called the Oke at Hook Norton, and the ford at Oxford, were named. The question which concerns us is this: Is there any evidence to be gathered from the old place-names around Oxford or from other sources of the existence of people who may be identified with the supposed colony or tribe of people called Eocce? The only tribe whose name appears possible in this respect is the Chaucians, a nation in alliance with the Frisians, who are believed to be the same people as the Hocings mentioned in Beowulf,[1] in which an account is given of Hnæf, Prince of the Hocings, and Hengest the Jute, vassals of the Danish King Healfdene, who were sent to invade the Frisian territory at that time governed by Fin, son of Folcwalda, and husband of Hildeburh, the daughter of Hoce. Whatever the name Eoccen-ford, the earliest name for Oxford, may mean, it should not be forgotten that in the old Frisian land, close to that in which the Chaucians lived, there was a place called Occenvorth.[2]
Latham, as already mentioned in Chapter V., says: ‘In Beowulf we read of the Hocings. Word for word, this is held to be the Chauci by all or most who have written upon the subject.[3] Hocing means, not so much a Chaucus or Chaucian as of Chauch blood.’ As regards the first syllable of Cuxhaven being derived from Chauc or Chauci, Latham says this has been suggested, and, he believes, adopted. As regards the variation in Anglo-Saxon spelling, Sweet quotes ch as equivalent to c, and this as passing into h.[4] Thorpe quotes the Hetware tribe as the same as the Chatuarii mentioned by Strabo.[5] Latham tells us further that ch in Old Frisian is equivalent
- ↑ Lappenberg, J. M., ‘Hist. of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings,’ i. 276, note, quoting Zeuss.
- ↑ Annales Egmundani: Monumenta Germaniæ Script., xvi. 464.
- ↑ Latham, R. G., ‘English Language,’ 5th Ed., 243.
- ↑ Sweet, H., ‘Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon,’ Preface, xix.
- ↑ Thorpe, B., ‘The Poems of Beowulf,’ Glossarial Index, p. 319.
