Other Civilization: Germans and Globalization Now in Stoic
The Other Civilization Keith Borgholthaus
The accepted history of mankind shows a time called Early Civilization. The usual explanation is there were only a few that really existed. The Phoenicians, the Egyptians, and the Greeks slowly built up grand halls of learning and education. The rest of the world watched as civilization slowly grew and took over, and then finally began to unite into a giant global unit.
The problem with this assessment is that there were people meeting and talking, even going global, before these civilizations said it happened. For example, the Romans covered a large expanse of land, slowly conquering and declaring victory. The people outside of that realm, the Germanians, had connections with other groups as far as the Eurasian continent could go. They fought wars with peoples that held empires larger than Ceaser could imagine. Yet, when we talk of history, it is the Romans that get the credit as civilization than the other.
This Other Civilization was just as amazing as the first. This essay will cover the time when the Germans and Romans met. First we will cover how far the Germans have travelled to today. Then we will go back to the time of the Germans and Romans met and competed. The thought process between the two and how they dealt with problems. The conversation will get into the idea of the trickster Loki and how he worked. Then we will go into what happened after the fall of the Romans.
- The Germans are global
- The Romans
- Germanica
- Germania
- Trickster/Loki
- wolkenwandrung.
This is a picture of Germania in the minds of the Roman people. You will notice that Germany is only a part of the lands being covered.
After the fall of Rome, the Germanic peoples begin to wander and take over large parts of Europe. The Lombards, the Anglo-Saxons, the Franks and others began to spread out and take over previously Roman lands.
This isn’t the first time this happens either. The Vikings take over lands again from the 8th to 11th centuries[2]. So Europe has a large Germanic ethnic population before we even get into visiting the Americas.
The British Colonies had German and Dutch immigrants. Keep in mind, Germany did not exist yet so much of England viewed them as the same people. Benjamin Franklin wrote of German and Dutch colonists,
And since Detachments of English from Britain sent to America, will have their Places at Home so soon supply'd and increase so largely here; why should the Palatine Boors be suffered to swarm into our Settlements, and by herding together establish their Language and Manners to the Exclusion f ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion[3].
The Germans at this time were still the foreigners, even though the English colonists were descendants of Saxons. Let us not forget that the king of England at this time was a Hannover. This immigration continued throughout the history of the United States. The Scandinavians came into Minnesota and the Northern Midwest without much notice[4].
It goes further than that, Germans migrated everywhere there was a colony to be found[5]. They were on naval vessels for every country, and therefore helped build the colonies they would live in. Yet no one really noticed this.
The American revolution was very strange. The British forces had the British Saxons, and then hired mercenaries from Hessia which is near Denmark. The American side had German and Dutch immigrants, and then French Soldiers, many of whom did not speak French but a form of Germanic speech common to the lower peoples.
Argentina had Germans, and so did much of South America. Africa had several different groups that were Germanic colonists[6]. The Dutch East Indies and other trading groups spread language and ideals throughout the world.
This leads me to point out that there are several people from Polynesian cultures that have heritage to German and Dutch travelers. In other words, while no one was noticing the Germans globalized.
This is just one culture, one ethnic group that spread throughout the world. There are hundreds of them doing the exact same thing. We don’t notice them because they fall under “lower” groups, or don’t follow our own national ideals. They adapt to their new culture and keep parts of the old one as well. So we have a huge sense of diversity from ethnic groups that most people are simply not watching. In fact, it gets even odder. Some of these groups have had entire Empires, and because they were based on movement instead of traditional civilization systems, no one remarked about it.
In the book Empires of the Silk Road, the author Christopher Beckwith points out that the Germans had similar cultural aspects as the people of Central Asia. The common things were long braided hair, a system of brotherhood among warriors called comitatus, and burial of a warrior with his weapons[7]. The infamous nazi symbol of the swastika can be found throughout the Eurasian continent[8]. In other words an ideal of civilization had spread throughout Eurasia, no one noticed, and the Germans were part of it.
First things first though, we need a name for this civilization that we have ignored. I call it the Other Civilization, for two reasons. The first is that Other tends to be the term for people that fall into the foreign and unknown. The mystical other is something that has been used to describe many of the groups throughout history. The second reason is with a simple honesty, when talking about these two different civilizations the people involved will often say, “No, no, the Other Civilization... the one that travelled.”
The comparison between them now needs a term for the more traditional idea of civilization. This one used a more permanent style. It viewed itself in slow moving and historical ways. We tend to trust the sources from this civilization more than the Other. It relies on Walls and Rules to keep power among the people. This is not just walls in real life, but walls in the mind and culture as well.
To give an idea of walls and rules you must see how it was used.
In fact, some historians believe that the history of the Germans did not exist unless the Romans appeared. To quote Hagen Schulze in his book Germany: A New History:
The origins of German history lie not in the primeval forests of the north but in Rome, the unique city state that at its height ruled the entire Mediterranean and all of Europe to the Rhine, the Danube, and to the Limes, the wall at the northern border. Roman Civilization, while taking on many local forms, acted as a unifying force; for the people of ancient times it provided a world with clearly defined outlines under an ecumenical roof. There was no higher status than being a Roman Citizen; the apostle Paul was just as proud of it as Hermann, tribal chief of the Chrusci, despite their differences with Rome. The poet Virgil, who in the Aeneid conceived and related the legend of how the Roman state was founded, declared that it was Rome’s task to rule the world and and to bring law and civilization in times of peace, sparing the conquered and punishing the rebellious[9].
In other words, without the civilization of Rome, Germans would not exist as a historical figure. Rome itself was what brought even the savage to understand civilization and law.
Within that same text we find reference to the Limes, the walls that separated the Germanic forces and the Roman Empire. A similar wall was built for the Roman colonies in Brittan[10]. Then another set of walls for the impenetrable fortress of Lugo in Spain[11].
These walls were also placed on any settlement or colony by the Roman empire.
This is a map of Londinium or London during the Roman Era. Note how everything is placed with a system of roads, and walls. Then notice how each place is for a specific thing. People live in one place. The military stays in the northern area. There are places for entertainment. All of this is kept within walls.
So the land was kept within walls, and then more walls.
The Limes of Germany were constructed as a way to mark the difference between Roman land and the German land[13]. Within the map on Germania above, you find the line between the Roman Empire and the Other people of Germania. This line was literally the Limes. The purpose was more to keep trade between the Germans and perhaps as a buffer to the farther groups. Within the book by Beckwith we find that perhaps the Huns did not invade the Roman Empire but to invade and punish the Germanic Goths[14]. The King Ermanaric had perhaps expanded over territory that was Hsiung-nu and refused to pay the proper obeisance to Attila.
Within the same quote from Hagen, we see the Limes and the idea of Civilization bringing Law to others. Yet, there were laws and rules placed by the Germanic peoples on how to do things.
Cornelius Tacitus wrote that the Germanic people had rules. For example Homicide:
It is a duty among them to adopt the feuds as well as the friendships of a father or a kinsman. These feuds are not implacable; even homicide is expiated by the payment of a certain number of cattle and of sheep, and the satisfaction is accepted by the entire family, greatly to the advantage of the state, since feuds are dangerous in proportion to the people's freedom[15].
As it can be seen, just by this small rule, the Romans knew the Germans had civilization. Somehow though, the idea was not accepted.
The reason for this was that the Germanic peoples did not act in the same way or thoughts as the Romans. The Romans understood the rules of the Other, but not the ideas behind it.
Again in Tacitus writing we find comments on who the Germans pray to:
Mercury is the deity whom they chiefly worship, and on certain days they deem it right to sacrifice to him even with human victims. Hercules and Mars they appease with more lawful offerings. Some of the Suevi also sacrifice to Isis. Of the occasion and origin of this foreign rite I have discovered nothing, but that the image, which is fashioned like a light galley, indicates an imported worship. The Germans, however, do not consider it consistent with the grandeur of celestial beings to confine the gods within walls, or to liken them to the form of any human countenance. They consecrate woods and groves, and they apply the names of deities to the abstraction which they see only in spiritual worship[16].
Note how he has added Mercury and Hercules to the gods. No mention of the names of what the Germans call them.
We begin to see the reason with Cities:
It is well known that the nations of Germany have not cities, and that they do not even tolerate closely contiguous dwellings. They live scattered and apart, just as a spring, a meadow, or a wood has attracted them. Their village they do not arrange in our fashion, with the buildings connected and joined together, but every person surrounds his dwelling with an open space, either as a precaution against the disasters of fire, or because they do not know how to build. No use is made by them of stone or tile; they employ timber for all purposes, rude masses without ornament or attractiveness[17].
The Germans did not care for houses. They were things to live in, and that was it. But why? Why would the Germans view this unless they did not view a single place as permanent.
Within a similar history, King Darius charged after scythian warriors to teach them a lesson. The Scythians were much like the Germans and one of the groups that shared the common civilization ideas as the Germans. Darius went well outside of his land to pursue them and found his men slowly falling apart. When finally he had them cornered, the scythians warriors disbanded and left which ever way they felt like. When Darius demanded a fight, the response was this.
It is thus with me, Persian: I have never fled for fear of any man, nor do I now flee from you; this that I have done is no new thing or other than my practice of peace. But as to the reason why I do not straightway fight with you, this too will I tell you. For we Scythians have no towns or planted lands, that we might meet you the sooner in battle, fearing the one be taken or the other wasted. But if nothing will serve you but fighting straightway, we have the graves of our fathers; come, find these and essay to destroy them; then shall you know whether we will fight you for those graves or no. Till then we will not join battle unless we think it good[18].
As you can see, the ability to move and to not actually go into the conflict helped the scythians destroy an enemy without having to fight them. When push came to shove, the scythians left in victory[19].
Within these thoughts, we find a people that do not view staying as a permanent thing. They view trade and movement as needed, and the ability to leave as all part of life. The land itself was just a thing. The Roman maps of the land would not mean what the Hun, German, or Scythian saw[20]. In fact the walls themselves perhaps represented nothing to the German traders as compared to the Roman Citizen.
Then why did the Romans view themselves as the law bringers? Why did they view the walls as a way to create laws?
The Romans believed in rules not only in the construction of buildings but in their minds. The drawing of lines on a map, and then building walls to represent those lines went deeper. As was said earlier citizenship was not given to everyone within the Roman system. To have this citizenship meant rights and privileges that no other person could hold. Caesar could give it to someone or not, and those who had it held it as a sign of better class[21].
Then within the Germanic system any leader would be held acccountable by those below him. Although he had rights, there were expectations for him to reward. If he did not, his popularity would fall. The system of Comitatus demanded that there be a brotherhood, even if one had gained more than the other[22].
Thus the system of class, and the system of rules begins to make walls in the mind. The separation between citizen and freedman would be huge in the eyes of the people within Rome. Whereas the warriors in Germania would be seen as strange.
This pattern followed also in other books on those who followed Walls and Rules against those that were of the Other.
Pekka Hamalainen wrote of the Commanche Empire and how it had taken over the midwest, yet none of the Spanish and then Mexican troops recognized that this was happening. The Commanche did not view the map in the same way, and instead saw the buffalo as the thing to conquer. They would fight wars to have access to the herds, and then raid for weapons and horses to continue the hunts. At one point in the book, a description of a Commanche meeting describes the suddenly put together city as very large[23].
Beckwith actually covers all of central Eurasia. His description of the people is that of traders. Because of them, the trade on the Silk Road continued to thrive[24].
Within this research is questions on how the groups reacted or told stories. The most interesting problem would be how to deal with a trickster. The Native American trickster stories were a major part of telling how things worked, an accident would create the stars in the sky, a theft would create the sun and the moon. Likewise characters like Monkey and Loki show up. Monkey being the Chinese character who was always doing things for himself and angering the gods. Loki the old German and Scandinavian god not only helped build Valhalla but also brought Ragnarok. Loki the trickster will be used for this time.
Anthropology is a modern thought process, but it arrived around the same time as the first theory of Loki arrived. Jacob Grimm gave the first opinion of it in the 19th century as Loki being a God of Fire. He referenced the fact that Loki shows up in many terms of the time with the word fire[25]. Grimm was attempting to catalog the culture of his people and bring understanding to it as best he could. His brother and he recorded a great deal of folklore, linguistical knowledge and cultural aspects to share.
Then in 1889 Sophus Bugge proposed that Loki was in fact Lucifer. His reasoning was that within Medival tales the Devil would appear in three parts, Lucifer, Beelzebub, and Satan. Loki was in fact one of three trickster brothers, the other two being Thor and Odin. He attempts to link old English, Irish, Christian, and Germanic tales together. It does not go to well[26].
Claude Levi Strauss attempted to explain it in 1967 by saying:
The trickster of American mythology has remained so far a problematic figure. Why is it that throughout North America his role is assigned proactically everywhere to either coyote or raven?
….
If we keep in mind that mythical thought always progresses from the awareness of oppositions toward their resolution, the reason for these choices, becomes clearer. We need only assume that two opposite terms with no intermediary always tend to be replaced by two equivalent terms which admit of a third one as a mediator; then one of the polar terms and the mediator become replaced by a new triad, and so on[27].
He goes on and tries to explain that this mediator is how we can understand the trickster. His basic thought was that everything had a single set purpose in understanding. The two opposites of a subject would need a mediator to help understand the subject. The trickster would be the mediator between being good, and doing what needs to be done to survive.
Another attempt by Anna Birgitta Rooth says that Loki is also a word for Spider, and that if a person slowly takes the idea apart you find that he was a spider the entire time[28].
The most recent attempt was by H. R. Ellis Davidsons belief that the Celts and the Germanic tribes were telling the same stories back and forth between each other. Her beliefs are that Odin and Loki are both tricksters using subterfuge to get out of tricky situations[29].
The writings of the trickster would seem obvious to those in the Other Civilization. The need for survival, the ability to adapt, the need to outsmart or outwit someone.
The tale of the wall of Valhalla could help in describing the need for a Loki. As the town was being built, a man was hired to build a great wall around it. He used the use of his horse, and was able to lift great rocks to the city. It was soon that the Gods realized that he was a giant and wanted to gain power over the gods. Loki -spelled Loke in the story- turned himself into a mare and enticed the horse to run with him. This let the wall be unfinished on time and thus the giant had no power over the Gods. Loki in turn as a horse gave birth to an eight legged horse named Sleipnir, of which Odin now rides[30].
Within this story, a deal between the gods and a wall builder is made. The oaths given can not be taken back. The need to undo them is great, but the Gods are trapped in what to do. Loki is the only one who thinks of a way to save the day. His ability to change the odds was needed. So it is with many travelers tales, Loki is neither good nor evil, he is both a friend and an annoyance to the Gods, and yet he is one of the great catalysts in the stories of Valhalla.
During the last years of Rome, the Germanic tribes and the Huns began to slowly take more and more power. Although in Roman minds, the Limes still represented the borders of Rome, the reality was that the land was slowly going to the Other. The attemp to explain this within history was difficult because the writers of history viewed the Romans as the greater than the Other.
Bury wrote in 1928:
… The Hun Empire helped performed a function of much greater significance to European history. It helped to retard the whole process of the German dismemberment of the [Roman] Empire. … This retardation of the process of dismemberment, enabling the imperial government to maintain itself for a longer period in those lands which were destined ultimately to become Teutonic Kingdoms, was all in the interest of civilization; for the Germans, who in almost all cases were forced to establish their footing on imperial territory as federates, and who then by degrees converted this dependent relation into independent sovranty, were to more likely to gain some faint apprehension of Roman order, some slight taste for Roman civilization, than if their careers of conquest had been less gradual and impeded[31].
In his mind the Germanic horde was the winner, but they learned from the Romans and thus allowed civilization to continue. This diffusion of thought was only from the above to the lower class and never the other way around. These thoughts were accepted within academics at the time of his writing[32].
This belief held like this until recent years. The migrations never really stopped though. The German immigrants[33] and those of the Other Civilization travelled throughout the world. However, new views on the nomadic peoples have begun to show that the Other Civilization has been a major part of history. Such historians as Beckwith and Hamalainen have begun to change the view of the world as owned by one system of civilization.
The Germanic peoples now cover much of this world and for the most part no one has realized this. It is not a nationalistic feeling within the people but a cultural acceptance. The idea of the nomad does not make sense within nationalism. The nomad would ignore the walls and the continue to travel. The trickster tale of Loki continues to confound the mind of those that want to make an order with thick walls and lines drawn. In the end, he stops the walls from being made by becoming a horse. Modern looks at the Other Civilization have shown that they were incredibly well organized, just used differently from how the Classical ideas worked.
In closing, as archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists begin to find more and more history about the Other Civilization we begin to look again at how it was viewed in times past. People like Tacitus remain important because we can see how the classical acceptance of Walls and Rules dealt with those that did not view walls in the same way. He sheds light on what was known about the people at the time. There is still a great deal of history to learn, and the adventure calls and sleipnir is ready.
[3] Benjamin Franklin, Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc., 1751http://bc.barnard.columbia.edu/~lgordis/earlyAC/documents/observations.html
[5] Wikipedia, German Argentines, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Argentine Viewed December 2011
[6] John Noble,llustrated official handbook of the Cape and South Africa; a résumé of the history, conditions, populations, productions and resources of the several colonies, states, and territories, 1893
[8] Wikipedia, Swastika, 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika#Archaeological_record
[9] Hagen Schulze and Deborah Lucas Schneider, Germany: A New History, (Harvard University Press, May 2 2001)
[11] Wikipedia, Roman Walls of Lugo, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Walls_of_Lugo viewed December 2011
[12] Kids Brittanica, London: Roman Londinium, http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/art-101256/The-Roman-settlement-of-Londinium-shown-as-it-was-in , Viewed in December 2011
[14] Beckwith, Pg. 82
[16] (Tacitus, Germania, Medival Source Book)
[17] (Tacitus, Germania, Medival Source Book)
[18] Beckwith 2009, 69
[19] Beckwith 2009, 68-69
[20] Beckwith 2009, 88
[21] Simon Swain and Mark Edwards, Approaching Late Antiquity: The transformation of early to late empire, (Oxford University Press, Jul 27, 2006),Pg. 133-134
[24] Beckwith 2008. Pg xxii-xxv
[26] Sophus Bugge, The Home of the Eddic Poem: With Especial Reference to Helgi-days, (D. Nutt 1899)
[27] Sidky, Perspectives on Culture: A Critical Introduction to Theory in Cultural Anthropology, (Pearson Education Inc. 2004), p 263-264
[29] Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson, Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions, (Syracuse University Press, 1988)
[30] Snuri Sturlson, The Young Edda, translated by Rasmus Anderson, in Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18947/18947-h/18947-h.htm
[32] Sidky, pg 88-94
