History Channel Goths vs. Wolfgang Menzel's book

A quick basic run-through: The Goths did indeed originate in Scandanavia. About 2500 years ago, the success of their life style had lead to overpopulation, and they began to cross the Baltic to what is now Pomerania. They originally pushed west, but ran into the German tribes which had already been migrating in that direction. Moving up the valleys of the Elbe and Oder rivers was natural, and moving east eased the pressure from the tribes to the west of them. They eventually did reach the region of Eurasia north of the Black Sea, and may have extended as far east as the Caspian. It was during the long period in which they inhabited that region that the Gothic migrants split into Visigoths (western Goths) and Ostrogoths (eastern Goths). It sounds as though the History channel took up the tale from the point at which the Hunnic migration drove them east toward the Roman Empire. In general, the History channel bears the same relationship to history that Christian Science does to science.

I'm again in agreement with Setanta. We should also point out that a great deal of scholarship has taken place since the publication of your book in the late 19th century. If you are interested in the period and subject, I would recommend a survey of historical papers/books from credible recent historians. I'm sorry that I can't recommend anyone, or any text in particular. Not my period, interest, nor the subject of my study

J. M. Barry was for most of the 20th century considered to be the expert on "barbarian" migrations in Europe. Unfortunately, he was primarily a lecturer. His standard lectures were combined into a book which i believe was entitled The Barbarian Invasions of Europe. It's a good read, but all too brief.

Menzel's book is origianally dated from 1848, btw (Menzel died 1873, was famous for his literature critics, published/edited an own litterature magazine and only a "part time" historian).

De ori gi ne actibusque Getarum ("On the Origin and Deeds of the Getae"), now commonly referred to as the Getica, was completed in 551 by Jordanes, a Goth "historian".
And it was in that very book, where Jordanes reported the Goth's own legend that they originated in southern Scandinavia and crossed in three ships under their king Berig to the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, where they settled after defeating the Vandals and other Germanic peoples in that area.

THE GOTHS
here is an article that you may find of interest >>>THE GOTHS

I watched the History Channel Series and while I'm no historian the tale related pretty well along the lines of what is in the link hamburger provided.

But a lot of your comments go beyond what was covered in the show. That may be necessary for a serious Historian or someone with a deeper interest in history but the History Channel was only providing an over-view in less than an hour here.

For example, the Goths may very well have originated from Gotland but the show didn't attempt to go back that far in their history and picked up with their migration from Pomerania.

IMO, you expected way to much from a program that took less time to air than it took for you to type out your post.