'The Wise Ones'

I have looked at this subject before but some new ideas have come up since this time, so I'll take another quick look since the subject is rather important to the English Folk. This concerns two 'Anglo-Saxon' tribes - the Gewisse and the Hwicce - who dwelt (historians tell us) in the area of Wessex (West Saxons). But this does not seem to be the full story about these two.

On a site caitlingreen.org it is argued that the Hwicce occupied an area around Rutland and Northamptonshire, and good arguments are given for this theory. Certain names in this area are quoted with their earlier names -

• Hwicceslea east hundred (Northamptonshire)
• Hwicceslea west hundred (Northamptonshire)
• Whissendine (NW Rutland), originally Wichingadene.
• Whiston (Northamptonshire), whose earlier form was Wychenton (974) and Hwiccingtune (974).
• Wychwood Forest (Oxfordshire) originally Huiccewudu ('Wood of the Hwicce').
• Wychnor - Hwicenofre, Wicenore.

The author also tells us that the Hwicce may have borne 'a very old folk-name, perhaps, going back to the pre-migration era.' This covers the tribe of the Hwicce, whose name (we are told by the 'experts') means 'locker', 'chest' 'trunk', as if a Saxon Tribe would be named thus! It is more likely that it stems from the same root as Wicce/Wicca meaning 'wise' - thus 'witch' (wicce is pronounced 'witche'). 

The name Gewisse can have exactly the same meaning - 'wise'; this can be found in German as gewissen with the meaning 'certain', 'sure' or 'knowing', all derived from the idea of being 'wise'. The Old English prefix ge- refers to -

• The completion or result of an action.
• With, together, a collective.

The name Gewisse cannot, therefore, refer to the name of an individual, but to a certain group  - a 'collective'. Hence this could, as I have shown in the past, refer to a Germanic-English tribe who were the 'Wise Ones', something that may be akin to the Armanen postulated by Guido von List. Both Gewisse and Hwicce would be the 'Wise Ones'. Of course, we have to be wary not to see every English place-name containing 'Wych' as referring to the Hwicce; there may be some where it is a corruption of something else, or even referring to 'witches' operating there in the past. 

The Divine Ancestor of the Gewisse is named as Giwis who is descended from Baeldaeg, son of Woden. This royal line is as follows -

Elesa

Esla

Giwis

Wig

Freawine

Frothogar

Brand/Brond

Baeldaeg

Woden

The name 'Elesa' and 'Esla' are said by some scholars to refer to the Romano-British Elasius. Since the names Cerdic (Ceredig) and Cynric (Cynwrg) are found in a Welsh Royal Line this becomes complicated, and some see this as a pre-Roman line which had become the vassal of Rome, especially since Cerdic and Cynric are called 'ealdormen' rather than 'kings', which was later used of them. 

The White Stone of Ing, found in a church in Sussex (South Saxon Mark), lies next to the 'coffin-lid' of AEthelwulf, a King of Wessex, and grandfather of Alfred the Great. The names Freawine and Frothogar (Freodhogar) obviously refer to Frea/Frey who's is Ingwe/Ing. It does not seem feasible to see this as a 'British' (Welsh) pre-Roman line since the West Saxons (who absorbed the Gewisse) became the Ruling Line of the English. There is more of a likelihood that this was a pre-Roman line who were Ingwaeones and who may have mixed with a Welsh Royal Line, or maybe even occupied parts of Wales at one time (like the Tegeingl and the Gangani). These people would then have been vassal to Rome, but switched sides with the later English migrations - this does make a lot more sense.

It has often been said that the West Saxon Lineage was taken from that of Bernicia, an area later to become Northumberland (Northumbria). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles gives this lineage as -

Woden

Baeldaeg

Brand

Benoc

Aloc

Angenwit

Ingui

Esa

Eoppa

Ida

We note that the descent does claim to be through Woden and Ingui, both found in the West Saxon Dynasty. Nennius, in his Historia Brittanum, has this lineage -

Woden

Beldeg

Beornes

Gethbrond

Aluson

Ingwi 

Edibrith

Esa

Eoppa

Ida

These only tally to a certain extent, but overall they are very similar. The names Esla (West Saxon) and Esa (Bernicia) are similar, though certainly not the same. But these two lines do see a lineage going back to Ingwe, whereas other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms do not have this. 

Ceredig, the son of Cunedag (Cunedda) is said to have come down to Wales from Gododdin, now Lothian in Scotland, in order to fight off the Irish who occupied part of Wales around this time. The area of Gododdin is said to be home to the descendants of the Votadini, a name spelt Uotadini, Wotadini, Guotadini, or Otadini. One of the strange things here is that one of the daughters of Cunedag is named Tegeingl. Edinburgh was once the capital of the Votodini People, and the name stems from Dun Eidyn, itself stemming from the 'Brythonic' Din Eidyn; just 20 miles from Edinburgh is a place named 'Haddington' which gave its name to Hadintunschire (1139) or Hadintunshire (1141), and named after the Haddingas (Norse) or Heardingas (Old English). In the Old English Rune-Poem we find the Heardingas as being the tribe who named 'the hero' - Ing. 

This whole argument is based around who the Votodini really were, whether they were a Brythonic Tribe, as the scholars tell us, or they were a Germanic Tribe. On the other side of the Scottish Lowlands is an area named Dumfries, originally Dunfries, we are told from the Gaelic Dun Phris and which would mean 'Dun of the Frisians'. We find the famous Ruthwell Cross in Dumfriesshire, so this was an area occupied by Frisians-Saxons, dated around 750 CE. The language of Lowland Scotland (i.e. the Scots) was known until recently as Inglis.

One of the problems we face in researching our Germanic past is that we often come across tribes who do not speak a Germanic Language, for instance the Cimbri and Teutons. These were clearly Germanic Tribes who migrated southwards through Gaul into Italy, at the same time picking up a Celtic Language, which seems to make some scholars believe that they are Celtic rather than Germanic. The Cimbri and Teutons were close kin to the Chauci/Cauci, and since we find this Germanic Tribe in Ireland (in the same area that a 'Saxon dwelling' was found in 1999) then this is one proof of a pre-Roman presence of Germanic Tribes here in these islands.

This is one of the great problems with classifying everything as either 'Celtic' or 'Germanic', since these are the same European Peoples, once ruled over by the 'Nordic-Aryan'. We have used the term 'Germano-Celtic' for the more Nordic element, and 'Gallo-Celtic' for the more Southern Europeans. There was certainly a mixture of both in these islands. 

What is clear when studying such a subject is the mass of discrepancies in what has come down to us as 'English History'. 'History is always made by the victors', a saying that we can use to understand the history of two world wars in the last century, and the downright lies told about these by historians. Since we have proof of this in recent times, how many lies, distortions and misunderstandings have come down to us from ancient times? 

Take Sussex Archaeology for instance, where one of its members some years ago stated to me that the White Stone of Ing was 'Norman', despite the obvious Saxon Runes carved on the stone. The great problem here is that when scholars come out with such statements this is taken as the 'truth', and from one simple statement we get a great following of similar statements, even though the original may well be false. Let us take an example here -

The Roman name 'Eboracum' or 'Eburacum', referring to the modern York, stems from a 'Common Brittonic' Eburakon meaning 'Yew Tree Place', from a 'Photo-Celtic' beira meaning 'yew'. Fair enough, but the Anglo-Saxon name for York was Eoforwic from the word eofor meaning boar. The original 'Roman' name was Eburaci and if we sift through the Anglo-Saxon Star-Lore we find that they named a star-constellation Eburung/Eburing meaning 'Boar', using the root ebur rather than eofor, but both meaning 'Boar' (the modern German is ebur). So, the Germanic English named York after the Boar and the pre-Romans used a name which in Germanic means Boar.

We have - 

Boar - Boar

Or we have -

Yew - Boar. 

Which makes the most sense? Of course, Brythonic or Brittonic is a language that has been made up; it is not a recorded language, so some words may not be 'British' at all, but have a Germanic Root. To add insult to injury here, the Old Norse name for the Boar is Jofurr (from which we get 'Jorvik', their name for York) which has a remarkable resemblance to the Old English eofor. (*) So the English called this after the Boar, the Vikings called it after the Boar, and the Romano-Britons called it after the 'Yew'. Pull the other one - it has bells on it! York had a Germanic name in Roman times, and maybe even before that. 

(*) The name Jorvik is cognate to the Old English Eoforwic and would no doubt stem from Jofurrvik. 

We need to look further into the Gewisse and Hwicce in order to see if what I say here has any meaning and importance. If these were a group of Initiates who were known as the Wise Ones who may have had a very ancient folk-name, before the English migrations here in the 4th and 5th century CE, then this would certainly be of extreme importance to our English History. And the White Stone of Ing - where does this link in with these 'Wise Ones'? I have covered this before in Initiates of the White Stone, but have not looked this up again to try to make this one different in some ways. Hopefully, more information will come up that will shed more light on this.