The Well Spring of the Goths The Well Spring of the Goths About the Gothic peoples in the Nordic Countries and on the Continent Ingemar Nordgren iUniverse, Inc. New York Lincoln Shanghai The Well Spring of the Goths About the Gothic peoples in the Nordic Countries and on the Continent All Rights Reserved © 2004 by Ingemar Nordgren No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher. iUniverse, Inc. For information address: iUniverse, Inc. 2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100 Lincoln, NE 68512 www.iuniverse.com Scriptures from Västergötland’s museum nr 30, ISSN 0349-4829 Historieforum Västra Götaland, Series A, Academic dissertations No 1, ISSN 1404-8841 ISBN: 0-595-78450-X Printed in the United States of America I dedicate this work to my wife Margareta With thanks for support and understanding during many long years. Democracy “Laws”, writes S:t Isidorus of Sevilla who was busy in the 7th century in the realm of the Goths, “are valid first when they are confirmed by the people” Here we now are sitting after thirteenhundred years, we, the cousins of the civilised Goths, and can not recall that the thief-and misdeed-balc, the shop-closing law, the bank law, the wood-care law, Kepler’s laws and Gresham’s law and Parkinson’s law have ever been confirmed by us Alf Henriksson in Snickarglädje, 1974. CONTENTS Prologue ....................................................................................................1 Introduction ..............................................................................................3 About the religion in Scandinavia and Northern Europe during Pre-Roman and Roman Iron Age ..............................................................7 Theories about the origin of the gods ....................................................7 Mythological overwiew ......................................................................13 Detailed analysis of the functions of certain gods ................................16 Cult ..........................................................................................................26 Fertility cult ........................................................................................28 Secret men’s—and warrior’s—leagues (cultic leagues) ..........................55 The cult of Óðinn ..............................................................................59 Warrior’s leagues in saga and reality ....................................................67 The different sagas about the V@lsungs ..............................................73 Individual initiation ............................................................................78 Hero-sagas ..........................................................................................80 About the cult of Óðinn on rune-stones ............................................98 The Helgikvíðae ..............................................................................110 The cult of Oðínn and shamanism in iconographical representation and the ways of distribution of the cult ......................122 About skíalfs, hjallrs and Óðinn ........................................................160 Conclusions of the examination of the fertility-cult and the cult of Óðinn ......................................................................164 ix x • The Well Spring of the Goths The cult of Gaut and the religion of the Goths—a cultic league? An hypothesis. ..................................................................................169 Archaeological results ............................................................................186 Stone- and Bronze Age in the Kattegat-area with focus on Västergötland ......................................................................186 The transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age and the riddle of the women’s graves. ............................................................198 Weapon-graves and weaponless graves ..............................................218 Cultic-political topography and continental connections ..................224 1. Denmark ......................................................................................224 2. West- and South-Scandinavia ........................................................234 3. Eastern Sweden and the islands in the Baltic— an archaeological survey ....................................................................256 Conclusion of the archaeological results ............................................263 The problem of cultic leagues ................................................................270 The Helgikvidae and the Semnonenhain ..........................................270 Tribal and cultic structure ................................................................280 Conclusion of the problem of cultic leagues ......................................301 What do the teophoric and sacral place-names tell? ................................304 Description of the known history of the Goths ......................................332 Sources mentioning the Vistula-Goths ..............................................332 The migration ..................................................................................334 The division into Greutungi and Vesi ..............................................336 Gutþiuða and Vesi-Tervingi ..............................................................353 The Arian Goths ..............................................................................366 Summary of the known history of the Goths ....................................373 Ingemar Nordgren • xi What or where was the well spring—the possible Gothic origin? ..........379 Classical literary confirmations ........................................................379 The research-discussion about the origin of the Goths ......................393 1. Archaeological judgements ............................................................393 2. Historiographical judgements ......................................................448 3. Linguistic judgements ..................................................................476 Conclusions about the possible Gothic origin ..................................537 Conclusions of the examination ............................................................543 Die Gotenquelle—Zusammenfassung ....................................................551 Sources and references ............................................................................557 About the Author ..................................................................................611 Index ......................................................................................................613 PROLOGUE Strolling in the nature on a sunny spring-day, listening to the humming of a well spring, is an amazing experience. All sources are, however, not sources in the sense of a well spring, and they accordingly also not represent such an over- whelming beauty. Still those other sources also exhibit qualities able to attract you and to lure you on an enchanting quest. Apart of strictly literary sources we also have the by Jordanes mentioned maternal womb on the harsh and distant island of Scandza. I often wondered out of which well spring the lore-reputed Goths may have sprung forward—this people laying the Roman empire for their feet but later being regarded as preservers and saviours of the Roman culture. Do we deal with a usual source/well tied to a certain geographical area or is the telling of their emi- gration from Scandinavia, as Curt Weibull claims, just a literary construction in a fiction story source. Are there perhaps other kind of sources? Poets and artists often get their inspiration out of philosophy and religion. Maybe the well spring is the religion—a holy well? Something tells me that idea might be worth follow- ing up. I invite the reader to join the quest for the well spring of the Goths, like the knights in the Arthurian lore riding out on the quest for the holy Graal, which, apart from a bucket, also could be interpreted as the holy well of origin of the Celts as hinted in Mabinogion. Hopingly the well spring of the Goths will in time turn visible. This book is mainly based on my doctoral dissertation The Well Spring of the Goths. The Goths-Religion, Organization, Structure—On the problem of Gothic ethnic- ity. (Goterkällan. Goterna—Religion, organisation, struktur—Om den gotiska etniciteten), Odense university 1998, but it is later revised and partly also completed with new material which was not known when the dissertation was finished. I want to express my deep gratitude to the following persons having helped me in different ways. First and most important my tutor, associated professor Tore Nyberg, Odense university and also professor Jose Luis Avello Alvarez, university of Léon, archeoastronomer and archaeologist Lars Bägerfeldt, Falköping, profes- sor Torsten Capelle of Westfälische Wilhelms-universität in Münster, professor 1 2 • The Well Spring of the Goths Alfred Ebenbauer, the university of Wien, professor Alvar Ellegård, Göteborg, Götiska Förbundet, f. museidirector of Statens Historiska Museum in Stockholm and present secretary of Vitterhetsakademin Ph.D. Ulf Erik Hagberg, professor Lotte Hedeager, Oslo university, archeoastronomer Göran Henriksson, Uppsala university, professor Anders Hultgård,