Editing Saxons (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:Seax with replica.jpg|thumb|upright 1.3|The remains of a seax together with a reconstructed replica]]
The name of the Saxons has traditionally been said to derive from a kind of knife used in this period and called a {{Lang|ang|[[seax]]}} in Old English and {{Lang|goh|sachs}} in [[Old High German]].<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/saxon|title= Saxon {{!}} Definition of Saxon in English by Oxford Dictionaries|website= Oxford Dictionaries {{!}} English|access-date= 2019-03-10}}{{dead link|date=September 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref>{{oed | sax}}</ref> The term "Saxon" was first definitely used in written records to describe coastal raiders who attacked the [[Roman Empire]] from regions north of the [[Rhine]] using boats. At this time, the term had a similar sense to the much later term "[[Viking]]".<ref>{{harvnb|Springer|2004|p=12}}: "{{Lang|de|Im Latein des späten Altertums konnte Saxones als Sammelbezeichnung von Küstenräubern gebraucht werden. Es spielte dieselbe Rolle wie viele Jahrhunderte später das Wort Wikinger.}}"</ref> These early raiders and settlers called Saxons included [[Frisians]], [[Angles (tribe)|Angles]] and [[Jutes]], whose countries stretched from what is now the Netherlands to what is now Denmark, and included coastal parts of the territory which came to be called Saxony. It has been proposed that these coastal Saxons, who were strongly associated with the [[Anglo-Saxons]] of England, should be seen as distinct from the later Saxons of [[Carolingian dynasty|Carolingian]] times, although they were referred to by the same name, and were clearly related peoples. This has been compared to the later evolution of modern European terms referring to the "[[Dutch people]]" of the Netherlands, and the ''Deutschen'', or [[Germans]], of neighbouring Germany.<ref>{{harvnb|Springer|2004b|p=33}}: "Engl. ''the Dutch'' heißt nicht "die Deutschen"; und engl. ''the Germans'' heißt nicht "die Germanen". ''Franci'' im Latein des Hoch- und Spät-MAs meinte die Franzosen und nicht die Franken usw. So war das lat. ''Saxones'' während der Völkerwanderungszeit und des Früh-MAs keineswegs auf "die" Sachsen festgelegt." [Some abbreviations expanded.]</ref> 

Significant numbers of these early Saxons settled within the empire, in what later became northern France and England. England, rather than Saxony, was sometimes written of as the Saxon homeland. To avoid confusion, later writers in the 8th century such as [[Bede]] and the author of the ''[[Ravenna Cosmography]]'' referred to the Saxons of Saxony in Germany as the "old Saxons", and their country as "old Saxony", and this differentiation is still often used by historians today when discussing this period. In contrast, the settlers once called Saxons in England became part of a new [[Old English]]-speaking nation, now commonly referred to as the [[Anglo-Saxons]], or simply "the English". This brought together local [[Romano-British culture|Romano-British]] populations, Saxons, and other migrants from the same North Sea region, including Frisians, Jutes, and Angles. The Angles are the source of the term "English" which became the more commonly-used collective term. The term "Anglo-Saxon", combining the names of the Angles and the Saxons, also came into use by the 8th century, initially in the work of [[Paul the Deacon]], to distinguish the Germanic-speaking inhabitants of Britain from continental Saxons. However, both the Saxons of Britain and those of Old Saxony in northern Germany long continued to be referred to as "Saxons" in an indiscriminate manner.