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Maeshowe
Re: Pretanike-Britain, Breton, Prythain or Picti?
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"the name that the natives called themselves" - that is probably unanswerable. First you have to be certain that the natives had a concept of single identity - ie nationhood. In the case of the Inuits - apparently that word just means "The People" - we are the people - you are "other"

Names of small groups often derive from a legendary leader or deity, but the inhabitants of large territories had no common identy other than that imposed on them by incomers - traders or invaders. Such names are often descriptive eg Lombards from Langobards (long beards), Barbarians because they gabbled and their language sounded like bar-bar-bar, Picti certainly and probably Pretanike and its variants. On balance, I suspect that the peoples of Britain had no name for "the People of Britain" because they were fractured tribes rather than one nation. For certain sure - they didn't call themselves Celts - nor did anyone else until the 17th century AD


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PeterH
Posted by PeterH
2nd May 2005ce
09:34

In reply to:

Re: Pretanike-Britain, Breton, Prythain or Picti? (follow that cow)

3 replies:

Re: Pretanike-Britain, Breton, Prythain or Picti? (follow that cow)
Re: Pretanike-Britain, Breton, Prythain or Picti? (Littlestone)
Re: Pretanike-Britain, Breton, Prythain or Picti? (moss)

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