X-Nico

unusual facts about Germanic-Roman contacts


Germanic-Roman contacts

Finds of Roman inspired Spangenhelm type helmets in Germanic chieftain graves, also tell us that the Germanics were in awe of Roman culture (generally speaking).


A-umlaut

Germanic a-mutation, a historic sound change in Northwest Germanic languages.

Algiz

In the Elder Futhark, Algiz represents the Germanic phoneme *z, which does not occur word-initially.

Antoine Faivre

Until his retirement, he held a chair in the École Pratique des Hautes Études at the Sorbonne, University Professor of Germanic Studies at the University of Haute-Normandie, director of the Cahiers del Hermétisme and of Bibliothèque de l'hermétisme, and is with Wouter Hanegraaff and Roland Edighoffer, the editor of the journal Aries.

Audinghen

The town was originally named Odingehem, 'home of Odin', by the Vikings who built a temple here dedicated to the Germanic god Odin.

Cimbric

The Cimbrian language, a modern Germanic language spoken in northern Italy

Constantius II

His subsequent military campaigns against Germanic tribes were successful: he defeated the Alamanni in 354 and campaigned across the Danube against the Quadi and Sarmatians in 357.

Danish phonology

Danish is a Scandinavian language related closely to Swedish and Norwegian, and more distantly to Icelandic and Faroese as well as to the other Germanic languages.

Dora Sakayan

Sakayan began her graduate studies in Germanic philology in 1958 at the Lomonosov Moscow State University (LMSU), completing them in 1961.

Dyeus

The Latin word is also continued in English divine, "deity", and the original Germanic word remains visible in "Tuesday" ("Day of Tīwaz") and Old Norse tívar, which may be continued in the toponym Tiveden ("Wood of the Gods", or of Týr).

Fates

Norns, numerous female beings who determine the fate or future of a person in Germanic paganism

Fehu

The rune derives from the unattested but reconstructed Proto-Germanic *fehu in the Elder Futhark alphabet, with the original meaning of "money, cattle, wealth".

Fernão

For the Germanic given-name of the same root, see Ferdinand

Francesco Maffei

The Maffei family is of ancient German origin and, more precisely, in the 8th century A.D. derived from the Germanic tribe of the Franks.

Geri and Freki

Philologist Maurice Bloomfield further connected the pair with the two dogs of Yama in Vedic mythology, and saw them as a Germanic counterpart to a more general and widespread Indo-European "Cerberus"-theme.

Germanic languages

The earliest coherent Germanic text preserved is the 4th century Gothic translation of the New Testament by Ulfilas.

Grimalda

The name Grimalda is of Lombard origin (Grimoaldo), a Germanic tribe that dominated northern Italy from the 6th to 8th centuries.

Heavy metal fashion

As with the bikers, there is a fascination with Germanic imagery, such as the Iron Cross.

Hermannsdenkmal

The monument commemorates the Cherusci war chief Hermann or Armin (Latin: Arminius) and the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in which the Germanic tribes under Arminius recorded a decisive victory in 9 AD over three Roman legions under Varus.

Holtzmann's law

Holtzmann's law is a Proto-Germanic sound law originally noted by Adolf Holtzmann in 1838.

Human branding

The English verb to burn, attested since the 12th century, is a combination of Old Norse brenna "to burn, light," and two originally distinct Old English verbs: bærnan "to kindle" (transitive) and beornan "to be on fire" (intransitive), both from the Proto-Germanic root bren(wanan), perhaps from a Proto-Indo-European root bhre-n-u, from base root bhereu- "to boil forth, well up."

Iazyges

In early 92, the Iazyges, in alliance with the Sarmatians proper and the Germanic Quadi, crossed the Danube into the Roman province of Pannonia (mod. Croatia, northern Serbia, and western Hungary).

Indo-European s-mobile

Mark R.V. Southern, Sub-Grammatical Survival: Indo-European s-mobile and its Regeneration in Germanic, Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph 34 (1999).

Kate Burridge

Burridge's work has mainly focused on Pennsylvania German-speaking communities in Canada, grammatical change in Germanic languages, the nature of euphemism and dysphemism, linguistic taboo, and on English grammatical structure in general.

Lorrain dialect

It has been influenced by Lorraine Franconian and Luxembourgish, Germanic languages spoken in nearby or overlapping areas.

Ludwig Friedrich Leopold von Gerlach

He and his brother, Ludwig von Gerlach, formed the "Christian Germanic" circle to propagate the ideas of the Swiss jurist Karl Ludwig von Haller.

Máni

Monday, a day of the week named after the moon in Germanic societies.

Matrona

Dea Matrona, a singular form of Matronae or Matrones, mother goddesses attested in the Roman era among Celtic and Germanic regions; see Matres and Matrones

Montag aus Licht

They sing constantly changing names for the Cosmic Mother from the cult of Inanna and from early Germanic cults, so that they are Eve in many forms (Stockhausen 1998c, 123).

Nagel

Naglfar was the boat made of nails from the dead in Germanic mythology

Neopaganism in German-speaking Europe

Ludwig Fahrenkrog and his Germanische Glaubens-Gemeinschaft represent a specifically Germanic approach within the "Nordic" group.

Nibelheim

Niflheim, a region in Germanic and Norse mythology, for example the Nibelheim or "Nibel Home" is the home of the dwarves known as Nibelungs in Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle

Passo Fundo

Passo Fundo is the home town of the football coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, and also of the philosopher, opera singer, poet and germanic philologist Henrique García, and the adopted place of Teixeirinha, a Gaúcho folkloric performer, the modern gaúcho band Pala Velho, as well as it is known for being Pipe's birthplace.

Reinmar

It comes from Germanic *ragin/regin ("resolution of the gods") and Old High German mari, ("famous").

Rock of Cashel

The Irish Abbot of Regensburg, Dirmicius of Regensburg, sent two of his carpenters to help in the work and the twin towers on either side of the junction of the nave and chancel are strongly suggestive of their Germanic influence, as this feature is otherwise unknown in Ireland.

Scottish language

Scots language (Scots Leid), a Germanic language spoken in Lowland Scotland and Ulster

SS-Leitheft

The periodical's spiritual leader was Dr. Franz Riedweg, a Swiss physician who had joined the SS and become the head of Germanic Volunteer Recruiting, a division of the Berlin Main SS-Office.

Storm Saxon

Storm Saxon's name is a reference to the Saxons, a Germanic tribe that populated Great Britain before the Norman conquest of England in 1066.

Teutoburg

The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest fought there in AD 9 between Germanic tribes and the Roman Empire.

The Twelve Caesars

During the second, the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, three Roman Legions (Legio XVII, Legio XVIII, and Legio XIX) were defeated by the West-Germanic resistance to Roman imperialism, led by Arminius.

Tiu

Týr, as the Old English name for the Sky-God of Norse (Germanic) Mythology

Tovar Municipality, Aragua

The visitor will occasionally see Germanic oddities such as waitresses in traditional Bavarian dress hawking "torta selva negra" and the odd "D" plate on some cars, but will be unlikely to find anyone who understands German fluently.

Upper Trajan's Wall

Others, such as the historian Peter Heather, affirm it was built by the local Germanic tribes, mainly as a defense against raiders from Central Asia (Attila's Huns).

Vandalia, Illinois

Another theory put forth is that Vandalia was named by those who located the state capital in the town; according to the story, they mistakenly thought the Vandals were a brave Native American tribe, rather than of Germanic origins.

Verner

Verner's law, historical sound change in the Proto-Germanic language

Wels

During the early migration period (3rd, 4th and 5th century), the area around Ovilava was often invaded by the Alamanni, Vandals and other Germanic tribes as well as by Attila's army.

Western religion

Celtic and Germanic religion was described by Roman ethnography as primitive, but at the same time as pure or unspoiled compared to the so-called urban decadence of Rome.

Widsith

It is moot whether Widsith literally intends himself, or poetically means his lineage, either as a Myrging or as a poet, as when "the fictive speaker Deor uses the rhetoric of first-person address to insert himself into the same legendary world that he evokes in the earlier parts of the poem through his allusions to Weland the smith, Theodoric the Goth, Eormanric the Goth, and other legendary figures of the Germanic past" (Niles 2003, p 10).

Witta of Büraburg

Witta of Büraburg (also known as Albuin or Vito Albinus, a close Latin translation of his Germanic name) (born in Wessex; died 747) was one of the early Anglo-Saxon missionaries in Hesse and Thuringia in central Germany, disciple and companion of Saints Boniface and Lullus.


see also