Goter

Goterna (uttal: gω´t eller gå´t, gotiska: gutans, fornsvenska: gutar, , , , gótthoi) är en av de mest kända och omtvistade germanstammarna under folkvandringstiden. Första gången de omtalas, av Tacitus i hans bok Germania år 98 e.Kr., är de bosatta i trakten av floden Wisłas mynning i nuvarande Polen. Jordanes hävdade att goterna hade sitt ursprung från en ö Scandza, som identifieras med Skandinaviska halvön. Gotiskan är det äldsta välbelagda germanska språket

Goternas olika stammar och deras namn

mini|Visigoternas rike cirka 500. mini|Östgoternas rike. Namnet goter (gotones, gutones) är en latinsk version av goternas eget namn för sig själva gut-thiuda (gut-folket) eller *gutans vilket i sin tur är formellt identiskt med folknamnet gutar på Gotland.Andersson 1996Fornvännen 1969, Elias Wessén, s 21 Under andra halvan av 100-talet flyttade goterna från nuvarande Polen söderut och i sydöstlig riktning varmed de delade sig i två grupper, ofta kallade för öst- respektive västgoter. Östgoterna bosatte sig i Ukraina där de grundade ett rike. Deras egentliga namn var Greutungi men från slutet av 400-talet ersattes det av benämningen ostrogoter. Västgoterna levde norr om Donau i dagens Rumänien och kallades egentligen för Tervingi. Efter att västgoterna i slutet av 300-talet bosatt sig på romerskt territorium söder om Donau kom en grupp av dem att benämnas Vesi. Dessa bröt freden med Rom 395 och härjade länge Romarriket innan de som romerska bundsförvanter bosatte sig i Akvitanien 418. Därefter ersattes "Vesi" med visigoter som benämning på dem. De västgoter som stannade kvar i den östra rikshalvan kom att kallas för mesogoter efter den romerska provinsen Moesien (de kallades även gothi minores, "de mindre goterna"). Ända till 1500-talet fanns det en mindre grupp, som talade en form av gotiska, kvar på Krimhalvön, de så kallade krimgoterna. Tidigare trodde man att namnen ostro- och visigoter betydde öst- respektive västgoter, men numera är den rådande uppfattningen att dessa namn snarare betyder "de glänsande goterna" respektive "de ädla goterna". Detta innebär dock inte att öst- och västgoter skulle vara felaktiga termer, snarare är de att betrakta som mindre precisa benämningar som kan vara lämpliga att använda för tiden innan namnen ostrogoter och visigoter kom i bruk.

Goternas förhistoria mini|Stencirkel (Domarring) i norra Polen i Wielbarkulturens område, som är förbundet med goterna. En viktig källa till gotisk historia är Getica av 500-talshistorikern Jordanes, som kan ha varit av gotisk härkomst.Heather 1994, s. 3. "[T]he Getica of Jordanes has nevertheless played a crucial role. Written in the mid-sixth century, it is the only source which purports to provide an overview of Gothic history in our period, and has decisively influenced all modern historians of the Goths.Heather 1998, pp. 9–10. "Modern approaches to the history of the Goths have been decisively shaped by the survival of one particular text: the Origins and Acts of the Goths or Getica of Jordanes. Written in Constantinople in about AD 550, it is a unique document. Although its author wrote in Latin, he was of Gothic descent, and drew upon Gothic oral traditions... [T]he Getic's consolidated account has exercised enormous influence on the overall "shape" of modern reconstructions of Gothic history... Thanks to [archaeology]... it is now possible to exercise at least some kind of control of Jordanes' account of even this earliest period of Gothic history." Jordanes hävdar att han har baserat Getica på ett tidigare förlorat verk av Cassiodorus, men citerar också material från femton andra klassiska källor, inklusive en annars okänd författare, Ablabius.Jordanes (1915). The Gothic history of Jordanes. Översatt till engelskla av Mierow, Charles C. Princeton University Press. sidorna 19-22 Många forskare accepterar att Jordanes redogörelse för gotiskt ursprung åtminstone delvis härrör från gotisk stamtradition och är korrekt på vissa detaljer.Fulk 2018, sidorna 21–22. "How the Goths arrived at the Black Sea, and where they originated, are matters of debate. The usual assumption, and the one still credited by the considerable majority of scholars, has been that the account given in the sixth-century Getica of Jordanes is trustworthy at least in general outline: according to this account, the Goths migrated, perhaps about 100 BCE, from Scandinavia (Scandza) to the banks of the Vistula. Their area of settlement on the southern coast of the Baltic is called by Jordanes Gothiscandza... In accordance with the account of Jordanes, the Goths have usually been identified with the Gutones first mentioned by Pliny the Elder ca. 65 CE as living on the shore of (apparently) the Baltic Sea. On this reasoning the Goths have also commonly been associated with the island of Gotland and with the region of south-central Sweden called Götaland (named after the ON Gautar, OE Gēatas), from which areas they are assumed to have migrated originally... In more recent times the account of Jordanes, recorded so many centuries after the purported departure from Scandinavia, has been called into question, in part on archaeological grounds... [T]he presence of Goths in Scandinavia is not to be doubted... At all events, the name of the Goths is so common in place-names in Sweden – and place-names are often among the most archaic evidence – that it is difficult to believe that the Gothic presence in Scandinavia could have been a late development."Robinson 2005, p. 36. "Greek and Roman sources of the first and second centuries A.D. are the earliest written evidence we have for the Goths, under the names Guthones, Gothones, and Gothi. The sources agree in placing these people along the Vistula river, although whether they were on the coast or a bit inland is unclear. Also not totally clear is the connection between these people and other tribal groupings of similar names found at that time and later in parts of south central Sweden (now Västergötland and Östergötland) and on the island of Gotland. If the legend recorded by the sixth-century Gothic historian Jordanes is accurate, the Goths came to the mouth of the Vistula from across the sea, displacing a number of Germanic tribes who were there before them, including the Vandals. The weight of scholarship appears to support this story, with (mainland) Götland being seen as the likely point of origin, and the early first century B.C. as the likely time. Owing perhaps partially to population pressure, a large number of Goths subsequently left the Vistula in the mid-second century A.D. Around 170 they reached an area north of the Black Sea, where they settled between the Don and the Dniester rivers."Kasperski 2015. "The story by Jordanes about the migration of Goths from Scandza is a matter of a vivid and long standing discussion between historians. Most scholars argue that it is a part of the Gothic tribal tradition... Historians have long wondered how Jordanes learned about the migration. Some researchers claim that the source of his inspiration was an original Gothic tribal saga. It is even believed that the story about the origin (origo) of the Goths in Scandza is one of the most important parts of the Gothic tribal tradition, passed orally from generation to generation, a pillar sustaining the ethnicity of this people. However, not all scholars share this belief"Goffart 2010, pp. 56–57. "The report that the earliest Goths departed from Scandinavia for the Continent at some undetermined moment in the distant past still commands an impressive body of believers.... Experts in Germanic literature who instantly discount reports of Trojan or Scythian or Noachic origins as being fabulous, solemnly assent: emigration from Scandinavia is an authentic "tribal memory:' the one kernel of historicity to be plucked from an unholy stew of misconceptions and fabrications.