![\"Goths\"](\"https:\/\/hcsblogdotorg.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/05\/goths.jpg?w=620\")
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May 22 is World Goth Day<\/a>, an occasion minted in 2009<\/a> when BBC 6 dedicated the day to goth rock. It has since become a happening in clubs across Europe, the Americas, Australia, and South Africa. To celebrate, we\u2019ve compiled 11 facts about the original Goths\u2014and we don\u2019t mean Bauhaus<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here are some things you may not know about the Germanic people best known for sacking Rome in 410 CE. Though deemed \u201csavages\u201d and \u201cbarbarians\u201d by the Romans, they were actually complex, intelligent, and misunderstood people. The Goths<\/em><\/a> by Peter Heather and The History of the Goths<\/em><\/a> by Herwig Wolfram both served as invaluable sources for the facts listed below.<\/p>\n Only one source regarding the Goths\u2019 origins survives: Getica<\/em><\/a>, a history written by Jordanes, a 6th century Roman historian of Gothic descent. According to Jordanes, \u201cfrom this island of Scandza, as from a hive of races or a womb of nations, the Goths are said to have come forth long ago.\u201d Most scholars have accepted Scandza as Scandinavia. Jordanes describes the Goths expelling and subduing a series of peoples along the southern coast of the Baltic Sea to create their domain there, outside the Roman Empire. Twentieth century archaeological evidence suggests such a migration in the first three centuries.<\/p>\n Goths\u2019 reputation as barbarians comes from Roman sources, which viewed them (at various times) as pests, threats, and second-class subjects of the Empire. In truth, during the time they were settled between the Baltic and Black Seas, the Goths were largely peaceful hunters and farmers, skilled in horsemanship, archery, and falconry. They traded extensively with neighbors, both stationary and nomadic, and Gothic furs were much in demand. \u201cThey had generated a reasonably sophisticated agricultural culture with quite complicated political structures,\u201d according to<\/a> Heather.<\/p>\n Another misconception is that the Goths were pagans. In the 4th century, the bishop of Constantinople sent a missionary named Ulfilas<\/a> to convert the Goths. Though Christianity was not universal, he brought many to the faith and created an entire Gothic alphabet so as to translate the Bible. (It’s worth noting that Ulfilas practiced and converted the Goths to Arian Christianity, a form deemed heretical by the Catholic Church.)<\/p>\n1. THEY PROBABLY CAME FROM SCANDINAVIA.<\/h4>\n
2. THE GOTHS WERE SOPHISTICATED IN TRADE, DIPLOMACY, HUNTING, AND AGRICULTURE.<\/h4>\n
3. MANY WERE CHRISTIANS.<\/h4>\n
4. KINGSHIP WAS TEMPORARY.<\/h4>\n