The Gotlanders are the folk of the iland of Gotland. In Swedish, they are also called Gutar, a word akin to the theedname Gots (Gutans), and both names formly come from Or-Theedish *Gutaniz. Their tongue is called Gutnish (gutniska). Some speechloresmen, such as Elias Wessén, make it known that there are alikenesses between Gottish and Gutnish that are not found elsewhere in the Theedish tongues.
Their oldest stear is told in the Gutasaga, where it is told that owing to overbreeding, one third of the Gutar had to leave and settle in southern Europe.
- Over a long time, the folk born from these three tidered so much that the land could not hold them all. Then they draw lots, and every third man or woman was chosen to leave, and they could keep everything they owned and take it with them but their land. ... they went up the Dvina ea, up through Russland. They went so far that they came to the land of the Greeks. ... they settled there, and live there still, and still have something of our tongue.
The truth that the theedname is selfsame to Got may be the ground why they are not spoken of as a sunderly folk until Jordanes' Getica, where they may be those who are called Vagoth.
Before the 7th hundredyear, they made a trade- and shieldforthward with Swedish kings, following the Gutasaga:
- Many kings made awin on Gotland while it was heathen, but the Gotlanders always kept up their own worship and law. Then the Gotlanders were sending many sandsmen to Sweden, but none of them won in forhandling a frith, until Awair Strabain from Alva priestshire. He was the first to saughten with the king of the Swedes.[...] As he was a smooth-tongued man, wise indeed and crafty, as the tales of him go, he set up a given truce with the Swedish king: 60 marks of silver a year - that is the yield for the Gotlanders - with 40 for the king, out of that sixty, and the earls to get 20. This deal had already been chosen by truce of the whole land before he left.
- So the Gotlanders made a trade- and shieldforthward with the king of the Swedes of their own free will, that they might go anywhere in all lands lorded by the Swedes freely and unfettered by tolls or any tasks. So too the Swedes could come to Gotland with no ban on the inbringing of corn, or any other backholdings. The king was to give help whenever they needed it and asked. The king would send sandsmen to the Gotland thede-thing, and the earls likewise, to gather their yield. These sandsmen must abede freedom to the Gotlanders to fare in frith over the sea, to all stows where the Swedish king held sway. And the same went for anyone faring there to Gotland.