Germanic Tribes

 Well were the Franks truely germanic? I believe the Franks were highly "germanised gauls".  Here is what James Edward found out about the Franks

1. Frank means free or courageous, but if we take free for the meaning, then this is very possible, the Franks were gauls who were pushed into germany by the romans. So they kind of call themselves free.

2. Old frankish although a germanic language has many celtic words and has little in common with other germanic of the Goth, vandals and teutones. Old frankish influence + latin give rise to romance (some sort of early french)

3. The Franks drank wine rather than beer unlike other germanic.

4. In a recorded drawing of romans, there was a small group of franks with them, and the Franks were referred to as galli (gaul rather germani). (the trademark axe proves they were franks). but what is a Germanic, it is just someone living in the area define by germania, so the alans were germanic too .

5. A Frankish tribe called the aeti settled in France under roman rule, in fact prior to the barbarian invasion 20% of grave in northern France (neustria) were germanic (definiteyly Frankish).

 Germanic Graves in France (different to gallo-roman, who don't bury their dead with weapons and jewellery)

6. Why is there so many agricultural tools in France that is directly derived from old frankish names. This is amasing, it seems the Frank were not at all an invader but settlers in northern France. the Frankish and gallo-romans peasants interact, there was no line of separation but a dynamic interaction like if they were one peopel.

7. Many historians claim the Franks overran northern France, this is wrong. During the barbarian invasion, the Frank dissapeared on the radar. In truth the Franks along with the romans were defending against the barbarian invasion, but they were also overan by the barbarians and went into obscurity for sometime. But, later it seems the Franks gathered momentum, and you have the feeling that northern France belongs to them by right. they actually fiercely chased all barbarians out of France with the exception of the burgundians , which they couldn't defeat.

8. Why was the Frank so widely accepted in France, why did Clovis so easily unified all the tribes of neustria rather than that of germany. Why did the Franks easily convert to christianity. Why should they feel it was their destiny to rule Gaul.

 i tell you the Frank were probably a remnant of gallic tribe that was pushed into germany by the romans. but they interact a lot with other germanic and took mnay of their characteristics.

This has been discussed over and over, the Normans that invaded England had minimal scandinavian blood in them. To start with only around about 10,000 vikings made it to normandy and that almost male warriors. However, the local population of normandy was very celtic and there were extremely powerful warlords there already. the vikings were to marry with the locals and basically after a few generations, racially and culturally speaking the vikings has dissapeared. The names there were in majority Frankish (like 90% of names in northern France and 50% in southern France, this is because it was a frankish tradition to have a second name). However they were a few viking names but in french version. So normans as scandinavian is ridiculous, they couldn't speak any germanic language and there culture and race werent germanic. And one thing it was not the normans army that invaded England, but combined Breton-Franks(as for early french were called) and normans. the reason for that is that normans warlords were only obliged to fight in the duchy of normandy not overseas. So William army was an army of mercenaries mostly from all other France as well as flanders (which was then part of France). In fact the breton held 20% of land in England and the rest was held by normans and Franks, anglo-saxons weren't allowed to hold any land.. .

  And the origin of the name "norman" is very unclear, to start with normandy is quite north in France. People in the north of France might have been northmen and that could have originated from old Frankish (which a germanic language). But if we have it from the anglo-saxons POV, an outsider POV, the Normands were referred as Franks (even romans in the anglo-saxons chronicles) but the viking they called them normenn. Nn the tapestry of Bayeux, the Normands alwaysreffered to themselves as Franci (as a people) and normanni is only a place. I have no doubt, the normands never thought of themselves as viking by 1066, it would as strange to them as it is to me now. With or without viking normandy was always a region with an overwhelming celtic population.

 I doubt all these words of scandinavians origins entered french language. You have to put in mind, French is not a purely latin language and has an enormous amount of words introduce into it from old Frankish. Since old Frankish was a germanic language like the scandinavian languages, there would be confusion here. I'll be incline to think scandinavians influence would be minimal not as significant as old frankish, so they've probably confusing old frankish words with scandinavians. take the word acre, this word was introduced in french from old frankish not from scandinavian. This is just one error in your sample.  And dude the origin of northmen is not settled not at all, everyone from the north would have been referred as Normenn in frankish,  latinize the word it become normand.

 I'm not denying the local people of Normandy were mixed with the vikings but by 1066, scandinavian would be inexistent in the norman population and the elite tends to marry with other elites outside normandy. How many people do you think make it to normandy, not more than 10,000 probably, nothing to cause a shift of the population from Franco-gallo-romans to scandinavians. these settlements were not larger and overhall would amount to something like 10,000 people. it would be an extreme exaggeration to refer to the normans of 1066 as scandinavians.  In reality the invasion of England was undertaken by a combined army of normans, breton and franks from all around france by no time did they refer to themselves as a people as normans, Normanni is only a place. Definitely the population of normandy was mostly celtic very similar genetically to britanny rather than scandinavia.

 May I suggest never to trust any source, that's the first thing I was taught at uni,  never trust the information given to you blindly even if it comes from a PhD.

 Nice map, that's a lot of settlements. How reliable is this though.

 Just a question is this type of wooden houses common in Sweden. because you have a lot of these houses in normandy and pretty much everywhere in nothern France as far as lyon. But it is in alsace that you find this type of houses with higher frequencies.

aye, you'll see it everywhere in Germany, especially the south. if you have the original cossacks game, just play a round with Austria or Saxony and have a close look at the buildings.