Where Was The Last Place In England To Go Christian? | QI
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This clip is from QI Series C, Episode 1, 'Campanology' with Stephen Fry, Alan Davies, Bill Bailey, Rob Brydon and Rich Hall.
"It's pronounced 'Simster'" is the best gag in this clip.
Could you explain it to me? I get that, say, Worcester is pronounced as Wuster, but why did Sean say Simster in particular?
@@Oleg_K.Just because it's the kind of thing that Satanismymaster might sound like, along the same lines of Gloucestershire.
@@Oleg_K. It's just generally riffing off the fact that a lot of British placenames have really non-intuitive pronunciations
That's because most British places are older than formal English spelling
@@idkwhatimdoing675 More to the point, when their spellings were first established, the prestige dialect of London pronounced them the way they are spelled. Either pronunciations changed later, or the local dialect overtook the prestige dialect for the pronunciation of the city, or something else. But the result is that you get spellings like "Worcestershire" that don't match the pronunciations at all anymore.
The same thing happened to English in general, but it's just worse with place names.
The reason that the Isle of Wight was the last place to be Christianised, is, of course, that most of the early missionaries were grey squirrels.
Ah!
Greyfriars
😂genius
@@JC-sd3vhwell done 👍
😂
The Isle of Wight was an independent kingdom at the time, ruled by an Anglo-Saxon tribe known as the _Wihtwara_ (from which the island gets its name) and whose final king was known as Arwald. Interestingly, the Wihtwara were one of two Anglo-Saxon groups (the other being the Kentish) that didn’t regard themselves as Angles or Saxons, but as Jutes.
It’s Fry a Jutish surname famous for its drinking chocolate associations?
They weren't angles or Saxons. They saw themselves as jutes because they were jutes
@@squiglemcsquigle8414 You are very smart
The name Wiht(wara) derives from the earlier Latinised Vectis from the pre Roman period. (Wectis / Wightis etc).
@@squiglemcsquigle8414they weren't Angles or Saxons, but they were what history records as Anglo-Saxons.
Interesting, the heading says “the last place in England” but Stephen asks for “the last place in Britain”! No wonder our friends across the pond refer to England when they mean Britain or even the UK.
Thank you... Old, still confused, granddaughter of a Birmingham native, Yank
In all fairness there was no UK in the 7th Century and even England was not one country.
@@simonatford1 😶
England is part of Britain.
Whoever wrote the title for the video just narrowed the search a little.
I suspect Stephens fact may be wrong, but the title makes it right
I went to college in NorthCarolina where there were a lot of squirrels on campus. Nearly all grey, but the ones that hung out round the library were, well, red.
Not all red squirrels are red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris).
Some red squirrels are grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis).
@@SpeckleKen Well read. Library. Joke that clearly didn't land.
@@kennyn1992
No - I got it. What makes you think I didn't?
I'm going to assume you noticed Sciurus *_carolinensis._*
too shet
🤣
Based on interviews I have heard, Stephen Frye's house is not yet converted to Christianity, and it is well after 686AD today.
He's jewish so yeah
@@julianshepherd2038and an atheist.
@@julianshepherd2038 I meant that he's clearly not religious. You're like the waiter who, when somebody asks for a hamburger without cheese, says "we're out of cheese, you'll have to have it without something else."
Call it whatever you want, the man is a plain burger.
When talking about Britain converting to christianity they're talking about the ruling class, not the civilians. Pagans just had to hide it for quite a while or the christians would kill them.
@markdavis7397
Brilliant Answer.
Clever, funny & without malice. 🎉
Cadwaellar on returning from the Isle of Wight
C: I did it, I christianised the island
Monks: Oh fantastic, can we see our new co-religionists?
C: Em, no.
They're, uh, busy right now.
Oh? What with?
Meeting... him?
Stephen tells us that Cadwaellar was French
They're sleeping.
Are they dead?
No, just resting.
*Cædwalla
@@christianwithers7335
I’m not sure if this is right. I am wondering about the pronunciation of the name too. If British or Breton (kindred) would the ‘ll’ be pronounced as it would be in Welsh?
I note the, presumably deliberate, omission of Stephen's final words on this segment - "Religion. Shit it!"
It is funny because he never said "UK, shit it" even if the UK went around the world and killed lots of people. I am not saying he denies it, but he doesn't really complain either.
@@_TheDudeAbides_
But, we did actually give benefits when doing that, unlike religion.
@@_TheDudeAbides_ Yeah, well, you know, that's just like, uh, your opinion, man.
@@jamespicksley5781 All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
@@_TheDudeAbides_they peed on your rug. That rug really tied the room together did it not?
'Yes, darling...' Fry just loves that word.
To be fair so does Sandi!
As an out gay man, who wouldn't ducky
They chose the name Captain Darling to play on this in Blackadder IV.
It's cause he's a puff
@@anon8638
🥱 Sherlock.
As a born and interbred islander I can count on my 6 fingers plenty of parts of island that haven’t yet converted to Christianity 🤪
As a born and (inter)bred Islander ,#monkey town, I question your lack of fingers.
@@mattsparling9843 sorry yes on each hand
Title reads "Last place in England" and Stephen says "Last place in Britain" ... there's a difference you know.
Not to Londoners lol
Not in this particular case. :) The answer is the same either way.
Well, the Isle of Wight is not a part of Britain either, it is part of the British Isles. It's a bit silly getting caught up in this either way.
@@ronan5228 Er… The Isle of Wight *is* part of Great Britain. What do you think it is, a crown dependency?
@@digitig Great Britain is the island of Great Britain, the isle of wight is not connected to it
The reason they hit the south last is that Christianity came to Britain with the Romans but the Angles and Saxons came with their faiths while Wales and St. Patrick's Ireland remained Christian. The Irish then converted the Scots, who incurred south to convert the English.
You’ve skipped St Augustine, who brought Christianity to (part of) the south many years before the Hiberno-Scots missions into England.
I could have sworn that Stephen called on Alan because the answer was "Wales".
The last place in England? :p
I mean (1) he said England (which fact others seem to miss… Ben Nevis and Man and the Falklands aren’t in England) and (2) Wales was Christian before any part of England
@@chequereturned If I remember my Year 8 history correctly it's because the monks came from that other Celtic paradise, Ireland, yes?
@@aaronleverton4221 Not quite. The Britons in the original sense, after being chased of most of what's now England by the Anglo-Saxons, were the Welsh, Cornish and Cumbrians, and inherited Christianity from the Romans. They then spread it to Ireland in the 400s (St Patrick was by tradition a Briton or Romano-Briton, from one of these areas). Over the 500s the Irish then spread a form of 'Celtic Christianity' with some differences from 'pure' Roman Catholicism to what's now Scotland and the Picts, when Ulster and SW Scotland were in the kingdom of 'Dal Riata' across the Irish Sea, their church centred on Iona. Iona then proselytised to the Picts in the rest of what's now Scotland (and those Picts were Gaelicised), as well as some of England, but it was the Romans under the 'lesser' St Augustine who converted Kent and then bit by bit the rulers of other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were converted. Mercia was the last major pagan kingdom, and in the mid-600s Penda was the last powerful pagan English ruler, but his successor converted. But the Isle of Wight was its own mini-kingdom until Wessex conquered it and forced it to convert in 686.
There's a joke of sorts that the Welsh, like Gildas, hated the English so much that they refused to evangelise to them because they wanted them to die in hell. Hence why it did something more like a Wales -> Ireland -> Scotland -> England loop, and the Romans came in.
(It was mainly English and Irish monks from the 700s, as well as Franks by conquest in the 800s (under Charlemagne and others), who then converted the Frisians and most of Germany. And by 1000, Scandinavia.)
Wales was officially a part of the Kingdom of England for centuries! But yes, I suppose it wouldn't be conquered (and made part of England) until centuries after both countries had been thoroughly Christianized.
I miss Stephen's QI. I could listen to him forever.
I can't decide between Leicester and Bradford.
that would be "the last place you would find a Christian" :)
How did no one blurt out 'Stephen Fry's house!'?
Simply because Stephen Fry's house has not adopted christianity.
Clearly the audience understood the question better than you. 😉😊
Because Stephen is still a heathen.
@@donaldgraham6414 Like most Brits?
I hope Rob Brydan corrected Stephen's mistaken belief that the last invasion of Britain by the French was at the Isle of Wight.
Nay. It was the Battle of Fishguard in 1797.
Thwarted by Welsh women wearing traditional costume on the cliffs. Their red shawls and tall hats making them look like red coats, which put fear into the irregulars (Boneparte needed his best troops in Europe, so there were lots of irregulars sent into this slightly rag-tag invasion force) and it broke their discipline, fearing the Brits had anticipated them and posted the Red Coats against them.
Two days later, the French surrendered.
They thought invading via "the back door" of coming from Wales and moving East would, you know, not be expected. A surprise attack. It didn't work out very well. They were scared off by the Welsh women pretending to be soldiers, and the French fell for it.
THAT was the actual last foreign invading force on British soil. And also a funny story to boot.
There is a persistent rumour that the Germans attacked Ventnor Radar Station in WW2 but were soundly beaten off & it was covered up.
This lineup is top tier
No women 😢
@@samanthastacey735 still...much enjoyed!
@@samanthastacey735 Based
So the strapline is '... last place in England', but Stephen Fry asks about '... last place in Britain'. They're not the same!!!!
Oh.
You know of a place in Britain that converted later than the last place in England?!
If not, then the last place in England IS the last place in Britain, no?! 🤔
@@trueaussie9230No. The last place on Britain to be Christianized would be Rockall.
@@robertfoulkes1832
"No"?! 🤔
It's clear you are not alleging that you DON'T know of a place in Britain that was (allegedly) 'christianised' since the Isle of Wight.
So, I believe the answer (to my question) that you were groping for is 'yes'.
Read again the question I posed.
(This time with your eyes open and your brain cells functioning.)
JOOI - would that be Rockall, Newmarket, ENGLAND or Rockall, Southend-on-Sea, ENGLAND?!
Or Rockall the uninhabitable and uninhabited miniscule granite island off the NW coast of Scotland, UK ownership of which was first claimed in 1955 and is disputed by Ireland?!
How can an uninhabited 'location' be 'christianised'?!
Are you alleging the 'ground' has been consecrated and a church has been established there?!
@@trueaussie9230 calm down fella he was being funny. Fyi Shetland officially became Christian in 997.
Isle of Wight is part of England though
"Good ol' Christianity...". Gotta love that Stephen Fry.
Seems to forget that's the same way Islam expanded...
@@jsquared1013 what makes you think that?
Fun Fact; The last pagan king of the Wihtwara was King Arwald who is also the only saint to have been a pagan. (it's complicated). He - or they- was/were killed by Caedwalla who later became Patron Saint of Serial Killers. (I don't make this up. Well, not all of it)"Wiht" is a corruption of "Inys am Gwyth" meaning "Isle of the Channel." Wihtwara means "People of"Wiht"
In Melbourne we have grey headed fruit bats and brown headed fruit bats who are almost identical but they live on opposite sides of the river and never inter-breed. 😞
That must be because one species supports Collingwood and the other supports Carlton.
The North American Grey Squirrel prefers to be called a "Skwurl"
And is best served with wild mushrooms
(Don't blame me - I heard it on a Radio 4 food program)
@@FarweaselAs long as it's not the kind of wild mushroom where one meal is enough to feed a person for the rest of their life.
There’s an Ogden Nash poem about that.
“To some, a squirrel’s a squirrel.
To others a squirl’s a squirl.
Since freedom of speech is the birthright of each, I can only this fable unfurl.
A virile young squirrel named Cyril
In an argument over a girl
Was lambasted from here to the Tyrol
By a churl of a squirl named Earl.”
@@Farweaselwhy, not roasted nuts...?
Well hats of to Cadwallader for showing the world the religion of care & forgiveness in its true proselytizing colours eh?
That’s not Christianity - Jesus said “my kingdom is not of this world, otherwise my servants would fight” (John 18:36). Anyone can claim to be whatever they want - but to go against the basic teaching of a philosophy proves they do not adhere to it all
@@rowanmarc And now for a lesson in irony...
@@aaronleverton4221 absolutely- it’s so ironic that people criticise Christianity without understanding what it truly is
@@rowanmarc Christianity exists in two forms: what people think it means and what people do in its name. Actually, that's only one form: what they do in its name due to what they believe it means.
And given the 1,300+ years between Cadwaller's occupation of the Isle of Wight and today, any declarations of what Christianity "is" are merely personal opinions, given that barely 60 years ago the KKK were using Christianity to justify lynching black people.
@@aaronleverton4221 The Bible is the standard of Christian belief (2 Timothy 3:16), and most of it was quoted by the Church Fathers in the first few centuries after Jesus - so we have a reliable record of what it originally said. So there is a KNOWING of what it teaches - and you may not believe the Bible, but neither did Cadwallader or the KKK.
To be fair Essex was one of the last, lapsing into paganism a few times after most of the country had converted
Saint cedd ?
Of course, Grey Squirrels are total atheists.
*'Ere, 'ees 'avin a go at the Red Squirrels now*
Reckons they're a bit dim
We've several colors here in the States. All possessing major egos and amazing self preservation skills.
You can actually see the lights in Alan's brain switching on and off.
“Essex is not culturally on the British mainland”, says someone who lives in Norfolk, lol!
Mercia didn't convert until late 7th century either
Merica or murica?
".........Good old Christianity...." sums up south and north America in the 16 and 1700's and so many other places around the world.
They're all the same pretty much. If you go back far enough in time they're all using the same stories. Same reasons to fight.
Ever have a read about what the Islamic Caliphate did when it expanded from the Middle East into North Africa, Southern Europe, and West Asia?
Technically, since the Roman province of Britannia had been nominally Christian for at least several decades before leaving the Empire around 410 CE the Isle of Wight would have been Christian during that time, but most of Scotland wouldn't have been. So really wherever it is, it has to be somewhere in Scotland.
On the mainland it was the Weald. East Sussex/west Kent.
On a point of pedantry, the Isle of Wight would have been converted to Christianity in the Roman times. So arguably the answer should be some part of Caledonia, beyond Roman control.
Dear Stephen, the Orkneyinga Saga suggests that the Orkneys were Christianised by Olaf Truggvasson in 995 AD (source: Wikipedia).
Didn't the Orkneys come under Norwegian rule at the time, saying that i think an early Christian outpost has been found there.
@@hetrodoxlysonov-wh9oo Still in Britain by modern standards, and seeing as Britain didn't exist in the 7th Century, one presumes that's the interpretation we're to use.
Britain or England? Stephen says one, the video title says the other.
Go with Steven.
Either is true where the Isle of Wight is concerned.
The answer is the same regardless
England; Orkney and Shetland was another 300 years until they became Christian.
@@tminusfiveminutes depends whether or not you consider Britain and Great Britain to be the same thing
Don't doubt that that's what the record says, but I would be quite surprised if there weren't a few pockets in the Highlands and Islands that carried on practicing something more Celtic or Norse than Christian for a while longer unnoticed. Imagine kings and clergymen were more inclined to write about the heretics they managed to convert/kill than the ones they couldn't.
I’m surprised it wasn’t one of the Hebrides or Orkneys.
they were where a bunch of Christian monasteries were, they were earlyish.
I was waiting for someone to say "Summerisle!"
Are they part of GB? You'll have to go back 2500 years and ask the Greeks what they meant by Great Britain and subsequently the Romans who settled.
@@christianwithers7335 GB requires the joining of England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. So going back that far is not useful.
Shetland officially became Christian in 997
Bradford ?
Grey squirrel fur is mentioned in medieval sources.
Surely it was somewhere like St. Kilda?
The Hebrides where part of the mission to the Picts by Irish missionaries from St. Columba and on. This was begun in the 560s. So, in all likelihood St Kilda would have been Christian almost a century before the Isle of Wight. Irish missionaries also took part in the Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxons from the early 7th century.
@@ancientalex4512 Interesting. Thanks. I'll investigate that.
These were some of the first places to take on Christianity, Ireland didn't take much convincing at all, they grabbed Christianity with both hands and forgot everything that went before, the myth and legend was invented by monks a 1000 years later, Irish missionaries would convert English kings who's tribes would revert back to the old religions when they died.
The question was “… last place in Britain,” not “ last place in England. Big difference.
4:20 ... nice
Dunno about Squirrel pianos .............. but ............
I've vague recollection some loopy Russian (or possibly Roman?) bigwig had *a 'piano' which contained live cats which were jabbed with pointy hammers so they yoweled when the keys were pressed*
[Its the Piano tuners I feel sorry for Guv 🙄 ]
Is that something like the Monty Python "mouse organ" 😅?
QI coverts that in the episode "Keys"
Athanasius Kirchner is the guy. He is on Wikipedia (also see under "fucking idiot")
There is a big problem with the question. All of Britannia was Christian long before there were any Pagan Angles or Saxona to make it become known as England
No it wasnt.
You are wrong Ukraine, Britain was Christian when the second group of English came over in the 5th century. They reintroduced pagan beliefs which the Welsh had forgotten. The English who had settled in Britain during Roman times would probably have adopted Welsh Christianity. Christianity then was boosted by Irish monks into Wales and then the English also converted after 200 years.
@@christianwithers7335 huge areas of britannia were never christianised during roman rule
"convert"? No its actually "be forced to follow". I love he adds that in for actual context.
"Believe in Jesus and follow our rules or die" isnt converting because that is a choice move this was forced by intent of harm or death. Its why Christianity is so big across the world to begin with.
I'm surprised. Was all of Germany Christian before the wall came down, i.e. when the USSR was in charge of half?
Germany was christianised when Charlemagne slaughtered the tree hugging anglosaxon pagans
@@varoonnone7159nah, the Anglos and Saxons were different tribes. Charlemagne mostly fought against the Saxons, as the Anglos could be found in southern Denmark
@@varoonnone7159 Ok, but it didn't stay that way. East Germany actively, officially repressed all religions, so wasn't it actually the last European country to become Christian?
@@EricJonPearson1
Are you serious? East Germany repressed organised religion just like all satellite Soviet republics. But that doesn't erase the thousand years of Christian domination prior to it
So no, of course Germany was not the last European country to be christianised. Lithuania is the last one
@@EricJonPearson1bosnia is muslim
Is that (bit at the end) where "codswallop" comes from?
It almost has to be.
Northern and Eastern England were later colonised by Pagan Vikings and the Danelaw was reconverted to Christianity between the 9th and 11th centuries.
Fry looks like he's cosplaying as Jacob Rees-Mogg 😂
Just a reminder that "Britain is NOT 'England writ big'".
Its called "synedoche". On the Isle of Wight its called "The Big Island"
I miss him.
My guess was Newcastle...😊
Why are you asking him? He may not know. And why in such an abstract manner?
The Isle of Wight isn't on Great Britain...
Seems a bit of a falsehood to say the people on the Isle of Wight were massacred because they weren't Christian? Cædwalla of Wessex was trying to conquer the lands surrounding his kingdom. The religious' aspect was secondary factor in this conquest.
Complex relationship between Caedwalla & St Wilfrid. Wilfrid had persuaded C.'s predecessor to retire to a monastery so C. could be King of Wessex & C. invaded the IOW for him and "saved" a quarter of it for Wilfrid to pay the Archbishop of Canterbury a bribe to get back his See of Durham. The locals had reneged on their forced conversion by Wulfhere & therefore were apostates.
St Kilda had to bé reconverted in the 19th century. Lapsed back paganism seemingly.
Presumably IOM and a number of Scottish islands would have reverted to paganism under Norse rule? And at some point been rechristenised??
I don't think that the IOM ever became totally pagan but there are some pagan style viking burial sites of rich vikings.
The Next generation seem to have been xian but kept norse stories judging by the runestone crosses.
Annoying. Stephen Fry said last place in Britain and the caption says last place in England.
Because not everybody is smart enough to listen to Mr. Fry.
North Umbria... just saying.
Whoever wrote the video title should learn that there is a difference between England and Britain.
Whoever wrote that comment should learn that the Isle of Wight is in England.
did you read the comment?
Why does the title of the video say England when the question was Britain?
I was gonna guess Hell, but that's just me.
It has to be a real place.
Essex 😅
Is that true? Wow.
BBC fact checked?
Last place in Britain, yet title says England?
OI, QI!! The question was last place in BRITAIN.
Of course soon the question will be, 'What was the last place in England to go Islarmist.
Answer: The congregation
Bradford.
Ben Nevis is in Scotland. That comment is extremely ignorant.
The question was last place in Britain.
Steven Fry will always let you know that he is in fact that smart because he doesn't believe in god which has fuck all to do with anything, but he will sure let you know.
There are Christians in England?
Ask Lee Anderson.
Mostly black people with megaphones
The Anglo Saxons let Vectis go if you ask me.
The last pagan kingdom in England was the isle of white
So indeed it was the place that went christian and not the inhabitants...
Two references to people being Satan worshippers before Christianity. Tricky that
Never understood that nonsense. The only people who believe in Satan are christians. Always funny when christians call me a satanist for being an atheist. Guys, it's YOU who think this dude exists (and that he was created by your "all loving" god....for some reason) - not me.
There were no satanists in Britain, Woden Tew Ing and Freya were not satan
To be fair, Christians often associated Paganism with Devil worship.
Streatham
I love that Alan thought because they hadnt been converted to Christianity they would be worshipping Satan
I wonder how many other people are dumb enough not to realise that Satan is a _part_ of Christianity
No Christians, no Satan
Before someone tries to point it out to me, yes i do realise Satan is a part of the 3 Abrahamic faiths, and not only Christianity, but since they all have the same God, i think tis fair to assume they have the same Satan too
The people of the IoW were more likely to be Celtic or Nordic in their choice of deities, probably favouring an Earth Mother Goddess and a Sky Father God, such as Thor and Sif, plus a few utilitarian deities, of death, fertility and that place on the hill you should never walk widdershins around after midnight on a solstice
Obviously
They would have been Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) Pagans.
@@InTheRhettRow @InTheRhettRow Well more likely they were Bretons, so their faith was more likely Celtic Pagan
By the time the Angles, Saxons and Friesians invaded "Britain" they were already converted to Christianity, in facts its them who brought it to the British Isles
England isn't 'Britain'
Genius
Nice facts, but this is why I have long since had enough of watching this show - I'm not 12 years old any more.
i am going with London for 1000 Alex.
Where Was The Last Place In Britain To Go Christian?
Love that " Good old Xianity."
Look at you, so cowardly that you can’t even spell out “Christ.”
Britain, not England
Same
"Good old Christianity"
It' pronounced ....😂
last place in Britain.?
Huh, I would have said the Shetlands...guess they don't count, Norse at the time.
oh no
Parliament
Salford. G
The Isle of Wight is a rare instance of Christianity missing an oppression opportunity
Human sacrifice druidic paganism- not oppressive
Eating a wafer once a week- oppressive
@@rabbitrun777 i think he meant the forced conversions and murder of the pagan population
House of commons
MMMmm so why are there Christian missionaries in Middlesbrough ?
*Last place in Britain
Pretty sure the blue whale is not on the isle of wight
Christianity is dying out.
Luton.
When the Vikings became Christian they were all like, "The world will hear of our peaceful ways... BY FORCE!!"
They weren't Christian for pretty much all of the Viking age
@@EVO6- Woosh!