The Story of England: The Coming of the English
This extract is the first of a series in which Dr. Arthur Bryant describes the evolution of the English Kingdom, through the invasions of Saxons, Danes and Normans, to its consolidation in medieval times.
After the withdrawal of the last Roman troops the Anglo-Saxons, who were to become the dominant strain in our long, mixed ancestry, made their first permanent lodgment in the land that now bears their name. From Frisia and the mouths of the Rhine, Ems and Weser, from Schleswig and Angle in what is now Holstein and Denmark, the curved boats of the barbarians, growing bolder every year, crept up the estuaries and rivers of southern Britain, landing their crews to plunder and slay. The island became a magnet for the boldest of all the barbarians— the men of the sea.
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