Ermanaric (died 376) was a

Greuthungi The Greuthungi (also spelled Greutungi) were a Goths, Gothic people who lived on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, Pontic steppe between the Dniester River, Dniester and Don river, Don rivers in what is now Ukraine, in the 3rd and the 4th centuries. T ...

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

who before the Hunnic invasion evidently ruled a sizable portion of

Oium Oium was a name for Scythia, or a fertile part of it, roughly in modern Ukraine, where the Goths, under a legendary King Filimer, settled after leaving Gothiscandza, according to the ''Getica'' by Jordanes, written around 551. It is general ...

, the part of

Scythia Scythia (, ) or Scythica (, ) was a geographic region defined in the ancient Graeco-Roman world that encompassed the Pontic steppe. It was inhabited by Scythians, an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people. Etymology The names ...

inhabited by the Goths at the time. He is mentioned in two Roman sources: the contemporary writings of

Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus, occasionally anglicized as Ammian ( Greek: Αμμιανός Μαρκελλίνος; born , died 400), was a Greek and Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquit ...

, and in ''

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 the sixth-century historian

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 ...

. He also appears in a fictionalized form in later

Germanic heroic legend Germanic heroic legend () is the heroic literary tradition of the Germanic peoples, Germanic-speaking peoples, most of which originates or is set in the Migration Period (4th-6th centuries AD). Stories from this time period, to which others were ...

s. Modern historians disagree on the size of Ermanaric's realm.

Herwig Wolfram Herwig Wolfram (born 14 February 1934) is an Austrian historian who is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History and Auxiliary Sciences of History at the University of Vienna and the former Director of the . He is a leading member of the Vienna Schoo ...

postulates that he at one point ruled a realm stretching from the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

to the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

as far eastwards as the

Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ),; , ; , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural (river), Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan.

Peter Heather Peter John Heather (born 8 June 1960) is a British historian of late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Heather is Chair of the Medieval History Department and Professor of Medieval History at King's College London. He specialises in the fall ...

is skeptical of the claim that Ermanaric ruled all Goths except the

Tervingi The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi (sometimes pluralised Tervings or Thervings) were a Gothic people of the plains north of the Lower Danube and west of the Dniester River in the 3rd and the 4th centuries. They had close contacts with the Gr ...

, and furthermore points to the fact that such an enormous empire would have been larger than any known Gothic political unit, that it would have left bigger traces in the sources and that the sources on which the claim is based are not nearly reliable enough to be taken at face value.

Etymology

The first element of the name ''Ermanaric'' appears to be based on the

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...

root ''* ermena-'', meaning 'universal'. The second element is from the element ''*-

rīks Reiks (; pronunciation ; Latinized as ''rix'') is a Gothic title for a tribal ruler, often translated as "king". In the Gothic Bible, it translates to the Greek '' árchōn'' (ἄρχων). It is presumably translated as '' basiliskos'' (βα� ...

'', Gothic ''

reiks Reiks (; pronunciation ; Latinized as ''rix'') is a Gothic title for a tribal ruler, often translated as "king". In the Gothic Bible, it translates to the Greek '' árchōn'' (ἄρχων). It is presumably translated as '' basiliskos'' (βα ...

'', meaning 'ruler'; this is found frequently in Gothic royal names.

In Roman sources

According to Ammianus, Ermanaric was "a most warlike king" who eventually committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

, faced with the aggression of the Alani and of the Huns, who invaded his territories in the 370s. Ammianus says he "ruled over extensively wide and fertile regions". Ammianus also says that after Ermanaric's death, a certain Vithimiris was elected as the new king. According to

' ''

'', Ermanaric ruled the realm of

. Jordanes describes him as a "Gothic

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

" who "ruled all the nations of

and

Germania Germania ( ; ), also more specifically called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman provinces of Germania Inferior and Germania Superio ...

as they were his own". Jordanes also states that the king put to death a young woman named Sunilda (

Svanhildr Svanhildr is the beautiful daughter of Sigurd and Gudrun in Germanic heroic legend, whose grisly death at the hands of her jealous royal husband Ermanaric was told in many northern European stories, including the Old Norse '' Poetic Edda'' (''Ha ...

) with the use of horses, as punishment for her husband's treason. Thereupon her two brothers, Sarus and Ammius, severely wounded Ermanaric, leaving him unfit to defend his kingdom from Hunnic incursions. Variations of this legend had a profound effect on medieval Germanic literature, including that of England and

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

(see

Jonakr's sons Hamdir (Old Norse: ), Sörli (O.N.: ), and Erpr (O.N.: ) were three brothers in Germanic heroic legend who may have had a historic basis in the history of the Goths. Legend According to the Edda and '' Völsunga saga'', Hamdir and Sörli were t ...

). Jordanes claims that he successfully ruled 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 ...

until his death aged 110.

Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English essayist, historian, and politician. His most important work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1789, is known for ...

gives the version of Ammianus and Jordanes as historical, reporting that Ermanaric successively conquered, during a reign of about 30 years from AD 337 to 367, the west-goths, the

Heruli The Heruli (also Eluri, Eruli, Herules, Herulians) were one of the smaller Germanic peoples of Late Antiquity, known from records in the third to sixth centuries AD. The best recorded group of Heruli established a kingdom north of the Middle Danu ...

, the Venedi and the

Aestii The Aesti (also Aestii, Astui or Aests) were an ancient people first described by the Roman historian Tacitus in his treatise ''Germania'' (circa 98 AD). According to Tacitus, the territory of Aesti was located somewhere east of the ''Suiones'' ...

, establishing a kingdom which ranged from the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

to the

; and died aged 110 of a wound inflicted by the brothers of a woman whom he had cruelly executed for her husband's revolt, being succeeded by his brother Vithimiris.

In Germanic sources and legends

Ermanaric appears in a variety of different

s. Iormunrek (Jörmunrekkr) is the Norse form of the name. Ermanaric appears in

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

and Scandinavian legend. In the former, the poem

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

focused on the image of "Eormenric's wiles and hatred". He is described in the tenth century poem

Deor "Deor" (or "The Lament of Deor") is an Old English poem found on folio 100r–100v of the late- 10th-century collection the Exeter Book. The poem consists of a reflection on misfortune by a poet whom the poem is usually thought to name Deor. The ...

as a powerful but treacherous king: "We have heard of the wolfish mind of Eormanric: far and wide he ruled the people of the realm of the Goths: he was a cruel king".

, quoted in J R R Tolkien, ''The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun'' (London 2009) p. 322-323. The death of

(Svanhildr Sigurðardóttir) and Ermanaric's (Jörmunrek) subsequent death at the hands of

occupies an important place in the world of Germanic legend. The tale is retold in many northern European stories, including the Norse poems

Ragnarsdrápa Ragnarsdrápa (Old Norse: ‘Drápa about Ragnarr’)Clunies Ross, p. 27. https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1130&v=intro. is a skaldic poem attributed to the oldest known skald, Bragi inn gamli (‘the old’) Boddason, who lived in the 9th cent ...

Hamðismál The Hamðismál is a poem which ends the Germanic heroic legend, heroic poetry of the ''Poetic Edda'', and thereby the whole collection. Gudrun had been the wife of the hero Sigurd, whom her brothers had killed. With Sigurd she had had the daughte ...

and

Guðrúnarhvöt Guðrúnarhvöt is one of the heroic poems of the '' Poetic Edda''. Gudrun had been married to the hero Sigurd and with him she had the daughter Svanhild. Svanhild had married the Gothic king Ermanaric (''Jörmunrekkr''), but betrayed him with ...

, the

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' () or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often considered to have been to some exten ...

and the Volsunga Saga; the Norwegian

; the Danish

Gesta Danorum ("Deeds of the Danes") is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th-century author Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Literate", literally "the Grammarian"). It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essentia ...

; and the German

Nibelungenlied The (, or ; or ), translated as ''The Song of the Nibelungs'', is an epic poetry, epic poem written around 1200 in Middle High German. Its anonymous poet was likely from the region of Passau. The is based on an oral tradition of Germanic hero ...

and

Annals of Quedlinburg The ''Annals of Quedlinburg'' (; ) were written between 1008 and 1030 in the convent of Quedlinburg Abbey. In recent years a consensus has emerged that it is likely that the annalist was a woman. The annals are mostly dedicated to the history of ...

. In the Norse '' Thidreks Saga'', translated from

Low German Low German is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language variety, language spoken mainly in Northern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands. The dialect of Plautdietsch is also spoken in the Russian Mennonite diaspora worldwide. "Low" ...

sources, Ermanaric is ill-advised by his treacherous counsellor Bicke, Bikka, Sifka, or Seveke (who wants revenge for the rape of his wife by Ermanaric), with the result that the king puts his own wife to death for supposed adultery with his son;J. R. Tanner ed., ''The Cambridge Medieval History Vol VI'' (Cambridge 1929) p. 839 he is thereafter crippled by his brothers-in-law in revenge.

Tom Shippey Thomas Alan Shippey (born 9 September 1943) is a British medievalist, a retired scholar of Middle and Old English literature as well as of modern fantasy and science fiction. He is considered one of the world's leading academic experts on the ...

, ''The Road to Middle-Earth'' (London 1992) p. 16 In the

Middle High German Middle High German (MHG; or ; , shortened as ''Mhdt.'' or ''Mhd.'') is the term for the form of High German, High German language, German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High ...

poems ''

Dietrichs Flucht ''Dietrichs Flucht'' (Dietrich's Flight) or ''Das Buch von Bern'' (The Book of Verona) is an anonymous 13th-century Middle High German poem about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the legendary counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king ...

'', the ''

Rabenschlacht ''Die Rabenschlacht'' (The Battle of Ravenna) is an anonymous 13th-century Middle High German poem about the hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is part of t ...

'', and ''

Alpharts Tod ''Alpharts Tod'' (The Death of Alphart) is an anonymous late medieval Middle High German poem in the poetic cycle of the hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It ...

'' about Dietrich of Bern, Ermanaric is Dietrich's uncle who has driven his nephew into exile. The early modern

poem '' Ermenrichs Tod'' recounts a garbled version of Ermanaric's death reminiscent of the scene told in Jordanes and Scandinavian legend.Millet 2008, p. 475

Name

Ermanaric's

Gothic name The Onomastics of the Gothic language (Gothic personal names) are an important source not only for the history of the Goths themselves, but for Germanic onomastics in general and the linguistic and cultural history of the Germanic Heroic Age of c ...

is reconstructed as ''*Airmanareiks''. It is recorded in the various Latinized forms: * in

' ''

'', he is called ''Ermanaricus'' or ''Hermanaricus'', but some of the manuscripts even have ''Armanaricus'', ''Hermericus'', ''Hermanericus'' etc. * in

Ammianus Ammianus Marcellinus, occasionally anglicized as Ammian (Greek: Αμμιανός Μαρκελλίνος; born , died 400), was a Greek and Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquity ( ...

' ''Res gestae'', he is ''Ermenrichus'' (his name occurs only once). In medieval Germanic heroic legend, the name appears as: *

Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''Eormenric'' in ''

''; the alternative spelling ''Eormanric'' occurs in the poems ''

'' and ''

Widsith "Widsith" (, "far-traveller", lit. "wide-journey"), also known as "The Traveller's Song", is an Old English poem of 143 lines. It survives only in the '' Exeter Book'' (''pages 84v–87r''), a manuscript of Old English poetry compiled in the la ...

'', *

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

''Jǫrmunrekkr'' ** (or, borrowed from Low German) ''Ermenrekur'',

Old Swedish Old Swedish ( Modern Swedish: ) is the name for two distinct stages of the Swedish language that were spoken in the Middle Ages: Early Old Swedish (), spoken from about 1225 until about 1375, and Late Old Swedish (), spoken from about 1375 unti ...

''Ermenrik'' or ''Ermentrik'' in the Swedish '' Didrik Saga'', *

''Ermenrîch''. Since the name ''Heiðrekr'' may have been confused with Ermanaric through folk etymology, Ermanaric is possibly identifiable with ''Heiðrekr Ulfhamr'' of the Hervarar saga.

Notes

References

Works cited

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ermanaric 260s births 376 deaths Year of birth uncertain Gothic kings Amali dynasty Gothic warriors English heroic legends Ancient suicides 4th-century Gothic people 4th-century monarchs in Europe Longevity claims Royalty who died by suicide