Note 944 — Chapter IX · THE REIGN OF EADWARD FROM THE RETURN OF GODWINE TO THE DEATH OF EADWARD THE ÆTHELING.[921] 1052–1057.

The language of the Biographer is here remarkable. He had just before spoken of the people of the East and South of England as “Orientales sive Australes Angli.” He now calls the point where Harold landed “Occidentalium Britonum sive Anglorum fines.” So marked a change of expression cannot be accidental; it must point to the still debateable character of large parts of Somerset and Devon, neither purely Welsh nor purely English. Compare the significant use of the word “Britanni” by Thietmar, commented on in vol. i. p. 422.