[§ 16]. The Jutes.—Were any of the German immigrants Jutes? If so, what were their relations to the other German tribes?

a. Were there Jutes in England? That there was a Jute element in England is to be maintained, not upon the tradition that one of the three ships of Hengist and Horsa was manned by Jutes, but from the following extract from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:—

"Of Jotum comon Cantware and Wihtware, þæt is seo mæiað, þe nú eardaþ on Wiht, and þæt cynn on West-Sexum ðe man gyt hæt Iútnacynn. Of Eald-Seaxum comon Eást-Seaxan, and Suð-Seaxan, and West-Seaxan. Of Angle comon (se á siððan stód westig betwix Iútum and Seaxum) Eást-Engle, Middel-Angle, Mearce, and ealle Norðymbra." From the Jutes came the inhabitants of Kent and of Wight, that is, the race that now dwells in Wight, and that tribe amongst the West-Saxons which is yet called the Jute tribe. From the Old-Saxons came the East-Saxons, and South-Saxons, and West-Saxons. From the Angles Land (which has since always stood waste betwixt the Jutes and Saxons) came the East-Angles, Middle-Angles, Mercians, and all the Northumbrians.

Here the words gyt hæt Iútnacynn constitute cotemporary evidence.

Still there is a flaw in it; since it is quite possible that the term Iútnacynn may have been no true denomination of a section of the Germans of England, but only the synonym of a different word, Wiht-sætan. Alfred writes—comon hi of þrym folcum þam strangestan Germaniæ; þæt of Seaxum, and of Angle, and of Geatum. Of Geatum fruman sindon Cantware and Wiht-sætan, þæt is seo þeód se Wiht þæt ealond on eardað—they came of three folk, the strongest of Germany; that of Saxons and of Angles, and of Geats. Of Geats originally are the Kent people and Wiht-set; that is the people which Wiht the Island live on.

This changes the reasoning, and leads us to the following facts.

a. The word in question is a compound=Wight=the name of the isle, + sætan=people; as Somer-set, and Dor-set.

b. The peninsula Jut-land was also called Vit-land, or With-land.

c. The wiht- in Wiht-sætan is, undoubtedly, no such element as the vit- in Vit-land=Jut-land; since it represents the older Celtic term, known to us in the Romanized form Vectis.

Putting all this together, it becomes possible (nay probable) that the whole doctrine of a Jute element in the Anglo-Saxon migration may have arisen out of the fact of there being a portion of the people of Southern England neighbours of the Saxons, and bearing the name Wiht-sætan; a fact which, taken along with the juxtaposition of the Vit-landers (Jut-landers) and Saxons on the Continent, suggested to the writers of a long later age the doctrine of a Jute migration.