a, m., pl. Gotnar, the Goths; hence Gotland, n. Gotland; Gotneskr, adj. Gothic, Lex. Poët.; Gota-veldi, n. the Gothic empire, (of the island Gotland, A. D. 1319.) The name of the Goths with compds occurs freq. in Scandin. history, esp. in Sagas referring to the mythical age; and distinction is made between Ey-Gotar, the Island-Goths, i. e. the inhabitants of the Danish Isles, and Reið-Gotar or Hreð-Gotar in the south of Sweden. According to Jornandes and the late Norwegian historian P. A. Munch, a race of Gothic origin, speaking a dialect closely akin to that of Ulfilas, lived in parts of Scandinavia during the 3rd and 4th centuries of our era; Munch even supposes that Ermanarik (Jörmunrekr) was a Scandinavian-Gothic king, and lived in the 4th century, and that the Runic monuments on the Golden horn, the stone in Tune, the Bracteats, etc., are of this and the subsequent period; on this interesting question see Munch’s Norske Folk’s Hist., vol. i, and several essays by the same.

II. poët. a horse, Lex. Poët.