Irminones

2025-09-16T07:39:24Z

151.32.220.91: /* top */Rm unnecessary "notably"

{{Short description|Group of early Germanic tribes}}
{{see also|Elbe Germanic peoples}}
[[File:1st century Germani.png|thumb|300px|The approximate positions of some [[Germanic peoples]] reported by Graeco-Roman authors, [[Suebi|Suevian peoples]] in red, and other Irminones in purple]]
The '''Irminones''', also referred to as '''Herminones''' or '''Hermiones''' ({{langx|grc|Ἑρμίονες}}), were a large group of early [[Germanic tribes]] settling in the [[Elbe]] watershed and by the first century AD expanding into [[Bavaria]], [[Swabia]], and [[Bohemia]]. This included the large sub-group of the [[Suevi]], that itself contained many different tribal groups, but the Irminones also included for example the [[Chatti]].

The term Irminonic therefore is also used as a term for [[Elbe Germanic]], which is one of the proposed (but unattested) dialect groups ancestral to the [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]] language family, especially the [[High German languages]], which include modern [[Standard German]].<ref>[[Friedrich Maurer (linguist)|Friedrich Maurer]] (1942), ''Nordgermanen und Alemannen: Studien zur Sprachgeschichte, Stammes- und Volkskunde'', Strasbourg: Hünenburg.</ref>

== History of use ==
=== Classical ===
The name Irminones or Hermiones comes from [[Tacitus]]'s ''[[Germania (book)|Germania]]'' (AD 98), where he categorized them as one of the tribes that some people say were descended from [[Mannus]], and noted that they lived in the interior of [[Germania]]. Other [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] groups of tribes were the [[Ingaevones|Ingvaeones]], living on the coast, and [[Istvaeones]], who accounted for the rest.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0083:chapter=2 |title=Cornelius Tacitus, Germany and its Tribes, chapter 2 |editor1=Alfred John Church |editor2=William Jackson Brodribb |website=perseus.tufts.edu |access-date=16 April 2018}}</ref> Tacitus also mentioned the [[Suebi]] as a large grouping who included the [[Semnones]], the [[Quadi]], and the [[Marcomanni]], but he did not say precisely to which (if any) of the three nations they belonged.

[[Pomponius Mela]], in his ''Description of the World'' (III.3.31) described the Hermiones as the farthest people of [[Germania]], beyond both the [[Cimbri]] and [[Teutones]] who lived on the [[Codanus sinus]], which is understood today to have been his name for the [[Baltic Sea]] and [[Kattegat]], although it was described by him as a very large bay filled with islands, east of the [[Elbe]] river. Still farther east Mela describes the [[Sarmatians]] whom he places west of the [[Vistula]], and then the [[Scythians]] whom he places east of the Vistula.<ref>{{citation|title=Pomponius Mela's description of the world |translator-first=F.E. |translator-last=Romer|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015042048507?urlappend=%3Bseq=121|author=Pomponius Mela|pages=109–117|hdl=2027/mdp.39015042048507?urlappend=%3Bseq=121 }}. Comments: {{harvnb|Christensen|2002|p=256}}. Latin text: https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/pomponius3.html</ref>

[[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]]'s ''Natural History'' (4.100) claimed that the Irminones included the [[Suebi]], [[Hermunduri]], [[Chatti]], and [[Cherusci]].

=== Medieval ===
In the so-called [[Frankish Table of Nations]] (c. 520), probably a Byzantine creation, the son of Mannus, who was the ancestor of the Irminones, is named Erminus (or Armen, Ermenius, Ermenus, Armenon, Ermeno, as it appears in various manuscripts). He is said to have fathered the [[Ostrogoths]], [[Visigoths]], [[Vandals]], [[Gepids]], and [[Saxons]]. In a variation on the table that appears in the ''[[Historia Brittonum]]'', the Vandals and Saxons have been replaced by the [[Burgundians]] and [[Lombards|Langobards]].<ref>{{citation |author=Walter Goffart |author-link=Walter Goffart |title=The Supposedly 'Frankish' Table of Nations: An Edition and Study |journal=Frühmittelalterliche Studien |volume=17 |issue=1 |doi=10.1515/9783110242164.98 |pages=98–130 |year=1983|s2cid=201734002 }}.</ref>

They may have differentiated into the tribes [[Alamanni]], [[Hermunduri]], [[Marcomanni]], [[Quadi]], and [[Suebi]] by the first century AD. By that time the Suebi, Marcomanni, and Quadi had moved southwest into the area of modern-day [[Bavaria]] and [[Swabia]]. In 8 BC, the Marcomanni and Quadi drove the [[Boii]] out of [[Bohemia]].

The term Suebi is usually applied to all the groups who moved into this area, although later in history (around 200 AD) the term Alamanni (meaning "all-men") became more commonly applied to the group.

''[[List of names of Odin|Jǫrmunr]]'', the Viking Age Norse form of the name ''[[wikt:Irmin|Irmin]]'', can be found in a number of places in the ''[[Poetic Edda]]'' as a [[by-name]] for [[Odin]]. Some aspects of the Irminones culture and beliefs may be inferred from their relationships with the Roman Empire, from Widukind's confusion over whether Irmin [[Interpretatio romana|was comparable]] to [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]] or [[Hermes]], and from [[Snorri Sturluson]]'s allusions, at the beginning of the ''Prose Edda'', to Odin's cult having appeared first in Germany before spreading up into the Ingvaeonic North.

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==
* {{cite book|last=Christensen |first=Arne Søby|author-link=Arne Søby Christensen|title=Cassiodorus, Jordanes and the History of the Goths: Studies in a Migration Myth |year=2002| location=Copenhagen|publisher=Museum Tusculanum Press |isbn=9788772897103|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AcLDHOqOt4cC }}
* Grimm, Jacob (1835). ''Deutsche Mythologie'' (German Mythology); From English released version ''Grimm's Teutonic Mythology'' (1888); Available online by Northvegr © 2004-2007:[https://web.archive.org/web/20080601032444/http://www.northvegr.org/lore/grimmst/015_02.php Chapter 15, page 2]-; [https://web.archive.org/web/20080601032140/http://www.northvegr.org/lore/grimmst/015_03.php 3]. File retrieved 09-26-2007.
* [[Friedrich Maurer (linguist)|Friedrich Maurer]] (1942) ''Nordgermanen und Alemannen: Studien zur germanischen und frühdeutschen Sprachgeschichte, Stammes- und Volkskunde'', Strasbourg: Hünenburg.
* Tacitus, ''[[wikisource:Germania|Germania]]'' (1st century AD). (in Latin)

{{Germanic peoples}}
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[[Category:Irminones| ]]
[[Category:Early Germanic peoples]]
[[Category:Pre-Roman Iron Age]]

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Irminones