There are two groups by skull shape. The larger group was mainly of the Nordic race and dolichocranic. (elongated head or face). The smaller group were brachycranics (broad skull or face).

Around 800 BCE, the original Germanic group had split into Western (Saxons and others), Eastern (Goths) and North Germanic groups (scandia), traceable through language and culture.
The "scandia" spoke "norsk", donsk tunga, dansk tunga, which was mutually intelligible with "olde english" of the Angle clan, "olde saxon" of the Saxon clan, and "low german" which Frisians and others all spoke. This is called a "western subgroup" of Indo-European languages.

At the end of the Bronze Age, around 700 BCE, the expansion of the West Germanics had reached the coastal areas of northwest Germany. Being along the costal areas was a mixed blessing, because transportation and food gathering were enhansed there, but sea level fluctuations threatened stability and displaced clans creating a domino effect. The times of flooding were about 500 BCE, 200 BCE-50 BCE and 250 CE until 400 CE.
The West Germanics can be divided along religious lines into three tribegroups: The Inguaeones; Istuaeones; and Irminones. Saxons, Jutes, Warns, Angles, and Frisians belong to the Inguaeones. The Chaukians (of the Falian race - Brachycranic - with a broad face), and possibly also the Norse, belong to the Irminones. The Pagan "religion" (Odinism, Asatru, Nertus or mother earth worship) was basically about pleasing the "gods" with deeds and sacrifices.

The Romans met the Cimbri (celtic) and Teutones (germanic) in battle in 113 BCE and were impressed with their prowess. Rome was initially defeated but prevailed in 102 BCE and 101 BCE and destroyed both tribes, who had originally inhabited "jutland". Rome lost it's influence in western Europe after 404 CE, and the "teutonic" tribes were able to claim territories and settle. The "scandia" peoples already had "jutland" and the north. The Saxons began to create their own "state", just south of "jutland".

The Frisians and Chaukians begin to partially merge before 400 CE and from this arises the Franks, who have their own major story to write into history. The Saxons were becoming a larger confederation of clans after 300 CE. also. It's likely that history best remembers the names of the confederations while individual clans are lost to time. The Franks (including other vanquished clans) defeated the Saxons in 785 CE, and when the Danes became the northern neighbor of the Franks, may have begun retaliatory raids on those "christian" Franks. Danes witnessed how the frankish "christian" treated saxon pagans.

Another writer wrote in this lifted paragraph:
Origins
The origins of the Germans are obscure. Both the ethnic and geographic origins of the people speaking Teutonic languages are not known to history with any precision. The subject was of course subject to intensive academic consideration during the Third Reich, but the results were more tailored to express the ideological desires of the Nazis than actual history. The origins of these Germanic people is still shrouded in pre-history. The Germans certainly entered Europe well before the Roman era, but the ancient Germans left no written language and because they were semi-nomadic, the archeological remains are sparse. The Germanic people were probably formed from a mixture of races in the coastal region of northern Europe, perhaps especially around the Baltic Sea. They appear to have settled in the north-central plains of Europe sometime around the end of the 6th century B.C. All that is known with any precision is that the Germanic tribes first appear in southern Scandinavia and along the North Sea and Baltic coasts south into modern Poland. These Germanic tribes then moved southward into modern Germany, Austria, and parts of Switzerland, assimilating or driving the Celtic west. The migration from Scandinavia was often along rivers, the Germans from South Scandinavia pushed south along the Weser, Oder, Ostee and North Harz to the Rhine, the Channel, Weichsel and Danube. Other Germanic tribes pushed north and west to the British Isles, Iceland, and the Faeroe Islands north of Scotland. The Germanic tribes pushing south encountered the Romans at a period in their history that they were expanding north of the Alps, setting in motion one of the titanic confrontations in history and one which was not completely resolved until World War II.

Early Written Records
It was not until the Romans ventured north of the Alps that there was contact between the two peoples. The first written account of the Germans is a Roman account describing a military defeat at the hands of the Cimbri (a Celtic tribe) and Teutones described as the Volcae Tectosages in what is now Austria (113 BC). The written records of the early Germans are all Roman and thus are not very flattering. The first major European group to come into contact with the Germans were of course the Celts, but as the Celts also left no written language, the relationship between the two peoples is largely lost to history.

The Celts
The Greeks called the Celts living to the north of them the Keltoi, but the origin of the term is unknown. It does appear to be origin of the modern term Celt. The geographical and ethnic origins of the Celtic people of Europe are largely unknown. They are believed to have appeared in Europe during the 2nd millenium BC. Most historians believe that they were one of the more war-like Caucasian tribes. The original Celts appeared to a have conquered and merged with existing non-Indo-European tribes. The Celts became the dominate force in north-central Europe. Celtic language , customs, religion, and traditions were gradually adopted by subjubicated peoples. There are thought to have been about 150 distinct Celtic tribes, among which the Britons and Gauls are today the best known. Toward the end of the 2nd millenium, the Gauls became increasingly dominant in north-central Europe. The Gauls from the 5th-2nd century BC expanded their area of influence, moving south of the Alps into Italy, even sacking Rome (390 BC). They also moved into Spain, Greece, and Turkey. At the end of the 2nd century BC, these wide spread deployments had weakened their power in central Europe. The Gauls wee less able to resist pressure from Germanic tribes east of the Rhine. The Roman Gaius Marius defeated the Gauls south of the Alps. Caesar defeated the Gauls, especially the Belgae north of the Alps (58-50 BC). Within the Empire, slowly Latin replaced the Celtic language. The Celts unlike Roman men wore trousers and the word breaches, the first form of trousers worn by European men.

Relationship Between the Celts and the Germans
The Germanic Tribes moved into the central and southern area of modern Germany (100 BC). This brought them into contact with the Celts, displacing them by assimilation or driving them west. The exact nature of the relationship between the Celts and Germans is not known as neither had a written language to record history. The Celts were a culturally more advanced people. The Germans acquired iron working technology from the Celts. The Celts began referring to the Teuton (a tribe located in Jutland). The Romans adopted this as term referring to the Germanic tribes in general. It was adopted from a Celtic term for the Germani living east of the Rhine. Roman sources in the 1st century BC referred to the area of Celtica beyond the Rhine as Germania. Here the situation is confused. There were Celts east of the Rhine. There also appear to have been some Germanic tribes dominated by Celtic people. The Germani encountered by Caesar may have been such a group. The Germanic tribes at the time had no collective self image, recognizing only their tribal groupings. The Germanic tribes in the 1st century BC were still largely semi-nomadic compared to the sedentary Celtic farmers. The Celts built fortified settlements, some of which posed serious obstacles to Caesar. Despite the cultural differences, there was considerable intermingling among the two peoples. As mentioned above, there appears to have been a Celtic aristocracy in some areas of Germania. The mixing of peoples is strangely suggested by the linguistic situation. Some Germanic tribes spoke Celtic and some Celtic tribes German,. There are also many Celtic loan words in German, the most obvious being "reich". Other government terms further suggest a Celtic dominance among some tribes. Classical historians usually provide the same physical description for Celts and Germans, suggesting considerable intermingling. [Duffy, pp. 127-128.]

Germanic Tribes
At the time the Germans came in contact with the Romans they were still tribal, and the number of different tribes is very large. The relationship between the tribes is not well known. Historians tend to divide the Germanic tribes into three major groups divided along geographic grounds. East: The eastern Germanic peoples were concentrated along the Oder and Vistula rivers. This concept has come down in modern languages, primarily because the Romans were literate, the Vandals were not. The tribes included the Vandals are generally thought to be very brutal. Thus to live like vandals is said in German to mean a very vulgar or brutish existence. The English word vandal and vandalize meaning mindless destruction is derived from the reputation of this tribe. Modern research suggests, however, that they probably weren't much different than other Germanic tribes, especially the other east Germanic tribes. A factor here is that the west Germanic tribes had the greatest contact with the Romans. Some had been partially Romanized or at least influenced by the Romans. Such was the case of Armenius described below. Thus even the west Germanic tribes looked on the east Germanic as less civilized and even barbaric at the time. Other east Germanic tribes were the Burgundians, Langobards, and the Goths (often referred to as two different branches--the Ostergoths or Eastern Goths and the Visagoths or Western Goths). The Ostergoths were conquered by the Huns and thus fought with them as allies. The Ostrogoths, after the death of the Hun Attila the Hun and after plundering the Balkans managed to conquer Italy, and Gothic king Theodoric (Diederik) became Roman emperor. The Visagoths resisted the Huns, at times fighting in alliance with the Romans. At other times the Visagoths fought Rome. Their king Alaric fought the Roman armies which, of all people, were commanded by a Vandal named Stilicho. Many Vandals served under Alaric as well. It was Alaric who sacked Rome signaling the fall of the Western Empire.

North: The northern Germanic peoples were found in the southern area of modern Scandinavia. They became the modern Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, Icelandians. The North Germanic tribes were unknown to the Romans, but burst out upon Medieval Europeans in the 9th century as the Vikings and played a major role in the history of Western Europe, especially the British and French. A Scandinavia people known as the Rus also moved east at this time and help found modern Russia.

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Last modified: May 2008