Easterlings?

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Originally posted by Janus
I believe Rhovanion and the lands east of Rhûn were to near for a true “Asian” population. Tolkien had in mind something like a “proto-Europe” and so it is likely that the Easterlings we heard from were akin to the old sytian peoples. We even have something of a parallel between history and Middle Earth “history on this particular subject:

It exists a certain level of parallelism between the Ostrogothic kingdom in Ukraine and the Kingdom of Vidugavia and his descendents in Rhovanion (and the fact that Tolkien used gothic names to “translate” proto Rohirim names is certainly not a coincidence neither). Considering this, it becomes plausible that the nomads living nearby the Northmen were akin (at least culturally) to the sytian peoples that lived near the Ostrogoths in our world.

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I know very little of the Ostrogoths, but can you tell me a bit more about them?

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Further, the few descriptions of the Wainriders remind me much of the Cimmerians too, adding to the idea that they were similar to the Iranian nomads of our world.

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Iranian nomads? Bedu? Not sure I understand this either.

The Greuntungs (Ostrogoths, meaning “Illustrious Goths”) are one of the gothic groups. According to their own legends, the ancestors of the Goths were the Gotar of 'Gutiskandza' (S Sweden). By the 3d cent. A.D., the Goths settled in the region N of the Black Sea. The Sarmatians (belonging to the Iranian group of mounted nomads) dominated the steppes until the Goths entered the territory from the West and established the Ostrogothic Kingdom, which extended from the Dniepre River, north and east to the headwaters of the Volga River. While the Visigoths, (or “Wise Goths”), moved further west of them. By c.375 the Huns conquered the Ostrogothic kingdom ruled by Ermanaric. This event fragmented the Greuntungs; some took refuge with the Visigoths and others remained under the domain of the Huns. After the death of Attila the Ostrogoths fragmented further some of them settled in Pannonia (roughly the west of modern Hungary) as allies of the Byzantine (East Roman) empire.

The Cimerian were supposedly from proto-Iranian origin, speaking a language related to those of the historical tribes of Iran. The known names of their leaders support that theory, apparently. BTW, What is Bedu?

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Originally posted by AslanC
[B]I know very little of the Ostrogoths, but can you tell me a bit more about them?

Iranian nomads? Bedu? Not sure I understand this either.

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Ostrogoths

The Ostrogoths ("Eastern Goths", as opposed to "West Goths", Visigoths) were a Germanic tribe that influenced the political events of the late Roman Empire.

I hate to use the Cimmerians as there is a certain barbarian that has influenced what people visualize when this tribe is meantioned. :rolleyes: