Heruli

The Heruli (spelled variously in Latin and Greek) were a nomadic Germanic people, who were subjugated by the Ostrogoths and Huns in the 3rd to 5th centuries. The original home of the Heruli is unknown, although their own mythology placed it in the Maeotian Swamp at the confluence of the Don River and the Sea of Azov, in ancient Scythia.

History

The 6th century chronicler Jordanes reports a tradition that they had been driven out of their homeland long before by the Dani, which would have located their origins in the Danish isles or southernmost Sweden. According to Procopius, they maintained close links with their kinsmen in Scandinavia (Thule). He relates that the Heruls killed their own king during their stay in the Balkans (cf. Domalde), and that they sent an emissary to Scandinavia requesting a new king. Their request was granted and a new king arrived with 200 young men.

Pliny and Tacitus (circa 95 CE) both mention Suebian tribes called the Harii or Hirri. That the Harii and the Heruli are basically synonymous is strongly evidenced by the fact that in the 500s when Salinga, daughter of the last Heruli king Rhodoulph (Honor-Wolf?), married Wacho, king of the Lombards, as his third polygynous wife, she named her son by him Walt-Hari - modern Walter - "ruler of the Hari/marauders". See both Prokopios and Paulus Diaconus for this episode. Also note that the common name Harold is identical as well, from Hari-Walt.)

The Heruls are first mentioned by Roman writers in the reign of Gallienus (260 - 268), when they accompanied the Goths ravaging the coasts of the Black Sea and the Aegean. The mixed warbands managed to sack Byzantium in 267, but their eastern contingent was virtually annihilated in the Balkans at the Battle of Naissus (Serbia) two years later, the battle that earned Marcus Aurelius Claudius his surname "Gothicus." A western contingent of Heruli are mentioned at the mouth of the Rhine in 289.

By the end of the 4th century the Heruls were subjugated by the Ostrogoths. When the Ostrogothic kingdom of Ermanaric was destroyed by the Huns in about 375, the Heruls became subject to the Hunnic empire. Only after the fall of the Hunnic realm in 454, were the Heruls able to create their own kingdom in southern Slovakia at the March and Theiss rivers.

After this kingdom was destroyed, however, Herulian fortunes waned. Remaining Heruls joined the Langobards and moved to Italy, and some of them sought refuge with the Gepids and ultimately with the Romans who allowed them to create a new kingdom in Moravia, near Singidunum (Belgrade). After one generation, this minor federate kingdom dissappeared from the historical records. The Greek writer Procopius reported that a part of the defeated Heruls fled north to Thule, which is usually identified as Scandinavia. No other source report about the Thule Heruls and like their southern relatives they seemed to have dissappeared from history without leaving much of a trace.

Records indicate, however, that the Heruli served in the armies of the Byzantine emperors for a number of years, in particular in the campaigns of Belisarius, when much of the old Roman territory, including Italy, Syria, and North Africa was recaptured. Several thousand Heruli served in the personal guard of Belisarius throughout the campaigns. They disappear from historical record by the mid-6th century.

According to Procopius, many Heruls returned to Scandinavia and settled besides the Geats (Gautoi). The place where they are assumed to have resettled is the provinces of Blechingia and Värend, two districts where the women had equal rights of inheritance with their brothers. Some noble Swedish families in the area also claim to be descendants of the returning Heruls.

No "Heruli" are mentioned in Anglo-Saxon, Frankish or Norse chronicles, so it is assumed they were known in the north and west by another name. Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911 suggested that, since the name Heruli itself is identified by many with the Anglo-Saxon eorlas ("nobles"), 0ld Saxon erlos ("men"), the singular of which (erilaz) frequently occurs in the earliest Northern inscriptions, that "Heruli" may have been a title of honor.

From the end of the 3rd century, Heruls are also mentioned as raiders in Gaul and Spain, where they are mentioned together with Saxons and Alamanni. These Heruls are usually regarded as Western Heruls; their settlements are assumed to have been somewhere at the lower Rhine.

Characteristics of the Heruli tribe

Heruli (or Aeruli, Iruli, Eruli), is thought to be the Latin (and Herouloi, Erouloi, Airouloi, or Ailouroi [sic] in the Greek) for the Germanic tribal name Harjilaz, Herilaz, or Erilaz (theoretical plural, Heruloz) meaning "belonging to the marauders" [harji, from the Proto-Indo-European /koros/ means marauder/raider and ilaz is a suffix meaning "belonging to", synonymous to -ling in Modern English, i.e. earthling); the earliest runic attestation is a runic inscription found on a sword mounting in the Nydam Mose ship burial of 420 CE reading HARJILAZ AHTE or "Marauder Owned [this]"). The Heruli thought of themselves as "wolf-warriors", consecrated to the early Germanic wolf-god Wodan. Accordingly, the name seems transparent in Scandinavian as härjulvar, "harrying wolves". Note the prevalence of compound names containing wolf as an element in the ErilaZ inscriptions below.

According to Paul the Deacon, the Heruli fought naked: "Either to fight more expediently or to show their contempt for wounds of the enemy, they fought nude, covering only a part of the body modestly [i.e. the genitals]." Around 90 CE Tacitus claimed in the Germania that the strength of the Suebian tribe he called the Harii (the immediate cultural predecessors of the Harjilaz/Erilaz/Heruli) excelled that of the other four most powerful Suebian tribes, and the Heruli were later described in much the same terms by Mamertinus in 289 CE. Tacitus then adds that the Harii "accentuate their innate fierceness with art and timing" by which he means the use of cunning psychological warfare. The "art" referred to is painting their shields and naked bodies black. The proper "timing" is "pitch black nights for battles", probably referring to the darkest nights around the new moon. The naked, lightly armed Harii then would present themselves to their foe as a "shadowy, funereal host", which, coupled with their already great fierceness, ensured their victory, for "no enemy can sustain a sight that is so new to them and just as infernal." Tacitus then finishes his commentary on the Harii with a famous sententia: "For in all battles, first the eyes are defeated." (43.2, 4)

Precursors to the berserkers of the Vikings, the Heruli would attain states of ecstasy called wodnysse in Old English, or literally "Wodan-ness", madness inspired by Wodan, the raging wolf-god. Wodynisse was entered into either for battle, or for composing and reciting complex poetry, riddles, and genealogies. (See the Old English Life of St. Guthlac by Felix of Crowland for the 8th century account of a young East Anglian noble man named Hwaetred who is overcome by wodnysse for some four years, becoming uncontrollably violent, until cured by the hermit Guthlac in the fens of Crowland. Hereward the Wake - or "Marauder-guard the Watcher" - is another youth who at the time of the Norman invasion of England, enters into states of raging wodnysse and with a troop of fellow outlaws, harries the Normans, also from the fens.) Tales of the new moon, night-time raids of the Heruli became the basis for the legend of the Wild Hunt, headed by King "Herla". (NB: the verbs harry and harangue are etymologically related to "Harji".)

Kris Kershaw's brilliant academic monograph, The One-Eyed God: Odin and the Indo-Germanic Männerbünde, published by the prestigious Journal of Indo-European Studies in 2001, has documented that the Harii/Heruli were organized as "wolf-packs", each pack of no more than a dozen or so was lead by two older males, much like an alpha- and beta-wolf. Younger men (aged approximately 15-21) comprised the retinue of the two wolf-leaders. After their summer-long (from April 31 to October 31, May Day to Halloween) training in military, genealogy, cultic practice, sexuality, and other items necessary to social order, the older youths were initiated into full manhood after they had killed another man in battle, or had killed a wild boar or large bear in the hunt. The younger youths returned home for wintering and would only rejoin the Harii again at the end of the following April.

Exclusively foot-soldiers, the Heruli were a nomadic tribe who used horses only for moving their camps. A particularly frightening tactic of the Heruli which amazed the Romans, was that they were so fast on foot that they would team up with a horse-riding warrior, hang on to the mane of the horse with their left hand, wield their swords with their right hand, and charge into battle, running as fast as the horse directly into the fray.

The Heruli mythos also connected them intrinsically to marshes, bogs, and fens. Their own etiological legend places their origins in the Maeotian Swamp at the mouth of the Tanais (Don) River, as reported by Jordanes in the Getica (23.117, 121); the Byzantine chronicler, George Synkellos, also places 500 ships of "Ailouroi" (sic) pirates near the Maeotian Swamp circa 268 CE, before they sacked Byzantium, Athens, and other important cities. Since the Harii-Heruli were mostly youths aged 15-21, liminally between childhood and manhood, their relationship to the liminality of marshes (not quite water, not quite terra firma) is given more depth.

Homosexuality of the Heruli

According to Procopius, bishop of Caesaria, the Heruli practiced a warrior-based, ritual homosexuality. In his De Bello Gothico, Prokopios is scandalized by the fact that "kai mixeis ouch hosias telousin, allas te kai andron" (Greek), or "and they have sex contrary to the ends of divine law, even with men" (VI. xiv. 36). Procopius does not elaborate upon this brief statement. However, he also noted that the young squires of the "Erouloi" (Greek for Heruli) go into battle without even a shield to protect themselves; once proven in battle, their Heruli masters then permitted them to carry one in battle, signifying their entrance into full manhood. Historian of homosexuality, David Greenberg, believes that in this passage, Prokopios implied that the homosexuality practiced by the Heruli was ritualistic and initiatory in nature, for "pederasty was practiced in connection with the transition from youth to manhood" in the early Germanic "men's societies (Männerbünder)" as well as being common to all Indo-European cultures. Again, this initiatory pederasty is identical to the practices of the closely-related Taifali, as reported by Ammianus Marcellinus (31.9.5). (See Greenberg's The Construction of Homosexuality, 1988, p. 243.)

Several of the names of Erilaz we know from runic inscriptions (see below) also have homosexual innuendo, such as Hrozaz ("Agile"), Muha ("Marsh", muck), Sa Wilag ("The Wily"), Wagigaz ("Audacious"), Wiwila ("Little Slave" or "Little Wiggler"), and Ubaz ("Mischievous"). In addition, one the inscribers notes that he is a thewaz, squire or boy-servant.

Ritual, warrior-based pederasty (erotics between an adult and a youth) seems to have been common to all Indo-European peoples; variant forms of ritual homosexuality are well-documented and were particularly institutionalized in Sparta, with the nearly invincible Sacred Band of Thebes, among the Dorians and Athenians, the Scythians (who were Indo-Iranian], the Celts, and others.

The Weerdinge bog bodies of the Netherlands, who were found wrapped in each other's arms, were initially thought to have been a 2,000 year old heterosexual couple. However, both adult bodies are bearded so testing was recently performed and conclusively showed that the two intimates were actually both male. DNA testing by Dr. Carney Matheson's team at the Paleo-DNA Laboratory in Ontario, Canada has proven that the two men were not closely genetically related maternally or paternally, so the two men are not brothers, as some scholars have proposed. See http://home.earthlink.net/~ekerilaz/weerdingemen.html for a fuller treatment of these bog bodies. While the two intimates cannot conclusively be proved to have been Harji/Heruli, circumstantial evidence indicates it is quite possible. That two adult males (one apparently somewhat younger and smaller than the other) were carefully laid to rest by locals in a marsh in an intimate embrace for eternity in ancient Germania does reflect many cultural aspects of the Heruli.

The runic "ekerilaR"

The Heruli might have been good rune-carvers. Some dozen runic inscriptions on rune stones, other rock faces, bone wands, wooden spear shafts, and metal pieces exist containing the phrase "ekerilaR" or "ekerilaz". The first word "ek" means "I", whereas the meaning of the word "erilaR" is somewhat unclear and controversial, although most scholars believe it means "marauder, harrier". Some believe it should be read out "I, the Herul", others say it means "I, the rune-carver" but the most widespread interpretation in modern research is that it actually means "I, the Earl" (or "Jarl" in the Swedish language.) The strongest academic evidence to date however indicates it means "I, marauder", referring to the Indo-European tradition of a "wolf-warrior" brotherhood (the wolf being regarded in the Germanic mythos as the "marauder par excellence" for young warriors-in-training to emulate).

Runic Inscriptions of the Harii & Harjilaz/Erilaz

(Caveat: ALL readings, transcriptions, translations etc. are tentative)

• Äskatrop Bracteate (medallion), 500-550 CE (Halland, Sweden)

__igaz e erilaz

__igaz*, I am Heruli

[* __igaz could be wigaz, Fighter - see the Väsby Bracteate for an almost identical inscription, apparently made by the same person around the same time?]

• Bratsberg Fibula (clasp or buckle), 400-500 CE (Telemark, Norway)

ek erilaz

I am Heruli

• By Flagstone Slab, 550-560 CE (Buskerud, Norway)

ek erilaz hrozaz hrozez orte †at azina ? rm†e

I am Heruli, Agile son of Agile made this flagstone...??

• Ettelhem Fibula, 450-500 CE (Gotland, Sweden)

ek erlaz wortaa

I Heruli, wrought (this) Himlingøje Silver Bow Fibula, 200-300 CE (Zealand, Denmark)

hariso

Marauderess (fem.)

(Related to the Old Frankish tribal name, Heriso??)

• Illerup Bronze Shield Mount (buried in a bog), 160-350 CE (Jutland, Denmark)

swart/a

Black [One]

(Souartouas/Swartaz is the name of a 6th century Heruli king appointed by Roman emperor Justinian - see Prokopios, 6.15.36)

• Istaby Stone, 600-650 CE (Blekinge, Sweden)

aftaz hariwulafa hathuwulafz haeruwulafiz warait runaz thaiaz

Battle-Wolf, son of Sword-Wolf (Haeruwulf ) wrote these runes after (i.e. in memory of) Marauder-Wolf (Hariwulf)

(See also the Stentoften Stone and Räsval Stone inscriptions for other Marauder-Wolves; Herewolf is an Old English kenning for warrior)

• Järsberg Stone, 500-550 CE (Värmland, Sweden)

ek erilaz...ubaz hite|harabanaz hait...runoz waritu

I am Heruli, Mischievous I was called; Raven I am called; runes I scratch [i.e. write]

• Kragehul Wooden Spear-Shaft (found in a bog), 300 CE by Antonsen, 500-525 CE by others (Fyn Peninsula, Denmark)

ek erilaz asu gisalas *muha haite

I, Heruli of Ansus' Hostage [or God's Hostage], Bog/Marsh I am called

[*Antonsen inexplicably claims there is an "e" preceding this m - which clearly is NOT in the inscription, see p.101 of Moltke - and thereby creates a completely different and erroneous reading of this inscription; I read muha as bog, related to English "muck"]

• Lindholm Bone Amulet or Wand (found in a bog), 300 CE by Antonsen or 500-550 CE by Elliott et al. (Skåne, Sweden)

ek erilaz sa wilagaz* hateka (and magical spell on verso?)

I am Heruli, the Wiley I am called

[Antonsen uniquely unites sa with wilagaz and translates the name as Sunny One]

• Norheimsund, before 500 CE (Hardangerfjord, Norway)

No transcription or translation available

(see www.arild-hauge.com/einscription.htm)

• Nydam Mose Sword Clasp (found in a bog), 320-350 CE (Jutland, Denmark)

harjilaz ahti

A Heruli possessed (this)

• Raum Køge Bracteate (probably from a hoard) (Zealand, Denmark)

hari uha* haitika farauisa gibuauja

Great [or Dread or Young] Marauder I am called, the travel-wise [or danger-wise or fairy-wise!]; I [the bracteate] give good luck/protection

(*Old English óga - dread, terror; or unga - young; Okhos is named by Prokopios as a king of the Heruli in the 500s - see 6.14.38.)

• Rävsal Stone, 600-650 CE (Bohuslän, Sweden)

hariwulfs stainaz

Marauder-Wolf's stones

• Rosseland Stone, 450 CE (Hordaland, Norway)

ek wagigaz erilaz agilamu(n)don*

I am Audacious, the Heruli of Blade-Protectress(?)

[*Agilmundo is the name of a Gothic king in Prokopios' history, but this is clearly a woman's name in the inscription]

• /Rozwadów Spear-head (from a cremation grave), 200 CE (Poland)

krlus [ek erluz?]

I belong to the Heruli(?)

• Rö Stone, 400-500 CE (Bohuslän, Sweden)

swabaharjaz saira widaz [ek] stainawarijaz fahido ek hrazaz satido [s]tain[a] ana

Suebian marauder with wide sore [i.e. gaping wound] I stone-warden painted [i.e. inscribed] I Agile set the stone on...

• Skåäng Stone, 500 CE (Södermanland, Sweden)

harijaz leugaz

Harii Lugii (or Harii marriage?)

(Both are in the masc. nom. sing.; a pun about a Harii and Lugii marriage?)

• Stentoften Stone, 600-650 CE (Blekinge, Sweden)

hathawolafz gaf j hariwolafz ma.?? ushuh?e hidez runono felah eka hedera...

Battle-Wolf gave harvest; I, Marauder-Wolf (unintelligible) hide a clear rune-row here...

• Valsfjord Rock Inscription, 400 CE (Sønder Trøndelag, Norway)

ek haugustaldaz thewaz godagas eXXXXXXz [ekerilaz?]

I am Hedge-Steader, boy-servant of Goody's, I am Heruli(?)

• Väsby Bracteate (buried in a bog) , 500-550 CE (Skåne, Sweden)

uuigaz e erilaz

Fighter, I am Heruli

[Note that the inscriber used two u's UU rather than a simple W]

• Veblungsnes Cliff Inscription, ca. 500 CE (Romsdal, Norway)

ek erilaz wiwilan

I am Heruli, Little Servant/Slave (or following Antonsen, Little Bent One/Wiggler?)

• Vimose Bone Comb, 160-250 CE (Fyn Peninsula, Denmark)

harja

Marauder

(Made in the regions south of the Baltic, this could be a comb for wool; both men and women combed wool.)

• Watchfield, 520-570 CE (Oxfordshire, England)

hari bôki wusae [or thusae?]

This is Marauder-beech's?

(Or Marauder-Book's, from words/runes being inscribed on beech wood; or Bent Marauder, see Germanic buchen - to bend or fold; Wusa is also a common fem. name for rivers in ancient England)

• Weimar Gilt & Silver Bow Fibula, 500-550 CE (Thüringen, Germany)

haribrig liub

Beloved Marauder-Protection (woman's name)

(Or City-Marauder, see Old English burh - city, protected area)

Source texts

The Heruli are mentioned by:

• Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae, 20.40.2-4, 31.9.5
• Apollinaris Sidonius, 8.9.28
• Aurelius Cassiodorus, Variae, III.3
• Divus Claudius, Scriptores Historiae Augustae, VI. 1-2
• Eugippus, Vita Sancti Severini, XXIV
• Genethliacus of Maximian Augustus, 7:2
• George Syncellus or Georgios Synkellos, Ecloga Chronographica, chap. 467-8
• Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, Book II, 27 and 42
• Hydatius, Chronicle, (under years 456 and 459)
• Jordanes, Getica, 3.23, 23.117, 23.121, 46.242, 50.261
• Julius Honorius, Cosmographia Iulii Caesaris
• Laterculus Veronensis
• Liber Generationis, 33
• Claudius Mamertinus, Panegyric of Maximian, 5:1, 2, and 4
• Notitia Dignitatum, (listed as infantry troops in the Palatine Auxiliaries stationed in Italy ca. 400 CE)
• Paul the Deacon or Paulus Diaconus, 'Historia Langobardorum, i. 19-20, ii.3.
• Prokopios or Procopius of Caesaria, De Bello Gothico, I.xiii.19-41, II.xxiv.13-20, II.xxv.20-28, IV.iv.26-viii.1, VI. xiv. 10-36, VI.xv.1ff, etc. and De Bello Persico, II:25
• St. Jerome to Lady Ageruchia, Epistolae 123.16
• Tacitus, Germania, 43:2-4
• Tribal Hidage of Anglo-Saxon England, MS Harley 3271, f. 6v (as tribe called the Herefinna or "marauders of the fens").
• Joannes Zonaras, Chronicon, 12:24
• Zosimus, Historia Nova, I:39

External links and references

• This article incorporates some information taken from http://www.hostkingdom.net/ with permission.
• Information regarding the ritual homosexuality of the Heruli can be requested from odonovan@ucsc.edu
• Description of Heruli battle tactics
• Heroli in Paul's History of the Lombards i.20: (in English)