The Belgae were a group of tribes living in northern Gaul, on the west bank of the Rhine, in the 3rd century BC, and later also in Britain, and possibly even Ireland. They gave their name to the Roman province of Gallia Belgica, and very much later, to the modern country of Belgium.
Julius Caesar describes Gaul at the time of his conquests (58 - 51 BC) as divided into three parts, inhabited by the Aquitani in the southwest, the Gauls of the biggest central part, who in their own language were called Celtae, and the Belgae in the north. Each of these three parts were different in terms of customs, laws and language. He noted that the Belgae, being farthest from the developed civilization of Rome and closest to Germania over the Rhine, were the bravest of the three groups, because "merchants least frequently resort to them, and import those things which tend to effeminate the mind".[6]
Ancient sources such as Caesar are unclear about the things used to define ethnicity today. He describes the Belgae as both Celtic (or at least Gaulish) and Germanic (at least some of them, and at least by descent).
A map of Gallia Belgae
MigrationsA Focean sea captain wrote this about the abandoned areas by Schelde and Mösa (550BC) :
..." Because of Celtic tribes who are constantly in war, the land is abandoned. The natives, migrated to the places where they settled most densely. These areas are mountainous, naked cliffs and mountains that raises towards the sky"...
Pomponius Mela wrote 41AC about a sailing route from Gibraltar northwards by the Atlantic Ocean. Furthest north is Thule and Mela. He wrote:
"... Thule is situated north of the Belgian coasts. The nights are extremely short here during the summer because of the late sunset. These areas are close to Asia, and the people here are almost exclusively of Belgian stock. In the far north of this country, the sun is completely absent during the winter. It’s also constantly light during the summer. The country is narrow, quite sunny and quite fertile. The inhabitants are civil and live long and happy lives. They enjoy festivities and they neither quarrel nor fight…
Plutharch tells abt. 100AC about Camillus, the Roman king (446-365 BC). He writes about a migration northwards:
..."The Gauls are of the Celtic race, and are reported to have been compelled by their numbers to leave their country, which was insufficient to sustain them all, and to have gone in search of other homes. And being, many thousands of them, young men and able to bear arms, and carrying with them a still greater number of women and young children, some of them, passing the Riphaean mountains, fell upon the Northern Ocean, and possessed themselves of the farthest parts of Europe
The Riphean mountains mentioned, could be the west coast of Norway.
Dio Cassius writes the following 200AC :
"... The Belgae lives in several tribes by the Rhine and areas by the sea opposite Britain".¨
NORWEGIAN REGIONS
Trøndelag. This name can be seperated into Trønde-lag. Trønder is a germanistation of the latin Treueri, Treu-eri. The Treueri were of the largest tribes in Gallia-Belgae. They dwelled between the Rhine and the Meuse (Mosel). Their capital, Trier by the Meuse, was a roman city. The second part in Trøndelag, -lag, (English: Law) means that the Treueri's laws were used. Trøndelag was a colony settled by the Treueri.
Møre. Møre might come from Latin Mare, meaning ocean. The Morini were a tribe in Gallia-Belgica dwelling by the coast. In Norwegian it is spelled Møre. The Morini could have settled in Møre on the West coast of Norway.
Gulen is situated on Norway's west coast. Locals pronounce the name as "Gaulen". The name suggests that this was a Gaulish country.
Hadeland. This region is in the South-East of Norway, with Gran in the centre. The Hadui were one of the major tribes in Gallia-Belgica. The name Hadeland suggests that the Hadui settled here.
Grenland is situated in the South-East of Norway by the sea. This region could be named after the Gallia-Belgae god Gran. The old name on the sea here was Gran-Marr, named after the Gaulish god. After the Christianisation of Norway, his name became a taboo.
River names
The Mösa or Meuse as it is spellt today, springs out west of Vogese and continues through France, Belgium and Holland before it ends in the North Sea. The Norwegian river Mjøsa is pronounced the same way as the ancient Mösa.
The Vair river is an offshot of Meuse (Near Neufchateau). The name Vair sounds like the Norwegian Vær. Vær-dalen is a valley in Trøndelag.
The Chieur river runs westwards and ends up in the Meuse south of the Belgian border. Chieur is pronounced like the Norwegian Stjør. Stjørdalen is a valley in Trøndelag.
The Nied runs eastwards, it's source is east of Neufchateau by the Meuse. In Trøndelag, the Nid ends in the sea by Trondheim.
These rivers are all located in the Meuse-valley in the old Gallia-Belgica. That the same river names exists in Trøndelag is not likely to be a coincidence.
Gaulish gods in Norway
Gran (Roman: Grannus) was one of the gods of ancient Gaul. He healed the sick and was a sun-god. A pine tree was his symbol (Pine = Gran in Norwegian). He was worshipped near rivers, and he's main place of worship is today called Grand and is situated 20km north-west of Neufchateu by the river Meuse. Another place of worship was called Aqua Granni and was situated near Aachen.
In Norway Gran exists in place names such as Granvin, Gransherad and Grenland.
Teutates used to be a Gaulish tribal god who was involved in all of the tribes activites, wether it was trading, fertillity or war. The Gaulish pronounciation is thought to be Tota or Tot. Tot expected live sacrifices, usually animals, but in extreme cases, humans were sacrificed. Toten is the name of a region in South-Eastern Norway.
Mösa (Meusel) was personified and worshipped as a female godess by the Gaulish people who lived by the river with the same name. After christianisation in Norway, the word "Mös" became a taboo, since it was the name of a heathen godess.
Language: The Gallia-Belgae spoke dialects that resemble modern Flemish. Flemish is spoken in the Flanders region of Belgium.
Y-DNA profile R1b is the major haplogroup of the male population in Flanders, and the nearby region of Limburg, and North-West Germany. About 30% of Norwegian men are of the R1b haplogroup. This supports the hypothesis of an immigration from the Meuse-valley to Norway. This group may have migrated abt. 600BC.
A Roman presence in Norway:
The book Brittania (Tacitus) tells about a journey where Julius Agricola travels with his millitary troops northwards to the Orkneys and further northeast. He tells:
"... We could see Thule in the distance, where our mission leaded us. The winter was approaching. They say that the ocean here become stiff and impossible to travel on by boat. But I will tell you, that in no other place is the ocean so wide and carries so many streams in all directions. The ocean streams in between mountains and cliffs as if it was a part of it." (11).
Where was Thule located?
Ptolemaios in Alexandria writes the following:
The Northern border (of the inhabited world) is by the degree 63 north of the equator, through the Island Thule (12, 13).
Ptolemaious writes that the summer is 20 hours long mid-summer in Thule. This is correct for Norway. When he calls Thule an island, is this because the world was not fully explored at the time.
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