Aventinus 8

Johannes Turmayr's 1520 History of Bavaria, Chapter 8 - translated and annotated by Ras Feqade, AD 2020.

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## 8. Of the Emperor Tuitsch or Teutsch, the first hero, noble and father of the Germans, Danes and Winds and Wends.

When now, as is reported above, Noah, the ancestor of all people, to delineate land and people, had distributed the same among the heroes [*Helden*], and it was now upon them that they should thus separate from one another in all the world: three nobles [*Herren*] led them, who would be the most prudent, by name **Nimrod, Ister, Samot**, persuading the others, several compelled thereto, to want to linger thus before each other, and make an eternal remembrance. Accordingly, setting out at the rising of the sun, they came into a vast fertile and pleasant plain, where the two great rivers Tigris and Euphrates run past. There they started to build a city and a tower out of baked bricks and asphalt; they ceased not from their undertaking, even wanted to continue building to Heaven. Then God plagued them, that one could no more understood another. Before they had all spoken only one language, which would be the Hebrew; presently everyone spoke a different language, nobody understood the other any more, it was a strange thing of confusion; one brother understood another; the father not the son; one brother spoke German, the other Windish, the third Italian, the father Hebrew, the son Spanish. So they had to let it go with noble authority, and thus separate from one another and spread out in all the world. Hence the first city mentioned above is called Babylon, from the Hebrew word *balbel* that means pouring confusion, mixing, throwing together.

[Aventinus is largely dependent on the Genesis account for this information, adding details such as the names of the three nobles who oversaw the tower, Nimrod, Ister and Samot, consistent with traditional medieval historians. It now appears, on the basis of my calculation of *Jubilees*, that Noah delineated the lands to his descendants in 2494 BC, and that the city of Eridu was begun, with the tower, in 2467 BC, continuing until its abandonment in 2424 BC. Nimrod or Enmerkar continued to rule in Erech until 2398 BC; Ister or Joktan and Samothes Dis settled in Europe, as explained in the next chapter.

Aventinus uses names for languages current in his day, though he may be transmitting some ancient information referring to Proto-Germanic, -Slavic, -Italic, -Semitic and -Iberic, possibly dating to the dispersion. Proto-Semitic, the oldest and original language, is essentially Ethiopic. The actual Akkadian name of Babel, first used for Eridu, is Bab-ili, gate of the gods; it was derisively used to mean 'confusion' in Hebrew.]

And as one counts from the restoration of the world, from the Deluge, 131 years, Nimrod son of Kush, grandson of Ham and great grandson of Noah, raised the first kingdom (also known as Assyria). At which time the mighty giant and warrior Tuitsch or Teutsch (called **Tuiscon** in Latin and Greek), a son of Noah, born after the Deluge, a father, nobleman and the origin of all Germans, Winds, Wends, and Danes, set out in Armenia with thirty heroes, his cousins, being the sons, grandsons and great grandsons of his brothers Shem and Japhet; he migrated with many people from Armenia to the land across the river Don in Europe and Germania, and settled down there with his captains and people. The abutting land near the Don waterway going east was named for his brother, the old **Scythes**, in High German Schütz, from whom the Germans and Teutons are also called Scyths or Scythian, as also Pliny in the fourth book indicates, when he describes all lands. There is now a region in Germania between Hungary and Austria called 'in the Schüt'.

[The correct number of years from the Deluge, 2755 BC, to the fall of the tower, 2424 BC, is 331, in agreement with *Jubilees*, however a number of later sources report the figure of 131 years. Nimrod or Enmerkar was the first king of Erech, which name would be an improvement here on the appearance of the name Assyria, owing to a confusion common to past historians. The *Defloratio* mentions Tuiscon departing Armenia Saga for Europe in the 25th year after the tower fell, i.e. in 2399 BC, as I am inclined to accept. Armenia, a later name, then would have been known as Aratta.

Aventinus' later *German Chronicle* further mentions that Scythes had two sons, Prutus, whence the Prussians, and Nabus.

Scythes would not be a brother of Tuiscon as stated here, but *Defloratio* says he is a son of Araxes the Great, daughter of Noah, whom Noah left as the first king of Armenia Saga, with Sebtah as Pope, when Noah departed for Italy, ca. 2450 BC. Later on, Sebtah son of Kush becomes king in Armenia Saga. However, Couillard seems to say Sebtah is the son of Araxa and becomes king of Armenia directly after Noah. This would mean Araxa, daughter of Noah, was married to Kush son of Ham and Scythes was a brother or half brother of Sebtah and Nimrod.]

Now when the above mentioned king Tuitsch came to this country, he traversed the length, width and breadth, visited and inspected the whole of Germania (so from the Rhine, Great German sea, and open seas, also the Black Sea where the Danube falls, and Tartary ends, as I briefly described it above), divided this region into marches, dominions [*Herrschaft*], principalities [*Fürstentum*], captaincies [*Hauptmannschaft*], and kingdoms [*Künigreich*], gave it to his captains, built everywhere castles, cities, marked villages, occasionally spots of wood, water and fields, and occupied the land with animals and people. In the twenty-fifth year of his regime, and to indicate eternal memories and certain signs to his descendants, he named the land and people, waters, mountains, valleys, castles and spots after him and his captains, as then the old custom was, which also the Bible and holy Scripture attests.

[The twenty-fifth year here surely refers to that of Nimrod's regime as counted from the fall of the tower, as in *Defloratio*, i.e. 2399 BC, but this has dropped out of the transmission, so that Aventinus erroneously places these events in the 25th year of Tuiscon's reign.]

From this Tuitsch or Teutsch, we were called 'Tuitsch' in the Latin, Saxon, Dutch, and Italian languages, and 'Teutsch' in the French, Swabian and Bavarian languages.

[Though this may be inaccurate information now, does it convey to us something of 'prehistoric' times?]

There lies opposite the city of Cologne on the German Rhine, a former city but now a monks' and princes' cloister, now belonging to that of Cologne, so (as the old people say about it) from the oft-mentioned Tuitsch, and we and our country have names from the same spot; likewise in the duchy of Cleph city and forest of Tuitschburg, where in former times our forefathers killed many people from the Romans, and there would also have been an amount of Frankfurters (as they say).

It seems to me, it will require the need and will almost serve to understand these histories more, where the captains of this emperor [*Erzkonig*] are named and described one after the other.

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