Page:Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race.djvu/115

Rh There is additional evidence of the intercourse of the Wendish people of Pomerania with the people of Anglo-Saxon England in the objects that have been found. The gold ring which was found at Cöslin, on the Pomeranian coast, in 1839, Stephens says was the first instance of the discovery of a golden bracteate and Northern runes on German soil. The inscription is in provincial English runes, the rune (&thinsp;&thinsp;), yo, a slight variation of (&thinsp; &#x16c7; &thinsp;), being decisive in this respect, for, as Stephens says, it has only been found in England. The ring must be a very early one, for it contains the heathen symbols for Woden and also for the Holy Triskele ( Y ). Stephens states that it cannot well he later than the fifth century, and that it had been worn by a warrior ‘who had been in England, or had gotten it thence by barter.’ The style is that of six centuries earlier than the eleventh or twelfth centuries, when the Germans came to Pomerania. The well~preserved characters on the ring point to its loss at an early date after its manufacture, and thus to early communication of some kind between England and Pomerania. It may have been the much-prized, rare ornament of a Wendish chief, brought or sent from England. In any case we know that the Wends, who had no knowledge of runes, must have prized ornaments such as this, whose construction was beyond their skill, for the relics of Vandal ornaments we possess from other countries where Vandals settled are clearly in many respects rough imitations of those of the ancient Goths. With this English golden finger-ring there were also two Roman golden coins, one of Theodosius the Great (379-395), and the other of Leo I. (457-474), thus fixing the probable date of the ring as the fifth century. At that time the Goths were settling down in Kent, with some Wends, probably, near to them. They can be traced in both Essex and Sussex. The coast of the Baltic, it should also be remembered, was not only Wendish in the parts