Halleck's New English Literature Part 6

Our study of _Beowulf_ has already shown the intensity of the martial spirit in heathen times. These lines from the _Fight at Finnsburg_, dating from about the same time as _Beowulf_, have only the flash of the sword to lighten their gloom. They introduce the raven, for whom the Saxon felt it his duty to provide food on the battlefield:--

"...hraefen wandrode sweart and sealo-br=un; swurd-l=eoma st=od swylce eal Finns-buruh f=yrenu w=aere."

...the raven wandered Swart and sallow-brown; the sword-flash stood As if all Finnsburg were afire.

The love of war is almost as marked in the Christian poetry. There are vivid pictures of battle against the heathen and the enemies of G.o.d, as shown by the following selection from one of the poems of the Caedmonian cycle:--

"Helmeted men went from the holy burgh, At the first reddening of dawn, to fight: Loud stormed the din of s.h.i.+elds.

For that rejoiced the lank wolf in the wood, And the black raven, slaughter-greedy bird."[23]

_Judith_, a fragment of a religious poem, is aflame with the spirit of war. One of its lines tells how a bird of prey--

"Sang with its h.o.r.n.y beak the song of war."

This very line aptly characterizes one of the emphatic qualities of Anglo-Saxon poetry.

The poems often describe battle as if it were an enjoyable game. They mention the "Play of the spear" and speak of "putting to sleep with the sword," as if the din of war were in their ears a slumber melody.

One of the latest of Anglo-Saxon poems, _The Battle of Brunanburh_, 937, is a famous example of war poetry. We quote a few lines from Tennyson's excellent translation:--

"Grimly with swords that were sharp from the grindstone, Fiercely we hack'd at the flyers before us.

Five young kings put asleep by the sword-stroke Seven strong earls of the army of Anlaf Fell on the war-field, numberless numbers."

Love of the Sea.--The Anglo-Saxon fondness for the sea has been noted, together with the fact that this characteristic has been transmitted to the more recent English poetry. Our forefathers rank among the best seamen that the world has ever known. Had they not loved to dare an unknown sea, English literature might not have existed, and the sun might never have risen on any English flag.

The _scop_ sings thus of Beowulf's adventure on the North Sea:--

"Swoln were the surges, of storms 'twas the coldest, Dark grew the night, and northern the wind, Rattling and roaring, rough were the billows."[24]

In the _Seafarer_, the _scop_ also sings:--

"My mind now is set, My heart's thought, on wide waters, The home of the whale; It wanders away Beyond limits of land.

And stirs the mind's longing To travel the way that is trackless."[25]

In the _Andreas_, the poet speaks of the s.h.i.+p in one of the most charming of Saxon similes:--

"Foaming Ocean beats our steed: full of speed this boat is; Fares along foam-throated, flieth on the wave, Likest to a bird."[26]

Some of the most striking Saxon epithets are applied to the sea. We may instance such a compound as _=ar-ge-bland_ (_=ar_, "oar"; _blendan_, "to blend"), which conveys the idea of the companions.h.i.+p of the oar with the sea. From this compound, modern poets have borrowed their "oar-disturbed sea," "oared sea," "oar-blending sea," and "oar-wedded sea." The Anglo-Saxon poets call the sun rising or setting in the sea the _mere-candel_. In Beowulf, _mere-str=aeta_, "sea-streets," are spoken of as if they were the easily traversed avenues of a town.

Figures of Rhetoric.--A special characteristic of Anglo-Saxon poetry is the rarity of similes. In Homer they are frequent, but Anglo-Saxon verse is too abrupt and rapid in the succession of images to employ the expanded simile. The long poem of _Beowulf_ contains only five similes, and these are of the shorter kind. Two of them, the comparison of the light in Grendel's dwelling to the beams of the sun, and of a vessel to a flying bird, have been given in the original Anglo-Saxon on pages 16, 17. Other similes compare the light from Grendel's eyes to a flame, and the nails on his fingers to steel: while the most complete simile says that the sword, when bathed in the monster's poisonous blood, melted like ice.

On the other hand, this poetry uses many direct and forcible metaphors, such as "wave-ropes" for ice, the "whale-road" or "swan-road" for the sea, the "foamy-necked floater" for a s.h.i.+p, the "war-adder" for an arrow, the "bone-house" for the body. The sword is said to sing a war song, the slain to be put to sleep with the sword, the sun to be a candle, the flood to boil. War is appropriately called the sword-game.

Parallelisms.--The repet.i.tion of the same ideas in slightly differing form, known as parallelism, is frequent. The author, wis.h.i.+ng to make certain ideas emphatic, repeated them with varying phraseology. As the first sight of land is important to the sailor, the poet used four different terms for the sh.o.r.e that met Beowulf's eyes on his voyage to Hrothgar: _land, brimclifu, beorgas, saen=aessas_ (land, sea-cliffs, mountains, promontories).

This pa.s.sage from the _Phoenix_ shows how repet.i.tion emphasizes the absence of disagreeable things:--

"...there may neither snow nor rain, Nor the furious air of frost, nor the flare of fire, Nor the headlong squall of hail, nor the h.o.a.r frost's fall, Nor the burning of the sun, nor the bitter cold, Nor the weather over-warm, nor the winter shower, Do their wrong to any wight."[27]

The general absence of cold is here made emphatic by mentioning special cold things: "snow," "frost," "hail," "h.o.a.r frost," "bitter cold," "winter shower." The absence of heat is emphasized in the same way.

Saxon contrasted with Celtic Imagery.--A critic rightly says: "The gay wit of the Celt would pour into the song of a few minutes more phrases of ornament than are to be found in the whole poem of _Beowulf_." In three lines of an old Celtic death song, we find three similes:--

"Black as the raven was his brow; Sharp as a razor was his spear; White as lime was his skin."

We look in Anglo-Saxon poetry in vain for a touch like this:--

"Sweetly a bird sang on a pear tree above the head of Gwenn before they covered him with a turf."[28]

Celtic literature shows more exaggeration, more love of color, and a deeper appreciation of nature in her gentler aspects. The Celt could write:--

"More yellow was her head than the flower of the broom, and her skin was whiter than the foam of the wave, and fairer were her hands and fingers than the blossoms of the wood anemone amidst the spray of the meadow fountain."[29]

King Arthur and his romantic Knights of the Round Table are Celtic heroes. Possibly the Celtic strain persisting in many of the Scotch people inspires lines like these in more modern times:--

"The corn-craik was chirming His sad eerie cry [30]

And the wee stars were dreaming Their path through the sky."

In order to produce a poet able to write both _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ and _Hamlet_, the Celtic imagination must blend with the Anglo-Saxon seriousness. As we shall see, this was accomplished by the Norman conquest.

ANGLO-SAXON PROSE

When and where written.--We have seen that poetry normally precedes prose. The princ.i.p.al part of Anglo-Saxon poetry had been produced before much prose was written. The most productive poetic period was between 650 and 825. Near the close of the eighth century, the Danes began their plundering expeditions into England. By 800 they had destroyed the great northern monasteries, like the one at Whitby, where Caedmon is said to have composed the first religious song. As the home of poetry was in the north of England, these Danish inroads almost completely silenced the singers. What prose there was in the north was princ.i.p.ally in Latin. On the other hand, the Saxon prose was produced chiefly in the south of England. The most glorious period of Anglo-Saxon prose was during Alfred's reign, 871-901.

Bede.--This famous monk (673-735) was probably the greatest teacher and the best known man of letters and scholar in all contemporary Europe. He is said to have translated the _Gospel of St. John_ into Saxon, but the translation is lost. He wrote in Latin on a vast range of subjects, from the _Scriptures_ to natural science, and from grammar to history. He has given a list of thirty-seven works of which he is the author. His most important work is the _Ecclesiastical History of the English People_, which is really a history of England from Julius Caesar's invasion to 731. The quotation from Bede's work relative to Caedmon shows that Bede could relate things simply and well. He pa.s.sed almost all his useful life at the monastery of Jarrow on the Tyne.

Alfred (849-901).--The deeds and thoughts of Alfred, king of the West Saxons from 871 until his death in 901, remain a strong moral influence an the world, although he died more than a thousand years ago. Posterity rightly gave him the surname of "the Great," as he is one of the comparatively few great men of all time. E.A. Freeman, the noted historian of the early English period, says of him:--

"No man recorded in history seems ever to have united so many great and good qualities... A great part of his reign was taken up with warfare with an enemy [the Danes] who threatened the national being; yet he found means personally to do more for the general enlightenment of his people than any other king in English history."

After a Danish leader had outrageously broken his oaths to Alfred, the Dane's two boys and their mother fell into Alfred's hands, and he returned them unharmed. "Let us love the man," he wrote, "but hate his sins." His revision of the legal code, known as _Alfred's Laws_, shows high moral aim. He does not forget the slave, who was to be freed after six years of service. His administration of the law endeavored to secure the same justice for the poor as for the rich.

Alfred's example has caused many to stop making excuses for not doing more for their kind. If any one ever had an adequate excuse for not undertaking more work than his position absolutely demanded, that man was Alfred; yet his ill health and the wars with the Danes did not keep him from trying to educate his people or from earning the t.i.tle, "father of English prose." Freeman even says that England owes to Alfred's prose writing and to the encouragement that he gave to other writers the "possession of a richer early literature than any other people of western Europe" and the maintenance of the habit of writing after the Norman conquest, when English was no longer used in courtly circles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BEGINNING OF ALFRED'S LAWS. _Illuminated MS., British Museum_.]

Although most of his works are translations from the Latin, yet he has left the stamp of his originality and sterling sense upon them all.

Finding that his people needed textbooks in the native tongue, he studied Latin so that he might consult all accessible authorities and translate the most helpful works, making alterations and additions to suit his plan. For example, he found a Latin work on history and geography by Orosius, a Spanish Christian of the fifth century; but as this book contained much material that was unsuited to Alfred's purposes, he omitted some parts, changed others, and, after interviewing travelers from the far North, added much original matter.

These additions, which even now are not uninteresting reading, are the best material in the book. This work is known as Alfred's _Orosius_.

Alfred also translated Pope Gregory's _Pastoral Rule_ in order to show the clergy how to teach and care for their flocks. Alfred's own words at the beginning of the volume show how great was the need for the work. Speaking of the clergy, he says:--

"There were very few on this side Humber who would know how to render their services in English, or so much as translate an epistle out of Latin into English; and I ween that not many would be on the other side Humber. So few of them were there, that I cannot think of so much as a single one, south of Thames, when I took to the realm."[31]

Alfred produced a work on moral philosophy, by altering and amending the _De Consolatione Philosophiae_ of Boethius, a n.o.ble Roman who was brutally thrown into prison and executed about 525 A.D. In simplicity and moral power, some of Alfred's original matter in this volume was not surpa.s.sed by any English writer for several hundred years. We frequently find such thoughts as, "If it be not in a man's power to do good, let him have the good intent." "True high birth is of the mind, not of the flesh." His _Prayer_ in the same work makes us feel that he could see the divine touch in human nature:--