another body of Saxons, the founders of Wessex, is mentioned, and with regard to the Angles it is recorded that Ida assumed royal power in Northumbria in 547. For the settlements of those Saxons who were afterwards known as the East-Saxons (Essex) and of the Angles, both those of Norfolk (Norp-folc) and Suffolk (Sup-folc) and those of Deira, no dates are given, but they must have been made before Ida's kingship in Bernicia.

accounts on language.

10. We may now consider the bearing of the information got from Bede and the Chronicle upon the Bearing of the preceding history of the language. It fixes a date for the arrival of the first band of Teutons, and shews that within about a hundred years of that date all the immigrant bands had established their settlements in the country; consequently within that century the history of the English language in England had fairly begun. Further, these immigrant bands were drawn from different tribes, occupying different, though adjacent, territories on the continent, consequently it was not a uniform speech that they brought, but several closely connected forms of speech. The different tribes, too, settled in different parts of the country, and their early distribution is to be remembered in connection with later times, when the great division of Northern, Midland, and Southern, in the last of which is found a strongly marked Kentish form, is distinguishable among English dialects. 11. The variety of elements among the invaders may have been greater than is indicated by Bede's account, and there may have been contingents from other tribes than the three he mentions. For instance the Frisians, whose language shews the near relationship of its speakers to the English, may have contributed to the invading forces. But if we may judge by the

Perhaps

Frisians took part in the Conquest.

1 Procopius (6th cent.) says that Britain was occupied by Angles, Britons, and Frisians.

names on the map, it was certainly the Angles and the Saxons who had the greatest share in the conquest of Britain, and while no district bears a name that points to the Frisians, the names of both Saxons and Angles may still be seen; Essex, Middlesex, Sussex, Wessex still preserve the one, England and East Anglia the other.

The Angles give the name to the land

and to the language.

12. While speaking of names that still bear witness to the conquerors of Britain it may be noticed that neither the country nor the language is called after that division of them, whose royal family in the end became supreme, and in whose dialect is written almost all the oldest literature: the land is England (Engla land), not Sax-land or Saxony, the language is English not Sexish. But the early political importance of the Angles is seen in the case of a king like Edwin of Northumbria as compared with his contemporary Cwichelm of Wessex, and their early literary distinction is illustrated by the names of Cadmon and Bede, the one the first English poet whose name we know, the other one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of the native scholars. Another circumstance may perhaps have helped to give currency to the Angle name. According to the story (told, for instance, in Ælfric's homily on Gregory) it was Angle captives in the Roman slave market that aroused the interest of the future pope, and it was thus the Angle race with which the island was associated in the minds of the Latin missionaries. If to them the land was Anglia, their influence might have helped to establish the name of the Angles as that from which the name of the whole country should be derived.

13. Two out of the three peoples mentioned by Bede have

written their names indelibly on the map of The Jutes. England; with the third it has been otherwise.

As late as the beginning of the 8th century, there were, according to Bede, men in Wessex who were known as of the race of the Jutes, and the men of Kent were of the same stock. But

the former were absorbed by the Saxons; and the opportunity for preserving the name of the Jutes, as that of the Saxons was preserved by their neighbours of Essex and Sussex, was neglected by the latter, who retained the Celtic appellation for the district, which was the first to fall into the hands of the Teutons. And though at the end of the 6th century the kingdom of Kent was powerful, yet, having the Saxons upon its borders, it was unable to expand as did the Angle and Saxon powers, who could extend their territories at the expense of the Celts; and the Jutes, though the first to appear upon the scene, in the end play only a subordinate part. There is, however, one point in reference to them, which as having a possible bearing upon language, seems to call for notice. According to Bede their old home was to the north of the district occupied by the Angles, in the peninsula of Jutland. Jutland at a later time was Danish. The point to be considered, then, is whether the speech of the Jutes was a Scandinavian one. Now in the 9th century and later many Danes settled in England, and of their settlements left many evident marks in local names, e.g. in those which contain the termination by. If the language of the Jutes were very closely connected with that of the Danes, we might expect to find in the districts occupied by them similar traces; but Kent does not shew such names. We may suppose, then, that the language of the Jutes was nearer to that of the Saxons than to that of the Danes; so that the main dialects introduced into Britain by the immigrants were of the same division of the Teutonic stock, and between the various forms of speech there were no such great differences, as to make it probable that if a fusion of the several elements should be effected it would be (compare for instance the case of French and English after the Norman Conquest) at the expense of extensive change.

But the Teutonic speeches which had thus found a new home were not left long to develop under such influences alone

as had their sources within the island. Fifty years after (to use the expression of the Chronicle) 'Ida feng to rice,' the landing of Augustine took place, and with it began a period in which once more the language of Rome could influence language in Britain. To trace such influence will be the work of the following chapter.

CHAPTER V

The position of the Teutons in Britain secured before the end of the 6th century—the coming of Christianity to England spread—a measure of its influence on the language— learning in England before the end of the 8th century-libraries - learning among the Celts and its relation to the English-the decay of learning in the 9th century described by Alfred — his attempts to promote education—revival of learning in the 10th century - Dunstan - Ælfric-Latin charters absence of foreign material in the language before the Norman Conquest the larger knowledge of the English due to Christianity — the consequent change of the language.

The assured

Teutonic settlements in Britain in the 6th century.

1. It has been seen in the last chapter that before the end of the 6th century the eastern side of position of the Britain as far north as the Firth of Forth had been settled by Teutonic peoples, whose settlements, moreover, were so far secure, that the energies of the settlers were no longer absorbed by struggles with the original inhabitants of the island, but might be directed to the development of the several kingdoms within their own borders, or to conflicts between rival kingdoms. It was at the outset of this career of development that the influence of Christianity was brought to bear upon. the English.

2. The incident with which the story of the conversion of the English begins is quite in keeping with The coming of Christianity the character of the people. Not only was to England. the captive of another race (cf. wealh above)