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THE ENSIGN MESSAGE

DID YOU KNOW THESE FACTS?

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(Courtesy of The National Message September 1956)

The leading branch of the  Kelts  or  Celts were  known as  the  Cymry  [pronounced Kumri].

WHERE DID THE CYMRY COME FROM?

At what time, or from what quarter, the Cimbri (Cymry) came first to  Britain  it is  impossible to ascertain. For the Celtic  race, in  their  westward progress from Asia, Meyer* assigns two principal routes,  and along one or other of these, and  perhaps chiefly  by the  northern (if credit is  given  to  the declarations of the Triads), the cymry made their way to their final home. Meyer listens  to the intimations, slight as they may be, of history, but mostly relies on the abiding footprints discovered in local names. He traces  one  route  through Syria and  Egypt, along  the northern coast of Africa, across the Strait of Gibraltar, and  through  Spain  to Gaul, where it separates  into three  branches, one  terminating in the British Isles, the other  in Italy, and  the  third  near  the  Black Sea. The  other great stream of  migration ran   less circuitously and  more  northwards, through  Scythia in Europe,  the shores of the Baltic Sea, Scandinavia or Jutland, Prussia (the supposed Pwyl of the Welsh Triads), through  Northern Germany,  the plains of the Elbe (the region of the Saxons), and to Britain across the German Ocean, the ‘hazy  sea’, (Mor  Tawch) of the Triads. It is conjectured, moreover, that the stream which  came by Africa and Spain was  the earliest to reach  Britain. They may have been  the Gaels. The two routes are roughly represented on the annexed sketch map.

*Dr. C. Meyer On the study of Celtic Languages – Report of British Association 1847

Whatever the   ongm  of  the   name Cymry  and whencesoever the people, it is obvious from the whole tenor  of their history  that they had  from early times obtained a commanding position  among the  other Celtic tribes of Britain. They seem, by pre-eminence, to have been  called  by the old ancestral name,  Cimbri (Cymry )-a place of distinction must be accorded the Cymry as  the  strongest, and   most persistent in maintaining  language, race,  and  territory, of all their Brethren.’- The Pedigree of the English People, pp. 34, 35, Thomas Nicholas, M.A., Ph.D., F.G.S. Fifth edn

WHEN DID THEY ARRIVE AND HOW WERE THEY DESCRIBED?

‘Philology teaches that Keltic speech was unknown in these islands before the seventh century, B.C…. The first Keltic speaking population of Britain  were no doubt  racially mixed, but the dominant strain corresponded to descriptions of the Kelts by ancient and modern authorities, being tall and fair.’

-A Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age, British Museum, 2nd edn.,   pp 13, 14.

WERE THEY RACIALLY AKIN TO THE SAXONS – WHO FOLLOWED THEM INTO THESE ISLANDS?

From the physical point of view, the  Kelt and Saxon are one; whatever be the source of their mutual antagonism it does  not lie in a difference of race. It is often  said  that we  British are  a mixed  and  mongrel collection of types and  breeds; the  truth  is, that  as regards physical type, the inhabitants of the British Isles are  the most  uniform  of all the large nationalities  of Europe.’-Sir Arthur Keith, see pp. 22-26 Nationality and Race etc., Robert Boyle’s Lecture 1919.

WHAT WAS THE CONTEMPORARY NAME IN THE ASSYRIAN RECORDS for  the people of the  Northern Kingdom of Israel (which was  not  composed of  Jews and which became pagan) whom the Assyrians carried captive from Palestine to Media near the Caspian Sea in the 8th century B.C.?

The Northern  Kingdom  was  the land or house of Chumri or  Chumria, the  southern, the  land  of Yahuda or Yaudi  (Judah-Jews) to the Assyrian invaders of Israel  and  Judah-Vol I, part II Smith’s Dictionary, of the Bible new edn. P. 1308 note f.

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