SAXON. 
Saxons; but the associates of Ida were Angles; and as he 
came with forty vessels, this was by far the most formidable 
emigration. The progress of the Angles in the North was 
slow; but at length Ida’s conquests established them in 
Bernicia, and they were maintained by his sons. At some 
period near the year 500, the East Anglian state was co¬ 
lonized, though the monarchy did not appear till after the 
year 530. The various parts of Britain, into which the 
Saxons and their confederates spread themselves, were as 
follow, according to the statement of the Irish primate, 
Usher. The Jutes possessed Kent, the Isle of Wight, and 
that part of the coast of Hampshire which fronts it. The 
Saxons were distinguished, from their situation, into South 
Saxons, who peopled Sussex; East Saxons, who occupied 
Essex, Middlesex, and the south part of Hertfordshire; 
and West Saxons, who fixed themselves in Surrey, Hamp¬ 
shire (the coast of the Jutes excepted), Berks, Wilts, 
Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and that part of Cornwall 
which the Britons were unable to retain. The Angles 
were divided into East Angles, in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cam¬ 
bridge, the Isle of Ely, and part of Bedfordshire; and 
Middle Angles in Leicestershire, which appertained to 
Mercia. The Mercians were divided by the Trent into 
South Mercians, in the counties of Lincoln, Northampton, 
Rutland, Huntingdon, the north parts of Bedfordshire 
and Hertfordshire, Bucks, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, 
Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Staffordshire, 
and Shropshire; and north Mercians, who inhabited the 
counties of Chester, Derby, and Nottingham. The 
Northumbrians w r ere the Deiri, in Lancaster, York, West¬ 
moreland, Cumberland, and Durham; and the Bernicians 
in Northumberland, and the south of Scotland, between the 
Tweed and the Frith of Forth. 
After the exertions of the Britons to repel the invaders of 
their country had failed, eight Anglo-Saxon governments 
were established in the island. But it was by a slow conquest 
that the nations, comprised under the title of Anglo-Saxons, 
possessed themselves of the different districts of the island; 
and almost a century and a half elapsed from the first arrival 
of Hengist to the full establishment of the octarchy. In their 
progress the Anglo-Saxons did not extirpate the Britons; 
but as they wanted husbandmen, artisans, and menials for 
domestic purposes, the majority of the British population was 
preserved to be useful to their conquerors. Some Britons, 
who disdained the Saxon yoke, emigrated to other countries; 
Armorica or Bretagne afforded refuge to many; Cornwall 
and Wales received a considerable accession of population; 
and some migrated to Holland. The most indignant of the 
Cymri retired into Wales. 
As soon as the Anglo-Saxons were released from the 
pressure of the Britons, and began to feel themselves secure 
and strong in the population of their provinces, and in the 
submission of the natives, their propensity to war and their 
ambitious desire of power, excited them to turn their arms 
upon one another. From Hengist to Egbert talents were 
never wanting on some of the Anglo-Saxon thrones; the 
result was, that the Anglo-Saxons, though they fluctuated 
in the prosperity of their several districts, yet, considered 
as a nation, they improved rapidly in civilization and power. 
Ina’s laws contributed in a high degree to his reputation, 
and his reign was long and prosperous. It is beside our 
purpose to give a detail of the succession of the Anglo-Saxon 
kings, and it is inconsistent with our limits to recite even 
the principal events that occurred during their respective 
reigns. This is the less necessary, as some brief notices of 
them will be found under articles in this work. It will be 
sufficient to observe in this place, that the Anglo-Saxon 
dynasty terminated with Harold II. and the advancement of 
William of Normandy to the English throne. 
The character of the ancient Saxons displayed the qua¬ 
lities of fearless, active, and successful pirates. Thus they 
are described by Orosius, Julian, and Zosimus: their fero¬ 
cious qualities were nourished by the habit of indiscrimi¬ 
nate depredation ; they traversed both land and sea with a 
view to plunder, and in pursuit of this object they were 
715 
no less heedless of their own lives, than unfeeling and cruel 
with respect to those of others. Their persons were of 
the largest size. As to their dress, their loose linen vests 
were adorned with trimming, woven in different colours: 
their external garment was the sagum, or cloak, and they 
had shoes. Their females had gowns, and several orna¬ 
ments for the arms, hands, and neck. Their armour con¬ 
sisted of shields, long lances, and large knives or crooked 
swords by their sides, and their horsemen used iron sledge 
hammers or mallets. The government of the continental 
Saxons in the eighth and preceding centuries was an aristo¬ 
cracy of chieftains, and they had no kings but in time of 
war, who laid aside their power when peace was re¬ 
established. When they visited England, they were con¬ 
ducted and governed by their war-kings; and these they 
were under a necessity of continuing until a permanent, 
though limited, monarchy was established. Among the an¬ 
cient Saxons, there were four orders of men; the Etheling 
or noble, the free man, the freed-man, and the servile. The 
nobles were jealous of their race and rank; their inter-mar¬ 
riages were restricted to-one another, and the severest penal¬ 
ties were annexed to a violation of this order. Of their ancient 
laws, in their Pagan state, little certain is known. It ap¬ 
pears, however, that pecuniary compensation was their 
general mode of redressing personal injuries and of punish¬ 
ing criminal offences. Their severity against adultery was 
personal and sanguinary. If a woman became unchaste, 
she was compelled to hang herself, her body was burnt, and 
the adulterer was executed over her ashes; or else, a com¬ 
pany of females whipped her from district to district, and, 
dividing her garments to the girdle, they pierced her body 
with their knives. They drove her, thus bleeding, from 
their habitations; and wheresoever she went, fresh parties of 
women renewed the cruel punishment, and continued it 
till she expired. In their marriages they allowed a son to 
wed his father’s widow, and a brother his sister-in-law. 
Among the Frisians, who were confederates of the Saxons, a 
person guilty of sacrilege, or breaking into a temple and 
taking away any of the sacred things, was ordered to be led 
to the sea, and in the sand which the sea usually covers, to 
have his ears cut off, to be castrated, and to be immolated 
to the gods whose temples he had violated. 
The most ancient religions of the world appear to have 
been pure theism, without idols and temples. By degrees, 
the Deity was represented by a variety of symbols, among 
which the principal were the heavenly bodies; and in pro¬ 
cess of time heroes and kings were exalted into gods. At 
length the air, the sea, the rivers, the woods, and the earth, 
were so stocked by the creative fancy with divinities, that it 
was more easy, as an ancient sage remarked, to find a deity 
than a man. When the Anglo-Saxons settled in Britain, 
they seem to have abandoned the customs of their ancestors, 
of which indeed the traditionary account is very-imperfect; 
and they then had idols, altars, temples, and priests; their 
temples were encompassed with inclosures; they were pro¬ 
faned by throwing lances into them; it was not lawful for 
a priest to bear arms, or to ride, except on a mare. These 
particulars are detailed on the authority of the Venerable 
Bede. Some of the objects of their adoration are found 
in their names for the days of the week; and they are as 
follow -.— 
Sunday, or Sunnan daeg, 
Monday, or Monan daeg, 
Tuesday, or Tiwes daeg, 
Wednesday, or Wodnes daeg, 
Thursday, or Thunres daeg, 
Friday, or Frige daeg, 
Saturday, or Seternes daeg. 
is the Sun’s day. 
is the Moon’s day. 
is Tiw’s day. 
is Woden’s day. 
is Thunre’s day. 
is Friga’s day. 
is Seterne’s day. 
Of the sun and moon it is curions to remark, that then- 
sun was a female deity, and their moon was of the male 
sex. Woden was the great ancestor from whom they de¬ 
duced their genealogies, and he was the predominant idol 
of the Saxon adoration, though little is known of him, as 
distinct from the Odin of the Danes and Norwegians. (See 
Odin.) 
