by Lulzim Osmanaj. Translation and editing by Petrit Latifi

Abstract

Eduard Norden’s Ancient Germania (1934) is a philological and historical-onomastic study that reconstructs the early history of European peoples through names and critical interpretation of Greco-Roman sources. Norden challenges conventional ethnic divisions, showing that Italic, Illyrian, and Germanic groups emerge from a shared prehistoric European substrate. Through detailed analyses—such as inscriptions, personal names like Germanus, and toponymy—he demonstrates the persistence of older Indo-European layers beneath later ethnic identities. His work highlights the centrality of Illyrian populations in Adriatic and Central European history and demonstrates how onomastics preserves collective memory far beyond written chronicles.

What does Eduard Norden’s book Ancient Germania say? Studies in the history of peoples and names (1934)

Eduard Norden’s work is a philological, historical and onomastic study of a high academic level, which aims to reconstruct the early history of European peoples through the analysis of ethnic, personal and toponymic names, as well as through the critical interpretation of ancient Greco-Roman sources.

The book is not a classical narrative history, but a structural analysis of the “language of history”, that is, of the way in which names preserve the memory of populations much longer than political or military sources.

In the section you quote, “On the pre- and early history of European tribes and peoples / Italic – Illyrian – Germanic”, Norden aims to show that the traditional divisions between these three ethnic worlds are often artificial and late, and that in reality we are dealing with a common prehistoric European substratum, which was later differentiated into Italic, Illyrian and Germanic forms.

The Picentes and the sculptures of Novilara

In the section on the Picentes, a people of central-Adriatic Italy, Norden analyzes the famous inscriptions and sculptures of Novilara. He argues that some of the personal and toponymic names of Southern Picenum cannot be convincingly explained as Italic, but show structural affinities with Illyrian onomastics. This leads Norden to the conclusion that there existed in this area an Illyrian or pre-Illyrian population layer, which was later Italianized.

In Northern Picenum, he goes even further, proposing the existence of a “primordial people”, that is, a very early Indo-European population, preceding the classical ethnic divisions. This idea is directly related to his concept of “Old Europe”, a common cultural space before the formation of historical ethnicities.

Paeligni and Germani

In the section on the Paeligni, an Italic tribe of the central Apennines, Norden analyzes the series of names Germus, Germanus, Germullius, Germulla. He argues that these names are not of Germanic origin in the ethnic sense of the word “German”, but represent a much older Indo-European name, which appears in various areas of Europe before the “Germans” appear as a historical entity.

Here Norden directly challenges naive ethnic identifications of the names and shows that “Germanus” does not necessarily mean “German”, but is a name circulating in an Italic–Illyrian space long before the Roman era.

Italic–Illyrian and Greco–Illyrian relations

Norden argues that the Paeligni, although classified as Italic, show Illyrian ethnographic and onomastic features, which suggests a contact area or an earlier common origin. In the Greco-Illyrian analysis, he extends this model to the Balkans, showing that the Balkan peninsula was not a mosaic of isolated peoples, but a dynamic space of interaction between Illyrians, Greeks and other Indo-European populations.

Analysis of the name Anna Germulla

One of the most typical parts of Norden’s method is the microscopic analysis of a single name. The name Anna Germulla is analyzed not as a random Latin combination, but as a hybrid form, where Illyrian and Italic elements coexist. This is used as evidence for real ethnic and linguistic mixing in ancient Italy.

Illyrian traces in Umbria and the name Varro

Norden argues that even in Umbria, a traditionally Italic region, Illyrian traces are found in onomastics, including the well-known name Varro. This name, according to him, is not fully explained by Latin and may preserve an older Balkan substratum.

The name Germanus in Illyrian-speaking areas and the excursion on Teut.

Finally, Norden examines the spread of the name Germanus in Illyrian-speaking areas and connects it with very old Indo-European roots. The excursion on the root teut- (people, tribe) is particularly important, because it shows that the concepts of “people” and “nation” are much older than the classical ethnic divisions and appear in different forms among the Illyrians, Celts and Germanics.

In summary, Norden does not claim that the Illyrians are Germanic or Italic, nor vice versa. His central thesis is that these peoples derive from a much older European stock, which has gradually fragmented. The Illyrians, in this sense, are not a periphery of European history, but a central element in its formation, especially in the Adriatic and Central Europe.

The book is fundamental because it shows that onomastics is a historical source as powerful as chronicles, and that names preserve the memory of peoples long before written history began. In this context, the Illyrian presence emerges as a structural factor in the early history of Europe, not as a local or secondary episode.