TheAviones orAuiones (*Awioniz meaning "island people") were one of theNerthus-worshippingGermanic tribes of the 1st century mentioned byTacitus inGermania, and they lived either in the southernJutland Peninsula, or onÖland. They are mentioned inWidsith asEowan.[1]
Tacitus wrote of the group as defended by rivers and forests:
(Original Latin) "Reudigni deinde et Aviones etAnglii etVarini etEudoses etSuardones etNuithones 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 theReudignians, andAviones, andAngles, andVarinians, andEudoses, andSuardones andNuithones; all defended by rivers or forests. Nor in one of these nations does aught remarkable occur, only that they universally join in the worship ofHerthum (Nerthus); that is to say, the Mother Earth."--Tacitus,Germania,40, translated 1877 by Church and Brodribb.[3]
Thus, according to Tacitus, the Aviones lived on theJutland Peninsula, near the Angles; if their name is indeed related to islands, they possibly lived on theNorth Frisian Islands. However, according toKendrick, they probably lived onÖland.[4] It is not only the meaningIsland dwellers that connects them to the island Öland (meaning "Island land"), but also theOld English name for the island which isEowland (mentioned byWulfstan of Hedeby), "the land of the Eowan".
