Proximity1 to the sea turns robbers into corsairs. When predatory tribes reach the seaboard they always take to piracy2, provided they have attained3 the shipbuilding level of culture. In the ancient ?gean, in the Malay Archipelago, in the China seas, we see the same process always taking place. Probably from the first period of their severance4 from the main Aryan stock in Central Asia, the Low German race and their ancestors had been a predatory and conquering people, for ever engaged in raids and smouldering warfare5 with their neighbours. When they reached the Baltic and the islands of the Frisian coast, they grew naturally into a nation of pirates. Even during the bronze age, we find sculptured stones with representations of long row-boats, manned by several oarsmen, and in one or two cases actually bearing a rude sail. Their prows7 and sterns stand high out of the water, and are adorned8 with intricate carvings9. They seem like the predecessors10 of the long ships—snakes and sea-dragons—which afterwards bore the northern corsairs into every river of Europe. Such boats, adapted for long sea-voyages, show a considerable intercourse11, piratical or commercial, between the Anglo-Saxon or Scandinavian North and other distant countries. Certainly, from the earliest days of Roman rule on the German Ocean to the thirteenth century, the Low Dutch and Scandinavian tribes carried on an almost unbroken course of expeditions by sea, beginning in every case with mere12 descents upon the coast for the purposes of plunder13, but ending, as a rule, with regular colonisation or political supremacy14. In this manner the people of the Baltic and the North Sea ravaged15 or settled in every country on the sea-shore, from Orkney, Shetland, and the Faroes, to Normandy, Apulia, and Greece; from Boulogne and Kent, to Iceland, Greenland, and, perhaps, America. The colonisation of South-Eastern Britain was but the first chapter in this long history of predatory excursions on the part of the Low German peoples.
The piratical ships of the early English were row-boats of very simple construction. We actually possess one undoubted specimen16 at the present day, whose very date is fixed17 for us by the circumstances of its discovery. It was dug up, some years since, from a peat-bog in Sleswick, the old England of our forefathers18, along with iron arms and implements19, and in association with Roman coins ranging in date from A.D. 67 to A.D. 217. It may therefore be pretty confidently assigned to the first half of the third century. In this interesting relic20, then, we have one of the identical boats in which the descents upon the British coast were first made. The craft is rudely built of oaken boards, and is seventy feet long by nine broad. The stem and stern are alike in shape, and the boat is fitted for being beached upon the foreshore. A sculptured stone at H?ggeby, in Uplande, roughly represents for us such a ship under way, probably of about the same date. It is rowed with twelve pairs of oars6, and has no sails; and it contains no other persons but the rowers and a coxswain, who acted doubtless as leader of the expedition. Such a boat might convey about 120 fighting men.
There are some grounds for believing that, even before the establishment of the Roman power in Britain, Teutonic pirates from the northern marshlands were already in the habit of plundering21 the Celtic inhabitants of the country between the Wash and the mouth of the Thames; and it is possible that an English colony may, even then, have established itself in the modern Lincolnshire. But, be this as it may, we know at least that during the period of the Roman occupation, Low German adventurers were constantly engaged in descending22 upon the exposed coasts of the English Channel and the North Sea. The Low German tribe nearest to the Roman provinces was that of the Saxons, and accordingly these Teutonic pirates, of whatever race, were known as Saxons by the provincials23, and all Englishmen are still so called by the modern Celts, in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.
The outlying Roman provinces were close at hand, easy to reach, rich, ill-defended, and a tempting25 prey26 for the barbaric tribesmen of the north. Setting out in their light open skiffs from the islands at the mouth of the Elbe, or off the shore afterwards submerged in what is now the Zuyder Zee, the English or Saxon pirates crossed the sea with the prevalent north-east wind, and landed all along the provincial24 coasts of Gaul and Britain. As the empire decayed under the assaults of the Goths, their ravages27 turned into regular settlements. One great body pillaged28, age after age, the neighbourhood of Bayeux, where, before the middle of the fifth century, it established a flourishing colony, and where the towns and villages all still bear names of Saxon origin. Another horde29 first plundered30 and then took up its abode31 near Boulogne, where local names of the English patronymic type also abound32 to the present day. In Britain itself, at a date not later than the end of the fourth century, we find (in the "Notitia Imperil") an officer who bears the title of Count of the Saxon Shore, and whose jurisdiction33 extended from Lincolnshire to Southampton Water. The title probably indicates that piratical incursions had already set in on Britain, and the duty of the count was most likely that of repelling34 the English invaders35.
As soon as the Romans found themselves compelled to withdraw their garrison36 from Britain, leaving the provinces to defend themselves as best they might, the temptation to the English pirates became a thousand times stronger than before. Though the so-called history of the conquest, handed down to us by B?da and the "English Chronicle,"[1] is now considered by many enquirers to be mythical37 in almost every particular, the facts themselves speak out for us with unhesitating certainty. We know that about the middle of the fifth century, shortly after the withdrawal38 of the regular Roman troops, several bodies of heathen Anglo-Saxons, belonging to the three tribes of Jutes, English, and Saxons, settled en masse on the south-eastern shores of Britain, from the Firth of Forth39 to the Isle40 of Wight. The age of mere plundering descents was decisively over, and the age of settlement and colonisation had set in. These heathen Anglo-Saxons drove away, exterminated41, or enslaved the Romanised and Christianised Celts, broke down every vestige43 of Roman civilisation44, destroyed the churches, burnt the villas45, laid waste many of the towns, and re-introduced a long period of pagan barbarism. For a while Britain remains46 enveloped47 in an age of complete uncertainty48, and heathen myths intervene between the Christian42 historical period of the Romans and the Christian historical period initiated49 by the conversion50 of Kent. Of South-Eastern Britain under the pagan Anglo-Saxons we know practically nothing, save by inference and analogy, or by the scanty51 evidence of arch?ology.
According to tradition the Jutes came first. In 449, says the Celtic legend (the date is quite untrustworthy), they landed in Kent, where they first settled in Ruim, which we English call Thanet—then really an island, and gradually spread themselves over the mainland, capturing the great Roman fortress52 of Rochester and coast land as far as London. Though the details of this story are full of mythical absurdities53, the analogy of the later Danish colonies gives it an air of great probability, as the Danes always settled first in islands or peninsulas, and thence proceeded to overrun, and finally to annex54, the adjacent district. A second Jutish horde established itself in the Isle of Wight and on the opposite shore of Hampshire. But the whole share borne by the Jutes in the settlement of Britain seems to have been but small.
The Saxons came second in time, if we may believe the legends. In 477, ?lle, with his three sons, is said to have landed on the south coast, where he founded the colony of the South Saxons, or Sussex. In 495, Cerdic and Cynric led another kindred horde to the south-western shore, and made the first settlement of the West Saxons, or Wessex. Of the beginnings of the East Saxon community in Essex, and of the Middle Saxons in Middlesex, we know little, even by tradition. The Saxons undoubtedly55 came over in large numbers; but a considerable body of their fellow-tribesmen still remained upon the Continent, where they were still independent and unconverted up to the time of Karl the Great.
The English, on the other hand, apparently56 migrated in a body. There is no trace of any Englishmen in Denmark or Germany after the exodus57 to Britain. Their language, of which a dialect still survives in Friesland, has utterly58 died out in Sleswick. The English took for their share of Britain the nearest east coast. We have little record of their arrival, even in the legendary59 story; we merely learn that in 547, Ida "succeeded to the kingdom" of the Northumbrians, whence we may possibly conclude that the colony was already established. The English settlement extended from the Forth to Essex, and was subdivided60 into Bernicia, Deira, and East Anglia.
Wherever the Anglo-Saxons came, their first work was to stamp out with fire and sword every trace of the Roman civilisation. Modern investigations61 amongst pagan Anglo-Saxon barrows in Britain show the Low German race as pure barbarians62, great at destruction, but incapable64 of constructive65 work. Professor Rolleston, who has opened several of these early heathen tombs of our Teutonic ancestors, finds in them everywhere abundant evidence of "their great aptness at destroying, and their great slowness in elaborating, material civilisation." Until the Anglo-Saxon received from the Continent the Christian religion and the Roman culture, he was a mere average Aryan barbarian63, with a strong taste for war and plunder, but with small love for any of the arts of peace. Wherever else, in Gaul, Spain, or Italy, the Teutonic barbarians came in contact with the Roman civilisation, they received the religion of Christ, and the arts of the conquered people, during or before their conquest of the country. But in Britain the Teutonic invaders remained pagans long after their settlement in the island; and they utterly destroyed, in the south-eastern tract66, almost every relic of the Roman rule and of the Christian faith. Hence we have here the curious fact that, during the fifth and sixth centuries, a belt of intrusive67 and aggressive heathendom intervenes between the Christians68 of the Continent and the Christian Welsh and Irish of western Britain. The Church of the Celtic Welsh was cut off for more than a hundred years from the Churches of the Roman world by a hostile and impassable barrier of heathen English, Jutes, and Saxons. Their separation produced many momentous69 effects on the after history both of the Welsh themselves and of their English conquerors70.
[1] For an account of these two main authorities see further on, B?da in chapter xi., and the "Chronicle" in chapter xviii.
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1 proximity | |
n.接近,邻近 | |
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2 piracy | |
n.海盗行为,剽窃,著作权侵害 | |
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3 attained | |
(通常经过努力)实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 ); 达到; 获得; 达到(某年龄、水平、状况) | |
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4 severance | |
n.离职金;切断 | |
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5 warfare | |
n.战争(状态);斗争;冲突 | |
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6 oars | |
n.桨,橹( oar的名词复数 );划手v.划(行)( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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7 prows | |
n.船首( prow的名词复数 ) | |
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8 adorned | |
[计]被修饰的 | |
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9 carvings | |
n.雕刻( carving的名词复数 );雕刻术;雕刻品;雕刻物 | |
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10 predecessors | |
n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 );前辈;(被取代的)原有事物;前身 | |
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11 intercourse | |
n.性交;交流,交往,交际 | |
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12 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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13 plunder | |
vt.劫掠财物,掠夺;n.劫掠物,赃物;劫掠 | |
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14 supremacy | |
n.至上;至高权力 | |
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15 ravaged | |
毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 ); 蹂躏; 劫掠; 抢劫 | |
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16 specimen | |
n.样本,标本 | |
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17 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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18 forefathers | |
n.祖先,先人;祖先,祖宗( forefather的名词复数 );列祖列宗;前人 | |
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19 implements | |
n.工具( implement的名词复数 );家具;手段;[法律]履行(契约等)v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 );执行;贯彻;使生效 | |
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20 relic | |
n.神圣的遗物,遗迹,纪念物 | |
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21 plundering | |
掠夺,抢劫( plunder的现在分词 ) | |
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22 descending | |
n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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23 provincials | |
n.首都以外的人,地区居民( provincial的名词复数 ) | |
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24 provincial | |
adj.省的,地方的;n.外省人,乡下人 | |
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25 tempting | |
a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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26 prey | |
n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨 | |
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27 ravages | |
劫掠后的残迹,破坏的结果,毁坏后的残迹 | |
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28 pillaged | |
v.抢劫,掠夺( pillage的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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29 horde | |
n.群众,一大群 | |
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30 plundered | |
掠夺,抢劫( plunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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31 abode | |
n.住处,住所 | |
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32 abound | |
vi.大量存在;(in,with)充满,富于 | |
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33 jurisdiction | |
n.司法权,审判权,管辖权,控制权 | |
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34 repelling | |
v.击退( repel的现在分词 );使厌恶;排斥;推开 | |
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35 invaders | |
入侵者,侵略者,侵入物( invader的名词复数 ) | |
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36 garrison | |
n.卫戍部队;驻地,卫戍区;vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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37 mythical | |
adj.神话的;虚构的;想像的 | |
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38 withdrawal | |
n.取回,提款;撤退,撤军;收回,撤销 | |
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39 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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40 isle | |
n.小岛,岛 | |
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41 exterminated | |
v.消灭,根绝( exterminate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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43 vestige | |
n.痕迹,遗迹,残余 | |
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44 civilisation | |
n.文明,文化,开化,教化 | |
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45 villas | |
别墅,公馆( villa的名词复数 ); (城郊)住宅 | |
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46 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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47 enveloped | |
v.包围,笼罩,包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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48 uncertainty | |
n.易变,靠不住,不确知,不确定的事物 | |
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49 initiated | |
n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始,创始,启蒙,介绍加入 | |
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50 conversion | |
n.转化,转换,转变 | |
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51 scanty | |
adj.缺乏的,仅有的,节省的,狭小的,不够的 | |
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52 fortress | |
n.堡垒,防御工事 | |
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53 absurdities | |
n.极端无理性( absurdity的名词复数 );荒谬;谬论;荒谬的行为 | |
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54 annex | |
vt.兼并,吞并;n.附属建筑物 | |
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55 undoubtedly | |
adv.确实地,无疑地 | |
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56 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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57 exodus | |
v.大批离去,成群外出 | |
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58 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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59 legendary | |
adj.传奇(中)的,闻名遐迩的;n.传奇(文学) | |
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60 subdivided | |
再分,细分( subdivide的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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61 investigations | |
(正式的)调查( investigation的名词复数 ); 侦查; 科学研究; 学术研究 | |
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62 barbarians | |
n.野蛮人( barbarian的名词复数 );外国人;粗野的人;无教养的人 | |
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63 barbarian | |
n.野蛮人;adj.野蛮(人)的;未开化的 | |
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64 incapable | |
adj.无能力的,不能做某事的 | |
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65 constructive | |
adj.建设的,建设性的 | |
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66 tract | |
n.传单,小册子,大片(土地或森林) | |
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67 intrusive | |
adj.打搅的;侵扰的 | |
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68 Christians | |
n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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69 momentous | |
adj.重要的,重大的 | |
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70 conquerors | |
征服者,占领者( conqueror的名词复数 ) | |
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