To the English people here: Celtic or Anglo-Saxon bloodline?

Guest   Mon Feb 25, 2008 6:01 pm GMT
Lol, is this your personal statistic?

"The small group of Vikings that settled there adopted the language and culture of the French majority. After a generation or two, the Normans were generally indistinguishable from their French neighbours."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normans#Normans_and_Normandy
Guest   Mon Feb 25, 2008 6:42 pm GMT
<<"The small group of Vikings that settled there adopted the language and culture of the French majority. After a generation or two, the Normans were generally indistinguishable from their French neighbours."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normans#Normans_and_Normandy >>

Such a "small group of Vikings" were able to cause the King of France to surrender a large tract of good land in order to appease them? Wow, they must have been a tremendous little bunch!

In any event, despite the Viking contribution, the local population was highly germanised already. The Vikings had in fact simply met up with some of their old Frankish and Neustrian cousins ; )
guest   Mon Feb 25, 2008 6:59 pm GMT
<<"The small group of Vikings that settled there adopted the language and culture of the French majority. After a generation or two, the Normans were generally indistinguishable from their French neighbours."
>>

Keep in mind that the term "French" in the 10th century did not carry exactly the same connotation that it does today.

10th Century France, and French language in particular, had a much more pronounced germanic flavor back then.

It wasn't till the Renaissance and after that France and French began to re-reLatinize into what we know today.

Few realize too that France almost ended up becoming a Protestant nation had that not forcibly and intentionally been put down.
Guest   Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:00 pm GMT
Few realize too that France almost ended up becoming a Protestant nation had that not forcibly and intentionally been put down.

The Protestants were always a minority with respect to the whole French population despite they had some strongholds in French cities like La Rochelle and even a French king was a Protestant before he accepted to convert to the Catholic faith to become the king of France. I know that he was the first king of the Bourbon dinasty but now I can't remember his name. (Henry I maybe?) Also these (the Protestants in France) were well backed by Protestant countries like England. This is the reason why Protestantism in France wasn't wiped out with ease by the Catholic government machinery of Paris, but only after bloody wars. Nevertheless Protestantism was never really popular among the masses. For example Paris, the core of the French kingdom, always remained predominantly Catholic and the Protestants were viewed badly by the Parisian populace. I guess that if this religion became really popular in Paris, it would automatically had become the official religion of France. Paradoxically there were more Protestants in the South of France, than the North. I say paradoxically because these areas were not as near to Protestant domains as the North of France, which would explain more influence of the new Christian faith over this part of France.
Damain in Edinburgh   Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:07 pm GMT
If you look at a map of the British Isles showing those areas of these islands where certain blood groups and hair colour are the most dominant then it gives you a clear idea of the original heritage of the people forming the majority of the population in those regions.

The incidence of fair hair, blue eyes and of blood group A is much more prevalent in those areas of the UK facing towards Continental Europe - this includes the eastern parts of both Scotland and England. It is especially so in East Anglia and the East Midlands of England, where you find more people with these Viking characteristics (fair hair, blue eyes, fairly tall and with blood group A) than anywhere else in the British Isles. This distribution was initially created by the Anglo Saxon and Viking invasions of this country. I share all those characteristics apart from the "tall" bit and I live in the eastern sector.

Over on the western side of these islands the Celtic groups are far and away the dominant ones. Here blood group B dominates, especially in many parts of Wales, and in many parts of western and northern Scotland, and very much so in much of Ireland, along with the O blood group. Here darker hair (brown) is very much more common than elsewhere in the British isles, and red hair is relative common in Ireland especially. The Welsh are known for being dark haired and brown eyed.

With so much mobility in the population now it is all becoming much more of a grey area now anyway - and I'm not referring to hair colour here. We are all intermingling such a lot now it's all very academic now anyway.
guest   Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:16 pm GMT
<<,The Welsh are known for being dark haired and brown eyed.>>

Very true. Take Catherine Zeta Jones and Tom Jones for example as Welsh (I am Welsh on my grandfather's side. I have a Welsh surname). Catherine Zeta almost looks hispanic.

Also, take Sean Connery for Scottish (I am also Scottish on my grandmother's side, kin to Robert Louis Stevenson. My great grandmother was a Stevenson). He does not look Anglo-Saxon by any stretch. Maybe Western/Southern French perhaps.
Gues   Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:00 pm GMT
Victora Beckham looks that way as well.
Aidan McLaren   Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:14 am GMT
I am of English descent. I am 6,9", have green eyes and light brown hair that is as thick as woman's.

So am I of Viking or Anglo-Saxon descent? Or Celtic?
Guest   Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:33 am GMT
Could you provide us your DNA ? The data you provided is not enough.
Guest   Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:56 am GMT
LOL!
Aidan McLaren   Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:26 am GMT
Hey, I'm only going by what Damian says.
Damian in Edinburgh   Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:23 pm GMT
Aidan:

Maybe you are a hybrid of racial groups? Of English descent. Your impressive height may mean you are part Viking in origin (I've been to both Copenhagen, Denmark and a day trip across to Sweden (Malmo)and saw loads of very tall Viking types, as you would expect. Your green eyes may indicate a wee bit of Irish in you, so a touch of the Celtic. And your light brown hair - definitely some Anglo Saxon in you.

I saw this TV program about very tall guys, including a guy in Leeds (where I went to uni) who is 7'4" tall, with, from your description, similar looks to yourself, and he is as lean and lanky as a lampost and he is now in a very successful modelling career. He is also trying hard to modulate his very pronounced West Yorkshire accent, not that that would influence a modelling career very much, if at all!
Guest   Tue Feb 26, 2008 6:44 pm GMT
Damian,
Green eyes are found in many cultures. The girl on the most famous cover of the magazine "National Geographic" was from Afghanistan and she had striking green eyes.

It seems to be more common in people of mixed heritage.
Guest   Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:41 pm GMT
Maybe those who have green eyes descend from a primitive tribe of Afghanistan.
Guest   Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:05 pm GMT
Well, Pashtuns are known as the "green-eyed" people or something like that.

Wiki claims that 88% of Iceland's population has green or blue eyes. Apparently this trait is found mostly in Nordic peoples.