Waterloo

Gebhard von Blucher, called a handsome devil, was a Prussian who became a duke and then a prince.  He twice led armies which fought armies led by Napoleon: once at Leipzig in 1814 and once at Waterloo in 1815. Leipzig was Napoleon's first loss and Waterloo his last. 

At Leipzig perhaps 100,000 men were killed. I'm pretty sure that combatants were not killed on that scale until WWI.

I call Buluche a Balt as I tend to call many Prussians and others who's ancestors came from the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. At least as early as the Roman Republic the people on those shores where noted as a distinctive people. Some of them may have been related to earlier Celtic herdsmen.

In case you were wondering, pollarded willows are willows which have been trimmed for fodder or fuel from season to season, and dragoons are mounted warriors or cavalrymen. At the battle of Waterloo it was probably easier to see a dragoon or an pollarded will than it was to see a Wellington.

Aesti

Those who came to be called Aesti seem to have come to be a people made up of a variety of other peoples who may have been attracted to the east Baltic shore by trade.

Those peoples seem to have come by sea and by land, drawn by the amber trade

They probably spoke an old Prussian which seemed related to languages spoken in the far western isles in the early days of Roman empire. They were seen as an independent people made up of a variety of tribes which included Irish, Scot, Wends and other Slaves, Swedes, Poles, Norsemen, and others.

They were overcome by Goths under Ermaneric* before the story of Beowulf was written.

*Ermaneric probably held sway over a vast territory from the Ukraine to the Baltic.

What's A Prussian?

 I imagine that in recent years Prussians have felt a renewed spirit of unity. Once they traded and fought with Romans, viking Northmen, and Swedes with dignity. For a time they found it difficult to maintain their independence in the face of German, Pole, Lithuanian, and Russian incursions. At other times they found support from Lithuanians and learned a bit from Poles and Germans. They have found it difficult to love Russians, but very likely share some Slavic cousins with them.


For a time, being named by Romans disturbed their identity. Later their identity was disturbed by being tools and creators of the German state.


They are a people of the Baltic. It doesn't seem wrong to call a Prussian a Balt.


If you can find northwest Europe on your map, you can probably find the Baltic Sea. I think the people on the eastern shore of that sea may have been termed West Balts. I don't know why. Anyway if you are walking a beach of that eastern shore, look down, you may spot a nice little hunk of amber. There have probably been Prussians along that shore since before there were Romans in Rome.


The Prussian language, like other languages has changed over time. Some languages have disappeared with time. Prussian has come close to disappearing, but it has not. The old Baltic language is one of the oldest in Europe.


How close have my imaginings come to the facts. Tell me where I seem  to be closest to the facts and where I have been farthest from them.

German

A Germanic people have been around for a long time. Although there hasn't always been a Federal Republic of Germany, and  there hasn't even been a Germany for very long, and even though it may be said that there wasn't even a German history until Roman times,the prehistory of the a Germanic people is very long.


German history for the world begins with Germanic peoples early contact with Rome. Rome came to them in the form of Roman Legions. They learned from those contacts. They learned to deal with the Legions of Rome.


Looking at German and Nordic myth and recent archeology I am taken back to, at least, 2700 BC, say about 5000 ears ago. I believe it fair to say that a people can have identifying traits. I'd guess that the identifying traits of Germanic peoples were well developed by 1700 BC.


Peoples I have called German or Germanic had contacts with peoples I call call Celtic, Baltic, and Slavic perhaps 5000, or more, years ago. I think that before that time they had contact with a people we might call Iranian.


These are just my best guesses at the moment. Ask me for evidence or provide me with some.


Romans may have been calling Germanic peoples Alimani, Franks, Chatti, Saxsons, Frisians, and Thuingii before Christ. How wrong am I?


Germans learned to defend themselves in fact of Roman Legions. Not much later they visited Rome.


I think that some of their early cultural development came through Prussian interaction with peoples around the Baltic Sea.


Without them we would not have gotten to kindergarten.

Pomeranians Aren't All Dogs

It seems some of my ancestors might have come to the United States from Prussia. Some of Prussia, it seems, was once Pomerania; so am I not part Pomeranian?


I've been trying to gather some understanding of the background of the Prussian people. Some people say that a Prussia people never existed.
Still there is evidence of people on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, at least, as far back as 15,000 BCE.


Here are some Prussian background notes I have begun to gather.
Kashubians(Cassubians)were Lechtic language speakers on the Baltic Sea between the Vistula and Oder rivers. The Cassubian language may have come from Pomerania. I read that Pomeranian is a Lechtic language which is a west Slavic language which has been called Old Prussian.
I'm not very sure of any of this yet. Still, when, as a child, I thought I heard someone calling me a slob, perhaps they were in truth calling me a Slav.


I think that some of my ancestors were in Ireland before the arrival of any Celts, but they stayed long enough to pick up some Celtic genes. And not all the Celts headed to Ireland got there by way of the Iberian Peninsula. Some of those Celts got there via the Baltic.
I also have some Norwegian ancestors who may have sailed the Vistula and Oder on their way to Byzantium.


It's an interesting area. Before the arrival of Christianity, there may have been Norsemen selling Pomerania amber to Romans.


Pomeranians are cute.


Not everyone would call Prussians cute, but they seem attractive enough to me so that I expect to bring more notes about them to these pages.

One Quarter Irish

My mother was probably Scott and Prussian; my father Irish and Norwegian. My father told me that that his father told him, "Remember son, all Irishmen are wits, and you are half Irish.

Given my background you may have the kindness to forgive how I begin this bit of story. I begin with a pure heart and a tear in my eye.

Holy places and powers be.

We descend from bards and heroes and there once 

was an age of gold.

Remember.

Let your memory be deep and fine.

No need to remember to sharply the giants, the fire, and the advancing sea.

Better to remember proper names older than the Dagda.

Just rememberer the times before the Tuath De Danann and let your imagination  be stirred.

Trust your memories enough, for there are finer things there.

Be ready to embrace the truth.

Remember a short time ago, just before Norsemen came to North America. You may remember that a few men who came places we know call Wales, Scotland, and Ireland came moving down the hills of Kentucky. 

Some will feel a memory.

Then back to the good times before the bright gods of Asgard. Yes, even then your ass was guarded

Study of pre-Christian Northern and Western Europe has often been based in in the medieval literature of Iceland and Ireland. Still, there are things to be learned from the earlier Romans and Greeks. From the Greeks there are hints of iron bearing Celt coming west perhaps before the age of bronze. They were clearer about iron bearing 'Celt' coming later to end the ag of bronze. Some may have called those later Celt, Galatians.