Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Lesson 2. Germanic
Society
- 23. Germanic. This is the common form that the languages of
the Germanic branch had before they became differentiated
(aka Proto-Germanic)
- East Germanic
- Principal language: Gothic
- 3rd century: Goths spread from the
Vistula to the shore of the Black Sea.
- 4th century: Goths were Christianized
by a missionary named Ulfilas.
- Known due to a translation o the Gospels and other
parts of the New Testament made by Ulfilas.
- Goth is the earliest record of a Germanic language we possess
(except for some runic inscriptions in Scandinavia).
- For a time they played a prominent part in
European history. They conquered both Italy
(Ostrogoths) and Spain (Visigoths).
- Here, their language soon
gave place to Latin.
- Goth survived longest in the Crimea (vestiges
of it were noted down in the 16th century).
- Other languages: Burgundian
and Vandalic.
- North Germanic
- Found in Scandinavia, Denmark,
Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
- Earliest trace: runic inscriptions
from the 3rd century.
- The earlier form of Scandinavian
language: Old Norse.
- Around 11th century: dialectal
differences become noticeable.
- Scandinavian languages fall into 2 groups:
- Eastern group: Swedish and Danish
- Western group: Norwegian and Icelandic
- Norwegian ceased to be a literary language in
the 14th century and Danish (w/ Norwegian
elements) is one written language of Norway.
- Note: the union of Norway and Denmark for 400
years made Danish the language of culture.
- Dano-Norwegian is the dominant language today. An
amalgam of rural speech in normalized form (New
Norwegian) is trying to compete further complicating the
linguistic probem.
- Old Icelandic is the most literary of the
early Scandinavian languages
- Iceland was colonized by Norwegian
settlers about A.D. 874.
- It preserves a body of
heroic literature.
- The Elder or Poetic Edda, a collection of
poems around the 10th or 11th century.
- The Younger or Prose Edda, compiled by Snorri
Sturluson (1178-1241): about 40 sagas, or prose
epics, which exploit traditional figures.
- West Germanic
- The group to which
English belongs
- Divided into 2 branches by the operation of a Second
(or High German) Sound Shift analogous to that
described as Grimm's Law.
- High German
- West Germanic p, t, k, d sounds and so forth were changed into other sounds. It
occurred about 600 in the southern or montainous part of the Germanic area (the
highlands).
- Comprises a nº of dialects: Middle, Rhenish, and
East Franconian, Bavarian, Alemannic, etc.
- Chronologically divided into:
- Old High German (before 1100)
- Middle High German (1100-1500)
- Modern High German (since 1500)
- The one spoken in the midlands and used in the imperial chancery was
popularized by Luther's translation of the Bible (1522-1532) and since the 16th
century it has established itself as the literary language of Germany.
- Low German
- Old Saxon, Old Low Franconian, Old
Frisian, and Old English
- Old Frisian and Old English form
the Anglo-Frisian subgroup.
- Old Saxon is the essential
constituent of modern Low
German or Plattdeutsch
- Old Low Franconian, w/ some Frisian and Saxon
elements, is the basis of modern Dutch
(Netherlands) and Flemish (northern Belgium).
- Frisian still survives in Friesland (the
Netherlands), part of Schleswig, islands
along the coast, and some other places.
- Anexo II. The Culture and Origin
of the Germanic People
- Religion
- We do not know much about the autochtonous
religious practices of the Germanic people due
to their early conversion to Christianity
- Only Scandinavians maintained their original religious beliefs
until late Middle Ages. Then, most information about
Germanic religion comes from Scandinavian literary sources
- Elder Edda: manuscript
composed of a number of lays. 2
types: Heroic and Mythological.
- Mythological poems: stories of Germanic god, cosmogony,
the beginning and end (Ragnaruk) of Scandinavian times,
and recommendations to lead a wise life.
- The Hávamál: a collection of aphorisms
about daily life, wisdom, counselling and
magic charms attributed to Odin.
- Evidence of the practice of charms in
English and German vernacular texts.
- Charms: short invocations aimed at solving problems of
daily life (interpersonal relations, illnesses, cattle).
- Merseburg Charms (manuscript c. 900)
- A manuscript from the 9th century
which includes a baptismal vow in
the Saxon dialect.
- There exists a large number of texts dealing
with charms and magical practices in Old
English.
- Social Organization
- The migrations of the Germanic people until the early Middle
Ages were responsible for the fall of the Western Roman Empire
and the spread of an agriculture-based lifestyle.
- The loose political structure favored the
migration of some groups.
- The call for some type of leadership, which promoted the
appearance of a noble class whose members were eligible for
being the Kings of the community.
- Tribal life: reflected in the
so-called "Germanic laws".
- Leges Barbarorum (4th-5th centuries):
first compilation of these "laws".
- Written in Latin.
- Including technical
notions of Roman law
- Law was not devised by a central authority, but as
a result of following certain customs of the tribe.
- Visigoths are an exception: their codes were
established by the king and the noble class,
without popular participation.
- Unwritten, endowed with an ethical and moral
attitude to life, personal and belonging to each
of the members of a community.
- After the fall of the Western Roman
Empire, Germanic people did not impose
their law on the Roman citizens.
- It is a compilation of the customs of the tribe.
- Not about questions that are taken for
granted (theft), but regarded as
controversial, concerning migrations, conquests, etc.
- These laws were discussed by
popular assemblies and then
declared as such by the king.
- Social system
- Free and un-free
individuals
- Free: nobles and ordinary
men.
- Half-free men: a third category that existed in some
West Germanic societies. They could take part in certain
transactions and get married, but had no political rights.
- Government: organised with a king,
his council and a tribal assembly.
- The king was the highest military and religious
authority and the most powerful figure in the
assembly.
- The assembly took major decisions affecting the welfare of the
tribe, such as the election of the king, declaration of war or
outlawing of individuals.
- Tribe was subdivided into clans:
all tribal members related by
blood, each one with its own chief.
- Marriage involved the purchase of the bride by
the groom for a price. The money was not
transferred to the bride's family but kept by the
husband to cover the eventual needs of his wife.
- Divorce existed but only the husband could
divorce his wife and he might be financially
penalised by the tribe.