Cimbri - Homeland and Name

Homeland and Name

Archaeologists have not found any clear indications of a mass migration from Jutland in the early Iron Age. The Gundestrup Cauldron, which was deposited in a bog in Himmerland in the 2nd or 1st century BC, shows that there was some sort of contact with southeastern Europe, but it is uncertain if this contact can be associated with the Cimbrian expedition.

Advocates for a northern homeland point to Greek and Roman sources that associate the Cimbri with the peninsula of Jutland, Denmark. According to the Res gestae (ch. 26) of Augustus, the Cimbri were still found in the area around the turn of the First Century AD:

My fleet sailed from the mouth of the Rhine eastward as far as the lands of the Cimbri, to which, up to that time, no Roman had ever penetrated either by land or by sea, and the Cimbri and Charydes and Semnones and other peoples of the Germans of that same region through their envoys sought my friendship and that of the Roman people.

The contemporary Greek geographer Strabo testifies that the Cimbri still existed as a Germanic tribe, presumably in the "Cimbric peninsula" (since they are said to live by the North Sea and to have paid tribute to Augustus):

As for the Cimbri, some things that are told about them are incorrect and others are extremely improbable. For instance, one could not accept such a reason for their having become a wandering and piratical folk as this that while they were dwelling on a Peninsula they were driven out of their habitations by a great flood-tide; for in fact they still hold the country which they held in earlier times; and they sent as a present to Augustus the most sacred kettle in their country, with a plea for his friendship and for an amnesty of their earlier offences, and when their petition was granted they set sail for home; and it is ridiculous to suppose that they departed from their homes because they were incensed on account of a phenomenon that is natural and eternal, occurring twice every day. And the assertion that an excessive flood-tide once occurred looks like a fabrication, for when the ocean is affected in this way it is subject to increases and diminutions, but these are regulated and periodical. —

On the map of Ptolemy, the "Kimbroi" are placed on the northernmost part of the peninsula of Jutland., i.e. in the modern landscape of Himmerland south of Limfjorden (since Vendsyssel-Thy north of the fjord was at that time a group of islands). Himmerland (Old Danish Himbersysel) is generally thought to preserve their name, in an older form without Grimm's law (PIE k > Germ. h). Alternatively, Latin C- represents an attempt to render the unfamiliar Proto-Germanic h =, perhaps due to Celtic-speaking interpreters (a Celtic intermediary would also explain why Germanic *Þeuðanōz became Latin Teutones).

The origin of the name Cimbri is unknown. One etymology is PIE *tḱim-ro- "inhabitant", from tḱoi-m- "home" (> Eng. home), itself a derivation from tḱei- "live" (> Greek κτίζω, Latin sinō); then, the Germanic *χimbra- finds an exact cognate in Slavic sębrъ "farmer" (> Croatian, Serbian sebar, Russ. sjabër).

Because of the similarity of the names, the Cimbri were at times associated with Cymry, the Welsh name for themselves. However, this word is regularly derived from Celtic *Kombrogi, meaning “compatriots”. Cumry is an evoluted form of the Old Welsh, with an assimilation of to first, the second element brogi changed into bro “country” in Modern Welsh. It is hardly conceivable that the Romans would have recorded such a form as Cimbri The name has also been related to the word kimme meaning “rim”, i.e. the people of the coast. Finally, since Antiquity, the name has been related to that of the Cimmerians.