nd
had access to good means of information from being the secretary of the
Emperor Belisarius, states that at the time of his writing (about A.D.
548) three numerous nations possessed Britain, the Angles and Frisians
([Greek: Angeloi te kai phrissones]), and those surnamed, from the
Island, Brittones.[163] Modern Friesland seems to have yielded a
considerable number of our Teutonic invaders and colonists; and it is in
that isolated country that we find, at all events, the characteristics
and language of our Teutonic forefathers best preserved. In his _History
of England during the Anglo-Saxon Period_, the late Sir Francis Palgrave
remarks, "The tribes by whom Britain was invaded, appear principally to
have proceeded from the country now called Friesland. Of all the
continental dialects (he adds), the ancient Frisick is the one which
approaches most nearly to the Anglo-Saxon of our ancestors."[164] "The
nearest approach," according to Dr. Latham, "to our genuine and typical
German or Anglo-Saxon forefathers, is not to be found within the four
seas of Britain, but in the present Frisian or Friesland."[165] At
present, about one hundred thousand inhabitants of Friesland speak the
ancient or Country-Friesic, a language unintelligible to the surrounding
Dutch, but which remains still nearly allied to the old Anglo-Saxon of
England. Some even of their modern surnames are repetitions of the most
ancient Anglo-Saxon surnames in our island, and, among others, still
include that of Vetta or Witta; thus showing its Teutonic origin. In
discussing the great analogies between ancient Anglo-Saxon and modern
Friesic, Dr. Bosworth, the learned Professor of Anglo-Saxon Literature
at Oxford, incidentally remarks, "I cannot omit to mention that the
leaders of the Anglo-Saxons bear names which are now in use by the
Friesians, though by time a little altered or abbreviated. They have
Horste, Hengst, WITTE, Wiggele, etc., for the Anglo-Saxon Horsa,
Hengist, WITTA, Wightgil, etc."[166]

But Witta or Vetta was not a common name among our more leading
Anglo-Saxon forefathers. Among the many historical surnames occurring in
ancient Saxon annals and English chronicles, the name of Vetta, as far
as I know, only occurs twice or thrice.

I. It is to be found in the ancient Saxon poem of _The Scop_, or
_Traveller's Tale_, where, among a list of numerous kings and warriors,
Vetta or Witta is mentioned as having ruled the Swaefs--

"Witta weold Sw