THE ANCIENT GOTHS The Kingdom of the Visigoths.......Pg. 8-9 The Eastern Ostrogoths..............Pg. 10-11 Fun Facts...........................Pg. 12-13
LITERATURE OF THE VICTORIAN ERA Early Literature....................Pg. 16-17 Famous Gothic Literature...........Pg. 18-19
INFLUENCE ON SOCIETY Is Goth a Genre of Music?..........Pg. 22-23 Expression in Fashion..............Pg. 24-27 Food and Cuisine...................Pg. 28-31
To understand Goth subculture and its evolution, it must first be defined. A subculture can be defined as a “segment of a culture which (while reflecting the dominant aspects of the main culture) [shows] different customs, norms, and values,” according to Christopher S.Dawson, author of Leading Culture Change(Dawson). Goth is one such subculture, and its definitions vary depending on the source. Karin Gonzalez, an online anthropology instructor with a master’s degree in social work, defines a Goth as someone who enjoys Goth music and the ‘darker’ side of life, and death; someone who has an appreciation for Gothic literature and romanticism, and horror in general. They often wear all black or dark colored clothing, ranging from long trench coats to corsets.
The Visigoths were the western tribe of the Goths. They were a Germanic people who settled west of the Black Sea sometime in the 3rd century CE. According to the scholar Herwig Wolfram, the Roman writer Cassiodorus (c. 485-585 CE) coined the term Visigothi to mean ‘Western Goths’ as he understood the term Ostrogothi to mean ‘Eastern Goths’. Cassiodorus was simply trying to coin a name to differentiate the two extant tribes of the Gothic people in his time who clearly differed from each other; these tribes did not originally refer to themselves by these names. The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus (4th century CE) refers to the Visigoths as the Tervingi (also given as Thervingi), which may have been their original name. The designation Visigothi seems to have appealed to the Visigoths themselves, however, and in time they came to apply it to themselves. The Visigoths would eventually settle in the region of modern-day Germany and Hungary until they were driven out by the invading Huns. Some Visigoths, under their general Fritigern (d. c. 380 CE) were granted land by the emperor Valens (r. 364-378 CE) in Roman territory. Their mistreatment at the hands of Roman provincial governors would lead to the First Gothic War and the pivotal Battle of Adrianople (378 CE) in which Rome was defeated by the Goths under Fritigern. The Visigoths would further impact Rome when their king Alaric
I (r. 395-410 CE) sacked the city in 410 CE. After Alaric I, the Visigoths migrated to Spain where they established themselves and assimilated with the Romans and indigenous people living there. The Goths probably came from the region of modern-day Gdansk, Poland (though this claim is contested), before migrating toward the boundaries of Rome. The scholar Walter Goffart argues that there can be no “history of the Goths” before their appearance in Roman texts because prior to this time (c. 238 CE) there was no written history (8). The primary source on Gothic history is Jordanes’ Getica (6th century CE) which draws on Cassiodorus’ work as its primary source and weaves mythological and legendary events in with the historical narrative. Goffart, therefore (among others), claims that the Roman history of the Goths is the only history.
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The Ostrogoths were the eastern tribe of the Goths. They rose in power in the area north of the Black Sea. The designation, Ostrogoth, taken to mean ‘Eastern Goth’, actually means ‘Goths glorified by the rising sun’ and was coined at the same time as the term Visigoth (interpreted to mean ‘Western Goth’) by the Roman writer Cassiodorus (l. c. 485 - c. 585 CE) to differentiate between two distinct populations of Goths. The Ostrogoths seem to have originally been known as the Greuthungi (also given as Greutungi), as referenced by the 4th-century CE Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus and the 6th-century CE Gothic historian Jordanes.
The Goths first appear in history living in the area around the Black Sea. They made constant incursions against the provinces of Rome and proved a resilient and perpetual nuisance to the Empire until the invasion of the Huns in 375 CE. A large portion of the populace (according to some sources, 200,000) fled the area to seek the protection of the Roman Empire under the emperor Valens (r. 364-378 CE) and these people became known as the Visigoths. The rest of the people remained, enduring the rule of the Huns, but retaining a certain degree of autonomy.
Cassiodorus lived among the Ostrogoths and served their king Theodoric the Great (r. 493-526 CE). In an attempt to simplify the designation between the Germanic tribes which had moved toward the west, and those who remained in the east, Cassiodorus, deliberately or mistakenly, interpreted ‘Ostrogoth’ to mean `Eastern Goths’ and the others then became ‘Western Goths’, but the people themselves did not think of themselves along those lines. The Visigoths would, in time, accept and apply that term to themselves and the Ostrogoths had long known themselves by that name but neither tribe would have considered themselves the ‘eastern’ or the ‘western’ Goths.
After the death of Attila the Hun in 453 CE and the dissolution of his empire, the Ostrogoths declared their independence. Eventually, under Theodoric the Great, they migrated and settled in Italy. Theodoric established the Ostrogothic Empire but his successors came into conflict with the Byzantine Empire which sent the general Flavius Belisarius (l. 505-565 CE) to bring the Goths back in line in accordance with Byzantine interests. The last great Gothic king Totila (r. 541-552 CE) led the Goth resistance against the Byzantines and, after his death in 553 CE, the Ostrogoths lost their autonomy and ethnic identity, merging with the people of Italy, the Lombards, and dispersing into the regions of modern-day France and Germany.
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#1 Gothic War is a name given to several uprisings that took place between circa 376 and 382 between Goths and the Eastern Roman Empire. It was one of the most spectacular fights against the Empire that covered most of Europe. If you believed that the Slavic tribes just accepted the conquers of the Roma Empire, you were wrong. They were able to kill the Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, win numerous battles and fight with a very powerful enemy. Although they lost, the story of this long and cruel war is full of very exciting stories.
#2 It is believed that the most important battle was the Battle of Adrianople. It is also known as the Battle of Hadrianopolis. The battle was fought in 378, 13 km of Adrianople (modern Edirne in European Turkey). It ended with spectacular victory for the Goths. During the battle died Emperor Valens. Can you imagine that Goths were able to win with such a powerful army? People who lived in Balkans had always been strong and impressive.
#3 The names of the Gothic leaders survived until our times. Fritigern, Alatheus, and Saphrax led the most important battles that changed the history of Goths. Fritigern is remembered as an impressive soldier and leader who fought numerous impressive battles. It is unknown what happened to him after the war, but he continued to battle the Romans with mixed success for at least two years after the battle of Adrianople. Alatheus was a chieftain of the Greuthungi, who fought during the war with Romans, but also in the other wars until at least 387. Saphrax lived until at least 400 year AD, known as a powerful and famous warrior.
#4 The one who finished off this conflict was Theodosius I. The peace was declared on October 3rd, 382. The Romans recognized no overall leader of the Goths and the Goths became the part of the Roman Empire. Theodosius was a wise ruler, whose rules were fruitful to the Empire. The Goths converted to Christianity, many of them became the Arians.
#5 Some chronicles that described the fights during the Gothic war. For example, according to Ammianus Marcellinus (XXXI.6.7–8.): For without distinction of age or sex all places were ablaze with slaughter and great fires, sucklings were torn from the very breasts of their mothers and slain, matrons and widows whose husbands had been killed before their eyes were carried off, boys of tender or adult age were dragged away over the dead bodies of their parents. Finally, many aged men, crying that they had lived long enough after losing their possessions and their beautiful women, were led into exile with their arms pinioned behind their backs and weeping over the glowing ashes of their ancestral homes.
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Early Literature
T
he Victorian period of literature roughly
coincides with the years that Queen Victoria ruled Great Britain and its Empire (1837-1901). During this era, Britain was transformed from a predominantly rural, agricultural society into an urban, industrial one. New technologies like railroads and the steam printing press united Britons both physically and intellectually. Although now the period is popularly known as a time of prim, conservative moral values, the Victorians perceived their world as rapidly changing. Religious faith was splintering into evangelical and even atheist beliefs. The working class, women, and people of color were agitating for the right to vote and rule themselves. Reformers fought for safe workplaces, sanitary reforms, and universal education. Victorian literature reflects these values, debates, and cultural concerns. Victorian literature differs from that of the eighteenth century and Romantic period most significantly because it was not aimed at a specialist or elite audience; rather, because the steam printing press made the production of texts much cheaper and because railroads could distribute texts quickly and easily, the Victorian period was a time when new genres appealed to newly mass audiences. Although different kinds of realism dominated the novel in the Victorian period, the eighteenth-century tradition of the Gothic lived on, particularly in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847). Jane Eyre uses many Gothic conventions: a young, pure female heroine; a sinister house filled with mysteries; and
a handsome, brooding older man – but within a Victorian frame. Jane Eyre must make her own way in the world as a governess, and must also pursue what is right for her despite Victorian gender and class conventions. Jane Eyre uses some Gothic tropes, but sensation fiction (so named because its suspenseful plots inspired dangerous “sensations” in readers) more fully embraced the surprise and horror typical of the Gothic. Sensation fiction typically centers on deception and bigamy, in which men or women are lured into fake marriages – and worse. Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White (1859), which tells the story of two women who look strangely alike and are substituted for each other at various points, is perhaps the most famous example. Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (1862), in which a supposedly deranged woman tries to kill her husband after he realizes that she has married another man, also shocked Victorian readers. One of the aims of sensation fiction was to surprise and trouble readers by challenging social conventions, but another Victorian genre, melodrama, achieved popularity by upholding popular values. Melodramas divide characters starkly into those who are vicious and those who are virtuous. They evoke emotion in readers and viewers by making virtuous characters the subject of vicious plots. These were some of the most popular theatrical productions of the period.
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Famous Gothic Literature “The Castle of Otranto”
“The Monk”
by Horace Walpole
by Matthew Lewis
Horace Walpole published what is generally recognized as the first gothic novel almost two and a half centuries ago. The Castle of Otranto (1765) created a confluence of medievalism and terror that has mutated and endured ever since. Stoker may have paid an oblique tribute by featuring Walpole’s kinsman, the 17th century prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, in Miss Betty (1898), his next novel after Dracula.
One of the most vicious, rip-roaring and entertaining novels of the entire gothic genre. Written by an MP, its reactionary political message - an attempt to revive the horror of the intertwined threat of the Spanish and the Papacy at a time when they had been displaced as the main threat to the British state by the new ideology of the French Revolution - is clearer in retrospect. It shocked even Byron when it appeared in 1796.
“History of the Caliph Vathek”
“Frankenstein”
by William Beckford
by Mary Shelley
William Beckford’s History of the Caliph Vathek (1786) merged the 18th century fashion for oriental tales with the newly-established gothic tradition. Byron and Mallarme, among others, admired this work, which HP Lovecraft considered caught well the “shadowy spectral horror of the Saracen spirit”. A fascination with, and fear of, the east was a feature of the gothic novel.
Together with John Polidori’s The Vampire (the first fictional vampire tale), Frankenstein (1818) emerged from the high jinks, featuring the Shelleys, Matthew Lewis, Polidori and Byron, at the Villa Diodati on the shores of Lake Geneva in 1816. It created a monster rivaled only by Count Dracula in the global consciousness. It also contains a reference to the monster as a vampire and anticipates Dracula’s multiple narrator technique. It marks a confluence of the gothic and romanticism.
“The Mysteries of Udolpho” by Ann Radcliffe Radcliffe’s 1794 work anticipates Stoker’s ability to describe landscapes unseen by the author. The final chase of Count Dracula across Europe by his righteous band of pursuers also recalls Radcliffe at her considerable best. She has a masterful ability to suggest the supernatural without ultimately invoking it. Hugely, and deservedly, popular in her time.
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Is Goth A Genre of Music?
“Goth music, in all its varied forms, can be described in many ways. It is usually described, with a characteristic lack of imagination, as being morbidly obsessed with death, as being ‘dark’, ‘sombre’ or ‘depressing’ - descriptions which show a complete misunderstanding of the genre. Goth music, to those who are willing to listen to it rather than merely hear the physical sounds which are transmitted, is full of passion, majesty, beauty, mysticism and mystery, terror, violence, pain, love, imagination, eroticism, horror, euphoria, truth, evil, life, madness and the irrational. Goth music tends to be described, by those who misunderstand it, in terms of its dark side. It is rarely described in terms of its positive side but it should be described in terms of a balance between both dark and light, positive and negative. At its height, it can be so powerful that it transcends description.”
- Andrew Fereday “Someone who is into gothic metal doesn’t necessarily have much in common with someone who is into industrial noise – their paths may not cross much. But at the same time they’re under this big umbrella of gothdom. They’re all children of the same parents.”
- Liisa Ladouceur
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Expression In Fashion
There are many different types of Goths and many different types of Goth clothing. The outfits can be quite intricate and quite pricey. The materials, colours, influences and styles of the various fashions differ greatly from one another. Gothic music and fashion are symbiotic. For example Cyber fashions usually reflect the themes of Industrial music. The Gothic fashions are full of elegance. Some are Ethereal and flowy while others are bound and restrained with tight corsets and chokers. Inspirations for styles vary from the Romanticism, Medieval, Renaissance, Victorian, and Edwardian eras. The fabrics can consist of anything from velvets, silks, chiffon or lace. Jewellery can be pearls, chokers, crosses, ankhs, silver and precious stones. For make up, smoky eyes and dark lips are typical of the look. It’s an experience that can be customizable to the individual, making it both unique and expressive.
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Most people think of the jilted bride gone mad (Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations), the brides of Dracula in their ghostly white gowns, the bride of Frankenstein, ice queens and those white aristocratic blouses worn by the vampires in Interview with the Vampire. This look can consist of white lace, veils, pearls accented with blood red, ice blue or dark eye makeup. But the white look can work with any of the other Goth fashions such as a futuristic Cyber Goth look with white dreads and translucent tubing. White is the colour of innocence, purity and brides in Western culture but in Asian countries white symbolizes death, mourning and bad luck and is traditionally worn at funerals.
Pastel Goth aka “Creepy Cute” is all about mixing cute and innocent with very disturbing. This look features pastels, glitter, decay, blood, tears and bandages. 80s pastel T-shirts, Japanese manga, kids jewellery and striking eye contacts are often worn.
Emily the Strange came to life in the early 1990’s and quickly became a beloved counterculture icon all
around the world. In her earliest years, she was a quiet but sharpwitted stranger, slinging philosophy and cultural observations in a series of hand-screened t-shirts and
stickers. Emily’s own story began to emerge in a series of gift books, then comic-books and graphic novels, and now a novel series for young adults. Today, Emily continues to be a voice for individualism and self-awareness, and her appeal is especially strong among alternativeminded young women and girls who identify with her signature singularity. Her presence in the worlds of art, pop culture, literature, and fashion celebrates non-conformist and reminds us all to cultivate that which makes us unique.
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FOOD AND CUISINE
Goth food is any type of food that has been dyed with activated charcoal, squid ink, black sesame, black truffle, or some other type of black food coloring so that it appears black, or grey. Besides staying up-to-date on one of the latest food trends, eating goth food a.k.a. “black foods” may also be beneficial to your health. Although the ingredients that turn food “gothic” may provide health benefits, not all of the foods themselves are healthy to begin with. Don’t falsely believe that a black hot dog, for example, is a health food. This black food trend has arisen in popularity as “unicorn foods” (a.k.a. rainbow foods) have gone mainstream. Goth food can be found in most places that serve dishes with squid ink or activated charcoal.
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Charcoal is known to have a high absorption rate of gases, heavy metals, poisons, and other chemicals. This can help to remove toxins and unwanted substances from the body. It can also aid in digestion, reduces gas and bloating, whiten teeth and reduce high cholesterol. However, it should be eaten sparingly, as over-consumption may lead to reduced potency of medications, or malnutrition. It’s better to make sure to eat it in moderation. Many people were known to have eaten large amounts of it during the height of the “black food” trend. The Department of Health had banned activated charcoal in New York City in March during the year of 2018.
Squid ink is very high in a number of important nutrients. It’s particularly high in antioxidants for instance, which as we all know help to protect the cells and the heart against damage from free radicals. This means that squid ink might be useful in combating the visible signs of ageing, heart disease and various threats to the immune system. The striking color of squid ink is the result of large amounts of melanin – the very same pigment that gives our skin its color. Additionally, it also contains large quantities of proteins, lipids, minerals, taurine and dopamine. Iron here is particularly high in quantities and this can help to improve red blood cell count and to combat anemia. Squid ink extracts are sometimes used for this very purpose. Meanwhile, the presence of dopamine means that squid ink could have a number of positive mental effects too – increasing focus, concentration and memory among other things.
White and black sesame seeds come from the herb Sesamum indicum, which belongs to the Pedaliaceae family. It is one of the oldest cultivated plants in the world, grown for culinary
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use as well as in traditional medicines. Each seed pod contains hundreds of seeds that vary in color from creamy white to charcoal black depending on the cultivator. Black sesame seeds have a slightly nuttier flavor than the white counterpart, but both kinds are excellent sources of phytonutrients, antioxidants, dietary fiber and healthpromoting nutrients. Because black sesame seeds are such a good source of dietary fiber, providing eight percent DV in just a two-tablespoon serving, they can help keep you regular.
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