Quote:
Originally Posted by Easy 6
Many ancient English names were strange no doubt, nothing like what we're used to in modern times... some of it almost sounds Gaelic, even though they were obviously very distinct people
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They're actually Anglo-Saxon names. Aethelred, Aethelflaed, Aldhelm, Alfred, Osbert, etc. All Old English. Descended from northwestern Europe - Denmark southwest to Belgium. The irony is that the Saxons' primary enemy at the time of the show was the Danes, who were from just a few miles north of the Saxons on the mainland. They just migrated at different times.
To make a long story short, there's basically 4 factions at the time of the show - Wessex, Mercia, and East Anglia are Saxon. Of course, the Vikings are Dane and Norse. Then you have two related but distinct factions in the Celts. The Gaelic Celts inhabited Ireland and Scotland and then you had the Bretonic Celts in Wales, Cornwall, and Cumbria that were descended from the Britons.