Geats (but also often Goths, Gautar Old Norse, Götar in Swedish) is the Old English spelling of the name of a Scandinavian people living in Götaland, land of the Geats, currently within the borders of modern Sweden. The name of the Geats lives on in the Swedish counties of Västergötland and Östergötland, the Western and Eastern lands of the Geats, as well as in many toponyms. The city Göteborg, known in English as Gothenburg, was named after the Geats (Geatsburg or fortress of the Geats), when it was founded in 1621.

History

The earliest mention of the Geats may appear in Ptolemy (2nd century A.D.), where they are referred to as Goutai. In the 6th century, they were referred to as Gautigoths and Ostrogoths (the Ostrogoths of Scandza) by Jordanes and as Gautoi by Procopius. In the Norse Sagas they are referred to as Gautar, and in Beowulf and Widsith as Geatas.

Beowulf and the Norse sagas name several Geatish kings, but only Hygelac finds confirmation in Liber Monstrorum where he is referred to as Rex Getarum and in a copy of Historiae Francorum where he is called Rege Gotorum. These sources concern a Viking raid into Frisia, ca 516, which is also described in Beowulf. Some decades after the events related in this epic, Jordanes described the Geats as a nation which was bold and quick to engage in war.

The Geats were formerly politically independent of the Swedes, whose old name was Svear (Sweon or Sweonas in OE). However, starting in the 500s, the Geats slowly lost their independence and became tributaries of the Swedish kings. This has been explained with their involvement in the Gothic wars in southern Europe, which naturally depleted their numbers (see Nordisk familjebok). As early as the 9th century, they started to be subsumed under the ethnic label Swedes.

In the Heimskringla, Snorri Sturluson describes 9th century battles between the Geats and the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair, a battle the Geats had to fight without assistance of the Swedish king Erik Emundsson.

In the 11th century, the Swedish House of Munsö was extinct with Emund the Old. Stenkil, a Geat, was elected king of Sweden, and the Geats would be influential in the shaping of Sweden as a Christian kingdom.

However, the Geats were not treated as equals with the Swedes. In the Westrogothic law, bishop Brynolf Algotsson (1279-1290 of Skara reminded the Geats that they had to accept the election of the Swedes at the Stone of Mora, by adding the following line on the top of the first page: Sveær egho konung at taka ok sva vrækæ meaning It is the Swedes who have the right of choosing and deposing the king.

The distinction between Swedes and Geats lasted during the Middle Ages, and to this day, the Swedish kings still formally call themselves svears och götars konung (king of Swedes and Geats, or Rex Sweorum et Gothorum).

On Geats and Goths

It is a long-standing controversy whether the Goths were Geats. Jordanes claimed that the Goths came from the island of Scandza. He also claimed that on this island there were two tribes called the Gautigoths (cf. Geat/Gaut) and the Ostrogoths (cf. the Swedish province of Östergötland). Today, Jordanes' claim is supported by Polish archaeologists who claim that the Gothic finds are similar to those of southern Sweden. Scandinavian burial customs, such as the stone circles (domarringar), which are most common in Götaland, appeared in northern Poland during the 1st century AD, suggesting an influx of Scandinavians during the formation of the Gothic Wielbark culture[1][2]. Moreover, in Ostrogothia, in Sweden, there is a sudden disappearance of villages during this period. Modern archaeological research consequently supports the authenticity of their tradition.

For more, see the article on Goths.

On Gautar and Geatas

The general identification of the Geatas of Beowulf (and Widsith) as the Gautar/Götar of southern Sweden is usually based on the observation that the EA diphthong of the Anglo-Saxon language was the equivalent of the AU diphthong of Old Norse and the Ö monophthong of modern Swedish.

etc.

Thus, Geat is the Old English form of Old Norse Gaut and modern Swedish Göt.

This correspondence seems to tip the balance for most scholars. It is also based on the fact that in Beowulf, the Geatas live east of the Dene (across the sea) and in close contact with the Sweon, which fits the historical position of the Gautar between the Daner and the Svear.

Moreover, the story of Beowulf, who leaves Geatland and arrives at the Danish court after a naval voyage, where he kills a beast, finds a parallel in Hrólf Kraki's saga. In this saga, Bödvar Bjarki leaves Gautland and arrives at the Danish court after a naval voyage and kills a beast that has been terrorizing the Danes for two years (see also Origins for Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki).

However, since the 19th century, several other nations have been suggested to correspond to the Geats, such as the Danes (Curt Weibull), the Jutes (Pontus Fahlbeck 1884), the Goths and the Gotlanders, (See e.g. the OED which identifies the Geats through Eotas, Iótas, Iútan and Geátas) with the Jutes referred to in the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. '

These hypotheses have been suggested in spite of the fact that, in both Beowulf and Widsith, the Geats are clearly distinguished from both Jutes Eótenas (or Ytum) and Danes. Thus any identification between the Geatas and these two nations is refuted by the two source texts themselves.

In addition, the reconstructed root for both Geat and Gaut is *Gaut-, whereas the reconstructed root of Goth and Got(-land) is *Gut-. The root of Jute is usually regarded as unknown.

Even if the identification made in this article is generally accepted, the matter is not dead and it will continue to raise harsh feelings even in the future—especially in Sweden, where the debate about Sweden's history prior to the 11th century is infected.

Some conspiracy theorists of the highly controversial Götaland theory deny the connection between the Geats and the Gautar, and consider the established version of history to be a fraud. Since Beowulf depicts the Geats and the Swedes as two opposing tribes, and as they want to make the Svear (whom scholars place in Svealand) synonymous with the Gautar in Götaland, they have to argue that Geat and Gaut aren't related. Unfortunately, their argumentation is limited to referring darkly to Curt Weibull, who speculated that the Geats were the same the Danes (who are also described as a different tribe from the Geats in Beowulf, save a single kenning where the Geats are called "East-Danes", cf. Danish as a generic name for Scandinavians in Old English). For such a discussion see the following link (the text is in Swedish): http://home.swipnet.se/dx/vaggan/skolan.htm

See also

• Götavirke (Geatish Dyke)
• Viking, Varangian
• Hygelac
• Geatish Society
• Trial by combat
• Trial by ordeal
• Göta
• Goths
• Geatish kings
• [3] Jats