ABSTRACT
The name of the Saxons first appears in the mid-second century, in the works of the Greek geographer Ptolemy. It was the name of a tribe inhabiting the North Sea coast to the east of the lower Elbe, in what is now Holstein, and also three islands in the Elbe estuary. They were named after their characteristic short sword, called a sahs, a word still found as the second component of the German word Messer ‘knife’.
