The ancient Germanic tribes that made up the Saxon confederation in northern Germany were divided into clans that often took their name from an aspect of their natural environment. This is made very clear in the novel by Hermann Löns, Der Wehrwolf (The Warwolf) published in 1910:
"Many of the clan names originated from nature, eg Ul `owl`, Wulf `wolf`, Bock `goat`, Specht `woodpecker`, Katz `cat`.
These clan names continue to the present day as surnames. In the cemetry in Langelsheim in the Oberharz one may find many gravestones with my mother`s maiden name Bock, indicating that this tribal name is still very numerous in Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony). The Low German for Niedersachsen being Nedersassen.
The goat is an animal which is sacred to the God Donar and this may indicate that this clan were originally worshippers of the Thunder God and their houses were decorated with the sign of the goat.
Iceland is a repository of ancient Germanic religion and lore. If it were not for the Icelandic Elder and Younger Eddas along with the saga material and Galdrabooks we would know precious little about our ancient religion so we must always be grateful to this hardy and isolated Germanic people.
One thing in particular which interests me about modern day Iceland is their surname naming system which until the early 1980s was unique in the Germanic world and yet is hardly ever commentated upon. Generally new- borns' surnames are patronymic, sometimes matronymic. In other words their surname is their father's (sometimes the mother's) forename or middle name (if preferred) with sson if a son or dóttir if a daughter, added to it as a suffix. Occasionally as a surname some Icelanders have both a patronymic and a matronymic name as a sort of double barreled surname! Thus the surname is likely to change from generation to generation. There are some Icelanders who have inherited surnames either because they are of foreign origin or if their surname was incorporated before certain legal changes in 1925. Since the early 1980s other Germano-Scandinavian countries such as Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Faroe Islands have allowed for the use of patronymic or matronymic surnames. As an aside I have found during the last 2 or 3 years or so that I have been carrying out ancestral research that some of my paternal grandmother's ancestors from North Meols in Lancashire still practised a patronymic naming system in the 17th and 18th centuries and thus the surname changed from one generation to the next. North Meols was colonised by Scandinavian settlers and this is reflected to an extent in my autosomal DNA so it is quite possible that this is a remnant of 'Viking' practise in Lancashire.
Icelandic as a language is peculiar in the North Germanic language group as it alone unlike modern Danish, Swedish and Norwegian (which are mutually intelligible) has changed very little from Old Norse due to Iceland's geographical isolation. This geographical isolation is helping to culturally and racially preserve the Icelandic people and has inculcated a strong sense of independence in the national character. One only has to recall the Icelandic government's refusal to bail out the Icelandic banks. To do so would have been to bankrupt this small country. So despite their small size as a population (322,000) they show a pluckiness that does them credit and shames the sheeple of England. If only Greece, Spain and Portugal (not to mention the United Kingdom) were to have followed their brave and sensible example!
Iceland has never started any wars or invaded any other country and this should be a lesson for us because by minding their own business they have retained their way of life and the biological integrity of their gene pool. It is to Iceland that we should look to as an example and revere as a holy land, not Israel. The moral difference between the peace-loving and hardy Icelanders and the war-mongering, genocidal but western-backed apartheid state of Israel could not be more astounding!
