Miriquidi is a medieval name for a forest, perhaps in the vicinity of the

Ore Mountains The Ore Mountains (, or ; ) lie along the Czech–German border, separating the historical regions of Bohemia in the Czech Republic and Saxony in Germany. The highest peaks are the Klínovec in the Czech Republic (German: ''Keilberg'') at ab ...

, between the

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

and

Saale The Saale (), also known as the Saxon Saale ( ) and Thuringian Saale (), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Fränkische Saale, Franconian Saale, a right-bank tributary of the M ...

rivers. The name occurs in the Norse form ''

Myrkviðr In Germanic mythology, Myrkviðr (Old Norse "dark wood"Simek (2007:224) or "black forest"Gentry (2002:101–102)) is the name of several European forests. The direct derivatives of the name occur as a place name both in Sweden and Norway. Related ...

'' ('dark wood') in the Edda story

Lokasenna ''Lokasenna'' (Old Norse: 'The Flyting of Loki', or 'Loki's Verbal Duel') is one of the poems of the ''Poetic Edda''. The poem presents flyting between the gods and Loki. It is written in the ljóðaháttr metre, typical for wisdom verse. ''L ...

, and in

Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks ''Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks'' (The Saga of Hervör and Heidrek) is a legendary saga from the 13th century combining matter from several older sagas in Germanic heroic legend. It tells of wars between the Goths and the Huns during the 4th century ...

it is the name of the forest separating the

Ostrogoths The Ostrogoths () were a Roman-era Germanic peoples, Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Goths, Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populatio ...

from the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was par ...

. A forest called Miriquido (''silva que Miriquido dicitur'') appears in a charter of Emperor

Otto II Otto II (955 – 7 December 983), called the Red (), was Holy Roman Emperor from 973 until his death in 983. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto II was the youngest and sole surviving son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Italy. Otto II was ...

of August 30, 974; in it he gives the forest to a church in

Merseburg Merseburg () is a town in central Germany in southern Saxony-Anhalt, situated on the river Saale, and approximately 14 km south of Halle (Saale) and 30 km west of Leipzig. It is the capital of the Saalekreis district. It had a diocese ...

within certain limits between the rivers Saale and

Mulde The Mulde () is a river in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Elbe and is long. The river is formed by the confluence, near Colditz, of the Zwickauer Mulde (running through Zwickau) and the Freiberger Mulde (wit ...

, but the exact location is not given. The name also appears in the Chronicle (1012–1018) of

Thietmar of Merseburg Thietmar (also Dietmar or Dithmar; 25 July 9751 December 1018), Prince-Bishop of Merseburg from 1009 until his death in 1018, was an important chronicler recording the reigns of German kings and Holy Roman Emperors of the Ottonian (Saxon) dynas ...

(''in silva, quae Miriquidui dicitur''), but again without any details of location. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the term Miriquidi was supposed by some historians to have been used for the primeval forest covering the Ore Mountains, and it continues to be used in this sense in local history publications and chronicles. In 1874, the geologist

Friedrich August Frenzel Friedrich August Frenzel (24 May 1842 – 27 August 1902) was a German mineralogist. He was born in a miner's family in Freiberg, Saxony. In 1861 he was awarded a scholarship which enabled him to study mineralogy at Bergakademie Freiberg. There he ...

named a mineral miraquidite after this forest name (it is not clear which; it may be

beudantite Beudandite is a secondary mineral occurring in the Oxidation, oxidized zones of Polymetal, polymetallic deposits. It is a lead, iron, Arsenate mineral, arsenate, sulfate mineral, sulfate with Chemical formula, endmember formula: PbFe3(OH)6SO4AsO4 ...

corkite Corkite is a phosphate mineral in the beudantite subgroup of the alunite group. Corkite is the phosphate analogue of beudantite and with it, a complete solid solution range exists. Corkite will also form a solid solution with kintoreite. Corki ...

). More recently, it has been suggested that it is the ''Černý les'' ('black forest') of the

Chernyakhov culture The Chernyakhov culture, Cherniakhiv culture or Sântana de Mureș—Chernyakhov culture was an archaeological culture that flourished between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE in a wide area of Eastern Europe, specifically in what is now Ukraine, Ro ...

.M. Eggers, "Myrkviðr," ''Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde'', Vol. 20 (Walter de Gruyter, 2002: ), pp
460
61.

References

{{coord missing, Germany Forests and woodlands of Germany Ore Mountains