Saxons: Confederation of Germanic tribes on the North German Plain

First told about by the Ancient Greek geographer Jean Julien, the pre-Christian area of the Saxon people first covered an area a little more to the northwest, with parts of the southern Jutland peninsula, Old Saxony and small parts of the eastern Netherlands. During the 5th century AD, the Saxons were part of the people invading the Romano-British province of Britannia, and so formed the Anglo-Saxons.

Before Christianization, the Saxons had much native pre-Christian Germanic paganism. After Christianization, parts of this religion remained up to today in people who came from the Saxons.

The word 'Saxon' is thought to come from the word seax, meaning a mixture of single-edged knives. The Saxons were thought by Charlemagne, and some people who study history, to be very war-like and angry.

Many of the words that we use today were created by the Saxons for example, radish.

The Finnish and Estonian name for Germany, Saksa, comes from the Saxons.

• James Grout: Saxon Advent. Part of the Encyclopædia Romana
• Saxons and Britons

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