Lesson plan

Harii

The Harii (West Germanic "warriors") were, according to a single brief remark by the 1st century CE Roman historian Tacitus, a Germanic people; the most powerful of the Lugian group of states (civitates), who in turn dominated a large part of the Suebian part of Germania in an area north of the Sudeten and Carpathian Mountains, in the region of present day Poland and eastern Germany. In his work Germania, Tacitus says the Harii used black shields and painted their bodies black (nigra scuta, tincta corpora), attacking at night as a shadowy army, much to the terror of their opponents. Theories have been proposed connecting the Harii to the einherjar, ghostly warriors in service to the god Odin, attested much later among the North Germanic peoples by way of Norse mythology, and to the tradition of the Wild Hunt, a procession of the dead through the winter night sky sometimes led by Odin.

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Article summary

The Harii (West Germanic "warriors") were, according to a single brief remark by the 1st century CE Roman historian Tacitus, a Germanic people; the most powerful of the Lugian group of states (civitates), who in turn dominated a large part of the Suebian part of Germania in an area north of the Sudeten and Carpathian Mountains, in the region of present day Poland and eastern Germany. In his work Germania, Tacitus says the Harii used black shields and painted their bodies black (nigra scuta, tincta corpora), attacking at night as a shadowy army, much to the terror of their opponents. Theories have been proposed connecting the Harii to the einherjar, ghostly warriors in service to the god Odin, attested much later among the North Germanic peoples by way of Norse mythology, and to the tradition of the Wild Hunt, a procession of the dead through the winter night sky sometimes led by Odin.

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Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.