Arthurian TW Preview 25th May: Engle & Ebrauc
Engle & Ebrauc
This sixth preview, released along the announcement of our private beta (check here), features one of the strongest kingdom of Britain, Ebrauc, based around the ancient Eboracum, capital of the Legions ; and the tribe that will give England its name: the Engle, or Angles.
Ebrauc
Ebrauc, or Ebruac was the kingdom of Coel Hen, effective high king after Magnus Maximus. Ebruac directly controlled, originally, much of Goutodin/Gododdin, Bernaccia, Rheged, and several surrounding regions, and is referred to sometimes as the capitol region of the 'Kingdom of Northern Britain'. Coel Hen granted Bernaccia, or Bernicia, to his youngest son, and was followed by his elder son, the Saint Cerneu ap Coel.
Cerneu was rigidly Christian, and thoroughly Roman man in his attitudes and customs. From pagan Picts, Saxons, and Gaels, he defended the kingdom of Northern Britain from incursions. The High King Vortigern, however, push Cerneu into a position he clearly did not like, but obeyed, marking him plainly as a very loyal subject. Vortigern knew of the threat of the Picts, and employed Saxons as foederati in the Roman style. The Saxons Octha and Ebissa, and their armies, were put under Cerneu's command.
Despite his objections, and the obvious resentment of Britons in his kingdom, Cerneu used the Saxons to put down Pictish raids, and defend his northern borders. Cerneu, ever honorable to his agreements and those who served him, gave the Saxons a division of land known as Deywr, later known as Deira, and allowed them free rule of this land. This would mark the beginning of the collapse of the northern kingdom into many petty kingdoms.
Cerneu died, and his sons, Gwrgant and Mor, divided the kingdom in two parts. Gwrgant became the king of Rheged, and Mor, king of Ebruac to just north of Swnan, or Salway. Mor accepted the vassalage of Saxons temporarily, but this was short lived. Mor was the final king of 'North Britain'. Upon his death, his sons divide the region into Ebruac, Dunoting, and Pennines.
Einion ap Mor was first king of indepedent Ebruac, around 470 AD, but the collapse of Ebruac was not yet totally complete. When Einion died, his heir, Eliffer Gosgorddfawr, lost control of the region of Caer-Guendoleu to his younger brother, Ceidio ap Einion, who may not have actually had a legitimate claim to succession. Eliffer, though, was too concerned with other problems, and let this potential issue go.
Bernicia had fallen to Angles under Ida in 547 AD. Ebruac is largely hemmed in by Germans, and potentially hostile Britons. The kingdom languished through numerous wars, rarely expanding. After the death of Peredur ap Eliffer (who will became the Perceval of the Arthurian legend), Gwrgant Gwron map Peredur, last king of Ebruac, fled when the Anglo-Saxons of Angle-Bernicia, and the Deirans of the recently formally recognized kingdom of Deira, ironically descended from the Saxons that Cerneu had granted land in exchange for defending the kingdom, captured the capitol. Ebruac was soon after absorbed between the two Anglo-Saxon powers, while their exiled king died in Rheged, in company of his cousins.
The Engle
According to the saga of the Angles as documented by the christian monk Sakse Grammaticus, the founder of the English was a man called Angul whose brother was Dene the founder of the Danes. This story is insightful, as the rise of the Danes correlates directly to the rise of the Angles in their massive migration to forming England on the British mainland. The Angles had long held the area just south of the Jutish peninsula of Denmark. They seem to have been a noteworthy and distinct tribe since their first documentation by mediterrenean sources. It seems likely that they were effected by the Swaef or Allemanic union on their southeastern border as early as Tacitus’ day in the first century.
However their power and independence underwent some drastic reinforcement due to figures such as Offa I. These Anglians (as they are referred to in order to distinguish them from the English proper) remembered Offa and their homeland even centuries later in early English poetry: “For Offa, earlier than any other king –whilst he was still a boy- conquered the greatest of kingdoms. No one of like age has ever acheived a greater heroic feat in battle. With his own sword alone, he fixed the border against the Myrgings at the Gate to the Eider river. Ever since, the English and the Swaef have kept it as Offa won it.” This was sometime in the 300s. It seems Offa managed to win a land dispute with a minor tribe of the great Swaef confederacy through single combat at the river.
According to Sakse Grammaticus, the Angle king Wihtlaeg gained overlordship of Jutland to the north at the death of the historical Hamlet, the last in the Jutish line, seemingly around the late 200s. Wihtlaeg was the granfather of Offa and so we can see how by gaining overlordship of the north, the Angles were later able to stand against the Swaef. The alliance and close relationship of the Jutes and Angles explains why the first Germanic kingdom in Britain was Jutish, and even the High King was a Jutish earl, yet the Angles seem to have taken the major areas of Britain. Angles were certainly amongst the earliest Germanic Foederati in Britain along with the Frisians.
Anglia is a landscape of waterways and woodlands, not surprising then that these folk developed the Angon javelin with which they were so closely tied with. The modern English word for fishing ‘angling’ comes from the word Angon, due to its barbs. This weapon was a symbol for the Angles, and what can be said of the weapon, so too the folk.
The Angles are said to have migrated to Britain in such huge numbers that for centuries afterwards the land was still waste. Due to this fact, it is the Angles or Engle who have left their mark with us today, the Englisc.
In the late 700s an English king named affter the first great Offa, built a national boundary, echoing the footsteps of his forefather. This boundary stretched from the 80 miles from the River Wye to Wrexham, it was originally about 27 metres wide and 8 metres high, when incorporating a further pallisade wall on top it may have made the total height over 10 metres. This new boundary was for new land of the Engle, a boundary against Wales, the last refuge of the Roman-British. Within 300 years from the Coming of the English, the Anglea had dominated their new homeland and forged a nation that would prove to be one of the greatest and most infleuntial ever, not least through the legacy of the English language, the mother tongue of the Angles.
EBRAUC UNITS
Deiran Foederati
Since at least the era of Vortigern, Angles settlers were present in the region of Deywr, that will become Deira. Those warriors were supposed to help the Britons against the Pictish invaders, but they rebelled and finally take the control of the whole kingdom of Ebrauc in the middle of the VIth century.
Pedytes Ebrauc
One of the most famous rulers of Ebrauc was Eliffer, the father of Peredur. Eliffer's surname was "Gosgorddfawr", "of the Great Army". He took this epithet from his followers, among the greatest warriors of VIth century Britain. Those warriors were highly skilled spearmen, in charge of the control of the Angles settled in Deira.
ANGLE UNITS
Geburas
A Gebur (from the word bur: to live, dwell) was common folk, living off the land and supporting their families as best the gods of nature would allow. They were not eligible for the Hundred levy as they were quite simply outside of the feudal system. They had not given themselves over to the chain of organised farming as they did not live in populated areas, but were freely part of the landscape. Their way of life and means of survival were simple and harsh, which made them hardy men when pushed to defend their home and hearth. Yet the world of the feudal lords and their familiarity with power struggles and quests for fame were utterly alien. Such men can hardly be blamed for wondering what they were dieing for when in the heat of battle. Nonetheless, with the English invasion came Geburs seeeking richer lands and newer easier lives, they were forced into landrent from the ceorls and fired by such desperation to feed their families they should not be underestimated as the brutal backbone of the Germanic warrior nations.
Englisce Angongemacan
Although the saga of the Englisc origins says their tribal name comes from their founder Angul, the people had a weapon named after them, a weapon which seems to have developed out of prehistory.
The Ango or Angon, is a remarkable piece of killing technology, its shaft and head are combined to allow greater range in the cast and to maximise damage against the target no matter the armour.
Unlike a Roman pilum which is positively bulky and artificial in comparison, the Ango is a graceful and naturally delicate javelin easily thrown considerable distances. Due to its weight and slender shaft, several of these long weapons could be carried into battle by a man in his hand or in a kind of special quiver on his back.
Its remarkable effectiveness in battle is matched only by the enigma of its use. It seems it was originally popularised in the north by the Angles who migrated en masse to Britain in the 400s, nonetheless the weapon starts to appear in Finnish warrior graves from the fifth and sixth centuries, and even today the ‘Hanko’ (clearly derived from the word ‘Ango’) remains as the Finnish word for javelin or spear. The only sure thing this mystery tells us is that the weapon was widely exported due to efficiency. Its use in Britain was slowly diminished due to the rise of weapons such as the recurved bow or longbow which could be more easily mass produced and fire numerous missiles.
An Ango’s slender wooden shaft ran into a long metal socket often terminating into an equally long barb. The whole weapon measured around two metres, double the height of many a man in those times and more than capable of impaling two men in a ranked unit or taking down an armoured horse. Once having hit its mark it broke or bent into its target, weighing down the victim, tearing open the wound and immobilising him.
Although it seems to have developed from prehistoric hunting spears it seems to have been used by the upper class, assumedly because of the prestige connected with its use, the tribal identity connected to the name and the martial ability required by a warrior to execute the throw with precision and effect.
The spear was traditionally the weapon of the Allfather Woden and the customary Germanic declaration of war was the cast of a spear over the ranks of the enemy, thereby offering the deaths of the enemy to the god of war. The spear was a phallic symbol too, and the primal potency of this greatest of spears explains why the Angles of royal blood relished this: the weapon of their folk.
Wudewasa
The great German forests held many mysteries but none so enduring as the enigma of the wodewasa. These men were part of folklore until modern times. Living at one with the forest they had an uncanny sense for the natural world, the animals and birds, sensitive to the changes of weather and season. They lived without the need for metal or cloth production, preferring instead only what the woodlands provided, hide, leather, furs, wood, bone and stone. They were perfect hunters.
During the persecutions of heathens and the forest shrines, a strategic depopulation of the wilderness by Christian kings forced continental wodewasa to flee their homelands with heathens from the townships, they took ship and disappeared into the forests of England where they could live freely again. Survivng the centuries undetected by history these people left their mark on the middle ages when they re-emerge in the ilk of Robin Hood and other woodland guerillas fighting the post-Norman attempts to civilise the forest.
These men are uncivilised and yet are nonetheless sophisticated and advanced, only of another world than that of men. Their longbows are the height of missile technology and would a thousand years later prove to be the tool of warfare that would shape England into a super-power. Their sense of terrain makes them invaluable ambushers and scouts, this combined with their supernatural bearing make them feared warriors. Their primitive way of life and old heathen code of honour meant that once befriended they were loyal to the death.
Wulfbyrnas
Men living in constant training and religious devotion to the war god and the god of animal magic, Woden, whose name means 'the possessed'.
Initiaited into the mysteries of shamanism these warriors defined themselves not only by their lifelong precision of techniques and utter elite killing skills but their possession by the god Woden, the granter of victory whose own Familiar is the wolf.
The sagas tell that one day, in the final battle, Woden himself will fall to a great wolf, like the sun swallowed by darkness. Wolfskins are not merely wild men but frightening devotees to fearful pagan knowledge whose insight into the psychology of man and beast gives these rare men an advantage over any combatant. These men seek only death for themselves or for others, in the name of the bloody god himself. The wolf is the first companion and teacher of man in the hunt. The animal that taught man to be as beast. The folklore of werewolves arises from the legacy of these men.
Like all Athelings these berserkers are not wild fanatics without military sense or purpose but were highly trained elites fighting in no more than gangs of nine or twelve, itself a magical number. It is thought that many of the berserkers were employed in the services of kings as men of royal blood who had forsaken the glitter and glory of their nobility to follow a spiritual path that retained them in the world of war. Utterly reliable, terrfifyingly devoted and disturbingly effective. They were warrior monks who did not fight in frenzy and without control but were enhanced by the possession of shamanic ritual combined with advanced specialist technques which enabled them to excel as shock troops or bodyguards. They were not as fodder to missiles and cavalry charges but as the elite of the elite, the rare champions of a battlefield whose mysterious presence and religious devotion was equalled only by their reknown as warriors and their fame as heroes which they shunned in favour of total perfection of the warrior arts.
Heorþgenéatas
To be in the household guard of an Atheling did not mean you were the best warrior around, only that you were dutybound to reflect your leader’s standing. They were trusted men, some related by blood or marriage and some actual champions, others just old friends. Their equipment and backgrounds were varied and depending on the man whom they served, rewards were not always rich and glorious. But in standing closest to an Atheling in the battle line, nothing else mattered. They may not be as fine and noble as Gesithas and other Atheling units but in serving a lord of Atheling blood it was not expected. It was only expected that a hearthgeneat would live and die by his lord’s side. As the poet in the Battle of Maldon puts it so well: “Mind shall be mightier, heart the harder, courage the keener, though our strength fails us. Here lies our leader, dead in the dust. He who now longs to flee will lament forever.”
Hraefnhelmingas
The word berserker or to ‘go berserk’ refers to that fact that these men fought naked. The actual cult they belonged to included several warrior types which are depicted a great deal in early Iron Age and late Bronze Age art in Northern Europe. They were clearly deeply involved in religious practices and were not common warriors. They were often banded together around a high king in groups of 9 or 12 which shows a great religious importance. They fought as bodyguards because they were elite men with years of especial military experience and training. They fought in such small numbers because of the spiritual principle, their way of life as warriors were a kind of religious devotion.
The horned warriors from Iron and Bronze Age art gave modern misconceptions that nordic warriors all had horned helmets. This of course was a fallacy, however some warriors clearly did have a kind of horned helmet which was a mark of their status as warrior monks. The horned naked warriors or berserkers are seen from several centuries before Christ to the Age of Migration and seem to have been active even in the Viking Age. Their deep links with heathen religion lead to their disappearance as Northern Europe was Christianised.
The horns themselves seem to relate to several animals, but mostly a combination of a bird of prey and a horned quadruped. The horns are often made from two stylised heads of birds of prey facing each other. Thor’s hammers have been found with the faces of birds of prey on them, even though Thor was symbolised by the goat and possibly the bull. The exact reason for the combination of these two very different animals in a single heathen warrior cult seems to have to do with the powers of specific gods who were connected to different animals and forces of nature, including forces and human nature and the psyche.
The god Woden was probably most celebrated by the berserkers, and the horns connected to ravens, relating to the warriors who wore wolfshead masks and wolfskins. This is seen in many cultures across the world, including Japan and Britain, where men with dog and bird head decorations fought with specialist techniques, clothed in religious symbolism and revered for their extreme elite status. It is a concept far from the misinterpretation of Roman sources that refer to Nordic warriors as uncotrolled madmen.
Gesiþas
Aeþelings, a word related to the Germanic ‘Adel’ referred to the nobilty, þegns and Earls, lords of such wealth that they headed the feudal system. They wanted for nothing, they had the best of education, food and taste. Their lifestyles were such that they were able to focus their intelligence solely on the aquisition of power and honour. The sentiment is best expressed by the aethelings in the poem Beowulf: “...The days on earth for everyone of us are numbered, he who can should reknown before his death. This is a warrior’s greatest memorial when he leaves the world behind him...” They were proud and culturally obsessed with warfare and personal integrity, which explains why infighting between the Germanic tribes was rampant, it came not from the landowners or freemen, but the warmongering aristocrats. Their world view demanded that they were in constant rivalry in the test of arms. A life of war meant acheivement and glory, death meant only Valhalla and being remembered for great and heroic deeds. They would seek out the most prestigious of enemy units in the field, their high martial proficiency being wasted against low class militaries. Their desire for power and riches often made them impetuous when dealing with equally elite opponents. Thus they could not always be trusted to stand alongside another nobleman leading the army or even their own king, not least since they themselves stood in line to take his place of power if he fell...
Cnithas
These men were simply put, mounted Gesithas. Every Gesitha was a master horseman, training almost daily in the hunt against wolves, bears and wild boars just for sport. It is a myth that Germanic cavalry was inferior, far from it. They had long been amongst the best horseback fighters in the known world. Caesar, as early as 48 BCE was so impressed with their abilities that he made his First Legion the 'Germanica', in his bloody civil war against Pompey Magnus. As First Legion it was a special forces army, combining half cavalry and half infantry deployment, which was the way they fought in their native lands. 400 years later and much of the West Roman and Byzantine military was made up of the Germanic heavy cavalry rather than the light Steppe horsemen.Although clearly the latter had influenced the former as the centuries progressed, and even had numerous advantages over them. Germanic knights, utilising a mixture of heavy shortranged missile attacks and armoured lance charges, undermined the role of the traditional Roman legion and changed the nature of European warfare forever. This cavalry supremacy of knights or Frankish ‘chevalier’ (hence the term ‘chivalry’) became prevalent throughout Europe and would dominate the battlefield until the late middle ages.
Two battles between Britons of Ebrauc and Angles for the control of Deira.
Arthurian: Total War is:
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