Moving out of Angeln

The story goes that before the great waves of migration across the North Sea that The British Isles were , by and large, populated by a people known generically as Britons, much older settlers, who spoke Celtic, or Brythonic languages.

The invading Germanic tribes, including the Eldridges, carved out their own independent fiefdoms, and finally merged the components into an Anglo-Saxon kingdom and culture. Their Germanic tongues went through a similar process of hybridisation, and old English was eventually to emerge from the mix.

Eventually, as we know, the area of the country they settled in became known as England (after Angeln). The old Brittonic identity survived though, and the name of Great Britain eventually bubbled up from the resulting froth, partly to distinguish the island from ‘Little Britain’ or Brittany, home of the Northern French Breton population.

It is odd perhaps to contemplate this in Kiel of all places, but for blood descendants of the Eldridges, looking out across these cold, grey waters, you may be as close to your original home as you have ever travelled.

Mastering the Waters in Kiel