The Gutes ( Old West Norse: ''Gotar'',

Old Gutnish Old Gutnish was a stage in the development of the North Germanic language Gutnish, spoken on the Baltic Sea, Baltic island of Gotland and Fårö. The extant body of Old Gutnish is small, and Gutalagen and the Guta saga constitute its majority. ...

: ''Gutar'') were a North Germanic tribe inhabiting the island of

Gotland Gotland (; ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a Provinces of Sweden, province/Counties of Sweden, county (Swedish län), Municipalities of Sweden, municipality, a ...

. The ethnonym is related to that 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 ...

'' (''Gutans''), and both names were originally

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 ...

*''Gutaniz''. Their language is called Gutnish (''gutniska''). They are one of the progenitor groups of modern

Swedes Swedes (), or Swedish people, are an ethnic group native to Sweden, who share a common ancestry, Culture of Sweden, culture, History of Sweden, history, and Swedish language, language. They mostly inhabit Sweden and the other Nordic countries, ...

, along with historical

and

Geats The Geats ( ; ; ; ), sometimes called ''Geats#Goths, Goths'', were a large North Germanic peoples, North Germanic tribe who inhabited ("land of the Geats") in modern southern Sweden from antiquity until the Late Middle Ages. They are one of ...

Name

The name of the Gutes in Old West Norse is ''Gotar (adj. gotneskr)'', which is the same as that used for the Goths. Old Norse sources such as the sagas do not distinguish between the Goths and the Gutes. In accordance, the

Old East Norse Old East Norse was a dialect of Old Norse which evolved into the languages of Old Danish and Old Swedish from the 9th century to the 12th century. Between 800 and 1100, East Norse is in Sweden called '' Runic Swedish'' and in Denmark ''Runic ...

term for both Goths and Gutes seems to have been ''Gutar'' (adj. ''gutniskr''). Only the Goths and Gutes bear this name among all the Germanic tribes, even if '' Geat'' is closely related. The fact that the ethnonym is identical to ''Goth'' may be the reason why they are not mentioned as a special group until

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 ...

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 ...

, where they may be those who are called '' Vagoth'' (see Scandza). However,

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

mentions the Goutai as living in the south of the island of Scandza; these could be identical to the Gutes, since the "ou"-spelling in Ancient Greek corresponds to the Latin and Germanic "u".

History

The oldest history of the Gutes is retold in the '' Gutasaga''. According to legend they descended from a man named Þjelvar who was the first to discover Gotland. Þjelvar had a son named Hafþi who wedded a fair maiden named Hvitastjerna. These two were the first to settle on Gotland. Hafþi and Hvitastjerna later had three children, Guti, Graipr and Gunfjaun. After the death of their parents, the brothers divided Gotland into three parts and each took one, but Guti remained the highest chieftain and gave his name to the land and its people. Chernyakhov

It is related that because of overpopulation one third of the ''Gutes'' had to emigrate and settle in southern Europe: :''Over a long time, the people descended from these three multiplied so much that the land couldn't support them all. Then they draw lots, and every third person was picked to leave, and they could keep everything they owned and take it with them, except for their land. ... they went up the river Dvina, up through Russia. They went so far that they came to the land of the Greeks. ... they settled there, and live there still, and still have something of our language.'' Some scholars, as for instance Wessén, Wenskus, Hoffman etc., have argued that this tale might be a reminiscence of the migration of the Goths. Certain linguists, as for instance Elias Wessén, point out that there are similarities between Gothic and Gutnish that are not found elsewhere in the

Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Southern Africa. The most widely spoke ...

. One example is the use of the word ''lamb'' for both young and adult sheep, which is only seen in Gutnish and Gothic.Fornvännen 1969, Elias Wessén Bildstein-Bunge 1

Before the 7th century, the Gutes made a trade and defence agreement with Swedish kings, according to the Gutasaga. This seems to have been due to Swedish military aggression. Although the Gutes were victorious in these battles, they eventually found it more beneficial (as a nation of traders) to try to negotiate a peace treaty with the Swedes. It gives Awair Strabain as the man who arranged the mutually beneficial agreement with the king of Sweden and the event would have taken place before the end of the ninth century, when Wulfstan of Hedeby reported that the island was subject to the Swedes. Because of Gotland's central position in 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 ...

, from early on the Gutes became a nation of traders and merchants. The amount of silver treasure that has been found in Gotlandic soil during the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

surpasses that of all the other Swedish provinces counted together, which tells of a traders' nation of indisputable rank among the North Germanic tribes. p 9 The Gutes were the leading tradesmen in the Baltic sea until the rise of the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...

. The Gutes were both yeomen farmers and traveling merchants at the same time: so-called ''farmenn''. This was an exceptionally dangerous occupation during the Middle Ages, since the Baltic Sea was full of pirates. The Gutnish ''farmenn'' always had to be ready for battle. The division and organisation of the early Gutnish society shows a nation constantly ready for war. The "ram" seems to have been an early symbol for the Gutes, and is still seen on the Gotlandic coat of arms.

Gallery

File:Axe of iron from Swedish Iron Age, found at Gotland, Sweden.jpg, Axe of iron from Swedish Iron Age, found at Gotland File:Järnåldern, Lerkärl, Nordisk familjebok.jpg, Clay pot from Swedish Iron Age, found on Gotland File:Trojeborg, Nordisk familjebok.png, Trojeborg, a stone labyrinth from

Visby Visby () is an urban areas in Sweden, urban area in Sweden and the seat of Gotland Municipality in Gotland County on the island of Gotland with 24,330 inhabitants . Visby is also the episcopal see for the Diocese of Visby. The Hanseatic League, ...

on Gotland

Sources

The history of Gotland can be read in the book '' Gutasaga''. The ''Gutasaga'' is a saga treating the history of Gotland prior to Christianity. It was recorded in the 13th century and survives in only a single manuscript, the ''Codex Holm B. 64'', dating to ca. 1350. It is kept in the National Library of Sweden in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

together with the ''

Gutalagen Gutalagen (or Guta lag; "The law of the Gotlanders") is the earliest preserved law book for Gotland. The laws were likely first written down around 1220 CE but there is evidence for the laws being older than this, with some aspects likely being ...

'', the legal code of Gotland. It was written in the

dialect of

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 ...

References

External links

Gutasaga

The Gotlanders – The people of Gotland Island

History of Gotland and the Gotlanders

Other sources

*Ferguson, Robert ''The Vikings: a history'' (New York City: Penguin Group. 2009) * Nerman, Birger ''Det svenska rikets uppkomst'' (Stockholm: 1925) {{Germanic peoples Early Germanic peoples Goths Gotland North Germanic peoples