The Goths (Gothic: *Gut-þiuda,^[1] *Gutans^[2]; Old Norse: Gutar/Gotar; German: Goten; Latin: Gothi; Greek: Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe.

The most important source is Jordanes' 6th-century, semi-fictional Getica which describes a migration from southern Scandza (Scandinavia), to Gothiscandza, believed to be the lower Vistula region in modern Pomerania, and from there to the coast of the Black Sea. The Pomeranian Wielbark culture and the Chernyakhov culture northeast of the lower Danube are archaeological traces of this migration. In the 3rd century, either through crossing the lower Danube, or travelling by sea, the Goths ravaged the Balkan Peninsula and Anatolia as far as Cyprus, sacking Athens, Byzantium, Sparta.^[3] By the fourth century, the Goths conquered Dacia, and were divided into at least two distinct groups separated by the Dniester River, the Thervingi, led by the Balti dynasty, and the Greuthungi, led by the Amali dynasty. Centered around their capital at the Dnieper, the Goths ruled a vast area which at its peak under the Kings Ermanaric and Athanaric stretched from the Danube to the Volga river, and from the Black to the Baltic Sea.^[4][5]

In the late fourth century, the Huns invaded the Gothic region from the east. While many Goths were subdued and joined the ranks of the Huns, a group of Goths led by Fritigern fled across the Danube and revolted against the Roman Empire, winning a decisive victory at the Battle of Adrianople. Meanwhile, the Goths were converted from paganism to Arian Christianity by the Gothic missionary Wulfila, who devised the Gothic alphabet to translate the Bible. In the fifth and sixth centuries, the Goths separated into two tribes, the Visigoths, who became federates of the Romans, and the Ostrogoths, who joined the Huns.

After the Ostrogoths successfully revolted against the Huns at the Battle of Nedao in 454, their leader Theodoric the Great settled his people in Italy, founding a Kingdom which eventually gained control of the whole peninsula. Shortly after Theodoric's death in 526, the country was captured by the Eastern Roman Empire, in a war which caused enormous damage and depopulation to Italy.^[6] After their able leader Totila was killed at the Battle of Taginae, effective Ostrogothic resistance ended, and the remaining Goths were assimilated by the Lombards, another Germanic tribe, who invaded Italy and founded a Kingdom in the northern parts of the country in 567 AD.

The Visigoths under Alaric I sacked Rome in 410, defeated Attila at the Battle of the Catalunian Plains in 451, and founded a Kingdom in Aquitaine which was pushed to Hispania by the Franks in 507, converted to Catholicism by the late sixth century, and in the early eighth century conquered by the Muslim Moors. Subsequently, the Visigothic nobleman Pelagius began the Reconquista with his victory at the Battle of Covadonga, and founded the Kingdom of Asturias, which eventually evolved in to modern Spain.^[7]

While its influence continued to be felt in small ways in some west European states, the Gothic language and culture largely disappeared during the Middle Ages. In the 16th century a small remnant of a Gothic dialect known as Crimean Gothic was described as surviving in the Crimea.^[8]

Etymology[link]

Götaland, south Sweden, with the island of Gotland in the east, a possible colony of the Goths.

The Goths have had many names, possibly due to their population being composed of many separate ethnic groups. People known by similar names were key elements of Proto-Indo-European and later Germanic migrations. Nevertheless, they believed (as does the mainstream of scholarship)^[9] that the names derived from a single prehistoric ethnonym owned by a uniform culture in the middle 1st millennium BC, the original "Goths".

Etymologically, the ethnonym of the Goths derives from the stem Guton-",^[10] which gave Proto-Germanic *Gutaniz (also surviving in Gutes (Swedish Gutar), the self-designation of the inhabitans of Gotland in Sweden). Related, but not identical, is the Scandinavian tribal name Geat (the inhabitants of Swedish Götaland/Geatland), from the Proto-Germanic *Gautoz (plural *Gautaz). Both *Gautoz and *Gutaniz are derived (specifically they are two ablaut grades) from the Proto-Germanic word *geutan, meaning "to pour".^[11] The Indo-European root of the "pour" derivation would be *gheu-d-^[12] as it is listed in the American Heritage Dictionary (AHD). *gheu-d- is a centum form. The AHD relies on Julius Pokorny for the same root.^[13] The ethnonym has been connected with the name of a river flowing through Västergötland in Sweden, the Göta älv, which drains Lake Vänern into the Kattegat.^[14]

Interestingly Old Norse records do not distinguish between the Goths and the Gutes (Gotlanders) and both are called Gotar in Old West Norse. The Old East Norse term for both Goths and Gotlanders seems to have been Gutar (for instance, in the Gutasaga and in the runic inscription of the Rökstone). However, the Geats are clearly differentiated from the Goths, or Gutes, in both Old Norse and Old English literature.

At some time in European prehistory, consonant changes according to Grimm's Law created a *g from the *gh and a *t from the *d. This same law more or less rules out *ghedh-,^[15] The *dh in that case would become a *d instead of a *t.

According to the rules of Indo-European ablaut, the full grade (containing an *e), *gheud-, might be replaced with the zero-grade (the *e disappears), *ghud-, or the o-grade (the *e changes to an *o), *ghoud-, accounting for the various forms of the name. The zero-grade is preserved in modern times in the Lithuanian ethnonym for Belarusians, Gudai (earlier Baltic Prussian territory before Slavic conquests by about 1200 CE), and in certain Prussian towns in the territory around the Vistula River in Gothiscandza, today Poland (Gdynia, Gdansk). The use of all three grades suggests that the name derives from an Indo-European stage; otherwise, it would be from a line descending from one grade. However, when and where the ancestors of the Goths assigned this name to themselves and whether they used it in Indo-European or proto-Germanic times remain unsolved questions of historical linguistics and prehistoric archaeology.

A compound name, Gut-þiuda, at root the "Gothic people", appears in the Gothic Calendar (aikklesjons fullaizos ana gutþiudai gabrannidai). Parallel occurrences indicate that it may mean "country of the Goths": Old Icelandic Sui-þjòd, "Sweden"; Old English Angel-þēod, "Anglia"; Old Irish Cruithen-tuath, “country of the Picts”.^[10] Evidently, this way of forming a country or people name is not unique to Germanic.

History[link]

Origins[link]

The Roman empire, under Hadrian showing the location of the Gothones East Germanic group, then inhabiting the east bank of the Visula (Vistula) river, Poland

The dark pink area is the island of Gotland. The green area is the traditional extent of Götaland. The red area is the extent of the Wielbark culture in the early 3rd century, and the orange area is the Chernyakhov culture, in the early 4th century. The purple area is the Roman Empire

According to Jordanes’ Getica, written in the mid-6th century, the earliest migrating Goths sailed from Scandza (Scandinavia) under King Berig^[16] in three ships^[17] and named the place at which they landed after themselves. "Today [says Jordanes] it is called Gothiscandza" ("Scandza of the Goths").^[18] From there they entered the land of the "Ulmerugi" (Rugii) who were spread along the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, expelled them,^[19] and also subdued the neighboring Vandals. Regarding the location of Gothiscandza, Jordanes states^[20] that one shipload "dwelled in the province of Spesis on an island surrounded by the shallow waters of the Vistula."

Tacitus described the Goths as well as the neighboring Rugii and Lemovii as carrying round shields and short swords, and obeying their regular authority.^[19][21][22]

Pliny^[23] refers to the voyager Pytheas, who visited Northern Europe in the 4th century BC. In this passage, Pytheas states that the "Gutones, a people of Germany," inhabit the shores of an estuary of at least 6,000 stadia (the Baltic Sea) called Mentonomon, where amber is cast up by the waves. Lehmann (mentioned above under Etymology) accepted this view but a manuscript variant states Guiones rather than Gutones.^[24] In Pliny's only other mention of the Gutones,^[25] he states that the Vandals are one of the five races of Germany, and that the Vandals include the Burgodiones, the Varinnae, the Charini and the Gutones. The location of those Vandals is not stated, but there is a match with his contemporary Ptolemy's east German tribes.^[26] As those Gutones are put forward as Pliny's interpretation, not Pytheas’, the early date is unconfirmed, but not necessarily invalid.

The earliest material culture associated with the Goths on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea is the Wielbark Culture,^[27] centered around the modern region of Pomerania in northern Poland. This culture replaced the local Oksywie or Oxhöft culture in the 1st century, when a Scandinavian settlement was established in a buffer zone between the Oksywie culture and the Przeworsk culture.^[28]

This area was influenced by southern Scandinavian culture from as early as the late Nordic Bronze Age and early Pre-Roman Iron Age (ca. 1300 – ca. 300 BC).^[29] In fact, the Scandinavian influence on Pomerania and today's northern Poland from ca. 1300 BC (period III) and onwards was so considerable that this region is sometimes included in the Nordic Bronze Age culture.^[30]

The Goths are believed to have crossed the Baltic Sea sometime between the end of this period (ca 300 BC) and AD 100. Early archaeological evidence in the traditional Swedish province of Östergötland suggests a general depopulation during this period.^[31] However, this is not confirmed in more recent publications.^[32] The settlement in today's Poland may correspond to the introduction of Scandinavian burial traditions, such as the stone circles and the stelae especially common on the island of Gotland and other parts of southern Sweden.

Migration to the Black Sea[link]

Ruins of the Gothic fortress Mangup (Ukraine)

The arrival of Germanic-speaking invaders along the coast of the Black Sea is generally explained as a gradual migration of the Goths from what is now Poland to Ukraine, reflecting the tradition of Jordanes and old songs.^[33]

Beginning in the middle 2nd century, the Wielbark culture shifted to the southeast, towards the Black Sea. The part of the Wielbark culture that moved was the oldest portion, located west of the Vistula and still practicing Scandinavian burial traditions.^[34] In Ukraine, they installed themselves as the rulers of the local Zarubintsy culture, forming the new Chernyakhov Culture (ca. 200 – ca. 400).

The first Greek references to the Goths call them Scythians,^{[examples needed]} since this area along the Black Sea historically had been occupied by an unrelated people of that name. The term as applied to the Goths appears to be geographical rather than ethnological in reference.^[35]

According to Jordanes's Getica, the Goths entered Oium, part of Scythia,^[36] under their 5th king, Filimer, where they subdued the Spali (Sarmatians), conqured the Kingdom of the Bosporus and captured several cities on the Euxinean coast, including Olbia and Tyras.^[37] There they became divided into the Visigoths ruled by the Balthi family and the Ostrogoths ruled by the Amali family.^[38] Jordanes parses Ostrogoths as "eastern Goths", and Visigoths as "Goths of the western country."^[39]

One theory claims that the Goths maintained contact with southern Sweden during their migration.^[40] Chernyakhov settlements tend to cluster in open ground in river valleys. The houses include sunken-floored dwellings, surface dwellings, and stall-houses. The largest known settlement (Budesty-Budești) is 35 hectares.^[41] Most settlements are open and unfortified, although some forts have also been discovered.^{[citation needed]} Chernyakhov cemeteries feature both cremation and inhumation burials; among the latter the head is to the north. Some graves were left empty. Grave goods often include pottery, bone combs, and iron tools, but hardly ever weapons.^[42]

On the Roman borders[link]

Gothic invasions in the 3rd century

In the first attested incursion in Thrace the Goths were mentioned as Boranoi by Zosimus, and then as Boradoi by Gregory Thaumaturgus.^[43] The first incursion of the Roman Empire that can be attributed to Goths is the sack of Histria in 238. Several such raids followed in subsequent decades,^[44] in particular the Battle of Abrittus in 251, led by Cniva, in which the Roman Emperor Decius was killed. At the time, there were at least two groups of Goths: the Thervingi and the Greuthungi. Goths were subsequently heavily recruited into the Roman Army to fight in the Roman-Persian Wars, notably participating at the Battle of Misiche in 242.

The first seaborne raids took place in three subsequent years, probably 255-257. An unsuccessful attack on Pityus was followed in the second year by another which sacked by Pityus and Trapezus and ravaged large area in the Pontus. In the third year a much larger force devastated large areas of Bithynia and the Propontis, including the cities of Chalcedon, Nicomedia, Nicaea, Apamea, Cius and Prusa^{[disambiguation needed ]}.

The 3rd century Grande Ludovisi sarcophagus depicts a battle between Goths and Romans.

After a 10 year gap, the Goths, along with the Heruli, another Germanic tribe from Scandinavia, raiding on 500 ships,^[45] sacked Heraclea Pontica, Cyzicus and Byzantium. They were defeated by the Roman navy but managed to escape into Aegean Sea, where they ravaged the islands of Lemnos and Scyros, broke through Thermopylae and sacked several cities of the southern Greece (province of Achaea) including Athens, Corinth, Argos, Olympia and Sparta. Then an Athenian militia, led by the historian Dexippus, pushed the invaders to the north where they were intercepted by the Roman army under Gallienus.^[46] He won an important victory near the Nessos (Nestos) river, on the boundary between Macedonia and Thrace, with the aid of the Dalmatian cavalry. Reported barbarian casualties were 3,000 men.^[47] Subsequently, the Heruli leader Naulobatus came to terms with the Romans.^[45]

After Gallienus was assassinated outside Milan in the summer of 268 in a plot led by high officers in his army, Claudius was proclaimed emperor and headed to Rome to establish his rule. Claudius' immediate concerns were with the Alamanni, who had invaded Raetia and Italy. After he defeated them in the Battle of Lake Benacus, he was finally able to take care of the invasions in the Balkan provinces.^[48]

In the meantime, the second and larger sea-borne invasion had started. An enormous coalition consisting of Goths (Greuthungi and Thervingi), Gepids and Peucini, led again by the Heruli, assembled at the mouth of river Tyras (Dniester).^[49] The Augustan History and Zosimus claim a total number of 2,000–6,000 ships and 325,000 men.^[50] This is probably a gross exaggeration but remains indicative of the scale of the invasion. After failing to storm some towns on the coasts of the western Black Sea and the Danube (Tomi, Marcianopolis), the invaders attacked Byzantium and Chrysopolis. Part of their fleet was wrecked, either because of the Gothic inexperience in sailing through the violent currents of the Propontis^[51] or because it was defeated by the Roman navy. Then they entered Aegean Sea and a detachment ravaged the Aegean islands as far as Crete, Rhodes and Cyrpus. The fleet probably also sacked Troy and Ephesus, destroying the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. While their main force had constructed siege works and was close to taking the cities of Thessalonica and Cassandreia, it retreated to the Balkan interior at the news that the emperor was advancing. On their way, they plundered Doberus (Paionia ?) and Pelagonia.^[52]

Learning of the approach of Claudius, the Goths first attempt to directly invade Italy. They are engaged near Naissus by a Roman army led by Claudius advancing from the north. The battle most likely took place in 269, and was fiercely contested. Large numbers on both sides were killed but, at the critical point, the Romans tricked the Goths into an ambush by pretended flight. Some 50,000 Goths were allegedly killed or taken captive and their base at Thessalonika destroyed.^[47] It seems that Aurelian who was in charge of all Roman cavalry during Claudius' reign, led the decisive attack in the battle. Some survivors were resettled within the empire, while others were incorporated into the Roman army. The battle ensured the survival of the Roman Empire for another two centuries. In 270, after the death of Claudius, Goths under the leadership of Cannabaudes again launch an invasion on the Roman Empire, but were defeated by Aurelian, who however surrendered Dacia beyond the Danube.

Within the Roman Empire[link]

Maximum extent of territories ruled by Theodoric the Great in 523.

Major sources for Gothic history include Ammianus Marcellinus' Res gestae, which mentions Gothic involvement in the civil war between emperors Procopius and Valens of 365 and recounts the Gothic refugee crisis and revolt of 376–82, and Procopius' de bello gothico, which describes the Gothic war of 535–52.

In 332 Constantine helped the Sarmatians to settle on the north banks of the Danube to defend against the Goths' attacks and thereby enforce the Roman Empire's border. Around 100,000 Goths were reportedly killed in battle, and Ariaricus, son of the King of the Goths, was captured. In 334, Constantine evacuated approximately 300,000 Sarmatians from the north bank of the Danube after a revolt of the Sarmatians' slaves. From 335 to 336, Constantine, continuing his Danube campaign, defeated many Gothic tribes.^[53][54][55] Both the Greuthungi and Thervingi became heavily Romanized during the 4th century. This came about through trade with the Byzantines, as well as through Gothic membership of a military covenant, which was based in Byzantium and involved pledges of military assistance. Reportedly, 40,000 Goths were brought by Constantine to defend Constantinople in his later reign, and the Palace Guard was mostly composed of Germans, as the quality of the native Romans troops kept declining^[56]. The Goths were converted Arianism by Ulfila during this time.

Invasion of the Roman Empire[link]

Hunnic domination of the Gothic kingdom in Scythia began in the 370s according to Ammianus.^[57] and confirmed by the Eunapius and the later Zosimus. Under pressure of the Huns, the chieftain Fritigern approached the Eastern Roman Emperor Valens in 376 with a portion of the Thervingi and asked to be allowed to settle with his people on the south bank of the Danube. Valens permitted this, and even assisted the Goths in their crossing of the river^[58] (probably at the fortress of Durostorum). Following a famine, however, the Gothic War of 376–82 ensued, and the Goths and the local Thracians rebelled. The Roman Emperor Valens was killed at the Battle of Adrianople in 378.

The Goths remained divided — as Visigoths and Ostrogoths — during the fifth century. These two tribes were among the Germanic peoples who clashed with the late Roman Empire during the Migration Period. A Visigothic force led by Alaric I sacked Rome in 410. Honorius granted the Visigoths Aquitania, where they defeated the Vandals and conquered most of the Iberian Peninsula by 475.

In the meantime, under Theodemir, the Ostrogoths broke away from Hunnic rule following the Battle of Nedao in 454, and decisively defeated the Huns again under Valamir at Bassianae in 468. At the request of emperor Zeno, Theodoric the Great conquered all of Italy beginning in 488. The Goths were briefly reunited under one crown in the early sixth century under Theodoric the Great, who became regent of the Visigothic kingdom following the death of Alaric II at the Battle of Vouillé in 507. Procopius interpreted the name Visigoth as "western Goths" and the name Ostrogoth as "eastern Goth", reflecting the geographic distribution of the Gothic realms at that time.

The Ostrogothic kingdom persisted until 553 under Teia, when Italy returned briefly to Byzantine control. This restoration of imperial rule was reversed by the conquest of the Lombards in 568. The Visigothic kingdom lasted until 711 under Roderic, when it fell to the Muslim Umayyad invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus). However, the Visigothic nobles under the leadership of Pelagius of Asturias managed to defeat the Moors at the Battle of Covadonga, and subsequently established the Kingdom of Asturias. The Gothic victory at Covadonga is regarded as the initiation of the Reconquista, and it was from the Asturian kingdom that modern Spain evolved.

In the late 6th century Goths settled as foederati in parts of Asia Minor. Their descendants, who formed the elite Optimatoi regiment, still lived there in the early 8th century. While they were largely assimilated, their Gothic origin was still well-known: the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor calls them Gothograeci.

Culture[link]

Art[link]

Ostrogothic eagle-shaped fibula, 500 AD, Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg

Before the invasion of the Huns the Gothic Chernyakhov culture produced jewelry, vessels, and decorative objects in a style much influenced by Greek and Roman craftsmen. They developed a polychrome style of gold work, using wrought cells or setting to encrust Gems into their gold objects. This style was influential in western Germanic areas well into the Middle Ages.

Language[link]

The Gothic language is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable corpus. All others, including Burgundian and Vandalic, are known, if at all, only from proper names that survived in historical accounts, and from loan-words in other languages like Spanish and French.

Romantic depiction of Ulfilas converting the Goths to Arianism.

As a Germanic language, Gothic is a part of the Indo-European language family. It is the Germanic language with the earliest attestation but has no modern descendants. The oldest documents in Gothic date back to the 4th century. The language was in decline by the mid-6th century, due in part to the military defeat of the Goths at the hands of the Franks, the elimination of the Goths in Italy, and geographic isolation (in Spain the Gothic language lost its last and probably already declining function as a church language when the Visigoths converted to Catholicism in 589).^[59] The language survived as a domestic language in the Iberian peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal) as late as the 8th century, and Frankish author Walafrid Strabo wrote that it was still spoken in the lower Danube area and in isolated mountain regions in Crimea in the early 9th century (see Crimean Gothic). Gothic-seeming terms found in later (post-9th century) manuscripts may not belong to the same language.

The existence of such early attested corpora makes it a language of considerable interest in comparative linguistics.

Religion[link]

Initially pagan, the Goths were in the 4th century converted to Arian Christianity by the Gothic missionary Wulfila, who devised an alphabet to translate the Bible. The Visigothic Kingdom in Hispania was converted to Catholicism in the 7th century.

Legacy[link]

The Gutes (Gotlanders) themselves had oral traditions of a mass migration towards southern Europe, recorded in the Gutasaga. If the facts are related, this would be a unique case of a tradition that endured for more than a thousand years and that actually pre-dates most of the major splits in the Germanic language family.

The Goths' relationship with Sweden became an important part of Swedish nationalism, and until the 19th century the Swedes were commonly considered to be the direct descendants of the Goths. Today, Swedish scholars identify this as a cultural movement called Gothicismus, which included an enthusiasm for things Old Norse.

In Spain, the Visigothic nobleman Pelagius who founded the Kingdom of Asturias and began the Reconquista at the Battle of Covadonga, is a national hero regarded as the country's first monarch.

Beginning in 1278, when Magnus III of Sweden ascended to the throne, a reference to Gothic origins was included in the title of the King of Sweden:

We N.N. by the Grace of God King of the Swedes, the Goths and the Vends.

In 1973, with the death of King Gustaf VI Adolf, the title was changed to simply "King of Sweden."

In Medieval and Modern Spain, the Visigoths were believed to be the origin of the Spanish nobility (compare Gobineau for a similar French idea). By the early 7th century, the ethnic distinction between Visigoths and Hispano-Romans had all but disappeared, but recognition of a Gothic origin, e.g. on gravestones, still survived among the nobility. The 7th-century Visigothic aristocracy saw itself as bearers of a particular Gothic consciousness and as guardians of old traditions such as Germanic namegiving; probably these traditions were on the whole restricted to the family sphere (Hispano-Roman nobles did service for Visigothic nobles already in the 5th century and the two branches of Spanish aristocracy had fully adopted similar customs two centuries later).^[60]

In Spain, a man acting with arrogance would be said to be "haciéndose los godos" ("making himself to act like the Goths"). Thus, in Chile, Argentina and the Canary Islands, godo was an ethnic slur used against European Spaniards, who in the early colony period often felt superior to the people born locally (criollos). In Colombia the members of the Conservative Party were referred to as godos.

The Spanish and Swedish claims of Gothic origins led to a clash at the Council of Basel in 1434. Before the assembled cardinals and delegations could engage in theological discussion, they had to decide how to sit during the proceedings. The delegations from the more prominent nations argued that they should sit closest to the Pope, and there were also disputes over who was to have the finest chairs and who was to have their chairs on mats. In some cases, they compromised so that some would have half a chair leg on the rim of a mat. In this conflict, Nicolaus Ragvaldi, bishop of Växjö, claimed that the Swedes were the descendants of the great Goths, and that the people of Västergötland (Westrogothia in Latin) were the Visigoths and the people of Östergötland (Ostrogothia in Latin) were the Ostrogoths. The Spanish delegation retorted that it was only the lazy and unenterprising Goths who had remained in Sweden, whereas the heroic Goths had left Sweden, invaded the Roman empire and settled in Spain.^[61][62]

Written sources about the Goths[link]

• Ambrose: The prologue of De Spiritu Sancto (On the Holy Ghost) makes passing reference to Athanaric's royal titles before 376.^[63] Comment on Saint Luke:„Chuni in Halanos, Halani in Gothos, Gothi in Taifalos et Sarmatas insurexerunt"
• Ammianus Marcellinus: Res Gestae Libri XXXI.^[64]
• Aurelius Victor: The Caesars, a history from Augustus to Constantius II
• Basil of Caesarea: Letters
• Cassiodorus: A lost history of the Goths used by Jordanes
• Claudian: Poems
• Dexippus: Scythica which was used by Zosimus for his New hystory
• Epitome de Caesaribus
• Eunapius of Sardis: Live of the Sophists
• Eutropius: Breviary
• Gregory Thaumaturgus: Canonical letter
• Gregory of Nyssa
• Historia Augusta: A history from Hadrian to Carus. However, large portions are known to be fraudulent and the factual accuracy of the remainder is disputed.^[65]
• Jerome: Chronicle
• Jordanes
• Julian the Apostate
• Lactantius: On the death of the Persecutors
• Olympiodorus of Thebes
• Orosius: History against pagans
• Panegyrici latini
• Paulinus: Life of bishop Ambrose of Milan
• Philostorgius: Greek church history
• Sozomen
• Synesius: De regno and De providentia
• Tacitus: Germania, chapters 17, 44
• Themistius: Speeches
• Theoderet of Cyrrhus
• Theodosian Code
• Zosimus

See also[link]

Ancient Germanic culture portal

Descendants and related peoples:

Other:

Sources[link]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has the text of the 1921 Collier's Encyclopedia article Goth.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Goths

• Jordanes; Charles C. Mierow, Translator (1997), The Origins and Deeds of the Goths, Calgary: J. Vanderspoel, Department of Greek, Latin and Ancient History, University of Calgary, http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html, retrieved 2008-09-05 
• Makiewicz, Tadeusz. "The Goths in Greater Poland". The Council of Europe, EuRoPol Gaz S.A.. http://www.muzarp.poznan.pl/archweb/gazociag/title5.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-05. 
• Skorupka, Tomasz; Rafal Witkowski, Translator (1997). "Jewellery of the Goths". Poznan Archaeological Museum. http://www.muzarp.poznan.pl/muzeum/muz_eng/wyst_czas/Goci_katalog/index_kat.html. Retrieved 2008-09-16. 
• Hooker, Richard (1996). "The Germans". World Civilizations. Washington State University. http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MA/GERMANS.HTM. Retrieved 2008-09-19. 
• Kaliff, Anders (2001). "Gothic Connections:Abstract". Uppsala Universitet. http://www.arkeologi.uu.se/publications/opia/gothicabstract.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-19. ^{[dead link]}
• "The Savage Goths", Terry Jones’ Barbarians, June 2006, http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=801730674011842168&q=terry+jones+barbarians&total=17&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=9 .
• Forest People: the Goths in Transyvania, Hungary: NIIF, http://mek.niif.hu/03400/03407/html/26.html .
• (PDF) The origin of the Goths, Neðerlands: Kortland, http://www.kortlandt.nl/publications/art198e.pdf .

The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from 3 stage shows and a 6-episode radio series, it has since spawned a total of 20 television episodes for BBC Three and 2 live tours of the UK, as well as 2 live shows in the United States.

History[link]

Fielding first met Barratt after seeing him perform his solo stand-up routine at the Hellfire Comedy Club in the Wycombe Swan Theatre.^[1] The pair soon found that they shared comic interests, formed a double act, and "decided to be the new Goodies".^[2] After their first performance together at a bar in London in April 1998, Barratt and Fielding developed their zookeeper characters--Howard Moon and Vince Noir, respectively--in a series of sketches for Paramount Comedy’s Unnatural Acts. Here they also met American Rich Fulcher, who became Bob Fossil. Fielding’s friend Dave Brown and Fielding's brother Michael also became regular collaborators. Richard Ayoade was another original cast member, playing adventurer Dixon Bainbridge, but Matt Berry replaced him in the first television series, since Ayoade was under contract with Channel 4.^[3] Ayoade returned in the second and third series as a belligerent shaman named Saboo.

According to Michael Fielding, the name "Mighty Boosh" was originally a phrase used by a Spanish friend to describe the curly hair that Michael had as a child.^[4]

The Boosh produced 3 stage shows--The Mighty Boosh (1998), Arctic Boosh (1999) and Autoboosh (2000)--all of which were taken to the Edinburgh Fringe. With the success of Autoboosh, a radio series was commissioned by the BBC. Produced by Danny Wallace, The Boosh was first broadcast in 2001 on BBC London Live, later transferring to BBC Radio 4, from which the team were given a half-hour television pilot of the same name.

The first 8-part series, directed by Paul King, was then commissioned for BBC Three and broadcast in 2004, with a second of 6 episodes the next year. The second series moved away from the zoo setting to show Howard, Vince, Naboo the shaman and Bollo the talking ape living in a flat in Dalston.^[5] In 2006, the Boosh returned to theatre with The Mighty Boosh Live, which featured a new story entitled "The Ruby of Kukundu".

After two years away from television, the Boosh returned in November 2007. Set in Naboo’s second-hand shop below the flat, the third series drew approximately 1 million viewers with its first episode,^[6] and in light of its success, BBC Three broadcast an entire night of The Mighty Boosh on 22 March 2008, which included a new documentary and 6 of Barratt and Fielding's favourite episodes from all 3 series.

Main Cast[link]

• Julian Barratt as Howard Moon
• Noel Fielding as Vince Noir
• Michael Fielding as Naboo
• Dave Brown as Bollo
• Rich Fulcher as Bob Fossil

Note: The cast members also play smaller roles throughout the series, the roles listed above are their most frequently appearing characters. For a full list of characters, see the List of The Mighty Boosh characters.

Theatre[link]

Original stage shows[link]

[edit] The Mighty Boosh (1998)

The Boosh, then consisting of only Barratt and Fielding, conceived The Mighty Boosh whilst working on Stewart Lee's Edinburgh Festival show King Dong vs. Moby Dick in which they played a giant penis and a whale respectively.

In 1998, they took The Mighty Boosh to the Edinburgh Festival, recruiting fellow comedian Rich Fulcher, whom the pair had met while working on Unnatural Acts. The show won the Perrier Award for Best Newcomer. During their residency at North London's Hen and Chickens Theatre the following year, they built up a cult following, introducing new characters whilst developing old ones.

[edit] Arctic Boosh (1999)

In 1999, the Boosh returned to the Edinburgh Festival with a new show, Arctic Boosh, with Dave Brown acting as choreographer and photographer, as well as playing a variety of characters. Arctic Boosh sold out every night and was nominated for the Perrier Award.

[edit] Autoboosh (2000)

In 2000, the Boosh premiered their third stage show, Autoboosh, at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, adding Fielding's younger brother Michael to the cast. Autoboosh won the festival's Barry Award.

Nationwide tours[link]

[edit] The Mighty Boosh Live (2006)

The Boosh returned to the stage in 2006, touring the UK for the first time. Though drawing heavily from their earlier material, the main story combined these elements into a new narrative. A recording of this show at the Brixton Academy was later released on DVD, before being broadcast on BBC Three on Boxing Day, 2007.

[edit] Boosh Live: Future Sailors Tour (2008/09)

The Boosh toured the UK and Ireland for a second time from September 2008 to February 2009. The show featured characters from all three series as well as the Boosh Band.

They made appearances throughout the UK after their live shows, at after-parties held in different places in each city. The events were called "Outrage", after the catchphrase by Tony Harrison.

Radio[link]

[edit] The Boosh (2001)

From the success of Autoboosh, the BBC commissioned a 6-part radio series for the Boosh. In October 2001 The Boosh radio series, produced by Danny Wallace, was broadcast on BBC London Live, then BBC Radio 4, and later on BBC 7. The show focuses on the adventures of a pair of zookeepers at "Bob Fossil's Funworld": socially awkward, jazz enthusiast Howard TJ Moon, and ultra-vain, fashion-obsessed Vince Noir. This also included voices from Lee Mack also, playing such characters as the Plumber or the Gardener.

Further appearances[link]

The Mighty Boosh returned to radio on 22 October 2004, in a one-off comedy special for The Breezeblock, a show on BBC Radio 1.^[7] Instead of the plot driven nature of their own series, this show featured improvised conversational comedy with Barratt, Fielding and Fulcher, combined with the show's usual mix of electronic music.

On 15 November 2007, as part of the publicity for the premier of their third series the same day, Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding returned to Radio 1, this time on Jo Whiley's Live Lounge.^[8]

Television[link]

[edit] The Mighty Boosh (2004–07)

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In May 2004, after the success of a Boosh pilot, Steve Coogan's company, Baby Cow Productions, produced the first television series of The Mighty Boosh for BBC Three, before it moved to BBC Two in November that same year. Though each episode invariably starts and ends in Dixon Bainbridge’s dilapidated zoo, the "Zooniverse", the characters of Vince and Howard often depart for other locations, such as the Arctic tundra and limbo.

A second series, shown in July 2005, saw Howard and Vince sharing Naboo's flat in Dalston with previously minor characters Naboo and his familiar, Bollo, a gorilla living at the "Zooniverse". This series had an even looser setting as the 4 characters leave the confines of the flat in every episode, travelling in their van to a variety of surrealistic environments, including Naboo's home planet "Xooberon".

Series three started in November 2007, still set in Dalston, but this time the foursome are selling 'Bits & Bobs' in their shop, the Nabootique. Their adventures and outings in this series focused more on the involvement of new characters (e.g. Sammy the Crab, or Lester Corncrake etc.) rather than just the two of them.

Although BBC America originally aired only series 1 in the U.S (all episodes in their entirety), The Mighty Boosh began airing in North America on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block (with up to 6 minutes cut from each episode), starting 29 March 2009 with the third series.^[9]

[edit] The Mighty Boosh Night

On 22 March 2008, BBC Three broadcast a whole night of The Mighty Boosh from 9.05 pm, starting with a new documentary entitled The Mighty Boosh: A Journey Through Time and Space, documenting the history of the Boosh from their first amateur performances to their then-upcoming 2008 tour. This was followed by six of Barratt and Fielding's favourite episodes from the three series: "Party", "The Power of the Crimp", "The Nightmare of Milky Joe", "The Priest and the Beast", "The Legend of Old Gregg", and "Tundra". The pair also appeared in live links throughout the night, in a similar style to the openings of Series 1 episodes. On 23 December 2008, BBC3 held a Merry Booshmas Party featuring the entire series 3 as well as a broadcast of The Mighty Boosh Live.^[10]

Film[link]

On 8 February 2012, Noel Fielding said that he and Barratt had discussed plans to make a Mighty Boosh film, whilst sledging.^[11]

Festival[link]

On 5 July 2008, the Boosh held their own festival in the Hop Farm in Kent. It featured musical acts, Robots in Disguise, The Charlatans, The Kills, Gary Numan, and The Mighty Boosh Band, as well as comedy acts Frankie Boyle and Ross Noble.

Media[link]

Audio CDs[link]

According to an official MySpace page for PieFace Records (the fictitious music label mentioned throughout the series), Barratt and Fielding are to release an album of music from the show, "along with extras, versions, remixes and rare unreleased stuff all to be released later in the year on their own label--this one".^[12] In interviews since, The Mighty Boosh have confirmed they will be releasing an album of their music.^[13] On the 21 October^[when?] episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Fielding stated that the Boosh have recorded an album, but don't know when it will be released.

DVDs[link]

Previously most of the DVDs were only released in Region 2 but as a result of a growing fan base in the U.S., the BBC rereleased in Region 1, Series 1-3 individually on 21 July 2009,^[14][15] and a Special Edition Series 1-3 Boxset on 13 October 2009.^[16]

Australian releases[link]

• Series One - 11 April 2007
• Series Two - 12 April 2007
• Series Three - 6 August 2008
• Live - 3 December 2008
• Special Edition - 6 August 2009
• Future Sailors Tour - 10 November 2009
• Series One: Episodes 1-3 (Comedy Bites) - 4 March 2010

Books[link]

On 18 September 2008, Canongate Books published The Mighty Book of Boosh, designed and compiled by Dave Brown and written by Noel Fielding, Julian Barratt, Rich Fulcher, Dave Brown, Richard Ayoade and Michael Fielding. The book includes original stories, crimps, concept art, behind-the-scenes photography, comics, and various other things, featuring old and new Mighty Boosh characters. On 1 October 2009, a paperback version was released under the name The Pocket Book of Boosh.

Awards[link]

Particularly popular among followers of the indie and electro music genres which the NME magazine caters to, The Mighty Boosh has been recipient of the Shockwaves NME Awards Best TV Show for three consecutive years, even though there were no new episodes broadcast for the latter two of the three years.