CHAP. II. MANNERS AND RELIGION OF ANGLO-SAXONS.

21

There is still a district which bears this name between the River Slie and the Flensborger Fiord; but anciently it must have comprised a much larger territory. The Angles, like the Saxons, were originally a Low Germanic race; but, as their first settlements were upon the upper part of the Elbe in the neighborhood of High German tribes, and their second seats were in the proximity of the Danes, their language appears to have been affected to some extent by their neighbors, and several peculiarities in the northern dialects of England bear traces of the High German and Danish languages.

III. The Jutes.-These invaders were not so numerous even as the Saxons, and possessed only Kent, the Isle of Wight, and part of Hampshire. They came from the peninsula of Jutland, which is now inhabited by the Danes; but it is probable that the possessions of the Germans, who people at present the southern part of the peninsula, extended farther north in ancient times, and there are some reasons for believing that the Jutes were Goths, who, like the Saxons and Angles, were also a Low Germanic race.

§ 2. The German races who invaded Britain were pagan barbarians. Their religion, which was common to them with the Scandinavians, seems to have been a compound between the worship of the celestial bodies and that of deified heroes. This fact will best appear from the names they applied to the days of the week, which custom has still retained among us. Thus Sunnandag and Monandag, Sunday and Monday, were named after the two great luminaries; but it must be observed that the sex of those deities was the reverse of that ascribed to them by the Greeks and Romans, the sun being considered by the Germans as feminine and the moon as masculine. The name of Tuesday is by some derived from Tiue, probably the same as the Tuisco of Tacitus, the national and eponymous deity of the Teutons, while others identify it with Tyr, one of the twelve companions of Odin. Wodnesdag or Wednesday, was sacred to Woden or Odin, the god of war, common to all the Teutonic and Scandinavian races. That he must have been a deified hero and king appears from the circumstance that those leaders, whose kindred formed the royal houses among the Anglo-Saxons, for the most part derived their descent from Woden. Thorsdag, or Thursday, was named after the god Thor, the thunderer, equivalent to the Greek Zeus, and the Roman Jove, who wielded a hammer instead of a thunderbolt. Freyadag, or Friday, was sacred to the goddess Freya, the consort of Woden and northern Venus. Lastly, Saturday derived its name from Sates, who, from the attributes with which he is represented, viz., a fish and a bucket, appears to have been a water-god. Besides these, the Anglo-Saxons had many other deities. They be

lieved in the immortality of the soul and the existence of a supernatural world; but their worship, though fanciful and superstitious, was not tainted with so much cruelty as disfigured that of the Druids. Their sensual ideas of a future state were calculated, like those of the Mohammedans, to inspire them with a contempt of death. They believed that if they obtained the favor of Woden by their valor (for they made less account of the other virtues) they should be admitted after their death into his hall; and, reposing on couches, should satiate themselves with ale from the skulls of their enemies whom they had slain in battle. Incited by this idea of paradise, which gratified at once the passion of revenge and that of intemperance, the ruling inclinations of barbarians, they despised the dangers of war, and increased their native ferocity against the vanquished by their religious prejudices.

§ 3. The ships, or keels (ceolas), of the Saxons appear at an ancient period to have been rudely constructed of a few planks surmounted with wattled osiers and covered with skins; and in these frail vessels they fearlessly trusted themselves without a compass to the winds and waves of the stormy ocean which washed their shores. We may infer, however, from the number of men which they conveyed to Britain, that in the fifth century their ships must have been much enlarged in size and improved in solidity of construction. The arms of the Anglo-Saxons were targets worn on the left arm, spears, bows and arrows, swords, battle-axes, and heavy clubs furnished with spikes of iron. Sidonius, the Bishop of Clermont, has described the terror which these barbarians inspired. "We have not," he says, "a more cruel and dangerous enemy than the Saxons. They overcome all who have the courage to oppose them. They surprise all who are so imprudent as not to be prepared for their attack. When they pursue, they inevitably overtake: when they are pursued, their escape is certain. They despise danger: they are inured to shipwreck: they are eager to purchase booty with the peril of their lives. Tempests, which to others are so dreadful, to them are subjects of joy. The storm is their protection when they are pursued by the enemy, and a cover for their operations when they meditate an attack. Before they quit their own shores, they devote to the altars of their gods the tenth part of the principal captives; and when they are on the point of returning, the lots are cast with an affectation of equity, and the impious vow is fulfilled."* Such were the barbarians who were now approaching the British shores.

§ 4. First settlement of the German invaders, A.D. 450.-The first arrival of the Saxon tribes in England is commonly placed either in the year 449 or 450, of which dates the latter is the * Sidon., viii., 6, quoted by Lingard, i.,

p. 73.

A.D. 450.

SETTLEMENTS OF GERMAN INVADERS.

23

more correct. Respecting the manner of their coming and their first proceedings in the island we find two sets of traditions, those of the British, and those of the Saxon writers, which vary in many important particulars. According to the former, the two Jutish leaders, Hengist and Horsa, being banished from their native country, and wandering about with their followers in three vessels in quest of new seats, were invited by Vortigern, the British king before mentioned, to assist him against the Scots and Picts; and in reward for the services which he had rendered, Hengist and his followers were presented with the Isle of Thanet for a settlement, which at that time was separated by a broad estuary from the rest of Kent. Hengist now sent over to his native country for re-enforcements, and also caused his daughter Rowena, who was celebrated for her beauty, to be conveyed to the land of his adoption. At a great feast given by the Saxons, Vortigern beheld Rowena, received from her hands the wassail cup, and, captivated by her charms, renounced Christianity for her sake, and ceded to Hengist the remainder of Kent in return for her hand. His indignant subjects now deposed Vortigern, and placed his son Vortimer on the throne, who defeated Hengist in three great battles, and compelled him to retire for some years from Britain. Rowena having contrived to poison Vortimer, Vortigern again ascended the throne, and recalled his father-in-law IIengist; but as the Britons refused to reinstate him in his possessions, a conference of 300 of the chiefs of each nation was appointed to be held at Stonehenge in order to settle the points in dispute. In the midst of the discussion Hengist suddenly exclaimed to his followers, "Nimath eowre seaxas” (take your knives), and 299 Britons fell dead upon the floor. Vortigern alone was spared, for whose ransom three provinces, afterward known as Essex, Sussex, and Middlesex, were demanded. Over these Hengist reigned, and was succeeded by his son Ochta.

In this narrative British and Roman traditions are confounded, together with the old Saxon Saga of the manner in which the Saxons gained possession of Thuringia. The principal assertion of the narrative, that Hengist received the three provinces mentioned as the ransom of Vortigern, is the least true of all, as they did not fall under the Saxon dominion till a much later period. These stories seem to have been invented by the Welsh authors in order to palliate the weak resistance made at first by their countrymen, and to account for the rapid progress and licentious devastations of the Saxons.

§ 5. The accounts of the conquerors themselves, as recorded in

The invasion took place in the first year of the reign of the Emperor Marcian, which corresponds to A.D. 450.

† See Notes and Illustrations (B).

the Saxon Chronicle, and by Beda and others, are more to be relied upon. According to these authorities, Hengist and Horsa, two Jutish leaders, and descendants of Woden, landed with the crews of three ships at Ypwines-fleet (Ebbes Fleet) in Kent in the year 450, in compliance with a request made by Vortigern to the athelings or chiefs of the Saxons, for aid against the Picts and Scots, who had already advanced into Lincolnshire. After an easy triumph the victorious Jutes invited their countrymen beyond the sea to come and take possession of a fertile island, which the sloth and cowardice of the inhabitants rendered them unable to defend. A fleet of 16 sail immediately brought over a large body of warriors; to whom and to the former band, as a reward for their past services, and as a gage for their future exertions in defense of the island, the Britons assigned settlements in Kent. The story of Rowena is adverted to, but only as a British tradition. Several battles were subsequently fought. In the battle of Ægeles-ford, the present Aylesford (A.D. 455), Horsa was slain: according to Beda, the monument of Horsa was still to be seen in his time in the eastern part of Kent; and two miles north of Aylesford, at a place called Horsted, a collection of flint-stones is still pointed out as the tomb of Horsa. Two years afterward (A.D. 457) another great battle was fought between the Saxons and Britons at Creccanford (Crayford) in Kent, when the Saxons, led by Hengist and his son Eric, surnamed Esc, or the Ash, gained a signal victory. The Britons were completely driven out of Kent, and Hengist and his son assumed the kingly power. Hengist died in the 40th year after his arrival in Britain, and was succeeded by Eric, who reigned 24 years, and won more territory from the Britons. He was the founder of the dynasty of the Æscings, or Ashings,† sons of the Ashtree, the name given to the kings of Kent. Ethelbert, fourth in descent from Esc, who began to reign in A.D. 568, was the first Christian king in England, and one of the most powerful princes of his time; but the Kentish kingdom soon afterward sank into obscurity.

§ 6. Second settlement of the German invaders, A.D. 477.-In the year 477, and therefore during the lifetime of Hengist, Ella

*The most recent English historians, Lappenberg, Sir Francis Palgrave, and Kemble, regard the whole account of the Anglo-Saxon conquest as of no historical value, and maintain that we have no real history of the AngloSaxons till their conversion to Christianity, 150 years later. Hengist and Horsa, it is said, are mythical personages, Hengist (Hengst) and Horsa (Ross) being the Teutonic names for stallion and horse. There are, however, good reasons for believing the commonly-received account of the conquest to be based upon historical facts. See Dr. Guest in the Proceedings of the Archæological Institute for 1849.

+ The termination -ing is the sign of the Anglo-Saxon patronymic.

A.D. 450-519. SETTLEMENTS OF GERMAN INVADERS.

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(Ælla), with his three sons, Cymen, Wlencing, and Cissa, landed with a body of Saxons from three ships at the place afterward called Cymen's Ora, upon the eastern side of Chichester harbor in Sussex; but the Britons were not expelled' till defeated in many battles by their warlike invaders. After the capture of the old Roman town of Anderida, or Andredes-ceaster (Pevensey), in 490, when the whole British garrison was put to the sword, Ella assumed the title of king of the South-Sexe or Sussex, and extended his dominion over the modern county of Sussex and a great part of Surrey. Ella is said to have died between 514 and 519, and was succeeded by his son Cissa; in whose line the kingdom of Sussex remained for a long period, though we know not even the name of any of his successors. The capital of this kingdom was Chichester, which derives its name from Cissa (Cissa-ceaster, the chester or city of Cissa). To these German invaders is due the division of Sussex into rapes, which again are divided into hundreds.

§ 7. Third settlement of the German invaders, A.D. 495.-The third body of German invaders were, like the last, also Saxons. They landed in 495 under the command of Cerdic and his son Cynric, at a place called Cerdio's Ora, which was probably at the mouth of the Itchin River along the eastern side of the Southampton Water. None of the invaders met with such vigorous resistance, or exerted such valor and perseverance in pushing their conquests. Cerdic did not make much progress till six years later, after calling in from Germany the aid of Port; from whom the town of Portsmouth is said to derive its name, as being the place where Port landed and defeated the Britons. In 514 Cer.dic was re-enforced by the arrival of his nephews, Stuf and Wihtgar, who are also represented as Jutish leaders. Cerdic's power

now became more formidable; many districts were conquered, and among them the Isle of Wight, which Cerdic bestowed on his nephews. It was not, however, till his great victory over the Britons at Cerdices-ford (or Charford, in Hampshire) in 519 that Cerdic assumed the royal title and erected the kingdom of the West-Sexe or Wessex. Cerdic's farther progress toward the west was checked by a great defeat which he received in the following year at Mount Badon* from Arthur, prince of the Damnonii, whose heroic valor now sustained the declining fate of his country. This is that Arthur so much celebrated in the songs of British bards, and whose military achievements have been blended with so many fables as even to give occasion for entertaining a

* Mount Badon is usually identified with Bath; but Dr. Guest adduces strong reasons for believing it to be Badbury in Dorsetshire. (Ut supra, p. 63.)

B.