From: Rick McCallister
Message: 61277
Date: 2008-11-02
> From: tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...>Odd? Isn't it a half-way house between Continental Germanic and Anglo-Saxon?
> Subject: [tied] Re: Frisians & Jutes
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Sunday, November 2, 2008, 4:23 PM
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister
> <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:
> >
> > Here's what Wik has to say about the Frisians.
> There is a note that
> > Frisian pottery was found in England c. 150.
> > Does the wiki seems accurate?
> >
> >
> > ... The Frisii were known and respected by the Romans
> and written
> > about by several sources. Tacitus wrote a treatise
> about the
> > Germanic peoples in 69, describing the habits of the
> Germanic
> > people, as well as listing numerous tribes by name.
> [8] Of the many
> > tribes he mentioned, the name 'Frisii' is the
> only one still in use
> > to refer unequivocally to the same ethnic group. [9]
> > Friesland had been settled early, with evidence of
> terp-building,
> > the distinctive raised settlements, starting in 700
> BC. Frisii were
> > mentioned by Roman historian Tacitus[10] and earlier
> by Pliny the
> > Elder[11]. According to inscriptions found in Roman
> Britain [12]
> > they served the Roman Army and used Frisiavones as a
> synonym.
> > Expansion to the south-west occurred probably as early
> as 70 AD,
> > when the westernmost parts of the rivermouth were
> abandoned by the
> > Canninefates in the aftermath of the Batavian revolt
> by Julius
> > Civilis.
> > Emigration to Flanders [13] and Kent [14] happened
> peacefully
> > within Roman jurisdiction and probably reached a
> height in the
> > 250s, due to heavy flooding.
> > Around 290 AD Constantius Chlorus mentioned Frisians
> among the
> > pirates that were raiding Britain, but in the records
> the Saxons
> > took over this reputation in the fourth century. This
> coincides
> > with archeological evidence that habitation of the
> original area
> > remained scarce for about 150 years and only recovered
> in the 400s.
> > It has been suggested that by then a part of the
> Frisians had
> > already merged with the Saxons, to whom they were
> closely related.
> > The Frisian languages remain the closest surviving
> languages to
> > English. [15]
> > . . .
> > They were probably a people of seafarers, the North
> Sea spanning
> > from Britain to Eastern Denmark, was referred to as
> the Mare Frisia
> > at that time.
> > Small groups of Frisians settled the surrounding lands
> and their
> > settlements have been traced to England, Scotland,
> Denmark,
> > Germany, Belgium, France and obviously to The
> Netherlands.
> > . . .
> > In the 5th century, during this period of historical
> silence, many
> > of them no doubt joined the migration of the Angles
> and Saxons who
> > went through Frisian territory to invade Great
> Britain, while those
> > who stayed on the continent expanded into the
> newly-emptied lands
> > previously occupied by the Anglo-Saxons. By the end of
> the sixth
> > century the Frisians occupied the coast all the way to
> the mouth of
> > the Weser and spread farther still in the seventh
> century,
> > southward down to Dorestad and even Bruges. This
> farthest extent of
> > Frisian territory is known as Frisia Magna.
> >
>
>
> According to Stephen Oppenheimer's 'The Origins of
> the British'
> Frisians are not a major component in the English.
> Kuhn's scenario of
> the Germanic takeover of the NWBlock area has the Germani
> expanding
> out of the Elbe taking over the coast down to the Scheldt
> in Caesar's
> time, only then expanding inland. That would make the
> Frisians late
> converts to Germanic-speak, which is why their language is
> so odd.
>
>
> Torsten