Jutes (Eudoses)
By the time of the late Roman empire, the Indo-European Germanic Jutish tribes are thought to have replaced the earlier Germanic Cimbri peoples in modern northern Denmark, migrating there from along the German Baltic coastline from the direction of Poland. Their territory in Jutland probably stretched as far south as the River Kongeaen in central Denmark, beyond which was the domain of the Angles.
The Jutes (a modern form of the name) are first mentioned by Tacitus (Germania) about AD 98, where they are referred to as the Eudoses. They are also know as Eote, Ytene, Yte, or Iutae in various writings, with Old English particularly responsible for mutating its original form, either into Anglian English, West Saxon English, or Latin. Their name was sometimes confused by medieval writers with that of the Geats, but while they are almost certainly a separate peoples, there is the possibility that they and the Geats were related, even though the latter are usually though to be a Scandinavian, and not Germanic, people.
The area which the Jutes abandoned in the fifth century continued to be known as Jutland by the Danish peoples who eventually replaced them there. In fact, the region remained distinct and peculiar even after Scandinavianisation, separate from the rest of Denmark for several centuries.
(Additional information by Edward Dawson, and also taken from the Alan Bliss/JRR Tolkein examination of the fragment known as The Fragment and the Episode.)
![]()
