Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. From these three sons he had 16 grandsons who spread out and populated the world. For details of where they went, see The Sixteen Grandsons of Noah (1) and the first three appendices of After the Flood (2).
The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras.
The sons of Javan were:
Nennius, an 8th century historian, had sources available to him that have long since perished, but he preserved the following text in Chapter 17 of his Historia Brittonum (3).
17. I have learned another account of this Brutus from the ancient books of our ancestors. After the deluge, the three sons of Noah severally occupied three different parts of the earth: Shem extended his borders into Asia, Ham into Africa, and Japheth into Europe.
The first man that dwelt in Europe was Alanus, with his three sons, Hisicion, Armenon, and Neugio. Hisicion had four sons, Francus, Romanus, Alamanus, and Bruttus. Armenon had five sons, Gothus, Valagothus, Cibidus, Burgundus, and Longobardus. Neugio had three sons, Vandalus, Saxo, and Boganus. From Hisicion arose four nations__the Franks, the Latins, the Germans, and Britons: from Armenon, the Gothi, Valagothi, Cibidi, Burgundi, and Longobardi:: from Neugio, the Bogari, Vandali, Saxones, and Tarincgi. The whole of Europe was subdivided into these tribes.
Alanus is said to have been the son of Fethuir; Fethuir, the son of Ogomuin, who was the son oof Thoi; Thoi was the son of Boibus, Boibus off Semion, Semion of Mair, Mair of Ecthactus, Ecthactus of Aurthack, Aurthack of Ethec, Ethec of Ooth, Ooth of Aber, Aber of Ra, Ra of Esraa, Esraa of Hisrau, Hisrau of Bath, Bath of Jobath, Jobath of JJoham, Joham of Japheth, Japheth of Noah, Noah of Lamech, Lamech of Mathusalem, Mathusalem of Enoch, Enoch of Jared, Jared of Malalehel, Malalehel of Cainan, Cainan of Enos, Enos of Seth, Seth of Adam, and Adam was formed by the living God. We have obtained this information respecting the original inhabitants of Britain from ancient tradition.
This genealogy includes Jobath, who is either an additional son of Joham (Javan), or else one of the four sons already mentioned under a different name. The genealogy continues to Alanus and his three sons, Hisicion, Armenon, and Neugio, who have populated many countries of Europe. This genealogy corresponds to place names which are found in Turkey, as follows:
Hisrau was the fifth generation after Noah, the same generation as Peleg, in whose time the nations were scattered from Babylon. The descendants of Japheth must have travelled north, in the direction of Mount Ararat where they had originally come from. Hisrau and Esraa established their names in the region to the west of Ararat, and their descendants migrated further west and spread out over Anatolia and Asia Minor. Fethuir and Alanus went to the south-west and established the two sea ports on the coast.
As their numbers increased, there was a need for further migration, especially as they were sharing territory with the Gauls (descendants of Gomer) who were also migrating westward. So Alanus and his three sons, together with many others, took off in ships and embarked on a voyage in search of new lands where they could settle.
As a matter of speculation, which I hope to verify when more information becomes available, I am suggesting that they stopped in Italy, where Romanus established the Latins and Longobardus established Longobardy. These grandsons of Alanus were the 21st generation after Noah, the same generation as Obed, the grandfather of King David of Judah. This does not necessarily mean they lived at the same time, but for the record, Obed was in Judah about 1200 BC.
This Romanus was not the same as Romulus who is credited with the
foundation of Rome in 753 BC, instead he was much earlier.
Note: There are some authors who say that Romulus
didn't establish Rome anyway, he merely enlarged it, and the city was
founded much earlier by Rhomanessos, the grandson of Atlas Italicus. See
my article on the Travels of Noah
(a summary of a book based mainly on Berosus).
Romanus and Longobardus did not inhabit an empty land. It had already been inhabited by Gomer the grandson of Noah, then invaded by Cham, then recovered by Hercules, as I have also described in the Travels of Noah.
After some of the descendants of Alanus had gone to Italy, others continued their voyage westward to Spain. At this point I am no longer speculating, because there is some actual history. According to the Travels of Noah, there were some early inhabitants of Spain called the Alani, and together with them we find the Goths who are also mentioned by Nennius, as the people of Gothus (son of Armenon, son of Alanus).
Looking at the map of Spain, I do not find any towns directly named after Alanus, but there is Almansa in the province of Albacete. This suggests that Alamanus (son Hisicion, son of Alanus) might have been there, before he went off and founded Germany. (The French name for Germany is Allemagne).
Nennius says that Brutus, who came to Britain, was a son of Hisicion. However, if this was the same Brutus that we read about in the Tysilio Chronicle (5), and also in other parts of Nennius, the parentage of Brutus is already accounted for. He was the son of Silvius, the son of Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, but he could also have been a descendant of Hisicion along one of his maternal lines.
There could be problems with some of the sources used by Nennius, but not with Nennius himself, considering that he simply collected the documents available in his time (9th century AD). He never tried to prove or disprove any of it. Instead he says "I have therefore made a heap of all that I have found . . .".
The conclusions of this study are as follows:
1. The Sixteen Grandsons of Noah, Harold Hunt and Russell Grigg, Creation Ex Nihilo Magazine, Vol. 20, No. 4, September-November 1998, pp 22-25, ISSN 0819-1530, Answers in Genesis.
2. After the Flood, Bill Cooper, New Wine Press, 1995, ISBN 1-874367-40-X.
3. Nennius: Historia Brittonum, 8th century, Giles translation, Medieval Sourcebook.
4. Erzurum, Encyclopaedia Britannica.
5. Chronicle of the Kings of Britain. Translated
by Peter Roberts in 1811 from the Welsh copy attributed to
Tysilio.
Facsimile reprint by Llanerch Publishers. ISBN 1-86143-111-2.
Note: This document is associated with the name of
Tsysilio, although it was not necessarily written by his own hand. It
comes from Brittany where Tysilio spent the last few years of his life,
and he died there in 640 AD. At the end of the book, the death of
Cadwallader in 688 is recorded, so at least this part of it could not have
been written by Tysilio, but possibly by some of the monks in the
monastery that he had founded.
Mike Gascoigne
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