Anglo-Saxon Literature Part 4

[16] "Die Sprache des Kentischen Psalters," von Rudolf Zeuner. Halle, 1882. Referring to Mr. Sweet, in Transactions of Philological Society, 1875-6.

[17] "The Gospels of the fower Evangelistes, translated in the olde Saxons tyme out of Latin into the vulgare toung of the Saxons, newly collected out of Auncient Monumentes of the sayd Saxons, and now published for testimonie of the same." At London. Printed by Iohn Daye, dwelling ouer Aldersgate, 1571.

[18] See Scrivener, "Introduction to Criticism of New Testament," ed. 2, p. 147.

[19] "Harmonia Symbolica," Oxford, 1858, p. 61.

[20] Westwood, "Facsimiles," p. 123.

[21] It was to have been edited by Professor Buckley for the aelfric Society, but that society closed its career too soon.

[22] They were arranged by Kemble; and have recently been facsimiled by the Ordnance Survey, under the editors.h.i.+p of Mr. W. Basevi Sanders.

[23] Fully described by Mr. W.B. Sanders in the "Annual Report for 1873 of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records," p. 271 ff.

[24] See the particulars in "Two Saxon Chronicles Parallel." Clarendon Press, 1865. Introduction, pp. vii., xxv., xxviii.

[25] Stubbs, "Memorials of Saint Dunstan," p. x.x.x.

[26] "The Englishman and the Scandinavian," by Frederick Metcalfe, M.A., 1880, p. 11.

[27] In 1880 these Homilies were edited by Dr. Morris, for the Early English Text Society, under the name of "The Blickling Homilies."

[28] Hubner, 197.

[29] Hubner, 179, 180, 181.

[30] Kemble, "Archaeologia," Anno 1843; Stephens, "Runic Monuments," p.

405.

[31] Westwood, "Palaeographia Sacra Pictoria," and "Facsimiles of Miniatures from Irish and Anglo-Saxon Ma.n.u.scripts."

[32] Beda, "Church History," i., 33.

[33] "The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral," 1845, p. 27.

[34] "The church at Brixworth has plainly had its walls raised, and a clerestory with windows added, even in the Saxon period; a.s.suming that midwall bal.u.s.ter-shafts are to be received as characteristics of this period, for a triple window with such shafts was inserted in the western wall when the walls were so raised." _Ibid._, p. 30. See also Haddan and Stubbs, i., 38.

[35] Some of the churches in which these features may be observed are Deerhurst in Gloucesters.h.i.+re; Earl's Barton, Northants; Benet church in Cambridge; Sompting in Suss.e.x. Figured ill.u.s.trations may be seen in Parker's "Introduction to Gothic Architecture."

[36] Freeman, N.C., ii., 605; "Reign of Rufus" i., 49.

[37] These are described and figured in Bryan Faussett's "Inventorium Sepulchrale," ed. Roach Smith; Wylie, "Fairford Graves"; Neville, "Saxon Obsequies"; Akerman, "Pagan Saxondom"; Kemble, "Horae Ferales."

[38] "The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon," by T. Wright, p. 424.

CHAPTER III.

THE HEATHEN PERIOD.

For many a petty king ere Arthur came ruled in this isle, and ever waging war each upon other, wasted all the land; and still from time to time the heathen host swarm'd over seas, and harried what was left.

And so there grew great tracts of wilderness, wherein the beast was ever more and more, but man was less and less, till Arthur came.

For first Aurelius lived and fought and died, and after him king Uther fought and died, but either fail'd to make the kingdom one.

And after these king Arthur for a s.p.a.ce, and thro' the puissance of his Table round, drew all their petty princedoms under him, their king and head, and made a realm, and reign'd.

ALFRED TENNYSON, _The Coming of Arthur_.

For the first hundred and fifty years of their life in this island our ancestors were heathens. This time has no place in the English memory through any legendary or literary tradition that is a.s.sociated with the Saxons. The legends of this time which retain a place in literature are not Saxon but British. This is the era of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. There is no book or piece of Saxon literature that can in any substantial sense be ascribed to the heathen period; for I cannot go with those who a.s.sign this high antiquity to the "Beowulf."

There is a book that claims to be a product of this time, but it is neither Saxon nor heathen. It bears the name of Gildas, a Briton, and it is a fervently Christian book, written in Latin. It has two parts, one being a Lament of the Ruin of Britain, the other a Denunciation of the conduct of her princes. Its genuineness has been questioned, and it has also been ably defended.[39] The strong point in favour of the book is, that it existed and was reputed genuine before the time of Bede, who used it as an authority, and cited it by the author's name, saying that "Gildas, their [the Britons'] historian," describes such and such evils in his "lamentable discourse."[40] Through Bede the information of Gildas has fallen into the stream of English history, and we cease to be aware of the original source. For example, the familiar tradition of the Saxons coming over in "three keels," ordinarily ascribed to Bede, is taken from Gildas. The date of this author and his work, as now generally accepted, is this:--That he was born in 520, the year of the battle of Mons Badonicus, and that he wrote about 564. But this rests on an ill-jointed and uncertain pa.s.sage, which was misunderstood by Bede, if the modern interpretation is right.

And when we come to look into that Saxon literature which was subsequently developed, the traces of the heathen period are unexpectedly scanty, and the very remembrance of heathenism though not abolished seems already wonderfully remote. But notwithstanding all this, we cannot treat the subject of Anglo-Saxon literature in any satisfactory manner without some consideration of the heathen period.

For, on the one hand, history requires it as a background, and the only appropriate background to our story of the subsequent culture; and, on the other hand, we shall find, by putting the scattered fragments together, that such an impression may be gained as is at least sufficient for a subsidiary purpose.

Among the extant Saxon writings there is one and only one book, in which we detect some possible work of this period. This is in the Chronicles.

Between A.D. 450 and 600 we have a sprinkling of curious annals that are naturally calculated to rivet the attention. They are certainly of a very distinct and peculiar cast, and it has been thought that they may possibly represent (through much disguise of transcription) some kind of contemporary records of the heathen period, whether the original shape was that of ballads, or of annals kept in Runes.

These annals are characterised by an occasional touch of poetic fervour, and by several local details which are stimulating to modern curiosity.

A few examples may be useful:--

455. Here[41] Hengest and Horsa fought against Wyrtgeorn, the king, in the place that is called Agaelesthrep; and his brother Horsa was slain; and after that Hengest took to the kingdom, and aesc, his son.

457. Here Hengest and aesc fought against the Brettas in the place that is called Crecganford; and there they slew 4,000 men; and the Brets then abandoned Kentland, and in great terror fled to Londonbury.

473. Here Hengest and aesc fought against the Walas: and they took countless spoil: and the Walas fled the Engles like fire.

491. Here aelle and Cissa beset Andredescester, and slew all those that therein dwelt: there was not so much as one Bret remaining.

571. Here Cuthwulf fought with the Bretwalas at Bedcanford, and took four towns: Lygeanburg and aegelesburg (Aylesbury), Baenesingtun (Bensington) and Egonesham (Ensham).

584. Here Ceawlin and Cutha fought against the Brettas, in the place that is named Fethanleag; and Cutha was slain. And Ceawlin took many towns and countless spoils; and in wrath he returned thence to his own.

There is about these entries something remote and primitive, and something, too, of a contemporaneous form, that penetrates even through the folds of a modern dress.

If we would gather an idea of the religious sentiments of that heathen time, two sources are open to us:--1. Cla.s.sical authors, especially Caesar and Tacitus; 2. Incidental notices in domestic writings after the establishment of Christianity. In regard to both these sources we must regulate our expectations in accordance with the circ.u.mstances.

1. Caesar and Tacitus wrote of Germany at large, and not of our particular tribes in the north-west; yet they naturally touch some leading points which are of interest for us here. As to their religion, Caesar formed a totally different opinion from Tacitus. According to the former, the Germans knew only those visible and palpably useful G.o.ds, the Sun and the Moon, and Fire; they had never even heard of any others by report. Tacitus, on the contrary, says, that they wors.h.i.+p Hercules and Mars, and, above all, Mercury; that, at the same time, their religious sense is eminently spiritual, for they repudiate the thought of enshrining the celestials within walls, or representing them by the human form; that they venerate groves and forest-glades, and that by the names of their G.o.ds they understand mysterious beings visible only to the inward and reverential sight. These estimates are diametrically opposed, and they have been used by an eminent writer to ill.u.s.trate the difficulty of getting at the truth about the religion of barbarians. But it should be remembered that a long interval had elapsed between Caesar and Tacitus; an interval, moreover, that was likely to work some, if not all, of the changes required to make these estimates compatible with one another.

Tacitus informs us about the G.o.d Tuisco, whose name we still keep in Tuesday;[42] about the supremacy of Mercurius,[43] that is, of Woden; and about the form of the boar as a sacred symbol, which was worn on the person for a charm against danger.[44] He also relates the hideous ceremony of a G.o.ddess Nerthus, or Mother Earth, who makes her occasional progresses in a wagon drawn by cows, the attendants being slaves who, when the rite is done, are all drowned in a mysterious lake.[45]

2. From the second source we might have expected more than we find.

Knowing that the new religion was not established without struggles and delays and relapses, we might have expected that the traces of the dying superst.i.tion would have been numerous in Anglo-Saxon literature. And if we had the domestic writings that were produced in the first Christian ardour, such an expectation might have been partially fulfilled. But in any case we should not expect too much from early and unformed literature. It is the mature fruit of long cultivation to produce a literature that reflects the present. Almost all early literature is conventional, because the spontaneous is not esteemed and is not preserved. But whatever might have happened under other conditions, the fact now is that the literature of our first Christian era is almost entirely lost. It perished in the Danish invasions. The works of Beda are, indeed, preserved, and in one sense they make a large exception to the general statement, yet the exception is not one that is of great import for our immediate purpose. His works, even when he is upon a local subject, breathe little of local curiosity or interest. His was a cloistered life, his view was ever directed through the vista of books and learned correspondence towards the central heart of Christianity, and he deigned but rarely to cast a look behind him at the old superst.i.tions of his people. His writings, which are all in Latin, contribute something, but it is little, towards our knowledge of Saxon heathendom. We are indebted to him for an explicit statement about the meaning of the word "Easter." It is as follows:--"_Rhedmonath_ is so called from their G.o.ddess _Rheda_, to whom in that month they sacrificed.... With the people of my nation, the old folk of the Angles, the month of April, which is now styled Paschal Month, had formerly the name of _Esturmonath_, after a G.o.ddess of theirs who was called _Eostra_, and whose festival is kept in that month; and they still designate the Paschal Season from her name, by force of old religious habit keeping the same name for the new solemnity."[46] This is a sample of what Beda might have told us about the old heathendom, if he had made it a subject of inquiry. The information is the more valuable because it was not forthcoming from any other source. The Germans have an obscure trace of _Retmonat_; and their _ostarmanoth_, which remains as a German name for April (Ostermonat) to the present day, is found as early as Eginhard, the biographer of Charlemagne. But of the deities there is no information anywhere but in Beda. The name of Easter appears related to "East" and the growing strength of the sun. In the Edda a male being, a spirit of light, bears the name of _Austri_: the German and Saxon tribes seem to have known only a female divinity in this sense. A being with attributes taken from the Dawn and from the Spring of the year, so full of promise and of blessing, might well be tenaciously remembered and retained for Christian use.