The Germans, hearing that voluntarily offered, which they had long anxiously desired, readily obeyed the invitation; their joy quickening their haste. Bidding adieu, therefore, to their native fields and the ties of kindred, they spread their sails to Fortune, and, with a favouring breeze, arrived in Britain in three of those long vessels which they call "ceols."[1] At this and other times came over a mixed multitude from three of the German nations; that is to say, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. For almost all the country lying to the north of the British ocean, though divided into many provinces, is justly denominated Germany, from its germinating so many men. And as the pruner cuts off the more luxuriant branches of the tree to impart a livelier vigour to the remainder, so the inhabitants of this country assist their common parent by the expulsion of a part of their members, lest she should perish by giving sustenance to too numerous an offspring; but in order to obviate discontent, they cast lots who shall be compelled to migrate. Hence the men of this country have made a virtue of necessity, and, when driven from their native soil, they have gained foreign settlements by force of arms. The Vandals, for instance, who formerly over-ran Africa; the Goths, who made themselves masters of Spain; the Lombards, who, even at the present time, are settled in Italy; and the Normans, who have given their own name to that part of Gaul which they subdued. From Germany, then, there first came into Britain, an inconsiderable number indeed, but well able to make up for their paucity by their courage. These were under the conduct of Hengist and Horsa, two brothers of suitable disposition, and of noble race in their own country. They were great-grandsons of the celebrated Woden, from whom almost all the royal families of these barbarous nations deduce their origin; and to whom the nations of the Angles, fondly deifying him, have consecrated by immemorial superstition the fourth day of the week, as they have the sixth to his wife Frea. Bede has related in what particular parts of
- ↑ These are supposed to be long vessels, somewhat like galleys, and it would appear, as well from Brompton, col. 897, as from so small a number containing a body equal to a military enterprise like that described here and in other places, that they vere of considerable burden.
