TheIngaevones (Latin pronunciation:[ɪŋɡae̯ˈwoːneːs]) orIngvaeones were aGermanic cultural group living in the NorthernGermania along theNorth Sea coast in the areas ofJutland,Holstein, andLower Saxony inclassical antiquity. Tribes in this area included theAngles,Chauci,Saxons, andJutes.
The name is transmitted in two different forms in ancient sources:Tacitus provides the formIngaeuones, whilePliny the Elder hasInguaeones. Most scholars derive the name from the god or hero attested under the nameYngvi in later Norse sources, and thus believe Pliny's form is the original one.[1] Hence the postulated common group of closely related dialects of the "Ingvaeones" is calledIngvaeonic or North Sea Germanic.[2]
Tacitus' source categorized theIngaevones near the ocean as one of the three tribal groups descended from the three sons ofMannus, son ofTuisto, progenitor of all the Germanic peoples, the other two being theIrminones and theIstaevones. According to the speculations ofRafael von Uslar, this threefold subdivision of the West Germanic tribes corresponds to archeological evidence fromlate antiquity.Plinyca AD 80 in hisNatural History (IV.28) lists the Ingaevones as one of the five Germanic races, the others being theVandili, theIstvaeones, theHermiones and theBastarnae. According to him, the Ingaevones were made up ofCimbri,Teutons andChauci.
Ing, the legendary father of the Ingaevones/Ingvaeones derives his name from a posited proto-Germanic*Ingwaz, as Ing, Ingo or Inguio, son ofMannus. This is also the name applied to theViking Age deityFreyr, known in Sweden asYngvi-Freyr[3] and mentioned as Yngvi-Freyr inSnorri Sturluson's[4]Ynglinga saga.Jacob Grimm, in hisTeutonic Mythology considers this Ing to have been originally identical to the obscure ScandinavianYngvi, eponymous ancestor of the Swedish royal house of theYnglinga, the "Inglings" or sons of Ing. Ing appears in the set of verses composed about the 9th century and printed under the titleThe Old English Rune Poem by George Hickes in 1705:[5]
Ing wæs ærest mid Est-Denum
Gesewen secgum, oþ he siððan est
Ofer wæg gewat; wæn æfter ran;
Þus heardingas þone hæle nemdun.[6]
An Ingui is also listed in the Anglo-Saxon royal house ofBernicia[7] and was probably once seen as the progenitor of all Anglian kings.[8] Since the Ingaevones form the bulk of theAnglo-Saxon settlement inBritain, they were speculated byNoah Webster to have given England its name,[9] and Grigsby remarks that on the continent "they formed part of the confederacy known as the 'friends of Ing' and in the new lands they migrated to in the 5th and 6th centuries. In time, they would name these lands Angle-land, and it is tempting to speculate that the word Angle was derived from, or thought of as a pun on, the name of Ing."[8]
According to theTrojan genealogy in theHistoria Brittonum,Mannus becomesAlanus andIng, his son, becomesNeugio. The three sons of Neugio are named Boguarus, Vandalus and Saxo—from whom came the peoples of the Boguarii (Baiuvarii), theVandals, theSaxons and Taringi (Thuringii). This account comes to theHistoria by way of the 6th-centuryFrankish Table of Nations, which borrows directly from Tacitus.[10]
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