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Caser'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 sons of Woden, Caser was the originator of the line of princes which migrated to Britain in the late fifth and early sixth centuries to found the Anglian kingdom of the East Angles. His name is almost certainly a direct Anglian borrowing of the Latin 'Caesar'.

The Roman influence on barbarian tribes was tremendous. The twelfth century Textus Roffensis lists the kings of the East Angles right back to Woden, as does the Historia Brittonum by Nennius (shown in green after the more reliable Roffensis names). However, whichever source was being used by Nennius, it seems to have forgotten several generations, and introduced an otherwise unknown Rippa in place of Wehha.

(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 Woden of Angeln. Originator of the East Angles.

Son.

The name 'Tyttman' appears to mean 'teacher' or 'trainer'. 'Tyht' means 'instruction' or 'training'. Could it be a nickname: 'the teacher'? The name of his son, Trygil, is much more obscure. It may be some kind of reference to the god Tiu/Tyr.

The Angles settled into central Denmark between the first and fourth centuries AD, possibly making the most of the vacuum which followed the mass departure of many Cimbri and Teutones

c.475 - 495

Angles arrive and begin to take over control of the eastern region of Britain, part of a possible territory of Caer Went, with the earliest settlements appearing in the northern parts of that region (and later becoming known as the North Folk, modern Norfolk).

They intermingle with the Saxon descendants of Roman foederati, and are quite possibly helped by the Alemannic descendants of Fraomar and his band of troops, who had been stationed in Norfolk in 372 (see feature link for more on Caer Went).

Son.

c.490s

Wealhtheow is the queen of the Danes, wife of Hrothgar. Her husband appears in Norse Sagas and two Old English epic poems, Beowulf and Widsith, while she is a Wulfing, East Geat ancestor (or mother) of the Wuffingas who, within twenty years, are to be found creating their own kingdom of the East Angles in Britain. Therefore she must have some relationship to one or more of the names in this list, although it would be speculation to go any further.

Queen Wealhtheow of the Wuffingas pledges Beowulf in this illustration by George Timothy Tobin (1864-1956) for the work entitled Lost in Translation: The Queens of Beowulf

The Wulfingas (the 'wolf-clan' - a variation of the spelling used above) are known for their feud with the Germanic Hundings or Hundingas (the 'hound-clan') who are mentioned in Widsith - the hounds versus the wolves is classic tribal totemic behaviour.

The founder of the Hundingas, the warrior Hund, is slain by the later Danish King Helgi Hundingsbane (ruling in the 520s). The feud clearly begins in Scandinavia, and probably ends when the pre-Wuffingas migrate to Britain, but they may not be the Wulfingas before the migration.

Wolf coins found in East Anglia in 2013, more than four hundred years before the Wulfingas take control, had been minted by the Iceni in the late first century AD.

It seems likely that the Wulfingas take their name from some element which already exists in the territory, much like many other migrants are taking local names and adapting them. In which case, the question is what have the Wulfingas been called before their arrival in East Anglia?

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

Son. Related to Wealhtheow, queen of the Danes?

The name Hrothmund can be broken down into two parts: 'mund', a hand, and 'hroth', which seems to be from a root for benefit, happiness, pleasure, cheerfulness. It is one of the typically strange two-name names which are used by the Germans.

Edward is a modern example of this naming practice. The name of Hrothmund's son, Hrype, is obscure. Perhaps it is misspelled, and should be Hraban, a raven?

c.510s

Son. Probably in Britain as one of the Suth Folk (East Angles).

c.530s

Son. Probably in Britain as one of the Suth Folk (East Angles).

The name Wilhelm has remained in use to the modern day and is recognised in English as William. It comes from the 'helmet of will' ('will' being used in the sense of one's own volition). The name of his son is a little more problematical.

Given many of the spelling insanities involved in the study of ancient names and words, Wehha may possibly be Wecca, a word from which 'wake' is descended. It might be taken to refer to someone who arouses others (to battle?), or it may be an ironic joke because as a baby he kept everyone awake.

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)

c.560s

Son. Possibly sowed the seeds of East Anglian consolidation.

bef 571 - 578

Son. United North and South Folk to form the East Angles.

571

'Wuffa' may be a loose pronunciation of Wulfa, a wolf. In some Anglian lines, especially Mercian, there is a tendency to eschew the high-flown double-part names and go with more common-style single names.

Offa is an example. Remembered by later generations as Wuffa, he is the first acknowledged king of the East Angles, a kingdom that is founded more than a century after the first coming of the Anglo-Saxon peoples to Britain.