Anglo-Saxon Literature Part 5

We will now proceed to notice the sources which preserve some relics of the old heathenism.

THE GENEALOGIES

bear the greatest testimony to the former dignity of Woden's name. The royal houses of Kent, Ess.e.x, Deira, Bernicia, Wess.e.x, East Anglia, Mercia,--all trace up to Woden. Some go up far above Woden, who has a series of mythological progenitors, the oldest of whom appears to be Scyld, the name which forms the starting-point of the "Beowulf."

THE LAWS.

In the Kentish code of Wihtraed (d. 725) there are penalties set down for those who sacrifice to devils, meaning heathen G.o.ds.

But, on the whole, it is remarkable how little is found on this subject in the codes before Alfred. In the Introduction to Alfred's Laws idolatry is forbidden in two places, not in words of the time, but with the sanction of Scripture texts.

In the Laws of Edward and Guthrum heathenism is denounced with penalties; in the Codes of aethelred it is forbidden in a hortatory way; but the most explicit prohibition is that of Canute:--

"5. Of Heathenism. And we strictly forbid all heathenism. It is heathenism for a man to worship idols,--that is, to worship heathen G.o.ds, and the sun or moon, fire or flood, water-wells or stones, or any kind of wood-trees, or practise witchcraft, or contrive murder by sorcery."

The latter words seem to point to that form of sorcery known as _defixio_, wherein an effigy was maltreated, and incantations were used to direct the injury against the life or health of some private enemy, whom the image was taken to represent.

CANONS ECCLESIASTICAL.

In the Canons of aelfric, c. 35, priests are not to attend funereal festivities unless they are invited; and if they are invited, they are to forbid the heathen songs of the lewd men, and their loud cachinnations; and they are not to eat or drink where the corpse is deposited (thaer thaet lic inne lith), lest they be partakers of the heathen rite which is there celebrated. This seems to be ill.u.s.trated by a prohibition found in the Capitularies of Charlemagne against eating and drinking over the mounds of the dead; and also by a pa.s.sage of Boniface (Epist. 71), who says that the Franks immolated bulls and goats to the G.o.ds, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. It has been supposed that a number of teeth, of oxen and sheep or goats, which were found among heathen Saxon graves at Harnham, near Salisbury, might be evidence of this practice.[47]

In the "Laws of the Northumbrian Priests," c. 48, it is enacted:--"If there be a sanctuary (frith-geard) in any one's land, about a stone, or a tree, or a wall, or any such vanity, let him that made it pay a fine (lah-slit), half to Christ, half to the landlord (land-rica); and if the landlord will not aid in executing the law, then let Christ and the king receive the mulct."

THE POETRY

preserves many traces of heathendom. The unconscious relics of old mythology that are imbedded in the recurrent formulae of the heroic diction is one of our strongest proofs that this diction was already matured in heathen times. A very prominent term is Wyrd = Destiny, Fate; which is the same as the Urr of the Scandian mythology, one of the three fates, Urr, Werandi, Skuld = Past, Present, Future. In Wyrd, the whole of the attributes are included under one name; and it counts among the marks of affinity between the Heliand and our Anglo-Saxon literature, that the same thing is observed there also, though in a less distinct manner. In the "Beowulf" it is said:--"Wyrd often keeps alive the man who is not destined to die, if his courage is equal to the occasion." Wyrd is said to weave, to prescribe, to ordain, to delude, to hurt. In Caedmon she is waelgrim = bloodthirsty. And the heathen a.s.sociation may still be felt, even when the name of Wyrd is displaced by a name of the Christian's G.o.d, as in "Beowulf" where we read:--"The Lord gave him webs to speed in war."[48] In the Heliand the attributes are less varied, the vaticination is wanting, and _Wur_ seems almost the same as Death.

But the old tradition of the three mysterious women lived on in this island. It is now best known to us through the German Fairy Tales, where we have the three spinning women. In the Middle Ages there was a remembrance of these mysterious visitants in a certain ceremony of spreading a table for three, whether for protection to the house at night, or to bring good luck to the children born in that house. In the Penitential of Baldwin, Bishop of Exeter (twelfth century), this superst.i.tion is noted, and the latter motive a.s.signed.

The monks of Evesham kept up a tradition which traced the origin of their house to a vision of three beautiful maidens, in heavenly garments, sweetly singing. They were seen by a swineherd in the forest, when he was in search of a lost swine, and he went to Bishop Ecgwine and told him. The bishop arrived at the place, was favoured with the same vision, and founded the monastery there. The device on the abbey seal represented this vision.

A less pleasing vision of the Three Sisters is narrated by Wulfstan of Winchester, a poet of the tenth century, who has left us a Latin poem of the Miracles of St. Swithun. In it he tells how, coming back one evening towards Winchester, he was met by two hideous females, who commanded him to stop, but he ran away in terror; he was then met and stopped by a third, who struck him a blow from which he suffered for the remainder of his life; but the three women plunged into the river and disappeared.

The same three appear in _Macbeth_ as the Weird Sisters; and it is probably from this connexion that _weird_ has become an adjective for all that savours of heathenism.

A frequent word for battle and carnage is _wael_, and the root idea of this word is choice, which may be ill.u.s.trated from the German _wahlen_--to choose. The heathen idea was that Woden chose those who should fall in battle to dwell with him in Walhalla, the Hall of the chosen. In the exercise of this choice, Woden acted by female messengers, called in the Norse mythology _valkyrja_, pl.

_valkyrjor_.[49]

All superior works in metal, as swords, coats of mail, jewels, are the productions of Weland, the smith. His father is called Wudga, and his son is called Wada; and with this child on his shoulder Weland strides through water nine yards deep. This was matter of popular song down to Chaucer's time:--

He songe, she playede, he told a tale of Wade.

"Troylus and Crescyde," iii., 615.

He had by Beadohild another son, in German named Witeche, who inherited his father's skill and renown. For his violence to Beadohild, Weland was lamed; but he made for himself a winged garment, wherewith he took his flight through the air. He is at once the Daidalos and the Hephaistos of the Greeks. The translator of the Boethian Metres has taken occasion to bring in this heathen G.o.d, whose cult (it seems) was still too active. In Metre ii., 7, where Boethius has the line--

Ubi nunc fidelis ossa Fabricii manent?

under colour of _faber_ = smith, which the name Fabricius suggests, Weland is made a fruitful text:--

Hwaer sind nu thaes wisan Welandes ban, thaes goldsmithes the waes gio maerost?

Forthy ic cwaeth thaes wisan Welandes ban, forthy aengum ne maeg eorthbuendra, se craft losian the him Crist onlaenth.

Ne maeg mon aefre thy eth aenne wraeccan his craftes beniman the mon oncerran maeg sunnan on swifan and thisne swiftan rodor of his riht ryne rinca aenig.

Hwa wat nu thaes wisan Welandes ban, on hwelc.u.m hi hlaewa hrusan theccen?

Where now are the bones of Weland the wise, that goldsmith so glorious of yore?

Why name I the bones of Weland the wise, but to tell you the truth that none upon earth can e'er lose the craft that is lent him by Christ?

Vain were it to try, e'en a vagabond man of his craft to bereave; as vain as to turn the sun in his course and the swift wheeling sky from his stated career-- it cannot be done.

Who now wots of the bones of Weland the wise, or which is the barrow that banks them?

One of the most striking points of contact between our relics of mythology and those of the Edda occurs in the "Beowulf," where mention is made of the famous necklace of the Brosings (or, as Grimm would correct, Brisings).

In the Edda the G.o.ddess Freyja is the owner of a precious necklace, called _Brisinga men_. She had acquired this jewel from the dwarfs, and she kept it in an inaccessible chamber, but, nevertheless, it was stolen from her by Loki. Therefore Loki is _Brisings thiofr_, the thief of the Brising necklace; and Heimdallr fought with Loki for it. When Freyja is angry the heaving of this ornament betrays her emotion. When Thorr, to get his hammer back, disguises himself as Freyja, he fails not to put on her famous necklace. From its mention in Anglo-Saxon poetry, Grimm would infer the familiarity of the Saxon race with the whole story.[50]

But what adds vastly to the interest of this legend is that we find it in Homer. It is essentially the same with the belt of Aphrodite (Hymn, l. 88). In Iliad xiv., 214, Aphrodite takes it off and lends it to Here to charm Zeus withal. When we add that just above in the same context (Iliad xiv., 165) Here also has a curiously contrived chamber, made for her by Hephaistos (Vulcan), the parallel is too close to be mistaken.

THE GOSPEL TRANSLATION.

Of the old heathen theogony we have a remarkable doc.u.ment in the names of the days of the week; and these names are best preserved to us in the rubrics of the Anglo-Saxon Gospels. These names are supposed to have come from the western sh.o.r.es of Asia, and to have pervaded the nations of Europe, both Roman and barbarian, in the first and second centuries.

By a comparison of the sets of names in the two families of nations, we gain certain leading facts about the chief deities of our heathen ancestry, which all the rest of the scattered evidence tends to confirm.

Thus our Tuesday, A.-S. Tywes-daeg, compared with the French Mardi and its Latin original Martis dies, teaches us that the old G.o.d Tiw (who was also called Tir) was recognised as the a.n.a.logue of the Roman Mars, the G.o.d of war. So Wednesday, A.-S. Wodnes-daeg, compared with the French Mercredi and its Latin form Mercurii dies, gives us proof that the G.o.d Woden answered to the Roman Mercurius. So, too, Thursday, A.-S.

Thunres-daeg, compared with French Jeudi and Latin Jovis dies, shows that Thunor (whom the Scandinavians call Thor) is the G.o.d of thunder, like the Latin Jupiter. So again, Friday, A.-S. Frige-daeg, compared with Vendredi and Veneris dies, gives us the a.n.a.logy of Frige with Venus.[51]

Sat.u.r.day, A.-S. Sataernes-daeg, seems like a borrowed name from the Latin Saturnus.

Kemble maintained the probability that Saetere was a native divinity, and considered that the local names of Satterthwaite (Lanc.), and Satterleigh (Devon), offered some probable evidence in that direction.

More distinct are the local namesakes of Woden. Kemble adduces repeated instances of Wanborough, formerly Wodnesbrook (Surrey, Wilts, Hants), Woodnesborough (Kent), Wanstrow, formerly Wodnestreow = Woden's tree (Somerset), Wansdike, and others.

THE HOMILIES

occasionally denounce and describe the prevalent forms of heathenism still surviving. Thus aelfric (i., 474):--"It is not allowed to any Christian man, that he should recover his health at any stone, or at any tree." Wulfstan preaches thus:--"From the devil comes every evil, every misery, and no remedy: where he finds incautious men he sends on themselves, or sometimes on their cattle, some terrible ailment, and they proceed to vow alms by the devil's suggestion, either to a well or to a stone, or else to some unlawful things...."[52]

In an alliterative homily of the tenth century, the heathen G.o.ds that are combated are Danish:--[53]

Thes Jovis is arwurthost ealra thaera G.o.da, The tha haethenan haefdon on heora gedwilde, and he hatte Thor betwux sumum theodum; thone tha Deniscan leode lufiath swithost.

Sum man was gehaten Mercurius on life, he was swithe facenful and swicol on dedum, and lufode eac stala and leasbrednysse; thone macodon tha haethenan him to maeran G.o.de, and aet wega gelaetum him lac offrodon, and to heagum beorgum him on brohton onsegdnysse.

Thes G.o.d was arwurthra betwux eallum haethenum, and he is Othon gehaten othrum naman on Denisc.

This Jove is most worshipped of all the G.o.ds that the heathens had in their delusion; and he hight Thor some nations among; him the tribes of the Danes especially love.

There once lived a man Mercurius hight; he was vastly deceitful and sly in his deeds, eke stealing he loved and lying device; him the heathens they made their majestical G.o.d, and at the cross roads they offered him gifts, and to the high hills brought him victims to slay.

This G.o.d was main worthy all heathens among, and his name when translated in Danish is Odin.