Anglo-Saxon Literature Part 22

[140] It may not be known to all readers, that this is an English word; and historically, perhaps, the best English name, for the mole (talpa).

Along the Elbe it appears in a form nearer to that of the text: "Win worp oder Wind-worp, _der Maulwurf_." Bremisch-Niedersachsisches Worterbuch.

[141] See Prof. Dietrich in Haupt's "Zeitschrift," xi.

[142] Prof. Stephens, "Tvende Olde-Engelske Digte," Kiobenhavn, 1853.

[143] "The Riming Poem," Cod. Exon. ed. Thorpe, p. 352.

[144] Stubbs, "St. Dunstan," Preface.

CHAPTER XII.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST AND AFTER THAT.

The first of these chapters took a brief survey of the literature that preceded and elevated the Anglo-Saxon literature: this concluding chapter must be still briefer in sketching the manner of its decline. It would be true to say that the Norman Conquest dealt a fatal blow to Anglo-Saxon literature; but it would also be true to say that the cultivation of Anglo-Saxon literature never came to an end at all. I will presently endeavour to reconcile this seeming contradiction; but first I have some little remainder to tell of the main narrative.

There are two small sets of writings which have not yet been described.

These are the liturgical and scientific remains. Of liturgical, we have the "Benedictionale of aeelwold,"[145] and we have the so-called "Ritual of Durham," with its interlinear Northumbrian gloss. But the most famous book of this kind is that which is called "The Leofric Missal," because Leofric, the first Bishop of Exeter (of Crediton, 1046-1050; of Exeter, 1050-1072) gave it to his cathedral. It is now in the Bodleian Library.

"It is one of the only three surviving Missals known to have been used in the English Church during the Anglo-Saxon period," the other two being the Missal of Robert of Jumieges, Archbishop of Canterbury, now in Rouen Library, and the "Rede Boke of Darbye," in the Parker Library at Cambridge.[146]

It may seem almost idle to talk of the "scientific" remains of Anglo-Saxon times. For Science, in its grandest sense,--the recognition of constant order in nature and the reign of law,--had not yet dawned upon the world. Science, in this sense, dates only from the seventeenth century, and its patriarchal names are Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler.

But, nevertheless, the earlier and feebler efforts at the explanation of phenomena have a real and a lasting value for human history, and what they lack in scientific quality has somehow the effect of throwing them all the more into the arms of the literary historian.

There is, however, one small Anglo-Saxon writing which needs not this apology, and which may be considered as a real contribution even to science. I mean the Geography which King Alfred inserted into his translation of Orosius. All our other scientific relics are but compilation and translation in the primitive paths of Medicine, and Botany, and Astronomy.

We have some considerable lists of Anglo-Saxon Botany. The vernacular names of plants, many of them, seem to indicate a Latin tradition dating from Roman times.[147] In the medical treatises we see the practice of medicine greatly mingled with superst.i.tion. Witchcraft is reckoned among the causes of disease, and formulae are provided for breaking the spell.

The "Leech Book" contains a series of prescriptions for divers ailments, with directions for preparation and medical treatment. One batch of these prescriptions is said to have been sent to King Alfred by Elias, Patriarch of Jerusalem. A very popular book was the Herbarium of Apuleius. It was translated into Anglo-Saxon, and four ma.n.u.scripts of this translation are still extant.[148]

On astronomical and cosmical matters there exists a well-written little treatise of unknown authorship. It has been attributed to aelfric, and it is most likely a work of his time. It seems to have been very popular.[149] It is, as it professes to be in the prologue, a popular abridgment of Beda, "De Natura Rerum." It begins with a succinct abstract of the creation, the sixth day being thus rendered:--

On am syxtan daege he gescop eall deor cynn, ? ealle nytena e on feower fotum ga, ? a twegen menn Adam ? Efan.

On the sixth day he created all animal-kind, and all the beasts that go on four feet, and the two men Adam and Eve.

The eclipse of the moon is well explained. After saying that Night is the shade of the earth when the sun goes down under it, before it comes up the other side,--

Woruldlice uwitan saedon, {aet} seo sceadu astih up o aet heo becym to aere lyfte ufeweardan, and onne be yrn se mona hwiltidum onne he full by on aere sceade ufeweardre, and f.a.ggete oe mid ealle aswearta, for am e he naef aere sunnan leoht a hwile e he aere sceade ord ofer yrn o aet aere sunnan leoman hine eft onlihton.

Worldly philosophers said, that the shadow mounts up until it arrives at the top of the atmosphere, and then sometimes the moon when he is full runs into the upper part of the shadow, and is darkened or utterly blackened, forasmuch as he hath not the sun's light so long as he traverses the shadow's point until that the sun's rays again enlighten him.

The Norman Conquest gave the death-blow to our old native literature, in the sense that the use of the literary Anglo-Saxon in its first integrity, as at once a learned language and a spoken language, did not extend beyond the generation that witnessed that great dynastic change.

In this strict sense we might point to the close of the Worcester Chronicle in 1079 as the termination of Anglo-Saxon literature. There is, indeed, a Saxon Chronicle that was even begun after that date, one which comprises the whole Saxon period, and was continued by original writers down to 1154, but it is not written in normal Anglo-Saxon. It represents the flectional decay which the living and popular English was undergoing.

It exhibits, also, something of that new growth which was to compensate for the loss of flection. And it already bears marks of that French influence which was so largely to affect the whole complexion of the language. I quote from the last Annal in the Saxon Chronicle of Peterborough:--

1154. On is gaer waerd e King Stephan ded and bebyried er his wif and his sune waeron bebyried aet Faures feld, et minstre hi makeden . a e King was ded, a was e eorl beionde sae . and ne durste nan man don oer bute G.o.d for e micel eie of him . a he to Engle land com . a was he under fangen mid micel wurtscipe . and to king bletcaed in Lundene on e Sunnen daei be foren midwinter daei . and held aer micel curt.

In this year was King Stephen dead and buried where his wife and his son were buried at Feversham, the minster he made. When the King was dead, then was the earl beyond sea, and no man durst do other than good for the great awe of him. When he came to England, then was he received with great worship, and consecrated king in London on the Sunday before Christmas Day; and he held there a great court.

Here, then, at the very latest, we must close the canon of Anglo-Saxon literature. And here our subject branches in two; we have to follow with a brief glance what happened in two divergent lines of succession. As when, in the early mountainous course of some growing river, a broken hill has fallen across its bed, the old water-way is choked, and the descending waters make new channels to the right and to the left; so it was with the fortunes of our native language and literature after the Norman Conquest. The stream of largest volume was the spontaneous and popular utterance which amused in hall and taught in church; the lesser stream was the artificial maintenance of Anglo-Saxon literature which went on in the old seats of religion and learning.

The Norman Conquest brought in a vast body of romantic literature.

Heroic or entertaining tales in a ballad form were at that time highly popular; and a peculiar talent for this sort of narrative was developed in France and among the Normans. The oldest French romances were those of which the central figure was Charles the Great. It was one of these, the "Song of Roland," that animated the conquering Normans at Senlac.

According to high authorities, it was in the next generation after the Conquest that the "Chanson de Roland" took that final epic form which now it bears, and probably the poet's home was in England.[150] For a long time the speech of the upper society was wholly French. The two languages quickly met one another in the market, and in all the necessary business of life; but in respect of literature they long stood apart. Such was the state of things in this island during the time in which the Carling cycle prevailed. With that cycle the English language never came into contact at all in its palmy days; and the few Carling poems that exist in English are of later date, and are of a mixed nature. When at length, towards the close of the twelfth century, a literary intercourse had sprung up between the two languages, the hero of popular song was no longer Charles, but Arthur. In the English poetry of Layamon (1205), founded upon the French of Robert Wace, we see the story of Arthur in that early stage where it still purports to be history rather than romance. Layamon represents the first great step from the old literature to the new; and he is the first to give an English home to that ideal king who was to be the chosen theme of Spenser and of Tennyson. We will quote the death of Arthur and his funeral cortege:--

THE Pa.s.sING OF ARTHUR.

Line 28,582.

Tha nas ther na mare, i than fehte to laue, of twa hundred thusend monnen, tha ther leien to-hawen; buten Arthur the king one, and of his cnihtes tweien.

Arthur wes forwunded wunderliche swithe.

Ther to him com a cnaue, the wes of his cunne; he wes Cadores sune, the eorles of Cornwaile.

Constantin hehte the cnaue; he wes than kinge deore.

Arthur him lokede on, ther he lai on folden, and thas word seide, mid sorhfulle heorte.

Constantin thu art wilc.u.me, thu weore Cadores sune: ich the bitache here, mine kineriche: and wite mine Bruttes, a to thines lifes: and hald heom alle tha la?en, tha habbeoth istonden a mine da?en: and alle tha la?en G.o.de, tha bi Vtheres da?en stode.

And ich wulle uaren to Aualun, to uairest alre maidene; to Argante there quene, aluen swithe sceone: and heo scal mine wunden, maiken all isunde, al hal me makien, mid halewei?e drenchen.

And seothe ich c.u.men wulle to mine kineriche: and wunien mid Brutten, mid muchelere wunne.

Then was there no more in that fight left alive, out of 200,000 men, that there lay cut to pieces; but Arthur the King only and two of his knights.

Arthur was wounded dangerously much.

There to him came a youth who was of his kin; he was son of Cador, the earl of Cornwall.

Constantine hight the youth; to the king he was dear.

Arthur looked upon him, where he lay on the ground, and these words said, with sorrowful heart.

Constantine thou art welcome thou wert Cador's son: I here commit to thee, my kingdom; and guide thou my Britons aye to thy life's cost; and a.s.sure them all the laws, that have stood in my days: and all the laws so good, that by Uther's days stood.

And I will fare to Avalon, to the fairest of all maidens; to Argante the queen, elf exceeding sheen: and she shall my wounds, make all sound; all whole me make, with healing drinks.

And sith return I will, to my kingdom: and dwell with Britons, with mickle joy.

aefne than worden, ther com of se wenden, that wes an sceort bat lithen, sceouen mid vthen: and twa wimmen therinne, wunderliche idihte: and heo nomen Arthur anan, and aneouste hine uereden, and softe hine adun leiden, and forth gunnen hine lithen.

Even with these words, lo came from sea wending, that was a short boat moving, driving with the waves: and two women therein, of marvellous aspect: and they took Arthur anon, and straight him bore away and softly down him laid, and forth with him to sea they gan to move away.

Tha wes. .h.i.t iwurthen, that Merlin seide whilen; that weore unimete care, of Arthures forth-fare.

Then was it come to pa.s.s what Merlin said whilome; that there should be much curious care, when Arthur out of life should fare.

Bruttes ileueth ?ete, that he beo on liue, and wunnie in Aualun, mid fairest alre aluen: and lokieth euere Bruttes ?ete, whan Arthur c.u.me lithen.

Britons believe yet, that he be alive, and dwelling in Avalon with the fairest of all elves: still look the Britons for the day of Arthur's coming o'er the sea.

In this poetry there is a new vein of popularity. Since we left the primary poetry we have been on the track of a literature whose spring was in book-learning. A foreign erudition had thrown the lore of the native minstrel into the shade. But some relics of domestic material reappear with the new gush of popular song in the 13th century. Among the ma.s.s of stories which fill that time, we find here and there an old English tale, and sometimes it is a translation back from the French.

The romance of King Horn is one of these. The names of the personages, and the general course of the plot--the Saracens notwithstanding--are essentially Saxon. There are lines which are almost pure Saxon poetry, and there are incidents that recall the Beowulf.

The story is as follows:--Horn was the son of the King of Suddene; he was of matchless beauty, and he had twelve companions, among whom two were specially dear to him; they were Athulf and Fikenild, the best and the worst. The land was conquered by Saracens, who slew the king, but sent off Horn and his twelve in a ship to perish at sea. They came to a land where the king was Aylmar, who thus addressed them:--