The Origin of the English Nation

by Kostes Munro Palamas

THIS book attempts to give an account of the early history of the English nation, so far as the information at our disposal permits. The author ventures to hope that in spite of its many shortcomings it may serve to call attention to a field of investigation which, though rich in promise, has been greatly neglected, especially in this country. In general he has sought to make use of all branches of ethnological study-history, tradition, language, custom, religion and antiquities. Owing however to the backwardness of archaeological research throughout the north of Europe, except in Denmark and Sweden, it has not been found possible to treat the last of these subjects in a manner at all commensurate with its true importance. Vhen this branch of study has been developed it will perhaps be possible to obtain more light on the affinities of the English nation in times anterior to those to which the earliest heroic traditions refer. At present, it need hardly be said, we hav

Table of Contents

CHAPTER; I ENGLAND IN THE SIXTH CENTURY; II THE WEST SAXON INVASION; III THE INVASION OF KENT; IV THE SAXONS, ANGLES AND JUTES IN; "; BRITAIN; V Tm; SAXONS, ANGLES AND JUTES ON THE CONTINENT; VI THE KINGS OF ANGEL; NOTE THE EARLY KINGS OF THE DANES; VII THE AGE OF NATIONAL lIIGRATIONS; VIII THE SAXONS AND ANGLES IN T1lIES; IX THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE ANCIENT GERMANI; X THE CULT OF NERTHUS; XI KING AETHELWULF'S lIYTHICAL ANCESTORS; XII SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF THE RO'IAN PERIOD; ADDENDA; INDEX; lL'PS; 20; 35; 54; 207; 345; 347; ENGLAND AT THE END OF THE SIXTH CENTURY to face page I I; N' GERMANY, HOLLAND, ETC AT THE BEGINNING; OF THE SIXTH CENTURY; THE NORTHERN PART OF PTOLEliY'S GERMANIA; :-JW GERMANY ETC IN THE FIRST CENTURY; "; "; "; " I 12; "; " 205

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such Philosophy, Classics, Science,

372 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1983

Reviews

[Simon Cook]

H.M. Chadwick is the scholar's scholar. Of all the innovative oddballs knocking around the Edwardian intellectual scene - including the likes of Jane Harrison and the so-called 'Cambridge Ritualists' - it is Chadwick alone who is still read today by those in his field. Where his 1912 The Heroic Age provided a stunningly original catastrophic social explanation of the origins of modern individualism in the social encounter between two distinct kinds of ancient civilization, his early Origin of the English Nation broke new ground by tracing the origins of the English back before the migrations. This Chadwick achieved by tracing the outlines of the ancient mythology that the English shared with other Northern tribes. This account of ancient English mythology provided J.R.R. Tolkien with the starting-point for his stories of Middle-earth, which he intended as the conjectural stories that became the mythological traditions surveyed by Chadwick.