The Mixed Celtic and Germanic Tribes of Continental Europe and the British Isles-the Belgae

 Our knowledge concerning the tribes inhabiting the British Isles, most especially the island of Great Britain itself comes primarily from the writings of Greek and Roman historians, and archaeology. Population genetics is also beginning to play a part in unfolding our knowledge of Bronze and Iron Age Britain.

A simplistic understanding of the ethnicity of the tribes present in the island at the time of the Roman Conquest in the years 43-87CE is that all of the tribes were 'Celtic'-speaking 'Britons' until the beginning of the Anglo-Saxon invasions and colonisation of present-day England in 449CE. This is not only highly simplistic but false. A mix of both Celtic and Germanic peoples was already present in these islands at the time of the Roman Conquest. Migration from continental Europe was a factor for thousands of years prior to this. Some of the tribes of the Roman province of Britannia (present-day England and Wales) were not Celtic at all but Germanic or Celto-Germanic. The better known of these were the Belgae, who migrated from Gaul during the late 2nd century or early first century BCE.

The Belgae were not a single tribe but a confederation of closely related tribes resident in northern Gaul, namely the Bellovaci, Ambiani, Atrebates and Veromandui. Ironically, modern maps showing the location of Iron Age tribes in Britain locate the Belgae to the west of the Atrebates but the latter were part of the Belgae confederation. The German or Germanic roots of the Belgae are confirmed by Caesar in Book II of his Bello Gallico:

                           'When Caesar inquired of them what states were in arms, 

                            how powerful they were and what they could do, in war,

                            he received the following information:

                            that the greater part of the Belgae, were sprung from the Germans, 

                           and that having crossed the Rhine at an early period, 

                           they had settled there, on account of the fertility of the country,

                           and had driven out the Gauls who inhabited those regions;.....'

                            (Devitte translation)

Of the Belgae who migrated to Britain, we know that the Atrebates were among them, and possibly, the Ambiani (from Numismatics, the study of their coinage). In addition to the Belgae, it is now speculated that the Iceni of East Anglia also had Germanic or Celto-Germanic origins. The Cenimagni tribe, referred to by Caesar in Book V of Bello Gallico may very well have been a misspelling of ICENI and the name is suggestive of a Germanic root. The image of what appears to be Odin on Iceni coinage adds further weight to the hypothesis of Germanic origins.

The Portable Antiquities Scheme/ The Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/license

The ancient city of Winchester in Hampshire was the administrative centre of the kingdom of Wessex (the West Saxons). The kings of Wessex eventually united the whole of England into one kingdom. The present King of the United Kingdom, Charles III is a descendant of Alfred the Great, the most notable of the kings of Wessex. However, Winchester's history can be traced much further back than the 9th century and the etymology of its name is derived from Wenta, a Celtic word with the meaning 'tribal town' or 'meeting place'. Subsequent to the Roman Conquest, Winchester became an important settlement for the Belgae, its name then being recorded as Wenta Belgarum, meaning 'Wenta of the Belgae'.  

What should be pointed out however, is that mixed tribes on the continent or in these islands may be mixed in terms of language, culture, belief or ancestry or any combination of these features. Thus, when discussing the possible Germanic ancestral antecedents of the Iceni, the Belgae or any other tribe, it must be borne in mind that there is no evidence that they were necessarily Germanic-speaking.

 Referring back to the continental home of the Belgae, Caeser referred to the German origins of these people but his precise words were: 'that the greater part of the Belgae, were sprung, from the Germans,....'    The emphasis here is 'the greater part'; he did not state that they were all sprung from the Germans and neither did he say that those who were of German ancestry were not also descended from any Celtic peoples as well. By the time that Caesar wrote about the Belgae, they had already been settled in Gaul for a sufficient time for any mixing of blood, language, culture and religion to occur. 

Tacitus, writing in his Germania, chapter two states:

                                  'for that the people who first crossed the Rhine, and expelled

                                   the Gauls, and are now called Tungri, were then named Germans;

                                   which appellation of a particular tribe, not of a whole people,

                                   gradually prevailed; so that the title of Germans, first assumed

                                   by the victors in order to excite terror, was afterwards adopted

                                   by the nation in general.'    

The Tungri, it should be pointed out, were part of the Belgae tribal confederation.

More or less within the same time period that Caesar was writing his Bello Gallico, the Belgae who were already established in southern Britain were still ruled by the same king who governed the Belgae in Gaul, Diviciacus of the Belgic Suessiones tribe. It should be noted that the etymology of Suessiones appears to be Gallic in origin, not Germanic. This Diviciacus should not be confused with the druid of the same name who belonged to the Gallic Aedui tribe.

There is also speculation by scholars that the Regni or Regnenses in southeast England were also part of the Belgae confederation or at the very least they were influenced by them and may have had a Belgic leadership stratum. Gunivortus Goos (Gardenstone), a Dutch researcher and a long time resident of Germany (whose books I recommend) suggests in his excellent new work, Britain and Boudicca (2025) that other tribes such as the Catuvellauni and the Trinovantes were or may have been of Belgic origin. Mr Goos provides a lot of interesting information on individual tribes in his aforesaid work with maps and coloured illustrations. 

It would also appear that the Belgae were not restricted to just Gaul and modern-day England but were also present in Iron Age Ireland too. According to Professor Thomas Francis O'Rahilly (1882-1953), some of the Belgae settled in south-west Ireland in the fifth century BCE, becoming the Iverni (Erainn). He also was of the opinion that the memory of the Belgic settlers was preserved in Irish mythology in the name and people of the Fir Bolg. This latter theory is no longer acceptable to 'mainstream' historians (nothing to do with Irish republicanism then?).

What we do know from this patchwork of Celtic and Celto-Germanic tribes present in Iron Age England is that the accepted paradigm of a totally 'Celtic' Britain prior to the Anglo-Saxon colonisations from 449CE onwards is now no longer tenable! 

                           

The Nonsense Talked about so-called 'Shield-Maidens'

 In recent years a great deal has been assumed on the subject of 'shield-maidens', sparked off by the discovery that the body buried in Birka grave Bj581 was that of a female, not a male. From the time of its discovery in 1878, it was naturally assumed to be male due to the presence of a sword, a seax, an axe, a spear, two shields, armour piercing arrows and two stirrups.

Analysis of the skeleton's pelvic bones  in 2016, and a DNA analysis in 2017, established the remains to be female. An analysis of the weapons indicates that they had been used. Naturally, academics and feminists are wetting themselves into a frenzy about this and the assumption (unproven) follows that 'shield-maidens', either organised groups of them or individuals, were a common and natural part of life in 10th century Sweden, and by extension, the rest of Scandinavia and the wider Germanic world. However, as the saying goes, 'one swallow doth not a spring make.'

One thing that I would like the academics and feminists to explain, is the lack of wear and tear to the woman's bones, which one would expect from a seasoned warrior. The presence of weapons in a grave is not proof that its occupant was a warrior, and the condition of the bones would suggest otherwise. However, that did not hinder the makers of the television series, The Vikings from presenting 'shield maidens' for their gullible audience to uncritically assume as an historical 'fact'. It was an enjoyable series but at the end of the day, it was simply fiction.

Likewise, feminists and academics will refer to the presence of a few female warriors in ancient myths and legends and cite that as evidence to support their theory. Typical examples from the Germanic world include the following: Brynhildr from the Volsunga Saga, Brunhild from the Niebelungenlied, Hervor from the Saga of Hervor and Heidrek, Lagertha from Gesta Danorum (Deeds of the Danes) and many other lesser known ones. Examples from the Celtic world include Queen Mebd of Connacht from the Tain Bo Cuailinge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley), and Scathach, also from the Tain. There are also examples that my readers will be aware of from ancient history but none of them are said to be warriors but leaders of warriors, such as Boudica, the Queen of the Iceni (Tacitus, Annals), Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd, princess of Deheubarth, Aethelflaed, the Lady of the Mercians and daughter of Alfred the Great. Nobody is disputing the historical existence of female leaders of warriors but that is a far cry from the concept of the common place so-called 'shield-maiden'. 

Meritocracy, the Enemy of the Traditional World and the Indo-European Caste System

Some time ago I read read some suggestions that the revived Germanic caste system should be based on a meritocracy, something which I cannot agree with and in essence is a contradiction of the concept of caste. Meritocracy is defined according to the Collins Concise English Dictionary as:
"rule by persons chosen for their superior talents or intellect." In effect this is the system which is used by democracy which the aforesaid dictionary defines as: "government by the people or their elected representatives."

It is clear to me that we cannot have both; a caste system and a meritocracy. The caste systems of the Indo-European peoples were no doubt a reflection of the original Aryan caste system, something which I have discussed many times on this blog and on my previous blogs. I do not intend to repeat the same arguments here. There was originally no mobility between the various castes. Only gradually with the onset of degeneration and intercaste miscegenation did this happen. This eventually caused the breakdown of the caste system and the loss of racial consciousness and blood memory. People were born into the caste which was fitting to their non-corporeal essence. There was generally no desire to be different to the station and caste that one was born into. This is a very modern and western notion and has no place in a traditional Aryan world view. Julius Evola in his Revolt Against the Modern World argues that traditional man was able to develop his own nature within the caste system and the said system was regarded as a "natural, agreeable institution" with no thoughts of 'social injustice' or 'oppression' which are modern political concepts. A man recognised his relation towards his superiors and inferiors according to their inner nature which the caste system was a visible expression of. The modern concept of 'social mobility' in antithetical to the traditional Indo-European concept of caste. The castes defined functions and ways of being. In essence they were a microcosm of the divine order of the Gods.

Professor Jean Haudry makes the observation in his The Indo-Europeans that "Celtic society has three function-classes.....but only two birth-classes." By this statement he is arguing that there was a certain degree of mobility between the priestly and warrior castes but not so with the third. In ancient Germanic society the descendants of a man that had been freed from the condition of thraldom were only recognised as freemen from the third generation onwards.


This point regarding mobility is important as the first two castes-sovereign/priest, warrior/noble are clearly distinct from the third caste which relates to either production or trade (the mercantile or middle classes). The difference is most apparent when we consider the Rigsthula in the Elder/Poetic Edda. The third caste here is not that of the producer but that of the thralls and it is very clear from the description of this caste that they bear no physical (an in my opinion, genetic) resemblance to the jarl or karl castes:

"Edda a child brought forth: they with water sprinkled its swarthy skin, and named it Thrael. It grew up, and well it throve; of its hands the skin was shrivelled, the knuckles knotty, and the fingers thick; a hideous countenance it had, a curved back, and protruding heels." (Rigsthula 7-8, Thorpe translation)

By comparison the karl is described as being a 'ruddy redhead' and the jarl as having 'light' hair. Clearly the higher Germanic castes were of Nordic race whilst the thrall is by definition a slave and is clearly of inferior physical, mental and spiritual disposition. As I have mentioned before the thrall has no place in the true Aryan caste system for the Germanic is a degenerated form of the Aryan. If one studies Rigsthula one can see the original Aryan tripartite system: Kon (son of Jarl), Jarl and Karl. Thus the kon (priestly/royal caste is biologically related to the jarl (warrior/noble) and rules over the related  karl caste. The introduction of the thrall caste only occurred in my opinion when the Germanic peoples encountered, conquered and enslaved alien peoples. One lesson that history teaches us is that imperialism and slavery rebound upon the conquering elite with the pollution and watering down of the Aryan blood. We are seeing this sad state of affairs all around us today. It is of course likely or at least possible that the physical descriptions in Rigsthula are an exaggeration to emphasise the difference between the castes, no doubt to help maintain caste boundaries.


Let us now read what Caesar had to say about the caste system in Gaul:

Throughout all Gaul there are two orders of those men who are of any rank and dignity: for the commonality is held almost in the condition of slaves, and dares to undertake nothing of itself, and is admitted to no deliberation. The greater part, when they are pressed either by debt, or the large amount of their tributes, or the oppression of the more powerful, give themselves up in vassalage to the nobles, who possess over them the same rights without exception as masters over their slaves. But of these two orders, one is that of the Druids, the other that of the knights. The former are engaged in things sacred, conduct the public and the private sacrifices, and interpret all matters of religion. To these a large number of the young men resort for the purpose of instruction, and they [the Druids] are in great honor among them. (The Gallic Wars, Book 6:13, McDevitte and Bohn translation)

Clearly the only castes which mattered among the Gauls were the Druids (priestly) and the Knights (warriors/nobles). Unfortunately he does not give us a physical description of the various castes. The Irish caste system is also worth examining in this context. Peter Berresford Ellis states that Irish society was divided into various sub classes of druids, a 'warrior nobility' and 'free peasants' called 'cow-herds'. He makes the interesting observation that the Irish term for 'cow-herds' is bo aire. He also states that the 'Chief Magistrate' of a tribe was known as the Aire Echta. (See page 194 of The Druids)

It is becoming increasingly clear to me that it was the highest castes of Indo-European society that were clearly Nordic in race and descended from the ancient solar Aryan race, semi-divine beings who brought culture and order to a chaotic and primitive world. With the onset of the Kali Yuga these semi-divine beings degenerated from their godly condition and thus many of their European descendants today behave little better than the beasts of the field in their lechery and drunkenness. The masses have become degenerate both physically and spiritually. They have become as thralls and  are acting according to type. This is why a meritocracy can have no lasting benefits. As a final point  I would ask my readers to consider the fake knighthoods and peerages are today doled out to political sycophants and wealthy donators to political parties. These modern day 'lords' and 'knights' are fake plastic impostors and undeserving of titles which once belonged to those of superior noble blood and those who through courageous deeds in warfare were elevated to the status of knighthood. Even those families with ancient titles no longer deserve the station that they hold. How many of these newly knighted parvenus can mount a horse and fight with sword and lance? This is just another example of life in the Kali Yuga in the degenerate 'western world', the epitome of which is that enemy of all nobility, the United States of America, a capitalist cess pit  which is viewed by many British politicians and the masses in general as worthy of emulation!

Brigit, an Example of a Christianised Aryo-Celtic Goddess

With the enforced xtianisation of the Germanic, Celtic, Baltic and Slavic peoples their Gods were often either demonised, eradicated or given a Christian gloss. Often the Goddesses fared better than the male Gods and  underwent the process of Christianisation with very little change to their attributes or even names.

One such example is the Irish Goddess Brigit:

"The Dagda had several children, the most important of whom are Brigit, Angus, Mider, Ogma, and Bodb the Red. Of these, Brigit will be already familiar to English readers who know nothing of Celtic myth. Originally she was a goddess of fire and hearth, as well as of poetry, which the Gaels deemed an immaterial, supersensual form of flame. But the early Christianisers of Ireland adopted the pagan goddess into their role of saintship, and, thus canonised, she obtained immense popularity as Saint Bridget, or Bride." (The Mythology of the British Islands, Charles Squire)

The process of adopting the names and personalities of heathen deities in Europe is far more common than most people realise. Often these so-called mediaeval saints never existed as flesh and blood historical figures but were the ancient Gods and Goddesses of the European peoples given a xtian veneer. The Church realised that it could not initially succeed in suppressing heathen beliefs by the use of force as they initially lacked power unless supported by traitorous chieftains and kings so they used a mix of lying `miracles` and a false comparative mythological approach where they sought to show that there was little difference between their xrist and saints and the Gods of the indigenous heathen peoples.   

In addition to co-opting Indo-European Gods into the pantheon of xtian saints the Church also made use of heathen places of worship and existing temple buildings. Pope Gregory instructed Augustine, the apostle to the English to only destroy the idols within the temples not the temples themselves so long as they were first cleansed before being used as churches. The thinking behind this was firstly that the converted heathens would feel less of a stark transition if they were to continue to frequent their old places of worship and secondly if the buildings were soundly built why not make use of them?

"Daring attempts were also made to change the Tuatha De Danann from pagan gods into Christian saints, but these were by no means so profitable as the policy pursued towards the more human seeming heroes. With one of them alone was success immediate and brilliant. Brigit, the goddess of fire, poetry, and the hearth is famous today as Saint Bridget or Bride. Most popular of all the Irish saints she can still be easily recognised as the daughter of the Dagda. Her Christian attributes almost all connected with fire attest her pagan origin. She was born at sunrise; a pillar of fire rose from her head when she took the veil; and her breath gave new life to the dead. As with the British goddess Sul worshipped at Bath, who-the first century Latin writer Solinus tells us-`ruled over the boiling springs, and at her altar there flamed a perpetual fire which never whitened into ashes but hardened into a stony mass`, the sacred flame on her shrine at Kildare was never allowed to go out. It was extinguished once in the thirteenth century, but was relighted and burnt with undying glow until the suppression of the monasteries by Henry the Eighth. This  sacred fire might not be breathed on by the impure human breath. For nineteen nights it was tended by her nuns, but on the twentieth night it was left untouched, and kept itself alight miraculously. With so little of her essential character and ritual changed, it is small wonder that the half-pagan, half-Christian Irish gladly accepted the new saint in the stead of the old goddess." (Squire)

The tending of the sacred hearth by the nuns is no doubt the xtian continuation of a practice that would have been carried out by virgin priestesses and thus there is a remarkable similarity between Brigit and the Roman virgin Goddess of the hearth, Vesta and Her Greek equivalent Hestia. Vesta also had a priesthood of virgin priestesses to attend to Her fire so that it should never go out. Fire was sacred to the Aryan peoples and no doubt this Goddess archetype goes back to ancient Aryan times. George Dumezil theorised that the name of the Goddess Vesta may be traced back to an Indo-European root *h₁eu which has the meaning of `burning`. Bridget/Brigit/Brighid/Brigid has the meaning of `exalted one`. Her festival is Imbolc which took place on the 1st February which is celebrated as St. Brigid`s Day by the Roman Catholic Church. Brigit may also be the same Goddess as Brigantia, the tutelary Goddess of the Brigantes, a Northern tribe. In France She may have been known as Brigindo.

"Giraldus (12th century A.D.) informs us that at the shrine of St. Brgit at Kildare, the fire is never allowed to go out, and though such heaps of wood have been consumed since the time of the Virgin, yet there has been no accumulation of ashes. `Each of her nineteen nuns has the care of the fire for a single night in turn, and on the evening before the twentieth night, the last nun, having heaped wood upon the fire, says, `Brigit, take charge of your own fire, for this night belongs to you.` She then leaves the fire, and in the morning it is found that the fire has not gone out, and that the usual quantity of fuel has been used." (Celtic Mythology and Religion, 1885, A. MacBain)

Brigantia is the modern version of  the Proto-Indo-European  *bhr̥g'hntī which has the root
berg'h, meaning `high, lofty, elevated`. A cognate is to be found in the Germanic Burgundi, derived from the Proto-Germanic *urgundī. From this term we get the name of the East Germanic tribe of the Burgundians. Their name meaning, `high, lofty, noble ones.` This is basically the same meaning as Arya. Clearly the ancient Germanic and Celtic peoples, being descendants of the undivided original Aryans thought of themselves in an aristocratic way.

MacBain then goes on to say:

"Brigit, therefore, is the Gaelic Minerva. She is goddess of the household fire; her position is that of the hearth goddess Vesta, as much as that of Minerva, for evidently she is primarily a fire-goddess. Her name is probably from the same root as the English bright, Gaelic breo. The British goddess, Brigantia, is doubtless the same as the Irish Brigit." 

In addition to the comparison we may make with Her British, Roman and Greek counterparts I am also reminded of the Frisian Oera Linda Book, a manuscript brought to light  in the 1860s. The book is written in Old Frisian but many suspect it of being a forgery. Fasta is the first Folk Mother of the Frisians, appointed by the Goddess Frya. Each temple had an order of priestesses who took it in turns to tend the sacred fire. Interestingly Brigit is associated with a swastika-like cross which emphasises Her Solar qualities. Apparently such crosses may protect a house from fire.

Perudur, the Cymric Parzival

Some time ago I completed my first reading of Peredur the Son of Evrawc from The Mabinogion translated by Lady Charlotte Guest (1812-1895) and published in 1841. Peredur, the son of a northern Earl Evrawc is nephew to King Arthur and becomes a knighted member of his court. According to Lady Charlotte he was probably an historical figure that "fell in the battle of Cattraeth, in the beginning of the 6th century, as Aneurin mentions a chieftain of this name among the slain." Aneurin refers to "Peredur of steel arms".

Lady Charlotte goes on to say in her notes to this tale:

"Peredur is frequently alluded to by the Bards of the Middle Ages, in terms illustrative of the high esteem in which his deeds of prowess then were held. Gruffydd ab Meredydd, who flourished about the end of the 13th century, in his Elegy on Tudor ap Garonwy, one of the ancestors of the House of Tudor, thus mentions him:-

"O Bountiful Creator of the radiant sun and waning moon, Sad is the fall of the chief of valiant deeds, Eagle of the battle-charge, equal to Peredur, Tudor, assaulter of the Angles*, he who never shunned the fight.

"In the old Romances, as Morte d'Arthur, &c., he is celebrated, under the name of Perceval, as one of those engaged in the quest of the Sangreal, in which character he is also spoken of in the Triads, together with Bort, the son of the King of that name, and Galath, the son of Lancelot du Lac.-Tri. lxi. Myv. Ar II. 14."

Evrawc or Efrawg is a Cymric translation of Eboracum, the Latin name for the ancient English city of York. People tend to think of York as a Viking city and that York derives from the Old Danish Jorvik. However before that it belonged to the Angles who called it Eoforwic. Prior to this under Roman rule it was called Eboracum, derived from the ancient British (Cymric) Eborakon, meaning a place of yew trees. However an error in translation from the Cymric Ebor and the Latin Ebor resulted in the similar sounding but different in meaning Eofor or Ebor which is Germanic for boar!

If Peredur was an historical character then he was obviously associated with post Roman York and thus his father was a northern Earl. The Battle of Catraeth or Cattrick took place in about the year 600 CE between the Germanic Angles from the Northumbrian kingdoms of Bernicea and Deira which roughly equates with Southeast Scotland/County Durham/Northumberland (Bernicea) and Yorkshire (Deira). The Britons were defeated in this battle.

What struck me by my reading of Peredur was the heathen nature of the tale. It is marred by xtian references but despite this it is clearly based on pre-xtian Celtic mythology, indicating that whilst Peredur may have been an historical character he was based on an earlier mythological archetype just as in the case of the various potential historical candidates for Robin Hood.

Peredur is clearly the same character as the English Perceval and the German Parzival and apparently Wagner was equated with  the tale of Peredur before he penned his Parsifal sacred drama. Peredur unlike Parzival does not contain any kind of grail but it does remarkably feature the lance! Whilst in the castle of an unnamed uncle Peredur witnesses a strange spectacle:

"The Peredur and his uncle discoursed together, and he beheld two youths enter the hall, and proceed up to the chamber, bearing a spear of mighty size, with three streams of blood flowing from the point to the ground. And when all the company saw this, they began wailing and lamenting. But for all that, the man did not break off his discourse with Peredur. And as he did not tell Peredur the meaning of what he saw, he forbade to ask him concerning it. And when the clamour had a little subsided, behold two maidens entered, with a large salver between them, in which was a man's head, surrounded by a profusion of blood. And thereupon the company of the court made so great an outcry, that it was irksome to be in the same hall with them. But at length they were silent. And when time was that they should sleep, Peredur was brought into a fair chamber."

 Interestingly in contrast to Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzifal Peredur is encouraged by his uncle not to ask the meaning of anything that should happen in the castle that would "cause thee to wonder" and that "if no one has the courtesy to inform thee, the reproach will not fall upon thee, but upon me that am thy teacher." So no guilt could be attached to Peredur's lack of compassion unlike how a similar event is portrayed in Parzival.  However later on in the tale he is reproached for failing to ask the meaning of the bloody spear. This particular apect of the story will be analysed in more detail and will be compared with the Parzival account in a future article on my  blog. My purpose in writing this article is simply to draw attention to the lesser known but earlier and more heathen tale of Peredur.
So Peredur whilst making several references to the bloody spear contains no reference or allusion to a grail of any description, unless of course one considers the head on the salver as such. This also will require further analysis. Thus the concept of a grail, whether it be a chalice as in the French romances or a stone in the German Parzival is something which does not originate with the earlier Peredur myth. Regardless of the actual written composition of  Peredur the work itself would have been at first orally transmitted by the Druidic Bards as there are definite Iron Age historical and pre-xtian mythological threads woven into it.

*my emphasis