Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Angles and Saxons

I recently googled the differences between Angles and Saxons.  We usually refer to both tribes in the same breath as "Anglo-Saxons," but they were separate groups, so there were presumably some differences, right?

Googling didn't help much, though.  The internet seems to think the two groups were basically identical.  And maybe they were.  I don't know.  I'm not a historian or an archaeologist.

What I did discover, though, was that the two tribes occupied different parts of continental Europe, though they were neighbors, and they settled different parts of Britain (though again ended up as neighbors).  Was one tribe chasing the other?  I don't know.  It's an interesting thought, though.  Maybe the Saxons found themselves squeezed between the Franks, Frisians, and Angles, so they got in their boats and headed for the frontier (which at the time was Britain, since the Romans had just pulled out, presumably leaving the place in some manner of disarray.)

We know the Angles and Saxons fought each other in Britain, so even if we don't view the two tribes as very different, they certainly felt otherwise.  

In modern England, there are definitely some cultural differences between East Anglia and southwestern England.  Do any of those differences have their roots in differences between Angles and Saxons?  If so, to what degree?  My guess is that most of those differences are the result of the Great Heathen Army establishing the Danelaw a few centuries later, but I don't actually know.

Anyway, it's an interesting topic.

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