The Saxons (Latin: Saxones, Old English: Seaxe, Old Saxon:
Sahson, Low German: Sassen, German: Sachsen, Dutch: Saksen) were a group of
Germanic tribes first mentioned as living near the North Sea coast of what is
now Germany (Old Saxony), in late Roman times. They were soon mentioned as
raiding and settling in many North Sea areas, as well as pushing south inland
towards the Franks. Significant numbers settled in large parts of Great Britain
in the early Middle Ages and formed part of the merged group of Anglo-Saxons
who eventually organised the first united Kingdom of England. Many Saxons
however remained in Germania, where they resisted the expanding Frankish Empire
through the leadership of the semi-legendary Saxon hero, Widukind.
The Saxons' earliest area of settlement is believed to have
been Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein. This
general area also included the probable homeland of the Angles. Saxons, along
with the Angles and other continental Germanic tribes, participated in the
Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain during and after the 5th century. The
British-Celtic inhabitants of the isles tended to refer to all these groups
collectively as Saxons. It is unknown how many Saxons migrated from the
continent to Britain, though estimates for the total number of Anglo-Saxon
settlers are around 200,000. During the Middle Ages, because of international
Hanseatic trading routes and contingent migration, Saxons mixed with and had
strong influences upon the languages and cultures of the Baltic peoples, Finnic
peoples, and Polabian Slavs and Pomeranians, both West Slavic peoples, as well
as influencing the North Germanic languages.
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