[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Lutiferre

The Icelanders would be a mixture of several components. I am not sure of their exact genetic make-up, but my guess would be a mix of Norse and Danish vikings, and (perhaps) other components.

There is a strong Western genetic element (R1b) there, that we could speculate that it reached Iceland from Ireland before the arrival of Scandinavians.

Norwegians I am pretty sure are distinct from the Danish - I remember reading some Danish study about the genetic difference and distance between Danes and Norwegians and Swedes. I think Norway is closer to Sweden than to Denmark. They can be considered a North Germanic people by any standard, I see no reason to dispute that title for Norwegians (all though they have been influenced by Danish culture).

I didn't know about that study. I've been taking for granted the telling of a Dane, who used to define Norwegians as layback Danes.

With the Danish, however, its different. The Cimbri simply mess that up for me. While they in large numbers emigrated to Southern Europe, their genetic imprint remains, and their legacy is documented by the significant quantity of Celtic art found in Denmark, specifically Jutland and Funen, and even mixtures of Norse and Celtic art. Jutland was referred to, before the introduction of Iut, as Cimbria, or the Cimbrian peninsula.

The Cimbrians left in Jutland were said to be small in numbers (but great in fame), by Tacitus.

However, the Western genetic element in Denmark is unusually large for a Germanic people, let alone a North Germanic one.

These significant finds of Celtic art are most often ignored in the context of Celtic Jutlandish tribes; and merely attributed to being stolen and transported from other parts of Europe. I think that is very wrong to do, without a whole lot of evidence.

It seems the Germanophiles of the scientific world have simply censured anyone to suggest that Jutland, or Cimbria, which is considered the very coreland of Germanic peoples, might be originally Celtic or have a strong Celtic component. That very fact might be a potential linkage between Germanic and Celtic populations.

My suspicion is that Proto-Germanic or early Germanic peoples pushed towards the West in ancient times, where the Cimbrians would be a remnant of the native peoples prior to the arrival of Germanics from the East.

In any case, whether the genetic heritage of modern Danes is more pre-Germanic or Germanic, and if Danes are north-germanicized Celts, it does not rest importance to the fact that they are a North Germanic people and that the region is central to the urheimat of the Germanics.