History of English literature. Translated from the German

Front matter

THE GIFT OF PRESIDENT WHITE

MAINTAINED BY THE UNIVERSITY IN ACCORD- ANCE WITH THE PROVISIONS OF THE GIFT

Cornell University Library PR 166.B85 1883

Book I. Before The Conquest

I. — Original Home of the English. Legend of Beowa. Predatory Excursions. The English in Britain. Kingdoms of the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles. Kingship. Significance of the Camitahis. Teutonic Deities, ...... i-8

II. — State of English Culture. Influence of Romans and Celts. English Language. Runes. Oral Tradition. The Glee-men. Widsith. National Poetry. Hymnic Poetry among the Teutonic Peoples. Development of the Epic. Epic Songs. Growth of an Epos among the English Tribes. This Growth not quite Complete. Epic Style. Epic Measure 8-23

III. — Development of Epic Poetry Gradual. The Saga of Beowulf and the Beowa-myth. Origin of the Epos of Beowulf among the English Tribes in Britain. Beowulf in Writing. Theme and Characteristics of Beowulf. The Battle of Finnsiurg, 23-32

IV. — Christianity among the English Tribes. Religious Enthusiasm. Church and Culture. Importance of Canterbury, Malmesbury, Wearmouth, Jarrow, York. Aldhelm and Beda. Christian Poetry. Its Relation to the National Epos. Legend of Caedmon. Caedmon's Hymn. The Elder Genesis. Perhaps a Work of the same Poet. Contents and Style of the Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, Judith. Metrical License of the Religious Poets, 32-48

V. — Legends of the Saints in Verse. Religious Lyrics. Psalms, Prayers. Latin Homiletic Literature. Animal Symbolism. Fragment of an Old English Physiologus. Cynewulf. His Riddles. His Vision of the Cross. Yi\s Christ, Descent into ^ Hell, Phoenix. Guthlac, Juliana, Andreas, Elene. Cynewulf as Poet, 48-59

X CONTENTS.

VI. — Influence of Christianity upon the Secular Lyric. Dear's Lament. The Old English Lyric. The Ruin. The Wanderer, The Seafarer. The Sentiment of Love in Old English Poetry. Message of the Husband. Gnomic Poetry. Its Original Form. Later Forms. The Rune-song. Formulas of Incantation. Pagan and Christian Elements, . S9~^J

VII. — Prominence of the Anglian Territories in the Development of Old English Poetry. Rise of Wessex. Ecgberht. Danish Invasions. Aelfred the Great. His Labours for the Promotion of Morals and Education. Earliest Prose : Laws, Records, etc. National Annal- writing. The ..4««a/j of Winchester. Rise of Historical Writing under Aelfred. Aelfred as Translator. His Orosius. His Beda. His Boethius. The Metra of Boethius. Aelfred's Gregory. The Pastoral Care. Last Years of Aelfred's Reign. The Annals from 894 to 924, 67-83

VIII. — Foreign Influence upon English Poetry. The Later Genesis. The Rhyme-song. Native Tradition of Religious Poetry. The- Fallen Angels. Descent and Resurrection. The Temptation of Christ. Gnomic Dialogue. Salomo and Saturnus. Decline of Poetic Form. Translation of Psalms. Historical Poetry. The Battle of Brunanburh. The Menologium. Byrhinoth's Death. Decline of the Ancient Verse, 83-97

IX. — Prose. Literature of Medicine and Natural Science. Religious Prose of the Tenth Century. Decay of Monastic Discipline. Dunstan and his Reforms. Aethelwold. His Translation of the Riile of St. Benedict. The Homilies of the Blickling Manuscript. Aelfric. The Homiliae catholicae. Aelfric's Grammatical and Scientific Writings. The Passiones sanctorum. Pastoral Letter. Aelfric's Later Writings. His Agency in the Growth of Education and Literature. Wulfstan and his Sermons. Translation of the Gospels. Translation of the Evangelium Nicodemi. Writings in Latin. English Annals. Canterbury. Annals of Worcester. Annals of Abingdon. England just before the Conquest. Chivalry Prefigured. Apollonius of Tyre. The Wonders of the Orient, 97-"S

BOOK IL

THE TRANSITION PERIOD.

I. — The Normans and Normandy. State, Church, School. Conquest and Pilgrimage. Alliance with the Papacy. Results of the Conquest, ug-.

II. — ^The Song of Roland. Influence of the Normans upon the Development of the French National Epos. Spirit of the

CONTENTS. XJ

Song of Roland. Metre and Style. Further Development of the Epic under the Influence of the Crusades. Activity of the Jongleurs. Materials of the Chanson de geste. The Charlemagne. Science and Literature in Anglo-Norman England. Relations ^\\h France. Lanfranc. Anselm. Ascetic and Devotional Writings. Lives of Saints. Ailred of Rievaux. Mathematics and Natural History. Athelard of Bath. Latin Poetry. Godfrey of Winchester. Reginald of Canterbury. Laurence of Durham. Historical Writing. Norman Historiographers. History among the Anglo-Norman Clergy. Eadmer of Canterbury. Ordericus Vitalis. Florence of Worcester and Simeon of Durham. William of Malmesbury. Henry of Huntingdon. Geoffrey of Monmouth. Stories of British Kings and the Arthurian Saga. Alfred of Beverley, 122-136

III.— Norman Clerical Poetry. Philipe de Thaun. His Cornput and Bestiare. Legend of St. Brandan. Historical Poetry. Geoffrey Gaimar. Wace. His Legends. The Roman de Brut. Further Growth of the Arthurian Saga. The Roman de Rou. Wace as Representative of the Earlier Norman Clerical Poesy, i36-'43

IV.— The English Language in the Background. Final Fortunes of the English Annals. Canterbury, Worcester, Peterborough. Theological and Scientific Prose. Changes in the English Language 143-147

V. — English Folk-poetry. Continued Life of the Epic Saga. Mythological Conceptions. Woden and Robin. Popular Heroes. Gesta Herewardi Saxonis. Sagas of Horn and Havelok. Guy of Warwick and Bevis of Hampton. Waltheof. Recollections of Aelfred. Proverbs of Alfred. Development of a Short Rhymed Couplet from the AUiterative Long Line HS-iSS

VI. Religious Poetry. Nevir Verse-forms. Poema morale.

The Catalectic Tetrameter. Explanation of the Paternoster.

The Short Couplet from a Foreign Model, . . . 153-15°

VII —The Empire of the Plantagenets and International Culture Rise of the Troubadours. Poetry of the Troubadours. Its Spirit. Forms and Varieties. Esthetic Character. Laneuage and Style. The Earliest Troubadours : Guilhem de Poitiers, Cercalmon, Marcabru, Jaufre Rudel. Bernart de Ventadorn. Relations with the Court of the Plantagenets. Bertran de Born. Richard Cosur de Lion. Effect upon Northern France. The North-French Lyric compared with the Provencal. Districts in which the Former Especially Flourished. The Art-lyric among the Anglo-Normans, . 156:5164

VIII.— Development of the French Art-epic. Foreign Materials. IVt^&z&oi Alexander. Psendo-Callisthenes. Julius

XU CONTENTS.

Valerius. The Arclipresbyter Leo. Alberic of Besan90n. Lambert the Crooked and Alexander of Paris. Virgil's jUneid and its Renderers. The Troy-saga. Dares and Dictys. New Elements in Dares. Joseph of Exeter. Benoit de Sainte More. Episode of Troilus and Briseida. Character of Benoit. Romance of Adventure. Late Greek and Byzantine Materials. Celtic Materials. Further Development of the Arthurian Legend. The Graal-saga. Its Antecedents. The Legend of Joseph of Arimathea. Le petit saint Graal. Le grand saint Graal. La queste del saint Graal. Crestien de Troyes's Conte del Graal. Wolfram's Parzival. The Tristan-saga. Form, Style, and Spirit of the Court-romance. Crestien de Troyes. The Metrical Tale and its Varieties. Cycles of Material. The Oriental Tale and the Manner of its Circulation. The Book of the Seven Wise Masters. The Disciplina clericalis. Attitude of French Literature toward these Materials. Characteristics of the Lai, Fabliau, and Dit, ....... 164-180

IX. — Anglo-Normans and the French Art-epic. Anglo-Norman Writers of Tales. Marie de France. Corruption of the Anglo-Norman Language and Metre. Historical Poetry under Henry II. Benoit's Chronicle. Jordan Fantosme. Norman Versions of English or Anglo-Danish Traditions. Materials from Anglo-Norman History. The Renaissance under Henry II. Relations to France. John of Salisbury. Walter Map. Peter of Blois. William of Newbury. Gervase of Tilbury. Gerald de Bary. Richard Fitz Nigel. Latin Poetry. Alexander Neckham. Joseph of Exeter. Geoffrey de Vinsauf. Poetry of the Strollers. Student Life. Specuhtm stultorum, ........ 180-187

X. — Return to English Literature. Lajamon. His Education and Character. His Brut and its Sources. Metre, Style, and Treatment of Material. Oral Tradition. Broadening of the Arthurian Saga. Lajamon's .Esthetic and Historical Significance 187-193

XI. — English Literature and Norman-French Influence. Glee-men and Clerics. The Anglian Territories. Northeastern Mercia. Orm. Language and Culture. The Ormulum. Verse and Style. Orthography. East Anglia. The Bestiary. The Genesis. The Exodus, ..... 193-198

XII. — The Literature of the South. Alliterative Lives of Saints. Alliterative Homily. Love in Religion. Rise of Prose. Ancren Riwle. Character of the Author. Contents and Plan of the Work. Style. Wohtiiigc of ure Lauerde. Satvles Warde. Time and Place of the Origin of these Writings, 199-205

XIII. — Religious Lyrical Poetry. Religious Love. Praver to the Holy Virgin. Influence of the Poema morale. Influ-

CONTENTS. XUl

ence of French and Middle Latin Poetry. New Strophic Forms. The Love-song of Thomas de Hales, . . . 205-211

XIV. — Poetical Sermon. Satire on all Classes. Ecclesiastical Epic. 1\ii Vision of St. Paul. Proverb Poetry. The Owl and ike Nightingale. Its Class. Contents and Idea of the Poem. Character of the Author. Relation to the Religious Lyric, 211-218

XV. — Growth of English National Feeling. Fusion of Angles and Normans. Constitutional Struggles under Henry III. Simon de Montfort. The Proclamation of October 18, 1258. Political Freedom and National Prosperity, . . . 218-221

BOOK IIL

FROM LEWES TO CRECY.

I. — Continued Development of the English Language. Influences Favourable to the Influx of Romanic Elements. Epic Poetry. Comparison of France and England. The Song of King Horn. Analysis of the Same. Character and Place of Origin. The Poem of Havelok the Dane. Place of Origin. Analysis and Characterisation. Comparison with King Horn, 225-234

II. — Translation of French Romances. Origin, Cultivation, and Remodelling of such Translations. Floriz and Blancheflur. Tristan and Isold. Poet of Sir Tristrem. Romarice and Ballad. Strophe of Sir Tristrem. King Alexander. Richard Caur de Lion. Arthurian Saga. Romance of Arthur and Merlin. Saga of Charlemagne. Song of Koland. Sire Otuel. Charlemagne and Roland. National Saga. Guy of Warwick. Bevis of Hampton. Forms of the Romance Poesy. The Short Couplet. The ryvie couee. Court and Popular Poetry. Amis and Amiloun. The King of Tarsus. Sire Degarre. Character of the Old English Romance, 234-253

III. — Romance and Tale. Form and Contents. Most Ancient Materials of the Tale. French Art-form. English Poetical Tales. The Fabliau of Dame Siriz. Fox and Wolf. The Animal-saga in England. Variations of the Fabliau. The Land of Cokaigne. Debate of the Carpenter's Tools. The Lay of the Ash. Orpheus and Eurydice. How a Merchant did his Wife Betray. The Traces of the Sevyn Sages. Origin of the Gesta Romanorum. Significance of the Tale in the Last Centuries of the Middle Ages, 253-264

IV. — Religious Legend Poetry. Old and New Materials. Assumption of the Virgin. Childhood of yesus. Legend of the Holy Rood. Gregorian Saga. Contes de'vots. Legends

XIV CONTENTS.

of the Virgin. Recital in the Church of Rhymed Lives of the Saints. Metrical Forms of the Legend : the Tail-rhyme, the Short Couplet, the Middle English Alexandrine. Southern Legend-cycle. Place of Origin. Sources. Relation to Jacobus a Voragine. Scope and Characteristics of the Cycle of Legend's. Superstition and Criticism. Rdle of the Devil. Legends of St. Dunstan, St. Christopher, St. Michael. Demonology. Cosmology. . St. Brandan. English National Saints. Thomas of Canterbury. Judas and Pilate. StyJe of the Cycle of Legends. National Historiography. Robert of Gloucester. His Chronicle. Its Contents and Sources. Style. Robert's Patriotism. The Description of England. Robert's Relation to the Norman Conquest and to the Civil War under Henry III. Robert and the Cycle of Legends. Revival of Interest in National History, .... 264-279

V. — The Sermon and the Religious Metrical Tract. Materials and Sources. Forms. Fusion of Lyrical and Didactic Elements. William de Shoreham and his Poems. Kentish Prose. Homilies. Dan Michel and the Ayenbite oflnwyt. Connection with the more Ancient Southern Prose, . . 280-285

VI. — The Northern Territories. Northumbria and French Culture. Religious Poetry in Northumbria. Metrical Form and Style. The Cursor mundi. Contents. Sources. Style. Northumbrian Cycle of Homilies. Northumbrian Cycle of Legends. Richard of Hampole. His Life and Character. His Theological Tendencies. His Works. De incendio amoris. Richard and Margaret Kirkby. The Prick of Conscience. Robert Mannyng. His Character. Compared vrith Robert of Gloucester. Mannyng's Handlyng Synne. His Rhymed Chronicle. The Line between Fable and History Obliterated. Verse and Style of Mannyng's Chronicle. Mannyng's Influence upon Language and Literature, . 285-302

VII. — The Lyric. The Itinerant Clerks. Blending of Languages. English Songs. Diverse Influences. Influence of the Folk-song. Cuckoo Song. Character of the Erotic Songs of the Clerics. Various Types of Poets. Poem in Dialogue. Song to Alysoun. Poetical Debate. The Thrush and Nightingale. Influence of the Secular upon the Religious Lyric. Relation to Nature. Song of Repentance. Winter Song. Easter Song. Religious Songs in Dialogue. Proverb Poetry. Proverbs of Hendyng 302-314

VIII.— Political Lyric. Ballad Poetry. Battle of Lewes. Battle of Courtrai. Wars with the Scots. Execution of Sir Simon Eraser. Style and Metre of the Ballads. Social Satire. Ballad on the Servants of the Great. Satire in the Hands of the Clerics. Song on the Corruption and Slavery of the Church. Song of the Husbandman. Religious Tribunal. Women's Love of Dress. Nego, duiito, concede. Satire on all Classes. Dirge on the Death of Edward I.

CONTENTS. XV

Lament of the Captive Knight. Visions of Adam Davy. Laurence Minot and his Ballads. Metre and Style. Close of Book Third 314-324

BOOK IV.

PRELUDE TO THE REFORMATION AND THE RENAISSANCE.

I.— The Anglo-Norman at the Middle of the Fourteenth Century. English Language and Literature. English National Spirit. Revival of Alliterative Poetry. West- English Romances. Their General Characteristics. Romance of the Holy Graal. Fragments of a Romance of Alexander. William of Paleme, , , 327-33S

II. — Lancashire. The Adventures of Arthur at Tarn Wadling. The Poet of the Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight. Analysis of the Romance. Estimate of the Poet's Art. Poem of The Pearl. Its Form and Relation to more Ancient West-English Poems. Clannesse and Pacience, . . 336-351

III. — ^William Langland. His Life. Langland and Hampole. Langland and Dante. His Sources of Culture and his Forerunners. The Vision concerning Piers Plowman. Vision of Do-well. Interruption and Continuation. Second Revision of the Poem. Do-well, Do-bet, and Do-best. Interpretation of the Allegory. Third Revision. Poetical and Religious Allusions. Langland and Wiclif. Langland's Place in English Literature, 3S1-367

Appendix

Note A — ^The Poems Ascribed to Caedmon, . . . 371-386

" B — Cynewulf 's Life and Works, 386-389

" C — Asser's Life of Aelfred and the Winchester Annals, 389

" D — ^The Works of King Aelfred, .... 390

" E — Wulfstan's Homilies, 390

" F — Genesis and Exodus, ...... 391

" G — ^The Legends of St. Katherine, St. Margaret, and

St. Juliana, and the Homily on Hali Meidenhad, 392 " H— The Date of the English Song of Roland, . . 392

BOOK I.

BEFORE THE CONQUEST.

LongaS ]DOnne Jjy laes, J>e him con le66a worn

o88e mid hondum con hearpan gretan,

hafa6 him his gliwes giefe, J)e him god sealde.

Gnomica Exon. III., 170.

EARLY ENGLISH LITERATURE.

I

AFTER the settlement of the English tribes on British soil, some time passed before English literature began. Yet literary monuments are not lacking which, to judge from their substance, are descended from a pre-literary age, and point back to an epoch when the Teutonic conquerors of Britain, either wholly or partially, still inhabited their earlier home. Dim and varying is the Ught which these most ancient products of the English muse shed upon the original abode and the incipient political, and race-relations of the later Englishman. There appear distinctly, however, in these poems the genius and the manners of a race who ploughed the sea; who loved booty and strife; and whose intoxication was the hero's fame that flowed in the mead-hall from the glee-man's lips.

According to the testimony of history as well as of saga, the original home of the English was the Cimbrian peninsula, and the adjacent portion of the mainland, eastward from the Elbe. Here dwelt the several small tribes into which this people were divided : in the north were the Jutes ; and next to them, the Angles, whose name the point of land between the Fiord of Flensburg and the Slei still preserves ; farther southward the Saxon prevailed over a wide region. They were an ambitious, enterprising race, steeled by a ceaseless struggle with the sea, whose proximity often became a terror to them : a terror chiefly in the spring, and on the approach of autumn, when, under the pressure of fierce storms, the billows surged with resistless, destroying

B I power upon the low coasts. Wearisome and relentless was the sway of the winter, which bound the flood in its "ice-fetters." So that the coming of summer, when the mild winds blew from the sea, and the waters gleamed graciously again in the sunbeams, was like a deliverance.

In such a land developed the myth of Beowa, the divine hero who overcame the sea-giant, Grendel, and fighting the fire-spitting dragon, — also a personification of the raging sea — slew and was slain. But Beowa did not remain forever dead. He is essentially Frea in a new form, the bright god of warmth and fruitfulness, whose gold-bristled boar decked the helmets of the English warriors.

Nor was the struggle waged only against the elements. The Angles, Saxons and Jutes were often at war with each other, or with neighbouring tribes. In the spring when the storms were stilled, the sea enticed to expeditions of war or rapine. The ocean was then a friendly element in spite of its terrors ; and the sea-farers committed themselves to the ship, to the " sea-courser," to the " sea-wood," which, " like a bird foam-necked," gUded away upon the " course of the swans," the "path of the whales." Not far distant were the Danish islands, and the coasts of Scandinavia. They ventured out upon the North Sea, and followed the German coast to the mouth of the Rhine, where Roman territory began. Oftentimes they continued their daring cruise along the shore where Belgic and GaUic tribes lived under Roman rule. There Britain was visible, thrusting her brilliant chalkcliffs out toward the coast of Gaul. It was deemed a prosperous land, rich in herds, a land bound to Gaul by an ancient community of race and sacerdotal mysteries. The strange figures of legend haunted the channel between island and mainland. Muffled voices were heard at night on the Armorican coast, when the ferryman of the dead turned his overladen boat toward the opposite shore.

Britain had been subject to Rome since the days of Agricola. Roman highways intersected the country ; a number of cities with temples, baths, colonnades, had sprung up, in which the proud language of the conqueror was heard. Here, as in Gaul, the German sea-robber's love of plunder was stronger than his fear of the Roman name. In the course of the fourth century, the Saxons made more than

THE ENGLISH IN BRITAIN. 3

one inroad upon the British coast. Fear seized the native Britons, as it did their Roman conquerors. The imperial power, threatened also in the north by Celtic barbarians, gathered new strength when Theodosius, an energetic governor, came to Britain. The attacks of the Saxons were warded off; the Picts and Scots were thrust back to the Forth. But it was like the last flare of a light before extinguishment. At the beginning of the fifth century, the Germanic world burst with might upon the Roman empire. Rome herself was pillaged by the West-Goths. The legions stationed in Britain were called back. The Britons now had nothing save their own strength to meet the dangers threatened by Picts and Scots, as well as by the Teutonic barbarians.

The great migratory movement which had included nearly all the Germanic peoples, now carried the English with it, no longer single bands and retinues, but entire tribes. A strong tide of immigration from the Cimbrian peninsula and the mouth of the Elbe began to spread • over Britain, especially toward the middle of the century. Commencing at the southeast extremity of the island, the immigrants seized, in the lapse of a century, a greater part of the southern coast, and the eastern coast as far as the Forth.

The farther the Teutons advanced, the stronger was the resistance they met. The Roman armies had indeed left Britain ; the Britons had lost through the foreign regime a part of their original strength. But what remained to them was roused to the uttermost by hate and desperation. The Celtic element, which, outside of the cities, had well nigh preserved its vitahty, gathered itself with new energy against the Teuton ; and sometimes in the conflict with Germanic paganism, the native religion again broke through the vesture of Christianity. The struggle was bloody and hard-fought, especially where the English encountered fortified cities which they could not take without long effort, owing to imperfect science of war. A large number, after being stormed, were left in ashes; the sword of the victor raged pitiless, often against the defenceless.

There was as little lack of heroic leaders among the Britons as among the English. Many of their names are commemorated in the Welsh bardic songs, whose orofessed antiquity, it is true, cannot defend them against the suspicion of being, at least in part, patriotic fictions. Later chronicles, still more legendary than these songs, lavish on the name of Arthur all the glory which is wont to invest the forms of mighty rulers and heroes of chivalry. And through him it gives rise to an apocryphal Charlemagne for the Celtic world.

Toward the end of the sixth century, more than the entire eastern half of the country between the Channel and the Frith of Forth was in the hands of the Germans. Several small states were formed, whose number and boundaries were often, changed. Some among them, however, became prominent through their more tenacious vitality and power. There was the little Jute kingdom of Kent, which comprehended the earliest civilised part of Britain, and was destined to foster the embryo of the English Rome. Next to Kent, northward and eastward, lay the kingdoms of the East and the South-Saxons, adjacent to Sussex, the realm of the West-Saxons, to whom the task had fallen of defending the Saxon boundary against the Celts, and of extending it. The West-Saxons soon absorbed the smaller Jutish settlements established in their territory. Further northward were the Anglian kingdoms : East-Anglia, north of Essex ; Bernicia, between the Forth and the Tees ; and later, Deira, between the Tees and the Humber. Of these the last two states sometimes appear as independent, and sometimes as together forming a Northumbrian kingdom. The territory of the Middle- Angles, south of the Humber, was the nucleus of the later Mercia, which grew at the common expense of the neighbouring states, especially of Strathclyde, Wales, and Wessex, and became the largest of the Germanic kingdoms in Britain, embracing nearly all of the Midland country. Oftentimes the Mercian king also ruled little Middlesex with its powerful London, which was at other times a sort of municipal republic.

Nearly all these English kingdoms were formed by the union of- smaller tracts, gradually occupied by bands of warlike settlers. On their blending into greater unity, these original districts often retained their boundaries as shires (sctr) of the newly formed kingdom ; while their head still bore the name of ealdorman (prince, lord), a title by ■"hich

KINGSHIP. 5

the German chieftains were designated at their firet appearance in Britain. The prince, however, who stood at the head of the united shires was made king.

This introduction of the kingly office, an old Teutonic institution, though one which had not implanted itself in all the German tribes, was the most weighty modification undergone by the constitutional life of the English race in consequence of its establishment in Britain. In other respects the main political forms of the mother-country were retained. They could be easily transplanted from one soil to the other ; for they corresponded to the mihtary divisions of the body armed for common defence ; and like it, they were originally founded upon the natural division of families and clans. Hence in England we find the same partition of the soil, the same confederation of shires, or hundreds, and communities, as in Germany ; and the same social grades ; viz. : nobles [eorlas), freemen {ceorlas), serfs, and slaves. That institution also is not wanting which, from the vivid portrayal of Tacitus,^ seems to have been especially Teutonic, but which contained the germ of a complete dissolution of Teutonic democracy : the Comitatus.

The prince, especially when conspicuous in position and courage, was surrounded by a body (ff young men of rank who had committed themselves to his personal service. They were his companions, his thegns ( \egnas, knaves, servants). As it was their highest aim to gain the first place in his retinue, so was it honourable for the lord to have a large following of gallant youths. In peace they added to his pomp ; in war, they were a means of defence and a source of fame. It was their most sacred duty to guard his life in battle ; nothing was deemed more disgraceful than to forsake the chief in time of need, or to leave the field alive when he had fallen. And the glory which came from the achievements of the followers crowned the head of their prince. They fought for him, as he fought for victory.

From the spoils the lord dealt out to his- thegns: horses, weapons, ornaments.

He could also grant them land and estates as reward for service ; and the English kings willingly repaid their thegns in a way which secured their future service. Many allot-

i Q^rmania. Cap. 12-14.

nients of the public territory were thus turned over to individuals with the approval of the national council; it was converted from folcland into bocland; that is, chartered, legally granted land. With the increase of the royal power, the influence of the king's thegns grew in like degree. The servants of the royal household gradually became great dignitaries of the realm. Their political influence steadily expanded. In the national assembly ( Witenagemot, Council of the Wise Men), these thegns, richly endowed with lands, formed a stable and very considerable element.

Thus there grew up in the English kingdoms a nobility based upon vassalage and property ; and many of the common freemen were received into its ranks. But it suppressed the class of the "churls" as a whole, and it overshadowed the aristocracy of birth.

What the kings did, the lesser lords did on a smaller scale. Vassalage as an accompaniment of the renting or granting of lands formed ever- widening circles. So that at last it became a principle that every man must have a lord.

Inasmuch as land could now be granted with conditions at the pleasure of the grantor, as for instance, the obligation of military service, the germs of the feudal system were living, and they wer^rowing steadily, though more slowly than upon the continent.

At the time of the Norman Conquest they had not reached full development. The old English commonwealth, based upon the union of free men able to bear arms, was then severely shattered, but not overthrown.

Though the political influence of the system of thegnhood made itself widely felt only in the course of time, yet its ethical influence must have been great from the beginning. On the battlefield the idea of the Comitatus reached full realisation, a realisation that must have deepened, not only the warlike passions, but also the feelings of piety, of loyalty, and of attachment. These feelings are foreign to no Teutonic race, but they found among the English, earlier than among other tribes, a peculiarly tender and sympathetic expression. To explain this we must turn to the principal features of their inner life.

The depth and intensity of feeling, characteristic of the Teutonic race, seems, among the English of that early time,

TEUTONIC DEITIES. 7

to have been accompanied by a certain emotive excitability and a disposition to sentimental exaggeration, which, opposed to stern reaUty, was wont to take on the character of melancholy. These phases of their character are a remarkable contrast to the unyielding defiance which made them despise peril and laugh at death. But both spring from the same source: the ascendency which the emotional nature asserts in the inner life of the Teuton. How it happens that this tenderness of feeling, which, in modern times, and in truth quite recently, was held to be the inheritance of the German in the narrower sense, especially distinguished the English branch in the antiquity of our history, is not easy to explain. But it seems scarcely doubtful that the germ of this quality was already present in it before the conversion to Christianity, and before the settlement in Britain ; although Christianity alone carried it to complete development.

The cult of the Wane-deities, which in the old time had its chief seat among the Ingsevones, seems to harmonise well with this tendency of the English mind. For they were friendly, benevolent spirits, whose hfe and sway closed with the summer time. Both sea and land were pervaded by their beneficent influences ; they vouchsafed to men a plenitude of needful things, and a peaceful enjoyment of them. On the coming of winter, tftey disappeared, died, leaving behind them a mysterious awe. But in the spring the longed-for gods came back again.

Tacitus 1 alludes to the worship of Nerthus, whose name indicates a sea-goddess, but whom he calls Terra mater. Her sanctuary was upon an island in the ocean, where her emblem, the chariot covered with a cloth, was guarded. Ing, the ancestor of the Ingsevones, was nq other than Frea (see p. 2), who originally represented the masculine side of the genial power also embodied in Nerthus.

Deities, in part of a very different nature, had been adopted by the Ingsevones, through their intercourse with other Teutonic nations, or, if not unknown to them before, had been admitted to higher honors. The Ingsevones, too, had learned, after the precedent of the Istsevones, to adore the storm-god Woden, as the chief of all gods. To Woden, in whom the passion ateness of the. Teutonic genius, the vic-

' Germania, Cap. 40.

torious progress of the Teutonic hordes, as well as the intellectual activity of the race seem embodied, the royal dynasties of the English traced back their pedigree. Nor were the English unacquainted with the cult of the fierce sword-god Tiw, whose name suggests the Old-Aryan god of the sky, and who was worshipped with servile humility in the national sanctuary of the Herminones. With the name of Saxneat (sword-companion) Tiw stands, as Woden's son, at the head of the genealogical table of the kings of Essex, with descendants whose names denote the activity of the god in the different phases of a battle. In like manner the god of thunder was worshipped among them : Thunor, the fighter of giants and monsters, the promoter of husbandry, whose feats the armies sang when marching to battle.