The Goths and the Blakumen

Hlod or Hlöd was the illegitimate son of Heidrek, the king of the Goths.
He appears in the Hervarar saga and probably also as Hlith in Widsith, line 115,
together with his father Heiðrekr (Heathoric), half-brother Angantyr (Incgentheow), and
his mother Sifka (Sifeca).

Couldn't this name (Hlod/ Glod) be connected to the kunigaz/ duke Glad in Anonymus
Gesta Hungarorum whose army was "supported by Cumans, Bulgarians and
Blacci? In connection with Glad, Anonymus also emphasized that "from his line
was born"[a chieftain, named Ahtum another Germanic name.

Contents
• 1Claiming his inheritance
• 2Mustering the Horde
• 3The Death of Hervor, Hlöd's sister
• 4The Goths prepare
• 5The great battle

Claiming his inheritance

Hlöd had grown up with his grandfather Humli, the king of the Huns, and he was both
handsome and valiant. As soon as he was born he was given weapons and horses, as
was the custom of the time.
When Hlöd heard that his father Heidrek was dead and that his half-
brother Angantyr had been proclaimed king of the Goths, his grandfather Humli said
that Hlod had to go to Arheimar and demand his rightful inheritance.
Hlöd arrived to Arheimar with many Hunnish warriors. He found a man outside of the
hall and asked him to go inside and tell Angantyr that his brother wished to see him.
When King Angantyr learnt of who was waiting outside for him, he cast down his knife,
took his mailcoat, his white shield in one hand and Tyrfing in the other. Then he asked
Hlöd to come in and drink with them in honour of their dead father.
However, Hlöd answered that he had not come to feast, he wanted half of everything
that Angantyr had inherited from their father: cow and calf, handmills, tools and
weapons, treasures, slaves, bondmaids, sons and daughters, Myrkviðr, the grave, the
carved stone beside Dniepr, Heidrek's armour, lands, liegemen and rings.
Angantyr refused to share with Hlöd and said that he had no right to inherit, but in
recompense Hlöd would get lances, wealth, cattle, a thousand thralls, a thousand
horses and a thousand armoured bondsmen. Before leaving all of them would receive
riches and a maid.
Hlöd would get his measure in silver and gold, and he would be given a whole third of
the land of the Goths to rule.
However, Gizur Grytingalidi, the aged king of the Geats, who was visiting in order to bid
farewell to his dead foster-son Heidrek, thought that Angantyr was too generous. Gizur
stated that Hlöd was only a bastard and the son of a slave-girl, and should not receive
so princely a gift.
Offended by being called a bastard and a slave-girl's son, Hlöd returned to the Huns
and to Humli. He told Humli that Angantyr had refused to share the kingdom with him,
and when Humli insisted he also said that he had been called the son of a slave.

Mustering the Horde

Humli decided that they muster all the might of the Huns and attack the Goths. As soon
as spring arrived they gathered an army so vast, that the steppes were depleted of men
of fighting age. Every man who could carry arms down to twelve-year-olds, and every
horse from two years of age and older. All in all the Huns mustered a horde of 343,200
mounted warriors.

The Death of Hervor, Hlöd's sister

When the horde was gathered they rode through Myrkviðr which
separated Reidgotaland from the land of the Huns. As the horde came out of the forest
they arrived at a populous country of flat plains. On the plains there was a fortress with
a strong garrison commanded by Hervor, the sister of Angantyr and Hlöd, together
withOrmar, her foster-father.
One morning as the sun was rising above the steppes, Hervor stood on a watchtower
and saw a great cloudstorm rising southwards over the forest. It hid the sun for a long
time. Suddenly, she saw under the cloud a mass of gold. There were gilded helmets,
shields and corselets and she realized that it was the horde which had arrived.
Hervor asked the trumpeter to blow a summons to gather the forces. Then she told
Ormar to ride and meet the Huns and challenge them to do battle in front of the
southern gate. Ormar rode to the Goths and told them that they would do battle outside
the southern gate.
Outside that gate, there was a mighty battle, and since the horde was much larger, the
Goths fell and finally Hervor was slain. When Ormar saw her die he retreated together
with all those who were faint of heart. He rode day and night to reach king Angantyr in
Arheimar.
The Goths prepare
As the Huns pillaged and burnt far and wide in Reidgotaland, Ormar arrived at Arheimar
and related that the marches were burning at the hands of the Huns and that his sister
was dead. Angantyr's lips were drawn back and said that his brother had not treated
Hervor like a sister, and then he watched his small company and stated that the more
men one needs the less one has. Gizur, the aged King of the Geats, said that he would
fight for Angantyr and he would ask for no recompense.
Heidrek had instated a law that if an army invaded a land and the king of that country
marked a field with hazel poles, the marauding army would stop pillaging until there had
been battle inside the poles.
The old Gizur armed himself with good weapons and leapt on his horse like a young
man. Then he asked where Angantyr desired to meet the Huns. Angantyr answered that
he wished to meet them on the plains of the Danube below the Hills of Jassi, where the
Goths had oft been victorious.
Býð ek yðr at Dylgju
ok á Dúnheiði
orrostu undir
Jassarfjöllum;
hræ sé yðr
at hái hverjum,
ok láti svá Óðinn flein fljúga,
sem ek fyrir mæli
Gizur rode so close to the Huns that they could hear him
and shouted that Odin was angry with them and that they
were doomed.
Hlod cried that they should seize Gizur, but Humli said that
lone heralds must not be hurt.
Gizur called out that the Goths were afraid of neither the
Huns nor their bows, and then he hastened to Angantyr to
report about the size of the horde.
Angantyr sent messengers to every part of the land to
summon every able-bodied man. He then marched to the
Danube with his great army and met the great army of the
Huns.
 The great battle[edit]
They fought for eight days. No one could count the fallen
but still no captains had been slain. Day and night the
armies clashed around Angantyr, and the fight grew more
and more bitter. The Huns became more and more
ferocious as they knew that they would not survive a
defeat. The Goths, on the other hand, were fighting for
their freedom and for the land where they were born.
When the eighth day ended, the Goths pushed forward
breaking the Hunnic lines. The Huns lost their courage as
they saw Angantyr ride through the lines slashing and
cutting men and horses with Tyrfing. Angantyr and Hlod
met and Hlod fell, as well as Humli.
The Huns fled but the Goths pursued them and filled the
rivers with bodies so that they choked and this caused a
flood which filled the valleys with dead men and horses.
Angantyr searched among the slain and finally found his
brother. He stated that cruel is the doom of the Norns when
brother slays brother.
Bölvat er okkr, bróðir,
bani em ek þinn orðinn,
þat mun æ uppi,
illr er dómr norna.
The Saga of Hervor & King Heidrek the Wise is an Icelandic saga. It comes to us in a
variety of manuscripts and versions.

One English translation is Nora Kershaw’s 1921 translation under the title of “The Saga
of Hervor and Heithrek” (Hervarar Saga og Heiðreks) (so-called manuscript R).
Another is Christopher Tolkien’s 1960 translation of “The Saga of King Heidrek the
Wise” (Saga Heiðreks konúngs end vitra) (so-called manuscript H).
Finally, there is the more recent Peter Tunstall’s 2005 translation titled “The Saga of
Hervor & King Heidrek the Wise” which itself is a composite of (1) “The Saga of Hervor
and Heithrek” (Hervarar Saga og Heiðreks) and of (2) “The Saga of King Heidrek the
Wise” (Saga Heiðreks konúngs end vitra).
There are several interesting things about these texts.
First, to get this out of the way, they contains a bagful of names that have made it to
J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings. Tolkien was into the Old English language and Anglo-Saxon
myths in general (e.g., Beowulf translation). If you ever asked yourself where Balin or
Gimli come from or, for that matter Boromir and Faramir, these kinds of sagas are it. (To
a Slav, the -mirs and -ins may sound vaguely Slavic and we will have more to say about
that later when we discuss -mir’s, -mer’s, -gast’s and -gost’s, As well as they may sound
Celtic to a Celt). In any event, his son Christopher enjoyed similar topics and, as noted
above, also came up with his own translation of the saga in question here.
(Interestingly, although the Tolkien family is usually described as coming to Britain from
Germany, his last name is neither English nor German. For our best guess, together
with the requisite German connection, see the village of Tołkiny (German Tolkynen –
both from Old Prussian) deep in former East Prussia and today’s Poland).
Second, the sagas although written down much later (earliest manuscripts from the
13th century) deal with what is, in effect, pre-history. They speak of the Gothic struggle
against the Huns, for example. It is highly unlikely that their writers were using and
“improving” on Ammianus Marcellinus, Jordanes, Procopius and the like. Consquently,
they are a window into a time and place which remained largely untouched and
unobserved by the Roman writers who, naturally, were only concerned with the various
barbarian tribes once those got too close to the Roman frontiers.
Third, there are several interesting Daco Romanian “connections” or at least
“hooks”even through Slavic. The chronicles talk about Gardarike, a term that may be
Russia but also may be Dacia (which was called that by the Scandinavians by reason of
all the grads or gards on its shores – e.g., the various Stargards – this what one might
have thought were a purely Slavic term (grad, grod, gorod) is in fact a Dacian word gard
– e.g., Cf. alb. g a r d h , rou. Gard, Grádişte, sl. g r a d ŭ . ). Also, in a number of places,
there are references to Harvað amountains, which have been identified with the Harvati,
i.e., the Croats and which – may – be the Carpathians (there were also the residences
of the Carpi though (as well as the Avari…)). Thus, we have:
Norse:
“Hinn mælti: ‘Taktu sverðit undan höfðafjölinni ok fá mér,” en sá tók ok brá ok sneið
höfuð af fiskinum, ok þá kvað hann vísu: “Þess galt hún gedda fyr Grafár ósi, er
Heiðrekr var veginn und Harvaða fjöllum.”
English (Kershaw):
“And he took it and unsheathed it, and cut off the fish’s head, and then spoke a verse:
This pike at the mouth of the river
Has paid the penalty
For the slaughter inflicted on Heithrek,
‘Neath the Mountains of Harvath”
English (Tunstall):
“And he took it and drew it and cut the head off the fish, and then he chanted a verse:
The price was paid
by the pike at Grave River,
when Heidrek was slain
under Harveth Fells.
Other Interesting Things
But there is another interesting aspect of all of this and it is in the following language:
Old Norse:
“Angantýr kvað:
“Kenndu at Dylgju ok á Dúnheiði, ok á þeim öllum Jassarfjöllum; þar opt Gotar gunni
háðu ok fagran sigr frægir vágu.”
Nú reið Gizurr í brott ok þar til, er hann kom í her Húna. Hann reið eigi nær en svá, at
hann mátti tala við þá. Þá kallar hann hári röddu ok kvað:
“Felmtr er yðru fylki, feigr er yðarr vísir, gnæfar yðr gunnfáni, gramr er yðr Óðinn.” Ok
enn: “Býð ek yðr at Dylgju ok á Dúnheiði orrostu undir Jassarfjöllum; hræ sé yðr at hái
hverjum, ok láti svá Óðinn flein fljúga, sem ek fyrir mæli.””
English (Kershaw):
“King Angantyr replied:
“Challenge them to battle at Dylgia and on Dunheith, (plains of the Danube) and upon
all the heights of Jösur, where the Goths have often won renown by glorious victories!”
Then Gizur rode away until he came to the host of the Huns. He rode just within
earshot, and then called loudly, crying:
Your host is panic stricken, And your prince is doomed to fall; Though your banners are
waving high in the air, Yet Othin is wroth with you all. Come forth to the Jösur
Mountains, On Dylgia and Dunheith come fight; For I make a sure boast, In the heart of
your host The javelin of Othin will light!
English (Tunstall):
“Angantyr said:
“Point them to Dylgja and to Dun Heath direct them and mark out all the Mounts of
Jass;
there Goths often have given battle and fine victory they, famous, gained.”
Now Gizur rode off till he came to the army of the Huns. He rode no nearer than he
needed to talk to them. Then he calls out in a loud voice and said:
“There’s fear on your forces, fey are your generals; the battle-banner above you
looms; wrath with you is Odin.” And also: “I offer you at Dylgja and on Dun Heath I
offer a fight under the Jassar Fells. A corpse be to you on every horse. May Odin let
the javelin fly just as I decree.”
Commentary on Jassarfjöll [um]:
Tolkien:
“These mountains have not been identified. It has been suggested that their name is
identical with that of the Gesenke, the mountains in norther Moravia, and that both the
Norse and German forms of this name are corruptions of Slavonic Jesenik meaning
“ash-mountain.”
What are “ash” mountains? Well, they are not volcanoes (unless we are way off
geographically (or chronologically! ). They are not even “ashen” mountains. They are
simply mountains covered with ash trees (old English “æsc“). And therein lies the
problem for anyone making a reference to these mountains as such – ash in Germanic
does not have a “j”.
A very simple answer. However if we take into account the setting of the actions
describe in the texts above we see it is about the river Danube and the hills of Jassi,
which is a city and a county in Roumania, a place where the Sarmatic tribes of Jassygi/
Jassi( Alans) had lived. Thus , to my opinion “ The Saga of Hervor & King Heidrek the
Wise” could be the first mention of the lands inhabited by the Alans in nowadays
Roumania in the time of the Goths. Nevertheless Dylgia, which has not been
successfully translated might well be transposed to Dacia. We already know that during
the time exploited in the saga the land of nowadays Roumania was occupied by the
Chernyakhov, Sântana de Mureș Culture. This was a culture that comprised Gothic,
Sarmatic, Daco, Daco-Roumanian elements, according to “ The Goths in the Fourth
Century ”- Peter Heather; John Matthews

The Chernyakhov culture, or Sântana de Mureș culture is an archaeological culture

that flourished between the 2nd and 5th centuries AD in a wide area of Eastern Europe,
specifically in what is now Ukraine,Romania, Moldova and parts of Belarus. The culture
is probably the result of a multiethnic cultural mix of theGothic, Geto-
Dacian (including Romanised Daco-Romans), Sarmatian and Slavic populations of the
area.

Today, scholars recognize the Chernyakov zone as representing a cultural interaction of

a diversity of peoples, but predominantly those who already existed in the
region, whether it be the Sarmatians, or the Getae-Dacians (some authors believe that
the Getae-Dacians played the leading role in the creation of the culture). Late Antiquity
authors often confused the Getae with the Goths, most notably Jordanes, in his Getica

Botany intrudes once again

Why are we even talking about ash trees? Probably because those who interpreted
these words were looking to Ptolemy’s mention of Asciburgius Mountains in his section
on Germania (he also mentions a town of Asciburgium (also in Germany). Ptolemy
places these mountains right next to the Sudeten (Sudety). This makes sense except
that the Sudeten of Ptolemy may not be the current Sudeten. Or are they?
Thus, where (it seems) ash or the like is indicated in the same saga, the author has no
problem using the Germanic spelling:
“Ok er þeir bræðr koma í Sámsey, sjá þeir, hvar tvau skip liggja í höfn þeiri, er
Munarvágr hét. Þau skip hétu askar. Þeir þóttust vita, at Hjálmarr mundi þessi skip eiga
ok Oddr inn víðförli, er kallaðr var Örvar-Oddr. Þá brugðu Arngríms synir sverðum ok
bitu í skjaldarrendr, ok kom á þá berserksgangr. Þeir gengu þá sex út á hvárn askinn.
En þar váru svá góðir drengir innan borðs, at allir tóku sín vápn, ok engi flýði ór sínu
rúmi, ok engi mælti æðruorð.“
(And when the brothers come to Samsey, they see two ships lying in the cove which is
called Munway. Those ships were the kind called ‘ashes’. They thought these ships
must belong to Hjalmar and Odd. Then Arngrim’s sons drew their swords and bit on
their shield-rims, and the berserk-state came on them. Then six of them went out onto
each of the ashes. And there were such good warriors on board there that they all took
up their weapons, and no one fled from his post, and no one uttered a word of fear.)
[What are “ash” ships (ashen?) as in the above paragraph, is a separate question –
thankfully, it seems so far, not for us].
However, the Slavic word for “ash” is jesion which obviously does have the advantage
of having an a “J” in it. The mountains then would be mountains such as the Hrubý
Jeseník(German Hohes Gesenke or Altvatergebirge – see above picture discussing the
peak Praded) range or the Nízký Jeseník (German Niederes Gesenke). These are in
the Eastern Sudeten Mountains (in Moravia).

Nevertheless there is a Roumanian word jasca that means

tinder, easily to connect to askar, or ash. In this regard the mountains on Jassar could
be The mountains of Jaska/ Ashes. As the Daco Roumanian word suggest.
The 1812 (Polish) Linde definition (thank you for the contribution!)

(That the Slavs sometimes kept or added their “J”s is evident from,
e.g., jeden vs. eins. But see Icelandic giant Thjasse (did someone say “giant”? Like
a Riese? Like Riesengebirge?). They also kept the “D”s. About jeden (Czech,
Pol) odin (Ukr, Rus) and Chris Hemsworth’s father Odin, we will, of course, have a lot
more to say later… as too about other numerals, e.g., which Slavic numeral is related
to et cetera? Too easy, no points for this one!)
That there may have been a battle between Goths and Huns we also learn
from Widsith’s “Bard’s Tale” poem:
“Wulfhere sohte ic ond Wyrmhere; ful oft þær wig ne alæg, þonne Hræda here ymb
Wistlawudu heardum sweordum wergan sceoldon ealdne eþelstol ætlam leodum.”
(I visited Wulfhere and Wyrmhere; there battle often raged in the Vistula woods, when
the Gothic army with their sharp swords had to defend their ancestral seat against
Attila’s host.)
Are the Jeseniks close to the sources of the Vistula:

Jesenik on the left, Vistula sources on the right

The trouble is that, according to official chronology, there should have been no Slavs in
Moravia at the time the Goth-Hun battle took place (or if there were any at all, they
would have, perhaps, come with the Hun army which means that no one would have
cared what they named the mountains in their tongue).
That is the reason why…There were Vlachs, as recorded in several medieval chants
about Attila, such as The Nibelungenlied or French chants.
Zeitschrift für Erdkunde, etc (from 1847):
This suggests the “hilly” terrain next to the village Jeser in Pomerania… With all due
respect “hilly” terrain seems a bit underwhelming for the site of such a mountain battle
(we can believe the Huns, in their short reign, made it to Moravia but Pomerania seems
a bit of a stretch).
Afterthought
Note also that some Slavic “nationalist” historians disputed the location of
these Jassar mountains in the Sudeten. The reason seems to be that that would have
meant admitting that Goths had been in Poland/Moravia or close enough.
Consequently, they looked for name Jassar further east, as in the Bieszczady or even
further around Ossetia where the Gothic kingdom would have ended and where various
Sarmatian tribes included the Iazyges and other similar sounding tribes (that some of
these tribes may have, in fact, reached Poland did not seem to have bothered them).
For the same reason, the same historians placed Gardarike as far East as possible,
leaving all of Poland, Belarus and Ukraine free of their domination (e.g., insisting
that Palteskia means Polotskand not, for example, Pultusk).
The famous Hauksbok with Palteskia, Pulina land and Polena (to the east of which
is Reidgota land and, thereafter, Hunland)
(BTW, the Hauksbok does not contain the references to Jassarfjöllum since it ends in
the middle of Gestumblindi’s riddles leaving what happened later to other manuscripts)

But we actually know that Dacia became Gothia and the Goths were called Getae, even
more it seems that the Goths assumed Dacian history as being their own according to
Jordanes' Getica.