Saxons

gigatos | June 23, 2022

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Summary

The Saxons (Latin: Saxones, Old English: Seaxe, Old Saxon: Sahson, Low German: Sassen, German Sachsen) were a confederation of Germanic tribes that were located on the North German Lowlands during the late Roman and early Middle Ages. The vast majority of the Saxons remained in what is now Germany and resisted the expanding Frankish Empire through the leadership of the semi-legendary Saxon hero Widukind. The earliest settlement area of the Saxons was probably northern Albany. Their area covered about the size of what is today southern Schleswig-Holstein. This area is usually also seen as the habitat of the Angles.

Some of the Saxons, along with the Angles and other continental Germanic tribes, participated in Anglo-Saxon settlement in Britain from the 5th century onward. The Brythonic-Celtic population collectively called all these groups Saxons. It is not known exactly how large their numbers were, although it is estimated that about two hundred thousand Anglo-Saxons made the crossing to the island of Britain. In the Middle Ages, the Saxons exerted considerable influence on the languages and cultures of northern Germanic, Baltic, Finnish, Polabian, and Pomeranian (West Slavic) peoples.

The Saxons probably derived their name from a particular type of knife or sword they were known for, the sax. The sax still has symbolic meaning in English counties such as Essex and Middlesex. Both still have three saxes on their ceremonial emblem. Saxnôt was the Saxon god of war and justice, compared to the Roman god of war Mars and the Germanic Týr

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Saxon as an ethnonym for English

In the Celtic languages, the word for English nationality is derived from Latin Saxones. The prime example of this is Scottish Gaelic Sassenach, which is often used (kindly) mockingly in Scots and English.

The first documented use of the word in English is in 1771, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. In Scottish Gaelic, England is Sasainn.

The Irish Sasana, Sasanach (Englishman) has the same derivation, as do the Welsh words for Englishman (Saeson, sing, Sais), Saesneg (the English language), and anything English in general.

In Cornish, English is indicated by Sawsnek, and Sawson (the English people) from the same derivation, in Breton by saoz(on), Saozneg (the English language), Bro-saoz (England).

Romance languages

The designation Sasi (Romanian for Saxon) was also applied to the Sevenburg Saxons, German migrants who settled in southeastern Transylvania in the 13th century. From Transylvania, some of these Saxons moved on to Moldova, as the name of a town there indicates: Sascut.

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Baltic languages

Over the centuries, the Finns and Estonians have changed their use of the term Saxony to now refer to all of Germany (Saksa and Saksamaa) and Germans (Saksalaiset and sakslasad). The Finnish word sakset for scissors shows a connection to the Saxon sword, the sax. In Estonian, saks means a nobleman or other person of high status. As a result of the Northern Crusades, from the Middle Ages and into the 20th century the upper class of Estonia consisted mainly of people of German descent.

Saxony as a toponym

After the downfall of Henry the Lion and the subsequent division of the Duchy of Saxony into several territories, the name of the tribal duchy was changed to the lands of the Ascans. This created a distinction between Lower Saxony, the area occupied by the Saxon tribe, and Upper Saxony, the area belonging to the Wettin family. Thus, when the word Opper disappeared from Oppersaksen, another area had acquired the Saxon name, essentially changing the original meaning of the word.

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Early history

The Saxons were first mentioned probably in the 2nd century AD in the Geographia of Claudius Ptolemy. Some editions of this writing mention a tribe of Saxones in the area north of the lower Elbe River. In other editions, the same tribe is called Axones. Possibly this is a misspelling of Aviones, a tribe described by Tacitus in his work De origine et situ Germanorum. According to this hypothesis, the name Saxones was an attempt by later writers to improve on a name that meant nothing to them. On the other hand, Schütte stated in his work Ptolemy”s Maps of Northern Europe that Saxones is the correct spelling and he argued that the first letter of words is often omitted in Ptolemaic works.

Schütte also notes that the habitat of the Saxons in the Middle Ages was often called Old Saxony.

The first time it is undisputed that the Saxon name was mentioned was in 356, when Emperor Julian mentioned the Saxons as allies of a rival emperor named Magnentius in Gaul. Zosimus also mentioned a separate tribe of Saxons called the Kouadoi (“Quadi”), by which he may have meant the Chamavi or Chauken. This tribe crossed the Rhine and drove out the Salian Franks who were based in Batavia, causing some of the Salians to enter the territory of the Toxandrians, with the support of Emperor Julian. As a defense against the Saxon plunderers, the Romans erected a defensive line on both sides of the English Channel, called Litus Saxonicum or Saxon Coast.

In 441-442, the Saxons first appear as inhabitants of Britain, when they are mentioned by an unknown Gallic writer with the phrase “The Saxons now rule Britannia.”

Saxons are first mentioned as inhabitants of northern Germany in the year 555 when Theudowald, the Frankish king, died and the Saxons saw the opportunity for a revolt. The revolt was put down by Chlotarius I, Theudowald”s successor.Some of his successors fought the Saxons, others were their allies. Chlotharius II eventually won a decisive battle against them.

The Thuringians often emerged as reliable allies of the Saxons.

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Lower Saxony

The Saxons who lived in the area of present-day Lower Saxony seem to have united at the end of the 8th century. From the 7th century a political unity developed, from which the Duchy of Saxony emerged after 804.

The Saxons long resisted Christianization and domination by the Frankish Empire. They were finally subdued by Charlemagne in the Saxon Wars (772 – 804). After the conquest, forced conversion to the Christian faith followed and they became part of the Frankish Empire. Their sacred tree (or pillar), the Irminsul was destroyed. Also, 10,000 Saxons (Kreis Oost-Holstein) were deported to Neustria and their arable land was given to the loyal king of the Slavic Abodrites. Einhard, the biographer of Charlemagne wrote after the end of this great conflict:

This war, which had lasted so long, ended with the submission to the conditions set by the King, namely the renunciation of their national religious customs and the worship of devils and acceptance of the gospel of Christianity and union with the Franks to form one nation.

Under the rule of the Carolingians, the Saxons were forced to give gifts to their rulers. According to some sources, both the Saxons and the Slavic Sorbs and Abodrites often supplied the Carolingians with troops. The Dukes of Saxony became kings (Henry the Vogelaar) and later in the 10th century, they became the first emperors of Germany (Henry”s son, Emperor Otto I the Great), although they lost this position again in 1024. The tribal duchy was split when Henry the Lion, Emperor Otto”s grandson, refused to go to war with his cousin Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa in the war in Lombardy.

During the high Middle Ages, under the rule of the Salian dynasty and later under the Teutonic Order, many people from the German area moved east across the Saale River, the territory of the Sorbs. This people was slowly Germanized as a result. The area in which this people lived was known as the Margravate of Meißen. The rulers of Meißen obtained dominion over the Duchy of Saxony in 1423 and eventually used the name Saxony for their entire kingdom. To this day, this area of eastern Germany has the name Saxony, which sometimes causes confusion about the original habitat of the Saxons.

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Netherlands

In the Netherlands the Saxons inhabited the area south of the Frisians and north of the Franks. In the west their habitat extended roughly to the Gooi and in the south to the Rhine. Lower Saxon dialects are still spoken here, which in turn are descended from Old Saxon. However, the area came under Frankish rule early on. After the rule of Charlemagne, it formed the core area of the Archdiocese of Utrecht.

Italy and Provence

In 569 part of the Saxons accompanied the Lombards, led by Alboin, towards Italy and settled there. In 572 they went on a raid through southwestern Gaul, about as far as Stablo, now Estoublon. Because the Saxons went to war very divided, they were easily defeated by the Gallic-Frankish general Eunius Mummolus.

When the Saxons regrouped, a peace treaty was signed, allowing the Italian Saxons to settle in Austrasia with their families. In 573, these Saxons left Italy, divided into two groups. One group moved via Nice, while the other took the road past Embrun. They united again at Avignon, where they then plundered the area. For this reason, the Saxons were stopped by Mummolus. Before they could cross the Rhone, into Austrasia, they were forced to pay compensation for what they had plundered.

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Gaul

In the year 463, a Saxon king named Adovacrius conquered the city of Angers, after which he was immediately driven out again by Childeric I and his Salian Franks, allies of the Roman Empire. It is possible that the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain began in response to Frankish expansion along the coast of continental Europe. Saxons had lived in this area for some time, for which there is evidence not only in documents but also in the archaeology and toponymy of the area.

The Notitia dignitatum tells of a town called Grannona where Saxon laeti were located. It is uncertain exactly where Grannona was located and several options are possible, such as Granville in Normandy or Graignes. Some historians have suggested that the same element gran- in Grannona can be recognized in Guernsey. This location is closer to Bayeux, where, according to Gregory of Tours, a group of Saxons was defeated in 579 by Waroch II, a Breton warlord. We know that a Saxon unit of laeti was stationed at Bayeux, the Saxones Baiocassenses This was subdued by Clovis I in the 5th century. The Saxons of Bayeux formed a full army and were often called upon to fight alongside local conscripts in Merovingian war campaigns. Although they had been defeated by Waroch II”s Bretons in 579, in 589 they were ordered by Fredegonde to wear their hair according to Breton tradition and go to war with them against Gontram, king of Burgundy. From 626, the Saxons of Bayeux were employed by Dagobert I against the Basques and even one of them, named Aeghyna, was proclaimed Duke of Vasconia.

In 843 and 846 other official documents mention a pagus called Otlinga Saxonia near the Bessin, it is just not clear what is meant by Otlinga. Several place names are recognized in the Bessin region that can be characterized as typically Saxon. One example is Cottun (Coltun 1035 – 1037 Cola”s town). This is the only place name in Normandy that ends with -tun” and this can perhaps be compared to villages in Boulonnais, northern France, that end in -thun such as Alincthun, Verlincthun, Pelingthun, etc indicating a Saxon or Anglo-Saxon habitation.

If we consider the concentration of villages with -ham

However, the examples from the Bessin pretty much indicate a Saxon origin, such as Ouistreham (Hubba ”s “home”), Surrain (Surrehain 11th century), etc. Another important indication is found in Norman surnames, such as the common name Lecesne with different spellings: Le Cesne, Lesène, Lecène and Cesne. This name comes from the Gallo-Roman saxinu, “The Saxon” > saisne in Old French. These examples cannot be of later Anglo-Scandinavian origin, as there would have to be numerous examples from the Norman areas (pays de Caux, Basse-Seine, North-Cotentin). Ancillary to this is that the Bessin was not among the pagi that experienced extensive Anglo-Scandinavian immigration.

This evidence is further supported by an amount of archaeology in the area of Cain and de Bessin (Bénouville, Giverville, Hérouvillette) where numerous excavations have been carried out finding Anglo-Saxon jewelry, weapons and ornaments. All these objects were found in graves dating back to the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries.

The oldest and most startling Saxon excavation in France is that at Vron in Picardy. Here a number of tombs were found from the time of the Roman Empire to the 6th century. Using both grave goods and human remains from the 5th century, a group of people was identified who were morphologically different from the usual inhabitants of this area before the 5th century. This group of people bore a considerable resemblance to Germanic populations from the north.

All this evidence from archaeology, toponymy and writings points to the same conclusion: settlement of Saxon foederati and their families. Further anthropological research by Joël Blondiaux has shown that this group of people came from Lower Saxony.

Britain

At about the same time that Roman authority in Britannia was falling away, the inhabitants were facing an onslaught (or migration wave) of Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians crossing from mainland Europe. The Saxons had been regularly plundering the coasts of Britannia for an extended period before this event, which had prompted the building of a complex of fortifications called the Litus Saxonicum or Saxon Coast. Also, with the permission of the Roman Empire, many Saxons and other groups of people had already been established as farmers on the British island.

Tradition has it that the Saxons and other tribes were the first to arrive on the island as part of an agreement to protect the British from raids by the Picts, Goidels and other tribes. Sources such as the Historia Britonum and Gildas describe how British King Vortigern allowed two Germanic warlords, called Hengest and Horsa by the 8th-century historian Beda, to settle with their people on the Isle of Thanet in exchange for their service as mercenaries. According to Beda, Hengist eventually managed to manipulate Vortigem into granting him more land to bring his people over, thus laying the groundwork for Germanic settlement in Britain.

Historians are divided on how the Germanic people settled in Britain, some suggesting that it was a peaceful takeover, although there is only one testimony from a Briton who lived at about this time in the 5th century. This testimony tells of a hostile takeover of the island:

For the fire…spread from sea to sea, fed by our enemies from the east, raged on, destroying neighboring villages and lands, until it reached the other side of the island and dipped its fierce and fiery tongue into the western sea. In this attack, every pillar was razed to the ground, by the rhythmic stroke of the battering ram, all the landlords fled, together with their bishops, priests, and people, while the sword twinkled, and the flames crackled all around them. How lamentable a sight, of streets buried beneath the tops of lofty towers, fallen to the ground, stones from the highest walls, sacred altars, and parts of human bodies, covered by wrothy rags of clotted blood, as if they had been pressed together by a press buried only under the ruins of their houses, or swallowed up in the greedy stomachs of wild beasts and birds, with reverence will be spoken of their blessed souls, if many of them were found in that moment, and carried on the wings of holy angels, to the high heavens. .. Some, therefore, were taken to the mountains and murdered in great numbers. Others, compelled by famine, came and gave themselves up to serve as slaves to their enemies for ever, with the chance of being instantly put to death, which could most certainly be the greatest favor offered to them. Still others disappeared beyond the seas with loud wailing, rather than with the voice of rebuke. Others protected their lives, which were in constant danger, in the mountains, among cliffs, or in the dense forests, and, though with shuddering hearts, remained in their own country.

After this, Gildas describes how the Saxons were massacred at the Battle of Mons Badonicus, 44 years before he writes his testimony, after which Britain returned to Romano-British rule. In this, Beda contradicts him. Indeed, Beda writes that after the battle of Mons Badonicus, the expeditions of both the Saxons and the Jutes and Angles continued, and the entire southeast of Britain was soon overrun by Germanic tribes, laying the foundation for the founding of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

Four autonomous Saxon kingdoms emerged:

Under the reigns of Egbert of Wessex to Alfred the Great, the kings of Wessex were elevated to Bretwalda, united the land, and eventually formed the kingdom of England under threat of invasion by the Vikings.

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Social structure

Beda, a writer from Northumbria, noted in his writings around 730 that “the ancient (i.e. continental) Saxons had no king, but were governed by several ealdormans, who in times of peace were equal in power, but in times of war chose their leader by lot.” The territory of the Saxons consisted of about one hundred pagi or folds divided into three provinces: Westphalia, Eastphalia and Engern. Each fold had its own leader, who had enough military power to destroy entire villages that opposed him.

Their unusual society was governed by the Lex Saxonum. It was not allowed to marry outside one”s own rank, and wergelds had been established depending on which rank one belonged to. For instance, the edhilingui were worth 1440 solidi (about 700 pieces of cattle). This was six times as much as the frillingi and eight times as much as the lazzi. The gap between noble and non- noble was enormous, while the difference between a free man and a bonded laborer was relatively small.

According to the Vita Lebuini antiqua, an important source for early Saxon history, the Saxons held an annual meeting at a place called Marklo, the exact location of which is uncertain. Here, as it says in the Vita Lebuini, they “confirmed their laws, adjudicated open issues, and decided whether to remain at peace that year or make war through a common council.” All walks of life were represented in this council by twelve members of each walk of life from each district. In 782 Charlemagne abolished the guild system and replaced it with a system of counties. Charlemagne banned the assemblies at Marklo, thus excluding the frilingi and lazzi from political power. The old Saxon system of Abgabengrundherrschaft, a system based on reciprocity and taxes gave way to a feudal system based on services and labor, personal relationships and oaths.

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Religion

The religious practice of the Saxons (Old Saxon religion) was closely linked to their political system. Their annual assembly began with the invocation of the gods, and the way in which dukes were appointed by lot is also seen as an act of religious significance. Such a draw was seen as handing over an important decision to divine providence. There were also rituals and objects of spiritual value, such as the pillars that the Saxons called Irminsul. These beacons were seen as a link between the afterlife and the material world. Near the fortress of Eresburg (on the Obermarsberg), one of these pillars was razed to the ground by Charlemagne in 772.

Some remnants of early Saxon religion can be seen in Britain through place names and the Germanic calendar used during this period. The traditional Germanic gods, Wodan, Frigg, Týr (Saxnôt with the Saxons) and Thunor were worshipped in Wessex, Sussex and Essex. Although these are the only deities we know for certain that they were worshipped here, the third and fourth months of the Old English calendar (March and April) bear the names Hrethmonath and Eosturmonath, “month of Hretha” and “month of Ostara,” respectively, probably the names of two goddesses who were worshipped in these months. In the month of February (Solmonath) the Saxons had the tradition of sacrificing cakes to their gods, also in September (“holy month” or “month of gifts”) they had a religious festival dedicated to the harvest.

The Saxon calendar began on December 25, and during the months of December and January a 12-day festival, the Feast of Yule, was celebrated. These months also saw a Modra niht or “night of the mothers,” a religious event about which very little is known. The two lowest Saxon classes continued to adhere to their original religion for a long time, even after they were forcibly converted to Christianity by the Frankish empire. Since these classes harbored resentment toward the ruling class for having been removed from political power with the help of the Franks, they continued to pose a problem for the Christian rulers for a long time. Still until at least 838, when the Translatio S. Liborii notes their stubbornness in the form of pagan ritus et superstitio (acts and superstitions).

According to Tacitus, the Germanic people did not make images of their gods to worship in a particular space, but dedicated places in the landscape and in forests to them because the gods were so great. The Saxons had a deep-rooted nature religion that had been handed down orally for centuries. The religion was also inextricably linked to the family, ancestry or tribe. Sacred trees, according to the Saxons, had a stronger connection to the gods. Sacrifices were made at sacred springs. The water was scooped silently and is said to have had a rejuvenating effect (iuncprunno). Only later were images made and temples and other shrines built. In 743, an Index of Pagan and Superstitious Customs was drawn up at the Frankish Church meeting. This shows, among other things, that they had cottages and huts for the gods, wore amulets, made statues of gods out of dough or rags, dug ditches around the village to ward off evil spirits, and prophesied on the basis of birds, horses, cattle dung, sneezes, animal brains, and flames. The gods were not considered all-powerful or perfect. Fate (metod in Old Saxon, wurd in Old High German) was more powerful. Everyone had to submit to it and people wanted to understand what fate had decided. Soothsayers and priests could approach this fate. The gods were not seen as ”guardians of morality” and ”punishers of evil”. Evil had been brought into the world by the gods themselves. The Saxons cremated their dead.

The Saxons from England were converted to Christianity during the 7th century under the influence of the Jutes. In the 630s, Saint Birinus took on the task of converting the western Saxons of Wessex. To this end, a bishopric was founded near Dorchester-on-Thames. With their conversion to Christianity and with it the keeping of written records, the western Saxons truly step out of the darkness. The southern Saxons were first intensively evangelized under the influence of the Angles. King Aethelwealh of Sussex was converted by Wulfhere, king of Mercia, and then authorized Archbishop Wilfrid of York in 681 to convert the southern Saxons from a newly founded bishopric at Selsey. From the large number of pagan sites in the area of the Eastern Saxons, it can be seen that they were more adherent to their pagan traditions. Although their king Saeberht was converted early on and a bishopric was founded near London, the first bishop (Mellitus) of this, was driven out by Saeberht”s successors. Finally, the eastern Saxons were converted in the 650s and 660s under the leadership of Cedd.

The continental Saxons were evangelized primarily by Anglo-Saxon missionaries during the 7th and 8th centuries. The Saxons had several reasons for not being served by the new religion proclaimed to them:

Bishop Switbert went to the Bructerians after 692 in a border region with a Frankish-Saxon population. After an invasion by Saxon warriors from the northeast, Switbert retreated to the island in the Rhine Switbertwerth. Around the year 695, two Anglo-Saxon missionaries were killed by Saxon villagers. They were the Ewald brothers: White Ewald and Black Ewald, about whom is written in the Batavia Sacra (1715) by Hugo Heussen, following the Church History of the English People (731) by Beda the Venerable. White Ewald perished by the sword and Black Ewald was tortured to death by the people, their corpses thrown into the Rhine. The Saxon chief, however, was enraged, had the murderers killed and the village burned. In the years that followed, the villagers and peasants also proved to be the greatest opponents of Christianization, while missionaries often received support from the edhilingui and other nobility.

Lebuinus, an Englishman who preached against the Saxons from mainly the eastern part of the Netherlands in between 745 and 770, managed to make many friends among the noble classes. They eventually even managed to rescue him from the hands of an angry mob at the annual meeting in Marklo. The author of the Vita antiqua (c. 850), a saint”s life about Lebuïnus, reports that his conversion expedition was a failure. The church he founded near Daventre was burned down twice. The missionary Ludger was only able to rebuild the church for the second time after Charles” first invasion of Saxony.

The Saxon Wars from 772 under Charlemagne had as their main objective the conversion and incorporation of the Saxons into the Frankish Empire. Although the highest caste was soon converted, the forced conversion of the lower castes caused them to become very hostile to their rulers. The Christianization of the Saxons was qualified as “baptism or death” and “preaching with iron tongue, with the sword. The methods employed were also inadequate according to contemporaries, as the following shows. This is a piece from a letter written by Alcuinus of York to his friend Meginfrid in 796.

If the light yoke and sweet burden of Christ were preached to the most stubborn of the Saxons, with as much devotion as when the payment of gifts was demanded, or as the way in which for the most trivial errors imaginable the law was forced, perhaps then they would not resist their Christian vows.

Three other quotations from Alcain”s letters:

Faith, as the holy apostle says, is a voluntary matter; it is not a matter of compulsion.

To faith man can be raised, but not forced.

A mature person must answer for himself the question of what he believes and what he wants.

It is said that Louis the Pious treated the Saxons more like Alcuin would have liked, and they were loyal subjects as a result.

The lowest classes rebelled against their Frankish rulers as late as the year 840, when the Stellinga revolted against their Saxon leaders, who were allied with Lothar I. After this revolt was quelled, Louis the German had relics brought from Rome to the Duchy of Saxony in 851 in order to devote people more to the Roman Catholic Church. The anonymous poet Poeto Saxo, in his work Annales de gestis Caroli Magni imperatoris, placed great emphasis on the conquest of Saxony, praising the Frankish emperor as the bringer of Christian liberation and even comparing him to the Roman emperors.

In the 9th century, the Saxon nobility became staunch supporters of monasticism, which formed a Christian bulwark against Slavic religion in the east and Nordic paganism in the north. Many Christian writings were written in Old Saxon. The most important were the result of intensive literary production and wide influence of the Saxon monasteries of such places as Fulda, Corvey and Verden and theological controversy between the Augustinian Godschalk and Hrabanus Maurus an adherent of Semi-Pelagianism.

Early on, Charlemagne and Louis the Pious began to support these works written in vernacular to more effectively convert the Saxons. In the 9th century, Louis commissioned two works to better educate the people about the biblical stories. These were the Heliand, an epic verse about the life of Christ in a Germanic setting, and Genesis, a retelling of the first book of the Bible. At meetings at Tours and Mainz, it was decided that henceforth preaching would be in Old Saxon to appeal to the lowest classes of society. The earliest text in Old Saxon is a vow from the late 8th or early 9th century.

Sources