Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading Germanic tribes in the south and east of Great Britain from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation, to the Norman conquest of 1066. The Benedictine monk, Bede, identified them as the descendants of three Germanic tribes

1. 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.

2. The Saxons, from Lower Saxony or Niedersachsen, Germany

3. The Jutes, from the Jutland peninsula.

Their language (Old English) derives from "Ingvaeonic" West Germanic dialects and transforms into Middle English from the 11th century. Old English was divided into four main dialects: West Saxon, Mercian, Northumbrian and Kentish.





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