PART
5 –
Ch.XXXIII.6
The
Pelasgians or proto – Latins (Arimii)
(The
Pelasgians from the northern parts of the
XXXIII.
6. Arimii (Herminones, Arimani, Alamanni, Alemanni) in Germany.
The Arimii had been the most ancient population
of great, or barbarian Germany, which stretched from the Rhine to the Vistula
and comprised at the same time the peninsulas called today Denmark, Sweden and
Norway.
In Tacitus’ times the entire population of
great Germany was divided in three main groups.
In regard to the
historical origin of these nations, Tacitus writes (Germ. c. 2):
“The Germans
celebrate Tuisto with ancient songs,
god born of Terra, and his son Mannus, the author and founder of their
nation. They attribute to Mannus three sons, and after their names, the
inhabitants closest to the sea were called Ingaevones,
those from the inner parts, Herminones,
and the others, Istaevones” [1].
[1. The Istevonii of Germany seem to have been only a fraction of a more
numerous Pelasgian tribe. Pliny (VI.
19. 1) mentions the Histi among the
Scythian populations of Asia. In Samnius we find a city called Histonium (Pliny, III. 17.1), or Istonii
in Liber coloniarum. In Eubea existed an ancient city called Hestiaea and a part of Thessaly had
been called Hestiacotis].
It results from the
words of Tacitus that the three sons of Mannus, the founders of the ancient
German nations, were called Ingaevo,
Hermino and Istaevo.
According to Pliny, to the family of the Ingevonii belonged the Cimbrii, Teutonii and Caucii, settled on the littoral of the
Ocean, from the Rhine to the Elba. To the family of the Hermi(n)onii, who formed the most extended and powerful people of
great Germany, belonged the Suevii,
Hermundurii, Chattii and Cheruscii;
and to the family of the Istevonii,
who dwelt in Westphalia, Nassau and Hessen, Pliny mentions only the Sigambrii (lib. IV. 28. 2) [2].
[2. Pliny also mentions two other ethnic families of the Germans: the
fourth under the name of Vindili (Vandals),
subdivided in Burgundiones, Varini, Carini and Guttones. But these tribes
appear as Suevi, so they can be considered as belonging to the family of the
Herminoni.
The fifth family comprised the Bastarnii from the northern
Carpathians, and the tribe of the Peucinii
from the mouths of the Danube. But the Bastarnii were Getae (Appianus, De reb.
Mac. IX. 16). Strabo tells us (VII.
3) that part of the Bastarni were called Atmoni,
probably a corrupt form of Armoni;
and the Peucinii, or inhabitants from the Danube delta, are called in Romanian
traditions Armani. The confusion
happened therefore because of the name.
The ancient Herminoni of Germany had
formed, it is true, the same family with the Arimii from the Carpathians. But
the Germans at the time of Pliny constituted an entirely changed people].
The same historical
tradition transmitted by Tacitus, appears later under a more developed form,
more accommodated to the ethnographical circumstances from the time of the
great migration of peoples.
It is the table
called “Generatio regum”, drawn up
probably at the time of the first Merovingians, around 520 ad. Apart from the
names of the traditional kings, it also contains an ethnic grouping of the
German populations from the beginning of the 6th century.
According to this genealogical
table, the first man who had come to Europe, or more correctly to Germany, had
been one so-called Alanus, the first
king of the Romanii (understand Arimii) from the territory of Germany. This
Alanus from the 520 ad genealogy is the same as Mannus from the version of
Tacitus. But the most ancient form of the name is Manus, while Alanus is a
simple co-name or ethnic epithet [3].
[3. Mannus (Manus) of the
ethnographical note of Tacitus is not a word of Teutonic origin.
The Pelasgians of Lydia also had a
similar tradition: that during the times of an ancient king of theirs, Atys the son of Manes (Fragm. Hist. gr. III. 592), a part of the people of
Tacitus says that
Manus, or Mannus, is the son of Tuisto (deus terra editus). The etymology and
meaning of the word Tuisto had remained to this day obscure for the German
literati.
From the same
parent of Mannus also comes Alanus. In the genealogical table from the time of
the Merovingians, Alanus is the son of Fetuir,
Fetebir or Fadir – Vater, a simple translation of the
Pelasgian word Tuisto, in Romanian tutiu or tata.
This Alanus,
exactly like Mannus from Tacitus’ version, had three sons. Their names are the
same: with Tacitus, Hermino, Ingaevo, Istaevo; in the Merovingian table Erminus, Inguo, Istio. We also note
here that in most of the manuscripts of the mediaeval table, Erminus is called Armen, Armeno, Armenon, Armenio, Armenion, with A instead
of E; and Inguo appears more in the form Negue,
Nigueo, Negno, Neugio, Neguio
and Neugrio, with Ne instead of In. (In the Latin language In,
as negative particle, sometimes changed into ne: infandus, nefandus; infaustus, nefastus; inscius, nescius; and
in the Romanian language the negative in
has always the form of ne).
We reproduce here
the text of this memorable ethnographical table as it has been published by K. Mullenhoff in the Memos of the
Berlin Academy of Sciences (Abhandlungen d. konigl. Akad. D. Wissenschaften zu
Berlin, 1862), and at the same time we present in parallel the versions from
the Historia Britonum of Nennius (7th
century), as well as from other manuscripts of the Middle Age, in which we find
some more correct forms of the proper names.
The Merovingian Table.
[4. We have here an ancient
Pelasgian tradition. Hermes (‘Ermas,
‘Ermaon, ‘Erman) was considered in prehistoric times as a divine
ancestor of many Arimic nations. On a Roman inscription from
According to Valerius Flaccus, who had died before the conquest of
It results that Armen, the son of
Alanus, is the same as Hermes of the southern Pelasgians, who appears at the
same time as a glorious and deified king of
As we see, this
table reduces the origin of the German tribes to the same ancestors about who
Tacitus also speaks: to Erminus or Armen (Hermino), Inguo (Ingaevo) and Istio (Istaevo).
The Merovingian
table also establishes as principle that the ancient population of
[5. In German traditions and legends
we also find mentioned other kings, so-called of the “Romans”, like: Dietwart,
romischer Konig; Dietmar, who reigns
over Romisch lant and Romisch marc; Diether,
the young king from Roemisch land; Otnit,
Romischer Kaiser; King Lwdwig von
Ormanie, and Ermanaricus
(Airmanareiks), emperor at Romaborg (Grimm,
D. Heldensage, p. 113, 133, 168, 185, 189, 190, 290, 329). It is without doubt
that under the name “Romisch lant”,
“Romisch marc” and “Ormanie” the ancient folk songs or
traditions did not understand the historic empire of the Romans, but the
various national kingdoms of the Herminonii or Arimii from the
According to this
genealogy, from Erminus or Armen drew their origin the Gotii,
Walagotii, Wandalii, Gepidii and Saxonii [6]; from Inguo or Neguo descended
the Burgundii, Thuringii, Langobardii and Bavarii; and Istio is the common parent of the Romans from near the Rhine, the
Britonii, Francii and Alamanii.
[6. The same Erminus appears in some manuscripts in the libraries of
The Gotii, as we know, had migrated from
Scandinavia, and they are considered in the Merovingian table as being part of
the family of Armen or of the Herminonii.
The Scandinavian
populations belonged to the family of the Herminonii also according to the
Roman authors. The great or barbarian Germany of Tacitus (Germ. c. 1) also comprised the vast territory of Sweden
and Norway, considered in those times as only a large island in the middle of
the Ocean.
Germania Magna
Tacitus tells us in particular about a population
from the northern Ocean, or Scandia, called Suiones (Germ. c. 44). These Suiones formed only a small branch of
the nation of the Suevii; so, they belonged to the family of the Herminonii. Mela also extends the Hermi(n)oni to
Scandinavia (lib. III. c. 3; Ibid, lib. III. c. 6). (He places the Teutoni in
Scandinavia, and the Herminoni beyond the Teutoni, in the same island
(peninsula). And Jornandes mentions
among the populations of Scandia the Raumaricae
and the Raugnaricii (Get. c. 3),
tribes which, as we see, constituted the same people of the Romarici.
Accordint to all
these traditions, whose origin reduces to very remote times, the genealogical
table of the ancient populations of Germany appears as follows:
The genealogical table of the ancient German
populations.
The Herminonii constituted in Roman times
the most numerous and powerful population from the territory of Germany. They
were spread from the sources of the Rhine and Danube, over Wurttemberg,
Bavaria, Boemia, Saxonia, Prusia (where they later appear as Hermini – Diefenbach, Orig. europ. p. 192), Moravia, Silesia, Polonia,
Litvania and Denmark; and beyond the Ocean or the Baltic Sea, they were spread
in numerous tribes through Sweden and Norway. The oldest form of the name
Herminones had been in any case Armini
(Armani and Aramani), without aspiration; as also without aspiration is the
name of Erminus, or Armen, as well as other family names of
ethnic origin which we find in these regions.
The famous man who
liberated Germany by defeating Varrus, is called by the Roman authors Arminius, by Strabo (lib. VII. 1. 4) and Dio
Cassius (vol. VIII, 1866, p. 52), Armenios.
He was from the nation of the Cherusci; and the Cheruscii formed, as Pliny
tells us, only a branch of the great family of the Herminonii.
In
Dionysius Periegetus calls all the inhabitants of
The ancient
inhabitants of the
A port of the
northern sea, situated close to the
In the 3rd
century of the Christian era, the Arimanii or Aramanii from the upper parts of
the Rhine and the Danube start appearing under the name Alamanni and Alemanni (Steph. Byz.; Pliny says Suevi = Herminoni,
Ravennas - p. 230 – Suavi
= Alamani). This is a simple phonetic change: Alamani and Alemani instead
of Aramani and Aremani, by changing r in
l.
The form of this
name is very ancient. One of the most famous Gigants from the Rhipei mountains,
who had risen to reestablish Saturn as king, bears the name Alemone, according to Hyginus. This battle had taken place,
as we know, on the territory of the Arimii; and Nevius, the Roman epic poet, places at the front of the army of the
Gigants one so-called Runcus
(Rumcus), probably the same as Alemone.
Finally, the name Aliman, as a trace from ancient times,
has still been preserved to this day in the names of Romanian peasants and in
the topographical terminology of this country (Aliman, village. Constanta; Aliman,
hill, R.- Sarat; Aliman, hill,
Valcea; Aliman, estate, Teleorman, Aliman, tableland, Gorj; Alimanesci, village, Olt and Arges).
We come now to the
origin and form of the name “Germani”.
The name Germania, writes Tacitus (Germ. c. 2), is new and introduced only recently; because
the first who had crossed the Rhine, and had ousted the Gauls from their
dwellings, had been the Tungrii of today, at that time called Germani …lately this national name had
extended to all the populations of Germany.
And Strabo writes (Geogr. Lib. VII. 1. 2):
the Romans were the first to give the name Germani
to the populations which dwelt on the eastern parts of the Rhine.
But it is still a
fact that on the territory of Germany no tribe, or population, with the name of
Germani had existed (Pauly’s Real-Encyclopadie d. kl.
Alterth. p. 773-774).
This term is just a
simple Latinization of the ethnic name Herimani
or Hermani, where the Romans, out of
some political considerations, had changed H
with G, calling the populations
between the Rhine and Vistula Germani,
meaning people of the same nation, or brothers,
gnasioi,
adelphoi, as the ancients explain the meaning of this ethnic name (Strabo, lib. VI. 1. 2).
In a Parisian codex
of Eustathius of Thessalonika it is also
said that the Germans were also called hermen
(Comm. in Dionys. Ed. Didot, v. 285).
In the times of
Caesar, the inhabitants of Germany were a more pastoral than agricultural
people. They had no cities, no houses close to each other, but dwelt mostly scattered
around water sources, near woods and on the plains. Their national weapon was
the Pelasgian spear, which they called framea.
On a coin of the emperor Domitian, “Germania defeated” is personified sitting
sadly on a long shield, and down near her feet is a broken spear (Eckhel, Doctr. Num. VI. 379). At time
of war each village had to supply 100 fighters, which shows us that they also
had the institution of the centenes,
an ancient Pelasgian inheritance (Tacitus,
Germ. c. 6).
Their religious
beliefs and traditions were also Pelasgian. They had no idols or other images
to represent the divinities.
Tuisto (with the meaning of “tuta” or “tata” – TN –
father) was the supreme god and the parent of the German populations. According
to their ancient national traditions, he was a deus Terra editus, meaning born from the same mother as the great
Pelasgian divinities [7].
[7. These words of Tacitus about Tuisto correspond to the Greek epithet gegenas.
This expression had had in the beginning a simple geographical meaning, in no
way fabulous.
Ga, Gaia or Terra of the Pelasgian genealogies was meant as a certain
geographical region, not as the entire Earth)].
The ancient Germans
venerated Terra mater (Hertha), the Sun and the Moon. They venerated Saturn,
Mercury (Hermes), Hercules, Castor,
Pollux, and had a particular cult for Mars,
whom they called Guodan, Wodan and Geat (Mars Geticus of
the Romans).
The ancient Saxoni (people from the family of the
Herminonii), who around the beginning of the 6th century had occupied
Britannia under the leadership of Hengist and Horsa, venerated especially their
divine ancestor, Hermes or Armen, under the name of Irmin or Hirmin.
At Erisburg in
Westphalia there existed a wooden column erected in honor of Irmin, called Irminsul, Ermensul and Ormensul (the column of Irmin), or in
other words, an ancient Pelasgian “arminden” (Rudolf von Fuld – ap. Grimm, D. M. I. 106). This column had
been burnt in 772ad by Charlemagne, when he had defeated the Saxoni (Grimm, D. M, Ed. 1854, p. 105-106, 116,
324 – 328). From that time onwards the cult of Irmin (s. Armen) had been
banned.
Numerous reminders
about the dwellings of the Arimii on these regions have been preserved to this
day in the topographical terminology of ancient Germany. From these we cite the
following:
Armansberg;
Harmening; Ram (Ramm); Rambach; Ramberg; Ramels; Ramelsen; Ramelsloh;
Ramesbach;; Raming; Ramlingen; Ramma-Gau; Rammelsberg; Rammenau; Rammingen;
Rammisperc; Rammo; Ramolt; Rams; Ramsau; Ramsbach; Ramschen; Ramshausen;
Ramsthal; Ramstorf; Rems; Remesen; Remesin; Remse; Rimai; Rimau (Rimov);
Rimberg; Rimowitz (Bohemia); Ruhmland; Romsdal (Norway); Rumburg; Rumelant;
Rumlingen.
As we see, the
Germany of today, with her sister countries, bear still numerous traces of a
prehistoric nation, predating the Teutonic nation, which had tilled for the
first time the soil between Vistula and the Rhine, and which has inscribed its
name on the mountains, hills and valleys of this region.
We resume: the
primitive form of the German people
had been entirely different from that presented by their present time
physiognomy, and that which appears at the time of Caesar.
The most ancient
inhabitants of Germany had been of the Pelasgian
nation, mostly Rami or Arimi. This is proved by historical
traditions, religious beliefs, name of localities, finally by the material
traces of their prehistoric civilization, which we find scattered on the
territory of Germany from the Rhine to the Vistula and even beyond the Ocean,
in the Scandinavian peninsula.
But a pitiless fate
follows also the Arimii of Germany, exactly like the other Pelasgian
populations from Scythia, from Asia, from the Hem peninsula and from Egypt.
Around the end of
the heroic epoch, in any case before the Trojan war, a new invasion of peoples
coming, as the ancients said, from the last ends of the earth, flowed over the
regions between Tanais and the Atlantic Ocean, over Scythia, Germania, Gallia
and Britannia.
The face of
Pelasgian Europe began to change.
The first to appear
at the front of this mass migration are the Celts, people unseen and unknown to Europe until then. Pushed on
the move by events which we cannot guess, these barbarians, warlike and
adventurers, who were neither shepherds, nor agriculturists, left the remote
regions of Asia, following the great road of the ancient world westwards. They
stopped for some time on the plains of Scythia, where they led a life unknown
to history; from there they crossed the Vistula, entered the territory of the
Arimii, and produced a new dislocation of the Pelasgian tribes.
A few centuries
later, very probably after the Trojan war, another branch of the Indo-European
family appears at the north-eastern frontiers of Germany. These were the
predecessors of the Germans of today. We do not know if these people came from
Asia, or from the north of Europe. But their type, traditions, and language
show them to be a nation which had lived for a long time under a boreal
climate. They were from the same ethnic family of the Celts. But they were
different from the Celts, as Strabo
tells us, in that they were more barbarous, had bigger bodies and
yellow-reddish hair; but in anything else, in form and customs, they were
similar to the Celts. This new people, impetuous, violent and warlike, used to
live only from hunting and looting, crossed the territory of Germany, threw the
Pelasgian and Celt tribes together, changed the old state of things and became
masters over a large area of the territory of ancient Germany; then little by
little they replaced the pastoral and agricultural population of the Arimi,
adopting the civilization, religion, institutions and a significant part of the
language and traditions of the subjected people. The ancient Pelasgian tribes
ousted from their dwellings were always pushed towards south and west; some
cross the Alps into Italy, others the Rhine into Gallia, or over the Ocean into
Britannia, while those who stayed were dispossessed, assimilated or subjected
and in Germany the name of Arimani became synonymous with the term of feudal
peasants (Herimani). Even until late in the Roman epoch, the various tribes of
Germany, the old and the new, were engaged in continuous battles and wars with
each other; their dwellings changed all the time, and the migration from the
territory of Germany, especially towards Gallia, continued unabated
Cicero, in his memorable discourse about the
consular Provinces, characterizes the peoples of Germany and Gallia of his time
as follows: “Caesar has fought happy wars with those peoples most violent and
feared for their courage and number, the Germanii
and the Helvetii; and the others he
squashed, he defeated, he subjected, and he taught to listen to the orders of
the Roman people; this emperor of our army has crossed, with the legions and
the weapons of the Roman people, regions and peoples about which no news had
reached us, either in writing, in words, or at least in public rumor. In truth,
all that we had conquered until these times in Gallia was only a small part; and
the other parts were owned by nations, either inimical, heathen, or unknown,
terrible with their large figures, barbarian and warlike, so that there was
nobody who did not wish that these peoples were defeated and subjected… It is a
great bounty of the providence that nature has fortified Italy on her northern
parts with the Alps, because if this entry had been open to this countless
multitude of terrible barbarians of the north, Rome could never had managed to
be the centre and residence of this great empire of the world (De provinciis
consularibus, c. 13-14).
This successive and
violent invasion of two new and barbarian peoples into the northern parts of
Europe had basically transformed the old state of things in Germany. Even
around the beginning of this era, the Pelasgian element of Germany was in large
part expelled, and the remainder scattered. The political independence and
ethnic personality of the ancient Arimii from the territory of Germany ends and
their type disappears.
In the times when
Marcus Ulpius Traianus governed the Roman provinces from the lower Rhine, few
of the Arimii of Germany still spoke their national language, and few who still
had the knowledge of their kinship with the Romans. The only people from the
northern parts of upper Danube, who had preserved their Arimic character for a
longer time, seem to have been the Hermundurii.
About these Tacitus writes: “If we
followed now the course of the Danube, closest to us are the Hermundurii, people loyal to the
Romans. Because of this they are the only among the Germans who have the right
to trade with us, not only on the banks of the Danube, but also in the interior
parts, as well as in the splendid colonies of the Rhetia province. They come to
us on which way they like and without being guarded, and while our commanders
show to the other German nations our weapons and castrums, we open our houses
and our villas to the Hermundurii, without them harboring any wish to take them
from us” (Germ. c. 41).