Chaucians which may be found in England. Here in an ancient Chaucian region a survival of the old tribal or national name exists in the form Cux. In various parts of England where Frisians settled we shall also find it.
The name under which the Chaucians are mentioned in the Sagas is that of Hocings. In Beowulf we read of them under this name. Word for word, says Latham, this word Hocing is held to be that of Chauci by all, or most, who have written on the subject. Hocing. however, with its suffix -ing, means not so much a Chaucus as of Chauch blood.[1] The identity of the names is established by the ancient sound of ch being equivalent to that of h. This identification will be of use in endeavouring to unravel the threads in the tangled skein of information which has come down to us relating to the people concerned in the English settlement. The Chauci as a nation have long since disappeared, and were probably absorbed by the Franks of Germany. Some of them, no doubt, migrated to England, where they were absorbed in the Old English race. If we look for traces of them in England through the names by which they were known in their Continental home, we shall discover many parts of the country in which small colonies of them probably settled. As regards their alternative name Hocings, philologists give us several examples of the equivalence of the early ch and h sounds in these tribal or national names. South of the Chauci another great tribe of German people known as the Chatti were situated, from which, according to German philologists, in which others concur, the name Hesse has been derived. The Hessians are the descendants of the ancient Chatti or Hatti. They are mentioned under the names Chattuarii, Attuarii, and Hetware. In the name Attuarii, as Latham has pointed out, the ch sound disappears altogether. The name
- ↑ ‘Germania of Tacitus,’ edited by R. G. Latham, 243.
