To Hrogar's men watching on the height the lake appeared as if mingled with blood, and this seemed to confirm their fears. The day was waning: the old men about Hrogar took counsel, and, concluding they should see Beowulf no more, they moved homeward. But Beowulf's followers, though sick at heart and with little hope, yet sate on in spite of dejection.

Meanwhile the huge, gigantic blade had melted marvellously away "likest unto ice, when the Father (he who hath power over times and seasons, that is, the true ruler) looseneth the chain of frost and unwindeth the wave-ropes":—so venomous was the gore of the fiend that had been slain therewith. Beowulf took the gigantic hilt and the monster's head, and, soaring up through the waters, he stood on the shore to the surprise and joy of his faithful comrades, who came eagerly about him to ease him of his dripping harness. Exulting they return to Heorot, Grendel's head carried by four men on a pole; they march straight up the hall to greet the king, and the guests are startled with the ghastly evidence of Beowulf's complete success. Beowulf tells his story and presents the hilt to Hrogar. The aged king extols the unparalleled achievements of Beowulf, and warns him against excessive exaltation of mind by the example of Heremod.

Soon after this we have the parting between the old king and the young hero, who declares his readiness to come with a thousand thanes at any time of Hrogar's need; while Hrogar's words are of love and admiration and confidence in his discretion: and so he lets him go not without large addition of gifts, and embraces, and kisses, and tears. "Thence Beowulf the warrior, elate with gold, trod the grassy plain, exulting in treasure; the sea-goer that rode at anchor awaited its lord; then as they went was Hrogar's liberality often praised." At the coast they are met by the coast-warden with an altered and respectful mien: they are soon afloat, and we hear the whistle of the wind through the rigging as the gallant craft bears away before the breeze to carry them all merrily homewards after well-sped adventure. The welcome is worthy of the work:—Higelac's reception of Beowulf, the joy of getting him back; Beowulf presenting to his liege lord the wealth he had won; old reminiscences called up and couched in song; an ancient sword brought out and presented to Beowulf, and with the sword a spacious lordship, a noble mansion, and all seigneurial rights.

And so he dwelt until such time as he went forth with Higelac on his fatal expedition against the Frisians, who were backed by a strong alliance of Chauci, and Chattuarii, and Franks; and there Higelac fell, and his army perished. Beowulf, by prodigious swimming, reached his home again, where now was a young widowed queen and her infant son. She offered herself and her kingdom to Beowulf; he preferred the office of the faithful guardian. At a later time the young king fell in battle, and then Beowulf succeeded. He reigned fifty years a good king, and ended life with a supreme act of heroism. He fought and slew a fiery dragon which desolated his country, and was himself mortally wounded in the conflict. One single follower, Wiglaf by name, bolder or more faithful than the rest, was at his side in danger, though not to help; and he received the hero's dying words:—"I should have given my armour to my son if I had heir of my body. I have held this people fifty years; no neighbour has dared to challenge or molest me. I have lived with men on fair and equal terms; I have done no violence, caused no friends to perish, and that is a comfort to one deadly wounded who is soon to appear before the Ruler of men. Now, beloved Wiglaf, go thou quickly in under the hoary stone of the dragon's vault, and bring the treasures out into the daylight, that I may behold the splendour of ancient wealth, and death may be the softer for the sight." When it was done, and the wondrous heap was before his eyes, the victorious warrior spake:—"For the riches on which I look I thank the Lord of all, the king of glory, the everlasting ruler, that I have been able before my death-day to acquire such for my people. Well spent is the remnant of my life to earn such a treasure; I charge thee with the care of the people; I can be no longer here. Order my warriors after the bale-fire to rear a mighty mound on the headland over the sea: it shall tower aloft on Hronesness for a memorial to my people: that sea-going men in time to come may call it Beowulf's Barrow, when foam-prowed ships drive over the scowling flood on their distant courses." Then he removed a golden coil from his neck and gave it to the young thane; the same he did with his helmet inlaid with gold, the collar, and the mail-coat: he bade him use them as his own.

"Thou art the last of our race of the Wgmundings; fate has swept all my kindred off into Eternity; I must follow them." That was his latest word; his soul went out of his breast into the lot of the just. Reflections and discourses proper to the occasion are spoken by Wiglaf, such as chiding of the timorous who stood aloof, and gloomy anticipations of the future.

3,000 Tht is sio fhtho and se feondscipe, wl nith wera, ths the ic wen hafo, the us seceath to Sweona leode syan hie gefricgeath frean userne, ealdorleasne thone the r geheold with hettendum hord and rice; folc rd fremede, oe furthur gen eorlscipe efnde. Nu is ofost betost tht we theod cyning thr sceawian and thone gebringan, the us beagas geaf, on d fre. Ne scal anes hwt meltan mid tham modigan, ac thr is mathma hord, gold unrime grimme geceapod and nu t sithestan sylfes feore beagas gebohte. Tha sceal brond gretan led theccean, nalles eorl wegan maum to gemyndum, ne mgth scyne habban on healse hring weorthunge, ac sceal geomor mod golde bereafod oft nalles ne el land tredan; nu se here wisa hleahtor alegde, gamen and gleo dream.

This is the feud and this the foeman's hate the vengeful spite that I expect against us now will bring the Swedish bands; soon as they hear our chieftain high of life bereft— who held till now 'gainst haters all the hoard and realm; peace framed at home; and further off respect inspired. Now speed is best that we our liege and king go look upon, And him escort, who us adorned, the pile towards. Not things of petty worth shall with the mighty melt, but there a treasure main, uncounted gold costly procured and now at length with his great life jewels dear-bought; them shall flame devour, burning shall bury:— never a warrior bear jewel of dear memory, nor maiden sheen have on her neck ring-decoration; nay, shall disconsolate gold-unadorned not once but oft tread strangers' land; now the leader in war laughter hath quenched game and all sound of glee.

And so this noble poem moves on to its close, ending, like the "Iliad," with a great bale-fire. Two closing lines record like an epitaph the praise of the dead in superlatives; not as a warrior, but as a man and a ruler: how that he was towards men the mildest and most affable, towards his people he was most gracious and most yearning for their esteem.

About the structure of this poem the same sort of questions are debated as those which Wolff raised about Homer—whether it is the work of a single poet, or a patchwork of older poems. Ludwig Ettmller, of Zrich, who first gave the study of the "Beowulf" a German basis, regarded the poem as originally a purely heathen work, or a compilation of smaller heathen poems, upon which the editorial hands of later and Christian poets had left their manifest traces. In his translation, one of the most vigorous efforts in the whole of Beowulf literature, he has distinguished, by a typographical arrangement, the later additions from what he regards as the original poetry. He is guided, however, by considerations different from those that affect the Homeric debate. He is chiefly guided by the relative shades of the heathen and Christian elements. Wherever the touch of the Christian hand is manifest, he arranges such parts as additions and interpolations.[77]

Grein saw in the poem the unity of a single work, and he thought the motive allegorical. He interpreted the assaults of the water-fiend as the night attacks of sea-robbers. I cannot see any such allegory as this, but I agree with him as to the unity of the poem, so far as unity is compatible with the traces of older materials. And I see allegory too, but in a different sense.

The material is mythical and heathen; but it is clarified by natural filtration through the Christian mind of the poet. Not only are the heathen myths inoffensive, but they are positively favourable to a train of Christian thought. Beowulf's descent into the abyss to extirpate the scourge is suggestive of that Article in the Apostles' Creed which had a peculiar fascination for the mind of the Dark and Middle Ages; the fight with the dragon; the victory that cost the victor his life; the one faithful friend while the rest are fearful—these incidents seem almost like reflections of evangelical history. Without seeing in the poem an allegorical design, we may imagine that, with the progress of Christianity, those parts of the old mythology which were most in harmony with Christian doctrines had the best chance of survival; and that, as a poet puts a new physiognomy on an old story without distorting the tradition, as we have seen in our own day the story of Arthur told again, not with the elaborate allegory of Spenser, but with a spiritual transfiguration which makes the "Idylls of the King" truly an epic of the nineteenth century, so I conceive that Beowulf was a genuine growth of that junction in time (define it where we may) when the heathen tales still kept their traditional interest, and yet the spirit of Christianity had taken full possession of the Saxon mind—at least, so much of it as was represented by this poetical literature.

We may not dismiss the "Beowulf" without hazarding an opinion as to the date of its production. It has been said to be older than the Saxon Conquest, and some of the materials are doubtless of this antiquity. But for the poem, as we have it, Kemble assigned it to the seventh century; then Ettmller thought it belonged to the ninth; then Grein went back halfway to the eighth, and this has been adopted by Mr. Arnold, and most generally followed. I think Ettmller is the nearest to the mark; and I would rather go forward to the tenth than back to the eighth. A pardonable fancy might see the date conveyed in the poem itself. The dragon watches over an old hoard of gold, and it is distinctly a heathen hoard (hnum horde, 2,217) of heathen gold (hen gold, 2,277). In the same context we find that the monster had watched over this earth-hidden treasure for 300 years; and if this may be something more than a poetical number, it may possibly indicate the time elapsed since the heathen age. Three hundred years would bring us to the close of the ninth or the beginning of the tenth century, a date which, on every consideration, I incline to think the most probable.[78]

All the traces of affinity with, or consciousness of, the "Beowulf" that we can discover—and they are very few—are such as to favour this date. The only complete parallel to the fable is found in the Icelandic Saga of Grettir, who is a kind of northern Hercules. This hero performs many great feats, but there are three which belong to the supernatural. In one of these he wrestles with a fiend called Glam, and kills him; and though Glam is not the same as Grendel, yet the circumstances of the encounter are so full of parallels as to establish, at least, the literary affinity of the two stories. The other two supernatural feats are coupled, just in the same way as two of the feats of Beowulf are. It is two fights, one in a hall and one under a waterfall, with two monsters of one family. The fight with the troll-wife in the hall is a true parallel to Beowulf's fight with Grendel; but the fight with the troll in the cavern under the force is in great essentials and in minute details so identical with Beowulf's underwater adventure, that one may call it a prose version of the same thing under different names. A certain house was haunted. Men that were there alone by night were missing, and nothing more was heard of them. Grettir came and lay in that hall. The troll-wife came and he vanquished her. This he had done under an assumed name, but the priest of the district knows he can be no other than Grettir, and he asks Grettir what had become of the men who were lost. Grettir bids the priest come with him to the river. There was a waterfall, and a sheer cliff of fifty fathom down to the water, and under the force was seen the mouth of a cavern. They had a rope with them. The priest drives down a stake into a cleft of the rock and secured it with stones, and he sate by it. Grettir said, "I will search what there is in the force, but thou shalt watch the rope." He put a stone in the bight of the rope, and let it sink down in the water. He made ready, girt him with a short sword, and had no other weapon. He leaped off the cliff, and the priest saw the soles of his feet. Grettir dived under the force, and the eddy was so strong that he had to get to the very bottom before he could get inside the force, where the river stood off from the cliff. By a jutting rock he reached the cavern's mouth. In the cave there was a fire burning on the hearth. A giant sate there, who at once leaped up and struck at the intruder with a pike made equally to cut and to thrust. This weapon had a wooden shaft, and men called it a hepti-sax.[79] Grettir's sword demolishes this weapon, and the giant stretched after a sword that hung there in the cave. Then Grettir smote him and killed him, and his blood ran down with the stream past the rope where the priest sate to watch. The priest concluded that Grettir was dead, and it being now evening he went home. But Grettir explored the cave. He found the bones of two men, and put them into a skin. He swam to the rope and climbed up by it to the top of the cliff. When the priest came to church next morning he found the bones in the bag, and a rune-stick whereon the event was carved; but Grettir was gone.

The identity is so manifest that we have only to ask which people (if either) was the borrower, the English or the Danes. And here comes in the consideration that the geography of the "Beowulf" is Scandinavian. There is no consciousness of Britain or England throughout the poem. If this raises a presumption that the Saxon poet got his story from a Dane, we naturally ask, When is this likely to have happened? and the answer must be that the earliest probable time begins after the Peace of Wedmore in 878.

In the "Blickling Homilies" there is a passage which recalls the description of the mere in "Beowulf."[80] So far as this coincidence affects the question, it makes for the date here assigned.

Beyond the "Beowulf" we have but small and fragmentary remains of the old heroic poetry. The most important pieces are "The Battle of Finn's Burgh," and "The Lay of King Waldhere." These are now often printed in the editions of the "Beowulf."

Ettmller conjectured that the "Invitation from a True Lover Settled Abroad," was not a single lyric, but a beautiful incident taken from some epic poem.[81] A messenger comes with a token to a lady at home, by which she may credit his message; he bids her take ship as soon as she hears the voice of the cuckoo, and go out to him who has all things ready about him to give her a suitable reception.

Next we will consider

"THE RUINED CITY."[82]

The subject of this piece is a city in ruins. There is massive masonry: the place was once handsomely built and decorated and held by warriors, but now all tumbled about; works of art exposed to view and forming a strange contrast with the desolation around; there is a wide pool of water, hot without fire; and there are the once-frequented baths. This is no vague poetic composition, but the portrait of a definite spot. It suits the old Brito-Roman ruin of Akeman after 577; and it suits no other place that I can think of in the habitable world. The old view that it was a fortress or castle seems misplaced in time, as well as incompatible with the expressions in the text.[83]

The poem begins:—

Wrtlic is thes weal stan wyrde gebrcon,

Stupendous is this wall of stone, strange the ruin!

The strongholds are bursten, the work of giants decaying, the roofs are fallen, the towers tottering, dwellings unroofed and mouldering, masonry weather-marked, shattered the places of shelter, time-scarred, tempest-marred, undermined of eld.

Eorth grap hafath waldend wyrhtan forweorene geleorene heard gripe hrusan oth hund cnea wer theoda gewitan. Oft thes wag gebad rg har and read fah rice fter othrum ofstonden under stormum....

Earth's grasp holdeth the mighty workmen worn away lorn away in the hard grip of the grave till a hundred ages of men-folk do pass. Oft this wall witnessed (weed-grown and lichen-spotted) one great man after another take shelter out of storms....

* * * * *

How did the swift sledge-hammer flash and furiously come down upon the rings when the sturdy artizan was rivetting the wall with clamps so wondrously together. Bright were the buildings, the bath-houses many, high-towered the pinnacles, frequent the war-clang, many the mead-halls, of merriment full, till all was overturned by Fate the violent. The walls crumbled widely; dismal days came on; death swept off the valiant men; the arsenals became ruinous foundations; decay sapped the burgh. Pitifully crouched armies to earth. Therefore these halls are a dreary ruin, and these pictured gables;[84] the rafter-framed roof sheddeth its tiles; the pavement is crushed with the ruin, it is broken up in heaps; where erewhile many a baron—

gldmod and goldbeorht gleoma gefrtwed wlonc and wingal wig hyrstum scan; seah on sinc on sylfor on searo gimmas; on ead, on ht, on eorcan stan: on thas beorhtan burg bradan rices. Stan hofu stodan; stream hate wearp widan wylme, weal eal befeng beorhtan bosme; thr tha bathu wron, hat on hrethre; tht wes hythelic!

joyous and gold-bright gaudily jewelled haughty and wine-hot shone in his harness; looked on treasure, on silver, on gems of device; on wealth, on stores, on precious stones; on this bright borough of broad dominion. There stood courts of stone! The stream hotly rushed with eddy wide, (wall all enclosed) with bosom bright, (There the baths were!) not in its nature! That was a boon indeed!

"THE WANDERER" (EARDSTAPA).[85]

In patriarchal or sub-patriarchal times social life was still confined within the family pale; and the man who belonged to no household was a wanderer and a vagabond on the face of the earth. Through invasion or war or other accidents a man who had been the honoured member of a well-found home might live to see that home broken up or pass into strange hands, and he might be thus like a plant uprooted when he was too old to get planted in a fresh connexion. His only chance of any share in social life was to wander from house to house, getting perhaps a brief lodging in each; and such a homeless condition might be well expressed by the compound eardstapa, one who tramps (stapa) from one habitation (eard) to another. In such an outcast plight the speaker in this piece went to sea, and there he often thought of the old happy days that were gone. He would dream of the pleasure of his old access to the giefstol of his lord, whom he saluted with kiss and head on knee, and then he would wake a friendless man in the wintry ocean, and his grief would be the sorer at his heart for the recollections of lost kindred that the dream had revived. Such a lot is in ready sympathy with old-world ruins, of which there were many in England at that time, and they raise the anticipation of a time when a like ruin will be the end of all! "It becomes a wise man to know how awful it will be when all this world's wealth stands waste, as now up and down in the world there are wind-buffeted walls standing in mouldering decay"—and the description which follows is either a reminiscence of "The Ruined City," or else it shows that the subject of ruins was familiar with the Sc{-o}pas.[86]

"THE MINSTREL'S CONSOLATION."[87]

Ettmller reckoned this the oldest of the Saxon lyrics; influenced, perhaps, by the mythical nature of the contents. But, if we regard the form rather than the material, there is a refinement about the versification which does not look archaic. The poem is cast in irregular stanzas, and it has a refrain. The poet, whose name is Deor, has experienced the fallaciousness of early success. His prospects are clouded; once the favourite minstrel of his patron, he is now superseded by a newer Sc{-o}p. His consolation is a well-known one; perhaps the oldest and commonest of all the formul of consolation. Others have been in trouble before him, and have somehow got over it. This is not conveyed as a mere generalisation; it is done poetically through striking examples, of which Weland is the first, and Beadohild the second. After each example comes the refrain:—

ths ofereode thisses swa mg!

That [distress] he overwent, So . I . can . this!

The failures of life's hopes and ambitions have been so often lamented, that the subject is rather hackneyed and conventional. Here is a piece out of the beaten track; fresh, though ingenious and artistic. Such a poem is all the more welcome as the subject belongs to an extinct career—the career of a court minstrel.

The Ballads have a peculiar value of their own. There is a sense in which they are the best representatives of the native muse. There are several extant specimens of various merit, but two are pre-eminent, and these are, beyond all doubt, preserved in their original and unaltered form. They were manifestly produced in the moment when the sensation of a great event was yet fresh. They are impassioned and effusive, and they bear good witness to the characteristics of primitive poetry. One spontaneous element they preserve, which has been quite discarded from modern poetry, and of which the other traces are few. I mean the poetry of derision. The light and shade of the ballad is glory and scorn. The most popular subject of this species of poetry is a battle. Whether your ballad is of victory or of disaster, these two elements, not indeed with the same intensity or the same proportions, but still these two, are the constituents required. Our best examples are the "Victory of Brunanburh" (937), and the "Disaster of Maldon" (991).

The battle of Brunanburh was fought by King Athelstan and his brother Edmund (children of Edward), against the alliance of the Scots under Constantinus with the Danes under Anlaf.

Various attempts have been made to present in modern English the Ballad of Brunanburh, the most successful being that by the Poet Laureate. Our language is rather out of practice for kindling a poetic fervour around the sentiment of flinging scorn at a vanquished foe; but the following will serve to illustrate this heathenish element, or such relics of it as survived in the tenth century. The person first railed at is Constantinus:—

X.

Slender reason had He to be proud of The welcome of war-knives— He that was reft of his Folk and his friends that had Fallen in conflict, Leaving his son, too, Lost in the carnage, Mangled to morsels, A youngster in war!

XI.

Slender reason had He to be glad of The clash of the war-glaive— Traitor and trickster And spurner of treaties— He nor had Anlaf, With armies so broken, A reason for bragging That they had the better In perils of battle On places of slaughter— The struggle of standards, The rush of the javelins, The crash of the charges, The wielding of weapons— The play that they played with The children of Edward.

ALFRED TENNYSON, "Ballads and Other Poems," 1880, p. 174.

The longest of our ballads, though it is imperfect, is that of the "Battle of Maldon." In the year 991 the Northmen landed in Essex, and expected to be bought off with great ransom; but Brithnoth, the alderman of the East Saxons, met them with all his force, and, after fighting bravely, was killed. The lines here quoted occur after the alderman's death:—

Leofsunu gemlde, and his linde ahof, bord to gebeorge; he tham beorne oncwth; Ic tht gehate, tht ic heonon nelle fleon fotes trym, ac wille furthor gan, wrecan on gewinne mine wine drihten! Ne thurfon me embe Sturmere stede fste hleth, wordum twitan, nu min wine gecranc, tht ic hlafordleas ham sithie wende from wige! ac me sceal wpen niman, ord and iren!

Then up spake Leveson and his shield uphove, buckler in ward; he the warrior addressed: I make the vow, that I will not hence flee a foot's pace, but will go forward; wreak in the battle my friend and my lord! Never shall about Stourmere, the stalwart fellows, with words me twit now my chief is down, that I lordless homeward go march, turning from war! Nay, weapon shall take me, point and iron.

Other ballads, or something like ballads, that are embodied in the Saxon chronicles are:—"The Conquest of Mercia" (942); "The Coronation of Eadgar at Bath" (973); "Eadgar's Demise" (975); "The Good Times of King Eadgar" (975); "The Martyr of Corf Gate" (979); "Alfred the Innocent theling" (1036); "The Son of Ironside" (1057); "The Dirge of King Eadward" (1065).

Others there are of which only brief scraps remain, almost embedded in the prose of the chronicles:—"The Sack of Canterbury" (1011); "The Wooing of Margaret" (1067); "The Baleful Bride Ale" (1076); "The High-handed Conqueror" (1086).[88]

Our last piece shall be "Widsith, or the Gleeman's Song."[89] This is a string of reminiscences of travel in the profession of minstrelsy; some part of which has a genuine air of high antiquity.[90] In the course of a long tradition it has undergone many changes which cannot now be distinguished. But, besides these, there are some glaring patches of literary interpolation, chiefly from Scriptural sources. I quote the concluding lines:—

Swa scrithende gesceapum hweorfath, gleo men gumena geond grunda fela; thearfe secgath thonc word sprecath, simle suth oththe north sumne gemetath, gydda gleawne geofum unhneawne, se the fore duguthe wile dom arran eorlscipe fnan; oth tht eal scaceth leoht and lif somod: Lof se gewyrceth hafath under heofenum heahfstne dom.

So wandering on the world about, glee-men do roam through many lands; they say their needs, they speak their thanks, sure south or north some one to meet, of songs to judge and gifts not grudge, one who by merit hath a mind renown to make earlship to earn; till all goes out light and life together. Laud who attains hath under heaven high built renown.

FOOTNOTES:

[74] In "A Book for the Beginner in Anglo-Saxon," Clarendon Press Series; ed. 2 (1879), p. 70.

[75] The editions and translations are by Thorkelin, Copenhagen, 1815; Kemble, ed. 1, London, 1833; ed. 2, London, 1835; translation, 1837; Ettmller, German translation, Zurich, 1840; Schaldemose, with Danish translation, Copenhagen, 1851; Thorpe, with English translation, Oxford, 1855; Grundtvig, Copenhagen, 1861; Moritz Heyne, German translation, Paderborn, 1863; Grein, 1867; Arnold, Oxford, 1876; Moritz Heyne, Text, ed. 4, 1879.

[76]

Wulfgar then spoke to his own dear lord: "Here are arrived, come from afar Over the sea-waves, men of the Geats; The one most distinguished the warriors brave Beowulf name. They are thy suppliants That they, my prince, may with thee now Greetings exchange; do not thou refuse them Thy converse in turn, friendly Hrothgar! They in their war-weeds seem very worthy Contenders with earls; the chief is renowned Who these war-heroes hither has led." Hrothgar then spoke, defence of the Scyldings; "I knew him of old when he was a child; His aged father was Ecgtheow named; To him at home gave Hrethel the Geat His only daughter: his son has now Boldly come here, a trusty friend sought."

This is from Mr. Garnett's translation, which is made line for line. Published by Ginn, Heath, & Co., Boston, 1882.

[77] Dr. Karl Mllenhof (papers in Haupt's "Zeitschrift") follows the same line. His treatment is thus described by Mr. Henry Morley:—"The work was formed, he thinks, by the combination of several old songs—(1) 'The Fight with Grendel,' complete in itself, and the oldest of the pieces; (2) 'The Fight with Grendel's Mother,' next added; then (3) the genealogical introduction to the mention of Hrothgar, forming what is now the opening of the poem. Then came, according to this theory, a poet, A, who worked over the poem thus produced, interpolated many passages with skill, and added a continuation, setting forth Beowulf's return home. Last came a theoretical interloper, B, a monk, who interspersed religious sayings of his own, and added the ancient song of the fight with the dragon and the death of Beowulf. The positive critic not only finds all this, but proceeds to point out which passages are old, older, and oldest, where a few lines are from poet A, and where other interpolation is from poet B."—"English Verse and Prose" in "Cassell's Library of English Literature," p. 11.

[78] No one needs to be told that the dragon story is of high antiquity. But even of the elements which have most the appearance of history some may be traced so far back till they seem to fade into legend. Thus Higelac can hardly be any other than that Chochilaicus of whom Gregory of Tours records that he invaded the Frisian coast from the north, and was slain in the attempt. In our poem, this recurs with variations no less than four times as a well-known passage in the adventures of Higelac. But it affords a doubtful basis for argument about the date of our poem.

[79] See Dr. Vigfusson's remarks in the Prolegomena to his edition of the "Sturlinga Saga," Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1878.

[80] See Dr. Morris's Preface to the Blickling Homilies.

[81] Cod. Exon., ed. Thorpe, p. 473.

[82] Cod. Exon., ed. Thorpe, p. 476; Grein, i., 248.

[83] Years ago I discussed this little poem before the Bath Field Club; and my arguments were subsequently printed in the "Proceedings" of that society (1872). Professor Wlcker has since agreed with me that the subject of the poem is a city, and not a fortress. My identification of the ruin with Acemanceaster (Bath) has been approved by Mr. Freeman in his volume on "Rufus."

[84] The feeling which pervades this remarkable fragment was strangely recalled by the following passage in a recent book that has interested many:—"Masses of strange, nameless masonry, of an antiquity dateless and undefined, bedded themselves in the rocks, or overhung the clefts of the hills; and out of a great tomb by the wayside, near the arch, a forest of laurel forced its way, amid delicate and graceful frieze-work, moss-covered and stained with age. In this strangely desolate and ruinous spot, where the fantastic shapes of nature seem to mourn in weird fellowship with the shattered strength and beauty of the old Pagan art-life, there appeared unexpectedly signs of modern dwelling."—"John Inglesant," by J.H. Shorthouse, new edition, 1881, vol. ii., p. 320.

[85] Cod. Exon., ed. Thorpe, p. 286.

[86] A translation of this poem in Alexandrines appeared in the Academy, May 14, 1881, by E.H. Hickey.

[87] Cod. Exon., ed. Thorpe, p. 377. His title is "Deor the Scald's Complaint." I have adopted the title from Professor Wlcker, "Des Sngers Trost."

[88] Sometimes a prose passage of unusual energy raises the apprehension that it may be a ballad toned down. Dr. Grubitz has suggested this view of the Annal of 755, in which there is a fight in a Saxon castle (burh). The graphic description of the place, the dramatic order of the incidents, and the life-like dialogue of the parley, might well be the work of a poet.

[89] Kemble called it "The Traveller's Song;" Thorpe, Cod. Exon., p. 318, "The Scop or Scald's Tale."

[90] A valuable testimony is borne to the substantial antiquity of this poem, by the fact that Schafarik, who is the chief ethnographer for Sclavonic literature, regards it as a valuable source on account of the Sclavonic names contained in it. I am indebted to Mr. Morfil, of Oriel College, for this information.



CHAPTER VII.

THE WEST SAXON LAWS.

"No other Germanic nation has bequeathed to us out of its earliest experience so rich a treasure of original legal documents as the Anglo-Saxon nation has." Such is the sentence of Dr. Reinhold Schmid, who upon the basis of former labours, and particularly those of Mr. Benjamin Thorpe, has given us the most compact and complete edition yet produced of the Anglo-Saxon laws.[91]

It might seem as if laws were too far removed from the idea of literature, to merit more than a passing notice here. Writers on modern English literature generally leave the lawyer's work altogether out of their field. But these are among the things that alter with age. Laws become literary matter just as they become old and obsolete. Then the traces they have left in words and phrases and figures of speech, their very contrasts with the laws of the present, makes them material eminently literary. We know what effective literary use Sir Walter Scott has made of the antiquities and curiosities of law.

And to this may be added another remark. When we are engaged in reconstructing an ancient, we might almost say a lost literature, we need above all things some leading ideas concerning the conditions of social life and opinion and mental development at the period in question. Nothing supplies these things so safely as the laws of the time.

INE'S LAWS.

The oldest extant West Saxon laws are those of King Ine,[92] who reigned thirty-eight years, A.D. 688-726. As the West Saxon power gradually absorbed all other rule in this island, we here find ourselves entering the central stream of history. In the preamble to Ine's Laws the name of Erconwald, bishop of London, who died in 693, is among the persons present at the Gemt. Consequently these laws must be referred to the first years of Ine's reign, and they must be older than the date of the Kentish laws of Wihtred.

The laws of Ine are preserved to us as an appendix of the laws of Alfred. This is the case in all the manuscripts. Not only does the elder code follow the younger, but the numbering is continuous as if welding the two codes into one. Thorpe follows the manuscripts in this arrangement, though not in the numbering of the sections, and the student who consults his edition is apt to be confused with this chronological inversion, unless he has taken note of the cause. Ine reigned over a mixed population of Saxons and Britons, and his code is of a more comprehensive character than that of the Kentish kings. His enactments became, through subsequent re-enactments, the basis of the laws not only of Wessex, but also of all England. Accordingly they seem more intelligible to the modern reader.[93]

9. If any one take revenge before he sue for justice, let him give up what he has seized, and pay for the damage done, and make amends with thirty shillings.

12. If a thief be taken, let him die, or let his life be redeemed according to his "wer." ... Thieves we call them up to seven men; from seven to thirty-five a band (hloth); after that it is a troop (here).

32. If a Wylisc-man have a hide of land, his "wer" is 120 shillings; if he have half a hide, eighty shillings; if he have none, sixty shillings.

36. He who takes a thief, or has a captured thief given over to him, and then lets him go or conceals the theft, let him pay for the thief according to his "wer." If he be an ealdorman, let him forfeit his shire, unless the king be pleased to show him mercy.

39. If any one go from his lord without leave, or steal himself away into another shire, and word is brought; let him go where he before was, and pay his lord sixty shillings.

40. A ceorl's close should be fenced winter and summer. If it be unfenced, and his neighbour's cattle get in through his own gap, he hath no claim on the cattle; let him drive it out and bear the damage.

43. In case any one burn a tree in a wood, and it come to light who did it, let him pay the full penalty, and give sixty shillings, because fire is a thief. If one fell in a wood ever so many trees, and it be found out afterwards, let him pay for three trees, each with thirty shillings. He is not required to pay for more of them, however many they might be, because the axe is a reporter and not a thief (forthon seo sc bith melda, nalles theof).[94]

44. But if a man cut down a tree that thirty swine may stand under, and it is found out, let him pay sixty shillings.

52. Let him who is accused of secret compositions clear himself of those compositions with 120 hides, or pay 120 shillings.[95]

ALFRED'S LAWS.

Here I will quote from the introductory portion a piece which illustrates the subject generally, and which is rendered interesting by the wide diversity of comment which it has elicited from Mr. Kemble and Sir H. Maine. The former is almost outrageously angry at Alfred for attributing the system of bts or compensations to the influence of Christianity; while in the strong terms wherewith treason against the lord is branded, he can only see "these despotic tendencies of a great prince, nurtured probably by his exaggerated love for foreign literature."[96] It is positively refreshing to come out of this heat and dust into the orderly and consecutive demonstration of Sir H. Maine, who concludes a course of systematic exposition on the history of Criminal Law, and indeed concludes his entire book on Ancient Law, with an appreciative quotation of this passage from the Laws of Alfred. It is thus introduced:—

"There is a passage in the writings of King Alfred which brings out into remarkable clearness the struggle of the various ideas that prevailed in his day as to the origin of criminal jurisdiction. It will be seen that Alfred attributes it partly to the authority of the Church and partly to that of the Witan, while he expressly claims for treason against the lord the same immunity from ordinary rules which the Roman Law of Majestas had assigned to treason against the Csar."

Siththan tht tha gelamp, tht monega theoda Cristes geleafan onfengon, tha wurdon monega seonothas geond ealne middan geard gegaderode, and eac swa geond Angel cyn, siththan hie Cristes geleafan onfengon, haligra biscepa and eac otherra gethungenra witena. Hie tha gesetton for thre mildheortnesse, the Crist lrde, t mstra hwelcre misdde, tht tha woruld hlafordas moston mid hiora leafan buton synne t tham forman gylte thre fioh-bote onfon, the hie tha gesettan; buton t hlaford searwe, tham hie nane mildheortnesse ne dorston gecwthan, fortham the God lmihtig tham nane ne gedemde the hine oferhogodon, ne Crist, Godes sunu, tham nane ne gedemde, the hyne sealde to deathe; and he bebead thone hlaford lufian swa hine selfne.

After that it happened that many nations received the faith of Christ, and there were many synods assembled through all parts of the world, and likewise throughout the Angle race after they had received the faith of Christ, of holy bishops and also of other distinguished Witan. They then ordained, out of that compassion which Christ had taught, in the case of almost every misdeed, that the secular lords might, with their leave and without sin, for the first offence accept the money penalty which they then ordained; excepting in the case of treason against a lord, to which they dared not assign any mercy, because God Almighty adjudged none to them that despised Him, nor did Christ, the Son of God, adjudge any to them that sold Him to death; and He commanded that the lord should be loved as Himself.

Hie tha on monegum senothum monegra menniscra misdda bote gesetton, and on monega senoth bec hy writon hwr anne dom hwr otherne.

They then in many synods ordained a "bot" for many human misdeeds, and in many a synod-book they wrote, here one decision, there another.

Ic tha lfred cyning thas togdere gegaderode and awritan het monege thara, the ure foregengan heoldon, tha the me licodon; and manege thara the me ne licodon, ic awearp mid minra witena getheahte, and on othre wisan bebead to healdenne, fortham ic ne dorste gethristlcan thara minra awuht feala on gewrit settan, fortham me ws uncuth, hwt ths tham lician wolde, the fter us wren. Ac tha the ic gemette, awther oththe on Ines dge, mines mges, oththe on Offan, Myrcena cyninges, oththe on thelbryhtes, the rest fulluht onfeng on Angel cynne, tha the me ryhtoste thuhton, ic tha her on gegaderode and tha othre forlet.

I then, Alfred, king, gathered these together, and I ordered to write out many of those that our forefathers held which to me seemed good; and many of those that to me seemed not good I rejected, with the counsel of my Witan, and in other wise commanded to hold; forasmuch as I durst not venture to set any great quantity of my own in writing, because it was unknown to me what would please those who should be after us. But those things that I found established, either in the days of Ine my kinsman, or in Offa's, king of the Mercians, or in thelbryht's, who first received baptism in the Angle race, those which seemed to me rightest, those I have here gathered together, and the others I have rejected.

Ic tha lfred, West seaxna cyning, eallum minum witum thas geeowde, and hie tha cwdon, tht him tht licode eallum to healdenne.

I then, Alfred, king of the West Saxons, to all my Witan showed these; and they then said, that it seemed good to them all that they should be holden.

ALFRED AND GUTHRUM'S PEACE.

This is a little code which marks a crisis in Alfred's life, and, it may be added, a crisis also in the life of the nation. When Alfred by his victory over the Danes in 878 had brought them to sue for peace, the treaty was made at Wedmore in Somersetshire. The original text of the peace between Alfred and Guthrum is among the Anglo-Saxon laws, and we present it to the reader in its entire form. The first item is about the frontier line between the two races which was drawn diagonally through the heart of England, cutting Mercia in two, and leaving half of it under the Danes. The two parts into which the country was thus divided, were designated severally as the "Engla lagu" and the "Dena lagu."

lfredes and Guthrumes frith.

This is tht frith, tht lfred cynincg and Gythrum cyning and ealles Angel cynnes witan, and eal seo theod the on East Englum beoth, ealle gecweden habbath, and mid athum gefeostnod, for hy sylfe and for heora gingran, ge for geborene, ge for ungeborene, the Godes miltse recce oththe ure.

Alfred and Guthrum's Peace.

This is the peace that king Alfred and king Guthrum and the counsellors of all Angel-kin, and all the people that are in East Anglia, have all decreed and with oaths confirmed for themselves and for their children, both for the born and for the unborn, all who value God's favour or ours.

Cap. 1. rest ymb ure land-gemra: up on Temese and thonne up on Ligan, and andlang Ligan oth hire wylm, thonne on gerihte to Bedan forda, thonne up on Usan oth Wtlinga strt.

Cap. 1. First about our land-boundaries:—Up the Thames, and then up the Lea, and along the Lea to her source, then straight to Bedford, then up the Ouse to Watling Street.

2. Tht is thonne, gif man ofslagen weorthe, ealle we ltath efen dyrne Engliscne and Deniscne, to VIII healfmarcum asodenes goldes, buton tham ceorle the on gafol lande sit, and heora liesingum, tha syndan eac efen dyre, gther to CC scill.

2. Videlicet, if a person be slain, we all estimate of equal value, the Englishman and the Dane, at eight half-marks of pure gold; except the ceorl who resides on gafol-land, and their [i.e. the Danish] liesings, those also are equally dear, either at two hundred shillings.

3. And gif mon cyninges thegn beteo manslihtes, gif he hine ladian dyrre, do he tht mid XII cininges thegnum. Gif man thone man betyhth, the bith lssa maga thonne se cyninges thegn, ladige he hine mid XI his gelicena and mid anum cyninges thgne. And swa gehwilcere sprce, the mare sy thonne IIII mancussas. And gyf he ne dyrre, gylde hit thry gylde, swa hit man gewyrthe.

3. And if a king's thane be charged with killing a man, if he dare to clear himself, let him do it with twelve king's thanes. If the accused man be of less degree than the king's thane, let him clear himself with eleven of his equals, and with one king's thane. And so in every suit that may be for more than four mancuses. And if he dare not, let him pay threefold, according as it may be valued.

Be getymum.

4. And tht lc man wite his getyman be mannum and be horsum and be oxum.

Of Warrantors.

4. And that every man know his warrantor for men and for horses and for oxen.

5. And ealle we cwdon on tham dge the mon tha athas swor, tht ne theowe ne freo ne moton in thone here faran butan leafe, ne heora nan the ma to us. Gif thonne gebyrige, tht for neode heora hwilc with ure bige habban wille, oththe we with heora, mid yrfe and mid htum, tht is to thafianne on tha wisan, tht man gislas sylle frithe to wedde, and to swutelunge, tht man wite tht man clne bc hbbe.

5. And we all said on that day when the oaths were sworn, that neither bond nor free should be at liberty to go to the host[97] without leave, nor of them any one by the same rule (come) to us. If, however, it happen, that for business any one of them desires to have dealings with us or we with them, about cattle and about goods, that is to be granted on this wise, that hostages be given for a pledge of peace, and for evidence whereby it may be known that the party has a clean back [i.e., that he has not carried off on his back what is not his own].

EADWARD AND GUTHRUM'S LAWS.

Besides two codes of laws of Eadward, the son of Alfred, we have also a code entitled as above. Of these laws it is said that they were first made between Alfred and Guthrum, and afterwards between Eadward and Guthrum.[98] Many of the enactments of this code were transmitted to later ordinances.

This syndon tha domas the lfred cyneg and Guthrum cyneg gecuran.

These are the dooms that king Alfred and king Guthrum chose.

And this is seo gerdnis eac the lfred cyng and Guthrum cyng. and eft Eadward cyng and Guthrum cyng. gecuran and gecwdon. Tha tha Engle and Dene to frithe and to freondscipe fullice fengen. and tha witan eac the syththan wron eft and unseldan tht seolfe geniwodon and mid gode gehihtan.

And this is the ordinance, also, which king Alfred and king Guthrum, and afterwards king Eadward and king Guthrum, chose and ordained, when the English and Danes fully took to peace and to friendship; and the Witan also, who were afterward, often and repeatedly renewed the same and increased it with good.

ATHELSTAN'S LAWS.

Under the name of Athelstan we have five codes, of which the second and third are mere abstracts in Latin; but the others are in Saxon; and besides these a substantive ordinance bearing the special title of "The Judgments of the City of London." This has been described as follows:—"The rules of the guild composed of thanes and ceorls (gentlemen and yeomen), under the perpetual presidency of the bishop and portreeve of London."[99] They combine to protect themselves against robbery, and this in two ways: (1) by promoting the action of the laws against robbers; (2) by mutual insurance.

The determination of this code to the reign of Athelstan is guided by the mention of the places of enactment, which are Greatley (near Andover, Hants); Exeter; and Thundersfield (near Horley, Surrey), with which places all the previous laws of Athelstan are associated.

From the fourth of the above-mentioned ordinances I will quote the law about the tracking of cattle lost, stolen, or strayed:—

2. "And if any one track cattle within another's land, the owner of that land is to track it out, if he can; if he cannot, that track is to count as the fore-oath," i.e., the first legal step in an action to recover.

A more explicit description of the method of tracking cattle occurs in the Ordinance of the Dunste.

This ordinance is placed by Thorpe between the laws of thelred and those of Cnut. This little code of nine sections is intended to rule the relations of a border country which, on its home side, is continuous with Wessex, and on its outer side is next the Welsh. Sir Francis Palgrave, misled perhaps by a questionable reading in Lambarde (1568), who has the form Deunstas, took this to be a treaty between the English and British inhabitants of Devon, and bestowed on it the succinct title of the Devonian Compact. But Mr. Thorpe objected to the form "Deun" as groundless, and he also quoted the text of the code against it; for the last section speaks thus:—"Formerly the Wentste belonged to the Dunste, but that district more strictly belongs to Wessex, for they have to send thither tribute and hostages." This admits of no explanation in Devonshire, but in South Wales it does, and we learn from William of Malmesbury that the river Wye was fixed by King Athelstan as the boundary between the English and Welsh. On this basis the Wentste will be the people of Gwent, and the Dunste will be the Welsh of the upland or hill-country.

One of the most remarkable sections of this Code is the first, which prescribes the method for tracking stolen cattle.

The laws concerning theft relate almost entirely to the protection of cattle, and naturally so, because the chief wealth of the time consisted in flocks and herds. Stolen cattle were tracked by fixed rules. If the track led into a given district, the men of that district were bound to show the track out of their boundary or to be responsible for the lost property. We have just seen this in Athelstan's laws; but in the previous reign a law of Edward, the son of Alfred, directs that every proprietor of land is to have men ready to dispatch in aid of those who are following the track of cattle, and that they are not to be diverted from this duty by bribes, or inclination, or violence. But the most explicit text on this subject is in the first chapter of the Ordinance respecting the Dunset folk, as above said. It runs thus:—

"If the track of stolen cattle be followed from station to station, the further tracking shall be committed to the people of the land, and proof shall be given that the pursuit is genuine. The proprietor of the land shall then take up the pursuit, and he shall have the responsibility, and he shall pay for the cattle by nine days therefrom, or deposit a pledge by that date, which is worth half more, and in a further nine days discharge the pledge with actual payment. If objection be made that the track was wrongly pursued, then the tracker must lead to the station, and there with six unchosen men, who are true men, make oath that he by folk-right makes claim on the land that the cattle passed up that way."

We cannot follow the laws in detail, but must now conclude this subject with one or two observations of a general kind. In the above I have repeatedly used the word "Code"; but this is not to be understood with technical exactness. Of late years we have heard much of "codifying" our laws; and this expression suggests the idea of a compact and consistent body of law, which should take the place of partial, occasional, anomalous, and often conflicting legislation. Of "codes" in this sense, there is very little to be found in the whole record of English law. Our Kentish and West Saxon laws are little more than statements of custom or amendments of custom; and while Professor Stubbs claims for the laws of Alfred, thelred, Cnut, and those described as Edward the Confessor's, that they aspire to the character of codes, yet "English law (he adds) from its first to its latest phase, has never possessed an authoritative, constructive, systematic, or approximately exhaustive statement, such as was attempted by the great compilers of the civil and canon laws, by Alfonso the Wise or Napoleon Bonaparte."[100]

There is a prominent characteristic of our laws which they have in common with all primitive codes. These all differ from maturer collections of laws in their very large proportion of criminal to civil law. Sir Henry Maine says that, on the whole, all the known collections of ancient law are distinguished from systems of mature jurisprudence by this feature,—that the civil part of the law has trifling dimensions as compared with the criminal.[101] This is strikingly seen in the Kentish laws; and even in the West Saxon laws a very little study will enable the reader to verify this characteristic.

Our next and last observation shall be based on the absence of something which the reader might possibly expect to find in the Saxon laws.

Of all the legal institutions that have claimed a Saxon origin, none compares for importance with that of trial by jury. This has been called the bulwark of English liberty, and it has been assigned to King Alfred as the general founder of great institutions. But this is only a popular opinion.

Perhaps there is no single matter in legal antiquities that has been so much debated as the origin of trial by jury. In the vast literature which the subject has called forth, the most various accounts have been proposed. It is an English institution, but whence did the English get it? From which of the various sources that have contributed to the composite life of the English nation? Was it Anglo-Saxon, or was it Anglo-Norman, or was it Keltic? Was it a process common to all the Germanic family? If it was Norman, from which source—from their Scandinavian ancestors or from their Frankish neighbours? All these origins have been maintained, and others besides these. According to some writers, it is a relic of Roman law; some trace it to the Canon law; and champions have not been wanting to vindicate it as originally a Slavonic institution which the Angles borrowed from the Werini ere they had left their old mother country.[102]

In all this diversity of view there is one fixed point of common agreement. It is allowed on all hands that England is the arena of its historical career, and the question therefore always takes this start,—How did the English acquire it?

The Anglo-Saxon laws have been diligently scanned to see if the practice or the germ of it could be discovered there. In thelred iii., 3, there is an ordinance that runs thus:—

And gan ut tha yldestan XII thegnas, and se gerefa mid, and swerian on tham haligdome, the heom man on hand sylle, tht hig nellan nnne sacleasan man forsecgan, ne nnne sacne forhelan.

Let the XII senior thanes go out, and the reeve with them, and swear on the halidom that is put in their hand, that they will not calumniate any sackless man, nor conceal any guilty one (? suppress any suit).

This looks like the grand jury examining the bills of indictment before trial, and determining prim facie whether they are true bills which ought to be tried in court. But the progress of modern inquiry has led to the conclusion, that though there may be rudiments of the principle in Anglo-Saxon and in all Germanic customs, still it was among the Franks in the Carling era that a definite beginning can first be recognised. The Frankish capitularies had a process called Inquisitio, which was adopted into Norman law, and was there called Enqute; this, having passed with the Normans into England, was finally shaped and embodied in the common law among the legal reforms of Henry II.

Under the Saxon laws, the true men who were sworn to do justice had a very different part to act from that which falls to the lot of our English jury. The duty of the latter is to deliver a verdict on matter of fact as proved by evidence given in court. The judge charges them to put aside what they may have heard out of court, and let it have no influence on their verdict, but to let that verdict be strictly based upon the evidence of witnesses before the court.

In thelred's time it was different. The sworn men were not to judge testimony truly, but to bear witness truly. They were to bring into court their own knowledge of the case, and of any circumstances that threw light upon it, including the general opinion and persuasion of the neighbourhood. There was no attempt to collect evidence piecemeal, and to rise above the level of local rumour, by a patient judicial investigation. This provides us with something like a measure of the intellectual stage of the public mind in Saxon times, and will perhaps justify these remarks if they have seemed like drifting away from our proper subject. The notion of weighing evidence had not taken its place among the institutions of public life. This has now become with us almost a popular habit. Proficiency and soundness in it may be rare, but the appreciation of it, the perception of its power and beauty, and withal a pride and glory in it, is almost universal. How wide a distance does this seem to put between us and our Saxon forefathers, only to say that they had but the most rudimentary notions about the nature of evidence!

Witnesses came into court, not to speak, one by one, to a matter of fact, but to pronounce in a body what they all believed and held. They came to testify and uphold the popular opinion. Such testimony is like nothing known to us now, except when witnesses are called to speak to general character. These witnesses gave their evidence on oath; but it would naturally happen sometimes that such sworn testimony was to be had on both sides of the question. When this was the case, there was but one resource left, and that was the Ordeal—the appeal to the judgment of God. Such are the devices of inexperienced nations, who have no skill in sifting out the truth, and are baffled by contending testimony. Nothing can better illustrate the stage of our national progress in the times which produced the literature which we are now surveying.

But, withal, it was in such a rude age that the foundations of English law were laid, and those customs took a definite form which are the groundwork of our jurisprudence, and in which consists the distinction between our English law and the law of the other nations of Western Europe, who have all (Scotland included) formed their legal system upon the civil law of Rome.

LEGAL DOCUMENTS.

From the seventh century down to the end of our period we have a series of legal documents, such as grants of land, purchases, memorials, written wills, memoranda of nuncupatory wills, royal writs, family arrangements, interchanges of land. The first thing to be noticed about this whole body of writings is that they, at the beginning of the series, are entirely in Latin; then a few words of the vulgar tongue creep in, and then this native element goes on increasing until we have entire documents in Saxon. Nevertheless, it remained a prevalent habit in the case of transfer of land to have the grant written in Latin, and the boundaries and other details expressed in Anglo-Saxon. This is a large body of literature, and it fills six octavo volumes in Kemble's "Codex Diplomaticus." Being of very various degrees of genuineness—some absolute originals, some faulty copies, some too carefully amended, down to the veriest forgeries—there is here a good field for the exercise of critical discrimination. And there are many curious and interesting details to reward the patient student. The following extract is from a memorial addressed to Edward, the son of Alfred, touching matters that had mostly fallen in his father's time; and it opens a glimpse of Alfred in his bed-chamber receiving a committee that came to report progress.

Tha br mon tha boc forth and rdde hie; tha stod seo hondseten eal thron. Tha thuhte us eallan the t thre some wran thet Helmstan wre athe ths the near. Tha ns thelm na fullice gethafa r we eodan in to cinge and rdan eall hu we hit reahtan and be hwy we hit reahtan: and thelm stod self thr inne mid; and cing stod thwoh his honda t Weardoran innan thon bure. Tha he tht gedon hfde tha ascade he thelm hwy hit him ryht ne thuhte tht we him gereaht hfdan; cwth tht he nan ryhtre gethencan ne meahte thonne he thone ath agifan moste gif he meahte.

Then they brought forward the conveyance and read it; there stood the signatures all thereon. Then seemed it to all of us who were at the arbitration, that Helmstan was all the nearer to the oath. Then was not thelm fully convinced before we went in to the king and explained everything—how we reported it, and on what grounds we had so reported it: and thelm himself stood there in the room with us; and the king stood and washed his hands at Wardour in the chamber. When he had done that, then he asked thelm why it seemed to him not right what we had reported to him; he said that he could think of nothing more just than that he might be allowed to discharge the oath if he were able.

FOOTNOTES:

[91] The Anglo-Saxon laws have been edited by William Lambarde, London, 1568, 4to.; Abraham Whelock, Cambridge, 1644; Wilkins, London, 1721, folio; Dr. Reinhold Schmid, Leipzig, 1832; Thorpe, 1840; Schmid, ed. 2, 1858. It is Schmid's second edition that is spoken of above.

[92] Ine is to be pronounced as a word of two syllables.

[93] Palgrave, "English Commonwealth," i., 46.

[94] Grimm, "Legal Antiquities," 10, quotes some widely-scattered parallels: from Rgen he produces the proverb, "Mit der exe stelt men nicht" (with the axe men steal not); and from Wetterau, "Wan einer hauet, so ruft er" (when one hews, he shouts). He dubs the Anglo-Saxon formula the more poetical (poetischer).

[95] "These secret compositions are forbidden by nearly every early code of Europe; for by such a proceeding both the judge and the Crown lost their profits. The "Capitulary" of 593 puts the receiver of a secret composition on a level with the thief: 'Qui furtum vult celare, et occulte sine judice compositionem acceperit, latroni similis est.' And even now in common law, the rule is to obtain the sanction of the Court for permission 'to speak with the prosecutor,' and thus terminate the suit by compounding the affair in private."—THORPE. The reason assigned is, however, not the whole reason.

[96] "Saxons in England," vol. ii., p. 208.

[97] I.e., go to the Danish camp in East Anglia.

[98] Here we have to understand two distinct kings of the name of Guthrum.

[99] Coote, "The Romans of Britain," p. 397.

[100] "Documents Illustrative of English History," p. 60.

[101] "Ancient Law," chap. x. init.

[102] Palgrave, "Anglo-Saxon Commonwealth;" Stubbs, "Constitutional History;" Heinrich Brunner, "Die Entstehung der Schwurgerichte," Berlin, 1872.



CHAPTER VIII.

THE CHRONICLES.

Of the historical writings that remain from the Anglian period—namely, those of ddi and Bede, we have already spoken; the subject of the present chapter will be the Saxon Chronicles and the Latin histories which are more or less related to these Chronicles.

The habit of putting together annals began to be formed very early. In our Chronicles there are some entries that may perhaps be older than the conversion of our people. The contributors to Bede's "History" would appear to have sent in their parts more or less in the annalistic form. That form is even now but slightly veiled in the grouped arrangement into which the venerable historian has, with little reconstruction but considerable skill, cast his materials. Annal-writing, we may venture to say, had by his time become a recognised habit in literature, and there is extant a brief Northumbrian Chronicle which ends soon after Bede's death.[103] Continuous with this we have a series of annals which were produced in the north, and which are now imbedded in the West Saxon Chronicles; but the traces of their birth are not obliterated. Such vernacular annals were probably at first designed as little more than notes and memoranda to serve for a Latin history to be written another day; but the Danish wars broke the tradition of Latin learning, and made a wide opening which gave opportunity for the elevation of a vernacular literature. There is no part of Anglo-Saxon literature more characterised by spontaneity than are the Saxon Chronicles. Nowhere can we better see how the mother-tongue received the devolution of the literary office in an unexpected way when the learned literature was suddenly and violently displaced.

One of the strong features of these Chronicles is the genealogies of the kings, ascending mostly to Woden as their mythical ancestor. The most complete of these is that of the West Saxon kings, which is prefixed to the Parker manuscript in manner of a preface. This genealogy was originally made for Ecgbryht, who reigned from 800 to 836,—it was made at his death, and it comprised the accession of his son, thelwulf. Subsequently an addition was made, which continued the line of kings down to Alfred, and closed with the date of his accession. This, when combined with the fact that the first hand in this book ends with 891, seems to fix the date of the Winchester Chronicle. This interesting appendix is as follows:—

Ond tha feng thelbald his sunu to rice and heold v gear. Tha feng thelbryht his brother to and heold v gear. Tha feng thered hiera brothur to rice and heold v gear. Tha feng lfred hiera brothur to rice and tha ws agan his ielde xxiii wintra, and ccc and xcvi wintra ths the his cyn rest Wessexana lond on Wealum geodon.

And then thelbald his son took to the realm and held it 5 years. Then succeeded thelbryht his brother, and held 5 years. Then thered their brother took to the realm, and held 5 years. Then took Alfred their brother to the realm, and then was agone of his age 23 years; and 396 years from that his race erst took Wessex from the Welsh.

These Chronicles are remarkable for a certain unconscious ease and homeliness. Even when, in the course of their progress, they grow more copious and mature, they hardly discover any consciousness of literary dignity. Of the Latin writings of the Anglo-Saxon period this could not be said. This navet is naturally more observable in the earlier parts, which seem like rescued antiquities, which might have been built into their place when, in the latter end of the eighth or beginning of the ninth century, the importance of the national and vernacular chronicle began to be realised.

Some of the brief entries concerning the various settlements on the coasts and the early contests with the Britons have the appearance of traditional reminiscences that had been preserved in popular songs. Such is that of 473, that the Welsh flew the English like fire; 491, that lle and Cissa besieged Andredescester, and slew all those that therein dwelt—there was not so much as one Bret left; 584, how that Ceawlin, in his expedition up the Vale of Severn, where his brother fell, took many towns and untold spoils, and, angry, he turned away to his own.

Mingled with these are entries which, though ingenious, are hardly less spontaneous. Such are those in which there is a manifest rationalising upon the names of historical sites, and a fanciful discovery of their heroes or founders. Thus, in 501, we read that Port landed in Britain at the place called Portsmouth. Now, we know that the first syllable in Portsmouth is the Latin portus, a harbour, and it seems plain that here we have a name made into a personage. In 534 we read how Cynric gave the Isle of Wight to Stuf and Wihtgar, and how Wihtgar died in 544, and was buried at Wihtgaraburg, also called Wihtgarsburh. Here the person of Wihtgar has been made out of the name of the place, because that name was understood as meaning Castle of Wihtgar. But it meant the Burgh "of" Wihtgar only in the sense of the Burgh which was called Wihtgar. The last syllable, gar, is the British word for burg, fortress, castle, which the Welsh call Caer to this day. And the Saxons, having often to use the word gar in this sense—much as our reporters of New Zealand affairs have to speak of a pa—distinguished the gar that was in Wiht, as Wihtgar, and then they added their own word, burh, as the interpretation of gar, and after a time the historian, finding the name of Wihtgarburh, took Wihtgar for a man, and called it Wihtgar's Burg, Wihtgaresburh, a genitive form which still lives in "Carisbrooke."

The originals of the Chronicles are preserved in seven different books. They are known by the signatures A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

A, the famous book in Archbishop Parker's library, preserved in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The structure of this book indicates that it was made in 891, and, indeed, the penmanship of this copy—at least, of the compilation—may possibly be as old as the lifetime of King Alfred. It bears the local impress of Winchester, except in the latest continuation, 1005-1070, which appears to belong to Canterbury. It seems to have passed from Canterbury to the place where it is now deposited; but that it was a Winchester book in its basis seems indicated by the regular notices of the bishops of Wessex from 634 to 754, by the diction of the compilation to 891, and especially by that of the remarkable continuation, 893-897.

B, British Museum, Cotton Library, Tiberius A. vi. Closes with the year 977, and was probably written at St. Augustine's, Canterbury.

C, British Museum, Cotton Library, Tiberius B. i. The first handwriting stops at 1046, and is probably of that date. Closes with 1066. Apparently a work of the monks of Abingdon.

D, British Museum, Cotton Library, Tiberius B. iv. The first hand, which stops at 1016, may well be of that date. Closes with 1079. This book contains strong internal evidence of being a product of Worcester Abbey.

E, Bodleian Library, Laud, 636. This is the fullest of all extant Chronicles; it embodies most of the contents of the others, and it adds the largest quantity of new and original history. It gives seventy-five years' history beyond any of the others, and closes with the death of Stephen in 1154. The local relations of this book are unmistakable. The first hand ends with 1121, and all the evidence goes to prove that this book was prepared at that date in the abbey of Peterborough. On Friday, August 3, 1116, a great fire had occurred at Peterborough which had destroyed the town and a large part of the abbey, and this book was apparently undertaken among the acts of restoration. The varying shades of Saxon which this book contains, both in the compilation and in the several continuations, render it of great value for the history of the English language, especially in the obscure period of the twelfth century.

F, British Museum, Cotton Library, Domitian A. viij. A bilingual Chronicle, Latin and Saxon, which, by internal evidence, is assigned to Christ Church, Canterbury. The abrupt ending at 1058 is no indication of the book's date: it was written late in the twelfth century.

G, British Museum, Cotton Library, Otho B. xi. A late copy of A, made probably in the twelfth century. It nearly perished in the fire of 1731, and only three leaves have been rescued; but happily the book had, before this disaster, been published entire and without intermixture by Wheloc; and, consequently, his edition is now the chief representative of this authority.

Of these books there are three which are distinguished above the rest by individuality of character. These are the Parker book (A); the Worcester book (D); and the Peterborough book (E). A Chronicle may have a marked individuality in two ways—that is to say, either in its compilation or in its continuation. I will give an example of each kind. The first shall be from the Worcester Chronicle, which combines with the former stock of southern history a valuable body of northern history between the years 737 and 806. The following are selected as being annals which, either wholly or in part, are derived from a northern source. The new matter is indicated by inverted commas:—

737. Her Forthhere biscop . and Freothogith cwen ferdon to Rome . "and Ceolwulf cyning feng to Petres scre . and sealde his rice Eadberhte his fderan sunu . se ricsade xxi wintra . And thelwold biscop . and Acca forthferdon . and Cynwulf man gehalgode to biscop . And thy ilcan gre thelbald cyning hergode Northhymbra land."

737. Here Forthere bishop (of Sherborne) and Freothogith queen (of Wessex) went to Rome; "and Ceolwulf, king (of Northumbria) received St. Peter's tonsure, and gave his realm to Eadberht, his father's brother's son; who reigned 21 years. And thelwold, bishop (of Lindisfarne) and Acca died, and Cynwulf was consecrated bishop. And that same year thelbald, king (of Mercia) ravaged the Northumbrians' land."

757. "Her Eadberht Northhymbra cyning feng to scre . and Oswulf his sunu feng to tham rice, and ricsade an gr . and hine ofslogon his hiwan . on viii Kl. Augustus."

757. "Here Eadberht, king of the Northumbrians, became a monk; and Oswulf, his son, took to the realm, and reigned one year, and him his domestics slew, on July 25."

762. Her Ianbryht was gehadod to arcebiscop . on thone XL dg ofer midne winter . "and Frithuweald biscop t Hwiterne forthferde . on Nonas Maius. se ws gehalgod on Ceastre on xviii Kl. September . tham vi Ceolwulfes rices . and he ws biscop xxix wintra. Tha man halgode Pehtwine to biscop t lfet ee on xvi Kl. Agustus . to Hwiterne."

762. Here Ianbryht was ordained archbishop (of Canterbury) on the fortieth day after Midwinter (Christmas). "And Frithuweald, bishop of Whitehorne, died on May 7th. He was consecrated at York, on the 15th of August, in the sixth year of Ceolwulf's reign; and he was bishop 29 years. Then was Pehtwine consecrated to be bishop of Whitehorne at lfet Island on the 17th of July."

777. Her Cynewulf and Offa gefliton ymb Benesingtun . and Offa genom thone tun . "and tha ilcan geare man gehalgode thelberht to biscop to Hwiterne in Eoforwic . on xvii Kl. Jul'."

777. Here Cynewulf and Offa fought about Bensington (Benson, Oxf.), and Offa took the town. "And that same year was thelberht hallowed for bishop of Whitehorne, at York on the 15th of June."

779. Her Ealdseaxe and Francan gefuhton. "and Northhymbra heahgerefan forbrndon Beorn ealdorman on Seletune . on viii Kl. Janr. and thelberht arcebiscop forthferde in Cstre . in ths steal Eanbald ws r gehalgod . and Cynewulf biscop gest in Lindisfarna ee."

779. Here the Old Saxons and the Franks fought. "And Northumbrian high-reeves burned Beorn the alderman at Silton on the 25th of December. And thelberht, the archbishop, died at York, into whose place Eanbald had been previously consecrated; and bishop Cynewulf sate on Lindisfarne island."

782. "Her forthferde Werburh . Ceolredes cwen . and Cynewulf biscop on Lindisfarna ee . and seonoth ws t Acl."

782. "Here died Werburh, queen of Ceolred (king of Mercia): and Cynewulf, bishop of Lindisfarne Island. And synod was at Aclea."

788. "Her ws sinoth gegaderad on Northhymbra lande t Pincanheale . on iiii Non. Septemb. and Aldberht abb . forthferde in Hripum."

788. "Here was a synod gathered in the land of the Northumbrians at Finchale, on 2nd September. And abbot Aldberht died at Ripon."

793. "Her wron rethe forebecna cumene ofer Northhymbra land . and tht folc earmlice bregdon . tht wron ormete thodenas . and ligrscas . and fyrenne dracan wron gesewene on tham lifte fleogende. Tham tacnum sona fyligde mycel hunger . and litel fter tham . ths ilcan geares . on vi Id. Janv. earmlice hthenra manna hergung adilegode Godes cyrican in Lindisfarna ee . thurh hreaflac and mansliht . and Sicga forthferde on viii Kl. Martius."

793. "Here came dire portents over the land of the Northumbrians, and miserably terrified the people; these were tremendous whirlwinds, and lightning-strokes; and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. Upon these tokens quickly followed a great famine:—and a little thereafter, in that same year, on January 8, pitifully did the invasion of heathen men devastate God's church in Lindisfarne Island, with plundering and manslaughter. And Sicga died on Feb. 22."

806. "Her se mona athystrode on Kl. Septemb. and Eardwulf Northhymbra cyning ws of his rice adrifen . and Eanberht Hagestaldes biscop forthferde."

806. "Here the moon eclipsed on Sept. 1; and Eardwulf, king of the Northumbrians, was driven from his realm: and Eanberht, bishop of Hexham, died."

In these few selections the orthography shows occasional relics of the northern dialect; and an expression here and there, such as "Ceaster" for York, indicates the writer's locality. Apart, however, from such traces, the contents and the domestic interest would sufficiently declare the home of these annals. They are specimens of the vernacular annals of the north, which are now best seen in bulk in Simeon of Durham's Latin Chronicle.

Our next example will serve to illustrate the free writing of an original continuation. It is taken from the Winchester Chronicle (A). This Chronicle exhibits, in the annals of 893-897, the first considerable piece of original historical composition that we have in the vernacular. Indeed, we may say that these pages, on the whole, contain the finest effort of early prose writing that we possess. The quotation relates how Alfred set to work to construct a navy:—

Thy ilcan geare drehton tha hergas on East Englum and on Northhymbrum West Seaxna lond swithe be thm suth stthe . mid stl hergum . ealra swithust mid thm scum the hie fela geara r timbredon. Tha het Alfred cyng timbran lang scipu ongen tha scas[104] . tha wron fulneah tu swa lange swa tha othru . sume hfdon lx ara . sume ma. Tha wron gther ge swiftran ge unwealtran . ge eac hieran thonne tha othru. Nron nawther ne on Fresisc gescpene . ne on Denisc . bute swa him selfum thuhte tht hie nytwyrthoste beon meahten.

That same year the armies in East Anglia and in Northhymbria distressed the land of the West Saxons very much about the south coast with marauding invasions; most of all with the "scas" that they had built many years before. Then king Alfred gave orders to build long ships against the "scas;" those were well-nigh twice as long as the others; some had 60 oars, some more. Those were both swifter and steadier, and also higher than the others. They were not shaped either on the Frisic or on the Danish model, but as he himself considered that they might be most serviceable.

The most extensive original continuations are in the Peterborough Chronicle (E). From one of these I quote the character of the Conqueror, which accompanies the record of his death in 1086. The passage is remarkable as containing the nearest approach to a discovery of authorship that anywhere occurs in these Chronicles:—

Gif hwa gewilnigeth to gewitane hu gedon mann he ws . oththe hwilcne wurthscipe he hfde . oththe hu fela lande he wre hlaford . Thonne wille we be him awritan swa swa we hine ageaton . the him onlocodan . and othre hwile on his hirede wunedon. Se cyng Willelm the we embe specath ws swithe wis man . and swithe rice . and wurthfulre and strengere thonne nig his foregengra wre . He ws milde tham godum mannum the God lufedon . and ofer eall gemett stearc tham mannum the withcwdon his willan . On tham ilcan steode the God him geuthe tht he moste Engleland gegan . he arerde mre mynster . and munecas thr gestte . and hit wll gegodade . On his dagan ws tht mre mynster on Cantwarbyrig getymbrad . and eac swithe manig other ofer eall Englaland . Eac this land ws swithe afylled mid munecan . and tha leofodan heora lif fter s{~c}s Benedictus regule . and se Cristendom ws swilc on his dge tht lc man hwt his hade to belumpe . folgade se the wolde. Eac he ws swythe wurthful . thriwa he br his cyne helm lce geare . swa oft swa he ws on Englelande . on Eastron he hine br on Winceastre . on Pentecosten on Westmynstre . on mide wintre on Gleaweceastre . And thnne wron mid him ealle tha rice men ofer call Englaland . arcebiscopas . and leodbiscopas . abbodas and eorlas . thegnas and cnihtas . Swilce he ws eac swythe stearc man and rthe . swa tht man ne dorste nan thing ongean his willan don . He hfde eorlas on his bendum the dydan ongean his willan. Biscopas he stte of heora biscoprice . and abbodas of heora abbodrice . and thgnas on cweartern . and t nextan he ne sparode his agenne brothor Odo het . he ws swithe rice biscop on Normandige . on Baius ws his biscopstol . and ws manna fyrmest to eacan tham cynge.

If any one wishes to know what manner of man he was, or what dignity he had, or how many lands he was lord of; then will we write of him as we apprehended him, who were wont to behold him, and at one time were resident at his court. The king William about whom we speak was a very wise man, and very powerful; and more dignified and more authoritative than any one of his predecessors was. He was gentle to those good men who loved God; and beyond all description stern to those men who contradicted his will. On that selfsame spot where God granted him that he might conquer England, he reared a noble monastery, and monks he there enstalled, and well endowed the place. In his days was the splendid minster in Canterbury built, and also a great many others over all England. Also this land was abundantly supplied with monks; and they lived their life after St. Benedict's rule; and the state of Christianity was such in his time, that each man who was so disposed might follow that which appertained to his order. Likewise he was very ceremonious:—three times he wore his crown every year (as often as he was in England); at Easter he wore it in Winchester, at Pentecost in Westminster, at Christmas in Gloucester. And then there were with him all the mighty men over all England; archbishops and suffragan bishops, abbots and earls, thanes and knights. Withal he was moreover a very severe man and a violent; so that any one dared not to do anything against his will. He had earls in his chains who acted against his will. Bishops he put out of their bishoprick, and abbots from their abbacy, and thanes into prison; and at last he spared not his own brother, who was named Odo; who was a very mighty bishop in Normandy; at Baieux was his see, and he was the first of men next to the king.

These annals being all anonymous, every indication of the date of writing excites interest. Under 643 the chronicler of B added a single word to what he had before him (as we may presume) in his copy. That copy said that the church at Winchester was built by order of King Cenwalh. The chronicler of B says that the "old" church was built by Cenwalh. This harmonises excellently with other indications of this Chronicle, by which it is made probable that it was compiled in or about 977, when Bishop thelwold had built a new church at Winchester.

In the Peterborough Chronicle, under 1041, the accession of Eadward is accompanied by a benediction which indicates that the writer wrote near the time, or at least before 1065. He says:—Healde tha hwile the him God unne = May he continue so long as God may be pleased to grant to him! And the half legible closing sentence of this Chronicle, in 1154, is a prayer of the same kind for a new abbot of Peterborough, of whom it is said that "he hath made a fair beginning."

The Saxon Chronicles offer one of the best examples of history which has grown proximately near to the events, of history written while the impression made by the events was still fresh. It would be difficult to point to any texts through which the taste for living history—history in immediate contact with the events—can better be cultivated.

The Chronicles stretch over a long period of time. As to their contents, they extend as a body of history from A.D. 449 to 1154—that is, exclusive of the book-made annals that form a long avenue at the beginning, and start from Julius Csar. The period covered by the age of the extant manuscripts is hardly less than 300 years, from about A.D. 900 to about A.D. 1200. A large number of hands must have wrought from time to time at their production, and, as the work is wholly anonymous and void of all external marks of authorship, the various and several contributions can only be determined by internal evidence, and this offers a fine arena for the exercise and culture of the critical faculty.

It is no small addition to the charm and value of these Chronicles that they are in the mother tongue at several stages of its growth, and for the most part in the best Anglo-Saxon diction. We have, moreover, the very soil of the history under our feet, and this study would tend to invest our native land with all the charm of classic ground.

The Chronicle form is the foundation of the structure of historical literature. We are no longer content to study history now in one or two admirable specimens of mature perfection, but rather we seek to know history as a subject. All who have this aim must study Chronicles, and nowhere can this kind of documentary record be found in a form preferable to that of the Saxon Chronicles.

The Saxon Chronicles are sometimes said to be meagre; indeed, it has almost become usual to speak of them as meagre. When such a term is used, it makes all the difference whether it is made vaguely and at random, or with meaning and discrimination. The Saxon Chronicles stretch over seven centuries, from the middle of the fifth to the middle of the twelfth; and it would indeed be wonderful if in such a series of annals there were not some arid tracts. Certainly, there are meagre places, and it makes all the difference whether a writer uses this epithet wisely or as a mere echo. In the following quotation it is justly used:—"For the history of England in the latter half of the tenth century we have, except the very meagre notices of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, no contemporary materials, unless we admit the Lives of the Saints of the Benedictine revival."[105] In the latter half of the tenth century the Chronicles really are meagre, and it is a remarkable fact, seeing that the period was one of revived literary activity.

This account of the Chronicles would be incomplete without the mention of a small number of Latin histories which are naturally linked with them. The Latin book of most mark in this connexion is Asser's "Life of Alfred"—a book that has long lain under a cloud of doubt, from which, however, it seems to be gradually emerging. (A foolish interpolation about Oxford which marred the second edition—that by Camden—has left a stigma on the name.) It is not easy to answer all the adverse criticism of Mr. T. Wright; but still I venture to think that the internal evidence corresponds to the author's name, that it was written at the time of, and by such a person as, Alfred's Welsh bishop. The evident acquaintance with people and with localities, the bits of Welsh, the calling of the English uniformly "Saxons," all mark the Welshman who was at home in England. In the course of this biography, which seems to have been left in an unfinished state, there is a considerable extract from the Winchester Chronicles translated into Latin.

But the earliest Latin Chronicle which was founded on the Saxon Chronicles is that of thelweard. He is apparently the "ealdorman thelwerd," to whom lfric addressed certain of his works; and he may be the "thelwerd Dux" who signs charters, 976-998. His Chronicle closes with the last year of Eadgar's reign. He took much of his material from a Saxon Chronicle, like that of Winchester, but he has also matter peculiar to himself; and this raises a question whether he took such matter from a Saxon Chronicle now lost. He is grandiloquent and turgid to an extent which often obscures his meaning. In him we perceive all the word-eloquence of Saxon poetry, striving to utter itself through the medium of a Latinity at once crude and ambitious.[106]

The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester terminates with 1117; but a continuator carried it on to 1141, making use of the Peterborough Chronicle (E). The work of Florence is often identifiable with the Saxon Chronicles, especially with that of Worcester (D). But he has good original insertions of his own, as in his description of the election and coronation of Harold, on which Mr. Freeman has dwelt, as a record intended to correct Norman misrepresentation.

Simeon of Durham made large use of Florence, and he incorporated the Northumbrian eighth-century Chronicle, of which a specimen has been given above.

Henry of Huntingdon closed his annals at the same date as the latest of the Saxon Chronicles, A.D. 1154. He is a historian of secondary rank, with antiquarian tastes, a fondness for the Saxon Chronicles, and a special fancy for the genealogies and the ballads. To him we owe the earliest known mention of Stonehenge.

All these, except Asser and thelweard, are, as regards our Chronicles, subsequent and derivative rather than collateral. They used the chronicles as translators and compilers merely. The first who attempted something more was William of Malmesbury. This remarkable writer (who in 1140 came near to being elected Abbot of Malmesbury) was the first after Beda who left the annal form, and aimed at a more comprehensive treatment of the national history. He recognised the value of traditions from the Saxon times, which in his day were still to be gathered, and it is by the incorporation of such elements that his book has in some respects the character of a supplement to the Saxon Chronicles.

We cannot but be struck with the isolation of the Saxon Chronicles. Great literary products do not grow up alone; but they have, doubtless, a tendency to create a solitude around them. Professor Stubbs apprehends such may have been the case with these Chronicles. He has surmised that probably the Chronicles had the same effect upon the previous schemes of history that Higden's "Polychronicon" had in the fourteenth century, that is to say, it would have prevented the writing of new histories, and caused the neglect or destruction of the old.[107]

FOOTNOTES:

[103] Lappenberg, "Geschichte," Introduction, p. xlviii.; referring to Hickes' "Thesaurus," iii., 288; and the preface to Smith's edition of Bede. That lover of English history, Dr. Reinhold Pauli, in the Gttingen "Gelehrt. Anzeig." for 1866, p. 1407, suggested that the whole medival institution of annal-writing came from Northumbria, and was carried on the mission-path of the Saxons into Frankland and Germany, and there produced the fine Carlovingian series.

[104] The "scas" were the light and speedy galleys of the Danes.

[105] Professor Stubbs, "Memorials of Saint Dunstan," Rolls Series, p. ix.

[106] Reinhold Pauli, "Life of Alfred," anno 877, note.

[107] Preface to "Chronica Rogeri de Hoveden," Rolls Series, p. xi.



CHAPTER IX.

ALFRED'S TRANSLATIONS.

Around the great name of Alfred many attributes have gathered and clustered, some of which are true, some exaggerated, some impossible. It is quite unhistorical that Alfred divided the country into shires and hundreds, or that he instituted trial by jury, or that he founded the University of Oxford. Under the shadow of great names myths are apt to spring, that is to say, unconscious authorless inventions, growing up of themselves round any person or thing which happens to be the subject of much talk and little knowledge. Had the conditions been favourable in England as they were in France, the myths about Alfred might have grouped into an epic cycle, as those about Charlemagne did; and, had the eleventh century produced a great heroic poem analogous to the "Chanson de Roland," it would have formed a graceful and much-needed coping to the now too disjointed pile of Anglo-Saxon literature.

But, when we come to Alfred's literary achievements, we find no tendency to exaggerate or embellish the sober truth. His hand is manifest in the Laws, and strongly surmised in the Chronicles. In both these vernacular products we find a new start, a fresh impulse, under Alfred. But that which stamps a peculiar character on his Translations is that here we discern a new stride in the elevation of the native language to literary rank. Latin was no longer to be the sole medium of learning and education.

The learned language had almost perished out of the island where it had once so eminently flourished. In the north the seats of learning had been demolished; and the monasteries of Wessex, their first use as mission-stations having been discharged, had become secularised in their habits, and had not become seats or seminaries of learning. Alfred found no one in his ancestral kingdom who could aid him in the work of revival. Like Charles the Great, he looked everywhere for scholars, and drew them to his court. In Mercia, the land adjoining scholastic Anglia, he found a few learned men—Werferth, bishop of Worcester; Plegmund, who was elected (A.D. 890) archbishop of Canterbury, and two of obscurer name;[108] he drew Grimbald from Gaul, and John from Old Saxony; Asser, from whose pen we know about these scholars, came to him from South Wales. With the help of such men Alfred gave a new impulse to literature, not as Charles had done, in Latin merely, but as much, or even more, in his own vernacular.

We must not look upon his translations as if they were only makeshifts to convey the matter of famous books to those who could not read the originals. Alfred deplored the low state of Latin,—but then he could substitute his own language for it, and that not merely because he must, but also because the very scarcity of Latin had favoured the culture of English. For it was in no dull or stagnant time that Wessex had let Latin wane; it was in that vigorous stage of youth and growth when Wessex was fitting herself to take an imperial place at home and raise her head among the nations. In almost all the transactions of life, public and private, where Latin was used in other countries, the West Saxons had for a long time used their own tongue, and hence it came to pass that, when Alfred sought to restore education and literature, he found a language nearer to him than the Latin, and one which was fit, if not to supersede the Latin, yet to be coupled along with it in the work of national instruction.