Anglo-Saxons Defined

Funny how urban legends work. To many frogs, "Anglo-Saxon" means anything British, American, or Down Under. Yet in his book The American Enemy (The History of French Anti-Americanism,) Philippe Rogier explains that the term refers to the Angles and the Saxons (duh,) aka Germanic tribes that called to the isle of Britannia as mercenaries in the 8th Century. Their mythology was later appropriated by Jefferson to symbolize the new American nation. "Contrary to persistent legend, the French did not invent the Anglo-Saxon," writes Rogier (translated.) "The myth of Germanic roots took shape in England and was modified in the United States according to religious and political concerns that were far from France's preoccupations." More via Wikipedia.