[§ 12]. Putting these facts together I adopt the evidence of Asser as to the Gwithware being British, and consider them as simple Vecti-colæ, or inhabitants of the Isle of Wight. They are also the Vectuarii of Beda, the Wihtware of the Saxon Chronicle, and the Wihtsætan of Alfred.
The Jutes of Hampshire—i.e., the "Jutarum natio—posita contra ipsam insulam Vectam," and the Jutnacyn, I consider to have been the same; except that they had left the Isle of Wight to settle on the opposite coast; probably flying before their German conquerors, in which case they would be the exules of Asser.
The statement of Beda, so opposed to that of Asser, I explain by supposing that it arose out of an inaccurate inference drawn from the similarity of the names of the Isle of Wight and the peninsula of Jutland, since we have seen that in both cases, there was a similar confusion between the syllables Jut- and Vit-. This is an error into which even a careful writer might fall. That Beda had no authentic historical accounts of the conquest of Britain, we know from his own statements in the Preface to his Ecclesiastical History,[[14]] and that he
partially tried to make up for the want of them by inference is exceedingly likely. If so, what would be more natural than for him to conclude that Jutes as well as Angles helped to subdue the country. The fact itself was probable; besides which he saw at one and the same time, in England Vitæ (called also Jutæ), in immediate contact with Saxons,[[26]] and on the continent Jutæ (called also Vitæ) in the neighborhood of Angles[[27]] and Saxons. Is it surprising that he should connect them?
[§ 13]. If the inhabitants of the Isle of Wight were really Jutes from Jutland, it is strange that there should be no traces of the difference which existed, then as now, between them and the proper Anglo-Saxons—a difference which was neither inconsiderable nor of a fleeting nature.
The present Jutlanders are not Germans but Danes, and the Jutes of the time of Beda were most probably the same. Those of the 11th century were certainly so, "Primi ad ostium Baltici Sinus in australi ripa versus nos Dani, quos Juthas appellant, usque ad Sliam lacum habitant." Adamus Bremensis,[[15]] "De Situ Daniæ" c. 221. Also, "Et prima pars Daniæ, quæ Jutland dicitur, ad Egdoram[[28]] in Boream longitudine pretenditur ... in eum angulum qui Windila dicitur, ubi Jutland finem habet," c. 208.
At the time of Beda they must, according to the received traditions, have been nearly 300 years in possession of the Isle of Wight, a locality as favourable for the preservation of their peculiar manners and customs as any in Great Britain, and a locality wherein we have no evidence of their ever having been disturbed. Nevertheless, neither trace nor shadow of a trace, either
in early or modern times, has ever been discovered of their separate nationality and language; a fact which stands in remarkable contrast with the very numerous traces which the Danes of the 9th and 10th century left behind them as evidence of their occupancy.
[§ 14]. The words England and English are derived from the Angles of Beda. The words Sussex, Essex, Middlesex and Wessex, from his Saxons. No objection lies against this; indeed to deny that populations called Angle and Saxon occupied England and spoke the Anglo-Saxon language would display an unnecessary and unhealthy scepticism. The real question concerning these two words consists in the relation which the populations to which they were applied bore to each other. And this question is a difficult one. Did the Angles speak one language, whilst the Saxons spoke another? or did they both speak dialects of the same tongue? Were these dialects slightly or widely different? Can we find traces of the difference in any of the present provincial dialects? Are the idioms of one country of Angle, whilst those of another are of Saxon origin? Was the Angle more like the Danish language, whilst the Saxon approached the Dutch? None of these questions can be answered at present. They have, however, been asked for the sake of exhibiting the nature of the subject.
[§ 15]. The extract from Beda requires further remarks.