, he begins to
enumerate
the princes with whom he was
acquainted.
acquainted.
Cambridge History of English Literature - 1908 - v01
On the other hand, most
of the persons mentioned in the minor episodes or incidentally-
Sigemund and Fitela, Heremod, Eormenric, Hama, Offa-are more
or less well known from various Scandinavian authorities, some
also from continental sources.
With the exception of Ynglingatal, which dates probably from
the ninth century, all the Scandinavian works mentioned above are
quite late and, doubtless, based on tradition. Hence they give us
no means of fixing the dates of the kings whose doings they
record-unless one can argue from the fact that Harold the Fair-
haired, who appears to have been born in 850, claimed to be
descended in the eleventh generation from Aðils. Indeed, we have
unfortunately no contemporary authorities for Swedish and Danish
history before the ninth century. Several early Frankish writings,
however, refer to a raid which was made upon the territories of the
Chattuarii on the lower Rhine about the year 520. The raiders
were defeated by Theodberht, the son of Theodric I, and their
king, who is called Chohilaicus (Chlochilaicus) or Huiglaucus, was
killed. This incident is, without doubt, to be identified with the
disastrous expedition of Hygelac against the Franks, Hetware
(Chattuarii) and Frisians, to which Beowulf contains several
references. We need not hesitate, then, to conclude that most of
the historical events mentioned in Beowulf are to be dated within
about the first three decades of the sixth century.
In Gregory of Tours's Historia Francorum (III, 3) and in the
Gesta Regum Francorum (cap. 19) the king of the raiders is
described as rex Danorum; in the Liber Monstrorum? however as
rex Getarum. As Getarum can hardly be anything but a corruption
of Beowulf's Geatas the latter description is doubtless correct.
The Geatas are, in all probability, to be identified with the Gautar
of Old Norse literature, i. e. the people of Götaland in the south of
Sweden. It may be mentioned that Procopius, a contemporary
of Theodberht, in his description (Goth. 11, 15) of “Thule,” i. e.
Berger de Xivrey, Traditions Tératowgiques, p. 12.
## p. 27 (#47) ##############################################
Beowulf: Personality of the Hero
27
arrival in the bare skaldske in the
Scandinavia, speaks of the Götar (Gautoi) as a very numerous
nation.
The hero himself still remains to be discussed. On the whole,
though the identification is rejected by many scholars, there seems
to be good reason for believing that he was the same person
as Böðvarr Biarki, the chief of Hrólfr Kraki's knights. In Hrólfs
Saga Kraka, Biarki is represented as coming to Leire, the Danish
royal residence, from Götaland, where his brother was king.
Shortly after his arrival he killed an animal demon (a bear, accord-
ing to Saxo), which was in the habit of attacking the king's farm-
yard at Yule. Again, according to Skaldskaparmal, cap. 44 (from
Skiöldunga Saga), he took part with Aðils in the battle against
Ali. In all these points his history resembles that of Beowulf. It
appears from Hrólfs Saga Kraka that Biarki had the faculty of
changing into a bear. And Beowulf's method of fighting, especially
in his conflict with Daegbrefn, may point to a similar story. On
the other hand, the latter part of Biarki's career is quite different
from that of Beowulf. He stayed with Hrólfr to the end and
shared the death of that king. But the latter part of Beowulfs
life can hardly be regarded as historical. Indeed, his own exploits
throughout are largely of a miraculous character.
There is another Scandinavian story, however, which has a very
curious bearing on the earlier adventures of Beowulf. This is
a passage in Grettis Saga (cap. 64 ff. ), in which the hero is repre-
sented as destroying two demons, male and female. The scene is
laid in Iceland; yet so close are the resemblances between the two
stories, in the character of the demons, in the description of the
places they inhabit and in the methods by which the hero deals
with them, as well as in a number of minor details, that it is
impossible to ascribe them to accident. Now Grettir seems to be
a historical person who died about the year 1031. The presumption
is, then, that an older story has become attached to his name. But
there is nothing in the account that gives any colour to the idea
that it is actually derived from the Old English poem. More
probably the origin of both stories alike is to be sought in a folk-
tale, and, just as the adventures were attributed in Iceland to the
historical Grettir, so in England, and, possibly, also in Denmark, at
an earlier date they were associated with a historical prince of the
Götar. From the occurrence of the local names Beowanham and
Grendles mere in a Wiltshire charter some scholars have inferred
that the story was originally told of a certain Beowa, whom they
* Kemble, Cod. Dipl. 353.
## p. 28 (#48) ##############################################
28
Early National Poetry
have identified with Beaw or Beo, the son of Scyld (Sceldwea)
in the West Saxon genealogy. But since this person is, in all
probability, identical with the first (Danish) Beowulf of the poem,
and since the name Beowa may very well be a shortened form of
Beowulf, while the other names are obscure, the inference seems
to be of somewhat doubtful value. On the whole there is, perhaps,
more to be said for the view that the association of Beowulf with
the folk-tale arose out of some real adventure with an animal.
This, however, must remain largely a matter of speculation. The
fight with the dragon is, of course, a common motive in folk-tales.
An attempt has been made to show that Beowulf's adventure has
a specially close affinity with a story told by Saxo of the Danish
king Frotho I. But the resemblance between the two stories is
not very striking.
With regard to the origin and antiquity of the poem it is
impossible to arrive at any definite conclusions with certainty.
From investigations which have been made into its linguistic and
metrical characteristics the majority of scholars hold that it was
originally composed in a northern or midland dialect-though it
has been preserved only in West Saxon form—and that it is
at least as old as any other considerable piece of Old English
poetry which we possess. The question of antiquity, however, is
complicated by the doubt which is commonly felt as to the unity of
the poem. Moreover, it cannot be denied that this feeling of doubt
is, at least to some extent, justified. In its present form the poem
must date from Christian times as it contains a considerable
number of passages of distinctly Christian character. On the
other hand, the relationships of the various Danish and Swedish
kings can hardly have been remembered otherwise than in a more
or less stereotyped form of words for more than a generation after
their lifetime. Hence we are bound to conclude that the formation
of the poem, or, at all events, that of the materials from which it was
made up, must have occupied at least the greater part of a century.
It is generally thought that several originally separate lays have
been combined in the poem, and, though no proof is obtainable, the
theory in itself is not unlikely. These lays are usually supposed to
have been four in number and to have dealt with the following
subjects : (i) Beowulf's fight with Grendel, (ii) the fight with
Grendel's mother,(iii) Beowulf's return, (iv) the fight with the dragon.
In view of the story in Grettis Saga I am very much inclined
to doubt whether it is justifiable to separate the first two incidents.
The fight with the dragon, however, is certainly quite distinct, and
## p. 29 (#49) ##############################################
Beowulf: the Religious Element 29
the part of the poem dealing with Beowulf's reception by Hygelac
may also have originally formed the subject of a separate lay.
Some scholars have gone much further than this in their analysis
of the poem. According to one view nearly half of it is the work
of interpolators; according to another the present text is a com-
posite one made up from two parallel versions. It is much to be
doubted, however, whether any really substantial result has been
obtained from these investigations into the “inner history" of the
poem. The references to religion seem to afford the only safe
criterion for distinguishing between earlier and later elements.
Thus, it is worth noting that in II. 175 ff. the Danes are represented
as offering heathen sacrifices, a passage which is wholly inconsistent
with the sentiments afterwards attributed to Hrothgar. But at
what stage in the history of the poem was the Christian element
introduced ?
Certainly this element seems to be too deeply interwoven in the
text for us to suppose that it is due to additions made by scribes
at a time when the poem had come to be written down. Indeed,
there is little evidence for any additions or changes of this kind.
We must ascribe it, then, either to the original poet or poets or to
minstrels by whom the poem was recited in later times. The
extent to which the Christian element is present varies somewhat
in different parts of the poem. In the last portion (II. 2200%
3183) the number of lines affected by it amounts to less than four
per cent, while in the section dealing with Beowulf's return
(11. 1904—2199) it is negligible. In the earlier portions, on the
other hand, the percentage rises to between nine and ten, but this
is partly due to four long passages. One fact worth observing
is that the Christian element is about equally distributed between
the speeches and the narrative. We have noticed above that,
according to a theory which has much in its favour, epics are
derived from “mixed” pieces, in which speeches were given in
verse and narrative in prose. If Christian influence had made
itself felt at this stage, we should surely have expected to find
it more prominent in the narrative than in the speeches, for the
latter would, presumably, be far less liable to change.
There is one curious feature in the poem which has scarcely
received sufficient attention, namely the fact that, while the poet's
reflections and even the sentiments attributed to the various
speakers are largely, though not entirely, Christian, the customs
and ceremonies described are, almost without exception, heathen.
This fact seems to point, not to a Christian work with heathen
## p. 30 (#50) ##############################################
30
Early National Poetry
reminiscences, but to a heathen work which has undergone
revision by Christian minstrels. In particular, I cannot believe
that any Christian poet either could or would have composed the
account of Beowulf's funeral. It is true that we have no refer-
ences to heathen gods, and hardly any to actual heathen worship.
But such references would necessarily be suppressed or altered
when the courts became Christian. Indeed, there is a fairly clear
case of alteration in Il. 175 ff. , to which I have already alluded. It
may, perhaps, be urged that, if the work had been subjected to such
a thorough revision, descriptions of heathen ceremonies would not
have been allowed to stand. But the explanation may be that
the ceremonies in question had passed out of use before the change
of religion. In the case of cremation, which is the prevalent form
of funeral rite found in the poem, we have good reason for believing
this to be true. Hence, such passages could not excite the same
repugnance among the clergy as they would have done in countries
where the ceremonies were still practised.
I am disposed, then, to think that large portions at least of the
poem existed in epic form before the change of faith and that the
appearance of the Christian element is due to revision. The Chris-
tianity of Beowulf is of a singularly indefinite and undoctrinal
type, which contrasts somewhat strongly with what is found in
later Old English poetry. In explanation of this fact it has
been suggested that the poem was composed or revised under
the influence of the missionaries from Iona. But is there really
any reason for thinking that the teaching of the Irish missionaries
would tend in that direction? A more obvious explanation would
be that the minstrels who introduced the Christian element had
but a vague knowledge of the new faith. Except in 11. 1743 ff. ,
where there seems to be a reference to Ephesians, vi, 16, the
only passages of the Bible made use of are those relating to
the Creation, the story of Cain and Abel and the Deluge. In
the first case (II. 90 ff. ) one can hardly help suspecting a reference
to Caedmon's hymn, and the others also may just as well have
been derived from Christian poems or songs as from the Bible
itself. In any case, however, the fact noted favours the conclusion
that the revision took place at an early date.
p. Apart from Beowulf, the only remains of national epic poetry
which have come down to us are a short, but fine, fragment (50
lines) of Finnsburh and two still shorter fragments (32 and 31 lipes
respectively) of Waldhere. Regarding the former our information
## p. 31 (#51) ##############################################
The Finnsburh Fragment
31
is sadly defective. The MS is lost and the text, as given by
Hickes, is extremely corrupt. The story, however, though obscure
to us, must have been extremely popular in early times. It is the
subject of a long episode in Beowulf (see above, p. 23), and three
of the chief characters are mentioned in Widsith. Familiarity
with it is shown also by a mistake in the genealogy in the
Historia Brittonum, § 31.
The fragment opens with the speech of a young prince
rousing his followers to defend the hall in which they are
sleeping, apparently within Finn's fortress. They rush to the
doors, the chief men being Hengest (perhaps the prince),
Sigeferth, Eaha, Ordlaf and Guthlaf. A short altercation follows
between Sigeferth and Garulf, who is apparently one of the attack-
ing force. The battle goes on for five days, and many of the
assailants, including Garulf, fall. The defenders, however, main-
tain their position without loss, and we are told that never was
a better recompense yielded by sixty knights to their lord than
Hnaef now received from his followers. Then a wounded warrior,
who is not named, brings the news to his king--at which point
the fragment breaks off.
The episode in Beowulf furnishes us with considerably more
information than the fragment itself. Hnaef, a vassal of the
Danish king Healfdene, has fallen at the hands of the Frisians,
whom apparently he had gone to visit—whether as friend or
foe is not clear. His men, however, maintain a stout defence,
and so great are the losses of the Frisians that their king, Finn,
has to make terms with them. An agreement is then arrived
at between their leader Hengest and the king. They are to
enter Finn's service and to be treated by him as generously as
the Frisians themselves; and no taunt is to be raised against
them on the ground that they have made terms with the man
who slew their lord. A great funeral pyre is constructed for the
bodies of the slain, and Hildeburh, apparently the wife of Finn
and sister of Hnaef, bewails the loss of both her brother and
her son. Hengest and his companions stay with Finn through-
out the winter, though sorely tempted to exact vengeance.
Eventually, Guthlaf and Oslaf (Ordlaf ? ) attack and slay Finn
with many of his men. The queen is carried away to Denmark
with much treasure.
There are no certain references to this story in Scandinavian
or German literature, though Ordlaf and Guthlaf are probably
to be identified with two Danish princes mentioned in Arngrim
## p. 32 (#52) ##############################################
32
Early National Poetry
Jónsson's epitome of Skiöldunga Saga, cap. 4. The tragic events
with which the story deals must clearly be referred to the time
of those great movements in the regions of the North Sea, between
the fourth and sixth centuries, to which Latin writers occasionally
allude. The fact that Hnaef is called a vassal of Healfdene, Hroth-
gar's father, points to about the middle of the fifth century. It is
by no means impossible, therefore, that the Hengest of this story
is identical with the Hengest who founded the kingdom of Kent.
The MS fragments of Waldhere (Waldere) are preserved in
the Royal Library at Copenhagen. For this story, fortunately,
information is available from a number of continental sources.
It is the subject of a Latin epic poem (Waltharius) by Ekkehard
of St Gall, dating from the first half of the tenth century, of
a Bavarian poem dating from the first half of the thirteenth
century, of which only small fragments are preserved, and of two
episodes in the Norwegian Vilkina Saga (S$ 128 f. , 241–4; cf.
§ 331), which is of Low German origin. Incidental references
to it occur in several Middle High German poems, and there is
also a Polish version of the story, the earliest form of which is
in Chronicon Boguphali Episcopi, dating from the thirteenth
or fourteenth century. It will be convenient here to give a
brief summary of Ekkehard's story, as this is the earliest of the
continental authorities and appears to have the closest resem-
blance to our fragments.
Alphere, king of Aquitaine, had a son named Waltharius, and
Heriricus, king of Burgundy, an only daughter named Hiltgund,
who was betrothed to Waltharius. While they were yet children,
however, Attila, king of the Huns, invaded Gaul, and the kings,
seeing no hope in resistance, gave up their children to him as
hostages, together with much treasure. Under like compulsion
treasure was obtained also from Gibicho, king of the Franks,
who sent as hostage a youth of noble birth named Hagano. In
Attila’s service, Waltharius and Hagano won great renown as
warriors, but the latter eventually made his escape. When
Waltharius grew up he became Attila's chief general; yet he
remembered his old engagement with Hiltgund. On his return
from a victorious campaign he made a great feast for the king
and his court, and, when all were sunk in drunken sleep, he and
Hiltgund fled laden with much gold. On their way home they
had to cross the Rhine near Worms. There the king of the
Franks, Guntharius, the son of Gibicho, heard from the ferryman
## p. 33 (#53) ##############################################
The Waldhere Fragments
33
of the gold they were carrying and determined to secure it.
Accompanied by Hagano and eleven other picked warriors, he
overtook them as they rested in a cave in the Vosges. Waltharius
offered him a large share of the gold in order to obtain peace;
but the king demanded the whole together with Hiltgund and
the horse. Stimulated by the promise of great rewards, the
eleven warriors now attacked Waltharius one after another, but
he slew them all. Hagano had tried to dissuade Guntharius
from the attack; but now, since his nephew was among the
slain, he formed a plan with the king for surprising Waltharius.
On the following day they both fell upon him after he had
quitted his stronghold, and, in the struggle that ensued, all three
were maimed. Waltharius, however, was able to proceed on his
way with Hiltgund, and the story ends happily with their marriage.
Both our fragments refer to the time immediately before
the final encounter. The first is taken up with a speech,
apparently by the lady, in which Waldhere is exhorted to acquit
himself in the coming fight in a manner worthy of his former
deeds. Guthhere has unjustly begun hostilities and refused the
offer of a sword and treasure. Now he will have to go away
empty-handed, if he does not lose his life. Between the two
fragments probably not very much has been lost. The second
is occupied by an altercation between Guthhere and Waldhere,
in which the former praises his sword and the latter his coat of
mail. Waldhere states that the king had tried to get Hagena
to attack him first. Victory, however, comes to the faithful
from above. Both the fragments contain Christian allusions.
It has been suggested that the Old English poem was a
translation from an early German one; but the evidence adduced
is far from satisfactory. The speeches given in the fragments
have nothing corresponding to them in Ekkehard's text, and
there is a noteworthy difference in the portraiture of the heroine's
character. Probably, nothing more than the tradition was derived
from abroad, and at a very early date, if we may judge from the
form of the names.
In the fragments, Guthhere is represented as king of the
Burgundians. Since there can be no doubt that he is the
Burgundian king Gundicarius (Gundaharius) who was defeated
and slain by the Huns about the year 437, we must conclude
that Ekkehard's nomenclature was affected by the political
geography of his own day, when Worms was a Frankish town.
The other chief characters are known only from German and
E. L. I. CH. III.
## p. 34 (#54) ##############################################
34
Early National Poetry
Scandinavian tradition. But the story may very well be founded
on fact, as it is likely enough that Attila did take hostages from
the princes of eastern Gaul. In the Bavarian fragments the
hero belongs not to Aquitaine but to Langres. Now, the country
round Langres and Chalon-sur-Saône (Hiltgund's home in the
Latin poem), although the latter was included in the Burgundy
of the tenth century, must once have been settled by Franks
from the Netherlands; for we find here, in later times, districts
called pagus Hamauorum and pagus Hattuariorum. This
settlement, as Zeuss pointed out long ago, probably took place
in the reign of Constantius Chlorus. Hence, there may have been
Frankish princes at Chalon and Langres in the time of Attila.
The rest of the poems which we have to treat in this
chapter are preserved in the Exeter Book. It will be con-
venient to take Widsith first; for, though not an epic itself, it
contains much matter in common with poems of that type.
Indeed, so many princes and peoples are mentioned in the course
of the poem that its importance for the history of the migration
period can hardly be overestimated.
In the introduction (11. 1-9) it is stated that the poet
belonged to the Myrgingas, a people or rather dynasty whose
territories, apparently, were conterminous with those of the Angli
(cf. ll. 41 ff. ), and that, in company with a princess named Ealhhild,
he visited the court of the Gothic king Eormenric. Then, in
Il. 10 ff.
, he begins to enumerate the princes with whom he was
acquainted. This list contains the names of many kings famous
in history and tradition together with those of the peoples which
they governed, the formula employed being “A. ruled over B. "
Among them we find Gifica (Gibicho), Breca, Finn, Hnaef, Saeferth
(Sigeferth ? ) and Ongentheow, who have been mentioned above,
as well as Attila, Eormenric, Theodric (king of the Franks) and
others, some of whom are not known from other sources. In
Il. 35–44 there is a reference to the single combat of Offa, king
of Angel, a story which is given by Saxo (pp. 113 ff. ), Svend
Aagesen and the Vitae Duorum Offarum. In 11. 45–49 we
hear of the long and faithful partnership of Hrothgar and
Hrothwulf and of their victory over Ingeld, an incident to which
Beowulf (IL. 83 ff. ) has only a vague allusion. Then, in 1L 50 ff.
the poet again speaks of his journeys and gives a list of the
nations he had visited. This list is twice interrupted (11. 65–67,
70—74) by references to the generosity with which he had been
## p. 35 (#55) ##############################################
Widsith
35
treated by Guthhere, king of the Burgundians, and by Aelfwine
(Alboin) in Italy. In Il. - 76—78 there is another interruption
referring to the power of Casere, i. e. the Greek emperor. Then,
in II. 88 ff, the poet tells of the gifts he had received from
Eormenric, from his lord Eadgils, prince of the Myrgingas and
from Ealhhild, and also of his own skill as a minstrel. At l. 109,
he begins an enumeration of the Gothic heroes he had visited,
most of whom are known to us from Jordanes, Völsunga Saga
(probably also Hervarar Saga), Vilkina Saga and German tradi-
tions. In 11. 119 ff. he speaks of the ceaseless warfare round the
forest of the Vistula, when the Goths had to defend their country
against the Huns. The list closes with a reference to the martial
deeds of Wudga and Hama, who are mentioned also in Waldhere
and Beowulf as well as in Vilkina Saga, the former also in many
other continental authorities. The epilogue consists of a short
reflection on the life of wandering minstrels and on the advantages
gained by princes in treating them generously.
Apart from the introduction and epilogue, which may originally
have been in prose, this poem appears to have been composed in
strophic form. Its date cannot be determined with certainty.
There is nothing, however, to prevent us from assigning it to
the seventh century or even an earlier date; for, though a Christian
element is present (11. 15, 82—87, 131-134), it is very slight and
may be removed without affecting the structure of the poem.
Alboin, who died about 572, is, probably, the latest person men-
tioned. Now Ealhhild's father bears the same name (Eadwine)
as Alboin's father, i. e. Audoin, king of the Langobardi, a fact
which has led many scholars to believe that Ealhhild was Alboin's
sister, and, consequently, that the poet lived towards the close of
the sixth century. This hypothesis, however, involves, practically,
the reconstruction of the whole poem; for the poet repeatedly
speaks of his visits to Eormenric who, as we know from Ammianus
Marcellinus (xxxi, 3. 1. ), died about two centuries before Alboin,
and clearly implies that Ealhhild was his contemporary, whereas
he only once alludes to Alboin, in a passage covering five lines.
The identity of the two names is, therefore, probably a mere
coincidence. As a matter of fact, the heroes commemorated in
the poem lived at wide intervals from one another, though
Eormenric and persons apparently contemporary with him figure
more prominently than the rest. With greater probability one
might suppose that traditions existed of a famous minstrel who
1 Cf. Paulus Diaconus, Hist. Lang. I, 27.
3–2
## p. 36 (#56) ##############################################
36
Early National Poetry
lived at the court of a prince named Eadgils, and that on the
basis of these traditions later minstrels built up lists of the
chief national heroes known to them. Against this suggestion,
however, stands the fact that the minstrel's name is really
unknown, for Widsith is an obviously fictitious name (meaning
“far-travelled") and must be explained by the statement in ll. 2 f.
as to the extent of the poet's journeys. On the other hand, any
hypothesis which would represent the minstrel as a fictitious
character is open to the objection that, in that case, he would
hardly have been associated with so obscure a person as Eadgils,
prince of the Myrgingas, a family not mentioned except in this
poem. On the whole, then, the hypothesis that the kernel of the
poem is really the work of an unknown fourth century minstrel,
who did visit the court of Eormenric, seems to involve fewer
difficulties than any other. In that case, of course, such passages
as Il. 82 ff. must be regarded as merely the last stage in a process
of accretion which had been going on for some three centuries.
The elegy of Deor is a much shorter poem than Widsith
:(42 lines in all) and in its general tone presents a striking
contrast to it. While Widsith tells of the glory of famous heroes
and, incidentally, of the minstrel's own success, Deor is taken up
with stories of misfortune, which are brought forward in illustra-
tion of the poet's troubles. The strophic form is preserved
throughout and, except in the last fifteen lines, which seem to
have been somewhat remodelled, each strophe ends with a refrain
(a phenomenon for which it would be difficult to find a parallel in
Old English poetry): “That (trouble) was got over (or brought to
an end); so can this be. ”
Originally, perhaps, every strophe referred to a different story
of trouble. Thus, strophe 1 deals with the misfortunes suffered by
Weland at the hands of Nithhad and strophe 2 with the wrongs
done by Weland to Beaduhild. For both these we may refer to
the Old Norse poem Völundarkviða. In strophe 3 we hear of
the passionate love of Geat, presumably the mythical person from
whom the English kings traced their descent. Strophe 4 speaks
of the thirty years' exile of a certain Theodric, probably the same
Theodric who, in Waldhere, is associated with Widia (Wudga). In
German tradition, from the Hildebrandslied onwards, as well as by
most modern writers, he is identified with Theodric, king of the
Ostrogoths (Dietrich von Bern). Strophe 5 deals with the cruelty
of Eormenric and the sufferings of his people. What follows is not
## p. 37 (#57) ##############################################
Deor. The Wanderer 37
so clear, and Il. 31–34 are the work of a Christian. The closing
lines, however, are very remarkable. The poet states that he had
been the bard of the Heodeningas, and that he had been displaced
from his office by a skilful minstrel called Heorrenda. Now, the
name Heodeningas must mean either the descendants of Heoden
or, like the Old Norse Hiaðningar, Heoden (Heðinn) himself and
his people. The story of Heðinn's flight with Hildr, the daughter
of Högni, was well known in the north? and, apparently, also in
England, if we may judge from Widsith, l. 21. Again, Heorrenda
is identical with Hiarrandi, the name of Heðinn's father in the
Norse accounts; in the Austrian poem Kudrun, however, which
seems to contain the same story in a corrupt form, Horant is a
near relative of Hetel (Heðinn) and also a famous minstrel.
Hagena (Högni), according to Widsith, was king of the Holmryge,
a people probably in eastern Pomerania, and Heoden also may
have belonged to the same region. When these persons lived we
do not know; but such evidence as we have points to a period
anterior to the sixth century. There is nothing in the story to
justify the supposition that they are of mythical origin.
Here again, as in the case of Widsith, it is possible that a
poem has been built up round the memory of a famous minstrel,
-one who met with misfortune in later life. Yet we have
no knowledge of such a person from other sources, while the
statement given in the poem itself as to its origin is quite
definite. If this statement is true, the poem must, of course, be
very ancient. But there seems to be no valid reason for disputing
its antiquity; for the four lines which show Christian influence
may very well be a later addition, while the supposed identity of
the exiled Theodric with Theodric the Ostrogoth must be regarded
as a somewhat doubtful hypothesis at the best.
The rest of the shorter poems contain no proper names. Their
subjects seem to be drawn rather from typical characters and
situations than from the experiences of historical or legendary
persons. They are of quite uncertain date, though, doubtless,
much later than the two poems we have just discussed. They
betray little or no trace of strophic form.
The Wanderer is a rather long elegy (115 lines), depicting
the sufferings of a man who has lost his lord. Alone and friendless,
he travels over the sea, seeking a home where he can find
* Cf. Skaldskaparmal, cap. 50, Sörla Thattr, cap. 5 ff. , Saxo, pp. 158 f.
## p. 38 (#58) ##############################################
38
Early National Poetry
protection. In sleep, visions of his former happiness come back
to him. When he awakes, his heart sinks at the sight of the
grey waves and the falling snow. Then he passes on to reflect
on the vicissitudes of human life and on the ruined castles which
may be seen in all directions, testifying to the destruction that
has overtaken their owners. The poem throws an interesting
light on the close nature of the relationship subsisting in early
times between lord and man. It has been suggested that
Cynewulf was the author; but this view is now generally aban-
doned. Indeed, the Christian element is slight and may be due
to later additions.
The Seafarer is a poem of about the same length as The
Wanderer and resembles it in several passages rather closely.
The sequence of thought, however, is much less clear. The poet
begins by reflecting on the miseries which he has endured when
travelling by sea in winter-miseries of which the landsman in
his comfortable castle knows nothing. Yet in ll. 33 ff. he says
that he has an irresistible impulse to try the seaman's life. He
who feels this desire cannot be deterred by any of the pleasures
of home, however fortunately circumstanced he may be. From
1. 64 onwards, he begins a comparison between the transitory
nature of earthly pleasures and the eternal rewards of religion,
concluding with an exhortation to his hearers to fix their hopes
on heavener to explain the appar take it as a di
In order to explain the apparent contradictions of the poem,
some scholars have proposed to take it as a dialogue between
an old seaman and a young man who wishes to try the seaman's
life; but there is a good deal of disagreement as to the distribu-
tion of the lines. The second half of the poem, with its religious
reflections, is believed by many to be a later addition. If that
be not the case, it is at least questionable whether we are justi-
fied in classing The Seafarer among national poems.
The Wife's Complaint is another poem which presents serious
difficulties owing to obscurity in the train of thought. Indeed,
in at least one passage the obscurity is so great that one can
hardly believe the text, as it stands, to be correct. The speaker
is a woman who bewails the ever increasing troubles with which
she is beset. First, her husband departed from her over the
sea. Then, apparently at the instigation of his relatives, she is
imprisoned in an old dwelling dug out of the earth, under an
## p. 39 (#59) ##############################################
The Husband's Message 39
oak, where she sits in solitude bewailing her troubles the whole
day long. She has no friends at hand, and all the vows of lasting
love which she and her husband had exchanged in time past
have come to nothing.
The Husband's Message, so far as it can be read, is a much
simpler poem; but, unfortunately, a number of letters have been
lost in ll. 2–6 and 32—40 owing to a large rent in the MS. The
poem is in the form of a speech addressed, apparently by means
of a staff inscribed with runic letters, to a woman of royal rank.
The speech is a message from the woman's husband (or possibly
lover), who has had to leave his country in consequence of a
vendetta. It is to the effect that he has succeeded in gaining for
himself a position of wealth and dignity in another land. He now
wishes to assure her that his devotion is unchanged, to remind
her of the vows they had made in times past and to ask her
to sail southwards to join him as soon as spring comes.
This is the gist of the poem as it appears in almost all editions.
It has recently been pointed out, however, that the seventeen
lines which immediately precede it in the MS and which have
generally been regarded as a riddle-unconnected with the poem
itself-seem really to form the beginning of the speech. In these
lines the object speaking states that once it grew by the seashore,
but that a knife and human skill have fitted it to give utterance
to a message which requires to be delivered privately.
Again, more than one scholar has remarked that the poem
looks very much like a sequel to The Wife's Complaint. Others
have denied the connection between the two poems on the ground
that in The Wife's Complaint, 1. 15, the lady's imprisonment is
attributed to the husband himself. But it should be observed
that this passage is scarcely intelligible in its present form and,
further, that it seems to conflict with what is said elsewhere in
the poem. On the whole the balance of probability seems to
me to be in favour of the connection.
The Ruin follows The Husband's Message in the Exeter
Book and suffers from the same rent. It differs, somewhat, in
character from the rest of these poems in that the misfortunes
which it tells of are those not of a person but of a place. First
the poet describes an ancient building, or rather group of
buildings, deserted, roofless and tottering. Then he goes on to
reflect that these buildings were once richly adorned, full of
## p. 40 (#60) ##############################################
40
Early National Poetry
proud warriors and gay with feasting—until the day came when
their defenders were annihilated. As it is clearly stated that
the buildings were of stone, and stress is laid on the marvellous
skill shown in their construction, there can be little doubt that
the subject is drawn from one of the Roman cities or castles in
Britain. The reference to many banqueting halls in l. 24 seems
to point to a place of considerable size; and, from the mention
of hot baths in ll. 39 ff. , several scholars have inferred that Bath
is intended. But, unfortunately, so much of the text is lost that
the description cannot clearly be made out.
T A brief reference should be added, in conclusion, to the few
traces that remain of the religious poetry of heathen times. The
higher forms of such poetry, such as the hymns used in royal
sanctuaries or at great popular festivals, have entirely perished.
The songs which have been preserved seem to be in the nature of
incantations for securing the fertility of the fields or for warding
off witchcraft, and even these are largely transformed through
Christian influence. Some of them occur in descriptions of the
magical ceremonies at which they were sung. We may notice
especially the verses used for the blessing of the plough when the
first furrow is drawn. They are addressed to "Erce, the mother
of the earth,” and are in the form of a prayer that the Almighty
will grant her rich fields, full of barley and wheat. Then the earth
is greeted as “mother of mankind. ” Other verses, less affected
by Christian ideas, speak of the shafts shot by female beings
(witches or valkyries) which ride through the air, and of the
means by which these shafts can be averted or expelled.
Another set of verses, in which the god Woden is mentioned,
describes the magic properties of nine herbs. It is probable that
all these songs, together with the descriptions of the ceremonies
accompanying them, were written down at a comparatively late
period, when the heathen practices which survived among the
peasantry-apart from the more harmful species of magic-were
no longer regarded as dangerous.
## p. 41 (#61) ##############################################
CHAPTER IV
OLD ENGLISH CHRISTIAN POETRY
ONLY two names emerge from the anonymity which shrouds
the bulk of Old English Christian poetry, namely, those of
Caedmon and Cynewulf; and, in the past, practically all the
religious poetry we possess has been attributed to one or other
of these two poets. But, as we shall see, the majority of the
poems to be considered here should rather be regarded as the
work of singers whose names have perished, as folk-song, as
manifestations of the spirit of the people in the same sense in
which the tale of Beowulf's adventures embodied the aspirations
of all valiant thegns, or the epic of Waldhere summarised the
popular ideals of love and honour. The subject of the Christian
epic is, indeed, for the most part, apparently, foreign and even,
at times, oriental : the heroes of the Old and New Testaments,
the saints as they live in the legends of the church, furnish the
theme. The method of treatment hardly differs, however, from
that followed in non-Christian poetry; the metrical form, with
rare exceptions, is the alliterative line, constructed on the same
principles as in Beowulf; Wyrd has become the spirit of Pro-
vidence, Christ and His apostles have become English kings or
chiefs, followed, as in feudal duty bound, by hosts of clansmen;
the homage paid to the Divine Son is the allegiance due to
the scion of an Anglian king, comparable to that paid by Beowulf
to his liege lord Hygelac, or to that displayed by Byrhtnoth on
the banks of the Panta; the ideals of early English Christianity
do not differ essentially from those of English paganism. And yet
there is a difference.
The Christianity of England in the seventh and eighth
centuries, and the Latin influences brought in its wake, which
inspired the poetry under discussion, was a fusion, a com-
mingling, of two different strains. Accustomed as we are to date
the introduction of Christianity into England from the mission
of St Augustine, we are apt to forget that, prior to the landing
## p. 42 (#62) ##############################################
42 Old English Christian Poetry
of the Roman missionary on the shores of Kent, Celtic missionaries
from the islands of the west had impressed upon the northern
kingdoms, the earliest home of literary culture in these islands,
a form of Christianity differing in many respects from the more
theological type preached and practised by St Augustine and his
followers. Oswald, the martyr king of Northumbria, had been
followed from Iona, where, in his youth, he had found sanctuary,
by Aidan, the apostle of the north, to whose missionary enterprise
was due the conversion of the rude north Anglian tribes. The
monastery at Streoneshalh, or Whitby, for ever famous as the
home of Caedmon, was ruled by the abbess Hild in accordance
with Celtic, not Roman, usage ; and though, at the synod of
Whitby in 664, the unity of the church in England was assured
by the submission of the northern church to Roman rule, yet
the influence of Celtic Christianity may be traced in some of
the features that most characteristically distinguish Christian
from non-Christian poetry. It would, for instance, be hard to
deny that the depth of personal feeling expressed in a poem
like The Dream of the Rood, the joy in colour attested by the
vivid painting of blossom and leaf in The Phoenix and the
melancholy sense of kinship between the sorrow of the human
heart and the moaning of the grey cold waves that make The
Seafarer a human wail, are elements contributed to English
poetry by the Celts. St Columba had built his monastery on
the surf-beaten shores of the Atlantic, where man's dependence
on nature was an ever-present reality. The Celtic monastery was
the home of a brotherhood of priests, and the abbot was the father
of a family as well as its ecclesiastical superior. The Christian
virtues of humility and meekness, in which the emissaries of
the British church found Augustine deficient, were valued in
Iona above orthodoxy and correctness of religious observance;
and the simplicity of ecclesiastical organisation characteristic of
Celtic Christianity, differing from the comparatively elaborate
nature of Roman organisation and ritual, produced a simple
form of Christianity, realdily understood by the unlettered people
of the north. It is the personal relation of the soul to God the
Father, the humanity of Christ, the brotherhood of man, the
fellowship of saints, that the Celtic missionaries seem to have
preached to their converts; and these doctrines inspired the
choicest passages of Old English religious poetry, passages worthy
of comparison with some of the best work of a later, more self-
conscious and introspective age.
## p. 43 (#63) ##############################################
Changes wrought by Christianity
43
This subjectivity is a new feature in English literature; for
most non-Christian English poetry is epic. Beowulf is a tale of
brave deeds nobly done, with but few reflections concerning them.
At rare intervals, scattered here and there throughout the poem, we
meet with some touch of sentiment, a foreboding of evil to come, a
few words on the inexorable character of fate, an exhortation to
do great deeds so that after death the chosen warrior may fare
the better, occasionally a half-Christian reference to an all-ruling
Father (probably the addition of a later and Christian hand);
but, as a rule, no introspection checks the even flow of narrative:
arma virumque cano. When Christianity became the source
of poetic inspiration, we find the purely epic character of a poem
modified by the introduction of a lyric element. The hero no
longer aspires to win gold from an earthly king ; his prize is a
heavenly crown, to be won, it may even be, in spiritual conflict;
the glories of life on earth are transitory; earthly valour cannot
atone for the stains of sin upon the soul; the beauty of nature,
in her fairest aspects, cannot compare with the radiance of a
better land; the terror that lurks waiting for the evil-doer upon
earth fades away at the contemplation of that day of wrath and
mourning when the Judge of all the earth shall deal to every
man according to his deeds. The early Christian poet does not
sing of earthly love; we have no erotic poetry in pre-Conquest
England; but the sentiment that gives life to the poetry of Dante
and Milton is not absent from the best of our early poets' attempts
at religious self-expression.
Beyond the fact that his name seems to imply that he was of
Celtic descent, we have no knowledge of the historical Caedmon
other than that to be derived from the often-quoted passage in
Bede:
In the monastery of this abbess (i. e. the abbess Hild at Streoneshalb)
there was a certain brother specially distinguished and honoured by divine
grace, for he was wont to make songs such as tended to religion and piety.
Whatsoever he had learned from scholars concerning the Scriptures he
forthwith decked out in poetio language with the greatest sweetness and
fervour. . . . Many others, also, in England, imitated him in the composition of
religious songs. He had not, indeed, been taught of men, or through men, to
practise the art of song, but he had received divine aid, and his power of song
was the gift of God. Wherefore he could never compose any idle or false
song, but only those which pertained to religion and which his pious tongue
might fitly sing. The man had lived in the world till the time that he
was of advanced age, and had never learnt any poetry. And as he was
often at a feast when it was arranged, to promote mirth, that they should
all in turn sing to the harp, whenever he saw the harp come near him he
arose out of shame from the feast and went home to his house. Having
## p. 44 (#64) ##############################################
44
Old English Christian Poetry
done so on one occasion, he left the house of entertainment, and went out
to the stables, the charge of the horses having been committed to him for
that night. When, in due time, he stretched his limbs on the bed there and
fell asleep, there stood by him in a dream a man who saluted him and
greeted him, calling on him by name : “ Caedmon, sing me something. "
Then he answered and said: “I cannot sing anything, and therefore I
came ont from this entertainment and retired here, as I know not how to sing. "
Again he who spoke to him said: “Yet you could sing. ” Then said Caedmon:
“What shall I sing? " He said: “Sing to me the beginning of all things. ” On
receiving this answer, Caedmon at once began to sing, in praise of God the
Creator, verses and words which he had never heard, the order of which
is as follows [quorum iste est sensus]: “Now let us praise the guardian of
the heavenly kingdom, the power of the Creator and the counsel of His
mind, the works of the Father of glory; how He, the eternal Lord, originated
every marvel.
of the persons mentioned in the minor episodes or incidentally-
Sigemund and Fitela, Heremod, Eormenric, Hama, Offa-are more
or less well known from various Scandinavian authorities, some
also from continental sources.
With the exception of Ynglingatal, which dates probably from
the ninth century, all the Scandinavian works mentioned above are
quite late and, doubtless, based on tradition. Hence they give us
no means of fixing the dates of the kings whose doings they
record-unless one can argue from the fact that Harold the Fair-
haired, who appears to have been born in 850, claimed to be
descended in the eleventh generation from Aðils. Indeed, we have
unfortunately no contemporary authorities for Swedish and Danish
history before the ninth century. Several early Frankish writings,
however, refer to a raid which was made upon the territories of the
Chattuarii on the lower Rhine about the year 520. The raiders
were defeated by Theodberht, the son of Theodric I, and their
king, who is called Chohilaicus (Chlochilaicus) or Huiglaucus, was
killed. This incident is, without doubt, to be identified with the
disastrous expedition of Hygelac against the Franks, Hetware
(Chattuarii) and Frisians, to which Beowulf contains several
references. We need not hesitate, then, to conclude that most of
the historical events mentioned in Beowulf are to be dated within
about the first three decades of the sixth century.
In Gregory of Tours's Historia Francorum (III, 3) and in the
Gesta Regum Francorum (cap. 19) the king of the raiders is
described as rex Danorum; in the Liber Monstrorum? however as
rex Getarum. As Getarum can hardly be anything but a corruption
of Beowulf's Geatas the latter description is doubtless correct.
The Geatas are, in all probability, to be identified with the Gautar
of Old Norse literature, i. e. the people of Götaland in the south of
Sweden. It may be mentioned that Procopius, a contemporary
of Theodberht, in his description (Goth. 11, 15) of “Thule,” i. e.
Berger de Xivrey, Traditions Tératowgiques, p. 12.
## p. 27 (#47) ##############################################
Beowulf: Personality of the Hero
27
arrival in the bare skaldske in the
Scandinavia, speaks of the Götar (Gautoi) as a very numerous
nation.
The hero himself still remains to be discussed. On the whole,
though the identification is rejected by many scholars, there seems
to be good reason for believing that he was the same person
as Böðvarr Biarki, the chief of Hrólfr Kraki's knights. In Hrólfs
Saga Kraka, Biarki is represented as coming to Leire, the Danish
royal residence, from Götaland, where his brother was king.
Shortly after his arrival he killed an animal demon (a bear, accord-
ing to Saxo), which was in the habit of attacking the king's farm-
yard at Yule. Again, according to Skaldskaparmal, cap. 44 (from
Skiöldunga Saga), he took part with Aðils in the battle against
Ali. In all these points his history resembles that of Beowulf. It
appears from Hrólfs Saga Kraka that Biarki had the faculty of
changing into a bear. And Beowulf's method of fighting, especially
in his conflict with Daegbrefn, may point to a similar story. On
the other hand, the latter part of Biarki's career is quite different
from that of Beowulf. He stayed with Hrólfr to the end and
shared the death of that king. But the latter part of Beowulfs
life can hardly be regarded as historical. Indeed, his own exploits
throughout are largely of a miraculous character.
There is another Scandinavian story, however, which has a very
curious bearing on the earlier adventures of Beowulf. This is
a passage in Grettis Saga (cap. 64 ff. ), in which the hero is repre-
sented as destroying two demons, male and female. The scene is
laid in Iceland; yet so close are the resemblances between the two
stories, in the character of the demons, in the description of the
places they inhabit and in the methods by which the hero deals
with them, as well as in a number of minor details, that it is
impossible to ascribe them to accident. Now Grettir seems to be
a historical person who died about the year 1031. The presumption
is, then, that an older story has become attached to his name. But
there is nothing in the account that gives any colour to the idea
that it is actually derived from the Old English poem. More
probably the origin of both stories alike is to be sought in a folk-
tale, and, just as the adventures were attributed in Iceland to the
historical Grettir, so in England, and, possibly, also in Denmark, at
an earlier date they were associated with a historical prince of the
Götar. From the occurrence of the local names Beowanham and
Grendles mere in a Wiltshire charter some scholars have inferred
that the story was originally told of a certain Beowa, whom they
* Kemble, Cod. Dipl. 353.
## p. 28 (#48) ##############################################
28
Early National Poetry
have identified with Beaw or Beo, the son of Scyld (Sceldwea)
in the West Saxon genealogy. But since this person is, in all
probability, identical with the first (Danish) Beowulf of the poem,
and since the name Beowa may very well be a shortened form of
Beowulf, while the other names are obscure, the inference seems
to be of somewhat doubtful value. On the whole there is, perhaps,
more to be said for the view that the association of Beowulf with
the folk-tale arose out of some real adventure with an animal.
This, however, must remain largely a matter of speculation. The
fight with the dragon is, of course, a common motive in folk-tales.
An attempt has been made to show that Beowulf's adventure has
a specially close affinity with a story told by Saxo of the Danish
king Frotho I. But the resemblance between the two stories is
not very striking.
With regard to the origin and antiquity of the poem it is
impossible to arrive at any definite conclusions with certainty.
From investigations which have been made into its linguistic and
metrical characteristics the majority of scholars hold that it was
originally composed in a northern or midland dialect-though it
has been preserved only in West Saxon form—and that it is
at least as old as any other considerable piece of Old English
poetry which we possess. The question of antiquity, however, is
complicated by the doubt which is commonly felt as to the unity of
the poem. Moreover, it cannot be denied that this feeling of doubt
is, at least to some extent, justified. In its present form the poem
must date from Christian times as it contains a considerable
number of passages of distinctly Christian character. On the
other hand, the relationships of the various Danish and Swedish
kings can hardly have been remembered otherwise than in a more
or less stereotyped form of words for more than a generation after
their lifetime. Hence we are bound to conclude that the formation
of the poem, or, at all events, that of the materials from which it was
made up, must have occupied at least the greater part of a century.
It is generally thought that several originally separate lays have
been combined in the poem, and, though no proof is obtainable, the
theory in itself is not unlikely. These lays are usually supposed to
have been four in number and to have dealt with the following
subjects : (i) Beowulf's fight with Grendel, (ii) the fight with
Grendel's mother,(iii) Beowulf's return, (iv) the fight with the dragon.
In view of the story in Grettis Saga I am very much inclined
to doubt whether it is justifiable to separate the first two incidents.
The fight with the dragon, however, is certainly quite distinct, and
## p. 29 (#49) ##############################################
Beowulf: the Religious Element 29
the part of the poem dealing with Beowulf's reception by Hygelac
may also have originally formed the subject of a separate lay.
Some scholars have gone much further than this in their analysis
of the poem. According to one view nearly half of it is the work
of interpolators; according to another the present text is a com-
posite one made up from two parallel versions. It is much to be
doubted, however, whether any really substantial result has been
obtained from these investigations into the “inner history" of the
poem. The references to religion seem to afford the only safe
criterion for distinguishing between earlier and later elements.
Thus, it is worth noting that in II. 175 ff. the Danes are represented
as offering heathen sacrifices, a passage which is wholly inconsistent
with the sentiments afterwards attributed to Hrothgar. But at
what stage in the history of the poem was the Christian element
introduced ?
Certainly this element seems to be too deeply interwoven in the
text for us to suppose that it is due to additions made by scribes
at a time when the poem had come to be written down. Indeed,
there is little evidence for any additions or changes of this kind.
We must ascribe it, then, either to the original poet or poets or to
minstrels by whom the poem was recited in later times. The
extent to which the Christian element is present varies somewhat
in different parts of the poem. In the last portion (II. 2200%
3183) the number of lines affected by it amounts to less than four
per cent, while in the section dealing with Beowulf's return
(11. 1904—2199) it is negligible. In the earlier portions, on the
other hand, the percentage rises to between nine and ten, but this
is partly due to four long passages. One fact worth observing
is that the Christian element is about equally distributed between
the speeches and the narrative. We have noticed above that,
according to a theory which has much in its favour, epics are
derived from “mixed” pieces, in which speeches were given in
verse and narrative in prose. If Christian influence had made
itself felt at this stage, we should surely have expected to find
it more prominent in the narrative than in the speeches, for the
latter would, presumably, be far less liable to change.
There is one curious feature in the poem which has scarcely
received sufficient attention, namely the fact that, while the poet's
reflections and even the sentiments attributed to the various
speakers are largely, though not entirely, Christian, the customs
and ceremonies described are, almost without exception, heathen.
This fact seems to point, not to a Christian work with heathen
## p. 30 (#50) ##############################################
30
Early National Poetry
reminiscences, but to a heathen work which has undergone
revision by Christian minstrels. In particular, I cannot believe
that any Christian poet either could or would have composed the
account of Beowulf's funeral. It is true that we have no refer-
ences to heathen gods, and hardly any to actual heathen worship.
But such references would necessarily be suppressed or altered
when the courts became Christian. Indeed, there is a fairly clear
case of alteration in Il. 175 ff. , to which I have already alluded. It
may, perhaps, be urged that, if the work had been subjected to such
a thorough revision, descriptions of heathen ceremonies would not
have been allowed to stand. But the explanation may be that
the ceremonies in question had passed out of use before the change
of religion. In the case of cremation, which is the prevalent form
of funeral rite found in the poem, we have good reason for believing
this to be true. Hence, such passages could not excite the same
repugnance among the clergy as they would have done in countries
where the ceremonies were still practised.
I am disposed, then, to think that large portions at least of the
poem existed in epic form before the change of faith and that the
appearance of the Christian element is due to revision. The Chris-
tianity of Beowulf is of a singularly indefinite and undoctrinal
type, which contrasts somewhat strongly with what is found in
later Old English poetry. In explanation of this fact it has
been suggested that the poem was composed or revised under
the influence of the missionaries from Iona. But is there really
any reason for thinking that the teaching of the Irish missionaries
would tend in that direction? A more obvious explanation would
be that the minstrels who introduced the Christian element had
but a vague knowledge of the new faith. Except in 11. 1743 ff. ,
where there seems to be a reference to Ephesians, vi, 16, the
only passages of the Bible made use of are those relating to
the Creation, the story of Cain and Abel and the Deluge. In
the first case (II. 90 ff. ) one can hardly help suspecting a reference
to Caedmon's hymn, and the others also may just as well have
been derived from Christian poems or songs as from the Bible
itself. In any case, however, the fact noted favours the conclusion
that the revision took place at an early date.
p. Apart from Beowulf, the only remains of national epic poetry
which have come down to us are a short, but fine, fragment (50
lines) of Finnsburh and two still shorter fragments (32 and 31 lipes
respectively) of Waldhere. Regarding the former our information
## p. 31 (#51) ##############################################
The Finnsburh Fragment
31
is sadly defective. The MS is lost and the text, as given by
Hickes, is extremely corrupt. The story, however, though obscure
to us, must have been extremely popular in early times. It is the
subject of a long episode in Beowulf (see above, p. 23), and three
of the chief characters are mentioned in Widsith. Familiarity
with it is shown also by a mistake in the genealogy in the
Historia Brittonum, § 31.
The fragment opens with the speech of a young prince
rousing his followers to defend the hall in which they are
sleeping, apparently within Finn's fortress. They rush to the
doors, the chief men being Hengest (perhaps the prince),
Sigeferth, Eaha, Ordlaf and Guthlaf. A short altercation follows
between Sigeferth and Garulf, who is apparently one of the attack-
ing force. The battle goes on for five days, and many of the
assailants, including Garulf, fall. The defenders, however, main-
tain their position without loss, and we are told that never was
a better recompense yielded by sixty knights to their lord than
Hnaef now received from his followers. Then a wounded warrior,
who is not named, brings the news to his king--at which point
the fragment breaks off.
The episode in Beowulf furnishes us with considerably more
information than the fragment itself. Hnaef, a vassal of the
Danish king Healfdene, has fallen at the hands of the Frisians,
whom apparently he had gone to visit—whether as friend or
foe is not clear. His men, however, maintain a stout defence,
and so great are the losses of the Frisians that their king, Finn,
has to make terms with them. An agreement is then arrived
at between their leader Hengest and the king. They are to
enter Finn's service and to be treated by him as generously as
the Frisians themselves; and no taunt is to be raised against
them on the ground that they have made terms with the man
who slew their lord. A great funeral pyre is constructed for the
bodies of the slain, and Hildeburh, apparently the wife of Finn
and sister of Hnaef, bewails the loss of both her brother and
her son. Hengest and his companions stay with Finn through-
out the winter, though sorely tempted to exact vengeance.
Eventually, Guthlaf and Oslaf (Ordlaf ? ) attack and slay Finn
with many of his men. The queen is carried away to Denmark
with much treasure.
There are no certain references to this story in Scandinavian
or German literature, though Ordlaf and Guthlaf are probably
to be identified with two Danish princes mentioned in Arngrim
## p. 32 (#52) ##############################################
32
Early National Poetry
Jónsson's epitome of Skiöldunga Saga, cap. 4. The tragic events
with which the story deals must clearly be referred to the time
of those great movements in the regions of the North Sea, between
the fourth and sixth centuries, to which Latin writers occasionally
allude. The fact that Hnaef is called a vassal of Healfdene, Hroth-
gar's father, points to about the middle of the fifth century. It is
by no means impossible, therefore, that the Hengest of this story
is identical with the Hengest who founded the kingdom of Kent.
The MS fragments of Waldhere (Waldere) are preserved in
the Royal Library at Copenhagen. For this story, fortunately,
information is available from a number of continental sources.
It is the subject of a Latin epic poem (Waltharius) by Ekkehard
of St Gall, dating from the first half of the tenth century, of
a Bavarian poem dating from the first half of the thirteenth
century, of which only small fragments are preserved, and of two
episodes in the Norwegian Vilkina Saga (S$ 128 f. , 241–4; cf.
§ 331), which is of Low German origin. Incidental references
to it occur in several Middle High German poems, and there is
also a Polish version of the story, the earliest form of which is
in Chronicon Boguphali Episcopi, dating from the thirteenth
or fourteenth century. It will be convenient here to give a
brief summary of Ekkehard's story, as this is the earliest of the
continental authorities and appears to have the closest resem-
blance to our fragments.
Alphere, king of Aquitaine, had a son named Waltharius, and
Heriricus, king of Burgundy, an only daughter named Hiltgund,
who was betrothed to Waltharius. While they were yet children,
however, Attila, king of the Huns, invaded Gaul, and the kings,
seeing no hope in resistance, gave up their children to him as
hostages, together with much treasure. Under like compulsion
treasure was obtained also from Gibicho, king of the Franks,
who sent as hostage a youth of noble birth named Hagano. In
Attila’s service, Waltharius and Hagano won great renown as
warriors, but the latter eventually made his escape. When
Waltharius grew up he became Attila's chief general; yet he
remembered his old engagement with Hiltgund. On his return
from a victorious campaign he made a great feast for the king
and his court, and, when all were sunk in drunken sleep, he and
Hiltgund fled laden with much gold. On their way home they
had to cross the Rhine near Worms. There the king of the
Franks, Guntharius, the son of Gibicho, heard from the ferryman
## p. 33 (#53) ##############################################
The Waldhere Fragments
33
of the gold they were carrying and determined to secure it.
Accompanied by Hagano and eleven other picked warriors, he
overtook them as they rested in a cave in the Vosges. Waltharius
offered him a large share of the gold in order to obtain peace;
but the king demanded the whole together with Hiltgund and
the horse. Stimulated by the promise of great rewards, the
eleven warriors now attacked Waltharius one after another, but
he slew them all. Hagano had tried to dissuade Guntharius
from the attack; but now, since his nephew was among the
slain, he formed a plan with the king for surprising Waltharius.
On the following day they both fell upon him after he had
quitted his stronghold, and, in the struggle that ensued, all three
were maimed. Waltharius, however, was able to proceed on his
way with Hiltgund, and the story ends happily with their marriage.
Both our fragments refer to the time immediately before
the final encounter. The first is taken up with a speech,
apparently by the lady, in which Waldhere is exhorted to acquit
himself in the coming fight in a manner worthy of his former
deeds. Guthhere has unjustly begun hostilities and refused the
offer of a sword and treasure. Now he will have to go away
empty-handed, if he does not lose his life. Between the two
fragments probably not very much has been lost. The second
is occupied by an altercation between Guthhere and Waldhere,
in which the former praises his sword and the latter his coat of
mail. Waldhere states that the king had tried to get Hagena
to attack him first. Victory, however, comes to the faithful
from above. Both the fragments contain Christian allusions.
It has been suggested that the Old English poem was a
translation from an early German one; but the evidence adduced
is far from satisfactory. The speeches given in the fragments
have nothing corresponding to them in Ekkehard's text, and
there is a noteworthy difference in the portraiture of the heroine's
character. Probably, nothing more than the tradition was derived
from abroad, and at a very early date, if we may judge from the
form of the names.
In the fragments, Guthhere is represented as king of the
Burgundians. Since there can be no doubt that he is the
Burgundian king Gundicarius (Gundaharius) who was defeated
and slain by the Huns about the year 437, we must conclude
that Ekkehard's nomenclature was affected by the political
geography of his own day, when Worms was a Frankish town.
The other chief characters are known only from German and
E. L. I. CH. III.
## p. 34 (#54) ##############################################
34
Early National Poetry
Scandinavian tradition. But the story may very well be founded
on fact, as it is likely enough that Attila did take hostages from
the princes of eastern Gaul. In the Bavarian fragments the
hero belongs not to Aquitaine but to Langres. Now, the country
round Langres and Chalon-sur-Saône (Hiltgund's home in the
Latin poem), although the latter was included in the Burgundy
of the tenth century, must once have been settled by Franks
from the Netherlands; for we find here, in later times, districts
called pagus Hamauorum and pagus Hattuariorum. This
settlement, as Zeuss pointed out long ago, probably took place
in the reign of Constantius Chlorus. Hence, there may have been
Frankish princes at Chalon and Langres in the time of Attila.
The rest of the poems which we have to treat in this
chapter are preserved in the Exeter Book. It will be con-
venient to take Widsith first; for, though not an epic itself, it
contains much matter in common with poems of that type.
Indeed, so many princes and peoples are mentioned in the course
of the poem that its importance for the history of the migration
period can hardly be overestimated.
In the introduction (11. 1-9) it is stated that the poet
belonged to the Myrgingas, a people or rather dynasty whose
territories, apparently, were conterminous with those of the Angli
(cf. ll. 41 ff. ), and that, in company with a princess named Ealhhild,
he visited the court of the Gothic king Eormenric. Then, in
Il. 10 ff.
, he begins to enumerate the princes with whom he was
acquainted. This list contains the names of many kings famous
in history and tradition together with those of the peoples which
they governed, the formula employed being “A. ruled over B. "
Among them we find Gifica (Gibicho), Breca, Finn, Hnaef, Saeferth
(Sigeferth ? ) and Ongentheow, who have been mentioned above,
as well as Attila, Eormenric, Theodric (king of the Franks) and
others, some of whom are not known from other sources. In
Il. 35–44 there is a reference to the single combat of Offa, king
of Angel, a story which is given by Saxo (pp. 113 ff. ), Svend
Aagesen and the Vitae Duorum Offarum. In 11. 45–49 we
hear of the long and faithful partnership of Hrothgar and
Hrothwulf and of their victory over Ingeld, an incident to which
Beowulf (IL. 83 ff. ) has only a vague allusion. Then, in 1L 50 ff.
the poet again speaks of his journeys and gives a list of the
nations he had visited. This list is twice interrupted (11. 65–67,
70—74) by references to the generosity with which he had been
## p. 35 (#55) ##############################################
Widsith
35
treated by Guthhere, king of the Burgundians, and by Aelfwine
(Alboin) in Italy. In Il. - 76—78 there is another interruption
referring to the power of Casere, i. e. the Greek emperor. Then,
in II. 88 ff, the poet tells of the gifts he had received from
Eormenric, from his lord Eadgils, prince of the Myrgingas and
from Ealhhild, and also of his own skill as a minstrel. At l. 109,
he begins an enumeration of the Gothic heroes he had visited,
most of whom are known to us from Jordanes, Völsunga Saga
(probably also Hervarar Saga), Vilkina Saga and German tradi-
tions. In 11. 119 ff. he speaks of the ceaseless warfare round the
forest of the Vistula, when the Goths had to defend their country
against the Huns. The list closes with a reference to the martial
deeds of Wudga and Hama, who are mentioned also in Waldhere
and Beowulf as well as in Vilkina Saga, the former also in many
other continental authorities. The epilogue consists of a short
reflection on the life of wandering minstrels and on the advantages
gained by princes in treating them generously.
Apart from the introduction and epilogue, which may originally
have been in prose, this poem appears to have been composed in
strophic form. Its date cannot be determined with certainty.
There is nothing, however, to prevent us from assigning it to
the seventh century or even an earlier date; for, though a Christian
element is present (11. 15, 82—87, 131-134), it is very slight and
may be removed without affecting the structure of the poem.
Alboin, who died about 572, is, probably, the latest person men-
tioned. Now Ealhhild's father bears the same name (Eadwine)
as Alboin's father, i. e. Audoin, king of the Langobardi, a fact
which has led many scholars to believe that Ealhhild was Alboin's
sister, and, consequently, that the poet lived towards the close of
the sixth century. This hypothesis, however, involves, practically,
the reconstruction of the whole poem; for the poet repeatedly
speaks of his visits to Eormenric who, as we know from Ammianus
Marcellinus (xxxi, 3. 1. ), died about two centuries before Alboin,
and clearly implies that Ealhhild was his contemporary, whereas
he only once alludes to Alboin, in a passage covering five lines.
The identity of the two names is, therefore, probably a mere
coincidence. As a matter of fact, the heroes commemorated in
the poem lived at wide intervals from one another, though
Eormenric and persons apparently contemporary with him figure
more prominently than the rest. With greater probability one
might suppose that traditions existed of a famous minstrel who
1 Cf. Paulus Diaconus, Hist. Lang. I, 27.
3–2
## p. 36 (#56) ##############################################
36
Early National Poetry
lived at the court of a prince named Eadgils, and that on the
basis of these traditions later minstrels built up lists of the
chief national heroes known to them. Against this suggestion,
however, stands the fact that the minstrel's name is really
unknown, for Widsith is an obviously fictitious name (meaning
“far-travelled") and must be explained by the statement in ll. 2 f.
as to the extent of the poet's journeys. On the other hand, any
hypothesis which would represent the minstrel as a fictitious
character is open to the objection that, in that case, he would
hardly have been associated with so obscure a person as Eadgils,
prince of the Myrgingas, a family not mentioned except in this
poem. On the whole, then, the hypothesis that the kernel of the
poem is really the work of an unknown fourth century minstrel,
who did visit the court of Eormenric, seems to involve fewer
difficulties than any other. In that case, of course, such passages
as Il. 82 ff. must be regarded as merely the last stage in a process
of accretion which had been going on for some three centuries.
The elegy of Deor is a much shorter poem than Widsith
:(42 lines in all) and in its general tone presents a striking
contrast to it. While Widsith tells of the glory of famous heroes
and, incidentally, of the minstrel's own success, Deor is taken up
with stories of misfortune, which are brought forward in illustra-
tion of the poet's troubles. The strophic form is preserved
throughout and, except in the last fifteen lines, which seem to
have been somewhat remodelled, each strophe ends with a refrain
(a phenomenon for which it would be difficult to find a parallel in
Old English poetry): “That (trouble) was got over (or brought to
an end); so can this be. ”
Originally, perhaps, every strophe referred to a different story
of trouble. Thus, strophe 1 deals with the misfortunes suffered by
Weland at the hands of Nithhad and strophe 2 with the wrongs
done by Weland to Beaduhild. For both these we may refer to
the Old Norse poem Völundarkviða. In strophe 3 we hear of
the passionate love of Geat, presumably the mythical person from
whom the English kings traced their descent. Strophe 4 speaks
of the thirty years' exile of a certain Theodric, probably the same
Theodric who, in Waldhere, is associated with Widia (Wudga). In
German tradition, from the Hildebrandslied onwards, as well as by
most modern writers, he is identified with Theodric, king of the
Ostrogoths (Dietrich von Bern). Strophe 5 deals with the cruelty
of Eormenric and the sufferings of his people. What follows is not
## p. 37 (#57) ##############################################
Deor. The Wanderer 37
so clear, and Il. 31–34 are the work of a Christian. The closing
lines, however, are very remarkable. The poet states that he had
been the bard of the Heodeningas, and that he had been displaced
from his office by a skilful minstrel called Heorrenda. Now, the
name Heodeningas must mean either the descendants of Heoden
or, like the Old Norse Hiaðningar, Heoden (Heðinn) himself and
his people. The story of Heðinn's flight with Hildr, the daughter
of Högni, was well known in the north? and, apparently, also in
England, if we may judge from Widsith, l. 21. Again, Heorrenda
is identical with Hiarrandi, the name of Heðinn's father in the
Norse accounts; in the Austrian poem Kudrun, however, which
seems to contain the same story in a corrupt form, Horant is a
near relative of Hetel (Heðinn) and also a famous minstrel.
Hagena (Högni), according to Widsith, was king of the Holmryge,
a people probably in eastern Pomerania, and Heoden also may
have belonged to the same region. When these persons lived we
do not know; but such evidence as we have points to a period
anterior to the sixth century. There is nothing in the story to
justify the supposition that they are of mythical origin.
Here again, as in the case of Widsith, it is possible that a
poem has been built up round the memory of a famous minstrel,
-one who met with misfortune in later life. Yet we have
no knowledge of such a person from other sources, while the
statement given in the poem itself as to its origin is quite
definite. If this statement is true, the poem must, of course, be
very ancient. But there seems to be no valid reason for disputing
its antiquity; for the four lines which show Christian influence
may very well be a later addition, while the supposed identity of
the exiled Theodric with Theodric the Ostrogoth must be regarded
as a somewhat doubtful hypothesis at the best.
The rest of the shorter poems contain no proper names. Their
subjects seem to be drawn rather from typical characters and
situations than from the experiences of historical or legendary
persons. They are of quite uncertain date, though, doubtless,
much later than the two poems we have just discussed. They
betray little or no trace of strophic form.
The Wanderer is a rather long elegy (115 lines), depicting
the sufferings of a man who has lost his lord. Alone and friendless,
he travels over the sea, seeking a home where he can find
* Cf. Skaldskaparmal, cap. 50, Sörla Thattr, cap. 5 ff. , Saxo, pp. 158 f.
## p. 38 (#58) ##############################################
38
Early National Poetry
protection. In sleep, visions of his former happiness come back
to him. When he awakes, his heart sinks at the sight of the
grey waves and the falling snow. Then he passes on to reflect
on the vicissitudes of human life and on the ruined castles which
may be seen in all directions, testifying to the destruction that
has overtaken their owners. The poem throws an interesting
light on the close nature of the relationship subsisting in early
times between lord and man. It has been suggested that
Cynewulf was the author; but this view is now generally aban-
doned. Indeed, the Christian element is slight and may be due
to later additions.
The Seafarer is a poem of about the same length as The
Wanderer and resembles it in several passages rather closely.
The sequence of thought, however, is much less clear. The poet
begins by reflecting on the miseries which he has endured when
travelling by sea in winter-miseries of which the landsman in
his comfortable castle knows nothing. Yet in ll. 33 ff. he says
that he has an irresistible impulse to try the seaman's life. He
who feels this desire cannot be deterred by any of the pleasures
of home, however fortunately circumstanced he may be. From
1. 64 onwards, he begins a comparison between the transitory
nature of earthly pleasures and the eternal rewards of religion,
concluding with an exhortation to his hearers to fix their hopes
on heavener to explain the appar take it as a di
In order to explain the apparent contradictions of the poem,
some scholars have proposed to take it as a dialogue between
an old seaman and a young man who wishes to try the seaman's
life; but there is a good deal of disagreement as to the distribu-
tion of the lines. The second half of the poem, with its religious
reflections, is believed by many to be a later addition. If that
be not the case, it is at least questionable whether we are justi-
fied in classing The Seafarer among national poems.
The Wife's Complaint is another poem which presents serious
difficulties owing to obscurity in the train of thought. Indeed,
in at least one passage the obscurity is so great that one can
hardly believe the text, as it stands, to be correct. The speaker
is a woman who bewails the ever increasing troubles with which
she is beset. First, her husband departed from her over the
sea. Then, apparently at the instigation of his relatives, she is
imprisoned in an old dwelling dug out of the earth, under an
## p. 39 (#59) ##############################################
The Husband's Message 39
oak, where she sits in solitude bewailing her troubles the whole
day long. She has no friends at hand, and all the vows of lasting
love which she and her husband had exchanged in time past
have come to nothing.
The Husband's Message, so far as it can be read, is a much
simpler poem; but, unfortunately, a number of letters have been
lost in ll. 2–6 and 32—40 owing to a large rent in the MS. The
poem is in the form of a speech addressed, apparently by means
of a staff inscribed with runic letters, to a woman of royal rank.
The speech is a message from the woman's husband (or possibly
lover), who has had to leave his country in consequence of a
vendetta. It is to the effect that he has succeeded in gaining for
himself a position of wealth and dignity in another land. He now
wishes to assure her that his devotion is unchanged, to remind
her of the vows they had made in times past and to ask her
to sail southwards to join him as soon as spring comes.
This is the gist of the poem as it appears in almost all editions.
It has recently been pointed out, however, that the seventeen
lines which immediately precede it in the MS and which have
generally been regarded as a riddle-unconnected with the poem
itself-seem really to form the beginning of the speech. In these
lines the object speaking states that once it grew by the seashore,
but that a knife and human skill have fitted it to give utterance
to a message which requires to be delivered privately.
Again, more than one scholar has remarked that the poem
looks very much like a sequel to The Wife's Complaint. Others
have denied the connection between the two poems on the ground
that in The Wife's Complaint, 1. 15, the lady's imprisonment is
attributed to the husband himself. But it should be observed
that this passage is scarcely intelligible in its present form and,
further, that it seems to conflict with what is said elsewhere in
the poem. On the whole the balance of probability seems to
me to be in favour of the connection.
The Ruin follows The Husband's Message in the Exeter
Book and suffers from the same rent. It differs, somewhat, in
character from the rest of these poems in that the misfortunes
which it tells of are those not of a person but of a place. First
the poet describes an ancient building, or rather group of
buildings, deserted, roofless and tottering. Then he goes on to
reflect that these buildings were once richly adorned, full of
## p. 40 (#60) ##############################################
40
Early National Poetry
proud warriors and gay with feasting—until the day came when
their defenders were annihilated. As it is clearly stated that
the buildings were of stone, and stress is laid on the marvellous
skill shown in their construction, there can be little doubt that
the subject is drawn from one of the Roman cities or castles in
Britain. The reference to many banqueting halls in l. 24 seems
to point to a place of considerable size; and, from the mention
of hot baths in ll. 39 ff. , several scholars have inferred that Bath
is intended. But, unfortunately, so much of the text is lost that
the description cannot clearly be made out.
T A brief reference should be added, in conclusion, to the few
traces that remain of the religious poetry of heathen times. The
higher forms of such poetry, such as the hymns used in royal
sanctuaries or at great popular festivals, have entirely perished.
The songs which have been preserved seem to be in the nature of
incantations for securing the fertility of the fields or for warding
off witchcraft, and even these are largely transformed through
Christian influence. Some of them occur in descriptions of the
magical ceremonies at which they were sung. We may notice
especially the verses used for the blessing of the plough when the
first furrow is drawn. They are addressed to "Erce, the mother
of the earth,” and are in the form of a prayer that the Almighty
will grant her rich fields, full of barley and wheat. Then the earth
is greeted as “mother of mankind. ” Other verses, less affected
by Christian ideas, speak of the shafts shot by female beings
(witches or valkyries) which ride through the air, and of the
means by which these shafts can be averted or expelled.
Another set of verses, in which the god Woden is mentioned,
describes the magic properties of nine herbs. It is probable that
all these songs, together with the descriptions of the ceremonies
accompanying them, were written down at a comparatively late
period, when the heathen practices which survived among the
peasantry-apart from the more harmful species of magic-were
no longer regarded as dangerous.
## p. 41 (#61) ##############################################
CHAPTER IV
OLD ENGLISH CHRISTIAN POETRY
ONLY two names emerge from the anonymity which shrouds
the bulk of Old English Christian poetry, namely, those of
Caedmon and Cynewulf; and, in the past, practically all the
religious poetry we possess has been attributed to one or other
of these two poets. But, as we shall see, the majority of the
poems to be considered here should rather be regarded as the
work of singers whose names have perished, as folk-song, as
manifestations of the spirit of the people in the same sense in
which the tale of Beowulf's adventures embodied the aspirations
of all valiant thegns, or the epic of Waldhere summarised the
popular ideals of love and honour. The subject of the Christian
epic is, indeed, for the most part, apparently, foreign and even,
at times, oriental : the heroes of the Old and New Testaments,
the saints as they live in the legends of the church, furnish the
theme. The method of treatment hardly differs, however, from
that followed in non-Christian poetry; the metrical form, with
rare exceptions, is the alliterative line, constructed on the same
principles as in Beowulf; Wyrd has become the spirit of Pro-
vidence, Christ and His apostles have become English kings or
chiefs, followed, as in feudal duty bound, by hosts of clansmen;
the homage paid to the Divine Son is the allegiance due to
the scion of an Anglian king, comparable to that paid by Beowulf
to his liege lord Hygelac, or to that displayed by Byrhtnoth on
the banks of the Panta; the ideals of early English Christianity
do not differ essentially from those of English paganism. And yet
there is a difference.
The Christianity of England in the seventh and eighth
centuries, and the Latin influences brought in its wake, which
inspired the poetry under discussion, was a fusion, a com-
mingling, of two different strains. Accustomed as we are to date
the introduction of Christianity into England from the mission
of St Augustine, we are apt to forget that, prior to the landing
## p. 42 (#62) ##############################################
42 Old English Christian Poetry
of the Roman missionary on the shores of Kent, Celtic missionaries
from the islands of the west had impressed upon the northern
kingdoms, the earliest home of literary culture in these islands,
a form of Christianity differing in many respects from the more
theological type preached and practised by St Augustine and his
followers. Oswald, the martyr king of Northumbria, had been
followed from Iona, where, in his youth, he had found sanctuary,
by Aidan, the apostle of the north, to whose missionary enterprise
was due the conversion of the rude north Anglian tribes. The
monastery at Streoneshalh, or Whitby, for ever famous as the
home of Caedmon, was ruled by the abbess Hild in accordance
with Celtic, not Roman, usage ; and though, at the synod of
Whitby in 664, the unity of the church in England was assured
by the submission of the northern church to Roman rule, yet
the influence of Celtic Christianity may be traced in some of
the features that most characteristically distinguish Christian
from non-Christian poetry. It would, for instance, be hard to
deny that the depth of personal feeling expressed in a poem
like The Dream of the Rood, the joy in colour attested by the
vivid painting of blossom and leaf in The Phoenix and the
melancholy sense of kinship between the sorrow of the human
heart and the moaning of the grey cold waves that make The
Seafarer a human wail, are elements contributed to English
poetry by the Celts. St Columba had built his monastery on
the surf-beaten shores of the Atlantic, where man's dependence
on nature was an ever-present reality. The Celtic monastery was
the home of a brotherhood of priests, and the abbot was the father
of a family as well as its ecclesiastical superior. The Christian
virtues of humility and meekness, in which the emissaries of
the British church found Augustine deficient, were valued in
Iona above orthodoxy and correctness of religious observance;
and the simplicity of ecclesiastical organisation characteristic of
Celtic Christianity, differing from the comparatively elaborate
nature of Roman organisation and ritual, produced a simple
form of Christianity, realdily understood by the unlettered people
of the north. It is the personal relation of the soul to God the
Father, the humanity of Christ, the brotherhood of man, the
fellowship of saints, that the Celtic missionaries seem to have
preached to their converts; and these doctrines inspired the
choicest passages of Old English religious poetry, passages worthy
of comparison with some of the best work of a later, more self-
conscious and introspective age.
## p. 43 (#63) ##############################################
Changes wrought by Christianity
43
This subjectivity is a new feature in English literature; for
most non-Christian English poetry is epic. Beowulf is a tale of
brave deeds nobly done, with but few reflections concerning them.
At rare intervals, scattered here and there throughout the poem, we
meet with some touch of sentiment, a foreboding of evil to come, a
few words on the inexorable character of fate, an exhortation to
do great deeds so that after death the chosen warrior may fare
the better, occasionally a half-Christian reference to an all-ruling
Father (probably the addition of a later and Christian hand);
but, as a rule, no introspection checks the even flow of narrative:
arma virumque cano. When Christianity became the source
of poetic inspiration, we find the purely epic character of a poem
modified by the introduction of a lyric element. The hero no
longer aspires to win gold from an earthly king ; his prize is a
heavenly crown, to be won, it may even be, in spiritual conflict;
the glories of life on earth are transitory; earthly valour cannot
atone for the stains of sin upon the soul; the beauty of nature,
in her fairest aspects, cannot compare with the radiance of a
better land; the terror that lurks waiting for the evil-doer upon
earth fades away at the contemplation of that day of wrath and
mourning when the Judge of all the earth shall deal to every
man according to his deeds. The early Christian poet does not
sing of earthly love; we have no erotic poetry in pre-Conquest
England; but the sentiment that gives life to the poetry of Dante
and Milton is not absent from the best of our early poets' attempts
at religious self-expression.
Beyond the fact that his name seems to imply that he was of
Celtic descent, we have no knowledge of the historical Caedmon
other than that to be derived from the often-quoted passage in
Bede:
In the monastery of this abbess (i. e. the abbess Hild at Streoneshalb)
there was a certain brother specially distinguished and honoured by divine
grace, for he was wont to make songs such as tended to religion and piety.
Whatsoever he had learned from scholars concerning the Scriptures he
forthwith decked out in poetio language with the greatest sweetness and
fervour. . . . Many others, also, in England, imitated him in the composition of
religious songs. He had not, indeed, been taught of men, or through men, to
practise the art of song, but he had received divine aid, and his power of song
was the gift of God. Wherefore he could never compose any idle or false
song, but only those which pertained to religion and which his pious tongue
might fitly sing. The man had lived in the world till the time that he
was of advanced age, and had never learnt any poetry. And as he was
often at a feast when it was arranged, to promote mirth, that they should
all in turn sing to the harp, whenever he saw the harp come near him he
arose out of shame from the feast and went home to his house. Having
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44
Old English Christian Poetry
done so on one occasion, he left the house of entertainment, and went out
to the stables, the charge of the horses having been committed to him for
that night. When, in due time, he stretched his limbs on the bed there and
fell asleep, there stood by him in a dream a man who saluted him and
greeted him, calling on him by name : “ Caedmon, sing me something. "
Then he answered and said: “I cannot sing anything, and therefore I
came ont from this entertainment and retired here, as I know not how to sing. "
Again he who spoke to him said: “Yet you could sing. ” Then said Caedmon:
“What shall I sing? " He said: “Sing to me the beginning of all things. ” On
receiving this answer, Caedmon at once began to sing, in praise of God the
Creator, verses and words which he had never heard, the order of which
is as follows [quorum iste est sensus]: “Now let us praise the guardian of
the heavenly kingdom, the power of the Creator and the counsel of His
mind, the works of the Father of glory; how He, the eternal Lord, originated
every marvel.
