The early North Germanic dialect was spoken by the tribal Danes, who originated in Scania and

the east Danish islands (Zealand). The majority of Jutland and the nearby islands were
populated by tribal Jutes before their arrival, according to historians. The Jutes eventually
migrated to Great Britain, some serving as mercenaries for the Brythonic King Vortigern. They
were given the southern territories of Kent, the Isle of Wight, and other places to settle. Later,
the Saxons and Angles who invaded created the Anglo-Saxons, who either assimilated them or
ethnically cleansed them. With the arrival of the Danes, the remaining Jutish population in
Jutland assimilated.

One of the ethnic groups from which modern Danes are descended, the Dani, are thought to
have been mentioned for the first time in Getica in a brief note by the historian Jordanes. The
construction of the Danevirke defenses began in the third century and continued in stages until
AD 737, when the emergence of a Danish king is credited with the sheer scale of the
construction efforts. [30] Around the same time that Ribe, the oldest town in Denmark, was
established around AD 700, a new runic alphabet was first used.

Viking and the Middle Ages.

Main articles: Kalmar Union and the Viking Age.

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