The Franks and Saxons were collections of Teutonic peoples. Both Franks and Saxons spoke dialects of languages called Germanic. They evolved from Gothic, the tongue of an island in the Baltic Sea. The Franks’ homeland was the Rhein River valley and the territory around the Rhein’s mouth. People seldom ventured more than ten miles from their native village. Each village developed its own way of speaking. Along the river, thirty different Frankish dialects were spoken.
The Saxons lived in the hills north of the Rhein and on the plains between the hills and the Atlantic Ocean and the Jutland peninsula where the Angles (Engles), and the Danes lived. Angles, Danes and coastal Saxons sailed as Vikings, raiding England and the Atlantic coast between the Jutland peninsula and Francia’s fortified harbors.
While Charlemagne lived, Francia enjoyed freedom from Viking raids. When he died, his son Louis, (called by his Frankish name, Ludovic, in Rotaida and the Runestone,) became king. He let harbor forts fall to ruin. Viking raiders from Denmark attacked and even invaded up the River Seine.
Under a 9th Century King Charles, the Danish raiders took over a big chunk of Francia along the English channel coast. They were called Normans (Northmen). Charles even gave the head Northman his sister as a wife, plus a lot of loot, to keep him from invading Paris. Charlemagne must have shuddered in his tomb, or stormed around heaven in fierce anger. He’d loved Francia and his daughters, and never gave up any of them.
