Saxon

/sak"seuhn/, n.

1. a member of a Germanic people in ancient times dwelling near the mouth of the Elbe, a portion of whom invaded and occupied parts of Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries.

2. the Old English dialects of the regions settled by the Saxons.

3. a native or inhabitant of Saxony in modern Germany.

4. an English person; Britisher.

5. an Anglo-Saxon.

6. (not in scholarly use) the Old English language.

7. a member of the royal house of Germany that ruled from 919 to 1024.

adj.

8. of or pertaining to the early Saxons or their language.

9. of or pertaining to Saxony in modern Germany.

10. English (defs. 1, 2).

[1250-1300; ME, prob. < LL Saxo, Saxones (pl.) < Gmc; r. OE Seaxan (pl.)]

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I

Any member of a Germanic people who lived along the Baltic coast in ancient times and later migrated west as far as the British Isles.

The Saxons became pirates in the North Sea during the decline of the Roman empire, and in the early 5th century they spread through northern Germany and along the coasts of Gaul and Britain. They fought Charlemagne (772–804) before being incorporated into the Frankish kingdom, and they settled Britain along with other Germanic invaders, including the Angles and the Jutes.

II

(as used in expressions)

Anglo Saxon art

Anglo Saxon law

Anglo Saxon literature

Hiberno Saxon style

Anglo Saxon

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▪ people

      member of a Germanic people who in ancient times lived in the area of modern Schleswig and along the Baltic coast. The period of Roman decline in the northwest area of the empire was marked by vigorous Saxon piracy in the North Sea. During the 5th century AD, the Saxons spread rapidly through north Germany and along the coasts of Gaul and Britain. The coastal stretch from the Elbe to the Scheldt rivers, however, was held by the Frisians, on whom the Saxons had great influence.

      The expansion of the Saxons brought collision with the Franks. In 772 the Frankish ruler Charlemagne decided on a campaign of conquest and conversion of the Saxons. With interruptions, the savage Saxon wars lasted 32 years and ended with the incorporation of the Saxons into the Frankish empire.

      The Venerable Bede (Bede the Venerable, Saint) (in Historia ecclesiastica) described the Germanic invaders of Britain as Angles, Saxons, and Jutes and said that the East, West, and South Saxons (of Essex, Wessex, and Sussex) were descended from the Saxons. However, Bede was not always careful to distinguish Angles and Saxons; and, furthermore, all the invaders of Britain were closely related and spoke dialects similar to each other and to the Frisian language. The dialects of the Continental Saxons, on the other hand, underwent considerable approximation to High German, and their affinity to those of the English and the Frisians is only to be traced in sporadic spellings in texts now extant, of which none is older than the 9th century. When Procopius (Gothic Wars, c. 550) alleged that the inhabitants of Britain were Britons, Angles, and Frisians, he was no doubt confusing Frisians and Saxons, owing to their close relationship. The Continental Saxons spoke a distinctive West Germanic brogue, Old Saxon, which is the ancestor of Low German. It first appears in writing in the Carolingian period in Christian texts aimed at sustaining the conversions of the people of Saxony. The most important of these texts is the Heliand (Old Saxon: “Saviour”), the 9th-century adaptation of the Christian gospel to the poetic world of Germanic epic.

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