Vandals in the Time of King Arthur.

This is a sequel of sorts to the post I made a few years ago suggesting that the Gaiseric of Berserk may have more then just a name in common with the historical Vandal King Gaiseric.  Since then I have watched the 97 Berserk TV Anime, in fact I think I did before the Manga Author passed away.  But this post shall be even less about the actual Berserk franchise then my first one.  But actually seeing the Anime has firmly convinced me that Midland is mostly just based on France not Middle Francia.

Gaiseric's Kingdom continued for awhile after he died, his successor was his son Huneric.  The next Vandal king was Gunthamund the second son of Gento the fourth and youngest son of Gaiseric.  After that was Thrasamund the third son of Gento.  Then Huneric's son Hilderic finally took the throne in 523, but because of Hilderic's conversion to Chalcedonian Christianity Gelimer lead a coup against him.  Hilderic is referred to as Gelimar's "first cousin once removed" on Wikipedia.  It was Gelimer who was defeated by Belisarius in 534 AD.

Now I've seen it claimed more then once that Procopius says the entire Vandal nation sailed away in ships after Gelimar's defeat.  It's also worth noting that late antiquity sources like Procopius use Vandal/Vandals and African/Africans interchangeably when identifying this kingdom and it's people, since their capital was Carthage previously the capital of the Roman province of Africa which was no where near the entirety of the continent we today know by that name but mainly the northern most Mediterranean coasts of north western Africa.

Geoffroy of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain is a mythologized account of British history from the Welsh POV.  I do not take it at face value, but I do think it can provide glimpses into history not recorded elsewhere, we just need to consider what it says carefully.  In book 11 about a generation after the time of King Arthur during the reign of a Briton King who Geoffroy calls Keredic/Ceraticus and the Brute Tysslo calls Ceredig, a King of "Africans" who had been doing some plundering in Ireland named Gormund makes an alliance with the Saxons.

I'm not the first to suggest this mysterious "African" King suddenly popping up in a semi-mythical account of mid to late 6th Century Brittan was actually a Vandal, the name Gormund fits in well with the names the known Vandal kings used.  It's further mysterious how after this Gormund succeeds in defeating Keredic he simply hands over England to the Anglo-Saxons.  

While the term "African" doesn't come up till the time of Keredic in Book 11, given the confused natured of Geoffroy's sources maybe some references to Ireland or the Irish before this are also really this Vandal presence in the British isles?  Back in Book 9 the "King of Ireland" is named as Guillamurius, that name sounds like it could be an overdone variant of Gelimar who was contemporary with much of the Reign of King Arthur.

Awhile later at the end of Arthur's reign at the start of Book 11, which would be after the downfall of Gelimar, four Irish leaders are mentioned among the killed in battle allies of Mordred and Chelderic, they are Gillapatric, Gillamor, Gistafel, and Gallarius.  Those names also sound like they fit in with Vandal names.

Mainstream historians don't consider there to be any evidence of Vandal presence in Ireland or Britain, the idea that there was is in terms of historical references only this somewhat coded reading of Geoffroy who isn't a reliable source on his own anyway.  However I feel there is DNA evidence.

I believe the presence of Y Chromosomal Haplogroup I in Europe is primarily via Germanic Language speaking peoples, with  I2a1 being specifically the East German Language Tribes.  Most of I's presence in the British Isles is via the other two major subgroups as one would expect since the Anlgo-Saxons and Franks were West Germanic and the Normans formally North Germanic.  But I2a does have a small presence, strongest in part of Western Ireland, and there is no alternate theory to this Vandal one for East Germanics leaving any DNA behind in the British isles at all.

The Alans were also a part of the Vandal Kingdom for awhile, as a Scythian/Iranian Tribe their dominant DNA Y Haplogroup would have probably been R1a, it too has a faint presence in Brittan and Ireland.