Canute the Great Part 24

They drank and talked till the day was done.[414]

"The Lay of Righ" was composed, it is believed, in the days of Canute's grandfather; but the civilisation that it describes was not new; even a century earlier the ruling cla.s.ses in the North had reached a high stage of culture, as we know from the large number of articles indicating a refined and cultivated taste that were found when the Oseberg ship was discovered and excavated a few years ago.[415]

As in early Saxon times before the clergy had monopolised learning, the higher forms of cultured life saw their finest fruitage in the halls of kings and chiefs. The old Scandinavian house was a wooden structure of rectangular shape, its length being considerably greater than the width.

In its general lines it doubtless bore close resemblance to the Anglo-Saxon dwelling of the same period. In the number and arrangement of the rooms the individual houses showed some, though not great, variety; but a large living-room seems to have been characteristic of all. In the middle of this room a long trough lined with stones was sunk into the floor; this served as fireplace, the smoke finding its way out through an opening in the roof. On either side of this long fireplace ran a row of pillars that served to support the roof; these also gave opportunities for the carver's art. Between the pillars and the wall stood the benches where the feasters sat with portable tables before them. The walls were ornamented with shields and weapons and with the trophies of the chase. At the middle of the long north wall, facing the entrance door on the opposite side, stood the high-seat of the lord of the hall. The size and splendour of the room would depend on the wealth and importance of the owner: some of the larger halls were planned for the entertainment of several hundred guests and henchmen.[416]

There were many other buildings besides the hall, the number depending on the needs of the estate. The king's garth probably differed very little from those of the wealthier chiefs. In England, too, even as late as the year 1000, the palace architecture must have been of the same modest type. In his homily on Saint Thomas, Alfric (who wrote his sermons in the decade of Canute's birth) tells the story of how the Apostle went to India to build a palace for a king, and, by the way, used the money for building churches:

Then he examined the grounds where it was to be builded.

And Thomas went about measuring the place with a yardstick, And said that he would build the hall first of all At the east end of the grounds, and the other buildings Behind the hall: bath house and kitchen And winterhouse and summerhouse and winsome bowers,-- Twelve houses altogether with good arches-- But such it is not customary to build in England And therefore we do not mention them particularly.[417]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SCANDINAVIAN (ICELANDIC) HALL IN THE VIKING AGE]

During the reign of Canute, however, there must have been material advancement in the direction of greater magnificence in the royal garth.

The sagas testify to a splendour at Winchester that was greater than what was to be seen anywhere else.[418]

The men of the viking age usually a.s.sociated the royal hall with the thought of elaborate festivities. The greatest moment in such an occasion was when the scald rose to sing the praises and recite the exploits of his host. It has been thought that the activities of the court poet show Celtic influence,[419] and it may be that the scald had learned freely from the bard; but the inst.i.tution itself is most probably of native origin. Like the Irish singer his chief theme was praise; but we need not suppose that the scald confined himself wholly to contemporary themes: the gleeman in Beowulf sang of the great hero that sat beside the King; but he also told the tales of the Volsungs and the still older story of creation; before the onslaught at Stiklestead one of Saint Olaf's scalds recited the ancient Bjarkamal, the Old Norse version of Beowulf's last fight. The holy King seems to have enjoyed the inspiriting strains of heathen heroism; he thanked the poet, as did all the host.

Old Norse poetry had its beginnings in the ninth century; but its greater bulk belongs to the tenth and eleventh. It begins with a wonderful series of mythical poems, most of them belonging to the period of lull in the viking activities (900-980). The series culminates in the Sibyl's Prophecy (Voluspa), one of the grandest monuments of mediaeval literary art and thought. It tells the story of the creation, the destruction, the regeneration of the world in heathen terms with heathen G.o.ds, giants, and demons as the actors. But it contains unmistakable Christian elements and the poet must have had some acquaintance with the faith that ruled in the Western Islands. The poem seems to have been composed a generation or two before the days of Canute; but it was doubtless widely current during the years of his kingship. That the later scalds knew and appreciated the poem is evident from the fact that it was quoted by Christian poets in the following century.[420] No doubt it was an important number in their repertoire of song and story, and perhaps we may believe that it was gladly heard by Canute and his henchmen in the royal hall at Winchester.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE VIK STONE (Ill.u.s.trates the transition from heathendom to Christianity; shows a mixture of elements, the serpent and the cross.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE RAMSUND ROCK (Representations of scenes from the Sigfried Saga.)]

The four decades that the Norns allotted to Canute (995?-1035) are a notable period in the history of Northern literature: it was the grand age of Old Norse poetry. The advance of Christianity had made the myths impossible as poetic materials, but new themes were found in the deeds and virtues of the old Teutonic heroes and of the mighty war lords of the viking age. The saga materials of the heroic age, the stories of Helgi and Sigrun, of Sigurd and Brunhild, of Gudrun's grief and Attila's fury, had long been treasured by the Northern peoples. Just when each individual tale was cast into the form that has come down to us is impossible to say; the probabilities are, however, that a considerable number of the heroic lays were composed in the age of Canute.

When we come to the court poetry we are on firmer ground: unlike the other poems, the dirges and praise-lays are not anonymous and their dates can be determined with some definiteness. The scald found the age great with possibilities. Those were the days of Hakon and Erik, of Sweyn and Canute, of Erling and Thurkil,--men who typified in their warlike activities the deified valour of the old faith. It was also a period of famous battles: Swald, Ringmere, Clontarf, Ashington, and Stiklestead, to mention only the more prominent. About twenty scalds are known to have sung at the courts of the viking princes, but the compositions of some of them have been wholly lost or exist in mere fragments only. In the reign of Canute three poets stood especially high in the royal favour: Thorarin Praise-tongue, Ottar the Swart, and Sighvat the Scald.

The three were all Icelanders and were of a roving disposition as the scalds usually were. They all visited Canute's court, presumably at Winchester. Sighvat came to England on the return from a trading journey to Rouen in 1027, it seems, just after the King's return from his Roman pilgrimage, which the poet alludes to in his Stretch Song. Ottar seems to have visited Winchester the same year: his poem, the Canute's Praise, closes with a reference to the Holy River campaign in 1026. Thorarin Praise-tongue had his opportunity to flatter the King a year or two later, most likely in 1029: his Stretch Song deals with the conquest of Norway in 1028.

Canute appears to have attached considerable importance to the literary activities of these Icelanders. When he learned that Thorarin had composed a short poem on himself, he became very angry and ordered him to have a complete lay ready for the following day; otherwise he should hang for his presumption in composing a short poem on King Canute.

Thorarin added a refrain and eked the poem out with a few additional stanzas. The refrain, "Canute guards the land as the lord of Greekland [G.o.d] the kingdom of heaven," evidently pleased the King. The poet was forgiven and the poem rewarded with fifty marks of silver. Thorarin's poem came to be known as the Head Ransom.[421]

It is said that when Ottar came to the King's hall he asked permission to recite a poem, which the King granted.

And the poem was delivered to a great gathering at the next day's moot, and the King praised it, and took a Russian cap off his head, broidered with gold and with gold k.n.o.bs to it, and bade the chamberlain fill it with silver and give it to the poet. He did so and reached it over men's shoulders, for there was a crowd, and the heaped-up silver tumbled out of the hood on the moot-stage. He was going to pick it up, but the King told him to let it be. "The poor shall have it, thou shaft not lose by it."[422]

Of the court poets of the time Sighvat was easily the chief. Canute recognised his importance and was anxious to enroll him among his henchmen. But Sighvat, who had already sworn fidelity to King Olaf, excused himself with the remark that one lord at a time was sufficient.

Canute did not press the matter but permitted the poet to depart with a golden arm-ring as the reward for his poem, the Stretch Song, whose ringing refrain, "Canute is the mightiest King under heaven," is high praise from one who had travelled so widely and had probably visited all the more important courts in northern and western Europe.

Did Canute also patronise Anglo-Saxon literature? We do not know, but the chances are that he did not, as during his reign very little was produced in the Old English idiom that could possibly appeal to him. The Anglo-Saxon spirit was crushed; and out of the consciousness of failure and humiliation can come no inspiration for literary effort. Even that fierce patriot, Archbishop Wulfstan, accepted the conquest and came down from York to a.s.sist at the dedication of the church at Ashington where Saxon rule had perished. After the appearance of the splendid poem that tells the story of Byrhtnoth's death at Maldon in 991, the voice of Anglo-Saxon poetry is almost silent for nearly two centuries. Early in the eleventh century Saxon prose, too, entered upon its decline.

Alfric's best work was done before the close of the tenth century; he seems to have written his last important work, a pastoral letter, just before the accession of Canute to the English throne.[423] In the English cloisters the monks were still at work and valuable ma.n.u.scripts were produced; but Canute can hardly have taken much interest in grammars, glossaries, Biblical paraphrases, and pastoral letters. It seems evident that he did nothing to encourage the monastic annalist: the entries for Canute's reign in the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ are extremely meagre and disappointing; it seems probable that they were not written till after the King's death. The disappearance of Old English literature, both prose and poetic, dates from a time more than half a century earlier than the Norman conquest,--from the time when the Danish hosts filled the homes of Wess.e.x with gloom and horror. The coming of the Normans did not put an end to literary production in the speech of the conquered English: it prevented its revival.

It is not to be inferred, however, from this lack of literary originality and productiveness, that the age had lost all appreciation of the poet's art. Two of the greatest monuments of Old English culture, the so-called Vercelli Book and the Exeter Codex, were apparently produced during the earlier decades of the eleventh century, possibly as late as the accession of Canute. In these ma.n.u.scripts the Anglo-Saxon scribes have preserved to us some of the earliest literary productions of the English race. The Vercelli Book takes us back in the writings of Cynewulf to the eighth century; the Exeter ma.n.u.script looks back even farther and introduces us to the singers of heathen or semi-heathen times. Canute may not have shared the enthusiasm of the scribes for the Old English past; but he seems to have appreciated the work of a skilled copyist. In those days the exchange of presents was an essential part of diplomatic negotiations; and good ma.n.u.scripts made very acceptable presents. Mention has already been made of the beautiful codex, written with golden letters, that made a part of the gift that Canute is said to have sent to Duke William of Aquitaine. As the Duke was renowned as a patron of the literary art, there can be no doubt that the present was properly appreciated. It will be remembered that Canute's gift to the church at Cologne was also in the form of ma.n.u.scripts.

One of the most important contributions of the West to Northern civilisation was the written book. Writing was not a new art in the Scandinavian lands; but neither the symbols nor the materials in use were such as did service in the Christian lands. The men of the North wrote on wood and stone; they used characters that had to be chiseled into the tablet to be inscribed. These symbols were called runes; and graven into granite the runic inscriptions have defied the gnawing tooth of time. The large number of runic monuments that have come down to us would indicate that the art of writing was widely known, though it also seems likely that it was the peculiar possession of the "rune-masters,"

men of some education who knew the runes and were skilled in the art of inscribing.

The runes were of divine origin and were taught mankind by Woden himself. The term "run," which probably means "secret," reveals the att.i.tude of the Germanic mind toward this ancient alphabet: thoughts were hidden in the graven lines, but that was not all: the characters were invested with magical properties. Graven on the sword hilt they were runes of victory; on the back of the hand, runes of love; on the palm, runes of help; the sailor cut sea runes into the rudder blade; the leech traced runes on "the bark and on the stock of a tree whose branches lean eastward."[424] There were also ale runes, speech runes, and mind runes, which "thou shalt know if thou wilt be wiser than all other men."[425]

The runic alphabet was originally a common Germanic possession; but among the Scandinavian peoples alone did its use become extensive and long-continued. Some of the Northern inscriptions are of a very early date, the earliest going back, perhaps, to the fourth century or possibly to the third.[426] They are of necessity terse and brief; but to the student of culture and civilisation they give some valuable information. These runes reveal a time when all the Northern tribes spoke the same language and were one people, though clearly not organised into a single state.[427] The inscriptions also show the rise of dialects and the development of these into idioms, though this is a growth of the later centuries. Doubtless the changes in language bear some relation to a parallel political development, a grouping of tribes into states, until in the tenth century three dynasties claimed kingship in the North. In that century the monuments begin to have great value for narrative history. Members of the Knytling dynasty are mentioned on several important stones, as earlier pages of this volume have shown.

The runes that were in use in the tenth and eleventh centuries are the younger series, an alphabet of sixteen characters selected and developed from the older series of twenty-four. As the number of elementary sounds in the language was greater than the number of letters, several of the runes were used to represent more than one sound, a fact that has made reading and interpretation somewhat difficult. The runes were used especially for monumental purposes: a large number of the many hundred extant mediaeval inscriptions (Sweden alone has more than fifteen hundred)[428] are epitaphs recording the death of some friend or kinsman. But the runes were also found useful for other purposes. They were used in making calendars; articles of value very often bore the owner's name in runic characters; in early Christian times we find runic characters traced on church bells and baptismal fonts; in later centuries attempts were even made to write books in the runic alphabet.

Wherever Northmen settled in the middle ages, inscriptions of this type are still to be found; some of the most interesting Scandinavian monuments were raised on the British Isles; even cla.s.sic Piraeus once had its runic inscription.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PAINTED GABLE FROM URNES CHURCH (Norse-Irish ornamentation)--CARVED PILLAR FROM URNES CHURCH (Norse-Irish ornamentation)]

Sometimes the scribe did more than chisel the letters. Like the Christian monk who illumined his ma.n.u.script with elaborate initials and more or less successful miniatures, the rune-master would also try his hand at ornamentation. In the earlier middle ages, Northern art, if the term may be used, was usually a barbaric representation of animal forms, real and imaginary, the serpent and the dragon being favourite subjects.

But in the western colonies the vikings were introduced to a new form of ornamentation, the Celtic style, which was based on the curving line or a combination of curved interlocking lines that seemed not to have been drawn in accordance with any law of regularity or symmetry, but traced sinuously in and out as the fancy of the artist might direct.[429] This form was adopted by the Norse colonists and soon found its way to the mother lands. In the North it suffered an important modification: the Norse artists added an element of their own; the old motives were not entirely abandoned for the winding body of the serpent or the dragon readily fitted into the new combinations. It was this modified form of Irish ornamentation that ruled among the Northmen in the days of Canute and later. It appears wherever decoration was desired: on runic monuments, on articles of personal adornment, and even on the painted walls of the early Scandinavian churches.

While these early efforts at pictorial representation are frequently a.s.sociated with runic inscriptions and incidental to them, such is not always the case. The Northern countries possess a number of "pictured rocks," on which the picture is the chief and often the only matter of importance. As many of these belong to the heathen period, the themes are often mythological or suggestive of warfare: the coming of the fallen warrior to Walhalla on the Tjangvide Stone[430]; viking ships on the Stenkyrka Stone. The comparatively new sport of hawking is represented on a stone at Alstad in Southern Norway.[431] Themes from the heroic age seem to have attained an early popularity: especially do we find frequent pictorial allusions to the story of Wayland Smith and the adventures of the wonderful Sigfried. With Christianity came a wealth of new subjects that could be used in artistic efforts. One of Canute's contemporaries, the Norwegian woman Gunvor, raised (about 1050) a memorial rock bearing a series of pictures from the story of Christ's nativity.[432] The work rarely shows much originality on the part of the artist, though frequently a surprising skill is displayed--surprising when the time and materials are taken into consideration. Many of the pictures are clearly copied from Western, perhaps Anglo-Saxon originals; in some instances the workman was evidently reproducing the embroidered figures on imported tapestries.

The Sigfried pictures on the Ramsund rock in Southern Sweden seem to be of this type.[433] But even though the art of the viking age does not testify to much creative imagination, it serves to prove that the men whom we think of as mere pirates were not wholly wanting aesthetic sense.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE HUNNESTAD STONE--THE ALSTAD STONE]

Evidence of a cultivated taste is also seen in the large number of rich and elegant articles of personal adornment in the form of rings, necklaces, brooches, and the like that have come to light from time to time. It was long thought that these all represented plunder or purchase from other lands; but recent opinion seems inclined to regard the larger part of them as articles of native manufacture.[434] If this be correct, they reveal considerable skill in the finer industrial arts and also suggest that certain forms of industry must have formed an important factor in the economic life of the people.

The archaeologist has unearthed many varieties of jewelry, but the written sources tell chiefly of rings, doubtless because of their ancient use for monetary purposes. Even in the days of Canute, the ring, especially the large arm-ring, was commonly used in rewarding the kingsmen. Saint Olaf once stroked the arm of a henchman above the elbow to determine whether Canute had bribed him.[435] Canute's officials procured the allegiance of Bjorn, Saint Olaf's spokesman, for English silver and two heavy gold rings.[436] Canute's ring gift to Sighvat has been noted elsewhere; Bersi, the poet's companion, received "a mark or more and a keen sword."[437]

Northern industrial art of the later heathen age found its best and highest expression in the shipbuilder's trade. Merchant ships as well as ships for warfare were built, but the builder's pride was the ship that the King sailed when he sought the enemy. The ships that bore Canute's warriors to England were no doubt mainly of the so-called long ship type, a form that was developed during the second half of the tenth century. The long ship was built on the same general plan as the dragon ship of the century before, of which type we have a remarkably well-preserved example in the ship that was found in a burial-mound at Gokstad near Sandefjord in Southern Norway. The Gokstad ship is nearly eighty feet long from stem to stern, and a little less than one fourth as wide. The builders of the long ship increased the length of the dragon, but did not increase the width proportionally. Oak timbers and iron rivets were the materials used. It is likely that by the close of the viking age the shipbuilder's art was as highly developed in the North as anywhere else in Christian Europe.

The long ship was built with pointed prow and stern. The gunwales generally ran parallel to the water line, but in the prow the timbers curved sharply upward to join the stern, which projected above the body of the ship and frequently terminated in some carved image like those described by the Encomiast.[438] The stern was built in much the same fashion. The ribs were supported and held in place by strong cross-beams, which also served as supports for the deck. In the fore-end the deck was high; here stood the stem-men, the best warriors on board.

From a similarly raised deck in the stern, the chief directed the movements of the ship and the men when battle was joined. But in the middle portion of the ship the deck was low; here the oarsmen sat, each on a chest containing his clothes and other belongings. The number of pairs of oars would usually indicate the size of the ship; fifteen or twenty pairs were the rule; but larger ships were sometimes built: the _Long Serpent_ had thirty-four pairs. A rudder or "steering board" was fastened to the after-part of the vessel, on the side that has since been known as starboard.

The long ship was also equipped with a mast and a sail. The mast was planted amidships, but in such a way that it could be lowered when not in use. The sails were generally made of coa.r.s.e woollen stuff; they often bore stripes, blue, red, or green, and such striped sails were counted highly ornamental. The ship was painted and the gunwales frequently hung with shields, alternately yellow and red. An awning was provided to protect the vessel from rain and sunshine.[439] The average long ship had, perhaps, eighty or ninety men on board, the oarsmen included. The number varied, of course, with the size of the ship: The _Long Serpent_ is said to have had a crew of three hundred men.[440]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANGLO-SAXON TABLE SCENE (From a ma.n.u.script in the British Museum reproduced in _Norges Historie_, i., ii.)--MODEL OF THE GOKSTAD SHIP]

In culture the later viking age was emphatically one of transition. The movement that transformed Northern into European civilisation culminated in the reign of Canute and was no doubt given great impetus by the fact of his imperial authority in the Christian West. The seeds of the new culture had been gathered long before and in many lands: the German, the Frank, the Celt, and the Saxon had all contributed to the new fruit-age.

But in the North as elsewhere in the middle ages, the mightiest of all the transforming forces was the mediaeval Church. In one sense the poetic activities of the tenth century had made the transition to Christian worship easier than in other lands: the author of the Sibyl's Prophecy had, unintentionally, no doubt, bridged the gap between the contending faiths. The intelligent Northmen found in the teachings of Christianity conceptions very similar to those in the great poem, only in a different historical setting. In the outward symbolism, too, the Northman found similarities that made the step easier: he had already learned to pour water over the new-born infant; in the cross of Christ he may have seen a modification of Thor's hammer; the Christian tree of life reminded him of the ash Yggdrasil that symbolised the unity of the worlds; the Yule festival of midwinter tide was readily identified with the Christian celebration of the Nativity on December 25th. Too much importance must not be a.s.signed to these considerations, but they doubtless had their effect.

But even the Church was not able to make its conquest of the North complete. The Scandinavian peoples never entirely severed their connection with the historic past. The bridge that was built by the Sibyl's Prophecy was never demolished. The poet purged the old mythology of much that was revolting and absurd and thus made the old divinities and the old cosmic ideas attractive and more easily acceptable. Even when the new cult became compulsory and even fashionable, it was hard for the Northman to desert his G.o.ds. Hallfred Troublousscald, who flourished in the years of Canute's childhood, gives expression to this feeling in one of his poems:

'Tis heavy to cherish hatred For Frigg's divine husband Now that Christ has our worship, For the scald delighted in Woden.

But Olaf Trygvesson has commanded that the old faith be renounced and men have obeyed, though unwillingly:

Cast to the winds all men have The kindred of mighty Woden; Forced to renounce Njord's children I kneel to Christ in worship.

After several verses of regretful and half-hearted renunciation the scald continues:

I will call upon Christ with love words (I can bear the Son's wrath no longer; He rules the earth in glory) And G.o.d the Father in prayer.[441]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LUNDAGRD STONE (Shows types of ornamentation in Canute's day.)]

The G.o.ds continued to live in the popular imagination as great heroic figures that had flourished in the earlier ages of the race. Much that belonged to the worship of the Anses was carried over into the Christian life. The Scandinavian Christians on the Isle of Man evidently found nothing incongruous in placing heathen ornamentations on the cross of Christ. Sometimes the attributes of the ancestral divinities were transferred to the Christian saints. The red beard with which Christian artists soon provided the strong and virile Saint Olaf was probably suggested by the flaming beard of the hammering Thor.

[RUNIC ALPHABET: f u th o r k h n i a s t b l m -r]