Berig is a legendary king of the

Goths The Goths were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. They were first reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 3rd century AD, living north of the Danube in what is ...

appearing in the ''

Getica ''De origine actibusque Getarum'' (''The Origin and Deeds of the Getae''), commonly abbreviated ''Getica'' (), written in Late Latin by Jordanes in or shortly after 551 AD, claims to be a summary of a voluminous account by Cassiodorus of the ori ...

'' by

Jordanes Jordanes (; Greek language, Greek: Ιορδάνης), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat, claimed to be of Goths, Gothic descent, who became a historian later in life. He wrote two works, one on R ...

. According to Jordanes, Berig led his people on three ships from Scandza (Scandinavia) to Gothiscandza (the

Vistula Basin The Vistula (; ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest in Europe, at in length. Its drainage basin, extending into three other countries apart from Poland, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra i ...

). They settled and then attacked the

Rugians The Rugii, Rogi or Rugians (), were one of the smaller Germanic peoples of Late Antiquity who are best known for their short-lived 5th-century kingdom upon the Roman frontier, near present-day Krems an der Donau in Austria. This kingdom, like t ...

who lived on the shore and drove them away from their homes, subsequently winning a battle against the

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vand ...

. Arne Søby, a Danish historian, has nonetheless proposed that

Cassiodorus Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Christian Roman statesman, a renowned scholar and writer who served in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senato ...

, who wrote the original text on which Jordanes's work is based, invented Berig, with inspiration from the name of Βέρικος (Berikos or

Verica Verica (early 1st century AD) was a British client king of the Roman Empire in the years preceding the Claudian invasion of 43 AD. From his coinage, he appears to have been king of the probably Belgic Atrebates tribe and a son of Commius. T ...

). Some archaeological research indicates, however, that the transition of the Oksywie culture into the Wielbark culture was peaceful and its timing coincides with the appearance of a new population of Scandinavian origins in the previously uninhabited area (" no man's land") between the Oksywie and Przeworsk culture areas.Kokowski 1999 The 16th-century Swedish archbishop of

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

Johannes Magnus Johannes Magnus (a modified form of Ioannes Magnus, a Latin translation of his birth name Johan Månsson; 19 March 1488 – 22 March 1544) was the last functioning Catholic Archbishop in Sweden, and also a theologian, genealogist, and histor ...

, in his history of the Swedes and Goths, was the first to publish a song known as the " Ballad of Eric", about an early Gothic king called Eric, who bears some similarities to Berig. It was once thought to contain authentic folk tradition about the king, but it is now regarded as inaccurate. However, Magnus discusses King Berig separately as having united the Swedes and Goths some 400 years after Eric's death.

In popular culture

In popular culture, Berig is referenced (as Berik) in the song "Three Ships of Berik, Pts. 1 and 2" by Swedish symphonic metal band Therion.

Notes

References

Andrzej Kokowski Andrzej Kokowski (born 1953) is a Polish archaeologist who is a Professor of Archaeology and Director of the Institute of Archaeology at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University. Biography Andrzej Kokowski was born in Złotów in 1953. He received h ...

"Archäologie der Goten" 1999 ({{ISBN, 83-907341-8-4) Legendary Gothic kings