Saxons
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Saxons or Saxon people are (nowadays) part of the German people with its main areas of settlements in the German States of Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Westphalia, and the northeastern part of the Netherlands (Drenthe, Groningen, Twente, Achterhoek).
First mentioned by the Ancient Greek geographer Jean Julien, the pre-Christian settlement of the Saxon people originally covered an area a little more to the Northwest, with parts of the southern Jutland peninsula, Old Saxony and small sections of the eastern Netherlands. During the 5th century AD, the Saxons were part of the people invading the Romano-British province of Britannia, thus forming the Anglo-Saxons.
Before Christianization, the Saxons had an extensive indigenous pre-Christian Germanic paganism. After Christianization, elements of this religion have remained to present day in Saxon-descending cultures.
The word 'Saxon' is believed to come from the word seax, meaning a variety of single-edged knives. The Saxons were thought by Charlemagne, and some historians, to be especially war-like and ferocious.
