19.3 Europe: a.d. 401 to 500  (Page 7/7)

Scotland

In Scotland there were now four political nuclei; Picts, Dalreada, Welsh refugees and Ida of Bernicia's realm. At the end of the century the Gaelic Scotti migrated from the north of Ireland to Scotland, giving the country its final name. The kingdom of the Picts and Scots resulted from the fusion of these Irish raiders and the Pictish tribes- men. By the end of the century the Irish had taken the Hebrides, there to contest with the Vikings, and many had beached their ships on the western Pictish coast. (Ref. 65 , 170 )

Ireland

A powerful new family, the Ui Neill (sons of Niall) burst out of Mide to take virtually the entire northern half of the island under control, including a large part of Connaught and demolishing Ulster. Their original home near Tara in Mide, near modern Dublin, appears to have been an early sacred place, and perhaps using this as a lever, the Ui Neill laid claim to kingship over the entire country. Whether their claim was generally recognized is not known, but certainly the Eoganachta family did not, as they set up their own state in Munster and part of Leinster. The Ulster remnants crowded into a small area on the Irish sea coast of Dal Riata and from there they migrated on to Pictish territory of Scotland, called Argyll. The Romans called these Irish "Scotti" and so this name and their Goidelic language was given to this neighboring island. (Ref. 91 )

Ireland started to become Christianized about 431 and shortly thereafter Patrick became the Irish bishop. He was originally a slave taken from a Christian home in Roman Britain Irish raiders, but he escaped and went to France, where he received monastic training before returning to Ireland. Pious tradition tells of hundreds of miracles performed by Patrick and the nun, St. Brigid, including restorations of sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, raising people from the dead and similar procedures. (Ref. 29 )

Wales

Wales was now becoming occupied by Irish. Celtic people related to the Feni of central Ireland gave rise to the Gwynedd in north Wales and the Desi of southern Ireland became the Dyfed of south Wales. But these Irish were later expelled by the P-Celtic speaking Cymru and the former left behind only Ogam monuments in the Gaelic tongue. (Ref. 65 )

Scandinavia

The Sveas (or Sviar) established their kingdom on the west side of Sweden and legend has it that the Goths developed their civilization in south-central Sweden. Helgo, an island in Lake Malar, became a trading post in the center of the Sviar Kingdom.

Archaeologically this era is called the "Teutonic Iron Age" in Denmark. (Ref. 117 ) A Nydam boat over 60 feet long with an outward resemblance to big boats of today, with oars and perhaps sail and very little keel has been found there, dating to this period. These boats were similar to the ones the Angles sailed to England from Slesvig throughout the century. There were numerous internecine wars and wars between Norwegians and Danes and Swedes. It was a wealthy period for the region but also a time of troubles, with construction of forts for each community. At the end of the century, each community hoarded gold. The use of the runic characters, the Scandinavians' own system of writing to show the sound of their languages, had been quite fully developed by this time. As mentioned in the previous chapter, the runes, or letters, were edged and particularly adapted for writing on wood.

The ancestors of the Finns, a Finno-Ugrian family of peoples, may already have been in Finland by this time. They were at least definitely in the region of the Baltic.

Additional Notes

Eastern europe

As mentioned previously the Finno-Ugrian peoples were spread from the Baltic to the middle Urals and were primitive hunters and fishermen. Some of these people were the ancestors of the present day Finns and those in the Ural area were now called Magyars. In this century, for some unknown reason, the latter started to migrate westward.

The original home of at least part of the Slavs seems to have been the marshes of the western Ukraine in southwestern Russia. Originally they were a drunken, unclean, cruel people with a passion for pillage but nevertheless a good natured folk loving games, dances and songs. They fell easy prey to the Huns who drove them ahead westward, much as one drives cattle, using them as a vanguard and in a sense, as slaves. (Ref. 49 ) By A.D. 420 almost all of Poland was Slavic. Related to the Slavs were the Balts on the southeastern shore of the Baltic but by A.D. 450 all of these were subservient to the Huns. (Ref. 137 ) After the latter's defeat in the Pannonia area, most of them retreated to the Russian steppe (A.D. 470) where they settled down with related tribes on the north of the Black Sea along the shores of the Sea of Azov, where they became known as Kutrigurs and Utigurs. On the Crimea, there remained a small pocket of Ostrogoths.

In the last quarter of the century, the full extent of the Slavs in Russia and west to the Elbe River and down to the lower Danube in eastern Europe could be appreciated. The Antes of south Russia were the wealthiest and most powerful but politically all Slavs as well as the related Balts were naive and easily dominated by others. (Ref. 137 )

Forward to Europe: A.D. 501 to 600