Old English history for children

Preface

This little volume is an experiment, but it is an experiment which I may say has already succeeded. Its object is to show that clear, accurate, and scientific views of history, or indeed of any subject, may be easily given to children from the very first. In truth the more rigidly accurate and scientific a statement is, the more easy it is for a child to take it in. The difficulty does not lie with the child, who has simply to learn, but with the teacher who often has to unlearn. A child finds no difficulty in attaching a correct and definite meaning to a word from the first time of his using it; the difficulty lies wholly with the teacher, who has often been used to a confused and unscientific way of using words, which he finds it hard to leave off.

I have, I hope, shown that it is perfectly easy to teach children, from the very first, to distinguish true history alike from legend and from wilful invention, and also to understand the nature of historical authorities and to weigh one statement "against another. Here again the difficulty is not at all with the child, but wholly with the teacher.

I have throughout striven to connect the history of England with the general history of civihzed Europe, and I have vi PREFACE.

especially tried to make the book serve as an incentive to a more accurate study of historical geography. For this purpose I hope that the maps with which the book is illustrated may be found really useful. No error should be more carefully guarded against from the beginning than that of bondage to the modern map. A child should learn from the very beginning that names like England, Scotland, France, do not necessarily mean, and have not always meant, exactly the same as they do now. Without perfect accuracy in these matters, no clear view of history can ever be gained. Here again the only difficulty lies with the teacher, who may have to unlearn; to the child it is just as easy to learn the right names from the beginning as the wrong ones.

I have throughout striven carefully to distinguish history from legend, but I have not thought it right wholly to throw aside the tales which have so often usurped the place of true history. These tales ought to be known, if only because they have usurped the place of true history. They ought also in many cases to be known, sometimes on account of their real beauty, sometimes as excellent studies for the comparative mythologist. I have therefore not wholly left them out, but I have told them as tales, in a shape which clearly distinguishes them from authentic history. And in telling them I have taken as my model the best of all examples of simple narrative, the best of all examples of English slightly antiquated but still perfectly intelligible, our received version of the Old Testament.

The present book was begun a good many years ago, and was written bit by bit for the use of my own children, as they wanted it, or as I found time to write it. It will, I

PREFACE. vii

suspect, be found that the latter part takes for granted a much greater degree of general knowledge than is supposed in the early parts. This is owing to the obvious cause that the children for wdiom it was written grew older while it was being written. As the same change wdll doubtless happen to other hearers or readers of the book, I cannot fancy that any difficulty will arise on this score.

The book, being written for particular children, living in a particular part of the country, had from the beginning a certain local character, and it gave special prominence to West-Saxon and especially to Somersetshire affairs. This was done on two grounds. It was utterly impossible to give a detailed his-tory of all the fluctuating states which made up our elder England. I therefore chose for special notice that state which in the end swallowed up the rest and which grew into the Kingdom of England. But besides this, I thought that it gave furtlier life and interest to the story for those for whom it was at first meant, if I made those parts of the history which concerned Wessex, and especially those which concerned Somersetshire and the Somersetshire Bishoprick, to stand out in a more marked w^ay than otliers. And when revising the book for publication I saw no reason to leave out or to change these local allusions. I believe they add somew^hat to the life and reality of the story, and I hope that they may be also useful in another w^ay. I have certainly had some advantages for my purpose in living in what was so long a border district, a battle-field of the Briton and the Englishman. But every shire, almost every neighbourhood, has its own contributions to English Histor}^, its own places and events of special interest. Very few of these could be diixctly viii PREFACE.

mentioned in a book of this kind, but I hope that the sort of use which I have made of the facts and events special to my own neighbourhood may lead others to deal in the same way with the places and events which more closely concern them. I trust that intelligent readers and teachers will often be able to supplement my references to matters belonging to Somersetshire with references of the same kind belonging to other parts of England.

With regard to the spelling of Old-English names, I must plead guilty to a certain amount of inconsistency. My own feeling is in favour of always using the genuine spelling of the old names rather than the common Latin and French corruptions. But I find that many people are in a manner frightened at the unusual form which is thus given to names still in common use. I have therefore, somewhat at the expense of consistency, left some of the more common names, such as Alfred, Edward, and Edith, in their modern spelling ; while other names which are less familiar to modern readers, and which often have no one generally received modern shape, I have left in their ancient form. On the subject of Old-English names and on one or two points connected with the Old-English language I have added a few remarks at the end of this Preface.

I ought to mention that this little work was begun, and a great part of it written, before I had so much as planned the History of the Norman Conquest. In the parts of the history where the two works come on the same ground, the smaller was, I believe, everywhere written before the larger. The influence of the larger work on the smaller has been twofold, ' First, it has brought it sooner to an end, and has

PREFACE, ix

thereby hastened its publication. My first intention was to go on to the reign of Edward the First, but I found that it was hopeless to think of doing so, while the larger work was on my hands. I therefore send forth the present portion, which I may or may not go on with at some future time. The other way in which the great book has influenced the little one has been this. The fuller and more careful researches which were needed for the greater work have enabled me to correct and improve many things in the smaller. Further than this the two works have no connexion. The smaller is not an abridgement of the greater, neither is the greater an expansion of the smaller. They are two independent narratives written at different times and with quite different objects.

I have only to add that the young reader who carefully goes through this little book will, when he comes to the end of it, still have very much to learn even on its immediate subject; but I earnestly hope that he may have nothing to unlearn.

SOMERLEAZE, WeLLS, JiUy 27//^, 1869.

A FEW WORDS ON OLD-ENGLISH WORDS AND NAMES.

The English tongue which we speak now is essentially the same tongue as that which our forefathers brought with them into Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries. In the course of fourteen hundred, and even of eight hundred years, it has changed so much that the Old-English cannot be understood except by those who study it on purpose. But this is the same thing that happens to all languages more or less. There is no part of Europe where the people could at once understand a book TVTitten in their o^^^l language eight hundred years ago. But the change has been gradual; we did not leave off speaking one language and take to speaking another, as the people of Gaul and Spain left off speaking their own tongues and spoke such Latin as they could, or as many of the Welsh in Britain have learned to speak Enghsh. We have no more changed from one language to another than our cousins in Geniiany have, though undoubtedly English has changed more in a thousand years than the High-Dutch or Geniian has. The chief points of change are two. First, we have lost nearly all our i?iflexio?is, that is the endings xii A FEW WORDS ON

which mark genders, cases, and the Hke, while the High- Dutch has kept more of them, though it too has lost a great many. The other is that we have lost a great many old Teutonic words which are kept in High-Dutch, and have taken to Latin or French words instead. But we have always gone on speaking the same tongue, and the changes have been very gradual. And our tongue has always been called English as far back as we can go ; so that it is better to call it English at all times, and, when needful, to distinguish the older form as Old-English^ than to talk, as many people do, about *^ Saxon " or " Anglo-Saxon," which makes people fancy that one language has been changed for another.

I have just now compared our language with the High- Dutch or German; but it must always be remembered that High-Dutch is not the tongue nearest to our own. English is in truth a form of the Low-Dutch^ the language which in different forms spreads from Flanders right away to the Baltic. The High and the Low-Dutch differ in this kind of w^ay. Where High-Dutch uses a particular letter, Low-Dutch often uses another, according to a fixed rule which seldom or never alters, which at the beginning of words I may say never alters at all.- Thus a word which begins with z in High-Dutch must begin with / in English, and a word which begins with d in High-Dutch must begin with /// in English. For th our fathers had, like the Greeks, a particular letter called Thoim^ which is written J) at the beginning of a word and S at the middle or end. Some people still write y^ for the^ where the y is nothing but a p badly written.

OLD-ENGLISH WORDS AND NAMES, xiii

Our Old-English names, most of which have gone out of use, though we use a few still, always had a meaning, just as the Greek and Hebrew names had. But the Old-English names, like the Greek names too, fall into two classes. In some of them, if you have any knowledge of the language at all, you cannot help seeing the meaning at once. But there are others whose meaning is by no means so clear, and even a man who knows the language w^ell may be only able to guess at the meaning, or perhaps may have to give it up altogether. For instance, such names as Neoptolemos, Peisistratos, Laodike, in Greek, or ^thelberht, Eadgar, ^Ifgifu, in Old-EngHsh, at once tell their own meaning to any one who has learned the language. But it is quite another thing \vith names like lason, Peleus, Tydeus, or again with names like Offa, Penda, Dodda. I should not Hke to say positively what these names mean, without thinking a good deal about it, and turning to see what learned men have said. But you may be sure that all names had a meaning at first, and you may be sure that the names whose meaning is not plain, which are often the names of Gods or heroes, are the older class of the two. These older names, you wdll see, both in Greek and English, are generally shorter than the later ones, and they do not seem to be compound words. But the later names in both tongues are generally made up of two words, the meaning of which is commonly pretty plain. The English names and those used by the Teutonic people on the Continent are made out of the same Teutonic roots, but it so happens that not many xiv A FEW WORDS ON

of the particular names are common to England and to the Continent. For instance we have plenty of names beginning with Wil, as Wilfrith, and we have plenty of names ending in helm, as Ealdhelm; but I never heard of an English Wilhelm, and I doubt your finding a Wilfrith or an Ealdhelm abroad. And some names which are common abroad are found,* but very rarely, in England, as Carl, Karl, Charles; HloShere, Lothar; Hereberht, Charibert, Herbert; Frithric, Friedrich, Frederick. Two things have helped to make the Old-English names seem more strange and uncouth than they need be. One is that most of them have gone out of use, so that the foreign names are now more familiar. The other is that, oddly enough, the proper names, more than any other class of words, are mainly formed out of roots which have gone out of use. For instance, in such a name as ^thelwulf, the wulf is plain enough, but we have quite lost the word cE^el, though it still lives in High-Dutch as «^^/= noble. So in ^\gtherht, especially if I use the later spelling ^\gthriht, I need hardly tell you the meaning of the last syllable; but we have quite lost the word sige, which means victory, though that too , Hves in High-Dutch. And even in a name like ^Ifgifu, though we still use both the words of which it is formed, you might not at once see that it means elf-gift. It would be too long a business to tell you the meanings of all the names, but it will help you if you remember a few of the words which we have lost but which are often used in forming names. I have told you of cBtiel and sige, which are found together as a name, ^thel-

OLD-ENGLISH WORDS AND NAMES. xv

sio-e. Wig, Avar, /lere, army, ead, wealth or possession, wvie, man, fellow, fri^, peace, ga?-, spear, l?ur/i, pledge, mwid, protection, red or rcsd, counsel (rede), ric, kingdom or government, Jlcsd, birth, mil help you to the meanings of a good many. One thing you must always remember that in Old- English all names and words ending in a are masculine, never feminine, as they commonly are in Latin. Yet we are so much more used to Latin than to our own tongue that people will go and AATite women's names with an a, Elgiva, Editha, Etheldreda, and so on : and I dare say they are sometimes surprised to find that Ida and .^lla are names of men.

Perhaps you may ask how you ought to pronounce all these old names and other Old-Enghsh words. I cannot always tell you, I know how people wrote a thousand years back, but I never heard them talk. And we may be quite sure that they pronounced, as indeed they wTote, differently in different parts of the countr}^, as people do still. We see this both in names and in other words. In many words and names where a soft sound is now used in the South of England, a hard one is used in the North. Thus Carlton and Charltoji, Skipton and Shipton are the same name. We may be quite sure that C was at first hard before all vowels, and that Sc was sounded hard like Sk. But it is also plain that, at all events in the South of England, the hard sounds got softened into Ch and 6*/^, so that we now say Church, Chester, Ship, &c., though we still talk of Kent and King. Now it is not easy to say exactly when this change happened.

xvi A FEW WOJRDS ON

SO that I cannot tell you for certain whether a thousand years back we sounded such a word as ^sc, which we now call Ashy with the hard or the soft sound. But in any case we may be sure that there had been a time when it was sounded hard. Still I may tell you a few things which seem pretty plain. E before a vowel at the beginning of words, as Eadweard, Eoforwic^ was clearly sounded like y or the High-Dutch / Thus we still write York^ and Yedward is found in Shakespeare, and Earl is in Scotland sounded Yerl, like the Danish JarL G at the beginning of words has in modern English often sunk into jv, as we say year for gear^ and as in some parts of England gate is called yett. So in names, you know that the old name Eadgyth has got softene*^' into Edith, In Domesday it is written Eddid and Eddiet which looks as if the g was sounded like y. But in Eadga? the g keeps its place to this day ; no one would call Edgar Edar, I think that, if you sound the two names several times, you will tell why the g got first softened and then lost in the one name, while it still abides in the other. G between two vowels or at the end of a word must have been sounded much as it is in High-Dutch. But it is plain that by the eleventh century it was sounded very faintly, for it is often left out. So in modern English it is always left out in the middle of a word, as Thegn^ Thane; regen, rain; while at the end of a word it becomes y^ as dceg^ day ; weg^ way, HI at the beginning of words was no doubt sounded like // in Welsh; a sound which we have quite lost, but which is easily made by breathing, neither before nor after the /,

OLD-ENGLISH WORDS A.\D NAMES. xvii

but as you sound it. Hw is simply what we now write wh ; for I hope that everybody who reads this book takes care to distinguish whef^ which, and whether from wet, witch, and weather. Long i with an accent, as wiii, luif, tim, ririi, was certainly sounded as it is now, like ei in High-Dutch. We now mark the long vowel by an e at the end, iviiie, wife, time, and we ought to write riine, only printers choose to spell it rhyme, because they fancy it is a Greek word. Rim, meaning number, should thus be written 7'ime without the h ; while hrim, meaning hoar-frost, should be written rhijne, Hr and en at the beginning of wards should be sounded fully, as a Welshman can still sound the hr and as a High-Dutchman can still sound the en, H at the middle or end of a /liable, as U/^tred, ^Ifhea/^, was doubtless a guttural, like cne Scotch, Welsh, or High-Dutch ch. We commonly write it gh in modern English, but we either drop the sound or else sound it like f. Long a with an accent answers in modern Enghsh to o, as stdn, stone, dcf, oath ; but I cannot be sure that it was sounded so, at least not everywhere, as in the North they still say stane and aith, while in High- Dutch we have stein and eid. E at the end of a word, as Qoawine, m.ust have been sounded, but sounded very slightly. You should not sound the last syllable like wine, w^hich, as I have just said, is win.

In what I have now been saying, I do not at all pretend to say all that might be said, or even all that I might be able to say myself in a larger book. But I think I have said enough to make you think about the matter and to try

b viii OLD-ENGLISH WORDS AND NAMES.

and find out more for yourselves. About proper names you may learn a great deal from the second volume of Miss .Yonge's "History of Christian Names."

As I have had to bring in a few Welsh names, and as the Welsh sound many letters very differently from the English, I may as well tell you how they are to be sounded. F is sounded like v^ but j^ like /; ;^ as a vowel is s^ounded like 00^ and aw like oiu .; u is sounded like i in it^ and y like u in but^ except when it is in the last syllable of a word, when it is sounded like i in it. Dd is sounded like the English S or tk ; so you will see that the name Gruffydd, .though it looks so odd, is sounded as we commonly spell it in English, Griffith. Also, remember in Welsh words of three syllables to put the accent on the second always, as M organ wg, Llywelyn, Caradoc, Meredydd. The last name is in English often wrongly sounded Mereditii ; Caradoc has got shortened into Craddock, which is not so bad a change.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

C^SAR lands in Britain B.C. 55; 54"

Caius threatens to invade Britain A.D. 4.0

Claudius in Britain 43

Caradoc subdued by Ostorius 50

Revolt of Boadicea 61

Agricola builds his line of forts ^ 81

Hadrian makes his wall 121

Lollius makes the wall of Antoninus . 139

Severus builds his wall 207— 210

Martyrdom of Saint Alban 304

Constantine proclaimed Emperor 306

Theodosius recovers Valentia 368

The Roman legions leave Britain 4-10

The English Conquest begins. — Hengest begins the Kingdom

of Kent 4.49

^lle and Cissa begin the Kingdom of Sussex 477

^lle and Cissa take Anderida 491

Cerdic and Cynric begin the Kingdom of Wessex 495

Arthur defeats the English at Badbury 520

Ida begins the Kingdom of Nor thzimber land 547

Ceawlin King of the West-Saxons 556

yElla King of Deira . 559

Battle of Deorham 577

Gregory the Great Pope 590

Augustine converts ^thelberht 597

^thelfrith defeats the Scots at Daegsanstan 603

^thelfrith defeats the Welsh at Chester 607

PaulUnus converts Edwin 627

b 2

XX CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

A.D.

Edwin slain by Penda at Heathfield ........... 633

Oswald defeats Caedwalla at Heavenfield . 635

Cwichelm and Cynegils first Christian Kings of the West-Saxons. . 639

Oswald slain by Penda at Maserfield . ^ 642

Ithamar of Rochester the first English Bishop 644

Cenwealh defeats the Welsh at Bradford . . . i 652

Oswiu defeats and slays Penda 655

Wulf here King of the Mercians 657

Cenwealh defeats the Welsh at Pen 658

Ecgfrith King of the Northumbrians ........... 670

Sexburh Queen of the West-Saxons ........... 672

Wilfrith converts the South- Saxons 681

Ceadwalla King of the West-Saxons 685

Ine King of the W^est-Saxons 688

The Church of Wells founded 704

Battle of Wanborough 714

Taunton burned by ^Ethelburh 722

^Ethelbald takes Somerton , ■. 733

Cuthred King of the West- Saxons. . , ^ 740

Rebellion of ^thelhun 750

Cuthred defeats ^thelbald at Burford 752

Sigeberht King of the West-Saxons 754

Sigeberht deposed by his Wise Men and Cynewulf elected .... 755

Death of ^thelbald — Offa King of the Mercians 755

Eadberht of Northumberland takes Alcluyd 756

Charles the Great King of the Franks 768

Offa takes Bensington , 777

Cynewulf killed by Cyneheard 784

Lichfield an Archbishoprick 786

First landing of the Danes 787

^thelberht murdered by Offa . 7^2

Death of Offa — Cenwulf King of the Mercians 794.

Charles the Great crowned Emperor — Ecgberht King of the West- Saxons 800

Ecgberht ravages Cornwall 813

Cenwulf of Mercia ravages Gwynedd ^\Q

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. xxi

A.D.

Cenwulf ravages Dyfed 819

Beomwulf conquers Powys 822

Ecgberht defeats Beornwulf at Ellandun, and gains the lordship over

Kent, Sussex, and East-Anglia 823

Xorthumberland submits to Ecgberht 827

Wiglaf receives the crown of -Slercia from Ecgberht — submission of

the Welsh 828

The Danes defeat Ecgberht at Charmouth — Ecgberht defeats the

Danes and Welsh at Hengestesdun 835

.'Ethelwulf succeeds Ecgberht 836

The Danes reach London 839

Battle at the mouth of the Pan'et 845

Alfred bom 849

The Danes take Canterbury and London, but are defeated by xLLthel-

\Y^J^i at Ockley 851

vEtheh^-ulf helps Burhred of ^lercia against the Welsh 853

Alfred sent to Rome 853

The Danes winter in Sheppey 855

^thelwulf goes to Rome 855

/Ethehvulf marries Judith on his way home 856

^^thel\ATilf dies ; ^^thelbald succeeds 858

yEthelbald dies ; ^thelberht succeeds 860

^thelberht dies ; ^thelred succeeds ; the Danes land in East-Anglia 866

The Danes take York 867

^thelred and Alfred help Burhred against the Danes . . . . .868 The Danes conquer East Anglia ; martyrdom of Saint Edmund . . 870 The Danes enter Wessex ; Battles of Englefield, Reading, Ashdo^\^l, Basing and ^lerton ; death of yEthelred and election of Alfred ; Battle of Wilton; peace between the Danes and West-Saxons 871

The Danes invade Z^Iercia ; Burhred goes to Rome 874

Alfred defeats the Danes by sea 875

The Danes under Healfdene settle in Deira 876

The Danes under Guthorm enter Wessex . 876

The Danes leave Wessex and settle in part of ^lercia 877

Guthorm enters Wessex ; Alfred takes shelter at Athelney ; Battle of Ethandun ; Peace of Wedmore ; yEthelred Alderman of

Western Mercia 878

Guthorm settles in East-Anglia 880 xxii CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

A.D.

Alfred defeats the Danes at sea 882

Alfred drives the Danes from Rochester; the Welsh Princes submit

to him 885

Alfred repairs London 886

Charles the Fat deposed and the Empire divided 888

Arnulf defeated the Danes at Lowen . . . . ,.,.... 89 1 Hasting lands in Kent and is helped by the Danes in East- Anglia . . 893 Alfred takes Appledore ; the Danes defeated at Buttington .... 894

Birth of ^Ethelstan 895

The war v^^ith the Danes goes on ... . . ...... 895-6

Alfred improves his navy ; the Danes leave Wessex 897

Alfred dies; Edward the Elder chosen King; revolt of ^thelwald,

who takes refuge with the Danes 901

^Ethelwald and the Danes attack Wessex ; death of ^thelwald . . 904

Peace between Edward and Guthorm 906

The Danish wars begin again ; Battle of Tettenhall ; Edward and his

sister ^thelflaed begin to fortify various posts 910

Battle of Wednesfield ; ^thelflaed rules alone in Mercia . . . .911 Rolf settles in Gaul ; beginning of the Duchy of Normandy . . .913

The Danes driven away from Somersetshire and Wales 915

Death of ^thelflaed ; Edward annexes Mercia to Wessex . . . . 918 All Essex, East- Anglia, and Danish Mercia submits to Edward . . 921 The Welsh Kings " seek Edward to lord "..,.,.... 922

Raegnald takes York 923

All the Northumbrians, Scots, and Strathclyde Welsh " chose Edward

to father and lord " 924

Death of Edward ; yEthelstan chosen King. 925

The Welsh, Scots, and Northumbrians submit to ^thelstan ; he drives

the Welsh from Exeter and fortifies the city ...... 926

Edwin the ^theling drowned at sea 933

^thelstan ravages Scotland ^ . 934

Battle of Brunanburh 937

^thelstan dies ; Edmund chosen King 940

Edmund recovers the Five Boroughs ; Richard the Fearless Duke of

the Normans 941

Division of England between Edmund and Anlaf 942

Birth of Edgar 943

Edmund recovers Northumberland 944

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. xxiii

A.D.

Edmund conquers Cumberland and grants it as a fief to ]^Ialcolm of

Scotland 945

Edmund murdered by Liofa ; Eadred chosen King ; the Northumbrians and Scots acknowledge him 946

The Northumbrians again acknowledge Eadred ..... ^ . 947

The Northumbrians rebel under Eric 948

The Northumbrians finally submit and the land becomes an Earldom 954 Eadred dies; Eadwig chosen King; Edgar reigns as Under-king in

Mercia 955

Dunstan banished 956

The Mercians revolt; Edgar recalls Dunstan 957

Oda divorces Eadwig and ^Ifgifu 958

Eadwig dies; Edgar chosen King; Dunstan Archbishop . . . . 959

Edgar at York , . . 961

Edgar subdues Idwal's revolt . 963

Edgar marries ^Ifthryth . 964

Westmorland harried 966

Thanet harried; ^^thelred bom 969

Edgar crowned at Bath ; his triumph at Chester 973

Edgar dies; disputed election; Edward chosen King; disputes about

the monks and the secular clergy . 975

Various synods held 977

Edward murdered ; ^E^thelred chosen King , . . 979

The Danish invasion begun again ..,...-...,.. 980

Swegen King of the Danes 985

Invasion of Olaf; Hugh Capet chosen King of the French. . . . 987 Battle of Maldon; death of Brihtnoth; money first paid to the

Danes ; ^thelred's dispute with Richard the Fearless ^ . . 991

.Elfric's treason; victory of the English at sea 992

The Danes ravage Lindsey ; flight of the three Thanes ..... 993 Invasion of Swegen and Olaf; the two Kings beaten off by the

Londoners 994

Olaf makes peace and goes home; Swegen continues the war . . . 995

The Danes go on ravaging 997—999

.^thelred ravages Cumberland;^ the Danes go to Normandy;

.Ethelred's fleet ravages the Cotentin lOOO

The Danes return and are driven back from Exeter ; battle at Penxxiv CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE,