32
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book i.
the heptarchy, or the extent of the influence which
they retained after that event1 On all these several
points we are left entirely in the dark ; and yet
these are facts which it most imports us to know,
if we would comprehend the growth of a society
which endured for at least seven hundred years in
England, and formed the foundation of that in
which we live.
Lappenberg has devoted several pages of his
elaborate history1 to an investigation of the Kent-
ish legends, with a view to demonstrate their tra-
ditional, that is unhistorical, character. He has
shown that the best authorities are inconsistent
with one another and with themselves, in assigning
the period of Hengesfs arrival in England. Care-
fully comparing the dates of the leading events, as
given from the soundest sources, he has proved be-
yond a doubt, that all these periods are calculated
upon a mythical number 8, whose multiples recur in
every year assigned. Thus the periods of twenty-
four, sixteen, eight and particularly forty years
meet us at every turn ; and a somewhat similar
tendency may, I think, be observed in the earlier
dates of Westsaxon history cited in a preceding
page. It is also very probable that the early ge-
nealogies of the various Anglosaxon kings were
arranged in series of eight names, including always
the great name of W6den2.
The result of all these enquiries is, to guard
1 Thorpe’s Lappenh. i. 78 seq.
2 Beowulf, ii. Postscript to the Preface, xκvii.
CH. I∙]
SAXON AND WELSH TRADITIONS.
33
against plausible details which can only mislead
us. If we endeavour to destroy the credit of tradi-
tions which have long existed, it is only to put
something in their place, inconsistent with them,
but of more value : to reduce them to what they
really are, lest their authority should render the
truth more obscure, and its pursuit more difficult
than is necessary ; but to use them wherever they
seem capable of guiding our researches, and are
not irreconcilable with our other conclusions.
Far less in the fabulous records adopted by hi-
storians, than in the divisions of the land itself,
according to the populations that occupied it, and
the rank of their several members, must the truth
be sought. The names of the tribes and families
have survived in the localities where they settled,
while their peculiar forms of customary law have
become as it were melted together into one gene-
ral system ; and the national legends which each of
them most probably possessed, have either perished
altogether, or are now to be traced only in proper
names which fill up the genealogies of the royal
families ɪ. To these local names I shall return
ɪ Geat, the eponymus of a race, Geatas, is found in the common
genealogy previous to Woden ; his legend is alluded to in the Codex
Exoniensis, pp. 377, 378, together with those of Deodrfc, Wdland and
Eormanric. Witta in the Kentish line is found in the Traveller’s Song,
ɪ. 43. Ofia in the Mercian genealogy occurs in the same poem, 1. 69,
ɪn the fine epos of Beowulf, and in Saxo Grammaticus. Fin the son
of Folcwalda is one of the heroes of Beowulf. Scyld, Sceaf and Beowa
are found in the same poem, etc. These facts render it probable
that many other, if not all the names in the genealogies were equally
derived from the peculiar national or gentile legends, although the
epic poems in which they were celebrated being now lost, we are un-
able to point to them as we have done to others.
VOL. I. D