after the Romans had left Britain that country was still recognised as one of the provinces of the Empire, and as late as A.D. 537 Belisarius, in the name of the Emperor, granted it to the Goths,[1] which seems to show that the Byzantine Emperor of the sixth century knew quite well that Goths were already settled in our country.
The ancient people on the coast of the Baltic who collected amber and exchanged it for other commodities were called the Guthoncs and the Æstyi. There were two routes by which amber could reach the South of Europe in the time of the Empire—one through Germany, the other by the route further eastward through the countries known as Sarmatia or Slavonia. The double name for the people near the mouth of the Vistula probably arose in this way, from their being known to the Germans as the Æstyi, and to the Slavonians who traded across to the Black Sea as Guthones. These Guthoncs were Goths of the same race or descent as the islanders of Gotland, and as the people of East and West Gothland in Sweden. That the Reid-Goths—at least, some of them—lived in the Scandian peninsula is proved by a runic inscription on a stone at Rök in East Gothland, in which a chieftain named Waring is commemorated, and in which he is said to have increased their power.[2] This inscription also connects the Waring name with the eastern or Ostrogoths of Sweden. Amber was certainly used as an ornament among the Anglo—Saxons at a very early date. It has been frequently found in the form of beads and other articles in cemeteries in many parts of England, and its use at this early time in England points to an early trade with the Baltic. Its common use in the manufacture of beads and other personal ornaments may perhaps also point to a custom of personal decoration which was introduced into England by settlers from the Baltic. These amber traders were
