Most European Countries try to trace their heritages to tribes or famous empires

Riddle101

Dose anyone else find it funny how most countries in Europe try to trace their heritage to a time when a tribe or famous empire might have been around. In other words try to claim noble ancestry.
Take a look at this:
Irish: The Celts
English: The Saxons or Normans
French: The Gauls
Germany: Used to be The Aryans but i don't know if they still do this, at least not since Hitler
Italy: The Romans
Greece: The Greeks
Scandinavia: The Vikings

My question is, why do they do this, dose it make them feel royal or special when they do this or is it just to claim name because these races lived in their countries at one time or another?

Also would you feel honoured if you found out you had Celtic or Viking blood? or would feel that it didn't mean anything.

I'd feel hounred at having some Celtic blood in me but then again i'd also be honoured if one part of my family where from another county like Cork or Galway just to say that i have family in other parts of Ireland and not just Dublin

donaghs

A lot of European countries tried to trace origins to tribes who resisted the Romans. Even if the Romans soundly thrashed those tribes, it probably seemed a more distinctive or virile national origin - when compared with Romanised inhabitants living under the Pax Romana (or the melange of tribes that swept across Europe after the fall of Rome).

FiSe

A lot of Europian nations are direct descendants of those nations/tribes. So it all forms part of national pride, heritage and selfesteem.

So Greeks are still Greeks and most of them, surprisingly, are living in Greece.
The French are named after the Francs and not the Gauls this was a nation/tribe up the north of the country.
Italians, not surprisingly, are proud to be of Roman origin.
The Czechs and Moravians are descendants of the Czech tribe, although that itself was a part of a Slavic family as are the Poles, Slovenians, Slovaks, Serbs, Russians, Ukrainians.
Danes, Swedish, Norwegians are Vikings, but I don't think that this is actually a name of a tribe/nation.
Aryans is a mythical nation from old Saxon fairytales, I think.

Anyway, this is my opinion and could be wrong...

ejmaztec

FiSe wrote: »

A lot of Europian nations are direct descendants of those nations/tribes. So it all forms part of national pride, heritage and selfesteem.

So Greeks are still Greeks and most of them, surprisingly, are living in Greece.
The French are named after the Francs and not the Gauls this was a nation/tribe up the north of the country.
Italians, not surprisingly, are proud to be of Roman origin.
The Czechs and Moravians are descendants of the Czech tribe, although that itself was a part of a Slavic family as are the Poles, Slovenians, Slovaks, Serbs, Russians, Ukrainians.
Danes, Swedish, Norwegians are Vikings, but I don't think that this is actually a name of a tribe/nation.
Aryans is a mythical nation from old Saxon fairytales, I think.

Anyway, this is my opinion and could be wrong...

I think that regarding Moravia and Bohemia, the Celts were there before the Slavs, but they moved up here because they liked the rain.:p Some of my family's ancestors allegedly did a runner from Moravia, about two thousand years ago, to get away from the fast-approaching Roman Legions. They ended up in Scotland after making their way via The Rhine and the North Sea.

Irish_Nomad

This may be slightly ot but perhaps someone can explain this for me.

Usually when a nationality is translated into other languages it is still basically the same word e.g. English translates as Anglais (French), Inglese (Italian), Englisch (German), Angielsku (Polish). German is an exception. They say Deutsch but in other languages it is German (English), Allemands (French), Tedesco (Italian), and Niemiec (Polish) - all seemingly unrelated. I'm curious as to why.

FiSe

Blame the Romans for it...


I don't know exactly when the last "big movement of the nations" happened, but it had something to do with the pressure of the eastern nomad tribes, I think, on the whole thing so the eastern clans, tribes and nations got moving to the safer west. Where in return fought with the local tribes, clans and nations to get them move more westwards. So we have this mysterious Celtic nation who was all over the place at some stage, but nobody really knows who they where, where they came from or where they dissapeared.

Anyway, I'm open to corrections here. My memory has some limits

ojewriej

Irish_Nomad wrote: »

This may be slightly ot but perhaps someone can explain this for me.

Usually when a nationality is translated into other languages it is still basically the same word e.g. English translates as Anglais (French), Inglese (Italian), Englisch (German), Angielsku (Polish). German is an exception. They say Deutsch but in other languages it is German (English), Allemands (French), Tedesco (Italian), and Niemiec (Polish) - all seemingly unrelated. I'm curious as to why.

As for Germany, english vershion is a a Celtic word iirc, allemands, deutchland and tedesco (and their many variations) all mean more or less the same thing - people's land, something like this.

As for Niemcy - most of the Slav countries would call germany with some variation of that word, it's something to do with the fact that German tribes spoke completely different language than Slavs.

And Germany is not the only exception - not to look far, look how often people are confused with Holland and netherlands. Many countries have different versions in different languages.

ejmaztec

ojewriej wrote: »

As for Germany, english vershion is a a Celtic word iirc, allemands, deutchland and tedesco (and their many variations) all mean more or less the same thing - people's land, something like this.

As for Niemcy - most of the Slav countries would call germany with some variation of that word, it's something to do with the fact that German tribes spoke completely different language than Slavs.

And Germany is not only exception - not to look far, look how often people are confused with Holland and netherlands. Many countries have different versions in different languages.

Germany has a Latin origin, the same as most Western European countries.

ojewriej

ejmaztec wrote: »

Germany has a Latin origin, the same as most Western European countries.

It's latin origin isn't known though, and one of the theories was that it actually originated from Celtic gair, which meant - a neighbour.

Johnmb

ejmaztec wrote: »

I think that regarding Moravia and Bohemia, the Celts were there before the Slavs, but they moved up here because they liked the rain.:p Some of my family's ancestors allegedly did a runner from Moravia, about two thousand years ago, to get away from the fast-approaching Roman Legions. They ended up in Scotland after making their way via The Rhine and the North Sea.

"Celts" are simply people who spoke a Celtic language, not any particular people. There was no mass migration of the Celtic speaking people of central Europe to Ireland, or Scotland. South-east England had close ties, and mixed with those across the channel, but not really a migration as such. All evidence points to the Irish, and Scottish, being the descendants of the original mesolithic settlers. In Ireland at least, the only major influx occurred with the Vikings (which still has a range mainly limited to the cities they founded) and the Anglo-Normans. Both archaeological and DNA evidence point to that, with no evidence of any mass migrations into Ireland prior to the Vikings (after initial settlement of course).

Kaiser_Sma

It's often politically motivated i think when people associate themselves with the proud dynasty/empire or the beligered but noble tribesmen. It can often make up more of countries national identy then the actual absolute history behind it.

Noble origins are a little easier to trace cause they usually had more written about them and possessed family names for longer then most simpler folk. Its also likely that the majority of people had some vague relation to someone of noble blood at some point. But it also feels kinda nice to find that your family were of some importance on the grand scale a long time ago. Trace it far enough back and it's more a point of interest then a shame if they turn out to be evil or something.

People here often like to trace their family back to some major gaelic family or nobility in ireland, although it's probably doubhtfull that every O'Niell in the country is a decendent of an ulster king.

The invasions/migrations where scant compared to across the irish sea, but the influx of people during the plantations and other events after the norman invasions certainly increased the amount of european blood in our stock.

ejmaztec

Johnmb wrote: »

"Celts" are simply people who spoke a Celtic language, not any particular people. There was no mass migration of the Celtic speaking people of central Europe to Ireland, or Scotland. South-east England had close ties, and mixed with those across the channel, but not really a migration as such. All evidence points to the Irish, and Scottish, being the descendants of the original mesolithic settlers. In Ireland at least, the only major influx occurred with the Vikings (which still has a range mainly limited to the cities they founded) and the Anglo-Normans. Both archaeological and DNA evidence point to that, with no evidence of any mass migrations into Ireland prior to the Vikings (after initial settlement of course).

I'm not saying that all of the Celtic speaking peoples went on a long journey northwards, just some of my ancestors and a few others. Whilst most of them were assimilated into other cultures, there were those that were disposed of by the various invaders. It's obvious that when the odds are stacked against you, it's best to take a speedy hike.:)

EamonnKeane

It's not just European nations, every country claims its dodgy lineage.

ejmaztec

And some people get more than they bargained for, having their dna analysed

http://blog.arlt.co.uk/blog/_archives/2007/1/28/2689901.html

From this guy's dna profile it was assumed that he was of North African stock.

brianthebard

As mentioned its simply part of nationalism, to create a national identity that stretches back millenia, therefore giving legitimacy to a group of people. (we were always here, etc).

I don't think the germans traced themselves back to Aryans before or after Hitler, although I'm not sure. There were plenty of Germanic tribes, goths, etc at the time of Rome, so I imagine that is what they would've connected themselves to.

ejmaztec

EamonnKeane wrote: »

It's not just European nations, every country claims its dodgy lineage.

cough American obsession cough:)

Pride Fighter

FiSe wrote: »

Aryans is a mythical nation from old Saxon fairytales, I think.

The Aryans were one of the oldest Indo-European tribes, Iran takes its name from them.

Pride Fighter

It is funny that people trace their lineage but understandable, it has been done since the Greek and Roman days. Alexander the Great was a direct descendant of Heracles (as where all Argead kings) and Julius Caesar was related to Aeneas through his son Iulus, who founded the Julian household.
Genetically we are not Celts here in Ireland but a mish mash of Celts, Vikings, Normans and English:eek:. Although like Galicia in Spain, Brittany in France, Wales and Scotland there is a distinctive Celtic cultural heritage.
Although fascinating I dont want to know my heritage, unless I am related to someone deadly :pac::D.