著者

岩谷 道夫

出版者

法政大学キャリアデザイン学部

雑誌

法政大学キャリアデザイン学部紀要 (ISSN:13493043)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.3, pp.219-236, 2006-03

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The Saxons are among the Germanic tribes who moved from the European continent to the island of Britain in the age of the Germanic migration. After their movement to Britain,the Saxons,together with the Angles and Jutes,estabilshed the so-called Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. Alfred the Great,who finally united all the other English nations,was the king of a West-Saxon kingdom created by the Saxons. In contrast with the Angles and Jutes,however,the Saxons did not migrate from their homeland totally. The Sachsen,their German kindred,stayed in their continental homeland and they subsequently played an important role in German history. This paper searches for the original entity of the Saxons and for its relation to the continental Sachsen. The formation of the Saxons is not clearly understood and there are several views on the matter. Two Germanic tribes,the Chauci and Reudigni,seem to have contributed much to the tribal formation of the Saxons. But it is still an open issue which tribe or tribes formed the Saxons. It is also unclear how the Saxons came to occupy the vast dominion of the Chauci. Those matters are to be sought entirely through the investigation into the references made by Roman writers and modern scholars. The historical relationship between Saxons and Sachsen is also purued in order to illuminate the mutual influences in religion and culture in the early middle ages.