Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians.

* The Angles, who may have come from Angeln, and Bede wrote that their whole nation came to Britain, leaving their former land empty. The name 'England' (Anglo-Saxon 'Engla land' or 'Ængla land' originates from this tribe.

* The Saxons, from Lower Saxony (German: Niedersachsen, Germany)

* The Jutes, from the Jutland peninsula.

The Angles is a modern English word for a Germanic-speaking people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The Angles were one of the main groups that settled in Britain in the post-Roman period, founding several of the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England, and their name is the root of the name "England".

The Saxons (Latin: Saxones) were a confederation of Old Germanic tribes. Their modern-day descendants in Lower Saxony and Westphalia and other German states are considered ethnic Germans (the state of Sachsen is not inhabited by ethnic Saxons; the state of Sachsen-Anhalt though in its northern and western parts); those in the eastern Netherlands are considered to be ethnic Dutch; and those in Southern England ethnic English (see Anglo-Saxons). Their earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein. Saxons participated in the Germanic settlement of Britain during and after the 5th century. It is unknown how many migrated from the continent to Britain though estimates for the total number of Germanic settlers vary between 10,000 and 200,000.[1] Since the 18th century, many continental Saxons have settled other parts of the world, especially in North America, Australia, South Africa, and in areas of the former Soviet Union, where some communities still maintain parts of their cultural and linguistic heritage, often under the umbrella categories "German", and "Dutch".

The Jutes, Iuti, or Iutae were a Germanic people who, according to Bede, were one of the three most powerful Germanic peoples of their time. They are believed to have originated from Jutland (called Iutum in Latin) in modern Denmark, Southern Schleswig (South Jutland) and part of the East Frisian coast

The Frisians are an ethnic group of Germanic people living in coastal parts of The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany. They are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen and, in Germany, East Frisia and North Frisia. They inhabit an area known as Frisia. They have a reputation for being tall, big-boned and light-haired people and they have a rich history and folklore.

The Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians that migrated to Britain after the Roman occupation became known as the "English" and during modern times are referred to as "Anglo-Saxons". They mainly came from areas in and around the area of Holstein in modern Denmark.

The Anglo-Saxons had been raiding the coasts of Britain during the Roman occupation and it was because of this activity that the Romans constructed a network of large defensive forts called the Litora Saxonica or Saxon Shore. It wasn't until the Roman occupation ended around 450AD that the Anglo-Saxon migration to Britain started in earnest.

There were many possible reasons why these peoples left their homes to risk their lives sailing across rough seas in small boats to a foreign land:

• they may have been pushed out by other people moving in to their lands

• the lands may have not been as productive as they once were

• the population may have increased such that some had to move away

• armed war-bands may have been attacking their villages making people move to somewhere they thought was safer

• some people may have looked for trade or work in other lands

We do know that some Saxons were employed by the Britons as mercenaries to fight the Picts and other raiders, and we also know that trade existed between Britain and Europe. So it was probably a mix of all these reasons and maybe others; whatever they were, the "English" came to Britain, they stayed and they prospered.

The Early Anglo-Saxon buildings in Britain were simple timber constructions with thatched roofs. Saxon life was based around agriculture and there was a preference to settle in small towns away from the old Roman cities, each having a main hall surrounded by huts for the townsfolk to live in.

The Saxons were pagans worshiping many gods, not just one like the Christians did. In times of war they would make offerings to the God of War to help them win, they would make offerings to other gods to help with the harvest and to bring them good fortune elsewhere. There were religious festivals at various times of the year to honour their gods and to make offerings to them. The Saxons generally converted to Christianity during the 6th, 7th and 8th centuries, but there was resistance to this, especially from the middle classes, who resented the Christian influence on the Saxon nobility.

The Anglo-Saxon army was know as the Fyrd, which was comprised of men who were called up to fight for the king in times of danger.

The Fyrd was led by the nobles called Thegns who were well armed with swords and spears but the rest of the Fyrd were armed only with weapons such as farm implements, clubs and slings.

The later Anglo-Saxon army included a class of professional soldiers called Huscarls (Household troops) that were loyal to the King or Earl.

The early religion was pagan based on the worship of a number of gods similar to that of the northern Europeans. Organised Christianity later replaced paganism and led to the establishment of a unified Church based on the Roman model.

57. Paganism vs Christianity in OG ethnic communities.

 

Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples of north-western Europe from the Iron Age up until their Christianization during the medieval. It has been described as being "a system of interlocking and closely related religious worldviews and practices rather than as one indivisible religion" and consisted of "individual worshippers, family traditions and regional cults".

Germanic paganism took various different forms in each different area of the Germanic world. The best documented version was that of 10th and 11th century Norse paganism, although other information can be found from Anglo-Saxon and Continental Germanic sources. Scattered references are also found in the earliest writings of other Germanic peoples and Roman descriptions. The information can be supplied by archaeological finds and remains of pre-Christian beliefs in later folklore.

Germanic paganism was polytheistic, revolving around the veneration of various deities. Some deities were worshipped widely across the Germanic lands, but under different names. Other deities were simply local to a specific locality, and are mentioned in both Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic texts, in the latter of which they are described as being "the land spirits that live in this land".

• Teiwaz, god of war, "Germanic Mars", Norse Tyr, Old English Tiw, Old High German Ziu, continues Indo-European Dyeus.
• Wōdanaz, "lord of poetic/mantic inspiration", "Germanic Mercury", Norse Óðinn (Odin), Old English Woden, Old High German Wuotan.
• Frijjō, wife of Wodanaz, Norse Frigg. "wife", c.f. Sanskrit priyā "mistress, wife". Probably also addressed as Frawjō "lady" (Norse Freya).
• Fraujaz. "lord", c.f. Norse Freyr
• Þunraz, "thunder", "Germanic Jupiter", Norse Þórr (Thor), West Germanic Donar, Old English Thunor.
• possibly Austrō, goddess of dawn and springime.

Heavenly bodies may have been deified, including Sowilo the Sun, Mænon the Moon, and perhaps Auziwandilaz the evening star.

At their sacred sites, Germanic pagans widely practiced ritual sacrifice to their deities. This was often in the form of a blood sacrifice such as that of an animal, but also sometimes that of a human being.

 

The Germanic people underwent gradual Christianization in the course of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. By the 8th century, England and the Frankish Empire were (officially) Christian, and by AD 1100 Germanic paganism had also ceased to have political influence in Scandinavia.

In the 4th century, the early process of Christianization of the various Germanic people was partly facilitated by the prestige of the Christian Roman Empire amongst European pagans. Until the decline of the Roman Empire, the Germanic tribes who had migrated there (with the exceptions of the Saxons, Franks, and Lombards, see below) had converted to Christianity.^[1] Many of them, notably the Goths and Vandals, adopted Arianism instead of the Trinitarian beliefs that came to dominate the Roman Imperial Church.^[1] The gradual rise of Germanic Christianity was, at times, voluntary, particularly amongst groups associated with the Roman Empire. From the 6th century, Germanic tribes were converted (and re-converted) by missionaries of the Roman Catholic Church.

Many Goths converted to Christianity as individuals outside the Roman Empire. Most members of other tribes converted to Christianity when their respective tribes settled within the Empire, and most Franks and Anglo-Saxons converted a few generations later. During the later centuries following the Fall of Rome, as the Roman Church gradually split between the dioceses loyal to the Patriarch of Rome in the West and those loyal to the other Patriarchs in the East, most of the Germanic peoples (excepting the Crimean Goths and a few other eastern groups) would gradually become strongly allied with the Western Church, particularly as a result of the reign of Charlemagne.

Unlike the history of Christianity in the Roman Empire, conversion of the Germanic tribes in general took place "top to bottom", in the sense that missionaries aimed at converting Germanic nobility first, which would then impose their new faith on the general population: This is connected with the sacral position of the king in Germanic paganism: the king is charged with interacting with the divine on behalf of his people, so that the general population saw nothing wrong with their kings choosing their preferred mode of worship.

Consequently, Christianity had to be made palatable to these Migration Age warlords as a heroic religion of conquerors, a rather straightforward task, considering the military splendour of the Roman Empire.

Thus early Germanic Christianity was presented as an alternative to native Germanic paganism and elements were syncretized, for examples parallels between Woden and Christ. A fine illustration of these tendencies is the Anglo-Saxon poem Dream of the Rood, where Jesus is cast in the heroic model of a Germanic warrior, who faces his death unflinchingly and even eagerly. The Cross, speaking as if it were a member of Christ's band of retainers, accepts its fate as it watches its Creator die, and then explains that Christ's death was not a defeat but a victory. This is in direct correspondence to the Germanic pagan ideals of fealty to one's lord.

 

58. = 50.