Re: OT: Of Angles and Saxons

Andreas Johansson wrote:

>I recently ran across the claim that no Anglo-Saxons called themselves 'Saxons'
>before the Conquest - that is was strictly an exonym - but all considered
>themselves Angles/English. The names of kingdoms and regions containing "Sax" -
>Wessex, Sussex, Essex, Middlesex - supposedly all postdate the Conquest, and
>were introduced by the Normans (leaving one to wonder what the kings of Wessex
>and so on called their kingdoms).
>
>I find this more than a little difficult to believe, but couldn't find any
>explicit denial in any book I've got easy access to. Anyone into these matters
>feel like commenting?
>
>
>
Nope.  The Anglo-Saxon chronicle explicitly refers to Wessex several
times (probably the rest, too, but yeah).  But, for some reason, the
Saxons still spoke Englisc.