The Lemovii were a

Germanic tribe This list of ancient Germanic peoples is an inventory of ancient Germanic cultures, tribal groupings and other alliances of Germanic tribes and civilisations in ancient times. The information comes from various ancient historical documents, beginn ...

, only once named by

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

in the late 1st century. He noted that they lived near the Rugii and

Goths The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Euro ...

and that they had short swords and round shields.The Works of Tacitus: The Oxford Translation, Revised, With Notes, BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008, p.836, J. B. Rives on Tacitus, Germania, Oxford University Press, 1999, p.311, The

Oksywie culture The Oksywie culture (German ') was an archaeological culture that existed in the area of modern-day Eastern Pomerania around the lower Vistula river from the 2nd century BC to the early 1st century AD. It is named after the village of Oksywie, ...

is associated with parts of the Rugii and Lemovii. Also, the Plöwen group (german: Plöwener Gruppe) of the

Uecker-Randow Uecker-Randow was a ''Kreis'' (district) in the eastern part of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. Neighboring districts were (from south clockwise) Uckermark in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Ostvorpommern. To the east was the West P ...

region is associated with the Lemovii.Horst Keiling, ''Archäologische Funde von der frührömischen Kaiserzeit bis zum Mittelalter aus den mecklenburgischen Bezirken'', Museum für Ur- und Frühgeschichte Schwerin, 1984, p.8 The archaeological Dębczyn group might comprise the remnants of the Lemovii, probably identical with

Widsith "Widsith" ( ang, Wīdsīþ, "far-traveller", lit. "wide-journey"), also known as "The Traveller's Song", is an Old English poem of 143 lines. It survives only in the '' Exeter Book'', a manuscript of Old English poetry compiled in the late-10th ...

's Glommas, who are believed to have been the neighbors of the Rugii, a tribe dwelling at the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

coast in today's

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

region before the

migration period The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roma ...

. Both "Lemovii" and "Glommas" translate to "the barking".Johannes Hoops et al., ''Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde'', Walter de Gruyter, pp.258-259, Germanic

saga is a series of science fantasy role-playing video games by Square Enix. The series originated on the Game Boy in 1989 as the creation of Akitoshi Kawazu at Square. It has since continued across multiple platforms, from the Super NES to th ...

s report a battle on the isle of

Hiddensee Hiddensee () is a car-free island in the Baltic Sea, located west of Germany's largest island, Rügen, on the German coast. The island has about 1,000 inhabitants. It was a holiday destination for East German tourists during German Democratic ...

between king Hetel (Hethin, Heodin of the Glommas) and Rugian king Hagen, following the abduction of Hagen's daughter Hilde by Hetel. Yet, there are also other hypotheses about the location of the Lemovii, and that their identification as Glommas, though probable, is not certain.Johannes Hoops,

Herbert Jankuhn Herbert Jankuhn (8 August 1905 – 30 April 1990) was a German archaeologist of Prussian Lithuanian heritage who specialized in the archaeology of Germanic peoples. He is best known for his excavations at the Viking Age site of Hedeby, and for h ...

, Heinrich Beck, Rosemarie Muller, Dieter Geuenich,

Heiko Steuer Heiko Steuer (born 30 October 1939) is a German archaeologist, notable for his research into social and economic history in early Europe. He serves as co-editor of Germanische Altertumskunde Online. Career Heiko Steuer was born on 30 October, 1 ...

, Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, 2nd edition, Walter de Gruyter, 2001, pp.158,159,

/ref> The Lemovii have also been equated with

Jordanes Jordanes (), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat widely believed to be of Gothic descent who became a historian later in life. Late in life he wrote two works, one on Roman history ('' Romana'') an ...

' Turcilingi, together with the Rugii with

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

's Rhoutikleioi, also with

's Leuonoi and with the Leonas of the

References

*Tacitus, '' Germania.XLIV''

Notes

{{reflist Early Germanic peoples History of Pomerania

See also

References

Notes