Ingles

When might they arrive? The Angles are scheduled to arrive in the 5th century AD. We can expect them to be very powerful, until someone else comes to knock them from their perch... perhaps the Vikings in around 867 AD, for example... (a wild stab in the dark).Where are they from?The Roman historian Tacitus mentioned the Anglii in his Germania, a book about Germany (obviously) written back inaround 98 AD and their name is believed to derived from their homeland of Angeln, as it is called in Old English. It is situated on the narrow peninsula between the North and Baltic seas, in the central part of the peninsula which will later be called 'Schleswig-Holstein'. This territory is so littered by marshes, rivers and inlets that even the Romans never could get to grips with it. It all sounds abit bleak over there, so it's not surprising they want a look at our verdant and foresty pastures.Where are they headed?The Angles are coming in large numbers! So many in fact that it seems they may be abandoning their homeland and all but a few of them will be turning up on our eastern and southern coasts. There'll be so many we may as well start calling our homeland 'Angleland' if we aren'tcareful (but that would be a ridiculous name)! We forecast particularly strong presences in the North and East, in places they call 'Northumberland' and 'East Anglia' in their language. We may also see them as far inland as 'Mercia', slap bang in the middle of our fine Celtic land.Do they worship a god?Tacitus had them down as one of several peoples who venerated the goddess Nerthus, along with otherpagan gods. Pope Gregory may have other plans for them... it is said after seeing some sweet little slave children of this people he asked “Where are they from?”.When told they were from Angeln he punned “Well that is well, for they have angel faces, and such people should share with the angels in heaven.”At that moment it is said he swore to convert them from their pagan ways.Until that happensthe Angles will retain their pantheon of gods, which they share with all the Germanic peoples. Most prominent among these is Woden, the leader of 'the wild hunt'. Secondary to him is Thunor, the thunder god. Some others from the pantheon include Ingui, Tiw and Helith (fertility, war, and marriage gods). They use these gods to identify their weekdays: Tiw's day, Woden's day, Thunor's day, Frige'sday
The Jutes When might they arrive? Expect in around the 5th and 6th centuries AD - much like Angles. Where are they from? The Jutes (or Iuti or Iutae) come from a land that will one day be called Jutland in their honor, and the venerable Bede tells me they are from the northern part of that peninsula, to be specific, further north than the Saxons or Angles. Where are they headed? The Jutes areheaded a bit more southwards than the Angles. Their proverbial towels have been thrown in reservation over the Southern areas of our island. So get prepared if you are in Kent, Hampshire or the Isle of Wight and of Celtic descent, as we don't expect them to leave any time soon - there is a moderate to high risk that you will be absorbed, displaced or - worse - destroyed! So pack an umbrella!(whatever an umbrella is.)Take comfort from the fact that the same thing may well happen to them one day, once the West Saxons arrive. Anything else? The Jutes are a bit more suave and debonair than their Germanic cousins. They'll probably try and adopt some aspects of Roman and Christian culture, knowing them. They will also be ahead of their peers in adopting funerary burial, instead of cremation.They use 'Partible Inheritance' (dividing between heirs as opposed to primogeniture), which should be helpful for people in the future to set them apart from the other German peoples whilst digging around into history.The Saxons When might they arrive? It’s going to busy in the North Sea for a while - the Saxons will, like the Jutes and Angles, be heading over for much of the 5th and 6th...