"Our goal is not an exhaustive history of Europe, Ireland and the UK, but some history is useful when interpreting where people came from, when they settled and how this might be useful for the interpretation of modern DNA studies of these people. - Jim Sims, 2006"

The map at left gives the names of the Anglo Saxon Kingdoms that had been established on the English isle at the time the Vikings began raiding in the 8th and 9th centuries AD. The Kingdom of Northumbria is shown as the two rival kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira at left. They fought civil wars for dominance of Northumbria.

Norwegians attacked from the north, sailing down the eastern coast of modern-day Scotland in the North Sea to Bernicia and sacked the rich monasteries at Lindesfarn (793 AD) and Jarrow (794 AD). In addition to what we think of as treasures today, the monasteries were seats of authority and controlled vast lands. Sacks often meant enslavement of the peasants and hostage taking of the religious orders and nobels for ransom. Repeated sacking of these cultural centers destabilized the northern portion of the island and shifted the balance of power further to the south.

In 866 AD Danish Vikings operating in the Carolingian Empire in continental Europe along the river systems and the North Sea conducted an expedition into East Anglia at the behest of the East Anglians. The Vikings marched to York in Deira (Northumbria) in 867 AD and were quickly overlords of Northumbria. The Danish Vikings then attacked the Kingdom of Mercia, whose King decided to pay off the attackers, the so-called Danegeld, and the Vikings withdrew back to East Anglia where they then overthrew the King of East Anglia.

Not content with Northumbria and East Anglia, the Danish Vikings attack both Wessex and Mercia from the Thames river valley. The King of Mercia, Burgred, flees and Mercia is now a vassal to the Danish Vikings.

Alfred the Great becomes King of Wessex in 871 upon the death of his brother King Aethelred I of Wessex in that year. Alfred (r. 871 - 899) proves to be a much tougher opponent than the other Saxon kings on the English isle. Even so, Alfred pays Danegeld in 871 and the Vikings withdraw from Wessex.

By 878 AD the Treaty of Wedmore between Alfred and the Danish Vikings increases the size of Wessex and the Vikings move back to their strongholds in the east and the north.

"Today, the most hotly debated of all the British cultural transitions is the role of migration in the relatively sudden and drastic change from Romano-Britain to Anglo-Saxon Britain" – Weale et al.

Weale et al. tried to answer the question of just how much of the English population today are descendants of the Anglo-Saxon invasion(s) of the isle, and how much of the population of the Midlands might show a distinctly Norwegian heritage or might be indigenous Celts.

The authors picked market towns that were in existence in 1066 AD, that stretch from former East Anglia through the former Saxon Kingdom of Wessex and into Wales. Y-chromosomes were sampled from males in these towns if their grandfathers had lived within 30 km of the town.

They compared haplotypes for these markers: DYS19, DYS388, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, and DYS393 among the males that were sampled.

The authors found that the Y-chromosomes of the Welch towns, particularly Langefni in far western Wales were significantly different from the those found in other towns sampled. See the figure at left numbered Fig 2. They also found that Y-chromosomes of old Wessex and East Englia were quite similar to those of Friesians today (Netherlands).

The authors of this paper concede several difficulties with interpretation of these findings (such as timing or if there were more than one influx of Anglo-Saxons; replacement by killing of indigenous males versus displacement/flight of indigenous males), but they do insist that with the exception of Wales, Englanders in the Midlands today have a genetic make up that is very much like the continental Friesians (Netherlands). They also point out that there is very little contribution from Norway to the genetic makeup of those living in the Midlands today.

The relative lack of Norwegian genetic heritage in the Midland seems to be consistent with the more northerly Norwegian raids in the former Kingdom of Bernicia in northern England for the historical sources.

The authors make the case for a mass migration of Frieslanders (Anglo Saxons) sometime in the past 2,500 years to England with replacement of between 50% and 100% of the breeding males in East and South central England, but that the Welch do not show this type of genetic incursion. You can hear and view a slide show presented by the first author of this paper. Internet Explorer seems to work fine, although the Firefox browser did not work (on my Macintosh).

References:

Y chromosome evidence for Anglo-Saxon mass migration, Michael E. Weale, Deborah A. Weiss, Rolf F. Jager, Neil Bradman,*and Mark G. Thomas Mol. Biol. Evol. 19(7):1008–1021. 2002

 

 

 

 

 

Capelli et al. collected samples of Y-chromosomes from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland (plus samples in Spain from the Basque people and Norway). They then analyzed the distribution of haplogroups (not haplotypes as Weale et al. did) to ask questions about the contribution of Celts, Anglo-Saxons, and Vikings (Danes & Norwegians) to the heritage of modern-day inhabitants of these isles.

These authors sampled many more sites in England and included samples from Scotland and Ireland and the islands off the cost of Scotland–Orkneys and Shetlands compared to Weale et al.

In the principle component analysis (Fig 3, 4), they show that Norwegian input moves the data points along the horizontal (x-axis, PC1) and that having North German/Danish input moves the data points along a diagonal.

Simulated admixture populations shown in Fig 4 at left suggest that German/Danes had much more influence on the genetics of England than did Norway. Also, those areas in the 9th century Danelaw had on the order of 20 - 40% admixture with the indigenous population, and other areas experienced much less of this type of incursion.

In the view of these authors, the areas I show as being in the 9th Century Danelaw received relatively more Y-chromosomes from the Danish/Northern Germans than did other parts of England. In addition to confirming Weale et. al. observations that Wales has a significantly different genetic heritage (Celtic; Llangefni & Haverfordwest), many other areas of the country (shown in gray at left to match maps above) also show considerable Celtic heritage since they are lower.

 

Reference: A Y Chromosome Census of the British Isles, Cristian Capelli, Current Biology, Vol. 13, 979–984, May 27, 2003

Bryan Sykes (Seven Daughters of Eve, Adam's Curse, Blood of the Isles) writing on the genetic heritage of the Shetlands, Orkney, Western Coast of Scotland and the Western Isles in the scientific paper by Goodacre et al. says these places show the highest percentage of Scandinavian heritage of any of the island people. That said, these locations still have populations that are derived mostly from native British populations, both on the male lines (Y-chromosomes) and on the female lines (mtDNA).

In the case of the Shetlands, Orkney, there appears to be equal contributions of Scandinavian male and female genetic material, suggesting that the Scandinavian incursion on these islands were by Scandinavian family groups.

Sykes says this is in sharp contrast to the Western Isles, Isle of Syke and Iceland where the male Scandinavian contribution is twice that of the female lines. These data suggest Scandinavian males took partners from indigenous female lines or, in the case of Iceland, imported non-Scandinavian females.

The figure at left shows summary information from just the Y-chromosome portion of the Goodacre et al. paper.

 

 

 

 

Supplemental data from the Goodacre et al. paper was examined to determine if any of the 114, 5-marker Y haplotypes they found are represented in the Symes/Sims DNA study.

Because this paper used only 5 loci for haplotyping, it is less powerful than the markers our participants have analyzed. That said, most of our study's R1bs can see they have brethren in Scotland and the isles shown at left.

Our I1a participants have 5-marker haplotypes that are found at much lower frequency than most of the R1bs. This is in accord with Sykes contention that the majority genetic group in these places is still the native British, and not people of Scandinavian descent, although there are such people in these places.