Part 1:

 

The Serboi contribute to the ethnogenesis of

Goths, Sarmatians, Slavs, Vandals & Venets

 

 

It will be shown here that that the aristocratic Amal royal family that led the Goths accross much of Europe for 200 years was a branch of the Serboi.

 

We will cite the anti-Slavic, German historian Herwig Wolfram and his mammoth work History of the Goths published in 1979. Aside from his obvious anti-Slavic biase, another defficiency of this work is that it does not consult the fossil record.

 

           

            Marcellinus calls the two Amal kings Vithimiris and Videric, whereas...they carry the          boastful names Vinitharius "conqueror of the Venedi" and Vandalarius "conqueror of the          Vandals" ... The Vendish victory of Vinitharius was originally a 4th century victory over the     Antes, for at that time the Slavs did not exist. Not until he Origo Gothica was composed (555 AD) were the Sclaveni causing havoc everywhere...

 

            Herwig Wolfam

            History of the Goths

            1979, Munich

            Page 252

 

Wolfram thinks the Slavs did not exist because he equates their ethnogenesis with the appearance of the Slavic name in Europe. This is deadly error because it has already been shown that the Slavs were known as Wends previously. Slavic propensity for making alliances with Avars, Antes and Sarmatians and assimilating their ethno-tribal names results in the Slavs not being recognized to the common historian. Anthropologists who consult the fossil record know that Slavs existed long before the fourth centuy.

 

It has also already been shown above that the Serboi were directly connected to the Wends and that the Illyrian Veneti were indirectly connected to the Wends. It has already been shown above that the Iranian-Sarmatians and Slavs were practically linguistic and cultural kinsmen.

 

The connection and continuity of the Serboi with the Amal Gothic aristocracy is just as solid the connection of the Serboi with the Wends. Below it will become obvious that this connection is deliberately avoided and ignored by Wolfram - despite the fact the connection is obvious to such an extent that examples can be found on every page of Wolfram's work.

 

Below, it will also be shown that the Vandals (Vandal - Venet - Wend) were also connected to the Iranian-Sarmatians, with whom the Serboi are commonly associated by Western scholars (see: Juddah, Malcolm etc...)

 

            Goths and Borani had certainly visited the places of sacrifice but only for the sake of the     riches piled up there...

 

            Until 257 AD, the Goths had always appeared together with Carpi and Borani...and with       Vandal Sarmatian groups.

 

            Herwig Wolfam

            History of the Goths

            1979, Munich

            Page 50, 51

 

Aside from establishing a Sarmatian link with the Vandals & Goths, Wolfram aquaints us with two other the tribes: the Carpi and the Borani. At this point, Wolframès earlier statement that the Slavs did not exist in the 4th century is discreditted. Borani is a Slavic name steming from the word bor "pine tree". In Serbian, Borani actually means "the people of the pines". In fact, there is a city in eatern Serbia named Bor and its people are reffered to as Borani. The Borani, who were acting in concert with the Goths in the mid-3rd century were certainly a Slavic tribe, possibly but not necessarily connected to the Serboi on account of the toponyms.

 

The Vandals figure very prominently in the ethnogenesis of the Goths:

 

From the island of Scandza, as from a factory of tribes or a womb of peoples the Goths are said to have migrated ... At that time, they subjugated their neighbors, the Vandals and by their victories forced them to join the Gothic tribe.

           

            This is the beginning of the memoria, the Amal tribal history of the Goths which Cassidrius recorded and which Jordanes preserved for posterity

           

            Origo Gothica

            Johannes Jordanes

            555 AD

            Taken from:

            Herwig Wolfam

            History of the Goths

            1979, Munich

            Page 36

 

In his book Conversio, Herwig Wolfram attempts to refute historians' identification of Slavs and Avars as Vandals on page 102 and in footnotes 27, 28 and 29. The Vandals are considered by most contemporary historians to be Germanic but the agreement is not ubiquitous and most scholars who take this point of view do so because they negate any Wend-Vened-Venet-Slavic connection. Such schlars would irresponsibly dismiss the connection even though the observations of ancient historians can be confirmed by linguistics and etymology, as it has been shown throughout this section. 

 

Wilfram next discusses the Goths under their ancient name, the Gutones, as he delves into the connection of the Vandals and the Goths. A third people also figure prominently in the ethnogenesis of the Goths, the Lugians:

 

Pliny the elder mentions the Gutones as a sub-group of the Vandal-Vandili. Moreover, Strabo connects the Gutones with the Lugians and Vandals in one breath. The most likely explanation is that the Lugians and the Vandals were the same people ... Tacitus could all at once recognize the importance of the Vandals, locating the Gutones..."beyond the Lugians" and include many Lugian sub-tribes among the Vandals ... during the first part of the 1st Century AD, the utones were part of the Celtic-dominated Lugians, then in the   second half of the 1st Century the...Vandals become prominent ... The Gutones broke   away from the Lugian-Vandal community and expanded their territory east of the Vistula

 

            Herwig Wolfam

            History of the Goths

            1979, Munich

            Page 40

 

These facts become apparant: the Lugians and Vandals are integral to the ethnogenesis of the Goths and contributed in large part to the bulk of the Gothic population. The identity of the Lugians is not analyzed by Wolfram. Lug in one form or another means "swamp" in every single contemporary Slavic language. It also meant "swamp" in the Illyrian language (or what little is left of it with which we are acquainted). The likely connection between Vandals and Wends and the connection of Wends with Serboi have already been demonstrated. The identity of the Lugians as Iranian Sarmatians / Slavs and the obvious etymology of the Lugian ethnonym logically connects Lugians to the swampy territory of the Vistula have been established.

 

Speaking about the Gothic language and Gothic vocabulary, Wolfram says:

 

Among the names for Mediterranean fruit-bearing trees, that of the olive was borrowed         early, perhaps from the Illyrian Venetic languages ...

 

The physician lekeis (in Gothic)...used herbs and spices, the former derived from Gothic tradition, the latter supplied by Rome ... The only Slavic loanword in Gothic possibly has to do with dancing; perhaps it came from an originally foreign and therefore conspicuous ritual.  

 

            Herwig Wolfam

            History of the Goths

            1979, Munich

            Page 40

 

This has to be one of the most humerous and ill-informed statements made by Wolfram because while claiming that "the only Slavic loanword in Gothic possibly has to do with dancing," Wolfram mentions the that the Gothic word, lekeis, means "physician". Lek is an Eastern and Southern Slavic word meaning medicine. Clearly, "dancing" is not the only Slavic loanword in Gothic.

 

Wolfram makes another embarrassing blunder when discussing the meeting of the early Goths (still known as Gutones) with the Iranian-Sarmatian tribe Spali:

 

...in Scythia the Gutones met the Iranian-Sarmatian peoples. As an example of a hostile     confrontation the Origo Gothica (555 AD) mentions the fight against the Spali. In Slavic,    their name means something like "giants". Such an unfriendly name is typically used to label foreigners and thus the Spali were probably not Slavs.

 

            Herwig Wolfam

            History of the Goths

            1979, Munich

            Page 43

 

Spali does mean something like giant (in Old Church Slavonic but it has fallen into disuse in contemporary Slavic languages) but there is no reason to consider it "an unfriendly name typically used to label foreigners". This is a non-sequiter. Since it is a non-sequiter, the Spali were probbaly Slavs or Iranian Sarmatians of whom the Serboi were a branch according to Juddah and Malcolm and thus - ethnic and linguistic kinsmen of the Slavs.

 

What deserves even more attention and what is even more discrediting to Wolfram is the connection he makes between Goths and Venetic Illyrians:

 

Among the names for Mediterranean fruit-bearing trees, that of the olive was borrowed early, perhaps from the Illyrian Venetic languages... 

 

            Herwig Wolfam

            History of the Goths

            1979, Munich

            Page 40

 

Gothic-Venetic connection via loanwords could only have come through a continuity of Vandals with Illyrian Venets because by the time the Goths began to expand southward from Skandinavia in 250 AD, Illyrian languages like Venetic had been extinct for 2 centuries. The continuity between the Vandals and the Illyrian Venets becomes likely when we examine Gothic vocabulary because any assimilation of Illyrian Venetic words into Gothic could not have occured before 250 AD because the Goths were still in Scandinavia. But the assimilation could not have happened after 250 AD - unless the Illyrian Venetic language and Venetic people survived as "Vandals". 

 

The Sarmatian-Gothic connection goes back to the earliest origins of the Goths, while they were still known as the Gutones, when they made their first thrust to the Bosporus from the Crimea. The Borani whose Slavic/Sarmatian identity was demonstrated through etymology earlier in this text, also figure prominently in the Goths first expansion:

 

The years, 255, 256 and 257 saw the first "Scythian" attacks by sea. Once again   Sarmatians preceded the Goths in this new theater of war. As a result, the Gothic-          Sarmatian neighbours gained control of the Bosporian kingdom ... First we hear of the    Borani who took the fleet and its crews away from the Bosporans... The Borani had simply ordered the Bosporian sailors to set them ashore; then the Borani sent the sailors and             ships home. 

 

            Herwig Wolfam

            History of the Goths

            1979, Munich

            Page 48, 49

 

The first half of this text is intended to demonstrate the contribution of Sarmatian Iranian & Slavic contributions to the ethnogenesis of the Germanic Goths, as well as to show that the Vandals represent Wendish Slavic/Sarmatian continuity bridged by the Venetic Illyrians. It seems liely that the Vandals may have been a branch of the Serboi, or at least their ruling class may have been, if we consider the personal name of the Vandal king, Visimir.

 

A part of the "free Sarmatians" had probably fled in 333 to the Hasdingian Vandals under     King Visimir ... The Origo Gothica locates the Vandal settlements between the Mures &       Koros rivers. Hungarian archaeologists can discover no traces of these settlements; the finds seem throroughly Sarmatian.

 

            Herwig Wolfam

            History of the Goths

            1979, Munich

            Page 62

 

First: Visimir (visiti = to hang or to float over; mir = peace) is clearly a Serb personal name belonging to a Vandal ruler.

 

Second: the fact that Hungarian archaeologists can discover no traces of Vandal settlements when there are clear written records of them being in Pannonia, implies that Sarmatians and Vandals were indistinguishable from one another and ultimately that the Vandals were not Germanic, but Iranian. The Iranians are cited by Coon (above) as being nearly undistinguishable from the Slavs, who were essentially linguistic and cultural kinsmen of European Iranian peoples (Scythians, Antes, Sarmatians).

 

Third: the association of the Serboi with the Sarmatians by contemporary western historians (Malcolm, Judah etc...) means that the Serboi can also be grouped with the Vandals, Sarmatians, Scythians and Antes.

 

 

Part 2:

The Serb personal names of Gothic rulers

 

 

What is embarrassing to Herwig Wolfram is that, while he is aware that Spali is an ancient Slavic word & that the Gothic word for dance has a Slavic etymology, he is ignorant of the fact that Borani, lekeis, Lugians are also clearly of Slavic etymology. His familiarity with ancient Slavic words contrasted by his ignorance of contemporary Slavic words is inexplicable to such a degree that it can only come accross as deliberate.

 

With that in mind, we will examine the personal names of the Goths to determine whether or not they are Germanic and if not, whether they are Slavo/Sarmatian instead. It is the personal names of the Gothic aristocracy that undeniably tie them specifically to the Serboi because these personal are not only un-Germanic, they are undeniably contemporary Serb personal names common to no other living Slavic or non-Slavic people. All of these personal names are not Serb but enough of them (especially among the highest Amal aristicrats) certainly are. Some of the personal names cannot be placed in any modern language and Wolfram rarely gives any insight into the etymology of Gothic names.

 

Wolfram discusses the Visigothic ancestral line:

 

Gundiok's son, Gundobad is considered the nepos - the grandson, nephew or relative - of    Ricimir, whose mother was the daughter of Valia.

 

            Herwig Wolfam

            History of the Goths

            1979, Munich

            Page 33

 

Ricimir can be read as Recimir (reci = to speak; mir = peace; or: the one who speaks of peace). Or it could be an archaic version of Rastimir (rasti = to grow). The short form of this name is Rastko which was also the personal name of the Serb patron St. Sava before he entered the cloister. A further corruption of this name could have evolved into Stracimir, as in the Serb medieval ruler of Zeta, Djuradj Stracimirovic Balsa but that is speculation.

 

Wolfram continues discussing the Visigoth royal line:

 

The attackers came from Pannonia and were led by the Amal king Vidimir...whereupon his son, Vidimir, the younger inherited the army but not his father's kingship ... After 485 AD      we hear of Vidimir on two other occasions. Bishop Ruricius...exchanged letters with a member of the high nobility by the name of Vittamar... The shipment of such a gift would    point to Limousin as the place where Vidimir settled, provided we are right with identifying    him with Vittamar.           

 

            Herwig Wolfam

            History of the Goths

            1979, Munich

            Page 188

 

Vidimir: vidi = to see; mir = peace. The name Vittamar also has a cognate in the modern Serb personal name Vitomir.

 

Around 330 AD probably began the increasing Goth infiltration of Transylvania... This advance led to a confrontation with the Tisza Sarmatians. The attackers were led by Vidigoia, "the bravest among the Goths" who lost his life near th Tisza...and was buried there.

 

            Herwig Wolfam

            History of the Goths

            1979, Munich

            Page 61

 

Vidigoia or Vidigoj. Personal names ending with "goj" are typically found among the earliest Serb and Croat rulers: Domagoj, Prosigoj, (add names). Names with this ending (goj) are considered archaic among Serbs and are no longer current, though they are still given to male children in Croatia. The etymology of this word may be from the Slavic word: "gojiti" = to grow prosperous or to grow fat.

 

Wolfram mentions the founding fathers of the Amal Goths confronting another family, whose relationship with the Goths is uncertain, the Balthi:

 

...the first to step fully into the light of history are the Amal brothers Valamir, Thudimir and   Vidimir, who around 450 AD were the leaders of the "Hunnic" Ostrogoths. 

 

            Led by the three royal brothers, Valamir, Thudimir and Vidimir, the Amali directly    confronted the Balthi.

 

            Herwig Wolfam

            History of the Goths

            1979, Munich

            Page 31, 178

 

Valamir can be read as the contemporary Serb personal name, Velimir (veli(ki) = great; mir = peace). For an example of this name in contemporary usage, see Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic.

 

Nonetheless, the Goth Modares was a real gain for the Romans when he entered their army ... Modares belonged to the same clan as Athanarik...and in fact Modares rose quickly ... In 379, Modares succeded in destroying a large column of Gothic plunderers.

 

             Herwig Wolfam

            History of the Goths

            1979, Munich

            Page 131

 

In the absence of the all the names we have analyzed, attributing Serb etymology to the name Modares would be tennuous. But we have enough valid examples to procede with identifying Modares with the Serb word mudar = the wise one.

 

Wolfram discusses Gothic law:

 

They formed a confederation of all tribal divisions and placed themselves under the authority of a barbarian chief whom he Romans call a judge... But this judge was not allowed to lave the tribal territory... Rather, he was responsible for the defense of Gothiuda: land of the Gothic people.

 

Though Gothiuda means etymologically nothing more than "Gothic people," in the 4th century it designated no a community of descent but the terrirtory ruled by the...tribal confederation.

 

             Herwig Wolfam

            History of the Goths

            1979, Munich

            Page 67, 91

 

Gothiuda means etymologically nothing more than "Gothic people," - in which language? Gothiuda: Goti -- ljudi. Ljudi means people in all Slavic languages; thus the etymology of Gothiuda can only be Slavic.

 

Wolfram next analyzes more Gothic vocabulary, consistently avoiding attributing a Slavic etymology to what are obviously Slavic words:

 

            LANGUAGE AND DAILY LIFE

           

            The word for fig, smakka...comes from the Caucasus.

 

            The same goes for harijs - legion of army

 

             Herwig Wolfam

            History of the Goths

            1979, Munich

            Page 112, 113

 

Smakka is smokva; the Serbian word for fig and harijs, meaning legion or army has its etymology in the Serb verb hariti = to ravage.

 

The evidence presented here is adequate enough to demand a revision of the traditionally held views about the Goths, Sarmatians, Serboi, Vandals and Venets. An exaggerated Germanic origin for many peoples who would be better classified as European Iranians is responsible for much of the "mystery" surrounding Goths, Vandals, Venets and others. A better understanding of the Iranian peoples: Sarmatians, Antes and Alans and apparantly the Serboi, as well - along with a greater emphasis of this particular branch of Indo-Europeans would clarify much of the confusion surrounding their origin and place in European history.

 

 

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