History of the Langobards
Book 1
Chapter I
The region of the north, in proportion as it is removed from the heat of the sun and is chilled with snow and frost, is so much the more healthful to the bodies of men and fitted for the propagation of nations, just as, on the other hand, every southern region, the nearer it is to the heat of the sun, the more it abounds in diseases and is less fitted for the bringing up of the human race. From this it happens that such great multitudes of peoples spring up in the north, and that that entire region from the Tanais (Don) to the west [1] (although single places in it are designated by their own names) yet the whole is not improperly called by the general name of Germany. [2] The Romans, however, when they occupied those parts, called the two provinces beyond the Rhine, Upper and Lower Germany. [3] From this teeming Germany then, innumerable troops of captives are often led away and sold for gain to the people of the South. And for the reason that it brings forth so many human beings that it can scarcely nourish them, there have frequently emigrated from it many nations that have indeed become the scourge of portions of Asia, but especially of the parts of Europe which lie next to it. Everywhere ruined cities throughout all Illyria and Gaul testify to this, but most of all in unhappy Italy which has felt the cruel rage of nearly all these nations. The Goths indeed, and the Wandals, the Rugii, Heroli, and Turcilingi, [4] and also other fierce and barbarous nations have come from Germany. In like manner also the race of Winnili, [5] that is, of Langobards, which afterwards ruled prosperously in Italy, deducing its origin from the German peoples, came from the island which is called Scadinavia, [6] although other causes of their emigration [7] are also alleged. [8]
[1] Paul's designation of the whole region from the Don to the west, as Germany, which is wholly incorrect, appears, according to Mommsen (p. 61), to have come from his misinterpretation of the words of his authority, Isidore of Seville.
[2] Paul appears to deduce the name "Germany" from germinare to germinate. Cf. Isidore, Etym., XIV, 4, 2. This fanciful derivation is quite different from that given by Tacitus (Germania, II), who derives it from the name of a single tribe afterwards called the Tungrians, who were the first to cross the Rhine and drive out the Gauls.
[3] " Beyond the Rhine" means in this case on the left bank of the Rhine. The dividing line between Upper and Lower Germany ran a little below the junction of the Rhine with the Moselle. Mogontiacum (Mayence) was the capital of Upper Germany, and Vetera (Birten) near Wesel, of Lower Germany. (Mommsen's Geschichte des romischen Reichs, V, pp. 107—109). Although these two provinces included at various times more or less territory on the east side of that river, it was only a small part of Germany which was thus occupied by the Romans. Germania Magna, or Great Germany, east of the Rhine, remained independent.
[4] The Rugii and Turcilingi were tribes first mentioned as inhabiting the shores of the Baltic sea (Zeuss, 154-155). They were subsequently found in the army of Attila and afterwards dwelling on the Danube. The Heroli were a migratory people appearing at different times in various parts of Europe (Zeuss, 476). All three of these tribes were among the troops of Odoacar in Italy. As to the Heroli and Rugii see infra, chs. 19 and 20.
[5] The word means '' eager for battle '' according to Bruckner (322). According to Schmidt (37) it is related to the Gothic "vinja", " pasture."
[6] That Paul wrote Scadinavia and not Scandinavia see Mommsen, 62, note i. In the Langobard Origo (see Appendix, II) the name is given as Scadan, Scandanan or Scadanan; in the Chronicon dothaniim, it is Scatenauge (Mon. Germ. Hist. Leges IV, p. 642). Paul appears to have transformed this into Scadinavia from Pliny's Natural History (Book IV, ch. 27, p. 823, Delphin ed.)
[7] Than over population (Jacobi, 12).
[8] The other causes of the emigration of the Winnili may be those suggested in the Chronicon Gothanum where the prophetess or sibyl Gambara "declared to them their migration." "Moved therefore not by necessity, nor hardness of heart, nor oppression of the poor, but that they should attain salvation from on high, she says that they are to go forth." (Monument, Germ. Hist. Leges, IV, 641.).
Chapter II.
Pliny the Second also makes mention of this island in the books which he composed concerning the nature of things. This island then, as those who have examined it have related to us, is not so much placed in the sea as it is washed about by the sea waves which encompass the land on account of the flatness of the shores.[1] Since, therefore, the peoples established within the island had grown to so great a multitude that they could not now dwell together, they divided their whole troop into three parts, as is said, and determined by lot which part of them had to forsake their country and seek new abodes.[2]
[1] What Paul meant by this island is hard to decide (Jacobi, 11). Hammerstein (Bardengau, 51) has pointed out that in the Middle Ages the territory in the north of Germany, between the North and the Baltic seas, was included under the name of Scandinavia, and claims that Paul referred to the so-called Bardengau, a tract in Northern Germany, southeast of Hamburg. But the fact that Paul calls upon Pliny is a proof that he had no definite idea of Scadinavia, and notwithstanding the extensive movement of the tide upon the Elbe and the important changes on the coast, it can hardly be said of Bardengau that it was "surrounded" by sea waves. Bluhme (Die Gens Langobardonum und ihre Herkunft), without sufficient reason, identifies the northernmost part of the Cimbrian peninsula, the so-called Wendsyssel, with Scadinavia. (See Schmidt, 36). Schmidt (38 to 42) reviews the classical authorities, Mela, Pliny and Ptolemy, as well as Jordanes, the Geographer of Ravenna, and the Song of Beowulf, and concludes that the word refers to the Scandinavian peninsula which was then considered an island; but he rejects the tradition that the Langobards actually migrated from Sweden to Germany, since he considers that they belonged to the West-German stock, which in all probability came from the south-east, while only North-Germans (that is, those races which were found settled in Scandinavia in historical times) appear to have come from that peninsula. It is probable, however, that the Langobards came from North-German stock (Bruckner, 25-32), and while there can be no certainty whatever as to the place of their origin, it may well have been Scandinavia.
[2] The choosing by lot of a part of the people for emigration in the case of a famine is a characteristic peculiar to German folk-tales (Schmidt, 42).
Chapter III.
Therefore that section to which fate had assigned the abandonment of their native soil and the search for foreign fields, after two leaders had been appointed over them, to wit: Ibor and Aio,[1] who were brothers, in the bloom of youthful vigor and more eminent than the rest, said farewell to their own people, as well as their country, and set out upon their way to seek for lands where they might dwell and establish their abodes. The mother of these leaders, Gambara by name, [2] was a woman of the keenest ability and most prudent in counsel among her people, and they trusted not a little to her shrewdness in doubtful matters.
[1] Ibor and Aio were called by Prosper of Aquitaine, Iborea and Agio ; Saxo-Grammaticus calls them Ebbo and Aggo ; the popular song of Gothland (Rethmann, 342), Ebbe and Aaghe (Wiese, 14).
[2] The word 'gambar', according to Grimm (Deutsche Mythologie, I, 336), is the equivalent of 'strenuus'.
Chapter IV.
I do not think it is without advantage to put off for a little while the order of my narrative, and because my pen up to this time deals with Germany, to relate briefly a miracle which is there considered notable among all, as well as certain other matters. In the farthest boundaries of Germany toward the west-north-west, on the shore of the ocean itself, a cave is seen under a projecting rock, where for an unknown time seven men repose wrapped in a long sleep,[1] not only their bodies, but also their clothes being so uninjured, that from this fact alone, that they last without decay through the course of so many years, they are held in veneration among those ignorant and barbarous peoples. These then, so far as regards their dress, are perceived to be Romans. When a certain man, stirred by cupidity, wanted to strip one of them, straightway his arms withered, as is said, and his punishment so frightened the others that no one dared touch them further. The future will show for what useful purpose Divine Providence keeps them through so long a period. Perhaps those nations are to be saved some time by the preaching of these men, since they cannot be deemed to be other than Christians.
[1] This is the version by Paul of the story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. The earliest version is that of Jacobus Sarugiensis, a bishop of Mesopotamia in the fifth or sixth century. Gregory of Tours was perhaps the first to introduce the legend into Europe. Mohammed put it into the Koran; he made the sleepers prophesy his own coming and he gave them the dog Kratin also endowed with the gift of prophecy. The commonly accepted legend was, however, that the Seven Sleepers were natives of Ephesus, that the emperor Decius (A. D. 250), having come to that city, commanded that the Christians should be sought out and given their choice, either to worship the Roman deities or die; that these seven men took refuge in a cave near the city; that the entrance to the cave was, by command of Uecius, blocked up with stone; that they fell into a preternatural sleep, and that two hundred years later, under Theodosius II (A. U. 408—450), the cave was opened and the sleepers awoke. When one of them went to the city stealthily to buy provisions for the rest he found that the place was much changed, that his coins were no longer current, and that Christianity had been accepted by the rulers and the people. The original legend relates, however, that after awakening they died (Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, S. Baring-Gould, p. 93). It is not known from what source Paul derived his version of the story.
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