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The Aviones or Auiones (*Awioniz meaning "island people") were one of the Nerthus-worshipping Germanic tribes mentioned by Tacitus in Germania, and this tribe probably lived on Öland (Kendrick 1930:71). Tacitus wrote of the group as defended by rivers and forests:

(Original Latin) Reudigni deinde et Aviones et Anglii et Varini et Eudoses et Suardones et Nuithones. Nec quicquam notabile in singulis, nisi quod in commune Nerthum, id est Terram matrem, colunt eamque intervenire rebus hominum, invehi populis arbitrantur. ..." --Tacitus, Germania, 40.^[1]

(English translation) There follow in order the Reudignians, and Aviones, and Angles, and Varinians, and Eudoses, and Suardones and Nuithones; all defended by rivers or forests. Nor in one of these nations does aught remarkable occur, only that they universally join in the worship of Herthum (Nerthus); that is to say, the Mother Earth.--Tacitus, Germania, 40, translated 1877 by Church and Brodribb.^[2]

Schütte [3] remarks they are mentioned in Widsith as Eowan. It is not only the meaning Island dwellers that connects them to the island Öland (meaning "Island land"), but also the Old English name for the island which was Eowland (mentioned by Wulfstan of Hedeby), "the land of the Eowan".

[edit] Notes

^ Tacitus', Germania, 40, Medieval Source Book. Code and format by Northvegr.[1]
^ Tacitus', Germania, 40; translation from The Agricola and Germania, A. J. Church and W. J. Brodribb, trans., (London: Macmillan, 1877), pp. 87- 10, as recorded in the Medieval Sourcebook[2]

[edit] References

Kendrick, T.D. (1930), A History of the Vikings, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons.[4]

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[0] Tacitus', Germania, 40, Medieval Source Book. Code and format by Northvegr.[1]

[1] Tacitus', Germania, 40; translation from The Agricola and Germania, A. J. Church and W. J. Brodribb, trans., (London: Macmillan, 1877), pp. 87- 10, as recorded in the Medieval Sourcebook[2]

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