Angles, the Frisians lying west and the Angles east. The approach of the two people towards identity of race or origin is probably near, but there is no proof of any Frisian calling himself an Angle or vice versá. Both may have been called by the same name by a third nation, or both may have been called Saxon.[1] This consideration is important in reference to the use of the names Angles and Saxons as those of allied peoples and not merely of tribes or nations.
The Frisian people, both in Schleswig and in Holland, are an example of an ancient race in the last stage of gradual absorption by the more vigorous nations with which they are in close contact. Other races which were much concerned with the conquest and settlement of England as parts of confederacies have similarly become absorbed in the nationalities of their more vigorous neighbours, and their languages have entirely disappeared. Of this, the case of the Wends, who occupied the coast of Pomerania, is an example. The Old Saxons, also, were relatively greater than the Saxons of Germany at the present day, and their language has been absorbed in the German. One of the most remarkable dissapearances of any ancient race is that of the Lombards or Longobards, who were neighbours of the Saxons. All that remains to remind us of them is the name Lombardy. The race and their language have entirely disappeared, and been absorbed by the Italian. A similar disappearance is that of the Burgundians. Their original home was in the East of Europe, in and near the Isle of Bornholm in the Baltic and on the adjacent coasts, but as a result of their southern migration the race has been absorbed, and the names Bornholm and Burgundy alone remain to tell us of their existence in North-Eastern Europe and in Eastern France.
At the present time the North Frisian area, which is separated by along stretch of coast from East Friesland, comprises the western part of Schleswig and the islands
- ↑ Latham, R. G., loc. cit., p. 241.
