Arminius
Glasilo 4, Summer 2013
In my third instalment of this article, I mentioned that according to the well-known German poetess, Annette Droste von Hülshoff, the Wendish pagan god of the lower realms, whom she called Tschrni Bock, continued to be venerated in the lower Rhine Valley in the first half of the 19th century. I had found this information, as a six-grader, in her Correspondence and Diaries.
A couple of years later, I was reading Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers, published in 1857, in the period before nationalists had introduced censorship and political correctness to Europe. In it, he too mentions this very same god, but spells his name more correctly as Tchrni Bog. Trollope's writing is realistic, he described his characters and his times as they really were. This was appreciated by George Orwell, who held him for a much greater writer than the popular Dickens. Therefore, one can trust that Trollope had done some studying and that, when he mentions Tchrni Bog as the god of the lower realms of ancient insular Britons, one can adduce that, in his time, this was also the opinion of leading British scholars.
It might be rewarding to search through books dealing with this subject, published in Britain up until then, to discover the sources for this information, and additional facts. I find that authors of most non-fiction books published prior to WW1 took their writing much more seriously than later writers, and spent much more time on research.
At any rate, this shows that Wends were living not just in Eastern Germany, as German historians claim, but also in Britain, and in north-western parts of Germany, in areas bordering on Holland. What I found particularly surprising is that their pagan religion managed to survive into the 19th century in an area adjoining the very centre of the Frankish Empire. From here Franks had started the expansion of their Holy Roman Empire and their zealous conversions of central and northern Europe already in the 8th century A.D., more than a 1000 years earlier.
No history book mentions pagans in the 19th century Germany. But then, they also do not mention that local chronicles report, even as late as the 14th century A.D., how some pagans in present northern Germany still preferred to commit suicide to giving up their ancestors' religion for the superstitions of nomadic Middle-Eastern tribes. Nor to do they mention that, on the continent and in British Isles, many had reverted to paganism after the great Plague. Mentioning Christian armies, led by Bishops, waging brutal crusades against pagan Wends who were still resisting in eastern Germany in the 12th century is not fashionable, historians are more interested in describing crusades led at that time against Muslims in Palestine.
Although the Church and their armies were successful in breaking pagan resistance and in occupying and expropriating their land, further local uprisings followed up to the 15th century in Germany and up to the 16th century in Scandinavia. As I have already mentioned, by then more than half of what is now Germany was in the hands of the Church. I suspect that the so-called peasant uprisings in the 15th century were fought because the formerly totally free Wendish farmers – who were formerly not required to pay any taxes, nor to serve in the army – were by then forced to work as serfs on the land they had previously owned.
Wendish pagan aristocrats did not live off their farmers' taxes. They were financially and economically independent. They grew their own food and kept their own domestic animals. They earned money in trade, mining and manufacture of metal products, like situlas, pottery and weapons for export.
We know that during the republican period Roman patricians, even those of the highest status, still worked their own fields, ploughing them "stripped of their clothes". We can read this in Cato's speeches, addressed to then already decadent members of the Roman Senate. He warned them from allowing themselves to be further corrupted. He reminded them of their ancestors' virtues, how only some 100 years earlier, their fathers still worked themselves on their small estates, none of which exceeded 10 acres. Senators he was addressing in the 1st century B.C. owned already large estates and relied on slave labour.
A couple of years later, I was reading Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers, published in 1857, in the period before nationalists had introduced censorship and political correctness to Europe. In it, he too mentions this very same god, but spells his name more correctly as Tchrni Bog. Trollope's writing is realistic, he described his characters and his times as they really were. This was appreciated by George Orwell, who held him for a much greater writer than the popular Dickens. Therefore, one can trust that Trollope had done some studying and that, when he mentions Tchrni Bog as the god of the lower realms of ancient insular Britons, one can adduce that, in his time, this was also the opinion of leading British scholars.
It might be rewarding to search through books dealing with this subject, published in Britain up until then, to discover the sources for this information, and additional facts. I find that authors of most non-fiction books published prior to WW1 took their writing much more seriously than later writers, and spent much more time on research.
At any rate, this shows that Wends were living not just in Eastern Germany, as German historians claim, but also in Britain, and in north-western parts of Germany, in areas bordering on Holland. What I found particularly surprising is that their pagan religion managed to survive into the 19th century in an area adjoining the very centre of the Frankish Empire. From here Franks had started the expansion of their Holy Roman Empire and their zealous conversions of central and northern Europe already in the 8th century A.D., more than a 1000 years earlier.
No history book mentions pagans in the 19th century Germany. But then, they also do not mention that local chronicles report, even as late as the 14th century A.D., how some pagans in present northern Germany still preferred to commit suicide to giving up their ancestors' religion for the superstitions of nomadic Middle-Eastern tribes. Nor to do they mention that, on the continent and in British Isles, many had reverted to paganism after the great Plague. Mentioning Christian armies, led by Bishops, waging brutal crusades against pagan Wends who were still resisting in eastern Germany in the 12th century is not fashionable, historians are more interested in describing crusades led at that time against Muslims in Palestine.
Although the Church and their armies were successful in breaking pagan resistance and in occupying and expropriating their land, further local uprisings followed up to the 15th century in Germany and up to the 16th century in Scandinavia. As I have already mentioned, by then more than half of what is now Germany was in the hands of the Church. I suspect that the so-called peasant uprisings in the 15th century were fought because the formerly totally free Wendish farmers – who were formerly not required to pay any taxes, nor to serve in the army – were by then forced to work as serfs on the land they had previously owned.
Wendish pagan aristocrats did not live off their farmers' taxes. They were financially and economically independent. They grew their own food and kept their own domestic animals. They earned money in trade, mining and manufacture of metal products, like situlas, pottery and weapons for export.
We know that during the republican period Roman patricians, even those of the highest status, still worked their own fields, ploughing them "stripped of their clothes". We can read this in Cato's speeches, addressed to then already decadent members of the Roman Senate. He warned them from allowing themselves to be further corrupted. He reminded them of their ancestors' virtues, how only some 100 years earlier, their fathers still worked themselves on their small estates, none of which exceeded 10 acres. Senators he was addressing in the 1st century B.C. owned already large estates and relied on slave labour.
Drawing Conclusions About the Term "Germani"
As you see, I had collected, in a very short time, an impressive number of facts which clearly supported my grandfather's statements. They were starting to cast serious doubts, not only on the official version of Wendish history, but also on on all the other official versions of history. I was alerted to the fact that not only in the Rhine Valley but also in Britain, farmers, who formed an overwhelming majority of all countries prior to WW1, were once obviously speaking mostly Wendish dialects. As you may know, in the 1890s, even in Canada, almost 95% of all citizens were still living off the land.
Of course, I am not relying for my statements about Wendish being spoken in Ancient Briton on Trollope alone. Tacitus states clearly that "Germani" tribes of northern "Germania" and today's Denmark spoke the same language as the population of "Celtic/Gallic" Britain. My research supports his claim that they spoke Wendish. However, German historians conveniently disregard this obvious fact and go even a step farther. They declare Tacitus to be uninformed and wrong, as if they knew today more about Europe in Roman times than did Romans themselves, who had travelled in places they described in their books.
German historians base their claim - that Tacitus was wrong - on a strange logic. They stress that Tacitus was wrong because "everyone knows that Britons were Celts, who spoke Celtic, not German" - as if this proved that most of the so-called "Germani" tribes were speaking a non-Celtic language. They ignore all reports which do not fit into their own imaginary structure of historic myths they have created about their ancestry. All this unscientific scholarship carried out solely to uphold their recently construed fictional Germanic myth – the fiction of their being descendants of a very special people, the Nordic Germani, who are supposedly quite unlike Wends and other people in Europe.
Recently, some German scholars seem to have themselves started having doubts about these heroic Germani. I noticed that the last special historical edition of the Spiegel magazine, titled Die Germanen, The Germani, is subtitled Europas geheimnisvolles Urvolk, Europe's mysterious ancient people. This does not sound to me an expression of any certainty and knowledge about these Germani. It seems to me an outright admission that "Germani", as propagated until now by German historians and zealous nationalists, may not have existed at all. A conclusion to which I myself have arrived.
I will now tackle the "Germanic" myth and show it to be most likely based on an accidental, or perhaps deliberate misinterpretation by German historians of the term Germani, as set out in Tacitus' Germania. As I said, the passage in Tacitus' Germania, stating that the "Germani tribes in northern and eastern Germany spoke the same language as people in Britain", is an obvious fact. All the linguistic glosses and phrases quoted in Roman texts about these "Germani" tribes are pure Wendish, having nothing in common with Germanic languages. Their kings and aristocrats have purely Wendish names, as do all terms used for their titles, like bod/vod, a leader, a duke, of the Teutoni and Cimbri tribes. Oddly, German scholars, historians and linguists, fail to notice any of these obviously Wendish names and terms.
Not only the "Germani" tribes of Teutoni and Cheruski are reported by Romans to have used such Wendish terms, so did all the other Germani tribes in the north. For example, the name of the "Germanic" king Marobod, of the Markomanni tribe, is nothing else but the Wendish Mirovod, a leader preferring peace to war – which happens to have been his actual policy throughout his rule. In Wendish, mir – which is pronounced almost like mar - means peace, and has no cognate in German. The bod in his name, also has no meaning in German. However, considering that b is usually a v, when written by Romans, you get the Wendish term vod, which means a leader. As generally known, Germans have a quite different name for him, namely, der Führer. This term, vod, turns up not only in names of the "Germanic" Kimbri and Teutoni leaders, but also in the name of the famous British queen, Bodicca, i.e., Vodilka/wodilka, a lady-leader. (See previous articles.)
My suspicions grew still stronger when I was rereading ancient texts. In them, I noticed much that had escaped my attention when I was reading them the first time around. For instance, I realized that in Latin the term "'germani" simply meant blood-relations. A very odd word to choose as the name for a people, particularly for a people supposed to be unrelated to Celts and other Europeans. I asked myself: Whose relations could these tribes have been? The answer was easy.
All interpreters used by Romans, when dealing with Celtic tribes in the Rhine Valley, were Gallic Wends, already bilingual and well-versed in Latin. Some members of their aristocracy were at that time already sitting in the Roman senate and royal sons, like prince Arminius and his brother, were appointed to high military positions in Roman armies. Therefore, the term germani, blood-relations, could have referred only to the fact that these germani tribes were blood-relations of these Wendish interpreters - which, of course, they were.
In addition, according to my findings, Romans themselves were related to Wends. This name may have been acceptable to them also for that reason. In Caesar's time, their Latin language was less than 500 years old. It had evolved on the basis of Etruscan, Sabine, Volci and Venetian Wendish dialects, and some other Italic languages, like the language of their neighbouring Latini tribe. This took place after the founding of Rome by the Etruscans, another Wendish tribe.
The famous Roman historian Livy (his original name was probably Liubi/Liuvi), himself a Wend of the northern Veneti tribe, was obviously still bilingual. He insists that Veneti and Etruscans spoke the same language. Although, according to him, the Etruscan dialect was by far more refined and sophisticated than the Veneti dialect. Romans, at least those interested in history of their own state, may have still remembered their origins.
If you are interested in seeing a list of Wendish words which appear in Latin or in English, you will find them elsewhere on this site.
I find it likely that the mythical legend about the "raping of blond Sabines by Roman men" may have had a factual basis. It would certainly explain why so many Wendish words relating to the household are to be found in Latin. The spelling of the name of the Sabini tribe would have been in Latin, as always, adapted for easier pronunciation. The original name could very well have been Slavini/Slowindi. as in Boddicca/Wodilka; the l sound in Slavini which is hardly audible, was left out.
I have mentioned before that Wends of north-western Italy and throughout the Alps, including my ancestors in Noricum and Carinthia, referred to themselves as Solwindi/Slowintsi, not Solwendi/Sloventsi. That may explain why Sabini/Slavini were not called Sabeni/Slaveni. I suggest further research in this matter, paying attention also to ancient topographical names in the area where Sabines were living in Roman times.
As you see, I had collected, in a very short time, an impressive number of facts which clearly supported my grandfather's statements. They were starting to cast serious doubts, not only on the official version of Wendish history, but also on on all the other official versions of history. I was alerted to the fact that not only in the Rhine Valley but also in Britain, farmers, who formed an overwhelming majority of all countries prior to WW1, were once obviously speaking mostly Wendish dialects. As you may know, in the 1890s, even in Canada, almost 95% of all citizens were still living off the land.
Of course, I am not relying for my statements about Wendish being spoken in Ancient Briton on Trollope alone. Tacitus states clearly that "Germani" tribes of northern "Germania" and today's Denmark spoke the same language as the population of "Celtic/Gallic" Britain. My research supports his claim that they spoke Wendish. However, German historians conveniently disregard this obvious fact and go even a step farther. They declare Tacitus to be uninformed and wrong, as if they knew today more about Europe in Roman times than did Romans themselves, who had travelled in places they described in their books.
German historians base their claim - that Tacitus was wrong - on a strange logic. They stress that Tacitus was wrong because "everyone knows that Britons were Celts, who spoke Celtic, not German" - as if this proved that most of the so-called "Germani" tribes were speaking a non-Celtic language. They ignore all reports which do not fit into their own imaginary structure of historic myths they have created about their ancestry. All this unscientific scholarship carried out solely to uphold their recently construed fictional Germanic myth – the fiction of their being descendants of a very special people, the Nordic Germani, who are supposedly quite unlike Wends and other people in Europe.
Recently, some German scholars seem to have themselves started having doubts about these heroic Germani. I noticed that the last special historical edition of the Spiegel magazine, titled Die Germanen, The Germani, is subtitled Europas geheimnisvolles Urvolk, Europe's mysterious ancient people. This does not sound to me an expression of any certainty and knowledge about these Germani. It seems to me an outright admission that "Germani", as propagated until now by German historians and zealous nationalists, may not have existed at all. A conclusion to which I myself have arrived.
I will now tackle the "Germanic" myth and show it to be most likely based on an accidental, or perhaps deliberate misinterpretation by German historians of the term Germani, as set out in Tacitus' Germania. As I said, the passage in Tacitus' Germania, stating that the "Germani tribes in northern and eastern Germany spoke the same language as people in Britain", is an obvious fact. All the linguistic glosses and phrases quoted in Roman texts about these "Germani" tribes are pure Wendish, having nothing in common with Germanic languages. Their kings and aristocrats have purely Wendish names, as do all terms used for their titles, like bod/vod, a leader, a duke, of the Teutoni and Cimbri tribes. Oddly, German scholars, historians and linguists, fail to notice any of these obviously Wendish names and terms.
Not only the "Germani" tribes of Teutoni and Cheruski are reported by Romans to have used such Wendish terms, so did all the other Germani tribes in the north. For example, the name of the "Germanic" king Marobod, of the Markomanni tribe, is nothing else but the Wendish Mirovod, a leader preferring peace to war – which happens to have been his actual policy throughout his rule. In Wendish, mir – which is pronounced almost like mar - means peace, and has no cognate in German. The bod in his name, also has no meaning in German. However, considering that b is usually a v, when written by Romans, you get the Wendish term vod, which means a leader. As generally known, Germans have a quite different name for him, namely, der Führer. This term, vod, turns up not only in names of the "Germanic" Kimbri and Teutoni leaders, but also in the name of the famous British queen, Bodicca, i.e., Vodilka/wodilka, a lady-leader. (See previous articles.)
My suspicions grew still stronger when I was rereading ancient texts. In them, I noticed much that had escaped my attention when I was reading them the first time around. For instance, I realized that in Latin the term "'germani" simply meant blood-relations. A very odd word to choose as the name for a people, particularly for a people supposed to be unrelated to Celts and other Europeans. I asked myself: Whose relations could these tribes have been? The answer was easy.
All interpreters used by Romans, when dealing with Celtic tribes in the Rhine Valley, were Gallic Wends, already bilingual and well-versed in Latin. Some members of their aristocracy were at that time already sitting in the Roman senate and royal sons, like prince Arminius and his brother, were appointed to high military positions in Roman armies. Therefore, the term germani, blood-relations, could have referred only to the fact that these germani tribes were blood-relations of these Wendish interpreters - which, of course, they were.
In addition, according to my findings, Romans themselves were related to Wends. This name may have been acceptable to them also for that reason. In Caesar's time, their Latin language was less than 500 years old. It had evolved on the basis of Etruscan, Sabine, Volci and Venetian Wendish dialects, and some other Italic languages, like the language of their neighbouring Latini tribe. This took place after the founding of Rome by the Etruscans, another Wendish tribe.
The famous Roman historian Livy (his original name was probably Liubi/Liuvi), himself a Wend of the northern Veneti tribe, was obviously still bilingual. He insists that Veneti and Etruscans spoke the same language. Although, according to him, the Etruscan dialect was by far more refined and sophisticated than the Veneti dialect. Romans, at least those interested in history of their own state, may have still remembered their origins.
If you are interested in seeing a list of Wendish words which appear in Latin or in English, you will find them elsewhere on this site.
I find it likely that the mythical legend about the "raping of blond Sabines by Roman men" may have had a factual basis. It would certainly explain why so many Wendish words relating to the household are to be found in Latin. The spelling of the name of the Sabini tribe would have been in Latin, as always, adapted for easier pronunciation. The original name could very well have been Slavini/Slowindi. as in Boddicca/Wodilka; the l sound in Slavini which is hardly audible, was left out.
I have mentioned before that Wends of north-western Italy and throughout the Alps, including my ancestors in Noricum and Carinthia, referred to themselves as Solwindi/Slowintsi, not Solwendi/Sloventsi. That may explain why Sabini/Slavini were not called Sabeni/Slaveni. I suggest further research in this matter, paying attention also to ancient topographical names in the area where Sabines were living in Roman times.
Nemeti, Franks and Germans
I always thought it odd that, up to the 15th century, terms like German and Germanic did not even exist. They appeared suddenly as soon as Tacitus' manuscript was rediscovered, at the point in time when what we call now German had finally evolved from former Frankish dialects. And their state evolving from very limited Merowingian beginnings, substantially expanded by Carolingians, particularly Charlemagne, had finally grown into a mighty empire, and got a new name, the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. I have mentioned this subject before, but will add a few comments.
I wrote that in the most recent History issue of Der Spiegel, titled Karl der Grosse, the author referred to an "enigmatic inscription" on an ancient sword in Charlemagne's possession, whose meaning supposedly puzzled him and his advisors. They could not decipher its meaning. The inscription was "raht, radoleiba, nasg,enti". Radoliub is a male Wendish personal name, still rather popular. Rado, from rad, to be fond of, and liub, dear. Therefore, the translation of this name is "a loved darling". Raht seems to me to be the spelling of Wendish rod, people, lineage, race, in which the vowel is long, and the letter t is used for the d sound. Raht Radoleiba would then mean Radoliub's people. And nasgenti, could well be the Wendish najgan ti, you are fired up, driven, inspired. The s in nasgenti, likely followed Roman spelling habits. They used the letter s also for all other sibilants with which they were confronted in foreign tongues, for sh, ts and, as in this case, also for j. Therefore, the entire inscription on the sword of an ancient Wendish warrior would have been clear, make full sense, and was written in grammatically correct Wendish, "You (the sword) are driven/inspired/fired up up by Radoluib's people".
Radoliub was obviously a Wendish pagan king, or duke, who was leading Wends in their struggle against Christian Franks or Carolingian proselytizers. The Wendish warrior, whose sword ended up in Charlemagne's hands, felt encouraged by this inscription to fight the enemy, backed in spirit by all his people. Yet another proof that Wends were in the Rhine Valley prior to Charlemagne. It also shows that by the 8th century Charlemagne and his advisers no longer understood Wendish, only Latin and Frankish.
On the other hand, I suspect that Merowingians, predecessors of Karolingians as the Frankish royal family, might have still used Wendish, at least at home. They were originally obviously a Wendish family. Their name means nothing in German – besides German at that time did not yet exist . Their name was likely originally the Wendish Mirowniki, a peaceful family. The ending -wnik or -nik is common in Celtic/Wendish family names, it was later often inverted to -wing, a bird's wing in German – a way of Germanizing Wendish names.
I always thought it odd that, up to the 15th century, terms like German and Germanic did not even exist. They appeared suddenly as soon as Tacitus' manuscript was rediscovered, at the point in time when what we call now German had finally evolved from former Frankish dialects. And their state evolving from very limited Merowingian beginnings, substantially expanded by Carolingians, particularly Charlemagne, had finally grown into a mighty empire, and got a new name, the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. I have mentioned this subject before, but will add a few comments.
I wrote that in the most recent History issue of Der Spiegel, titled Karl der Grosse, the author referred to an "enigmatic inscription" on an ancient sword in Charlemagne's possession, whose meaning supposedly puzzled him and his advisors. They could not decipher its meaning. The inscription was "raht, radoleiba, nasg,enti". Radoliub is a male Wendish personal name, still rather popular. Rado, from rad, to be fond of, and liub, dear. Therefore, the translation of this name is "a loved darling". Raht seems to me to be the spelling of Wendish rod, people, lineage, race, in which the vowel is long, and the letter t is used for the d sound. Raht Radoleiba would then mean Radoliub's people. And nasgenti, could well be the Wendish najgan ti, you are fired up, driven, inspired. The s in nasgenti, likely followed Roman spelling habits. They used the letter s also for all other sibilants with which they were confronted in foreign tongues, for sh, ts and, as in this case, also for j. Therefore, the entire inscription on the sword of an ancient Wendish warrior would have been clear, make full sense, and was written in grammatically correct Wendish, "You (the sword) are driven/inspired/fired up up by Radoluib's people".
Radoliub was obviously a Wendish pagan king, or duke, who was leading Wends in their struggle against Christian Franks or Carolingian proselytizers. The Wendish warrior, whose sword ended up in Charlemagne's hands, felt encouraged by this inscription to fight the enemy, backed in spirit by all his people. Yet another proof that Wends were in the Rhine Valley prior to Charlemagne. It also shows that by the 8th century Charlemagne and his advisers no longer understood Wendish, only Latin and Frankish.
On the other hand, I suspect that Merowingians, predecessors of Karolingians as the Frankish royal family, might have still used Wendish, at least at home. They were originally obviously a Wendish family. Their name means nothing in German – besides German at that time did not yet exist . Their name was likely originally the Wendish Mirowniki, a peaceful family. The ending -wnik or -nik is common in Celtic/Wendish family names, it was later often inverted to -wing, a bird's wing in German – a way of Germanizing Wendish names.
Misrepresentation of German history by German scholars and Governments
Tacitus mentions that the Germani tribes used to be, in former times, "a very famous people". Yet, even my history teacher, a member of the Nazi party, told us children that, oddly, nothing is known about Germanic tribes prior to the Jarlsberg culture period and the introduction of Christianity. Even Jarlsberg may not have been Germanic, there being no written evidence, only a guess. She even stressed that not even one of the "documents" supposedly written in Germanic dialects by Gothic priests in the 4th and 5th centuries was a preserved original. All are copies, originating after the 10th century A.D.
Therefore, Tacitus could not possibly have been referring to some Germanic people as "a very famous people in former times". However, it would have been a very apt description, had he had been referring to ancient Wends, called by him Germani.
German and Austrian historians continue to claim, even in their most recent editions of their history books, that two Wendish inscriptions, originating in the Iron Age, are their own earliest "Germanic" inscriptions. Both inscriptions are interpreted by them as being "Germanic" names, oddly long, without any Germanic linguistic semblance.
Both these "Germanic" inscriptions are unmistakably Wendish. One of them is incised on a helmet – found on the presently Slovene territory. It consists of an entire Wendish sentence, not a personal name as German scholars claim: "Hari gasti te i vaijul" (haril je goste/tujtse in jih je izvojeval/porazil). It declares in a Wendish dialect that the helmet's owner, the dead warrior, "was fighting foreigners/invaders and had been victorious" in the battle he fought.
The second inscription, inscribed on some jewellery, discovered in northern Germany, is a short dedication to the Wendish mother-goddess, called Baba. I have mentioned mother earth goddess, Baba, before, and that she was known already in Babylon. Her name appears in the very name of this famous city itself. It was dedicated to the Wendish mother goddess, Babi, to the goddess - dative of Baba -, as lon, thanks, reward, in gratitude. Not only the words, even the grammar, the declension of nouns, match those in modern, still highly inclined Wendish. It amazes me to what length German scholars go, resorting to theft/plagiarism, to prove that Germans were literate already in the Iron Age. As if it matters. Like vain individuals, there are vain nations determined to prove themselves superior to others, resorting to such unethical tricks.
This is not the only thing German historians have appropriated for themselves that rightfully belongs to Wends - whom they continue to treat with disdain. They adopted also a Wendish prince as their greatest "Germanic" hero. His nickname was, in my opinion, the Wendish word rmeni, yellow, it seems because he had yellow, golden hair. Romans had spelled his name Arminius, because they always added an "a" in front of two consonants when spelling foreign names – in this case rm – to make it easier for themselves to pronounce. And they added their ubiquitous ending -us at the end, resulting in Arminius.
Arminius was a Wendish prince, a son of the king, also with a Wendish name, of the Cheruski "Germani" tribe. In 9 A.D., he and his warriors had totally destroyed three entire Roman legions in the Teutoburger Forest. This was about 1/5th of the total Roman military power, the greatest loss in the entire history of the Roman Empire. The consequence of this battle was that Romans gave up their attempts at subjugating the rest of Wends, those who resided on the east side of the Rhine river in present central and northern Germany.
German scholars, of course, claim that his original name was Herman, misspelled by Romans as Armin. The problem with this German version is that German had not yet existed at that time. It evolved more than a thousand years later. And the Old Norse tribe of Norway was still unknown to the civilized,i.e., Roman world.
My theory of Arminius being a Wend is supported by two other facts. One is, that Arminius' own brother, who was an officer in the Roman army and kept his oath to remain loyal to the Emperor, had a similar nickname, in his case in Latin. He was called Flavus or Flavius, which in Latin means blond.
This shows that blondness was running in their family, and also that this kind of names were very common with Wends in those times among Romans as well.
Wendish names, including their toponyms, are always highly descriptive. I will give you just a couple examples. The present name of the famous Italian tourist resort in Italian Alps is Cortina D'ampezzo. This is the Italicized name of its original Wendish name Krtine o(m)b Peci/Pechi, molehills at the bare rock. The present name has no meaning in Italian and it has no Latin roots. However, its meaning in Wendish gives a perfect description of this place. Nasals, as it appears in the word o(m)b, are slowly disappearing from modern Wendish. The original word o(m)b is now shortened to ob, at, next to. At this place, Cortina D'Ampezzo, there are several small treed hills, looking like green molehills, with a spectacular mountain-sized, absolutely bare white rock in their background. Its Wendish name describes the place perfectly.
There is also a fast-running river in Switzerland, dashing from the mountains, called the Derocha river. In Wendish, derocha means fast flowing, tearing/galloping along. River Drava, with its source close to Salzburg, has a name derived from the same Wendish root, Diryawa, rapidly flowing, now abbreviated to Drawa. It too is famous for its deadly swift currents. Many refugees from Tito's communist Yugoslavia, who were trying to cross it to reach safety in Austria, drowned in it. I have already mentioned that there is another Diryawa, another fast-flowing river, in the suburbs of today's Bumbai in India - obviously also named originally by Wends.
Let's return to Arminius. What makes me quite sure that my guesses are not just guesses, but facts, are the statements found in various Latin texts telling us that Arminius' son, whom he never had a chance to see because he was born during his wife Thusnelda's exile in Italy, is referred to by him and Roman writers as Tamali. Ta mali, as every Wend knows, refers in Wendish to a little boy – and Ta mala, to a little girl.
There also countless other "German" historic personalities, many kings and aristocrats, with slightly misspelled Wendish names. For example, the name Waldemar. A very peculiar name if it were German. In German, Wald means Forest, and mar has no meaning at all. It is obviously a misspelled still popular Wendish name, originally given to members of Wendish royalty, Wladomir. Wlad, in Wendish, means ruler, and mir stands for peace. Surely a very appropriate name for an ideal ruler who prefers peace to war. It was not only popular in Roman times, it continued to be favoured by ancient kings and members of aristocracy in Denmark, Scandinavia, Russia – even today! Putin! There was even a king of Hungary with this name in the 13th century. And we have already learned that the inversion of syllables is quite common, sol changes to slo, wlad to wald and mir to mar or mer.
Can all these examples be just coincidences? I leave the answer to your own judgment and to the future objective research of Wendish scholars.
Tacitus mentions that the Germani tribes used to be, in former times, "a very famous people". Yet, even my history teacher, a member of the Nazi party, told us children that, oddly, nothing is known about Germanic tribes prior to the Jarlsberg culture period and the introduction of Christianity. Even Jarlsberg may not have been Germanic, there being no written evidence, only a guess. She even stressed that not even one of the "documents" supposedly written in Germanic dialects by Gothic priests in the 4th and 5th centuries was a preserved original. All are copies, originating after the 10th century A.D.
Therefore, Tacitus could not possibly have been referring to some Germanic people as "a very famous people in former times". However, it would have been a very apt description, had he had been referring to ancient Wends, called by him Germani.
German and Austrian historians continue to claim, even in their most recent editions of their history books, that two Wendish inscriptions, originating in the Iron Age, are their own earliest "Germanic" inscriptions. Both inscriptions are interpreted by them as being "Germanic" names, oddly long, without any Germanic linguistic semblance.
Both these "Germanic" inscriptions are unmistakably Wendish. One of them is incised on a helmet – found on the presently Slovene territory. It consists of an entire Wendish sentence, not a personal name as German scholars claim: "Hari gasti te i vaijul" (haril je goste/tujtse in jih je izvojeval/porazil). It declares in a Wendish dialect that the helmet's owner, the dead warrior, "was fighting foreigners/invaders and had been victorious" in the battle he fought.
The second inscription, inscribed on some jewellery, discovered in northern Germany, is a short dedication to the Wendish mother-goddess, called Baba. I have mentioned mother earth goddess, Baba, before, and that she was known already in Babylon. Her name appears in the very name of this famous city itself. It was dedicated to the Wendish mother goddess, Babi, to the goddess - dative of Baba -, as lon, thanks, reward, in gratitude. Not only the words, even the grammar, the declension of nouns, match those in modern, still highly inclined Wendish. It amazes me to what length German scholars go, resorting to theft/plagiarism, to prove that Germans were literate already in the Iron Age. As if it matters. Like vain individuals, there are vain nations determined to prove themselves superior to others, resorting to such unethical tricks.
This is not the only thing German historians have appropriated for themselves that rightfully belongs to Wends - whom they continue to treat with disdain. They adopted also a Wendish prince as their greatest "Germanic" hero. His nickname was, in my opinion, the Wendish word rmeni, yellow, it seems because he had yellow, golden hair. Romans had spelled his name Arminius, because they always added an "a" in front of two consonants when spelling foreign names – in this case rm – to make it easier for themselves to pronounce. And they added their ubiquitous ending -us at the end, resulting in Arminius.
Arminius was a Wendish prince, a son of the king, also with a Wendish name, of the Cheruski "Germani" tribe. In 9 A.D., he and his warriors had totally destroyed three entire Roman legions in the Teutoburger Forest. This was about 1/5th of the total Roman military power, the greatest loss in the entire history of the Roman Empire. The consequence of this battle was that Romans gave up their attempts at subjugating the rest of Wends, those who resided on the east side of the Rhine river in present central and northern Germany.
German scholars, of course, claim that his original name was Herman, misspelled by Romans as Armin. The problem with this German version is that German had not yet existed at that time. It evolved more than a thousand years later. And the Old Norse tribe of Norway was still unknown to the civilized,i.e., Roman world.
My theory of Arminius being a Wend is supported by two other facts. One is, that Arminius' own brother, who was an officer in the Roman army and kept his oath to remain loyal to the Emperor, had a similar nickname, in his case in Latin. He was called Flavus or Flavius, which in Latin means blond.
This shows that blondness was running in their family, and also that this kind of names were very common with Wends in those times among Romans as well.
Wendish names, including their toponyms, are always highly descriptive. I will give you just a couple examples. The present name of the famous Italian tourist resort in Italian Alps is Cortina D'ampezzo. This is the Italicized name of its original Wendish name Krtine o(m)b Peci/Pechi, molehills at the bare rock. The present name has no meaning in Italian and it has no Latin roots. However, its meaning in Wendish gives a perfect description of this place. Nasals, as it appears in the word o(m)b, are slowly disappearing from modern Wendish. The original word o(m)b is now shortened to ob, at, next to. At this place, Cortina D'Ampezzo, there are several small treed hills, looking like green molehills, with a spectacular mountain-sized, absolutely bare white rock in their background. Its Wendish name describes the place perfectly.
There is also a fast-running river in Switzerland, dashing from the mountains, called the Derocha river. In Wendish, derocha means fast flowing, tearing/galloping along. River Drava, with its source close to Salzburg, has a name derived from the same Wendish root, Diryawa, rapidly flowing, now abbreviated to Drawa. It too is famous for its deadly swift currents. Many refugees from Tito's communist Yugoslavia, who were trying to cross it to reach safety in Austria, drowned in it. I have already mentioned that there is another Diryawa, another fast-flowing river, in the suburbs of today's Bumbai in India - obviously also named originally by Wends.
Let's return to Arminius. What makes me quite sure that my guesses are not just guesses, but facts, are the statements found in various Latin texts telling us that Arminius' son, whom he never had a chance to see because he was born during his wife Thusnelda's exile in Italy, is referred to by him and Roman writers as Tamali. Ta mali, as every Wend knows, refers in Wendish to a little boy – and Ta mala, to a little girl.
There also countless other "German" historic personalities, many kings and aristocrats, with slightly misspelled Wendish names. For example, the name Waldemar. A very peculiar name if it were German. In German, Wald means Forest, and mar has no meaning at all. It is obviously a misspelled still popular Wendish name, originally given to members of Wendish royalty, Wladomir. Wlad, in Wendish, means ruler, and mir stands for peace. Surely a very appropriate name for an ideal ruler who prefers peace to war. It was not only popular in Roman times, it continued to be favoured by ancient kings and members of aristocracy in Denmark, Scandinavia, Russia – even today! Putin! There was even a king of Hungary with this name in the 13th century. And we have already learned that the inversion of syllables is quite common, sol changes to slo, wlad to wald and mir to mar or mer.
Can all these examples be just coincidences? I leave the answer to your own judgment and to the future objective research of Wendish scholars.