The term Anglo-Saxon is a relatively modern one. It refers to settlers from the German regions of Angeln and Saxony, who made their way over to Britain after the fall of the Roman Empire around AD 410
德國民族(的一員)(通過入侵)大量湧入英國,成為英國的主要人口,之後上千年發展壯大,政府世界(英帝國是曆史上最大的帝國),延伸出下一個世界第一強國,美國。這就是盎格魯撒克遜的故事。今天我們說英國人(English),反而是指盎格魯人和盎格魯後裔(Angelcynn ,family of the Angles)。
也許曆史過長,英國曆史上盎格魯撒克遜不總是那麽輝煌,外來雜種多了?威廉大帝(威廉一世,William the Conqueror)征服英國之後法國諾曼人一直統治英國,英國宮廷說的是法語,不是英語,亨利四世是第一個用英語來鞏固自己造反(篡位)基礎的貴族,最後直到跟英國人融成一體,說盎格魯撒克遜被混的亂七八糟也是可能的。
考古學家Duncan Sayer,以及上麵提到的James M. Harland,都指出盎格魯撒克遜作為一個文化現象是19世紀才大舉興旺起來的,側麵是英國帝國主義高峰的一個反應。Duncan Sayer列舉了(他本人不是研究基因的)基因研究,也就是目前在缺乏考古證據下最權威的判斷,基本否定英國人是盎格魯撒克遜後裔的說法。
An early attempt in 2002 relied on modern DNA with a study of the male Y chromosome suggesting there had been a 95% population replacement of Britons by the Anglo-Saxons, comprised of different people from Northern Europe. But another study, based on mitochondrial DNA which is inherited from the mother, found no evidence of significant post-Roman migration into England. A third paper suggested that the genetic contribution of the Anglo-Saxons in south-eastern England was under 50%