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The Heroic Age
A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe
Issue 11 (May 2008) | Issue Editors: Larry Swain &Linda
Malcor
Founded 1998 | ISSN 1526-1867
The Germanic Sword In The Tree: Parallel DevelopmentOr
Diffusion?1
C. Scott Littleton
Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA
Linda A. Malcor
Independent Researcher, Lake Forest, CA
2008 by C. Scott Littleon and Linda A. Malcor. All rights
reserved. This edition copyright 2008 by The Heroic Age. All rights
reserved.
Abstract: In this paper we consider whether the Norse story of
the "Sword in the Branstock"and the Arthurian tale of the "Sword in
the Stone" may represent two variants of a tale abouta celestial
event that occurred 2160 B.C.E.
Introduction
1. Scholars have long pointed to the Arthurian tale of the
"Sword in the Stone" and theNorse story of the "Sword in the
Branstock" as examples of the parallel development of an
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Indo-European myth that became part of an epic tradition in the
Celtic and Germanic cultures(e.g., Bruce 1958, 1:145). In this
paper we reexamine these two tales and consider whetherthey may
represent two variants of a story that was born as the result of a
celestial event thatwas viewed from somewhere near the northern
shore of the Black Sea in 2160 B.C.E.(Barber and Barber 2004,
210).2
The Sword in the Stone
2. The legend of the Sword in the Stone is well known today
through the numerousretellings of the Arthurian tale in stories,
plays and film (Plate 1). The basic story, as it tookits mature
form in Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur (Malory 1:15-20), relates how
the twelve-year-old Arthur accompanies his foster brother, Sir Kay,
to a tournament in London.3 Arthurforgets Kay's sword and runs to
retrieve it. On the way, he passes a churchyard where hespies a
sword embedded in an anvil atop a stone. Arthur pulls the Sword
from the Stone andtakes it to Kay, who claims to be the one who
drew the blade. A series of tests prove that noone except Arthur
can draw the sword, so the young boy is crowned "King of all
England" asthe golden words on the sword prophesy.
3. In From Scythia to Camelot (Littleton and Malcor 2000,
181-194), we argued that thisvariant of the Sword in the Stone
legend was transmitted to Europe by the Alans during thefifth
century C.E. In the Nart sagas, folk narratives told by the
Ossetians, who are thedescendents of the Alans, there are many
elements of the Sword in the Stone story, but notthe explicit motif
of the weapon being drawn from a stone or anvil (Littleton and
Malcor2000, 184, 186). The ancient Alans were, however, observed
practicing a religion associatedwith their war god, and, as part of
this ritual, they embedded a sword in the ground(presumably
removing it at some later point in time; Ammianus Marcellinus
31.4.22;Littleton 1982; Littleton and Malcor 2000, xxvvii, 186).
This ritual is clearly a survival of theritual the Scythians
performed in honor of their war god, as that ceremony was described
byHerodotus (4.59-62). What is intriguing for the purposes of this
paper, however, is that in theritual as described by Herodotus, the
iron sword is planted neither in an anvil nor in theground but
rather in an altar atop a pile of wood. With this in mind, let us
take a look at theGermanic variant of the tale.
The Sword in the Branstock
4. The main reason that scholars have assumed that the Germanic
variant of this legend isthe product of parallel development
instead of diffusion is that the Germanic sword is veryclearly
embedded in a tree rather than in an anvil or a stone. When the
Germanic tale isviewed, however, through its proper lens, it
quickly becomes apparent that this difference is amatter of
perspective rather than a material difference.
5. The Norsemen told of the "Sword in the Branstock" in the
"Sigurdsaga" portion of theVolsungasaga (Guerber 1985, 253-258)
(Plate 2). At the wedding of Signy and Siggeir, ablue-cloaked man
with one eye plunges a sword in the Branstock, an ancient oak. The
man
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declares that the sword will belong to the warrior who can pull
it free, then he leaves. Thewedding guests identify him as Odin.4
Several warriors, including Signy's father, Volsung, tryto draw the
weapon and fail. Sigmund, the tenth and youngest son, however,
succeeds.Through Siggeir's treachery, Sigmund and his brothers are
condemned to death and the swordis taken from Sigmund. The brothers
are chained to an oak in the forest and each night one iskilled by
a she-wolf.5 Finally, only Sigmund is left. Signy helps Sigmund
escape. Siggeireventually recaptures Sigmund along with Sinfiolti,
Signy's youngest son by Sigmund, andorders that the two heroes be
buried alive. The gravegoods that Signy throws into
Sinfiolti'sportion of the grave (which is covered by a stone roof)
contain Sigmund's sword. Sinfiotliplunges the sword through the
stone that separates him from Sigmund, cuts an openingthrough stone
and iron, and father and son escape. Sigmund then burns Siggeir to
death andbecomes king.
The Historical Context
6. Tacitus's Germania is our main source for ethnographic data
regarding the earlyGermanic peoples (Puhvel 1987, 189). Cassius
Dio, Ammianus Marcellinus and a few otherGreco-Roman authors round
out the very short list of written texts we have about this
culture(Puhvel 1987, 189) prior to their Christianization by
missionaries in the late eighth century(Puhvel 1987, 190).6 The
Embedded Sword story most likely spread to Iceland via
Vikingsettlement in 874 C.E., but Iceland was officially
Christianized by 1000 C.E. (Puhvel 1987,190). Snorri Sturluson, who
composed the Prose Edda, the main source for this tale, didn'tlive
until two centuries later (11781241 C.E.; Puhvel 1987, 190).7 In
other words, theGermanic sources are recorded late, and, as Jaan
Puhvel puts it, are of an "antiquarian (ratherthan primary) nature"
and show "diffusionary influences from classical cultures" (1987,
191).Puhevl adds that Snorri's material as well as the Poetic Edda
also show "diffusionaryinfluences from the general direction of the
Near East" (Puhvel 1987, 219) (see Map 1).
7. Herodotus (4.21, 4.46-50) put the Scythians as neighbors to
the Celts and the Sarmatiansas neighbors to the Scythians. Caesar
places the Germans between the Celts and theScythians, with the
Danube as an arbitrary dividing line that was probably chosen more
as aresult of his political ambitions than of any careful
ethnographic observation (Wells 2001,115-116). Strabo thought of
the Germans as Celts (Wells 2001, 116), and Cassius Dio calledRoman
Germania "Keltica", reserving "Germania" for the area "between the
Rhine and ElbeRivers" (Wells 2001, 117).8 So, the divisions in
ancient texts were not made on the basis oflanguages spoken or
perceived similarities of cultures but rather on geographic
location(Wells 2001, 117).
The Basic Comparison
8. The basic elements of the embedded weapon being a sword and
of the younger brotherwithdrawing the blade and becoming the future
king are about as far as most comparisons gobefore turning from the
similarities to the differences between the tales. Several key
parallels,
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however, are contained in the material between the withdrawal of
the sword and Sigmund'sascension to the kingship. Among them are
that Arthur's sword in the anvil atop a stone is ina graveyard and
that Sinfiotli and Sigmund use the sword from the Branstock to cut
throughstone and iron as they escape from a grave.9
9. Bruce (1958, 145) argued that the legend of the Sword and the
Stone derived from theGreek story of Theseus and the Germanic
Volsungasaga. The story's pattern, however, wasmore widespread than
those variants and parts of it appear in Herodotus's ancient
account ofthe religion of the Scythians.
Transmission
10. The spread of the tale that developed, as we consider all of
these variants, stronglysuggests that transmission occurred via the
steppe nomads. As these horse-riding warriorscame into contact with
other cultures and transmitted their knowledge of cavalry warfare
andof forging iron, they also transmitted stories about the deity
who oversaw both war andsmithing, a combination that only occurred
among the steppe nomads (see Map 2).
11. The knowledge of iron working first appeared in the "second
half of the thirdmillennium B.C. in Anatolia" (Milisauskas 1978,
253).10 Milisauskas (1978, 254) noted thatthe Scythian influence in
La Tne art could have come in with iron technology,11 and
thisagrees with what we find in the patterns of transmission for
the tale of the Sword in theStone. Knowledge of iron-working first
showed up ca. 600300 B.C.E. among Germanicpeoples in the area of
the Jastorf culture (Schutz 1983, 309), south of the Elbe and north
ofthe Weser. This was not, however, forging swords. The Germanic
peoples did not startforging iron into longer swords intended for
use by cavalry until the Late Roman Iron Age,ca. 180400 C.E.
(Hedeager 1992, 13).
12. The identity of the horse-riding elite warrior emerged in
Europe in the first centuryB.C.E. (Wells 2001, 120). Ca. 501
B.C.E., warrior graves with spurs, horse equipment, andlong swords
show up on both sides of the Rhine as far north as central Sweden
(Wells 2001,121). This style of grave seems to be influenced by
Sarmatian burials, as these nomadstended to substitute horse
equipment and/or pieces of horses for the full horse interments
thatwe find in the burials of other cultures. The style of cavalry
equipment also seems to havebeen transmitted from the
Sarmatians.
13. Caesar considered the "German" cavalry to be his best
mercenaries (Gallic War 8.10). Itis no accident that shortly after
the German cavalry units start showing up in the Roman army(4836
B.C.E.; Wells 2001, 121), Sarmatian units also start service as
Roman allies. Forinstance, Tiberius stationed the Iazyges between
the Danube and the Tisa as Roman allies ca.20 C.E. (Millar 1966,
276). We know that during the Marcomannic Wars of 166/7175
and177180, the Iazyges, a tribe of Sarmatians, were allied with the
Marcomanni and the Quadi,two tribes of the Suebi (Millar 1966,
115). In 175, when 5,500 Iazyges were set to Britain,"cavalry from
the Marcomanni, Quadi and Nuristae were sent . . . [to] Syria"
(Millar 1966,115).12
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14. While the Huns had had significant contact with the Germanic
peoples prior to therecording of the stories in the Volsungasaga,
Alano-Sarmatian peoples had had heavyinteraction with their
Germanic neighbors long before the Huns appeared on the scene.
Afterthe Huns defeated the Massagetae in 175 B.C.E., a tribe of
Sarmatians founded a kingdomand became known as the Royal
Sarmatians (Millar 1966, 284). This group is thought byseveral
scholars to have been the Iazyges in particular (Millar 1966, 289),
and they may haveearned their title by defeating and absorbing the
Royal Scythians, who were previouslysettled in the area where the
Romans report the Iazyges. By 50 C.E. the bulk of theSarmatians
were located in the vicinity of the Tisa and the Danube (Millar
1966, 289). Thisput them in close contact with several Germanic
peoples. Tacitus (Germania 46) tells thatthere were several tribes
who were so intermingled that he could no long tell which wasGerman
and which was Sarmatian.13 At least one of those tribes, the
Bastarrae, were incontact with the Sarmatians by the third century
B.C.E. (Todd 1992, 24).14
The Story in the Stars
15. Anyone who attempted to navigate by the stars, whether on an
actual sea or a sea ofgrass, would notice that something terrifying
happens over the course of centuries: Northmoves. (Plate 3) For
instance, ca. 2500 B.C.E. Thuban in the constellation Draco was
thepole star (Barber and Barber 2004, 198-199).15 In 2140 B.C.E.,
Polaris, which is in the LittleDipper, became the pole star, and
about 13,000 years from now Vega, in the constellationLyra, will
become the pole star (Barber and Barber 2004, 198).16 The pole
takes roughly2160 years to pass through each sign of the Zodiac
(Barber and Barber 2004, 199).17Accordingly, the spring equinox
shifted from Taurus into Aries in 2160 B.C.E. (Barber andBarber
2004, 208)
16. There were two ways of telling stories about this event. One
was to focus on theprecession of the pole through the various signs
of the Zodiac (Plate 4), which, as we knowit, was created roughly
5,000 years ago (Krupp 1978, 262-263), ca. 3,000 B.C.E.18 This
iswhat happened in the case of narratives about Mithras. "The
precession out of Taurus intoAries occurred nearly two thousand
years before Mithraism became popular" (Barber andBarber 2004,
206), yet it is quite clear from the imagery of the warrior slaying
the bull, with ascorpion and serpent attacking from below and a dog
lapping up the bull's blood, that themyths celebrated by the cult
carried information taken from the sky. The artists were notsubtle
about the connection: Most Mithraic images include the sun, moon
and stars. (Plate 5)In the worship of Mithras, we have the warrior
stabbing the bull, Aries attacking the adjacentsign of Taurus
(Barber and Barber 2004, 206). The hero of the story of the Ram
(e.g., theGolden Fleece) can replace the Ram in such tales, and
this is how some cultures told the taleof the celestial
precession.
17. The second way to tell the story was to focus on the pole
itself and "northshift".19While Mithras attacks the zodiacal sign
that the celestial pole is leaving, the hero in theSword in the
Stone story wields the pole itself, in this case a sword that is
sticking into theopposite sign. In 2160 B.C.E. that sign was Libra,
but Libra did not become a scale until the
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Romans decided to reinstate the old Babylonian system.20 For the
Hittites, Libra was a throneand for the Chaldeans, Libra was an
altar.21
18. The pole itself is depicted as many different things, from a
spindle to a churn. In thenomadic cultures of Eurasia, the pole was
sometimes a tent pole (Sullivan 1996, 80; Barberand Barber 2004,
200), but we think it could also be a sword. In the Germanic
cultures, thepole was the World Tree, Yggdrasil, which is
represented in the Volsungasaga by theBranstock. (Plate 6) A tree
turns up in some retellings of the northshift story because
thecelestial pole is the World Tree in addition to being the sword,
which is why the sword is inthe tree in the Germanic
tradition.22
19. Either the Hittites or the Chalybes were responsible for the
addition of the anvil andother ironworking pieces of the tale. In
the case of the steppe cultures, the war god was alsoassociated
with the forging of iron, and when these cultures transmitted the
knowledge ofhow to forge iron, they transmitted the stories of
their war god as well.23 The overalldistribution of the tale
matches the pattern of the steppe cultures spreading south, west
andeast out of the steppes. Since the Alans were in the Caucasus
region and had more contactwith the Hittites and Chalybes than the
Iazyges did, they developed a form of the sword ritualthat dropped
out the wood and embedded the sword in the ground. The Iazyges,
however,absorbed the Royal Scythians, who practiced the Sword in
the Altar atop a Pile of Woodvariant and then had close contact
with the Germanic peoples who saw the celestial pole as atree
rather than a sword. When idea of the cavalry warrior transmitted
from the Iazyges to theGermanic peoples, the practice of forging
iron transmitted with it. Images merged, and theresulting tale
became that of the Sword in the Tree instead of the Sword in the
Stone.24
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Figures
Plate 1: Arthur pulling Excalibur from the anvil [Back]
Plate 2: Odin thrusts the sword into the Branstock [Back]
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Map 1: The world according to Herodotus, ca. 450 BCE [Back]
Map 2: Modern Europe [Back]
Plate 3: Northshift [Back]
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Plate 4: The Zodiac, showing the precession of the equinox
[Back]
Plate 5: Mithras slaying a bull [Back]
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Plate 6: Yggrasil, the World Tree [Back]
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Notes
1. An earlier version of this paper was presented on Friday,
April 21, 2006, at the AnnualMeeting of the Western States Folklore
Society, Berkeley, CA. [Back]
2. By this date, Near Eastern cultures were squarely in the
middle of the Bronze Age. [Back]
3. Twelve seems to be a typical age for the hero to begin his
career. For instance, in theIcelandic Saga of Hrolf Kraki Bothvar
and his brothers are all twelve when they start to showtheir
prowess and begin pulling weapons from a stone. [Back]
4. In the Hrolf Kraki, Bothvar, the hero who pulled the sword
from the stone, senses thatOdin is about appear just before he
dies. Although Thor appears to be the chief diety in manyareas,
Odin "dominated in . . . Viking society" (Puhvel 1987, 192), and it
is the Viking variantthat we have preserved in the Prose Edda.
Despite Odin's deceptively small role in Tacitus aswell as in later
sources, he was the actual head of the Germanic pantheon (Puhvel
1987, 193).Although Odin has magical and priestly proclivities, as
Puhvel puts it, he "holds down muchof [the warrior-god] . . . slot"
(1987, 204). [Back]
5. Odin is associated with wolves, particularly werewolves, the
lfhenar ("wolf-skinned"),who were analogous to the berserker
("bear-skinned"; Puhvel 1987, 196). That there are twotypes of
frenzied warriors associated with Odin may indicate that we have a
doublet causedby impact from the Alano-Sarmatianor
Scythiantradition. Essentially on top of whereCaesar says the
German peoples were a few centuries later, the Neuri may have had
asignificant impact on the development of Germanic lore, since
these were the "Scythians"that Herodotus singled out as
"werewolves", creatures that are specifically associated withOdin
in Germanic tradition. Two of Odin's companions, Geri and Freki,
are also wolves(Puhvel 1987, 197), so when we have a she-wolf
figuring in a story that began with Odinplunging a sword into the
World Tree, it's very likely that the she-wolf is acting as
Odin'sagent. [Back]
6. There is a little information from "Frankish and Langobard
laws" and from Anglo-Saxonliterature (Puhvel 1987, 190), but none
of these contain the story of the Sword in theBranstock. [Back]
7. "Germanic materials from the High Middle Ages . . . show
heavy contamination byContinental literary convention" (Puhvel
1987, 190) and are of little importance to thediscussion of
Germanic mythic tradition. [Back]
8. For Greek writers, the Celts generally "occupied the lands to
the west [and] the Scythiansto the east" (Wells 2001, 115).
[Back]
9. This pattern can be seen in seemingly unrelated tales. For
instance, while Thor is having apiece of whetstone removed from
where it is embedded in his head, he tells of making theMorning
Star out of the frozen toe of the husband of the woman who is using
magic to
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remove the stone. The woman, Gra, became so upset that the stone
"remained embedded inThor's skull" (Puhvel 1987, 202). Here there
is clearly an astral connection with a warrior anda stone
associated with a sword. [Back]
10. By 1270 the knowledge of iron working had spread to Greece
(Milisauskas 1978, 253). [Back]
11. The Halstatt culture shows evidence of iron working ca.
1000500 B.C.E., and the LaTne culture shows similar evidence ca.
500 B.C.E.1 C.E. (Phillips 1980, 228). [Back]
12. The Nuristae may be the same people that Herodotus calls the
"Neuri." [Back]
13. These were the Peucini (Bastarnae), Venedi and Fenni.
[Back]
14. Although the sword cult has not been recorded among
Sarmatians specifically, we doknow that the cult was among the
Alans and that the Alans had a heavy impact on Germanicgroups in
the fourth and fifth centuries.
In one German legend recorded by the Brothers Grimm (Grimm and
Grimm 1981, 2:16, no.381), a herdsman finds a sword, sacred to the
Scythians, after a cow steps on it. He removesthe sword from the
ground (it doesn't seem to be embedded in any particular fashion)
andgives it to Attila, who recognizes it and is thrilled to possess
it. Priscus mentioned the swordcult and made the connection between
the cult and the story of the shepherd who followed atrail of blood
from his heifer to an ancient iron sword that was buried in the
ground, which hedug up and gave to Attila, who identified it as the
Sword of Mars (Jordanes 35.183). Wardsays "Cf. Altdeutsche Wlder,
I, 212, Note 10 and p. 319. Cr. Also Lamb. Schafnab., p. 348:The
Legend of Leopold von Mersburg who suffered great misfortune,
including the accountof the sword." Attila also figures in the
Icelandic Saga of Hrolf Kraki, albeit as an opponentof rather than
a wielder of Bothvar's sword (Mills 1933, 60 ff.).
All of these stories refer to a sword cult where the sword was
embedded in the ground ratherthan in a tree or an anvil or a stone.
This cult was observed among the Alans by AmmianusMarcellinus
(31.4.22), who noted that the Alans worshiped a god of war by
plunging a swordinto the ground. The Scythian sword cult referred
to here was recorded by Herodotus(4:59-62). The Huns, who feature
prominently in the Volsungasaga, as the story continues,probably
acquired their knowledge of the sword cult from the Alans (Bachrach
1973, 111).The sword cult also spread to Japan (Littleton
1995).
In the Icelandic Saga of Hrolf Kraki, the short sword that
Frothi drives into a wooden beamwas one that he originally pulled
from a stone (Mills 1933, 45). Frothi's brother, Bothvar,wields a
long sword which he pulled from the same stone and which he carries
in a barkscabbard (Mills 1933, 49). [Back]
15. In other words, the "sword" used to be in Draco's tail. The
Delphic story of Python theDragon, "presumably the constellation
traditionally named Draco . . . is told from a CameraAngle focused
specifically on 'Northshift' rather than on 'Precession,'
suggesting a localtradition that developed before diffusion of the
Near Eastern model [i.e., the Kingship in
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Heaven]" (Barber and Barber 2004, 208, n. 15). For the Japanese
variant, see Littleton 1981. [Back]
16. In between times, when there is an observable pole star, the
position of the celestial polecan be determined by noting the
positions of the various constellations. [Back]
17. The world pillars are the constellations in which the sun
rises at the solstices andequinoxes (Barber and Barber 2004, 201).
[Back]
18. We know, however, that people were creating pictures of
their myths in the stars,constellations, long before that time. As
Barber and Barber (2004, 211) point out, the"Kingship in Heaven"
stories, which also reflect the northshift, "were told by
Babylonians,Hittites, . . . Phoenicians. . . . , Germanic and
Finnic tribes . . . across Eurasia to Iran, Indiaand China [and] .
. . all [of them] must have diffused ultimately from the Near
East." They(Barber and Barber 2004, 210-211) have shown that these
tales encode data regarding thecelestial precession that dates back
to 6480 B.C.E., well before we have a record of theZodiac. The
"Kingship in Heaven" theme characterized the movement of the
equinox fromGemini to Taurus ca. 4300 B.C.E. (Barber and Barber
2004, 208). [Back]
19. "Northshift . . . The slow circuit of the extension of
Earth's rotational pole through thestars takes almost 26,000 years,
swinging the apparent North Celestial Pole from one part ofthe
northern sky to another and causing the sun to appear against a
shifting background ofZodiac stars" (Barber and Barber 2004, 198,
fig. 35). [Back]
20. Absolutely none of the stories or images is found prior to
2160 B.C.E. Libra is alsoknown as a dragon, a stone altar or the
Claw, depending on which culture is telling the tale. [Back]
21. For Mithraism as a celestial cult, see Barber and Barber
2004, 205-206 and Ulansey1989. The twelve signs of the zodiac show
up as the twelve rebel kings in the Arthur tale, thetwelve Apostles
in San Galgano's tale, the animal-shaped hilt of the Hititte sword
god inYazilikaya, Turkey (ca. 1250 B.C.E.) and so forth. For the
Chinese, Libra was a dragon,which explains why in Asia the sword is
in a dragon's tail instead of in the stone (Littleton1981, 272).
[Back]
22. The seven layers of earth that figures in some of the tales
are the celestial spheres,through which the Divine Sword cuts.
[Back]
23. Dates for precession of the spring equinox: ca. 6480 B.C.E.
(Cancer to Gemini), ca.4320 B.C.E. (Gemini to Taurus), ca 2160
B.C.E. (Taurus to Aries) (Barber and Barber 2004,210), and 6 B.C.
(Aries into Pices) (Barber and Barber 2004, 209). The precession
from Picesinto Aquarius will occur ca. 2154 C.E. [Back]
24. The Christians clearly had no idea that the tale was
originally a mnemonic forremembering the "new" order of the
Heavens, yet the monks and authors like Robert whorecord the tale
do an admirable job of keeping the important details that the
ancients weretrying to transmit to the next generation intact.
[Back]
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Works Cited
Ammianus Marcellinus. 1939. Ammianus Marcellinus. Translated by
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