1871-1877 Ottema various publications

Translations into English of:

• 1871 Reply to Colmjon
• 1871 Reply to vd Bergh
• 1873 Germanic peoples [transl. Ott 2020; original: Germanen]
• 1874 Royal Acad.
• 1876 Deventer Crt.
• 1876 MS existed before 1600
• 1877 Punjab Colony
• 1877 Reply to Who wrote ...?

Also see separate pages:

• Introduction Ottema 1872/1876 Thet Oera Linda Bok
• Foreword to 1876 edition of Thet Oera Linda Bok
• 1878 Historical notes and clarifications to Thet Oera Linda Bok

1871

Colmjon reply

vd Bergh reply

1873

Germanic peoples

[54] The name Germani is not to be found in Greek or Latin texts before Julius Caesar. Then, suddenly in history this tribal name is introduced, which until now is a riddle, both linguistically and historically. The Romans use the term as a general (collective) name for the peoples who live between the rivers Rhine, Vistula and Danube [see image]. Before Caesar's time, or rather before his wars in Gaul, these peoples living east of the Rhine where included in the general term Galli, and [?] Cicero (orat. de prov. cons.) says, speaking of the Cimbri and Teutons:

Cajus Marius [...] stopped the hordes of Gauls that invaded Italy.

How did Caesar get that name? Where did the Romans find it and what does the name Germani mean? Much has been written about these questions, but because the answers are so various and different it is still unclear. A linguistic explanation has been sought, by guessing the meaning of the word Germani. Strabo VII-290 writes in this regard: On the other side of the Rhine, eastwards behind the Celts, the Germanic people live, differing not much from the Celts, only by being somewhat less civilised, [55] having a larger physique, whiter skin, but otherwise similar to the Celts concerning facial features, morals and way of life. Therefore, I think, the Romans justly gave them this name, as if they meant true Gauls, for Germanus in Latin means genuine.

After all that was written about this question, prof. Adolf Holtzmann (Kelten und Germanen, Stuttgart 1855) discusses Strabo's answer. So even after 18 centuries, it is still being researched. Leopold Contzen (die Wanderungen der Kelten, Leipzig 1861) however, qualifies this as "a far-fetched hypothesis!"

For if, in Roman understanding, Germani meant the adjective genuine, it could not be used without noun, and this consequence demanded, that besides the true Celts, they also distinguished untrue Celts. However, Celtae adulterini are nowhere mentioned. Strabo assumed the word was Latin and translated it accordingly, but this does not prove an origin. On the contrary, Caesar named the strangers as he heard the Gauls name them. The assumption is inadmissible to begin with, that Ariovist would have lived in Gaul with his people for 14 years, without having a name of their own.

So in the name of Germani, Contzen acknowledges the name of a people, but does not further explain the origin of that people and that name. Caesar, Bello Gallica 31 names Ariovistus Rex Germanorum and mentions that these Germans had invaded Gaul coming from the other side of the Rhine.

That about 15,000 of them had at first crossed the Rhine : but after that these wild and savage men had become enamored of the lands and the refinement and the abundance of the Gauls, more were brought over, that there were now as many as 120,000 of them in Gaul.

[56] But where would those Germans have crossed the Rhine? This is evident from Tacitus (Germ. 2):

But the name Germani is modern and newly introduced, from the fact that the tribes which first crossed the Rhine and drove out the Gauls, and are now called Tungrians, were then called Germans.

Thus, the people beyond the Rhine, named Germani by Caesar, had taken the name Tungri at Tacitus' time. In Caesar's work, the term Tungri was not used yet. The name of the Tungri was preserved in the town name Tongeren, which indicates that these Germans first landed in Limburg and therefore crossed the Rhine near Wesel, north of the river Lippe. This implies that they came from the Emsland [how does it?]. But the old geography does not know any Germans there, just as it does not know any separate people in Germania by that name. Northward from the Luppia, the Chamavi, Bructeri and Chauci live. And since Tacitus (Germ. 35) writes that the Cauchi, populus, as he says, inter Germanos nobilissimus [a people, most noble among the Germans], extend their territory as far as the Chatti, the Chamavi and Bructeri must also be considered as belonging to the Chauci. This further implies, that the Germans of Ariovistus must have come from the land of the Chauci. Should we conclude that the Germans and Chauci are identical?

The Oera Linda-book provides a positive answer to that question.

In his report of the return from India of the Geartmen, Frethorik writes (p.164) Wichhirte gvng mith sinum ljudum âstward nei thêre Emude. Konered writes (p.198) that his brother married Kornhelia, Friso's youngest daughter, while Friso's oldest daughter Weamod was married to Kauch, and he continues: Kauch thêr âk bi him to skole gvng, is thi svnv fon Wichhirte thene Gêrtmanna kâning.

[57] Later he mentions (p.210): Gertmannja alsa hêdon tha Gêrtmanna hjara stât hêten, thêr hja trvch Gosa hira bijeldinga krêjen hêde.

This is how Wichhirte, king of the Geartmen settled at the mouth of the Ems, where the name E-mude is still known as the old name of Emden. After the Geartmen they named the land Geartmania. Wichhirte was succeeded by Kauch, after whom the Geartmen where subsequently also called Chauci, by which name they appear in later history. However a land by the name of Chaucia is nowhere to be found. Therefore, the land must have retained the name Geartmania, which however as such (as specific name) will not have been known by the Romans, for they only speak of it as land of the Chauci. As a matter of fact, this is usual: they mention the tribe names, not the regions.

The Geartmen – Chauci – have expanded their territory along the Ems towards the land of the Chatti, that is East Frisia and Münsterland, unto the Lippe (from 303 – 71 BCE). Fourteen years before Caesar's arrival in Gaul, Ariovist, king of the Germans, has crossed the Rhine with 15,000 men, and has gained control of the Kleve district and Limburg, etc. unto the Seine. The Aedui complain to Caesar about Ariovistus king of the Germans having conquered a third of the land between the Rhine and the Seine. There, according to Tacitus, they replaced their name Germani by Tungri.

While the Geartmen (see p.104) initially had chosen that name because their Mother (or chief priestess) was named Geart, another meaning was attached to it, for Geart means sword and Geartmen, swordsmen. However, after their 'blitzkrieg', their lightning-swift [58] conquests in the north of Gaul, they named themselves Tungara (Tungri) after Tungar, which is thunder.

After their name, the Romans named the left Rhine bank Germania Cisrhenana, and further extended the name Germania over the whole land from the Rhine to the Vistula as Germania Transrhenana.

The conlusion of all this is, that the East-Frisians were the first and original Germans.

1874

Royal Ac.

1876

Dev.Crt.

MS existed

1877

Pandschap

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