ABSTRACT
The English in Germany.—During the fifth and sixth centuries, England was overrun and conquered by a Nordic race from the north-west of Germany. Of the social system imported by the invaders in their keels, merely the barest information survives. Practically the only contemporary descriptions of the English in their native seats are those written by Caesar and Tacitus. The two accounts are separated by a century and a half and it is not certain that they apply to the same group of tribes. The picture presented somewhat dimly by Caesar is that of a pastoral people, practising little or no agriculture and shifting frequently in search of fresh pasture. The grazing lands, he tells us, were assigned annually to tribes and kindreds by the chiefs. 1
