Meonwara
Meonwara | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5th century–7th century | |||||||||
| Capital | Titchfield | ||||||||
| Common languages | Gothic Old English (Englisc) | ||||||||
| Religion | Paganism | ||||||||
| Government | Folkland | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 5th century | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 7th century | ||||||||
| |||||||||
The Meonwara were one of the tribes of Anglo-Saxon Britain. Their territory was a folkland located in the valley of the River Meon in Hampshire that was subsumed by the Kingdom of Wessex in the late seventh century. The tribe's name survives in the names of the river, valley and the village of Meonstoke.
Etymology
The origin of the root Meon is uncertain, though it likely derives from Ardaoneon, the Roman name for Portchester.[1] The suffix -wara is derived from the Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐍂, which means "those that care for, watch, guard, protect, or defend." The literal translation of Meonwara is thus “the defenders of the Meon” and was the tribe's endonym.[2] Its exonym was Yte.[a] [b]
Origins
The Meonwara were Jutes from the Cimbric peninsula.[5] [c] As recorded by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People in the early eight century:
" Those who came over were of the three most powerful nations of Germany—Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. From the Jutes are descended the people of Kent, and of the Isle of Wight, and those also in the province of the West Saxons who are to this day called Jutes, seated opposite to the Isle of Wight."
— Bede 1910, 1.15
Attributions to Hengist and Horsa as leaders of the tribe[10] are examples of non-historical founding myths.[11]
History
The Meonwara appear to have been part the defence of the Sub-Roman polity of Cair Guinntguic,[12] settling near the mouth of the River Meon at Titchfield[13] and downstream in the Meon Valley sometime after 476 AD.[14] Archaeology has confirmed their presence downstream with nearly four dozen Jutish graves containing spearheads, shield bosses and grips, knives, belt fittings, brooches, firesteels and pursemounts, amulets, amulet bags, chatelaines, pottery, glass and beads dating from the late fifth century through the sixth century.[15] They were tasked with defending the western section of the road that ran from Venta Belgarum to Noviomagus Reginorum. The Geatish settlements at Warblington and Emsworth defended the eastern section.
In the late 680s AD the West Saxons moved southward and absorbed the Jutish lands in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The former seemed to be a relatively peaceful affair while the latter was particularly brutal.[16] [d] The subsequent establishment of the very large trading settlement at Hamwic suggests that control over the Solent was the motivating factor in the conquest of the Jutish folklands.[17]
Notes
- ^ Ytene is the genitive plural of Yte meaning "Jute", i.e. "of the Jutes".[3] Florence of Worcester talks about how William Rufus was slain in the New Forest and that in the English tongue (Nova Foresta que lingua Anglorum) the term for the New Forest was Ytene. [4]
- ^ The Jutish nation in Hampshire was in fact composed of several distinct folklands organized around a central geographical feature (castra, island, river, valley, etc.) They appeared to be allied to the Visigoths for about half a century before continuing as autonomous entities. Some of them - like Kent and Vectis - coalesced into kingdoms. Various place-names identify the locations as Jutish. These include Bishopstoke (Ytingstoc), the River Itchen (Ytene) and the Meon Valley (Ytedene).
- ^ Jutes were an amalgam of Cimbri, Teutons, Charudes and Gutones called Eudoses,[6] Eotenas,[7] Iutae[8] or Euthiones[9]
- ^ This dichotomy was probably due to a Geatish-Jutish stronghold on the Isle of Wight, since evolved from follkland into an outright kingdom.
References
- ^ Group 6: southern Hampshire/northern Wiltshire - Britannia in the Ravenna Cosmography’'
- ^ Wolfram Euler: Das Westgermanische – von der Herausbildung im 3. bis zur Aufgliederung im 7. Jahrhundert — Analyse und Rekonstruktion (West Germanic: From its Emergence in the 3rd Century to its Split in the 7th Century: Analyses and Reconstruction). 244 p., in German with English summary, London/Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-9812110-7-8.
- ^ Stenton 1971, p. 23.
- ^ Chambers 1912, pp. 231–241.
- ^ Leonard Neidorf, "The Dating of Widsith and the Study of Germanic Antiquity," Neophilologus (January 2013)
- ^ Tacitus, Germania, Germania.XLV
- ^ Stuhmiller, Jacqueline (1999). "On the Identity of the "Eotenas"". Neuphilologische Mitteilungen. Modern Language Society. 100 (1): 7–14. JSTOR 43315276.
- ^ Martin, Kevin M. (1971). "Some Textual Evidence Concerning the Continental Origins of the Invaders of Britain in the Fifth Century". Latomus. 30 (1): 83–104. JSTOR 41527856.
- ^ Stenton, F. M. (1971). Anglo-Saxon England 3rd edition. Oxford: OUP. ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5.
- ^ Brewer's Britain & Ireland: The History, Culture, Folklore and Etymology of 7500 Places in These Islands. Ayto, John; Crofton, Ian. Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006
- ^ Ingram, James Henry (1823). The Saxon chronicle, with an English Translation and Notes, Critical and Explanatory. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row.
- ^ Nennius (attrib.). Theodor Mommsen (ed.). Historia Brittonum, VI. Composed after AD 830. (in Latin) Hosted at Latin Wikisource.
- ^ Kilpatrick, Kelly. "Saxons in the Meon Valley: A Place-Name Survey" (PDF). Saxons in the Meon Valley. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
- ^ Frassetto, Michael (2003). Encyclopedia of Barbarian Europe: Society in Transformation. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-263-9.
- ^ Aldsworth, Fred w/ contributions by Welch, Martin. Droxford Anglo-Saxon Cemetery, Soberton, Hampshire. Proc. Hants. Field Club Archaeol. Soc. 35, 1979, 93-182.
- ^ * Time Team - Season 9, Episode 13 - Seven Buckets And A Buckle (New Forest, Hampshire).
- ^ Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England. Yorke, Barbara A. E. (London: 1990).
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