Survive the Jive: All-feed

The Celtic disdain for figurative art is mirrored in an account of a German expressing similar sentiments towards Roman art. "The painting known as 'The Old Shepherd with his Staff' was also displayed in the Roman Forum. It was said that a Teuton envoy (from a Germanic tribe) was once asked what he thought of the work and its possible value. He replied that it was worthless, and he would not even accept the living shepherd as a gift!" Pliny, Natural History, 35.8

Fascinating early Migration Period sword pommel from Aarhus, Denmark, with two stylized raven heads with a face between them; an early depiction of Odin with Huginn and Muninn.  Pics from Elis Behmer and Bernhard Salin’s books. ᚨ

English stay winning. Incredible achievement, like something from a legend or saga https://news.sky.com/story/ross-edgley-british-thor-becomes-first-person-to-swim-1-000-miles-around-iceland-13427042

NEW EPISODE — Radio North Sea International — Greco-Roman Views of the Germanic Peoples https://hearthfireradio.com/watch?v=TSxmHILf How did the Greeks and Romans view the Germanic peoples? Raoul McLaughlin's new book 'Germania: The Ancient Germans in Greek and Roman Sources' compiles all the relevant quotes in ancient literature concerning the Germans. In this episode, Tom reads from the book and interprets some passages.

Yamnaya reconstruction from the article “Anthropological Materials of the Bronze Age from the Ishkininsky Burial Mounds of the Orenburg Region”. “Graphic reconstruction of the appearance of a man of the Yamnaya culture based on the skull from burial 7, kurgan 3 of the Ishkinovka I site (by A.I. Nechvaloda)” https://www.academia.edu/123829248/ANTHROPOLOGICAL_MATERIALS_OF_THE_BRONZE_AGE_FROM_THE_ISHKININSKY_BURIAL_MOUNDS_OF_ORENBURG_REGION

I have been reading the supplementary PDF of the new Scythian paper and came across an interesting paragraph about R1a-Y2 (which was just found in a Don Scythian sample). R1a-Y2 descends from R1a-Y3, which in turn comes from R1a-Z94, itself a descendant of Fatyanovo R1a-Z93. In modern populations, R1a-Y2 and its downstream subclades are generally associated with South Asia. So far it hasn't been found in currently sampled Sintashta or Andronovo males. However, according to the quote, there is an Abashevo sample with R1a-Y2. This is important because Abashevo is the ancestor of both Sintashta and Srubnaya. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any additional information on this sample beyond what was provided in the quote. Link to paper (quote found on page 53 of the supplementary pdf): https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ads8179

Out of India bros on train track watch

The Bronze age barrows known as ‘the Devil’s humps’ which I visited today are also known as the King’s graves because of a local legend that the men of Chichester defeated a Viking army in AD 894 whose leaders were buried here. I have encountered other Bronze age barrows in both England and Sweden which are associated with much later Viking burials in folklore. It is possible the barrows really were reused by Anglo-Saxons or Vikings since that did happen in places although there is no evidence of it here. The hillside beneath the barrows is covered in ancient yew forest and the yew trees are said to be possessed by the spirits of the barrow men, such that the trees can come alive at night. I certainly found the yew forest eerie and beautiful. Never seen a whole forest of yews before.

The Devil's jumps are 18 miles from where it is alleged Bishop Wilfrid's ship ran aground in the year 666 AD, near Selsey, West Sussex. The ship was attacked and a pagan priest (gydda) stood atop a barrow and chanted galders to harm Wilfrid. Barrows were the primary point Anglo-Saxon pagans used for magic but also for gatherings. They were also the focus of early Christian missionary activity.

This barrow at Asthall near Witney in Oxfordshire is one of the last made here. Erected by Anglo-Saxons in the seventh century - it was a time when most of the land was Christian, yet some persisted in the ancient ways.

Quite heartening to find this rune chalked up on a barn wall next to an old Thing site in rural Angeln in Germany. Many remember the old ways

New Bronze Age hoard of the Lusatian culture found in Görlitz, Saxony. This culture was related to that of the Early Celts. https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/sachsen/bautzen/goerlitz-weisswasser-zittau/bronze-zeit-schatz-klein-neundorf-100.html

Compare it to this very similar pendant copy of an Honorius solidus from the continent. The custom was established in Denmark and Germany by former Roman auxiliaries, and was associated strongly with the cult of Woden. The Anglo-Saxons merely continued it in Britain.

This bracteate pendant was found in a field in Norfolk in Jan 2023. It depicts the Roman emperor Honorius on one side and a figure with a cross on the other. Honorios ruled during the Anglo-Saxon migrations and this proves that the Anglo-Saxons were already Romanised, due to serving in the Roman military, prior to arriving in Britain. They were all pagan at this time, but they copied the Christian imagery of the Emperor seen on Roman solidi coins. The tradition of imitating the solidi as bracteate pendants originated in Denmark, specifically on Funen in the 4th century. It became a widespread practice from England to Sweden among Germanic Heathens, and developed so that the Roman emperors were replaced by Germanic kings with Odinic motifs.

The Runestone Hypocrisy https://x.com/coal_christian2/status/1946710145167241321

Read the fragments of Celsus

“Statues and altars, and the preservation of the unextinguished fire, and in short, all such particulars have been established by our fathers as symbols of the presence of the gods; not that we should believe that these symbols are gods, but that through these we should worship the gods.” ~Julian the Apostate ᛉ

Tonight is the full moon of Weed Month 🌕 So named because the weeds grow a lot at the end of summer.

Tangential to this, i know of the Rosewell tombs due to a letter by a relative of mine, Thomas Rowsell, to an ancestor (Norman Rowsell) written in 1898, in which he writes, “When I was in the neighborhood of Bath, I discovered at Dunkerton Somerset exists the Cradle of the Race. In the little village churchyard is an old Tomb with inscriptions almost obliterated, dating about the beginning of the 17th century. On it I found ‘sacred to the memory’ of three generations, the first called Rosewell, the next Rowswell and the next Rowsell” if Rosewel be the origin of my family name then the etymology is Saxon. It comes from a metathesised corruption of Middle English Roweshill, from a contraction of Old English Hrōþwulf “honour-wolf”

I am reliably informed that the inscription here is unlikely to be a nickname of the chieftain as I previously said. A better translation would be “elk-destruction” and this is plausibly just a reference to the carving of a dog hunting an elk or deer on the same object. Previously i thought this image might have been a graphic representation of the man’s name, just as some of my ancestors put a rose and a well on gravestones to looks like Rows-Well.