| The Saka Era is used by the Indian national calendar, a few other Hindu calendars, and the Cambodian Buddhist calendar—its yeare zero begins near the vernal equinox of 78. From Roman times, Scythians and the Vikings show similarity by the Old English chroniclers write that when the Saxons invaded England ca. 400 AD together with the Angli, they "sent back to Scythia for reinforcements. The implication is that the Saxons considered themselves to be Scythians. From the Latin literature; Scythia was identified with Sweden because of a exonym similarity of the two names (Scythia was pronounced [sitia] in Medieval Latin). The Indo-Scythians were named "Shaka" in India, an extension on the name Saca used by the Persians to designate Scythians. |  |
The Sicambri (var. Sicambres, Sigambrer, Sugumbrer, Sugambri) were originally a Scythian or Cimmerian tribe who once inhabited the mouth of the river Danube. The first historical record of the Cimmerians appears in Assyrian annals in the yeare 714 BC, a yeare of Roman calendar reform and Sargon of Akkad conquers the Hittite stronghold Carchemish (Roman Europus between Turkey and Syria). In later Greek accounts the Cimmerians as having previously lived on the steppes, between the Tyras (Dniester) and Tanais (Don) rivers where Mediterranean colonies lived and later fell under the power of the Persians. Very little is known archaeologically of the Cimmerians of the Northern Black Sea Coast. This parallels the Greek account of how the Cimmerians were displaced by the Scythians.
The Mannaeans (or Mannai, Mannae, Biblical Minni) were an ancient people of unknown origin who lived in the territory of present-day Iraq or from any Cimmerian homeland- it too later followed by the Medes and the Parsu (Persians) rather than the Scythians. Ualli of Assyrian Mannae, took the side of the Assyrians against the Medes (Madai), who were at this point still based to the east along the Southwest shore of the Caspian Sea. The Mannaeans may also have been a branch of Hurrians (Khurrites), a people of the Ancient Near East who were not linguistically Indo-European. In the 10th-7th century BC, Mannae was defeated by the advancing Scythians, who had already encroached upon Urartu, somewhat later (585 BC) destroying it as well. This defeat contributed to the further break-up of the Mannaean kingdom.
In 103 BC, the Cimbri and their Proto-Germanic allies, the Teutons, had turned to Spain where they pillaged far and wide. During this time C. Marius had the time to prepare and, in 102 BC, he was ready to meet the Teutons and the Ambrones at the Rhône River. These two tribes intended to pass into Italy through the western passes, while the Cimbri and the Tigurines were to take the northern route across the Rhine and later across the Tyrolian Alps.
The Merovingians (Clovis) as from the Sicambri, asserting that this tribe had changed their name to "Franks" in 11 B.C. under the leadership of a certain chieftain called "Franko" and the earlier Sea Peoples, possibly later to the North-Humber-land; the West Germanic tribe of the Sigambrer (Sicambri) appear around 55 BC, during the time of the Roman Empire, on the right bank of the Rhine between the rivers Ruhr and Sieg, in an area that is today part of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The Cimbri, however, had penetrated through the Alps into northern Italy. A small remaining population of Cimbri which still remained in northern Jutland in the 1st century AD.
| When Britian is Romanized, Ireland remained primarily Celtic in culture. Scotland North of Hadrian’s Wall (built in 117 CE.) remains in indigenous Pictish hands. Land between Hadrian’s wall and the Antonine wall is left to British Celts to defend against the Picts. Angles, Saxons, and Jutes begin to settle in Britain in the fourth century. They gradually impinge upon Celtic culture and overwhelm it except in the West (current day Wales) and north (current day Scotland). Celtic culture and Christianity begin to wane after the death of Saint Ninian, who converted the Southern Pictish tribes to Christianity. Before the Goths sacked Rome, the Goths were converted by Ulfias, a Roman missionary. Then Vortigern commanding British troops against Picts called in Saxons for help and fifty years later, the Visigoths overrun Rome. Saint Patrick brought Christianity and with it, writing to North Ireland, probably from Britain and to the Isle of Mann. Christianity may have been introduced earlier in the south by saints Declan of Ardmore; Ailbe of Emly; Ciaran of Sighir; Abban of Moyarney and Killabban (in Leinster); Ibar of Beg-Eire, which may have traveled to Iceland. |  |
By the 5th century, Arthur resisted Anglo-Saxon invasions in Roman fashion which sooner mended Northumbria and Wales. The ministries of Ninian, Patrick, Columba, and Augustine followed the process of conversion to Christianity among the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon peoples. Monasteries were established to help educate lay people and to establish a native priesthood. They were also given the task of creating manuscripts for educational and ecclesiastical use. Ireland remained independent of both Rome and the Anglo-Saxons throughout this period. Irish Christianity maintained traditions derived from the church before its split into Eastern and Western orthodoxy, and the Byzantine flavor of medieval Irish art can be traced to the influence of Eastern Christianity. During the late dark ages and early middle ages, Northumbria and Pictland (Fortriu) conceded the last Anglo-Saxon attempt to move north into the Highlands of Scotland. East Bernicia, Pictavium, and Franconia were no longer the makings of Celtic Gaul of late antiquity. The Anglo-Saxons came and settled in the island, primarily on the east and south coasts. Locations of Roman garrisons, archaeological explorations have indicated that Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were established in Kent, Sussex, Middlesex, and Essex in the latter part of the 5th century, as well as East Anglia, Lindsey (Lincolnshire), Deira (now East Yorkshire) and the Isle of Wight.
Pictish lands were essentially north of the Forth-Clyde line, north of the Antonine Wall. Roman pacification, and Celtic and Saxon migration from the south would have erased any Pictish claims to people or lands south of the wall. The kingdom of Alba thus formed became the kingdom of Scotland. In 930 Iceland is first occupied by Norwegian vikings following from Athelstan establishing a Roman Christian diocese in Cornwall, marking final conversion of Welsh and Cornish church to Roman order. After the regin of King Alfred, missionaries like St. Dunstan were moving into the Danelaw and establishing Christianity among the Danish Viking settlers. Bernicia became part of Northumbria, and by 954 was overrun by the Danish kingdom of York.
Ing was first among the East Danes seen by men and this may refer to the origins of the worship of Ingui in the tribal areas that Tacitus mentions in his Germania as being populated by the Inguieonnic tribes. Yngvi is a strophe of the Anglo Saxon rune poem (c. 1100) and the variants used in Beowulf to designate the kings as 'leader of the friends of Ing'. Helgi means holy and is an old Nordic name still used in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki are supposed to have lived sometime around 450–550 AD when Helgi's son Hrólf Kraki who lived among Rorik, the son of Bok the covetous. Bjarki can be interpreted as cognate to Beowulf, if Beowulf himself has a 'cognate' character in Rolf Kraki's story. In Beowulf, the hero Beowulf aids Eadgils in Eagils' war against Onela. The Swedish adventure holds, Beowulf and Bödvar Bjarki are one and the same of two versions of a Germanic heroic epic.