A muse for today and a lesson from history
Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 1:12 pm
Recent events in both Germany and the UK prompted me into thinking about our common heritage. The majority of British (certainly English) can derive their ancestry from the Saxons, a group of Germanic tribes living near the North sea coast of present day Germany during the late Roman times. They were well known as fierce fighters and raiders and large numbers settled in parts of Great Britain and merged with other tribal groups such as the Angles and the Jutes to found the country later known as England (Angle land) and so the term Anglo/Saxon was born, it was and still is the basis of most English laws, customs and language despite the later conquests and settlement by Romans, Vikings and Normans. If fact recent DNA evidence has destroyed the myth that the British are a mongrel race comprising of many different ethnic groups and instead has shown that the majority can still trace their ethnicity back to these original Anglo/Saxon groups and it seems that the various invaders actually had little impact upon the gene pool.
It is maybe this common ancestry that explains certain common traits between Britain and Germany apart from a shared Royal Family. Both are or have been fiercely independent, both countries have a strong sense of nationalism and both countries have a population that is often willing to fight and die for what they believe is right. Even during WW1 & 2 there was often a reluctance on both sides to destroy the other, Hitler’s reluctance to invade Britain for example as he always believed that we could become allies again against the greater evil of Russia. France is our nearest continental neighbour, yet most British people would prefer a German over a Frenchman, maybe it is a remnant of our common ancestry that predisposes us to prefer our own kinsmen over the Franks, or French as we now call them.
Being of similar stock, I believe that as people both nations are happy to live within our own tribal and cultural norms and happily accept the rule of our leaders. We do not readily revolt or disobey, however we do seethe at injustice, but often keep our own council until that final indignity that makes us explode with rage. Look back into history and you will see that same rage expressed when the Germanic tribes under the leadership of ‘Arminius’ slaughtered the Roman legions led by ‘Publius Quinctilius Varus’ in the Teutoburg Forest East of the river Rhine. This was in response to the continual oppression imposed upon them by the Roman Empire and was the biggest defeat that the mighty Roman Empire had ever suffered and they never recovered from it.
Likewise when queen Boudica’s (sometimes called Boadicea) husband ‘Prasutagus’ died and left his kingdom to be shared between his two daughters and the Roman Emperor, his wishes were ignored and Rome wanted everything. When his wife protested she was publically flogged and her daughters raped. The subsequent rage of the Iceni and Trinovanti tribes led to the biggest uprising that the Romans ever had to deal with. Many cities were sacked and the Romans even had to abandon London or Londinium as it was then called, modern day Colchester was destroyed as was St Albans. It was the closest that the Romans ever came to having to abandon Britain and upwards of 70 to 80 thousands British and Romans perished in the battles. Boudica was eventually defeated at the battle of Watling Street which was the name of a Roman track way that follows the modern A5 & A2 roads in parts. Although Boudica was never captured, it is believed that she either died of an illness or committed suicide, neither can be proven.
So to the point of this little history lesson which is, that the Saxon race can be very tolerant until pushed too far. At which point a slow seething resentment takes place until eventually it erupts into a full scale revolt, there is little warning, just mutterings and resentment, much like the resentment felt by the German (Saxon) people at what they considered to be the imposition of an intolerable set of conditions laid down in the Treaty of Versailles after their surrender in WW1 and imposed with great gusto by the French. Slowly it seethed until the match ignited by Adolf Hitler lit the fire and we all know what happened next. So my warning to history is just that, remember your history and look at the present situation within Europe and the Saxon countries in particular who are bearing the social and economic brunt of uncontrolled immigration, all may seem well on the surface, but ……………..
A famous English Poet summed it all up very nicely.
THE WRATH OF THE AWAKENED SAXON
by Rudyard Kipling
It was not part of their blood,
It came to them very late,
With long arrears to make good,
When the Saxon began to hate.
They were not easily moved,
They were icy -- willing to wait
Till every count should be proved,
Ere the Saxon began to hate.
Their voices were even and low.
Their eyes were level and straight.
There was neither sign nor show
When the Saxon began to hate.
It was not preached to the crowd.
It was not taught by the state.
No man spoke it aloud
When the Saxon began to hate.
It was not suddenly bred.
It will not swiftly abate.
Through the chilled years ahead,
When Time shall count from the date
That the Saxon began to hate.
It is maybe this common ancestry that explains certain common traits between Britain and Germany apart from a shared Royal Family. Both are or have been fiercely independent, both countries have a strong sense of nationalism and both countries have a population that is often willing to fight and die for what they believe is right. Even during WW1 & 2 there was often a reluctance on both sides to destroy the other, Hitler’s reluctance to invade Britain for example as he always believed that we could become allies again against the greater evil of Russia. France is our nearest continental neighbour, yet most British people would prefer a German over a Frenchman, maybe it is a remnant of our common ancestry that predisposes us to prefer our own kinsmen over the Franks, or French as we now call them.
Being of similar stock, I believe that as people both nations are happy to live within our own tribal and cultural norms and happily accept the rule of our leaders. We do not readily revolt or disobey, however we do seethe at injustice, but often keep our own council until that final indignity that makes us explode with rage. Look back into history and you will see that same rage expressed when the Germanic tribes under the leadership of ‘Arminius’ slaughtered the Roman legions led by ‘Publius Quinctilius Varus’ in the Teutoburg Forest East of the river Rhine. This was in response to the continual oppression imposed upon them by the Roman Empire and was the biggest defeat that the mighty Roman Empire had ever suffered and they never recovered from it.
Likewise when queen Boudica’s (sometimes called Boadicea) husband ‘Prasutagus’ died and left his kingdom to be shared between his two daughters and the Roman Emperor, his wishes were ignored and Rome wanted everything. When his wife protested she was publically flogged and her daughters raped. The subsequent rage of the Iceni and Trinovanti tribes led to the biggest uprising that the Romans ever had to deal with. Many cities were sacked and the Romans even had to abandon London or Londinium as it was then called, modern day Colchester was destroyed as was St Albans. It was the closest that the Romans ever came to having to abandon Britain and upwards of 70 to 80 thousands British and Romans perished in the battles. Boudica was eventually defeated at the battle of Watling Street which was the name of a Roman track way that follows the modern A5 & A2 roads in parts. Although Boudica was never captured, it is believed that she either died of an illness or committed suicide, neither can be proven.
So to the point of this little history lesson which is, that the Saxon race can be very tolerant until pushed too far. At which point a slow seething resentment takes place until eventually it erupts into a full scale revolt, there is little warning, just mutterings and resentment, much like the resentment felt by the German (Saxon) people at what they considered to be the imposition of an intolerable set of conditions laid down in the Treaty of Versailles after their surrender in WW1 and imposed with great gusto by the French. Slowly it seethed until the match ignited by Adolf Hitler lit the fire and we all know what happened next. So my warning to history is just that, remember your history and look at the present situation within Europe and the Saxon countries in particular who are bearing the social and economic brunt of uncontrolled immigration, all may seem well on the surface, but ……………..
A famous English Poet summed it all up very nicely.
THE WRATH OF THE AWAKENED SAXON
by Rudyard Kipling
It was not part of their blood,
It came to them very late,
With long arrears to make good,
When the Saxon began to hate.
They were not easily moved,
They were icy -- willing to wait
Till every count should be proved,
Ere the Saxon began to hate.
Their voices were even and low.
Their eyes were level and straight.
There was neither sign nor show
When the Saxon began to hate.
It was not preached to the crowd.
It was not taught by the state.
No man spoke it aloud
When the Saxon began to hate.
It was not suddenly bred.
It will not swiftly abate.
Through the chilled years ahead,
When Time shall count from the date
That the Saxon began to hate.