North Wales at this time of dark sea-rovers under a Scandinavian leader, and it is difficult to see who they were if not dark-complexioned Wends or other allies of the Norsemen. It is possible some of these dark Vikings may have been allies or mercenaries from the South of Europe, where the Norse made conquests.
As regards the evidence concerning black-haired settlers in England at a still earlier date, there is the story of the two Anglian priests named the Black and Fair Hewald, who, following the example of Willibord among the Frisians, went into Saxony as missionaries, and on coming to a village were admitted to the house of the head man, who promised to protect them, and send them on to the ealdorman of the district. They devoted themselves to prayer and religious observances, which were misunderstood by the pagan rustics, who apparently were afraid of magical arts. At any rate, these strange rites, so novel to them, aroused suspicion among the people, who thought that if these Angles were allowed to meet the ealdorman they might draw him away from their gods, and before long draw away the whole province from the observances of their forefathers. So they slew both the Black and Fair Hewald, whose names in subsequent Christian time were, and still are, held in high honour in Westphalia.[1] It is a touching story, and one that tells us more than the devotion, inspired by Christian zeal to risk their lives, which these missionaries showed for the conversion of men of their own race; for, as their names indicate, they bore in their different complexions evidence of the existence of the fair and dark people among the Anglo-Saxon stock.
As already mentioned, the name Brunswick appears to be one of significance, and the Wendish names in that part of Germany, Wendeburg, Wendhausen, and Wenden, may be compared with the Buckinghamshire Domesday names Wendovre, Weneslai, and Wandene, and with
- ↑ Bright, W., ‘Early English Church History,’ p. 384.
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