continues its course into the British Ocean below CHAP. Eiderstadt.

THE region between the Eyder and the Elbe, was denominated Nordalbingia, and its inhabitants Nordalbingi, in the earliest records we possess of these parts." North of the Eyder, extended Sleswick, in South Jutland; and, beyond that, the district of North Jutland was continued into Wendila, and ended in Skawen, from which in a clear atmosphere the rocks of Scandinavia are visible.

THREE districts, in ancient times, divided this country of Nordalbingia or Eald 18 Saexen. These unequal portions, which have preserved their names to recent times, are Ditmarsia, Stormaria, and Holsatia. The progress of the Slavi occasioned a fourth division in the province of Wagria. As the early state of all distinguished nations is a curious subject of contemplation, it may not be uninteresting to add a short account of the provinces which our ancestors first occupied on the Continent.

II.

DITMARSIA 19 is separated on the north from Ditmarsia. Sleswick by the Eyder, and from Stormaria on the

17 Ad. Brem. p. 63.-The Privilegia, Eccl. Hammb. 146, 147.- Helmoldus Chron. Slav. 40. Some name the people Transalbini.

18 So Alfred, in his Orosius, p. 20, 21., and his kinsman Ethelwerd, 833., entitle this region. The three divisions exist in Ad. Brem. 22., and Helmoldus Slav. 40. Subsequent geographers acknowledge it.

19 It is called Thiat-mares-gaho in S. Anscharius, who lived in 840, and in whose work the name is first met with. 1 Langb. Script. 347. Thiatmaresca, in a diploma of 1059, ib.; and Thiatmarsgoi, in Ad. Brem. 22.-Teutomarsia, Chryteus Proem. Also Dythmersi, Dytmerschi.-Suhm has investigated the etymology in his Nordfolk. Oprin. 263.

BOOK South by the Stoer. It fronts the isles of HeiliII. gland and Busen, and extends in length thirtyseven miles, and in breadth twenty-three.

Stormaria.

Its ge

neral aspect is a soil low and marshy, and strong
mounds are necessary to keep the ocean to its na-
tural limits. The land on the coast is favourable
to corn and cattle; but in the interior
appear sterile
sands, or uncultivated marshes. Its inhabitants,
like those of all unfruitful regions, have been te-
nacious of the right of enjoying their poverty in
independence, and the nature of the country has
favoured their military exertions. Their habits of
warfare and scanty livelihood produced a harshness
of disposition, which often amounted to ferocity. 20

BELOW Ditmarsia, and reaching to the Elbe, was STORMARIA. 21 The Stoer, which named the province, confined it on the north. The Suala, Trave, and Billa, determined the rest of its extent. It was almost one slimy marsh. The wet and low situation of Stormaria and Ditmarsia exactly corresponds with the Roman account of the Saxons living in inaccessible marshes." The Stoer is friendly to navigation and fishing. Stormaria is somewhat quadrangular, and its sides may be estimated at thirty-three miles. 23

20 Pontanus, ch. 667.-Cilicius Belli Ditmars. 427., annexed to Krantz. Their banner was an armed soldier on a white horse.

21 Ad. Brem. p. 22. derives the name from Storm, a metaphor expressive of the seditions of the inhabitants; but Stoer, the river, and Marsi, the residents in marshes, seem to compose a juster etymology. Chryteus Sax. 66.-Pont. 664.

22 Saxones, gentem in oceani littoribus et paludibus inviis sitam. Orosius, 7. 32.

23 Pontanus, 666.-Ad. Brem. 22. distinguishes the Sturmarii with the epithet nobiliores. Their banner was a white

II.

DIVIDED from Sleswick by the Levesou on the CHAP. north, bounded by Wagria on the east, and by the Trave on the south "4, HoLSATIA stretches its nu- Holsatia. merous woods to Ditmarsia. The local appellation of the region thus confined has been, by a sort of geographical catachresis, applied to denominate all that country which is contained within the Eyder, the Elbe, and the Trave. In the age approaching the period of the continental residence of our ancestors, the Holtzati were nominally as well as territorially distinguished from the other states which we have considered. Their country received from the bounty of nature one peculiar characteristic. As the western and southern coasts of Eald Saexen were repetitions of quagmires, the loftier Holsatia presented a continued succession of forests, and of plains which admitted cultivation.

STRENGTH and courage were qualities which grew up with the Holsatian, in common with his neigh

swan with a golden collar. Hammaburg (Hamburg) was their metropolis, which, before the eleventh century, had been viris et armis potens ; but in Adam's time, was in solitudinem redacta. Ib. 24 Holsatia was 42 miles from Wilster to Kiel, and about 33 from Hanrahuw to New Munster. Pontan. 665.

25 Their etymology has been variously stated; 1. from the woods they inhabited; Holt, a wood; saten, to be seated. Ad. Brem. and Pontan.-2. From their country having been called Olt Saxen, Old Saxony. Shering, De Gent. Angl. 28. It certainly was so named by Ravenna, Geog. lib. v. s. 31. So in Bede, lib. i. c. 15. and lib. v. c. 11. Chron. Sax. p. 13. By Gregory, Ep. Bib. Mag. v. 16. p. 101., and Boniface, ib. p. 55., who lived in the seventh century. Nennius, 3 Gale Script. Angl. 115.-3. See another derivation in Verstegan, 91. Eginhard, in the ninth century, names it Holdunstetch. The derivation of Adam of Bremen has prevailed.

II.

66

BOOK bours: he has been proverbed for his fidelity; his generosity has been also extolled; but an ancient writer diminishes the value of this rare virtue, by the companions which he associates to it. They are emulous in hospitality, because to plunder and to lavish is the glory of an Holsatian; not to be versed in the science of depredation is, in his opinion, to be stupid and base." 26

SUCH were the countries in which our Saxon ancestors were residing when the Roman geographer first noticed them; and from these, when the attention of their population became directed to maritime depredations, they made those incursions on the Roman empire, which its authors mention with so much dismay. But the Saxons were one of the obscure tribes whom Providence was training up to establish more just governments, more improving institutions, and more virtuous, though fierce manners, in the corrupted and incorrigible population of imperial Rome. And they advanced from their remote and almost unknown corner of ancient Germany, with a steady and unreceding progress, to the distinguished destiny to which they were conducted.

26 Helmoldus, Chron. Slav. 40. He adds, that the three people of Nordalbingia differed little either in dress or language. They had the jura Saxonum,

CHAP. III.

Circumstances favourable to the Increase of the SAXON Power on the Continent.

A BOVE a century elapsed after Ptolemy, before CHA P.

the Saxons were mentioned again by any author who has survived to us. Eutropius is the

second writer we have, who noticed them. In accounting for the rebellion of Carausius, and his assumption of the purple, he states the Saxons to have united with the Francs, and to have become formidable to the Romans for their piratical enterprises. In the century which elapsed between Ptolemy and Carausius, the Saxons had greatly advanced in power and reputation, and they were beginning their system of foreign depredations when that emperor encouraged them to pursue it. Their prosperity during this interval seems to have arisen from the repulse of the Romans from the Elbe to the Rhine; from the rise of the Francs; and from their own application to maritime expeditions.

III.

of the Ro

mans to

THE descendants of the first Scythian population Progress of Europe had acquired the name of Germans in the time of Cæsar. That it was a recent appellation, the Elbe. we learn from Tacitus. They were first invited into Gaul, to assist one of its contending factions, and the fertility of the country was so tempting, that their 15,000 auxiliaries gradually swelled into

Tacitus, Mor. Germ. c. 2.