Britons, weakened by the vices of Roman civilization, and unable to resist the aggressions of the
wild Picts and Scots from the North, called Hengist and Horsa, two brother-princes and reputed
descendants of Wodan, the god of war, from Germany to their aid, a.d. 449.^19
From this time begins the emigration of Saxons, Angles or Anglians, Jutes, and Frisians to
Britain. They gave to it a new nationality and a new language, the Anglo-Saxon, which forms the
base and trunk of the present people and language of England (Angle-land). They belonged to the
great Teutonic race, and came from the Western and Northern parts of Germany, from the districts
North of the Elbe, the Weser, and the Eyder, especially from Holstein, Schleswig, and Jutland.
They could never be subdued by the Romans, and the emperor Julian pronounced them the most
formidable of all the nations that dwelt beyond the Rhine on the shores of the Western ocean. They
were tall and handsome, with blue eyes and fair skin, strong and enduring, given to pillage by land,
and piracy by sea, leaving the cultivation of the soil, with the care of their flocks, to women and
slaves. They were the fiercest among the Germans. They sacrificed a tenth of their chief captives
on the altars of their gods. They used the spear, the sword, and the battle-axe with terrible effect.
"We have not," says Sidonius, bishop of Clermont,^20 "a more cruel and more dangerous enemy
than the Saxons. They overcome all who have the courage to oppose them .... When they pursue,
they infallibly 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 pressed by the enemy, and a cover for their operations when they meditate an attack." Like the
Bedouins in the East, and the Indians of America, they were divided in tribes, each with a chieftain.
In times of danger, they selected a supreme commander under the name of Konyng or King, but
only for a period.
These strangers from the Continent successfully repelled the Northern invaders; but being
well pleased with the fertility and climate of the country, and reinforced by frequent accessions
from their countrymen, they turned upon the confederate Britons, drove them to the mountains of
Wales and the borders of Scotland, or reduced them to slavery, and within a century and a half they
made themselves masters of England. From invaders they became settlers, and established an
octarchy or eight independent kingdoms, Kent, Sussex, Wessex, Essex, Northumbria, Mercia,
Bernicia, and Deira. The last two were often united under the same head; hence we generally speak
of but seven kingdoms or the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy.
From this period of the conflict between the two races dates the Keltic form of the Arthurian
legends, which afterwards underwent a radical telescopic transformation in France. They have no
historical value except in connection with the romantic poetry of mediaeval religion.^21
(^19) The chronology, is somewhat uncertain. See Lappenberg’sGeschichtevon England, Bd. I., p. 73 sqq.
(^20) Quoted by Lingard, I. 62. The picture here given corresponds closely with that given in Beowulf’s Drapa, from the
9th century.
(^21) King Arthur (or Artus), the hero of Wales, of the Chronicles of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and the romances of the
Round Table, if not entirely mythical, was one of the last Keltic chiefs, who struggled against the Saxon invaders in the sixth
century. He resided in great state at Caerleon in Wales, surrounded by valorous knights, seated with him at a round table, gained
twelve victories over the Saxons, and died in the battle of Mount Badon or Badon Hill near Bath (a. d.520). The legend was
afterwards Christianized, transferred to French soil, and blended with the Carlovingian Knights of the Round Table, which
never existed. Arthur’s name was also connected since the Crusades with the quest of the Holy Grail or Graal (Keltic gréal, old
Frenchsan gréalorgreel), i.e. the wonderful bowl-shaped vessel of the Lord’s Supper (used for the Paschal Lamb, or, according