The Church Fathers · 551
The Origin and Deeds of the Goths
Getica
Jordanes · 6th century
What it is
A condensed version of Cassiodorus's lost Gothic history, tracing the Goths from Scandinavia to Italy and describing the battle against Attila.
Why it lasted
The only surviving narrative of Gothic origins, and the foundation — for better and much worse — of later European ideas about Germanic antiquity.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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