The English and the Celts - no genocide?

[authun]

It looks like the Anglo-Saxons were intent on replacing British
culture completely.

Hi Ambrosius,

I don't think intent is the correct word. Intent suggests a planned aim or objective and implies that there was such a thing as British culture after Rome. Certainly in parts there was, but surely not everywhere. If the term 'Britunculi', nasty little Brits, found at Vindolanda was typical of the roman attitude towards the locals, probably some would have had no desire to continue being romanised. But what sort of culture did they have?

Bede indicates that Aethelfrith's objective was tribute. Britons who were willing to pay tax were welcome to stay. It's a shame Bede does not mention what the attitude to unwilling AS taxpayers was. I suspect that they too had to go but were generally treated better as a bit of a sweetener if they played ball.

It is important to think in terms of population density and understand how few people actually inhabited Britain at the time. If Härke is correct and the british population did crash to 2 million in the years between the roman withdrawal and the anglo saxon migration, Britain is a pretty empty place. Go to any market town today and, for every sixty people you count, imagine 58 of them are not there.

We don't know who the Westmoringas were other than it was a germanic term to describe the dwellers of the western moors. If you go to the old county of Westmorland today you will see how empty it is. In 1974 the population was around 70,000 suggesting only a couple of thousand existed during the AS period. If it looks empty now, it must have seemed deserted then. If those who were there spoke brittonic, how would any germanic speaker even hear their words? Who would go and listen to them talk to each other?

It does make sense that, when the AS settlement areas become wealthier, those Westmoringas may attempt some trade and do so in the germanic language but otherwise, there is simply no need for germanics to learn any Brittonic. In Deira, germanic settlers were trading with the germanic speaking continent. I just don't see any benefit for the germanic speakers in taking the trouble to learn Brittonic.

best

Harry Amphlett