#theoderic the great

[grayjoy15]

Day 26: Crown - Theoderic the Great and the Iron Crown

[wandering-cemeteries]

A very impressive and unique tomb built by Theoderic the Great in 520 CE. He was one of the Gothic conquerors of Ravenna, Italy. His body is no longer there. It was removed by the Byzantines who conquered the city from the Goths.

[chicagosavant]

Ganieda’s love...

"So raise me a house... Before the other buildings build me a remote one to which you will give seventy doors and as many windows, through which I may see fire-breathing Phoebus with Venus, and watch by night the stars wheeling in the firmament..." - from Geoffrey of Monmouth's LIFE OF MERLIN

“THE HOUSE AND OBSERVATORY GWENDDYDD BUILDS FOR HER BROTHER,

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-house-and-observatory-gwenddydd_42.html?m=1

~~

Sorry, in perusing the ‘VitaMerlini’, which touches on the relationship between him and his sister (sibling and possibly, sexual...Ganieda/Gwenddydd is sometimes conflated with Myrddin/Merlin’s legendary wife, Gwendolena, who crosses over in a confusion of genders and misprints with the slain king, Gwenddolau, who Myrddin serves up to the battle of Arfderydd/573AD, and whose death is said to have driven Myrddin mad with grief, resulting in his flight to the woods...), I’m reminded of Thomas Jefferson, and his adoration of his sister, Jane. Not b/c of fabricated charges of incest, mind you.  Maybe Gwenddolau was actually a Queen, and it was Mryddin’s wife, who led men in battle, and was slain, which set his grief tale-spinning to insanity?? Incidentally, in Geoffrey’s account, Merlin, while associated the sorcerer aspect, is actually described as a warrior and a King of Demetia/Dyfed, the old territory of the Silures in SW Wales/around Moridunum/Carmarthan...

Anyway, it’s hard to read the descriptions of the Mansion of the Stars which Mryddin’s/Merlin’s sister, Ganieda/Gwenddydd then builds for him in the forest, and not be reminded of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson, and his (oft’ complicated) relationships with the women in his life. The Man on the Mountain, like Heimdallr in his Mountain fast Fortress, ever gazing to heaven and earth and the affairs of humans...

Ganieda’s construction succors Merlin’s soul, as she looks after his recovery, and she partakes of his intellectual and esoteric studies of the heavens and nature. Taliesin even appears for a coffee-clatch, or a brewskie (from their craft beer microbrew operation, no doubt...) at times.

I‘ve read that Jane Jefferson Jr, the oldest sister of Thomas Jefferson, was described as his favorite. Equal to him in accomplishment and intellectual inclination. From some random 540page examination of the Jeffersons at Shadwell (The childhood home of Young Jefferson...), is alluded Thomas Jefferson’s epithet to his beloved sister, taken in the bloom of her maturity...

“There is no record of Jane Jr.’s cause of death, burial, or funeral in 1765, only her brother’s idealized memorisl six years later. He wrote in Latin:

~ “Ah,Joanna, best of all girls. Ah, torn away from the bloom of vigorous age. May the earth be light upon you. Farewell, forever and ever.” ~

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/235406197.pdf

~~ I draw story arcs to analogous characters as archetypes connected in different eras. Roman-Britain/Arthurian legend/LateRoman Europe/Heroic Age myth and history I’ve always loved. Jefferson was a more recent fascination, over the last decade, and continues; though admittedly, I’m focused more on the DarkAge/Late Roman Britain plotline right now.

In the same way my fictional Scottish Lady physician with whom Jefferson takes up an affair during his years in PreRev Paris, relates in part to my 2nd Century protagonist, and my take on SubRoman British Guinevere, Jefferson brings to mind aspects of Uther and Mryddin/Merlin. I actually don’t differentiate Uther from Merlin, as I‘ve made my own completely unsubstantiated conclusion that they’re indeed, aspects of the same person. In the Medieval Welsh corpus of poetry, and folk-legend, it’s written that Uther was the enchanter, seer, and sorcerer who studied all the laws of nature through the Universe. He blends wonderfully with the mythic toponomy of Snowdonia as well—where a Mountsin Named Cadair Idris—The Seat of Idris/Isdernus/Yder (??Uther??), was said to be the seat where a powerful king, one IDRIS, who knew all the mysteries of the universe, would sit to gaze at the stars. 

This is where one wonders if the compilers of these texts, scribbling away in some drafty monestary in newly Anglo-Normanized Medieval Wales, weren’t just a little familiar with Gnostic/Judaic/Islamic mystical tracts journeying with returning Crusaders and merchants, back from the cultural and literary treasure troves of MiddleEastern cities. A Kabbalistic icon steps from the pages of these esoteric texts, one Idris—a prophet/seer/scholar/advisor to kings/philosopher/etc. He’s likened to Enoch, of the Old Testament, utilized as a poetic/literary/mythical figure lending wisdom and insight to receptive minds seeking true Enlightenment...

In my sober and rational pursuits, no I’m not one of the Woo-Conspiracy types who believes there was something preOrdained about Mystical America or her Mystical (lol, Rosicrucian??) Founders, or that there’s some relation to Late Roman/Post Roman era Britain or Europe. On the other hand, we should all recall, it was Jefferson who suggested Hengist and Horsa arriving to the shores of Britain, as the face of the National Seal. Which, while a lovely token to milk for poetic license, in reality, simply suggests to me, Jefferson felt the legacy of representative demos in America arose first from AngloSaxon civil law, than from any predecessor trace of Roman law still practiced upon the British shores to which Hengist and Horsa supposedly arrived at Vortigern’s summons (dated anywhere from 425-449AD). Gildas says Britain was *ruled by kings, but they tyrants*, and while the AngloSaxon incursion was viewed as a punishment of God for the sins and excesses of the Tyrants/British War Lords who continued to battle with each other, by the centuries in which the Venerable Bede writes his British and Anglo-Saxon history from Northumbria, approx 300 years later, the AngloSaxons are the civilizing force, especially after they are Christianized, tempering Barbaric and Tyrannical Britons. God-Chosen to conquer and rule lands that the native British were not worthy to rule. One ought recall, the Catholic/Nicene church by this point was intimately associated as a vestige of Roman law and order, and while the post-Roman British rulers were Christian, they had fallen away from the dictates of Papal law, possibly following the heretical beliefs of Arianism or Pelagianism. And to Bede’s firmly Roman Christian mindset by the 8th Century (when he’s writing), it was the Catholic creed of Rome to which the first AngloSaxon Kings were converted, so making the AngloSaxon kingdoms the worthy inheritors of Old Roman civilized values brought to order and rule the unruly Britons...consider that a tale (biased and inaccurate, undoubtedly as I’m writing on the fly) in how doth the Pen of Propoganda flourish between conquered and conqueror. 

One has only to read the Historia Brittonum to view the Cymric perspective in balance to Bede. Anyway, I’m just sort of lovin’ on how affectionate was the relationship between Ganieda/Gwenddydd for her brother, Merlin/Myrddin, in building his sylvan abode, atop a mountain, to gaze at the heavens and their eternal tales. Having recently taken up StarGazing, incidentally, SkyApp rocks! Also, the mythic histories of our constellations actually drives a lot of the archetypes behind my protagonists.

Back on point, I can’t help but see Monticello as Jefferson’S Mountain and Sylvan abode, from where he could examine and advise on the World as the Seer and Political Poet/Philosopher he was, and find comfort away from the Real World messiness of back-stabbing and scheming envelopong the governing factions of his Early America. It’s no original insight of mine, but a reiteration of certain scholars over the years, who point out that Monticello was probably the truest reflection of Jefferson’s mind and soul. Personally, I feel Monticello, and maybe his other haven of Lynchburg, were really his truest loves, even before the women of his family—including the Hemings. In a Triad completing his opus magnum, the University of Virginia embodied his ideal, as a true Temple of Science. 

In fictional recounting, it’s Caroline Eleanor Graham who points this out to him years into their hidden liaison, after she’s come to America with their daughter, conceived on the eve of the Bastille’s fall. That her own pursuit of medicine, a discipline she’ll encourage their daughter to follow, against Jefferson’s own wishes (though, there’s nothing he can do to forbid this, as he’s not her acknowledged father), takes her too much into the world, amid the rabble he’d rather not abide. Too much an Amazon to the Domestic Angel for who Monticello has been constructed, MarthaWaylesSkelton’s ghost never far from the shadows lining the halls and recesses of that great mansion. Thus, in a weird way, Jefferson drafts, and eventually initiates the University of Virginia, as an unspoken dedication to the daughter he could never acknowledge. The daughter, who completes this whole cycle by intending to help establish the first Women’s Medical School of Philadelphia...

And in a scene I scratched out in rough form a long time ago, with an aged Caroline, come to make her peace at the grave of Jefferson, in the autumn after his death, written before my side-Road wandering into Arthuriana, it’s Caroline, mourning with the oldest Jefferson daughter, MarthaRandalph, who senses his presence somewhere wandering, freed at last, searching out the mysteries elucidated amongst the stars. The scene is meant as parallel to Uther’s funeral scene—3 Fold death at the hands of the Visigoths after Vouille/507AD—where Guinevere travels in haste to Gaul, aware of his brutal loss, those of his most loyal warriors. 

She accuses Clovis of delaying the arrival of his own Frankish forces, until Uther and his British/Amorican host had fended off the strongest contingents of Visigoth Alaric’s onslaught, bringing an easy victory to the Frankish king, at the price of British lives. This is my version of Camlann 1.0. Britannia’s Tribal confedracy is left in a succession crisis, until her son, Vortiporius/Vortipor returns from serving Theodoric the Great, who also maybe his father. Or, Uther is his father... 

Anyway, adapting scenes of Arthur taken away to Avalon in a boat, Uther’s body, b/c of his descent from Volsung blood, and Yngling-Swedish nobility, a pragmatic Christian when convenient, with a classical education of philosophers and scientists, and a son of Wotan as well, he’s not to be buried, but sent off as a ship burial, with his horse and slave women sacrificed to accompany him to the OtherWorld, joined by his various other fallen warriors from Vouille—very like the Ibn Fadlan treatise of the ship burial he witnessed while traveling amongst the Rus.  Guinevere sending forth an arrow lit by fire, to immolate the funeral ship sailing into a western sun. Maybe the ship is cast off to sail from Finis Terre/Breton coast as it burns. Maybe it’s sent north, toward an island off the Frisian/Germanic coast, called Hagaloland (???), which on some Roman maps, was called “Insula Aballona” (that’s disputed...but marked as that, on the Digital Map of the Roman World...). Hence, the grave of Arthur, or Uther in this case. “Oeth and Anoeth”-a thing of wonder, unknown to the world of men. 

 And Guinevere, Venaura in my etymologizing, standing at the shore, with the bow and arrow at her side, stoic in her sorrow, her only daughter, Gwenog/Fyndocha/Nennoch (Saints Lives...), weeping with her face buried in her hands, heart heavy, and her youngest son, Vortipor/Artuir, barely come to manhood, angered in his grief at his father’s death, an anger he doesn’t know how to release yet. He kneels before the sword Mimung, Uther’s blade, on the other side of his mother, head bowed to hide his tears. 

Fostered in Ravenna, in Theodoric’s court, and unknowing as yet, the full truth of his siring. Begotten of 2 Fathers, Volsung and Amalung. And from the Votadini blood of the Cawnur, from his mother, British, Scandian, and Ostrogoth heritage, son of the Wolf/Uther, son of the Lion/Theodoric, but before all, Son of the Mother/Venaura. Mabon, blessed youth, son of Modron... 

Yes, Vortipor, is one of Gildas’s 5 Tyrants. “The bad son of a good king,” per his own castigation, as Arthur mab Uter, translated, not as “son of Uther”, but rather, “terrible son,” b/c in his youth, he was terrifying.  His father, Aergol Lawhir/Agricola, arises in Demetian genealogies. The Irish form of Vortipor is Gartbuir, and as the ‘G’ drops out in early protoGaelic forms, and the Brythonic prefix of ‘Vor-‘/Gor/Gwr-‘ (high/noble/strong) is actually synonymous with ‘Ar/Ardd/Art-‘, we’re using some pretty loose applications of philology to turn Vortipor, the Tyrant of Demetia into Artuir Imperator...we also have Ida/Aebba of Bernicia as his comrade, and based off Ida/Ebba, a general in Theoderic’s army, when the Ostrogoths finally mobilize through 508AD, to join their Visigoth cousins, and halt Clovis’s advance to the Mediteranean, winning back a good portion of southern Gaul, and joining the Visigoth and Ostrogoth territories from Hispania to the Balkans...

Artuir/Vortipor is a part of that campaign, before returning to Britannia. Ida the Ostrogoth commander, comes with him—eventually establishing Bernicia after Artuir’s death many years later, wherein he marries Artuir’s widow, Beara/Bebhionn-Vivian-after Who, it’s said, Bamburgh, the center of Bernician power, was named. But first, Ida helps his comrade claim sovereignty over the island, circa 515AD, and Northern Sea Kingdom founded by Uther, ruling over the peoples residing through Jutland/Scandia-Geatland. I do adopt a bit of Geoffrey and Layamon here...

I also have to admit a certain obsession with Theoderic’s daughter, Amalsuintha, as well. As she essentially is raised with Artuir in her father’s court, growing into an educated, strong-willed, beautiful woman (as the accounts of her describe), and the 2 of them unaware of their potential blood relation, they fall in love in their early adolescence, taken by adolescent hormones, they end up sleeping together. Which Theoderic only discovers after the act. And blows up, like an enraged father would, over his daughter’s lost virginity, but he’s more horrified at the potential of incest. Notice, the parallel with Arthur and Morgana. No child is born of the indiscretion, but an equally guilt-ridden Artuir finally decides it’s time to return to his homeland, and Amalsuintha marries Eutharic. 

Years later, when Amalsuintha is the only survivor of her father, and her son by Eutharic, after the failed gambit to claim the Italian throne against rival Ostrogoth contenders, she’s finally condemned to exile and death on an island (still said to be haunted by her tears, when the winds rise into storm) in Lake Bolsano. Altering reality, in fact, she’s rescued/abducted by a bunch of British and Northmen, sent by Artuir to offer her haven on British shores. She’s eventually courted by Yffi/Uffa of Deiran Northumbrians, and becomes not only the source of Geoffrey’s eponymous “Marcia”—the Queen who is said to have established The Mercian Laws compiled by Alfred the Great in the Great codex of AngloSaxon legislation— but she’s also the grandmother of Aelle of Deira. The Deiran King who starts the ball rolling toward uniting Anglian and Northern Briton into Northumbria, as a United Kingdom, and the Star of the North, as it came to be known. 

 Basically, the sum game here is, my take on the tale of Uther/Merlin, Guinevere, Arthur, and other sundry cast, isn’t only a tale of the end of Roman-Britain. It’s actually a tale, in which they participate, to actively see what remained of Rome upon their beloved Isle of the Mighty, transition into a NewWorld, borne by the newest colonizers of Scandinavian and Germanic lands, mingling—Sometimes by love, sometimes by war—with the native inhabitants of British and Roman progeny, to create a new nation...fighting for recognition upon a new Medieval European stage, flawed, hopeful, tumultuous, brutal, struggling to lend voice to the weak and exploited, an ever-evolving clash of power and ambition, versus justice and compassion... Sort of a familiar tale, right? In the ongoing story of America, and her predecessors...maybe her future? Meh, anyway, too many hours wasted here... 

[chicagosavant]

Theoderic the Great??

Dietrich Von Bern (Verona)??

Peter Eggers...HellsBells, I wish they'd do another season of ‘Anno1790′...Can this man be my 18th century surgeon?? Swedish Surgeon??

[haljathefangirlcat]

As promised a while back to @fate-magical-girls, a (handmade, and therefore a little rough) translation of a small excerpt from the book Il Carme di Ildebrando: Un padre, un figlio, un duello ("The Song of Hildebrand: A father, a son, a duel") by Alessandro Zironi:

"4.1.1 Theodoric

Around the year 375, the Huns, moving from the Asian steppes, venture into the west and overwhelm the Ostrogoths, who are staying in the southern Russian plains. From that moment, until the death of king Attila (453) they'll be part of that congeries of peoples that goes, indeed, by the name Huns. Attila dies suddenly; his unexpected passing triggers centrifugal forces: the Ostrogoths, now, make themselves autonomous, led by three brothers. Just one year after the death of Attila, in 454, a son, Theodoric, is born to Theodemir. Our Theodoric. At the age of eight, he is sent as a hostage to Constantinople to seal a deal with the emperor: he stays there for a decade; soon after his return, after the death of his father and uncle, he becomes king. The years of his rule spent at the side of the Eastern Roman Empire, are quite troubled, a long period that concludes fifteen years later (489), when Theoderic with his people enters Italy, sent by emperor Zeno to conquer the peninsula from Odoacher, he who in 476 deposed Romulus Augustus, last emperor of the Western Roman Empire. Theoderic's Italian campaign starts off on the the right foot, as testified by his military victories on the Isonzo and, especially, in Verona. After these first assaults, though, the final victory is long-awaited: only in 493, after a three-year siege, he'll set foot in Ravenna capital of the Italic kingdom, thanks to the mediation of the city's bishop, who convinces the two contenders to rule jointly. Immediately after, however, Theoderic, by his own hand, kills Odoacher,, remaining the only sovereign, and he'll rule until his death, in 526, at the age of seventy-two.

Following this, the fate of the Goths in Italy swiftly goes downhill: nine yeas after, emperor Justinian will unleash a war for the conquest of Italy, that will conclude, with the Byzantine victory of 553, after eighteen years of devastation and the destruction of the peninsula. Theoderic is nonetheless esteemed, even by the Byzantine enemies, so much that the reinstatement of all property rights in Italy is traced back to his time. Soon enough, however, a hostile opinion on the sovereign forms, too, of which we already find traces in historical sources very close to his death, but is affirmed especially thanks to the words of Gregory the Great, who paints him as a persecutor of the Roman patricians, particularly Symmachus and Boethius, whom the Goth had sentenced to death for high treason. It's the same disparaging tradition found in the Anglo-Saxon world, surely not among the Longobards, who as we were saying were in close contact with the Goths, and whose sovereigns are related to the Amal dynasty.

Right away, the Theodorician biography starts cloaking itself in with episodes that have more to do with legendary transmission than with historical reality. But the tale, quickly become an integral part of the narrations focused on the king, is tied to the end of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy and to the political vicissitude of Theodoric, the only ruler we have memory of, the most prestigious. He is the Gothic king par excellence and so it is to him that the loss of the kingdom is connected. Such a defeat is not tied back to military events such as a long war but rather to an usurpation, which the Hildebrandslied attributes to Odoacher. The narrative mechanism, then, is that of a legitimate sovereign, in this case Theoderic, who loses his kingdom due to a fraudolent dethroning, on which are grafted subsequent attempts at a recapture.

At first sight, this upturning of historical reality appears curious, since it's Theoderic who forces out Odoacher, but there is a reasonable explanation. The historical vicissitude, according to some sources, see the Goth reach Italy after pressure from and deals made with the emperor of Constantinople to conquer the peninsula and reinstate the legality compromised by the usurper Odoacher. This justifiable diplomatic reading of the facts, once far from the intrigue in the palaces of Constantinople, finds, in later narrations, simpler motivations, according to which Theoderic would sit on a legitimate throne that belonged to other Goths before him; Odoacher is, then, labelled an usurper, but he dethrones Theoderic instead of the Westerner emperor. Theoderic is then forced into exile, and following that tries to recapture his own kingdom.

The loss of Italy, the exile and the attempts to recapture the royal seat are, in nuce, the fundamental themes that characterize all heroic-legendary narrations about Theoderic che the critique has grouped under the label "historical Theoderician epic", transcribed and composed, in the German area, starting from the XIII century. Still to the theme of Theoderic's exile is also tied his presence in Attila's court in the Nibelungic-Volsungic cycle, represented, in the German area, by the Nibelungenlied, and in the Nordic area by some heroic poems preserved through the Eddic collection. Therefore Germanic tradition in the German area frames the Gothic ruler in a context of tragedy and sorrow due to the loss of the kingdom and his companions (a trait, this one, that predominates in the Nibelungic-Volsungic narrations) and sees him as guest among Attila's Hunnish court. It is easy then to comprehend how history turned into legend: as Theoderic is the quintessential king of the Goths, so Attila is the only Hunnic sovereign heroic tradition remembers. So, when Theoderic loses his kingdom, it is among that people that he finds refuge and hospitality and from there he'll go on to recapture Italy.

There is then another, incredibly wide narrative tradition tied to the figure of Theoderic of an adventurous and fairy-tale-like tradition, mostly set in Italy, in the king's younger years, who dedicates himself to clashes and fights against giants and dwarves. Finally we must mention the Þiðrekssaga af Bern: it's a complex text, in many aspects epigonal, which gathers in one narration the most important cycles of continental Germanic tradition with at its core (but not exclusively focused on) the vicissitude of Theoderic and the Nibelungs. Among the numerous episodes, of particular relevance, for the relationships with the Hildebrandlied, is Theoderic's undercover entry in Italy with Hildebrand.

4.1.2 Odoacher

He's born two decades before Theoderic, around the year 433. Odoacher is mentioned by historiographical sources coeval to after the death of Attila. He accompanies powerful rulers who move on the chessboard of the by now dying, fragmented Western Roman Empire, both in Gaul and in Italy. His political and military ascent becomes more and more important, enough to reach the highest levels of the Roman warrio hierarcy. In 476 he deposes Romolus Augustus, becoming the only, undisputed ruler of the peninsula. His control over Italy is, in those tempsetuous times, rather long, 17 years, reaching 493, when Theoderic enters Ravenna. The sources remembers in various ways his murder; some suggest vengeful motives, others reasons of safeguard against plots, a last one hold Odoacher to be the victim of a betrayal. Theoderic's ruthlesness towards the enemy's kin is also remembered: his wife Sunigilda, for example, his made to starve.

Odoacher's figure, even if symbolically relevant from a historical point of view, having deposed the last Western emperor, did not find gret fortune in the Germanic literary tradition. He appears in the Hildebrandslied, where he's referred to as the cause of Theoderic and Hildebrand's exile, and is mentioned in a very late text, one of the printed versions (known as Ecken Auszfahrt, The death of Ecke, 1559) of the Eckenlied (Song of Ecke) which is part of the group of fairy-tale-like Theoderician narrations. At the end that poem is remembered how Odoacher deposes Romolus Augustus and takes control of the kingdom of Italy, until Theoderic defeats him.

Thus Odoacher knows no tradition outside of the vicissitude of Theoderic, to whom he's closely tied. His name will be lost quickly enough in the literary narrations, but we can follow his progressive oblivion. He's rapidly replaced, in his function as Theoderic's antagonist and the usurper of his kingdom, by Ermanaric, an Ostrogothic king who lived in the IV century, of whom on the other hand, legendary tales preserve a wide memory. Ermanic, it must be remembered, is in the Theoderician heroic tales Theoderic's uncle: the political conflict between king and usurper, a strong theme in the Hildebrandslied, is move to a more understandable family rivalry between uncle and nephew; after all, Germanic tales paint Ermanaric as an evil ruler even in narrative contexts not connected to the Theoderician cycle. The Annals of Quedlinburg still mention Odoacher, but he's not Theoderic's direct rival anymore: there, he's Ermanaric's evil advisor, who recommends exiling his nephew to the king. As the literary transmission goes on, Odoacher disappear, leaving the role of evil counselor to Sibeche. Finally in Kaiserchronik (Chronicle of the Emperors), a Middle High German work in verses with historiographical aspirations but actually with a good filling of heroic traditions, it is remembering that, on entering Northern Italy, he was defeated by Theoderic when he came back from his exile in the court of emperor Zeno. After that, nothing more, until the 1559 print of the Song of Ecke, but there the information is much more likely to come from historical sources rather than from a legendary tradition."

[chicagosavant]

—b/c Chiss are OstroGoths??—of all the historical characters inspiring (my idea of) Thrawn…Theoderic the Great is prime—also, Theoderic features in my own take of PostRoman Britain with Venaura (Guinevere, in my pseudo-Brythonic rendition of her name if you squint…), and Uther pendragon (Ohthere, brother of Aela/Onela, sons of Angantyr/Ongetheow…)

25. A Balkan Bust-Up: Theodoric the Great, Part 1

c. 460 to 479 CE We welcome to the stage Theodoric, soon to be Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. In the process we catch up on th

—bout time one of history crushes (pictures played by Peter Eggers from Anno1790) got his due podcasting time…

[rosheendubh]

The Ring of Pietroassa

“The inscribed ring remains the subject of considerable academic interest, and a number of theories regarding its origin, the reason for its burial and its date have been proposed. The inscription, which sustained irreparable damage shortly after its discovery, can no longer be read with certainty, and has been subjected to various attempts at reconstruction and interpretation. Recently, however, it has become possible to reconstruct the damaged portion with the aid of rediscovered depictions of the ring in its original state. Taken as a whole, the inscribed ring may offer insight into the nature of the pre-Christian pagan religion of the Goths.”

Proposed theories on its runic inscriptions [I like this one the best...however valid or not valid th escolar ship might be...]

“Other scholars have interpreted the ᛟ as indicative of a feminine ending: Johnsen (1971) translates "the holy hailag relic wī(h) (= the [altar] ring) of Gothic priestesses gutaniō"; Krogmann (1978), reading ᛗ /m/ for ᚹᛁ /wi/, translates "dedicated hailag to the Gothic Mothers gutaniom (= female guardian spirits of the Goths)"; Antonsen (2002) translates "sacrosanctum wī(h)hailag of gothic women/female warriors gutaniō".”

--Inspiration for the rune-ring Theoderic gifts to Gwen on the eve of Camlann/Badon 2.0 (as I call it), whence returning to Britannia from Gaul with the 1000 Sarmatian Slave Warriors who were the left-over descendants of the 8000 Iayzges once conscripted by Marcus Aurelius (5500 sent to Britannia in 175AD, the other 2500 sent...??). The cavalry, bound to Theoderic after his defeat of their King, Babai, at Singidunum in 474AD. And, in his failed effort to abduct Gwen back to Italy (that Modena Archivolt relief came from somewhere...), whilst originally proposing marriage to Clovis’s sister, Audafleda, now in 491AD, erstwhile British forces on Amorica are enmeshed in Clovis’s Frankish campaigns following the defeat of Syrgius and Soisson in 486. The Sarmatians, won by Gwenafyr, the daughter of Brigantia and Saranyu, the Horse Goddess to settled upon British shores with those first brethren of the Royal Iayzges nearly 300 years before. 

Rather, a construct for a scene where Gwen pulls something of a Daenerys move on Theoderic, in winning over the Army of the Unsullied...in this case, 1000 Heavy Cavalry in service to her husband, Uthyr as he confronts Aelle (based off Onela/Ale of the Nordic myths--a Nordic rather than Saxon King...). She also revives something of her long-ago love affair with Theoderic, amid taking him captive...a temporary trip to Britannia.  Uthyr, the Imperator of the West, crossing paths with Theoderic upon British shores, bound by the love of the same woman who unites their vision of containing Clovis’s expansive ambitions, and building a new world from the ruins of the old from Britannia to Italia. Where one man gains a victory by horse, the other will finally achieve his by sea, returning with the Fleet of Black Danes/Anglian and Geats, allied to Uthyr, and utilized by Theoderic in finally ousting his opponent, Odovacer, from Ravenna after a 2 year siege.

Hey, Arthur is conceived somewhere, by someone--maybe 2 someones...enjoyed by Gwen in her liberated way. Intriguingly, (and of more value for creative license than historical foundation), the pedigree of the Kings of Gwent includes an Athrwys son of Meurig son of Tewdrig. Depending on what manuscript one subscribes to, these names appear in various placements and combos, typical of the confusion involving British geneologies King lists which were often recorded hundreds of years after the people they purport to name, and are also fantastically rendered to fill in missing parental generations, etc.  Thus, I tend to read Meurig as a misnomer for ‘Maering’, which means ‘Ostrogoth’, and Meurig being meant as the epithet for Tewdrig, rather than as his son. And so, Athrwys as the son of Tewdrig Maering...or, possibly Uthyr Pendrych, son of of the line of Vortigern son of Vitalis/Sinfjotli of the Volsungs...

One can see, it isn't just British myth/legend  I've been warping, but Germanic and Scandinavian as well... 

[chicagosavant]

"To the monarch you [Cassiodorus] were a friendly judge and an honored intimate. For when he became free from his official cares, he looked to your conversation for the precepts of the sages, that he might make himself a worthy equal to the great men of old. Ever curious, he desired to hear about the courses of the stars, the tides of the sea, and legendary fountains, that his earnest study of natural science might make him seem to be a veritable philosopher in the purple" (Cassiodorus' letterbook, Variae 9.24.8).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theoderic_the_Great

~My new historical obsession-sexy-man...

Also, the figure feeding into Gwenafyr’s story.  Don’t ask how, but she becomes the inspiration for the aspiration of Empire, lying between two men,  West to East. Uthyr, son of Vortigern (Pendragon), Imperator of the North, and Theoderic the Great, King of the Goths and Italians...