List of ancient Germanic peoples
This list of Germanic tribes includes names of populations speaking Germanic languages or otherwise considered Germanic in sources from the late 1st millennium BC to the early 2nd millennium AD. The c. 300 tribes do not necessarily represent contemporaneous, distinct or Germanic-speaking populations or have common ancestral populations. Some closely fit the concept of a tribe. Others are confederations or even unions of tribes. Some may not have spoken Germanic at all, but were bundled by the sources with the Germanic speakers. Some were undoubtedly of mixed culture. They may have assimilated to Germanic or to other cultures from Germanic.
Name | Sources | Variants | Location | Modern Name |
Adogit[1] |
Jordanes, Getica, III. 19–21 |
Two possibilities:
- 1. *Ādogii < *Andogii
- 2. *Hálogi
|
Northern Norway, both possibilities:
|
Two possible modern reflexes:
- 1. Andō, an island and part of Vesterålen
- 2. Háleygir, people of Hålogaland
|
Aelvaeones[2] |
Ptolemy, Geography, 2.11.9 |
Ailouaiones, Helvaeonae, Helveconae, Helvecones |
Language unknown, possibly Old Prussian, possibly Germanic. Two possible locations:
|
Possibly Elblag, Poland |
Aeragnaricii |
Jordanes |
Possible scribal error for ac ragnaricii ("and the Ragnaricii") |
Around modern-day Viken |
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Ahelmil |
Jordanes |
|
Ancient inhabitants of Halmstad |
|
Alemanni |
Cassius Dio |
|
In 213 CE, the Alemanni dwelt in the basin of the Main, to the south of the Chatti. They captured the Agri Decumates in 260 CE, and later expanded into present-day Alsace and northern Switzerland. |
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Ambrones |
Plutarch |
|
Island of Amrum, Nordfriesland. In the late 2nd century BC, Germanic Cimbri, Teutons and Ambrones invaded the Roman Republic. |
|
Ampsivarii |
Tacitus, Annales (13.54,56) |
Ampsivari |
Around the middle of the river Ems, which flows into the North Sea, at the Dutch-German border. Most likely they lived between the Bructeri minores (located at the delta of the Yssel) and the Bructeri maiores that were living south of them at the end of the Ems. |
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Angles |
Tacitus, Germania |
Anglii, Angli, English; part of the Suebi |
Angeln, an area located on the Baltic shore of what is now Schleswig-Holstein, the most northern state of Germany; settled in East Anglia in Britain after Roman withdrawal. |
|
Angrivarii |
Ptolemy (2.10); Tacitus, Germania (33) and Annales |
Angriouarroi, Angrarii, Angarii, Aggeri, Aggerimenses, Angerienses, Angri, Angeri |
Engern, a region west of the Weser river not far from Teutoburg Forest, and also (probably by extension) in Angeron of Münster; Angria, Angaria, Angeriensis, Aggerimensis, or Engaria |
|
Arochi |
Jordanes, Getica |
Possibly related to the Hǫrðar |
Scandza, modern-day Norway |
|
Atuatuci |
Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico |
Aduatuci; descended from the Cimbri and Teutones; possibly contributed to the late Roman-era tribal grouping known as the Tungri |
Originated in the area of Denmark; allowed to settle amongst the Germanic tribes living in east Belgium. |
|
Augandzi |
Jordanes, Getica |
Augandii, Egðir |
Scandza |
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Avarpi |
Ptolemy, Geography |
Auarpoi, Avarni |
Pommern/Propommern region; next to the Teutonikai and between the Sueboi and the Farodeinoi |
|
Aviones |
Tacitus, Germania, 40; Widsith |
Auiones, Eowan |
Either in the southern Jutland Peninsula or on Öland. |
|
Name | Sources | Variants | Location | Modern Name |
Baemi |
Ptolemy, Geography |
Baimoi, Boemias, name derived from "Boii" |
North side of the Danube, near the Luna forest, and the Quadi, and with the Gambreta forest of the Marcomanni to their northwest. This would place them in or around modern Slovakia, Moravia, and Lower Austria. In this region had lived the Boier (later slav. Boika in Bohemia and parts of Bajuvari in Bavaria). |
|
Baetasi |
Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia; Tacitus |
Betasii |
Germania Inferior (later Germania Secunda), west of the Rhine. Exact location is still unknown, although two proposals are: first, that it might be the source of the name of the Belgian village of Geetbets; and second, that it might be further east, nearer to the Sunuci with whom they interacted in the Batavian revolt, and to the Cugerni who lived at Xanten. The area of Gennep, Goch, and Geldern has been proposed for example. |
|
Banochaemae |
Claudius Ptolemy, Geography |
Baenochaemae, Bainochaimai, Bonochamae; name derived from "Boii" |
Near the Elbe river, east of the Melibokus mountains (probably not the modern Melibokus, but rather the Harz mountains, the Thüringerwald, or both.[3][4] This is in turn north of the Askiburgium mountains (probably the modern Sudetes) and the Lugi Buri, which are in turn north of the source of the Vistula river. This position may be north of both modern Bohemia and modern Bavaria. |
Equivalent to the modern term "Bohemian" |
Bastarnae |
Pliny the Elder, Ptolemy, Strabo, Polybius, Cassius Dio, Gaius Valerius Flaccus |
Bastarni, Basternae, Olbioniten, Peucini |
A Germanic tribe from Vistula, mostly in Alliance with sarmatian Roxolani and Dacians (under Burebista). Their homelands was Pomerania or Prussia. Migrated south to present day Moldavia, also occupying the Danube Delta with Peuce Island. They have inhabited land Moldavia just north of the Carpathian Mountains as well. Her Graves between Sereth and Prut (Sântana de Mureș). Ca. 106 BC after a rebellion in Neapolis. they built a Skythian Kingdom around Olbia unter Palakus and Skilurus beside the rest of Dacian ruled Costoboci in West, southwest Zalmoxis(Getea) and Mithridates VI of Pontus in East. Ca. 300 AD defeated by Goths. Often invaded the Roman Empire alongside the Dacian (e.g. Dionysopolis 48 BC) and Thervingi Goths around 360 BC. |
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Batavi |
Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico |
|
Around the Rhine delta, in the area that the Romans called Batavia. |
|
Batini |
Claudius Ptolemy |
Bateinoi |
"Above" (normally north in Ptolemy) the Banochaemae tribe, who were settled near the upper Elbe, and "below" (presumably south of) the Askibourgion mountain. Near the point where modern Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic meet (modern Bautzen in Saxony). |
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Bavarii |
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Baiuvarii |
Bohemian Forest |
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Bergio |
|
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|
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Brisgavi |
Ammianus Marcellinus |
Brisigavi |
Black Forest in south Germany |
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Brondings |
|
|
Probably the Swedish island of Brännö, west of Västergötland in the Kattegatt. |
|
Bructeri |
Tacitus; Strabo |
|
Northwestern Germany; present-day North Rhine-Westphalia. Their territory included both sides of the upper Ems (Latin Amisia) and Lippe (Latin Luppia) rivers. At its greatest extent, their territory apparently stretched between the vicinities of the Rhine in the west and the Teutoburg Forest and Weser river in the east. In late Roman times, they moved south to settle upon the east bank of the Rhine facing Cologne, an area later known as the kingdom of the Ripuarian Franks. |
|
Burgundiones |
Pliny (IV.28) |
Boergondians, Burgundians |
May have emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the Baltic island of Bornholm, and from there to the Vistula basin, in the middle of modern Poland. A part of the Boergondian tribes migrated further westward, where they may have participated in the 406 Crossing of the Rhine, after which they settled in the Rhine Valley and established the Kingdom of the Burgundians. Another group of Boergondians stayed in their previous homeland in the Oder-Vistula basin and formed a contingent in Attila's Hunnic army by 451.[5][6] |
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Buri |
Tacitus, Germania; Ptolemy |
Lougoi Bouroi (Lugi Buri) |
Northern Carpathians; southern Poland between the Elbe, the modern Sudetes, and the upper Vistula. A contingent of the Buri accompanied the Suebi in their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula and established themselves in Gallaecia (modern northern Portugal and Galicia) in the 5th century.[7] They settled in the region between the rivers Cávado and Homem, in the area known as Terras de Bouro (Lands of the Buri).[8] |
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Name | Sources | Variants | Location | Modern Name |
Caeroesi |
Julius Caesar, Commentaries on the Gallic Wars |
Caeraesi, Ceroesi, Cerosi |
Belgic Gaul |
|
Calucones |
Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia (3.24); Ptolemy, Geography (2.10) |
Kaloukones |
On either side of the Elbe, "below" (north of?) the Silingae or Silesians |
|
Canninefates |
Tacitus, Histories (Book iv ) |
Canninefates, Caninefates, Canenefatae |
In the Rhine delta, on the western part of the Batavian Island (province of Germania Inferior, currently Betuwe in the western part of the Netherlands); the capital of the civitas of the Cananefates was Forum Hadriani, modern Voorburg. |
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Casuari |
|
|
|
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Caritni |
Ptolemy, Geographia (2.10) |
Karitnoi |
West Bavaria |
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Chaedini |
Ptolemy, Geographia |
Chaideinoi, Khaideinoi |
Scandia (Scandinavia) |
|
Chaemae |
Ptolemy |
Possibly Banochaemae and/or Chamavi |
Next to the Bructeri (north of the Lower Rhine) |
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Chaetuori |
|
|
|
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Chali |
Ptolemy |
Khaloi, Chaloi |
Jutland |
|
Chamavi |
Tacitus, Germania |
|
North of the Lower Rhine |
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Charudes |
Julius Caesar; Ptolemy, Geographia |
Harudes |
East coast of the Cimbrian peninsula (modern Jutland). |
|
Chasuarii |
Tacitus, Germania; Claudius Ptolemy |
|
To the east and north of the Rhine, near the modern river Hase, which feeds into the Ems; near modern Osnabruck; between the Ems and Weser Rivers. |
|
Chattuarii |
Velleius Paterculus; Strabo; Ammianus Marcellinus |
Attoarii; subject to the Franks |
Across the Rhine from Xanten. Some of them (laeti) were also settled in Roman Gaul (south of Langres) in the 3rd century. |
|
Chauci |
Pliny the Elder; Tacitus |
Merged into the Saxons in the 3rd century CE |
Low-lying region between the Rivers Ems and Elbe, on both sides of the Weser, and ranging as far inland as the upper Weser. |
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Cherusci |
|
|
Plains and forests of northwestern Germany, in the area possibly near present-day Hannover. |
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Chatti |
Strabo; Tacitus; Pliny the Elder, Natural History |
Chatthi, Catti; Batavians were an offshoot; part of the Hermunduri; possibly part of the Suebi |
Central and northern Hesse and southern Lower Saxony, along the upper reaches of the Weser River and in the valleys and mountains of the Eder, Fulda, and Weser River regions, a district approximately corresponding to Hesse-Kassel, though probably somewhat more extensive. |
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Cimbri |
|
|
middle Jutland |
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Cobandi |
Ptolemy, Geography (2.10) |
Kobandoi |
Jutland |
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Condrusi |
Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico |
Belgae |
Belgium; the region now known as Condroz (named after them), between Liège and Namur. The terrain is wooded hills on the northeastern edge of the Ardennes. |
|
Corconti |
Ptolemy, Geography |
Korkontoi |
Resided in the vicinity of Asciburgius Mountain somewhere near the sources of the Vistula. Asciburgius was on the edge of the modern Sudetes range; closest neighbours were the Lugi Buri. |
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Cugerni |
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Curiones |
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D
E
F
G
Name | Sources | Variants | Location | Modern Name |
Gambrivii |
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Geats |
Ptolemy; Jordanes; Procopius |
Goutai, Gautoi, Gautar, Gēatas, Gautigoths |
What is now Götaland ("land of the Geats") in modern Sweden. |
|
Gepidae |
Augustan History; Jordanes; Procopius |
Gepids, Gifþas; closely related to/subdivision of the Goths |
The Gepids are thought to have migrated (along with the Goths) from Scandinavia to the Vistula River, and then onward into Dacia around 260 CE. After being driven out of their homeland in 504 CE by Theodoric the Great, the Gepids settled in the rich area around Singidunum (modern Belgrade). |
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Grannii |
|
|
|
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Greuthungi |
Jordanes |
Greuthungs, Greutungi, Chernyakhov Culture; possibly the Ostrogoths in later years; sub-group of the Goths |
|
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Gutes |
Gutasaga |
Gotlanders |
Originated in Gotland; due to overpopulation, some migrated south up the river Dvina into the area near the Black Sea |
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Goths |
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H
Name | Sources | Variants | Location | Modern Name |
Hallin |
Jordanes |
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Harii |
Tacitus, Germania |
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|
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Hasdingi |
|
Subjects of the Vandals |
Originating in today's southern Poland, western Ukraine, Slovakia, and Hungary, the Hasdingi were part of the migratory movements of the Vandals, into the Iberian peninsula and later on to North Africa. |
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Helisii |
Tacitus, Germania |
Subjects of the Lugii |
Probably eastern Germany/modern Poland. |
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Helveconae |
|
Helveconae, Helvaeonae, Helvecones, Aelvaeones, Ailouaiones; possibly subjects of the Lugii; possibly connected to the Hilleviones. |
Silesia area (modern Poland) |
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Hermunduri |
|
Hermunduri, Hermanduri, Hermunduli, Hermonduri, Hermonduli; possibly forebears of the Thuringii. |
Near/east of the Elbe river, around what is now Thuringia, Bohemia, Saxony (in East Germany), and Franconia in northern Bavaria. At times, they apparently moved to the Danube frontier with Rome. |
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Heruli |
Jordanes; Procopius |
|
Migrated from Scandinavia to the Black Sea in the third century CE. |
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Hilleviones |
Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia |
|
Scatinavia (thought to be Scandinavia) |
|
I
Name | Sources | Variants | Location | Modern Name |
Ingriones |
|
|
|
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Ingvaeones |
Pliny; Tacitus, Germania |
Ingaevones; by the 1st century BCE, they had become differentiated (to a foreigner's eye) into the Frisii, Saxons, Jutes and Angles. |
North Sea coast in the areas of Jutland, Holstein, Frisia, and the Danish islands. |
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Intuergi |
|
|
|
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Irminones |
Tacitus, Germania; Pomponius Mela; Pliny, Natural History |
Herminones, Hermiones |
Interior of Germany; after initially settling in the Elbe watershed, they expanded into Bavaria, Swabia, and Bohemia by the 1st century CE. |
|
Istvaeones |
Tacitus and Pliny the Elder |
Istaevones, Istriaones, Istriones, Sthraones, Thracones |
Near the Rhine |
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J
L
Name | Sources | Variants | Location | Modern Name |
Lacringi |
|
|
Danube River border of the ancient Roman Empire in the time of Marcus Aurelius. |
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Landi |
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Lemovii |
Tacitus; Jordanes; Ptolemy |
Possibly Oksywie culture, Plöwen group, Dębczyn group, Glommas, Turcilingi, Rhoutikleioi, Leuonoi, Leonas; associated with the Rugii |
Pomerania (modern Poland) |
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Lentieneses |
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Levoni |
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Langobardes |
Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardorum |
Lombards, descended from Winnili |
Dwelt in southern Scandinavia (Scadanan) before migrating to seek new lands. In the 1st century CE, they formed part of the Suebi in northwestern Germany. By the end of the 5th century, they had moved into the area roughly coinciding with modern Austria north of the Danube river. After defeating the Gepids at the Battle of Asfeld in 567, Alboin led the Langobardes to Italy, which had become severely depopulated after the long Gothic War (535–554) between the Byzantine Empire and the Ostrogothic Kingdom there. |
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Liothida |
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Lugii |
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Lugi, Lygii, Ligii, Lugiones, Lygians, Ligians, Lugians, Lougoi; possibly the Przeworsk culture and/or the Vandals |
Central Europe, north of the Sudetes mountains in the basin of upper Oder and Vistula rivers, covering most of modern south and middle Poland (regions of Silesia, Greater Poland, Mazovia and Little Poland). |
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M
N
O
Name | Sources | Variants | Location | Modern Name |
Ostrogoths |
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Greuthungs, Greuthungi, Greutungi |
Migrating southward from the Baltic Sea, the Greutungi built up a huge empire stretching from the Dniester to the Volga River and from the Black Sea to the Baltic shores. After their subjugation by the Huns around 370 CE, little is heard of the Ostrogoths for about 80 years, after which they reappear in Pannonia on the middle Danube River as federates of the Romans, while a pocket remained behind in the Crimea. After the collapse of the Hun empire in 453, the Ostrogoths first moved to Moesia (c. 475–488) and later conquered the Italian Kingdom. |
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Otingis |
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P
Q
Name | Sources | Variants | Location | Modern Name |
Quadi |
Tacitus, Germania |
|
Perhaps originating north of the River Main, the Quadi (along with the Marcomanni) migrated into what is now Moravia, western Slovakia, and Lower Austria where they displaced Celtic cultures and were first noticed by Romans in 8–6 BCE. |
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R
S
Name | Sources | Variants | Location | Modern Name |
Sabalingi |
Frankonian chronicle |
Salian Franks, Salii, in Scandinavian Freki, in Latin (ca. 300 AD) 'Feroces', Sicambri |
Dorste, Lower Saxony, Germany, later of the other rhinesite |
Salier, Sidini, Sunici, Campine |
Saxones |
Franconian chronicles |
|
Lower Saxony, Bremen |
Sachsen |
Scirii |
Tacitus |
Scirhans,Scirians |
Zealand, Danemark or Scania/Skåne, near to Heruli, then Poland coast, 230 BC with Heruli beside of Bastarne in Moravia and Ukraine,
468/469 by Tisza eastly neighbour of Valamir |
Sciri, Skirii, Skiri or Skirians, Skir or Skans |
Segni |
Tacitus |
Segui, Belger |
Belgian gaul, defeated by Caesar 57 BCE, subtribe of Belger |
Belger |
Semnones |
Tacitus |
Suebi or Suevi, Suiones |
Brandenburg, Vorpommern, Sachsen, Eastgermany |
Schwaben, Svebi, Suavia |
Silingi |
Romanian history |
Vandals or Vandales |
Vistula, Poland |
Sidini, Sibini, Sigulones, Sitones |
Suarini |
Procopius; Pliny the Elder |
Varini |
Schwerin, Mecklenburg, Warnow in north Eastgermany and Wangria alias Wagerland, eastly Limes Saxoniae in Holstein, defeated by Karl the great and his Abodrites Vasall 782. |
Warnabi, Warnen, Varni, Varini, Varinnae, Wærne/Werne, Warnii, Warni, Warjan, Warini, Waraeger, Winili, Fenrir, Billunger, Billung |
Suebi |
Tacitus, Procopius; Pliny the Elder |
Suevi, Suavi |
Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Berlin |
Suetidi, Suiones, Svebi, Suavia, Sabir |
Sugambri |
Tacitus |
Sicambri |
Rhine, Dorste, Lower Saxony, DNA of Lichtenstein Cave (I-L38) |
Sicambrians |
T
Name | Sources | Variants | Location | Modern Name |
Taetel |
|
|
|
Taetel, Tencteri, Teuriochaemae, Teutonoari, Teutons, Thervingi, Theustes, Thuringii, Toxandri, Treveri (possibly Celtic), Triboci, Tubanti, Tungri, Turcilingi, Turoni |
U
V
Name | Sources | Variants | Location | Modern Name |
Vagoth |
Jordanes |
|
Scandza |
|
Vandals |
|
Associated with the Przeworsk culture; possibly the same people as the Lugii. |
Believed to have migrated from southern Scandinavia (possibly Vendel in Sweden) to the area between the lower Oder and Vistula rivers during the 2nd century BCE, and to have settled in Silesia (southern part of modern Poland) from around 120 BCE, where they were first heard of by ancient writers. Expanded into Dacia during the Marcomannic Wars and to Pannonia during the Crisis of the Third Century. Around 400 CE, they were pushed westward into Roman Europe by the Huns, establishing kingdoms in Spain, Sardinia, Corsica and later North Africa in the 5th century. |
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Vangiones |
|
|
Unknown origin. After being defeated while participating in an invasion of Gaul in 58 BC, they made peace with the Romans and were allowed to settle among the Mediomatrici in northern Alsace. They gradually assumed control of the Celtic city of Burbetomagus, later Worms. |
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Vargiones |
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Varini |
Tacitus, Germania; Procopius; Pliny the Elder; Lex Thuringorum; Widsith |
Varni, Varini, Varinnae, Wærne/Werne, Warnii, Warni, Warini |
Northern Germany |
|
Varisci |
Tacitus, Germania |
Naristi, Narisci, Varisti |
Vogtland district of Saxony in Germany. Along the line of the Danube between the Hermunduri at its source and the Marcomanni and Quadi in Bohemia. Medieval Provincia Variscorum. |
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Vidivarii |
Jordanes, Getarum |
|
Prussians, Site of Wiskiauten, Prussia (now Russia) |
|
|
Vinoviloth |
Jordanes, Getarum |
Possibly, Winnili, and/or Vingulmark |
Scandinavia |
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Viruni |
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Visburgi |
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Visigoths |
Claudius Mamertinus; Cassiodorus; Jordanes |
Valagothi, Alaric Goths; possibly the Thervingi; part of the larger groups of Goths |
Originated in Dacia; migrated westward at the expense of the crumbling Roman Empire (map). |
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Vispi |
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Z
Name | Sources | Variants | Location | Modern Name |
Zumi |
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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
References
- ↑ Nansen, Fridtjof; Chater, Arthur G. (1911). In northern mists; Arctic exploration in early times. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. p. 132.
- ↑ Tacitus; Anthony Richard Birley (1999). Agricola and Germany. Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford University Press. p. 130.
- ↑ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, 1854
- ↑ Schütte (1917), Ptolemy's maps of northern Europe, a reconstruction of the prototypes
- ↑ Sidonnius Appolinarius, Carmina, 7, 322
- ↑ Luebe, Die Boergunder, in Krüger II, p. 373 n. 21, in Herbert Schutz, Tools, weapons and ornaments: Germanic material culture in Pre-Carolingian Central Europe, 400–750, BRILL, 2001, p.36
- ↑ Domingos Maria da Silva, "De Buricis (Acerca dos Búrios)", Bracara Augusta, 36, 1982, pp. 237–68.
- ↑ Domingos Maria da Silva, Os Búrios, Terras de Bouro, Câmara Municipal de Terras de Bouro, 2006. (in Portuguese)
External links
Some tribal maps of Germania can be found at: