The first Brits

[Anonymous]

[Emp edit: Split off from the first Americans thread.]

Slightly off-centre, I know, but who were the first people to discover Britain? According to the BBC:

'Gene scientists claim to have found proof that the Welsh are the "true" Britons.
The research supports the idea that Celtic Britain underwent a form of ethnic cleansing by Anglo-Saxons invaders following the Roman withdrawal in the fifth century.

Genetic tests show clear differences between the Welsh and English

It suggests that between 50% and 100% of the indigenous population of what was to become England was wiped out, with Offa's Dyke acting as a "genetic barrier" protecting those on the Welsh side.'

 

[Anonymous]

Slightly off-centre, I know, but who were the first people to discover Britain? According to the BBC:

'Gene scientists claim to have found proof that the Welsh are the "true" Britons.
The research supports the idea that Celtic Britain underwent a form of ethnic cleansing by Anglo-Saxons invaders following the Roman withdrawal in the fifth century.

Genetic tests show clear differences between the Welsh and English

The cultural heratage of Wales is interesting. Wales, Cornwall and Scotland (sunny Scotland that I call home) are all Celtic nations but England is largly free of Celtic infulances.

'sir Gawain and the Green Knight' is an example of the celtic infulances in these arias. It has a circular naritive structure (sir Gawain beheads the Green Knight and in turn is to suffer the same fate.) Sir Gawain's crime is to break the cycle. The circle is a celtic symbol for life and therefore Sir Gawain's crime is against life, against regeneration.

This is ofcorse my own theory on this work and posably bears no relevence to the actual poem.

(By the way the auther came from the Cornwall aria.)

Also the earliest bibles where produced in Wales and Ireland.

And just before leaving...Scotland was invaded by the Irish Celts who used the land to grow crops and the people as slave labour. Sorry I don't have the book anymore that stated this.

Does Celtic civalisation (Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Germany, France and Spain) predate Anglo Saxon. Well I wouldn't like to say...

 

[Anonymous]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1256894.stm

As has already been stated: the Celts are a seperate people from the Anglo Saxons.

I'm not some mad nationalist and I don't beleve in sepetarism for all Celtic peoples but it's interesting, as I said before, that the earliest psudochristian artifact in Britain is not the Lindisfarn Gospels but works for Wales and Ireland (infact wan't some of the work in the book of Kells boen on Scotish islands, I unfortunatly no longer have books about this subject. They where all ost when I was homeless a few years back.)

Indeed this information should breed closer ties to our Eurpoean neighboure rather than sepratism.

Anyway I won't get on my political high horse.

 

[madmath]

Originally posted by jamesveldon


The cultural heratage of Wales is interesting. Wales, Cornwall and Scotland (sunny Scotland that I call home) are all Celtic nations but England is largly free of Celtic infulances.

And just before leaving...Scotland was invaded by the Irish Celts who used the land to grow crops and the people as slave labour. Sorry I don't have the book anymore that stated this.
[/QUOTE

For an interesting commentary on the events above, take a look here:

http://www.wordorigins.org/errors.htm

under "Superficial resemblances". I wonder how many "Scots" know that they're Irish.

 

[Jerry_B]

Yes, 'Celtic' culture predates what we would called 'Anglo-Saxon' culture. I also think there may be (albeit rare) genetic traces of the people who were here before the arrival of the Celts - for example, the Picts.

 

[rynner2]

Yes, 'Celtic' culture predates what we would called 'Anglo-Saxon' culture.

Anglo-saxons were doing their thing in Europe before they came here, and I don't know of any evidence that one culture predates the other.

(Incidentally, the first A-Ss came here as mercenaries to help the Celts in their tribal wars.)

Much of Britain would have been uninhabitable during the Ice Age, so most of the present inhabitants descend from a variety of incomers during the last 7000 years or so.