edition. Scientific association. Publisher, Berlin/Leipzig 1920, ; outlook Verlag, Bremen 2015, .

  • Heinrich Beck et al. (editor): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. 2nd edition. de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 1972–2008.

  • Hermann Reichert: Lexikon der altgermanischen Namen. Publisher of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1987, .

  • Ludwig Rübekeil: Völkernamen Europas. In: Ernst Eichler et al. (editor): Namenforschung. Ein internationales Handbuch zur Onomastik. volume 2, de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 1996, , 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, ; Reprints each as 2nd, unchanged edition: (= Germanische Bibliothek. series 3 [much 2]). Winter, Heidelberg 1965, ; Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1965, .

  • Ernst Schwarz: Germanische Stammeskunde (= Germanische Bibliothek. volume 5). Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 1956, ; reprint: VMA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2009, .

  • 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, .

  • Reinhard Wenskus: Stammesbildung und Verfassung. Das Werden der frühmittelalterlichen gentes. 2nd, unchanged edition. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne/Vienna 1977, .