European "Native" Cultures Are Bardic Creations From Early Medieval Times

(December 2025) Many people think Celtic, Norse, and Slavic cultures are ancient going back to the dawn of time. That is not true. The original culture of Europe was Druid with its language, Druid Akkadian, filling the same role as the Roman Empire's  Latin or today's English. Having such a common language allowed commercial level trade and travel across the whole continent.

A good example is the Nordic/Germanic god Thor and his hammer. "Thor" is Old Norse Þórr, Old English Đunor, Old High German Donar.

Consequently Thor and his hammer is a storm god which brings rain to the earth. Thor only begins to appear as a deity after 950 BCE. As such he derives the from the Druid sun and storm god Hu. But by being associated with thunder and lighting Thor also became a god of war with lighting as his spear to go along with his hammer (which made the thunder).

More on Thor here: https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-aesir-gods-and-goddesses/thor/

(July 2, 2023, updated December 2025) Christianity became the religion of empires and kings. The church supported authority by seeing kings as agents of God and in return for such aid, the kings supported Christianity. The Pagan lands which survived the longest adopted the chiefdom model in which followers had to be continually bribed with loot (like the Vikings). The Christian kingship model was the more sustainable until the modern era.

Kings and chiefs with their exploitive wealth could afford professional entertainment and this was provided by the bards. These bards created and repeated stories drawing on folk tales then current in the native population. In so doing they standardized the developing native spoken languages like Shakespeare and his contemporaries would do for modern English. This standardization was further enhanced when the best bards were paid to write down their stories in the native languages.

The powers of kings and chiefs rapidly developed during the Viking raiding era after 800.

Different regions called bards by different names and they were also viewed differently in different regions. These are some bard name examples (Dyfn Pencerdd April 2014):

1. Ireland: file (higher status than a bard; poet and seer. Pronounced ‘feel-uh) seanchaí/shanachie (storyteller; later-period successor to the fili) - 800's to 1300's (appeared during Viking raiding era, amplified by Norman conquest, ended by Black Death) 
2. Anglo-Saxon: scop (pronounced shawp), glēoman (socially inferior to the scop) - c 800's onward (appeared during the Viking raiding era and never ended as it led to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales written around 1390 and then developed into theater companies epitomized by Shakespeare)
3. Wales: pencerdd (chief bard, pronounced pen-kerth), bardd teulu (poet of a warband or lord’s household), cerddor (wandering bard) - 800's to 1300's (appeared during the Viking raiding era, amplified by Norman conquest, ended by Black Death. This led to the King Arthur tales) 
4. Scotland: makar (sparce examples from later period because bards in Scotland were considered to be troublemakers by the lords)
5. German: minnesinger - 1100's to 1300's (started around the time of the Northern Crusades, ended by Black Death)
6. Scandinavia: skald - 800's to 1300's (appeared during the Viking raiding era, amplified by Northern crusades, ended by Black Death) 
7. France: Minstrel (originally a court singer; later a wandering musician, female version is a trobairitz), jongleur (sometimes used to denote performer who didn’t compose), trouvères (northern France equivalent of troubadour), troubadour  - 1100's to 1300's (appeared at the time of the English-French wars instigated by Norman conquest of England, ended by Black Death) 

Many Bards invented new words or used native words derived from Druid Akkadian phrases. These are like modern using Latin or Greek derived phrases to form new scientific names for things.

Bards had great respect among the Welsh but were generally held in contempt by the Scots who considered them itinerant troublemakers. Ironically, they were subsequently idealized by the early Scottish novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott (1771 – 1832) as being the first modern poets and singers. Scott is best known for his medieval era novel Ivanhoe (1820). 

References

(March 30, 2024) Not all Europe was Christian in the 1100's. The Baltic area was populated by a variety of people such as the Wends, the Pomeranians, Prussians, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Lapps and Finns and other communities still had its own distinct religions, beliefs and culture. It was only after the Northern Crusades were sent to eliminate paganism and force Christianity on these people that Europe became entirely Christian during the 14th and 15th centuries. This video discusses  the situation prior to, leading up to, during and after the Baltic crusades (alternatively called the Northern Crusades).

(April 1, 2023)

1. 279 CE - Romans begin retreat from the Rhine delta lands

2. 400 CE - Land mostly depopulated by people having Celtic culture  possibly due to the arrival of malaria.

3. 500 CE - Repopulation by people defined as Anglo-Saxon coming from coastal Denmark, Germany, and possibly Norway.  Word "Angle" seems to come from the Akkadian phrase A.NG meaning "those of the coast."

4. 670 CE - Pagan Frisian kingdom ruled by kings Aldgils and Redbad enters the Christian historical record when they come into conflict with the Christian Frankish kingdom which is trying to expand northwards. This is the beginning of the Northern Christian Pagan Wars.

5. 719 CE - Death of king Redbad. Franks conquer most of Frisia and start forcible Christian conversions.  

6. 754 CE - Death of Saint Boniface after he cut down a Druid sacred oak called Thunar's Oak. This was an oak representing the boundary crossing power of the hermaphrodite deity Thu or more specifically the magical motion "powers of Thu" written as Thunu.

7. 805 CE - Christian conquest complete. Conquerors record of existing law codes in the Lex Frisionum dated to 800 CE.

8. 810 CE - First Viking raids which at first seems to be a continuation of the Pagan/Christian religious war.

9. 920 CE - Christianity victorious

10. 1100 CE - Local monks begin writing in Latin

Old Norse to English Dictionary by Cleasby & Vigfusson

Online version of the classic Old Norse / Old Icelandic dictionary by Richard Cleasby & Gudbrand Vigfusson, originally published in 1874. It is the largest Old Norse to English dictionary. Containing over 35,000 entries with English definitions. Online at: https://cleasby-vigfusson-dictionary.vercel.app/

English to Old Norse Dictionary At "The Vikings of Bjornstad" 

https://www.vikingsofbjornstad.com/Old_Norse_Dictionary_E2N.shtm#b