Widsith!  The World of the English Before There Was an England, continued Sweordwerum - the "swordsmen"; related to and neighboring upon the Angles. Deanum - a Scandinavian people from southern Sweden. These were not the Danes, however, but some other tribe. Heatho-Reamum - the inhabitants of Romerike in Western Norway. Throwendum - the men of Trondheim, Norway. Leonum - dwellers in Ostergotland in the southeast of Sweden; the Liothida, whose capital was Linkoping. Haethnum - the Heithnir of Scandinavian history; inhabitants of Heithmork on the border of Norway and Sweden. Haerthum - these Herethas were dwellers in the Norwegian Horthaland on the Hardanger fjord; the Irish called Norway Hirwath. Thuringians - they settled in two seperate locations:  at the mouth of the Rhine and Maas Rivers, and in central Germany; the Angle and Varni tribes made up an important element of the Thuringians. Eolum - the Heruli dwelling south of the Geatas in Sweden. Their original home was in the Danish islands and in Jutland. They had a reputation as rune-masters ('erul' is possibly the same word as eorl, jarl, a warrior of noble birth). Lombards (Longbeardum) - Pope Gregory the Great thought that they were "unspeakable!";  they were "fierce with more than the original fighting fierceness of the Germans";  Gregory evidently did not know that the Lombards were closely related to his "angelic" Angles! Fresna cynn / Frysum - today's Frisians are among the most Nordic-looking people outside of Scandinavia; the Anglo-Saxons not only used the Frisian islands as 'stepping stones' in their conquest of Britain but made permanent settlements on the mainland; they formed the majority of the population, and in essence, became the 'new Frisians'.  Indeed, a recent DNA study by University College London shows that the y-chromosomes of Englishmen in Central England are essentially the same as the y-chromosomes of Frisians! Seaxum - the "knife people"; the German historian Kurt Oertel believes that the Saxons were originally the war-bands of the Angles; the Romans, however, used 'Saxon' very early as a 'catch-all' term for any Germanic pirate or refuse-scum.  This is really why the Celtic peoples love to use Saxon instead of English. The term 'English' is too respectful.  The Continental Saxons believed that their race sprang from the Danes and the Northmen, as well as from the Angles that had previously settled in Britain.  They eventually accepted the name 'Saxon', a term foisted upon them by their enemies and conquerors, the Franks. Yte - the Jutes were closely allied to the Angles and were culturally almost indistinguishable from them; they gave their name to the Jutland peninsula (present-day Denmark). Denum - the Danes believed that at one time they and the Angles were one people.  For example, Danish legend states that two brothers, Dan and Angul, were the founders of the Danish race.  It was Dan who left Sweden to take possession of Zealand and other Danish islands as well as the whole Jutland peninsula.  Dan's brother, Angul, immortalized his name by attaching it to the people known afterwards as Angles.  From the English point of view, every reference to the Danes in Old English verse is couched in the most friendly and respectful tone.  There was no animosity between the two peoples. Anglii - the archaeologist L. R. M. Myres has described the Angles as "the aristocrats of northern barbary";  they not only inhabited Schleswig-Holstein, but had settled most of Denmark and its islands before crossing the North Sea in their conquest of Britain.  Anglian hegemony was so pervasive that most of the Germanics could consider themselves to be Englishmen from the very start of their settlements in Britain. As you can see, Widsith shows exclusive interest in those tribes dwelling on the Baltic and the North Sea, in the region that we now call Scandinavia.  One of Alcuin's students, Hrabanus Maurus, wrote that all "those who speak the German tongue [including Old English] trace their descent from the Northmen."  Although Widsith comments on Mediterranean peoples, these were additions to the original text made by monks generations later as the world view of the English people expanded beyond Scandinavia and northern Germany. Much of the information about Widsith can be found in R. W. Chambers' book Widsith, A Study in Old English Heroic Legend. Previous Page......Next Page