Berig is a legendary king of theGoths appearing in theGetica byJordanes. According to Jordanes, Berig led his people on three ships fromScandza (Scandinavia) toGothiscandza (theVistula Basin).[1] They settled and then attacked theRugians who lived on the shore and drove them away from their homes, subsequently winning a battle against theVandals.[2]
Arne Søby, a Danish historian, has nonetheless proposed thatCassiodorus, who wrote the original text on which Jordanes's work is based, invented Berig, with inspiration from the name of Βέρικος (Berikos orVerica).[3] Some archaeological research indicates, however, that the transition of theOksywie culture into theWielbark culture was peaceful and its timing coincides with the appearance of a new population of Scandinavian origins in the previously uninhabited area ("no man's land") between the Oksywie andPrzeworsk culture areas.[4]
The 16th-century Swedish archbishop ofUppsalaJohannes Magnus, in his history of the Swedes and Goths, was the first to publish a song known as the "Ballad of Eric", about an early Gothic king called Eric, who bears some similarities to Berig. It was once thought to contain authentic folk tradition about the king, but it is now regarded as inaccurate.[5][6] However, Magnus discusses King Berig separately as having united the Swedes and Goths some 400 years after Eric's death.
In popular culture, Berig is referenced (as Berik) in the song"Three Ships of Berik, Pts. 1 and 2" by Swedish symphonic metal bandTherion.