Roman letters and words to commemorate a fallen chieftain, with a name so rare that it has only been found three times in English literature and once in Northern. It has also his father’s name, a rarer one still. Both these names are Frisian, and are still found among modern Frisian personal names.[1] The inscription, by dividing the letters into words, reads: ‘In oc tumulo iacit Vetta f(ilius) Victi.’ The name Wyttenham in Northumberland, apparently derived from a similar name Witte, is mentioned in the Hundred Rolls. Sweet has pointed out another linguistic connection of the Anglians of Northumbria with the Frisians. He says that the Anglian dialect was characterised by a special tendency to throw off the final n in names.[2] Of this many examples may be found among old place-names of the Northern counties, and the early personal names connected with them, some of which have been referred to. It was also a Frisian characteristic.
In his ‘History of Cleveland,’ Atkinson tells us of four places whose ancient names were Englebi, of two whose old names were Wiltune, and of two named Tollesbi. They may have been so named after heads of families who bore tribal names. The Tollenzi on the Tollensee were a Wendish tribe.[3]
In considering the evidence relating to the settlement of people of different races in the North of England, that afforded by the runic monuments is of the first importance. The Anglian runes are the older Gothic with modifications, and their modifications were made on English soil. This points to Goths among the so-called Anglian settlers, or Angles from Swedish Gothland. In any case, the knowledge of runic writing must have been brought into Northern England by early settlers from Gothland or the countries near it. The Frisians who formed settle-
