Page:Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race.djvu/85

Rh under the name of Angles or Saxons, in the latter under the name of Danes or Vikings. Our early chroniclers had more accurate traditions of who the Danes were than modern historians have fully recognised. Henry of Huntingdon, in the passage in which he mentions the impiety of the Anglo—Saxons some time after their conversion, says: ‘The Almighty therefore let loose upon them the most barbarous of nations, the Danes and Goths, Norwegians and Swedes, Vandals and Frisians.’ It will be noticed that he couples the Vandals with the Frisians, as if they were acting together in alliance.

Among the ancient Frisian books which exist is one known as the ‘Keran fon Hunesgena londe,’ or Statutes of the Country of the Hunsings, the date of which is about A.D. 1252, but the origin of the statutes is of a far earlier period. There is also another old law-book in existence, known as the ‘Littera Brocmannorum,’ or written law of the Brocmen.’ The chief part which remains of old Frisia is the country of the meres and broads of North Holland, but in assigning a locality to any ancient Frisian tribe, we must remember the great destruction of the land which has occurred within the range of history. The Brocmen certainly formed an old tribal division of the race, of sufficient importance to have laws of their own as distinct from their neighbours, and they, or some of their tribe, may have occupied part of East Friesland and probably some of the submerged country. Their country was also known as Brocmonnelond and Brockmerland. The Frisian author Halbertsma tells us that the pagus of the Brocmen was in East Frisia. Among the Frisians there were certainly distinct tribes. Even as late as the twelfth century William of Malmesbury alludes to these ancient tribes in the expression, ‘all