ABSTRACT
The oldest Germanic verses extant are two metrical lists of names, recorded in works of the first and second centuries of our era. Such a metrical list is technically known as a thula.1 Tacitus in his Germania (A.D. 98) gives us a two-line thula the names of which appear, of course, in Latinized form.2 This thula has for us a special interest for another reason: it is our first record of the English name. The thula reads thus:
Reudingi, Auiones, Anglii, Varini, Eudoses, Suardones, Unithones.
