Saxons, Vikings and Celts (Bryan Sikes)

SAXONS, VIKINGS AND CELTS

Bryan Sykes

W.W.Nortan & Co.

500 5^th Avenue

New York, NY 10110-0017

Hardcover, 289 pages, $26.95

ISBN-10: 0-393-06268-6

ISBN-13: 978-0-393-06268-7

Previously published in Bloomsbury Review

Byan Sykes is a professor of human genetics at Oxford University. His company, Oxford Ancestors, traces genetic ancestry. His prior book, The Seven Daughters of Eve, outlined the seven maternal clans from which most Europeans derive. By determining the number of mutations of mitochondrial DNA, by which a matrilineal line can be traced from daughter to mother to grandmother, and so on, and determining the geographical areas of the most diverse mutations, Sykes and other geneticists have estimated the location, and approximate time in history, from which each such clan descended from a single woman such as the hypothetically named Helena from 20,000 years ago in southern France; Tara from 17,000 years ago in northern Italy; and Jasmine from 10,000 years ago in the Middle East.

For males, the Y chromosome provides the same ancestral trail, only through the paternal line. While Europe has seven maternal clans, it has only five paternal clans each one founded by a single man.

What interested Sykes, and formed the basis to his most recent book, Saxons, Vikings and Celts, was the genetic history of the British Isles, in large part because, historically, the English have considered themselves distinct, if not superior, to the Celts of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, while the Picts have long been considered a mysterious if not lost race belonging to neither. Complicating this was the Roman occupation of Britain, the Saxon invasion after the withdrawal of Rome, the settlement of the Irish tribe of Scots from northern Ireland in what became known as Scotland, the incursions by the Danes and Norse, the Norman conquest, and the subjugation of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland by the Normans. From this genetic stew, Sykes hoped to determine what, if any, genetic similarities and differences might exist in the British Isles today.

As a prelude to this genetic archeology, Sykes provides a brief but fast-moving history of each part of what he calls the Isles, including, where available, origin myths. What he finds is surprising, including the essential accuracy of the legendary origins of the original inhabitants. Specifically, Leabhar Gabh la ( Book of Invasions) tells the legend of Ith, who climbed a watchtower on a cliff top in Iberia on a winter evening when the air is pure, and a man s eyesight reaches farthest, and saw a far off land no one had seen before. So he set sail with 90 warriors and landed in Ireland. As Sykes shows, this myth is not far off the mark because part of the genetic trail leads from Spain to Ireland with the vast majority of Irish Y chromosomes as members of just one clan Oisin. This clan dominates not only Ireland but the rest of the British Isles, and it can also be found among the Basques of northeastern Spain and the Galicians of northwestern Spain and is associated with a migration up the Atlantic coast. Similarly, the maternal clans of Tara and Jasmine, also found in Ireland, are also associated with Spain and a migration up the Atlantic coast.

However, while the male line is relatively young, the female lines appear to have arrived in the British Isles soon after the last ice age ended about 10,000 years ago. Why the difference? One explanation could be the Genghis Khan effect, by which invaders kill the conquered men and both inseminate and assimilate the women.

In Wales, the findings were similar to Ireland. In Scotland, Sykes also found a predominance of the Oisin clan, leading him to conclude that the Picts are not a lost race but instead derive from the same Celtic rootstock. But in the Orkney Islands, the Shetlands, and the Hebrides, where Norse settlement had occurred, there was a large percentage of Norse DNA. In England, matters are more mixed, with the genetic divide akin to the old partition from the Danelaw, the area largely controlled by the Danes for a period of time, although, genetically, it is difficult to distinguish between the Norse, the Danes, the Saxons, and the Normans since all were essentially Vikings of one kind or another. In the old Danelaw, these genes form up to 20% of the population, which still leaves a solid bedrock of the same Celtic genes found in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. This same Celtic foundation is even stronger outside the Danelaw. By tracing Norman surnames to match Norse genetics, Sykes concludes that only 2% are descendants of the Norman conquest, while maybe 10% are descendants of Saxons. What to make of all this?

Overall, the genetic structure of the Isles is stubbornly Celtic, if by that we mean descent from people who were here before the Romans and spoke a Celtic language . . . However we may feel about ourselves and about each other, we are genetically rooted in a Celtic past. The Irish, the Welsh and the Scots know this, but the English sometimes think otherwise. But, just a little way beneath the surface, the strands of ancestry weave us all together as the children of an ancient people.