Part 5: Conjectural language timeline for the Meonware
Period
Dates
Language use
Old Jutlandish I
c.460 - c.550
Old Jutlandish spoken with Old
English understood.
Old Jutlandish II
c.550 -c.640
Old Jutlandish and Old English
spoken bilingually.
Anglo-Jutish
c.640 - c.730
Old Jutlandish displaced by
Anglo-Jutish.
Meon Old English
c.730 - c.820
Anglo-Jutish displaced by Meonware Old English.
Late Meonware
after c.820
Jutish identity kept, but the Old
English of Wessex spoken.
The conjectured osmosis of Old Jutlandish blending with Old
English, over a period of twelve notional generations, has been
influenced by two main factors. The first being the commonality
between English and Danish place names which survives today. The
endings -sted/stead, -by and -ing, and the use of holm, are to be
found in both kingdoms.
The second factor is the Saxon character of
most place names, in the Meon Valley and neighbouring areas, as
recorded in Domesday Book. There are exceptions, of course, like Fareham.
The conclusion above is also set against the supposed historical
background discussed above. Namely, that while remaining
conscious of their ancestry, the Jutes had come to identify with the
West Saxon kingdom.
As to their tribal government, apart from the
authority of their hereditary chieftains, each settlement would have
held thingsteads, or communal meetings, similar in function to the
Saxon folkmoots. Unfortunately, we simply do not have enough
evidence to try and reconstruct a theoretical list of minor Meonware
kings.
It might be suggested, perhaps, that the Jutes would have
looked for regal protection from the West Saxon king in Winchester,
a royal centre only some 15-20 miles away.
The Viking and his wife feasting, from Hans Andersen's story, the Marsh King's
Daughter. The king probably derived from an underworld god. The Andersen tale describes the impact
of the eastern Christ on the northern Odin, and also uses the time warp of Fairyland. There must
have been similar circumstances amongst the Meonware of the seventh century.
General Bibliography and Other Sources
Main List
Alcock, Lesley - Arthur's Britain, 1978
Anglo-Saxon Chronicles - begun in circa
AD 890
Bede - Ecclesiastical History of the English People,
731
Berresford Ellis, P - The Story of the Cornish
Language, 1990
Chambers Dictionary of Etymology - introductory sections,
2004
Collins English Dictionary - introductory sections,
2000
Glob, P V - The Bog People, translated from Danish by Rupert
Bruce-Mitford, 1972
Google Earth Hacks - Nordby, a Danish village, for a view of Urnhoven Thingstead
Google Earth Hacks - Urnhoven Thingstead,
for a large scale map of Denmark
Historical Maps of Hampshire - late 16th
to late 18th centuries
Johnston, Rev James B - The Place Names of
England and Wales, 1914
Nennius - Hanes y Brythoniaid, 810
Slaughter, D H - Nothgyth Quest Hypothesis,
the History Files, 2008
Facebook
StumbleUpon
|