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Hercynian Forest
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Hercynian Forest was an ancient and dense forest that stretched eastward from the Rhine River across southern Germany. The ancient sources are equivocal about how far east. All agree that the Black Forest formed the western side of the Hercynian. The Mittelgebirge seems to more or less correspond to the Hercynian mountains, with Old High German Fergunna referring to the Erzgebirge and Virgundia to a range between Ansbach and Ellwangen (cf. modern Virngrund forest).
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The name is cited dozens of times in several classical authors, but most of the references are non-definitive, as the author is assuming the reader would know where the forest is. The earliest is in Aristotle (Meteorologica), who refers to the Arkýnia (or Orkýnios) mountains of Europe, but tells us only that rivers flow north from there.
During the time of Julius Caesar, this forest blocked the advance of the Roman legions into Germania. His few statements are the most definitive. In De Bello Gallico[1] he says that the forest stretches along the Danube from the Helvetii (present-day Switzerland) to Dacia (present-day Romania). Its implied northern dimension is nine days march. Its eastern dimension is indefinitely more than 60 days march. The concept fascinated and perhaps frightened him a little. He entertains old wives' tales, such as unicorns in the endless forests of Germania. The Romans may have drawn that conclusion from the horns of narwhales used by the Germans. Very likely, today's concept of an endless Black Forest descends from Caesar. His name for the forest is the one most used: Hercynia Silva.
Pliny the Elder in Natural History, which also includes geography, places the eastern regions of the Hercynium jugum in Pannonia (present-day Hungary) and Dacia.[2] He also gives us some insight into its composition. It contains gigantic oaks, he says.[3]. But even he is subject to the mythological aura exuding from the gloomy forest. He makes mention of unusual birds, which have feathers that "shine like fires at night". Medieval bestiaries named these birds the Ercinee.
Edward Gibbon noted the presence of reindeer and elk in the forest.[4] The wild bull was present also: the aurochs, bos primigenius, which the Romans called the urus and ureox. The aurochs has became extinct since Roman times. It has, however, been genetically reconstituted in the forests of northeast Poland and Belarus.
In the Roman sources, the Hercynian Forest was clearly part of ancient Germania. We do find an indication that this circumstance was fairly recent; that is, Posidonius states that the Boii, who were Celtic, were once there (as well as in Bohemia). In fact Hercynian has a Celtic derivation.
Julius Pokorny lists Hercynian as being derived from *perkwu- "oak" (quercus). He further identifies the name as Celtic. Proto-Celtic regularly loses initial (prevocalic) *p, hence Hercynia (the H- being prothetic in Latin); the corresponding Germanic forms have an f- by Grimm's Law: Old English firgen "mountain", Gothic faírguni "mountain range". The assimilated *kwerkwu- would be regular in Italo-Celtic, and Pokorny connects the Celtiberian ethnonym Querquerni.
It is possible that the name of the Harz Mountains in Germany is derived from Hercynian, as Harz is a Middle High German word meaning "mountain forest." The name of Pforzheim (Porta Hercyniae) in southwest Germany is also derived from Hercynian.
- ^ Caesar, Julius. De Bello Gallico Book 6, Chapters 24 and 25. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library.
- ^ Book 4 Chapter 25
- ^ Book 16 Chapter 2
- ^ Gibbon, Edward. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Chapter IX, 3rd paragraph.