THE ORIGIN OF THE GOTHS

Scandinavian, closer to Danish than to Swedish, and that the original homeland of the Goths must therefore be located in the southernmost part of the Germanic territories, not in Scandinavia (1982, 1984, 1987a, 1987b, 1992). I think that his argument is correct and that it is time to abandon Iordanes ’ classic view that the Goths came from Scandinavia. We must therefore reconsider the grounds for adopting the latter position and the reasons why it always has remained popular. The reconstruction of Gothic history and the historical value of Iordanes’ Getica have been analyzed in detail by Peter Heather (1991: 3-67). As he points out about this prime literary source (p. 5): “Two features have made it central to modern historical reconstructions. First, it covers the entire sweep of Gothic history. [...] Second, there is a Gothic origin to some of the Getica’s material, which makes it unique among surviving sources. ” Iordanes ’ work draws heavily on the lost Gothic histories of Ablabius and Cassiodorus, who “would seem to have been in the employ of Gothic dynasts and had to produce Gothic histories of a kind that their employers wished to hear ” (Heather 1991: 67). As to the origin o