14 ■'' EMIGRATION FROM SWEDEN 



Norwegian Ryfylke (= the present county of Stavanger, the south*western 

 corner of Norway). Their name perhaps survives in North Germany in the name 

 of the island of Riigen. The Burgund(ian)s emigrated from Bornholm, in ancient 

 times Borgund, later Borgundarholm. Because the ancient necropolis at Bornholm 

 ceased suddenly to be used at the end of the third century A. D. Knut Stjerna 

 considered that he could draw the conclusion that a new great emigration then 

 took place from the island, where the dwellings that had to a great extent become 

 empty were gradually occupied by immigrants from the region round the Kal« 

 mar sound. 



About the middle of the first century B. C. the Goths arrive at the delta 

 of the Vistula, according to archaeological evidence. Antiquarians were formerly 

 of the opinion that they came there from Gotland, whose inhabitants, the Gutar, 

 have a name that philology has shown to be identical with that of the Goths. 

 Now, however, there is a greater tendency to assign their original home to the 

 east coast of Sweden in the county of Kalmar or Ostergotland. 



Not only archaeologists but also the modern historians favour the opinion 

 that many of the tribes of the period of migrations emigrated from Scandinavia, 

 especially the Baltic region. Ludwig Schmidt, the German, who is probably the 

 modern historian who has studied the period of the migrations most extensively, 

 is of the opinion that the Vandals, Rugi, Burgunds, Goths, Gepids, Heruli, and 

 on the whole all the Germanic tribes on the Continent who at the beginning 

 of our epoch were settled in the present Germany, east of the Oder, in Poland and 

 west Russia, have immigrated to these regions from Scandinavia. These tribes 

 are generally grouped under the heading East Germanic, and philologists are 

 unanimously of the opinion that the languages or perhaps more correctly the 

 dialects they spoke are much more closely related to the Scandinavian languages 

 than to the old West Germanic languages, those from which have sprung modern 

 high and low German, Dutch and English. But according to Ludwig Schmidt 

 not only the real East Teutons, i. e. the tribes east of the Oder, but the Langobards 

 as well, whom we first find on the continent by the Elbe near Hamburg, are 

 originally Scandinavians. 



No Germanic tribes played so great a part in European politics during the last 

 stage of ancient times and the beginning of mediaeval times as the East Teutons. 

 It was through their intervention that the Roman Empire, the greatest and mights 

 iest power that the West had so far seen, was completely shattered. And we get 

 an idea of their positive significance for Europe if we remember that at the be» 

 ginning of the 6th century the East Goths ruled over Austria south and west 

 of the Danube, the whole of Italy, and south-east France, the West Goths possessed 

 Spain and a part of southern France, and the Vandals North Africa, the Balearic 

 Islands, Corsica and Sardinia. And round the northern frontier of the Ostrogothic 

 dominion the kingdoms of the Burgunds, Langobards and Gepids formed a broad 

 belt in Central Europe. In other words, the greatest part of the most fertile and 

 cultivated countries of the old world were in the possession of the East Teutons. 



With regard to the origin of the East Teutons a glance at the geographical 

 situations affords us some guidance. The oldest dwelling»places of the East 

 Teutons is the coast region between the mouths of the Oder and the Memel. This 



