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Origins of the English
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Traditionally, there are two theories on the
origins of the English or Englisc as it was spelt in Old Anglo Saxon. One is
that various tribes of west and north Germanic peoples conquered and settled
the eastern part of Britain, mostly displacing the existing Celtic or British
population. These people were forced into the northern and western margins of
Britain and into the region of France now called Brittany. Smaller groups
were absorbed into the new majority ‘Englisc’ population, mostly as slaves
and servants. This is
called the ‘mass migration’ theory. The other view is that a smaller group of
Germanic people conquered the native Britons, but did not displace them to
any great extent. Instead, they ruled over them as an
aristocratic elite and gradually assimilated with them. This is referred to
as the ‘elite dominance’ theory. Recent DNA studies, do
indicate that indigenous English people have a much closer affinity with the
continental peoples of north western Europe, especially the Frisians, than
they do with the people of western Britain. This suggests that the ‘mass
migration’ theory is closer to the truth than the ‘elite dominance’.
Furthermore, the area of Denmark called ‘Angeln’,
the homeland of the Angles from where many Anglo Saxons came, is known to
have been significantly depopulated – suggesting a major rather than minor
migration. Rather interestingly, our migration myth tells of the people of Angeln migrating to Frisia
before moving on to England. However, just because most English people have
a greater genetic connection with people of North Western Europe, it does not
necessarily follow that we all came to these lands during the Anglo Saxon and
Viking migrations. A third theory is emerging which holds that the English
have much deeper and longer connections with North Western Europe and those
migrations were only relatively more recent influxes. In other words, there
has always been a ‘British’ people in the western part of the country and an
‘English’ people in the eastern. The eastern English people looked more
towards the continent, especially in the early days of settlement when there
was no sea between them. This is an important theory as it means the English
are indisputably indigenous to modern day England. This said, we must always
remember that the differences between the English and ‘Celtic’ British are
relatively small, especially in the context of modern day notions of
multi-racial societies where the two are almost indistinguishable and
together form the indigenous population of modern Britain. |
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Mythical Origins Of The English The earliest account of the beliefs of the proto Anglo
Saxons comes from the Roman historian Tacitus, who writes about people
inhabiting North Western Europe in the early first century AD:
Tuisto
may be a name meaning 'separated',
'two fold' or 'twin' and could be similar to the Norse Ymir and Buri (who are also 'separating' beings). On the other
hand, Tuisto may have been an older name for the
god Tiw. Mannus is a collective personality for the
early Norse and Germanic tribes; literally ‘people’. The reference to Mannus as the progenitor of the Germanic people is in
itself interesting. In the ancient Vedic and Hindu tradition, Manu (also
meaning ‘man’) is considered to be the first of the creator Brahma's sons and
a progenitor of the human race. From Mannus, the three main
tribal groupings of the Germanic world at the time of Tacitus are derived. As
part of the North Western people living by the ‘Ocean’, as Tacitus puts it,
the ancestors of the people we now call Anglo-Saxons fell into the group he
calls the Ingaeuones. It is likely that the name ‘Ingaeu-ones’ means something along the lines of ‘friends
of Ing’ - or given that he is seen as the
progenitor of the tribe, ‘people of Ing’. Ing is more commonly known by his Norse name Yng-Freyr. So the mythology certainly seems to place the
proto Anglo Saxons as part of the ‘sea culture’ of North Western Europe. So who were the British or Celts? Within the British Isles, there are three broad
groups of people commonly referred to as Celtic. The earliest are a
relatively dark skinned, brown eyed, stocky, almost Mediterranean looking
people collectively known as Hiberians.
Historically, they buried their dead in long barrows which can still be seen
all over Britain to this day. They originated in North Africa and are thought
to have spoken a Hamitic language and were related to the Berbers. Berbers
are the indigenous people of North Africa and, unlike the Africans and Arabs
who now dominate their lands, they are or at least
used to be Southern European looking white. Remnants of these people can
still be seen throughout Britain, especially in the west, such as the Rhondda
Valley Welsh.
Berber people
An Iberian Irish Lady
Two rather famous
Rhondda Valley Welsh people The next group traditionally said to have moved
to Britain were from Central Europe, collectively known as the Goidelic, or Gallic,
peoples. In some respects, these are the classic Celts, giving their name to
places associated with Celtic culture such as Gaul, Galicia and Gael (Irish).
They are thought to have migrated into Britain from Central Europe during the
Bronze age, possibly being pushed westwards by another Celtic tribe called
the Belgae. They were more advanced than the Hiberians
and gradually pushed them westwards into the British
uplands, keeping the more fertile lowlands for themselves. These people
looked very different to the Hiberians, being tall
and fair or red haired and with blue or grey eyes. Some had the typical blue
eyed, red haired and freckled faces still associated with parts of Western
Britain and Ireland. They buried their dead in round barrows rather than long
ones and spoke an Indo-European, or Aryan language, rather than a Hamitic
one.
The third major group traditionally said to
have migrated into Britain, also from central Europe, are known as the
Brythonics, possibly coming from slightly more north west of the Goidels.
They may be related to the Belgae who drove the Goidels into Britain in the
first place. They gradually displaced the Goidels out of lowland Britain into
the less fertile north and west, repeating the earlier pattern of population
displacement. Although the Brythonics and Goidels were from similar
backgrounds and spoke similar languages, it is thought that they were
somewhat distinct from each other both physically and culturally. The
Brythonics were probably fairer haired, more likely to have blue eyes and
were probably slightly smaller than the Goidels. They were less likely to
have red hair and freckles, though both groups would have included people
with all of these characteristics. These two tribes, however, were much more
closely related to each other than either were to the Hiberians.
The traditional theory then goes that after
several hundred years of Roman occupation, they began pulling out of Britain
in the 5th century in order to reinforce the Empire's northern
borders against invasions by the Goths and other Germanic tribes. This left
the Romano – Britons, mainly Romanised Brythonic Celts, exposed to attack
from tribes to the north and west, such as the Picts and Irish. There
followed a period of considerable hardship in which the Britons were
constantly attacked, plundered and kidnapped by these invaders. Indeed, this
is how St Patrick, who was a Romano-Briton, ended up as patron of Ireland! The Britons pleaded with the Romans to return
to defend them, but to no avail. Britain was at this time relatively
prosperous and undefended. It was like a magnet to those who would seek to
plunder it. And so, in the middle of the 5th century, the Britons
turned to another people to help them. These were the Germanic tribes of
Angels, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians. These people had formed an important part
of the Roman legions in Britain and many had actually settled in the country
prior to Roman withdrawal. They had close connections to the country and were
well trained and disciplined warriors. They did an excellent job in keeping
the Picts, Irish and people we now call the Welsh at bay and received more
and more land in return. Gradually, they began to establish permanent
settlements and brought their families over (sound familiar!). The Britons
were driven northwards and westwards into upland Britain (and into Brittany
in modern France) in a repetition of what had gone on at least twice before
as one population displaced another.
Following on from the Anglo Saxons, a second
wave of Germanic settlers came in the 8th and 9th
centuries. These were mainly Danish settlers as part of the Viking raids and
settlement of England. The Danes settled in northern England and East Anglia
and sometimes lived peacefully with their Saxon neighbours and sometimes in
conflict. However, by the time of the Norman invasion of 1066, English and
Danish communities were living together in relative harmony. Danish ancestry
is a significant part of what we would call ‘Anglo Saxon’ and we must bear in
mind that Angeln, the homeland of the Angles, is
located in the southern part of Denmark and Jutland, the home of the Jutes,
in the northern part. Anglo Saxons and Danes were pretty much the same
people. Although the Normans ruled England for many years as an aristocratic
elite, they did not actually settle the country to any great extent, rather
like the British in India.
But populations were not entirely displaced and
some mixing was bound to have taken place. In the so called 'Celtic' lands of
western Britain (western Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Cornwall) people are a
mixture of all three of the 'Celtic' tribes together with elements of the
Germanic and Norse settlers who came after the Romans. Scotland, in particular, has a significant
Norse element to its population as does England, especially in the north. South Eastern Scotland was settled by the
'Englisc' Angles and reinforced by Englisc refugees following the Norman
conquest. Internal migration within the British Isles
over the last couple of hundred years has blurred these distinctions a
little, but outside the big cities populations remain much the same. More
recent mass migration from elsewhere in Europe and beyond is also closely
associated with the main urban areas, and in more isolated areas, populations
remain much as they have always been. Doggerland A new theory is emerging and slowly gaining
more currency (see, for instance, ‘The Origins of the British’ by Stephen
Oppenheimer). This holds that the populations of eastern and western Britain
had been different ever since the land was re-colonised after the last great
ice age about 30,000 years ago. During this ice age, North Europeans migrated
southwards as the ice advanced and settled in two main redoubts, one in the
Iberian Peninsula of modern Spain and Portugal and the other in the Balkans
of South Western Europe. Originally much the same, these population groups
began to slightly diverge from each other genetically as time went on. As the
ice began to retreat, people moved northwards again. People from the Iberian
redoubt travelled north westwards, along the coastal areas and settled modern
day France and Western Britain. People from the Balkans redoubt travelled
northwards and then westwards into Central Europe, Germany, Scandinavia and
Eastern Britain. The theory is that the ethnic differences between
the ‘Celtic British’ and the Anglo Saxon English are much older and go right
back to the repopulation of the island. This is important not just because it
shows that a prehistoric, proto Englisc population existed in modern day
England well before we usually think, but also because it shows that the
Englisc are not Anglo Saxon or Viking invaders or immigrants, but rather the
indigenous people of the land. Some scholars even believe the people of
Eastern England spoke a West Germanic language, a sort of proto Anglo Saxon,
long before we consider Englisc being introduced. The Anglo Saxons, Jutes,
Danes, and Normans for that matter, were simply different waves of the same
people moving in from North Western Europe.
This proto Englisc culture is referred to as
part of the Dogger culture. The Dogger Bank is large sandbank in the North
Sea which lies about 60 miles off the east coast of England. It is one of the
traditional areas of sea around the UK referred to in the ‘Shipping Forecast’
and, because it is relatively shallow (15 to 36 metres), it is excellent
fishing grounds. Its name comes from the ‘Doggers’,
which were Dutch fishing boats. During the last main ice age, the seas
retreated to such a degree that there was a large, fertile area between
Britain and North West Europe. Britain was in fact, not an island at this
time!
The land links between England and North
Western Europe were severed somewhere between 7,000 and 5,000 BC as the sea
gradually advanced. However, the evidence suggests that sea based trade
between the two ‘sides’ of this proto Germanic culture continued. The people
of England never really forgot their origins as part of this North West
European proto Germanic culture. Whatever the truth is about our origins, the
indigenous Englisc are mainly a North and North West European Germanic people
with some elements of Celtic Britons. We have been this way for hundreds,
even thousands of years. We must always remember that there is such a thing
as the ethnic, indigenous English, that we exist as a people and have a right
to continue to exist as a people. |
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