Maeshowe forum 16 room
Image by follow that cow
close
more_vert

Always a very emotive subject, nationality and ethnic origins. It's always best to think over carefully before jumping in with both size 9s.

So that said, over the ledge we go!!

Who we would like to believe that we are descended from and who we are actually descended from may be quite separate and possibly quite shocking for most of us.

This brings me back to Britain. Originally only a name used by the Romans for this land and it did not come into general usage again until James VI of Scotland took over the English throne and wanted to shorten his title of King of Scotland and King of England, he chose something snappy, that had only ever been associated with antiquity, and became known as the British monarch, and we then became the British people for the first time since the Romans.

The term Celts is only a generic term for the loosely associated tribes that inhabited Europe for the 1st millennium BC and I never find the term useful except for classifying artifacts. I find that there is usually a bit of confusion between the Gaels a specific people (who were Celts) and the Celts in general.

Anyway, to my point, those tribes that the Anglo-Saxons displaced were the original British or to use their correct term the Romano- British. These people were not wiped out but bowed to the superior arms of the Anglo Saxons but a huge amount of their culture and genes was carried forward, a lot of it still surviving to this day.

One argument is that there is a lot more Roman blood, especially in the 'English', than most of the English are aware of, and this is why that I am usually shocked by the antipathy towards Rome by their descendants!

"One argument is that there is a lot more Roman blood, especially in the 'English', than most of the English are aware of, and this is why that I am usually shocked by the antipathy towards Rome by their descendants!"

Yes - so am I, but its how I react too! Guess we still resent the idea of being conquered by an occupying force. Many of us feel the same way about the Normans - daft really. We also tend to think of the "Romans" as being Italians actually from Rome. Most of the occupying troops were not Italian and had never seen Rome in their lives. Rank and file soldiery were often auxiliaries - Gauls, Germans and all sorts with a smattering of Roman aristocrats in charge. Those that survived their military service, mostly settled here and married local women. Younger men sewed their wild oats where ever and left numerous sprogs before early death took them. We are of mixed blood and any attempts to claim or prove "racial purity" are doomed. Nothing new in immigration and a well stirred and varied gene pool is our greatest heritage.