HYPERBOREAN ODYSSEY 2: Shetland

 

 

Part two of my Hyperborean Odyssey is in Shetland, Britain's northern most islands and the alleged site of the legendary Thule described by the ancients. I visited the archaeological site of Jarlshof which has Bronze age round houses, Iron-Age wheel houses, a Pictish broch and the largest Norse settlement in the British Isles. Shetland was under Nordic rule up to 1472 so it still has some strong cultural ties to Scandinavia despite also having a rich Pictish history.

Is Devon Celtic? What's the difference between Devon and Cornwall?

EDIT: Since writing this blog post a thorough genetic study of ancient British and Anglo-Saxon samples has been published by Gretzinger et al (2022).  The data in the supplements show that the people of Devon are about 37% Early Anglo-Saxon (CNE), 35% Iron Age Briton (WBI), and 26% Medieval French (CWE) meaning the Germanic ancestry is their dominant component. Cornwall is estimated to be 21% CNE 51% WBI and 26% French


There are some people who erroneously insist that Devon, like Cornwall, was founded on a Celtic rather than English identity. One such individual is attempting to rewrite local history on Wikipedia to claim that Devon is not English. That is simply not the case. Devon has more Anglo-Saxon DNA than Cornwall does, and has not preserved any Celtic language at all. In fact the Devon dialect uniquely preserves some archaic Old English elements which have been lost elsewhere, about which you can learn in the video below.

Who is Norse God Týr? A Sky-Father?

Survive the Jive · Who is Norse God TYR... A Sky-Father?

Video version 

 The Norse god Týr is sometimes called a battle god of minor significance, while others argue. based on etymology that he was once the chief god of the Germanic peoples - a sky father. However, perhaps neither argument is entirely correct. In this video I am joined by Angriff and Dr Boaz and we will discuss Týr and the Proto-Indo-European sky father in the context of Georges Dumézil's theory that he was in fact a secondary sovereign god whose principle attribute was neither paternal nor related to battle, but judicial matters!