Now there is a certain amount of statements to this very effect, viz., to the Welsh origin of the Armorican. Let them be examined.
Gildas, who mentions the rebellion of Maximus, says nothing of any British migration to Brittany.
Nennius gives us an account beset with inaccuracies, being to the effect that Maximus the[223] seventh imperator in Britain, left the island with all the British soldiers it contained, killed Gratian King of Rome, and held rule over all Europe; that he would not dismiss the soldiers who went with him, but gave them lands in Armorica or the country over-sea (Ar-mor-); that, then and there, these soldiers of Maximus slaughtered all the males, married the females, and cut out their tongues lest the children should learn the language of their parents instead of that of their conquerors. For this reason we call them Letewicion, or, half-silent (semi-tacentes). Thus was Brittany peopled, and Britain emptied; so that strangers took possession of it.
Beda's account is equally unsatisfactory. The Britons were the first who came into the island, and they came from Armorica. It was from Armorica that they came, it was in the south of England that they landed, and it was they who gave the name to the island.
Now there is an error somewhere—if not in Beda, in Nennius; if not in Nennius, in Beda.
Traditions are uniform, inferences vary; and when Nennius brings his Armoricans from Cornwall, and Beda his Cornishmen from Armorica, we have a presumption against a tradition being the basis of their statements. The real basis was the existence of the British language on both sides of the Channel, a fact which being differently[224] interpreted by the different writers gave us two separate and contradictory inferences—each legitimate, and each (for want of further data) wrong.
The present similarity, then, between the Welsh and Armorican remains unaffected by the statements of Beda and Nennius; and the commonsense inference as to the latter language representing the ancient Gallic takes its course.
V.
The Belgæ were Kelts of the British branch.
This implies an objection to all the arguments in favour of a Germanic population occupant of Britain anterior to the Christian era, which are based on the name Belgæ. (See pp. [61-75].)