alternatehistory.com

How can we have a seventh Celtic nation located in the Hen Ogledd of northwestern England and the Scottish Lowlands, speaking a divergent Brittonic language? I'll use the term "Cumbrians" for this ethnic group (and Cumbric for their language), although it's cognate with Cymry (Welsh) and indeed there's a deep link between the people of the Hen Ogledd and the Welsh.

The states of the Hen Ogledd were rarely united and usually divided. They were slowly conquered by the Anglo-Saxons and ancestors of the Scots. Later, the Norse-Gaels drove a wedge into the region when they conquered Galloway, which over the centuries ended up speaking a unique Gaelic language instead of its previous Cumbric language. The last of these states to fall was the Kingdom of Strathclyde, which fell victim to warfare between the Anglo-Saxons and the Scots in the early 11th century.

So what might be the best chance for the Cumbrians? If Strathclyde lasts a while longer, perhaps being assimilated into Scotland (or even England) in the 12th/13th century (like Wales, I like the idea of Strathclyde/Galloway area as "Scotland's Wales"), can the Cumbric language hold on in isolated parts into modern times (being revived later like Manx or less ideally like Cornish)? Do we need less Gaelic settlement in Galloway and a Strathclyde wank in the Viking Age? Can we have a solid Cumbrian identity form, and exist like the Welsh (best case scenario), Manx, or Cornish to this day?
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