Editing Irminones (section)

== History of use ==
=== Classical ===
The name Irminones or Hermiones comes from [[Tacitus]]'s ''[[Germania (book)|Germania]]'' (AD 98), where he categorized them as one of the tribes that some people say were descended from [[Mannus]], and noted that they lived in the interior of [[Germania]]. Other [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] groups of tribes were the [[Ingaevones|Ingvaeones]], living on the coast, and [[Istvaeones]], who accounted for the rest.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0083:chapter=2 |title=Cornelius Tacitus, Germany and its Tribes, chapter 2 |editor1=Alfred John Church |editor2=William Jackson Brodribb |website=perseus.tufts.edu |access-date=16 April 2018}}</ref> Tacitus also mentioned the [[Suebi]] as a large grouping who included the [[Semnones]], the [[Quadi]], and the [[Marcomanni]], but he did not say precisely to which (if any) of the three nations they belonged.

[[Pomponius Mela]], in his ''Description of the World'' (III.3.31) described the Hermiones as the farthest people of [[Germania]], beyond both the [[Cimbri]] and [[Teutones]] who lived on the [[Codanus sinus]], which is understood today to have been his name for the [[Baltic Sea]] and [[Kattegat]], although it was described by him as a very large bay filled with islands, east of the [[Elbe]] river. Still farther east Mela describes the [[Sarmatians]] whom he places west of the [[Vistula]], and then the [[Scythians]] whom he places east of the Vistula.<ref>{{citation|title=Pomponius Mela's description of the world |translator-first=F.E. |translator-last=Romer|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015042048507?urlappend=%3Bseq=121|author=Pomponius Mela|pages=109–117|hdl=2027/mdp.39015042048507?urlappend=%3Bseq=121 }}. Comments: {{harvnb|Christensen|2002|p=256}}. Latin text: https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/pomponius3.html</ref>

[[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]]'s ''Natural History'' (4.100) claimed that the Irminones included the [[Suebi]], [[Hermunduri]], [[Chatti]], and [[Cherusci]].

=== Medieval ===
In the so-called [[Frankish Table of Nations]] (c. 520), probably a Byzantine creation, the son of Mannus, who was the ancestor of the Irminones, is named Erminus (or Armen, Ermenius, Ermenus, Armenon, Ermeno, as it appears in various manuscripts). He is said to have fathered the [[Ostrogoths]], [[Visigoths]], [[Vandals]], [[Gepids]], and [[Saxons]]. In a variation on the table that appears in the ''[[Historia Brittonum]]'', the Vandals and Saxons have been replaced by the [[Burgundians]] and [[Lombards|Langobards]].<ref>{{citation |author=Walter Goffart |author-link=Walter Goffart |title=The Supposedly 'Frankish' Table of Nations: An Edition and Study |journal=Frühmittelalterliche Studien |volume=17 |issue=1 |doi=10.1515/9783110242164.98 |pages=98–130 |year=1983|s2cid=201734002 }}.</ref>

They may have differentiated into the tribes [[Alamanni]], [[Hermunduri]], [[Marcomanni]], [[Quadi]], and [[Suebi]] by the first century AD. By that time the Suebi, Marcomanni, and Quadi had moved southwest into the area of modern-day [[Bavaria]] and [[Swabia]]. In 8 BC, the Marcomanni and Quadi drove the [[Boii]] out of [[Bohemia]].

The term Suebi is usually applied to all the groups who moved into this area, although later in history (around 200 AD) the term Alamanni (meaning "all-men") became more commonly applied to the group.

''[[List of names of Odin|Jǫrmunr]]'', the Viking Age Norse form of the name ''[[wikt:Irmin|Irmin]]'', can be found in a number of places in the ''[[Poetic Edda]]'' as a [[by-name]] for [[Odin]]. Some aspects of the Irminones culture and beliefs may be inferred from their relationships with the Roman Empire, from Widukind's confusion over whether Irmin [[Interpretatio romana|was comparable]] to [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]] or [[Hermes]], and from [[Snorri Sturluson]]'s allusions, at the beginning of the ''Prose Edda'', to Odin's cult having appeared first in Germany before spreading up into the Ingvaeonic North.