[§ 21]. It has already been stated that concerning the Angles and Saxons, no reasonable man will put the question which was put in respect to the Jutes, viz., had they any real place among the Germanic invaders of England? Respecting, however, their relations to each other, and their respective geographical localities whilst occupants of Germany, anterior to
their immigration into Britain, there is much that requires investigation. What were the Saxons of Germany—what the Angles?
[§ 22]. Difficulties respecting the identification of the Saxons.—There are two senses of the word Saxon, one of which causes difficulty by being too limited; the other by being too wide.
a. The limited sense of the word Saxon.—This is what we get from Ptolemy, the first author who names the Saxons, and who gives them a limited locality at the mouth of the Elbe, bounded by the Sigulones, the Sabalingi, the Kobandi, the Chali, the Phundusii, the Harudes, and other tribes of the Cimbric Peninsula, of which the Saxons just occupied the neck, and three small islands opposite—probably Fohr, Sylt, and Nordstand.
Now a sense of the word Saxon thus limited, would restrict the joint conquerors of Britain to the small area comprized between the Elbe and Eyder, of which they do not seem even to have held the whole.
b. The wide sense of the word Saxon.—The reader need scarcely be reminded that the present kingdom of Saxony is as far inland as the northern frontier of Bohemia. Laying this, however, out of the question, as the effect of an extension subsequent to the invasion of Britain, we still find Saxons in ancient Hanover, ancient Oldenburg, ancient Westphalia, and (speaking roughly) over the greater part of the country drained by the Weser, and of the area inclosed by the eastern feeders of the Lower Rhine, the Elbe, and the range of the Hartz.
Now as it is not likely that the limited Saxon area of Ptolemy should have supplied the whole of our Saxon population, so on the other hand, it is certain, that of a considerable portion of the Saxon area in its wider extent tribes other than the Saxons of England, were occupants.
[§ 23]. Difficulties respecting the word Angle.—The reader is referred to an extract from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in [§ 16], where it is stated, that "from the Angles' land (which has since always stood waste betwixt the Jutes and the
Saxons) came the East-Angles, Middle-Angles, Mercians, and all the Northumbrians."
Thus to bring the great Angle population from an area no larger than the county of Rutland, is an objection—but it is not the chief one.