Editing Geats (section)

==Fringe theories==
===Götaland theory===
The Götaland theory (Swedish "Västgötaskolan") is a disparate group of theories, which have attempted to prove that some events and even places that are traditionally placed around [[Mälaren]], especially ones that are associated with the formation of medieval Sweden, instead should be located to Västergötland. The methods ranged from relatively scholarly efforts to [[dowsing]].<ref name="larsson04169">{{Cite book|last=Larsson|first=Mats G. |year=2004|title=Götarnas riken |publisher=Atlantis |place=Stockholm|pages=33–34, 90}}</ref> This "school" was brought to prominence in the 1980s following a TV series by [[Dag Stålsjö]]. While some serious scholars have attempted to place more emphasis on the Geats in the early history of Sweden than was traditional, Västgötaskolan has never reached any acceptance.

=== Identity of the Gēatas===
The generally accepted identification of Old English ''Gēatas'' as the same ethnonym as Swedish ''götar'' and Old Norse ''gautar'' is based on the observation that the ''ö'' monophthong of modern Swedish and the ''au'' diphthong of [[Old Norse]] correspond to the ''ēa'' diphthong of [[Old English language|Old English]].

{| class="wikitable"
|+Correspondences
!style="text-align: left"| [[Old Norse]]
!style="text-align: left"| [[Swedish language|Swedish]]
!style="text-align: left"| [[Old English language|Old English]]
!style="text-align: left"| Modern English
|-
|brauð || bröd || brēad || bread
|-
|laukr || lök || lēac || onion, cf. leek
|-
|lauf || löv || lēaf || leaf
|-
|austr || öst || ēast || east
|-
|draumr || dröm || drēam || dream
|-
|dauðr || död || dēað || death
|-
|rauðr || röd || rēad || red 
|}

Thus, ''Gēatas'' is the [[Old English language|Old English]] form of [[Old Norse]] ''Gautar'' and modern Swedish ''Götar''. This correspondence seems to tip the balance for most scholars. It is also based on the fact that in ''[[Beowulf]]'', the ''Gēatas'' live east of the ''[[Daner|Dani]]'' (across the sea) and in close contact with the ''Sweon'', which fits the historical position of the Geats between the Danes and the Swedes. Moreover, the story of Beowulf, who leaves ''Geatland'' and arrives at the [[Daner|Danish]] court after a naval voyage, where he kills a beast, finds a parallel in [[Hrólf Kraki's saga]]. In this saga, [[Bödvar Bjarki]] leaves ''Gautland'' and arrives at the [[Daner|Danish]] court after a naval voyage and kills a beast that has been terrorizing the Danes for two years (see also [[Origins for Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki]]).

====Jutish hypothesis====
There is a hypothesis that the Jutes also were Geats, and which was proposed by Pontus Fahlbeck in 1884. According to this hypothesis the Geats would have not only resided in southern Sweden but also in [[Jutland]], where [[Beowulf]] would have lived.

The Geats and the Jutes are mentioned in ''Beowulf'' as different tribes, and whereas the Geats are called ''gēatas'', the Jutes are called ''ēotena'' (genitive) or ''ēotenum'' (dative).<ref name="Nerman1925">{{cite book |last1=Nerman |first1=Birger |author1-link=Birger Nerman |title=Det Svenska Rikets Uppkomst |date=1925 |publisher=Ivar Haeggström |location=Stockholm |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UiYrzQEACAAJ |access-date=24 December 2020 |archive-date=20 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230420104219/https://books.google.com/books?id=UiYrzQEACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|108}} Moreover, the Old English poem ''[[Widsith]]'' also mentions both Geats and Jutes, and it calls the latter ''ȳtum''.<ref name="Nerman1925" />{{rp|108}} However, Fahlbeck proposed in 1884 that the Gēatas of ''Beowulf'' referred to Jutes and he proposed that the Jutes originally also were Geats like those of southern Sweden.<ref name="Nerman1925" />{{rp|109}} This theory was based on an Old English translation of [[Venerable Bede]]'s ''[[Ecclesiastical History of the English People]]'' attributed to [[Alfred the Great]] where the Jutes (''iutarum'', ''iutis'') once are rendered as ''gēata'' (genitive) and twice as ''gēatum'' (dative)<ref name="Nerman1925" />{{rp|108–109}} (see e.g. the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary|OED]]'' which identifies the Geats through ''Eotas'', ''Iótas'', ''Iútan'' and ''Geátas''). Fahlbeck did not, however, propose an etymology for how the two ethnonyms could be related.<ref name="Nerman1925" />{{rp|109}}

Fahlbeck's theory was refuted by Schück who in 1907 noted that another Old English source, the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'', called the Jutes ''īutna'', ''īotum'' or ''īutum''.<ref name="Nerman1925" />{{rp|109}} Moreover, Schück pointed out that when Alfred the Great's translation mentions the Jutes for the second time (book IV, ch. 14(16)) it calls them ''ēota'' and in one manuscript ''ȳtena''.<ref name="Nerman1925" />{{rp|110}} Björkman proposed in 1908 that Alfred the Great's translation of Jutes as Geats was based on a confusion between the West Saxon form ''Geotas'' ("Jutes") and ''Gēatas'' ("Geats").<ref name="Nerman1925" />{{rp|110}}

As for the origins of the ethnonym ''Jute'', it may be a secondary formation of the toponym Jutland, where ''jut'' is derived from a [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] root *''eud'' meaning "water".<ref>{{cite web| last = Hellquist| first = Elof| title = Jut-, Jute| work = Svensk etymologisk ordbok| publisher = [[Project Runeberg]]| year = 1922| url = https://runeberg.org/svetym/0372.html| access-date = 21 November 2007| language = sv| archive-date = 24 November 2007| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071124055533/http://runeberg.org/svetym/0372.html| url-status = live}}</ref>

====Gutnish hypothesis====
Since the 19th century, there has also been a suggestion that Beowulf's people were [[Gutes]] (from the island of [[Gotland]] in Sweden). According to the poem, the ''weather-geats'' or ''sea-geats'', as they are called are supposed to have lived east of the Danes/Dacians and be separated from the Swedes by wide waters. Some researchers have found it a little far-fetched that ''wide waters'' relates to [[Vänern]] in Västergötland or Mälaren. The ''weather'' in ''weather-geats'', and ''sea-geats'' marks a people living at a windy, stormy coast by the sea. The Geats of Västergötland were historically an inland people, making an epithet such as ''weather-'' or ''sea-'' a little strange. Moreover, when Beowulf dies he is buried in a mound at a place called ''Hrones-naesse'', meaning "the cape of whales". Whales have for obvious reasons never lived in Vänern, where, according to [[Birger Nerman]], Beowulf is buried. However, an expanse of water separates the island of [[Gotland]] from the Swedes. The island lies east of Denmark/Dacia and whales were once common in the Baltic Sea where Gotland is situated. The name of the Gutes in Swedish, ''[[Gutar]]'', is an ablaut-grade of the same name as that of the Geats in Beowulf. These facts made the archaeologist [[Gad Rausing]] come to the conclusion that the ''weather-Geats'' may have been Gutes. This was supported by another Swedish archaeologist [[Bo Gräslund]]. According to Rausing, Beowulf may be buried in a place called ''Rone'' on Gotland, a name corresponding to the ''Hrones'' in ''Hrones-naesse''. Not far from there lies a place called ''Arnkull'' corresponding to the ''Earnar-naesse'' in Beowulf, which according to the poem was situated closely to Hrones-naesse.

This theory does not exclude the ancient population of Västergötland and Östergötland from being Geats, but rather holds that the Anglo-Saxon name ''Geat'' could refer to West-geats (Västergötland), East-geats (Östergötland) as well as weather-geats (Gotland), in accordance with Jordanes account of the Scandinanian tribes Gautigoth, Ostrogoth and Vagoth.