Rugii

The Rugii, also Rugians, Rygir, Ulmerugi, or Holmrygir (Norwegian: Rugiere, German: Rugier) were an East Germanic tribe who also appeared in southwest Norway and who in 100 AD lived near the Vistula River south of the Baltic Sea in an area 900 years later known as Pomerania. A number of them went from the Baltic Sea to the Danube River valley, where they established their own kingdom in the 5th century AD.

Etymology

The tribal name "Rugii" or "Rygir" is a derivate of the Old Norse term for rye, rugr, and is thus translated "rye eaters" or "rye farmers".Holmrygir and Ulmerugi are both translated as "island Rugii".

Uncertain and disputed is the association of the Rugii with the name of the isle of Rügen and the tribe of the Rugini. Though some scholars suggested that the Rugii passed their name to the isle of Rügen in modern Northeast Germany, other scholars presented alternative hypotheses of Rügen's etymology associating the name to the mediaeval Rani (Rujani) tribe.

The Rugini were only mentioned once, in a list of tribes still to be Christianised drawn up by the English monk Bede (Beda venerabilis) in his Historia ecclesiastica of the early 8th century. Whether the Rugini were remnants of the Rugii is speculative. The Rugini were also associated with the Rani.