HISTORY—JUTES, SAXONS, ANGLES.
Every Englishman—and we apply the term in a comprehensive sense—who would clearly understand the force of his mother-tongue, should study Anglo-Saxon, as it is the direct and copious source of his own beloved language. Out of the many thousand words in use in English, more than five-eighths are of Anglo-Saxon origin. These, not only in number, but in their peculiar character and significance, as well as in their influence on grammatical forms, give to our language, it is universally admitted, its chief vigor. In short, they constitute its bone and sinew. Volumes may be written in words of Anglo-Saxon parentage alone, but it would be impossible to express the simplest thought in language of Latin derivation. Words expressive of the dearest relations, the strongest and most powerful feelings of nature, the language of every-day life, as of duty, business, pleasure, etc., find in the Anglo-Saxon their deepest, sincerest, and most energetic portrayals. Every speaker or writer, if he would convince the understanding and reach the heart, must shun Latinized expressions, and use the Anglo-Saxon, for the one awakens vivid, soul-stirring thoughts, and the other thoughts that are cool and unimpassioned.
With this view of Anglo-Saxon’s importance to every Englishman, a brief account of the origin of the present inhabitants of England will show that we owe to the Gothic tribes—the Jutes, the Saxons and the Angles—our physical vigor, yea, our very existence, as well as our highly expressive language. Like all the Teutonic tribes, the Saxons were of Oriental origin. They derived, most probably, their appellation from the Sacæ, who doubtless gave the name of Sakasina to a part of Armenia. In Ptolemy’s time, A. D. 90, they were as far westward as the Elbe, and, consequently, were among the first of the Teutonic tribes that visited Europe. Their location, between the Elbe and the Eyder in the south of Denmark, strengthens the belief that they were the vanguard of Germanic emigration. The Jutes, the Saxons and the Angles, which were the only tribes that successively made settlements in Britain, are therefore deemed of sufficient interest to claim especial attention.
The first to obtain possession were the Jutes. Two brothers, Hengist and Horsa, from Jutland, in Denmark, arrived in three small ships at Ebbs-fleet, in the Isle of Thanet, in 449. This island was assigned to them by the Britons for their assistance against the Picts and Scots. Subsequently, they became possessors of Kent, the Isle of Wight, and part of Hampshire.
Forty-two years later, 491, the Saxons entered Britain. Their first kingdom was established by Ella, under the name of South-Saxons, including what is now known as Sussex, together with a part of Surrey. In 494 another powerful colony, under Cerdic, arrived. Being west of the other, it took the name West-Saxons. They occupied Hants, Berks, Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and part of Cornwall. A third Saxon kingdom, in 527, was planted in Essex, Middlesex and the south of Hertfordshire, under the name of East-Saxons (East-Seaxe).
The Angles (Engle), from Anglen, the country between Flensburg and the Schley in the southeast of Sleswick in Denmark, settled about 527 in East Anglia, and exercised control over what now embraces Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, and part of Bedfordshire. Ida, in 547, began to establish himself in Bernicia, comprehending Northumberland and the south of Scotland, between the Tweed and Firth of Forth. About 559 Ella conquered Deira, a tract of country between the Humber and the Tweed, embracing the counties of York, Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire. Mercia, bounded by the Thames, Humber and Severn, and comprehending the counties of Chester, Derby, Huntingdon, Lincoln, Northampton, Nottingham, Rutland, the north of Beds, Bucks, Hertford, Warwick, Oxon, Worcester, Hereford, Gloucester, Stafford and Salop, was formed by Crida, about 586, into an independent state.
From the foregoing remarks it appears that one Jute, three Saxon, and four Angle, altogether eight kingdoms, were established in Britain by the year 586, and that the Angles and Saxons were the leading spirits in the expeditions. They, therefore, when settled in this country, were collectively called Anglo-Saxons. From the Angles (Engle), who were the most numerous and predominant, the land was named Engla land, the Engle’s or Angle’s land—an appellation which was afterwards contracted into England.
Anglo-Saxon, that is, Angle-, Engle-, or English-Saxon, is the language of the Platt, Low, Flat, or North part of Germany, introduced into England by the Jutes, the Angles, and the Saxons, and modified, spoken, and written by Englishmen. The less daring and enterprising of these peoples who remained in their continental home bore the name of Old-Saxons, and their language Old-Saxon, but their brethren who settled in Britain were fitly designated Anglo-Saxons, and their language, perfected in England, was denominated Anglo-Saxon. To King Alfred, and the many writings of Alfric, we are indebted for the finest specimens of Anglo-Saxon spoken and written in England in their days.
Persons who are desirous of tracing the origin of Anglo-Saxon, or of comparing it with kindred dialects, must first go to the Old-Saxon, the Low-German spoken by those who remained in the old home of the Jutes, the Angles, and the Saxons. No written specimen of the language spoken by these Old-Saxons is extant, but there is, in a collateral dialect, a very fine poem, written in the ninth century, which is entitled Heliand, Healer or Saviour. While some of the Low-German race migrated to England, others passed to the lower Rhine and settled there. This poem being written in the dialect of these Rhenish Old-Saxons, and the latter being akin to the Anglo-Saxon, there can be no question as to its vast importance in the study of the language which is the foundation of our own. Recourse may then be had to other works in Low-German. High-German, Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish may then be consulted, and carried back to their Oriental source. None of the German or Scandinavian dialects have writings antedating those of the Anglo-Saxons, except the Germanic in the Moeso-Gothic Gospels of Ulphilas, published in 370, and some Icelandic. A zealous attempt, tracing the origin of the English, Germanic, and Scandinavian languages and nations, with a sketch of their early literature, and short chronological specimens of Anglo-Saxon, Friesic, Flemish, Dutch, German, from the Moeso-Goths to the present time, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish, and tracing the progress of these languages and their connection with the modern English, was made by Rev. Joseph Bosworth, in 1848. All interested in such knowledge will find themselves abundantly repaid by an examination of this learned scholar’s investigations, as shown in the work to which reference has just been made.