Lemovier

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The Lemovians are mentioned by Tacitus in Germania together with the Rugians as neighbors of the Goths . The spelling Lemonier is also taken from some Germania manuscripts . Both tribes would be characterized by "round shields, short swords and obedience to their kings".

Based on this information, the Lemovians are estimated to be around 100 a. Currently located in the area of ​​the southern Baltic coast in the area between the Oder and Vistula. In other sources the Lemovians are not mentioned under this name. Therefore an equation with the Turcilingi was considered, who appear in ancient sources at the same time as the Rugians; speaks against it that an Alanic origin of this designation is more likely.

In addition to further attempts to equate them, the view that the Lemovians are identical to the Glommas named in the Widsith appears to be the most viable. On the one hand also dive Rugier ( Holmrygas = island or sea Rugier) and the other two terms have the same meaning, namely "the Bellenden."

Verse 20 of the Widsith

Casere weold Creacum ond Cælic Finnum,
Hagena Holmrygum ond Heoden Glommum.
Witta weold Swæfum, Wada Hælsingum,
Meaca Myrgingum, Mearchealf Hundingum.
þeodric weold Froncum, þyle Rondingum,

= Hagen rules over the Inselrugier and Heoden over the Glommas

Verse 65 of the Widsith

ond mid Burgendum, þær ic beag geþah;
me þær Guðhere forgeaf glædlicne maþþum
songes to leane. Næs þæt sæne cyning!
Mid Froncum ic wæs ond mid Frysum ond mid Frumtingum.
Mid Rugum ic wæs ond mid Glommum ond mid Rumwalum.

= I was with the Rugians and the Glommas and the Romans

Correspondences can also be found in the Germanic heroic saga. King Ethel / Hethin kidnaps Hilda, the daughter of King Hagen, which he displeases and leads to a fight on the island of Hiddensee .

It is unclear whether the Lemovians belong to the Elbe Germans or can be assigned to the East Germans . The river Glomma in southeastern Norway could serve as an originally Scandinavian origin .

In archaeological terms, the Oxhöft culture is associated with parts of the Rugier and Lemovier. The same applies to the Plöwen group in the Uecker-Randow region. as well as the Dębczyno group .

See also

List of Germanic tribes

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Publius Cornelius Tacitus: The Germania of Tacitus. Herder'sche Verlagshandlung, Freiburg i. Br. 1876, page 40 here 43 aE full text on Wikisource .
  2. ↑ a b c M. Eggers: Lemovii. In: Johannes Hoops, Herbert Jankuhn , Heinrich Beck, Rosemarie Muller, Dieter Geuenich, Heiko Steuer: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . 2nd Edition. Walter de Gruyter, 2001, ISBN 3-11-016950-9 , p. 258 ( books.google.de ).
  3. ↑ See Rudolf Much : The Germanic East in the heroic saga. In: Journal for German Antiquity and German Literature. 57, 1920, pp. 145 ff ( archive.org ).
  4. ↑ JB Rives: On Tacitus, Germania. Oxford University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-19-815050-4 , p. 311.
  5. ↑ Horst Keiling: Archaeological finds from the early Roman Empire to the Middle Ages from the Mecklenburg districts. Museum of Prehistory and Early History Schwerin, 1984, p. 8.