The Anglian Hegemony - The Angles originally occupied the Danish peninsula and the Danish islands, such as Fyn. They belonged to a south Scandinavian culture. - All of the Germanic kingdoms in England claimed descent from Anglian dynasties. This is even true of Wessex and the Saxons, and all of them traced their origins to the Norse God Odin. The West Saxons claimed that Heremod, the Danish king in Beowulf, was one of their earliest kings. - Bede tells us that from the Angles "are descended the East Angles, the Middle Angles, the Mercians, all the race of the Northumbrians (that is to say of those peoples who live to the north of the river Humber), and the other Anglian peoples." This region was much larger than all of the Saxon kingdoms in southern England combined. - The Angles had a more rigid hierarchy which enabled them to transport many more settlers to Britain than their Saxons allies. Anglian immigration has been described as being on a "massive scale". - Culturally, the Jutes of Denmark were primarily associated with the Angles. Both archaeological and literary evidence bears this out. - The Germanic chieftain that was first invited to Britain, Hengist, was not a Saxon. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (E) say's that the Britons requested help from the "chieftains of the Angles". If he was a kinsman of Hnaef he would have been a Dane. Hengist was also portrayed as a man of noble stock from the Jutes of Denmark who was in exile in Frisia. There were many foot-loose chieftains from Jutland or southern Scandinavia like Hengist, or indeed like Beowulf who readily responded to Vortigern's invitation to come to Britain. - Dr. E. Albrecstsen in his Fynske jernaldergrave shows that there must have been a substantial settlement of Angles at a very early date in England, as early as the 300s! - Although Essex is commonly thought to have been primarily settled by the Saxons, the pedigree of East Saxon kings abounds in Anglian names and recalls those of the dynasty of Deira located hundreds of miles to the north. - Bede was correct in claiming that Kent was settled by Jutes. At least 15 sites in northeast Kent have been connected archaeologically to Jutland. The small pots, cruciform brooches and gold bracteates are unmistakably from Jutland. It has now been proven that the Isle of Wight and southern Hampshire were also settled by Jutes. - What about the very earliest Germanic pottery found in England? It is Anglian, not Saxon, and dates to the third century, much earlier than the Saxons are thought to have first arrived. The earliest settlers of Kent, Essex, Middlesex, and Surrey were from what was to become Denmark. They were not Saxons! - The Mercians, a people that were descended from the Angles, ruled a very large region of England. The Mercian King Offa (758-796) traced his ancestry back to his namesake, Offa, King of Angeln before the Migration. Sir Frank Stenton wrote that "an historical basis underlies this genealogy." Stories of Offa, King of Angeln, were still circulating in twelfth-century Denmark. - German scholars recently have suggested that the Angles were the dominant element on the continent and it was the Jutes and Angles from Denmark that led the way to England and made migration to England such a necessity in the fifth century. G. Osten calls this Grossstamm der Angeln in his book Niedersachsisches Jahrbuch fur Landesgeschichte. Although so-called Saxons may have settled in Anglian territory, the later waves of immigrants, north of the Thames, were more in tune with a south Scandinavian culture that was to dominate the life of East Anglia, Lindsey and Deira from this time onwards. After the revolts of the 450's and 460's Saxon influence waned in favor of this Anglian character, recognized by Bede. - Most European writers incorrectly applied the word Saxon both to the Germanic inhabitants of Britain and to the people of the lower Elbe; but there is proof that there was a tribe of Angles living in the region thought to be inhabited by Saxons. They moved south from the lower Elbe to central Germany. The original Thuringians of central Germany are now believed to have been Angli and Varni that migrated south from Scandinavia. Anglian pottery and the widespread place names in -leben, confined to Thuringia and Danish territory confirm that these settlers were indeed Angles and Varni. Many Angles did in fact come from what has always been considered Saxon territory. For hundreds of years northern Germany had served as an escape valve for the exploding population of Scandinavia. The people that the Franks called 'Saxons' actually had a south Scandinavian culture just like the Old Angles. Indeed, the Danish King Godfrid considered northern Germany as his own province and that it rightfully belonged to Denmark! Some scholars now believe that Frankish attacks against Saxony helped precipitate the Viking Age. The Danes were so alarmed by the Frankish conquest of Saxony that they started to launch Viking raids in reprisal. As a result, all of Charlemagne's sons suffered this onslaught and the Frankish empire began to crumble. - The profound influence Scandinavia made on the formation of England, even before the Viking Age, is underscored by Norwegian and Swedish settlements in addition to the Anglian, Jutish, and Danish influences. For example, early settlers in Essex had cultural similarities with Gotland, Sweden. Many Swedish settlers established themselves in Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Humberside, Norfolk and Suffolk. There were also substantial settlements of Norwegians in East Anglia, Northamptonshire, and Cambridgeshire at an early date. - Anglian England was in constant contact with Scandinavia for hundreds of years, even before the Viking Age began. This may be why the Vikings settled in East Anglia first and then spread out into other parts of Anglian England before trying to conquer Wessex. Their ancestors had been more familiar with Anglian England and had maintained an intensive contact with it over many generations. The Viking army which chose East Anglia as its bridghead in 865 would not have been either alien or unwelcome among all the local inhabitants. - Celtic influence upon the Angles of East Anglia was minimal. That's why we call one of the regions East Anglia and not East Saxony. The English had a strong enough sense of themselves to resist any attempt to confuse their heritage. However, a large percentage of the Romano-British south of the Thames survived. Their influence can be seen to this day in the names of the southern kingdoms: Wessex and Sussex for example. But what did the 'Saxons' within these kingdoms call themselves? They called themselves Angles, Englishmen! Several points that I have tried to make are: 1) There really is no such thing as racial purity. Angles, Jutes, Frisians, Danes, Norwegians, and Franks often formed mixed communities, and many scholars now believe that much of the native British population, especially in Wessex and southern England, eventually became absorbed into this Germanic gene pool. Even the purity of the Celts is a myth. They were really composed of many different cultures and tribes. 2) Extolling 'Saxon' superiority and ignoring the accomplishments of Anglian England is misleading. Scholars believe that it was Anglian England that was more influential in the development of language and culture than 'Saxon England'. 3) The linguistic, cultural, and genetic influences that Scandinavia has had on the British Isles are profound. Indeed, a recent study on DNA shows that the Danes are more closely related to the English than they are to other Scandinavians. Yet another study publicized in the summer of 2002 proves that the y-chromosomes of the English of central England are indistinguishable from the Frisians of northern Netherlands. The Frisians originated in Scandinavia. 4) The term "Anglo-Saxon" is such a misnomer that there is virtually no context in which it can be used appropriately. Historian John Morris tells us that it was a term popularized by 20th century historians who pretended that English history begins with the Norman Conquest. Using 'Anglo-Saxon' allowed them to divorce themselves from their pre-Conquest English ancestors. Why would they want to do such a thing? In The Anglo-Saxon World, Kevin Crossley-Holland declares that the English were "...the most sophisticated people in pre-Conquest Europe, and produced poems, illuminated manuscripts, jewelry and other artifacts of the very highest order." 5) The word "Saxon" should be used sparingly and never out of context. The German scholar, Kurt Oertel, believes that the first Saxons may have actually been war-bands of Angles. However, the Romans soon used it to mean 'pirate', not to refer to a particular tribe. The Celts continued this habit by calling all Englishmen "Sassenach", nothing more than an abusive term. This persistence of labeling all Englishmen as 'Saxon' continued with the Romanized Franks. Lasting Roman influence can also be seen in the way they extended the tribal name Graeci to the whole people of Greece, although the Greeks preferred to call themselves Hellenes. The word German(ic) was originally applied by the Romans to just one Germanic tribe, but eventually it was extended to the whole people. It didn't matter that the Germans called themselves 'Deutsche'. Finally, no Saxon ever referred to himself by that name. Both the Saxons in Britain and the Saxons on the continent were named by their enemies. Every so-called Saxon in Britain considered himself to be an Englishman. I feel that we should all show respect for our ancestors by calling them what they would have wished for us to call them...English. The only alternative is to defer to John Davies who, in his History of Wales, tells us that: "Probably little attention should be given to Bede's attempt to distinguish between Angles, Saxons and Jutes. To the Britons who wrote in Latin, the migrants were Saxones; in Welsh, they were Saeson." So for those of us interested in our English roots our research has finally come to an end. A Welshman has already done the work for us. He has identified our true ancestors as dirty bastards, I mean Saxons! Previous Page......Next Page |