Halleck's New English Literature Part 3

Augustine, who brought the Christian faith to the Anglo-Saxons.

Education, literature, and art followed finding their home in the monasteries.

For nearly 400 years after coming to England, the different tribes were not united under one ruler. Not until 830 did Egbert, king of the West Saxons, become overlord of England. Before and after this time, the Danes repeatedly plundered the land. They finally settled in the eastern part above the Thames. Alfred (849-900), the greatest of Anglo-Saxon rulers, temporarily checked them, but in the latter part of the tenth century they were more troublesome, and in 1017 they made Canute, the Dane, king of England. Fortunately the Danes were of the same race, and they easily amalgamated with the Saxons.

These invasions wasted the energies of England during more than two centuries, but this long period of struggle brought little change to the inst.i.tutions or manner of life in Anglo-Saxon England. The _witan_, or a.s.sembly of wise men, the forerunner of the present English parliament, met in 1066 and chose Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon king.

During these six hundred rears, the Anglo-Saxons conquered the British, accepted Christianity, fought the Danes, finally amalgamating with them, brought to England a lasting representative type of government, established the fundamental customs of the race, surpa.s.sed all contemporary western European peoples in the production of literature, and were ready to receive fresh impetus from the Normans in 1066.

The Anglo-Saxon Language.--Our oldest English literature is written in the language spoken by the Angles and the Saxons. This at first sight looks like a strange tongue to one conversant with modern English only; but the language that we employ to-day has the framework, the bone and sinew, of the earlier tongue. Modern English is no more unlike Anglo-Saxon than a bearded man is unlike his former childish self. A few examples will show the likeness and the difference. "The n.o.ble queen" would in Anglo-Saxon be _s=eo aeele cw=en_; "the n.o.ble queen's," _=aere aeelan cw=ene_. _S=eo_ is the nominative feminine singular, _=aere_ the genitive, of the definite article. The adjective and the noun also change their forms with the varying cases. In its inflections, Anglo-Saxon resembles its sister language, the modern German.

After the first feeling of strangeness has pa.s.sed away, it is easy to recognize many of the old words. Take, for instance, this from _Beowulf_:--

"...=y h=e one f=eond ofercw=om, gehn=aegde h.e.l.le g=ast."

Here are eight words, apparently strange, but even a novice soon recognizes five of them: _h=e, f=eond_ (fiend), _ofercw=om_ (overcame), _h.e.l.le_ (h.e.l.l), _g=ast_ (ghost). The word _one_, strange as it looks, is merely the article "the."

...therefore he overcame the fiend, Subdued the ghost of h.e.l.l.

Let us take from the same poem another pa.s.sage, containing the famous simile:--

"...l=eoht inne st=od, efne sw=a of hefene h=adre sc=ine rodores candel."

Of these eleven words, seven may be recognized: _l=eoht_ (light), _inne_ (in), _st=od_ (stood), _of_, _hefene_ (heaven),_sc=ine_ (s.h.i.+neth), _candel_ (candle).

...a light stood within, Even so from heaven serenely s.h.i.+neth The firmament's candle.

Some prefer to use "Old English" in place of "Anglo-Saxon" in order to emphasize the continuity of the development of the language. It is, however, sometimes convenient to employ different terms for different periods of development of the same ent.i.ty. We do not insist on calling a man a "grown boy," although there may be no absolute line of demarcation between boy and man.

Earliest Anglo-Saxon Literature.--As with the Greeks and Romans, so with the Teutons, poetry afforded the first literary outlet for the feelings. The first productions were handed down by memory. Poetry is easily memorized and naturally lends itself to singing and musical accompaniment. Under such circ.u.mstances, even prose would speedily fall into metrical form. Poetry is, furthermore, the most suitable vehicle of expression for the emotions. The ancients, unlike modern writers, seldom undertook to make literature unless they felt so deeply that silence was impossible.

The Form of Anglo-Saxon Poetry.--Each line is divided Into two parts by a major pause. Because each of these parts was often printed as a complete line in old texts, _Beowulf_ has sometimes been called a poem of 6368 lines, although it has but 3184.

A striking characteristic of Anglo-Saxon poetry is consonantal alliteration; that is, the repet.i.tion of the same consonant at the beginning of words in the same line:--

"Grendel gongan; G.o.des yrre baer."

Grendel going; G.o.d's anger bare.

The usual type of Anglo-Saxon poetry has two alliterations in the first half of the line and one in the second. The lines vary considerably in the number of syllables. The line from _Beowulf_ quoted just above has nine syllables. The following line from the same poem has eleven:--

"Flota f=amig-heals, fugle gel=icost."

The floater foamy-necked, to a fowl most like.

This line, also from _Beowulf_ has eight syllables:--

"N=ipende niht, and noran wind."

Noisome night, and northern wind.

Vowel alliteration is less common. Where this is employed, the vowels are generally different, as is shown in the princ.i.p.al words of the following line:--

"On =ead, on =aeht, on eorcan st=an."

On wealth, on goods, on precious stone.

End rime is uncommon, but we must beware of thinking that there is no rhythm, for that is a p.r.o.nounced characteristic.

Anglo-Saxon verse was intended to be sung, and hence rhythm and accent or stress are important. Stress and the length of the line are varied; but we usually find that the four most important words, two in each half of the line, are stressed on their most important syllable.

Alliteration usually shows where to place three stresses. A fourth stress generally falls on a word presenting an emphatic idea near the end of the line.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EXETER CATHEDRAL.]

The Ma.n.u.scripts that have handed down Anglo-Saxon Literature.--The earliest Anglo-Saxon poetry was transmitted by the memories of men.

Finally, with the slow growth of learning, a few acquired the art of writing, and transcribed on parchment a small portion of the current songs. The introduction of Christianity ushered in prose translations and a few original compositions, which were taken down on parchment and kept in the monasteries.

The study of Anglo-Saxon literature is comparatively recent, for its treasures have not been long accessible. Its most famous poem, _Beowulf_, was not printed until the dawn of the nineteenth century.

In 1822 Dr. Blume, a German professor of law, happened to find in a monastery at Vercelli, Italy, a large volume of Anglo-Saxon ma.n.u.script, containing a number of fine poems and twenty-two sermons.

This is now known as the _Vercelli Book_. No one knows how it happened to reach Italy. Another large parchment volume of poems and miscellany was deposited by Bishop Leofric at the cathedral of Exeter in Devons.h.i.+re, about 1050 A.D. This collection, one of the prized treasures of that cathedral, is now called the _Exeter Book_.

Many valuable ma.n.u.scripts were destroyed at the dissolution of the monasteries in the time of Henry VIII., between 1535 and 1540. John Bale, a contemporary writer, says that "those who purchased the monasteries reserved the books, some to scour their candlesticks, some to rub their boots, some they sold to the grocers and soap sellers, and some they sent over sea to the bookbinders, not in small numbers, but at times whole s.h.i.+ps full, to the wonder of foreign nations."

The Anglo-Saxon Scop and Gleeman.--Our earliest poetry was made current and kept fresh in memory by the singers. The kings and n.o.bles often attached to them a _scop_, or maker of verses. When the warriors, after some victorious battle, were feasting at their long tables, the banquet was not complete without the songs of the _scop_.

While the warriors ate the flesh of boar and deer, and warmed their blood with horns of foaming ale, the _scop_, standing where the blaze from a pile of logs disclosed to him the grizzly features of the men, sang his most stirring songs, often accompanying them with the music of a rude harp. As the feasters roused his enthusiasm with their applause, he would sometimes indulge in an outburst of eloquent extempore song. Not infrequently the imagination of some king or n.o.ble would be fired, and he would sing of his own great deeds.

We read in _Beowulf_ that in Hrothgar's famous hall--

"...=aer was hearpan sw=eg, swutol sang scopes."

...there was sound of harp Loud the singing of the scop.

In addition to the _scop_, who was more or less permanently attached to the royal court or hall of a n.o.ble, there was a craft of gleemen who roved from hall to hall. In the song of _Widsi_ we catch a glimpse of the life of a gleeman:--

"Sw=a scriende gesceapum hweorfa gl=eomen gumena geond grunda fela."

Thus roving, with shaped songs there wander The gleemen of the people through many lands.

The _scop_ was an originator of poetry, the gleeman more often a mere repeater, although this distinction in the use of the terms was not observed in later times.

The Songs of Scop and Gleeman.--The subject matter of these songs was suggested by the most common experiences of the time. These were with war, the sea, and death.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANGLO-SAXON GLEEMAN. _From the tapestry designed by H.A. Bone_.]

The oldest Anglo-Saxon song known, which is called _Widsi_ or the _Far Traveler_, has been preserved in the _Exeter Book_. This song was probably composed in the older Angle-land on the continent and brought to England in the memories of the singers. The poem is an account of the wanderings of a gleeman over a great part of Europe. Such a song will mean little to us unless we can imaginatively represent the circ.u.mstances under which it was sung, the long hall with its tables of feasting, drinking warriors, the firelight throwing weird shadows among the smoky rafters. The imagination of the warriors would be roused as similar experiences of their own were suggested by these lines in Widsi's song:--

"Ful oft of =am h=eape hw=inende fl=eag giellende g=ar on grome =eode."

Full oft from that host hissing flew The whistling spear on the fierce folk.

The gleeman ends this song with two thoughts characteristic of the poets of the Saxon race. He shows his love fur n.o.ble deeds, and he next thinks of the shortness of life, as he sings:--

"In mortal court his deeds are not unsung, Such as a n.o.ble man mill show to men, Till all doth flit away, both life and light."