A forgotten Anglo-Saxon colony on the north-eastern Black Sea coast (2015) | Hacker News Reader

A forgotten Anglo-Saxon colony on the north-eastern Black Sea coast (2015)

caitlingreen.org

124 pointsdiodorus22 comments

Gytha of Wessex the daughter of the last Anglo-Saxon king of England married Rus ruler Vladimir II Monomakh after fleeing from England conquered by Normans. The "queen" of the Rus was effectively Anglo-Saxong emigree.

Her great-great grandson was Alexander Nevsky, widely recognized in Russia as the greatest national hero.

It seems many anglo-saxons migrated to Rus after the conquest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gytha_of_Wessex If you like history of that part of the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_ayBcrZWJ8

Although the name 'New England' is now firmly associated with the east coast of America, this is not the first place to be called that.

There's at least one other New England, which in confusing piece of geography is a region within a much larger New South Wales.

It looks like the one on the Crimea was ‘Nova Anglia’ Or maybe it was Neowe Anglland.

Interesting that they sailed to escape the rule of the defeated king’s brother who it seems promised William to ‘hold the throne’ for him but kind of reneged on that so William went over and conquered it like a conquistador.

William's claim was rather tenous. The Norman Conquest barely succeeded after narrowly winning the Battle of Hastings. The English had put down a rebellion in the north in the preceeding weeks, then just prior to the Battle of Hastings Harold Godwinson defeated a viking invasion at Stamford Bridge, and in a few short weeks force marched from Northern England to Hastings to meet William. It still took the Normans all day to defeat the battered and tired English army, but the resulting slaughter of English lords left a power vacuum and England ripe for the Norman's picking.

P.S.: "New England" properly rendered in Old English would be "Níw Englaland".

Is there any connection with Crimean Goths? [1,2]

It doesn't make sense that people will migrate from England to Crimea just out of the blue.

It's only make sense if they were already in the Mediterranean region and then were looking to settle in either colder climate, free rich lands, or a combination of the above.

There are also older anti-Normanist theories that Kievan Rus was founded by the people/warriors from the South (i.e. Crimea or adjacent Sea of Azov area).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Goths

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Gothic

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Normanism

By this time a significant pprtion of the varangian guard were actually anglo saxon.

for all the fanfare the vikings get, the anglo-saxons were nearly as infamous as raiders and pirates, although usually in a slightly earlier era.

Consider how they came to conquer and settle England.

And on a tangent to a tangent: The Old norse word for ‘boat’ is usually ‘bátr’, not the expected inherited ‘beitr’. The former is a loanword from Anglo-saxon and the inherited ’beitr’ is only found in poetry. While anecdotal, it is interesting that a culture so associated with seafaring as the viking-age Scandinavia borrowed the word for boat.

Yes, indeed. Consider also the fact that the Anglo-Saxons were culturally and ethnically similar to the Vikings (whom the Anglo-Saxons collectively referred to as "Danes" despite also coming from Norway and Sweden). The Danelaw[1] had resulted in significant intermixing of Anglo-Saxons and Danes, and by 1066 England had had two Danish kings.

It's completely unsurprising that Anglo-Saxons integrated well into the Varangian Guard.

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danelaw

> It doesn't make sense that people will migrate from England to Crimea just out of the blue.

The article states that they didn’t want to be ruled by the Normans so they left and wandered around the Mediterranean then went to Constantinople to help with a siege. Then they were told they could settle an area that wasn’t currently under the Byzantine Empire’s control, which was in Crimea.

The novel "The Last English King" by Julian Rathbone [1] centers on one of Harold's housecarls who, after the defeat at Hastings, travels widely over Europe and the Near East before returning to Norman England.

Interesting to see there may be some historical fact behind it.

1 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-English-King-Julian-Rathbone/d...

It does make one wonder if some of the later attestations of Crimean Gothic language survival in the area might actually be people mistaking spoken Anglo-Saxon as Gothic.

I’ve learned recently about the “Ivanhoe Gap” and it’s a very interesting concept to consider.

For those wondering:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/842...

I knew about it but I didn't know about the clever name.

I wonder if part of it might be people on the up-and-up adopting a posh sounding name.

Old link is dead, this seems to be it now:

https://www.caitlingreen.org/2015/05/medieval-new-england-bl...

This saga would make for some very interesting historical fiction.

I really like the Netflix series “The last kingdom” , it is a nice blend of both!

If not done yet, then watch Vikings, and afterwards try to see how common facts are portrayed across both series, and cross check with the historical facts.

I had lots of fun doing that.

Somehow we had to get busy at home during these last year. :)

Going to do that! Vikings is on my list now :)

Yah, but 2015

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