Beginnings英国起源(27)

Eventually though, the adaptations became ever more makeshift, the fabric of Roman life increasingly threadbare, until it did indeed fall apart altogether. The island was now divided into three utterly different realms. The remains of Britannia hung on in the west. North of the abandoned walls and forts the Scottish tribes for the most part, stayed pagan. And England, the realm of the Anglo-Saxons and Jutes, was planted in the east, all the way from Kent to the kingdom of Bernicia in Northumbria. The Saxon chiefs often built their settlements on the ruined remains of old Roman British towns, not least of course London. Like many invaders, they hankered after what they had destroyed.

然而，演变终会进入其最终章。罗马式生活宛若一件破衣，已褴褛不堪，直到最终残片也消失殆尽。此时的岛屿被划分为三个全然不同的区域，不列颠尼亚的残部坚守在西部。北部被遗弃的断壁残垣，苏格兰大多部落留在异教区，英格兰岛上，生活着盎格鲁-撒克逊人与朱特人，扎根于东部，自肯特（盎格鲁所建王国）一路延伸至诺森布里亚的伯尼西亚王国。撒克逊首领常会选择在罗马不列颠城镇的残余上建设家园，伦敦便是个中翘楚。与多数入侵者相同，他们会去追求自己一手毁灭之物。