Saxons

The Saxon people are a confederation of Old Germanic tribes whose modern-day descendants in Northern Germany are considered ethnic Germans while those in the Eastern Netherlands are considered Netherlanders (or “Dutch,” though not “Hollanders"). Their earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, roughly that of today’s Holstein in Hesse and the northeastern part of the Netherlands (Drenthe, Groningen, Twente, Achterhoek). Saxon participation of the Germanic settlement of Britain was very strong and at times dominant, and especially the population of today’s Southern England descended essentially from a mixture of Celtic and Saxon people. During the past two centuries or so, many continental Saxons emigrated to other parts of the world, especially to the Americas, to Australia, to Southern Africa and to 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”. Due to international Hanseatic trading and migration during the Middle Ages, Saxons mixed with and strongly influenced the languages and cultures of the Scandinavian and Baltic peoples, also the Polabian and Pomeranian West Slavic peoples. Template:TOCleft

First mentioned by the Ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy, the pre-Christian settlement of the Saxon people originally covered an area a little more to the Northwest, with parts of the southern Jutland peninsula, Old Saxony and small sections of the eastern Netherlands. During the 5th century AD, the Saxons were part of the people invading the Romano-British province of Britannia, thus forming the Anglo-Saxons.

Prior to Christianization, the Saxons had an extensive indigenous pre-Christian Germanic paganism. After Christianization, elements of this religion have remained to present day in Saxon-descending cultures.

Modern day state Schleswig-Holstein, bordered on the Angles, in the day of the early Saxons.

The word 'Saxon' is believed to be derived from the word seax, meaning a variety of single-edged knives. The Saxons were considered by Charlemagne's historian Einhard (Vita Caroli c.7), to be especially war-like and ferocious.

Continental Saxons

The Anglo-Saxon historian Bede writing around the year 730 remarks that "the old Saxons have no king, but they are governed by several ealdormen who, during war, cast lots for leadership but who, in time of peace, are equal in power." However, the territory appears to have consolidated itself and by the end of the 8th century, there was a political entity called the Duchy of Saxony.

The Saxons long resisted both becoming Christians ("they are much given to devil worship," Einhard said, "and they are hostile to our religion," as when they martyred the Saints Ewald) and being incorporated into the orbit of the Frankish kingdom, but were decisively conquered by Charlemagne in a long series of annual campaigns, the Saxon Wars (772 – 804). During Charlemagne's campaign in Hispania (778), the Saxons advanced to Deutz on the Rhine and plundered along the river. With defeat came the enforced baptism and conversion of the Saxon leaders and their people. Even their sacred tree, Irminsul, was destroyed.

Under Carolingian rule, the Saxons were reduced to a tributary status. There is evidence that the Saxons, as well as Slavic tributaries like the Abodrites and the Wends, often provided troops to their Carolingian overlords. The dukes of Saxony became kings (Henry I, the Fowler, 919) and later the first Emperors (Henry's son, Otto I, the Great) of Germany during the 10th century, but lost this position in 1024. The duchy was divided up in 1180 when Duke Henry the Lion, Emperor Otto's grandson, refused to follow his cousin, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, into war in Italy.

During the late Middle Ages under the Salian emperors, the Teutonic knights and settlers, moved east along the river Elbe into the area of settlement of a western slavic tribe, the Sorbs. The Sorbs were gradually Germanised. This region subsequently acquired the name Saxony through political circumstances and was originally called the Margravate (German: Markgrafschaft) of Meissen. The rulers of the Margravate acquired control of the Duchy of Saxony 1423 and eventually applied the name Saxony to the whole of their kingdom. Since then this part of eastern Germany has been referred to as Saxony (German: Sachsen), a source of some misunderstandings about the original homeland of the Saxons, mostly in the present-day German state of Lower Saxony (German: Niedersachsen).

Saxons in Britain

Template:see A number of Saxons, along with Angles, Jutes, Frisians and possibly Franks, invaded or migrated to the island of Great Britain (Britannia) around the time of the collapse of Roman authority in the west. Saxon raiders had been harassing the eastern and southern shores of Britannia, for centuries before - prompting the construction of a string of coastal forts called the litora Saxonica or Saxon Shore and many Saxons and other folk had been permitted to settle in these areas as farmers long before the end of Roman rule in Britannia. However, in 449 A.D., following a particularly devastating raid in the north from the Picts and their allies, the Romano-British administration invited two Jutish warlords - namely Hengist and Horsa - to occupy the island of Thanet in north Kent and act as mercenaries against the Picts at sea. After the Jutes had executed this mission and defeated the Picts, they returned with demands for more lands. When this was rejected they rose in revolt and provoked an insurrection amongst all the settled farming folk of Germanic stock with them.

Three separate Saxon Kingdoms emerged

1. The East Saxons: Settled around Colchester, creating the area of Essex.
2. The South Saxons: led by Aelle, created the area of Sussex
3. The West Saxons: led by Cerdic, ruled the Kingdom of Wessex from their capital Winchester.

During the period of Ecbert to Alfred, the kings of Wessex emerged as Bretwalda, unifying the country, with the shorter-lived Middlesex eventually became part of the kingdom of England in the face of Danish Viking invasions.

Historians are divided about what followed. Some argue that the takeover of lowland Great Britain by the Anglo-Saxons was peaceful. However, there is only one known account from a native Briton who lived at this time (Gildas) and his description is anything but:

"For the fire...spread from sea to sea, fed by the hands of our foes in the east, and did not cease, until, destroying the neighboring towns and lands, it reached the other side of the island, and dipped its red and savage tongue in the western ocean. In these assaults...all the columns were leveled with the ground by the frequent strokes of the battering-ram, all the husbandmen routed, together with their bishops, priests, and people, whilst the sword gleamed, and the flames crackled around them on every side. Lamentable to behold, in the midst of the streets lay the tops of lofty towers, tumbled to the ground, stones of high walls, holy altars, fragments of human bodies, covered with livid clots of coagulated blood, looking as if they had been squeezed together in a press; and with no chance of being buried, save in the ruins of the houses, or in the ravening bellies of wild beasts and birds; with reverence be it spoken for their blessed souls, if, indeed, there were many found who were carried, at that time, into the high heaven by the holy angels...Some, therefore, of the miserable remnant, being taken in the mountains, were murdered in great numbers; others, constrained by famine, came and yielded themselves to be slaves for ever to their foes, running the risk of being instantly slain, which truly was the greatest favour that could be offered them: some others passed beyond the seas with loud lamentations instead of the voice of exhortation...Others, committing the safeguard of their lives, which were in continual jeopardy, to the mountains, precipices, thickly wooded forests, and to the rocks of the seas (albeit with trembling hearts), remained still in their country."

Wars between the native Romano-Britons and the invading Jutes, Saxons and Angles continued for over 400 years. The Britons of England either fled westwards or northwards or were progressively immersed into the new English culture, as the territory that they controlled gradually shrunk in size to contain only Wales, Cornwall, north-westernmost England (Cumbria), and Strathclyde. Some fled over the sea to Brittany.

Collectively the Germanic settlers of Great Britain, mostly Saxons, Angles and Jutes, came to be called the Anglo-Saxons. Both Old English and modern Low Saxon are derived from Old Saxon.

Saxons in medieval Southeastern Europe

In the Middle Ages, groups of Saxon ore miners (called саси, sasi in the South Slavic languages) settled in ore-rich regions of Southeastern Europe. In the 13th-14th century, Saxons from the Upper Harz and Westphalia settled in and around Chiprovtsi in modern northwestern Bulgaria (then in the Second Bulgarian Empire) to extract ore in the western Balkan Mountains, receiving royal privileges from Bulgarian tsar Ivan Shishman. It is thought that these miners established Roman Catholicism in this part of the Balkans before being completely Bulgarianized (by marrying Bulgarian women) and merging with the local population. Along with spreading Roman Catholicism, the Saxons also enriched the local vocabulary with Germanic words and introduced a number of mining techniques and metal-working instruments to Bulgaria. Ethnic subgroups that are thought to be partial descendants of these Saxons are the Banat Bulgarians and the Krashovani.

Saxons also mined ore in the Osogovo and Belasica mountains (between Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia), as well as around Samokov in Rila and various parts of the Rhodopes and around Etropole (all in Bulgaria), but were assimilated without establishing Catholicism there. The Saxons miners in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina—active in Brskovo, Rudnik, Olovo, Novo Brdo and other places—also left a significant trace in the mining and metal-working history of the South Slavs.

Saxons in the Republic of Macedonia

Saxons (in Macedonian Sasi) have settled in the north-east parts of Macedonia in 13 Cent., in the area around present towns of Kriva Palanka, Kratovo, Kočani and Štip. They came as a profesional miners and have founded many settlements. The Saxons in Macedonia were incorporated into the Macedonian nation, during the last 600 years and still many people from north east of Macedonia posses nordic german anthropological characteristics. Macedonians from north easter Macedonia speak the Macedonian Language, but remained very few specific german words in their dialect like tas (german e. Tasse), tute (german e. Tüte), lamba (german e. Lampe), german-ec (instead of slavic word nemec) and some german words that might be adopted latter on like šnajder, štof, šuster etc. with same pronouncing and meaning like in the German language. The Saxons left behind them toponims in this part of Macedonia with german etymology like:

1. Village German (Rankovce and Kriva Palanka Municipality);
2. Village and Mine Complex Sasa (Saxons);
3. Village Luke originates from German word Luke (Kriva Palanka Municipality);
4. Village Å legovo (Schlegovo) originates from German word Schlagen (Kratovo Municipality);
5. Village Stalkovica (Stahlkovica) originates from German word Stahl (Municipality Kratovo) ;
6. Mountain Osogovo (which belongs to Municipalities of Kriva Palanka and Kočani, as well as Bulgaria);according to the most famous legend, the name of Mountain Osogovo originates from the old Ferman words "osso" (god) and "gov" (place) which means "a divine place" etc.

There is a simmilar toponym Osogna, a village in Switzerland.

The historical documents testify that Macedonian town of Kratovo was found by Saxon (Sasi) miners in year 1282. In that time, Kratovo became one of the biggest towns and a major mining centre in Macedonia for a gold and silver. Saxons shortly after their arrival in Macedonia adopted slavic macedonian language as all the schools in Kratovo in 14 cent. were in this language, including the famous Medieval Transcription Kratovo School.

The Code of Serbian Czar Stefan Dušan from 14 Cent. mentions Sasi (Saxons) as an ethnic group in his empire.

Change of use of the name

Following the downfall of Henry the Lion and the subsequent split of the Saxon tribal duchy into several territories, the name of the Saxon duchy was transferred to the lands of the Ascanian family. This led to the differentiation of Lower Saxony, lands settled by the Saxon tribe, and Upper Saxony as the duchy (finally a kingdom). When the Upper was dropped from Upper Saxony, a different region had acquired the Saxon name, ultimately replacing the original meaning.

Modern remnants of the Saxon name

The Finns and Estonians have changed their meaning over the centuries to denote the whole country of Germany (Saksa and Saksamaa respectively) and the Germans (saksalaiset and sakslased, respectively) now.

The label "Saxons" (in Romanian 'SaÅŸi') was also applied to German settlers from Saxony who migrated during the 13th century to south-eastern Transylvania in present-day Romania.

In the Celtic languages, the word for the English nationality is derived from Saxon. The most prominent example, often used in English, is the Gàidhlig loanword Sassenach (Saxon), often used disparagingly in Scottish English/Scots. England, in Gàidhlig, is Sasainn (Saxony). Other examples are the Welsh Saesneg (the English language), Irish Sasana (England), Breton Saozneg (the English language), and Cornish Sowson (English people) and Sowsnek (English language), as in the famous My ny vynnav kows Sowsnek! (I will not speak English!).

During Georg Friederich Händel's visit to Italy, much was made of his being from Saxony; in particular, the Venetians greeted the 1709 performance of his opera Agrippina with the cry Viva il caro Sassone, "Long live the beloved Saxon!"

The word also survives as the surnames Saß/Sass and Sachs.

External links

• James Grout: Saxon Advent, part of the Encyclopædia Romana
• Saxons and Britons

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