Guts or Gotlanders ( Swede. Guta, Gutar ) - an ancient Germanic tribe, in the period from II century. BC e at the turn of the 1st and 2nd millenniums inhabited the island of Gotland , in the Baltic Sea .
The Gotlanders spoke the ancient Gutnian language , which was assimilated by the Swedish language in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Gutasaga
Guta is written in the Gutasag .
Guts are often referred to as Goths . So, the ethnonym Gut for determining the population of Gotland and the ethnonym Goth in the eastern and western dialects of the Old Icelandic language sounds the same: in the east - gutar ; in the west - gotar . Among all Germanic tribes, this ethnonym refers only to the Goths and Ghuts.
Before Christianity, the Ghuts believed in sacred places and pagan gods. They sacrificed their sons and daughters, livestock along with food and drink. They did it out of fear. The whole country brought for itself the highest bloody sacrifice by people. Each tridyung also made sacrifices for themselves. But smaller tings brought less sacrifices: cattle, food and drink.
History
In the Viking era, the inhabitants of Gotland conducted active trade, as evidenced by 650 treasures discovered on the island, consisting of 140 thousand Arab and Western European coins and jewelry. The control of the Swedish kings over the island was rather weak.
In the Middle Ages, thanks to the island's favorable location, the Gotlanders continued to dominate Baltic trade. Gotland merchants had their own guest house in Novgorod , and in 1161 entered into an agreement with the Saxon Duke Heinrich Leo regarding the trading regime in Gotland and in Holstein .
In the XVII-XVIII centuries, the Old Scottish language experienced a strong influence of the Swedish language, as a result of which the population switched to the New Gutnian dialect, and the Gotlands were gradually assimilated by the Swedes .