JOJO

• During the three or four centuries after Tacitus wrote his Germania, the Germanic peoples were in a state of flux and movement
• Germanic-speaking groups settled in England towards the end of the centuries of flux
• Saxons settled in East Anglia and the Vale of York while Britain was still a Roman province
• Main settlements of Germanic-speaking groups in England were made after the Roman legions had withdrawn in AD 410
• The traditional accounts of the landing of Hengest and Horsa in Kent place it in this year

  449
• The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain was not the arrival of a unified invading army but rather the arrival and penetration of various uncoordinated bands in different parts of the country
• The processes of struggle and assimilation with Celtic-speaking Britons were lengthy
• Anglo-Saxon domination in England was not assured until late in the sixth century
• By about 700, the Anglo-Saxons had occupied most of England and a considerable part of southern Scotland
• Wales remained a British stronghold
• Debate continues about the exact nature of the Anglo-Saxon settlements


  Some scholars see them as the arrival of a ruling minority who assumed control over British populations, while others envisage larger groups of settlers
• The Germanic language of the incomers became the dominant one in England
• There are few traces of Celtic influence on Old English (OE)
• Examples of Celtic names in English towns and rivers

  • London
  • Leeds
  • Avon
  • Ouse
  • Derwent
  • Darent
  • Dart
  • Thames
  • Trent
• County names with Celtic origins

  • Kent
  • Devon
  • Cornwall
  • Cumberland
• Common place-name elements of English derivation

  • ton
  • ham
  • ley
  • worth
  • field
  • ing
• Nottingham


  • 'the homestead of Snot's people'
• Buckingham


  • 'the meadow of Bucca's people'
• Langley


  • 'a long wood'
• Aston and Easton


  • 'eastern farmstead (or village)'
• Buckingham


  'the meadow of Bucca’s people'
• Langley


  'a long wood'
• Aston and Easton


  'eastern farmstead (or village)'
• The failure of Old British to influence Old English to any great extent does not mean that the Britons were all killed or driven out
• There is evidence that a considerable number of Britons lived among the Anglo-Saxons, but their language quite possibly had no prestige compared with that of the Anglo-Saxons
• Whether or not the prestige associated with the language of a political elite would have been sufficient in itself to achieve the replacement of Old British with Old English remains an open question
• The example of the Norman Conquest suggests that the replacement is unlikely, but it cannot be ruled out
• Recent work on the genetic make-up of the population of the British Isles has called into question the model of Anglo-Saxons settling in large numbers
• Old English word 'wealh'


  Originally meant 'foreigner', used to mean 'Briton, Welshman', and also used to mean 'servant, slave' in some texts
• The OE wealh has survived as the second syllable of Cornwall, and also in the word walnut (OE wealh-hnutu 'foreign nut, walnut'). Our word Welsh is from the related adjective, OE wylisc
• Germanic tribes


  • Saxons
  • Angles
  • Jutes
  • Frisians
  • Suebi
• The land of the Old Saxons was in north-west Germany, the Angles probably came from slightly further north, and the Jutes may have come from Jutland
• In addition to Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, the Germanic settlers in Britain included Frisians and probably groups from other Germanic-speaking tribes such as the Suebi
• These groups eventually came to regard themselves as one people, with the word Engle 'the Angles' being applied to all the Germanic settlers in Britain
• Political union among the Germanic settlers came slowly, with a medley of petty kingdoms eventually reduced to seven, sometimes called the Heptarchy
• Kingdoms in England


  • Northumbria
  • Mercia
  • East Anglia
  • Essex
  • Sussex
  • Kent
  • Wessex
• The medley of kingdoms in England was eventually reduced to seven, sometimes called the Heptarchy
• Various kingdoms of England were reduced to seven main ones


  By a process of conquest and amalgamation
• In the seventh century, Northumbria was very powerful and a great center of learning
• In the eighth century, leadership passed to Mercia