The German Vikings: Saxons & Schleswig-Holstein

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The city's name derives from Schlei “inlet” in the east and vik, which meant inlet in Old Norse and settlement in Old Saxon. The term "Holstein" derives from Old Saxon Holseta Land.

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Sources
Ptolemy, Geographia
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History of Bede
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Tacitus, Germania
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Prose Edda
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Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum

Two Lives of Charlamagne
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Carmen de conversione Saxonum
Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae
Lex Frisionum
Lex Saxonum
Annales Xantenses

Heimskringla
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Hrólfs saga kraka
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Gesta Danorum
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Al-Tartushi

00:00- Intro
01:30- Origins
06:45- Pre-Viking Age
14:30- Viking Age Relations
24:00- German Territory

Old Saxony was the homeland of the Saxons during the Early Middle Ages. It corresponds roughly to the modern German states of Lower Saxony, eastern part of modern North Rhine-Westphalia state (Westphalia), Nordalbingia (Holstein, southern part of Schleswig-Holstein) and western Saxony-Anhalt (Eastphalia), which all lie in northwestern Germany. It had four provinces: Nordalbingia, Eastphalia, Westphalia and Angria. Ptolemy's Geographia, written in the 2nd century, is sometimes considered to contain the first mentioning of the Saxons. Some copies of this text mention a tribe called Saxones in the area to the north of the lower River Elbe, thought to derive from the word Sax or stone knife. was originally the area settled by the Saxons in the late Early Middle Ages, when they were subdued by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 772 and incorporated into the Carolingian Empire (Francia) by 804.

[ipolarisi]

These videos are great, I’m from Yorkshire in England so a lot of them cover the history of my ancestors, where they came from and what they did. Germanic history is such an interesting one that we should be proud of

[wotanmituns]

As a German descendent I'm very grateful for your work. Cheers from Deutsche Kolonies in South Brazil.

[JayByrd]

Im American but most of my family immigrated Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony. So opening this was like an early birthday present. Very well made and thank you for such an informative video!

[ConradAinger]

Roman writers identified the Saxons as pirates in the North Sea during the 4th century. That is why they called the coast of what is now southern England the Saxon Shore, and why they fortified it.

[Botkillah]

Appreciate your videos. I’m Black American, It’s very important to learn Indo-European cultures, as it is important to learn the history of other human groups. It gives you a full and vivid picture of human history.

[BodkinBE]

I'm watching you for a couple years and Im really pleased that you are going to go more into slavo-germanic vikings history in the next video as I'm from Poland and I really admire your content.

[Gwenhwyfar]

Great video!!! My grandma's entire family is from Schleswig-Hosltein and they came to Iowa after the area became German. DNA tested and my Grandma was slightly more Danish/Swedish, than North German, but her family was so connected to the area, the entire region showed up in my mother's DNA results.

[bardinmyriel]

Thank you for this video. I am a pagan from Schleswig-Holstein and I still live here. I learned norsk some time ago and there are a lot of words similar to Plattdeutsch. In my village exists a story that the villagers would not give up their "Ding und Recht" (Thing) and even wrote to the danish king about it. That was a lot later though.

[teutonalex]

I grew up in Schleswig-Holstein in the city of Flensburg, just below Denmark.
As school children we went on many field trips to various Viking rune stones and settlement sites such as Heitabu, which were scattered all around our area. We also had numerous stone circles all over the region but I’m specifically referring to the Viking rune stones dotted along the coast.
We definitely had Viking cultures along our northern Baltic coast although these begin to thin out as you go south and make way to countless stone circles and sacred grove sites.

[zamani]

I've been to Haithabu so many times now and it's still amazing! I can really recommend going there while they do boat shows or have summer markets!

[frost]

My memory fails me but I remember being surprised one day when relating one of the locations in a saga or edda to possibly being in Switzerland, not just from being part Swiss, but because it was one of the earlier locations in Norse literature. The stories themselves cover a vast area, from the Black Sea to Canada, with the Rhine being like the backbone to the known Germanic world. It's strange to reflect on all the comments I've seen over the years like "Germany isn't Germanic" when even the oldest Norse heroes center around Germany. I never thought of the Saxons as being able to take on the name viking, but now that you describe it this way, it really is fitting to think of them as the first vikings.

[filipieja]

Thank you for sharing the Vikings contents that extend to the I am not a German but am married to northern German woman whose mother was given birth at Haithabu. There is still a castle to this day in Schleswig called Schloss Gottorf which holds a lot of the Kingdom of Denmark's history back in the days. My mother in-law who was given birth and has grown up in Haithatabu as a child still to this day told a lot about Haithabu and the region to her grandchildren(my children). I am proud of my wife's bloodline and lineage and their rich history of regions you shared that incudes their northern German and Dens relations and their Viking heritage they shared through common history to this day. Keep up the great work.

[Jürgen_von_Schumacher]

As an actual Saxon with Hamburgisch origin, I'd like to add a few things. The areas of Holstein, Niedersachsen, west Mecklenburg, Northern Rhine, Hesse, West Phalia, East Phalia, Angria, and Hamburg are essentially the territory of Old Saxony and almost all of us within these territories are Saxons. True Saxons. The state of Saxony in Deutschland is named after Saxon nobles, but the people who live there are mostly Thuringians, Prussians, and Slavs. Linguistically, there is no one Saxon language as it can change from village to village, but the Low German/Saxon languages are connected to a certain extent. Outside of Germany, there are many Saxons and Frisians in Ostfriesland who also speak Low Saxon. Our language is extremely similar to Old English. I like to call it the Icelandic of the West Germanic world, as Icelandic is most similar to Old Norse. You can find videos of Englishmen speaking Old English to communicate with us and our Frisian brothers (Low Saxon, Frisian, and Dutch are very similar) and we generally understand with little difficulty. Though their pronunciation is quite different XD Personally I'm very proud of my Saxon heritage and Widukind is a personal hero of mine. It's strange to think my family comes from a city specifically built by Charlemagne to convert our ancestors, but Hamburg today is one of the largest cities in Germany and highly independent. It's important for us to remember the roots of the land we live in and honor our ancestors. I think many of us remember Verden and I have goals to travel there and carve a runestone, as a sign of remembrance. I am Christian but what Charlemagne did to my ancestors... It was nothing more than pure evil. I hope my ancestors are at peace, and I hope I can honor them.

I also personally disagree that we came from Scandinavia. It doesn't make sense to me that the west Germanic languages are closer to Proto Germanic and are older than Nordic languages, but everyone thinks that we come from the north when in reality, it seems like we had a much stronger presence in the continent. Not to mention it would be pretty difficult to sail from denmark to the rest of Scandinavia to inhabit and settle untamed land. This is just my personal belief, but I strongly believe that Scandinavians come from us Saxons rather than we come from them.

[TacticalSquirrel]

My Germanic ancestors range from Schleswig-Holstein to West Prussia, Denmark, and Sweden. All part of that Magna Germania region on the map you shown.

[vrilvanir]

My mother and her bloodline were born and raised in Elmshorn, just north of Hamburg. Great little history lesson. Thanks for this video 👌🏻

[DSRE]

Most of my relatives came from mid-northern Sweden, I’ve always felt a very strong connection to the Vikings for some reason, really cool channel! Lots of great information!!!

[mauricedittmann]

I'm born and raised in Schleswig Holstein. Even within Germany we call ourselfs the "true north of Germany", even in commercials. I've been growing up to Toasts for "Danske leve, Prost for denmark" at the Table.
While i was raised in christianity, i always felt that my roots where elsewhere, and since i found my way into paganism, it feels way more true, connected.
Thank you for the Video and Investigation. It feels like a Tribute to my Home and ancestors. Asa og vana.

[TNTUXO]

My family started off in Sweden. Ended up in Germany Austria and Switzerland. Our name changed too. This makes total sense of my family tree studies.

[TheKyosanim]

Excellent video, Norwegian brother! As a Dane with a paternal line from Slesvig (maternal line from Denmark/Sweden), there was a lot of very useful information. Thank you!

[marshallfeltz]

Great video. I always feel like my germanic ancestors are underrated. I hope my ancestors feel proud of me worshiping the old gods.