The Heruls by Troels Brandt (2010).pdf

The Heruls

Under construction

The text is reorganised according to the index of the new main article.

The old text was marked by the current changes from ten years of research and

discussions. A few parts of the text are still being rewritten with further links and

references - a work which is expected to be finished in June 2010.

The Heruls

by Troels Brandt

Detailed version

15-06-10

The Heruls

Index

1 The South European history of the Heruls..........................................................7

1.1 The Roman Sources..............................................................................................................7

1.1.1 The origin of the Heruls..................................................................................................7

1.1.1.1 The old interpretation of Jordanes...........................................................................8

1.1.1.2 The Gothic Migration and migrations in general....................................................9

1.1.1.3 Sarmatians in the etnogenesis?..............................................................................10

1.1.1.4 The modern interpretation of Jordanes..................................................................12

1.1.2 The migrations of the Heruls.........................................................................................13

1.1.2.1 Herulian raiders and mercenaries..........................................................................14

1.1.2.2 The Western Heruls...............................................................................................18

1.1.2.3 The Herulian soldiers............................................................................................18

1.1.2.4 The last migration of the Heruls - Procopius.........................................................19

1.1.3 The arrival of the royal family to Scandinavia..............................................................21

1.1.4 The Heruls in Illyria......................................................................................................23

1.2 Scandinavian connections before 509...............................................................................25

1.2.1 The Eastern Heruls 375 - 454 (Phase A1).....................................................................26

1.2.2 The Eastern Heruls 454 - 509 (Phase A2).....................................................................27

1.2.2.1 Solidi ....................................................................................................................28

1.2.2.2 Burials - Moravia ..................................................................................................28

1.2.2.3 Burials - Högom/Norway .....................................................................................31

1.2.2.4 Fibulas - Style I ....................................................................................................32

1.2.2.5 The trade route and the Heruls .............................................................................34

1.2.3 The Western Heruls 286-509 (Phase B)........................................................................35

1.3 Conclusions regarding the history.....................................................................................36

1.3.1 Sources and critics........................................................................................................36

1.3.1.1 Alvar Ellegaard .....................................................................................................36

1.3.1.2 Andreas Schwarcz ................................................................................................38

1.3.1.3 Walter Goffart........................................................................................................39

1.3.1.4 Jordanes' sources...................................................................................................40

1.3.1.5 Procopius' sources ................................................................................................41

1.3.1.6 The Swedish archaeologists .................................................................................42

1.3.1.7 General contradictions – their number..................................................................43

1.3.2 Conclusion....................................................................................................................44

2 The settlement in Scandinavia............................................................................46

2.1 Five questions by Åke Hyenstrand....................................................................................46

2.1.1 Heruls and Runes?........................................................................................................46

2.1.1.1 The first runes........................................................................................................46

2.1.1.2 The ErilaR inscriptions..........................................................................................47

2.1.1.3 The Märings and the Rök Stone............................................................................49

2.1.1.4 Rune stones in Blekinge........................................................................................51

2.1.1.5 Other runes after 509 AD......................................................................................51

2.1.1.6 The personal names...............................................................................................52

2.1.1.7 The answer.............................................................................................................52

2.1.2 Heruls and Earls?..........................................................................................................52

2.1.2.1 Niels Lukman and Barði Guðmundsson...............................................................52

2.1.2.2 A likely explanation...............................................................................................53

2.1.2.3 The answer.............................................................................................................53

2.1.3 Heruls and Svear?.........................................................................................................53

The Heruls

2.1.3.1 The general development in Scandinavia 400-600 AD.........................................53

2.1.3.1.1 Bracteates.......................................................................................................55

2.1.3.2 Blekinge/Värend – The place of arrival?...............................................................56

2.1.3.2.1 Expansion .....................................................................................................56

2.1.3.2.2 Traces of the arrival of the Heruls ................................................................57

2.1.3.3 Norway, Götaland and the islands.........................................................................59

2.1.3.4 The Mälar Valley - Archaeology...........................................................................61

2.1.3.4.1 Burials - Mounds in Uppland (6th c.) ...........................................................62

2.1.3.4.2 Helmets and weapons....................................................................................64

2.1.3.4.3 Later fibulas and Style II (6th c.) ..................................................................66

2.1.3.4.4 Ships .............................................................................................................67

2.1.3.4.5 Halls and marketplaces .................................................................................68

2.1.3.4.6 A summary of the archaeology .....................................................................68

2.1.3.5 The answer.............................................................................................................70

2.1.4 Heruls and boat graves?................................................................................................71

2.1.4.1 The boat graves .....................................................................................................71

2.1.4.2 Cremations after 565 AD.......................................................................................72

2.1.4.3 The answer.............................................................................................................73

2.1.5 Heruls and Eric – the god?............................................................................................74

2.1.5.1 The god Eric..........................................................................................................74

2.1.5.2 Heruls and ancestor gods?.....................................................................................74

2.1.5.3 The answer.............................................................................................................76

2.2 A possible scenario..............................................................................................................76

2.2.1 The journey and the motives behind ............................................................................77

2.2.2 The take over and the integration .................................................................................79

2.2.3 The consolidation .........................................................................................................81

2.3 Conclusions regarding the settlement...............................................................................81

2.3.1 Alternatives...................................................................................................................82

2.3.2 Conclusion about history compared with archaeology ................................................82

2.3.3 Certainty and further possibilities ................................................................................83

3 The Norse myths and legends.............................................................................84

3.1 Sagas, chronicles and legends............................................................................................85

3.1.1 Beowulf and Widsith ....................................................................................................85

3.1.1.1 Geat and the Geats ................................................................................................86

3.1.1.2 Beowulf and the “Dane” Chocillaicus...................................................................87

3.1.1.3 England, Scandinavian archaeology and Beowulf ...............................................88

3.1.2 Hervararsaga and the Hreidgoths .................................................................................89

3.1.3 The Eastgermanic legends ............................................................................................91

3.1.4 The Dacian kings - Dudo .............................................................................................92

3.1.5 Saxo and his manipulations ..........................................................................................93

3.1.6 Snorri Sturlusson ..........................................................................................................95

3.2 The Norse religions ............................................................................................................95

3.2.1 Dumezil and the Indoeuropean theories........................................................................95

3.2.2 The Norse religions.......................................................................................................96

3.2.3 The god Odin.................................................................................................................98

3.3 Odin and the king of the Heruls .....................................................................................101

3.3.1 The men of Asia and the Heruls..................................................................................101

3.3.2 The route of Odin .......................................................................................................104

3.3.3 The later kings of Ynglingesaga..................................................................................106

3.3.4 Independent sources? .................................................................................................107

The Heruls

3.3.5 A possible source ........................................................................................................108

3.4 Norse parallels to Jordanes' expulsion ...........................................................................109

3.5 The Scandinavian names .................................................................................................111

3.6 Burial customs – Snorri, Procopius and archaeology ...................................................111

3.7 Conclusions - Norse literature.........................................................................................112

4 Scandinavian perspectives................................................................................114

5 Literature............................................................................................................115

The Heruls

Preface

The work behind this article began in 1995 as a search for a reason behind the Danish traditions

around the elections of the mediaval kings. The establishing of the Scandinavian kingdoms and possible

catalysts in that process were a part of the search. During the search it became soon obvious that the

history of the Heruls had been misunderstood in Scandinavia.

It is an ambivalent feeling to spend time on a repellent people like the Heruls. Parts of the legends

around them have been used by the historical philosophers behind the Nazi-party and it is no

coincidence that Ludvig Schmidt in 1934 could write: ”Die Heruler waren ein echtes Herrenvolk.”

Neither should we, however, in that case be interested in the popular Scandinavian Viking Ages

representing a similar culture at a later stage – but nevertheless the ”final” result was the democratic

Scandinavian monarchies.

Earlier Swedish scholars may have avoided the Heruls because they could destroy the Swedish dream

that Uppsala was an internal Swedish development – the wellspring of European Culture, which Olof

Rudbeck in 1716 proclaimed as the Lost Atlantis. The claim about the Atlantis was immidiately

opposed, but apparently the rest of dream is still alive though the scholars eagerly dissociate themselves

from national pride.

It is by the irony of the fate that modern well-meaning scholars have been caught in that trap, though

the History of the Heruls could provide us with the story of a successful integration of immigrants, who

might even have learned by their evil mistakes. Since World War II, however, nearly all scholars have

neclected the arrival of the Heruls to the Scandinavian Peninsula. Unfortunately the idea to suppress

material which can be misused in etnical matters will by time make the surpressors blind too.

Only the local historian Tore Ganholm at Gotland did maintain in ”The origin of Svear” that the Heruls

settled in the Mälar Valley in 512 AD. No one listened, as he had no scholarly background and as his

claim was that the Heruls were the original Svear while the Suiones of Tacitus lived at his own

Gotland from where also Beowulf descended. Therefore his theory about the Heruls in the Mälar Valley

did not get the appreciation it deserved.

I was not aware of that past when my first web-article in June 2000 was provoked by an

internationally acknowledged article in Scania by the Swedish linguist Alvar Ellegaard. In 1987 he

claimed that the Heruls were a warriorband, who left Scandinavia after a short visit in the 6 th century.

He had an interesting clue about Jordanes, but it was obvious, when reading his sources, that

Ellegaard's way to reject sources did not follow the usual scholarly criterias.

The purpose of this article written by a third "outsider" is to present the material and suggest an

explanation - in the hope that a scholar one day may find a better basis of assessment.

The first main chapter about the acknowledged history of the Heruls in Southern Europe is as far as

possible following the works of professor Andreas Schwarcz, the University of Vienna, and his student

Angelika Lintner-Potz. We have agreed to publish her ”Diplomarbeit zur erlangung des

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