Now What?!!
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The story of the English people from their beginnings as Germanic pagans to the end of the reign of King Alfred the Great.
The story starts with the historical backdrop of the ancient Germanic tribes amalgamating and two tribes becoming dominant among them in Europe. These two tribes were the Franks and the Saxons. Of necessity, we look at the origins of the Saxon tribe and we find that they were originally part of the Macedonian army of Alexander the Great. They are recorded as such by ancient Greek historians who called these people Saxones. After the death of Alexander the Great in Babylon, much of his army split into various groups and dispersed to many parts of the world. We know that the Saxons arrived on the northern coasts of Germany and that they conquered the people who were there before them, called Thuringians. Tacitus wrote: "The Saxons are a poor and miserable tribe inhabiting three islands at the mouth of the Elbe." However, by the time another three and a half centuries had passed, the Saxons had become a very large and powerful tribe through the process of amalgamation with other tribes. Soon they would be amalgamated with the Engels (Angles) and Kimbern (Jutes) just prior to being invited to Britain by the king of the Britons to protect the Britons from the unwanted attentions of the Picts and Scots, who were raiding the Britons and burning their towns/cities ever since the Romans had left Britain in 408 A.D. After a time, they would be settled in parts of Britain permanently and they would become the English. The story continues to the transition from pagans to Christians and the early English kings.
