Runes, ravens and fibulae: a chieſtains’ alliance in Scandinavia from 175/180 to 235/250 AD The following story is based on the geographical distribuon of rings and fibulae in Scandinavia in the Roman Iron Age. For catalogues and maps see pp. 204-217 in Ulla Lund Hansen: Himlingøje – Seeland – Europa (1995) and Per Ethelberg: Skovgårde (2000) Wealth and Presge (ed. Linda Boye & Ulla Lund Hansen, 2009) Iron Age on Zeeland, Status and Perspecves (ed. Linda Boye, 2011) Marzena J. Przybyła: Pressblechverzierte spätkaiserzeitlicheTrachtbestandteile in Südskandinavien (2018). The following interpretaon of Geca and the archaeological finds goes beyond what may be considered as scholarship in archaeology and history; it is rather a historical short story, a story which, I hope, does not conflict with the archaeological finds or the scanty historical sources. The idea of a Scandinavian alliance of chieſtains was presented in Ravnehovedringe og stormandsalliancer i romersk jernalder (2007). In his account of the tribes in Scandinavia in Geca, Jordanes relates that the Danes, of the same stock as the Swedes, drove away the Herules from the ferle plains, that must be Scania or Zealand. Geca was wrien about 550 AD, and Jordanes probably had this informaon from Scandinavian or Gothic mercenaries in Constannople (Note 1). Jordanes’ account could be about the chieſtain who established himself in Himlingøje on Stevns, Zealand approximately four hundred years before Geca was wrien, and who, in the story that follows, for sixty years procured gold, silver and Roman products from the lower Rhine to an alliance in Southern Scandinavia. This alliance included chieſtains from along the west coast of Jutland and the Liim Fiord, from along the west coast of Norway, from the area around the Oslo Fiord and from Zealand. Judged by the distribuon of the gold rings the main area was in south-eastern Sweden: Öland, Gotland and the area around Mälaren. The story starts with a son of the chieſtain in Himlingøje becoming a mercenary officer in the Roman army during the Marcomannic Wars (166-180). Like most of the tribes along the Roman border, the Marcomanni and the Quadi had been Roman allies/ clients, but together with other German tribes had crossed the Limes, plundering as far south as Aquileia. In the years 171-175 the German tribes were forced back, defeated and among other things forced to raise 8000 cavalrymen for the Roman army. As the Marcomanni and the Quadi had proved themselves unreliable allies/ clients, the Romans had to find other allies among the German tribes to lessen the possibility of a German alliance against the Romans. The Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, led the Marcomannic Wars himself; therefore the emperor and the Roman officials could consider new alliances with those officers in the army who had knowledge of the German tribes, including of course the German officers, among them the son of the chieſtain in Himlingøje. He could tell them about the great alliance in south-eastern Sweden (of which the Romans probably already knew) and, more importantly, that his father was the western outpost of this alliance. This outpost could easily be reached by sea from the lower Rhine. The Romans knew this navigaon route: in 5 AD a Roman fleet had sailed from the mouth of the Rhine to the land of the Cimbrians, and Ptolemaeus’ map from circa 150 AD shows that the Romans had reasonable knowledge of the Balc Sea ( Note 2). The Roman emperor saw the point in forming a great alliance in the north of Germania Libera dividing the tribes around the Balc Sea, and aſter the end of the first Marcomannic war in 175 AD ( Note 3) the son of the Scandinavian chieſtain changed roles from Roman officer to Roman envoy, probably travelling along the Danube and the Rhine to the area of the lower Rhine. A small Roman fleet with gold, silver and Roman products sailed along the lower part of the Rhine, through the Frisian dal areas and the dal areas further 1