Ermanarich

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Ermanarich ( gothic * Aírmanareiks , Old Norse Jormunrek (kr) , Latin Ermanaricus (some sources also Ermenricus and Hermanaricus ) ags. Eormenric , Middle High German Ermenrich ; † 376 ) was the first historic king of Greutungen of the family of Amal .

Life

The Goths had reached the area north of the Black Sea by 238 at the latest . Again since 291 at the latest, the division into a western (Terwingen) and eastern part (Greutungen) was known. Ermanarich was the first historical and at the same time the last king of Greutungen before the Huns invaded in 375.

Two historians report his death: Jordanes and Ammianus Marcellinus . According to Ammianus, he committed suicide in the face of defeat by the Huns . According to Jordanes, who already has many facts and myths mixed in, Ermanarich had the Rosomon Sunilda executed in revenge for her husband's desertion, whereupon her brothers, Sarus and Ammius, inflicted a severe wound in the side. Because of this wound, he was unable to fight the Huns and died shortly afterwards at the age of 110. His descendant, the Gotin Ildikó , later (453) became Attila's wife after the Goths had come to an agreement with Attila . According to Jordanes, who refers to the report of the Eastern Roman historian Priskos , Attila died on their wedding night. Ildikó lives on as Attila's widow under the name Kriemhild or Gudrun in Sagen.

After his death, some of the greutings around his successor Vithimiris , who was probably not an Amaler, fled west. Vithimiris fought with the Vandals against the Alans, who were allies of the Huns, and died soon after. The greater part of the Greutungen (later mostly called Ostrogoths ) was part of Hunnish history until the battle on the Catalaunian fields in 451.

Dominion

The extent of his empire is not exactly known; his sphere of influence may have been enormous. Jordanes named as ruled peoples

  • Golthescytha - Scythians
  • Thiudos
  • Inaunxis
  • Vasinabroncas
  • Merens - Merier ?
  • Mordens - Mordwinen ?
  • Imniscaris
  • Rogas
  • Tadzans
  • Athaul
  • Navego
  • Bubegenas
  • Coldas

Most of the peoples' identity is unknown. There were also contacts too

To what extent these actually belonged to Ermanarich's domain is unclear.

North of the Black Sea, the archaeological Chernyakhov culture is known for the 4th and 5th centuries , which is associated with the empire of the Ostrogoths. Its extension did not extend to the Urals and the Baltic Sea.

Ermanarich legend

Ermanarich is an important figure in Germanic heroic poetry . Above all in the saga cycle of the Middle High German Dietrichepik of the 13th century and in the Thidrek saga he appears in the role of Dietrich von Bern's adversary , which Odoacer takes on in the older Hildebrand song of the 9th century . Ermanarich contrasts a second line of tradition with a pair of brothers who take revenge on him for the murder of their sister (Sunilda, Swanhild legend). This line of legends shows clear parallels to the Ermanaric handed down by Jordanes (Ammius and Sarus, the rulers of Sabir, avenge their sister Sunilda on Ermanarich) and spread in Scandinavia. Jörmunrek (Ermanarich) is the protagonist in the heroic songs Guðrúnarhvöt and Hamðismál of the older Edda (the names here are Hamðir, Sörli and Svanhild, who appear here as children of the Attila widow Gudrun). The saga can also be found in various versions in Snorri, in the Völsunga saga and in Saxo Grammaticus . In Germany, however, this saga never becomes literary. However, elements from it appear in the Quedlinburg annals (the names are Hemidus and Serila here) and in Ekkehard von Aura (Hamidiecus, Sarelo).

Ermanarich also appears in the old English heroic epic Beowulf , in Widsith and Deor . It is possible that in the Middle High German Ermenrich legend, in addition to the Gothic king, traditions about the Suebian king Ermenrich , an important Germanic military leader of the migration of the peoples of the early 5th century, also flowed into it.

Ermanarich at Jordanes

Jordanes reports in his Gothic history from 551 (the oldest copies only date from the 8th or 9th century) that the Gothic king Ermanaric (in Jordanes in the form of the name Hermanaricus ) met a woman named Sunilda out of anger over her husband's flight (from the people of the subject "faithless" Rosmon, who betrayed him when the Huns arrived) tied to wild horses and tore them apart. Their brothers Sarus and Ammius avenged Sunilda and wounded Ermanerich with the sword. According to Jordanes, he is said to have died at the age of 110 from these wounds and because he could not bear the attacks of the Huns.

Ermanarich in the Edda

A very similar story is told in some of the heroic songs of the older Edda (13th century). In Gudrun's Death Song and the Old Hamdirlied it is said that Sigurd's daughter Swanhild (equated with Jordane's Sunilda) married King Jörmunrek, and that his adviser Bikki (equivalent to Sibich ) then accused her of adultery with Jörmunrek's son Randwer. Thereupon Jörmunrek left his son hanging and Swanhild trampled under horse's hooves. Swanhild's mother Gudrun (corresponds to the Krimhild of the Nibelungenlied) demands that her sons Sörli (is equated with the Sarus named by Jordanes), Hamdir (equated with Ammius) and Erp that they should avenge their half-sister. They cut off Jörmunrek's limbs, but are killed by Jörmunrek's men a little later. Gudrun's third son, Erp, is killed by his brothers Hamdir and Sörli on the way to Jörmunrek. The Edda of Snorri Sturluson also knows the story of the Gudrun sons Sörli and Hamdir, who want to avenge their half-sister Swanhild and lose their lives in the process.

Ermanarich in the Thidrek saga

In the Thidrek saga , the oldest evidence of which dates from the 13th century, Ermenrich (also Ermenrik) is a king who rules “Rome”. In this tradition he is the son of Samson and the uncle Dietrich von Berns . Ermenrich attacks the wife of his advisor Sifka (equivalent to Sibich), who takes revenge by driving him to kill his closest relatives. Sifka begins his plan of revenge by persuading Ermenrich to send his son Fridrec (also Frederik) to demand an appraisal of a Wilkinenland. On this trip, Fridrec is killed by a loyal Sifkah. Similarly, Sifka persuades the king to send his second son Reginbald (also Ragbald) who, on Sifka's advice, takes a bad ship and drowns. Ermenrich himself kills his third son Samson in anger when Sifka tells him that he wants to do violence to his daughter. As a further act of revenge, Sifka's wife persuades the queen (Ermenrich's wife) that a son of Ermenrich's brother Ake wants to join her. King Ermenrich then wants to move out to hang the two brothers Egard and Ake, the sons of Akes and now Wittich's step-sons. A man named Fritila warns them beforehand, but both are killed in the fight against Ermenrich's men. After this incident Sifka persuades his king that he should drive his nephew Dietrich out of Bern. Ermenrich then moves against Bern and Dietrich has to go into exile with King Attila. In the battle of Gränsport, Ermenrich's army was defeated by Dietrich, but he did not succeed in recapturing his Bernese empire. When Dietrich later moved to Bern, Ermenrich was already languishing. Sifka now gives the advice to cut him open in order to "wind" the fat out of his body. Ermenrich dies shortly afterwards, but Sifka is also defeated by Dietrich a little later after he entered Bern and was able to bring an army behind him.

The continuation of the Reginbald saga went down in the Irish history of the conquest of the land, where Feinius Farsaidh is said to have been a mythical king from Scythia, who, however, referred to Prince Hunimund (Danube-Suebi) "Filius Hermanarici" (* around 395; † after 469 in "Suavia" and son of the Suebi king Ermenrich ) corresponds, who after the departure of the Huns established a Suebian empire in the Carpathians (which in the Irish saga is regarded as the Scythian empire, since the Irish made no distinction between the Huns and the Scythians). His son Agilulf (* around 420; † around 482) alias Agnomain is sent out to settle in Ireland. According to the Irish saga, Agnomain drowns because his ship capsized, but his son Iarbonel , grandson of Nemed , reached Ireland. They are considered the ancestors of the sons of Míl Espane , the last and "Gaelic" wave of the Milesians who immigrated to Ireland.

Ermanarich in the Quedlinburg Annals

The Quedlinburg Annals were created around the turn of the millennium, but only survived in a single manuscript from the 16th century. They tell of a Gothic King Ermanarich who, after the death of his only son Friedericus, had his nephews Embrica and Fritila hung on the gallows. He also forced his nephew Theodericus (corresponds to Dietrich von Bern ) at the instigation of his (other) nephew Odoacer to flee Verona and go into exile with King Attila. According to this source, Ermanarich died through the brothers Hemidus, Serila and Addacarus, who had his hands and feet cut off because he had killed their father.

Ermanarich in Ermenrich's death

In the 16th century, the ballad Koninc Ermenrîkes Dôt was printed on a sheet of paper in the Low German-speaking area with greatly changed content.

Monuments

A memorial plaque for him was placed in the Walhalla near Regensburg .

literature

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Ammian 31,3,1f.
  2. ↑ Jordanes, Getica 24, 129.
  3. ↑ Jordanes, Getica 49, 254. Quoted from: Jordanes, Charles C. Mierow (transl.): The Origin and Deeds of the Goths. J. Vanderspoel, Department of Greek, Latin and Ancient History, University of Calgary, accessed January 6, 2013 .
  4. ^ Getica 117
  5. ↑ See Heather, Goths and Romans , pp. 87ff.
  6. ↑ Georg Heinrich Pertz (Ed.): Annales Quelingburgenes. In: Monumenta Germaniae Historica , Vol .: 5 Hannover 1839 ( online , accessed on February 16, 2019).
  7. ↑ Beowulf: An old English heroic epic. Translated and edited by Martin Lehnert , Stuttgart: Reclam 2004, (p. 192) ISBN 3-15-018303-0
  8. ↑ Alexander Heine (ed.): Jordanis Gotengeschichte together with excerpts from its Roman history. Translated by Wilhelm Martens. Dunker, Leipzig 1884, Dyk, Leipzig 1913, Phaidon, Essen-Stuttgart 1985/1986. ISBN 3-88851-076-7 .
personal data
SURNAME Ermanarich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jörmunrek; Jörmunrekkr; Jormunrekkr; Aírmanareiks; Ermenrich; Ermenrîk; Eormanrīc
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of the Ostrogoths
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century
DATE OF DEATH 376