Geat
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Geats, Geatas, Gautar, Goths[1], Gotar, Gøtar, Götar were a North Germanic tribe which were the inhabitants Götaland ("land of the Geats") in modern Sweden. The name of the Geats also lives on in the Swedish counties of Västergötland and Östergötland, the Western and Eastern lands of the Geats, as well as in many toponyms. The city Göteborg, known in English as Gothenburg, was named after the Geats (Geatsburg or fortress of the Geats), when it was founded in 1621.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early history
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 Beowulf and Widsith as Geatas.
Beowulf and the Norse sagas name several Geatish kings, but only Hygelac finds confirmation in Liber Monstrorum where he is referred to as Rex Getarum and in a copy of Historiae Francorum where he is called Rege Gotorum. These sources concern a Viking raid into Frisia, ca 516, which is also described in Beowulf. Some decades after the events related in this epic, Jordanes described the Geats as a nation which was bold and quick to engage in war.
Before the consolidation of Sweden, the Geats were politically independent of the Swedes, whose old name was Sweonas in OE. When written sources emerge (approximately at the end of the 10th century), the Geatish lands are described as part of the still very shaky Swedish kingdom, but the manner of their unification with the Swedes is a matter of much debate.
Based on the lack of early medieval sources, and the fact that the Geats were later part of the kingdom of Sweden, traditional accounts assume a forceful incorporation by the Swedes, but the only surviving traditions which deal with Swedish-Geatish wars are of semi-legendary nature and found in Beowulf. The Swedish invasion of Geatish lands has been explained with Geatish involvement in the Gothic wars in southern Europe, which brought a great deal of Roman gold to Götaland, but also naturally depleted their numbers (see Nordisk familjebok). The Hervarar saga is believed to contain such traditions handed down from the 4th century. It relates that when the Hunnish Horde invaded the land of the Goths and the Gothic king Angantyr desperately tried to marshal the defenses, it was the Geatish king Gizur who answered his call.
In modern times, some scholars have taken stance against such an invasion, because, except for the prophecy in the ending of Beowulf, there is little textual or archaeological evidence. It should also be noted that the Geatish lands, especially Västergötland, exhibit considerable Danish influence in the 10th century[citation needed].
[edit] Viking Age
In the Heimskringla, Snorri Sturluson writes about several battles between Norwegians and Geats. He wrote that in the 9th century, there were battles between the Geats and the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair, during Harald Fairhair's campaign in Götaland, a war the Geats had to fight without assistance of the Swedish king Erik Emundsson. He also wrote about Haakon I of Norway's expedition into Götaland and Harold I of Denmark's battle against Jarl Ottar of Östergötland, and about Olaf the Holy's battles with the Geats during his war with Olof Skötkonung.
[edit] Middle Ages
The Geats were traditionally divided into several petty kingdoms, or districts, which had their own things (popular assemblies) and laws. The largest one of these districts was Västergötland (West Geatland), and it was in Västergötland that the Thing of all Geats was held every year, in the vicinity of Skara.
Unlike the Swedes, who used the division hundare, the Geats used hærrad, like the Norwegians and the Danes. Surprisingly, it would be the Geatish name that became the common term in the Swedish kingdom. This is possibly related to the fact that several of the medieval Swedish kings were of Geatish extraction and often resided primarily in Götaland.
In the 11th century, the Swedish House of Munsö was extinct with Emund the Old. Stenkil, a Geat, was elected king of Sweden, and the Geats would be influential in the shaping of Sweden as a Christian kingdom. However, this election also ushered in a long period of civil unrest between Christians and pagans and between Geats and Swedes. The Geats tended to be more Christian, and the Swedes more pagan, which was why the Christian Swedish king Inge the Elder fled to Västergötland when deposed in favour of Blot-Sweyn, a king more favourable towards Norse paganism, in the 1080s. Inge would retake the throne and rule until his death.
The Geats were not treated as equals with the Swedes. In his Gesta Danorum (book 13), the Danish 12th century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus noted that the Geats had no say in the election of the king, only the Swedes. When the 13th century, the West Geatish law or Westrogothic law was put to paper, it reminded the Geats that they had to accept the election of the Swedes at the Stone of Mora: Sveær egho konong at taka ok sva vrækæ meaning It is the Swedes who have the right of choosing and deposing the king.
One of these Swedish kings was Ragnvald Knaphövde, who in 1125 was riding with his retinue in order to be accepted as king by the Geats of Westrogothia. As he despised the Geats, he decided not to demand hostages from their prominent clans. He was slain near Falköping.
The distinction between Swedes and Geats lasted during the Middle Ages, but the Geats became increasingly important for Swedish national claims of greatness due to Geats' old connection with the Goths. They argued that since the Goths and the Geats were the same nation, and the Geats were part of the kingdom of Sweden, this meant that the Swedes had defeated the Roman empire. The earliest attestation of this claim comes from the Council of Basel, 1434, during which the Swedish delegation argued with the Spanish about who among them were the true Goths. The Spaniards argued that it was better to be descended from the heroic Visigoths than from stay-at-homers. This cultural movement, which was not restricted to Sweden went by the name Gothicismus or in Swedish Göticism, i.e. Geaticism, as Geat and Goth were considered synonymous back then.
[edit] Modern times
After the 15th century and the Kalmar Union, the Swedes and the Geats appear to have begun to perceive themselves as one nation, which is reflected in the evolution of svensk into a common ethnonym[2][3]. It was originally an adjective referring to those belonging to the Swedish tribe, who are called svear in Swedish. As early as the 9th century, svear had been vague being both referring to the Swedish tribe and being a colletive term including the Geats[2], and this is the case in Adam of Bremen's work where the Geats (Goths) appear both as a proper nation and as part of the Sueones[2]. The merging/assimilation of the two nations took a long time, however. In the early 20th century, Nordisk familjebok noted that svensk had almost replaced svear as a name for the Swedish people[4].
Today, the merging of the two nations is probably complete, as there is no longer any tangible identification in Götaland with a Geatish identity besides people calling themselves västgötar (West Geats) and östgötar (East Geats) describing if people live in the provinces of Västergötland and Östergötland.
The disappearance of the Geats as an ethnic identity is also testified by the fact that in 1974, the Swedish king stopped mentioning the Geats in his title. His title had until then formally been svears och götars konung (king of Swedes and Geats/Goths, or Rex Sweorum et Gothorum) (see also King of the Goths).
[edit] On Geats and Goths
- Main article: Goths
Geatas was originally Proto-Germanic *Gautoz and Goths and Gutar were *Gutaniz. *Gautoz and *Gutaniz are two ablaut grades of a Proto-Germanic word *geutan with the meaning "to pour" (modern Swedish gjuta, modern German giessen). The word comes from an Indo-European root meaning to pour, offer sacrifice.[5] There were consequently two derivations from the same proto-Germanic ethnonym.[6]
It is a long-standing controversy whether the Goths were Geats. Jordanes wrote that the Goths came from the island of Scandza. Moreover, he described that on this island there were three tribes called the Gautigoths (cf. Geat/Gaut), the Ostrogoths (cf. the Swedish province of Östergötland) and Vagoths (Gotlanders?).
Scandinavian burial customs, such as the stone circles (domarringar), which are most common in Götaland and Gotland, and stelae (bautastenar) appeared in what is now northern Poland in the 1st century AD, suggesting an influx of Scandinavians during the formation of the Gothic Wielbark culture [1][2]. Moreover, in Ostrogothia, in Sweden, there is a sudden disappearance of villages during this period.[7]
[edit] On Gautar and Geatas
The generally accepted identification between the Götar and Gautar as the Geatas of Beowulf is mainly based on the observation that the Ö monophthong of modern Swedish and the AU diphthong of Old Norse correspond to the EA diphthong of Old English. Likewise, the Raumar are called Reamas in Beowulf.
Correspondences:
| Swedish | Old Norse | Old English |
|
bröd |
brauð |
bread |
etc.
Thus, Geatas is the Old English form of Old Norse Gautar and modern Swedish Götar.
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).
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 even though, in both Beowulf and Widsith, the Geats are clearly distinguished from both Jutes Eótenas (or Ytum) and Danes. Thus any identification between the Geatas and these two nations is refuted by the two source texts themselves.
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 affected.
[edit] Notes
- ^ E.g. Microsoft Encarta (on Swedish history), translations from Old Norse, Anglo-Saxon or Latin and the Primary Chronicle and modern scholarly works on Germanic tribes.
- ^ a b c The article Svear in Nationalencyklopedin.
- ^ The earliest attestation of this meaning is from the mid-15th century Swedish Chronicle.
- ^ The article Sverige, språkv. in Nordisk familjebok
- ^ "god" in The Oxford English Dictionary Online. (2006).
- ^ cf. Serbs and Sorbs, Polans and Poles, Slovenes and Slovaks in Slavic languages.
- ^ Oxenstierna, Graf E.C. : Die Urheimat der Goten. Leipzig, Mannus-Buecherei 73, 1945 (later printed in 1948).
