Goths
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a Germanic tribe. The Goths became established on the Lower Danube in the third century. An earlier home has been assigned them, not with certainty, however, on the shores of the Baltic. The king of Sweden is styled "King of the Swedes and the Goths." The Goths are described by writers of the time as tall, athletic men, with fair complexions, blue eyes, and light hair, not unlike many Scandinavians of the present day. The Goths invaded the Roman Empire at various times. They became converted to Arian Christianity. Historically, about 369 they divided into Visigoths, or western Goths, and the Ostrogoths, or east Goths. The Ostrogoths settled on the Black Sea ; the Visigoths, on the Danube. A portion of the Bible was translated into the Gothic language by the great Visigothic apostle, Ulfilas. Six different manuscripts have been found. One of these is now possessed by the University of Upsala, Sweden. It is a beautiful parchment, written in letters of gold and silver. From a literary point of view, as well, it is considered one of the most precious treasures in the possession of any library. It is the oldest known literary fragment in a Germanic language. It is studied by scholars who desire to know what the Germanic language was like at that early day. The Visigoths migrated westward and formed a kingdom in southern France and Spain. Later, the Ostrogoths for a time established a kingdom in Italy. The pointed style of buildings used very generally in the noted cathedrals of Europe is called Gothic architecture. See Theodoric; Alaric ; Rune; Arianism
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's account of 1910 follows Jordanes: a Baltic homeland (offered cautiously), tall fair blue-eyed warriors, and a tidy split into Visigoths and Ostrogoths about 369. Most historians since the 1960s-80s have unpicked all three. The Scandinavian migration story is now widely treated as sixth-century origin-myth rather than history, with Gothic identity seen as forming on the Danube and Black Sea out of mixed groups (the archaeological Wielbark and Chernyakhov cultures); the ancient physical descriptions are read as literary convention; and the names Visigoth and Ostrogoth are dated to the fifth and sixth centuries, the earlier fourth-century groups being the Tervingi and Greuthungi, with Theodoric's Ostrogoths largely assembled in the Balkans. The Codex Argenteus is still at Uppsala as described, and in 1970 its last missing leaf was found in Speyer cathedral.
Written for this edition, 2026.