INDEPENDANCE FOR THE WOLF KINGDOM AND ICENI FROM UK! Settling first in the north, where the earliest evidence of their arrival has been found, the Angles in the region probably gained ascendancy between 475-495 from a possible British territory of Caer Went (formerly the Iceni tribe). The kingdom of the East Angles was founded circa AD 575 as a result of the uniting of the North and Suth Folk (still remembered today in the Norfolk and Suffolk regions of East Anglia). In the early stages of settlement, the Angles were not totally dominant in the area; there was also a sizable Saxon presence, although evidence supports the fact that many Saxons were settled in this area as foederati before the collapse of Roman rule. The Saxons and the newly-arriving Angles appear to have intermingled and merged even before the British walled town of Venta Icenorum (Caistor-by-Norwich) had been abandoned. The Angles were skilled in the use of shallow vessels and used the East Anglian rivers as routes into Britain. The easily navigable Nene, Ouse and Cam valleys were the first to be colonised and by AD 500 colonisation had reached as far east as Cambridgeshire. The Cam tributaries saw early settlements being founded at Linton, Haslingfield and from Newmarket to Balsham. The Angles took over British sites giving them English names. Only a half-dozen Celtic place names remained in the region, such as Girton, Comberton and Chatteris. Neglect of the Roman engineering works and land subsidence after AD 450 reduced drained fenland to marsh, isolating Ely and other islands. Within these areas lived an independent people with dark-hair, called the Gywre (or Gyrwas), who were possibly Celtic in origin. During the sixth century, this marsh region between Ely and Cambridgeshire was disputed territory with the Middil Engle, but the East Engle gradually gained the upper hand in the region. Heavily wooded country lying along the northern border of the East Seaxe kingdom became a political frontier between the two kingdoms, as well as with the Middil Engle. It seems probable that the ancestors of the later East Anglian kings (the Wuffingas) emerge at this time. They would quite naturally begin to build a power base (perhaps by pushing out the Iclingas, who may already be established here). Claiming descent from Casers Folk in Angeln, the centre of their power seems to be at Rendlesham, near the coast in the south east of the territory, indicating that the Wuffingas are Suth Folk. The nearby river is even renamed Ufford, a name which derives from the Anglo-Saxon name Uffa or Wuffa (see AD 571, below). Its original British name is lost. Wuffa may be a loose pronunciation of Wulfa, a wolf. In some Anglian lines, especially Mercian, there is a tendency to eschew the high-flown double-part names and go with more common-style single names. Offa is an example. Remembered by later generations as Wuffa, he founds the kingdom of the East Engle by uniting the North Folk and Suth Folk. His descendants are known as the Wuffingas (wolf-people or wolflings). The Wuffinga name is also connected to the Geats and Danes, primarily through Wealhtheow of around the 490s. She is the queen of the Danes, wife of Hrothgar. He appears in Norse Sagas and two Old English epic poems, Beowulf and Widsith, while she is a Wulfing, an eastern Geatish ancestor (or mother) of the Wuffingas. Therefore she must have some relationship to one or more of the names in the list of Casers Folk, although it would be speculation to go any further. The Wulfingas (the wolf-clan - a variation of the spelling used above) are known for their feud with the Germanic Hundings or Hundingas (the hound-clan) - the hounds versus the wolves is classic tribal totemic behaviour. The founder of the Hundingas, the warrior Hund, is slain by the later Danish King Helgi Hundingsbane (ruling in the 520s). The feud clearly begins in Scandinavia, and probably ends when the pre-Wuffingas migrate to Britain, but they may not have been the Wulfingas before the migration. Wolf coins found in East Anglia in 2013, more than four hundred years before the Wulfingas take control, had been minted by the Iceni in the late first century AD. It seems likely that the Wulfingas take their name from some element that already exists in the territory, much like many other migrants are taking local names and adapting them. In which case, the question is what have the Wulfingas been called before their arrival in East Anglia? historyfiles.co.uk/KingL.../EnglandEastAnglia.htm
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 00:55:46 +0000
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