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The Daner were an ancient North germanic tribe residing in modern day southern Sweden and on the Danish islands. They were not mentioned by Tacitus, whose famous work Germania mentions the Gothones (Goths and/or Gotlanders?) and the Suiones (Swedes). They seem to be, however, mentioned by Jordanes, as the Dani, and also by Procopius.
The name Daner is the etymological root of Dane. Jordanes maintains that the Dani were of the same stock as the Suetidi (Swedes, Suithiod?) and expelled the Heruli and took their lands. If Tacitus simply did not overlook the Dani, and if Jordanes's information was correct, it is possible that they first appeared, as an off-shoot of the Suiones, sometime in the 2nd or 3rd century A.D. According to Sven Aggesen this would have been about the time that King Dan the Proud, gave his name to the Danes.
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