The ancient tribes of Normandy were Celtic. Hence, when the third element of the present Norman population was introduced, all that was not Italian was Welsh—just as it was in Picardy and Orleans, and just as it was not in Gascony and Poitou. There the old element was Iberic.
The third element—just alluded to—was Germanic; Germanic of different kinds, but chiefly Frank or Burgundian.
The fourth great element was the Norse or Scandinavian; introduced by the so-called Sea-kings of Denmark and Norway in the ninth and tenth centuries. These, as the empire of Charlemagne declined, insulted and dismembered it. They converted Neustria in Normandy=the country of the Northmen. The exact amount of their influence has not been ascertained; nor is[32] the investigation easy. The process, however, by which we measured the original extent of the Frisian area is applicable to that of the Northmen. There are Norse names for French localities. Of these the most important are the compounds of -tot, -fleur, and -bec; like Yve-tot, Har-fleur, and Caude-bec.
| French. | Norse. | English. |
| -tot | toft | village. |
| -fleur | flöt | stream. |
| -bec | beck | brook.[11] |
Names of places thus ending are almost exclusively limited to Normandy; occurring, even there, most numerously within a few miles of either the sea or the Seine.
Furthermore, there is a fresh element suggested by a term of the "Notitia Utriusque Imperii," a document of the latter end of the fourth century. This is Litus Saxonicum per Britannias, a tract extending from the Wash to Portsmouth. Now the opposite shore of the continent was a litus Saxonicum also; within which lay Normandy. I believe that these Saxons were part of the same branch of Germans which invaded England; in other words, that portions of France, like portions of England, were Anglicized; the two processes differing in respect to their extent and duration. What was general and permanent on[33] the island, was partial and temporary on the continent. That there were Saxons at Bayeux in the tenth century is asserted by express evidence.
Taking in the account the preceding invasions, and remembering that, both from Germany and Italy, Normandy is one of the most distant of the French provinces, we arrive at the following analysis.
The Channel Islanders are what the Normans are.
The Normans are Romanized Celts; the Roman element being somewhat less than it is elsewhere.
The Frank and Burgundian elements are also less.