The Dragon of the North: a tale of the Normans in Italy

Introduction

The first establishment of the Normans in Italy, belongs to one of those twilight periods of history which are a fair field for romance. Three powers wrestled to gether in Southern Italy at that time — the Greeks, the local Lombard Princes, and the German Emperors of the West, and their endless strife laid the unhappy land open to the attacks of the Sara cens, who wasted it far and wide, even settling in colonies and fortresses along Introduction. VI the coast, where their galleys were always safe and welcome. Forty Norman pilgrim warriors from Jerusalem, a.d. 1016, finding the town of Salerno about to pay a heavy subsidy to avoid being plundered by a Saracen army, proposed to fight instead, and by their individual prowess rescued the land and drove off the Saracens. They would make no stay and take no reward ; but Gaimar, Prince of Salerno, never rested till he had persuaded others of that nation of heroes to espouse his cause against the Greeks.

Many came from Normandy and some from Norway, which also at this time sent its warlike pilgrims to visit southern shrines. They fought with various fortunes against the Greeks, who were now backed by the whole power Introduction. VII of the Emperor Basil, and on the side of Gaimar, and of Henry, Emperor of the West, who asserted an imperial claim to Italy. The changes and treacheries of the native princes render the history very confused, but through it all we find the Normans ever the same, honourable, devout, astute, great as lawgivers, and brilliant and successful in war to a degree which seems fabulous, unless we remember that a complete warrior of that period had a personal pre-eminence impossible at the present day. All their allies save Gaimar seem to have behaved treacherously to wards them, and they had to elect one of their best champions, Turstino or Thor stein, to guard their interests when the Emperor Henry on his withdrawal from Italy gave to them the command of the Introduction.

VIII army and the guardianship of the young Duke of Bari. Thorstein, called by the chronicler, Vir in multis probitatibus admodum expertus, was, he goes on to relate, though loved by the Normans, too noble for the Italians, who wearied of the just severity of his rule, and after a while persuaded him to go in search of a poisonous dragon, hope ing that he would perish in the attempt to kill it. The chronicles are responsible for the story of this dragon, which is one of so many similar, that we can hardly doubt that some huge poisonous creatures of the lizard or serpent tribe still existed in Europe in the early Middle Ages. Probably the last survivors were found, as indeed tra ditions say, in pestiferous marshes, which increased the peril of attacking them. Introduction. IX Osmundus Drengot, a high-born man, courtman of Duke Richard of Normandy, who left his country on account of a blood-feud, and his younger brothers Rainulfus, Anschetillus, and Rodolfus, were among the first Normans who settled in Italy.

These Latinised forms of the purely Norse names of Asmundr, Drengur, Runolfr, Asketil, and Hrolfr, point to a recent emigration of the family from Norway. Rainulf succeeded Thorstein as leader of the Normans, and was invested by the Emperor of the West with the city and province of Aversa, becoming thus the first Norman Prince in Italy. He ruled the province and other conquests with great valour and judgment for more than twenty years, and he it was who invited the sons of Tancred de Hauteville Introduction. X to Italy, who in the course of a few years founded the flourishing kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Rainulf's nephew and suc cessor, Richard, a brilliant warrior, married a daughter of Tancred, and his family ruled in Apulia for a hundred years, till on the death of the last Rainulf, who seems to have inherited the high qualities of the first, the line was merged in the dynasty of Hauteville.

Far in the south of Calabria there stood in those days a large and flourishing Benedictine Abbey, which now merits more than then the name of Caserta, or house in the desert. For it was utterly de stroyed by a terrible earthquake in the 17th century, buildings and gardens were engulfed, and now the site is only marked by a sulphurous lake in a deep Introduction. XI crater, surrounded by wastes of stone. Many treasures were lost in this monastery, notably a fine library, for the brothers did much literary work. The first Norman rulers of Southern Italy largely endowed the abbey, and some of them retired there to end their days, bringing with them a taste for the warlike poetry and northern traditions of their ancestors, such as evidently inspired a spirited Latin poem writ ten a few years later than our Chronicle.

It is entitled Gesta Roberti Wiscardi, by Gulielmus Pugliensis, and hints at some adventures here recorded. An Italian monk of Caserta, writing at this period, might be so impressed by the character of the first Norman settlers in Italy, and his book so influenced by their mode of recounting stories, that it might differ Introduction. XII greatly in form from most monastic chroni cles. If not so historically reliable as Guilielmus Gemmeticensis, Leo Ostiensis, and Gaufredus Malaterra, contemporary writers who have also been consulted about the events of the time, it may, like the Sagas of the North, reflect more vididly the ideal romance of the early Middle Ages. We will now let the monk Fra Laurentio speak for himself.

Chapter I. Here Begins The Chronicle Written By Laurentio Of The Benedictine

HOUSE OF CASERTA IN MAGNA GRÆCIA. ' They've dug the crypt for darkness ; The aisle the red lights pave, Without is the twilight cloister, Within the sunlit nave. Beyond is the choir for prayer and praise, And the chapel for a grave.' W. Thornbury. When I let my thoughts dwell on the days of my youth, how clearly I can see before me our Benedictine house of Caserta in Magna Græcia, as it was in the year of our Lord 1 020. The path was steep which led up to it through the olive and pine wood, A and at each turn of the road stood a little shrine, where pilgrims might pause to rest and pray ; but when you reached the mea dow where the monastery stood, it was a fair wide space, with a stream running through it, and bordered by woods, above which the rocky mountain peaks rose into the sky. It was all quite secluded.

The stream turned the mill which ground our corn and filled our fish - ponds, before it danced down the hillside on its way to the sea, seven miles distant. From without, the house showed but a hi^h white enclosing wall, four square, with a mighty arched door and a postern, and with roofs of the build ings within and the high church bell-tower alone showing over it ; but within, how beautiful and busy it was ! There was the Abbot's house and the hospital, the dormitory of the brothers, the workshops of the masons, carpenters, carvers, and weavers ; for all we needed for ourselves or our poor, we ourselves wrought within the walls. There was the church, and the cloister, then only down one side, but already the pride of our house. For on the open side were double columns, and the capital of every column had a different foliage carved on it ; and they themselves stood on strange beasts, winged and clawed, to show that even the haunting terrors of the wilderness might become servants and supporters of our Holy Church.

One of these beasts was a dragon, his tail inter lacing the columns, and his strong claws grasping the pedestal ; he looked as if some St George had not slain but subdued him, till the evil was departed from him, and the power only remained. This dragon I have portrayed on this parchment as the initial letter and emblem of those thing's I am about to relate. At the entrance, two winged Lombardic lions were carved, sitting with stern faces, as if to guard the portal. And all was wrought in white and yellow marble we had quarried out of the cliffs above, or the worser parts in the finest brick and stone. How beautiful the cloister would look when the sunshine glowed on the golden-tinted marble of the columns and architraves ! and under the round arches the shadow was so dark that none could see from without who paced within.

Our windows were all small and round-headed, save the wide one high on the tower, that the clang of the bell within might be well heard. Many came from far and near to see our cloister, which was designed by our brother Ambrosius, a great architect, and the monk I loved best ; lately dead at the time of which I shall now speak. I could just remember twenty years before this time, when I was but five years old, how everyone expected the end of the world in a.d. 999. All work ceased, and the very mill was silent, while never ending processions and services went on ; but still the click of the chisel of Brother Ambrosius was heard working at the cloister arches. The Superior and others would reprove him ; but he would say, — ' And if He comes, how better could I be found than carving ? But, look you, there is still so much carving to be done here on the arches, and in the world about, that I do not believe the end of the world will come for long, till we have all had time to finish.' In that year, if there was a thunderstorm or a shock of earthquake — and there were several — ■ all the peasants of the neighbourhood used to run up to the monastery and crowd within our walls, beating their breasts and be moaning themselves, and confessing out loud to any of the fathers who would come near them ; and they, absolving right and left, seemed often too frightened to listen to a word.

At that time also our monastery was thoroughly reformed, ac cording to the true Benedictine rule, and it never fell away under the somewhat severe government of our Abbot Chrisol arus, who ruled when I grew up, so that if we could not boast of visions of saints, or of apparitions of demons, like some convents, we could point to an orderly re ligious house, and to some monks of true sanctity. Then one day came the Lord of Borca, with his lady on his horse behind him, bringing their little son, a beautiful child of three, Astolfo, to dedicate for ever as a monk, for their sins ; for they thought even a child-monk in the family was better than none at such a time. He was very clever and spirited, as was shown in the worst fright we had. One festival day, all were so tired of penances and expectation, that the Superior granted a recreation for garden-work, and a festal meal on the meadows.

It was a beautiful day in autumn, and we boys played merrily on the grass, while the brethren reclined at meat, and even dared to talk and laugh again ; when suddenly there sounded one terrible clang, like an instant's thunder, yet with a strange tone of music in it, and then silence again. All started up, and ran hither and thither, most to the church. I screamed, too frightened to stir ; but Astolfo took my hand, and saying, ' Come, I have thought what to do when the fire begins,' ran with me headlong down to the fish-ponds. and jumped in with me up to our chins. Will it be believed that not the more ignorant lay brothers only, but a few of the choir monks themselves shouting out, ' Follow the blessed child, he is inspired ! ' splashed in too, and there we all sat shivering for what seemed to me a long time, till Brother Ambrosius came down all shaken with laughter, and lifted out Astolfo and me, saying, ' Come out, you wiseacres, who prefer stewing to burning ; all may see that you know what you deserve ; come out and see that this is all because Brother Grimwold thought the beam in the tower, cracked by the last earthquake, might last till the end of the world, so of course down came the great bell.' Then they all came out ; but one old lay-brother, between fright and cold, died of that wet ting, so it was the end of the world to him.

Astolfo remained my best friend ; he grew tall and strong ; but though now twenty-three, he was still in the novitiate. They made him renew his dedication when he was twelve years old, or no doubt he would ere this have left the cloister; but though bred a choir monk, he joined as much as he could in the outdoor work, directed the quarrying in the mountain, the road-making, or at home the mill. ' Were it not for the mountain quarry, and the wolves, and the wild swine, I must run off, my Laurentio,' he would say to me, ' let what will befall my family, who think they may do what they like, now they have a cloistered son.' In truth, Astolfo's brother, the young Lord of Borca, was an evil man, and was hated by both vassal and neighbour. One day, far off in the woods, he met Astolfo carrying a boar spear. ' What business hast thou, monk ling, on the chase ? ' he said ; ' go home and do penance for thyself and the family.' ' Well met,' said Astolfo ; ' I rejoice to be able to help one of the family on the road to penitence.' And so saying, he gave the young count a good beating, none of the hunters daring to interfere with a monk of Caserta, and their lord's son to boot.

I also, though now six-and-twenty years old, had not taken the final vows ; and though I loved our house, I, as well as the master of the novices, doubted my vocation. Chiefly I delighted in architecture and carved work, in which I had been considered an apt pupil of Father Ambro sius. At that time I knew little of the miseries of the world without, though ever and anon people flying from their enemies would seek for refuge with us ; and peasants ill-treated by their lords would settle on our farms, where none dared to touch them, and which were respected by the fighting men of the Greek Emperor and the Roman Emperor alike. For neither the Catipan of Byzantium nor the Prince of Salerno had any jurisdiction over us ; we were a daughter house of the Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino, which owed alle giance to the Pope alone ; and save for the confirmation of our Superiors, we never heeded even the Abbot of Monte Cassino.

So we governed ourselves, an island of peace and plenty, and carving, and writing, and music, in the midst of the turbulent sea of fightings and confusions and troubles outside. The Saracens were our one great danger, but hitherto they had done us little harm, owing to the timely rescue the sur rounding lords and peasants, together with our own vassals, brought us, when at three different times they attacked us. We were, as I said, seven miles from the sea, and thus the less exposed to their galleys. The most dangerous attack they ever made on us was so completely repulsed that our people pursued them to their galleys, capturing and destroying one, and making a great slaughter. There I was found, a little boy of four, remembering little but that my name was Laurentio, and that I had been carried away from sweet ladies who loved me, one night of flames, and clash of weapons, and bloodshed.

The monks, and in especial Father Ambrosius and Father Anselmo master of the novices, had cared for me ever since. And now I was a young man, and the autumn winds of the twenty-second year of my stay at the monastery were beginning to blow. It is many years ago, but it seems to me as yesterday, that just as we had finished the office for nones, and were returning processionally from our chapel to the refectory, there sounded a loud knocking at the outer gate, which I, as servitor of the week, hastened to aid the porter to open. Rarely came a knock so late at our door, for we were not on the way to any place of pilgrimage or city, and our visitors were wont to come with the poor at the time of the noonday dole. My heart beat with expectation, for who could tell what chance was toward ? Because of my age, our tall sad Superior, the very glance of whose eye daunted the boldest of us — yes, even my own friend the fatherly Fra Anselmo — had of late spoken often of the time when I, a son of the house, should seal my vow and end my long novitiate.

To belong for all my life to that community of sixty monks, never to see the great wide world that lay beyond these woods and that sea, never to mix with the stir of men in camps and courts and cities ; above all, never to see those wondrous buildings, those palaces and temples wherewith the great men who had preceded us in the land (although heathen) had endowed it, I could not promise all that yet. I had seen a ruined temple and a vaulted hall, some said a bath, not far from Caserta, which made me long to see more. And when Fra Anselmo would speak with light in his eyes of that glorious saintly company gone before us, among whose fragrant memories our lives should pass, sometimes indeed I caught something of his fire, but oftener longed, if only for once, to enter the world in which they had moved, and see perchance a St Sebastian of our day in chain and mail, or a St Dorothea bearing roses.

So with these wishes strong in my heart, I hurried to the outer gate. Often, indeed, do our wishes fulfil themselves ; and yet the fulfil ment may be quite other than what we short-sighted mortals dream.

Chapter II

' Deep, deep the greenwood round them waves, Their abbey and its close of graves. Yet banners flashing through the trees Make their blood dance and chain their eyes ; The bugle music on the breeze Arrests them with a charmed surprise. Banner by turns and bugle woo ; Ye shy recluses, follow too ! ' — Mathew Arnold. We threw the great gate wide open, and I for one was somewhat disappointed to see without only a well-apparelled and some what obese monk on his mule, with two attendants. As I turned back to announce his degree to the community, leaving the porter to bring him in, ' Come hither, my son,' he said, ' and tell me how long thou hast inhabited this monastery.' ' Years ago,' I answered, ' I was taken a young child from a shipwrecked Saracen vessel.' ' And thou art not yet professed ? It is well, thy face pleaseth me ; go and announce the priest and monk Damasus, bearer of a letter from the Mother House of Monte Cassino to the Superior.' Our Superior, Father Chrisolarus, ordered us to form two lines in the Refectory, while one read Apostolica Dilectissimi, for our priestly visitors were received with much precision ; and so the stranger entered, and I saw no more, as with the younger novices I retired to our lower hall.

Of course they were talking of the stranger ; and Astolfo, ever anxious to hear something new, coaxed Bartolo, a lay brother, to change gowns with him, that he might go to the stables to rub down the horses and gather news from the stranger servants. Thereby he ran a great risk, for, contrary to his wont, the Prior came among us before vespers, so no change of gowns again was possible ; and had I not seized the utterly confused Bartolo by the arm, and pulled his cowl over his eyes, and thus led him into the choir beside me, it had gone hard with Astolfo ; but none discovered the change, so that time he escaped whip ping. And after vespers Astolfo came back, smelling foully of the stables ; and they changed gowns, and we novices strolled out into the vineyard. ' Oh, Laurentio,' said Astolfo to me, ' such wonders as I have heard — dearly bought, however, had the old Prior guessed.

These men have only ridden here from Cosentia, but they tell me that lying beneath our own cliffs, and we may perchance see it when it goes forth, is a water-dragon, an enormous glittering ship of war, filled with men of blood, fiercer than the Saracens, from countries further away, where snow and ice all the year round have starved the wild giants out of their homes ; you have heard them named before — the Normans — and none know whether they come peacefully or in wrath. Oh, if but once I could fight as St George with that dragon, or, if they are peaceful, sail away with them into the wide world in search of war and love and adventure ! ' The novices crossed themselves to hear him, yet some looked wistfully to seaward, where, save for the fishing-boats, we rarely saw a sail, for the course to Sicily lay out side the bay, whose shores were yet seven miles from Caserta.

And so we talked on of ships and travel and war, till the kindly old Fra Anselmo came among us. ' Ah, children,' he said, ' your very looks tell of light and worldly talk. What! all herding together with rapid gestures and flushed cheeks ; you do not know how often, were you in the false, vain world, you would long for the true joys of the cloister life. You have talked enough even for recrea tion-time ; take up some light work. Where are your colours, Lupo ? Could you not paint that sunset into your book of hours ? Julio, seek flowers to deck the stranger's collation. Nestoriax and Palladiax, finish me the Greek notation you wot of; and the rest of you go and practise the new Credo ; but you, Laurentio, follow me.' So we did, ■7 for our rule of obedience for novices was, that we all obeyed the commands of any brother (or frater) till another might counter order, save that the Prior's commands came first, and could only be reversed by the seldom interfering Superior. ' My Laurentio,' said Fra Anselmo, as we went through the corridor, ' how I long to see thee one of us, no longer herding with the giddy boys !

When wilt thou find the courage and singleness of mind of a true monk ? Now thou art to come to the workshop — the stranger, Brother Damasus, has sent for thee there.' Damasus was there with the Prior when we entered ; he was looking over my little clay models of arches and capitals and friezes, altars and tombs, such as I partly dreamed out for myself, partly borrowed from recollection of that temple and bath whereof I have spoken. ' Truly,' said Fra Damasus, ' here is design, here is fertility of genius ; only let me take the youth with me to visit Salerno, and he shall return with the answers to your c letters to Monte Cassino after he has seen somewhat of architecture, and improved his natural powers. And, Prior, he may make this convent and chapel a model for all Magna Græcia.' With what a thrill of joy I heard these words ! the joyful thought of travel almost overborne by the still intenser delight of hearing that those poor forms over which I had pondered and dreamed so much, and which, when most altered by me, still seemed the same to the people in the mon astery, were, indeed, worth looking at — worth executing — might, perhaps, wrought out in stone or marble, add to the beauty of our dear house of Caserta.

The Prior said, in a grumbling tone (he could not brook our receiving praise), — ' I wish, for the honour of our poor house, you had chosen any other novice to be your com panion and our messenger. It is true, I should have feared for the flighty Julio or Astolfo, that, casting away perfection, they might have become men-at-arms ; but they would be good seculars. Whereas this The Dragon of the ATorth. 19 youth — a nameless captive of the Saracens — had he not by the charity of Fra Anselmo been brought up as a regular monk with all learning, might have served as lay brother and mason to the convent, having neither the vocation of a true monk, nor the courage and prudence needed for worldly success.' 'Nay,' said Anselmo kindly, 'that re mains to be proved.' ' And,' added the stranger, ' a novice has little need of worldly courage — at least one who journeys with me ; for, but for aspirations the world cannot satisfy, I was born to wield arms ; and as it is, I find my joy in encouraging and protecting weaker brethren.' So thence we went to the Superior, and before the evening collation it was decided that I, the eldest novice, should next day attend Fra Damasus on his journey to Sal erno, and thence to Monte Cassino, deliver certain formulae from our house to the Great Benedictine house, perfect myself in archi tecture there, and return in a year, more or less.

My head swam with joy as I sat with the wondering novices at our table at collation. The lamps were lit, and the hall decked in honour of our guest, and all looked gay. Then Fra Damasus, who was a personable man, but with a wandering eye, a sharp nose, and acute mouth, and a face that twitched, told us how the perils of robbers he had gone through in his mountain journey had decided him upon returning by sea ; and fearing the unworthiness of our little ships in autumn, he had sent a servant to the great ship of war in the bay to crave a passage to Amalfi or Salerno ; ' For from what I hear,' he said, ' they needs must pass that way. Northmen they are, but I bless Our Lady I fear them not, though the whole coast trembles before them ; they are good friends to have — Christians now, and kind to all priests.

There was old Ulf I knew well ; he took me a voyage in his ship and heard mass daily ; and at last, I hear, he turned monk in the Island Abbey of Lerins, off Pro vence. He drove the Saracens off our seas wherever he came, and took payment from the coast for doing so. But you have late visitors, holy father — surely not evil ones,' and he crossed himself as a long loud knocking was heard at the outer gate. It was my week to open the gate, but it was such an unheard-of knock, that strange thoughts of unholy visitants flashed through my brain ; and this Astolfo methinks guessed, for he went with the porter and me, and aided us to unbar. Without stood many men in the moon light ; one told us hastily he was Damasus' servant, who had been to the great ship, and that these men had accompanied him back again.

He spoke as trembling. Then one stepped forward, and said, in the vulgar tongue, — ■' Lead the way in ; I shall stay here the night.' And he strode in after us with many men, but some stayed without the gate. Astolfo was bold enough to ask his name, and the stranger an swered, ' Herser1 Thorstein,' which Astolfo pronounced to the best of his power as 1 Herser or ser, a title often given in ancient Norway to persons of distinction. he opened wide the refectory door, and the glittering lights fell on the stranger and the wild-looking followers who crowded up behind him. We could now see that this was not a tall, but a broad and square man, about forty years old, with a reddish face and yellowish-brown beard and hair. He had bright blue eyes, and his face was as if well marked out, but rough hewn, and the carving not finished.

Yet he looked pleasant and spoke softly. He was clad, as were his men, in a coat of glittering iron scales, and was armed with a long sword, axe, and dagger. Every one rose as the shining figures stepped in ; some showed fear, others curiosity ; Father Chrisolarus seemed quite unmoved. ' I am here on a friendly errand,' said the Northman, ' from my leader, the young sea king Swend Hrolfson, to a certain Damasus who wishes to cruise with us.' 'A sea king — that is a pirate,' whispered Astolfo to me, as he glanced at our Superior's side, where Damasus sat, whose red face had become ashy pale. ' Swend Hrolfson,' continued the North man, ' bids me say he will carry you and one other whom I shall choose, to Amalfi, on condition you speak the inhabitants fair to give us winter quarters, for there abouts he means to pass Yule.