Frame (weapon)

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Frame (weapon)
Germanic Framea (1st to 5th centuries, replica)
Information
Weapon type: spear
Use: War weapon, hunting weapon
Creation time: before 98 AD
Working time: before 98 AD - 520 AD
Region of origin /
author: 		Germanic tribes
Distribution: Germania magna
Overall length: approx. 200 cm - 300 cm
Blade length: approx. 10 cm
Handle: Wood, leather
Lists on the subject

The frame or framea is a Germanic throwing and close combat spear .

description

The Tacitus Frame is known as a relatively light spear with a narrow and short, but very sharp iron point , as well as the fact that it is the most frequently wielded weapon of the Teutons. Documentary, he even registered the Germanic name: Frame. The frame is used by both infantry and cavalry. Swords and heavy lances or spears are , he reports, carried by only a few, also because of the high price of iron. This agrees well with the frequency of such weapons in archaeological finds. Of great relevance is the fact, also handed down by Tacitus, that these frames were used both as a throwing spear and in close combat. This can be traced back to spear shafts that have been preserved in northern bog finds using cut marks.

Among the Germanic peoples, the frame was the most important status symbol of the free man, along with the shield , and was always carried with him during public deliberations as well as carousing parties.

etymology

The word lat.-germ. framea is a latinization of urgerm. * framjō - f. whereby the - e - instead of the expected - i - is to be regarded as Latin vulgarism. The word is from the verb urgerm. * framje / a - ' bring forward, perform' (continued in ahd. foreign [m] en , as. fremmian , ae. framian , foreign man , afries. foreign [m] a , aisl. foreign ) derived.

swell

The word lat.-germ. framea is documented several times in Latin literature :

a. Tacitus , Germania 6,1: hastas, vel ipsorum vocabulo frameas, gerunt, angusto et brevi ferro, sed ita acri et ad usum habili, ut eodem telo, prout ratio poscit, vel comminus vel eminus pugnent ; b. Juvenal , 13.79: et Martis frameam ; c. Ulpian , dig. 43,16,3,2: arma sunt omnia tela, hoc est et fustes et lapides, non solum gladii hastae frameae, id est rhomphaeae ; d. Gellius 10,25,2: telorum… vocabula, quae in historiis veteribus scripta sunt… frameae ; e. Martianus Capella 5,425: gradivi frameam non ausus poscere . In later Christian literature, on the other hand , the word framea is understood as a sword (cf. Isidore , orig. 18,6,3: framea vero gladius ex utraque parte acutus, quam vulgo spatam vocant… framea autem dicta quia ferrea est… ac proinde omnis gladius framea ; Augustine , epist. 140,41: framea gladius est ).

In the Germanic individual languages, the word is no longer explicitly used for the throwing device, but exists as an adjective fram .

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Publius Cornelius Tacitus, De origine et situ Germanorum  - Sources and full texts (Latin)
Wikisource: Publius Cornelius Tacitus, De origine et situ Germanorum  - sources and full texts (German)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Publius Cornelius Tacitus: De origine et situ Germanorum . Chapter 6.
  2. ↑ See Mayer, p. 4
  3. ↑ Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde , Volume 9, Col. 366 ff.
  4. ↑ N. Wagner: Tagibertus, Arbeo and the like. On latinizations in the Freising traditions . In: MSS , 59, 1999, p. 170 f.
  5. ^ Etymological dictionary of Old High German . Volume 3. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, p. 550. Keyword: strangers 'execute, accomplish, offer, do, present'.
  6. ^ Roland Schuhmann: Geographical space and way of life of the Germanic peoples Commentary on Tacitus' Germania, c. 1-20 . Dissertation, p. 176 f .; db-thueringen.de (PDF)