Gauts

Gotar is a redirect to this article. For the Slovenian soprano see Alenka Gotar .

The title of this article is ambiguous. For a place in the district of Fischhausen / Samland, East Prussia, see Putilowo (Kaliningrad)

Areas of the Svear (yellow) and Gauten (blue) in the 12th century

The Gauts ( Old English : gēatas [ˈjæɑ̯tɑs]; English: Geats ; Old Norse : gautar [ˈɡɑu̯tɑr]; Swedish: götar [ˈjøːtar]) were probably a North Germanic people from Götaland in today's Sweden. The name can currently be found as a toponym in the Swedish provinces of Västergötland and Östergötland .

origin

Since the Gauts, like the other North Germanic peoples, had no written records for a long time, with the exception of short runic inscriptions , little is known about this people. The main sources for their history before 1000 are therefore the old English legends Beowulf and Widsith , which were written down much later, and which hardly serve as credible historical sources. The sporadic notes in ancient authors like Ptolemy and Jordanes are even less productive.

Sources

Ancient authors

The connection between Gauten and Goths is controversial, which , in addition to the similarity of names, is mainly based on the legend of the Goths ' origin in Jordanes ' Getica , but whose work is not always reliable. In addition, the island of Gotland can also be considered as the region of origin of the Goths . The Gauts are first mentioned by Ptolemy around 150 AD as Goutai (Γου̑ται). Jordanes mentioned the Ostrogothae and Gautigoth at Scandza at that time . For the period after 600 one is solely dependent on the archaeological sources.

Old English legends and sagas

The war between Svear and Geatas in Beowulf was often referred to because of the similarities in sound between the Gauts, but this identity was already questioned by historical scholars at the end of the 19th century. Today there are three different interpretations of the Geatas mentioned by Beowulf , but the sources are poor.

literature

• Thorsten Andersson :  Gotar. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 12, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1998, ISBN 3-11-016227-X , pp. 278-283. ( books.google.de ).
• Herwig Wolfram : The Goths. From the beginning to the middle of the sixth century. Draft of a historical ethnography. 5th edition. CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-33733-8 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Elof Hellquist: god el. God . In: Svensk etymologisk ordbok . 1st edition. CWK Gleerups förlag, Berlingska boktryckerie, Lund 1922, p. 218-219 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
2. ↑ Michael Alexander's 1995 (Penguin Classics) edition by Beowulf names as a variant: Gēotas