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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.
Heruli fought as mercenaries on many fronts – famous for speed and ferocity, but without a fixed homeland. Their Danube realm was beaten in the 6th century by the Lombards. After that the people fell apart.
The Byzantine historian Procopius reports something unique: after the defeat, part of the Heruli migrated back to the far north, to "Thule" (Scandinavia) – to where their ancestors are said to have once come from. It is the only ancient record of such a return migration.
"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 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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