[§ 17]. As this last objection impugns the evidence rather than the fact, the following question finds place:—
What were the Jutes of Germany? At present they are the natives of Jutland, and their language is Danish rather than German.
Neither is there reason to suppose that during the third and fourth centuries it was otherwise.
[§ 18]. This last circumstance detracts from the likelihood of the fact; since in no part of Kent, Sussex, Hants, nor even in the Isle of Wight—a likely place for a language to remain unchanged—have any traces of the old Jute been found.
[§ 19]. On the other hand the fact of Jutes, even though Danes, being members of a Germanic confederation is not only probable, but such was actually the case; at least for continental wars—subactis, cum Saxonibus, Euciis (Eutiis), qui se nobis (i.e., the Franks), propriâ voluntate tradiderunt ... usque in Oceani littoribus dominio nostro porrigitur.—Theodebert to the Emperor Justinian.—
"Quem Geta, Vasco tremunt, Danus, Eutheo,[[1]] Saxo, Britannus,
Cum patre quos acie te domitasse patet."
Venantius Fortunatus ad Chilpericum regem.[[2]]
[§ 20]. Inference.—Of the three following views—(1.) that the Jutes of Jutland in the fourth and fifth centuries spoke Saxon; (2.) that they spoke Danish at home, but lost their language after three or four centuries' residence in England; and (3.) that a later historian was induced by the similarity between the term Wiht-sætan, as applied to the people of the Isle of Wight, and Wit-land, as applied to Jutland, combined with the real probability of the fact supposed, to assume a Jute origin for the Saxons of the parts in question, the third is, in the mind of the present writer, the most probable.