Quick Answer: The Warini, Warni or Varni were one or more Germanic peoples who originally lived in what is now northern Germany, near the Baltic Sea and North Sea. In Old English they were apparently called Wærnas. They were first mentioned by two Roman authors in the first century AD, one of whom specified that they lived east of the lower Elbe near the Baltic sea. Much later, a people with the same name were mentioned in the same area. The sixth-century Byzantine historian Procopius described them living in a large area that stretched from the area south of Denmark in the east to the Rhine delta in the west, and as far north as the ocean in the north. The historian Matthias Springer believes the name was probably being used at this time to refer to groups who could also be referred to as Thuringians, many of whom later came to be referred to as Continental Saxons.