How DIVERSE was Roman Britain? New DNA evidence

A preprint for a new large study by Silva et al titled "Genomic history and selection in Roman and early medieval Britain” uses new data with 1039 ancient samples and new methods to confirm what previous studies have found about our island history.

What is English Identity? How old is England?

 

 

Some people are saying the English have no identity or culture of their own. Others are trying to ban the term "Anglo-Saxon" from academic discourse.

This video is my response to them.

Why did Medieval Europeans claim descent from Trojans? And other Historical questions

 

 I had another chat with Edward Dutton aka The Jolly Heretic recently. But this time it was in person rather than online. Here's the full interview - the good stuff about history and the origin of woke is in the second half. In the first half Ed asked me personal questions about my school and such. 

Was medieval London so diverse that black people suffered most from the plague?

Ban Anglo-Saxon: the full story 2019-2023

 

The full interview with me on the Lotus Eaters is now up on YouTube. I reveal not only how Mary Rambaran Olm and Erik Wade sought to ban the term "Anglo-Saxon" but also how they conspired to depict me as a white supremacist in several academic journals as revenge for my disruption of their nefarious schemes back in 2019

Anglo-Saxon roots of British Monarchy and the Coronation Ceremony

 His Majesty Charles III, King of the United Kingdom, will be crowned in May 2023 in a ritual which is nearly 1050 years old! The British monarchy and the ritual of coronation both have their origins in Anglo-Saxon England and its pagan kings who claimed descent from the King of the gods - Woden who the Vikings called Odin. In this video you will learn all the pagan elements that have survived in the modern coronation ritual - some of which date back to Ancient Rome!

Art: 

Raven god by Christian Sloan Hall
Sky father by Andrew Whyte
Wartooth Viking by Christian Sloan Hall
Odin and Sleipnir by Christopher Steininger
Odin and dead by Christian Sloan Hall
Hengist and Horsa by Graman

Sources:

Chaney, William, The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England: The Transition from Paganism to Christianity, (Manchester University Press: 1970)
Dumville, David. N., 'Kingship, Genealogies and Regnal Lists' in Early medieval kingship, P.H. Sawyer & I.N. Wood (eds), (Leeds: 1977).
Eliade, M. ‘The Myth of the Eternal Return’ (1954).
Faulkes, A., Six papers on The Prose Edda: Descent from the gods. 2nd ed, (Viking society for northern research: 2007).
HENRY MAYR- HARTING, 'The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England, (3rd ed. Philadelphia, 1991) Bath Press.
Rowsell, T., “Woden and his Roles in Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogy”, University College London, (2012).

Celtic or Viking knots? Medieval stone monuments of Britain

The Anglo-Saxons and English Identity

Anglo-Saxon Paganism: Gods

 

 What were the pre-Christian religious traditions of England like? This two part series serves as an introduction to Anglo-Saxon paganism. In this podcast we will look at the evidence we have for the pagan gods of the Anglo-Saxons and will compare them to what we know about the Norse equivalents that Vikings worshipped. At times it is also necessary to use Indo-European comparative mythology to understand the gods and goddesses of the Anglo-Saxons. “Anglo-Saxon paganism” refers to the Germanic pagan traditions brought to Britain in the 5th century and which persisted in surprising ways even after the Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England over the 7th and 8th century. Thanks to Wulfheodenas for modelling their Vendel era Germanic weapons and clothing. 

 

Art: 

Alex Cristi - Erce. 

Andrew Whyte - Nehalennia. 

Christian Sloan Hall - Eastre . 

Gramanh Folcwald - Hengist and Horsa. 

Hungerstein - Tiw. 

Robert Molyneaux - Yeavering temple . 

Ryan Murray - Modra. 

1st Aquarian - Migration map. 

 Sources: 

Chaney, W. A. 1972. The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England: The Transition from Paganism to Christianity, The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory, 47:2, 141-143.

Das, R. et al. 2016. Localizing Ashkenazic Jews to Primeval Villages in the Ancient Iranian Lands of Ashkenaz, Genome Biology and Evolution, Volume 8, Issue 4. 

Dowden, K. 2000. European Paganism: The Realities of Cult from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. London and New York: Routledge. p. 229. 

Dumezil, G. 1988. ‘Mitra-Varuna: An Essay on Two Indo-European Representations of Sovereignty’

Ealdorblotere, T. 2020. To Hold the Holytides. 

Faussett, B. 1856, Inventorium Sepulchrale. An Account of Some Antiquities dug up at Gilton, Kingston, Sibertswold, Bafriston, Beakesbourne, Chartham, and Crundale, in the County of Kent, from A.D. 1757 to A.D. 1773 (London 1856). 

Grimm, J. 1835. Deutsche Mythologie. 

Helmbrecht, M. 2012. A winged figure from Uppåkra.

Kemble, J. M. 1876. The Saxons in England. 

Kershaw, K. 2000. ‘The one-eyed god: Odin and the (Indo-)Germanic Männerbünde’ (Journal of Indo-European studies monograph). 

Nordberg, Andreas. 2006. Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning: Kalendrar och kalendariska riter i det förkristna Norden. Kungl. Gustav Adolfs Akademien för svensk folkkultur: Uppsala. 

North, R. 1997 Heathen gods in Old English literature. Cambridge University Press. 

North, R. Old English 'wopes hring' and the Old Norse myth of Baldr  

Pollington, S. 2011. The Elder Gods: The Otherworld of Early England. 

Reaves, W. 2018. Odin's Wife: Mother Earth in Germanic Mythology. 

Rowsell, T. 2011. Woden and his Roles in Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogy. 

Schiffels, S., Haak, W., Paajanen, P. et al. Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon genomes from East England reveal British migration history. Nat Commun 7, 10408 (2016). 

Stenton, F. 1943. Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford. 

Werner, J. 1964. Herkuleskeule und Donar-Amulett. Jahrb. RGZM 11, 176–197.

The Medieval Mind and Academic Bias - with Rachel Fulton Brown

Professor Rachel Fulton Brown from the Department of History at the University of Chicago joins me on Jive Talk to discuss the medieval mind and how academic bias in the field of medievalism might prevent us from understanding how people used to think and see the world. Rachel is known on YouTube as fencing bear at prayer #Medievalism

How Anglo-Saxon are the English people?

Sites from which samples were extracted


EDIT: a subsequent study in 2022 by Gretzinger et al has revealed that Anglo-Saxon DNA is actually as much as 48% in the most populated region of England. Read more.

This paper, Schiffels et al (2016), was a revealing study in ancient Anglo-Saxon DNA. It looked at DNA from 10 skeletons from 3 sites in East England: Hinxton, Oakington and Linton dating from before and after the Anglo-Saxon invasions. This study is better at estimating the genetic impact of Anglo-Saxons on England than other studies which only compare modern British people to modern populations on the continent.

"we estimate that on average the contemporary East English population derives 38% of its ancestry from Anglo-Saxon migrations."

They reach the 38% figure by looking at the unique Dutch-like DNA that was not present in early Iron Age samples from Hinton but appears in post AS invasion England. We can say that 38% of the DNA of modern people in East England comes from the invading Anglo-Saxons, but this figure somewhat obscures the reality of what Anglo-Saxons were.

"The middle Anglo-Saxon samples from Hinxton (HS1, HS2 and HS3) share relatively more rare variants with modern Dutch than the Iron Age samples from Hinxton (HI1 and HI2) and Linton (L). The early Anglo-Saxon samples from Oakington are more diverse with O1 and O2 being closer to the middle Anglo-Saxon samples, O4 exhibiting the same pattern as the Iron Age samples, and O3 showing an intermediate level of allele sharing, suggesting mixed ancestry."

In other words, Anglo-Saxons mixed with the Celtic Britons very quickly but there were also subsequent arrivals of more Germanic people from the continent. Geneticists using the term Anglo-Saxon in relation to the 38% figure are specifically referring to the newcomers. But when historians refer to the Anglo-Saxons, they don't just mean the Germanic people who arrived in the Migration era, they are referring to a full 600 years of English history!

If you were to ask the question of how much DNA we have from an average Anglo-Saxon, ranging from the mixed woman labelled O3, who lived in the early AS era around 500 AD, to any Anglo-Saxons living in the 7th, 8th or 9th century, then the % would be MUCH higher than 38%! The fact is that the DNA of Anglo-Saxon England from was for most of the AS period the same as that of modern ethnically English people ie: a mix of continental Germanic and Iron Age British Celtic.

The Genetic Impact of Christianity on Ethnocentrism

A new paper (LINK) has caused quite a stir! Schulz et al 2019 relies on the observation that Europeans are more trusting of outsiders and less nepotistic. I recall a study on the reactions of diverse babies left in the care of people that were markedly different genetically from the baby, with the result that most babies got very upset. The baby that was least upset by this was one from Saxony. Despite the evidence, any study that asserts that Europeans are distinguishable from any other population is likely to raise eyebrows and hair among those in the Humanities (especially a study like this that implies the differences are actually culturally advantageous or superior).

The study attributes this European tendency to the Western Church:

"they focus on how the Church broke down extended kin-based institutions and encouraged a nuclear family structure. To do this, the authors developed measures of historical Church exposure and kin-based institutions across populations."

It argues that the rise of agriculture in the Neolithic favoured kinship based societies in which forms of cousin marriage (not just 1st cousins which would be genetically problematic, but also 3rd and 4th cousins which pose no genetic threat), but that "The Church’s family policies meant that by 1500 CE, and likely centuries earlier in some regions, Europe lacked strong kin-based institutions and was instead dominated by relatively independent and isolated nuclear or stem families."

This church-led social change is thus, they argue, the reason for higher rates of openness to strangers, individualism and independence among Europeans. I have no doubt there is some truth to this but I can see a major flaw, which I will get to later. First let's see how other people reacted. The left wing historians threw their toys out of the pram, of course. Here'e one guy who has blocked me even though I don't know who he is:

this is very, very bad scholarship. @sciencemagazine should be absolutely ashamed for publishing this. #medievaltwitter #twitterstorians https://t.co/ayQ61ju1I2

— Mashed Potato Gabriele (@prof_gabriele) November 8, 2019

He says the scientists should have consulted historians (they obviously did though).

holy shit am I angry

— Mashed Potato Gabriele (@prof_gabriele) November 8, 2019

Geneticists seem somewhat bewildered by the reaction of historians...

i'm moderately skeptical of the paper in question because it aims to answer an audacious observation re: western europe's special path. we should always be cautious.

but the historians expressing rage/"I can't even" ... smh https://t.co/V87Kt90Xgt

— Razib🥥 Khan (@razibkhan) November 9, 2019

However, I must say this historian below makes some good points in her counter argument against the geneticists. She throws up numerous obfuscations, which, although a frustrating left wing technique for clouding an argument, actually includes some valid points in this case.

I see the paper as fundamentally misunderstanding causality. Seeing a pattern: European societies gradually became less structured around kinship groups at around the same time the church focuses on consanguinity. Ok. How do we know these two things are connected?

— Georgia Henley (@georgiahenley) November 9, 2019

My area is the conversion of the Germanic peoples and I can give the example of how the church banned, as incestuous, the custom among the Norse whereby sons would inherit their step-mothers. That shows a concern with breaking up kinship ties, but it isn't at all related to biological incest. In fact the prohibition against incest was not introduced to the Germanics by the church at all. Although incest occurs in mythological contexts, such as the gods Freya and Frey, or the incestuous relationships among the Volsung clan which were intended to create a supernatural semi-divine being by distilling the blood of Odin through incest. In both cases, the incest is quite a shocking and unusual element and associated with taboos that even gods aren't supposed to break (Loki shames the divine twins Frey and Freya for the alleged incest).

I do not recall any discussion of consanguineous sexual relationships in any of the papers on Viking or Anglo-Saxon DNA I have read. This could easily be determined from existing samples. I doubt incest was at all common even before Christianity arrived. One Germanic region where people have been marrying third or fourth cousins for centuries is Iceland - this occurred out of necessity due to isolation and a small population. 

Icelandic researchers reporting in a 2008 issue of Science, found that marriages between third or fourth cousins in Iceland tended to produce more children and grandchildren than those between completely unrelated individuals. The researchers suggested that marrying third and fourth cousins may be optimal for reproduction because this degree of genetic similarity may produce the best gene pool. Really close relations like siblings and first-cousins would have detrimental inbreeding mutations, whereas couples genetically far-removed from each other could have genetic incompatibilities. Third- and fourth-cousin couples, though, are the goldilocks middle ground genetically, tending to be more genetically compatible while having no serious inbreeding problems.

Iceland not only produces more published authors per capita than anywhere else, but also more of the world's strongest men! Their breeding practices have certainly not hurt them, in fact they seem to have been beneficial and if these marriages result in more children, then those who favour them will outcompete those who don't in terms of number of children. That suggests selective pressure FOR consanguineous marriages, at least in Iceland...and the church did not break them up.

I am sure some right wing pagans would like to use this study as evidence for how the church destroys ethnic identities and prepares the world for globalism but I am not sure that this has been proven. I believe these prohibitions against close inbreeding were always there in many places in Northern Europe, that third cousin marriages still occurred long after conversion and that kinship networks were not maintained by third cousin marriages anyway, but by complicated rituals of gift exchange, and feasting.

It may surprise the reader to learn I dislike Western chauvinism, particularly arguments for the uniqueness of Western civilisation based on our supposedly more progressive outlook. But if we accept this premise, we must also conclude that the aforementioned tendencies of openness, individualism and independence, are higher in the North than the South of Europe, despite the North being the last place to receive the Christian doctrine. Clearly the argument falls flat. I personally consider such traits to be socially disadvantageous (in the current environment) mutations that actually emerged long before Christianity arrived in Europe, and which are more likely adaptations for small populations distributed over large areas in harsh regions of Northern Europe, where there was a selective pressure favouring those willing to cooperate with whoever they came across and also for more independent and individualistic people who would find long periods of isolation more tolerable.

  

Riddles in the Dark Ages

Written by Tom Rowsell in 2015 for Medievalists.net 

One of the most memorable scenes from Tolkien’s The Hobbit is called “Riddles in the Dark”. I remember the nerdish cheers echoing through the darkness of the cinema as the scene opened in Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of the famous novel. The scene’s popularity is rather surprising when you consider that there are no great battles or speeches, nor busty maidens and dragons, just a little hobbit and a strange subterranean creature engaged in a battle of wits.

Gollum, as the creature is named, challenges Bilbo Baggins to a game of riddles, on which Bilbo’s life is at stake. Gollum’s cryptic riddles are as enchanting and compelling as any other of Tolkien’s Middle Earth creations. Here is one of my favourites.

Voiceless it cries,Wingless flutters,Toothless bites,Mouthless mutters. 

The answer, as Bilbo well knows, is wind. One might think that riddles about weather are rather out of place in medieval fantasy novels of this kind, and that Tolkien merely added it as a frivolous diversion, but that is a mistake. Tolkien was twice Professor of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) at the University of Oxford, and the riders of Rohan from Lord of the Rings were clearly based on the Anglo-Saxons. Rohan itself was based on the country and great hall of Hrothgar from the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf. What many do not realise is that the Anglo-Saxons, as well as being macho war-like ale gulpers, also loved riddles. See this Old English example:

Hwylc is hæleþa     þæs horsc  þæs hygecræftig þæt mæge asecgan     hwa mec on sið wræceþōn ic astige     strong stundū reþeþrymful þunie     þragum wræcefere geond foldan     folcsalo bærneræced reafige     recas stigaðhaswe ofer hrofū     hlǐn bið on eorþanwælcwealm wera     þōn Ic wudu hrerebearwas bledhwate     beamas fylleholme gehrefed     heanū meahtumwrecan on waþe     wide sendedhæbbe me on hrycge    ær hadas wreahfoldbuendra     flæsc gæstassomod on sunde     saga hwa mec þecceoþþe hu ic hatte     þe þa hlæst bere What good man is     so learned and so cleverthat he can say who drives me     forth on my way?When I rise up strong     at times furious,I thunder mightily     and again with havocI sweep over the land,     burn the great hall,ravage the buildings.     Smoke mounts on highdark over the rooftops.     Clamour is everywhere,sudden death among men.     When I shake the forest,the trees proud in their fruit,     I fell the boles.With my roof of water,     by the powers aboveI am driven far and wide     on my avenging path.I bear on my back     what once covered the formsof the earth-dwellers,     their body and soultogether in the waters.     Say what covers meor what I am called     who bears this burden.

The answer, which refers to the biblical flood, is a storm of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning on land. Although longer, this riddle from the 10th century Exeter book is not at all dissimilar to Gollum’s one. But there are some Anglo-Saxon riddles which a conservative Catholic like Tolkien would never dream of including in a children’s novel.

Hyse cwom gangan,   þær he hie wisse
stondan in wincsele,   stop feorran to,
hror hægstealdmon,   hof his agen
hrægl hondum up,   hrand under gyrdels
hyre stondendre   stiþes nathwæt,
worhte his willan;   wagedan buta.
Þegn onnette,   wæs þragum nyt
tillic esne,   teorode hwæþre
æt stunda gehwam   strong ær þon hio,
werig þæs weorces.   Hyre weaxan ongon
under gyrdelse…

A young man came walking
he knew she was waiting there in the corner.
Marching to her from afar,
that bold bachelor heaved up his garment with his hands
and thrust something stiff
under her girdle as she stood there.
And then he had his pleasure.
Both of them shook.
The man moved quickly,
and that good servant was useful for awhile,
but, although previously stronger than she,
he grew tired and weary from his work.
Under her girdle, something began to grow…

Pretty raunchy huh? No it is not! Get your mind out of the gutter; the riddle probably just refers to a man churning milk with a stiff plunger so that it grows into butter. We will never know for sure, as the answers aren’t included in the manuscript. There are many Anglo-Saxon riddles of this sort, all evoking something rude while referring to something innocent.

Anglo-Saxons favoured alliteration to rhyme, so Tolkien’s riddles do not resemble them in this sense. Latin riddles were popular in medieval Europe but it is clear from the nature of the riddles themselves that Tolkien’s were influenced more by those of Anglo-Saxon England. Latin riddles depended on knowledge of a specific subject in order to be deciphered, while English riddles were often about common things like the weather.

Archer Taylor identifies five different types of riddle in the Exeter book, one of which is the “neck riddle”, so named because it is used to save one’s neck. Neck riddles are unfair because there is no way for the person guessing the riddle to know the answer. Bilbo’s final question is a neck riddle, “what have I got in my pocket?”

But Tolkien’s use of a neck riddle is just as likely to be the result of Viking influence as Anglo-Saxon.  He seems to have used several Old Norse sources for “Riddles in the Dark”. In the Vafþrúðnismál from the Elder Edda and in the Saga of King Heidrek the Wise, the god Odin adopts a disguise before entering into a riddle contest. His final riddle is “What did Odin whisper in Baldr’s ear before Baldr was burned on the funeral pyre?” No one except Odin himself can know this, so it’s just as unfair as Bilbo’s riddle. In each Viking tale, the answerer finally realises that the riddler is Odin himself; Tolkien combines the reactions of Vafþrúðnir, who concedes defeat and Heidrek, who attacks Odin, making Gollum acquiesce at first but then attack Bilbo later.

Another possible Norse influence on the scene can be found in Gollum’s final riddle, which Bilbo only solves by accident.

This thing all things devours;Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;Gnaws iron, bites steel;Grinds hard stones to meal;Slays king, ruins town,And beats mountain down.

The answer is time, which is depicted here as a physical force, one which slays kings and bites steel. In one scene from the 13th century Icelandic text Gylfaginning, Thor and his pals are in the hall of a giant king named Utgard-Loki who presents them with a number of impossible challenges. After being defeated in a drinking challenge, Thor is eager to prove himself in a test of strength. Utgard-Loki asks him to wrestle an old woman named Elli. This should have been easy, but the harder Thor gripped her, the faster she stood and it wasn’t long before he was defeated. It is then revealed that the withered woman was “Old Age” personified, and that neither man nor god can ever defeat time.

Tolkien was as enamoured with Norse mythology as he was with Anglo-Saxon poetry, and it is fascinating to see how each have influenced his works. If you enjoyed the Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings, then I must urge you to investigate Old English and Icelandic literature, as they are equally enthralling 

Film about the Baltic crusades (Herkus Mantas)

The Teutonic knights invaded the Baltic but were repelled by a pagan rebellion. This film tells the story of Herkus Monte, a Prussian who led his people against the Christian German invaders. It was made in the Soviet Union which explains the anti-German sentiment, but I am surprised they allowed such nationalism to be promoted among Lithuanians. There is also a theme of class conflict among the Prussians, with Monte promoting a serf above a noble, but I am sure this is Soviet influence.

King Alfred the Great is too straight, white and male

National Origin Myths and Narratives of Identity

< This talk was delivered in WA, USA in 2018.

Hebrew Anglo-Saxons? - Medieval Conversion Tactics

The Knights Templar and the Temple Church

Dragon Slayers in Germanic Cultures

Documentary: Kenneth Clark's Civilisation

Clark explains how he thinks Europe managed to survive the invasion of the Germanic barbarians and flourish again.