Germanic names

[Alanus]

True, Caesar had a political agenda, but the customs and languages of the three differing Celtic societies in Gaul would have nothing to do with it. If he had written a pack of lies, someone at some point would have taken him to task for it. Certainly, he had enough Roman enemies to do it. :wink:

When one culture is absorbed by a greater one, the entire language (and nomens) of the lesser culture are not assigned to oblivion. They live on, even adopted by the greater culture... and George Bush still has his Germanic name.

That Attila was remotely related to Alaric would be stretching relationships to their limit. The Huns did absorb, and then only for one generation, the Greutungi Goths. Alaric was a Tyrfingi Goth, probably born on Peuce Island in the Delta. Wolfram, whom I trust, notes that his probable father was the Balth Alaviv, the confederate of Frithigairns. The Huns absorbed the Greutungi well east of this Danube location. The Balths never submitted to the Huns, chosing to play their chances with a fellow Arian Christian, the Emperor Valens. If Attila was the grandnephew of Alaric, his pagan parents would have to marry into the Royal Balths on the banks of the big river... perhaps with Bishop Sigesar performing the nuptials. :lol:

From my point of view, the melding of pagan Ruan Huns with Christian Balth Goths is culturally inconceivable. But the exchange of names and customs between Goths, Alans, and Huns is conceivable, even attested; not only in nomens, but in the Huns and Goths both adopting the significance of the sword of Mars/Tyrfing from a steppe culture squeezed between them.

best Regards,

Alanus, A.J. Campbell