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accepting a payment, the wergild, in its place. The Gods were Norse – Tiw, Woden, Thor, Freya,
and are remembered in the days of the week – Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday – and also in
English place-names like Tuesley in Surrey and Wednesbury in Staffordshire.
There was stiff resistance to the Saxons, culminating in the British victory around AD 500 at
Mons Badonicus, an unknown location in the West Country where Geoffrey of Monmouth has King
Arthur lead the victorious Britons. In the century that followed, the Saxons advanced only very
slowly into territory still held by the Britons. By 600 the Saxons had moved north from
Northumbria to defeat the Britons of southern Scotland. The Saxon victory at the battle of Chester
in 616 severed the land link between the Britons of Wales and the Britons of the north, preventing
them from helping each other. The British kingdoms of Rheged on the Solway Firth and Elmet
around Leeds were extinguished, while Strathclyde, with its base in Dumbarton on the Clyde,
survived. At the other end of the country, Cornwall resisted until the beginning of the ninth century.
Saxon lands coalesced into larger kingdoms – East Anglia, Kent, Sussex, Essex, Middlesex,
Wessex, Mercia, and Bernicia and Deria, both in Northumbria. Gradually, through conquest and
alliance, kings of one region claimed sovereignty over one or more of the others. Raedwald of East
Anglia, whose treasures were found at the burial site at Sutton Hoo, was one of these, claiming
supremacy over Mercia and Northumbria.
Life in the court of Raedwald and other Saxon kings centred around the Great Hall and Bede
gives a captivating account of what it was like: ‘the fire is burning on the hearth in the middle of
the hall and all inside is warm, while outside the wintry storms of rain and snow are raging.’ The
king, his earls and household listen to the songs and poems of their bards. This is the world of
Beowulf – heroic, courageous and at the same time sensitive to literature and beauty, as even a
brief glimpse at the Sutton Hoo treasure confirms.
One enduring question is why it was that the Britons did not simply absorb the invaders. This is
what happened in France, where the Germanic invaders were quickly assimilated into the culture
of Roman Gaul. Their language was almost entirely lost as Gaul slowly moved from Latin to
French. But in England the reverse happened. English owes very little to Celtic, but almost
everything to its Germanic roots. The abrupt change of language, the reason indeed that I am
writing this book in English rather than a form of Welsh, is a major reason among historians and
archaeologists for supporting the extermination scenario. Reading the bloodthirsty accounts from
Gildas and faced with the extinction of the Celtic language and its replacement by English, it is
tempting to explain them as variations on the theme of genocide. The English Celts were simply
wiped out, or driven to the hills. Whether this is true or not is certainly something I hoped genetics
would be able to discover, but is it really very likely?
There certainly were civilian massacres, on the eve of the battle of Chester in 616 for example,
but there is also plenty of evidence that the British were living peacefully in Saxon kingdoms. A set
of laws promulgated by a seventh-century king of Wessex specifically provides for Britons living
in his territory. There is also the question of numbers. Is it realistic to think that there were enough
invaders coming across the sea completely to supplant the native population? The genetics should
provide a big clue towards resolving the perennial Saxon/Celt debate, and it is the main question to
be answered about England. Or is it?
In the year 789 it is recorded that the King of Wessex married the daughter of the Mercian King
Offa. Almost as an afterthought is added this ominous sequel: