3 ms·

Thanks, that's a great comment! One question, do the Normans count as Germanic? I thought they were from Scandinavia originally and then spent enough time in F

• jcranmer 6y ago
  Old Norse culture is very clearly linked to Germanic cultures. Linguistically, the descendants of Germanic languages are broken up into North Germanic (modern Scandinavian languages), West Germanic (English, Dutch, and modern German, along with siblings), and East Germanic (now all extinct). We can also see clear parallels between Norse and Germanic religion. I'm less certain of similarities in other areas of culture, but I would be shocked if they were much greater than the linguistic or religious evidence would imply. It is not at all wrong to call Norse Germanic. It is much less clear if Normans should also count as Germanic. I wrote it as such mostly for the pun of having England be invaded by three waves of Germanic peoples from three different places. The actual reality is murkier, as the Normans themselves are an amalgamation of existing Breton, Gallo-Romanic, and Frankish (another Germanic people!) peoples with a hefty Norse influx both before and after the ceding of territory to Rollo. It's probably more accurate to say that the Normans represent a new cultural identity which is a fusion of several that came before it, just as the English did with their several invasions, or the French did during their centralization push in the Early Modern.