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Far too many Brits think that England was invaded by the French in 1066 BUT we were invaded by the Normans and the Normans (Northmen) were people from the Norse (North) lands who settled in Northern France
They were the same race as the people from Denmark and Norway who had invaded and settled in England three centuries earlier,
One of England's (Better and wiser) Kings was a Dane, Canute.
The Anglo Danish King Harold the 2nd lost to William the Bastard at the Battle of Hastings actually about 10 miles along the coast but he had just forced marched his Army over a hundred miles from Stamford Bridge where he had defeated his Norse Cousin and his Army,
The Normans adopted the language of the French but it was very much Norman French and apart from the language the Normans had very little to do with the French.

Don't forget all us Krauts that slipped in there, too.

Those would be the Saxons, correct? Called Saxons for the distinctive style of hatchet-type weapon they favored?

By the way, I was just watching a documentary on public television that put forth the theory that the great invasion after the Romans left never really happened. It was more a mass migration than a violent invasion. At least that was the theory presented, whether it's accurate or not is anybody's guess, but PBS usually tends to be a more reliable source of info than say ... wait for it ... Fox News.

Max-U52 wrote:Don't forget all us Krauts that slipped in there, too.

Those would be the Saxons, correct? Called Saxons for the distinctive style of hatchet-type weapon they favored?

'Angles' (from Schleswig-Holstein and Southern Denmark), 'Jutes' from (Jutland- as the name suggests) and Saxons from Saxony- modern-day Niedersachsen (Bremen and Lüneburger Heide district). Friesland too. There's a town in Sussex ('South Saxons') called 'Alfriston' That stems from: the 'Alt (old)-Fris (Friesian)-Ton' (Zaun, or fence in German).
England comes from 'Angle-Land' and so forth. ("und so fort'). Place names give big clues. Towns and cities in Germany ending in '-burg' (Heidelburg, Hamburg, and so on) have these equivalents in England:
-burgh; -bury; and borough (originally pronounced "burrgh' in old English). 'Wald' (Ger: wood, forest) e.g. 'Reichswald', is 'Weald' and 'Wold' in England- eg. 'Southwold, Harrow Weald,' 'Saffron Walden'. 'Furt', as in Frankfurt and Schweinfurt appears in England as 'Ford'. So, Swynford is Schweinfurt, etc.
All the evidence is there, if you look for it. Virtually all Celtic placenames were replaced, or modified, by Krauts and their Nordic cousins, (the raiding Northmen). Towns such as 'Derby' 'Holtby' were given their names directly by Viking settlers.
Wales and Scotland mostly retained their Celtic placenames, but in the Highlands, Norse some influences are easy to find., although Celtic names predominate.
Interestingly- again if you're still awake, Gary the Finns refer to the Germans as the 'Saksan kieli". In Gaelic, the word for the English (no, not Bastards!)..is 'Sassenach', or Saxons/Sachsen.
The Saxon/Sachsen' name is reputed to derive from the short sword or knife, the 'seax', and not a hatchet.

Jimster wrote:I had no idea! I thought everyone in the UK only spoke the King’s English with a heavy Liverpool accent. Now a stereotype has been corrected. (Just kidding of course)
I think it’s amazing how little we Americans are taught about our true European beginnings. Ireland, Scotland, Wales etc. The history of it all sounds very complicated. I do remember hearing something about the Battle of Hastings.

Sadly, Jim, Americans seem to have forgotten their roots and- well, no crit intended, don't appear to know much about any place except America. I have two American nephews who are woefully uninformed about their roots by the school system, it seems.

Yes, many Highland Scots still speak Gaelic. They sing and gargle in it too (with whisky).
So do the Irish, although Irish Gaelic and it's Scot's variant are not that mutually intelligible these days- especially after a night on the Poteen (moonshine!!)
It's a hard language to learn, and I only know a few phrases, sadly. It's worth knowing about, though. Apparently, the Canadians in Nova Scotia/Newfoundland are more Scottish than the Scots. Gaelic and bagpipes are strong there.

The final withdrawal of the Romans in the early 5th Century caused initially a vacuum in the geopolitical structure of the British Isles,
The tribes around the Baltic, Saxons, Pict's, Angles, Norse and Danes saw an opportunity for a quick kill and moved into the East of Britain forcing the indigenous population ever westwards,
A well educated young Briton the son of a leading British tribesman who had learnt languages, philosophy,Religion and history in what was still the centre of the known world, Rome, came back home with a determination to get his country back,
The creation of Angleland by Alfred which became England after his passing was the first time that a large part of the island of Britain became a single administrative area after the Romans left,
It was initially a defensive pact between tribes who were trying to rid the land of the Danes who were running roughshod and killing and looting at will.
An arrangement was made to buy off the Danes (Danegeld) which worked for a while but the Danes got greedy and Alfred said enough and after much privation on the Somerset Levels he formed a well equipped Army and he took the Danes to battle somewhere outside Reading and defeated them and took the Danish King Prisoner,
To the Danish Kings surprise he was treated as a friend by Alfred and given his freedom,
Treaties were signed and the Danes retired to Eastern England centred on York and the capital of Angleland was created at Winchester,
After the passing of Alfred the crown passed to his daughter another wise ruler and the Danes who had not left to go back to the lands surrounding the Baltic stayed as citizens of the new country.
They intermingled with the British and and the ruling royal house had Alfred's family as well as Danish Princes within it.
The close friendship between the British Royal Family and the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian royal family is as close today as it ever was.
We are friends with those people just as after we were defeated by Washington's rebels and after the British burned down the Capitol in the war of 1812 we quickly became friends with the Americans and when the British Empire was dissolved and usually in a friendly manner country's became full members of the British Commonwealth and that friendship paid dividends in both WW1 and WW2 when our staunch and loyal friends heard our call and came to our side in the defense of freedom.
And now we are free for good or ill of our ties to the European Union we are going to find out if those friendships are as strong as before.

43rdRecceReg wrote: Sadly, Jim, Americans seem to have forgotten their roots and- well, no crit intended, don't appear to know much about any place except America.

Hell, these days American kids don't even know about America. English kids know more about America than American kids do. Sad, but true. A few weeks ago I was at the marijuana dispensary and the young girl that was serving me had never heard of George Patton. Blew my mind.

jarndice wrote:The final withdrawal of the Romans in the early 5th Century caused initially a vacuum in the geopolitical structure of the British Isles,
The tribes around the Baltic, Saxons, Picts, Angles, Norse and Danes saw an opportunity for a quick kill and moved into the East of Britain forcing the indigenous population ever westwards,
A well educated young Briton the son of a leading British tribesman who had learnt languages, philosophy,Religion and history in what was still the centre of the known world, Rome, came back home with a determination to get his country back,
The creation of Angleland by Arthur which became England after his passing was the first time that a large part of the island of Britain became a single administrative area after the Romans left,
It was initially a defensive pact between tribes who were trying to rid the land of the Danes who were running roughshod and killing and looting at will.
An arrangement was made to buy off the Danes (Danegeld) which worked for a while but the Danes got greedy and Arthur said enough and after much privation on the Somerset Levels he formed a well equipped Army and he took the Danes to battle somewhere outside Reading and defeated them and took the Danish King Prisoner,
To the Danish Kings surprise he was treated as a friend by Arthur and given his freedom,
Treaties were signed and the Danes retired to Eastern England centred on York and the capital of Angleland was created at Winchester,
After the passing of Arthur the crown passed to his daughter another wise ruler and the Danes who had not left to go back to the lands surrounding the Baltic stayed as citizens of the new country.
They intermingled with the British and and the ruling royal house had Arthur's family as well as Danish Princes within it.
The close friendship between the British Royal Family and the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian royal family is as close today as it ever was.
We are friends with those people just as after we were defeated by Washington's rebels and after the British burned down the Capitol in the war of 1812 we quickly became friends with the Americans and when the British Empire was dissolved and usually in a friendly manner country's became full members of the British Commonwealth and that friendship paid dividends in both WW1 and WW2 when our staunch and loyal friends heard our call and came to our side in the defense of freedom.
And now we are free for good or ill of our ties to the European Union we are going to find out if those friendships are as strong as before.

This sounds very very similar to the story of Alfred the Great. Was it a slip of the fingers to rename him Arthur?

All the way through writing the piece I kept thinking that something was wrong but being wrong has never stopped me before so I ploughed on,
Of course it was Alfred the Great,
Arthur was the bloke who snuggled upto Bo Derick or Judy Garlands Daughter
Thank you Richard

I worked with a couple of former Glaswegians and I swear this is true....