Saxons, Vikings, and Celts

This week I had a chance to read an advance copy of a new book by Bryan Sykes:, Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland. The book describes a systematic, ten-year DNA study of more than 10,000 volunteers. Through this study, Bryan Sykes was able to determine the genetic makeup of the British Islanders and their descendants.

The 288-page paperback is being released in the United States with the title of Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland. However, it was released in the U.K. last month under the titles of Blood of the Isles. Apparently, the phrase "the isles" isn't commonly used in North America; so, the publishers decided that a different title would be appropriate for North American readers.

Like most of the world, the British Isles have been invaded time and again since before records were kept. The island location probably made it especially attractive to those intent on rape, plunder, and pillage. An island with many miles of shoreline is especially difficult to defend. Some invaders only stayed long enough to steal whatever was available and then leave. Others stayed longer and even moved their families to the newly-conquered lands.

In 54 BC, Julius Caesar launched the first Roman invasion of Britain. Unlike the people they conquered and the previous invaders of the British Isles, the Romans had a written language. They were the first to record detailed accounts of the Celtic tribes that inhabited the Isles. However, nobody could prove the origins of these tribes until Bryan Sykes began his studies.

The Romans eventually left five hundred years later, only to be replaced by successive waves of invading Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and Normans. Many theories abound. One theory is that many invaders "settled in" and intermarried with local residents. A contrary theory says that most invaders remained aloof and separate from the people they had conquered. If so, that would have created separate genetic layers within the British Isles.

Where do you fit in? Sykes and his team took DNA samples from 10,000 people across the U.K. and Ireland in an attempt to answer these questions.

Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland covers many topics. Here is a list of the chapters:

1. Twelve Thousand Years of Solitude
2. Who Do We Think We Are?
3. The Resurgent Celts
4. The Skull Snatchers
5. The Blood Bankers
6. The Silent Messengers
7. The Nature of Evidence
8. Ireland
9. The DNA of Ireland
10. Scotland
11. The Picts
12. The DNA of Scotland
13. Wales
14. The DNA of Wales
15. England
16. Saxons, Danes, Vikings and Normans
17. The DNA of England
18. The Blood of the Isles

The author starts with myths of the ancestry of the British Isles. He discusses the mythical race of giants ruled by Albion, the son of the sea-god, Poseidon. Later invaders reportedly came from Greece, Spain, Germany, Scandinavia, and elsewhere. Sykes briefly recounts the legends of King Arthur and points out that no proof of Arthur's existence has ever appeared. Sykes goes on to describe the various kings and invading armies though the ages. He spends the rest of the book proving and disproving the various myths concerning invaders. Sykes describes the individual origins of the Irish, Scots, Welsh, and English, based on his analysis of mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome.

Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland is a fascinating blend of history, mythology, science, and medicine. Bryan Sykes skillfully weaves all these disciplines into a search for the truth about the origins of the people of the British Isles.

Bryan Sykes is one of the world's leading DNA researchers. He is a professor of human genetics at Oxford University. He also founded Oxford Ancestors, a company that traces human genetic backgrounds. He is best known for his book, The Seven Daughters of Eve, which was a New York Times bestseller. He also has investigated the DNA of many living and deceased people, including those known as the Ice Man and the Cheddar Man, as well as many individuals claiming to be surviving members of the Russian Royal Family.

If you are interested in history, in mythology, in DNA, or in genealogy, you will find Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland to be a fascinating story. I had planned to "speed read" it before writing this review. Once started, I changed my mind and read every page... slowly. I suspect that you will, too.

Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland is available from Bryan Sykes' web site at http://bloodoftheisles.net as well as from Amazon.com, RootsBooks.com, and all other bookstores. If not in stock, you can order it by specifying ISBN 0393062686. The book retails for $26.95 but is available for about $18.00 from some discount bookstores.

Readers in the British Isles may purchase the same book under the title of Blood of the Isles from Amazon.co.uk, RootsBooks.co.uk, and from other bookstores by specifying  ISBN: 0593056523. Blood of the Isles has a retail price of £17.99 although it sells for about £11.00 at various discount bookstores.

Comments

[John]

The chapter headings are exactly the same as those in Blood of the Isles, surprising as I had read there would be an additional chapter to make the material of more interest to a North American reader.

I found the liturgy of kings and nobles used as context uninspiring. Some of these men, Sykes claims, had an especially large number of descendants explaining some of the uniformity in DNA. On the other hand, I enjoyed two of the early chapters, about early surveys of physical characteristics; hair and eye colour, and blood type.

Genetic genealogy enthusiasts will find this book thin gruel. They may prefer to skip to the summary chapter 18 and the appendix. The basic data used is low resolution, less than the full range of the currently analyzed HVR1 for mitochondrial DNA, and mostly seven, sometimes ten, markers for Y-DNA. There is an appendix with summary tables, and a welcome web site with detailed data. I searched in vain for a listing of the marker profiles used to define groups.

These days, when much more detailed DNA analysis of mtDNA and Y-DNA is commonplace, this analysis seems rather broad brush, reflecting the state of the art in 2002 when the last samples appear to have been taken. It does show, in a non-technical presentation, that much insight can be gained from careful analysis of low resolution DNA data.

[Dick Eastman]

---> I had read there would be an additional chapter to make the material of more interest to a North American reader.

It is possible that such an addition might still happen. The copy that the publisher sent to me for review is clearly labeled, "Advance Reader's Edition" and "Advance Uncorrected Proofs. Please do not quote for publication without checking against the finished book."

It is possible that the final version that is to appear in bookstores within a few weeks may have differences from the advance copy that I read.

- Dick Eastman

[Mike St. Clair]

Note that this review calls it a "paperback" but Amazon calls it a hard back at their website. Thanks, Dick, for bringing this to our attention. In this day when DNA evidence is beginning to be very helpful to many genealogist, I'm one of many who will be enjoying this study. If it's halfway as readable and enjoyable as Sykes "Seven Daughters of Eve" it's going to be a fabulous read.

Mike

[ckamp3]

The criticism that genetic enthusiasts will find the book "thin gruel" is inappropriate.

If one could look into yhe future, there are many actions that would be changed. But the book represents a 10 year study using the methodology available. Should the study only be started now? I think not.

If the samples were saved, one can reanalize them with newer methods - which methods might well be antiquated in a few years.

The author is to be commended on providing important knowledge with appropriate documentation.

Charles Heisterkamp, III, M.D.

[Paul Buttle]

This is just a very poor book. There is much waffle just to pad the book out - although I own it is ably written. The nitty-gritty of Brian Sykes’ research is all explained in the last eight pages.

I’m just very surprised the eminent scientist/academic that Sykes clearly is should want to publish such a poor book.

[Mic hael Lusk]

I agree there is a lot of padding to this book. But some of the conclusions seem unsatisfactory as well. If the proportional genetic contribution of the post-Roman germanic invaders to the English population is as small as Sykes claims, how is it they dominated the language and culture of England so completely? Aside from place names, there is hardly a word of British Celtic origin in the English language. Likewise, the customs and mythology of the early English were completely teutonic. Hard to believe this could be pulled off by 10-15% of the population.

Also, if the recent studies are correct that a mutation allowing adults to fully digest milk products arose 5-6 thousand years ago in a single individual, and that 95% of Europeans have inherited this beneficial mutation, it means Europeans must have a single ancestor who lived at that time. But Syke's research apparently has missed this.

[Seamus Maguire]

Sykes effectively demolishes the legends of Arthur, as having been appropriated by "LongShanks", and the legends of the Scots and Welsh, but absolutely amazingly, accepts the Irish Mythology as being valid. He appears to accept that the "Fir Bolg" are a mythological race of "men of the bags" rather than "men of the Bolgi" (the peoples that Julius Caesar record as being in present-day England, and that Ptolemy records as being in Ireland). The guy has spent too much time in Dublin swallowing the horse-shit passing as history/archaeology in that unfair city and needs to have another look at his data. Even the infuriating use of "Oisin" as a name for a haplotype that came from Europe is laughable since, according to Irish Mythology, the "Fianna" were actually "Fir Bolg" - who according to Sykes, didn't exist.

Bryan Sykes is a well respected "Population geneticist", and his DATA will be valuable. Unfortunately, his interpretation of the data have been skewed by a nonsensical view of the history of the "Nesoi Pretannikoi" - the islands referred to by the Greeks as the Islands of the Pretanni

[Richard Thrift]

The haplotypes studied by Sykes were published at his website without further analysis or comment -most unhelpful. An analysis of his data was done by Kevin D. Campbell and published in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy Volume 3, Number 1, Spring, 2007 here:
www.jogg.info/31/index31.htm . The (re)analysis by Campbell does support Syke's basic conclusions.

Here is the intro to Campbell's summary:
"Through the analysis of Sykes’ OGAP data, this study has provided a means linking DNA results to haplotypes and conclusions in Sykes’ book, “Blood of the Isles.” The study has confirmed Sykes’ interpretation of the data, and hopefully, provided a means for other researchers to further validate and extend his work. The study both confirmed some subclades identified by Sykes as well as identified some new subclades worthy of further research. Key subclades that the study posits and which are defined by Sykes include those of the Picts and the Dal Riada Celts."

Note that Campbell also identified and (re)analysed the data for Stephen Oppenheimer’s book, The Origins of the British— A Genetic Detective Story here:
www.jogg.info/32/index32.htm
Conclusions:
"The analysis presented in this paper tends to confirm the hypothesis that Oppenheimer's Clan system is based upon the six microsatellites presented in the data of Cristian Capelli. Though only a small number of samples have been genotyped according to this system since the book has been published, these samples offer ample evidence to speculate on the haplotype signatures of specific Oppenheimer Clans. This paper has speculated on Haplotype matches for 16 of 21 Clans and Sub-Clans depicted in Figure 2. From the 15 for which we have both proposed haplotypes definitions and statements by Oppenheimer of the frequency of these Clans in his full dataset, we see that this analysis suggests that the sub-clans listed in Table 2 account for 84% of all the R1b data used by Oppenheimer."