Only what appealed to the
new creed or could be modified by it would be retained or adapted,
when the Teutonic spirit became linked with, and tamed by, that
of Rome.
new creed or could be modified by it would be retained or adapted,
when the Teutonic spirit became linked with, and tamed by, that
of Rome.
Cambridge History of English Literature - 1908 - v01
St Andrew is com-
manded by God to go to the assistance of St Matthew, who is in
danger of death at the hands of the Mermedonians, cannibal
Ethiopians. He sets out in a boat manned by our Lord and two
angels. Having landed safely, he becomes of great spiritual comfort
to the captive, but is himself taken prisoner and tortured. He de-
livers himself and converts the Mermedonians by working a miracle.
The distinguishing feature of the poem, which links it with
passages in Beowulf and The Seafarer, is the skill with which
its author gives expression to his passion for the sea. Andreas
is a romance of the sea. Nowhere else are to be found such
superb descriptions of the raging storm, of the successful struggle
of man with the powers of the deep. It illustrates, moreover, in
an unusual degree, the blending of the old spirit with the new.
St Andrew, though professedly a Christian saint, is, in reality, a
viking: though crusader in name he is more truly a seafarer on
adventure bent. The Christ he serves is an aetheling, the apostles
are folctogan-captains of the people--and temporal victory, not
merely spiritual triumph, is the goal.
Could it be proved that The Fates of the Apostles is merely an
epilogue to the longer poem preceding it, the adventures of one of
the twelve being related in greater detail than is vouchsafed to them
treated collectively, we should be enabled to attribute with greater
certainty than is otherwise possible the poem of Andreas to
Cynewulf, an author of whom, on aesthetic grounds, it is not
unworthy. Its authenticity would then be vouched for by
the runic signature contained in the shorter poem. This hypo-
thesis is, however, more ingenious than convincing. The poem
Andreas, as it stands, lacks, indeed, as definite a conclusion as many
## p. 55 (#75) ##############################################
Elene
55
i
other poems possess; there is, for instance, no finit or "amen"
to denote the end, but, unfortunately for the inventors of the
hypothesis, The Fates of the Apostles does not lack a beginning;
nor are St Andrew's labours omitted from the general review of the
good works done by the twelve, which might possibly have been
expected had the author of The Fates of the Apostles also been
the author of the longer history of St Andrew. There is more
ground for accepting a theory originated by Sievers with regard
to the last sixteen lines of the fragment containing Cynewulf's signa-
ture, discovered by Napier. In the opinion of Sievers these sixteen
lines would not only be an inordinately lengthy conclusion to
so short a poem as The Fates, but they are superfluous in so far
as they are a mere repetition of the lines which had preceded
the runic passage. He would, therefore, wish to see in them the
conclusion of some lost poem of Cynewulf, and only accidentally
attached to The Fates of the Apostles. Upholders of the theory
of the Cynewulfian authorship of Andreas might be able to
claim them as the missing conclusion to that poem, and the fact
of their being attached to a piece of undoubtedly Cynewulfian work
might strengthen the attribution of Andreas to our poet. But,
after fully weighing the arguments on either side, we must confess
that the evidence so far forthcoming does not suffice for a satis-
factory solution of the question.
Elene is, undoubtedly, Cynewulf's masterpiece. The subject is
contained in the Acta Sanctorum of 4 May. Grimm also referred
to the same subject as occurring in the Legenda aurea of Jacobus
a Voragine. It is impossible to decide whether the legend first
reached England in a Latin or in an older Greek form. The story is
that of the discovery of the true cross by Helena, the mother of the
emperor Constantine. The search carried to so successful a con-
clusion was instituted by the emperor in consequence of the famous
vision, the sign of a cross in the sky bearing the inscription in hoc
signo vinces. Much history hangs upon this tale. Its immediate
importance for us is that the conversion of the emperor by this
means became the starting-point for the adoration of the cross: the
symbol which had hitherto been one of ignominy became one of
triumph and glory. The festival of the exaltation of the cross was
established in the western church in 701, in consequence of the
supposed discovery in Rome of a particle of the true cross. This
event is duly recorded by Bede in De sex aetatibus saeculi,
the news having, no doubt, been brought to England by abbot
Ceolfrid, who was in Rome at the time. At any rate, if this event
## p. 56 (#76) ##############################################
56 Old English Christian Poetry
be considered too remote to have influenced Cynewulf's choice of
a subject, we may remember that he probably lived through a
part of the iconoclastic controversy which raged from 726 to 842,
and which contributed perhaps more than anything else to an
increased veneration of the cross. Indeed, the poetry of the cross
in England has been regarded as the first-fruit of the impetus given
to its worship by the condemnation of the worship of all other
symbols. The two festivals of the cross, the invention on 3 May
and the exaltation on 14 September, were both observed in the
old English church.
p Cynewulf's poem on Helena's search for the true cross is
contained in fourteen cantos or "fitts. ” It is written in a simple,
dramatic style, interspersed with imaginative and descriptive pas-
sages of great beauty. The glamour and pomp of war, the gleam of
jewels, the joy of ships dancing on the waves, give life and colour
to a narrative permeated by the deep and serious purpose of the
author. The fifteenth fitt, superfluous from the point of view of
the story, is valuable as documentary evidence bearing on the
poet's personality. It contains not only his signature in runes, but
is a "fragment of a great confession,” unveiling to us the manner
of the man to whom the cross became salvation.
“I am old,” he says, “and ready to depart, having woven worderaft
and pondered deeply in the darkness of the world. Once I was gay in
the hall and received gifts, appled gold and treasures. Yet was I buffeted
with care, fettered by sins, beset with sorrows, until the Lord of all might
and power bestowed on me grace and revealed to me the mystery of the
holy cross. Now know I that the joys of life are fleeting, and that the
Judge of all the world is at hand to deal to every man his doom. ”
Two useful deductions may be made from this passage. In the
first place, the poet was evidently advanced in age when he com-
posed this poem, a point already alluded to; in the second, he
ascribes his conversion to a true understanding of the cross. In
other poems, notably Crist, Cynewulf reveals an almost equal
veneration for the symbol of man's redemption.
But the poem which, above all others, betrays the spirit of
tender yet passionate veneration, of awe and adoration for "the
wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died,” is The Dream
of the Rood. It is transmitted to us in a West Saxon form in the
Vercelli Book, and portions of it are to be found carved in runes
on the Ruthwell cross in Dumfriesshire? . The poem is now
1 In addition, there is out upon the cross an inscription which was interpreted to
mean “Caedmon made me," and, upon this supposed signature, was based the
attribution of The Dream of the Rood to Caedmon. The inscription, it decipherable at
## p. 57 (#77) ##############################################
The Dream of the Rood
57
claimed as Cynewulf's by probably the majority of English scholars,
though it is possible that he worked on older material. At the
same time, we have none but aesthetic evidence to go upon.
A resemblance has been fancied or detected between the reference
to the cross in the concluding portion of Elene discussed above
and the subject and treatment of this poem. It would be possible
to overrate the value of this coincidence. References to the
cross are frequent in both prose and verse. They need prove
nothing beyond the undoubtedly early custom of the adoration.
At the same time, the two poems have much in common: the
character of the intimate self-revelation contained in each, the
elegiac tone of the reflections on the transitoriness of the world
and the sinfulness of man, the phraseology and syntactical
structure are alike to a degree which makes the Cynewulfian
authorship of both more than probable. The Dream of the Rood
is the choicest blossom of Old English Christian poetry; religious
feeling has never been more exquisitely clothed than in these one
hundred and forty lines of alliterative verse. It is full of imagina-
tive power and enters deeply into the mysteries of sin and of
sorrow. We have no other instance of a dream-poem in pre-
Conquest England, though Bede relates several visions. The poet
dreamt a dream and in it saw the holy rood decked with gems and
shining gloriously. Angels guarded it, and, at its sight, the singer
was afeared, for he was stained with guilt. As he watched, the
tree changed colour; anon it was adorned with treasure, anon
stained with gore; and, as he watched, it spoke, and told the story
of the crucifixion, the descent from the cross, the resurrection.
This conception of the cross as being gifted with power of speech
lends a singular charm to the poem. The address is followed by
the poet's reflection on what he has seen: the cross shall be
henceforth his confidence and help. The concluding ten lines of
the poem seem superfluous and are possibly a later accretion. The
theme concludes with line 146. The characteristic opening of the
all, may have been the sculptor's autograph. In no case could it, apparently, be a
reference to the poet Caedmon, for the language of the poem on the Ruthwell cross is
younger than that of the MS poem, possibly of the tenth century. The decoration of
the cross, also, is thought to be too elaborate and ornate for eighth century work and
can hardly be dated much earlier than the tenth century. See Chapter 11 ante and the
bibliography to that chapter, especially the writings of Vietor and A. S. Cook, The
Dream of the Rood.
A somewhat similar, though very short, example of an inscription in the first
person is preserved on a cross at Brussels :-
Rod is min nama: geo io ricno oyning
baer byfigende, blode bestemed.
## p. 58 (#78) ##############################################
Old English Christian Poetry
poem may be noted. As in Beowulf, Andreas, Exodus and other
poems, the singer arrests the attention of his hearers by the
exclamation : “Hwaet ! ” =Lo, comparable to the “Listneth, lord-
ings” of the later minstrels. The device must have been a common
one in days when the harp was struck at festive gatherings and
the scop urged his claim to a hearing by a preliminary chord.
We must pass on to other poems that have, with more or less
show of reason, been attributed to Cynewulf. Of these, the longest
is the life of the Mercian saint Guthlac. It falls into two parts,
the first, apparently, having been composed during the lifetime of
the anchorite who is the subject of the poem, the second being
based upon the Latin Vita by Felix of Croyland. The main
question that has been discussed has been whether both parts
are by one and the same author or not, and whether Cynewulf
can lay claim to one or both parts. If only one part can be attri-
buted to him it should be part II (Guthlac B). Since the conclusion
to this part is missing, it may, conceivably, have contained Cyne-
wulf's signature in runes. There is no gap in the MS between the
conclusion of Crist and the beginning of Guthlac, and Gollancz
has assumed that the passage commonly read as the conclusion of
Crist (1l. 1666—1694) really forms the introduction to Guthlac.
These lines are, no doubt, superfluous as regards Crist, but they
are yet more unsuitable considered as an introduction to Guthlac,
which begins, quite appropriately, with a common epic formula
“Monge sindon” (cf. the opening of The Phoenix). It would be
better to assume them to be a fragment of some independent poem
on the joys of the blessed.
The death of Guthlac is related in lines full of strength and
beauty. The writer has entered into the spirit of the last great
struggle with the powers of darkness and death, even as Bunyan
did when he related the passage of Christian through the Valley
of the Shadow of Death. The wondrous light that shines over
Guthlac's hut before he dies irresistibly recalls the waving lights
in the sky familiar to every northerner and, when we read that,
at the saint's entry into the heavenly mansions, the whole land of
England trembled with rapture, we feel that, whether Cynewulf
wrote the poem or not, we are in the presence of a poet who does
not lack imaginative power of a high order.
The Phoenix has been attributed to Cynewulf by a large
number of competent critics. The first portion of it is based
upon a Latin poem attributed to Lactantius, and there is some
ground for assuming Cynewulf's acquaintance with that Latin
## p. 59 (#79) ##############################################
The Phoenix
59
author, since a copy of the book was contained in Alcuin's library
at York, and Cynewulf may very well have been a scholar in the
school at York? . The second part of the poem, the allegorical -
application of the myth to Christ, is based on the writings of
Ambrose and Bede. The characteristic feature of the poem is its
love of colour and wealth of gorgeous descriptive epithets.
Especially noteworthy, in this respect, is the description of the
land where the phoenix dwells :
Winsome is the wold there; there the wealds are green,
Spacious spread below the skies; 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 hoar-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-but the wold abides
Ever happy, healthful there 2.
This passage illustrates not only the feeling of English poets
towards nature, but also the development that took place in
consequence of the influence of Latin letters. The Northumbrian
poets were not unskilled in the depiction of scenes with which
they were familiar; but in The Phoenix we have, for the first time,
a poet attempting, under literary influence, and with an obviously a
conscious striving after artistic effect, to paint an ideal landscape,
the beauty and gentleness of summer climes, the wealth of tropical
nature, the balminess of a softer air, where there shall be no more,
or only a sun-lit, sea, unlike the sullen gloom of the northern
waters.
The conclusion of the poem is of an unusual kind. It consists
of eleven lines in a mixture of English and Latin, the first half of
each line being English, the second half Latin, the Latin alliterating
with the English.
Portions of an Old English Physiologus have also been at
tributed to Cynewulf. Allegorical bestiaries were a favourite
form of literature from the fifth century down to the Middle
Ages. They consisted of descriptions of certain beasts, birds and
fishes which were considered capable of an allegorical significance.
The allegorical meaning was always attached to the description,
much as a moral is appended to a fable. The development of this
form of literature was due to the fondness for animal symbolism
characteristic of early Christian art. Only three specimens of
such descriptions are extant in Old English literature. They deal
with the panther, the whale and the partridge. The panther is
* Cook, Christ, p. lxiv.
• Stopford Brooke's version.
## p. 60 (#80) ##############################################
60
Old English Christian Poetry
complete, there is a gap in the description of the whale, of the
partridge there is hardly sufficient to prove that the bird described
was really a partridge. It is uncertain whether these pieces
were merely isolated attempts at imitation of a foreign model or
whether they formed part of a complete Old English Physiologus.
Two somewhat divergent texts of a Latin Physiologus (B and C),
belonging to the ninth century, have been discovered. The re-
semblance between the Latin text and the Old English is fairly
striking in B where, after twenty-two other animals have been
described, we have the panther, the whale and the partridge ;
probably both Old English and Latin versions are derived from a
common source. The panther, as usual, is symbolical of Christ,
and the whale, which lures seafarers to moor their “ocean-mares”
to it, thinking its back an island, represents the “accuser of the
brethren” and its gaping mouth is the gate of Hell.
The assumption that the first of a series of Old English Riddles,
95 in all, was a charade meaning Cynewulf, or Coenwulf, caused
the collection to be attributed to him. These riddles are trans-
mitted in the Exeter Book. They are closely connected with
similar collections of Latin riddles, more especially one by Aldhelm.
Aldhelm's work is based upon that of the fifth century Latin poet
Symphosius, and Aldhelm was the first English writer to acclimatise
the Latin riddle in England. Forty riddles by archbishop Tatwin,
which were expanded by Eusebius to the number of 100, are also
extant. The author of the Old English riddles derived most of
his inspiration from Aldhelm, but he also seems to have gone
direct to Symphosius and to have made some slight use of the
work of Eusebius and Tatwin.
The theory that the solution of the first riddle was the name
Coenwulf, i. e. Cynewulf, was refuted by Trautmann, in 1883, and,
later, by Sievers, on linguistic and other grounds.
The peculiarly English tone and character of the riddles is, in
some measure, due to Aldhelm's example. For, though he wrote
in Latin, his style differentiates his work from that of the Latin
authors, and accounts for the popularity this form of literature
acquired in England. Furthermore, the author or authors of the
Old English riddles borrow themes from native folk-song and saga;
in their hands inanimate objects become endowed with life and
personality; the powers of nature become objects of worship such
as they were in olden times; they describe the scenery of their
own country, the fen, the river and the sea, the horror of the
untrodden forest, sun and moon engaged in perpetual pursuit of
## p. 61 (#81) ##############################################
The Riddles
61
ul.
each other, the nightingale and the swan, the plough guided by
the "grey-haired enemy of the wood,” the bull breaking up the
clods left unturned by the plough, the falcon, the arm-companion
of aethelings-scenes, events, characters familiar in the England of
that day. Riddle XLI, De Creatura, and Riddle ix, on the Nightin-
gale, which are subjects taken from Aldhelm, may be compared with
the Latin versions to prove how far the more imaginative English
poet was from being a mere imitator, and the storm and iceberg
riddles breathe the old northern and viking spirit. Riddle XXXVI
is also preserved in Northumbrian in a MS at Leyden.
The most varied solutions have, from time to time, been
suggested for some of the riddles, and the meaning of many is
by no means clear. The most recent attempts at a solution of the
first riddle have been made by Schofield and Gollancz. They see
in this short poem an Old English monodrama in five acts, wherein.
a lady boasts of fidelity to her lover, but, during his absence,
proves faithless and lives to endure the vengeance of her husband
in the loss of her child.
We may note, in conclusion, a group of minor poems which have
one characteristic feature in common, namely, the note of personal
religion; they are, for the most part, lyric or didactic in character,
dealing with the soul's need of redemption. Of these, the Death
Song attributed to Bede by his pupil Cuthbert, who gives an
approximate Latin rendering of it', is preserved in a Northumbrian
version in a MS at St Gall and belongs to the same period as
Caedmon's Hymn.
One of the most interesting of the group is the Address of the
Lost Soul to the Body, a frequent theme in later literature. It is
one of the very few Old English poems preserved in two versions,
one in the Exeter, the other in the Vercelli, Book. In the latter
codex is contained a fragment of a very rare theme, the Address
of the Saved Soul to the Body. A poem on the day of doom
is transmitted in the Exeter Book. It is a general admonition
to lead a godly, righteous and sober life after the fashion of many
similar warnings in later literature.
A group of four short poems, of which three are preserved in the
Exeter Book, deal with attributes common to mankind. The Gifts
of Men (Bi monna craeftum)-based, largely, upon the 29th homily
of pope Gregory, and, hence, sometimes attributed to Cynewulf ;
the Fates of Men (Bi manna wyrdum), which, though allied in
theme to the previous poem, differs very considerably from it
1 Epistola Cuđberti ad Cudwinum.
## p. 62 (#82) ##############################################
62 Old English Christian Poetry
in treatment; the Mind of Man (Bi manna mode) and the
Falsehood of Man (Bi manna lease), which may be described as
poetical homilies.
The Riming Poem is a solitary instance of the occurrence in
English poetry of the consistent use of end-rime and alliteration
in one and the same poem. The theme, "sorrow's crown of
sorrows is remembering happier things,” recalls the epilogue to
Elene, but the resemblance is not sufficiently striking to justify
the attribution of the poem to Cynewulf. The metrical form is
an accurate imitation of the Höfudlausn of Egill Skallagríms-
son, which was composed in Northumberland at the court of
Aethelstan.
It is generally thought that gnomic or didactic poetry,
which seems to have been very popular during the Old English
period, had its origin in the religious exercises of heathen times.
Certainly it is well represented in the mythological poems of the
Edda, whether we take the proverb form, as in the first part of
Hávamál, or the form of question and answer, as in Vaf þruðnismál
and other poems. Old English proverbs are, however, almost
entirely deprived of heathen colouring. One collection, amounting
altogether to 206 lines in three sections, is preserved in the Exeter
Book, and another, containing 66 lines, serves as a preface to one
of the texts of the Chronicle. The proverbs in the two collections
are of much the same kind, giving, in each case, the chief charac-
teristic of the thing mentioned, e. g. "frost shall freeze," or "a king
shall have government. " Generally, however, they run into two or
more lines, beginning and ending in the middle, so that the whole
collection has the form of a connected poem. In this class of
literature we may, perhaps, also include A Father's Instruction,
a poem consisting of ten moral admonitions (94 lines in all)
addressed by a father to his son somewhat after the nature of
the Proverbs of Solomon. In form, it may be compared with
Sigrdrífumál and the last part of Hávamál, but the matter is
very largely Christian. Mention must also be made of The Runic
Poem, which, likewise, has Scandinavian parallels. Each of the
letters of the runic alphabet had its own name, wbich was also the
word for some animal, plant or other article, e. g. riches, buffalo,
thorn; and it is the properties of these which the poem describes,
allotting three or four lines to each. The other form of didactic
poetry, the dialogue, is represented in Old English in the poem
known as Salomon and Saturn. This alliterative poem is pre-
served in two MSS in the Library of Corpus Christi College,
## p. 63 (#83) ##############################################
Caedmon and Cynewulf 63
Cambridge. King Solomon, as the representative of Jewish
wisdom, is represented as measuring forces with Saturn, a docile
learner and mild disputant. The Old English dialogue has its
counterpart in more than one literature, but, in other countries,
Marcolf, who takes the place of Saturn, gets the best of the game,
and saucy wit confounds the teacher.
names of Caedmthe work of the twned by Old 7
Any attempt to estimate the development attained by Old
English literature, as shown by the work of the two schools of
poetry which the names of Caedmon and Cynewulf connote, must,
of necessity, be somewhat superficial, in view of the fragmentary
nature of much of the work passed under review. Caedmon stands
for a group of singers whose work we feel to be earlier in tone and
feeling, though not always in age, than that which we know to be
Cynewulf's or can fairly attribute to him. Both schools of thought
are Christian, not rarely even monkish ; both writers, if not in
equal measure, are sons of their age and, palpably, inheritors of a
philosophy of life pagan in many respects. It is safe to say that,
in both groups, there is hardly a single poem of any length and
importance in which whole passages are not permeated with the
spirit of the untouched Beowulf, in which turns of speech, ideas, .
points of view, do not recall an earlier, a fiercer, a more self-
reliant and fatalistic age. God the All-Ruler is fate metamor-
phosed; the powers of evil are identical with those once called
giants and elves; the Paradise and Hell of the Christian are as
realistic as the Walhalla and the Niflheim of the heathen ancestor.
Yet the work of Cynewulf and his school marks an advance
upon the writings of the school of Caedmon. Even the latter
is, at times, subjective and personal in tone to a degree not
found in pure folk-epic; but in Cynewulf the personal note is
emphasised and becomes lyrical. Caedmon's hymn in praise of
the Creator is a sublime statement of generally recognised facts
calling for universal acknowledgment in suitably exalted terms;
Cynewulf's confessions in the concluding portion of Elene or in
The Dream of the Rood, or his vision of the day of judgment in
Crist, are lyrical outbursts, spontaneous utterances of a soul
which has become one with its subject and to which self-revelation
is a necessity. This advance shows itself frequently, also, in the de-)
scriptions of nature. For Cynewulf, “ earth's crammed with heaven,
and every common bush afire with God”; it is, perhaps, only in
portions of Exodus and in passages of Genesis B that the Divine
immanence in nature is obviously felt by the Caedmonian scop.
at the Christia
the work of no and the Nifheim
## p. 64 (#84) ##############################################
64
Old English Christian Poetry
- The greatest distinction between the one school and the other
is due, however, to the degree in which Cynewulf and his group
show their power of assimilating foreign literary influences.
England was ceasing to be insular as the influence of a literary
tongue began to hold sway over her writers. They are scholars
deliberately aiming at learning from others—they borrow freely,
adapt, reproduce. Form has become of importance; at times, of
supreme importance; the attempt, architecturally imperfect as it
may be, to construct the trilogy we know as Crist is valuable as
a proof of consciousness in art, and the transformation that the
riddles show in the passage from their Latin sources furnishes
additional evidence of the desire to adorn.
Yet, it is hard not to regret much that was lost in the
acquisition of the new. The reflection of the spirit of paganism,
the development of epic and lyric as we see them in the fragments
that remain, begin to fade and change; at first, Christianity is seen
to be but a thin veneer over the old heathen virtues, and the gradual
assimilation of the Christian spirit was not accomplished without
harm to the national poetry, or without resentment on the part of the
people. “They have taken away our ancient worship, and no one
knows how this new worship is to be performed,” said the hostile
common folk to the monks, when the latter were praying at Tyne-
mouth for the safety of their brethren carried out to sea. “We are not
going to pray for them. May God spare none of them,” they jibed,
when they saw that Cuthbert's prayers appeared to be ineffectual.
It was many a year before the hostility to the new faith was
overcome and the foreign elements blended with the native
Teutonic spirit. The process of blending can be seen perfectly
at work in such lines as The Charm for Barren Land, where
pagan feeling and nominal Christianity are inextricably mixed.
There, earth spells are mingled with addresses to the Mother of
Heaven. But, in due season, the fusion was accomplished, and, in
part, this was due to the wisdom with which the apostles of
Christianity retained and disguised in Christian dress many of
the festivals, observances and customs of pre-Christian days. That
much of what remains of Old English literature is of a religious
nature does not seem strange, when it is remembered through
whose hands it has come down to us.
Only what appealed to the
new creed or could be modified by it would be retained or adapted,
when the Teutonic spirit became linked with, and tamed by, that
of Rome.
## p. 65 (#85) ##############################################
CHAPTER V
LATIN WRITINGS IN ENGLAND TO THE TIME
OF ALFRED
It is outside the scope of this work to survey the various
scattered documents of British origin which were produced
outside Britain. Moreover, the influence of most of them upon
the main stream of English literature was, beyond all doubt,
extremely slight. Among the writings thus excluded from
consideration may be mentioned the remains of Pelagius, who
seems to have been actually the earliest British author, the
short tract of Fastidius, “a British bishop,” on the Christian
life, and the two wonderful books of St Patrick-the Confession
and the Letter to Coroticus—which, in spite of their barbaric style,
whereof the author was fully conscious, are among the most living
and attractive monuments of ancient Christianity. Outside our
province also falls the earliest piece of Latin verse produced in
these islands, the Hymn of St Sechnall; and also the hymns
of the Bangor antiphonary, the writings of Columban and the
lives and remains of the Irish missionaries abroad. All these are
named here principally lest it should be supposed that they
have been forgotten.
We pass to our earliest indigenous literary products ; and the
list of these is headed by two somewhat uncouth fragments,
marked off from almost all that follow them by the fact that they
are British and not English in origin. These are the book of
Gildas and the History of the Britons.
Concerning the career of Gildas the Wise, we are told much in
the lives of him by a monk of Rhuys, and by Caradoc of Lancarvan,
which belong respectively to the early part of the eleventh
century and to the twelfth ; but almost all the data that can
be regarded as trustworthy are derived from Gildas's own book
and from brief notices in Irish and Welsh annals. As examined
by Zimmer and Theodor Mommsen, these sources tell us that Gildas,
born about the year 500 A. D. , was living in the west of England and
E. L. I. CH. V.
## p. 66 (#86) ##############################################
66
Latin Writings in England
wrote the book which we possess shortly before 547; that, perhaps,
he journeyed to Rome; that he spent the last years of his life
in Britanny and probably died there in 570; and that not long
before his death (probably also in his younger days) he visited
Ireland. He is represented by various authorities as having been
a pupil of St Iltut at Lantwit Major in Wales, together with other
great saints of the time.
The book of his which remains to us is thus entitled by its most
recent editor, Mommsen: “Of Gildas the Wise concerning the
destruction and conquest of Britain, and his lamentable castigation
uttered against the kings, princes and priests thereof. " The
manuscripts differ widely in the names they assign to it.
The author himself in his opening words describes his work as
an epistle. For ten years it has been in his mind, he says, to deliver
his testimony about the wickedness and corruption of the British
state and church; but he has, though with difficulty, kept silence.
Now, he must prove himself worthy of the charge laid upon him as
a leading teacher, and speak. But, first, he will, with God's help, set
forth shortly some facts about the character of the country and
the fortunes of its people. Here follows that sketch of the history
of Britain which, largely used by Bede and by the compilers of the
History of the Britons, is almost our only literary authority for the
period. In compiling it, Gildas says he has not used native sources,
which, if they ever existed, had perished, but“narratives from beyond
the sea. " What this precisely means it is not easy to determine.
The only historical authors whose influence can be directly traced in
his text are Rufinus's version of Eusebius, Jerome's Chronicle and
Orosius; and none of these records the local occurrences which
Gildas relates. Moreover, the story, as he tells it, clearly appears
to be derived from oral traditions (in some cases demonstrably
incorrect) rather than copied from any older written sources. It
may be that Gildas drew his knowledge from aged British monks
who had settled in Ireland or Britanny: it may be that by the
relatio transmarina he merely means the foreign historians just
mentioned. Brief and rather vague as it is, the narrative may
be accepted as representing truly enough the course of events.
It occupies rather more than a quarter of the whole work, and
brings us down to the time, forty-four years after the British
victory of Mount Badon, when the descendants of the hero of
that field, Ambrosius Aurelianus, had departed from the virtues
of their great ancestor, and when, in the view of our author, the
moral and spiritual state of the whole British dominion had sunk
## p. 67 (#87) ##############################################
Gildas
67
to the lowest level of degradation. In the pages that follow, he
attacks, successively and by name, five of the princes of the west:
Constantine of Devon and Cornwall, Aurelius Caninus, whose
sphere of influence is unknown, Vortipor of Pembrokeshire,
Cuneglasus, king of an unnamed territory and the “dragon of
the isle,” Maglocunus, who is known to have reigned over Anglesey
and to have died in the year 547. Each of these is savagely
reproached with his crimes-sacrilege, perjury, adultery and
murder-and each is, in milder terms, entreated to return to the
ways of peace.
Up to this point the epistle is of great interest, though tanta-
lising from its lack of precise detail. It now becomes far less
readable. The whole of the remainder is, practically, a cento
of biblical quotations, gathering together the woes pronounced
in Scripture against evil princes and evil priests, and the exhorta-
tions found therein for their amendment. The picture which the
author draws of the principate and of the clergy is almost without
relief in its blackness. He does just allow that there are a few
good priests; but corruption, worldliness and vice are rampant
among the majority.
That Gildas was convinced of the urgency of his message there
is no room to doubt. Like Elijah at Horeb, he feels that he is left
alone, a prophet of the Lord; and every word he writes comes from
his heart. Yet, if we are certain of his sincerity, we are at least
equally confident that his picture must be too darkly coloured.
We have complained that he lacks precision : it must be added
that he loves adjectives, and adjectives in the superlative degree.
Doubtless Salonius and Sagittarius, the wicked bishops of Gap and
Embrun, of whom Gregory of Tours has so much to say, had their
counterparts in Britain : but there were also St Iltut, St David
and many another, renowned founders of schools and teachers
of the young, whose labours cannot have been wholly fruitless.
In style, Gildas is vigorous to the point of turgidity. His
breathless periods are often wearisome and his epithets multi-
tudinous. Perhaps the most pleasant sample of his writing is
the paragraph in which he enumerates with an ardent and real
affection the beauties of Britain. In a few instances he shows
that tendency to adorn his page with rare and difficult words
which seems to have had a great attraction for the Celtic
mind.
It is evident that he considers himself a Roman citizen in some
sense. To him, Latin is “our tongue,” as opposed to English; and
3-2
## p. 68 (#88) ##############################################
68
Latin Writings in England
the impression given by this phrase is confirmed by the whole
tenor of his writing. His sources of inspiration, as we have in part
seen, are Roman. To those already mentioned we may add the
names of Vergil and, perhaps, Juvenal and Claudian.
In summing up the impression which he leaves upon us, we may
say that his eyes are fixed regretfully upon a great past; there is
no hint of hope for the future. The thought that the heathen English
might become a source of light to the western world is one that
has never dawned on him. In short, Gildas is a dark and sad
figure. Night is falling round him; all that he has been taught to
prize is gone from him or going; and, when he looks upon his land,
“behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the
heavens thereof. "
The literary history of the book is not very complicated. The
compilers of the History of the Britons used it, and so did Bede, and
the authors of the lives of Gildas and of other Breton saints. In
the twelfth century it was a rare book in England, as William of
Newburgh tells us : but Geoffrey of Monmouth had it before him
in the first half of that century.
We have, besides the epistle par excellence, relics of other
epistles of Gildas, in which his peculiar style is very recognisable,
and also some penitential canons. Of these latter, we need only say
that the precise extent of the material in them which can be
certainly assigned to Gildas is still in dispute.
Another fragment of Gildan literature, upon whose authenticity
à curious literary question depends, is the hymn called Lorica
or Cuirass. This is a metrical prayer, in which the suppliant
asks for divine protection against “the mortality of this year"
and against evil demons, and enumerates each limb and organ of
his body. The form which the prayer takes, though not common,
is not unique. A similar hymn in Irish is attributed to St Patrick,
and there are others of Irish origin. The attribution of this par-
ticular Lorica to Gildas (Gillus, the name in the manuscript, is
pretty clearly meant for Gildas) is not unanimous : one Lathacan,
Laidcenn, or Loding (probably an Irish prince of the seventh
century) is named by several copies once as having brought
the hymn to Ireland. Zimmer is confident in maintaining that
Gildas is the author: Mommsen dissents from this view.
It may seem an indifferent matter whether this particular hymn
is a work of the sixth or seventh century; but the fact is that
its style and vocabulary are of considerable interest as throwing
light on the culture of its time, and they connect it with a longer
## p. 69 (#89) ##############################################
09
It
be
“ Hisperic” Latin
document or group of documents, the date and provenance of which
it would be very interesting to settle.
In its latter portion, where it enumerates the various parts of the
body, Lorica is, to a large extent, a collection of the most obscure
foreign and archaic words which the author could scrape together.
Hebrew, Greek and Latin are mingled in a most curious way,
and are so disguised and corrupted that, in many cases, we are
only able to divine their meaning by the help of glosses. It may
be allowable to quote a single line
gygram cephalem cum iaris et conas-
which is said to mean
head, head with hair and eyes.
The other group of writings in which a similarly extraordinary
vocabulary occurs is represented principally by the work called
Hisperica Famina, which we possess in more than one text. It
is arranged in a series of sections, numbering in all somewhat over
600 lines, of a kind of assonant non-metrical structure. Each line
usually consists of two parts. The first part contains one or two
epithets, and the verb and subject are in the second part. Each
section contains a description of some scene or object-the day's
work, the sea, fire, the wind, a chapel, an encounter with robbers.
The writer is evidently a member of something like a monastic
school; and all that we can certainly say of his surroundings is
that he is brought into contact with Irish people, for they are
distinctly mentioned in the text.
It is impossible to give any idea of the obscurity of Hisperica
Famina without quoting or translating passages; and nothing
short of the genius of Sir Thomas Urquhart could find equiva-
lents for the amazing words used by the writer. This one point
is evident, that the same school produced Lorica and Hisperica
Famina. Was that school located in England or Ireland ? If
Gildas be author of Lorica, it follows, in all probability, that the
author of Hisperica Famina was a man brought up, like Gildas,
in a south Welsh school such as that of St Iltut, and, subsequently,
settled in Ireland, where he wrote Hisperica Famina. In this
case we must place him in the sixth century. One piece of evi-
dence which points in this direction can hardly be set aside. The
hymn attributed to St Columba and known as Altus prosator
contains very marked specimens of Hisperic Latinity. That this
composition is really of Columba's age is the belief of its latest
editors; and, if that be granted, there is no need to seek for
## p. 70 (#90) ##############################################
70 Latin Writings in England
further proof that Hisperica Famina could have been produced
in the sixth century, and that, whether Irish in origin or not, its
peculiarities were adopted by genuinely Irish authors.
The Historia Brittonum has been the centre of many con-
troversies as to its date and origin. As set forth in Theodor
Mommsen's edition, it consists of the following tracts, which
together form what has been called Volumen Britanniae, or
the Book of Britain. 1. A calculation of epochs of the world's
history, brought down to various dates by various scribes or
editors. 2. The history of the Britons down to a time immediately
after the death of Vortigern. 3. A short life of St Patrick.
4. A chapter about Arthur? 6. Genealogies of Saxon kings
and a calculation of epochs. 6. A list of cities of Britain. 7. A
tract on the wonders of Britain.
As to the probable date of this curious congeries of writings,
it is held that they were compiled by a Briton somewhere about
the year 679, after which additions were made to them. In
particular, about the year 800, a recension of the whole was made
by one Nennius. He represents himself as a pupil of Elbodugus
(who is known to have been bishop of Bangor, and to have died in
809) and also, seemingly, as a pupil of one Beulan, for whose son
Samuel he made his revision of the book. He may, very possibly,
be identical with the Nemnivus of whom we have some curious
relics preserved in a Bodleian manuscript.
The revision of Nennius is not extant in a complete form. Our
best authority for it is an Irish version made in the eleventh century
by Gilla Coemgin. Some of the Latin copies have preserved
extracts from the original, among which are the preface of Nennius
and some verses by him. A principal point to be remembered in
this connection is that it is scarcely correct to speak of the
History of the Britons as being the work of Nennius? .
The sources employed by the original compiler or compilers of
the various tracts which make up the “volume of Britain” are
both native and foreign. He or they have drawn largely upon
Celtic legend, written or oral. Other writings which have been
used to a considerable extent are Gildas, Jerome's Chronicle and
a lost life of St Germanus of Auxerre. Slighter traces of a
? See the chapter on the early history of the Arthurian legend in the present
volume.
The view here expressed is, in the main, that of Zimmer and Mommsen. It must
be mentioned that another hypothesis regards Nennius as primarily responsible for
the whole compilation. If this be accepted, there can be no possibility of Bode's
baving used the book.
## p. 71 (#91) ##############################################
Historia Brittonum. Theodore and Hadrian 71
knowledge of Vergil, Caesar, Isidore, and a map resembling the
Peutinger Table, are forthcoming.
Of the authors to whom the book was known in early times it
is only necessary to name two. In all probability, Bede was
acquainted with it, though he does not mention it as having
been one of his sources of information. Geoffrey of Monmouth
made fairly extensive use of it. The copy which he had
evidently attributed the authorship to Gildas, as do three at
least of our extant manuscripts.
It is hardly possible to speak of the History as possessing a
distinctive style. Where the author attempts a detailed narrative,
his manner reminds us of the historical portions of the Old Testa-
ment. The books of Chronicles, with their mixture of genealogy
and story, afford a near and familiar parallel.
If we possessed the whole of the revision by Nennius in its
Latin form, we should most likely find that he had infused into it
something of the learned manner beloved of his race and age. At
least, his preface and his verses indicate this. Greek and Hebrew
words occur in the verses, and one set of them is so written that
the initials of the words form an alphabet. The original author of
the History had no such graces. His best passage is the well-
known tale of Vortigern.
Within a generation after the death of Gildas the Roman
mission came to Kent, and the learning of the Latins, secular as
well as sacred, was brought within reach of the English. The
seventh century saw them making copious use of this enormous
gift, and Latin literature flourished in its new and fertile soil.
Probably the coming of archbishop Theodore and abbot
Hadrian to Canterbury in the year 668 was the event which
contributed more than any other to the progress of education
in England. The personalities of these two men, both versed in
Greek as well as in Latin learning, determined, at least at first,
the quality and complexion of the literary output of the country.
But theirs was not the only strong influence at work. In the first
place, the fashion of resorting to Ireland for instruction was very
prevalent among English students; in the second place, the inter-
course between England and Rome was incessant. Especially was
this the case in the monasteries of the north. To take a single
famous instance: five times did Benedict Biscop, abbot of
Wearmouth, journey from Britain to Rome, and, on each occasion,
he returned laden with books and artistic treasures. A less familiar
example may also be cited. Cuthwin, bishop of the east Angles
## p. 72 (#92) ##############################################
72
Latin Writings in England
about 750, brought with him from Rome a life of St Paul full of
pictures; and an illustrated copy of Sedulius, now at Antwerp
(in the Plantin Museum) has been shown to have belonged to
the same owner.
Four books which have been preserved to our times may be
cited as tangible monuments of the various influences which
were being exercised upon the English in the seventh century.
The Gregorian Gospels at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
(MS 286), written in the seventh century and illustrated with
pictures which, if not painted in Italy, go back to Italian originals,
represent the influence of Augustine. The Graeco-Latin copy of
the Acts of the Apostles at Oxford (Laud. Gr. 35) may well have
been brought to this country by Theodore or Hadrian. The
Lindisfarne Gospels show the blend of Celtic with Anglian art,
and contain indications of a Neapolitan archetype. The Codex
Amiatinus of the Latin Bible, now at Florence, written at
Wearmouth or Jarrow and destined as a present for the pope,
shows England acknowledging her debt to Rome.
The first considerable literary figure among English writers of
Latin is undoubtedly Aldhelm, who died bishop of Sherborne in
709. Much of his life was passed at Malmesbury, and the account
given by William of Malmesbury, on the authority of king Alfred's
Handbook, of Aldhelm's skill as a poet in the vernacular, and
of his singing to the harp songs of his own composing by which
he hoped to teach the country people, is, probably, the only fact
associated with his name in the minds of most. Glad as we should
Lbe to possess these English poems, it is certain that Aldhelm and
his contemporaries must have thought little of them in com-
parison with his Latin works. There may have been many in the
land who could compose in English; but there were assuredly very
few who were capable of producing writings such as those on which
Aldhelm's reputation rests.
For our purposes one fact derived from a letter of Aldhelm
himself is of extreme importance. In his youth he was for a
considerable time a pupil of Hadrian of Canterbury.
A late biographer, Faricius, credits Aldhelm with a knowledge
of Greek (derived from two teachers procured by king Ine from
Athens), of Hebrew and of Latin, which tongue no one had
employed to greater advantage since Vergil. These statements
cannot be taken quite as they stand. We do not hear from any
other source of the Athenian teachers, and the Greek which
Aldhelm undoubtedly knew he could perfectly well have learned
## p. 73 (#93) ##############################################
Aldhelm
73
from Hadrian. There is, practically, nothing to show that he knew
Hebrew, and we need not spend time in examining the remark
about Vergil. In spite of this and similar exaggerations, the
fact remains that Aldhelm's learning is really very great for
his time.
The writings of his which we possess are the following:
1. A number of letters. 2. A prose treatise on the praise of
virginity. 3. A versification, in hexameters, of the same treatise.
4. A prose book on the number seven and on metres, especially
the hexameter, containing also a collection of one hundred riddles
in verse. 5. Occasional poems, principally inscriptions for altars
or the like.
. Of the letters (several of which have been preserved among
the correspondence of St Boniface) two are of particular interest.
The first of these, addressed to the Welsh king Geraint, complains
of the irregularities of the British clergy in regard to the form of
the tonsure and the observance of Easter, and of their unchristian
attitude towards the English clergy, with whom they refuse to
hold any intercourse. It warns the king of the dangers incurred
by those who are out of communion with the church of Peter, and
begs him to use his influence in favour of union. The style and
vocabulary of this letter are unusually plain and straightforward.
Few words appear to be inserted simply for the sake of adorning
the page. It is a sincere and business-like document.
The other offers a wide contrast. It is written to one Eahfrid
on his return from Ireland, whither he had gone for purposes of
study, and is intended to show that equally good teaching could
be obtained in England. With this in view, Aldhelm pours out
all the resources of an extremely rich and varied vocabulary upon
his correspondent. In the opening lines the figure of alliteration
is employed to an alarming extent: out of sixteen consecutive
words fifteen begin with p. Once or twice, the writer breaks
without rime or reason into Greek (the phrase ad doxam
onomatis kyrië is a good example); and Latinised Greek words
stud the text, together with unfamiliar Latin. Elaborate passages
of metaphor, too, occur-one about bees, of which Aldhelm is
specially fond—and the whole affords as concentrated a sample of
the author's "learned” style as it is possible to find in a small
compass. An interesting feature in the theme is a panegyric on
Theodore and Hadrian, who are extolled as capable of routing
and putting to shame all the scholars of Ireland.
It is evident that this letter was much admired, for it survives
## p. 74 (#94) ##############################################
74
Latin Writings in England
in a good many copies, in juxtaposition with the treatise on
virginity, with which it has no connection.
The two books in prose and verse on virginity were the most
popular of Aldhelm's writings. A short sketch of their contents
must be given.
po The prose treatise is addressed to a group of nuns, some of
whom have English names, while others have adopted the names
of virgin saints. They are headed by Hildelitha, who afterwards
became abbess of Barking. We have, first, a thanksgiving for the
learning and virtue of the community, a lengthy comparison of
nuns to bees and a panegyric on the state of virginity, with a
warning against the eight principal vices. Then follows the main
| body of the work, consisting of a number of examples of men and
women who have excelled in chastity.
manded by God to go to the assistance of St Matthew, who is in
danger of death at the hands of the Mermedonians, cannibal
Ethiopians. He sets out in a boat manned by our Lord and two
angels. Having landed safely, he becomes of great spiritual comfort
to the captive, but is himself taken prisoner and tortured. He de-
livers himself and converts the Mermedonians by working a miracle.
The distinguishing feature of the poem, which links it with
passages in Beowulf and The Seafarer, is the skill with which
its author gives expression to his passion for the sea. Andreas
is a romance of the sea. Nowhere else are to be found such
superb descriptions of the raging storm, of the successful struggle
of man with the powers of the deep. It illustrates, moreover, in
an unusual degree, the blending of the old spirit with the new.
St Andrew, though professedly a Christian saint, is, in reality, a
viking: though crusader in name he is more truly a seafarer on
adventure bent. The Christ he serves is an aetheling, the apostles
are folctogan-captains of the people--and temporal victory, not
merely spiritual triumph, is the goal.
Could it be proved that The Fates of the Apostles is merely an
epilogue to the longer poem preceding it, the adventures of one of
the twelve being related in greater detail than is vouchsafed to them
treated collectively, we should be enabled to attribute with greater
certainty than is otherwise possible the poem of Andreas to
Cynewulf, an author of whom, on aesthetic grounds, it is not
unworthy. Its authenticity would then be vouched for by
the runic signature contained in the shorter poem. This hypo-
thesis is, however, more ingenious than convincing. The poem
Andreas, as it stands, lacks, indeed, as definite a conclusion as many
## p. 55 (#75) ##############################################
Elene
55
i
other poems possess; there is, for instance, no finit or "amen"
to denote the end, but, unfortunately for the inventors of the
hypothesis, The Fates of the Apostles does not lack a beginning;
nor are St Andrew's labours omitted from the general review of the
good works done by the twelve, which might possibly have been
expected had the author of The Fates of the Apostles also been
the author of the longer history of St Andrew. There is more
ground for accepting a theory originated by Sievers with regard
to the last sixteen lines of the fragment containing Cynewulf's signa-
ture, discovered by Napier. In the opinion of Sievers these sixteen
lines would not only be an inordinately lengthy conclusion to
so short a poem as The Fates, but they are superfluous in so far
as they are a mere repetition of the lines which had preceded
the runic passage. He would, therefore, wish to see in them the
conclusion of some lost poem of Cynewulf, and only accidentally
attached to The Fates of the Apostles. Upholders of the theory
of the Cynewulfian authorship of Andreas might be able to
claim them as the missing conclusion to that poem, and the fact
of their being attached to a piece of undoubtedly Cynewulfian work
might strengthen the attribution of Andreas to our poet. But,
after fully weighing the arguments on either side, we must confess
that the evidence so far forthcoming does not suffice for a satis-
factory solution of the question.
Elene is, undoubtedly, Cynewulf's masterpiece. The subject is
contained in the Acta Sanctorum of 4 May. Grimm also referred
to the same subject as occurring in the Legenda aurea of Jacobus
a Voragine. It is impossible to decide whether the legend first
reached England in a Latin or in an older Greek form. The story is
that of the discovery of the true cross by Helena, the mother of the
emperor Constantine. The search carried to so successful a con-
clusion was instituted by the emperor in consequence of the famous
vision, the sign of a cross in the sky bearing the inscription in hoc
signo vinces. Much history hangs upon this tale. Its immediate
importance for us is that the conversion of the emperor by this
means became the starting-point for the adoration of the cross: the
symbol which had hitherto been one of ignominy became one of
triumph and glory. The festival of the exaltation of the cross was
established in the western church in 701, in consequence of the
supposed discovery in Rome of a particle of the true cross. This
event is duly recorded by Bede in De sex aetatibus saeculi,
the news having, no doubt, been brought to England by abbot
Ceolfrid, who was in Rome at the time. At any rate, if this event
## p. 56 (#76) ##############################################
56 Old English Christian Poetry
be considered too remote to have influenced Cynewulf's choice of
a subject, we may remember that he probably lived through a
part of the iconoclastic controversy which raged from 726 to 842,
and which contributed perhaps more than anything else to an
increased veneration of the cross. Indeed, the poetry of the cross
in England has been regarded as the first-fruit of the impetus given
to its worship by the condemnation of the worship of all other
symbols. The two festivals of the cross, the invention on 3 May
and the exaltation on 14 September, were both observed in the
old English church.
p Cynewulf's poem on Helena's search for the true cross is
contained in fourteen cantos or "fitts. ” It is written in a simple,
dramatic style, interspersed with imaginative and descriptive pas-
sages of great beauty. The glamour and pomp of war, the gleam of
jewels, the joy of ships dancing on the waves, give life and colour
to a narrative permeated by the deep and serious purpose of the
author. The fifteenth fitt, superfluous from the point of view of
the story, is valuable as documentary evidence bearing on the
poet's personality. It contains not only his signature in runes, but
is a "fragment of a great confession,” unveiling to us the manner
of the man to whom the cross became salvation.
“I am old,” he says, “and ready to depart, having woven worderaft
and pondered deeply in the darkness of the world. Once I was gay in
the hall and received gifts, appled gold and treasures. Yet was I buffeted
with care, fettered by sins, beset with sorrows, until the Lord of all might
and power bestowed on me grace and revealed to me the mystery of the
holy cross. Now know I that the joys of life are fleeting, and that the
Judge of all the world is at hand to deal to every man his doom. ”
Two useful deductions may be made from this passage. In the
first place, the poet was evidently advanced in age when he com-
posed this poem, a point already alluded to; in the second, he
ascribes his conversion to a true understanding of the cross. In
other poems, notably Crist, Cynewulf reveals an almost equal
veneration for the symbol of man's redemption.
But the poem which, above all others, betrays the spirit of
tender yet passionate veneration, of awe and adoration for "the
wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died,” is The Dream
of the Rood. It is transmitted to us in a West Saxon form in the
Vercelli Book, and portions of it are to be found carved in runes
on the Ruthwell cross in Dumfriesshire? . The poem is now
1 In addition, there is out upon the cross an inscription which was interpreted to
mean “Caedmon made me," and, upon this supposed signature, was based the
attribution of The Dream of the Rood to Caedmon. The inscription, it decipherable at
## p. 57 (#77) ##############################################
The Dream of the Rood
57
claimed as Cynewulf's by probably the majority of English scholars,
though it is possible that he worked on older material. At the
same time, we have none but aesthetic evidence to go upon.
A resemblance has been fancied or detected between the reference
to the cross in the concluding portion of Elene discussed above
and the subject and treatment of this poem. It would be possible
to overrate the value of this coincidence. References to the
cross are frequent in both prose and verse. They need prove
nothing beyond the undoubtedly early custom of the adoration.
At the same time, the two poems have much in common: the
character of the intimate self-revelation contained in each, the
elegiac tone of the reflections on the transitoriness of the world
and the sinfulness of man, the phraseology and syntactical
structure are alike to a degree which makes the Cynewulfian
authorship of both more than probable. The Dream of the Rood
is the choicest blossom of Old English Christian poetry; religious
feeling has never been more exquisitely clothed than in these one
hundred and forty lines of alliterative verse. It is full of imagina-
tive power and enters deeply into the mysteries of sin and of
sorrow. We have no other instance of a dream-poem in pre-
Conquest England, though Bede relates several visions. The poet
dreamt a dream and in it saw the holy rood decked with gems and
shining gloriously. Angels guarded it, and, at its sight, the singer
was afeared, for he was stained with guilt. As he watched, the
tree changed colour; anon it was adorned with treasure, anon
stained with gore; and, as he watched, it spoke, and told the story
of the crucifixion, the descent from the cross, the resurrection.
This conception of the cross as being gifted with power of speech
lends a singular charm to the poem. The address is followed by
the poet's reflection on what he has seen: the cross shall be
henceforth his confidence and help. The concluding ten lines of
the poem seem superfluous and are possibly a later accretion. The
theme concludes with line 146. The characteristic opening of the
all, may have been the sculptor's autograph. In no case could it, apparently, be a
reference to the poet Caedmon, for the language of the poem on the Ruthwell cross is
younger than that of the MS poem, possibly of the tenth century. The decoration of
the cross, also, is thought to be too elaborate and ornate for eighth century work and
can hardly be dated much earlier than the tenth century. See Chapter 11 ante and the
bibliography to that chapter, especially the writings of Vietor and A. S. Cook, The
Dream of the Rood.
A somewhat similar, though very short, example of an inscription in the first
person is preserved on a cross at Brussels :-
Rod is min nama: geo io ricno oyning
baer byfigende, blode bestemed.
## p. 58 (#78) ##############################################
Old English Christian Poetry
poem may be noted. As in Beowulf, Andreas, Exodus and other
poems, the singer arrests the attention of his hearers by the
exclamation : “Hwaet ! ” =Lo, comparable to the “Listneth, lord-
ings” of the later minstrels. The device must have been a common
one in days when the harp was struck at festive gatherings and
the scop urged his claim to a hearing by a preliminary chord.
We must pass on to other poems that have, with more or less
show of reason, been attributed to Cynewulf. Of these, the longest
is the life of the Mercian saint Guthlac. It falls into two parts,
the first, apparently, having been composed during the lifetime of
the anchorite who is the subject of the poem, the second being
based upon the Latin Vita by Felix of Croyland. The main
question that has been discussed has been whether both parts
are by one and the same author or not, and whether Cynewulf
can lay claim to one or both parts. If only one part can be attri-
buted to him it should be part II (Guthlac B). Since the conclusion
to this part is missing, it may, conceivably, have contained Cyne-
wulf's signature in runes. There is no gap in the MS between the
conclusion of Crist and the beginning of Guthlac, and Gollancz
has assumed that the passage commonly read as the conclusion of
Crist (1l. 1666—1694) really forms the introduction to Guthlac.
These lines are, no doubt, superfluous as regards Crist, but they
are yet more unsuitable considered as an introduction to Guthlac,
which begins, quite appropriately, with a common epic formula
“Monge sindon” (cf. the opening of The Phoenix). It would be
better to assume them to be a fragment of some independent poem
on the joys of the blessed.
The death of Guthlac is related in lines full of strength and
beauty. The writer has entered into the spirit of the last great
struggle with the powers of darkness and death, even as Bunyan
did when he related the passage of Christian through the Valley
of the Shadow of Death. The wondrous light that shines over
Guthlac's hut before he dies irresistibly recalls the waving lights
in the sky familiar to every northerner and, when we read that,
at the saint's entry into the heavenly mansions, the whole land of
England trembled with rapture, we feel that, whether Cynewulf
wrote the poem or not, we are in the presence of a poet who does
not lack imaginative power of a high order.
The Phoenix has been attributed to Cynewulf by a large
number of competent critics. The first portion of it is based
upon a Latin poem attributed to Lactantius, and there is some
ground for assuming Cynewulf's acquaintance with that Latin
## p. 59 (#79) ##############################################
The Phoenix
59
author, since a copy of the book was contained in Alcuin's library
at York, and Cynewulf may very well have been a scholar in the
school at York? . The second part of the poem, the allegorical -
application of the myth to Christ, is based on the writings of
Ambrose and Bede. The characteristic feature of the poem is its
love of colour and wealth of gorgeous descriptive epithets.
Especially noteworthy, in this respect, is the description of the
land where the phoenix dwells :
Winsome is the wold there; there the wealds are green,
Spacious spread below the skies; 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 hoar-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-but the wold abides
Ever happy, healthful there 2.
This passage illustrates not only the feeling of English poets
towards nature, but also the development that took place in
consequence of the influence of Latin letters. The Northumbrian
poets were not unskilled in the depiction of scenes with which
they were familiar; but in The Phoenix we have, for the first time,
a poet attempting, under literary influence, and with an obviously a
conscious striving after artistic effect, to paint an ideal landscape,
the beauty and gentleness of summer climes, the wealth of tropical
nature, the balminess of a softer air, where there shall be no more,
or only a sun-lit, sea, unlike the sullen gloom of the northern
waters.
The conclusion of the poem is of an unusual kind. It consists
of eleven lines in a mixture of English and Latin, the first half of
each line being English, the second half Latin, the Latin alliterating
with the English.
Portions of an Old English Physiologus have also been at
tributed to Cynewulf. Allegorical bestiaries were a favourite
form of literature from the fifth century down to the Middle
Ages. They consisted of descriptions of certain beasts, birds and
fishes which were considered capable of an allegorical significance.
The allegorical meaning was always attached to the description,
much as a moral is appended to a fable. The development of this
form of literature was due to the fondness for animal symbolism
characteristic of early Christian art. Only three specimens of
such descriptions are extant in Old English literature. They deal
with the panther, the whale and the partridge. The panther is
* Cook, Christ, p. lxiv.
• Stopford Brooke's version.
## p. 60 (#80) ##############################################
60
Old English Christian Poetry
complete, there is a gap in the description of the whale, of the
partridge there is hardly sufficient to prove that the bird described
was really a partridge. It is uncertain whether these pieces
were merely isolated attempts at imitation of a foreign model or
whether they formed part of a complete Old English Physiologus.
Two somewhat divergent texts of a Latin Physiologus (B and C),
belonging to the ninth century, have been discovered. The re-
semblance between the Latin text and the Old English is fairly
striking in B where, after twenty-two other animals have been
described, we have the panther, the whale and the partridge ;
probably both Old English and Latin versions are derived from a
common source. The panther, as usual, is symbolical of Christ,
and the whale, which lures seafarers to moor their “ocean-mares”
to it, thinking its back an island, represents the “accuser of the
brethren” and its gaping mouth is the gate of Hell.
The assumption that the first of a series of Old English Riddles,
95 in all, was a charade meaning Cynewulf, or Coenwulf, caused
the collection to be attributed to him. These riddles are trans-
mitted in the Exeter Book. They are closely connected with
similar collections of Latin riddles, more especially one by Aldhelm.
Aldhelm's work is based upon that of the fifth century Latin poet
Symphosius, and Aldhelm was the first English writer to acclimatise
the Latin riddle in England. Forty riddles by archbishop Tatwin,
which were expanded by Eusebius to the number of 100, are also
extant. The author of the Old English riddles derived most of
his inspiration from Aldhelm, but he also seems to have gone
direct to Symphosius and to have made some slight use of the
work of Eusebius and Tatwin.
The theory that the solution of the first riddle was the name
Coenwulf, i. e. Cynewulf, was refuted by Trautmann, in 1883, and,
later, by Sievers, on linguistic and other grounds.
The peculiarly English tone and character of the riddles is, in
some measure, due to Aldhelm's example. For, though he wrote
in Latin, his style differentiates his work from that of the Latin
authors, and accounts for the popularity this form of literature
acquired in England. Furthermore, the author or authors of the
Old English riddles borrow themes from native folk-song and saga;
in their hands inanimate objects become endowed with life and
personality; the powers of nature become objects of worship such
as they were in olden times; they describe the scenery of their
own country, the fen, the river and the sea, the horror of the
untrodden forest, sun and moon engaged in perpetual pursuit of
## p. 61 (#81) ##############################################
The Riddles
61
ul.
each other, the nightingale and the swan, the plough guided by
the "grey-haired enemy of the wood,” the bull breaking up the
clods left unturned by the plough, the falcon, the arm-companion
of aethelings-scenes, events, characters familiar in the England of
that day. Riddle XLI, De Creatura, and Riddle ix, on the Nightin-
gale, which are subjects taken from Aldhelm, may be compared with
the Latin versions to prove how far the more imaginative English
poet was from being a mere imitator, and the storm and iceberg
riddles breathe the old northern and viking spirit. Riddle XXXVI
is also preserved in Northumbrian in a MS at Leyden.
The most varied solutions have, from time to time, been
suggested for some of the riddles, and the meaning of many is
by no means clear. The most recent attempts at a solution of the
first riddle have been made by Schofield and Gollancz. They see
in this short poem an Old English monodrama in five acts, wherein.
a lady boasts of fidelity to her lover, but, during his absence,
proves faithless and lives to endure the vengeance of her husband
in the loss of her child.
We may note, in conclusion, a group of minor poems which have
one characteristic feature in common, namely, the note of personal
religion; they are, for the most part, lyric or didactic in character,
dealing with the soul's need of redemption. Of these, the Death
Song attributed to Bede by his pupil Cuthbert, who gives an
approximate Latin rendering of it', is preserved in a Northumbrian
version in a MS at St Gall and belongs to the same period as
Caedmon's Hymn.
One of the most interesting of the group is the Address of the
Lost Soul to the Body, a frequent theme in later literature. It is
one of the very few Old English poems preserved in two versions,
one in the Exeter, the other in the Vercelli, Book. In the latter
codex is contained a fragment of a very rare theme, the Address
of the Saved Soul to the Body. A poem on the day of doom
is transmitted in the Exeter Book. It is a general admonition
to lead a godly, righteous and sober life after the fashion of many
similar warnings in later literature.
A group of four short poems, of which three are preserved in the
Exeter Book, deal with attributes common to mankind. The Gifts
of Men (Bi monna craeftum)-based, largely, upon the 29th homily
of pope Gregory, and, hence, sometimes attributed to Cynewulf ;
the Fates of Men (Bi manna wyrdum), which, though allied in
theme to the previous poem, differs very considerably from it
1 Epistola Cuđberti ad Cudwinum.
## p. 62 (#82) ##############################################
62 Old English Christian Poetry
in treatment; the Mind of Man (Bi manna mode) and the
Falsehood of Man (Bi manna lease), which may be described as
poetical homilies.
The Riming Poem is a solitary instance of the occurrence in
English poetry of the consistent use of end-rime and alliteration
in one and the same poem. The theme, "sorrow's crown of
sorrows is remembering happier things,” recalls the epilogue to
Elene, but the resemblance is not sufficiently striking to justify
the attribution of the poem to Cynewulf. The metrical form is
an accurate imitation of the Höfudlausn of Egill Skallagríms-
son, which was composed in Northumberland at the court of
Aethelstan.
It is generally thought that gnomic or didactic poetry,
which seems to have been very popular during the Old English
period, had its origin in the religious exercises of heathen times.
Certainly it is well represented in the mythological poems of the
Edda, whether we take the proverb form, as in the first part of
Hávamál, or the form of question and answer, as in Vaf þruðnismál
and other poems. Old English proverbs are, however, almost
entirely deprived of heathen colouring. One collection, amounting
altogether to 206 lines in three sections, is preserved in the Exeter
Book, and another, containing 66 lines, serves as a preface to one
of the texts of the Chronicle. The proverbs in the two collections
are of much the same kind, giving, in each case, the chief charac-
teristic of the thing mentioned, e. g. "frost shall freeze," or "a king
shall have government. " Generally, however, they run into two or
more lines, beginning and ending in the middle, so that the whole
collection has the form of a connected poem. In this class of
literature we may, perhaps, also include A Father's Instruction,
a poem consisting of ten moral admonitions (94 lines in all)
addressed by a father to his son somewhat after the nature of
the Proverbs of Solomon. In form, it may be compared with
Sigrdrífumál and the last part of Hávamál, but the matter is
very largely Christian. Mention must also be made of The Runic
Poem, which, likewise, has Scandinavian parallels. Each of the
letters of the runic alphabet had its own name, wbich was also the
word for some animal, plant or other article, e. g. riches, buffalo,
thorn; and it is the properties of these which the poem describes,
allotting three or four lines to each. The other form of didactic
poetry, the dialogue, is represented in Old English in the poem
known as Salomon and Saturn. This alliterative poem is pre-
served in two MSS in the Library of Corpus Christi College,
## p. 63 (#83) ##############################################
Caedmon and Cynewulf 63
Cambridge. King Solomon, as the representative of Jewish
wisdom, is represented as measuring forces with Saturn, a docile
learner and mild disputant. The Old English dialogue has its
counterpart in more than one literature, but, in other countries,
Marcolf, who takes the place of Saturn, gets the best of the game,
and saucy wit confounds the teacher.
names of Caedmthe work of the twned by Old 7
Any attempt to estimate the development attained by Old
English literature, as shown by the work of the two schools of
poetry which the names of Caedmon and Cynewulf connote, must,
of necessity, be somewhat superficial, in view of the fragmentary
nature of much of the work passed under review. Caedmon stands
for a group of singers whose work we feel to be earlier in tone and
feeling, though not always in age, than that which we know to be
Cynewulf's or can fairly attribute to him. Both schools of thought
are Christian, not rarely even monkish ; both writers, if not in
equal measure, are sons of their age and, palpably, inheritors of a
philosophy of life pagan in many respects. It is safe to say that,
in both groups, there is hardly a single poem of any length and
importance in which whole passages are not permeated with the
spirit of the untouched Beowulf, in which turns of speech, ideas, .
points of view, do not recall an earlier, a fiercer, a more self-
reliant and fatalistic age. God the All-Ruler is fate metamor-
phosed; the powers of evil are identical with those once called
giants and elves; the Paradise and Hell of the Christian are as
realistic as the Walhalla and the Niflheim of the heathen ancestor.
Yet the work of Cynewulf and his school marks an advance
upon the writings of the school of Caedmon. Even the latter
is, at times, subjective and personal in tone to a degree not
found in pure folk-epic; but in Cynewulf the personal note is
emphasised and becomes lyrical. Caedmon's hymn in praise of
the Creator is a sublime statement of generally recognised facts
calling for universal acknowledgment in suitably exalted terms;
Cynewulf's confessions in the concluding portion of Elene or in
The Dream of the Rood, or his vision of the day of judgment in
Crist, are lyrical outbursts, spontaneous utterances of a soul
which has become one with its subject and to which self-revelation
is a necessity. This advance shows itself frequently, also, in the de-)
scriptions of nature. For Cynewulf, “ earth's crammed with heaven,
and every common bush afire with God”; it is, perhaps, only in
portions of Exodus and in passages of Genesis B that the Divine
immanence in nature is obviously felt by the Caedmonian scop.
at the Christia
the work of no and the Nifheim
## p. 64 (#84) ##############################################
64
Old English Christian Poetry
- The greatest distinction between the one school and the other
is due, however, to the degree in which Cynewulf and his group
show their power of assimilating foreign literary influences.
England was ceasing to be insular as the influence of a literary
tongue began to hold sway over her writers. They are scholars
deliberately aiming at learning from others—they borrow freely,
adapt, reproduce. Form has become of importance; at times, of
supreme importance; the attempt, architecturally imperfect as it
may be, to construct the trilogy we know as Crist is valuable as
a proof of consciousness in art, and the transformation that the
riddles show in the passage from their Latin sources furnishes
additional evidence of the desire to adorn.
Yet, it is hard not to regret much that was lost in the
acquisition of the new. The reflection of the spirit of paganism,
the development of epic and lyric as we see them in the fragments
that remain, begin to fade and change; at first, Christianity is seen
to be but a thin veneer over the old heathen virtues, and the gradual
assimilation of the Christian spirit was not accomplished without
harm to the national poetry, or without resentment on the part of the
people. “They have taken away our ancient worship, and no one
knows how this new worship is to be performed,” said the hostile
common folk to the monks, when the latter were praying at Tyne-
mouth for the safety of their brethren carried out to sea. “We are not
going to pray for them. May God spare none of them,” they jibed,
when they saw that Cuthbert's prayers appeared to be ineffectual.
It was many a year before the hostility to the new faith was
overcome and the foreign elements blended with the native
Teutonic spirit. The process of blending can be seen perfectly
at work in such lines as The Charm for Barren Land, where
pagan feeling and nominal Christianity are inextricably mixed.
There, earth spells are mingled with addresses to the Mother of
Heaven. But, in due season, the fusion was accomplished, and, in
part, this was due to the wisdom with which the apostles of
Christianity retained and disguised in Christian dress many of
the festivals, observances and customs of pre-Christian days. That
much of what remains of Old English literature is of a religious
nature does not seem strange, when it is remembered through
whose hands it has come down to us.
Only what appealed to the
new creed or could be modified by it would be retained or adapted,
when the Teutonic spirit became linked with, and tamed by, that
of Rome.
## p. 65 (#85) ##############################################
CHAPTER V
LATIN WRITINGS IN ENGLAND TO THE TIME
OF ALFRED
It is outside the scope of this work to survey the various
scattered documents of British origin which were produced
outside Britain. Moreover, the influence of most of them upon
the main stream of English literature was, beyond all doubt,
extremely slight. Among the writings thus excluded from
consideration may be mentioned the remains of Pelagius, who
seems to have been actually the earliest British author, the
short tract of Fastidius, “a British bishop,” on the Christian
life, and the two wonderful books of St Patrick-the Confession
and the Letter to Coroticus—which, in spite of their barbaric style,
whereof the author was fully conscious, are among the most living
and attractive monuments of ancient Christianity. Outside our
province also falls the earliest piece of Latin verse produced in
these islands, the Hymn of St Sechnall; and also the hymns
of the Bangor antiphonary, the writings of Columban and the
lives and remains of the Irish missionaries abroad. All these are
named here principally lest it should be supposed that they
have been forgotten.
We pass to our earliest indigenous literary products ; and the
list of these is headed by two somewhat uncouth fragments,
marked off from almost all that follow them by the fact that they
are British and not English in origin. These are the book of
Gildas and the History of the Britons.
Concerning the career of Gildas the Wise, we are told much in
the lives of him by a monk of Rhuys, and by Caradoc of Lancarvan,
which belong respectively to the early part of the eleventh
century and to the twelfth ; but almost all the data that can
be regarded as trustworthy are derived from Gildas's own book
and from brief notices in Irish and Welsh annals. As examined
by Zimmer and Theodor Mommsen, these sources tell us that Gildas,
born about the year 500 A. D. , was living in the west of England and
E. L. I. CH. V.
## p. 66 (#86) ##############################################
66
Latin Writings in England
wrote the book which we possess shortly before 547; that, perhaps,
he journeyed to Rome; that he spent the last years of his life
in Britanny and probably died there in 570; and that not long
before his death (probably also in his younger days) he visited
Ireland. He is represented by various authorities as having been
a pupil of St Iltut at Lantwit Major in Wales, together with other
great saints of the time.
The book of his which remains to us is thus entitled by its most
recent editor, Mommsen: “Of Gildas the Wise concerning the
destruction and conquest of Britain, and his lamentable castigation
uttered against the kings, princes and priests thereof. " The
manuscripts differ widely in the names they assign to it.
The author himself in his opening words describes his work as
an epistle. For ten years it has been in his mind, he says, to deliver
his testimony about the wickedness and corruption of the British
state and church; but he has, though with difficulty, kept silence.
Now, he must prove himself worthy of the charge laid upon him as
a leading teacher, and speak. But, first, he will, with God's help, set
forth shortly some facts about the character of the country and
the fortunes of its people. Here follows that sketch of the history
of Britain which, largely used by Bede and by the compilers of the
History of the Britons, is almost our only literary authority for the
period. In compiling it, Gildas says he has not used native sources,
which, if they ever existed, had perished, but“narratives from beyond
the sea. " What this precisely means it is not easy to determine.
The only historical authors whose influence can be directly traced in
his text are Rufinus's version of Eusebius, Jerome's Chronicle and
Orosius; and none of these records the local occurrences which
Gildas relates. Moreover, the story, as he tells it, clearly appears
to be derived from oral traditions (in some cases demonstrably
incorrect) rather than copied from any older written sources. It
may be that Gildas drew his knowledge from aged British monks
who had settled in Ireland or Britanny: it may be that by the
relatio transmarina he merely means the foreign historians just
mentioned. Brief and rather vague as it is, the narrative may
be accepted as representing truly enough the course of events.
It occupies rather more than a quarter of the whole work, and
brings us down to the time, forty-four years after the British
victory of Mount Badon, when the descendants of the hero of
that field, Ambrosius Aurelianus, had departed from the virtues
of their great ancestor, and when, in the view of our author, the
moral and spiritual state of the whole British dominion had sunk
## p. 67 (#87) ##############################################
Gildas
67
to the lowest level of degradation. In the pages that follow, he
attacks, successively and by name, five of the princes of the west:
Constantine of Devon and Cornwall, Aurelius Caninus, whose
sphere of influence is unknown, Vortipor of Pembrokeshire,
Cuneglasus, king of an unnamed territory and the “dragon of
the isle,” Maglocunus, who is known to have reigned over Anglesey
and to have died in the year 547. Each of these is savagely
reproached with his crimes-sacrilege, perjury, adultery and
murder-and each is, in milder terms, entreated to return to the
ways of peace.
Up to this point the epistle is of great interest, though tanta-
lising from its lack of precise detail. It now becomes far less
readable. The whole of the remainder is, practically, a cento
of biblical quotations, gathering together the woes pronounced
in Scripture against evil princes and evil priests, and the exhorta-
tions found therein for their amendment. The picture which the
author draws of the principate and of the clergy is almost without
relief in its blackness. He does just allow that there are a few
good priests; but corruption, worldliness and vice are rampant
among the majority.
That Gildas was convinced of the urgency of his message there
is no room to doubt. Like Elijah at Horeb, he feels that he is left
alone, a prophet of the Lord; and every word he writes comes from
his heart. Yet, if we are certain of his sincerity, we are at least
equally confident that his picture must be too darkly coloured.
We have complained that he lacks precision : it must be added
that he loves adjectives, and adjectives in the superlative degree.
Doubtless Salonius and Sagittarius, the wicked bishops of Gap and
Embrun, of whom Gregory of Tours has so much to say, had their
counterparts in Britain : but there were also St Iltut, St David
and many another, renowned founders of schools and teachers
of the young, whose labours cannot have been wholly fruitless.
In style, Gildas is vigorous to the point of turgidity. His
breathless periods are often wearisome and his epithets multi-
tudinous. Perhaps the most pleasant sample of his writing is
the paragraph in which he enumerates with an ardent and real
affection the beauties of Britain. In a few instances he shows
that tendency to adorn his page with rare and difficult words
which seems to have had a great attraction for the Celtic
mind.
It is evident that he considers himself a Roman citizen in some
sense. To him, Latin is “our tongue,” as opposed to English; and
3-2
## p. 68 (#88) ##############################################
68
Latin Writings in England
the impression given by this phrase is confirmed by the whole
tenor of his writing. His sources of inspiration, as we have in part
seen, are Roman. To those already mentioned we may add the
names of Vergil and, perhaps, Juvenal and Claudian.
In summing up the impression which he leaves upon us, we may
say that his eyes are fixed regretfully upon a great past; there is
no hint of hope for the future. The thought that the heathen English
might become a source of light to the western world is one that
has never dawned on him. In short, Gildas is a dark and sad
figure. Night is falling round him; all that he has been taught to
prize is gone from him or going; and, when he looks upon his land,
“behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the
heavens thereof. "
The literary history of the book is not very complicated. The
compilers of the History of the Britons used it, and so did Bede, and
the authors of the lives of Gildas and of other Breton saints. In
the twelfth century it was a rare book in England, as William of
Newburgh tells us : but Geoffrey of Monmouth had it before him
in the first half of that century.
We have, besides the epistle par excellence, relics of other
epistles of Gildas, in which his peculiar style is very recognisable,
and also some penitential canons. Of these latter, we need only say
that the precise extent of the material in them which can be
certainly assigned to Gildas is still in dispute.
Another fragment of Gildan literature, upon whose authenticity
à curious literary question depends, is the hymn called Lorica
or Cuirass. This is a metrical prayer, in which the suppliant
asks for divine protection against “the mortality of this year"
and against evil demons, and enumerates each limb and organ of
his body. The form which the prayer takes, though not common,
is not unique. A similar hymn in Irish is attributed to St Patrick,
and there are others of Irish origin. The attribution of this par-
ticular Lorica to Gildas (Gillus, the name in the manuscript, is
pretty clearly meant for Gildas) is not unanimous : one Lathacan,
Laidcenn, or Loding (probably an Irish prince of the seventh
century) is named by several copies once as having brought
the hymn to Ireland. Zimmer is confident in maintaining that
Gildas is the author: Mommsen dissents from this view.
It may seem an indifferent matter whether this particular hymn
is a work of the sixth or seventh century; but the fact is that
its style and vocabulary are of considerable interest as throwing
light on the culture of its time, and they connect it with a longer
## p. 69 (#89) ##############################################
09
It
be
“ Hisperic” Latin
document or group of documents, the date and provenance of which
it would be very interesting to settle.
In its latter portion, where it enumerates the various parts of the
body, Lorica is, to a large extent, a collection of the most obscure
foreign and archaic words which the author could scrape together.
Hebrew, Greek and Latin are mingled in a most curious way,
and are so disguised and corrupted that, in many cases, we are
only able to divine their meaning by the help of glosses. It may
be allowable to quote a single line
gygram cephalem cum iaris et conas-
which is said to mean
head, head with hair and eyes.
The other group of writings in which a similarly extraordinary
vocabulary occurs is represented principally by the work called
Hisperica Famina, which we possess in more than one text. It
is arranged in a series of sections, numbering in all somewhat over
600 lines, of a kind of assonant non-metrical structure. Each line
usually consists of two parts. The first part contains one or two
epithets, and the verb and subject are in the second part. Each
section contains a description of some scene or object-the day's
work, the sea, fire, the wind, a chapel, an encounter with robbers.
The writer is evidently a member of something like a monastic
school; and all that we can certainly say of his surroundings is
that he is brought into contact with Irish people, for they are
distinctly mentioned in the text.
It is impossible to give any idea of the obscurity of Hisperica
Famina without quoting or translating passages; and nothing
short of the genius of Sir Thomas Urquhart could find equiva-
lents for the amazing words used by the writer. This one point
is evident, that the same school produced Lorica and Hisperica
Famina. Was that school located in England or Ireland ? If
Gildas be author of Lorica, it follows, in all probability, that the
author of Hisperica Famina was a man brought up, like Gildas,
in a south Welsh school such as that of St Iltut, and, subsequently,
settled in Ireland, where he wrote Hisperica Famina. In this
case we must place him in the sixth century. One piece of evi-
dence which points in this direction can hardly be set aside. The
hymn attributed to St Columba and known as Altus prosator
contains very marked specimens of Hisperic Latinity. That this
composition is really of Columba's age is the belief of its latest
editors; and, if that be granted, there is no need to seek for
## p. 70 (#90) ##############################################
70 Latin Writings in England
further proof that Hisperica Famina could have been produced
in the sixth century, and that, whether Irish in origin or not, its
peculiarities were adopted by genuinely Irish authors.
The Historia Brittonum has been the centre of many con-
troversies as to its date and origin. As set forth in Theodor
Mommsen's edition, it consists of the following tracts, which
together form what has been called Volumen Britanniae, or
the Book of Britain. 1. A calculation of epochs of the world's
history, brought down to various dates by various scribes or
editors. 2. The history of the Britons down to a time immediately
after the death of Vortigern. 3. A short life of St Patrick.
4. A chapter about Arthur? 6. Genealogies of Saxon kings
and a calculation of epochs. 6. A list of cities of Britain. 7. A
tract on the wonders of Britain.
As to the probable date of this curious congeries of writings,
it is held that they were compiled by a Briton somewhere about
the year 679, after which additions were made to them. In
particular, about the year 800, a recension of the whole was made
by one Nennius. He represents himself as a pupil of Elbodugus
(who is known to have been bishop of Bangor, and to have died in
809) and also, seemingly, as a pupil of one Beulan, for whose son
Samuel he made his revision of the book. He may, very possibly,
be identical with the Nemnivus of whom we have some curious
relics preserved in a Bodleian manuscript.
The revision of Nennius is not extant in a complete form. Our
best authority for it is an Irish version made in the eleventh century
by Gilla Coemgin. Some of the Latin copies have preserved
extracts from the original, among which are the preface of Nennius
and some verses by him. A principal point to be remembered in
this connection is that it is scarcely correct to speak of the
History of the Britons as being the work of Nennius? .
The sources employed by the original compiler or compilers of
the various tracts which make up the “volume of Britain” are
both native and foreign. He or they have drawn largely upon
Celtic legend, written or oral. Other writings which have been
used to a considerable extent are Gildas, Jerome's Chronicle and
a lost life of St Germanus of Auxerre. Slighter traces of a
? See the chapter on the early history of the Arthurian legend in the present
volume.
The view here expressed is, in the main, that of Zimmer and Mommsen. It must
be mentioned that another hypothesis regards Nennius as primarily responsible for
the whole compilation. If this be accepted, there can be no possibility of Bode's
baving used the book.
## p. 71 (#91) ##############################################
Historia Brittonum. Theodore and Hadrian 71
knowledge of Vergil, Caesar, Isidore, and a map resembling the
Peutinger Table, are forthcoming.
Of the authors to whom the book was known in early times it
is only necessary to name two. In all probability, Bede was
acquainted with it, though he does not mention it as having
been one of his sources of information. Geoffrey of Monmouth
made fairly extensive use of it. The copy which he had
evidently attributed the authorship to Gildas, as do three at
least of our extant manuscripts.
It is hardly possible to speak of the History as possessing a
distinctive style. Where the author attempts a detailed narrative,
his manner reminds us of the historical portions of the Old Testa-
ment. The books of Chronicles, with their mixture of genealogy
and story, afford a near and familiar parallel.
If we possessed the whole of the revision by Nennius in its
Latin form, we should most likely find that he had infused into it
something of the learned manner beloved of his race and age. At
least, his preface and his verses indicate this. Greek and Hebrew
words occur in the verses, and one set of them is so written that
the initials of the words form an alphabet. The original author of
the History had no such graces. His best passage is the well-
known tale of Vortigern.
Within a generation after the death of Gildas the Roman
mission came to Kent, and the learning of the Latins, secular as
well as sacred, was brought within reach of the English. The
seventh century saw them making copious use of this enormous
gift, and Latin literature flourished in its new and fertile soil.
Probably the coming of archbishop Theodore and abbot
Hadrian to Canterbury in the year 668 was the event which
contributed more than any other to the progress of education
in England. The personalities of these two men, both versed in
Greek as well as in Latin learning, determined, at least at first,
the quality and complexion of the literary output of the country.
But theirs was not the only strong influence at work. In the first
place, the fashion of resorting to Ireland for instruction was very
prevalent among English students; in the second place, the inter-
course between England and Rome was incessant. Especially was
this the case in the monasteries of the north. To take a single
famous instance: five times did Benedict Biscop, abbot of
Wearmouth, journey from Britain to Rome, and, on each occasion,
he returned laden with books and artistic treasures. A less familiar
example may also be cited. Cuthwin, bishop of the east Angles
## p. 72 (#92) ##############################################
72
Latin Writings in England
about 750, brought with him from Rome a life of St Paul full of
pictures; and an illustrated copy of Sedulius, now at Antwerp
(in the Plantin Museum) has been shown to have belonged to
the same owner.
Four books which have been preserved to our times may be
cited as tangible monuments of the various influences which
were being exercised upon the English in the seventh century.
The Gregorian Gospels at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
(MS 286), written in the seventh century and illustrated with
pictures which, if not painted in Italy, go back to Italian originals,
represent the influence of Augustine. The Graeco-Latin copy of
the Acts of the Apostles at Oxford (Laud. Gr. 35) may well have
been brought to this country by Theodore or Hadrian. The
Lindisfarne Gospels show the blend of Celtic with Anglian art,
and contain indications of a Neapolitan archetype. The Codex
Amiatinus of the Latin Bible, now at Florence, written at
Wearmouth or Jarrow and destined as a present for the pope,
shows England acknowledging her debt to Rome.
The first considerable literary figure among English writers of
Latin is undoubtedly Aldhelm, who died bishop of Sherborne in
709. Much of his life was passed at Malmesbury, and the account
given by William of Malmesbury, on the authority of king Alfred's
Handbook, of Aldhelm's skill as a poet in the vernacular, and
of his singing to the harp songs of his own composing by which
he hoped to teach the country people, is, probably, the only fact
associated with his name in the minds of most. Glad as we should
Lbe to possess these English poems, it is certain that Aldhelm and
his contemporaries must have thought little of them in com-
parison with his Latin works. There may have been many in the
land who could compose in English; but there were assuredly very
few who were capable of producing writings such as those on which
Aldhelm's reputation rests.
For our purposes one fact derived from a letter of Aldhelm
himself is of extreme importance. In his youth he was for a
considerable time a pupil of Hadrian of Canterbury.
A late biographer, Faricius, credits Aldhelm with a knowledge
of Greek (derived from two teachers procured by king Ine from
Athens), of Hebrew and of Latin, which tongue no one had
employed to greater advantage since Vergil. These statements
cannot be taken quite as they stand. We do not hear from any
other source of the Athenian teachers, and the Greek which
Aldhelm undoubtedly knew he could perfectly well have learned
## p. 73 (#93) ##############################################
Aldhelm
73
from Hadrian. There is, practically, nothing to show that he knew
Hebrew, and we need not spend time in examining the remark
about Vergil. In spite of this and similar exaggerations, the
fact remains that Aldhelm's learning is really very great for
his time.
The writings of his which we possess are the following:
1. A number of letters. 2. A prose treatise on the praise of
virginity. 3. A versification, in hexameters, of the same treatise.
4. A prose book on the number seven and on metres, especially
the hexameter, containing also a collection of one hundred riddles
in verse. 5. Occasional poems, principally inscriptions for altars
or the like.
. Of the letters (several of which have been preserved among
the correspondence of St Boniface) two are of particular interest.
The first of these, addressed to the Welsh king Geraint, complains
of the irregularities of the British clergy in regard to the form of
the tonsure and the observance of Easter, and of their unchristian
attitude towards the English clergy, with whom they refuse to
hold any intercourse. It warns the king of the dangers incurred
by those who are out of communion with the church of Peter, and
begs him to use his influence in favour of union. The style and
vocabulary of this letter are unusually plain and straightforward.
Few words appear to be inserted simply for the sake of adorning
the page. It is a sincere and business-like document.
The other offers a wide contrast. It is written to one Eahfrid
on his return from Ireland, whither he had gone for purposes of
study, and is intended to show that equally good teaching could
be obtained in England. With this in view, Aldhelm pours out
all the resources of an extremely rich and varied vocabulary upon
his correspondent. In the opening lines the figure of alliteration
is employed to an alarming extent: out of sixteen consecutive
words fifteen begin with p. Once or twice, the writer breaks
without rime or reason into Greek (the phrase ad doxam
onomatis kyrië is a good example); and Latinised Greek words
stud the text, together with unfamiliar Latin. Elaborate passages
of metaphor, too, occur-one about bees, of which Aldhelm is
specially fond—and the whole affords as concentrated a sample of
the author's "learned” style as it is possible to find in a small
compass. An interesting feature in the theme is a panegyric on
Theodore and Hadrian, who are extolled as capable of routing
and putting to shame all the scholars of Ireland.
It is evident that this letter was much admired, for it survives
## p. 74 (#94) ##############################################
74
Latin Writings in England
in a good many copies, in juxtaposition with the treatise on
virginity, with which it has no connection.
The two books in prose and verse on virginity were the most
popular of Aldhelm's writings. A short sketch of their contents
must be given.
po The prose treatise is addressed to a group of nuns, some of
whom have English names, while others have adopted the names
of virgin saints. They are headed by Hildelitha, who afterwards
became abbess of Barking. We have, first, a thanksgiving for the
learning and virtue of the community, a lengthy comparison of
nuns to bees and a panegyric on the state of virginity, with a
warning against the eight principal vices. Then follows the main
| body of the work, consisting of a number of examples of men and
women who have excelled in chastity.
