Gutnish

The Gutes are the North Germanic people of the Baltic island of Gotland, whose name shares a root with the Goths; their Gutasaga tells how a third of its people went south through the rivers of Russia.

Gotland grew wealthy on the eastern trade, and more Arab dirhams have been found in its hoards than anywhere else in western Eurasia. Visby became the leading Hanseatic port, and the island's Gutalagen law code was written in Old Gutnish around 1220.

In 1361 Valdemar Atterdag of Denmark conquered the island, cutting down some fifteen hundred farmers at Mästerby. The Victual Brothers held Visby until the Teutonic Knights took the island in 1398 and sold it to Queen Margaret in 1409; Danish rule lasted until the 1645 Treaty of Brömsebro returned Gotland to Sweden. The native Gutnish tongue, preserving Old Norse diphthongs, later lost ground to a Swedish dialect.