The English Language

_Extract from Procopius._--For this see -- 129.

_Heading of a law referred to the age of Charlemagne._--This connects them with the Werini (Varni), and the Thuringians--"Incipit lex _Angliorum_ et _Verinorum_ (_Varni_); hoc est _Thuringorum_."--Zeuss, 495, and Grimm.

G.D.S.

-- 110. These notices agree in giving the Angles a German locality, and in connecting them ethnologically, and philologically with the Germans of Germany. The notices that follow, traverse this view of the question, by indicating a slightly different area, and Danish rather than German affinities.

_Extracts connecting them with the inhabitants of the Cimbric Peninsula._--_a._ The quotation from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of -- 16.

_b._ From Bede; "Porro de Anglis, hoc est illa patria, quae _Angulus_ dicitur, et ab eo tempore usque hodie, manere desertus inter provincias Jutarum et Saxonum perhibetur."--Angl. i. 15.

_c._ From Alfred, "And be waestan eald Seaxum is Albe mua aere ea and Frisland. And anon west nor is aet land, the man _Angle_, haet and Sillende, and summe dael Dena."[12]--Oros. p. 20.

Also, speaking of Other's voyage,[13] "He seglode to aem porte e man haet Haeum; se stent betwuhs Winedum and Seaxum, and _Angle_, and hyr in on Dene... and a {65} twegen dagas aer he to Haedhum come, him waes on aet steorbord Gothland and Sillende and iglanda fela. On aem landum eardodon Engle, aer hi hier on land comon."[14]--Oros. p. 23.

d. From Etherwerd, writing in the eleventh century--"_Anglia_ vetus sita est inter Saxones et Giotos, habens oppidum capitale, quod sermone Saxonico _Sleswic_ nuncupatur, secundum vero Danos _Hathaby_."[14]

-- 111. _The district called Angle._--The district of _Anglen_, so called (where it is mentioned at all) at the present moment, is a part of the Dutchy of Sleswick, which is literally an _Angle_; _i.e._, a triangle of irregular shape, formed by the Schlie, the Flensborger Fiord, and a line drawn from Flensborg to Sleswick; every geographical name in it being, at present, Danish, whatever it may have been previously. Thus some villages end in _bye_ (Danish=_town_) as Hus-_bye_, Herreds-_bye_, Ulse-_bye_, &c.; some in _gaard_ (=_house_), as _Oegaard_; whilst the other Danish forms are _skov_=_wood_ (_shaw_), _hofved_=_head_, _lund_=_grove_, &c. In short it has nothing to distinguish it from the other parts of the peninsula.

-- 112. Add to these the Danish expression, that _Dan_ and _Angul_ were brothers, as the exponent of a recognised relations.h.i.+p between the two populations, and we have a view of the evidence in favour of the Danish affinity.

-- 113. _Inferences and remarks._--_a._ That whilst the root _Angl-_ in Tacitus, Ptolemy, Procopius, and the Leges Anglorum, &c., is the name of a _people_, the root _Angl-_ in the _Anglen_ of Sleswick, is the name of a district; a fact which is further confirmed by the circ.u.mstance of there being in at least one other part of Scandinavia, a district with a similar name--"Hann atti bu a Halogolandi i _Aungli_."[14]--Heimskringla, iii. 454.

_b._ That the derivation of the _Angles_ of England from the _Anglen_ of Sleswick is an inference of the same kind with the one respecting the Jutes (see -- 20), made by the same writers, probably on the same principle, and most likely incorrectly.

_c._ That the Angles of England were the Angli of Tacitus, {66} Ptolemy, Procopius, and the Leges Anglorum et Werinorum, whatever these were.

-- 114. What were the _Langobardi_, with whom the Angles were connected by Tacitus? The most important facts to be known concerning them are, (1) that the general opinion is in favour of their having belonged to the _High_-German, or Moeso-Gothic division, rather than to the _Low_; (2) that their original locality either reached or lay beyond the Elbe; a locality, which, in the tenth century, was _Slavonic_, and which, in the opinion of the present writer, we have no reason to consider to have been other than Slavonic during the nine preceding ones.--That they were partially, at least, on this side of the Elbe, we learn from the following:--"Receptae Cauchorum nationes, fracti Langobardi, gens etiam Germanis feritate ferocior; denique usque ad flumen Albim... Roma.n.u.s c.u.m signis perductus exercitus."[15]--Velleius Paterc. ii. 106.

-- 115. What were the _Suevi_, with whom the Angles were connected by Tacitus? The most important facts to be known concerning them are, (1) that the general opinion is in favour of their having belonged to the _High_-German or Moeso-Gothic, division, rather than to the _Low_; (2) that their original locality either reached or lay beyond the Elbe; a locality, which, in the tenth century, was _Slavonic_, and which, in the opinion of the present

What the Suevi were, the Semnones were also, "Vetustissimos se n.o.bilissimosque Suevorum Semnones memorant." Tac. Germ., 39. Speaking, too, of their great extension, he says, _centum pagi ab iis habitantur_.[15]

Velleius states that there were Suevi on the west of the Middle Elbe, Ptolemy, that there were Suevi to the east of it, _i.e._, as far as the River Suebus (Oder?).--[Greek: Kai to ton Souebon ton Semnonon, hoitines diekousi meta ton Albin apo tou eiremenou merous] {67} (the middle Elbe) [Greek: pros anatolas mechri tou Souebou potamou].[16]

In the letter of Theodeberht to the Emperor Justinian, we find the _North_-Suevians mentioned along with the Thuringians, as having been conquered by the Franks; "Subactis Thuringis... _Norsavorum_ gentis n.o.bis placata majestas colla subdidit."[16]

-- 116. 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 in favour of their being Slavonic in locality, the same facts as applied to the Suevi and Langobardi, with the additional one, that the name probably exists at present in the River _Warnow_, of Mecklenburg Schwerin, at the mouth of which (Warnemunde) the town of Rostock stands.

-- 117. What were the _Thuringians_, with whom the Angles are connected in the _Leges Anglorum_, &c.; Germanic in locality, and most probably allied to the Goths of Moesia in language.

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

Respecting them all, it may be said at once, that whatever may be the Germanic affinities involved in their connection with the Suevi, Langobardi, Angli, &c., they are traversed by the fact of their locality being in the tenth century Slavonic.

-- 119. The last tribe which will be mentioned, is that of the _Angrarii_, most probably another form of the _Angrivarii_ of Tacitus, the name of the occupants of the valley of the Aller, the northern confluent of the Weser.

As this word is compound (-_varii_=_ware_=_inhabitants_), the root remains _Angr-_, a word which only requires the _r_ to become _l_ in order to make _Angl-_. As both the locality and the relation to the Saxons, make the _Angrivarian_ locality one of the best we could a.s.sume for the _Angles_, the only {68} difficulty lies in the change from _r_ to _l_. Unfortunately, this, in the Saxon-German, is an unlikely one.

-- 120. The last fact connected with the Angles, will be found in a more expanded form in the Chapter on the Dialects of the English Language. It relates to the distribution over the conquered parts of Britain. Their chief area was the Midland and Eastern counties, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridges.h.i.+re, Huntingdons.h.i.+re, Leicesters.h.i.+re, &c., rather than the parts south of the Thames, which were Saxon, and those north of the Wash, where Danish influences have been considerable.

-- 121. 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_ Varni, Eudoses, Suardones, &c.; 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 _Angle_ and Saxon, 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.

-- 122. By considering the Angles as Saxons under another name (or _vice versa_), and by treating the statement as to the existence of Jutes in Hamps.h.i.+re and the Isle of Wight as wholly unhistorical, we get, as a general expression for the Anglo-Germanic immigration, that it consisted of the closely allied tribes of the North-Saxon area, an expression that implies a general uniformity of population. Is there reason to think that the uniformity was absolute?

-- 123. The following series of facts, when put together, will prepare us for a fresh train of reasoning concerning the different geographical and ethnological relations of the {69} immigrants into England, during their previous habitation in Germany.

1. The termination _-as_ is, like the _-s_ in the modern English, the sign of the plural number in Anglo-Saxon.

2. The termination _-ing_ denotes, _in the first instance_, a certain number of individuals collected together, and united with each other as a clan, tribe, family, household.

3. In doing this, it generally indicates a relations.h.i.+p of a _personal_ or _political_ character. Thus two _Baningas_ might be connected with each other, and (as such) indicated by the same term from any of the following causes--relations.h.i.+p, subordination to the same chief, origin from the same locality, &c.

4. Of these _personal_ connections, the one which is considered to be the commonest is that of _descent_ from a common ancestor, so that the termination _-ing_ in this case, is a real _patronymic_.

5. Such an ancestor need not be real; indeed, he rarely if ever is so. Like the _eponymus_ of the cla.s.sical writers, he is the hypothetical, or mythological, progenitor of the clan, sept, or tribe, as the case may be; _i.e._, as aeolus, Dorus, and Ion to the aeolians, Dorians, and Ionians.

Now, by admitting these facts without limitation, and by applying them freely and boldly to the Germanic population of England, we arrive at the following inferences.

1. That where we meet two (or more) households, families, tribes, clans, or septs of the same name (that name ending in _-ing_), in different parts of England, we may connect them with each other, either directly or indirectly; directly when we look on the second as an offset from the first; indirectly, when we derive both from some third source.

2. That when we find families, tribes, &c., of the same name, both in Britain and in Germany, we may derive the English ones from the continental.

Now neither of these views is hypothetical. On the contrary each is a real fact. Thus in respect to divisions of the population, designated by names ending in _-ing_, we have

1. In Ess.e.x, Somerset, and Suss.e.x,--_aestingas_.

2. In Kent, Dorset, Devons.h.i.+re, and Lincoln,--_Alingas_. {70}

3. In Suss.e.x, Berks, and Northamptons.h.i.+re,--_Ardingas_.

4. In Devons.h.i.+re, Gloucesters.h.i.+re, and Suss.e.x,--_Arlingas_.

5. In Herts, Kent, Lincolns.h.i.+re, and Salop,--_Baningas_.

6. In Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, Suss.e.x, and the Isle of Wight,--_Beadingas_.

7. In Kent, Devons.h.i.+re, Lincolns.h.i.+re, Herefords.h.i.+re, Salop, and Somerset,--_Beringas_.

8. In Bedford, Durham, Kent, Lancas.h.i.+re, Lincolns.h.i.+re, Norfolk, Northamptons.h.i.+re, Northumberland, Salop, Suss.e.x, and the Isle of Wight,--_Billingas_, &c.--the list being taken from Mr. Kemble, vol. i. p.

64.

-- 124. On the other hand, the following Anglo-Saxon names in _-ing_, reappear in different parts of Germany, sometimes in definite geographical localities, as the occupants of particular districts, sometimes as mentioned in poems without further notice.

1. _Waelsingas_,--as the Volsungar of the Iceland, and the Waelsingen of the German heroic legends.

2. _Herelingas_,--mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon poem known by the name of the Traveller's Song, containing a long list of the Gothic tribes, families, nations, &c.