The

spear A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastene ...

or lance, together with the bow, the

sword A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...

, the

seax ''Seax'' (; also sax, sæx, sex; invariant in plural, latinized ''sachsum'') is an Old English word for "knife". In modern archaeology, the term ''seax'' is used specifically for a type of small sword, knife or dagger typical of the Germanic pe ...

and the

shield A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry or projectiles such as arrows, by means of ...

, was the main equipment of the Germanic warriors during the

Migration Period The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roma ...

and the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

Terminology

The pre-migration term reported by

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

is ''framea'', who identifies it as '' hasta''; the native term for ' javelin, spear' was

Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old Hig ...

''gêr'',

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

''gâr'',

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

''geirr'', from

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic br ...

''*gaizaz''. The names Genseric,

Radagaisus Radagaisus (died 23 August 406) was a Gothic king who led an invasion of Roman Italy in late 405 and the first half of 406.Peter Heather, ''The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians'', 2nd ed. 2006:194; A committed ...

indicate

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

*''gais''. Latin ''gaesum'', ''gaesus'', Greek was the term for the lance of the

Gauls The Gauls ( la, Galli; grc, Γαλάται, ''Galátai'') were a group of Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age and the Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul (''Gallia''). They sp ...

. The

Avestan language Avestan (), or historically Zend, is an umbrella term for two Old Iranian languages: Old Avestan (spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE) and Younger Avestan (spoken in the 1st millennium BCE). They are known only from their conjoined use as the scrip ...

has ''gaêçu'' 'lance bearer' as a likely cognate. The Celtic word is found e.g. in the name of the

Gaesatae The Gaesatae or Gaesati ( Greek Γαισάται) were a group of Gallic mercenary warriors who lived in the Alps near the river Rhône and fought against the Roman Republic at the Battle of Telamon in 225 BC., s.v. ''Gaesatae''. According to s ...

. Old Irish has ''gae'' 'spear'. Proto-Germanic ''*gaizaz'' would derive from

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo ...

''*ghaisos'', although loan from Celtic has also been considered, in which case the PIE form would be ''*gaisos''. The ''

Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch The ''Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch'' (''IEW''; "Indo-European Etymological Dictionary") was published in 1959 by the Austrian-German comparative linguist and Celtic languages expert Julius Pokorny. It is an updated and slimmed-down ...

'' has ''*g'haisos'' (with a palatal velar aspirate), discounting the Avestan form in favour of (tentatively) comparing

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

' 'projectile'. The form ''gaois'' is read in an early

runic inscription A runic inscription is an inscription made in one of the various runic alphabets. They generally contained practical information or memorials instead of magic or mythic stories. The body of runic inscriptions falls into the three categories of ...

on the so-called Mos spearhead, dated to the 3rd century, found in

Stenkyrka Stenkyrka is a populated area, a socken (not to be confused with parish), on the Swedish island of Gotland. It comprises the same area as the administrative Stenkyrka District, established on 1January 2016. Geography Stenkyrka in the northw ...

, Gotland. The etymon of English ''spear'', from Proto-Germanic ''*speru'' (Old English ''spere'', Old Frisian ''sper'', Old High German ''sper'', Old Norse ''spjör''),spear
at etymonline.com in origin also denoted a throwing spear or lance (''hasta'').

Ger

The word ''kêr'' or ''gêr'' is attested since the 8th century ( Lay of Hildebrand 37, Heliand 3089). ''Gar'' and cognates is a frequent element in

Germanic name Germanic given names are traditionally dithematic; that is, they are formed from two elements, by joining a prefix and a suffix. For example, King Æþelred's name was derived from ', for "noble", and ', for "counsel". However, there are als ...

s, both male and female. The term survives into New High German as ''Ger'' or ''Gehr'' (Grimm 1854) with a generalized meaning of ' gusset' besides 'spear'. In contemporary German, the word is used exclusively in antiquated or poetic context, and a feminine ''Gehre'' is used in the sense of 'gusset'.

Framea

('' Germania'' 6) describes the equipment of the Germanic warrior as follows:

Even iron is not plentiful with them, as we infer from the character of their weapons. But few use swords or long lances. They carry a spear hasta''.html" ;"title="' hasta''">' hasta''(''framea'' is their name for it), with a narrow and short head, but so sharp and easy to wield that the same weapon serves, according to circumstances, for close or distant conflict. As for the horse-soldier, he is satisfied with a shield and spear; the foot-soldiers also scatter showers of missiles each man having several and hurling them to an immense distance, and being naked or lightly clad with a little cloak.

The term is also used by Eucherius of Lyon, Gregory of Tours and Isidore. By the time of Isidore (7th century), ''framea'' referred to a

, not a

. Since Tacitus reports that the word is natively Germanic, various Germanic etymologies of a Proto-Germanic ''*framja'', ''*framjō'' or similar have been suggested, but remain speculative. Must (1958) suggests ''*þramja'', cognate to

''þremjar'' 'edges, sword blades',

Old Saxon Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Europe). I ...

''thrumi'' 'point of a spear'. The word reappears on the title page of the 15th-century witch-finding book ''

Malleus Maleficarum The ''Malleus Maleficarum'', usually translated as the ''Hammer of Witches'', is the best known treatise on witchcraft. It was written by the German Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer (under his Latinized name ''Henricus Institor'') and first ...

'': "MALLEUS MALEFICARUM, Maleficas, & earum hæresim, ut ''phramea'' potentissima conterens." ("The Hammer of Witches, which destroys witches and their heresy as with a very mighty sword.") Icelandic, the modern language as well as the language of the Sagas, has the word ''frami'' 'distinction, renown, fame'. This word was in earlier times strongly connected with warfare, but its use as a name of a weapon is not known.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Migration Period spear Spears Throwing spears

Spear A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastene ...

Terminology

Ger

Framea

See also

References

Further reading

External links