Sceaf, Japheth and the origins of the Anglo-Saxons

Abstract

The Anglo-Saxons' awareness of their cultural and racial affiliation with their continental cousins is well attested, as is their interest in the earliest migrations of their ancestors to the British Isles from the homelands of northern Europe. The founding figures who led the migrations from Europe across the North Sea had names which were preserved by oral tradition well into the Christian period, and the names of these founders of Anglo-Saxon dynasties entered the historical record when Christian missionaries introduced the technology of writing among the Anglo-Saxons.