ruler. Not until 830 did Egbert, king of the
West Saxons, become overlord of England. Before and after this time,
the Danes repeatedly plundered the land. They finally settled in the
eastern part above the Thames. Alfred (849-900), the greatest of
Anglo-Saxon rulers, temporarily checked them, but in the latter part
of the tenth century they were more troublesome, and in 1017 they made
Canute, the Dane, king of England. Fortunately the Danes were of the
same race, and they easily amalgamated with the Saxons.

These invasions wasted the energies of England during more than two
centuries, but this long period of struggle brought little change to
the institutions or manner of life in Anglo-Saxon England. The
_witan_, or assembly of wise men, the forerunner of the present
English parliament, met in 1066 and chose Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon
king.

During these six hundred rears, the Anglo-Saxons conquered the
British, accepted Christianity, fought the Danes, finally amalgamating
with them, brought to England a lasting representative type of
government, established the fundamental customs of the race, surpassed
all contemporary western European peoples in the production of
literature, and were ready to receive fresh impetus from the Normans
in 1066.

The Anglo-Saxon Language.--Our oldest English literature is written
in the language spoken by the Angles and the Saxons. This at first
sight looks like a strange tongue to one conversant with modern
English only; but the language that we employ to-day has the
framework, the bone and sinew, of the earlier tongue. Modern English
is no more unlike Anglo-Saxon than a bearded man is unlike his former
childish self. A few examples will show the likeness and the
difference. "The noble queen" would in Anglo-Saxon be _s=eo aeethele
cw=en_; "the noble queen's," _eth=aere aeethelan cw=ene_. _S=eo_ is the
nominative feminine singular, _eth=aere_ the genitive, of the definite
article. The adjective and the noun also change their forms with the
varying cases. In its inflections, Anglo-Saxon resembles its sister
language, the modern German.

After the first feeling of strangeness has passed away, it is easy to
recognize many of the old words. Take, for instance, this from
_Beowulf_:--

"...eth=y h=e ethone f=eond ofercw=om,
gehn=aegde helle g=ast."

Here are eight words, apparently strange, but even a novice soon
recognizes five of them: _h=e, f=eond_ (fiend), _ofercw=om_
(overc