Every Englishman—and we apply the term in a comprehensive sense—who
would clearly understand the force of his mother-tongue, should study
Anglo-Saxon, as it is the direct and copious source of his own beloved
language. Out of the many thousand words in use in English, more than
five-eighths are of Anglo-Saxon origin. These, not only in number,
but in their peculiar character and significance, as well as in their
influence on grammatical forms, give to our language, it is universally
admitted, its chief vigor. In short, they constitute its bone and sinew.
Volumes may be written in words of Anglo-Saxon parentage alone, but it
would be impossible to express the simplest thought in language of Latin
derivation. Words expressive of the dearest relations, the strongest and
most powerful feelings of nature, the language of every-day life, as of
duty, business, pleasure, etc., find in the Anglo-Saxon their deepest,
sincerest, and most energetic portrayals. Every speaker or writer, if
he would convince the understanding and reach the heart, must shun
Latinized expressions, and use the Anglo-Saxon, for the one awakens
vivid, soul-stirring thoughts, and the other thoughts that are cool and
unimpassioned.
With this view of Anglo-Saxon’s importance to every Englishman, a
brief account of the origin of the present inhabitants of England will
show that we owe to the Gothic tribes—the Jutes, the Saxons and the
Angles—our physical vigor, yea, our very existence, as well as our highly
expressive language. Like all the Teutonic tribes, the Saxons were of
Oriental origin. They derived, most probably, their appellation from
the Sacæ, who doubtless gave the name of Sakasina to a part of Armenia.
In Ptolemy’s time, A. D. 90, they were as far westward as the Elbe, and,
consequently, were among the first of the Teutonic tribes that visited
Europe. Their location, between the Elbe and the Eyder in the south of
Denmark, strengthens the belief that they were the vanguard of Germanic
emigration. The Jutes, the Saxons and the Angles, which were the only
tribes that successively made settlements in Britain, are therefore
deemed of sufficient interest to claim especial attention.
The first to obtain possession were the Jutes. Two brothers, Hengist
and Horsa, from Jutland, in Denmark, arrived in three small ships at
Ebbs-fleet, in the Isle of Thanet, in 449. This island was assigned to
them by the Britons for their assistance against the Picts and Scots.
Subsequently, they became possessors of Kent, the Isle of Wight, and part
of Hampshire.
Forty-two years later, 491, the Saxons entered Britain. Their first
kingdom was established by Ella, under the name of South-Saxons,
including what is now known as Sussex, together with a part of Surrey.
In 494 another powerful colony, under Cerdic, arrived. Being west of the
other, it took the name West-Saxons. They occupied Hants, Berks, Wilts,
Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and part of Cornwall. A third Saxon kingdom,
in 527, was planted in Essex, Middlesex and the south of Hertfordshire,
under the name of East-Saxons (East-Seaxe).
The Angles (Engle), from Anglen, the country between Flensburg and the
Schley in the southeast of Sleswick in Denmark, settled about 527 in East
Anglia, and exercised control over what now embraces Norfolk, Suffolk,
Cambridge, and part of Bedfordshire. Ida, in 547, began to establish
himself in Bernicia, comprehending Northumberland and the south of
Scotland, between the Tweed and Firth of Forth. About 559 Ella conquered
Deira, a tract of country between the Humber and the Tweed, embracing
the counties of York, Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland,
and Lancashire. Mercia, bounded by the Thames, Humber and Severn, and
comprehending the counties of Chester, Derby, Huntingdon, Lincoln,
Northampton, Nottingham, Rutland, the north of Beds, Bucks, Hertford,
Warwick, Oxon, Worcester, Hereford, Gloucester, Stafford and Salop, was
formed by Crida, about 586, into an independent state.
From the foregoing remarks it appears that one Jute, three Saxon, and
four Angle, altogether eight kingdoms, were established in Britain by
the year 586, and that the Angles and Saxons were the leading spirits
in the expeditions. They, therefore, when settled in this country, were
collectively called Anglo-Saxons. From the Angles (Engle), who were the
most numerous and predominant, the land was named Engla land, the Engle’s
or Angle’s land—an appellation which was afterwards contracted into
England.
Anglo-Saxon, that is, Angle-, Engle-, or English-Saxon, is the language
of the Platt, Low, Flat, or North part of Germany, introduced into
England by the Jutes, the Angles, and the Saxons, and modified,
spoken, and written by Englishmen. The less daring and enterprising of
these peoples who remained in their continental home bore the name of
Old-Saxons, and their language Old-Saxon, but their brethren who settled
in Britain were fitly designated Anglo-Saxons, and their language,
perfected in England, was denominated Anglo-Saxon. To King Alfred, and
the many writings of Alfric, we are indebted for the finest specimens of
Anglo-Saxon spoken and written in England in their days.
Persons who are desirous of tracing the origin of Anglo-Saxon, or of
comparing it with kindred dialects, must first go to the Old-Saxon, the
Low-German spoken by those who remained in the old home of the Jutes,
the Angles, and the Saxons. No written specimen of the language spoken
by these Old-Saxons is extant, but there is, in a collateral dialect,
a very fine poem, written in the ninth century, which is entitled
_Heliand_, Healer or Saviour. While some of the Low-German race migrated
to England, others passed to the lower Rhine and settled there. This poem
being written in the dialect of these Rhenish Old-Saxons, and the latter
being akin to the Anglo-Saxon, there can be no question as to its vast
importance in the study of the language which is the foundation of our
own. Recourse may then be had to other works in Low-German. High-German,
Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish may then be consulted, and
carried back to their Oriental source. None of the German or Scandinavian
dialects have writings antedating those of the Anglo-Saxons, except the
Germanic in the Moeso-Gothic Gospels of Ulphilas, published in 370, and
some Icelandic. A zealous attempt, tracing the origin of the English,
Germanic, and Scandinavian languages and nations, with a sketch of their
early literature, and short chronological specimens of Anglo-Saxon,
Friesic, Flemish, Dutch, German, from the Moeso-Goths to the present
time, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish, and tracing the progress of these
languages and their connection with the modern English, was made by Rev.
Joseph Bosworth, in 1848. All interested in such knowledge will find
themselves abundantly repaid by an examination of this learned scholar’s
investigations, as shown in the work to which reference has just been
made.