Back Saxons AN Seaxe ANG ساكسون Arabic Pueblu saxón AST Sakslar Azerbaijani ساکسون AZB Саксы Byelorussian Сакси Bulgarian Saksoned Breton Sasi BS
Sahson | |
|---|---|
.svg) The Stem Duchy of Saxony | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Old Saxony, Frisia, England, Normandy | |
| Languages | |
| Old Saxon, Old English | |
| Religion | |
| Originally Germanic and Anglo-Saxon paganism, later Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Anglo-Saxons, Angles, Frisii, Jutes, Franks |
The Saxons were the Germanic people after whom Saxony (Latin: Saxonia) came to be named by the 8th century, near the North Sea coast of what is now northern Germany.[1] Before any clear historical mention of Saxony as a country, "Saxons" became important during the late Roman Empire, when the name was used to refer to a group of coastal pirates or raiders who attacked from the north, in a similar sense to the much later term Viking.[2] These early raiders and settlers were believed by contemporaries to come from coastal regions north of the Rhine and the homeland of the Franks. Significant numbers of them settled in what later became northern France and southern England.
There is possibly a single classical reference to a smaller and much earlier Saxon tribe, but the interpretation of this text ("Axones" in most surviving manuscripts) is disputed. According to this proposal, the original Saxon tribe lived north of the mouth of the Elbe, close to the probable homeland of the Angles.[3] The political history of the continental Saxons is unclear until the 8th century and the conflict between their semi-legendary hero Widukind and the Frankish emperor Charlemagne. Charles Martel, the grandfather of Charlemagne, fought and led numerous campaigns against the Saxons. Charlemagne defeated the Saxons after winning the long Saxon Wars (772-804), and forcing them to convert to Christianity, annexing Saxony into the Carolingian domain. Under the Carolingian Franks, Saxony became one of the original Stem Duchies which formed the basic political structure of the Holy Roman Empire. The early rulers of this early Duchy of Saxony expanded their territories to the east, at the expense of Slavic-speaking Wends.
Today the Saxons of Germany no longer form a distinctive ethnic group or country, but their name lives on in the names of several regions and states of Germany, including Lower Saxony (German: Niedersachsen) which includes most of the original duchy. Their language evolved into Low German which was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League, but has faced a long and gradual decline since the Late Medieval period as a literary, administrative and, to a significant extent, cultural language in favor of Dutch and German.
In contrast, the Saxons settlers in England became part of a new Old English-speaking nation, now commonly referred to as the Anglo Saxons. This brought together local Romano-British populations, Saxons, and other migrants from the same North Sea region, including Frisians, Jutes, and Angles. The Angles are the source of the term English which became the more commonly-used collective term. The term Anglo-Saxon, combining the names of the Angles and the Saxons, came into use by the eighth century (for example in the work of Paul the Deacon) to distinguish the Germanic inhabitants of Britain from continental Saxons, but both the Saxons of Britain and those of Old Saxony in northern Germany continued to be referred to as "Saxons" in an indiscriminate manner.
- ^ Springer 2004, p. 12: "Unter dem alten Sachsen ist das Gebiet zu verstehen, das seit der Zeit Karls des Großen (reg. 768–814) bis zum Jahre 1180 also Saxonia '(das Land) Sachsen' bezeichnet wurde oder wenigstens so genannt werden konnte."
- ^ Springer 2004, p. 12: "Im Latein des späten Altertums konnte Saxones als Sammelbezeichnung von Küstenräubern gebraucht werden. Es spielte dieselbe Rolle wie viele Jahrhunderte später das Wort Wikinger."
- ^ Springer 2004, pp. 27–31.