EARLY B RI T AI N. NO O - L S AXO N B RIT A N. RA A G NT LLEN, B A . PUB LI S HED UNDER T HE DIRECT I ON O F T HE CO MM I TT EE O F G ENERA L L I T ERAT U RE A N D EDUCAT IO N A PPOIN TED B Y T HE S OC I ETY F OR PROM OT ING I K W’LE C HR S T I A N NO DG E . L O N D O N : 43 , QU VI CT I ST T EEN OR A REE , 26 S T . G G , S PL C HY P K C s EOR E A E , DE AR ORNER, . R : 3 T H ST T B IGHTON 35, NOR REE . N E W K : . 8: . B Y O R E J . Y O U N G 88 1 4 . PR E F A C E . THIS little book is an attempt to give a brief sketch o f Britain under the early English conquerors , rather c from the social than from the politi al point of View . For that purpose not much has been said about the doings of kings and statesmen ; but attention h as been m ainly directed towards the less obvious evi dence afforded us by existing monuments as t o the f of li e and mode of thought the people themselves . The principal obj ect throughout has been to estimate the importance of those elements in modern British life which are chiefl y due to purely English or Low Dutch influences . The original authorities m ost largely consulted “ all l Chro have been , first and above , the Eng ish ’ n and Re icle , to an almost equal extent, eda s “ ” Ecclesiastical History . These have been supple m ente d , where necessary , by Florence of Worcester and the other Latin writers of later date . I have not u of thought it needf l, however, to repeat any the l o f gossiping stories from Wi liam Malmesbury, Henry o f H and untingdon , their compeers , which make up the bulk o f our early history as told in most m l odern books . Sti l less have I paid any attention to o f . the romances of Geoffrey Monmouth Gildas, i PR E A v F CE . Nennius , and the other Welsh tracts have been l sparing y employed, and always with a reference by n A hi s ame . sser has been used with caution , where information seems t o be really contemporary . I have also derived some occasional hints from the old B eow u British bards , from Z/fl from the laws , and from “ ” icu e the charters in the Codex Diplom at s. Thes written documents have been helped out by some . personal study of the actual early English relics u preserved in various muse ms, and by the indirect l evidence of loca nomenclature . A acknowled mong modern books , I owe my g A . h . ments in the first and hig est degree to Dr. E h ow Freeman , from whose great and j ust authority, I n l f e ever, have occasio al y ventured to dif er in som minor matters . Next, my acknowledgments are due u to Canon St bbs , to Mr . Kemble, and to Mr. J . R . ’ l Green . Dr . Guest s v a uable papers in the Trans actions of the Arch aeological Institute have supplied u La n r ir many usef l suggestions . To pp e b e g and S Francis Palgrave I am also indebted for various ’ details . Professor Rolleston s contributions to ” Archaeol o ia A n g , as well as his ppendix to Cano ’ “ ” Greenwell s British Barrows , have been consulted for anthropological and antiquarian points 5 on which l A also Professor Hux ey and Mr . kerman have pub ’ lish ed useful papers . Professor Boyd Dawkins s “ w ll the work on Early Man in Britain , as e as writings of Worsaae and S teenstrup have helped i n elucidating the condition of the E nglish at the dat e u of the Conq est . Nor must I forget the aid derived PR EFAC E . v fi ’ “ from Mr. Isaac Taylor s Words and Places , from ’ “ h Professor Henry Morley s Englis Literature , and ’ “ ” l T o from Messrs . Haddan and Stubbs Counci s . — Mr . Gomme , Mr . E . B . Tylor, Mr. Sweet , Mr . l James Co lier, Dr. H . Leo , and perhaps others , I am under various obligations ; and if any acknowle dg u m ents have been overlooked , I trust the inj red per son will forgive me when I have had already t o quote so many authorities for so small a book . The p opu l ar character of the work renders it undesirable to load the pages with footnotes o f reference ; and scholars will generally see for themselves the source o f the information given in the text . l Mr Personal y, my thanks are due to my friend , . u York Powell , for much val able aid and assistance , ’ Mc lur and R e v . C e s to the E , one of the Society s ecretaries , for his kind revision of the volume in proof, and for several suggestions of which I have gladly availed myself. As various early English names and phrases occur throughout the book, it will be best, perhaps , to say few d r a a wor s about thei pronunci tion here , rather than t o leave over that subj ect to the chapter on the A - nglo Saxon language , near the close of the work . A few notes on this matter are therefore appended below . The simple vowels , as a rule, have their continental : a? ( i pronunciation , approximately thus as in father, ' a s a sk e t/zer e E men 2 ma r i ne in as in , as in as in , ” ‘ 2 t 5 noi e 5 net 2? ér w e as in fi ; as in , as in ; as in , ' as ail ? i n r zm " lzziése/z in f ; j as g (German) , j as in v hi E E PR FAC . f (German) . The quantity o the vowels is not m E . b u arked in this work is not a diphthong, t a a simple vowel sound , the same as our own short in ‘ ma n Z/za z E &C . d a . C , , is pronounced like y is w k i n al ays hard , like ; and g is also always hard, as be i n ne r . ve s g they must be pronounced like or j . The other consonants have the same values as i n or modern English . No vowel consonant is ever f l mute . Hence we get the o lowing approximate : f Elfred Z Eth elre d pronunciations and , as if written Al A l f Ethelstan fred and the red and Dunstan , as Ath el stahn Do onstahn O swine and Eadwine and , nearly as Y ahd-weena and O se -weena ; Wulfsige and Si eb erht - - a -a-b a rt C e olred g , as Wolf seeg and Seeg y l l - K - Ke o e iine f. e and Cynewu f, as red and wol Thes approximations look a little absurd when written down in the only modern phonetic equivalents ; but our own of that is the fault of existing spelling, not the early English names themselves . A G . - ANGLO SAXON BRIT AIN. A T CH P ER I . T HE O R IGIN OF T HE ENGLISH . AT a period earlier than the dawn of written history there lived somewhere among the great table -lands and plains of Central Asia a race known t o us only f A by the uncertain name o Aryans . These ryans were - - a fair skinned and well built people , long past the n con stage of aborigi al savagery , and possessed of a sid erabl e degree of primitive culture . Though mainly a pastoral in h bit , they were acquainted with tillage , and they grew for themselves at least one kind of cereal grain . They spoke a language whose existence ' and nature we infer from the remnants o f it which o f d survive in the tongues their escendants , and from to these remnants we are able judge, in some measure , o f their civilisation and their modes of thought . The indications thus preser ved for us show the Aryans t o have been a simple and fierce community of early a warriors , farmers , and shepherds , still in a parti lly nomad condition , living under a patriarchal rule, origin a of t n ally ignor nt all me als save gold , but possessi g B - R 2 ANGLO SAXON B ITAIN . w 1 eapons and implements of stone, and worshipping as t heir Chief god the open heaven . We must not regard them as an idyllic and peaceable people on the con t rar e y, they were the fiercest and most conquering trib o f e ver known . In mental power and in plasticity m t o anners , however, they probably rose far superior a n n y race then living, except o ly the Semitic nations o f the Mediterranean coast . A ‘ From the common Central sian home, colonies f A l o warlike ryans gradually dispersed themse ves , still - u of in the pre historic period, nder pressure population r l of o hosti e invasion , over many districts Europe and f A .