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Benoc's Folk (Angles) (Germanics)

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The story of the Angles is one of migration in Europe until as late as the eighth century AD. To start with, they gradually headed west from what is now Poland around the first century AD until, by the fourth century they had settled in modern central Denmark, replacing or absorbing the semi-Germanic Cimbri and Teutones who had existed there in diminished numbers since the first century BC.

The region gradually gained the name of the new settlers, becoming Angeln, Angel, or Angulus. By the fifth century, this covered the territory between the River Eider in the south (now in Schleswig-Holstein), bordering the Saxons, to the River Kongeaen in the north, bordering the Jutes.

Angle settlement also extended farther southwards into Germany and along the Frisian coast of the Netherlands. King Alfred of Wessex was careful to note this himself, suggesting a wide-ranging area of settlement for the Angles, and a relatively large population.

Woden, legendary king of Angeln, is claimed as an ancestor figure by many of the Anglian, Jutish, and Saxon tribes which migrated to Britain. Although entirely impossible to prove, one theory is that this semi-mythical figure represents a powerful Anglian king whose many sons and their descendants found or created positions of power as the Anglian peoples fragmented before and during their migration (see feature link for more).

One of the descendants of Woden, Benoc was claimed as the originator of the line of princes which migrated to Britain in the late fourth to mid-fifth centuries to create the Anglian kingdom of Bernicia. This was based on an existing British territory known as Bernaccia. It seems likely that princes who were not in power were tolerated in many cases if they remained loyal to the father or brother or cousin who was in power, and if they brought their band of warriors to support the relative when a battle was to be fought.

One of Benoc's descendants was Æthelfrith of Bernicia. He lost his brother and his brother's warband when both perished in battle alongside Æthelfrith and against the Scots of Dal Riada. The same role is probably one with which Benoc and his siblings would have been familiar, and which Benoc's descendants, Esa and Eoppa, are posited to have undertaken before migrating to Bernaccia (see the list, below).

As for the name Benoc itself, it looks like an acquired nickname, not a given name. 'Ben' is a wound, while -oc is obscure, perhaps a short form of 'ócusta', an old word which means 'armpit' in Saxon, but also 'throat' in Scandinavian dialect. Bosworth and Toller give this as the meaning of the word 'oc'. Benoc could have been 'throat wound' in literal terms, perhaps twisted to mean something along the lines of 'Scarface'. His given name has been lost to time.

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information by Edward Dawson, from The Oxford History of England: The English Settlements, J N L Meyers, from Ulwencreutz's The Royal Families in Europe V, Lars Ulwencreutz, from the Textus de Ecclesia Roffensi per Ernulphum Episcopum (The Story of the Church of Rochester up to Bishop Ernulf), known as the Textus Roffensis or Annals of Rochester, from the Historia Brittonum (The History of the Britons), Nennius (J A Giles, Ed & Trans, 1841, published as part of Six Old English Chronicles (Henry G Bohn, London, 1848)), from The Oxford History of England: Anglo-Saxon England, Sir Frank Stenton, from A History of the English Church and People, The Venerable Bede (Leo Sherley-Price translation - revised by R E Latham), and from External Link: An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (Bosworth and Toller, 1898, p 728).)

Son of Brand, grandson of Baeldaeg. Originator of Bernicians.

Son.

Son.

Son.

Ingui is a form of the old name 'Ingvi', from which derives the major Germanic tribal group name, Ingvaeones. Ingvi plus '-on' (the German/Celtic plural) plus '-es' (the Latin plural).

In the last quarter of the fifth century AD Saxons were starting to take firm control of the Thames valley region, as shown on sequential map No 2 of this series (click or tap on map to view full sized)

fl c.500?

Son. Settled his people in Bernaccia as laeti?

Esa and Eoppa may live amongst the East Angles as supporters of the kings of those recent arrivals in Britain, to whom they could well be related. They would be fulfilling the same role of tolerated prince(s) who had probably been 'enjoyed' by their ancestor, Benoc, and also by the brother of a descendant, King Æthelfrith of Bernicia. This arrangement is permitted as long as they bring their respective warbands to any fight in support of the king.

Is it Esa who leads the settlement of his band of followers in Bernaccia as laeti, settled mercenaries? They are certainly present there two generations later, when they rebel against their British overlords, but the details of their arrival have been lost to history.

An artist's reconstruction of the Roman town of Venta Icenorum, the main settlement of the British tribe of the Iceni which was put under terminal pressure by the arrival of the East Angles in Britain

fl c.520?

Son.

547 - 559

Son. Took over the Celtic Bernaccian kingdom.

547

Ida assumes control of the British kingdom of Bernaccia during an apparent power vacuum. Its native owner, Morgan Bulc, continues to claim the rule of Bernaccia from outside the kingdom.

He fights on for many years to re-secure it, appearing to shift his power base north to Guotodin. His kingdom, which is known as Bernicia by the Angles, becomes one of the strongest of all during subsequent centuries.