Vidivarii
Vidivarii (also, Vividarii), a people established during 6th century, possibly a little earlier, in the area of the Vistula estuary after the departure of the Gepids; mentioned twice by →Jordanes in his summary of Gothic History by →Cassiodorus: Getica V, 36: But on the shore of Ocean, where the floods of the river Vistula empty from three mouths, the Vidivarii dwell, a people gathered out of various tribes."; Getica XVI, 96-97: These Gepidae (...) while they dwelt in the province of Spesis on an island surrounded by the shallow waters of the Viscla. This island they called, in the speech of their fathers, Gepedoios; but it is now inhabited by the race of the Vividarii, since the Gepidae themselves have moved to better lands. The Vividarii are gathered from various races into this one asylum, if I may call it so, and thus they form a [new] nation." (http://people.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html); their eastern neighbours were said to be the Aesti. The location of Gepedoios →Gepids is disputed; the most likely suggestion, one put forward by J. Okulicz, is to identify the island with the Elbląg Upland, washed in Antiquity by the waters of the Vistula Lagoon, then much more extensive. The name V. has been interpreted variously as Germanic (vidu- 'tree, -varios 'dweller’, thus, ‘forest people’), Old Prussian (Wid-semme – ‘country lying within’), Baltic-Germanic hybrid (O.P. vidus 'inside’, Germ. varios) or even Slav (deriving from the second form of the name: vivi-d-arii the reading of Vinidiair, or - ‘Slavs’). In the light of the archaeological record the manifestation of the presence of the V. in the region would be the →Elbląg Group (at least, its earlier segment), classified unambiguously to West Balt cultures →Balts but eclectic in character, which may have incorporated, next to the prevailing Balt population, also Goths →Goths and Gepids →Gepids (relics of Wielbark Culture settlement →Wielbark Culture ), and even some Germanic →Germanic Tribes arrivals from different parts of Europe. Hoards and finds of solid →Solidus dating to the second half of the 5th and early 6th century have been attributed to the V.
BK
Literature: G. Labuda, Fragmenty z dziejów Słowiańszczyzny zachodniej, 2, Poznań 1960, p. 96-109; H. Łowmiański, Początki Polski II, Warszawa 1963, p. 314-315; Vidivarii [in:] Słownik Starożytności Słowiańskich VI/2, Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków-Gdańsk 1977, p. 422, [G. Labuda]; K. Godłowski, Okres wędrówek ludów na Pomorzu, Pomorania Antiqua X, 1981, p. 112-113; J. Okulicz, Centrum kulturowe z pierwszych wieków naszej ery u ujścia Wisły, Barbaricum 2, Warszawa 1992, p. 140; Vidivarier. § 1. Namenkundlich, § 2. Historisch [in:] H. Beck (Ed.) Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, t. 35 (2007), s. 443-445 [F. E. Grünzweig, H. Wolfram]; J. Kolendo, Ziemie u południowo-wschodnich wybrzeży Bałtyku w źródłach antycznych, Pruthenia IV, Olsztyn 2008, p. 30-32; B. Kontny, Trade, salt and amber. The formation of Late Migration Period elites in the 'Balti-culti' area of northern Poland (the Elbląg group), "Archaeologia Baltica" 17, Klaipėda 2012, p. 60.