The Auldest Tung

Topography and People

So, if Old Frisians were the only Germanic people north of Newcastle, perhaps even north of Filey or Flamborough until the arrival of Ida from Continental Anglia, where were they? Indeed, after Ida’s arrival and that of others that no doubt followed where were they then too. And to try to answer those questions there are two analyses, one already touched upon, topography, particularly coastal topography, specifically hills, which deserve more detailed scrutiny, and a second, peoples, that stems from it.

Immediately to the north of the Humber is Inglemire, Angle Marsh and two “downs”. Then on Holderness at its mouth there are “hills” and they continue from Wewick to Filey where the inland “wolds” turn to touch the sea and there is a single “down”. Then there is a section of fifteen miles and its North York Moor hinterland from Scarborough past Whitby to Staithes over-written by later Danes and where there are rigs and riggs but no “wolds”, nor “lows” nor “downs”. It ends at Easington, an interesting place name in itself for two reasons. Firstly, it is said to mean the town of the people of “Esi”, the Esing, and is already the second on the North English coast, the first being ninety miles south just north of Spurn Head and literally the first “ton”, the first town, in Brittia. Secondly it almost precisely mirrors, by chance or not, two place names at the foot of the Jutland peninsula. One is Esingen, just to the north-west of Hamburg and just where the coast would have been with a one metre increase in sea-level, and, as pertinently, the second is Esing on Utholm, now on the outer, north bank of the Eider estuary in today’s North Frisia but fifteen hundred years ago was north of Old Frisia, from its name one time an island and from flood maps one that even with again a metre water-level rise would have from very early on been under severe pressure.

Then north of the second Easington the “hills” return. The Clevelands have their Inglebys, in themselves on arrival Danish recognition of the Ingle cum Angle people already there down to the head of what was then the Tees estuary, whilst on its other bank there are not just “hills” to the sea but now inland “downs”, Burdon, Mordon, Grindon, presumably Saxon “downs”. And it is “downs”, Trimdon, Hetton, originally Heppedun, that feature once more mixed now and interspersed with “lows”, Catlow, “loes” and “laws”, twice named Kelloe Law, and hills with a third Easing-, to the south Tyne and temporary incursion of the “fell”.

However, once past the “lawe” at the mouth of the Tyne and immediately north of the river there is a change. Between it and Blyth there once more “downs” but from five miles up-stream inland to The Wall and beyond, precisely where Octa and Ebissa’s early, by Skene’s definition, Old Frisian settlement was said have been, “laws”, “loes” and “lows” replace them. And from Blyth there is another change. The settlement north, at least along the coast, is still Germanic but for fifteen miles there are no “laws”, not even inland, just a few “downs” either side of Morpeth and otherwise only hills. It is only at Alnmouth that the “law” alone pushes down almost to the sea only to be pushed back almost entirely by “hills” once more both south and immediately north of Bamburgh, a fourth Easington and other “tons” that are “tones” and, therefore, perhaps Jutish. Then the “loes” and “laws” return until Berwick and the Tweed are overlooked, there are two “downs”, as there have been dotted throughout, one to the south of the town the other to north, and a third just across the border at Eyemouth but notably almost the last to be found on this voyage from the south.

Of course, such a sequence may be pure chance, to have no meaning beyond serendipity, yet there seems to be a pattern that with observation of southern England and with the Skene insight might also be applicable to the North, Northern England and Scotland alike. “Downs” are Saxon, be it of one sort or another. For our purposes it matters not. “Laws” and therefore “lows” and “loes” are Old Frisian and “wolds” are another people unspecified, possibly with South Jutland as their origin but once more beyond scope for our purposes . Which leaves “hills” and “Angle” as the only pairing left and with two observations. Angeln as we know it today is, indeed, hilly, and it is perhaps notable that, whilst later in the Germanicisation, if such a word even exists, of England the Saxons became dominant it was without doubt the other part of the Anglo-Saxon hegemony that held sway initially and at the time when the land was being named. It is perhaps not chance that in today's “Anglish” parlance we call a hill just that and not a “down”. It not only began its life as Anglic and remained so but also, before “down” could respond, had already become generic. Is not Warwickshire-born Shakespeare, thought to have written in Midland, i.e. Mercian, i.e. Anglic English?

So finally we have come to a stage where it might be possible to turn the seemingly fluid into something more concrete. In fact, more specifically, it might be possible to allocate hill-names not just to peoples but on a macro-scale to general areas of Britain, the South, the North, for example, on a micro-scale to parts of Britain, in our case specific parts of the east coasts of Brittia and Caledonia and by political entity, again in our case, Northumbria and Pictland.

It begins at the head of the Humber, with “wold” people at Brough. Then east and north there are Angles next to Saxons, Angles from Easington on Holderness, in this case Old, i.e. pre-Ida Angles, briefly “wold” people once more at Filey and Saxons, then folk unknown, overwritten by Danes, and finally on reaching the Tees with Ingles certainly, so probably Angles and perhaps again Old Angles at that. Thus Deira was Old Anglic/Wold with a touch of Saxon. Then north of the Tees it is Saxon, becoming Old Frisian, and Saxons overlapping, Saxon again and as the Wear is crossed coastal Saxons with, perhaps Old Frisians inland and overwriting by later Norse beyond that to the Tyne. So the region between Tees and Tyne is mixed just as it seems at times state-less, notionally Northumbrian but absolutely Makem with in Sunderland perhaps the clue in the name.

And this mixed arrangement of Saxon on the shore and Old Frisian inland continues briefly on the north side of Tyne to Blyth, where it becomes Anglic, but probably New, post-547 AD Anglic, with a touch of Saxon to Amble, briefly Old Frisian, in a perhaps Octa/Ebissa and therefore older enclave around Alnmouth, before on the mainland opposite the Farne Islands it turns Anglic with perhaps a Jutish and just a Saxon blush and north of Belford it is briefly Old Frisian once more with the Kyloes before the lower Tweed valley turns Anglic with a some Saxon.

Thus Northumbria to the Scots border was still a mix throughout but a different one to further south with, as might be expected, its heartland at Bamburgh New Anglic at its core. And the variability continues. South of Eyemouth the perhaps Octa/Ebissa “laws” come within a mile of the shore, continuing so north of the town for ten miles interlaced with Hallydown and three hills. And there are more inland, notably around Duns, but which means fortress not “down”. Indeed, for twelve more miles there are “laws” inland but “hills” on the coast, suggesting both Old Frisian and Anglic, which would be entirely compatible with Anglic capture in the years leading up to 638 AD of an eastern Gododdin already with something again of an Old Frisian population, which as in the rest of Northumbria would be absorbed, as its language would be subsumed by Anglic.

And with the crossing of the Tyne, this time the Lothian Tyne, the indications of Germanic mix both remain the same and change. Indeed, they suggest an Anglic Lothian of three parts each with political centres, Dunbar, North Berwick and Edinburgh, but also with different tribal mixes. The first, controlled from Dunbar and south of the river to St. Abb’s Head, appears to be again Frisian overwritten by Angle, New Angle over Old Frisian. However, in North Berwick Lothian from Tuninghame almost to Tranent the “law” is the law with one historically fascinating exception, an area around around Haddington, including Athelstaneford, which is “hill” delineated and therefore suggests Anglic. And with a small, perhaps still “British” and also perhaps Jutish gap between Edinburgh Lothian seems to be much the same. To the east of the city are “hills” and to the west are “laws”, separated by the Waters of Leith.

And on reaching this point it might be thought that that is that. North of Edinburgh on the other bank it would have been Old Frisian. But not so, at least not quite yet. Along the north shoreline of the Firth and the narrowing river itself there are “laws” and “hills” mixed, then “laws” and “hills” alternating to Fib, Pictish Fife, and the “laws” of its coast suggesting some Anglic incursion. In fact it is only with North Fife and the Tay, with the notable exception of the double-named Sidlaw Hills, where Anglic influence, in reverse to Northumbria, almost completely subsumed by Old Frisian and Pict, with only the occasional Saxon “down”. It tells its own story, one which historically and linguistically I shall now try to unpeel but not before the introduction of two words, both of them ugly but necessary. They are Calefrisia and Calefresian, respectively land and language.