Contemporary sources indicate that the Gepids had few 'heavily-armed warriors': in 552, they contributed only 400 such soldiers to Narses' war against Totila, while the Pannonian Langobards sent 3,000.
#Atila total war elite nordic warriors saxons free#
In the 6th century, the free warriors of Merovingian culture were buried fully armed, with sword, spear, and iron-bound shield, yet such weapons are found even more rarely in Transylvania than in the Gepidic graves of the Hungarian Plain. Ardaric crushed his former allies and drove them from Europe, ending their threat for all time. Thus he assembled a warhost of Gepids, rebel Germans, and some few Sarmatian remnants and faced the Huns at Nedao in 454. Instead, Ardaric determined he had enough power and support to throw off the Hunnic yoke and bring his tribe to power and independence. His sons began the battles of inheritance, but Ardaric remained aloof from these struggles. Afterwards, the Huns drew back to the Balkans, and Attila died. It is claimed he led the largest allied contingent at the Catalaunian Plains, where Aetius and the Romans, supported by Franks and the Visigoths, handed Attila his first defeat. So when Attila came and conquered the Ostrogoths and Gepids, the Gepids shook off Ostrogothic ties and allied themselves whole-heartedly to Attila and his Huns.Īrdaric was their king, and he fought well for Attila. These Gepanta became the Gepids, and resented the name forced upon them by their cousins. The Goths split and moved on, the Visigoths heading into the West and the Otrogoths staying put- and conquering their slow cousins while they were at it.
It was not until 260 AD that they managed to catch them, and that was only because the Goths slowed their advance as they ran into the borders of the Roman Empire. Their very name means ‘slow’ or ‘sluggish’ in old Gothic, and theis tribe earned that name by moseying along after the other Goths, striving vainly to catch up to their faster cousins. This tribe literally missed the boat when it came to the Great Migrations. Less-well known are the Gepanta, the Slow Ones. The history of the Goths is a well-known and documented fact. These blonde warriors swept down from the frozen North and waged war against those who stood between them and what they desired. This unit is immune to the fear effects of scary units.The Goths were known as fleet horsemen with staunch and hardy footborne warriors. This unit can hide in forests until enemy units get too close. The unit moves into a close formation and raises shields. The amount of detail on a sword was a sign of wealth, and many examples decorated with precious metals and intricate patterns have been discovered at Norse burial sites.
As early as the 4th century AD, Norse skill in battle, and their mastery of the waves, was well known - along with an insatiable lust for blood and plunder! Of course, this approach made them very rich not just tools for battle, their weapons carried just as much meaning as status symbols. So successful were they, that their race emerged from the Dark Ages to dominate not just their homelands, but many other places - as far afield as Greenland and Russia. Like all successful tribal groups, the Nordic peoples were extremely warlike and developed strong naval skills alongside raiding tactics based on the traditional barbarian headlong charge. The term ‘Norsemen’, meaning ‘people of the North’, refers to the Germanic peoples who still inhabit the central part of Scandinavia today. "A weapon, drenched to the core in the blood of enemies, easily finds its mark."