The story, while it does not begin here, certainly
passes through here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_Bronze_Age
The earlier stage would be the Northern Corded Ware.
And CW goes back to the area Heimskringla describes,
but thousands of years before Mithradates...
When do these early post-PIE dialects begin to
approximate what will later be called the Germanic
family? I don't know.
But by the time of Jastorf the process would be well
under way. By 500 BCE Jastorf approaches Thuringia,
southward bound. They are stopped cold by the Celts,
the Volcae in particular (with, as we know interesting
subsequent lexical results). The Veneti (we may
assume) are also tough cookies, until they are
exhausted by resistance to constant Scythian raids
(not in the history books but archaeologically
verified). In the course of the 4th c. the Yastorfers
move against the westernmost Veneti (Pomeranian c.)
and assimilate them to their ways (=Gubin Yastorf).
When the Scythian power migrates back to Central Asia
(esp. in the period 325-300 BCE) the vacuum is filled
by Celto-Jastorfian intrusions. A pretty grandiose
"drang", just as impressive as the Suebian advance
westward three centuries later. In the south, the
Celts act pretty well alone. In the north they
accompany the Jastorfers, sometimes leading them, but
eventually they are linguistically absorbed.
To me, Grimm and Verner are only specific stages in
the development of this "Germanic" set of
communities. But if Grimm is considered absolutely
essential before one can speak of genuine Germanics,
then I must say that I don't know when that happened
universally. We could discuss the Negau helmets if you
like. Or when Karpat turned to Harfat (?)...One issue
which needs resolving is the relationship between the
north of the Baltic and south of the Baltic "Germanic"
communities. As of right now, I don't see how the
south "Germanicised" the north,or vice versa. If the
process of emergence was well advanced by the Bronze
Age, the problem is less severe. So we can wait for
the info about southern Sweden in the early CE before
concluding.
That's very roughly my scenario, very close to
traditional views, though perhaps differing in minor
particulars. The solution lies somewhere in this area
of Elbe--central Scandinavia incl. so.Sweden--south
shore of the Baltic to the Vistula. Odinist and
Asiatic kookeries are ruled out.
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