The Gewisse ( ; ) were a tribe or clan of Anglo-Saxon England, historically assumed to have been based in the upper Thames region around Dorchester on Thames (but may have actually originated near Old Sarum in Wiltshire). The Gewisse are one of the direct precursors of modern-day England, being the origin of its predecessor states (the Kingdom of Wessex and thereafter the Kingdom of England, prior to the Norman Conquest) according to Saxon legend. Etymology The name was first documented as Gewissorum in the eighth century as an ethnonym of the West Saxons. Its origin is uncertain. The Old English adjective ġewisse means "reliable" or "sure", and its corresponding noun means "certainty," though it is unclear how this is related to the tribe. Alternatively, the name may be derived from gweiθ, a Brittonic word for “fortification, earthwork or fort.” Eilert Ekwall proposed that the similarity in toponymy between the kingdoms of the Gewisse and Hwicce suggests a common origin, and an analysis by Richard Coates concluded that Hwicce was of Brittonic origin. Several linguists believe the word (in the form it has come down to us) is not the result of a normal linguistic development, and that attempts to deduce its evolution are problematic without accounting for same: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle presents an eponymous ancestor figure, named Giwis, which is an example of non-historical founding myths. The Winchester (or Parker) Chronicle has "...Cynric, son of Cerdic, son of Elesa, son of Gewis, son of Wig, son of Freawine, son of Frithugar, son of Brand, son of Beldeg, son of Woden, son of Finn, son of Godwulf, son of Geats..." listed as descent from Cerdic of Wessex. This manuscript does not present Gewis as eponymous, but in the Parker Manuscript's current state, is reconstructed from both apparently missing pages of the work, as well as a later fire, long after the manuscript had been recorded and disseminated. According to the Stanford Library, the Provenance of the manuscript is as follows [16]: History Evidence of Germanic settlements appearing around Abingdon and Dorchester on Thames in the 6th and 7th centuries has been used to make assumptions about the origins of the Ġewisse, presuming them to be Germanic mercenaries that may have been settled in the region after the end of the Roman occupation to protect a border region between Britons. In fact, both the name of the tribe and the name