Cerdic's Saga
The Anglo-Saxons can trace their lineage back to Cerdic, first king of West Saxons (Wessex) in England, through the Icelandic Prose Edda and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. This lineage extends all the way to Oden, Freya, and Thor, who were historical figures later transformed into gods as ancestral tales were retold over the centuries.
Cerdic was born in Lower Saxony in 467. He lived in the northern part of Saxony on
the west shore of Jutland, in boglands opposite Odense, which was a city named after
the most renowned king of Saxons, Oden. Cerdic was a direct descendant of Oden and
Freya, Saxon conquerors and later gods. Cerdic's father was Elesa, son of Esla, but
Cerdic's mother's name is not known to me. Western Jutland was the home of the
Gewissae, a Saxon tribe of Jutes descended from Gewis, who was also the ancestor of
Vortigern, the British king who invited the Saxon Hengist to Britain, with unfortunate
results. This was a time of transition following the defeat of Rome by the Northern Europeans, when
tribes once loosely classified as Celts by the Romans were beginning to migrate, expand
and form larger units in the early stages of nation-building.
In 495, the Saxon Ealdorman (chief man, tribal chief or elder) Cerdic sailed west from Jutland in 5 ships with his son Cynric and landed
at Cerdic's-ore (Cerdic's mouth), a point of land later called Caldshore, then Calshot Castle,
on the mouth of a bay called Southampton Water in the area of Britain called Hampshire.
At Cerdic's-ore, Cerdic battled British tribes called Welsh of the Horn (Cornwalls), and
continued to move north up Southampton Water to the River Test to fight the British
forces of King Natanleod, who was slain with five thousand of his men at a site the Saxons
named in honour of the burial-place of the defeated king (Netley Marsh, Nettlebury).
Forced west by the British fighters of King Arthur, Cerdic once again met the
Welsh at Cerdic's Ford (Charford) on the River Avon. Moving north to Mount Badon
(Bath), Cerdic fought Arthur in the British king's last major victory, earning the
name Caradoc Vreichvras (Cerdic Strong-Arm) of Arthurian legend. Although Cerdic
was turned back by Arthur, it would become a pyrrhic victory for the British king.
As Arthur tried to regroup his forces at the eastern stronghold of Fort Guinnion
(Caer Guinn, Guinnii Castrum or Winchester), Cerdic moved freely through the land,
defeating earlier Saxon tribes who had followed Hengist and had settled in the area
of Wantage (Dog River) northwest of Fort Guinnion (Winchester), after slaughtering
the Britons at Stonehenge in the Night of the Long Knives. There, in the upper valley of
the Thames, Cerdic established the kingdom of West Saxons (Wessex) in 519, which
centred around Wantage, birthplace of Ælfred the Great. Cerdic thus became the first
king of West Saxons (Wessex) in England.
Meanwhile, Cerdic's nephews Stuff and Wihtgar, who had sailed with three ships to
Cerdic's-ore in 514, battled the Britons in the valley of the Itchen (Jute's River) south of
Fort Guinnion (Winchester) and consolidated the Jutish territories of south Hampshire
on the east shore of Southampton Water. Cerdic, having strengthened his forces with
the Saxon turncoats and the fighters of Stuff and Wihtgar, battled King Arthur's forces
at the plain called Cerdic's Lea (Chearsley) northeast of Wantage in 527, and won the day. This
signalled the downfall of the Britons and their Roman allies in Hampshire, and the
ascendancy of the Anglo-Saxon (English) culture. After establishing the English monarchy
at Winchester, Cerdic died in 534.
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