Thúlé a Scandza u Jordana a souvislosti s Prokopiem

There are convincing reasons to believe that Scandza of Jordanes and Thule of Procopius are identical. The discrepancy between the names can be explained as a result of Procopius’ reluctancy to abandon the traditional and well-established name Thule, which represented a distant northern island in the Ocean, in favour of another name, not known to him from his literary sources. Jordanes did not read works of Procopius (and probably was not even aware of the latter’s existence). Both authors were informed of the Scandza / Thule independently, partly from literary sources, but primarily from the accounts of eye-witnesses. Although these witnesses are mentioned only by Procopius, Jordanes was in an equally good position to acquire all the necessary pieces of information. It is implausible that they were supplied by the work on the Gothic history by Cassiodorus, usually deemed as the principal source for Jordanes. Jordanes, who was most probably a Goth himself, had an access to the pieces of information provided by Gothic speakers living in the north-east Balkan peninsula, and he made use of them in his Getica.