the origin of the anglo-saxons—derivation of the word saxon—the goths and vandals—overthrow of the roman empire—the mythology of the ancient scandinavians—baldur—their early literature.
as the question, "what became of the ten tribes?" still remains to the world an unanswered historical enigma, so also is the question unanswered, "whence originated the vast hosts of so-called barbarians who, descending from the frigid regions of scandinavia, filled europe with new races, new laws, new ideas, new languages and new institutions?" some have traced a connection between the loss of the one people and the advent of the other, and one author of repute—mr. sharon turner—extensively quoted in this connection, claims that the original home of the anglo-saxons was in the very country where israel is historically lost, and further states that these people commenced their migration therefrom about the same time as the tribes of jacob must have taken their journey northward.
mr. turner, in his valuable history of the anglo-saxons, while discussing the teutonic descent of many of the nations of modern europe, says:
"it is peculiarly interesting to us, because, from its branches, not only our own immediate ancestors, but also those of the most celebrated nations of modern europe have unquestionably descended. the anglo-saxons, lowland scotch, normans, danes, norwegians, swedes, germans, dutch, belgians, lombards and franks have all sprung from that great fountain of the human race, which we have distinguished by the terms, scythian, german or gothic. the first appearance of the scythian tribes in europe, may be placed, according to strabo and homer, about the eighth, or according to herodotus, in the seventh century before the christian era. the first scenes of their civil existence, and of their progressive power were in asia to the east of the araxes. here they multiplied and extended their territorial limits for some centuries, unknown to europe." with regard to the saxons, mr. turner writes, "they were a german or teutonic, that is a gothic or scythian tribe; and of the various scythian nations which have been recorded, the sakai or sacae are the people from whom the descent of the saxons may be inferred, with the least violation of probability. they were so celebrated that the persians called all the scythians by the name of sacae. * * * that some of the divisions of this people were really called sakasuna (from which we have our word saxon or sacson) is obvious from pliny; for he says that the sakai who settled in armenia were named sacassani which is saka-suna, spelt by a person who was unacquainted with the meaning of the combined words; and the name sacasina, which they gave to that part of armenia they occupied, is nearly the same sound as saxonia. it is also important to remark, that ptolemy mentions a scythian people sprung from the sakai, who resided near the baltic sea, by the name of saxones."
mr. turner was not advocating the israelitish ancestry of the saxons, hence those who believe in that theory put the greater stress on his two most important statements: that the forefathers of this race dwelt in the region east of the araxes, the exact spot to which israel was carried captive, and that they began to spread out therefrom some six or seven hundred years before christ, answering to the very period that the children of jacob dwelt captives in that country. one author has assumed a very unique derivation for the word saxon. he says: "we suppose it is derived from isaac, by which, we find from amos, this house of israel had begun to denominate itself, just before the captivity. it was usual to contract the commencement of the name, especially when they combined it with any other word, or when it came to be familiarly applied. saxon is, literally or fully expressed, the son of isaac." just as dickson in modern english was abbreviated to dixon.[a] such abbreviations, we may remark in passing, in familiar talk are also common with our neighbors, the shoshones, also a remnant of the seed of jacob, one writer on this portion of the subject sees in this explanation of the word saxon a fulfillment of the promise made to our father abraham, "in isaac shall thy seed be called," and goes as far as to advance the argument that cossack is another expression of this same idea, or that a don cossack is literally and truly a son of isaac, of the tribe of dan.
[footnote a: it is claimed by some that the word brahmin is an abbreviation of abraham in fact that the god brahma is the patriarch himself deified.]
the ferocity of the northern races, who overthrew the roman empire, is thought by some to argue against their israelitish origin. but we must recollect that the pictures of the goths and vandals, which have been handed down to us, were painted by their enemies. nor would the argument, however true, have any weight with us were the rest proven. if they were of israel they had been wandering, fighting and colonizing for a thousand years since they left palestine before they overwhelmed rome. and as far as ferocity is concerned they cannot equal the seed of joseph on this continent, who but three hundred years after the fullness of the gospel was proclaimed to their fathers by the crucified redeemer, committed atrocities that no goth or vandal ever exceeded. a very pretty theory has been advocated in connection with this portion of their history, to the effect that as the roman empire was used by the lord to destroy the house of judah and slay millions of that devoted race, so the lord chose a portion of the house of israel (unknown to both themselves and their enemies) to destroy the gentile rulers of the world who had slain and scattered their brother's house.
the mythology of the northern races of europe may also be noticed in connection with these inquiries. those learned in the mythologies of ancient rome and greece say that it bears no likeness to them: its peculiarities would rather tend to the idea that it was of persian origin (british encyclopaedia). some of the early christian fathers fancied they discovered a great resemblance between one of their deities, named baldur or balder, and our savior.[b] this god is represented as the son of odin and frigga, youthful, beautiful and benignant, the dispenser of kindness, the bringer of joy and blessings, who loves to dwell with men, and whom all men love. but he is killed by the wicked. (the manner of his death is surrounded with mythological nonsense.) all men mourn the loss of their friend, and search through the world for some remedy to bring him to life; but in vain; stern death has taken him away to the realms of the dead, and he cannot come back. his wife nanna, that she may not be separated from him, has gone to dwell with him there. at last frigga, his mother, sends a messenger to obtain his release. he leaps the gate of the gloomy world, sees baldur, and speaks with him, but no, baldur cannot be released, here he must remain, and his wife nanna must dwell with him forever.
[footnote b: "the early saxons." american s. s. union, philadelphia.]
from some of the details not here inserted, we incline somewhat to the opinion that the above narration is a confused tradition of the way death was brought into the world through the transgression of adam and eve, rather than that it bears relation to the life of the savior.
we draw attention to the way baldur's death was brought about. the tradition runs (american cyclopaedia), baldur having long been troubled by dreams and evil omens, indicating danger to his life, his mother traveled through the whole universe, eliciting from every created thing a promise not to injure the god. but she neglected to ask it from the apparently harmless mistletoe. loki, the most deceitful among the gods, an enemy of baldur, noticed this omission, and cut from the mistletoe a piece for the point of a dart. the other gods, surrounding baldur, made proof of his invulnerability in sport, by casting at him their weapons, with stones, etc.; but nothing injured him. loki approached and induced the blind god hodur to throw the dart he had made from the forgotten mistletoe. baldur was pierced by it and killed. in this tradition loki takes the place of satan, hodur typifies the serpent, and the mistletoe the tree of knowledge of good and evil. it is also noticeable that they represent, in this tradition, that man could do nothing, of himself, to overcome the power of death.
the very earliest literature of the scandinavian people, preserved on the island of iceland, adds many testimonies to the scandinavians' israelitish origin. on this point, the encyclopaedia britannica says: "on entering on these ancient books, we are immediately struck with the corroborative evidence which they furnish of the eastern origin of the goths, the fathers of the scandinavians. as all languages, so all mythologies run in lines, which converge in one common center, * * * central asia. and little as we might expect it, no sooner do we open the ancient religious books of scandinavia than we are carried back thither. our northern people are a people of eastern origin. odin[c] and his asar, are asiatics, declare themselves to be from the great svithiod, a country which appears to have been the present circassia, lying between the black and caspian seas. the whole of their memoirs abounded with the proofs of it. they brought with them abundant eastern customs, those of burning the dead, and burying under mounds. they practiced polygamy, looked back with imperishable affection to the great svithiod, to the primitive district of asgord and the city of gudahem, or the home of the gods. they transferred a religion bearing the primal features of those of persia, india and greece, to the snowy mountains of scandinavia." in reading the above we were strongly impressed with the geographical idea there expressed. without any great stretch of the imagination we could easily consider the traditions regarding the great svithiod, to refer to media, the primitive district of asgord, to be the dim remembrance of their first home in the land of promise, and gudahem, the home of the gods, to be jerusalem, the city of the great king. the parallel we consider to be very significant.
