The Heruli were an East Germanic people who appeared in the Migration Period as especially mobile and feared warriors. We find them in Attila's following, in Roman and Byzantine armies, and as founders of their own realm on the middle Danube.
"They passed through all the peoples of the Sclaveni and came to Thule and settled there."after Procopius, The Gothic War (public domain, own translation)
The Heruli were an East Germanic people who appeared above all as feared warriors and mercenaries. Mobile and battle-hardened, they served in the armies of Rome and East Rome – and at times founded kingdoms of their own.
In the Migration Period the Heruli appear in many places: on the Black Sea, on the Danube, in Italy. They fought now for, now against Rome. Many followers of Odoacer, who overthrew the last West Roman emperor in 476, were Heruli.
The historian Procopius transmits a fascinating report: a part of the Heruli, after a defeat, migrated back to the far north, to "Thule" (Scandinavia). This is one of the rare ancient hints of a return migration to the north.
In the 6th century the power of the Heruli disintegrated; their Danube kingdom perished, and the remnants were lost among other peoples. Of a once feared warrior people only the memory remained.
The Heruli bridge the southern Migration Period and the far north of the later Vikings. Continue with the Rugii and Lombards.
The Rugii · The Lombards · The Marcomanni · Cimbri & Teutones · Germanic Religion.
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