saxon

The Saxons were a Germanic people whose heartland lay along the Elbe in what is now Lower Saxony and parts of Schleswig-Holstein, with settlements extending into neighboring regions. They are one of several North Sea Germanic groups that shaped the ethnogenesis of medieval Europe.

Starting in the 5th century, Saxon-speaking migrants moved to Britain as part of the continental and Anglian wave migrations. In Britain they established several kingdoms—Sussex, Wessex, Essex, and East Anglia—part of the Anglo-Saxon realm before the formation of a unified English state. The term "Saxon" is often used collectively for the early English populations alongside the Angles and Jutes.

Old Saxon on the continent and Old English in Britain were West Germanic languages sharing roots with other Germanic dialects; the Saxons converted to Christianity from the 7th century onward, contributing to religious and cultural transformations across both Britain and the continent.

Contemporarily, Saxony is a region in eastern Germany; its historic duchy and later electorates and kingdoms influenced central European history. The name persists in the modern German state of Saxony, as distinct from Lower Saxony, while "Saxon" remains a general ethnonym, a linguistic term (Old Saxon), and a cultural label used in various contexts.

Overall, the Saxons played a key role in medieval insular and continental history, with enduring legacies in language, place names, and political geography.