The Rugians followed the Vandals and the
Langobards into the Vienna Basin and Pannonia, so that Lower Austria came to be
known as Rugiland. They were pacified by Odoacer (or should we call him
Audawaker) in 487 and were last heard of moving to Italy (some were also
resettled by Romans in Thrace), where their remnants soon merged with other
populations, losing their separate identity. What's intriguing about the Rugians
is the possibility that they had migrated from what is now Rogaland County
in SW Norway (the Stavanger area) about the 2nd c. BC -- anticipating, like the
Herulians, the later movements of the Danes (who BTW conquered Rügen, then
occupied by Slavs, in 1168, cf. the destruction of the temple of
Sventovit described by Saxo G.). This would explain Jordanes's placement of the
"Rugi" -- the source population -- in the neighbourhood of Scandza (he probably
meant Scania rather than all of the Scandinavian Peninsula) and of the
"Ulmerugi" -- the Rugians of the island of Rügen and West Pomerania -- near the
landing-site of King Amal. Their original language would then have been a
variety of common Northwest Germanic, much closer to Early Runic (and in
particular to dialects ancestral to Danish, which should please Torsten) than to
Gothic.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2001 10:54 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: Language - Area - Routes
If I remeber correctly, the theories I've read have it that Rugians
merged to the part of future East Slavs some centuries earlier (even may be
before they reached their historically attested territory) than
Scandinavians, whose influence was strong and obvious.
One of the books stated there were more than one 'Rugiland' in the
early medieval Europe. I've personally read in an independent source Rugi's that
presence is attested in Pannonia.
It's 'retaining of a separate name and
identity', not the language, which the theory considers to be supported by
narrative and archaelogical (funeral rites) evidence. I'll collect the necessary
facts and will ask your permission to continue the thread.