A Handbook of the English Language Part 64

[13] The Annales Saxonici, or Saxon Chronicles, embrace the history of Britain, between the landing of Caesar and the accession of Henry II. They are evidently the work of various and successive writers, who were Saxon ecclesiastics. But nothing certain can be affirmed of the authors of their respective portions.--See Note 10.

[14] See Note 2.

[15] Adam of Bremen was a Minor Canon of the Cathedral of Bremen, about the years 1067-1077. He travelled in Denmark, and was in great favour with King Sweyn of that country. He wrote an Ecclesiastical History of the spread of Christianity in the North, to which he appended a description of the geography, population, and archaeology of Denmark and the neighbouring countries.

[16] Ethelward was an Anglo-Saxon n.o.bleman, who wrote a chronicle of events from the creation of the world to the death of King Edgar, A.D. 875.

[17] The following is a specimen of the Frisian of Gysbert j.a.picx, in metre. It is part of a rustic song, supposed to be sung by a peasant on his return from a wedding feast. Date about A.D. 1650.

"Swiet, ja swiet, is't oer 'e miete, 'T boaskiere foar e jonge lie, Kreftich swiet is't, sizz ik jiette, As it giet mei alders rie.

Mai oars tiget 'et to 'n pleach, As ik oan myn geafeunt seach."

Translation of the same from Bosworth's _Anglo-Saxon Dictionary_, p.

lxxiii.

"Sweet, yes, sweet is over (_beyond_) measure, The marrying for the young lede (_people_); Most sweet is it, I say yet (_once more_), When (_as_) it goes with the rede (_counsel_) of the elders.

But otherwise it tends to a plague, As I saw on (_by the example of_) my village fellow."

[18] Of the early const.i.tution of states of East Friesland, we have a remarkable ill.u.s.tration in the old Frisian Laws. These are in the native Frisian tongue, and, except that they represent republican rather than monarchical inst.i.tutions, are similar in form, in spirit, to the Saxon.

[19] The great blow against the sovereignty of Rome, and the one which probably prevented Germany from becoming a Roman province, was struck by the Cheruscan Arminius against Quintilius Varus, in the reign of Augustus.

The date of the organized insurrection of Arminius was A.D. 9; the place, the neighbourhood of Herford, or Engern, in Westphalia. Drawn into an inpracticable part of the country, the troops of Varus were suddenly attacked and cut to pieces--consisting of more than three legions. "Never was victory more decisive, never was the liberation of an oppressed people more instantaneous and complete. Throughout Germany the Roman garrisons were a.s.sailed and cut off; and, within a few weeks after Varus had fallen, the German soil was freed from the foot of an invader.

"Had Arminius been supine or unsuccessful, our Germanic ancestors would have been enslaved or exterminated in their original seats along the Eyder and the Elbe. This island would never have borne the name of England, and we, this great English nation, whose race and language are now overrunning the earth, from one end of it to the other, would have been utterly cut off from existence."[68]

[20] _Heliand_ is the gerund from _helian_ = _heal_, and means _the Healer_ or _Saviour_. It is the name of an old Saxon poem, in alliterative metre, of the tenth or eleventh century, in the dialect supposed to have belonged to the parts about Essen, Cleves, and Munster in Westphalia. It is a sort of Gospel Harmony, or Life of Christ, taken from the Gospels. It has been edited by Schmeller.

[21] Hildubrand and Hathubrant, father and son, are two legendary heroes belonging to that cycle of German fiction of which Theodoric of Verona is the centre. A fragment containing an account of their hostile meeting, being mutually unknown, in alliterative metre, represents the _fictional_ poetry of the old Saxons in the same way (though not to the same extent) that the Heliand represents their sacred poetry. The "Hildubrand and Hathubrant" have been edited by Grimm.

[22] In a language which for a long time was considered to be the Dutch of Holland in its oldest known form, there is an imperfect translation of the Psalms; referred by the best writers on the subject to the reign of Charlemagne, and thence called the Carolinian Psalms. The best text of this is to be found in a Dutch periodical, the _Taalkundig Magazijn_.

[23] _Beowulf_ is by far the most considerable poem, not only in Anglo-Saxon, but in any old Gothic tongue. It has been admirably edited and translated by Mr. Kemble. The subject is the account of Beowulf, an Angle hero--Angle but not English, as the scene of the poem is on the Continent.

In its present form it shows traces of the revision of some Christian writer: the basis, however, of its subject, and the manners it describes, are essentially Pagan. The most remarkable feature in the poem is the fact that no allusion is made to England--so that, _Anglo_-Saxon as the work is--it belongs to the Anglo-Saxons of Germany before they became English.

[24] A Gospel Harmony translated from the one of Tatian, exists in a dialect too little purely High German, to pa.s.s absolutely as such, yet less _Low_ German than the Dutch of Holland. This belongs to the _Middle_ Rhine, and is called _Frank_.

[25] The Alemannic is the German of the _Upper_ Rhine; the dialect out of which the Bavarian and Swiss grew. Its chief specimens occur in--

a. _The Glosses of Kero_-- b. _The Psalms_ by a monk named _Notker_.

c. A life of _Anno_ of Cologne.

d. The Song of Solomon, by Willeram.

e. _Musrpilli_, an alliterative poem.

f. _Krist_, a life of Christ, by Otford, and others less important.

Most of these (along with Tatian), are to be found in Schilter's _Thesaurus_.

(Original footnotes)

[26] In Hampshire.

[27] In Northern Germany.

[28] The Eyder.

[29] See ---- 21-29.

[30] Saxons _North of the Elbe_ (_Albis_).

[31] See Notes 17 and 18.

[32] De Mor. Germ. 40.

[33] Meaning _ditch_

[34] This list is taken from Smart's valuable and logical English Grammar.

[35] As in _Shotover Hill_, near Oxford.

[36] As in _Jerusalem artichoke_.

[37] A sort of silk.

[38] _Ancient Ca.s.sio_--"Oth.e.l.lo."

[39]

Be she constant, be she fickle, Be she flame, or be she _ickle_.--SIR C. SEDLEY.

[40] Or _periphrastic_.

[41] That of the verb substantive, _if I were_, subjunctive, as opposed to _I was_, indicative.

[42] This by no means implies that such was the power of s, ?, ?, ?, in Greek. They are merely convenient symbols.

[43] As a _name_, _Sigma = Samech_.

[44] Of the Hebrew and Greek tables.

[45] In _thin_.

[46] In _thine_.

[47] Write one letter twice.

[48] This explains the words, "Whatever they may have been originally," and "to a certain extent," in -- 212.

[49] Used as adverbs.

[50] Used as the plurals of _he_, _she_, and _it_.