22. The subject of Elene, that is, Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, is the finding of the true cross at Jerusalem. The well-known story is adhered to pretty closely in its main features, though with much amplification in details. The discovery of the holy nails used in the Crucifixion receives especial prominence; indeed, it almost throws the Invention of the Cross into the shade. The poem contains 1,321 lines. 23. Both stories, then, in substance and in details, are taken from church tradition; yet the spirit of the time and the people is manifest, perhaps, in the very choice of the subjects, especially in that of Elene. A Teuton loved before all things to hear of war and fighting; now Constantine in the story only embraces Christianity because it has brought him victory in war; nor is the cross on the sacred Labarum sufficient for him out of the holy nails must be fashioned a bit for his bridle, which victory ever waits upon. In Andreas there is indeed no fighting; but there is a striking picture of a solemn Volks-thing, or national assembly; and in the account of the divine ferryman, we cannot but trace the sagas about the Saxon Woden, according to which he was wont, in the disguise of a ferryman, to transport and deliver men from danger. The patient, almost monotonous, endurance of the saint, is indeed a purely Christian feature ; but when we find him with all the wounds and bruises of the day miraculously healed before the morning, we are reminded of the fact that the sagas attribute the same marvel to the Hiadningar,' the ancient heroes of the North, though indeed with this difference, that the latter have fought valiantly, and not got more hard blows than they have given. 24. With regard to the authorship of these poems, Jacob Grimm (from whose excellent introduction my account of them is mainly taken) enters into an interesting speculation. The name of the author of Elene is given in runic letters at the close of the poem-it is Cynewulf. But who was Cynewulf? and who wrote Andreas? Grimm now proceeds to weave a pretty theory. Towards the end of Andreas occur the lines (1. 1487), Hwædre git sceolon lytlum sticcum leod worda dæl furður reccan.' The 'git' (ye two) refers, he thinks, to a king and queen. These were, he conjectures, Ina, king of Wessex (688-725) and Ethelburga, his queen; if so, the poet was probably Bishop 1 Yet must ye two, in little pieces, further con over a portion of my verses.' Aldhelm, Ina's friend and counsellor, who is known to have written Saxon poems, though they were supposed to be lost, and who, as educated under Archbishop Theodore in the school of Canterbury, might easily have become acquainted with the Greek legend embodied in Andreas. Cynewulf was perhaps a disciple of Aldhelm. Crist, a long poem on the threefold coming of Christ, and Juliana, which is the legend of the martyrdom of the saint of that name, derived from her Acts,' are also proved, by runes inserted in the body of each poem, to have been written by Cynewulf. All four poems seem to point to a time when only some hundred years, or less, had elapsed since the nation renounced the faith of its forefathers, so that it still retained many vestiges of its wild heathen past. It should be noted that a German scholar, Dietrich (Haupt's Zeitschrift, ix.), first pointed out the unity of the work since entitled Crist; till then it had been regarded as a collection of detached pieces. Cynewulf is also believed to have written part of Gudlac and possibly Phonix, both printed in Grein's Bibliothek der Angelsächsischen Poesie. The author of an excellent article in Brockhaus' Conversations Lexikon, from which these particulars are taken, adds that 'from his poems it may be gathered, that Cynewulf lived in the eighth century, spent part of his life in secular efforts and affairs, perhaps as a strolling singer, whence the collection of "Riddles " may have arisen; and later on devoted himself to the religious life. He was not wanting in culture, and probably had attended a convent school.' 2 25. Judith, a fragment of which only has come down to us, found in the same unique MS. volume which contains Beowulf, is not inaptly described by Mr. Turner as an Anglo-Saxon romance, since, like many of the romances of a later age, while the outline of the story is taken from Jewish history, the tone, the descriptions, and many of the incidents, present the broadest local colouring, and breathe the full Teutonic spirit. The opening of the poem, down to the middle of the ninth section, is lost. The exact date is unascertainable, but Grimm seems to treat it as belonging to the great literary age of Wessex, the eighth century. 26. Several remarkable poems are preserved to us in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, presently to be described. The chief of these are, the Brunanburgh War-song, and the Elegy on King Edgar, given under the years 938 and 975 respectively. The first the 'Waterloo ode' of the ninth century-is a triumphal chant occasioned by the great victory won by Athelstan, over the Danes from Ireland under Anlaf, and the Scots under 1 Printed in the Acta Sanctorum, February 16. 1 their king Constantine, at Brunanburgh. Never, says the Gleeman, since the Angles and Saxons came hither from the eastward, had they gained a bloodier victory : Ne weard wæl mare On dise iglande æfer gyta folces gefylled beforan þissum, Engle and Seaxe up becomon ofer brymum brad Brytene sohton, wlance wig-smiðas, Wealas ofer-comon, 'Nor was there ever yet a greater slaughter of people brought about in this island before this with the edge of the sword, according to that which old sages tell us by book, since Angles and Saxons came up hither from the east, sought Britain over the broad main, as proud artificers of war overcame the alien race [Welsh], got possession-the earls keen after glory!-of the land.' 27. The Elegy on King Edgar belongs to the waning period of Anglo-Saxon poetry. Some of the homely, vivid metaphors of the old gleemen are still retained; the sea is still the gannet's bath,'' the home of the whale,' and so on; but the fire and the swift movement are gone. It is short, and yet diffuse-meagre, but obscure. 28. II. The extant prose writings, though numerous, are, with one exception, valuable not so much for any literary merits as for the light which they throw on the labours of the historian and the antiquary. There exists in the Public Record-offices an immense body of documents-charters, conveyances, declarations, laws, edicts, &c.-many of which have been arranged and translated by the labours of Thorpe and Kemble, and have greatly contributed to deepen our knowledge of the way of life of our forefathers. All the more valuable AngloSaxon charters, to the number of many hundreds, were published by Mr. Kemble in his invaluable Codex Diplomaticus. But such documents are of course not literature, and therefore need not be here considered. Another large portion of the extant works consists of translations, many of which proceed from the pen of Alfred himself, who has explained his own motives for undertaking the work. The views of an 'Educational Reformer' in the ninth century are worthy of our careful attention. His object is, he says, 'the translation of Various attempts have been made to identify the position of Brunanburgh. The latest, and perhaps the best view is that of Mr. Skene (Celtic Scotland), who places it on the Ouse near Boroughbridge, useful books into the language which we all understand; so that all the youth of England, but more especially those who are of gentle kind and at ease in their circumstances, may be grounded in letters for they cannot profit in any pursuit until they are well able to read English.' With these views Alfred translated the work of Pope Gregory, De Curâ Pastorali, the epitome of universal history by Orosius, the work of Boethius De Consolatione Philosophic, and the Ecclesiastical History of Bede. In the epitome of Orosius occur some remarkable passages of which Alfred was himself the author; these are, a general description of northern Europe, and an account of the Voyages of the Saxon mariners, Ohthere and Wulfstan. Ohthere himself told Alfred how, starting from Heligoland on the Norway coast, he had sailed round the North Cape into the White Sea, and afterwards, by way of Christiania to Schleswig. Wulfstan's voyage was in the Baltic Sea, from Schleswig to Truso. See Description of Europe &c., edited by the late Dr. Bosworth, 1855. 29. But by far the most important prose work that has come down to us is the Saxon Chronicle, which gives a connected history of Britain, in the form of annals, from the Christian era to the year 1154. The oldest MS. in existence dates from about the year 891, and is thought, with much probability, to have been partly composed, partly transcribed from earlier annals, by or under the direction of Archbishop Plegmund. From this time the Chronicle seems to have been continued under succeeding Archbishops of Canterbury to the time of the Conquest, when the task was transferred, under what circumstances we do not know, to the monks of Peterborough. It seems possible to trace two principal hands in the composition of the Chronicle prior to the time of Plegmund-one that of a Northumbrian, the other of a West-Saxon writer. The traces of the Northumbrian hand are most evident, especially in the earlier portion; e.g. under the year 449 occurs the passage, From this Woden sprang all our royal kindred, and that of the South-Humbrians also.' Other indications occur under the years 697 and 702; and the comparative fulness with which Northumbrian affairs are recorded, as contrasted with all the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms except Wessex, points to the same conclusion. The Northumbrian work was very likely performed at Lindisfarne; at any rate, soon after the touching notice of the destruction of the monastery in the year 793, this writer disappears, and Northumbrian history sinks back into a cloud of impenetrable darkness. Of the MSS. which contain these Northumbrian annals, the C Laudian MS. in the Bodleian Library (the E of Mr. Earle's late edition) is the most important and complete. Mr. Earle has shown cause for supposing that this MS. was compiled at the monastery of Peterborough, in or soon after the year 1116. The other great MS., known as the Benet MS. (the A of Mr. Earle), represents almost exclusively the historic view and literary interest of the South and West of England; thus, while the history of Alfred, on which the Laud MS. is almost silent, is minutely and lengthily told in the Benet, hundreds of notices of Northumbrian affairs which are found in the former are entirely omitted in the latter. The analysis of all the leading MSS. of the Chronicle has been ably made by Mr. Earle; but it is singular that he should have overlooked the significant entry in the Laud MS. under the year 449 above noticed since that entry demonstrates, not merely that a Worcester scribe obtained Northumbrian information, which is Mr. Earle's theory (Introduction, p. xl.), but that part of the Chronicle itself comes from a Northumbrian hand. 1 30. Considered as a whole, the literature of the AngloSaxons conveys the impression that they were a prosaic and practical race, solid but slow thinkers, without much imagination or mental fire. What they might have made of it, had they been allowed to develop their literature uninterruptedly, it is, of course, impossible to say. But it seems reasonable to suppose that, for ulterior ends of higher good, it was ordered that the Saxon commonwealth should not repose in unmolested prosperity. A vein of sluggishness, of Baotian enjoyment, of coarse indulgence, with forgetfulness of the higher aims of life, ran through the Saxon character. Their transference from the sandy barrens and marshes of Holstein, from the peaty plains and stunted forests of Hanover, to the rich soil and milder climate of England, tended to develop this weak side -this proneness to ease. In their old dwelling-place they were at least stimulated by the necessity of contending with the unfruitfulness of nature and the encroachments of the sea ; in comparison with it, England must have been a terrestrial paradise-a very land of Cockaigne. This tendency to relapse into habits of indolence, which Sir Walter Scott has portrayed in the character of Athelstan in Ivanhoe, extended to the learned class, and to the churchmen no less than the laity. The influence of such a man as Beda should have been enough to inaugurate a long era of literary energy; yet William of Malmesbury assures us that, with the exception of the brief Saxon annals and the barbarous epitome of Ethelwerd, he had 1 Two of the Saxon Chronicles parallel; Oxford, 1865. |