FRISIAN, SAXON, DUTCH, AND GOTHIC GERMANS.--GERMANIZED
KELTS.--GERMANIZED SLAVES.--PRUSSIA.--ISOLATION OF ITS AREAS.--EAST
AND WEST PRUSSIA.--PRUSSIAN POLAND.--POMERANIA.--PRUSSIAN
SILESIA.--PRUSSIAN SAXONY.--BRANDENBURG.--UCKERMARK.--SOUTH-WESTERN
PORTION.--WESTPHALIAN AND RHENISH
PRUSSIA.--MECKLENBURG.--SAXONY.--LINONES OF LUNEBURG.--HANOVER AND
OLDENBURG.--HOLLAND.--HESSE-CASSEL, HESSE-DARMSTADT,
NASSAU.--BADEN.--WURTEMBURG.--WEIMAR.--RHENISH BAVARIA.--DANUBIAN
BAVARIA.
As a general rule the Germanic, or Gothic, stock has not only held its
own area from the earliest time, but has encroached on that of others,
so that although there are many parts of Europe, which, once the
occupancy of non-Germanic populations, have now become more or less
German, the converse rarely, if ever, can be shown to have taken place.
Hence, almost all the districts which were originally German, are German
now. The chief exception, if it be one, occurs in Belgium, where the
Gallo-Roman family, has, _perhaps_, encroached on the Gothic.
But, though the Old Germany be Germanic still, there is a great part of
the Modern Germany which was not so even at the beginning of the
historical period. Some portion of the present area was Keltic, and a
still greater was Sarmatian. Besides which, the original population of
no inconsiderable section is uncertain. All this somewhat reduces the
simplicity of the ethnology. And to this, it must be added, that the
Teutonic (or German) branch of the great Gothic stock falls into some
important divisions. The Frisians of Friesland represent one of these,
our Anglo-Saxon ancestors another, the Old Saxons of Westphalia a third,
the Low Dutch of Holland a fourth, the High Dutch of Bavaria a fifth,
the Goths of the Old Ostrogoth and Visigoth conquests a sixth. Now the
intestine movements of these different divisions have always been great;
so that, although we shall rarely hear of any Germanic population having
been overlaid by Slavonians or Kelts, the phenomenon of Saxons
superseded by Low Dutch, Low Dutch by High and other similar
displacements will be common.
The divisions, then, of the Germanic area are as follows:--
1st. There is the pure and proper country of the indigenous Germans,
wherein all the important elements of admixture are limited to the
different divisions and subdivisions of the Germanic family.
2nd. There is the area which was originally Sarmatian falling into--
_a._ The Lithuanic, and--
_b._ The Slavonic districts.
3rd. There is the tract which was originally Keltic.
4th. The parts whose original ethnology is uncertain.
The details of the different political divisions supply us with the
commentary on this classification.
_Prussia._--The kingdom of Prussia well illustrates the difficulty of
making ethnology and politics agree. It falls into two parts separated
from each other. Of these the first, with the possible exception of its
south-western corner, was wholly Sarmatian in the tenth century; as
Sarmatian as England was Keltic, or Spain Iberic. The population, too,
was referable to both branches of the Sarmatian stock--the Slavonic as
well as the Lithuanic.
In East Prussia it is easily seen that the geographical names are not
German. Neither are they Russian. The Old Prussian, a member of the
Lithuanic family of languages, was spoken here as late as the sixteenth
century, remains of which, in the shape of a catechism, are extant. This
is the language of the ancient _Æstyi_, or _Men of the East_, which
Tacitus says was akin to the British, an error arising from the
similarity of name, since a Slavonian (if such were the original source
of his information) would call the two languages by names so like as
_Prytskaia_ and _Brytskaia_, and a German (if the authority were
Germanic) by names so like as _Pryttisc_ and _Bryttisc_. The Guttones,
too, of Pliny, whose locality is fixed from the fact of their having
been collectors of the amber of East Prussia and Courland, were of the
same stock. The name by which they were known to the Slavonians within
the historical period was _Guddon_=_Gothones_, _Guttones_.
In West Prussia the extermination or amalgamation of the native
Lithuanians was earlier. We have no specimens of their language. We
know, however, that the country took its name from them. They seem to
have been the most western members of their family. The southern
frontier of the present Prussia is Polish.
Prussian Poland--the Duchy of Posen--is now, as it always has been,
Sarmatian, Slavonic, Lekh, Lygian.
Pomerania, too, retains vestiges of its Slavonic population in the
_Kaszeb_, _Kassubes_, or _Kassubitæ_, occupants of the peninsula and
islands at the mouth of the Oder. The name, too, of the province at
large, is Slavonic; _po_=_on_+_more_=_sea_=_coast_-_land_.
The Isle of Rugen was one of the last strongholds of Slavonic Paganism,
as is shown by its numerous antiquities, and by the evidence of history.
The famous temple of the _Obotrite_ Slavonians was there; though
Mecklenburg rather than Pomerania was the part of the continent to which
they belonged.
In Prussian Silesia, the _Serskie_ of Lower and the _Srbie_ of Upper
Lusatia, still Slavonic, retain their language, and represented the
older population of the whole country.
The Saale was the original boundary between the Germans and the Slaves,
all between Thuringia and Poland belonging to that stock. Certain as
this is from the accounts of the conquest under the Carlovingian empire,
the details are difficult for Prussian Saxony, Altmark, and Brandenburg.
The _Hevelli_ were on the Hevel: the _Stoderani_, _Brizani_,
_Bethenici_, _Dossani_, and _Smeldingi_ filled up much of the valleys of
the Oder and the Elbe: we cannot, however, fill up the whole tract. Yet,
the names of the _Marches_, or _Borders_, show that the encroachment was
gradual. First, and nearest to Germany, is the _old_ march (_Altmark_);
after this, the Middle march (Mittel mark); and then the March of the
Ukrians (Uckermark), all originally frontiers between the encroaching
Germans and the retiring Slavonians, and all frontiers within the
historical period.
But _Ucker_-mark was a Border, or Debatable land in the eyes of the
Slavonians, as well as their conquerors; and the name of its original
occupants signified _Borderers_. The _kr_-is the _kr_-in U-_krain_-, as
well as in the word _Grenz_, which, though German at present, is in
origin, Slavonic. The form _Uckri_, _Ucrani_, and _Uncrani_, indicate
this. Perhaps, though only _perhaps_, this Ukrian March--this
Brandenburg Ukraine--may have separated the most western Lithuanians of
Prussia from the Slavonians of the water-system of the Oder; if so, the
word is an instrument of criticism, as it certainly is in many other
interesting instances.
In part of the circle of Kotbus, the Sorabian of Silesia is still
spoken.
The south-western districts of Prussia east of the Saale, Hesse, an
outlying portion of Hanover, and Weimar, along with a narrow strip on
the Brunswick frontier, are the only parts of the western half of the
Proper Brandenburg Prussia that began with being Germanic; and even here
there seems to have been intermixture. The Hanoverian frontier seems to
have been wholly Slavonic.
Of Rhenish Prussia, Westphalia was originally Saxon--not exactly Angle
or Anglo-Saxon, but slightly differing from the Anglo-Saxon in language.
It was _Old_-Saxon. The Old-Saxon language, however, is extinct, and the
blood considerably mixed. Encroachment and conquest of Low Dutch and
High Dutch Germans from the South, in the ninth and tenth centuries,
effected this. There were, also, a few Slavic colonies. Otherwise the
blood is German; though neither wholly Dutch nor wholly Saxon. The old
tribes of Westphalian Prussia were the Chamavi, Bructeri, and
Angrivarii.
In Berg, Cleves, and the parts about Cologne, the Ubii, Tenchteri,
Sicambri, and other allied tribes, were, probably, Dutch rather than
Saxon, and Low Dutch rather than High. On the French frontier there is a
Keltic basis; Cologne claims a notable amount of Roman blood.
_Mecklenburg._--The great Slavonic nation of Mecklenburg was the
Obotrites; after them the Wilzi, the Tollenzi, and the Rethrarii of the
old pagan town of _Rethre_. The dukes of Mecklenburg alone, of all the
numerous dynasts of Germany, are of Slavonic extraction.
_Saxony._--Either conquered from Westphalian Saxony, or settled by Saxon
colonies, the kingdom to which Dresden is the metropolis, originally the
country of the Semnones, is German only in language. In blood it belongs
to the same division with Silesia; indeed the _Sorabian_ frontier (for
so the _Srbie_, and _Serskie_ may conveniently be called) extended as
far westwards as the Saale.
_Hanover._--From Hanover, the north-east quarter (there or thereabouts)
must be deducted as Slavonic. Luneburg took its name from the Slavonic
Linones, whose language was spoken in a few villages as late as the last
century.
The remaining three-fourths are German; and from the extent of the
kingdom and the irregularity of its outline, four out of the six
divisions of the old Germanic populations may have been contained in it.
From the Ems to the Elbe, extended to an undetermined distance inland,
the ancient tribes were the Chauci and Frisii, who were _Frisians_.
Embden is the capital of East Friesland, where the Frisian language was
general until the seventeenth century, and where, in one or two
localities, it is still spoken at the present moment.
A line drawn from the Dutch district of Drenthe to the Hartz would pass
through the country of the _Old_ Saxons; one from Hamburg to Minden,
through that of the _Anglo_-Saxons. The Longobardi, Chatti, and
Cherusci, some portions of whom, whether High or Low, were _Dutch_,
extended towards the Hartz. Soon after this the Slavonic area began.
_Oldenburg._--Undoubtedly Frisian in its northern, Oldenburg was either
Frisian or Old Saxon in its southern, parts.
_Holland._--If the Dutch of Holland be the indigenous dialect of any
part of that country, it is only so for the southern third of it. The
_Frisians_ are the oldest occupants.
_Hesse-Cassel_, _Hesse-Darmstadt_, and _Nassau_, the two former, the
localities of the _Chatti_, take us from the Saxons and Frisians to the
true Dutch or Germans. At present their language is High German.
Probably, it was so at the beginning. I do not, however, pretend to say
where the Low-Dutch form of speech originated. It has encroached upon
the Frisian and Saxon; and, in all the parts where it is now spoken,
with the exception, perhaps, of the parts below Cologne, is of foreign
origin. On the other hand, however, the High German of Franconia,
Suabia, and Bavaria has encroached on it.
Weimar, Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, Schwartzburg, Coburg, and the
south-western corner of Prussia, are considered to form the area of the
ancestors of those Germans who, in the second, third, and fourth
centuries played so conspicuous a part on the Lower Danube, under
Alaric, Theodoric, and others. The following is submitted as a sketch of
their history. As the Hermunduri of the country in which the Albis (the
Saale rather than the Bohemian Elbe) rises, they are known to Tacitus;
but their power, as elements of the great empire of Maroboduus has been
felt by the Romans of Rhætia and Vindelicia nearly a century earlier.
Encroaching southwards, and crossing the watershed of the Elbe and
Danube (the Fichtelgebirge) they displace the probably Slavonic
occupants of the valley of the Naab; press on further both southwards
and eastwards; form, along their line, with the nations to the north, a
_March_, but not of a character so hostile as to exclude the formation
of confederacies formidable to Rome, under the name of Marcomanni; make
their permanent settlements on the northern side of the Lower Danube;
harass the Roman provinces, Thrace and Mœsia, until, themselves
harassed by the Huns, they cross the Danube and effect settlements in
Mœsia, where they become Arian Christians, and read the Gospel of
Ulphilas, in their native tongue. Portions retrace their steps, still
marking their way by conquest. Ataulphus in Gaul, Wallia in Spain,
Theodoric in the Italy of the sixth, and Alaric in the Italy of the
fifth century, all having been Goths of this division. They leave
Germany as Grutungs and Thervings (Thuringians), become Marcomanni along
the Bohemian and Moravian frontiers, Goths,[17] Ostrogoths and
Visigoths, on the Lower Danube (or the land of the _Getæ_), and
Mœsogoths (from the locality in which they became Christian) in
Mœsia.
Wurtemburg, Baden, and Hohenzollern coincide with the _Agri Decumates_
of the Roman writers. The original inhabitants, I believe, to have been
Slaves and Kelts; then Kelts more exclusively (the Gauls of the western
bank of the Rhine having encroached); then a heterogeneous mass of
Gauls, Boii, Suevi, and Vindelicians, occupying a sort of Debatable Land
between the Roman and non-Roman areas; lastly Alemanni and Suevi, the
latter being Germans, the former a mixture of populations with the
Germanic element preponderating. From these are descended the present
occupants.
Bavaria, like Prussia, falls into two divisions; the Bavaria of the
Rhine, and the Bavaria of the _Danube_. In Rhenish Bavaria the descent
is from the ancient Vangiones and Nemetes, either Germanized Gauls, or
Gallicized Germans, with Roman superadditions. Afterwards, an extension
of the Alemannic and Suevic populations from the right bank of the Upper
Rhine completes the evolution of their present Germanic character.
Danubian Bavaria falls into two subdivisions.
North of the Danube the valley of the Naab, at least, was originally
Slavonic, containing an extension of the Slavonic population of Bohemia.
But disturbance and displacement began early. The Thervings and Grutungs
from the north of the Fichtelgebirge made their way to the Danube along
these lines.
In the third and fourth centuries, the Suevi and Alemanni extended
themselves from the upper Rhine.
The western parts of Bavaria, on the Wurtemburg frontier, perhaps as
Slavonic as the valley of the Naab, differ, in their subsequent history,
by having witnessed displacements from the south and west, from the
Helvetians of Switzerland, and the Boii of Gaul, rather than from the
Germans on the north. The later changes are the same in both cases.
The north-western parts of Bavaria were probably German from the
beginning.
South of the Danube the ethnology changes. In the first place the Roman
elements increase; since Vindelicia was a Roman Province. What, however,
was the original basis? Probably, Slavonic on its eastern, Helvetian or
Keltic on the western side. Its present character has arisen from an
extension of the Germans of the upper Rhine.