The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #64952 Message #1069363
Posted By: GUEST
10-Dec-03 - 10:21 AM
Thread Name: Folklore: Black Irish: Etymological Consensus?
Subject: RE: Folklore: Black Irish: Etymological Consensus?
I had always understood that the original celts were dark-haired and mainly blue-eyed. Yes, they spread throughout Europe from origins (or first appearance) in Hungary before 2000 bc, and the last populations survive in the west, mainly Wales, Ireland and Scotland.
Celts came to Scotland from Scotia (Ireland), supplanting Picts. The Pictish language was related, and therefore so were the Picts. Celtic is in fact a remote branch of Indo-European, related to Latin, of course, but distantly.
A recent BBC TV program on the Vikings tested DNA from various parts of the OK to try and identify the Danish influence in the UK population, and yes, in Mid-Wales they found very little Danish and a lot of Celtic. Unfortunately this didn't cover Ireland.
(Swansea area where I live has a fair amount of Viking ancestry, not surprisingly when the name is reckoned to be from Sweyn's Ey, an island formerly in the river. Sweyn was apparently Sven (pronounced Sweyn) Forkbeard)
(Don't know HOW they recognise Celtic DNA though. Danish they compared with Denmark, and other Viking areas)