well: The early germanic tribes where lead by (iff I am correct) something like the viking Thing.
it was not uncommen for Germanic women to give their husbands psycoligical support.
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Pretty close enough for a start. Germanics came from Scandanavia, hence the common root languages, starting about 2600 years ago I think. They enslaved and later to some degree amalgamated the Celtic & Slavic (and other?) tribes there. Probably they were opportunists, sort of as lions in the savanna or bears in the forest. If hunting meat was available, they took it, otherwise carrion or vegetables. Germanics were pushed out one tribe at a time from the nest of Scandinavia.
What a nest it was, constantly raiding and moving around with herds, not so different than the plains Indians in the US Midwest circa 1820, but much more fluid and competitive. Re: the lion/bear, by some accounts they went over to the Slavic areas first, quite possibly due to harsh receptions from the Celts. Tribes were often weak when pushed out of Jutland, and settled at first in the most marginal areas, which sounds like the Aztecs when beginning to settle in what is now Mexico city. After a while, they were tollerated and soon afterwards they raided.
Some getting to Italy during the Late Roman days were a thousand or so in a band of starving pittiful wretches (and earlier bands would have likely been the same) barely alive and only worth a few months in the mines when captured en masse into slavery. But they could be very daring, one nameless group in small surviving written notation apparently managed to snag a small fleet of ships and sort of bumped around til captured there, not knowing of the strengths or weaknesses of the decaying state, much like Chief Joseph trying to escape from the white people, but in this case being attracted to wealthy lands and loot.
So many tribes we dont even have a name or record, and new tribes were being split off all the time as if musical rock groups experimenting with new sounds and techniques. Only the famous ones of later times are well known, especially those invading France or Italy.
Think of a gypsy army crossed with a Roman legion and the Spartacus rebelion. Like the first and last, families traveled together. As Berserker mentions, wives encouraged their husbands, even in battle. Heard of covered waggons in a circle? They did the same in the Roman times with women beseeching husbands to fight so not to have family sold into slavery, so very possibly did that in the early days. An early version of the election sound truck/megaphone cheerleaders.
My guess, and all records pretty much start 2,000 years ago with incursions into Germanic territory by Romans (there was one Germanic invasion of North Italy I seem to recall in 114 BC), so to extrapolate is nearly a necessity in many areas.
Take later Germanic forays into more "civilized" regions like France, Spain, North Africa and such where we have better records and graft it on to the swampy areas of Poland, except more of trading and accomodation at first. The records of pre Viking eras was one of multiple tribes being swallowed up by others, and general warming to increase populations. Many children of well placed individuals had the choice of living under a boot or potential well being overseas. Put into more of a tribal setting with lots of unique rituals and customs, but fairly uniform in moral and other bylaws, these groups moved off to the continent.
Hope that helps.