Chapter 71

ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.--GERMANIC ELEMENTS.--THE ANGLES.

§ 42. The language of England has been formed out of three elements.

a. Elements referable to the original British population, and derived from times anterior to the Anglo-Saxon invasion.

b. Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, or imported elements.

c. Elements introduced since the Anglo-Saxon conquest.

§ 43. Each of these requires a special analysis, but that of the second will be taken first, and form the contents of the present chapter.

All that we have at present learned concerning the Germanic invaders of England, is the geographical area which they originally occupied. How far, however, it was simple Saxons who conquered England single-handed, or how far the particular Saxon Germans were portions of a complex population, requires further investigation. Were the Saxons one division of the German population, whilst the Angles were another? or were the Angles a section of the Saxons, so that the latter was a generic term including the former? Again, although the Saxon invasion may be the one which has had the greatest influence, and drawn the most attention, why may there not have been separate and independent migrations, the effects and record of which have, in the lapse of time, become fused with those of the more important divisions?

§ 44. _The Angles; who were they? and what was their relation to the Saxons?_--The first answer to this question embodies a great fact in the way of internal evidence, viz., that they were the people from whom _England_ derives the name it bears = _Angle land_, i.e., _land of the Angles_. Our language too is _English_, i.e., _Angle_. Whatever, then, they may have been on the Continent, they were a leading section of the invaders here. Why then has their position in our inquiries been hitherto so subordinate to that of the Saxons? It is because their importance and preponderance are not so manifest in Germany as we infer them to have been in Britain. Nay more, their historical place amongst the nations of Germany, is both insignificant and uncertain; indeed, it will be seen from the sequel, that _in and of themselves_ we know next to nothing about them, knowing them only in their _relations_, i.e., to ourselves and to the Saxons.

§ 45. Although they are the section of the immigration which gave the name to England, and, as such, the preponderating element in the eyes of the present _English_, they were not so in the eyes of the original British; who neither knew at the time of the Conquest, nor know now, of any other name for their German enemies but _Saxon_. And _Saxon_ is the name by which the present English are known to the Welsh, Armorican, and Gaelic Celts.

Welsh _Saxon_. Armorican _Soson_. Gaelic _Sassenach_.

§ 46. Although they are the section of the immigration which gave the name to _England_, &c., they were quite as little Angles as Saxons in the eyes of foreign cotemporary writers; since the expression _Saxoniæ transmarinæ_, occurs as applied to England.

§ 47. _Who were the Angles?_--Although they are the section of the immigration which gave the name to _England_, &c., the notices of them as Germans in Germany, are extremely limited.

_Extract from Tacitus._--This merely connects them with certain other tribes, and affirms the existence of certain religious ordinances common to them:--

"Contra Langobardos paucitas nobilitat: plurimis ac valentissimis nationibus cincti, non per obsequium sed proeliis et periclitando tuti sunt. Reudigni deinde, et Aviones, et _Angli_, et Varini, et Eudoses, et Suardones, et Nuithones, fluminibus aut silvis muniuntur: nec quidquam notabile in singulis, nisi quod in commune Herthum, id est, Terram matrem colunt, eamque intervenire rebus hominum, invehi populis, arbitrantur. Est in insula Oceani Castum nemus, dicatumque in eo vehiculum, veste contectum, attingere uni sacerdoti concessum. Is adesse penetrali deam intelligit, vectamque bobus feminis multâ cum veneratione prosequitur. Læti tunc dies, festa loca, quæcumque adventu hospitioque dignatur. Non bella ineunt, non arma sumunt, clausum omne ferrum; pax et quies tunc tantùm nota, tunc tantùm amata, donec idem sacerdos satiatam conversatione mortalium deam templo reddat; mox vehiculum et vestes, et, si credere velis, numen ipsum secreto lacu abluitur. Servi ministrant, quos statim idem lacus haurit. Arcanus hinc terror, sanctaque ignorantia, quid sit id, quod tantùm perituri vident."[32]

_Extract from Ptolemy._--This connects the Angles with the _Suevi_, and _Langobardi_, and places them on the Middle Elbe.--[Greek: Entos kai mesogeiôn ethnôn megista men esti to te tôn Souêbôn tôn Angeilôn, hoi eisin anatolikôteroi tôn Langobardôn, anateinontes pros tas arktous mechri tôn mesôn tou Albios potamou].

_Extract from Procopius._--For this see § 55.

_Heading of a law referred to the age of Charlemagne._--This connects them with the Werini (Varni) and the Thuringians--"Incipit lex _Angliorum_ et _Werinorum_ hoc est _Thuringorum_."

§ 48. These notices agree in giving the Angles a _German_ locality, and in connecting them ethnologically, and philologically with the _Germans_ of Germany. And such was, undoubtedly, the case. Nevertheless, it may be seen from § 15 that a _Danish_ origin has been assigned to them.

The exact Germanic affinities of the Angles are, how ever, difficult to ascertain, since the tribes with which they are classed are differently classed. This we shall see by asking the following questions:--

§ 49. What were the _Langobardi_, with whom the Angles were connected by Tacitus? The most important fact to be known concerning them is, that the general opinion is in favour of their having belonged to either the _High_-German, or Moeso-Gothic division, rather than to the _Low_.

§ 50. What were the _Suevi_, with whom the Angles were connected by Tacitus? The most important fact to be known concerning them is, that the general opinion is in favour of their having belonged to either the _High_-German or Moeso-Gothic division rather than to the _Low_.

§ 51. What were the _Werini_, with whom the Angles were connected in the _Leges Anglorum et Werinorum_? Without having any particular _data_ for connecting the Werini (Varni, [Greek: Ouarnoi]) with either the High-German, or the Moeso-Gothic divisions, there are certain facts in favour of their being _Slavonic_.

§ 52. What were the _Thuringians_, with whom the Angles are connected in the _Leges Anglorum_? Germanic in locality, and most probably allied to the Goths of Moesia in language. If not, High-Germans.

§ 53. Of the Reudigni, Eudoses, Nuithones, Suardones, and Aviones, too little is known in detail to make the details an inquiry of importance.

§ 54. The reader has now got a general view of the extent to which the position of the Angles, as a German tribe, is complicated by conflicting statements; statements which connect them with (probably) _High_-German Thuringians, Suevi, and Langobardi, and with (probably) _Slavonic_ Werini, or Varni; whereas in England, they are scarcely distinguishable from the _Low_-German Saxons. In the present state of our knowledge, the only safe fact seems to be, that of the common relation of both _Angles_ and Saxons to the present _English_ of England.

This brings the two sections within a very close degree of affinity, and makes it probable, that, just as at present, descendants of the Saxons are English (_Angle_) in Britain, so, in the third and fourth centuries, ancestors of the Angles were Saxons in Germany. Why, however, the one name preponderated on the Continent, and the other in England is difficult to ascertain.

§ 55. The Frisians have been mentioned as a Germanic population _likely_ to have joined in the invasion of Britain; the _presumption_ in favor of their having done so arising from their geographical position.

There is, however, something more than mere presumption upon this point.

Archbishop Usher, amongst the earlier historians, and Mr. Kemble amongst those of the present day, as well as other intermediate investigators, have drawn attention to certain important notices of them.

The main facts bearing upon this question are the following:--

1. Hengist, according to some traditions, was a Frisian hero.

2. Procopius wrote as follows:--[Greek: Brittian de tên nêson ethnê tria poluanthrôpotata echousi, basileus te eis autôn hekastôi ephestêken, onomata de keitai tois ethnesi toutois Angiloi te kai Phrissones kai hoi têi nêsôi homônumoi Brittônes. Tosautê de hê tônde tôn ethnôn poluanthrôpia phainetai ousa hôste ana pan etos kata pollous enthende metanistamenoi xun gunaixi kai paisin es Phrangous chôrousin].--Procop. B. G. iv. 20.

3. In the Saxon Chronicle we find the following passage:--"That same year, the armies from among the East-Anglians, and from among the North-Humbrians, harassed the land of the West-Saxons chiefly, most of all by their 'æscs,' which they had built many years before. Then king Alfred commanded long ships to be built to oppose the æscs; they were full-nigh twice as long as the others; some had sixty oars, and some had more; they were both swifter and steadier, and also higher than the others. They were shapen neither like the _Frisian_ nor the Danish, but so as it seemed to him that they would be most efficient. Then some time in the same year, there came six ships to Wight, and there did much harm, as well as in Devon, and elsewhere along the sea coast. Then the king commanded nine of the new ships to go thither, and they obstructed their passage from the port towards the outer sea. Then went they with three of their ships out against them; and three lay in the upper part of the port in the dry; the men were gone from them ashore. Then took they two of the three ships at the outer part of the port, and killed the men, and the other ship escaped; in that also the men were killed except five; they got away because the other ships were aground. They also were aground very disadvantageously, three lay aground on that side of the deep on which the Danish ships were aground, and all the rest upon the other side, so that no one of them could get to the others. But when, the water had ebbed many furlongs from the ships, then the Danish men went from their three ships to the other three which were left by the tide on their side, and then they there fought against them. There was slain Lucumon the king's reeve, and Wulfheard the _Frisian_, and Æbbe the _Frisian_, and Æthelhere the _Frisian_, and Æthelferth the king's 'geneat,' and of all the men, _Frisians_ and English, seventy-two; and of the Danish men one hundred and twenty."

§ 56. I believe then, that, so far from the current accounts being absolutely correct, in respect to the Germanic elements of the English population, the _Jutes_, as mentioned by Beda, formed _no_ part of it, whilst the _Frisians_, _not_ so mentioned, _were a real constituent therein_; besides which, there may, very easily, have been other Germanic tribes, though in smaller proportions.

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