Germany, the Germanic Tribes and their Origins

Shrouded within the uncertainty of Europe's distant past are many mysteries. Whilst we are relatively well informed about the Mediterranean with its mighty empires we know comparatively little about the heartland and the fringes of the European continent. It wasn't until the days of Julius Caesar that a new player stepped up onto the stage of European and – by extension to the modern age – World History: The Ancient Germanic Peoples. Caesar described them as even more brutish and uncivilized than the in the eyes of the Mediterranean World already savage Gauls and justified his campaigns into Gaul partially by claiming that they needed protection from the Germans. But before we venture too far into historical events involving these peoples the term “German” and its use in the context of Antiquity has to be clarified.

A Neanderthal in Suite and Tie

What if Neanderthals hadn't become extinct? This is a question the curators of a Museum in Germany must have asked themselves when they created this exhibit: A Neanderthal in a suit and tie. As many of you may know, research in Archaeogenetics has relatively recently revealed that all human beings north of the Sahara Desert carry a few percent of Neanderthal DNA in us. So strictly speaking, Neanderthals have never gone extinct but are a part of many of us today. But what do you think modern life would be like if other human species were still around, not just as fragments in our genetic code?

The Etruscans

The Etruscans were one of the many historic peoples inhabiting the Italian Peninsula before the Rise of Rome and influencing the Empire from within after their subjugation. It is thought that the Romans incorporated some of the Etruscan deities in their own pantheon and that even the Latin language underwent some phonetical changes as a consequence. Some words in modern English ultimately come from the Etruscans via Latin, such as 'person'.

The German Eastward Expansion

Map showing the German Eastward Expansion, starting in the early Middle Ages at the zenith of Charlemagne's Frankish Empire. Although first German settlements east of the river Elbe in modern Eastern Germany started relatively early, it wasn't until the 10th and 11th centuries, that larger amounts of Germans moved eastward and assimilated most of the … Continue reading The German Eastward Expansion

The Loulan Beauty – A Tarim Mummy

One of the Tarim mummies from the Tarim basin in northwestern China in the province of Xinjiang, dated to 1800 BC. These mummies are frequently associated with speakers of the Indo-European Tocharian language which since has gone extinct due to assimilation into the Uyghur population at the end of the first millennium AD. It took another millennium to rediscover this lost Indo-European language at the beginning of the 20th century.

THE ANGLO-SAXON MIGRATION: NEW INSIGHTS FROM GENETICS

This article is a re-blog from HERITAGEDAILY (link to original article at the bottom of the page). HERITAGEDAILY is an independent publisher of the latest scientific discoveries, research, and travel news. First launched as a small archaeology blog in 2011, the platform has grown into a general science publisher with a focus on archaeology, anthropology, … Continue reading THE ANGLO-SAXON MIGRATION: NEW INSIGHTS FROM GENETICS

German Prisoners Of War in Britain 1939-1948

The Second World War was the most devastating conflict in human history. All sides suffered horrendous casualties, but not all of those belonged to the dead or the wounded. Many, in fact, the vast majority, were taken captive and had to be taken care of, which put a massive administrative burden on the belligerent nations. This article seeks to examine the fate of German POWs in British hands during and beyond the War.

Tattúínárdǿla saga: If Star Wars Were an Icelandic Saga

A great article by Dr. Jackson Crawford, Old Norse Specialist at the University of Colorado, about a hypothetical version of George Lucas’ Star Wars as an Icelandic Saga in the style of the Eddic Poems.


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Tattúínárdǿla saga

A long time ago, in a North Atlantic far far away…

Introduction

Earlier this week I was drawn into an enlightening discussion with my colleague Ben Frey about the complicated textual tradition that lies behind George Lucas’s “Star Wars,” which few outside the scholarly community realize is a modern rendition of an old Germanic legend of a fatal conflict between a father and his treacherous son. Below I present some remarks on the Old Icelandic version of the legend, with some spare comparative notes on the cognate traditions in other old Germanic languages.

The story as presented in George Lucas’s films represents only one manuscript tradition, and a rather late and corrupt one at that – the Middle High German epic called Himelgengærelied (Song of the Skywalkers). There is also an Old High German palimpsest known to scholars, later overwritten by a Latin choral and only partly legible to us…

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History through Poems: Examining Beowulf

A great article on a classic of Old English Literature by Kristyn J. Miller.

Kristyn J. Miller

Epic poems have incredible staying power both as literary achievements and as historical resources. The Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf is one of the foremost examples of this. Despite its mythological themes, the story offers historians a rare insight into Anglo-Saxon ideals of masculinity, heroism, and society. At the same time, it presents literary scholars with a wellspring of opportunities to analyze symbolism and metaphor, as well as a look at the progression of our literary language.

Within the literary sphere, modern Beowulf criticism finds its origins in J.R.R. Tolkien. In his 1936 lecture at Oxford University, later transcribed as an essay, Tolkien argued:

I have read enough, I think, to venture the opinion that Beowulfiana is, while rich in many departments, specially poor in one. It is poor in criticism, criticism that is directed to the understanding of a poem as a poem.

The essay goes on to reaffirm the value…

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