The Roman Briton wouldn't be calling himself suc; the term "Rom-wealh" had dropped out by then as well. He might be an inhabitant of Elmet or similar, or simply a Welshman by then. Where do you intend him to come from? Yorkshire? The Western areas (Cumbria/Wales/Cornwall? Southern Scotland? Most people of Romano-British descent in the rest of the country had assimilated to Anglo--Sacon culture by then; anybody who could pass as English (and benefit from the higher weregild) did so.
There is so little documentary evidence on such matters that I doublt if you can find out for sure. The rationale of shaking hands was to display that you weren't holding a weapon in your right hand so might well have been used by anybody around at the time.
"An Englishman, a Welshman and a Viking" sounds like a bad ethnic joke. In what circumstances would they be dealing with the Viking in a friendly manner?
Urg. Convoluted to explain, but it's a flashback/memory of someone's childhood. Since you say that Roman Britons were assimilated by then, I'm gonna have to change a bit, because I want the character to be Roman, stigma and all. It's a paranormal, so I can get away with it. Anyway, the raiding party has captured the character as a child, and the Roman is the first friendly face he sees, aside from the woman who rescued him from being killed off. I very much appreciate your input, thank you!
They weren't just assimilated; they weren't Roman. He would have to be Welsh, stigma and all, or Roman with no stigma. By the end of the 6th century Welsh had already reached a recognisable form (I can cope with the Gododdin witn a Modern Welsh dictionary) and up until the mid 6th century the English weren't exactly bossing it over much of the country. By the time the English had taken over the Brits had already stopped thinking of themselves as Romans for generations; indeed, some writers consider that one of the big problems for the Brits in the 5th century was fear of the Romans taking over again.
If you want an accessible, readable book on the period, try Francis Pryor's "Britain AD". That would give you useful background information.
And parenthtetically, the date you're thinking of is as long after the Brits had stopped being Romans as the whole period during which they were Romans! And though there are arguments about exactly when things stopped, there certainly were no Romans at all in the West by then; it's after Charlemagne's coronation, and by then Latin was an elite educated language and ordinary people spoke either various dialects of German or various proto-Romance languages on the Continent
shaking hands is way too modern for your time period. We don't even know for sure about the formal address because the chronicles are very tight lipped. I read Old English, and I have tried to figure out the same thing. You have the epic version of introductions, but I would say those are fairly...well, epic.
Actually, it appears that shaking hands isn't that modern. There's some evidence to suggest that some form of the handshake was around, to me it was a question of whether there was any evidence of the Saxons using it commonly. I was trying to see if they'd use some form of a handshake. If not, what would they do? However, from your post and everyone else's, the general gist I'm getting is, "we don't know, the lit we have doesn't really say." Which is fine--I just didn't want to use the wrong greeting for the time period. So, hmm...But thank you for adding your info. In an odd way I'm glad to see that someone who's well-read in OE is just as ? about it as I am, LOL!
More Than Just a NamerobotapocalypseJuly 30 2006, 19:03:35 UTC
Using Beowulf as my source, I'd think any meeting of Anglo-Saxons or their cultural comrades would focus less on a single act of greeting (like a handshake) and more on identifying oneself, one's family, and one's relationship with the other person or group to see if any oaths, debts, grudges, or treaties govern those relationships
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Re: More Than Just a NamehskinnJuly 30 2006, 19:13:23 UTC
Hmm. Would that apply to a man meeting a kid though? The two people meeting are about twenty and five years, respectively. Thank you for such a thorough reply, though! I tend to flashback excessively and if I do some more scenes with the five year old as he grows up, I'll need it. :D
Re: More Than Just a NamerobotapocalypseJuly 30 2006, 19:50:13 UTC
How much attitude does the kid have? Quiet and shy or outspoken enough to brag that his dad was Such-and-such? The child might not have the whole concept of greeting down and doesn't have much to boast of on his own, but he would certainly know his immediate family's names (and probably the extended family as well, since they are all in the same clan and same tribe and same village), and probably his local ruler's name as well. I have a five-year old nephew that I see only once or twice a year, and he knows who I am by name, that I'm his daddy's brother, and that I'm grandma and grandpa's other son
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I've just found my maps of the Danish campaigns 865-879.
Halfdene started from Repton in 873, was on the Tyne in 874, took a loop north to the kingdom of Strathclyde and was settling in Yorkshire in 876.
Guthrum started from Repton at the same time as Halfdene, but moved south east to Cambridge by 874, then moved south and west through Wessex to Exeter in 876 (Alfred is supposed to be burning the cakes at this point) finishing back in Nottingham in 876.
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There is so little documentary evidence on such matters that I doublt if you can find out for sure. The rationale of shaking hands was to display that you weren't holding a weapon in your right hand so might well have been used by anybody around at the time.
"An Englishman, a Welshman and a Viking" sounds like a bad ethnic joke. In what circumstances would they be dealing with the Viking in a friendly manner?
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He would have to be Welsh, stigma and all, or Roman with no stigma. By the end of the 6th century Welsh had already reached a recognisable form (I can cope with the Gododdin witn a Modern Welsh dictionary) and up until the mid 6th century the English weren't exactly bossing it over much of the country. By the time the English had taken over the Brits had already stopped thinking of themselves as Romans for generations; indeed, some writers consider that one of the big problems for the Brits in the 5th century was fear of the Romans taking over again.
If you want an accessible, readable book on the period, try Francis Pryor's "Britain AD". That would give you useful background information.
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Halfdene started from Repton in 873, was on the Tyne in 874, took a loop north to the kingdom of Strathclyde and was settling in Yorkshire in 876.
Guthrum started from Repton at the same time as Halfdene, but moved south east to Cambridge by 874, then moved south and west through Wessex to Exeter in 876 (Alfred is supposed to be burning the cakes at this point) finishing back in Nottingham in 876.
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