ICENI

Iceni Clan Name

Before the Romans invaded Britain language was mostly limited to the spoken word, the language spoken was Brythonic. With the advance of the Roman army into Britain and its influences, Brythonic language was overtaken by Latin, although the mixing of guttural Brythonic and Latin often gave rise to mis-prounced words. It is noteworthy that Brythonic is a sister language to Gaelic, which held fast and is still used today in the North and West of Britain (Scotland and Wales) and to some degree in Cornwall. 

One of the skills the Romans brought to Britain was writing; scribes recorded what they experienced or found in Latin, unfortunately it must be remembered that written history it is often the perception of the writer written as fact.

British language has evolved to be a hybrid language as in-comers and invaders integrated into Britain bringing their languages with them. There have been few, if any, documents found written in Old Brythonic language, therefore it is not proven where the name ‘Iceni’ originated from. There is no mention of ‘the Iceni’ as a people in Caesar’s memoirs of the ‘Gallic Wars’, however the Clans that Caesar had dealings with are mentioned, the one that is useful to this investigation is ‘The Cenimagni’. 

Whilst receiving the formal surrender of the leaders of the Clans, Caesar demanded to know their Clan name. The reply he received from the Iceni was ‘de Iceni Magni,’ which translates as ‘The Great Iceni’. It has been noted that the accents that formed the Brythonic language didn’t mix well with spoken Latin, it is possible that the Iceni clan leaders were misunderstood by the Roman scribes, causing the I in Iceni to be ignored, leaving Cenimagni, hence Iceni and magni translated into ‘Great Iceni’, although it cant be overlooked that the ego of Caesar may have deliberately insulted the Iceni by misinterpreting their name. 

However, the word ‘Iceni’ or ‘Eceni’ means ‘people of the horse’ or ‘the horse people’, the Clan name appearing to come from the Gaelic word ‘each’ which means ‘horse’ and is pronounced with a hard ‘ch’ as in ‘loch’. The Iceni are known to have been spoken of as ‘People of the Horse’.

Religion and Spirituality

Iceni religion drew upon what was required to sustain and maintain their lives. As the Iron age was pre-christian, they would have been polytheistic in their beliefs; worshiping various gods both male and female, mostly connected to nature. Gods of rivers, springs, weather gods, gods of hunting and of sun and moon. 

We are reliant upon archaeology for how Iron age societies lived; how their religions were practiced is little more than conjecture. However, what has been found by archeologists has shed a little light on the subject.

Weapons and gold were often given in offering to river, stream or bogs, the ‘spirits’ or gods of these places being of great consequence; the Iceni was a wealthy Clan, gold, bronze, iron and precious stones were common for such offerings. Sacred places were outdoors on the land, woodlands and forests were the homes of particular spirits. Human sacrifice cannot be overlooked, bodies found peat bogs have been so well preserved that a great deal of information has been gleaned. Death was threefold, the Lindlow man found in a peat bog had been hit over the head, garroted and his throat was cut; among the contents of his stomach was found mistletoe, a sacred plant of the Druids.

Death was better understood than it is today, with most bodies being left to decay in a natural way outside, although burial for some was required, especially those of the ‘royal line’ where burials would have been in burial mounds; some Clans buried the head whilst disposing of the body by other means.  In the later Iron Age funerals by burning became popular; the resulting ash being buried in jars.

Since the land and farming played such an important role in sustaining life, their festivals and celebrations would have been based on the agricultural year, where the raising of crops relied upon sun and rain.

The beginning of the year being Samhain with its fire festival, reverence for the dead and a thinning of the veil. Winter solstice came next with the darkest day and a resurgence of the sun as the days begin to grow longer. Spring and an welcoming of the warming sun as the earth awaited the sowing of seed. Beltane, a celebration of fertility and another fire festival.  Summer solstice, the longest day, a time of celebration as the crops grew tall and healthy. Harvest and a blessing upon the land for what it gave forth. Coming full circle again to Samhain and a new year.

History of Iceni Clans

The Iron Age timeline in Britain is around 800 BC to 43 AD; at the end of the Iron Age two tribes inhabited what is now East Anglia, the Iceni in the north and the Trinovantes in the south

It is inconclusive how long the Iceni had inhabited their Clan lands although it is possible that the Clans that eventually became known as Iceni had lived on their lands since the re-colonisation of Britain after the retreating ice age. Herds of animals returned to the grazing lands and with them the hunter-gatherers who relied on the animals for food. Once the population settled down on the land farming techniques brought from Europe meant the population became farmers, no longer relying on mainly wild animals, but upon domesticated cattle, pigs, sheep and on what they grew, mainly wheat, rye, barley, vegetables and fruit.

It is difficult to determine who were the chieftains the Iceni Clans, Iceni did not use the written word, all we have to define a possible lineage is coinage found with the names of localised chieftains

In AD25 Clans that made up Iceni peoples had individual leaders, three that are known of from coins found in what was Iceni land are Antedios, Aesu and Saenu. 

In 43AD the Romans invaded Britain under the leadership of Claudius taking most of the South East. At this time Iceni Clans were still free but had aligned with Rome to preserve their Clan lands and identity.

In 47AD An attempt was made by Rome to unite the Iceni Clans under one ruler. Antedios, Aesu and Saenu resisted the attempt and either died during the fighting or were put to death shortly afterwards. Rome succeeded in putting down the rebelion of 47AD and Prasutagus was made client king of the Iceni Clans, thus uniting them under his leadership.

By 51 AD the Romans had taken the whole of the south of Britain and the then ‘king’ of Iceni, Prasutagus, along with many other client kings pledged an allegiance to Rome. Prasutagus’s wife was of Royal blood, although it is disputed whether the Princess was born of Iceni or Trinovante Clan, she achieved Queenship of Iceni in her own right after her husbands death, her name was Boudica, sometimes known as Boudicca or Boadicea.

Prasutagus died in 60AD. The law of Rome at that time dictated that upon the death of a client king the ownership of land and all that went with it became the property of Rome. But Prasutagus left a will leaving instructions that on his death his lands and wealth should be equally divided between his two daughters and Rome. Rome moved to take possession of the land and its wealth, they flogged Boudica and raped her two daughters. 

The story of what happened next is ingrained in the lore of Iceni land, and is discussed on our page entitled ‘Legend and Lore.’ Icini Queen Boudica was born in 30AD and died in 62AD at the age of 32, she left a legacy of heroic warrior deeds and remains to this day a great and respected hero of the Iceni Clan Lands.

The Roman armies withdrew from Britain around 400 AD.

Angles, Saxons and Jutes came into Britain around 500 AD and by 600 AD had interbred with British Clans whilst eradicating most of the ways of life of the then indigenous British people. 

Anglo Saxons constituted three peoples: the Angles, coming from northern Germany; the Saxons, coming from Lower Saxony in North West Germany; the Jutes, reputedly coming from Jutland and the Frisian coast. The Angles taking Northumbria, the Jutes taking Wessex and the Saxons coming first into Iceni and Trinovante Clan lands, and here is where Iceni and Trinovante Clans and their Clan lands lost their name and their identity. The Angles and Saxons renamed this part of Britain East Angles, and referred to the North folk and the South folk later becoming Norfolk and Suffolk.

It is difficult to define exactly where Iceni Clan lands were, but it is generally considered that the whole of Norfolk, North West of Suffolk and east Cambridgeshire formed part of the land inhabited by Iceni Clans.

Britain’s lands have been fought over and invaded by Vikings in 865, by William the Conqueror of Normandy, and the rest, as they say, is history. The battle of 1066 resulted in William of Normandy (King William 1^st of England) is the last time invaders have succeeded in taking Britain by force.