The SuarinesorSuardones were one of the Nerthus-worshipping Germanic tribes mentioned by TacitusinGermania. They have otherwise been lost to history, but Schütte[1] suggests that their name lives on in the name of the town Schwerin.
Tacitus mentions them amongst a group of tribes defended by rivers and forests, that worshipped Nerthus:
(Original Latin) "Reudigni deinde et AvionesetAngliietVarinietEudosesetSuardonesetNuithones fluminibus aut silvis muniuntur. Nec quicquam notabile in singulis, nisi quod in commune Nerthum, id est Terram matrem, colunt eamque intervenire rebus hominum, invehi populis arbitrantur. ..." --Tacitus, Germania, 40.[2]
(English translation) "There follow in order the Reudignians, and Aviones, and Angles, and Varinians, and Eudoses, and Suardones and Nuithones; all defended by rivers or forests. Nor in one of these nations does aught remarkable occur, only that they universally join in the worship of Herthum (Nerthus); that is to say, the Mother Earth."--Tacitus, Germania, 40, translated 1877 by Church and Brodribb.[3]
Neidorf suggests that the tribal name ”sweordwerum” in line 61 of Widsith might be a corrupted form of this name.[4]
According to some Italian scholars, there is trace of this tribe in a modern Lombard surname (Suardi) as well in the surname Lusuardi. Both surnames belong to the same genetic family - Haplogroup U152 Z36.
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