No More Learning

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? Chapter
[The Second of the Monuments, The Nibelungen Lied: Critical
Estimate of Its Unifying Principle of Imaginative Truth, Its
Form and Organization, Its Use of the Supernatural, and Its
Use of Tragic Forecast. Running Account of Its Plotting and
Characters . .
A GARDEN we may well name that noble Song; which is not only
by far the finest monument of Old German art, and such a monu-
ment as no other nation can exhibit in that era, but intrinsically,
and for its own sake, a work of true excellence; still worthy, in
some measure, to be regarded even as a Poem, in the strictest
sense of that word. For it is not without a certain unity of in-
terest and purport; an internal coherence and completeness: it
is a Whole, and some spirit of Music dwells in it, and informs
it. Considering farther its external history, and the environ-
ment we now find it in, it is doubly to be prized and wondered at;
for it differs from those Hero-Books, as molten or carved metal
does from rude ore; almost as some Shakspeare from his fellow
Dramatists, whose Tamburlaines 177 and Island Princesses, 178
themselves not without merit, first show us clearly in what pure
loftiness and loneliness the Hamlets and Tempests have their
abode.
The unknown Singer of the Nibelungen, tho' no Shakspeare,
must have had a deep, genial, poetic soul; wherein things dis-
continuous and inanimate shaped themselves together, and took
life: and the Universe and its wondrous purport stood signifi-
cantly pictured, overarching as with heavenly Firmaments, and
infinite Spaces, and eternal Harmonies, the little scene where
men strut and fret their hour. 179 His Poem, unlike so many old
and new usurpers of that name, has a basis and structure of its
own; a beginning, middle, and end; there is one great principle
and idea set forth in it, round which all its multifarious parts
consistently unite themselves; it is, if we rightly consider it,
One Work. Such excellence^,] singular as it may seem, a fair
interpretation will more and more disclose to us here; not in-
deed as we find it in a Homer or Shakspeare, yet still, under its
own rude fashion, distinctly discernible. Remarkable it is, more-
over, how along with this essence and primary condition of all po-
etic virtue, the minor, external virtues of what we call Taste and
so forth are, as it were, presupposed; and the living soul of Po-
etry being there, its body of incidents, its garment of language,
come of their own accord, and can be seen in their beauty even
by such as have no vision for that far deeper beauty they arise
from. Thus too in the case of Shakspeare: his feeling of propri-
ety, as compared with that of the Marlowes and Fletchers, his
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HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
quick sure sense of what is fit and unfit, either in act or word,
might astonish us, had he no other superiority. But true In-
spiration, as it may well do, includes that same Taste, in all
its bearings, with many far higher things: let us see but the
Herald Mercury actually descend from his Heaven, and the
bright wings, and graceful flight, will not be wanting.
It is singular with what instinctive Art, far different from
acquired Artifice, this Poet of the Nibelungen, working in the
same province with his contemporaries of the Heldenbuch, and
with the same material of Tradition, has possessed himself of
what they could only strive after; and yet, with his clear feeling
of 'fictitious Truth, ' avoided as false the errors and monstrous
perplexities in which they vainly struggled. He is of another
species than they. His very style, in its antique, garrulous
simplicity, is and must always have been of a quite superior
kind to theirs: for example, in place of doggrel, which as mat-
ters stand is the metre of the Heldenbuch, we have here a real
system of verse, not without essential regularity, and now and
then considerable harmony, at all events liveliness, of rhythm.
True, we must often call it a diffuse, even watery dialect that
of his; yet it is genuine, from the heart, with a rhythm in the
thoughts as well as in the words. His simplicity is never silly;
even in that perpetual recurrence of epithets; sometimes of
rhymes, as where two words, for instance Leib (or rather Lip,
Body, Life) and Weib (or Wip, Woman, Wife) are indissolubly
wedded together, and the one never shows itself without the other
following, -- there is something which reminds us not so much of
poverty, as of trustfulness, and child-like innocence. Indeed,
a strange charm lies in those old tones, where in gay, dancing
melodies, the sternest tidings are sung to us; and deep floods
of Sadness and Strife play lightly, in little curling billows, like
seas in summer. It is as a meek smile, in whose still, thought-
ful depths a whole infinitude of Patience, and Love, and heroic
Strength lay revealed. But in other cases too, we have seen this
outward sport and inward earnestness, those 'light movements
for the grave matter, ' offer grateful contrast, and cunningly ex-
cite us: for example, in Tasso; of whom tho' otherwise different
enough, this old Northern Singer has more than once reminded
us. There too, as well as here, we have a dark solemn meaning
in light guise: deeds of high temper, harsh self-denial, daring,
and death, stand embodied in that soft, quick-flowing, joyfully-
modulated verse. Nay, farther, as if the implement had, far
more than we might fancy, influenced and modified the work done,
those two Poems have, in one respect, the same poetical result
for us: in the Nibelungen, as in the Gerusalemme, the persons
and their story are indeed brought vividly before us, yet not near,
and palpably present; it is rather as if we looked on that scene
thro' some inverted telescope, whereby the whole was carried
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? NIBELUNGEN LIED
63
far away into the distance, the life-large figures compressed
into brilliant miniatures, so clear, so real, yet tiny, elflike,
and beautified as well as lessened, their hues being now closer
and brighter, the shadows and trivial features no longer visible.
This comes of singing Epic Poems; most part of which only pre-
tend to be sung. Tasso's rich melody still lives among the Itali-
an people; the Nibelungen also is what it professes to be, a Song.
No less striking than the verse and language is the fable, or
narrative material, of the Nibelungen; so daintily yet firmly is
it put together; with such felicitous selection of the beautiful,
the essential, and no less felicitous rejection of whatever was
unbeautiful, or even extraneous. The reader is no longer af-
flicted with that chaotic brood of Firedrakes, Giants, and mali-
cious turbaned Turks, so fatally rife in the Heldenbuch; all this
is swept away, or only hovers, in faint fragments, afar off; and
free field is opened for legitimate and perennial interests. Yet
neither is the Nibelungen without its wonders; for it is Poetry
and not Prose: here too a supernatural world encompasses the
natural, and tho' at rare intervals, and in calm manner, mani-
fests itself therein. 180 Wonderful it is how skilfully this Poet
deals with the marvellous; admitting it without reluctance or
criticism, yet precisely in that degree and shape that will best
avail him. Here, if in no other respect, we should say that he
has a decided superiority to Homer himself. The whole Story
of the Nibelungen is fateful, mysterious, guided on by unseen
influences; yet the actual marvels are few; and done in the far
distance: those Dwarfs, and Cloaks of Darkness, and charmed
Treasure-caves are heard of rather than beheld; the tidings of
them seem to issue from unknown Space. Vain were it to in-
quire where that Nibelungen-land specially is: its very name is
Nebel-land, or Nifl-land, the land of Darkness, of Invisibility.
The Nibelungen Heroes that muster in thousands and tens of
thousands, tho' they march to the Rhine or Donau, and we see
their strong limbs and shining armour, we could almost fancy
to be children of air. Far beyond the firm horizon, that won-
derbearing region swims on the infinite waters; invisible to the
bodily eye, or at most discerned as a faint cloudy streak, hang-
ing in the blue depths, in mid-heaven. And thus the Nibelungen
Song, tho' based on the bottomless foundations of Spirit, and
not unvisited of skyey Messengers, is a real, rounded habitable
Earth; where we find firm footing, and the wondrous and the
common lie amicably together. Perhaps it would be difficult to
find any Poet of ancient or modern times who in this difficult
problem had steered his way with greater delicacy and success.
The Nibelungen has been called the Northern Epos, yet it
has in great part a dramatic character: those Thirty-nine Aven-
tiuren (Adventures) it consists of might be so many scenes in a
real Tragedy. The catastrophe is dimly prophecied from the
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? 64
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
beginning; and at every fresh step, rises more and more clear-
ly into view. A shadow of coming Fate, as it were a low, in-
articulate voice of Doom, falls, from the first, out of that
charmed Nibelungen-Land: the discord of two women is as a
little spark of evil passion, that ere long enlarges itself into a
crime; foul murder is done; and now the Sin rolls on like a de-
vouring fire, till the guilty and the innocent are alike encircled
with it, and a whole land is ashes, and a whole race is swept
away.
In this simple wise, the Poem opens:181
Uns ist in alten moeren wunders vil geseit,
von helden lobeboeren, von grozer chiinheit,
von vrouden und' hoch-geziten von weinen und von chlagen
von chuner rechen striten muget ir nu wunder horen sagen.
We find in ancient story Wonders many told
Of heroes in great glory With spirit free and bold;
Of joyances and high-tides Of weeping and of woe
Of noble Recken striving Mote ye now wonders know.
Which promise we shall see is faithfully performed; as indeed
in the theme here chosen there lay materials enough. For, as
we directly thereupon learn,
Es wilhs in Burgonden ein vil edel magedin,
daz in allen landen vihl schoners mohte sin,
Chriemhild was si geheizen, si wart ein schone wip:
dar-umbe musen degene vil verliesen den lip.
A right noble Maiden Did grow in Burgandyl82
That in all lands of Earth Nought fairer mote there be,
Chriemhild, of Worms, she hight, She was a fairest Wife:
For the which must warriors Amany lose their Life. *
Chriemhild, this world's-wonder, a king's daughter andking's
sister, and no less coy and proud than fair, dreams one night
that 'she had petted a Falcon, strong, beautiful and wild; which
two Eagles snatched away from her: this she was forced to see:
* This is the first of a thousand instances, in which the two
inseparables Wip and Lip, or in the modern tongue Weib and
Leib, as mentioned above, appear together. From these two
opening stanzas of the Nibelungen Lied, the reader may ob-
tain some idea of the versification: it runs on in more or less
irregular alexandrines, with a caesural pause in each, where
the break occurs; indeed the lines seem originally to have
been divided in two at that point; for sometimes as in the first
Stanza, the middle words (moeren, lobeboeran; geziten, striten)
also rhyme; but this is rather a rare case. -- The word Rechen
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? NIBELUNGEN LIED
65
greater sorrow felt she never in the world. ' Her Mother Ute,
to whom she related the vision, soon read it for her: the Fal-
con was a noble Husband; whom, God keep him, she must sud-
denly lose. Chriemhild declares warmly for the single state;
as indeed, living there at the Court of Worms, with her Bro-
thers, Gunther, Gemot, Geiselher, 'three Kings noble and rich, '
in such pomp and renown, the pride of Burgonden-land and the
Earth might readily enough have changed for the worse. How-
ever, Dame Ute bids her not be too emphatical; for 'if ever she
have heartfelt joy in life, it will be from man's love, and she
shall be a fair Wife (Weib), when God sends-her a right-worthy
Ritter's Leib. ' Chriemhild is more in earnest, than maidens
usually are when they talk thus; it appears, she guarded against
love for many a lief-long day: nevertheless she too must yield
to the general destiny. 'Honourably she was to become a most
noble Ritter's wife': 'this, ' adds the old Singer, 'was that same
Falcon she dreamed of: how sorely she since revenged him on
her nearest kindred! For that one death died full many a mother's
son. '
It may be observed that the Poet here, and at all times, shows
a marked partiality for Chriemhild; ever striving, unlike other
Signers fsicj, to magnify her worth, her faithfulness and loveliness;
and softening, as much as may be, whatever makes against her.
No less a favourite with him is Siegfried, the prompt, gay, peace-
able, peerless hero; to whom, in the Second Aventiure, we are
here suddenly introduced, at Santen (Xante n)[J the Court of Nether -
land, whither to his glad Parents, after achievements 'of which
one might sing and tell forever, ' that noble Prince has returned.
Much as he has done and conquered, he is but just arrived at
man's years: it is on occasion of this joyful event, that a High-
tide (Hoch-gezit) is now held there; with infinite jousting, min-
strelsy, largesses, and other chivalrous doings; all which is
sung with utmost heartiness. The old King, Siegmund, offers to
resign his crown to him: but Siegfried has other game afield; the
unparalleled beauty of Chriemhild has reached his ear and fancy;
and he will now to Worms and woo her, at least, 'see how it stands
with her. ' Fruitless is it for Siegmund and the good Mother Siege-
lind, to represent the perils of that enterprize, the pride of those
Burgundiaft Gunthers and Gemots, the fierce temper of their Uncle
Hagen. Siegfried is as obstinate as young men are in these cases,
and can hear no counsel. Nay he will not accept a much more
liberal proposition, To take an army with him, and conquer the
or Recken used in the First Stanza, is the constant designa-
tion for bold fighters; and has the same root with Rich (thus
in old French, hommes riches; in Spanish, ricos hombres)
which last also is here synonymous with Powerful, and ap-
plied to Kings, and even to the Almighty: Got dem richen.
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HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
country, if it must be so: he will ride forth, ,like himself, with
twelve companions only, and so defy the future. Whereupon the
old people, finding that there is no other course, proceed to
make him clothes, *--at least the good Queen with 'her fair wo-
men sitting night and day' and sewing, does so, the father fur-
nishing noblest battle and riding gear; and so dismiss him with
many blessings and lamentations. 'For him wept sore the King
and his Wife, but he comforted lovingly both their bodies (Leib);
he said, You must not weep; for my body ever shall ye be with-
out care. '
Sad was it to the Recken, Stood weeping also many a maid,
I ween, their heart had then The tidings true foresaid
That of their friends so many Death thereby should find
Cause had they of lamenting Such boding in their mind. 183
Nevertheless, on the seventh morning, that adventurous com-
pany 'ride up the sand' (on the Rhine-beach) to Worms, in high
temper, in dress and trappings, aspect and bearing, more than
kingly.
Siegfried's reception at King Gunther's court, and his brave
sayings and doings there for sometime, we must omit. One
fine trait of chivalrous delicacy it is that for a whole year, he
never hints at his errand, never once sees or speaks of Chriem-
hilde, whom nevertheless he is longing day and night to meet.
She on her side has often thro' her window noticed the gallant
stranger, victorious inall tiltings and knightlyexercises; where-
by, it would seem, in spite of her rigorous predeterminations,
some kindness for him is already gliding in. Meanwhile mighty
wars and threats of invasion arise, and Siegfried does the state
good service. Returning victorious, both as a general andsoldier,
from Hessen (Hessia) where he had captured a Danish king, and
utterly discomfited a Saxon one, he can now show himself be-
fore Chriemhilde without other blushes than those of timid love.
Nay the maiden has herself inquired pointedly of the messengers
touching his exploits, and 'her fair face grewrose-red when she
heard them. ' A gay High-tide, by way of triumph is appointed;
where several Kings, and two-and-thirty Princes, and Knights
with'gold-red saddles,' come to joust; and better than whole in-
finitudes of Kings and Princes with their saddles, the fair Chriem-
hilde herself, under guidance of her mother, chiefly too in honour
of the victor, is to grace that sport. 'Ute the full rich' fails not
to set her needle-women to work, and 'clothes of price are taken
from their presses,' for the love of her child, 'wherewith to deck
many women and many maids. ' 'On the Whitsun-morning, ' all
is ready, and glorious as heart could desire it; brave Ritters,
* This is a never-failing preparation for all expeditions; and
always specified and insisted on with a simple, loving, almost
female impressiveness.
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? NIBELUNGEN LIED
67
'five thousand or more, ' all glancing in the lists; but grander
still, Chriemhilde herself is advancing, beside her mother,
with a hundred body-guards, all sword-in-hand, and many a
noble maid 'wearing rich raiment' in her train! 184
'Now issued forth the Lovely one (minnechliche), as the
red morning doth from troubled clouds: much care fled away
from him who bore her in his heart and long had done; he saw
the Lovely one stand in her beauty.
There gleaned from her garments full many precious
stones; her rose-red colour shone full lovely: try what he
might, each man must confess that he in this "world had not
seen aught so fair.
Like as the light Moon stands before the Stars, and its
sheen so clear goes over the clouds, even so stood she now
before many fair women: whereat cheered was the mind of
the hero.
The rich chamberlains you saw go before her; the high-
spirited Recken would not forbear, but pressed on where they
saw the lovely maiden; Siegfried the lord was both glad and sad.
He thought in his mind: How could this be, that I should
woo thee ? That is a foolish dream: yet must I always be a
stranger, I were rather (sanfter, softer) dead. He became,
from these thoughts, in quick changes, pale and red.
Thus stood so lovely the son of Sigemund (Siegfried) as if
he were limned on Parchment by a Master's art; for all grant-
ed that hero so beautiful they had never seen. '*
Such a pair are clearly made for one another. Nay, on the
motion of young Herr Gemot, fair Chriemhilde is bid specially
salute Siegfried, she who had never before saluted man; which
unparalleled grace the Lovely one, in all courtliness,
[a gap in the manuscript occurs from this point, at the
bottom of manuscript p. 68, to the top of manuscript p. 89,
where the manuscript resumes with Chapter VI. For brief
discussion of Carlyle's use of the twenty missing pages from
Chapter V inhis printed essay "The Nibelungen Lied, " see
Note 176. ]
* Avent. V. l^nej 1136-60, translated with utmost possible
closeness. This last comparison, of Siegfried to a Figure
on some illuminated Manuscript, is graceful in itself; and
unspeakably so to Antiquarians, seldom honoured, in their
Blackletter stubbing & grubbingf] with such a poetic wind-
fall. 185 "
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? Chapter Vl]
{consideration of Poetry Written by Identified Authors. Chival-
ry, which Represents the Highest Developments of Medieval
Europe. From Charlemagne on, no Dark Age: Variety of Liter-
ary Productions. The Swabian Era: Its Minnesingers; Charac-
teristics of Minnelieder, or Songs of Chivalrous Love
HERE THEN, after long wanderings in the circumambient ocean
with its Isles, and distant lookings into many a high-towered
Cloudland, we at length set foot on the firm region, where Lit-
erature henceforth meets us in distinct, abiding monuments; in
written Books, of which we can give date and author.
Those Northern Immigrations, with their five fierce centur-
ies of universal convulsion and collision, had rolled stormfully
away into the Past, 186 and our World, the ruins and attrited
materials of a world, again began to show signs of peaceful co-
alition. Charlemagne rises to view, on the confines of modern
Time, like a lofty pillar; on the one side lighted by the first clear
rays of History, on the other by the wizard splendour of Romance;
on the one side inscribed with fabulous Runes, on the other with
legible authentic writing. Under this great man, great in him-
self, and placed in a great arena, Europe again saw itself, spon-
taneously or forcibly, united; not indeed into one community,
yet into a kindred aggregate, wherein dim rudiments of a com-
mon interest were becoming visible. In regard to one deep in-
terest, to that of Religion, the union might already be reckoned
complete: for now after thirty years of stout resistance, the
Saxons also had become Christian; the last remains of Heathen-
dom were driven back to the shores of the Baltic, or extirpated
with fire and sword. The noble genius of Charlemagne adapts
itself with a wonderful readiness and universality to the wants
of his time: political Institutions founded or improved. Schools
everywhere established, utmost furtherances in the practical
Arts, all this betokens a new era, and strongly accelerates its
favourable tendencies. Under his successors, it is true, the
heterogeneous fabric partially fell asunder; not without new
struggles and revulsions was such fusion to be completed: never-
theless, the grand Deluge had abated, 'the discordant seeds of
things' now lay in final contact and solution; and, like fair fruits,
the Arts, the Power, the Moral Character of new Europe were
to spring from them.
Long ages of quiet continuous effort, while forests are felled
and marshes dried; and the warlike Burg swells out into the in-
dustrious Burough; and the dwelling places of the Boar and Bi-
son ring with the voice and the implement of man, -- are carelessly
passed over by what we name History; but stand recorded without
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? POETRY OF IDENTIFIED AUTHORS
69
her aid, indelibly enough, on the face of the Earth itself. Iron
is now forged not into swords only, but into axes and plough-
shares; other Law than that of the stronger secures to Toil its
reward;187 and a better pleasure than that of destroying and
consuming, the pleasure of creating and producing, becomes
known. Spiritual culture is at work also: from the abodes of
horrid cruelty, a small still Voice of Worship arises; in calm
Cloisters the purer soul can set itself apart for Contemplation,
for study of intellectual and moral things; and Convent Bells
sound nightly thro' the wilderness, inviting the belated wayfarer,
and carry far and wide, in their tones, the new tidings of Peace
on Earth and Good-will towards men. 188 The human family is
once more finding its true destination; the strength of brother
no longer turned against brother, all are combined against the
common enemy; struggling to conquer outward and inward Na-
ture; fighting the good fight against Necessity and Evil. Such,
with vicissitudes and local obscurations enough, is the general
aspect of Europe from the age of Charles the Great; or in feeb-
ler manifestations, even from the settlement of the Lombards,
two centuries earlier.
Among the first decisive products of this new time, we must
reckon the establishment 61 Chivalry; a singular institution,
which long virtually existing in the habits of the victorious North-
men, 189 comes forth embodied in a practical shape, in the lat-
ter half of the eleventh century. It seems to have arisen in
France; but soon attaining new consistency in the Crusades,
spread, doubtless the faster on their account, over all the
Christian world; and for several ages represented under its
customs and practices whatever was highest in the spirit of
Europe. Before the end of the twelfth century. Chivalry had
reached its golden age, and might well be said to reign trium-
phant: for the greatest sovereigns, as Philippe Auguste of France,
Friedrich Barbarossa of Germany, above all, our own Richard
Lionheart, were also the most perfect Knightes fsicl and prouder
of that dignity perhaps than of their crowns. In all lower ranks,
down to the lowest reckoned noble, it had become the household
principle, and public and private law; the whole business of life
took form and colour from it.
'Every boy of family, as Custom ordered, had to be
transferred, in his seventh year, from the hands of the wo-
men, and his father's castle, to the residence of some other
Knight; that here, in the character of Page, withdrawn from
maternal tenderness, and placed under strict masculine
discipline, he might be trained, by precept and example, to
devotion towards God, to reverence for the spirit of Chival-
ry, submissive respect for women, to dignity of manners, to
courteousness, and obedience. In his fourteenth year, came
the solemnity of Arming: he was attended by his parents to
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HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
the altar, on which lay a sword prepared for him: the Priest
took up the weapon, consecrated it with his blessing, girt it
round the youth; who now, decorated with this symbol of a
new rank, entered on his service as Squire. Here began the
course of his higher education. The duties of a warrior he
learnt from the elder Squires: the rest was acquired by in-
tercourse with Knights, whom he might meet visiting his
master's Castle, or on missions of his own to theirs. In his
twenty-first year he became capable of Knighthood; and when
that honour was conferred, he first swore on the altar always
to speak the Truth, always to assert the Right, to defend
Religion, its servants and temples; the weak and helpless,
widows and orphans, women and their good name. '*
Considered as a social institution, at that age of the world,
the benefits of Chivalry were manifold. Here, for the first
time, the grand principles of order, of subjection to rule, were
tniversally inculcated, and the maintenance of them made a ha-
it and a sacred duty. Thus Strength had harnessed itself in
the yoke of Reason: into the roughest business of Life, into
war itself, there is even!
92 introduced a certain softness, and
grace. Besides, in these Knightly Orders, more especially as
springing up in the Crusades, men learn to act in large com-
bination; and not only the outward force, but the knowledge, the
culture and accomplishment of each becomes available for all. 193
The Castle of the Knight is a centre of refinement far and wide:
nobleness of feeling and of bearing is the rule for its inmates;
travellers, warlike adventurers, from all regions of the world,
meet there, and from their discourse, what insight into nations
and individuals, and the general business of the world, is to be
had, communicates and combines itself and man's knowledge of
man grows clearer and wider. Nay simply as a thing established,
and so generally accepted, Chivalry asserts its worth for that
era. It was a translation into Practice of whatever was noblest
in the Sentiments of mankind; whereby in Action and daily Habit
these were fitly represented, and fostered towards farther de-
velopment. With a singular rapidity it everywhere found welcome;
the minds of men were ready, were eager for it. Europe was
'as water already cooled below the freezing point, ' the slightest
touch, a little stroke from some Hermit Peter, instantly unites
it into one strange, brilliant, many-shaped mass -- of Crusaders
and Chevaliers.
Here at last were old German Valour and Christian Humility
harmoniously blended; and the new European man stood forth
all points a Man. In that system of Chivalry, if, rightly inter-
* Eichhorn Geschichte der Litteratur (II. 44). 190 The Mem-
oires of De Sainte Palaye on this subject (Paris, 1753; 3d edit.
1 783) are known as the best authority. 191
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? POETRY OF IDENTIFIED AUTHORS
71
preting the circumstances of those ages, we read its essential
meaning, we shall find that there lay a spirit which is peren-
nially true. Chivalry once more set up an Ideal Excellence in
practical forms; once more brought the light from Heaven to
shine on our earthly path. That solemn vow to fight for the
widow and orphan, to defend Holy Church and Truth, everywhere
to stand in the breach where Might was threatening Right, what
was it but a recognition of the infinite celestial nature of Virtue,
of moral Beauty; and a joyful devoting of life and faculty, thro'
all pains and hazards, to its service? That reverence for the
Lovely, for the Weak, is a practical worship paid to the spirit
of Beauty and Mercy under these its earthly manifestations.
The moral philosophy of the twelfth century might put that of
the eighteenth to shame; 194 for the one knew and practically as-
serted what the other had well nigh forgotten, that beyond the
sphere of Sense there is an Invisible Kingdom in man, whence
and not from Sense are the issues of spiritual Life for him; that
Duty means not Profit and Loss, but something altogether un-
measurable by these, something by its nature Infinite, Divine,
and which is fitly called the Voice of God. The strong steel
warrior boasted himself superior to Matter, to the things of
Sense; the rage of multitudes, the wreck of worlds, are only
death, and cannot move his firm heart: but to the faintest whis-
per of that other, unseen Monitor he is pliant as a little child.
Thus man has something greater than Self to worship; or rather,
we may say, in that chivalrous purity and nobleness of act and
word there was the true feeling, different enough from pride and
presumption, with which the Sanctuary in our Self ought ever to
be regarded and reverenced. In a word, the perfect knight, as
we have said, was the Ideal Man of those centuries, which even
in this were fortunate that they had any open practical Ideal to
strive after: and by this sublime union and interfusion of Strength
with Love; offering to the buffetings of Fortune an iron panoply
without and within, and to the meek Heavenly influences a clear
eye and soft, devout heart, he claims to be regarded as a genu-
ine Ideal, and true in some measure for us likewise. It was the
first fair coherent figure and representation of Manhoodl95 for
these modern ages; of such Manhood as modern circumstances
shape out and admit for us: and tho' a young, simple figure, yet
also not without the vigour, the completeness, and graceful bloom
of youth.
Thus Man's being, the heavenly and the earthly element in it
rightly adjusted, was in unison with itself; and soon, as indeed
it ever does, that inward harmony expressed itself in the out-
ward harmony of Poetry, of Song. From Provence, in the twelfth
century, came a soft new tone, in singular accordance with the
feeling of that age; everywhere awakening unknown pleasure, ad-
miration, emulation. We in these days form but a faint notion of
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? 72
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
the charm which then lay in Poetry: to men of high, enthusias-
tic temper, this melodious echo of their own finest feelings was
strange, unexpected, almost like a miracle, the gift of some
new sense. The 'joyful science' spread abroad as rapidly as
Chivalry, from which it sprang, had done; for, on the whole,
Europe was now become, if not one Commonwealth, one great
Confederation, with that quick sympathy between its parts, which
ever since, in all revolutions of opinion, of manners, even of
transitory modes, has more and more displayed itself. It was
but in the year 1126 that Raymond de Beranger obtained the
sovereignty of Provence; under whom the Troubadour Poetry
acquired its first polish: and before the middle of that century,
the Norman Trouve'res, in their Langue d'oui, were rivalling
those Southern singers in their Langue d'oc; the new Art had
spread into England, into Italy, still earlier into Spain; and thro'
all the obstacles of distance, and a total difference of language,
into Germany.
Prior to that era, the Germans had not been without their
Literature and literary furtherances. Their language, growing
from a native soil, had received what culture the times could
give it, in more than the average proportion; for while the other
languages were yet so many rustic jargons, German was the
Court-speech; spoken even by such men as Papin and Charle-
magne. It seems to be agreed on that the Frankish dialect,
which afterwards with slight natural variation, became the Swa-
bian or Upper-German (Ober-Deutsch) continued vernacular and
habitual to the Frankish Kings and Nobles, who naturally dis-
dained the Gaulish or Latin of their serfs and subjects, long af-
ter their establishment in France;* and even after the separation
of that country from the German Empire. It is expressly re-
corded of Louis the Pious that he 'spoke Latin and German with
equal readiness. ' Not till the treaty of Verdun, in 843, does the
French language make its appearance; on which occasion Lewis
the German is stated to have 'sworn, before the multitude, in
the Romanic or new French tongue, and Charles the Bald, King
of France, in the German'; doubtless, that the subjects of each
might understand clearly to what the neighbouring sovereign
bound himself.
Neither, since Ulfila's time, was the art of writing lost among
the Germans; on the contrary, memorials of it, in increasing
abundance and importance, from those centuries, still survive
for us. We have Kero, 196 the St Gallen Monk, whose Version
of St Benedict's Rule was executed in the age of Charlemagne;
* Frankreich, or the Kingdom of the Franks. The old
Merovingian Clovis, we may observe, is properly Chlodwig,
synonymous with Ludwig, or Louis, which last therefore is
now a sovereign name of truly venerable standing there.
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? POETRY OF IDENTIFIED AUTHORS
73
an Ottfried's Harmony of the Gospels, 197 done into metre in
the next century, and said to be a far superior work; besides
rhymed Legends in considerable abundance; and even War-songs,
not altogether without poetic energy. One piece of the latter
sort, the Triumph Song on Louis III, King of the West-Franks
(or French) for some victory over the Normans, is well known
to Philologers: what we understand to be the best passage of it,
being brief, may stand here by way of sample. In the Collec-
tions of Schilter, Goldast, Eckhart, with the more recent pub-
lications of Eschenburg, Docen, Von der Hagen and Busching, *
any reasonable degree of curiosity on those old matters may
find full satisfaction.
Tho nam her skildindi sper Then took he shield and spear
Hastily rode he.
Would he truly revenge (take
vengeance on)
His adversaries.
Then was it not lasting long,
(Till) found he the Northmen.
God be praised, said he.
He sees what he desired.
The King rode bold (keen),
Sang devout song,
And all together sang
Kyrieleison.
Song was sung,
Battle was begun.
Blood shone in (the) cheeks
Of Sporting (fighting) Franks.
There avenged (himself) warrior
like
Nichein so, so Hludowigt201 No one so as Ludovic.
* Schilter's Thesaurus Antiquitatum Teutonicarum; Goldast's
Scriptores Rerum Alemannicarum; Eckhart's Comrrientarii de
Rebus Franciae Orientalisjij Eschenburg's Denkmaler; Docen's
MiscelljanetenrVon der Hagen and Busching's Altdeutsche Ge-
dichte; hot \o mention innumerable others of less note. On the
subject of Northern Antiquities generally, I find a Magazine
under the title of Bragur (edited by Grater 1790-1812) continu-
ally referred to, and always with confidence and approval. 198
t Bouterwek (Geschichte der Poesie und Beredsamkeit) B. 9,
S. 78[- 79j- ! 99 The whole Song is in Dilschneider. pfll5. A
still older poet named Kazungali, who figures in many Liter-
ary Histories (see, for instance, Northern Antiquities, p. 6)
Ellianlicho reit her.
Wold her waren rahchon
Sina widersahchon
Tho ni waz iz burolango,
Fand her thio Nortmannon.
Godelob, sageta.
Her siht, des her gereda.
Thar Kunig reit kuono,
Sang lioth frano,
J oh alia samua sungan
Kyrieleison.
Sang was gesungen,
Wig was bigunnen
Bluot skein in wangon
Spilodunder Vrankon.
Thar raht thegeno gelih
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? 74
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
Of a still earlier date, ascribed even to the fifth century, is
the noted Codex Quadrumanus, named also Liger Canuti, which
lies in the Cotton Library, in this country. * It is, like Ottfried's
Work, a Harmony of the Gospels; the tongue[? Jis regarded by
English Antiquarians as a sort of Anglosaxon; tho' Adelung, 202
and the Germans rather consider it a Low-German (Nieder-
Deutsch), that is to say, not Anglosaxon but Saxon; and the age
of it some three centuries less.
Leaving these, with many Frankish Psalters, and Para-
phrases of Solomon's Song, and Romances of Charles the Great,
a prey to the Lexicographer, we shall notice only one other Work
of this period, and greatly the best of all: The Hochgesang zum
Andenken des heiligen Anno (Heroic Song to the Memory of St
Anno), written at the end of the eleventh century;203 first pub-
lished by the Poet'Opitz in 1639, frequently since; and on all
hands commended as a true poetical antique. Anno, who died in
1075, was Archbishop of Cologne, played a high political as well
as ecclesiastical part, in his time; and seems to have merited
his canonization better than most, by the devoutness, wisdom,
and integrity of his character, which long lived in the affection-
ate remembrance of the people. His unknown panegyrist, while
the subject was yet recent, has here sung his praises in a High-
song of nearly one thousand lines; commencing with the first of
all commencements, the Creation of the World; and so passing
on, in lyrical expansiveness, thro' the Fall of Man, the Siege
of Troy, the Four Monarchies, Alexander the Great, the Roman
Conquests; finally to the Founding of Cologne and of its Arch-
bishoprick, where the business of the Song properly begins. In
a work of so loose texture, poetical unity is the last thing to be
looked for; nevertheless, it would appear, there is a certain co-
herence brought about; 'the Poet rules over his stubborn materi-
al with a wonderful power. ' That it has a fine flowing tone, with
beautiful touches of poetry, and of pure humane morality, is
everywhere admitted: even the saturnine Bouterwek stops his
draw-well machinery for a moment, when such a bucket is brought
up, and proclaims, in an erect posture, that it is 'one effusion
of genius'; that 'the name of the Poet has vanished, but his work
owes his existence to nothing better than an Error of the Press.
The Editors of the Monumenta Boica mistook in a certain old
Frankish Prayer, the word Kazungali (Gezungel, oratory, tongue -
art) for a proper name; whereupon poor Kazungali nill he wiil
he is crowned with the laurel, and this very Prayer fathered
on him as his Poem! See Docenjor Bouterwek IX. 76. 200
* Not in Oxford, as Bouterwek [iX, 70} says, but in the British
Museum in London. It seems there have other copies been
discovered very lately in Germany.
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? POETRY OF IDENTIFIED AUTHORS
75
secures him immortality'; that 'it glitters with 'pictorial truth';
and more than all, that 'the Frankish Hymn-singer, far as he
is inferior, may be named as a kinsmen of Pindar's. ' To me
the Poem is unknown, except in fragments; from which, beau-
tiful as they are, if any judgment might be formed, it would be
to the same effect. St Anno, shortly before his death, has a
vision of Heaven, and of the seat appointed for him there; which
passage, as distinguished for graceful brilliancy, I had purposed
submitting to my readers; but must now content myself with a
shorter one; a single strophe from the earlier part of the Poem,
wherein the effect of man's first transgression is alluded to, not
withouta certain simple pathos, and real descriptive felicity, in
these words:204
Du sih Lucifer du ce ubile
El
Unt Adam diu Godis wort
ubirgieng,
Du balch sig es Got desti
mer,
Daz her andere sine werch
sah rehte gen.
Den manen unt en sunnen
Di gebin ihre liht mit
wunnen.
Di sterrin behaltint ire varl.
Si geberint vrost unde hitze
so starch.
Daz fuir havit ufwert sinen
Dunner unde wint ihren vlug.
Di wolken dragint den
regunguz,
Nidir wendint wazzer irin
vluz.
Mit blumin cierint sich
diu lant,
Mit loube dekket sich der
walt.
Daz wilt ha"b. it den sinin ganc,
Scone ist der vugil sane.
Ein iwelich ding diu e* noch
havit,
Di emi Got van erist ver-
gabit.
When Lucifer gave himself up
to evil,
And Adam transgressed God's
word,
Then was God wroth thereat the
more
That he saw his other works
go well.
The moon and sun
They gave their light with joy.
The stars retain their course.
They bring forth frost and heat
so strong.
The fire has its draught up-
wards ,
Thunder and wind their flight.
The clouds bring the rain-
shower,
Down wend the waters their
flood.
With flowers adorn themselves
the lands,
With leaves covers (decks) it-
self the wood.
? ? The wild beast has its walk,
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? 76
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
Newere di zuei gescefte, Only the two Created,
Di her geschuft di bezziste, Which he made the best,
Di virkerten sich in diu They turned themselves to
doleheit. folly.
Dannin hubin sichdiuleit. *205Thence sprang the sorrow.
If the author of this Heroic Song, as is probable, was a
Priest, and far better instructed than most others of the time,
we must still look upon him with some wonder: for not' only his
genius, but his pure character, his humanity, and delicate re-
fined feeling, are nowise common in any time.
The age which, even thro' its best organ, spoke such a lan-
guage, could no longer be accounted barbarous; both in pro-
priety of sentiment and positive extent of knowledge, it is a
civilized age. But on the whole, those ages which we careless-
ly denominate the Dark, will prove, if better looked into, much
lighter than we anticipated, tho' perhaps with light of another
colour than ours, which last too, little as we suspect such a
thing, may be nowise a colourless light. Properly speaking,
from the period of the great Immigrations, at any rate from the
time of Charlemagne, there was no dark age:206
for all Europe
was learning, was at school; all hearts were animated by that
noble zeal for knowledge, that unwearied seeking after it, which
is in itself the best fruit and proof of Culture; being as living
Fire, from which the Light, naturally inherent there, already
shines, or will follow as its sure product. -- We have seen phos-
phorescent and putrescent ages (like the last), wherein our Light
was perfectly fireless, cold, and the creature of Death, not of
Life: but the converse of that phenomenon, or Fire without Light,
remains as unexampled in the spiritual as in the material world.
In Germany, tho' as yet, for some two hundred and fifty years
it had no Universities, while the Schools of Paris, Bologne, Sa-
lerno, were now beginning to assume that character, -- we find
a considerable mass of information accumulated among the stu-
dious, and accessible to them; and in the better heads, a degree
of accomplishment which in far subsequent times would have
boasted itself Learned. For example, in the tenth century, the
German Chroniclers compose? l]their Narratives in Latin verse;
said to be rather meritorious, and at all events fluent as water
itself. Nay, for a much higher example, let us mention the
Brunswick Nun, Hroswitha, or Roswith, who a hundred years
prior to the date of that Song on St Anno, for she died in 984,
wrote 'religious Dramas in the manner of Terence; Legends of
* From Bouterwek (DC. 87[actually p. 85j). The irregular
spelling belongs to the original, or to its earlier Editors.
Goldmann's Edition (Leipzig, 1816) had not then made its
appearance.
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? POETRY OF IDENTIFIED AUTHORS
77
Saints in hexameters and pentameters, and a History of Kaiser
Otto the First, likewise in metre'; all which the curious may
still read with edification. For this learned lady's works, af-
ter six centuries of partial or entire oblivion, were discovered
by Conrad Meissel, better known to Scholars, under his Greek
name Conrad Celtes, as an eminent restorer of ancient Liter-
ature; and published by him in 1561 ;207 with a fine list of testi-
monials from the Learned; some comparing this 'illustrious
virgin' to Sappho, to an eleventh Muse, others twining for her
a 'multiple Laurel' from the garlands 'of the African, of Flac-
cus and of Maro. ' Better than a smileat these extravagances
of her eulogisers is a kind sigh over the noble Roswith herself.
Her verses are said to be stiff and frosty, as all Latin verses
for the last fourteen hundred years are wont to be: but the very
fact that, in the Convent of Gandersheim, in the middle of the
tenth century, she could write verses and Dramas at all, is
praise enough. Under a happier environment, what might she
not have accomplished, how many Agnesis208 and De Staels209
have equalled, perhaps left far behind her! Not without a lofty
perseverance, and consecration of herself to the Best and High-
est did the fair solitary Student pass her days. Doubtless there
dwelt in her some inspired gift: a strong yearning drew her to-
wards the Upper Sphere, whither thro' all mists and cavernous
exhalations she strove unweariedly to rise;--where also, tho'
only thro' telescopes, and as a star of smallest magnitude, she
is happily still seen shining or twinkling.
But all these High-Songs on St Anno, and Latin Dramas of
Hroswitha were only as faint Pisgah lookings into the Promised
Land; which at length, under the Hohenstauffen Emperors, in
the twelfth century, lay clear and opened to the wondering sense
of all mankind; when in Germany, as elsewhere, the spirit of
Chivalry had married itself to Song, and the balm and fair May
flowers of Poesy, for the first time in modern ages, beautified
the actual abodes of men. This is what German Critics call the
Era of the Minne-singers (Love-singers), because Love, tho'
not the sole was the favourite and happiest theme with these
Poets; also the Swabian Era, the then reigning family being of
that Province; and the old Frankish Dialect, which ever since
Charlemagne's day had been the Court-speech and language of
Literature, having now changed itself into a Swabian, or what
we still name the Upper-German (Ober-Deutsch) Dialect; from
which indeed the Frankish is little alien, and only the Nieder-
Deutsch or Platt-Deutsch (Low-German) or Saxon in any measure
decisively differs .
That the Hohenstauffen Emperors have given this Poetical
Period their Name is no proof that they gave it anything more;
that in introducing it, or fostering its activity they had the small-
est merit. A better symptom is that they gave it their Language
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? 78
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
also: indeed', it appears on fair examination, they deserve their
Literary honour much better than many an Augustus and Queen
Elizabeth who by long use and wont enjoys the like.
Skilful Sovereigns had reigned before their day; and even un-
der the weak and unwise, amid feuds and social insecurity, the
German people was putting forth its powers, and in all external
and internal departments steadily acquiring new dominion. The
Carolingian Dynasty, which ended in 912, was followed by Hein-
rich I. surnamed the Fowler (der Vogler), who founded the Saxon
line of Emperors; and had far higher talents than that of Bird-
catching, from his fondness for which sport he bears this sur-
name. Modern Historians reckon that the more suitable title
for him would have been StSdte-Erbauer, City Builder; that a
sovereign of such energy and wisdom had not been seen in Eur-
ope since the time of Charlemagne. Under Heinrich, and the
Ottos, and other Saxon Emperors (from 918 to 1024), Germany
continued to make what has been called 'incredible progress' in
all useful things: to which, doubtless those frequent Imperial
visitings and invasions of Italy, where in other respects the
Furore Tudesco accomplished so little good for any one, must
have contributed their share. The Harz Mines had begun to be
worked in the tenth century; and for ma[n]y centuries the still
richer mine of a genial soil and climate had been yearly becom-
ing more productive. In proof of the wealth, enter prize and high
spirit of this period, we may mention that the Strasburg Mins-
ter, the most venerable edifice of its kind in Europe, was found-
ed in 1015.
That the Saxon Emperors disturbed themselves little about
Literature, but left it to expand and flourish on its own re-
sources, is manifest enough by this one fact, that their Saxon
Dialect took no effect on its language; that the language of Liter-
ature, of writing, continued Frankish while the Court language,
at least that of the Sovereign himself, must have been Low-Ger-
man. Nevertheless, Literature, while all else was in progress,
could not remain stationary: nay in those days, we read of Play-
ers (Mimi) wandering over the country, to entertain their scat-
tered public, probably in a ruder style than that of Thespis him-
self, with some dramatic representation 'of notable occurrences
in the national history. ' It appears farther that Music, the pe-
culiar art of the Germans, was assiduously cultivated then: so
that not only in Schools and Monasteries, but for the People also,
and under the open sky, there were materials of Thought; and,
tho' without furtherance from the upper regions, some sort of
instruction, and spiritual food and raiment had provided itself. *
Neither can the Second series of Frankish Emperors (from
* Bouterwek, DC. 48: see also Schmidts' Geschichte der
Deutschen210 (B. II) referred to by him.
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