Page:Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race.djvu/145

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Danes and other Tribes from Baltic Coast.
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date. These ancient examples, however, among the prehistoric people of Ireland and Caithness can scarcely account for the tendency to prognathism shown by the skulls from West Saxon graves. That characteristic would be more likely to have been brought—into some parts of England, at least—by settlers from Baltic lands in near proximity to prognathous people, than to have been derived from remote prehistoric people who may be traced in Ireland or Caithness. Great indeed must have been the time which separated the Anglo-Saxon period from the remote era when people of Mongol descent may possibly have inhabited parts of Western Europe.

That the Esthonians or Eastmen and Fins had some connection with the Anglo-Saxons appears probable from other circumstances, such as the similarity of the objects found in Livonia with those of the Anglo-Saxon period in England, and from a resemblance of certain incidents in Esthonian folklore to those found in Kent. Wagner also mentions the Ögishelm—i.e., the Helmet of Terror. the name being derived from the King of the Ocean. The front of this helmet was adorned with a boar’s head, which yawned open-mouthed at the enemy. The Anglo-Saxons and Esthonians of the Baltic alike wore helmets of this sort.[1]

In considering the probability that there were some Fins among other Northern settlers, we must remember their ancient names, Cwéns or Quéns. There are some Old English place-names which have been apparently derived from this source, such as Quénintone and Quénintune, in separate hundreds in Gloucestershire. Both are mentioned in Domesday Book. Cwuénstane, also, is mentioned among the boundaries of Selsea, in Sussex, in a charter dated A.D. 975.[2] Quintone or Quenton, in Northamptonshire, occurs twice in Domesday Book, and other places of the same name are recorded in

  1. Wagner, W., ‘Asgard and the Gods,’ translated by Anson, 242.
  2. Cart. Sax. iii. 193.
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