Editing Gepids (section)

===Legendary===

All information of the Gepids' origins came from "malicious and convoluted Gothic legends",<ref name=Bona_The_Gepids_before_Hun_Rule>{{cite book |last=Bóna |first=István |editor1-last=Köpeczi |editor1-first=Béla |editor2-last=Barta |editor2-first=Gábor |editor3-last=Makkai |editor3-first=László |editor4-last=Mócsy |editor4-first=András |editor5-last=Szász |editor5-first=Zoltán | title=History of Transylvania |publisher=Hungarian Research Institute of Canada (Distributed by Columbia University Press) |year=2001 |chapter=From Dacia to Transylvania: The Period of the Great Migrations (271&ndash;895); "Forest people": the Goths in Transylvania; The Gepids before Hun Rule | chapter-url = http://mek.oszk.hu/03400/03407/html/31.html |isbn=0-88033-479-7}}</ref> recorded in Jordanes' ''[[Getica]]'' after 550.{{sfn|Goffart|2009|p=200}}{{sfn|Wolfram|1988|p=21}}{{sfn|Kharalambieva|2010|p=245}} According to Jordanes's narration the northern island of "[[Scandza]]", which is associated with Sweden by modern scholars, was the original homeland of the ancestors of the Goths and Gepids.{{sfn|Christensen|2002|p=8}} They left Scandza together in three boats under the leadership of [[Berig]], the legendary Gothic king.{{sfn|Christensen|2002|p=8}}{{sfn|Wolfram|1988|p=26}} Jordanes specified that the Gepids' ancestors traveled in the last of the three ships, for which their fellows mocked them as ''gepanta'', or "slow and stolid."{{sfn|Wolfram|1988|p=26}}<ref>''The Gothic History of Jordanes'' (xvii:95), p. 78.</ref>{{sfn|Heather|2010|pp=124-125}} The Goths and Gepids then settled along the southern shore of the [[Baltic Sea]] on an island at the mouth of the [[Vistula]] river, called "Gepedoius", or the Gepids' fruitful meadows, by Jordanes.{{sfn|Kharalambieva|2010|p=245}}{{sfn|Wolfram|1988|p=23}} Modern historians debate whether the part of Jordanes's work which described the migration from Scandza was written at least partially on the basis of Gothic oral history or whether it was an "ahistorical fabrication."{{sfn|Christensen|2002|p=318}} Jordanes's passage in his ''[[Getica]]'' reads:

{{blockquote|Should you ask how the [Goths] and Gepidae are kinsmen, I can tell you in a few words. You surely remember that in the beginning I said the Goths went forth from the bosom of the island of Scandza with Berig, their king, sailing in only three ships toward the hither shore of Ocean, namely to [[Gothiscandza]]. One of these three ships proved to be slower than the others, as is usually the case, and thus is said to have given the tribe their name, for in their language ''gepanta'' means slow. Hence it came to pass that gradually and by corruption the name Gepidae was coined for them by way of reproach. For undoubtedly they too trace their origin from the stock of the Goths, but because, as I have said, ''gepanta'' means something slow and stolid, the word Gepidae arose as a gratuitous name of reproach.<ref>''The Gothic History of Jordanes'' (xvii:94-95), p. 78. See {{harvtxt|Christensen|2002|p=338}}</ref>}}

According to Jordanes, the Gepids decided to leave "Gepedoius" during the reign of a king named [[Fastida]].{{sfn|Kharalambieva|2010|p=246}} He claims the Gepids moved to the south long after the Goths had already moved, and defeated the [[Burgundians]] and other races, provoking the Goths in the process.{{sfn|Kharalambieva|2010|p=246}} Fastida demanded land from [[Ostrogotha]], King of the Visigoths, because the Gepids' territory was "hemmed in by rugged mountains and dense forests".<ref name=Bona_The_Gepids_before_Hun_Rule/>{{sfn|Wolfram|1988|p=58}}<ref>''The Gothic History of Jordanes'' (xvii:98), p. 79.</ref> Ostrogotha refused Fastida's demand and the Gepids joined battle with the Goths "at the town of Galtis, near which the river Auha flows".<ref>''The Gothic History of Jordanes'' (xvii:99), p. 79.</ref>{{sfn|Wolfram|1988|p=58}} They fought until darkness fell, when Fastida and his Gepids withdrew from the battlefield and returned to their land.<ref name=Bona_The_Gepids_before_Hun_Rule/>{{sfn|Wolfram|1988|p=58}} Whether they still lived around the [[Vistula]] or had already conquered [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]] is debated by historians.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kiss |first=Attila |url=http://doktori.bibl.u-szeged.hu/id/eprint/2531/1/Disszertacio.pdf |title=A gepidák Kárpát-medencei története |publisher=Szegedi Középkorász Műhel |year=2014 |location=Szeged |page=34 |language=hu |trans-title=The history of the Gepids in the Carpathian Basin}}</ref>