The Burgundians
| Burgundian | |
|---|---|
| Region | Gaul |
| Extinct | 6th century |
|
Indo-European
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
None (mis) |
qlb |
|
| Glottolog | None |
The Burgundians (Latin: Burgundiōnes, Burgundī; Old Norse: Burgundar; Old English: Burgendas; Greek: Βούργουνδοι) were a large East Germanic or Vandal tribe, or group of tribes, who lived in the area of modern Poland in the time of the Roman Empire.
In the late Roman period, as the empire came under pressure from many such "barbarian" peoples, a powerful group of Burgundians and other Vandalic tribes moved westwards towards the Roman frontiers along the Rhine Valley, making them neighbors of the Franks who formed their kingdoms to the north, and the Suebic Alemanni who were settling to their south, also near the Rhine. They established themselves in Worms, but with Roman cooperation their descendants eventually established the Kingdom of the Burgundians much further south, and within the empire, in the western Alps region where modern Switzerland, France and Italy meet. This later became a component of the Frankish empire. The name of this Kingdom survives in the regional appellation, Burgundy, which is a region in modern France, representing only a part of that kingdom.
Another part of the Burgundians stayed in their previous homeland in the Oder-Vistula basin and formed a contingent in Attila's Hunnic army by 451.
Before clear documentary evidence begins, the Burgundians may have originally emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the Baltic island of Bornholm, and from there to the Vistula basin, in the middle of modern Poland.
The ethnonym Burgundians is commonly used in English to refer to the Burgundi (Burgundionei, Burgundiones or Burgunds) who settled in Sapaudia (Savoy), in the western Alps, during the 5th Century. The original Kingdom of the Burgundians barely intersected the modern Bourgogne and more closely matched the boundaries of the Arpitan or Romand (Franco-Provencal) language area, centred on the Rôno-Arpes (Rhône-Alpes) region of France, Romandy in west Switzerland and Val d'Outa (Val d'Aosta), in north west Italy.
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