Anglo-Saxon Literature Part 6

An interesting example of the methods used to wean our simple forefathers from their old heathen practices may be seen in a "Spell to restore fertility to land."[54] The preamble sets forth:--"Here is the remedy whereby thou mayest restore thy fields, if they will not produce well, or where any uncanny thing has befallen them, like magic or witchcraft." Four turfs are to be cut before dawn from four corners of the land, and these are to be stacked in a heap, and upon them are to be dropped drops of an elaborate preparation whereof one ingredient is holy water; and over them are to be said words of Scripture and Our Father.

And then the turfs are taken to church, and prayers are said by the priest while the green of the turfs is turned altarwards; and then, before sun-down, the turfs are returned to their own original places: but first, four crosses, made of quickbeam, with the names Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, written on their four ends, are to be put, one in the bottom of each pit, and as each turf is restored to its native spot, and laid on its particular cross, say thus:--"Crux, Mattheus; Crux, Marcus; Crux, Lucas; Crux, Joannes."[55] Then the supplicant turns eastward, bows nine times, and says a rhythmic form of prayer, in which some heathen elements are just discernible. Then he turns three times towards the sun in its course, and sings Benedicite, Magnificat, and Pater Noster, and makes a gracious vow, in the friendly comprehension of which all the neighbourhood is included, gentle and simple.

This being done, strange seed must be procured, and this must be got from poor "almsmen"; and the supplicant must give them a double quant.i.ty in return; and then he must collect together all his plough-gear and tackle, and say over them a poetic formula which has fragments that look very like the real old heathen charm. It begins with untranslatable words:--

Erce, erce, erce, eordan modor.

Erce, erce, erce, mother of earth.

Then go to work with the plough, and open the first furrow, and say:--

Hal wes thu, folde, fira modor; beo thu growende, on Codes faethme; fodre gefylled, firum to nytte.

Soil I salute thee, mother of souls; be thou growing by G.o.d's grace; filled with fodder folks to comfort.

Then a loaf is to be kneaded and baked, and put into the first furrow, with yet another anthem:--

Ful aecer fodres fira cinne, beorht-blowende thu gebletsod weorth.

A full crop of fodder may the folks see; brightly blossoming, blessed mote thou be.

Then follows a chaplet of three repet.i.tions, twice repeated, and this long day's orison is done.

Here we have a fair example of the artifice used by the clergy in transforming old heathen charms into edifying ceremonies. Men are here led to pray; to exercise themselves in some of the chief liturgical formularies of the Catholic Church; to accept Christian versions of their old incantations; to profess good will to their neighbours, high and low; and to exercise some bounty towards the poor. Natural means are not neglected; a change of seed is made a part of the ceremonial.

Such are some of the traces we can gather from the expiring relics of heathenism. They all come from the Christian period, as was natural, seeing that the national profession of heathenism ended before our literature began, unless the annals mentioned at the beginning of this chapter are exceptions. The facilities of writing must have been very limited if the only alphabet in use was the Runic. It is, perhaps, a little too rigid to a.s.sume that the use of the Roman alphabet is to be dated strictly from the Conversion. As the use of Runes did not then suddenly terminate, but gradually receded before the superior instrument, so perhaps it is most reasonable to suppose that the adoption of the Roman alphabet was very gradual, and that the Saxons may have begun to use it, at least in Kent, before the reign of aethelberht.[56]

FOOTNOTES:

[39] T. Wright, "Celt, Roman, and Saxon," p. 389; J.R. Green, "Short History," i., 2.

[40] "Ecclesiastical History," i., 22.

[41] It is the manner of the Saxon chronicles to attach each annal to its year-date by an adverb of locality--"Here."

[42] "Germania," c. 2.

[43] _Id._, c. 9.

[44] _Id._, c. 45.

[45] "Germania," c. 40.

[46] "De Temporum Ratione," c. 13.

[47] "Archaeologia," vol. x.x.xv., p. 259.

[48] Compare with this the "Spaedom of the Norns," in Dasent's "Burnt Njal"; also Gray's "Fatal Sisters," which is another version of the same original, one remove further off, as Gray knew the poem only through the Latin of Torfaeus.

[49] The second part of this compound repeats the idea of the first, namely, choice: it is from the verb to choose, for in certain tenses this verb changed _s_ to _r_, just as from the verb to _freeze_ we have _frore_ (Milton), and from _lose_ we have a participle _lorn_. The Anglo-Saxon form is _waelcyrige_. Grimm's "Teutonic Mythol." tr.

Stallybra.s.s, p. 418. Kemble, "Saxons," i., 402.

[50] The same keen discoverer scents an old heathen reminiscence also when the poet of the Heliand makes that holy thing which is not to be cast before dogs (Matthew vii. 6) a _helag halsmeni_ = holy necklace.

[51] For the distinct attributes of this G.o.ddess, who was the wife of Woden, the reader may consult Grimm's "Teutonic Mythology," who quotes Paulus Diaconus (eighth century), saying that the Langobards called Woden's wife _Frea_, and Saxo, p. 13, saying, "Frigga Othini conjux."

[52] "uber die Werke des altenglischen Erzbischofs Wulfstan," von Arthur Napier. Weimar, 1882, p. 33.

[53] Printed in Kemble's "Solomon and Saturn," p. 120.

[54] Printed in Thorpe's "a.n.a.lecta" (1846), p. 116.

[55] This recalls the charm that within living memory was used on Dartmoor as an evening prayer:--

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Bless the bed that I lie on; Two to head and two to feet, And four to keep me while I sleep.

[56] Some Runic alphabets may be seen in my "Philology of the English Tongue," -- 96 (ed. 3, 1879). The best collection of Runic monuments is in the two folio volumes of Professor George Stephens.

CHAPTER IV.

THE SCHOOLS OF KENT.

-- 1.

It is a debatable question whether any Roman culture lived through the Saxon conquest.

The Saxon conquest of Britain was certainly, on the whole, a destructive one, and it has been justly contrasted with the Frankish conquest of Gaul; where the conquerors quickly a.s.similated with the conquered. The relics of Roman civilisation which the Saxons adopted, were indeed few.

This is true, as a general statement. But there is some ground for regarding Kent as a case apart. Here all accounts seem to indicate a gradual and less violent intrusion of the new race, and to suggest the possibility that there was not for that area a complete break in the traditions and customs of life. The capital city itself, Dorobernia (Canterbury), whatever revolution it may have suffered, was at least not destroyed. There is nothing that requires us to a.s.sume the extinction of the schools of grammar which existed presumably in Kent as in Gaul.

The foundation of schools by the Roman mission is not recorded, nor does Bede say anything to imply it when thirty years later he describes the foundation of schools in East Anglia. These were founded by king Sigberct because he desired to have good inst.i.tutions such as he had seen in Gaul, and his wishes were carried into effect by bishop Felix, after the pattern of the schools of Kent.[57] Whether it would be possible to trace the study of Roman law as a scholastic exercise through these obscure times, is very doubtful.[58] But certainly there is something about the Latinity of our earliest legal doc.u.ments, that has a local and even a vernacular aspect. Slight as these traces may be, they are interesting enough to merit consideration.

In the Kentish laws are preserved our oldest extant relics of ancestral custom. The first code is that of aethelberht, with this t.i.tle:--"This be the Dooms that aethelbriht, king, ordained in Augustine's days." It is much concerned with penalties for personal injuries. These are some of the "Dooms":--

Cap. 40. If an ear be smitten off, 6 s.h.i.+llings amends (bot).

" 41. If the ear be pierced through, 3 s.h.i.+llings.

" 43. If an eye is lost, 50 s.h.i.+llings.

" 44. If mouth or eye be damaged, 12 s.h.i.+llings.

" 45. If the nose be pierced, 9 s.h.i.+llings.

" 51. For the four front teeth, 6 s.h.i.+llings each; the tooth that stands next, 4 s.h.i.+llings; the next to that, 3 s.h.i.+llings; and thenceforth, each, 1 s.h.i.+lling.