These first ARNOLDS of England were blonde barbarians, Nordic pagans savage in war, open and direct among themselves. In ignorance they cruelly destroyed much that was cultured and beautiful, but at the same time they brought a new vitality to a world long sick with decay.
 
This, English ARNOLDS descended from both lines: Saxon and Norman. The majority of the ARNOLD families are concentrated south of the Wash and Mersey rivers in east-central England; most of them in Warwickshire and Leisestershire. These ARNOLDS were primarily of Saxon origin. There is a town named ARNOLD in county Kent in the Hollingbourne district and several other towns with the name ARNOLD in the costal counties as well. There is are a stream and a village on the island of Lewis in the Viking sea lane from Scandinavia, both named ARNOLD. Perhaps the name came from Vikings on the raiding dragonships that put in there for water and shelter each season after making the rough North Sea passage.