[§ 24]. Respecting the Saxon of England and the
Saxon of the Continent, it is a fact that, whilst we have a full literature in the former, we have but fragmentary specimens of the latter—these being chiefly the following: (1) the Heliand,[[20]] (2) Hildubrand and Hathubrant,[[21]] (3) the Carolinian Psalms.[[22]]
[§ 25]. The preceding points have been predicated respecting the difference between the two ascertained Saxon dialects, for the sake of preparing the reader for the names by which they are known.
| THE SAXON OF THE CONTINENT MAY BE CALLED | THE SAXON OF ENGLAND MAY BE CALLED |
| 1. Continental Saxon. | Insular Saxon. |
| 2. German Saxon. | English Saxon. |
| 3. Westphalian Saxon. | Hanoverian Saxon. |
| 4. South Saxon. | North Saxon. |
| 5. Cheruscan Saxon. | Angle Saxon. |
| 6. Saxon of the Heliand. | Saxon of Beowulf.[[23]] |
[§ 26]. The Saxon of England is called Anglo-Saxon; a term against which no exception can be raised.
[§ 27]. The Saxon of the Continent used to be called Dano-Saxon, and is called Old Saxon.
[§ 28]. Why called Dano-Saxon.—When the poem called Heliand was first discovered in an English library, the difference in language between it and the common Anglo-Saxon composition was accounted for by the assumption of a Danish intermixture.
[§ 29]. Why called Old Saxon. When the Continental origin of the Heliand was recognised, the language was called Old Saxon, because it represented the Saxon of the mother-country, the natives of which were called Old Saxons by the Anglo-Saxons themselves. Still the term is exceptionable; as the Saxon of the Heliand is probably a sister-dialect of the Anglo-Saxon, rather than the Anglo-Saxon itself in a Continental locality. Exceptionable, however, as it is, it will be employed.