Am I Gall-Goidel? Discovering another piece of my heritage.
There is more to this life than what I have seen. That was the overwhelming thought that burnt deep inside me as I began this spiritual journey many months ago. One of the things I set out to discover on this journey was who exactly am I? If you have read any of my prior blogs, you know that one way I am doing this is by discovering what DNA makes up this shell of a body I am in possession of.
I have already begun to look into my Scottish Ancestry, there will be more to come from that, and now I am moving on to begin another aspect of my DNA. Scandinavian. Yes, 13% of this Earthly shell is a Viking.
Scandinavia, in the broad sense, includes Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. To discover my heritage, I must first learn where the Scandinavian people come from.
The Stone Age was when the earliest Scandinavian settlers arrived, somewhere between 10,000 and 5,000 BC. Most people believe that through all the ages of settlement, the settlers came from Russia, and North Germanic people.
Some of the settlers were the Sami people. They were hunters and gatherers and they are still around today. In fact, there are between 80,000 to 100,000 worldwide.
Next came the bronze age. There were not any towns or large villages, just a small number of dwellings and farmsteads. These were long timber structures similar to what the Vikings had and they were home to large families and kinships.
The Iron Age was the next Era, this one preceded the Viking Era, and it mainly saw the settlements become larger and more robust. That leads us to the Viking Era.
The Vikings or Norsemen were a North Germanic group that only spoke the Old Norse language. This was spoken by the inhabitants of Scandinavia and coincided with the Viking age.
The Norse were known by many names, but I want to focus on Gall-Goidel. Gall-Goidel is an Old Irish word that means "foreign gaels". The Scottish Gaelic term is Gall-Ghaidheil. These descriptions emerged in the Viking age when the Vikings who had settled in Scotland and Ireland intermarried with the Gaels. Several Scottish clans have Norse-Gaelic roots. So now my interest. If my Earthly shell has Irish, Scottish and Scandinavian in it, there is a good chance I come from a line of Gall-Goidel. I will need to explore this deeper in another blog.
There is so much more to discover in all of these ancestry groups. So much more language, culture, and settlement areas that will require hours of research. As I start breaking more and more down, maybe I can discover more about myself.
If I am going to be a voice for others through my writing, I need to discover who I am and where I am going. This Spiritual Journey takes many turns, but it's worth it. I kind of see myself as those Vikings, heading out to sea. They don't know what is out there, they don't know where they are going, but they do know there is more to this life than Scandinavia. And they are not going to let anyone stop them from conquering.
Are you ready to discover more of the world and this life? Come along, let's journey together. I will see you next time, I need to go get my Viking helmet and set sail.
Blessings.
By Michael Walters
The Ancestor's Fire
Writing the voice of the unheard.
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