Survive the Jive: All-feed

The Angles served in the Cornuti unit of the Roman army and this was their banner emblazoned on shields. It appears on sword scabbards and such in Anglian bog deposits of the 4th century. The double raven motif became a pan-Germanic sign used by Goths in Spain and Ukraine, Lombards in Italy and was still used by Vikings in the 11th century

Did Jesus even know about us? The Bible doesn’t mention a single Germanic tribe! However there were German slaves in the Levant and Herod Agrippa II, king of Judea, knew all about Germany according to his words recorded by Hebrew historian Josephus 9 years after they were spoken in 66 AD “What do you (Jews) hope for? Are you wealthier than the Gauls, stronger than the Germans, or wiser than the Greeks? Are you more numerous than any other population? What gives you the confidence to oppose the Romans? (...) Which of you have not heard how vast the German population is? You have certainly seen for yourselves how tall and strong the Germans are, since the Romans make use of them as captives in every place. These Germans occupy an immense country, and they have minds superior to their bodies. They have a spirit that despises death and a rage fiercer than wild beasts. But the Rhine is the limit of their enterprises, and they are held in place by eight Roman legions. The Germans who have been taken captive have become servants of the Romans. The rest of their nation have preserved themselves by fleeing conflict with Rome.”

I haven’t watched BBC's new series about 1066, and I don’t intend to. This is apparently an Anglo-Saxon

Depiction of how the Sutton Hoo axe-hammer may have been used in the context of animal sacrifice.

In the Old Saxon Heliand, an adaptation of the Gospel written around 800 AD to convert Saxon Heathens, Jesus is depicted as being very Odinic in several scenes, and in others just like a typical Saxon lord. In fit 57, Jesus climbs a mountain, pours a drink and drinks a toast to his Lord, saying; drinku ina thi te [diurðu,] drohtin frô mîn,

The theory that Germanics took artisans like this is by Haselhoff (1981). The claim that this artefact was specifically created by a Roman artisan in a Germanic environment is from Carnap-Bornheim (1997) and Blankenfeldt (2015)

Pictish child defends herself from the advances of an African Roman solider at Hadrian’s wall 225 AD

Two Roman-Iron-Age gilt discs from the Thorsberg Moor have differently decorated outer areas: the less well preserved one has animals (deer) while the other has a complicated combination of Germanic and Roman imagery. A reclining Romanesque figure bearing a sceptre appears in each of the four section. Is it a god? It resembles Wodenic kings of later bracteates. A combination of the same animals known from the earlier Nordic Bronze age solar drama are also depicted. 1. fish+horse. 2.duck+horse 3. ?+horse. 4. duck+fish. Each of the quadrants is separated by a solar disc motif. This shows a unique transitionary stage in Germanic art with BA elements, Roman elements and the beginning of what would become the Germanic animal style.

I read a theory that this was made by a captured Roman smith who was carried back to Germania and forced to make Germanic style ornaments. While Germans near the limes were content to raid metal items, those further away may have stolen artisans and taken them as far as Scandinavia to create Roman-quality goods in the third century

“We can see the effect that endurance can have on people when we observe foreign nations who labour extensively, wear minimal clothing, and live with few necessities. Look at the nations that dwell north of the Roman Empire. I mean the Germans and all the nomad tribes who wage war against us along the Danube. They suffer from extended winters and dismal climates. Their sparse soil only grudgingly gives them sustenance. They keep the rain off their dwellings with bundles of leaves or thatch. Yet they can sprint across the frozen marshes when hunting wild beasts for food. Do you think they are unhappy? There can be no unhappiness in performing a role that repetition has made part of nature and necessity. …Their climate is harsh and terrible, but their exposed bodies are accustomed to enduring these extremes. What you think of as hardship, is merely the usual mode of life of all these people (the northern Europeans).” Seneca, On Providence, 1.4

I was on TV this weekend! https://www.ntd.com/tom-rowsell-british-thought-leaders_1085954.html

An archaeological map of cultural clusters in Britain 500 AD

Pliny records good boys among the Germanic tribes: “We have heard accounts of a dog that fought to defend its master from brigands. Although covered in wounds it would not leave his master's corpse and fought to keep away birds and other scavenging animals. Another dog, Epirus, recognised his master's murderer in a gathering of people and by snapping and barking at him, made him confess his crime. (...) When the Cimbri men were killed, their dogs still defended the wagons on which they had their homes.” 🐕 Natural History, 8.61

Win fame, eternal glory that passes to your descendants. From Dagfinn Skre “The Northern Routes to Kingship”

Basque pagan tradition ⬆️

I was flogged in public by a Basque girl wearing a fox skin. Why? Watch my new video to find out!

Why did Bronze age Britons destroy weapons? https://youtu.be/zO7U5E5EY6g?feature=shared

The Germanic substrate hypothesis is outdated and isn’t really a thing https://youtu.be/X-Pa5Zo__js?feature=shared