Getae and Dacians? Are they the same? Or is this unknowable?

[Alanus]

And why compare the non-Germanic Goths with some of your ancestors and not with all those (proto-)Albanians resisting Latin, with all those Vlachs resisting Magyar or Greek? If that axiom of three generations would be true in Roman Empire there would have been only two languages - Latin and Greek, in Byzantine Empire only Greek, in Kingdom of Hungary only Hungarian, in Ottoman Empire only Turkish, etc. Languages like Romanian and Albanian should have not existed, because for more than three generations their speakers were part of other empires, of other dominant cultures.

All of the above social groups were large, and they were not placed in the position of "survive or fall to the wayside." In my grandparents situation, they settled into a totally English-speaking population. There was no "little Italy." Everything was done in English (at the workplace, or just purchasing groceries), so it was either "fit in" or "stand aside." The same situation held for those "outsiders" who fell in with the Goths, but even more so. Because the Gothic gens was primarily a military one, and it extended into a migratory one until the 5th century. You either learned the prevailing language or you went nowhere in that military society. A case of not NEED TO, but HAVE TO.

Ulfilas' "all Goths" were small groups near the Danube. What did Ulfilas know of those on Dniester and Dnieper, where we have clusters of settlements? Even the most erudite Roman authors were hopelessly confused about north-Danubian geography and ethnography, should we think Ulfilas or any Christian preacher knew better?

I would say he knew a lot about them, just in the fact they lived along a well-trodden trade route. Trade and its exchange of commodoties gave all people (no matter where they lived) "news" of happenings and populations hundreds of miles away. It was slower than it is today, but the same principle. Eusebious,Ulfilas, and the Catholics, extended Christianity right into the Crimea, well beyond the Dnieper. Don't be so hard on the ancient authors. They knew populations and river names thousands of kilometers away from where they lived. Enough that Stabo correctly identified and geographically-placed the Sacae who lived beyond Sogdiana.

These late 4th century events happened near the Danube which is further evidence the spread of Christianity in Gothia was restricted to some regions (near the Roman frontier). And I'm not sure if we can prove these persecuted Christians were those converted by Ulfilas and his disciples.

Well, we only have Sozemus and Socrates Scholasticus as our sources, so they could have been "lying sacks of ----," but then again maybe they were honest in claiming that the Christianization of the Goths (ie Tyrfingi) was due to Ulfilas and Fritigern.

When Dacia fell from Romans to Goths and other tribes from Barbaricum that meant the end of its written culture and the end of its urban life. This is one of the many reasons why Goths are commonly regarded as "barbarians".

Oh? I never realized that the Thracians and Dacians were 100 % literate, and I don't suppose the Romans ever called them "barbarians" either, eh? hock:

These legends were written down in the Middle Ages. They certainly rely on some local traditions, too, but they were not formed outside Graeco-Roman influence, as by this time many works in Latin, including Getica, were available.

Oh, I'm sure that all the families in Iceland sat around the fire reading Jordanes and Tacitus. Especially since it was dark outside for 6 months. Give me and the readers of this thread a break, Rumo. If the Roman classics were so popular in Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, why weren't those stories incorporated into their sagas. Certainly, they weren't written down until the middle ages, but they described tales that occurred in the old homeland, even though they didn't reach Iceland until after 870. The sagas-- including the Hervar Saga-- were sung since man first opened his mouth to stick his foot in it! :lol:

Can you bring some analogies of populations named after mythical swords because I can't find any.

I suppose we could use the population I alluded to earlier. However the sword was actually real, as in historical, not mythical. Tyrfing was planted in a mound of ground, or sometimes a pile of stones, by the populace who worshiped it-- the Gothic Tyrfingi. But additionally, it was also worshiped by the Alans and all Sarmatian tribes going all the way back to the Scythians. See Ammianus and Herodutus on this matter.

Like I said earlier. The Tyrfing-Tryfingi-Hervar-Saga link is irrefutable in the standard world of common sense and logic. Beyond that world, it can be argued by "reachers"... such as all those Icelanders reading thousands of scribal copies of Jordanes before going to bed.