The Hercynian Forest was an ancient and dense forest that stretched eastward from the Rhine River. The ancient sources are equivocal about how far east. All agree that the Black Forest formed the western side of the Hercynian. The Rhine canyon (Ruinaulta) in Graubünden in Switzerland Length 1. ... A map of Germany, showing the Black Forest in red. ...

Ancient References

The name is cited dozens of times in several classical authors, but most of the references are non-definitive, as the author is assuming the reader would know where the forest is. The earliest is in Aristotle (Meteorologica), who refers to the Arkunia ore (Hercynian mountains) of Europe, but tells us only that rivers flow north from there. Aristotle (sculpture) Aristotle (Greek: Αριστοτέλης Aristotelēs; 384 BC – March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher. ... Meteorology (or Meteorologica) is a text by Aristotle which contains his theories about the earth sciences. ...

During the time of Julius Caesar, this forest blocked the advance of the Roman legions into Germania. His few statements are the most definitive. In De Bello Gallico (Book 6, Chapters 24 and 25), He says that the forest stretches along the Danube from the Helvetii (present-day Switzerland) to Dacia (present-day Romania). Its implied northern dimension is nine days march. Its eastern dimension is indefinitely more than 60 days march. The concept fascinated and perhaps frightened him a little. He entertains old wives' tales, such as unicorns in the endless forests of Germania. The Romans may have drawn that conclusion from the horns of narwhales used by the Germans. Very likely, today's concept of an endless Black Forest (which is far from reality) descends from Caesar. His name is the one most used: Hercynia Silva. Bust of Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (Classical Latin: IMP·C·IVLIVS·CAESAR·DIVVS¹) (b. ... The Roman legion (from the Latin legio, meaning levy) was the basic military unit of ancient Rome. ... Germania - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... De Bello Gallico (literally On the Gallic Wars in Latin) is an account written by Julius Caesar about his nine years of war in Gaul. ... Length 2,888 km Elevation of the source 1,078  m Average discharge 30 km before Passau: 580 m³/s Vienna: 1,900 m³/s Budapest: 2,350 m³/s just before Delta: 6,500  m³/s Area watershed 817,000  km² Origin  Black Forest (Schwarzwald-Baar, Baden- Württemberg... A map of Gaul showing the northern Alpine position of the Helvetii. ... Dacia, in ancient geography the land of the Daci, a subtribe of the Getae, was a large district of Central Europe, bounded on the north by the Carpathians, on the south by the Danube, on the west by the Tisa (Tisza river, in Hungary), on the east by the Tyras... The gentle and pensive virgin has the power to tame the unicorn, in this fresco in Palazzo Farnese, Rome, probably by Domenichino, ca 1602 The unicorn is a legendary creature shaped like a horse, but slender and with a single — usually spiral — horn growing out of its forehead. ... Binomial name Monodon monoceros Linnaeus, 1758 Narwhal range The Narwhal (Monodon monoceros) is an Arctic species of cetacean similar in size and shape to a dolphin. ...

Pliny the Elder in Natural History (the paradigm for all subsequent natural histories), which also includes geography, places the eastern regions of the Hercynium jugum in Pannonia (present-day Hungary) and Dacia (Book 4 Chapter 25). He also gives us some insight into its composition. It contains gigantic oaks, he says (Book 16 Chapter 2). But even he is subject to the mythological aura exuding from the gloomy forest. He makes mention of unusual birds, which have feathers that "shine like fires at night". Medieval bestiaries named these birds the Ercinee. Edward Gibbon noted the presence of reindeer and elk in the Hercynian. Gaius Plinius Secundus, (23–79) better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author and Natural philosopher of some importance who wrote Naturalis Historia. ... Natural history is an umbrella term for what are now usually viewed as a number of distinct scientific disciplines. ... Position of the Roman province of Pannonia Pannonia is an ancient country bounded north and east by the Danube, conterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. ... Edward Gibbon. ... Binomial name Rangifer tarandus (Linnaeus, 1758) The reindeer, known as caribou in North America, is an Arctic-dwelling deer (Rangifer tarandus). ... The word Elk has several possible meanings: In Europe, Elk is the animal known in North America as the Moose (Alces alces). ...

The wild bull was another animal in the Hercynian Forest: the aurochs, bos primigenius, which they called the urus and ureox. Although the aurochs became extinct since Roman times, tt has, however, been genetically reconstituted in the forests of northeast Poland and Belarus. These forests are not believed to be have been continuous with the Hercynian, as the flatlands of Poland intervene. With animals such as the aurochs and brown bear and Germanic tribes such as the Suevi in the Hercynian, it is no wonder that the forest generated such awe in the superstitious Roman soldiers. A bull is a male of various animal species, including: cattle elephant whale In English, bull is usually spoken to refer specifically to male cattle, with terms such as bull elephant disambiguating the term for other species. ... Binomial name Bos taurus Bojanus, 1827 The aurochs (Bos taurus) is an extinct European mammal of the Bovidae family. ... Binomial name Ursus arctos Linnaeus, 1758 The Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) is a species of bear that can reach weights of 130–700 kg (300–1500 pounds). ... The Suebi or Suevi were a Germanic people whose origin was near the Baltic Sea . ...

In the Roman sources, the Hercynian Forest was clearly part of ancient Germania. We do find an indication that this circumstance was fairly recent; that is, Posidonius states that the Boii, who were Celtic, were once there (as well as in Bohemia). In fact Hercynian has a Celtic derivation. The bust of Posidonius as an older man depects his character as a Stoic philosopher. ... Boii is a name for 3 ancient Celtic tribes living in: Transalpine Gaul, modern France Cisalpine Gaul, or northern Italy Bohemia, Moravia and western Slovakia The European region of Bohemia most likely derives its name from the early Celtic people known as the Boii. ... The word Celtic can refer to: the European Celtic people, ancient or modern the Celtic languages, spoken by these people and their modern descendents the Celtic (Lusitania), Celts from the Alentejo. ... Bohemia Bohemia is also a place in the State of New York in the USA, see: Bohemia, New York. ...

Etymology

Julius Pokorny lists Hercynian as being derived from *perkwu-, "oak", where -kwu- represents Pokorny's labio-velar. He further identifies the name as Celtic. Regarding the H-, Celtic forms usually lose an initial Indoeuropean *p-, and the corresponding Germanic forms have an f- by Grimm's Law: English fir, Gothic fairguni ("mountain"). Pokorny therefore hypothesizes a development from the assimilated Indo-European form, *kwerkwu- (Latin quercus), as in the Celtic people Querquerni in Hispania. Germanic speakers would have made an h- of the *kw-. Hercynia would thus be a Germanicised Celtic word, testifying to the former dominance of the Celts along the Danube. Julius Pokorny (1887–1970) was born in Prague and studied at Vienna university. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Celtic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages. ... Grimms law (also known as the [First] Germanic Sound Shift; German: Erste Deutsche (Germanische) Lautverschiebung) was the first non-trivial systematic sound change ever to be discovered; its formulation was a turning-point in the development of linguistics, enabling the introduction of rigorous methodology in historical linguistic research. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Gothic language (*gutiska razda, *𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌹𐍃𐌺𐌰 𐍂𐌰𐌶𐌳𐌰) is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths and specifically by the Visigoths. ... The Indo-European languages include some 443 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects spoken by about three billion people, including most of the major language families of Europe and western Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. ... Latin is the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Hispania was the name given by the Romans to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal, Spain, Andorra and Gibraltar) and to two provinces created there in the period of the Roman Republic: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. ...

It is possible that the name of the Harz Mountains in Germany is derived from Hercynian, as Harz is a Middle High German word meaning "mountain forest." The Harz is a mountain range in northern Germany. ... Middle High German is an ancestor of the modern German language, and was spoken from 1050 to about 1500. ...

See also

• Białowieża Forest