Answers to Quora Questions by Yair Davidiy (1 November 2017, 12 Heshbon, 5778)
Other than the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, is there any evidence other Germanic tribes migrated to Britain?
https://www.quora.com/Other-than-the-Angles-Saxons-and-Jutes-is-there-any-evidence-other-Germanic-tribes-migrated-to-Britain/answer/Yair-Davidiy
Indications are that numerous other groups were involved in the Anglo-Saxon invasions. Please note to our understanding the term "Germanic" is a linguistic definition rather than an ethnic one. Speaking a Germanic tongue indicates that the speakers have been in geographic proximity to others who spoke similarly.
It does not necessarily mean belonging to the same ethnic group.
The following information is based mainly on rough notes. It may also be outdated.
The invaders of England belonged to, or were affiliated with the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. Others are believed to have been present. The Sutton Hoo burial indicated links to Sweden.
T. W. SHORE, "Origins of the Anglo-Saxon Race," London, 1906, analyses place-names and other indications and finds evidence of numerous Germanic and some non-Germanic peoples present among the Anglo-Saxon invaders.
Bede (Ecclesiastical History book v, ch.ix) is understood as mentioning the Frisians, Rugians, Danes, Huns, Old Saxons, and Boruhtware (Bructeri), among the Anglo-Saxon forces. The Rugini were a Vandal group.
Were there Huns in Anglo-Saxon England? Some thoughts on Bede, Priscus & Attila by Dr. Caitlin R. Green
http://www.caitlingreen.org/2015...
#... suggested that the East Anglian royal Wuffingas were potentially either of Swedish/Geatish origin or claimed to be so, but Barbara Yorke has also observed that the Kentish ruling dynasty, the Oiscingas, appears to have claimed Gothic descent for themselves. So, the name of their dynastic progenitor, Oisc, would seem to be cognate with that of the Ostrogothic demigods, the Ansis; the father of King Ethelberht of Kent, Irminric/Eormenric, bore the name of one of the most renowned early Gothic heroes; and Asser in the ninth-century seems to be aware that the Jutes claimed a Gothic identity when identifying King Alfred's maternal grandfather, who was apparently of the Jutish royal line of the Isle of Wight, as 'a Goth by race'.(5) Likewise, the sixth-century Byzantine historian Procopius reported that Britain was inhabited by Britons, Angles and Frisians #
Geoffrey of Monmouth (History of the Kings of Britain", ca. 1136) ch.8, reported that 160,000 "Africans" from Ireland joined the Saxons in invading Britain.
# The Saxons ... went unto Gormund, King of the Africans IN IRELAND, wherein, adventuring thither with a vast fleet, he had conquered the folk of the country. Thereupon, by the treachery of the Saxons, he sailed across with a hundred and sixty thousand Africans into Britain ... (and) laid waste, as has been said, well-nigh the whole island with his countless thousands of Africans # (bk. xi, sect. 8, 10).
These so called "Africans" may have been Vandals and kindred bands. Groups of Vandals may have been present in Northumbria. The Vandals had come from what is now Poland and are believed to have originally been Celtic. In addition to that, and perhaps associated with it, the Anglo-Saxon invasions were said to have been preceded by the settlement in Britain of groups of Germanic Vandal mercenaries.
In my work, "The Tribes" by Yair Davidiy (1993, 2004), I wrote:
# The VARINI had been allocated to the VANDALI group by Pliny together with Vandili, Goths, and Burgundians. The Varini in England were known as Warings and appear together with the Angles. The royal clan of the Warings was the Billings. Also on the Continent, Angles and Warings were associated in the Province of Thuringia. The British Province of Brigantia was conquered by the Angles who contained a substantial Vandal and Varini component. The exact proportion of different peoples amongst the Anglo-Saxon invaders is unclear. East Anglia, for instance, was settled by Angles in the 450's but already in the 500's its kings were supposed to have come from Sweden and presumably had brought Gothic or Swedish warriors with them. #
There are Frisian legends that tell of a certain King Adel who had three sons: Friso, Bruno, and Saxo. [The name "Adel" is sometimes representative of the Huns]. These sons had been in Jerusalem before its destruction by Nebuchadnessar. They apparently are assumed to have been Israelites though this is not expressly stated. They went to a region east of the Caspian Sea. From there they moved westward passing through Germany, settling in part in Frisia, and then invading England.
Sources:
LE-PETIT, Jean Francoise. "Le Grande Chronicle Ancienne et Moderne de Holland, Zeelande, Utrecht, Frise, Oversyseel; et de Groenungham". Dordrecht, 1601.
"Freische Mythen en Sagen" by J.P. WIESMA, 1973, based on extracts supplied by Mr. Fred J. KOESLAG of Gouda, Holland.