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)
1. East Germanic
  1. Principal language: Gothic
    1. 3rd century: Goths spread from the Vistula to the shore of the Black Sea.
    2. 4th century: Goths were Christianized by a missionary named Ulfilas.
    3. Known due to a translation o the Gospels and other parts of the New Testament made by Ulfilas.
    4. Goth is the earliest record of a Germanic language we possess (except for some runic inscriptions in Scandinavia).
    5. For a time they played a prominent part in European history. They conquered both Italy (Ostrogoths) and Spain (Visigoths).
      1. Here, their language soon gave place to Latin.
    6. Goth survived longest in the Crimea (vestiges of it were noted down in the 16th century).
  2. Other languages: Burgundian and Vandalic.
2. North Germanic
  1. Found in Scandinavia, Denmark, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
  2. Earliest trace: runic inscriptions from the 3rd century.
  3. The earlier form of Scandinavian language: Old Norse.
  4. Around 11th century: dialectal differences become noticeable.
  5. Scandinavian languages fall into 2 groups:
    1. Eastern group: Swedish and Danish
    2. Western group: Norwegian and Icelandic
      1. 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.
  6. Old Icelandic is the most literary of the early Scandinavian languages
    1. Iceland was colonized by Norwegian settlers about A.D. 874.
      1. 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.
3. West Germanic
  1. The group to which English belongs
    1. Divided into 2 branches by the operation of a Second (or High German) Sound Shift analogous to that described as Grimm's Law.
      1. 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.
      2. 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
1. Religion
  1. We do not know much about the autochtonous religious practices of the Germanic people due to their early conversion to Christianity
    1. Only Scandinavians maintained their original religious beliefs until late Middle Ages. Then, most information about Germanic religion comes from Scandinavian literary sources
      1. 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.
  2. Evidence of the practice of charms in English and German vernacular texts.
    1. Charms: short invocations aimed at solving problems of daily life (interpersonal relations, illnesses, cattle).
      1. Merseburg Charms (manuscript c. 900)
      2. A manuscript from the 9th century which includes a baptismal vow in the Saxon dialect.
      3. There exists a large number of texts dealing with charms and magical practices in Old English.
2. Social Organization
  1. 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.
  2. The loose political structure favored the migration of some groups.
    1. 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.
  3. Tribal life: reflected in the so-called "Germanic laws".
    1. Leges Barbarorum (4th-5th centuries): first compilation of these "laws".
      1. Written in Latin.
      2. Including technical notions of Roman law
    2. Law was not devised by a central authority, but as a result of following certain customs of the tribe.
      1. Visigoths are an exception: their codes were established by the king and the noble class, without popular participation.
      2. 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.
      3. It is a compilation of the customs of the tribe.
      4. 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.
  4. Social system
    1. Free and un-free individuals
      1. Free: nobles and ordinary men.
      2. 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.
    2. Government: organised with a king, his council and a tribal assembly.
      1. The king was the highest military and religious authority and the most powerful figure in the assembly.
      2. 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.
    3. Tribe was subdivided into clans: all tribal members related by blood, each one with its own chief.
    4. 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.
      1. Divorce existed but only the husband could divorce his wife and he might be financially penalised by the tribe.

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