My Celtic Anglo-Saxon Germanic Nordic Saami Ethnicity

This article (Myths of British Ancestry) suggests that most people with ancestors from England are primarily descended from aboriginal Basques, rather than from the Celts, Anglo-Saxons or Vikings.

Everyone has heard of Celts, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. And most of us are familiar with the idea that the English are descended from Anglo-Saxons, who invaded eastern England after the Romans left, while most of the people in the rest of the British Isles derive from indigenous Celtic ancestors with a sprinkling of Viking blood around the fringes.

Yet there is no agreement among historians or archaeologists on the meaning of the words “Celtic” or “Anglo-Saxon.” What is more, new evidence from genetic analysis indicates that the Anglo-Saxons and Celts, to the extent that they can be defined genetically, were both small immigrant minorities. Neither group had much more impact on the British Isles gene pool than the Vikings, the Normans or, indeed, immigrants of the past 50 years.

The genetic evidence shows that three quarters of our ancestors came to this corner of Europe as hunter-gatherers, between 15,000 and 7,500 years ago, after the melting of the ice caps but before the land broke away from the mainland and divided into islands. Our subsequent separation from Europe has preserved a genetic time capsule of southwestern Europe during the ice age, which we share most closely with the former ice-age refuge in the Basque country.

Despite that many of English ancestry may be primarily descended from aboriginal Basques, my autosomal STR genetic results indicate that relatively less of my genetic makeup comes from the Basques. Instead, my primary gene pool comes from the Celts, Belgae (Gallo-Germanic tribes), Germanic, Norse and Italian - only then comes a Basque genetic contribution. Consequently, it looks to me that the Ice Age refuge for many of my ancestors may have been more toward the Italian peninsula than toward Basque country. Notably, the Anglo-Saxons originated in Northern Germany, northern Netherlands and southern Scandinavia.

Lands of the Angles and Saxons

Taking all of this together, and given that my mtDNA genetic (U5b1b1-T16192C!) ancestral motherline is aboriginal Saami from Northern Arctic Europe, it looks to me that the indigenous population of Northern Europe constitutes my primary genetic origins more so than does an indigenous Iberian population. Also, I think my autosomal STR genetic results shown below demonstrate that I have significant Anglo-Saxon and Viking ancestry, despite that many "English" people may have a greater overall Basque ancestral contribution than I do. This of course, does not negate the fact that the indigenous Basques (who may also be genetically linked to the Trojans as are thought to be the Swedish Vikings) are also my ancestors.

My DNA Tribes Europa Region Autosomal STR Results

*Celtic (0.95) 921,899.01
*Belgic (0.95) 559,522.46
*Germanic (0.94) 495,966.75
*Norse (0.93) 419,887.28
*Italian (0.94) 318,722.69
Basque (0.81) 313,736.10
Balkan (0.91) 239,382.75
Polish (0.91) 230,188.26
Russian (0.88) 190,356.19
Spanish (0.84) 122,269.92
Finnic (0.91) 92,306.35
Portuguese (0.81) 80,883.71
Thracian (0.85) 41,232.14
*Urals (0.94) 32,020.30
Scythian (0.67) 30,707.03
Greek (0.84) 17,991.77
Ashkenazic (0.52) 10,512.21

Importantly, the Eurogenes K9 chromosome painting taking into account all of the genes on all my chromosomes (as opposed to looking at specific genetic markers as does autosomal STR anaylsis) supports that most of my genetic contribution comes from Northern Europe (as opposed to Southern Europe / Mediterranean).

K9 Chromosome Painting of My Genetic Makeup

My Father's Real Name is One of Odin's Names

Though the family is not known in recent memory to have practiced Nordic Tradition Paganism, it is wyrd that my real father's name is Audra, a name passed down to him through his paternal line (with other males down the line also named Audra), often shortened to Aud. Aud, as a Norse boy's name, means "son of night" (related to Odin's Wild Hunt). The full name Audra (Norse Odr) is connected to a name of Odin, namely Óðr.

"Odin" is generally accepted as the modern English form of the name, although, in some cases, older forms may be used or preferred. His name is related to ōðr, meaning "fury, excitation," besides "mind," or "poetry."  

and

In Norse mythology, Óðr (Old Norse for "mad, frantic, furious, vehement, eager", as a noun "mind, feeling" and also "song, poetry"; Orchard (1997) gives "the frenzied one") or Óð, sometimes angliziced as Odr or Od, is a figure associated with the major goddess Freyja. The Prose Edda and Heimskringla, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, both describe Óðr as Freyja's husband and father of her daughter Hnoss. Heimskringla adds that the couple produced another daughter, Gersemi. A number of theories have been proposed about Óðr, generally that he is somehow a hypostasis of the deity Odin due to their similarities.

Related to its meaning as the "son of night", the name Aud is further connected to Odin and his nightime Wild Hunt:

As well as his role as oath-god, the one-eyed deity was also regarded by the Norse as the gatherer of souls, and to this end was responsible for leading the Wild Hunt on its nightime rampages across the sky.

UPDATE - Aud/Unn is also a Norse name which means "the Deep-Minded."

The Odin Oath - Vikings, Orkneyjar & the Cadusii Purim Story

An 18th century sketch of the Odin Stone - one of the few illustrations of the monolith we have today.

The Orkney Islands of Scotland are also known by the name Orkneyjar. Orkneyjar is an Icelandic Old Norse name for the Orkney Islands. The Odin Stone, in monument to the Odin Oath, stands in Orkneyjar.

The oath is an important theme in Norse religion. The religion of the Norse is known as our Troth (i.e., Asatru - our Troth to the ancestral Aesir). The highest of the gods, Odin is an oath god to whom oaths are sacred and very important, although ironically, he is called the oath-breaker for reasons not altogether clear (although many explanations have been attempted). In the Orkney Islands of Scotland (where references to Odin abound), there is in it a stone called the the Odin Stone, a stone monument before which vows are made and before which Orcadians (my ancestors as well) swore and swear the Odin Oath by clasping hands through the hole (in the stone - where the oath of Odin was "broken" or "incomplete"?) and swearing, making their vows absolute (thereby "completing" Odin's oath?):

This oath was an utterly unbreakable pact, the words to which are now unfortunately lost.

Interestingly, these known facts about oaths and Odin support the idea that the Norse Vikings of Scandinavia and Scotland may be descended from the Cadusii of Azerbaijan, particularly given the prominance of oaths to Odin and to Norse tradition in general, as well as to the known history of the Cadusii:

At this time the Medes waged a great war against the Cadusii, the cause of which were as follows: Parsondes the Persian, a man far-famed for courage, sagacity, and other virtues, was at that time a favorite of the king and the most powerful member of the royal council. But this man, sorely vexed at a certain judgment of the king, fled to the Cadusii, with three thousand foot soldiers and a thousand calvary; and giving his own sister in marriage to the most powerful man in those parts, he remained there amongst the Cadusii. Having become a rebel, he stirred up the entire nation to assert their liberty; and because of his valor he was elected their general.

Hearing news thereafter that a great army was being mustered against him, he armed the Cadusii en masse, not less than two hundred thousand of them all told, and he took up his position before the approaches into the country. King Artaios had taken the field against him with eight hundred thousand men, but Parsondes defeated him in battle, killed over fifty thousand of his soldiers, and repulsed the rest of his force from the land of the Cadusii. This brought him great admiration among the natives, who elected him king; and he plundered Media unremittingly, carrying desolation everywhere he went.

He thus acquired great renown. In old age, as the end of his life approached, he caused his successor on the throne to draw nigh and bound him with an oath that never might the Cadusii relax in their emnity against the Medes; with a curse that utter ruin would overtake both his own progeny and all the Cadusii as well if ever terms of peace were agreed upon. For this reason then, were the Cadusii always hostile to the Medes and never subject to their king, until such time as Cyrus transferred the empire to the Persians. 

Thus, perhaps we have here recovered the "lost" words of the oath. Interestingly, this recount of the Cadusian oath, the oath of the king of the Cadusii, successor to General-King Parsondes, sounds alot like the Purim story in Jewish tradition about "Persian-Jewish" Mordechai and Esther whose people gloriously defended themselves following a harsh decree of the King that all of their people be killed.

King Odin may be called the oath-breaker because he left the area of the Median Kingdom some time following all of these events, bringing his people to Scandinavia and its surrounding regions instead of perpetuating acts of emnity against the Medes (still under the oath of his own ancestor) to putatively avoid living under Roman occupation and subjection of the people to Rome (we are told).

The Cadusii of Azerbaijan fit very well to be the proto-Vikings of history.

Heathen Sacred Calender

Swedish Laplander

This morning I dreamt. I was trying out a handcrafted hand carved beautiful javelin I was considering buying. The javelin was very very long like a ship. It was made by a Norseman. I walked the road to Sweden, javelin in hand, and as I did, my surroundings changed sharply from american day to swedish night and from late spring to winter with snow covering the ground. The night snow stirred me inside with a profound recognition.

With my small traveling group, along the walk deeper into the snowy landscape towards Sweden in the North, my ex-husband (from whom I acquired the Lapland name Lappin) approached my path from my right (coming at me from the Northwest direction going Southeast as I walked going North from the South) carrying a smaller Norseman javelin. He almost bumped into me with his javelin, but before he did, his path veered tangentially away from mine.

My javelin was unusually long, longer than most others. It was in a special honored class of javelin which looked like it had been shaped from the side of a Viking longship. It was functioning like a divining rod and compass for me as I walked towards Sweden. It was no ordinary javelin at all. I wanted to keep this javelin. It was working out well in my hand. I felt deeply connected to the javelin and to Sweden. It was a deep sacred connection and in my hand, it belonged to me now.