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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16790-0.txt b/16790-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cb28d50 --- /dev/null +++ b/16790-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6553 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Early Britain, by Grant Allen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Early Britain + Anglo-Saxon Britain + +Author: Grant Allen + +Release Date: October 2, 2005 [EBook #16790] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EARLY BRITAIN *** + + + + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Annika Feilbach and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +[Illustration: BRITAIN IN A.D. 500] + + +EARLY BRITAIN. + + + + +ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN. + +BY + +GRANT ALLEN, B.A. + + + +PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND +EDUCATION APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. + + +LONDON: +SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, +NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, S.W.; +43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.; 48, PICCADILLY, W.; +AND 135, NORTH STREET, BRIGHTON. + +NEW YORK: E. & J.B. YOUNG & CO. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +This little book is an attempt to give a brief sketch of Britain under +the early English conquerors, rather from the social than from the +political point of view. For that purpose not much has been said about +the doings of kings and statesmen; but attention has been mainly +directed towards the less obvious evidence afforded us by existing +monuments as to the life and mode of thought of the people themselves. +The principal object throughout has been to estimate the importance of +those elements in modern British life which are chiefly due to purely +English or Low-Dutch influences. + +The original authorities most largely consulted have been, first and +above all, the "English Chronicle," and to an almost equal extent, +Bæda's "Ecclesiastical History." These have been supplemented, where +necessary, by Florence of Worcester and the other Latin writers of later +date. I have not thought it needful, however, to repeat any of the +gossiping stories from William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon, and +their compeers, which make up the bulk of our early history as told in +most modern books. Still less have I paid any attention to the romances +of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Gildas, Nennius, and the other Welsh tracts +have been sparingly employed, and always with a reference by name. Asser +has been used with caution, where his information seems to be really +contemporary. I have also derived some occasional hints from the old +British bards, from _Beowulf_, from the laws, and from the charters in +the "Codex Diplomaticus." These written documents have been helped out +by some personal study of the actual early English relics preserved in +various museums, and by the indirect evidence of local nomenclature. + +Among modern books, I owe my acknowledgments in the first and highest +degree to Dr. E.A. Freeman, from whose great and just authority, +however, I have occasionally ventured to differ in some minor matters. +Next, my acknowledgments are due to Canon Stubbs, to Mr. Kemble, and to +Mr. J.R. Green. Dr. Guest's valuable papers in the Transactions of the +Archæological Institute have supplied many useful suggestions. To +Lappenberg and Sir Francis Palgrave I am also indebted for various +details. Professor Rolleston's contributions to "Archæologia," as well +as his Appendix to Canon Greenwell's "British Barrows," have been +consulted for anthropological and antiquarian points; on which also +Professor Huxley and Mr. Akerman have published useful papers. Professor +Boyd Dawkins's work on "Early Man in Britain," as well as the writings +of Worsaae and Steenstrup have helped in elucidating the condition of +the English at the date of the Conquest. Nor must I forget the aid +derived from Mr. Isaac Taylor's "Words and Places," from Professor +Henry Morley's "English Literature," and from Messrs. Haddan and Stubbs' +"Councils." To Mr. Gomme, Mr. E.B. Tylor, Mr. Sweet, Mr. James Collier, +Dr. H. Leo, and perhaps others, I am under various obligations; and if +any acknowledgments have been overlooked, I trust the injured person +will forgive me when I have had already to quote so many authorities for +so small a book. The popular character of the work renders it +undesirable to load the pages with footnotes of reference; and scholars +will generally see for themselves the source of the information given in +the text. + +Personally, my thanks are due to my friend, Mr. York Powell, for much +valuable aid and assistance, and to the Rev. E. McClure, one of the +Society's secretaries, for his kind revision of the volume in proof, and +for several suggestions of which I have gladly availed myself. + +As various early English names and phrases occur throughout the book, it +will be best, perhaps, to say a few words about their pronunciation +here, rather than to leave over that subject to the chapter on the +Anglo-Saxon language, near the close of the work. A few notes on this +matter are therefore appended below. + +The simple vowels, as a rule, have their continental pronunciation, +approximately thus: _ā_ as in _father_, _ă_ as in _ask_; _ē_ as in +_there_, _ĕ_ as in _men_; _ī_ as in _marine_, _ĭ_ as _fit_; _ō_ as +in _note_, _ŏ_ as in _not_; _ū_ as in _brute_, _ŭ_ as in _full_; _ȳ_ +as in _grün_ (German), _y̆_ as in _hübsch_ (German). The quantity of +the vowels is not marked in this work. _Æ_ is not a diphthong, but a +simple vowel sound, the same as our own short _a_ in _man_, _that_, &c. +_Ea_ is pronounced like _ya_. _C_ is always hard, like _k_; and _g_ is +also always hard, as in _begin_: they must _never_ be pronounced like +_s_ or _j_. The other consonants have the same values as in modern +English. No vowel or consonant is ever mute. Hence we get the following +approximate pronunciations: Ælfred and Æthelred, as if written Alfred +and Athelred; Æthelstan and Dunstan, as Athelstahn and Doonstahn; +Eadwine and Oswine, nearly as Yahd-weena and Ose-weena; Wulfsige and +Sigeberht, as Wolf-seeg-a and Seeg-a-bayrt; Ceolred and Cynewulf, as +Keole-red and Küne-wolf. These approximations look a little absurd when +written down in the only modern phonetic equivalents; but that is the +fault of our own existing spelling, not of the early English names +themselves. + +G.A. + + + + + +ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH. + + +At a period earlier than the dawn of written history there lived +somewhere among the great table-lands and plains of Central Asia a race +known to us only by the uncertain name of Aryans. These Aryans were a +fair-skinned and well-built people, long past the stage of aboriginal +savagery, and possessed of a considerable degree of primitive culture. +Though mainly pastoral in habit, they were acquainted with tillage, and +they grew for themselves at least one kind of cereal grain. They spoke a +language whose existence and nature we infer from the remnants of it +which survive in the tongues of their descendants, and from these +remnants we are able to judge, in some measure, of their civilisation +and their modes of thought. The indications thus preserved for us show +the Aryans to have been a simple and fierce community of early warriors, +farmers, and shepherds, still in a partially nomad condition, living +under a patriarchal rule, originally ignorant of all metals save gold, +but possessing weapons and implements of stone,[1] and worshipping as +their chief god the open heaven. We must not regard them as an idyllic +and peaceable people: on the contrary, they were the fiercest and most +conquering tribe ever known. In mental power and in plasticity of +manners, however, they probably rose far superior to any race then +living, except only the Semitic nations of the Mediterranean coast. + + [1] Professor Boyd Dawkins has shown that the Continental + Celts were still in their stone age when they invaded + Europe; whence we must conclude that the original Aryans + were unacquainted with the use of bronze. + +From the common Central Asian home, colonies of warlike Aryans gradually +dispersed themselves, still in the pre-historic period, under pressure +of population or hostile invasion, over many districts of Europe and +Asia. Some of them moved southward, across the passes of Afghanistan, +and occupied the fertile plains of the Indus and the Ganges, where they +became the ancestors of the Brahmans and other modern high-caste +Hindoos. The language which they took with them to their new settlements +beyond the Himalayas was the Sanskrit, which still remains to this day +the nearest of all dialects that we now possess to the primitive Aryan +speech. From it are derived the chief modern tongues of northern India, +from the Vindhyas to the Hindu Kush. Other Aryan tribes settled in the +mountain districts west of Hindustan; and yet others found themselves a +home in the hills of Iran or Persia, where they still preserve an allied +dialect of the ancient mother tongue. + +But the mass of the emigrants from the Central Asian fatherland moved +further westward in successive waves, and occupied, one after another, +the midland plains and mountainous peninsulas of Europe. First of all, +apparently, came the Celts, who spread slowly across the South of Russia +and Germany, and who are found at the dawn of authentic history +extending over the entire western coasts and islands of the continent, +from Spain to Scotland. Mingled in many places with the still earlier +non-Aryan aborigines–perhaps Iberians and Euskarians, a short and +swarthy race, armed only with weapons of polished stone, and represented +at the present day by the Basques of the Pyrenees and the Asturias–the +Celts held rule in Spain, Gaul, and Britain, up to the date of the +several Roman conquests. A second great wave of Aryan immigration, that +of the Hellenic and Italian races, broke over the shores of the _Ægean_ +and the Adriatic, where their cognate languages have become familiar to +us in the two extreme and typical forms of the classical Greek and +Latin. A third wave was that of the Teutonic or German people, who +followed and drove out the Celts over a large part of central and +western Europe; while a fourth and final swarm was that of the Slavonic +tribes, which still inhabit only the extreme eastern portion of the +continent. + +With the Slavonians we shall have nothing to do in this enquiry; and +with the Greek and Italian races we need only deal very incidentally. +But the Celts, whom the English invaders found in possession of all +Britain when they began their settlements in the island, form the +subject of another volume in this series, and will necessarily call for +some small portion of our attention here also; while it is to the +Germanic race that the English stock itself actually belongs, so that we +must examine somewhat more closely the course of Germanic immigration +through Europe, and the nature of the primitive Teutonic civilisation. + +The Germanic family of peoples consisted of a race which early split up +into two great hordes or stocks, speaking dialects which differed +slightly from one another through the action of the various +circumstances to which they were each exposed. These two stocks are the +High German and the Low German (with which last may be included the +Gothic and the Scandinavian). Moving across Europe from east to west, +they slowly drove out the Celts from Germany and the central plains, and +took possession of the whole district between the Alps, the Rhine, and +the Baltic, which formed their limits at the period when they first came +into contact with the Roman power. The Goths, living in closest +proximity to the empire, fell upon it during the decline and decay of +Rome, settled in Italy, Gaul, and Spain, and becoming absorbed in the +mass of the native population, disappear altogether from history as a +distinguishable nationality. But the High and Low Germans retain to the +present day their distinctive language and features; and the latter +branch, to which the English people belong, still lives for the most +part in the same lands which it has held ever since the date of the +early Germanic immigration. + +The Low Germans, in the third century after Christ, occupied in the main +the belt of flat country between the Baltic and the mouths of the Rhine. +Between them and the old High German Swabians lay a race intermediate in +tongue and blood, the Franks. The Low Germans were divided, like most +other barbaric races, into several fluctuating and ill-marked tribes, +whose names are loosely and perhaps interchangeably used by the few +authorities which remain to us. We must not expect to find among them +the definiteness of modern civilised nations, but rather such a +vagueness as that which characterised the loose confederacies of North +American Indians or the various shifting peoples of South Africa. But +there are three of their tribes which stand fairly well marked off from +one another in early history, and which bore, at least, the chief share +in the colonisation of Britain. These three tribes are the Jutes, the +English, and the Saxons. Closely connected with them, but less strictly +bound in the same family tie, were the Frisians. + +The Jutes, the northernmost of the three divisions, lived in the marshy +forests and along the winding fjords of Jutland, the extreme peninsula +of Denmark, which still preserves their name in our own day. The English +dwelt just to the south, in the heath-clad neck of the peninsula, which +we now call Sleswick. And the Saxons, a much larger tribe, occupied the +flat continental shore, from the mouth of the Oder to that of the Rhine. +At the period when history lifts the curtain upon the future Germanic +colonists of Britain, we thus discover them as the inhabitants of the +low-lying lands around the Baltic and the North Sea, and closely +connected with other tribes on either side, such as the Frisians and the +Danes, who still speak very cognate Low German and Scandinavian +languages. + +But we have not yet fully grasped the extent of the relationship between +the first Teutonic settlers in Britain and their continental brethren. +Not only are the true Englishmen of modern England distantly connected +with the Franks, who never to our knowledge took part in the +colonisation of the island at all; and more closely connected with the +Frisians, some of whom probably accompanied the earliest piratical +hordes; as well as with the Danes, who settled at a later date in all +the northern counties: but they are also most closely connected of all +with those members of the colonising tribes who did not themselves bear +a share in the settlement, and whose descendants are still living in +Denmark and in various parts of Germany. The English proper, it is true, +seem to have deserted their old home in Sleswick in a body; so that, +according to Bæda, the Christian historian of Northumberland, in his +time this oldest England by the shores of the Baltic lay waste and +unpeopled, through the completeness of the exodus. But the Jutes appear +to have migrated in small numbers, while the larger part of the tribe +remained at home in their native marshland; and of the more numerous +Saxons, though a great swarm went out to conquer southern Britain, a +vast body was still left behind in Germany, where it continued +independent and pagan till the time of Karl the Great, long after the +Teutonic colonists of Britain had grown into peaceable and civilised +Christians. It is from the statements of later historians with regard to +these continental Saxons that our knowledge of the early English customs +and institutions, during the continental period of English history, must +be mainly inferred. We gather our picture of the English and Saxons who +first came to this country from the picture drawn for us of those among +their brethren whom they left behind in the primitive English home. + +These three tribes, the Jutes, the English, and the Saxons, had not yet, +apparently, advanced far enough in the idea of national unity to possess +a separate general name, distinguishing them altogether from the other +tribes of the Germanic stock. Most probably they did not regard +themselves at this period as a single nation at all, or even as more +closely bound to one another than to the surrounding and kindred tribes. +They may have united at times for purposes of a special war; but their +union was merely analogous to that of two North American peoples, or two +modern European nations, pursuing a common policy for awhile. At a later +date, in Britain, the three tribes learned to call themselves +collectively by the name of that one among them which earliest rose to +supremacy–the English; and the whole southern half of the island came +to be known by their name as England. Even from the first it seems +probable that their language was spoken of as English only, and +comparatively little as Saxon. But since it would be inconvenient to use +the name of one dominant tribe alone, the English, as equivalent to +those of the three, and since it is desirable to have a common title for +all the Germanic colonists of Britain, whenever it is necessary to speak +of them together, we shall employ the late and, strictly speaking, +incorrect form of "Anglo-Saxons" for this purpose. Similarly, in order +to distinguish the earliest pure form of the English language from its +later modern form, now largely enriched and altered by the addition of +Romance or Latin words and the disuse of native ones, we shall always +speak of it, where distinction is necessary, as Anglo-Saxon. The term is +now too deeply rooted in our language to be again uprooted; and it has, +besides, the merit of supplying a want. At the same time, it should be +remembered that the expression Anglo-Saxon is purely artificial, and was +never used by the people themselves in describing their fellows or their +tongue. When they did not speak of themselves as Jutes, English, and +Saxons respectively, they spoke of themselves as English alone. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE ENGLISH BY THE SHORES OF THE BALTIC. + + +From the notices left us by Bæda in Britain, and by Nithard and others +on the continent, of the habits and manners which distinguished those +Saxons who remained in the old fatherland, we are able to form some idea +of the primitive condition of those other Saxons, English, and Jutes, +who afterwards colonized Britain, during the period while they still all +lived together in the heather-clad wastes and marshy lowlands of Denmark +and Northern Germany. The early heathen poem of _Beowulf_ also gives us +a glimpse of their ideas and their mode of thought. The known physical +characteristics of the race, the nature of the country which they +inhabited, the analogy of other Germanic tribes, and the recent +discoveries of pre-historic archæology, all help us to piece out a +fairly consistent picture of their appearance, their manner of life, and +their rude political institutions. + +We must begin by dismissing from our minds all those modern notions +which are almost inevitably implied by the use of language directly +derived from that of our heathen ancestors, but now mixed up in our +conceptions with the most advanced forms of European civilisation. We +must not allow such words as "king" and "English" to mislead us into a +species of filial blindness to the real nature of our Teutonic +forefathers. The little community of wild farmers and warriors who lived +among the dim woodlands of Sleswick, beside the swampy margin of the +North Sea, has grown into the nucleus of a vast empire, only very +partially Germanic in blood, and enriched by all the alien culture of +Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and Rome. But as it still preserves the +identical tongue of its early barbarous days, we are naturally tempted +to read our modern acquired feelings into the simple but familiar terms +employed by our continental predecessors. What the early English called +a king we should now-a-days call a chief; what they called a meeting of +wise men we should now-a-days call a palaver. In fact, we must recollect +that we are dealing with a purely barbaric race–not savage, indeed, nor +without a certain rude culture of its own, the result of long centuries +of previous development; yet essentially military and predatory in its +habits, and akin in its material civilisation to many races which we now +regard as immeasurably our inferiors. If we wish for a modern equivalent +of the primitive Anglo-Saxon level of culture, we may perhaps best find +it in the Kurds of the Turkish and Persian frontier, or in the Mahrattas +of the wild mountain region of the western Deccan. + +The early English in Sleswick and Friesland had partially reached the +agricultural stage of civilisation. They tilled little plots of ground +in the forest; but they depended more largely for subsistence upon their +cattle, and they were also hunters and trappers in the great belts of +woodland or marsh which everywhere surrounded their isolated villages. +They were acquainted with the use of bronze from the first period of +their settlement in Europe, and some of the battle-axes or shields which +they manufactured from this metal were beautifully chased with exquisite +decorative patterns, equalling in taste the ornamental designs still +employed by the Polynesian islanders. Such weapons, however, were +doubtless intended for the use of the chieftains only, and were probably +employed as insignia of rank alone. They are still discovered in the +barrows which cover the remains of the early chieftains; though it is +possible that they may really belong to the monuments of a yet earlier +race. But iron was certainly employed by the English, at least, from +about the first century of the Christian era, and its use was perhaps +introduced into the marshlands of Sleswick by the Germanic conquerors of +the north. Even at this early date, abundant proof exists of mercantile +intercourse with the Roman world (probably through Pannonia), whereby +the alien culture of the south was already engrafted in part upon the +low civilisation of the native English. Amber was then exported from the +Baltic, while gold, silver, and glass beads were given in return. Roman +coins are discovered in Low German tombs of the first five centuries in +Sleswick, Holstein, Friesland, and the Isles; and Roman patterns are +imitated in the iron weapons and utensils of the same period. Gold +byzants of the fifth century prove an intercourse with Constantinople +at the exact date of the colonisation of Britain. From the very earliest +moment when we catch a glimpse of its nature, the home-grown English +culture had already begun to be modified by the superior arts of Rome. +Even the alphabet was known and used in its Runic form, though the +absence of writing materials caused its employment to be restricted to +inscriptions on wooden tablets, on rude stone monuments, or on utensils +of metal-work. A golden drinking-horn found in Sleswick, and engraved +with the maker's name, referred to the middle of the fourth century, +contains the earliest known specimen of the English language. + +The early English society was founded entirely on the tie of blood. +Every clan or family lived by itself and formed a guild for mutual +protection, each kinsman being his brother's keeper, and bound to avenge +his death by feud with the tribe or clan which had killed him. This duty +of blood-revenge was the supreme religion of the race. Moreover, the +clan was answerable as a whole for the ill-deeds of all its members; and +the fine payable for murder or injury was handed over by the family of +the wrong-doer to the family of the injured man. + +Each little village of the old English community possessed a general +independence of its own, and lay apart from all the others, often +surrounded by a broad belt or mark of virgin forest. It consisted of a +clearing like those of the American backwoods, where a single family or +kindred had made its home, and preserved its separate independence +intact. Each of these families was known by the name of its real or +supposed ancestor, the patronymic being formed by the addition of the +syllable _ing_. Thus the descendants of Ælla would be called Ællings, +and their _ham_ or stockade would be known as Ællingaham, or in modern +form Allingham. So the _tun_ or enclosure of the Culmings would be +Culmingatun, similarly modernised into Culmington. Names of this type +abound in the newer England at the present day; as in the case of +Birmingham, Buckingham, Wellington, Kensington, Basingstoke, and +Paddington. But while in America the clearing is merely a temporary +phase, and the border of forest is soon cut down so as to connect the +village with its neighbours, in the old Anglo-Saxon fatherland the +border of woodland, heath, or fen was jealously guarded as a frontier +and natural defence for the little predatory and agricultural community. +Whoever crossed it was bound to give notice of his coming by blowing a +horn; else he was cut down at once as a stealthy enemy. The marksmen +wished to remain separate from all others, and only to mix with those of +their own kin. In this primitive love of separation we have the germ of +that local independence and that isolated private home life which is one +of the most marked characteristics of modern Englishmen. + +In the middle of the clearing, surrounded by a wooden stockade, stood +the village, a group of rude detached huts. The marksmen each possessed +a separate little homestead, consisting usually of a small wooden house +or shanty, a courtyard, and a cattle-fold. So far, private property in +land had already begun. But the forest and the pasture land were not +appropriated: each man had a right from year to year to let loose his +kine or horses on a certain equal or proportionate space of land +assigned to him by the village in council. The wealth of the people +consisted mainly in cattle which fed on the pasture, and pigs turned out +to fatten on the acorns of the forest: but a small portion of the soil +was ploughed and sown; and this portion also was distributed to the +villagers for tillage by annual arrangement. The hall of the chief rose +in the midst of the lesser houses, open to all comers. The village moot, +or assembly of freemen, met in the open air, under some sacred tree, or +beside some old monumental stone, often a relic of the older aboriginal +race, marking the tomb of a dead chieftain, but worshipped as a god by +the English immigrants. At these informal meetings, every head of a +family had a right to appear and deliberate. The primitive English +constitution was a pure republican aristocracy or oligarchy of +householders, like that which still survives in the Swiss forest +cantons. + +But there were yet distinctions of rank in the villages and in the loose +tribes formed by their union for purposes of war or otherwise. The +people were divided into three classes of _æthelings_ or chieftains, +_freolings_ or freemen, and _theows_ or slaves. The _æthelings_ were the +nobles and rulers of each tribe. There was no king: but when the tribes +joined together in a war, their _æthelings_ cast lots together, and +whoever drew the winning lot was made commander for the time being. As +soon as the war was over, each tribe returned to its own independence. +Indeed, the only really coherent body was the village or kindred: and +the whole course of early English history consists of a long and tedious +effort at increased national unity, which was never fully realised till +the Norman conquerors bound the whole nation together in the firm grasp +of William, Henry, and Edward. + +In personal appearance, the primitive Anglo-Saxons were typical Germans +of very unmixed blood. Tall, fair-haired, and gray-eyed, their limbs +were large and stout, and their heads of the round or brachycephalic +type, common to most Aryan races. They did not intermarry with other +nations, preserving their Germanic blood pure and unadulterated. But as +they had slaves, and as these slaves must in many cases have been +captives spared in war, we must suppose that such descriptions apply, +strictly speaking, to the freemen and chieftains alone. The slaves might +be of any race, and in process of time they must have learnt to speak +English, and their children must have become English in all but blood. +Many of them, indeed, would probably be actually English on the father's +side, though born of slave mothers. Hence we must be careful not to +interpret the expressions of historians, who would be thinking of the +free classes only, and especially of the nobles, as though they applied +to the slaves as well. Wherever slavery exists, the blood of the slave +community is necessarily very mixed. The picture which the heathen +English have drawn of themselves in _Beowulf_ is one of savage pirates, +clad in shirts of ring-armour, and greedy of gold and ale. Fighting and +drinking are their two delights. The noblest leader is he who builds a +great hall, throws it open for his people to carouse in, and liberally +deals out beer, and bracelets, and money at the feast. The joy of battle +is keen in their breasts. The sea and the storm are welcome to them. +They are fearless and greedy pirates, not ashamed of living by the +strong hand alone. + +In creed, the English were pagans, having a religion of beliefs rather +than of rites. Their chief deity, perhaps, was a form of the old Aryan +Sky-god, who took with them the guise of Thunor or Thunder (in +Scandinavian, Thor), an angry warrior hurling his hammer, the +thunder-bolt, from the stormy clouds. These thunder-bolts were often +found buried in the earth; and being really the polished stone-axes of +the earlier inhabitants, they do actually resemble a hammer in shape. +But Woden, the special god of the Teutonic race, had practically usurped +the highest place in their mythology: he is represented as the leader of +the Germans in their exodus from Asia to north-western Europe, and since +all the pedigrees of their chieftains were traced back to Woden, it is +not improbable that he may have been really a deified ancestor of the +principal Germanic families. The popular creed, however, was mainly one +of lesser gods, such as elves, ogres, giants, and monsters, inhabitants +of the mark and fen, stories of whom still survive in English villages +as folk-lore or fairy tales. A few legends of the pagan time are +preserved for us in Christian books. _Beowulf_ is rich in allusions to +these ancient superstitions. If we may build upon the slender materials +which alone are available, it would seem that the dead chieftains were +buried in barrows, and ghost-worship was practised at their tombs. The +temples were mere stockades of wood, with rude blocks or monoliths to +represent deities and altars. Probably their few rites consisted merely +of human or other sacrifices to the gods or the ghosts of departed +chiefs. There was a regular priesthood of the great gods, but each man +was priest for his own household. As in most other heathen communities, +the real worship of the people was mainly directed to the special family +deities of every hearth. The great gods were appealed to by the +chieftains and by the race in battle: but the household gods or deified +ancestors received the chief homage of the churls by their own +firesides. + +Thus the Anglo-Saxons, before the great exodus from Denmark and North +Germany, appear as a race of fierce, cruel, and barbaric pagans, +delighting in the sea, in slaughter, and in drink. They dwelt in little +isolated communities, bound together internally by ties of blood, and +uniting occasionally with others only for purposes of rapine. They lived +a life which mainly alternated between grazing, piratical seafaring, and +cattle-lifting; always on the war-trail against the possessions of +others, when they were not specially engaged in taking care of their +own. Every record and every indication shows them to us as fiercer +heathen prototypes of the Scotch clans in the most lawless days of the +Highlands. Incapable of union for any peaceful purpose at home, they +learned their earliest lesson of subordination in their piratical +attacks upon the civilised Christian community of Roman Britain. We +first meet with them in history in the character of destroyers and +sea-robbers. Yet they possessed already in their wild marshy home the +germs of those free institutions which have made the history of England +unique amongst the nations of Europe. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE ENGLISH SETTLE IN BRITAIN. + + +Proximity to the sea turns robbers into corsairs. When predatory tribes +reach the seaboard they always take to piracy, provided they have +attained the shipbuilding level of culture. In the ancient Ægean, in the +Malay Archipelago, in the China seas, we see the same process always +taking place. Probably from the first period of their severance from the +main Aryan stock in Central Asia, the Low German race and their +ancestors had been a predatory and conquering people, for ever engaged +in raids and smouldering warfare with their neighbours. When they +reached the Baltic and the islands of the Frisian coast, they grew +naturally into a nation of pirates. Even during the bronze age, we find +sculptured stones with representations of long row-boats, manned by +several oarsmen, and in one or two cases actually bearing a rude sail. +Their prows and sterns stand high out of the water, and are adorned with +intricate carvings. They seem like the predecessors of the long +ships–snakes and sea-dragons–which afterwards bore the northern +corsairs into every river of Europe. Such boats, adapted for long +sea-voyages, show a considerable intercourse, piratical or commercial, +between the Anglo-Saxon or Scandinavian North and other distant +countries. Certainly, from the earliest days of Roman rule on the German +Ocean to the thirteenth century, the Low Dutch and Scandinavian tribes +carried on an almost unbroken course of expeditions by sea, beginning in +every case with mere descents upon the coast for the purposes of +plunder, but ending, as a rule, with regular colonisation or political +supremacy. In this manner the people of the Baltic and the North Sea +ravaged or settled in every country on the sea-shore, from Orkney, +Shetland, and the Faroes, to Normandy, Apulia, and Greece; from Boulogne +and Kent, to Iceland, Greenland, and, perhaps, America. The colonisation +of South-Eastern Britain was but the first chapter in this long history +of predatory excursions on the part of the Low German peoples. + +The piratical ships of the early English were row-boats of very simple +construction. We actually possess one undoubted specimen at the present +day, whose very date is fixed for us by the circumstances of its +discovery. It was dug up, some years since, from a peat-bog in Sleswick, +the old England of our forefathers, along with iron arms and implements, +and in association with Roman coins ranging in date from A.D. 67 to A.D. +217. It may therefore be pretty confidently assigned to the first half +of the third century. In this interesting relic, then, we have one of +the identical boats in which the descents upon the British coast were +first made. The craft is rudely built of oaken boards, and is seventy +feet long by nine broad. The stem and stern are alike in shape, and the +boat is fitted for being beached upon the foreshore. A sculptured stone +at Häggeby, in Uplande, roughly represents for us such a ship under way, +probably of about the same date. It is rowed with twelve pairs of oars, +and has no sails; and it contains no other persons but the rowers and a +coxswain, who acted doubtless as leader of the expedition. Such a boat +might convey about 120 fighting men. + +There are some grounds for believing that, even before the establishment +of the Roman power in Britain, Teutonic pirates from the northern +marshlands were already in the habit of plundering the Celtic +inhabitants of the country between the Wash and the mouth of the Thames; +and it is possible that an English colony may, even then, have +established itself in the modern Lincolnshire. But, be this as it may, +we know at least that during the period of the Roman occupation, Low +German adventurers were constantly engaged in descending upon the +exposed coasts of the English Channel and the North Sea. The Low German +tribe nearest to the Roman provinces was that of the Saxons, and +accordingly these Teutonic pirates, of whatever race, were known as +Saxons by the provincials, and all Englishmen are still so called by the +modern Celts, in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. + +The outlying Roman provinces were close at hand, easy to reach, rich, +ill-defended, and a tempting prey for the barbaric tribesmen of the +north. Setting out in their light open skiffs from the islands at the +mouth of the Elbe, or off the shore afterwards submerged in what is now +the Zuyder Zee, the English or Saxon pirates crossed the sea with the +prevalent north-east wind, and landed all along the provincial coasts of +Gaul and Britain. As the empire decayed under the assaults of the Goths, +their ravages turned into regular settlements. One great body pillaged, +age after age, the neighbourhood of Bayeux, where, before the middle of +the fifth century, it established a flourishing colony, and where the +towns and villages all still bear names of Saxon origin. Another horde +first plundered and then took up its abode near Boulogne, where local +names of the English patronymic type also abound to the present day. In +Britain itself, at a date not later than the end of the fourth century, +we find (in the "Notitia Imperil") an officer who bears the title of +Count of the Saxon Shore, and whose jurisdiction extended from +Lincolnshire to Southampton Water. The title probably indicates that +piratical incursions had already set in on Britain, and the duty of the +count was most likely that of repelling the English invaders. + +As soon as the Romans found themselves compelled to withdraw their +garrison from Britain, leaving the provinces to defend themselves as +best they might, the temptation to the English pirates became a thousand +times stronger than before. Though the so-called history of the +conquest, handed down to us by Bæda and the "English Chronicle,"[1] is +now considered by many enquirers to be mythical in almost every +particular, the facts themselves speak out for us with unhesitating +certainty. We know that about the middle of the fifth century, shortly +after the withdrawal of the regular Roman troops, several bodies of +heathen Anglo-Saxons, belonging to the three tribes of Jutes, English, +and Saxons, settled _en masse_ on the south-eastern shores of Britain, +from the Firth of Forth to the Isle of Wight. The age of mere plundering +descents was decisively over, and the age of settlement and colonisation +had set in. These heathen Anglo-Saxons drove away, exterminated, or +enslaved the Romanised and Christianised Celts, broke down every vestige +of Roman civilisation, destroyed the churches, burnt the villas, laid +waste many of the towns, and re-introduced a long period of pagan +barbarism. For a while Britain remains enveloped in an age of complete +uncertainty, and heathen myths intervene between the Christian +historical period of the Romans and the Christian historical period +initiated by the conversion of Kent. Of South-Eastern Britain under the +pagan Anglo-Saxons we know practically nothing, save by inference and +analogy, or by the scanty evidence of archæology. + + [1] For an account of these two main authorities see further + on, Bæda in chapter xi., and the "Chronicle" in chapter + xviii. + +According to tradition the Jutes came first. In 449, says the Celtic +legend (the date is quite untrustworthy), they landed in Kent, where +they first settled in Ruim, which we English call Thanet–then really an +island, and gradually spread themselves over the mainland, capturing the +great Roman fortress of Rochester and coast land as far as London. +Though the details of this story are full of mythical absurdities, the +analogy of the later Danish colonies gives it an air of great +probability, as the Danes always settled first in islands or peninsulas, +and thence proceeded to overrun, and finally to annex, the adjacent +district. A second Jutish horde established itself in the Isle of Wight +and on the opposite shore of Hampshire. But the whole share borne by the +Jutes in the settlement of Britain seems to have been but small. + +The Saxons came second in time, if we may believe the legends. In 477, +Ælle, with his three sons, is said to have landed on the south coast, +where he founded the colony of the South Saxons, or Sussex. In 495, +Cerdic and Cynric led another kindred horde to the south-western shore, +and made the first settlement of the West Saxons, or Wessex. Of the +beginnings of the East Saxon community in Essex, and of the Middle +Saxons in Middlesex, we know little, even by tradition. The Saxons +undoubtedly came over in large numbers; but a considerable body of their +fellow-tribesmen still remained upon the Continent, where they were +still independent and unconverted up to the time of Karl the Great. + +The English, on the other hand, apparently migrated in a body. There is +no trace of any Englishmen in Denmark or Germany after the exodus to +Britain. Their language, of which a dialect still survives in Friesland, +has utterly died out in Sleswick. The English took for their share of +Britain the nearest east coast. We have little record of their arrival, +even in the legendary story; we merely learn that in 547, Ida "succeeded +to the kingdom" of the Northumbrians, whence we may possibly conclude +that the colony was already established. The English settlement extended +from the Forth to Essex, and was subdivided into Bernicia, Deira, and +East Anglia. + +Wherever the Anglo-Saxons came, their first work was to stamp out with +fire and sword every trace of the Roman civilisation. Modern +investigations amongst pagan Anglo-Saxon barrows in Britain show the Low +German race as pure barbarians, great at destruction, but incapable of +constructive work. Professor Rolleston, who has opened several of these +early heathen tombs of our Teutonic ancestors, finds in them everywhere +abundant evidence of "their great aptness at destroying, and their great +slowness in elaborating, material civilisation." Until the Anglo-Saxon +received from the Continent the Christian religion and the Roman +culture, he was a mere average Aryan barbarian, with a strong taste for +war and plunder, but with small love for any of the arts of peace. +Wherever else, in Gaul, Spain, or Italy, the Teutonic barbarians came in +contact with the Roman civilisation, they received the religion of +Christ, and the arts of the conquered people, during or before their +conquest of the country. But in Britain the Teutonic invaders remained +pagans long after their settlement in the island; and they utterly +destroyed, in the south-eastern tract, almost every relic of the Roman +rule and of the Christian faith. Hence we have here the curious fact +that, during the fifth and sixth centuries, a belt of intrusive and +aggressive heathendom intervenes between the Christians of the Continent +and the Christian Welsh and Irish of western Britain. The Church of the +Celtic Welsh was cut off for more than a hundred years from the Churches +of the Roman world by a hostile and impassable barrier of heathen +English, Jutes, and Saxons. Their separation produced many momentous +effects on the after history both of the Welsh themselves and of their +English conquerors. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE COLONISATION OF THE COAST. + + +Though the myths which surround the arrival of the English in Britain +have little historical value, they are yet interesting for the light +which they throw incidentally upon the habits and modes of thought of +the colonists. They have one character in common with all other legends, +that they grow fuller and more circumstantial the further they proceed +from the original time. Bæda, who wrote about A.D. 700, gives them in a +very meagre form: the English Chronicle, compiled at the court of +Ælfred, about A.D. 900, adds several important traditional particulars: +while with the romantic Geoffrey of Monmouth, A.D. 1152, they assume the +character of full and circumstantial tales. The less men knew about the +conquest, the more they had to tell about it. + +Among the most sacred animals of the Aryan race was the horse. Even in +the Indian epics, the sacrifice of a horse was the highest rite of the +primitive religion. Tacitus tells us that the Germans kept sacred white +horses at the public expense, in the groves and woods of the gods: and +that from their neighings and snortings, auguries were taken. Amongst +the people of the northern marshlands, the white horse seems to have +been held in especial honour, and to this day a white horse rampant +forms the cognisance of Hanover and Brunswick. The English settlers +brought this, their national emblem, with them to Britain, and cut its +figure on the chalk downs as they advanced westward, to mark the +progress of their conquest. The white horses on the Berkshire and +Wiltshire hills still bear witness to their settlement. A white horse is +even now the symbol of Kent. Hence it is not surprising to learn that in +the legendary story of the first colonisation, the Jutish leaders who +led the earliest Teutonic host into Thanet should bear the names of +Hengest and Horsa, the stallion and the mare. They came in three +keels–a ridiculously inadequate number, considering their size and the +necessities of a conquering army: and they settled in 449 (for the +legends are always most precise where they are least historical) in the +Isle of Thanet. "A multitude of whelps," says the Welsh monk Gildas, +"came forth from the lair of the barbaric lioness, in three cyuls, as +they call them." Vortigern, King of the Welsh, had invited them to come +to his aid against the Picts of North Britain and the Scots of Ireland, +who were making piratical incursions into the deserted province, left +unprotected through the heavy levies made by the departing Romans. The +Jutes attacked and conquered the Gaels, but then turned against their +Welsh allies. + +In 455, the Jutes advanced from Thanet to conquer the whole of Kent, +"and Hengest and Horsa fought with Vortigern the king," says the English +Chronicle, "at the place that is cleped Æglesthrep; and there men slew +Horsa his brother, and after that Hengest came to rule, and Æsc his +son." One year later, Hengest and Æsc fought once more with the Welsh at +Crayford, "and offslew 4,000 men; and the Britons then forsook +Kent-land, and fled with mickle awe to London-bury." In this account we +may see a dim recollection of the settlement of the two petty Jutish +kingdoms in Kent, with their respective capitals at Canterbury and +Rochester, whose separate dioceses still point back to the two original +principalities. It may be worth while to note, too, that the name Æsc +means the ash-tree; and that this tree was as sacred among plants as the +horse was among animals. + +Nevertheless, a kernel of truth doubtless lingers in the traditional +story. Thanet was afterwards one of the first landing-places of the +Danes: and its isolated position–for a broad belt of sea then separated +the island from the Kentish main–would make it a natural post to be +assigned by the Welsh to their doubtful piratical allies. The inlet was +guarded by the great Roman fortress of Rhutupiæ: and after the fall of +that important stronghold, the English may probably have occupied the +principality of East Kent, with its capital of Canterbury. The walls of +Rochester may have held out longer: and the West Kentish kingdom may +well have been founded by two successful battles at the passage of the +Medway and the Cray. + +The legend as to the settlement of Sussex is of much the same sort. In +477, Ælle the Saxon came to Britain also with the suspiciously +symmetrical number of three ships. With him came his three sons, Kymen, +Wlencing, and Cissa. These names are obviously invented to account for +those of three important places in the South-Saxon chieftainship. The +host landed at Kymenes ora, probably Keynor, in the Bill of Selsey, +then, as its title imports, a separate island girt round by the tidal +sea: their capital and, in days after the Norman conquest, their +cathedral was at Cissan-ceaster, the Roman Regnum, now Chichester: while +the third name survives in the modern village of Lancing, near Shoreham. +The Saxons at once fought the natives "and offslew many Welsh, and drove +some in flight into the wood that is named Andredes-leag," now the Weald +of Kent and Sussex. A little colony thus occupied the western half of +the modern county: but the eastern portion still remained in the hands +of the Welsh. For awhile the great Roman fortress of Anderida (now +Pevensey) held out against the invaders; until in 491 "Ælle and Cissa +beset Anderida, and offslew all that were therein; nor was there after +even one Briton left alive." All Sussex became a single Saxon kingdom, +ringed round by the great forest of the Weald. Here again the obviously +unhistorical character of the main facts throws the utmost doubt upon +the nature of the details. Yet, in this case too, the central idea +itself is likely enough,-–that the South Saxons first occupied the +solitary coast islet of Selsey; then conquered the fortress of Regnum +and the western shore as far as Eastbourne; and finally captured +Anderida and the eastern half of the county up to the line of the +Romney marshes. + +Even more improbable is the story of the Saxon settlement on the more +distant portion of the south coast. In 495 "came twain aldermen to +Britain, Cerdic and Cynric his son, with five ships, at that place that +is cleped Cerdices ora, and fought that ilk day with the Welsh." +Clearly, the name of Cerdic may be invented solely to account for the +name of the place: since we see by the sequel that the English freely +imagined such personages as pegs on which to hang their mythical +history.[1] For, six years later, one Port landed at Portsmouth with two +ships, and there slew a Welsh nobleman. But we know positively that the +name of Portsmouth comes from the Latin _Portus_; and therefore Port +must have been simply invented to explain the unknown derivation. Still +more flagrant is the case of Wihtgar, who conquered the Isle of Wight, +and was buried at Wihtgarasbyrig, or Carisbrooke. For the origin of that +name is really quite different: the Wiht-ware or Wiht-gare are the men +of Wight, just as the Cant-ware are the men of Kent: and Wiht-gara-byrig +is the Wight-men's-bury, just as Cant-wara-byrig or Canterbury is the +Kent-men's-bury. Moreover, a double story is told in the Chronicle as to +the original colonisation of Wessex; the first attributing the conquest +to Cerdic and Cynric, and the second to Stuf and Wihtgar. + + [1] Cerdic is apparently a British rather than an English + name, since Bæda mentions a certain "Cerdic, rex Brettonum." + This may have been a Caradoc. Perhaps the first element in + the names Cerdices ora, Cerdices ford, &c., was older than + the English conquest. The legends are invariably connected + with local names. + +The only other existing legend refers to the great English kingdom of +Northumbria: and about it the English Chronicle, which is mainly West +Saxon in origin, merely tells us in dry terms under the year 547, "Here +Ida came to rule." There are no details, even of the meagre kind, +vouchsafed in the south; no account of the conquest of the great Roman +town of York, or of the resistance offered by the powerful Brigantian +tribes. But a fragment of some old Northumbrian tradition, embedded in +the later and spurious Welsh compilation which bears the name of +Nennius, tells us a not improbable tale–that the first settlement on +the coast of the Lothians was made as early as the conquest of Kent, by +Jutes of the same stock as those who colonised Thanet. A hundred years +later, the Welsh poems seem to say, Ida "the flame-bearer," fought his +way down from a petty principality on the Forth, and occupied the whole +Northumbrian coast, in spite of the stubborn guerilla warfare of the +despairing provincials. Still less do we learn about the beginnings of +Mercia, the powerful English kingdom which occupied the midlands; or +about the first colonisation of East Anglia. In short, the legends of +the settlement, unhistorical and meagre as they are, refer only to the +Jutish and Saxon conquests in the south, and tell us nothing at all +about the origin of the main English kingdoms in the north. It is +important to bear in mind this fact, because the current conceptions as +to the spread of the Anglo-Saxon race and the extermination of the +native Welsh are largely based upon the very limited accounts of the +conquest of Kent and Sussex, and the mournful dirges of the Welsh monks +or bards. + +It seems improbable, however, that the north-eastern coast of Britain, +naturally exposed above every other part to the ravages of northern +pirates, and in later days the head-quarters of the Danish intruders in +our island, should so long have remained free from English incursions. +If the Teutonic settlers really first established themselves here a +century later than their conquest of Kent, we can only account for it by +the supposition that York and the Brigantes, the old metropolis of the +provinces, held out far more stubbornly and successfully than Rochester +and Anderida, with their very servile Romanised population. But even the +words of the Chronicle do not necessarily imply that Ida was the first +king of the Northumbrians, or that the settlement of the country took +place in his days.[2] And if they did, we need not feel bound to accept +their testimony, considering that the earliest date we can assign for +the composition of the chronicle is the reign of Ælfred: while Bæda, the +earlier native Northumbrian historian, throws no light at all upon the +question. Hence it seems probable that Nennius preserves a truthful +tradition, and that the English settled in the region between the Forth +and the Tyne, at least as early as the Jutes settled in Kent or the +Saxons along the South Coast, from Pevensey Bay to Southampton Water. + + [2] A remarkable passage in the Third Continuator of + Florence mentions Hyring as the first king of Bernicia, + followed by Woden and five other mythical personages, before + Ida. Clearly, this is mere unhistorical guesswork on the + part of the monk of Bury; but it may enclose a genuine + tradition so far as Hyring is concerned. + +If, then, we leave out of consideration the etymological myths and +numerical absurdities of the English or Welsh legends, and look only at +the facts disclosed to us by the subsequent condition of the country, we +shall find that the early Anglo-Saxon settlements took place somewhat +after this wise. In the extreme north, the English apparently did not +care to settle in the rugged mountain country between Aberdeen and +Edinburgh, inhabited by the free and warlike Picts. But from the Firth +of Forth to the borders of Essex, a succession of colonies, belonging to +the restricted English tribe, occupied the whole provincial coast, +burning, plundering, and massacring in many places as they went. First +and northernmost of all came the people whom we know by their Latinised +title of Bernicians, and who descended upon the rocky braes between +Forth and Tyne. These are the English of Ida's kingdom, the modern +Lothians and Northumberland. Their chief town was at Bebbanburh, now +Bamborough, which Ida "timbered, and betyned it with a hedge." Next in +geographical order stood the people of Deira, or Yorkshire, who occupied +the rich agricultural valley of the Ouse, the fertile alluvial tract of +Holderness, and the bleak coast-line from Tyne to Humber. Whether they +conquered the Roman capital of York, or whether it made terms with the +invaders, we do not know; but it is not mentioned as the chief town of +the English kings before the days of Eadwine, under whom the two +Northumbrian chieftainships were united into a single kingdom. However, +as Eadwine assumed some of the imperial Roman trappings, it seems not +unlikely that a portion at least of the Romanised population survived +the conquest. The two principalities probably spread back politically in +most places as far as the watershed which separates the basins of the +German Ocean and the Irish Sea; but the English population seems to have +lived mainly along the coast or in the fertile valley of the Ouse and +its tributaries; for Elmet and Loidis, two Welsh principalities, long +held out in the Leeds district, and the people of the dales and the +inland parts, as we shall see reason hereafter to conclude, even now +show evident marks of Celtic descent. Together the two chieftainships +were generally known by the name of Northumberland, now confined to +their central portion; but it must never be forgotten that the Lothians, +which at present form part of modern Scotland, were originally a portion +of this early English kingdom, and are still, perhaps, more purely +English in blood and speech than any other district in our island. + +From Humber to the Wash was occupied by a second English colony, the men +of Lincolnshire, divided into three minor tribes, one of which, the +Gainas, has left its name to Gainsborough. Here, again, we hear nothing +of the conquest, nor of the means by which the powerful Roman colony of +Lincoln fell into the hands of the English. But the town still retains +its Roman name, and in part its Roman walls; so that we may conclude the +native population was not entirely exterminated. + +East Anglia, as its name imports, was likewise colonised by an English +horde, divided, like the men of Kent, into two minor bodies, the North +Folk and the South Folk, whose names survive in the modern counties of +Norfolk and Suffolk. But in East Anglia, as in Yorkshire, we shall see +reason hereafter to conclude that the lower orders of Welsh were largely +spared, and that their descendants still form in part the labouring +classes of the two counties. Here, too, the English settlers probably +clustered thickest along the coast, like the Danes in later days; and +the great swampy expanse of the Fens, then a mere waste of marshland +tenanted by beavers and wild fowl, formed the inland boundary or mark of +their almost insular kingdom. + +The southern half of the coast was peopled by Englishmen of the Saxon +and Jutish tribes. First came the country of the East Saxons, or Essex, +the flat land stretching from the borders of East Anglia to the estuary +of the Thames. This had been one of the most thickly-populated Roman +regions, containing the important stations of Camalodunum, London, and +Verulam. But we know nothing, even by report, of its conquest. Beyond +it, and separated by the fenland of the Lea, lay the outlying little +principality of Middlesex. The upper reaches of the Thames were still +in the hands of the Welsh natives, for the great merchant city of London +blocked the way for the pirates to the head-waters of the river. + +On the south side of the estuary lay the Jutish principalities of East +and West Kent, including the strong Roman posts of Rhutupiæ, Dover, +Rochester, and Canterbury. The great forest of the Weald and the Romney +Marshes separated them from Sussex; and the insular positions of Thanet +and Sheppey had always special attractions for the northern pirates. + +Beyond the marshes, again, the strip of southern shore, between the +downs and the sea, as far as Hayling Island, fell into the hands of the +South Saxons, whose boundary to the east was formed by Romney Marsh, and +to the west by the flats near Chichester, where the forest runs down to +the tidal swamp by the sea. The district north of the Weald, now known +as Surrey, was also peopled by Saxon freebooters, at a later date, +though doubtless far more sparsely. + +Finally, along the wooded coast from Portsmouth to Poole Harbour, the +Gewissas, afterwards known as the West Saxons, established their power. +The Isle of Wight and the region about Southampton Water, however, were +occupied by the Meonwaras, a small intrusive colony of Jutes. Up the +rich valley overlooked by the great Roman city of Winchester (Venta +Belgarum), the West Saxons made their way, not without severe +opposition, as their own legends and traditions tell us; and in +Winchester they fixed their capital for awhile. The long chain of chalk +downs behind the city formed their weak northern mark or boundary, +while to the west they seem always to have carried on a desultory +warfare with the yet unsubdued Welsh, commanded by their great leader +Ambrosius, who has left his name to Ambres-byrig, or Amesbury. + +We must not, however, suppose that each of these colonies had from the +first a united existence as a political community. We know that even the +eight or ten kingdoms into which England was divided at the dawn of the +historical period were each themselves produced by the consolidation of +several still smaller chieftainships. Even in the two petty Kentish +kingdoms there were under-kings, who had once been independent. Wight +was a distinct kingdom till the reign of Ceadwalla in Wessex. The later +province of Mercia was composed of minor divisions, known as the +Hwiccas, the Middle English, the West Hecan, and so forth. Henry of +Huntingdon, a historian of the twelfth century, who had access, however, +to several valuable and original sources of information now lost, tells +us that many chieftains came from Germany, occupied Mercia and East +Anglia, and often fought with one another for the supremacy. In fact, +the petty kingdoms of the eighth century were themselves the result of a +consolidation of many forgotten principalities founded by the first +conquerors. + +Thus the earliest England with which we are historically acquainted +consisted of a mere long strip or borderland of Teutonic coast, divided +into tiny chieftainships, and girding round half of the eastern and +southern shores of a still Celtic Britain. Its area was discontinuous, +and its inland boundaries towards the back country were vaguely defined. +As Massachusetts and Connecticut stood off from Virginia and Georgia–as +New South Wales and Victoria stand off from South Australia and +Queensland–so Northumbria stood off from East Anglia, and Kent from +Sussex. Each colony represented a little English nucleus along the coast +or up the mouths of the greater rivers, such as the Thames and Humber, +where the pirates could easily drive in their light craft. From such a +nucleus, perched at first on some steep promontory like Bamborough, some +separate island like Thanet, Wight, and Selsey, or some long spit of +land like Holderness and Hurst Castle, the barbarians could extend their +dominions on every side, till they reached some natural line of +demarcation in the direction of their nearest Teutonic neighbours, which +formed their necessary mark. Inland they spread as far as they could +conquer; but coastwise the rivers and fens were their limits against one +another. Thus this oldest insular England is marked off into at least +eight separate colonies by the Forth, the Tyne, the Humber, the Wash, +the Harwich Marshes, the Thames, the Weald Forest, and the Chichester +tidal swamp region. As to how the pirates settled down along this wide +stretch of coast, we know practically nothing; of their westward advance +we know a little, and as time proceeds, that knowledge becomes more and +more. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE ENGLISH IN THEIR NEW HOMES. + + +If any trust at all can be placed in the legends, a lull in the conquest +followed the first settlement, and for some fifty years the English–or +at least the West Saxons–were engaged in consolidating their own +dominions, without making any further attack upon those of the Welsh. It +may be well, therefore, to enquire what changes of manners had come over +them in consequence of their change of place from the shores of the +Baltic and the North Sea to those of the Channel and the German Ocean. + +As a whole, English society remained much the same in Britain as it had +been in Sleswick and North Holland. The English came over in a body, +with their women and children, their flocks and herds, their goods and +chattels. The peculiar breed of cattle which they brought with them may +still be distinguished in their remains from the earlier Celtic +short-horn associated with Roman ruins and pre-historic barrows. They +came as settlers, not as mere marauders; and they remained banded +together in their original tribes and families after they had occupied +the soil of Britain. + +From the moment of their landing in Britain the savage corsairs of the +Sleswick flats seem wholly to have laid aside their seafaring habits. +They built no more ships, apparently; for many years after Bishop +Wilfrith had to teach the South Saxons how to catch sea-fish; while +during the early Danish incursions we hear distinctly that the English +had no vessels; nor is there much incidental mention of shipping between +the age of the settlement and that of Ælfred. The new-comers took up +their abode at once on the richest parts of Roman Britain, and came into +full enjoyment of orchards which they had not planted and fields which +they had not sown. The state of cultivation in which they found the vale +of York and the Kentish glens must have been widely different from that +to which they were accustomed in their old heath-clad home. Accordingly, +they settled down at once into farmers and landowners on a far larger +scale than of yore; and they were not anxious to move away from the rich +lands which they had so easily acquired. From being sailors and graziers +they took to be agriculturists and landmen. In the towns, indeed, they +did not settle; and most of these continued to bear their old Roman or +Celtic titles. A few may have been destroyed, especially in the first +onset, like Anderida, and, at a later date, Chester; but the greater +number seem to have been still scantily inhabited, under English +protection, by a mixed urban population, mainly Celtic in blood, and +known by the name of Loegrians. It was in the country, however, that the +English conquerers took up their abode. They were tillers of the soil, +not merchants or skippers, and it was long before they acquired a taste +for urban life. The whole eastern half of England is filled with +villages bearing the characteristic English clan names, and marking each +the home of a distinct family of early settlers. As soon as the +new-comers had burnt the villa of the old Roman proprietor, and killed, +driven out, or enslaved his abandoned serfs, they took the land to +themselves and divided it out on their national system. Hence the whole +government and social organisation of England is purely Teutonic, and +the country even lost its old name of Britain for its new one of +England. + +In England, as of old in Sleswick, the village community formed the unit +of English society. Each such township was still bounded by its mark of +forest, mere, or fen, which divided it from its nearest neighbours. In +each lived a single clan, supposed to be of kindred blood and bearing a +common name. The marksmen and their serfs, the latter being conquered +Welshmen, cultivated the soil under cereals for bread, and also for an +unnecessarily large supply of beer, as we learn at a later date from +numerous charters. Cattle and horses grazed in the pastures, while large +herds of pigs were kept in the forest which formed the mark. Thus the +early English settled down at once from a nation of pirates into one of +agriculturists. Here and there, among the woods and fens which still +covered a large part of the country, their little separate communities +rose in small fenced clearings or on low islets, now joined by drainage +to the mainland; while in the wider valleys, tilled in Roman times, the +wealthier chieftains formed their settlements and allotted lands to +their Welsh tributaries. Many family names appear in different parts of +England, for a reason which will hereafter be explained. Thus we find +the Bassingas at Bassingbourn, in Cambridgeshire; at Bassingfield, in +Notts; at Bassingham and Bassingthorpe, in Lincolnshire; and at +Bassington, in Northumberland. The Billings have left their stamp at +Billing, in Northampton; Billingford, in Norfolk; Billingham, in Durham; +Billingley, in Yorkshire; Billinghurst, in Sussex; and five other places +in various other counties. Birmingham, Nottingham, Wellington, +Faringdon, Warrington, and Wallingford are well-known names formed on +the same analogy. How thickly these clan settlements lie scattered over +Teutonic England may be judged from the number which occur in the London +district alone–Kensington, Paddington, Notting-hill, Billingsgate, +Islington, Newington, Kennington, Wapping, and Teddington. There are +altogether 1,400 names of this type in England. Their value as a test of +Teutonic colonisation is shown by the fact that while 48 occur in +Northumberland, 127 in Yorkshire, 76 in Lincolnshire, 153 in Norfolk and +Suffolk, 48 in Essex, 60 in Kent, and 86 in Sussex and Surrey, only 2 +are found in Cornwall, 6 in Cumberland, 24 in Devon, 13 in Worcester, 2 +in Westmoreland, and none in Monmouth. Speaking generally, these clan +names are thickest along the original English coast, from Forth to +Portland; they decrease rapidly as we move inland; and they die away +altogether as we approach the purely Celtic west. + +The English families, however, probably tilled the soil by the aid of +Welsh slaves; indeed, in Anglo-Saxon, the word serf and Welshman are +used almost interchangeably as equivalent synonyms. But though many +Welshmen were doubtless spared from the very first, nothing is more +certain than the fact that they became thoroughly Anglicized. A few new +words from Welsh or Latin were introduced into the English tongue, but +they were far too few sensibly to affect its vocabulary. The language +was and still is essentially Low German; and though it now contains +numerous words of Latin or French origin, it does not and never did +contain any but the very smallest Celtic element. The slight number of +additions made from the Welsh consisted chiefly of words connected with +the higher Roman civilisation–such as wall, street, and chester–or the +new methods of agriculture which the Teuton learnt from his more +civilised serfs. The Celt has always shown a great tendency to cast +aside his native language in Gaul, in Spain, and in Ireland; and the +isolation of the English townships must have had the effect of greatly +accelerating the process. Within a few generations the Celtic slave had +forgotten his tongue, his origin, and his religion, and had developed +into a pagan English serf. Whatever else the Teutonic conquest did, it +turned every man within the English pale into a thorough Englishman. + +But the removal to Britain effected one immense change. "War begat the +king." In Sleswick the English had lived within their little marks as +free and independent communities. In Britain all the clans of each +colony gradually came under the military command of a king. The +ealdormen who led the various marauding bands assumed royal power in the +new country. Such a change was indeed inevitable. For not only had the +English to win the new England, but they had also to keep it and extend +it. During four hundred years a constant smouldering warfare was carried +on between the foreigners and the native Welsh on their western +frontier. Thus the townships of each colony entered into a closer union +with one another for military purposes, and so arose the separate +chieftainships or petty kingdoms of early England. But the king's power +was originally very small. He was merely the semi-hereditary general and +representative of the people, of royal stock, but elected by the free +suffrages of the freemen. Only as the kingdoms coalesced, and as the +power of meeting became consequently less, did the king acquire his +greater prerogatives. From the first, however, he seems to have +possessed the right of granting public lands, with the consent of the +freemen, to particular individuals; and such book-land, as the early +English called it, after the introduction of Roman writing, became the +origin of our system of private property in land. + +Every township had its moot or assembly of freemen, which met around the +sacred oak, or on some holy hill, or beside the great stone monument of +some forgotten Celtic chieftain. Every hundred also had its moot, and +many of these still survive in their original form to the present day, +being held in the open air, near some sacred site or conspicuous +landmark. And the colony as a whole had also its moot, at which all +freemen might attend, and which settled the general affairs of the +kingdom. At these last-named moots the kings were elected; and though +the selection was practically confined to men of royal kin, the king +nevertheless represented the free choice of the tribe. Before the +conversion to Christianity, the royal families all traced their origin +to Woden. Thus the pedigree of Ida, King of Northumbria, runs as +follows:–"Ida was Eopping, Eoppa was Esing, Esa was Inguing, Ingui +Angenwiting, Angenwit Alocing, Aloc Benocing, Benoc Branding, Brand +Baldæging, Bældæg Wodening." But in later Christian times the +chroniclers felt the necessity of reconciling these heathen genealogies +with the Scriptural account in Genesis; so they affiliated Woden himself +upon the Hebrew patriarchs. Thus the pedigree of the West Saxon kings, +inserted in the Chronicle under the year 855, after conveying back the +genealogy of Æthelwulf to Woden, continues to say, "Woden was +Frealafing, Frealaf Finning," and so on till it reaches "Sceafing, _id +est filius Noe_; he was born in Noe's Ark. Lamech, Mathusalem, Enoc, +Jared, Malalehel, Camon, Enos, Seth, Adam, _primus homo et pater +noster_." + +The Anglo-Saxons, when they settled in Eastern and Southern Britain, +were a horde of barbarous heathen pirates. They massacred or enslaved +the civilised or half-civilised Celtic inhabitants with savage +ruthlessness. They burnt or destroyed the monuments of Roman occupation. +They let the roads and cities fall into utter disrepair. They stamped +out Christianity with fire and sword from end to end of their new +domain. They occupied a civilised and Christian land, and they restored +it to its primitive barbarism. Nor was there any improvement until +Christian teachers from Rome and Scotland once more introduced the +forgotten culture which the English pirates had utterly destroyed. As +Gildas phrases it, with true Celtic eloquence, the red tongue of flame +licked up the whole land from end to end, till it slaked its horrid +thirst in the western ocean. For 150 years the whole of English Britain, +save, perhaps, Kent and London, was cut off from all intercourse with +Christendom and the Roman world. The country consisted of several petty +chieftainships, at constant feud with their Teutonic neighbours, and +perpetually waging a border war with Welsh, Picts, and Scots. Within +each colony, much of the land remained untilled, while the clan +settlements appeared like little islands of cultivation in the midst of +forest, waste, and common. The villages were mere groups of wooden +homesteads, with barns and cattle-sheds, surrounded by rough stockades, +and destitute of roads or communications. Even the palace of the king +was a long wooden hall with numerous outhouses; for the English built no +stone houses, and burnt down those of their Roman predecessors. Trade +seems to have been confined to the south coast, and few manufactured +articles of any sort were in use. The English degraded their Celtic +serfs to their own barbaric level; and the very memory of Roman +civilization almost died out of the land for a hundred and fifty years. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE CONQUEST OF THE INTERIOR. + + +From the little strip of eastern and southern coast on which they first +settled, the English advanced slowly into the interior by the valleys of +the great rivers, and finally swarmed across the central dividing ridge +into the basins of the Severn and the Irish Sea. Up the open river +mouths they could make their way in their shallow-bottomed boats, as the +Scandinavian pirates did three centuries later; and when they reached +the head of navigation in each stream for the small draught of their +light vessels, they probably took to the land and settled down at once, +leaving further inland expeditions to their sons and successors. For +this second step in the Teutonic colonisation of Britain we have some +few traditional accounts, which seem somewhat more trustworthy than +those of the first settlement. Unfortunately, however, they apply for +the most part only to the kingdom of Wessex, and not to the North and +the Midlands, where such details would be of far greater value. + +The valley of the Humber gives access to the great central basin of the +Trent. Up this fruitful basin, at a somewhat later date, apparently, +than the settlement of Deira and Lincolnshire, scattered bodies of +English colonists, under petty leaders whose names have been forgotten, +seem to have pushed their way forward through the broad lowlands towards +Derby, Nottingham, and Leicester. They bore the name of Middle English. +Westward, again, other settlers raised their capital at Lichfield. These +formed the advanced guard of the English against the Welsh, and hence +their country was generally known as the Mark, or March, a name which +was afterwards latinized into the familiar form of Mercia. The absence +of all tradition as to the colonisation of this important tract, the +heart of England, and afterwards one of the three dominant Anglo-Saxon +states, leads one to suppose that the process was probably very gradual, +and the change came about so slowly as to have left but little trace on +the popular memory. At any rate, it is certain that the central ridge +long formed the division between the two races; and that the Welsh at +this period still occupied the whole western watershed, except in the +lower portion of the Severn valley. + +The Welland, the Nene, and the Great Ouse, flowing through the centre of +the Fen Country, then a vast morass, studded with low and marshy +islands, gave access to the districts about Peterborough, Stamford, and +Cambridge. Here, too, a body of unknown settlers, the Gyrwas, seem about +the same time to have planted their colonies. At a later date they +coalesced with the Mercians. However, the comparative scarcity of +villages bearing the English clan names throughout all these regions +suggests the probability that Mercia, Middle England, and the Fen +Country were not by any means so densely colonised as the coast +districts; and independent Welsh communities long held out among the +isolated dry tracts of the fens as robbers and outlaws. + +In the south, the advance of the West Saxons had been checked in 520, +according to the legend, by the prowess of Arthur, king of the +Devonshire Welsh. As Mr. Guest acutely notes, some special cause must +have been at work to make the Britons resist here so desperately as to +maintain for half a century a weak frontier within little more than +twenty miles of Winchester, the West Saxon capital. He suggests that the +great choir of Ambrosius at Amesbury was probably the chief Christian +monastery of Britain, and that the Welshman may here have been fighting +for all that was most sacred to him on earth. Moreover, just behind +stood the mysterious national monument of Stonehenge, the honoured tomb +of some Celtic or still earlier aboriginal chief. But in 552, the +English Chronicle tells us, Cynric, the West Saxon king, crossed the +downs behind Winchester, and descended upon the dale at Salisbury. The +Roman town occupied the square hill-fort of Old Sarum, and there Cynric +put the Welsh to flight and took the stronghold by storm. + +The road was thus opened in the rear to the upper waters of the Thames +(impassable before because of the Roman population of London), as well +as towards the valley of the Bath Avon. Four years later Cynric and his +son Ceawlin once more advanced as far as Barbury hill-fort, probably on +a mere plundering raid. But in 571 Cuthwulf, brother of Ceawlin, again +marched northward, and "fought against the Welsh at Bedford, and took +four towns, Lenbury (or Leighton Buzzard), Aylesbury, Bensington (near +Dorchester in Oxfordshire), and Ensham." Thus the West Saxons overran +the whole upper valley of the Thames from Berkshire to above Oxford, and +formed a junction with the Middle Saxons to the north of London; while +eastward they spread as far as the northern boundaries of Essex. In 577 +the same intruders made a still more important move. Crossing the +central watershed of England, near Chippenham, they descended upon the +broken valley of the Bath Avon, and found themselves the first +Englishmen who reached any of the basins which point westward towards +the Atlantic seaboard. At a doubtful place named Deorham (probably +Dyrham near Bath), "Cuthwine and Ceawlin fought against the Welsh, and +slew three kings, Conmail, and Condidan, and Farinmail, and took three +towns from them, Gloucester, and Cirencester, and Bath." Thus the three +great Roman cities of the lower Severn valley fell into the hands of the +West Saxons, and the English for the first time stood face to face with +the western sea. Though the story of these conquests is of course +recorded from mere tradition at a much later date, it still has a ring +of truth, or at least of probability, about it, which is wholly wanting +to the earlier legends. If we are not certain as to the facts, we can at +least accept them as symbolical of the manner in which the West Saxon +power wormed its way over the upper basin of the Thames, and crept +gradually along the southern valley of the Severn. + +The victory of Deorham has a deeper importance of its own, however, than +the mere capture of the three great Roman cities in the south-west of +Britain. By the conquest of Bath and Gloucester, the West Saxons cut off +the Welsh of Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset from their brethren in the +Midlands and in Wales. This isolation of the West Welsh, as the English +thenceforth called them, largely broke the power of the native +resistance. Step by step in the succeeding age the West Saxons advanced +by hard fighting, but with no serious difficulty, to the Axe, to the +Parret, to the Tone, to the Exe, to the Tamar, till at last the West +Welsh, confined to the peninsula of Cornwall, became known merely as the +Cornish men, and in the reign of Æthelstan were finally subjugated by +the English, though still retaining their own language and national +existence. But in all the western regions the Celtic population was +certainly spared to a far greater extent than in the east; and the +position of the English might rather be described as an occupation than +as a settlement in the strict sense of the word. + +The westward progress of the Northumbrians is later and much more +historical. Theodoric, son of Ida, as we may perhaps infer from the old +Welsh ballads, fought long and not always successfully with Urien of +Strathclyde. But in 592, says Bæda, who lived himself but three-quarters +of a century later than the event he describes, "there reigned over the +kingdom of the Northumbrians a most brave and ambitious king, +Æthelfrith, who, more than all other nobles of the English, wasted the +race of the Britons; for no one of our kings, no one of our chieftains, +has rendered more of their lands either tributary to or an integral part +of the English territories, whether by subjugating or expatriating the +natives." In 606 Æthelfrith rounded the Peakland, now known as +Derbyshire, and marched from the upper Trent upon the Roman city of +Chester. There "he made a terrible slaughter of the perfidious race." +Over two thousand Welsh monks from the monastery of Bangor Iscoed were +slain by the heathen invader; but Bæda explains that Æthelfrith put them +to death because they prayed against him; a sentence which strongly +suggests the idea that the English did not usually kill non-combatant +Welshmen. + +The victory of Chester divided the Welsh power in the north as that of +Deorham had divided it in the south. Henceforward, the Northumbrians +bore rule from sea to sea, from the mouth of the Humber to the mouths of +the Mersey and the Dee. Æthelfrith even kept up a rude navy in the Irish +Sea. Thus the Welsh nationality was broken up into three separate and +weak divisions–Strathclyde in the north, Wales in the centre, and +Damnonia, or Cornwall, in the south. Against these three fragments the +English presented an unbroken and aggressive front, Northumbria standing +over against Strathclyde, Mercia steadily pushing its way along the +upper valley of the Severn against North Wales, and Wessex advancing in +the south against South Wales and the West Welsh of Somerset, Devon, and +Cornwall. Thus the conquest of the interior was practically complete. +There still remained, it is true, the subjugation of the west; but the +west was brought under the English over-lordship by slow degrees, and in +a very different manner from the east and the south coast, or even the +central belt. Cornwall finally yielded under Æthelstan; Strathclyde was +gradually absorbed by the English in the south and the Scottish kingdom +on the north; and the last remnant of Wales only succumbed to the +intruders under the rule of the Angevin Edward I. + +There were, in fact, three epochs of English extension in Britain. The +first epoch was one of colonisation on the coasts and along the valleys +of the eastward rivers. The second epoch was one of conquest and partial +settlement in the central plateau and the westward basins. The third +epoch was one of merely political subjugation in the western mountain +regions. The proofs of these assertions we must examine at length in the +succeeding chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. + + +It has been usual to represent the English conquest of South-eastern +Britain as an absolute change of race throughout the greater part of our +island. The Anglo-Saxons, it is commonly believed, came to England and +the Lowlands of Scotland in overpowering numbers, and actually +exterminated or drove into the rugged west the native Celts. The +population of the whole country south of Forth and Clyde is supposed to +be now, and to have been ever since the conquest, purely Teutonic or +Scandinavian in blood, save only in Wales, Cornwall, and, perhaps, +Cumberland and Galloway. But of late years this belief has met with +strenuous opposition from several able scholars; and though many of our +greatest historians still uphold the Teutonic theory, with certain +modifications and admissions, there are, nevertheless, good reasons +which may lead us to believe that a large proportion of the Celts were +spared as tillers of the soil, and that Celtic blood may yet be found +abundantly even in the most Teutonic portions of England. + +In the first place, it must be remembered that, by common consent, only +the east and south coasts and the country as far as the central +dividing ridge can be accounted as to any overwhelming extent English in +blood. It is admitted that the population of the Scottish Highlands, of +Wales, and of Cornwall is certainly Celtic. It is also admitted that +there exists a large mixed population of Celts and Teutons in +Strathclyde and Cumbria, in Lancashire, in the Severn Valley, in Devon, +Somerset, and Dorset. The northern and western half of Britain is +acknowledged to be mainly Celtic. Thus the question really narrows +itself down to the ethnical peculiarities of the south and east. + +Here, the surest evidence is that of anthropology. We know that the pure +Anglo-Saxons were a round-skulled, fair-haired, light-eyed, +blonde-complexioned race; and we know that wherever (if anywhere) we +find unmixed Germanic races at the present day, High Dutch, Low Dutch, +or Scandinavian, we always meet with some of these same personal +peculiarities in almost every individual of the community. But we also +know that the Celts, originally themselves a similar blonde Aryan race, +mixed largely in Britain with one or more long-skulled dark-haired, +black-eyed, and brown-complexioned races, generally identified with the +Basques or Euskarians, and with the Ligurians. The nation which resulted +from this mixture showed traces of both types, being sometimes blonde, +sometimes brunette; sometimes black-haired, sometimes red-haired, and +sometimes yellow-haired. Individuals of all these types are still found +in the undoubtedly Celtic portions of Britain, though the dark type +there unquestionably preponderates so far as numbers are concerned. It +is this mixed race of fair and dark people, of Aryan Celts with +non-Aryan Euskarians or Ligurians, which we usually describe as Celtic +in modern Britain, by contradistinction to the later wave of Teutonic +English. + +Now, according to the evidence of the early historians, as interpreted +by Mr. Freeman and other authors (whose arguments we shall presently +examine), the English settlers in the greater part of South Britain +almost entirely exterminated the Celtic population. But if this be so, +how comes it that at the present day a large proportion of our people, +even in the east, belong to the dark and long-skulled type? The fact is +that upon this subject the historians are largely at variance with the +anthropologists; and as the historical evidence is weak and inferential, +while the anthropological evidence is strong and direct, there can be +very little doubt which we ought to accept. Professor Huxley [Essay "On +some Fixed Points in British Ethnography,"] has shown that the +melanochroic or dark type of Englishmen is identical in the shape of the +skull, the anatomical peculiarities, and the colour of skin, hair, and +eyes with that of the continent, which is undeniably Celtic in the wider +sense–that is to say, belonging to the primitive non-Teutonic race, +which spoke a Celtic language, and was composed of mixed Celtic, +Iberian, and Ligurian elements. Professor Phillips points out that in +Yorkshire, and especially in the plain of York, an essentially dark, +short, non-Teutonic type is common; while persons of the same +characteristics abound among the supposed pure Anglians of +Lincolnshire. They are found in great numbers in East Anglia, and they +are not rare even in Kent. In Sussex and Essex they occur less +frequently, and they are also comparatively scarce in the Lothians. Dr. +Beddoe, Dr. Thurnam, and other anthropologists have collected much +evidence to the same effect. Hence we may conclude with great +probability that large numbers of the descendants of the dark Britons +still survive even on the Teutonic coast. As to the descendants of the +light Britons, we cannot, of course, separate them from those of the +like-complexioned English invaders. But in truth, even in the east +itself, save only perhaps in Sussex and Essex, the dark and fair types +have long since so largely coalesced by marriage that there are probably +few or no real Teutons or real Celts individually distinguishable at +all. Absolutely fair people, of the Scandinavian or true German sort, +with very light hair and very pale blue eyes, are almost unknown among +us; and when they do occur, they occur side by side with relations of +every other shade. As a rule, our people vary infinitely in complexion +and anatomical type, from the quite squat, long-headed, swarthy peasants +whom we sometimes meet with in rural Yorkshire, to the tall, +flaxen-haired, red-cheeked men whom we occasionally find not only in +Danish Derbyshire, but even in mainly Celtic Wales and Cornwall. As to +the west, Professor Huxley declares, on purely anthropological grounds, +that it is probably, on the whole, more deeply Celtic than Ireland +itself. + +These anthropological opinions are fully borne out by those scientific +archæologists who have done most in the way of exploring the tombs and +other remains of the early Anglo-Saxon invaders. Professor Rolleston, +who has probably examined more skulls of this period than any other +investigator, sums up his consideration of those obtained from +Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon interments by saying, "I should be +inclined to think that wholesale massacres of the conquered +Romano-Britons were rare, and that wholesale importations of Anglo-Saxon +women were not much more frequent." He points out that "we have +anatomical evidence for saying that two or more distinct varieties of +men existed in England both previously to and during the period of the +Teutonic invasion and domination." The interments show us that the races +which inhabited Britain before the English conquest continued in part to +inhabit it after that conquest. The dolichocephali, or long-skulled type +of men, who, in part, preceded the English, "have been found abundantly +in the Suffolk region of the Littus Saxonicum, where the Celt and Saxon +[Englishman] are not known to have met as enemies when East Anglia +became a kingdom." Thus we see that just where people of the dark type +occur abundantly at the present day, skulls of the corresponding sort +are met with abundantly in interments of the Anglo-Saxon period. +Similarly, Mr. Akerman, after explorations in tombs, observes, "The +total expulsion or extinction of the Romano-British population by the +invaders will scarcely be insisted upon in this age of enquiry." Nay, +even in Teutonic Kent, Jute and Briton still lie side by side in the +same sepulchres. Most modern Englishmen have somewhat long rather than +round skulls. The evidence of archæology supports the evidence of +anthropology in favour of the belief that some, at least, of the native +Britons were spared by the invading host. + +On the other hand, against these unequivocal testimonies of modern +research we have to set the testimony of the early historical +authorities, on which the Teutonic theory mainly relies. The authorities +in question are three, Gildas, Bæda, and the English Chronicle. Gildas +was, or professes to be, a British monk, who wrote in the very midst of +the English conquest, when the invaders were still confined, for the +most part, to the south-eastern region. Objections have been raised to +the authenticity of his work, a small rhetorical Latin pamphlet, +entitled, "The History of the Britons;" but these objections have, +perhaps, been set at rest for many minds by Dr. Guest and Mr. Green. +Nevertheless, what little Gildas has to tell us is of slight historical +importance. His book is a disappointing Jeremiad, couched in the florid +and inflated Latin rhetoric so common during the decadence of the Roman +empire, intermingled with a strong flavour of hyperbolical Celtic +imagination; and it teaches us practically nothing as to the state of +the conquered districts. It is wholly occupied with fierce diatribes +against the Saxons, and complaints as to the weakness, wickedness, and +apathy of the British chieftains. It says little that can throw any +light on the question as to whether the Welsh were largely spared, +though it abounds with wild and vague declamation about the +extermination of the natives. Even Gildas, however, mentions that some +of his countrymen, "constrained by famine, came and yielded themselves +up to their enemies as slaves for ever;" while others, "committing the +safeguard of their lives to mountains, crags, thick forests, and rocky +isles, though with trembling hearts, remained in their fatherland." +These passages certainly suggest that a Welsh remnant survived in two +ways within the English pale, first as slaves, and secondly as isolated +outlaws. + +Bæda stands on a very different footing. His authenticity is undoubted; +his language is simple and straightforward. He was born in or about the +year 672, only two hundred years after the landing of the first English +colonists in Thanet. Scarcely more than a century separated him from the +days of Ida. The constant lingering warfare with the Welsh on the +western frontier was still for him a living fact. The Celt still held +half of Britain. At the date of his birth the northern Welsh still +retained their independence in Strathclyde; the Welsh proper still +spread to the banks of the Severn; and the West Welsh of Cornwall still +owned all the peninsula south of the Bristol Channel as far eastward as +the Somersetshire marshes. Beyond Forth and Clyde, the Picts yet ruled +over the greater part of the Highlands, while the Scots, who have now +given the name of Scotland to the whole of Britain beyond the Cheviots, +were a mere intrusive Irish colony in Argyllshire and the Western Isles. +He lived, in short, at the very period when Britain was still in the +act of becoming England; and no historical doubts of any sort hang over +the authenticity of his great work, "The Ecclesiastical History of the +English people." But Bæda unfortunately knows little more about the +first settlement than he could learn from Gildas, whom he quotes almost +_verbatim_. He tells us, however, nothing of extermination of the Welsh. +"Some," he says, "were slaughtered; some gave themselves up to undergo +slavery: some retreated beyond the sea: and some, remaining in their own +land, lived a miserable life in the mountains and forests." In all this, +he is merely transcribing Gildas, but he saw no improbability in the +words. At a later date, Æthelfrith, of Northumbria, he tells us, +"rendered more of their lands either tributary to or an integral part of +the English territory, whether by subjugating or expatriating[1] the +natives," than any previous king. Eadwine, before his conversion, +"subdued to the empire of the English the Mevanian islands," Man and +Anglesey; but we know that the population of both islands is still +mainly Celtic in blood and speech. These examples sufficiently show us, +that even before the introduction of Christianity, the English did not +always utterly destroy the Welsh inhabitants of conquered districts. And +it is universally admitted that, after their conversion, they fought +with the Welsh in a milder manner, sparing their lives as +fellow-Christians, and permitting them to retain their lands as +tributary proprietors. + + [1] The word in the original is _exterminatis_, but of + course _exterminare_ then bore its etymological sense of + expatriation or expulsion, if not merely of confiscation, + while it certainly did not imply the idea of slaughter, + connoted by the modern word. + +The English Chronicle, our third authority, was first compiled at the +court of Ælfred, four and a-half centuries after the Conquest; and so +its value as original testimony is very slight. Its earlier portions are +mainly condensed from Bæda; but it contains a few fragments of +traditional information from some other unknown sources. These +fragments, however, refer chiefly to Kent, Sussex, and the older parts +of Wessex, where we have reason to believe that the Teutonic +colonisation was exceptionally thorough; and they tell us nothing about +Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and East Anglia, where we find at the present +day so large a proportion of the population possessing an unmistakably +Celtic physique. The Chronicle undoubtedly describes the conflict in the +south as sharp and bloody; and in spite of the mythical character of the +names and events, it is probable that in this respect it rightly +preserves the popular memory of the conquest, and its general nature. In +Kent, "the Welsh fled the English like fire;" and Hengest and Æsc, in a +single battle, slew 4,000 men. In Sussex, Ælle and Cissa killed or drove +out the natives in the western rapes on their first landing, and +afterwards massacred every Briton at Anderida. In Wessex, in the first +struggle, "Cerdic and Cynric offslew a British king whose name was +Natanleod, and 5,000 men with him." And so the dismal annals of rapine +and slaughter run on from year to year, with simple, unquestioning +conciseness, showing us, at least, the manner in which the later +English believed their forefathers had acquired the land. Moreover, +these frightful details accord well enough with the vague generalities +of Gildas, from which, however, they may very possibly have been +manufactured. Yet even the Chronicle nowhere speaks of absolute +extermination: that idea has been wholly read into its words, not +directly inferred from them. A great deal has been made of the massacre +at Pevensey; but we hear nothing of similar massacres at the great Roman +cities–at London, at York, at Verulam, at Bath, at Cirencester, which +would surely have attracted more attention than a small outlying +fortress like Anderida. Even the Teutonic champions themselves admit +that some, at least, of the Celts were incorporated into the English +community. "The women," says Mr. Freeman, "would, doubtless, be largely +spared;" while as to the men, he observes, "we may be sure that death, +emigration, or personal slavery were the only alternatives which the +vanquished found at the hands of our fathers." But there is a vast gulf, +from the ethnological point of view, between exterminating a nation and +enslaving it.[2] + + [2] In this and a few other cases, modern authorities are + quoted merely to show that the essential facts of a large + Welsh survival are really admitted even by those who most + strongly argue in favour of the general Teutonic origin of + Englishmen. + +In the cities, indeed, it would seem that the Britons remained in great +numbers. The Welsh bards complain that the urban race of Romanised +natives known as Loegrians, "became as Saxons." Mr. Kemble has shown +that the English did not by any means always massacre the inhabitants of +the cities. Mr. Freeman observes, "It is probable that within the +[English] frontier there still were Roman towns tributary to the +conquerors rather than occupied by them;" and Canon Stubbs himself +remarks, that "in some of the cities there were probably elements of +continuous life: London, the mart of the merchants, York, the capital of +the north, and some others, have a continuous political existence." +"Wherever the cities were spared," he adds, "a portion, at least, of the +city population must have continued also. In the country, too, +especially towards the west and the debateable border, great numbers of +Britons may have survived in a servile or half-servile condition." But +we must remember that in only two cases, Anderida and Chester, do we +actually hear of massacres; in all the other towns, Bæda and the +Chronicle tell us nothing about them. It is a significant fact that +Sussex, the one kingdom in which we hear of a complete annihilation, is +the very one where the Teutonic type of physique still remains the +purest. But there are nowhere any traces of English clan nomenclature in +any of the cities. They all retain their Celtic or Roman names. At +Cambridge itself, in the heart of the true English country, the charter +of the thegn's guild, a late document, mentions a special distinction of +penalties for killing a Welshman, "if the slain be a ceorl, 2 ores, if +he be a Welshman, one ore." "The large Romanised towns," says Professor +Rolleston, "no doubt made terms with the Saxons, who abhorred city +life, and would probably be content to leave the unwarlike burghers in a +condition of heavily-taxed submissiveness." + +Thus, even in the east it is admitted that a Celtic element probably +entered into the population in three ways,–by sparing the women, by +making rural slaves of the men, and by preserving some, at least, of the +inhabitants of cities. The skulls of these Anglicised Welshmen are found +in ancient interments; their descendants are still to be recognised by +their physical type in modern England. "It is quite possible," says Mr. +Freeman, "that even at the end of the sixth century there may have been +within the English frontier inaccessible points where detached bodies of +Welshmen still retained a precarious independence." Sir F. Palgrave has +collected passages tending to show that parties of independent Welshmen +held out in the Fens till a very late period; and this conclusion is +admitted by Mr. Freeman to be probably correct. But more important is +the general survival of scattered Britons within the English communities +themselves. Traces of this we find even in Anglo-Saxon documents. The +signatures to very early charters,[3] collected by Thorpe and Kemble, +supply us with names some of which are assuredly not Teutonic, while +others are demonstrably Celtic; and these names are borne by people +occupying high positions at the court of English kings. Names of this +class occur even in Kent itself; while others are borne by members of +the royal family of Wessex. The local dialect of the West Riding of +Yorkshire still contains many Celtic words; and the shepherds of +Northumberland and the Lothians still reckon their sheep by what is +known as "the rhyming score," which is really a corrupt form of the +Welsh numerals from one to twenty. The laws of Northumbria mention the +Welshmen who pay rent to the king. Indeed, it is clear that even in the +east itself the English were from the first a body of rural colonists +and landowners, holding in subjection a class of native serfs, with whom +they did not intermingle, but who gradually became Anglicised, and +finally coalesced with their former masters, under the stress of the +Danish and Norman supremacies. + + [3] Kemble "On Anglo-Saxon Names." Proc. Arch. Inst., 1845. + +In the west, however, the English occupation took even less the form of +a regular colonisation. The laws of Ine, a West Saxon king, show us that +in his territories, bordering on yet unconquered British lands, the +Welshman often occupied the position of a rent-paying inferior, as well +as that of a slave. The so-called Nennius tells us that Elmet in +Yorkshire, long an intrusive Welsh principality, was not subdued by the +English till the reign of Eadwine of Northumbria; when, we learn, the +Northumbrian prince "seized Elmet, and expelled Cerdic its king:" but +nothing is said as to any extermination of its people. As Bæda +incidentally mentions this Cerdic, "king of the Britons," Nennius may +probably be trusted upon the point. As late as the beginning of the +tenth century, King Ælfred in his will describes the people of Devon, +Dorset, Somerset, and Wilts, as "Welsh kin." The physical appearance of +the peasantry in the Severn valley, and especially in Shropshire, +Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, and Herefordshire, indicates that the +western parts of Mercia were equally Celtic in blood. The dialect of +Lancashire contains a large Celtic infusion. Similarly, the English +clan-villages decrease gradually in numbers as we move westward, till +they almost disappear beyond the central dividing ridge. We learn from +Domesday Book that at the date of the Norman conquest the number of +serfs was greater from east to west, and largest on the Welsh border. +Mr. Isaac Taylor points out that a similar argument may be derived from +the area of the hundreds in various counties. The hundred was originally +a body of one hundred English families (more or less), bound together by +mutual pledge, and answerable for one another's conduct. In Sussex, the +average number of square miles in each hundred is only twenty-three; in +Kent, twenty-four; in Surrey, fifty-eight; and in Herts, seventy-nine: +but in Gloucester it is ninety-seven; in Derby, one hundred and +sixty-two; in Warwick, one hundred and seventy-nine; and in Lancashire, +three hundred and two. These facts imply that the English population +clustered thickest in the old settled east, but grew thinner and thinner +towards the Welsh and Cumbrian border. Altogether, the historical +evidence regarding the western slopes of England bears out Professor +Huxley's dictum as to the thoroughly Celtic character of their +population. + +On the other hand, it is impossible to deny that Mr. Freeman and Canon +Stubbs have proved their point as to the thorough Teutonisation of +Southern Britain by the English invaders. Though it may be true that +much Welsh blood survived in England, especially amongst the servile +class, yet it is none the less true that the nation which rose upon the +ruins of Roman Britain was, in form and organisation, almost purely +English. The language spoken by the whole country was the same which had +been spoken in Sleswick. Only a few words of Welsh origin relating to +agriculture, household service, and smithcraft, were introduced by the +serfs into the tongue of their masters. The dialects of the Yorkshire +moors, of the Lake District, and of Dorset or Devon, spoken only by wild +herdsmen in the least cultivated tracts, retained a few more evident +traces of the Welsh vocabulary: but in York, in London, in Winchester, +and in all the large towns, the pure Anglo-Saxon of the old England by +the shores of the Baltic was alone spoken. The Celtic serfs and their +descendants quickly assumed English names, talked English to one +another, and soon forgot, in a few generations, that they had not always +been Englishmen in blood and tongue. The whole organisation of the +state, the whole social life of the people, was entirely Teutonic. "The +historical civilisation," as Canon Stubbs admirably puts it, "is English +and not Celtic." Though there may have been much Welsh blood left, it +ran in the veins of serfs and rent-paying churls, who were of no +political or social importance. These two aspects of the case should be +kept carefully distinct. Had they always been separated, much of the +discussion which has arisen on the subject would doubtless have been +avoided; for the strongest advocates of the Teutonic theory are +generally ready to allow that Celtic women, children, and slaves may +have been largely spared: while the Celtic enthusiasts have thought +incumbent upon them to derive English words from Welsh roots, and to +trace the origin of English social institutions to Celtic models. The +facts seem to indicate that while the modern English nation is largely +Welsh in blood, it is wholly Teutonic in form and language. Each of us +probably traces back his descent to mixed Celtic and Germanic ancestry: +but while the Celts have contributed the material alone, the Teutons +have contributed both the material and the form. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +HEATHEN ENGLAND. + + +We can now picture to ourselves the general aspect of the country after +the English colonies had established themselves as far west as the +Somersetshire marshes, the Severn, and the Dee. The whole land was +occupied by little groups of Teutonic settlers, each isolated by the +mark within their own township; each tilling the ground with their own +hands and those of their Welsh serfs. The townships were rudely gathered +together into petty chieftainships; and these chieftainships tended +gradually to aggregate into larger kingdoms, which finally merged in the +three great historical divisions of Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex; +divisions that survive to our own time as the North, the Midlands, and +the South. Meanwhile, most of the Roman towns were slowly depopulated +and fell into disrepair, so that a "waste chester" becomes a common +object in Anglo-Saxon history. Towns belong to a higher civilisation, +and had little place in agricultural England. The roads were neglected +for want of commerce; and trade only survived in London and along the +coast of Kent, where the discovery of Frankish coins proves the +existence of intercourse with the Teutonic kingdom of Neustria, which +had grown up on the ruins of northern Gaul. Everywhere in Britain the +Roman civilisation fell into abeyance: in improved agriculture alone did +any notable relic of its existence remain. The century and a half +between the conquest and the arrival of Augustine is a dreary period of +unmixed barbarism and perpetual anarchy. + +From time to time the older settled colonies kept sending out fresh +swarms of young emigrants towards the yet unconquered west, much as the +Americans and Canadians have done in our own days. Armed with their long +swords and battle-axes, the new colonists went forth in family bands, +under petty chieftains, to war against the Welsh; and when they had +conquered themselves a district, they settled on it as lords of the +soil, enslaved the survivors of their enemies, and made their leader +into a king. Meanwhile, the older colonies kept up their fighting spirit +by constant wars amongst themselves. Thus we read of contests between +the men of Kent and the West Saxons, or between conflicting nobles in +Wessex itself. Fighting, in fact, was the one business of the English +freeman, and it was but slowly that he settled down into a quiet +agriculturist. The influence of Christianity alone seems to have wrought +the change. Before the conversion of England, all the glimpses which we +get of the English freeman represent him only as a rude and turbulent +warrior, with the very spirit of his kinsmen, the later wickings of the +north. + +An enormous amount of the country still remained overgrown with wild +forest. The whole weald of Kent and Sussex, the great tract of Selwood +in Wessex, the larger part of Warwickshire, the entire Peakland, the +central dividing ridge between the two seas from Yorkshire to the Forth, +and other wide regions elsewhere, were covered with primæval woodlands. +Arden, Charnwood, Wychwood, Sherwood, and the rest, are but the relics +of vast forests which once stretched over half England. The bear still +lurked in the remotest thickets; packs of wolves still issued forth at +night to ravage the herdsman's folds; wild boars wallowed in the fens or +munched acorns under the oakwoods; deer ranged over all the heathy +tracts throughout the whole island; and the wild white cattle, now +confined to Chillingham Park, roamed in many spots from north to south. +Hence hunting was the chief pastime of the princes and ealdormen when +they were not engaged in war with one another or with the Welsh. Game, +boar-flesh, and venison formed an important portion of diet throughout +the whole early English period, up to the Norman conquest, and long +after. + +The king was the recognised head of each community, though his position +was hardly more than that of leader of the nobles in war. He received an +original lot in the conquered land, and remained a private possessor of +estates, tilled by his Welsh slaves. He was king of the people, not of +the country, and is always so described in the early monuments. Each +king seems to have had a chief priest in his kingdom. + +There was no distinct capital for the petty kingdoms, though a principal +royal residence appears to have been usual. But the kings possessed many +separate _hams_ or estates in their domain, in each of which food and +other material for their use were collected by their serfs. They moved +about with their suite from one of these to another, consuming all that +had been prepared for them in each, and then passing on to the next. The +king himself made the journey in the waggon drawn by oxen, which formed +his rude prerogative. Such primitive royal progresses were absolutely +necessary in so disjointed a state of society, if the king was to govern +at all. Only by moving about and seeing with his own eyes could he gain +any information in a country where organisation was feeble and writing +practically unknown: only by consuming what was grown for him on the +spot where it was grown could he and his suite obtain provisions in the +rude state of Anglo-Saxon communications. But such government as existed +was mainly that of the local ealdormen and the village gentry. + +Marriages were practically conducted by purchase, the wife being bought +by the husband from her father's family. A relic of this custom perhaps +still survives in the modern ceremony, when the father gives the bride +in marriage to the bridegroom. Polygamy was not unknown; and it was +usual for men to marry their father's widows. The wives, being part of +the father's property, naturally became part of the son's heritage. +Fathers probably possessed the right of selling their children into +slavery; and we know that English slaves were sold at Rome, being +conveyed thither by Frisian merchants. + +The artizan class, such as it was, must have been attached to the houses +of the chieftains, probably in a servile position. Pottery was +manufactured of excellent but simple patterns. Metal work was, of +course, thoroughly understood, and the Anglo-Saxon swords and knives +discovered in barrows are of good construction. Every chief had also his +minstrel, who sang the short and jerky Anglo-Saxon songs to the +accompaniment of a harp. The dead were burnt and their ashes placed in +tumuli in the north: the southern tribes buried their warriors in full +military dress, and from their tombs much of the little knowledge which +we possess as to their habits is derived. Thence have been taken their +swords, a yard long, with ornamental hilt and double-cutting edge, often +covered by runic inscriptions; their small girdle knives; their long +spears; and their round, leather-faced, wooden shields. The jewellery is +of gold, enriched with coloured enamel, pearl, or sliced garnet. +Buckles, rings, bracelets, hairpins, necklaces, scissors, and toilet +requisites were also buried with the dead. Glass drinking-cups which +occur amongst the tombs, were probably imported from the continent to +Kent or London; and some small trade certainly existed with the Roman +world, as we learn from Bæda. + +In faith the English remained true to their old Teutonic myths. Their +intercourse with the Christian Welsh was not of a kind to make them +embrace the religion which must have seemed to them that of slaves and +enemies. Bæda tells us that the English worshipped idols, and sacrificed +oxen to their gods. Many traces of their mythology are still left in our +midst. + +First in importance among their deities came Woden, the Odin of our +Scandinavian kinsmen, whose name we still preserve in Wednesday (dies +Mercurii). To him every royal family of the English traced its descent. +Mr. Kemble has pointed out many high places in England which keep his +name to the present day. Wanborough, in Surrey, at the +heaven-water-parting of the Hog's Back, was originally Wodnesbeorh, or +the hill of Woden. Wanborough, in Wiltshire, which divides the valleys +of the Kennet and the Isis, has the same origin; as has also +Woodnesborough in Kent. Wonston, in Hants, was probably Woden's stone; +Wambrook, Wampool, and Wansford, his brook, his pool, and his ford. All +these names are redolent of that nature-worship which was so marked a +portion of the Anglo-Saxon religion. Godshill, in the Isle of Wight, now +crowned by a Christian church, was also probably the site of early Woden +worship. The boundaries of estates, as mentioned in charters, give +instances of trees, stones, and posts, used as landmarks, and dedicated +to Woden, thus conferring upon them a religious sanction, like that of +Hermes amongst the Greeks. Anglo-Saxon worship generally gathered around +natural features; and sacred oaks, ashes, wells, hills, and rivers are +among the commonest memorials of our heathen ancestors. Many of them +were reconsecrated after the introduction of Christianity to saints of +the church, and so have retained their character for sanctity almost to +our own time. + +Thunor, the same word as our modern English thunder, was practically, +though not philologically, the Anglo-Saxon representative of Zeus. We +are more familiar with his name in its clipped Norse form of Thor. +Thursday is Thunor's day (Thunres dæg: dies Jovis) and the thunderbolt, +really a polished stone axe of the aboriginal neolithic savages, was +supposed to be his weapon. Thundersfield, in Surrey; Thundersley, in +Essex; and Thursley, in Surrey, still preserve the memory of his sacred +sites. Thurleigh, in Bedford; Thurlow, in Essex; Thursley, in +Cumberland; Thursfield, in Staffordshire; and Thursford, in Norfolk, are +more probably due to later Danish influence, and commemorate namesakes +of the Norse Thor rather than the English Thunor. + +Tiw, the philological equivalent of Zeus, answered rather in character +to Ares, and had for his day Tuesday (dies Martis). Tiw's mere and Tiw's +thorn occur in charters, and a few places still retain his name. Frea +gives his title to Friday (dies Veneris), and Sætere to Saturday (dies +Saturni). But the Anglo-Saxon worship really paid more attention to +certain deified heroes,–Bældæg, Geat, and Sceaf; and to certain +personified abstractions,–Wig (war), Death, and Sige (victory), than to +these minor gods. And, as often happens in Polytheistic religions, there +is reason to believe that the popular creed had much less reference to +the gods at all than to many inferior spirits of a naturalistic sort. +For the early English farmer, the world around was full of spiritual +beings, half divine, half devilish. Fiends and monsters peopled the +fens, and tales of their doings terrified his childhood. Spirits of +flood and fell swamped his boat or misled him at night. Water nicors +haunted the streams; fairies danced on the green rings of the pasture; +dwarfs lived in the barrows of Celtic or neolithic chieftains, and +wrought strange weapons underground. The mark, the forest, the hills, +were all full for the early Englishman of mysterious and often hostile +beings. At length the Weirds or Fates swept him away. Beneath the earth +itself, Hel, mistress of the cold and joyless world of shades, at last +received him; unless, indeed, by dying a warrior's death, he was +admitted to the happy realms of Wælheal. As a whole, the Anglo-Saxon +heathendom was a religion of terrorism. Evil spirits surrounded men on +every side, dwelt in all solitary places, and stalked over the land by +night. Ghosts dwelt in the forest; elves haunted the rude stone circles +of elder days. The woodland, still really tenanted by deer, wolves, and +wild boars, was also filled by popular imagination with demons and imps. +Charms, spells, and incantations formed the most real and living part of +the national faith; and many of these survived into Christian times as +witchcraft. Some of them, and of the early myths, even continue to be +repeated in the folk-lore of the present day. Such are the legends of +the Wild Huntsman and of Wayland Smith. Indeed, heathendom had a strong +hold over the common English mind long after the public adoption of +Christianity; and heathen sacrifices continued to be offered in secret +as late as the thirteenth century. Our poetry and our ordinary language +is tinged with heathen ideas even in modern times. + +Still more interesting, however, are those relics of yet earlier social +states, which we find amongst the Anglo-Saxons themselves. The +production of fire by rubbing together two sticks is a common practice +amongst all savages; and it has acquired a sacred significance which +causes it to live on into more civilised stages. Once a year the +needfire was so lighted, and all the hearths of the village were +rekindled from the blaze thus obtained. Cattle were "passed through the +fire" to preserve them from the attacks of fiends; and perhaps even +children were sometimes treated in the same manner. The ceremony, +originally adopted, perhaps, by the English from their Celtic serfs, +still lingers in remote parts of the country, as the lighting of fires +on St. John's Eve. Tattooing the face was practised by the noble +classes. It seems probable that the early English sacrificed human +victims, as the Germans certainly did to Wuotan (the High Dutch Woden); +and we know that the practice of suttee existed, and that widows slew +themselves on the death of their husbands, in order to accompany them to +the other world. Even more curious are the vestiges of Totemism, or +primitive animal worship, common to all branches of the Aryan race, as +well as to the North American Indians, the Australian black fellows, and +many other savages. Totemism consists in the belief that each family is +literally descended from a particular plant or animal, whose name it +bears; and members of the family generally refuse to pluck the plant or +kill the animal after which they are named. Of these beliefs we find +apparently several traces in Anglo-Saxon life. The genealogies of the +kings include such names as those of the horse, the mare, the ash, and +the whale. In the very early Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf, two of the +characters bear the names of Wulf and Eofer (boar). The wolf and the +raven were sacred animals, and have left their memory in many places, as +well as in such personal titles as Æthelwulf, the noble wolf. The boar +was also greatly reverenced; its head was used as an amulet, or as a +crest for helmets, and oaths were taken upon it till late in the middle +ages. Our own boar's head at Christmas is a relic of the old belief. The +sanctity of the horse and the ash has been already mentioned. Now many +of the Anglo-Saxon clans bore names implying their descent from such +plants or animals. Thus a charter mentions the Æscings, or sons of the +ash, in Surrey; another refers to the Earnings, or sons of the eagle +(earn); a third to the Heartings, or sons of the hart; a fourth to the +Wylfings, or sons of the wolf; and a fifth to the Thornings, or sons of +the thorn. The oak has left traces of his descendants at Oakington, in +Cambridge: the birch, at Birchington, in Kent; the boar (Eofer) at +Evringham, in Yorkshire; the hawk, at Hawkinge, in Kent; the horse, at +Horsington, in Lincolnshire; the raven, at Raveningham, in Norfolk; the +sun, at Sunning, in Berks; and the serpent (Wyrm), at Wormingford, +Worminghall, and Wormington, in Essex, Bucks, and Gloucester, +respectively. Every one of these objects is a common and well-known +totem amongst savage tribes; and the inference that at some earlier +period the Anglo-Saxons had been Totemists is almost irresistible. + +Moreover, it is an ascertained fact that the custom of exogamy (marriage +by capture outside the tribe), and of counting kindred on the female +side alone, accompanies the low stage of culture with which Totemism is +usually associated. We know also that this method of reckoning +relationship obtained amongst certain Aryan tribes, such as the Picts. +Traces of the ceremonial form of marriage by capture survived in England +to a late date in the middle ages; and therefore the custom of exogamy, +upon which the ceremony is based, must probably have existed amongst the +English themselves at some earlier period. Even in the first historical +age, a conquered king generally gave his daughter in marriage to his +conqueror, as a mark of submission, which is a relic of the same custom. +Now, if members of the various tribes–Jutes, English, and Saxons,–used +at one time habitually to intermarry with one another, and to give their +children the clan-name of the father, it would follow that persons +bearing the same clan-name would appear in all the tribes. Such we find +to be actually the case. The Hemings, for instance, are met with in six +counties–York, Lincoln, Huntingdon, Suffolk, Northampton, and Somerset; +the Mannings occur in English Norfolk and in Saxon Dorset; the +Billings, and many other clans, have left their names over the whole +land, from north to south and from east to west alike. It has often been +assumed that these facts prove the intimate intermixture of the invading +tribes; but the supposition of the former existence of exogamy, and +consequent appearance of similar clan-names in all the tribes, seems far +more probable than such an extreme mingling of different tribesmen over +the whole conquered territory.[1] Part of the early English ceremony of +marriage consisted in the bridegroom touching the head of the bride with +a shoe, a relic, doubtless, of the original mode of capture, when the +captor placed his foot on the neck of his prisoner or slave. After +marriage, the wife's hair was cut short, which is a universal mark of +slavery. + + [1] I owe this ingenious explanation to a note in Mr. Andrew + Lang's essays prefixed to Mr. Holland's translation of + Aristotle's _Politics_. He has there also suggested the + analysis of the clan names for traces of Totemism, whose + results I have given above in part. + +Thus we may divide the early English religion into four elements. First, +the remnants of a very primitive savage faith, represented by the +sanctity of animals and plants, by Totemism, by the needfire, and by the +use of amulets, charms, and spells. Second, the relics of the old common +Aryan nature-worship, found in the reverence paid to Thunor, or Thunder, +who is a form of Zeus, and in the sacredness of hills, rivers, wells, +fords, and the open air. Third, a system of Teutonic hero or +ancestor-worship, typified by Woden, Bældæg, and the other great names +of the genealogies, and having its origin in the belief in ghosts. +Fourth, a deification of certain abstract ideas, such as War, Fate, +Victory, and Death. But the average heathen Anglo-Saxon religion was +merely a vast mass of superstition, a dark and gloomy terrorism, +begotten of the vague dread of misfortune which barbarians naturally +feel in a half-peopled land, where war and massacre are the highest +business of every man's lifetime, and a violent death the ordinary way +in which he meets his end. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH. + + +It was impossible that a country lying within sight of the orthodox +Frankish kingdom, and enclosed between two Christian Churches on either +side, should long remain in such a state of isolated heathendom. For to +be cut off from Christendom was to be cut off from the whole social, +political, intellectual, and commercial life of the civilised world. In +Britain, as distinctly as in the Pacific Islands in our own day, the +missionary was the pioneer of civilisation. The change which +Christianity wrought in England in a few generations was almost as +enormous as the change which it has wrought in Hawaii at the present +time. Before the arrival of the missionary, there was no written +literature, no industrial arts, no peace, no social intercourse between +district and district. The church came as a teacher and civiliser, and +in a few years the barbarous heathen English warrior had settled down +into a toilsome agriculturist, an eager scholar, a peaceful law-giver, +or an earnest priest. The change was not merely a change of religion, it +was a revolution from a life of barbarism to a life of incipient +culture, and slow but progressive civilisation. + +So inevitable was the Christianisation of England, that even while the +flood of paganism was pouring westward, the east was beginning to +receive the faith of Rome from the Frankish kingdom and from Italy. It +has been necessary, indeed, to anticipate a little, in order to show the +story of the conquest in its true light. Ten years before the heathen +Æthelfrith of Northumbria massacred the Welsh monks at Chester, +Augustine had brought Christianity to the people of Kent. + +In 596, Gregory the Great determined to send a mission to England. Even +before that time, Kent had been in closer union with the Continent than +any other part of the country. Trade went on with the kindred Saxon +coast of the Frankish kingdom, and Æthelberht, the ambitious Kentish +king, and over-lord of all England south of the Humber, had even married +Bercta, a daughter of the Frankish king of Paris. Bercta was of course a +Christian, and she brought her own Frankish chaplain, who officiated in +the old Roman church of St. Martin, at Canterbury. But Gregory's mission +was on a far larger scale. Augustine, prior of the monastery on the +Cœlian Hill, was sent with forty monks to convert the heathen +English. They landed in Thanet, in 597, with all the pomp of Roman +civilisation and ecclesiastical symbolism. Gregory had rightly +determined to try by ritual and show to impress the barbarian mind. +Æthelberht, already predisposed to accept the Continental culture, and +to assimilate his rude kingdom to the Roman model, met them in the open +air at a solemn meeting; for he feared, says Bæda, to meet them within +four walls, lest they should practice incantations upon him. The foreign +monks advanced in procession to the king's presence, chanting their +litanies, and displaying a silver cross. Æthelberht yielded almost at +once. He and all his court became Christians; and the people, as is +usual amongst barbarous tribes, quickly conformed to the faith of their +rulers. Æthelberht gave the missionaries leave to build new churches, or +to repair the old ones erected by the Welsh Christians. Augustine +returned to Gaul, where he was consecrated as Archbishop of the English +nation, at Arles. Kent became thenceforth a part of the great +Continental system. Canterbury has ever since remained the metropolis of +the English Church; and the modern archbishops trace back their +succession directly to St. Augustine. + +For awhile, the young Church seemed to make vigorous progress. Augustine +built a monastery at Canterbury, where Æthelberht founded a new church +to SS. Peter and Paul, to be a sort of Westminster Abbey for the tombs +of all future Kentish kings and archbishops. He also restored an old +Roman church in the city. The pope sent him sacramental vessels, altar +cloths, ornaments, relics, and, above all, many books. Ten years later, +Augustine enlarged his missionary field by ordaining two new +bishops–Mellitus, to preach to the East Saxons, "whose metropolis," +says Bæda, "is the city of London, which is the mart of many nations, +resorting to it by sea and land;" and Justus to the episcopal see of +West Kent, with his bishop-stool at Rochester. The East Saxons +nominally accepted the faith at the bidding of their over-lord, +Æthelberht; but the people of London long remained pagans at heart. On +Augustine's death, however, all life seemed again to die out of the +struggling mission. Laurentius, who succeeded him, found the labour too +great for his weaker hands. In 613 Æthelberht died, and his son Eadbald +at once apostatised, returning to the worship of Woden and the ancestral +gods. The East Saxons drove out Mellitus, who, with Justus, retired to +Gaul; and Archbishop Laurentius himself was minded to follow them. Then +the Kentish king, admonished by a dream of the archbishop's, made +submission, recalled the truant bishops, and restored Justus to +Rochester. The Londoners, however, would not receive back Mellitus, +"choosing rather to be under their idolatrous high-priests." Soon +Laurentius died too, and Mellitus was called to take his place, and +consecrated at last a church in London in the monastery of St. Peter. In +624, the third archbishop was carried off by gout, and Justus of +Rochester succeeded to the primacy of the struggling church. Up to this +point little had been gained, except the conversion of Kent itself, with +its dependent kingdom of Essex–the two parts of England in closest +union with the Continent, through the mercantile intercourse by way of +London and Richborough. + +Under the new primate, however, an unexpected opening occurred for the +conversion of the North. The Northumbrian kings had now risen to the +first place in Britain. Æthelfrith had done much to establish their +supremacy; under Eadwine it rose to a height of acknowledged +over-lordship. "As an earnest of this king's future conversion and +translation to the kingdom of heaven," says Bæda, with pardonable +Northumbrian patriotic pride, "even his temporal power was allowed to +increase greatly, so that he did what no Englishman had done +before–that is to say, he united under his own over-lordship all the +provinces of Britain, whether inhabited by English or by Welsh." Eadwine +now took in marriage Æthelburh, daughter of Æthelberht, and sister of +the reigning Kentish king. Justus seized the opportunity to introduce +the Church into Northumbria. He ordained one Paulinus as bishop, to +accompany the Christian lady, to watch over her faith, and if possible +to convert her husband and his people. + +Gregory had planned his scheme with systematic completeness; he had +decided that there should be two metropolitan provinces, of York and +London (which he knew as the old Roman capitals of Britain), and that +each should consist of twelve episcopal sees. Paulinus now went to York +in furtherance of this comprehensive but abortive scheme. A miraculous +escape from assassination, or what was reputed one, gave the Roman monk +a hold over Eadwine's mind; but the king decided to put off his +conversion till he had tried the efficacy of the new faith by a +practical appeal. He went on an expedition against the treacherous king +of the West Saxons, who had endeavoured to assassinate him, and +determined to abide by the result. Having overthrown his enemy with +great slaughter, he returned to his royal city of Coningsborough (the +king's town), and put himself as a catechumen under the care of +Paulinus. The pope himself was induced to interest himself in so +promising a convert; and he wrote a couple of briefs to Eadwine and his +queen. These letters, the originals of which were carefully preserved at +Rome, are copied out in full by Bæda. No doubt, the honour of receiving +such an epistle from the pontiff of the Eternal City was not without its +effect upon the semi-barbaric mind of Eadwine, who seems in some +respects to have inherited the old Roman traditions of Eboracum. + +Still the king held back. To change his own faith was to change the +faith of the whole nation, and he thought it well to consult his witan. +The old English assembly was always aristocratic in character, despite +its ostensible democracy, for it consisted only of the heads of +families; and as the kingdoms grew larger, their aristocratic character +necessarily became more pronounced, as only the wealthier persons could +be in attendance upon the king. The folk-moot had grown into the +witena-gemot, or assembly of wise men. Eadwine assembled such a meeting +on the banks of the Derwent–for moots were always held in the open air +at some sacred spot–and there the priests and thegns declared their +willingness to accept the new religion. Coifi, chief priest of the +heathen gods, himself led the way, and flung a lance in derision at the +temple of his own deities. To the surprise of all, the gods did not +avenge the insult. Thereupon "King Æduin, with all the nobles and most +of the common folk of his nation, received the faith and the font of +holy regeneration, in the eleventh year of his reign, which is the year +of our Lord's incarnation the six hundred and twenty-seventh, and about +the hundred and eightieth after the arrival of the English in Britain. +He was baptized at York on Easter-day, the first before the Ides of +April (April 12), in the church of St. Peter the Apostle, which he +himself had hastily built of wood, while he was being catechised and +prepared for Baptism; and in the same city he gave the bishopric to his +prelate and sponsor Paulinus. But after his Baptism he took care, by +Paulinus's direction, to build a larger and finer church of stone, in +the midst whereof his original chapel should be enclosed." To this day, +York Minster, the lineal descendant of Eadwine's wooden church, remains +dedicated to St. Peter; and the archbishops still sit in the +bishop-stool of Paulinus. Part of Eadwine's later stone cathedral was +discovered under the existing choir during the repairs rendered +necessary by the incendiary Martin. As to the heathen temple, its traces +still remained even in Bæda's day. "That place, formerly the abode of +idols, is now pointed out not far from York to the westward, beyond the +river Dornuentio, and is to-day called Godmundingaham, where the priest +himself, through the inspiration of the true God, polluted and destroyed +the altars which he himself had consecrated." So close did Bæda live to +these early heathen English times. From the date of St. Augustine's +arrival, indeed, Bæda stands upon the surer ground of almost +contemporary narrative. + +Still the greater part of English Britain remained heathen. Kent, Essex, +and Northumbria were converted, or at least their kings and nobles had +been baptised: but East Anglia, Mercia, Sussex, Wessex, and the minor +interior principalities were as yet wholly heathen. Indeed, the various +Teutonic colonies seemed to have received Christianity in the exact +order of their settlement: the older and more civilised first, the newer +and ruder last. Paulinus, however, made another conquest for the church +in Lindsey (Lincolnshire), "where the first who believed," says the +Chronicle, "was a certain great man who hight Blecca, with all his +clan." In the very same year with these successes, Justus died, and +Honorius received the See of Canterbury from Paulinus at the old Roman +city of Lincoln. So far the Roman missionaries remained the only +Christian teachers in England: no English convert seems as yet to have +taken holy orders. + +Again, however, the church received a severe check. Mercia, the youngest +and roughest principality, stood out for heathendom. The western colony +was beginning to raise itself into a great power, under its fierce and +strong old king Penda, who seems to have consolidated all the petty +chieftainships of the Midlands into a single fairly coherent kingdom. +Penda hated Northumbria, which, under Eadwine, had made itself the chief +English state: and he also hated Christianity, which he knew only as a +religion fit for Welsh slaves, not for English warriors. For twenty-two +years, therefore, the old heathen king waged an untiring war against +Christian Northumbria. In 633, he allied himself with Cadwalla, the +Christian Welsh king of Gwynedd, or North Wales, in a war against +Eadwine; an alliance which supplies one more proof that the gulf between +Welsh and English was not so wide as it is sometimes represented to be. +The Welsh and Mercian host met the Northumbrians at Heathfield (perhaps +Hatfield Chase) and utterly destroyed them. Eadwine himself and his son +Osfrith were slain. Penda and Cadwalla "fared thence, and undid all +Northumbria." The country was once more divided into Deira and Bernicia, +and two heathen rulers succeeded to the northern kingdom. Paulinus, +taking Æthelburh, the widow of Eadwine, went by sea to Kent, where +Honorius, whom he had himself consecrated, received him cordially, and +gave him the vacant see of Rochester. There he remained till his death, +and so for a time ended the Christian mission to York. Penda made the +best of his victory by annexing the Southumbrians, the Middle English, +and the Lindiswaras, as well as by conquering the Severn Valley from the +West Saxons. Henceforth, Mercia stands forth as one of the three leading +Teutonic states in Britain. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +ROME AND IONA. + + +It was not the Roman mission which finally succeeded in converting the +North and the Midlands. That success was due to the Scottish and Pictish +Church. At the end of the sixth century, Columba, an Irish missionary, +crossed over to the solitary rock of Iona, where he established an abbey +on the Irish model, and quickly evangelised the northern Picts. From +Iona, some generations later, went forth the devoted missionaries who +finally converted the northern half of England. + +The native churches of the west, cut off from direct intercourse with +the main body of Latin Christendom, had retained certain habits which +were now regarded by Rome as schismatical. Chief among these were the +date of celebrating Easter, and the uncanonical method of cutting the +tonsure in a crescent instead of a circle. Augustine, shortly after his +arrival, endeavoured to obtain unity between the two churches on these +matters of discipline, to which great importance was attached as tests +of submission to the Latin rule. He obtained from Æthelberht a +safe-conduct through the heathen West-Saxon territories as far as what +is now Worcestershire; and there, "on the borders of the Huiccii and +the West-Saxons," says Bæda, "he convened to a colloquy the bishops and +doctors of the nearest province of the Britons, in the place which, to +the present day, is called in the English language, Augustine's Oak." +Such open-air meetings by sacred trees or stones were universal in +England both before and after its conversion. "He began to admonish them +with a brotherly admonition to embrace with him the Catholic faith, and +to undertake the common task of evangelising the pagans. For they did +not observe Easter at the proper period: moreover, they did many other +things contrary to the unity of the Church." But the Welsh were jealous +of the intruders, and refused to abandon their old customs. Thereupon, +Augustine declared that if they would not help him against the heathen, +they would perish by the heathen. A few years later, after Augustine's +death, this prediction was verified by Æthelfrith of Northumbria, whose +massacre of the monks of Bangor has already been noticed. + +It was in return for the destruction of Chester and the slaughter of the +monks that Cadwalla joined the heathen Penda against his fellow +Christian Eadwine. But the death of Eadwine left the throne open for the +house of Æthelfrith, whose place Eadwine had taken. After a year of +renewed heathendom, however, during part of which the Welsh Cadwalla +reigned over Northumbria, Oswald, son of Æthelfrith, again united Deira +and Bernicia under his own rule. Oswald was a Christian, but he had +learnt his Christianity from the Scots, amongst whom he had spent his +exile, and he favoured the introduction of Pictish and Scottish +missionaries into Northumbria. The Italian monks who had accompanied +Augustine were men of foreign speech and manners, representatives of an +alien civilisation, and they attempted to convert whole kingdoms _en +bloc_ by the previous conversion of their rulers. Their method was +political and systematic. But the Pictish and Irish preachers were men +of more Britannic feelings, and they went to work with true missionary +earnestness to convert the half Celtic people of Northumbria, man by +man, in their own homes. Aidan, the apostle of the north, carried the +Pictish faith into the Lothians and Northumberland. He placed his +bishop-stool not far from the royal town of Bamborough, at Lindisfarne, +the Holy Island of the Northumbrian coast. Other Celtic missionaries +penetrated further south, even into the heathen realm of Penda and his +tributary princes. Ceadda or Chad, the patron saint of Lichfield, +carried Christianity to the Mercians. Diuma preached to the Middle +English of Leicester with much success, Peada, their ealdorman, son of +Penda, having himself already embraced the new faith. Penda had slain +Oswald in a great battle at Maserfeld in 641; but the martyr only +brought increased glory to the Christians: and Oswiu, who succeeded him, +after an interval of anarchy, as king of Deira (for Bernicia now chose a +king of its own), was also a zealous adherent of the Celtic +missionaries. Thus the heterodox Church made rapid strides throughout +the whole of the north. + +Meanwhile, in the south the Latin missionaries, urged to activity, +perhaps, by the Pictish successes, had been making fresh progress. In +the very year when Oswald was chosen king by the Northumbrians, Birinus, +a priest from northern Italy, went by command of the pope to the West +Saxons: and after twelve months he was able to baptise their king, +Cynegils, at his capital of Dorchester, on the Thames, his sponsor being +Oswald of Northumbria. A year later, Felix, a Burgundian, "preached the +faith of Christ to the East Anglians," who had indeed been converted by +the Augustinian missionaries, but afterwards relapsed. Only Sussex and +Mercia still remained heathen. But, in 655, Penda made a last attempt +against Northumbria, which he had harried year after year, and was met +by Oswiu at Winwidfield, near Leeds; the Christians were successful, and +Penda was slain, together with thirty royal persons–petty princes of +the tributary Mercian states, no doubt. His son, Peada, the Christian +ealdorman of the Middle English, succeeded him, and the Mercians became +Christians of the Pictish or Irish type. "Their first bishop," says +Bæda, "was Diuma, who died and was buried among the Middle English. The +second was Cellach, who abandoned his bishopric, and returned during his +lifetime to Scotland (perhaps Ireland, but more probably the Scottish +kingdom in Argyllshire). Both of these were by birth Irishmen. The third +was Trumhere, by race an Englishman, but educated and ordained by the +Irish." Thus Roman Christianity spread over the whole of England south +of the Wash (save only heathen Sussex): while the Irish Church had made +its way over all the north, from the Wash to the Firth of Forth. The +Roman influence may be partly traced by the Roman alphabet superseding +the old English runes. Runic inscriptions are rare in the south, where +they were regarded as heathenish relics, and so destroyed: but they are +comparatively common in the north. Runics appear on the coins of the +first Christian kings of Mercia, Peada and Æthelred, but soon die out +under their successors. + +Heathendom was now fairly vanquished. It survived only in Sussex, cut +off from the rest of England by the forest belt of the Weald. The next +trial of strength must clearly lie between Rome and Iona. + +The northern bishops and abbots traced their succession, not to +Augustine, but to Columba. Cuthberht, the English apostle of the north, +who really converted the _people_ of Northumbria, as earlier +missionaries had converted its _kings_, derived his orders from Iona. +Rome or Ireland, was now the practical question of the English Church. +As might be expected, Rome conquered. To allay the discord, King Oswiu +summoned a synod at Streoneshalch (now known by its later Danish name of +Whitby) in 664, to settle the vexed question as to the date of Easter. +The Irish priests claimed the authority of St. John for their crescent +tonsure; the Romans, headed by Wilfrith, a most vigorous priest, +appealed to the authority of St. Peter for the canonical circle. "I will +never offend the saint who holds the keys of heaven," said Oswiu, with +the frank, half-heathendom of a recent convert; and the meeting shortly +decided as the king would have it. The Irish party acquiesced or else +returned to Scotland; and thenceforth the new English Church remained in +close communion with Rome and the Continent. Whatever may be our +ecclesiastical judgment of this decision, there can be little doubt that +its material effects were most excellent. By bringing England into +connection with Rome, it brought her into connection with the centre of +all then-existing civilisation, and endowed her with arts and +manufactures which she could never otherwise have attained. The +connection with Ireland and the north would have been as fatal, from a +purely secular point of view, to early English culture as was the later +connection with half-barbaric Scandinavia. Rome gave England the Roman +letters, arts, and organisation: Ireland could only have given her a +more insular form of Celtic civilisation. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +CHRISTIAN ENGLAND. + + +The change wrought in England by the introduction of the new faith was +immense and sudden at the moment, as well as deep-reaching in its after +consequences. The isolated heathen barbaric communities became at once +an integral part of the great Roman and Christian civilisation. Even +before the arrival of Augustine, some slight tincture of Roman influence +had filtered through into the English world. The Welsh serfs had +preserved some traditional knowledge of Roman agriculture; Kent had kept +up some intercourse with the Continent; and even in York, Eadwine +affected a certain imitation of Roman pomp. But after the introduction +of Christianity, Roman civilisation began to produce marked results over +the whole country. Writing, before almost unknown, or confined to the +engraving of runic characters on metal objects, grew rapidly into a +common art. The Latin language was introduced, and with it the key to +the Latin literature and Latin science, the heirlooms of Greece and the +East. Roman influences affected the little courts of the English kings; +and the customary laws began to be written down in regular codes. Before +the conversion we have not a single written document upon which to base +our history; from the moment of Augustine's landing we have the +invaluable works of Bæda, and a host of lesser writings (chiefly lives +of saints), besides an immense number of charters or royal grants of +land to monasteries and private persons. These grants, written at first +in Latin, but afterwards in Anglo-Saxon, were preserved in the +monasteries down to the date of their dissolution, and then became the +property of various collectors. They have been transcribed and published +by Mr. Kemble and Mr. Thorpe, and they form some of our most useful +materials for the early history of Christian England. + +It was mainly by means of the monasteries that Christianity became a +great civilising and teaching agency in England. Those who judge +monastic institutions only by their later and worst days, when they had, +perhaps, ceased to perform any useful function, are apt to forget the +benefits which they conferred upon the people in the earlier stages of +their existence. The state of England during this first Christian period +was one of chronic and bloody warfare. There was no regular army, but +every freeman was a soldier, and raids of one English tribe upon another +were everyday occurrences; while pillaging frays on the part of the +Welsh, followed by savage reprisals on the part of the English, were +still more frequent. During the heathen period, even the Picts seem +often to have made piractical expeditions far into the south of England. +In 597, for example, we read in the Chronicle that Ceolwulf, king of the +West Saxons, constantly fought "either against the English, or against +the Welsh, or against the Picts." But in 603, the Argyllshire Scots made +a raid against Northumbria, and were so completely crushed by +Æthelfrith, that "since then no king of Scots durst lead a host against +this folk"; while the southern Picts of Galloway became tributaries of +the Northumbrian kings. But war between Saxons and English, or between +Teutons and Welsh, still remained chronic; and Christianity did little +to prevent these perpetual border wars and raids. In 633, Cadwalla and +Penda wasted Northumbria; in 644, Penda drove out King Kenwealh, of the +West Saxons, from his possessions along the Severn; in 671, Wulfhere, +the Mercian, ravaged Wessex and the south as far as Ashdown, and +conquered Wight, which he gave to the South Saxons; and so, from time to +time, we catch glimpses of the unceasing strife between each folk and +its neighbours, besides many hints of intestine struggles between prince +and prince, or of rivalries between one petty shire and others of the +same kingdom, far too numerous and unimportant to be detailed here in +full. + +With such a state of affairs as this, it became a matter of deep +importance that there should be some one institution where the arts of +peace might be carried on in safety; where agriculture might be sure of +its reward; where literature and science might be studied; and where +civilising influences might be safe from interruption or rapine. The +monasteries gave an opportunity for such an ameliorating influence to +spring up. They were spared even in war by the reverence of the people +for the Church; and they became places where peaceful minds might +retire for honest work, and learning, and thinking, away from the fierce +turmoil of a still essentially barbaric and predatory community. At the +same time, they encouraged the development of this very type of mind by +turning the reproach of cowardice, which it would have carried with it +in heathen times, into an honour and a mark of holiness. Every monastery +became a centre of light and of struggling culture for the surrounding +district. They were at once, to the early English recluse, universities +and refuges, places of education, of retirement, and of peace, in the +midst of a jarring and discordant world. + +Hence, almost the first act of every newly-converted prince was to found +a monastery in his dominions. That of Canterbury dates from the arrival +of Augustine. In 643, Kenwealh of Wessex "bade timber the old minster at +Winchester." In 654, shortly after the conversion of East Anglia, +"Botulf began to build a monastery at Icanho," since called after his +name Botulf's tun, or Boston. In 657, Peada of Mercia and Oswiu of +Northumbria "said that they would rear a monastery to the glory of +Christ and the honour of St. Peter; and they did so, and gave it the +name of Medeshamstede"; but it is now known as Peterborough.[1] + + [1] The charter is a late forgery, but there is no reason to + doubt that it represents the correct tradition. + +Before the battle of Winwidfield, Oswiu had vowed to build twelve +minsters in his kingdom, and he redeemed his vow by founding six in +Bernicia and six in Deira. In 669, Ecgberht of Kent "gave Reculver to +Bass, the mass-priest, to build a monastery thereon." In 663, +Æthelthryth, a lady of royal blood, better known by the Latinised name +of St. Etheldreda, "began the monastery at Ely." Before Bæda's death, in +735, religious houses already existed at Lastingham, Melrose, +Lindisfarne, Whithern, Bardney, Gilling, Bury, Ripon, Chertsey, Barking, +Abercorn, Selsey, Redbridge, Coldingham, Towcester, Hackness, and +several other places. So the whole of England was soon covered with +monastic establishments, each liberally endowed with land, and each +engaged in tilling the soil without, and cultivating peaceful arts +within, like little islands of southern civilisation, dotted about in +the wide sea of Teutonic barbarism. + +In the Roman south, many, if not all, of the monasteries seem to have +been planned on the regular models; but in the north, where the Irish +missionaries had borne the largest share in the work of conversion, the +monasteries were irregular bodies on the Irish plan, where an abbot or +abbess ruled over a mixed community of monks and nuns. Hild, a member of +the Northumbrian princely family, founded such an abbey at Streoneshalch +(Whitby), made memorable by numbering amongst its members the first +known English poet, Cædmon. St. John of Beverley, Bishop of Hexham, set +up a similar monastery at the place with which his name is so closely +associated. The Irish monks themselves founded others at Lindisfarne and +elsewhere. Even in the south, some Irish abbeys existed. An Irish monk +had set up one at Bosham, in Sussex, even before Wilfrith converted that +kingdom; and one of his countrymen, Maidulf (or Maeldubh?) was the +original head of Malmesbury. In process of time, however, as the union +with Rome grew stronger, all these houses conformed to the more regular +usage, and became monasteries of the ordinary Benedictine type. + +The civilising value of the monasteries can hardly be over-rated. Secure +in the peace conferred upon them by a religious sanction, the monks +became the builders of schools, the drainers of marshland, the clearers +of forest, the tillers of heath. Many of the earliest religious houses +rose in the midst of what had previously been trackless wilds. +Peterborough and Ely grew up on islands of the Fen country. Crowland +gathered round the cell of Guthlac in the midst of a desolate mere. +Evesham occupied a glade in the wild forests of the western march. +Glastonbury, an old Welsh foundation, stood on a solitary islet, where +the abrupt knoll of the Tor looks down upon the broad waste of the +Somersetshire marshes. Beverley, as its name imports, had been a haunt +of beavers before the monks began to till its fruitful dingles. In every +case agriculture soon turned the wild lands into orchards and +cornfields, or drove drains through the fens which converted their +marshes into meadows and pastures for the long-horned English cattle. +Roman architecture, too, came with the Roman church. We hear nothing +before of stone buildings; but Eadwine erected a church of stone at +York, under the direction of Paulinus; and Bishop Wilfrith, a +generation later, restored and decorated it, covering the roof with lead +and filling the windows with panes of glass. Masons had already been +settled in Kent, though Benedict, the founder of Wearmouth and Jarrow, +found it desirable to bring over others from the Franks. Metal-working +had always been a special gift of the English, and their gold jewellery +was well made even before the conversion, but it became still more +noticeable after the monks took the craft into their own hands. Bæda +mentions mines of copper, iron, lead, silver, and jet. Abbot Benedict +not only brought manuscripts and pictures from Rome, which were copied +and imitated in his monasteries at Wearmouth and Jarrow, but he also +brought over glass-blowers, who introduced the art of glass-making into +England. Cuthberht, Bæda's scholar, writes to Lull, asking for workmen +who can make glass vessels. Bells appear to have been equally early +introductions. Roman music of course accompanied the Roman liturgy. The +connection established with the clergy of the continent favoured the +dispersion of European goods throughout England. We constantly hear of +presents, consisting of skilled handicraft, passing from the civilised +south to the rude and barbaric north. Wilfrith and Benedict journeyed +several times to and from Rome, enlarging their own minds by intercourse +with Roman society, and returning laden with works of art or manuscripts +of value. Bæda was acquainted with the writings of all the chief +classical poets and philosophers, whom he often quotes. We can only +liken the results of such intercourse to those which in our own time +have proceeded from the opening of Japan to western ideas, or of the +Hawaiian Islands to European civilisation and European missionaries. The +English school which soon sprang up at Rome, and the Latin schools which +soon sprang up at York and Canterbury, are precise equivalents of the +educational movements in both those countries which we see in our own +day. The monks were to learn Latin and Greek "as well as they learned +their own tongue," and were so to be given the key of all the literature +and all the science that the world then possessed. + +The monasteries thus became real manufacturing, agricultural, and +literary centres on a small scale. The monks boiled down the salt of the +brine-pits; they copied and illuminated manuscripts in the library; they +painted pictures not without rude merit of their own; they ran rhines +through the marshy moorland; they tilled the soil with vigour and +success. A new culture began to occupy the land–the culture whose +fully-developed form we now see around us. But it must never be +forgotten that in its origin it is wholly Roman, and not at all +Anglo-Saxon. Our people showed themselves singularly apt at embracing +it, like the modern Polynesians, and unlike the American Indians; but +they did not invent it for themselves. Our existing culture is not +home-bred at all; it is simply the inherited and widened culture of +Greece and Italy. + +The most perfect picture of the monastic life and of early English +Christianity which we possess is that drawn for us in the life and +works of Bæda. Before giving any account, however, of the sketch which +he has left us, it will be necessary to follow briefly the course of +events in the English church during the few intervening years. + +The Church of England in its existing form owes its organisation to a +Greek monk. In 667, Oswiu of Northumbria and Ecgberht of Kent, in order +to bring their dominions into closer connection with Rome, united in +sending Wigheard the priest to the pope, that he might be hallowed +Archbishop of Canterbury. No Englishman had yet held that office, and +the choice may be regarded as a symptom of growth in the native Church. +But Wigheard died at Rome, and the pope seized the opportunity to +consecrate an archbishop in the Roman interest. His choice fell upon one +Theodore, a monk of Tarsus in Cilicia, who was in the orders of the +Eastern church. The pope was particular, however, that Theodore should +not "introduce anything contrary to the verity of the faith into the +Church over which he was to preside." Theodore accepted Roman orders and +the Roman tonsure, and set out for his province, where he arrived after +various adventures on the way. His re-organisation of the young Church +was thorough and systematic. Originally England had been divided into +seven great dioceses, corresponding to the principal kingdoms (save only +still heathen Sussex), and having their sees in their chief towns–East +and West Kent, at Canterbury and Rochester; Essex, at London; Wessex, at +Dorchester or Winchester; Northumbria, at York; East Anglia, at +Dunwich; and Mercia, at Lichfield. The Scottish bishopric of Lindisfarne +coincided with Bernicia. Theodore divided these great dioceses into +smaller ones; East Anglia had two, for its north and south folk, at +Elmham and Dunwich; Bernicia was divided between Lindisfarne and Hexham; +Lincolnshire had its see placed at Sidnacester; and the sub-kingdoms of +Mercia were also made into dioceses, the Huiccii having their +bishop-stool at Worcester; the Hecans, at Hereford; and the Middle +English, at Leicester. But Theodore's great work was the establishment +of the national synod, in which all the clergy of the various English +kingdoms met together as a single people. This was the first step ever +taken towards the unification of England; and the ecclesiastical unity +thus preceded and paved the way for the political unity which was to +follow it. Theodore's organisation brought the whole Church into +connection with Rome. The bishops owing their orders to the Scots +conformed or withdrew, and henceforward Rome held undisputed sway. +Before Theodore, all the archbishops of Canterbury and all the bishops +of the southern kingdoms had been Roman missionaries; those of the north +had been Scots or in Scottish orders. After Theodore they were all +Englishmen in Roman orders. The native church became thenceforward +wholly self-supporting. + +Theodore was much aided in his projects by Wilfrith of York, a man of +fiery energy and a devoted adherent of the Roman see, who had carried +the Roman supremacy at the Synod of Whitby, and who spent a large part +of his time in journeys between England and Italy. His life, by Æddi, +forms one of the most important documents for early English history. In +681 he completed the conversion of England by his preaching to the South +Saxons, whom he endeavoured to civilise as well as Christianise. His +monastery of Selsey was built on land granted by the under-king (now a +tributary of Wessex), and his first act was to emancipate the slaves +whom he found upon the soil. Equally devoted to Rome was the young +Northumbrian noble, who took the religious name of Benedict Biscop. +Benedict became at first an inmate of the Abbey of Lérins, near Cannes. +He afterwards founded two regular Benedictine abbeys on the same model +at Wearmouth and Jarrow, and made at least four visits to the papal +court, whence he returned laden with manuscripts to introduce Roman +learning among his wild Northumbrian countrymen. He likewise carried +over silk robes for sale to the kings in exchange for grants of land; +and he brought glaziers from Gaul for his churches. Jarrow alone +contained 500 monks, and possessed endowments of 15,000 acres. + +It was under the walls of Jarrow that Bæda himself was born, in the year +672. Only fifty years had passed since his native Northumbria was still +a heathen land. Not more than forty years had gone since the conversion +of Wessex, and Sussex was still given over to the worship of Thunor and +Woden. But Bæda's own life was one which brought him wholly into +connection with Christian teachers and Roman culture. Left an orphan at +the age of seven years, he was handed over to the care of Abbot +Benedict, after whose death Abbot Ceolfrid took charge of the young +aspirant. "Thenceforth," says the aged monk, fifty years later, "I +passed all my lifetime in the building of that monastery [Jarrow], and +gave all my days to meditating on Scripture. In the intervals of my +regular monastic discipline, and of my daily task of chanting in chapel, +I have always amused myself either by learning, teaching, or writing. In +the nineteenth year of my life I received ordination as deacon; in my +thirtieth year I attained to the priesthood; both functions being +administered by the most reverend bishop John [afterwards known as St. +John of Beverley], at the request of Abbot Ceolfrid. From the time of my +ordination as priest to the fifty-ninth year of my life, I have occupied +myself in briefly commenting upon Holy Scripture, for the use of myself +and my brethren, from the works of the venerable fathers, and in some +cases I have added interpretations of my own to aid in their +comprehension." + +The variety of Bæda's works, the large knowledge of science and of +classical literature which he displays (when judged by the continental +standard of the eighth century), and his familiar acquaintance with the +Latin language, which he writes easily and correctly, show that the +library of Jarrow must have been extensive and valuable. Besides his +Scriptural commentaries, he wrote a treatise _De Natura Rerum_, Letters +on the Reason of Leap-Year, a Life of St. Anastasius, and a History of +his Own Abbey, all in Latin. In verse, he composed many pieces, both in +hexameters and elegiacs, together with a treatise on prosody. But his +greatest work is his "Ecclesiastical History of the English People," the +authority from which we derive almost all our knowledge of early +Christian England. It was doubtless suggested by the Frankish history of +Gregory of Tours, and it consists of five books, divided into short +chapters, making up about 400 pages of a modern octavo. Five +manuscripts, one of them transcribed only two years after Bæda's death, +and now deposited in the Cambridge library, preserve for us the text of +this priceless document. The work itself should be read in the original, +or in one of the many excellent translations, by every person who takes +any intelligent interest in our early history. + +Bæda's accomplishments included even a knowledge of Greek–then a rare +acquisition in the west–which he probably derived from Archbishop +Theodore's school at Canterbury. He was likewise an English author, for +he translated the Gospel of St. John into his native Northumbrian; and +the task proved the last of his useful life. Several manuscripts have +preserved to us the letter of Cuthberht, afterwards Abbot of Jarrow, to +his friend Cuthwine, giving us the very date of his death, May 27, A.D. +735, and also narrating the pathetic but somewhat overdrawn picture, +with which we are all familiar, of how he died just as he had completed +his translation of the last chapter. "Thus saying, he passed the day in +peace till eventide. The boy [his scribe] said to him, 'Still one +sentence, beloved master, is yet unwritten.' He answered, 'Write it +quickly.' After a while the boy said, 'Now the sentence is written.' +Then he replied, 'It is well,' quoth he, 'thou hast said the truth: it +is finished.'... And so he passed away to the kingdom of heaven." + +It is impossible to overrate the importance of the change which made +such a life of earnest study and intellectual labour as Bæda's possible +amongst the rough and barbaric English. Nor was it only in producing +thinkers and readers from a people who could not spell a word half a +century before, that the monastic system did good to England. The +monasteries owned large tracts of land which they could cultivate on a +co-operative plan, as cultivation was impossible elsewhere. _Laborare +est orare_ was the true monastic motto: and the documents of the +religious houses, relating to lands and leases, show us the other or +material side of the picture, which was not less important in its way +than the spiritual and intellectual side. Everywhere the monks settled +in the woodland by the rivers, cut down the forests, drove out the +wolves and the beavers, cultivated the soil with the aid of their +tenants and serfs, and became colonisers and civilisers at the same time +that they were teachers and preachers. The reclamation of waste land +throughout the marshes of England was due almost entirely to the +monastic bodies. + +The value of the civilising influence thus exerted is seen especially in +the written laws, and it affected even the actions of the fierce English +princes. The dooms of Æthelberht of Kent are the earliest English +documents which we possess, and they were reduced to writing shortly +after the conversion of the first English Christian king: while Bæda +expressly mentions that they were compiled after Roman models. The +Church was not able to hold the warlike princes really in check; but it +imposed penances, and encouraged many of them to make pilgrimages to +Rome, and to end their days in a cloister. The importance of such +pilgrimages was doubtless immense. They induced the rude insular +nobility to pay a visit to what was still, after all, the most civilised +country of the world, and so to gain some knowledge of a foreign +culture, which they afterwards endeavoured to introduce into their own +homes. In 688, Ceadwalla, the ferocious king of the West Saxons, whose +brother Mul had been burnt alive by the men of Kent, and who harried the +Jutish kingdom in return, and who also murdered two princes of Wight, +with all their people, in cold blood, went on a pilgrimage to Rome, +where he was baptised, and died immediately after.[2] Ine, who succeeded +him, re-endowed the old British monastery of Glastonbury, in territory +just conquered from the West Welsh, and reduced the laws of the West +Saxons to writing. He, too, retired to Rome, where he died. In 704, +Æthelred, son of Penda, king of the Mercians, "assumed monkhood." In +709, Cenred, his successor, and Offa of Essex, went to Rome. And so on +for many years, king after king resigned his kingship, and submitted, in +his latter days, to the Church. Within two centuries, no less than +thirty kings and queens are recorded to have embraced a conventual life: +and far more probably did so, but were passed over in silence. Bæda +tells us that many Englishmen went into monasteries in Gaul. + + [2] He was buried at St. Peter's, and his tomb still exists + in the remodelled building. Bæda quotes the inscription in + full, and quotes it correctly; a fact which may be taken as + an excellent test of his historical accuracy, and the care + with which he collected his materials. + +On the other hand, it cannot be denied that while Christianity made +great progress, many marks of heathendom were still left among the +people. Well-worship and stone-worship, devil-craft and sacrifices to +idols, are mentioned in every Anglo-Saxon code of laws, and had to be +provided against even as late as the time of Eadgar. The belief in elves +and other semi-heathen beings, and the reverence for heathen memorials, +was rife, and shows itself in such names as Ælfred, elf-counsel; +Ælfstan, elf-stone; Ælfgifu, elf-given; Æthelstan, noble-stone; and +Wulfstan, wolf-stone. Heathendom was banished from high places, but it +lingered on among the lower classes, and affected the nomenclature even +of the later West Saxon kings themselves. Indeed, it was closely +interwoven with all the life and thought of the people, and entered, in +altered forms, even into the conceptions of Christianity current amongst +them. The Christian poem of Cædmon is tinctured on every page with ideas +derived from the legends of the old heathen mythology. And it will +probably surprise many to learn that even at this late date, tattooing +continued to be practised by the English chieftains. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE KINGDOMS. + + +With the final triumph of Christianity, all the formative elements of +Anglo-Saxon Britain are complete. We see it, a rough conglomeration of +loosely-aggregated principalities, composed of a fighting aristocracy +and a body of unvalued serfs; while interspersed through its parts are +the bishops, monks, and clergy, centres of nascent civilisation for the +seething mass of noble barbarism. The country is divided into +agricultural colonies, and its only industry is agriculture, its only +wealth, land. We want but one more conspicuous change to make it into +the England of the Augustan Anglo-Saxon age–the reign of Eadgar–and +that one change is the consolidation of the discordant kingdoms under a +single loose over-lordship. To understand this final step, we must +glance briefly at the dull record of the political history. + +Under Æthelfrith, Eadwine, and Oswiu, Northumbria had been the chief +power in England. But the eighth century is taken up with the greatness +of Mercia. Ecgfrith, the last great king of Northumbria, whose +over-lordship extended over the Picts of Galloway and the Cumbrians of +Strathclyde, endeavoured to carry his conquests beyond the Forth, and +annex the free land lying to the north of the old Roman line. He was +defeated and slain, and with him fell the supremacy of Northumbria. +Mercia, which already, under Penda and Wulfhere, had risen to the second +place, now assumed the first position among the Teutonic kingdoms. +Unfortunately we know little of the period of Mercian supremacy. The +West Saxon chronicle contains few notices of the rival state, and we are +thrown for information chiefly on the second-hand Latin historians of +the twelfth century. Æthelbald, the first powerful Mercian king +(716-755), "ravaged the land of the Northumbrians," and made Wessex +acknowledge his supremacy. By this time all the minor kingdoms had +practically become subject to the three great powers, though still +retaining their native princes: and Wessex, Mercia, and Northumbria +shared between them, as suzerains, the whole of Teutonic Britain. The +meagre annals of the Chronicle, upon which alone (with the Charters and +Latin writers of later date) we rest after the death of Bæda, show us a +chaotic list of wars and battles between these three great powers +themselves, or between them and their vassals, or with the Welsh and +Devonians. Æthelbald was succeeded, after a short interval, by Offa, +whose reign of nearly forty years (758-796), is the first settled period +in English history. Offa ruled over the subject princes with rigour, and +seems to have made his power really felt. He drove the Prince of Powys +from Shrewsbury, and carried his ravages into the heart of Wales. He +conquered the land between the Severn and the Wye, and his dyke from +the Dee to the Severn, and the Wye, marked the new limits of the Welsh +and English borders; while his laws codified the customs of Mercia, as +those of Æthelberht and Ine had done with the customs of Kent and +Wessex. He set up for awhile an archbishopric at Lichfield, which seems +to mark his determination to erect Mercia into a sovereign power. He +also founded the great monastery of St. Alban's, and is said to have +established the English college at Rome, though another account +attributes it to Ine, the West Saxon. East Anglia, Kent, Essex, and +Sussex all acknowledged his supremacy. Karl the Great was then reviving +the Roman Empire in its Germanic form, and Offa ventured to correspond +with the Frank emperor as an equal. The possession of London, now a +Mercian city, gave Offa an interest in continental affairs; and the +growth of trade is marked by the fact that when a quarrel arose between +them, they formally closed the ports of their respective kingdoms +against each other's subjects. + +Nevertheless, English kingship still remained a mere military office, +and consolidation, in our modern sense, was clearly impossible. Local +jealousies divided all the little kingdoms and their component +principalities; and any real subordination was impracticable amongst a +purely agricultural and warlike people, with no regular army, and +governed only by their own anarchic desires. Like the Afghans of the +present time, the early English were incapable of union, except in a +temporary way under the strong hand of a single warlike leader against a +common foe. As soon as that was removed, they fell asunder at once into +their original separateness. Hence the chaotic nature of our early +annals, in which it is impossible to discover any real order underlying +the perpetual flux of states and princes. + +A single story from the Chronicle will sufficiently illustrate the type +of men whose actions make up the history of these predatory times. In +754, King Cuthred of the West Saxons died. His kinsman, Sigeberht, +succeeded him. One year later, however, Cynewulf and the witan deprived +Sigeberht of his kingdom, making over to him only the petty principality +of Hampshire, while Cynewulf himself reigned in his stead. After a time +Sigeberht murdered an ealdorman of his suite named Cymbra; whereupon +Cynewulf deprived him of his remaining territory and drove him forth +into the forest of the Weald. There he lived a wild life till a herdsman +met him in the forest and stabbed him, to avenge the death of his +master, Cymbra. Cynewulf, in turn, after spending his days in fighting +the Welsh, lost his life in a quarrel with Cyneheard, brother of the +outlawed Sigeberht. He had endeavoured to drive out the ætheling; but +Cyneheard surprised him at Merton, and slew him with all his thegns, +except one Welsh hostage. Next day, the king's friends, headed by the +ealdorman Osric, fell upon the ætheling, and killed him with all his +followers. In the very same year, Æthelbald of Mercia was killed +fighting at Seckington; and Offa drove out his successor, Beornred. Of +such murders, wars, surprises, and dynastic quarrels, the history of +the eighth century is full. But no modern reader need know more of them +than the fact that they existed, and that they prove the wholly +ungoverned and ungovernable nature of the early English temper. + +Until the Danish invasions of the ninth century, the tribal kingdoms +still remained practically separate, and such cohesion as existed was +only secured for the purpose of temporary defence or aggression. Essex +kept its own kings under Æthelberht of Kent; Huiccia retained its royal +house under Æthelred of Mercia; and later on, Mercia itself had its +ealdormen, after the conquest by Ecgberht of Wessex. Each royal line +reigned under the supreme power until it died out naturally, like our +own great feudatories in India at the present day. "When Wessex and +Mercia have worked their way to the rival hegemonies," says Canon +Stubbs, "Sussex and Essex do not cease to be numbered among the +kingdoms, until their royal houses are extinct. When Wessex has +conquered Mercia and brought Northumbria on its knees, there are still +kings in both Northumbria and Mercia. The royal house of Kent dies out, +but the title of King of Kent is bestowed on an ætheling, first of the +Mercian, then of the West Saxon house. Until the Danish conquest, the +dependant royalties seem to have been spared; and even afterwards +organic union can scarcely be said to exist." + +The final supremacy of the West Saxons was mainly brought about by the +Danish invasion. But the man who laid the foundation of the West Saxon +power was Ecgberht, the so-called first king of all England. Banished +from Wessex during his youth by one of the constant dynastic quarrels, +through the enmity of Offa, the young ætheling had taken refuge with +Karl the Great, at the court of Aachen, and there had learnt to +understand the rising statesmanship of the Frankish race and of the +restored Roman empire. The death of his enemy Beorhtric, in 802, left +the kingdom open to him: but the very day of his accession showed him +the character of the people whom he had come to rule. The men of +Worcester celebrated his arrival by a raid on the men of Wilts. "On that +ilk day," says the Chronicle, "rode Æthelhund, ealdorman of the Huiccias +[who were Mercians], over at Cynemæres ford; and there Weohstan the +ealdorman met him with the Wilts men [who were West Saxons:] and there +was a muckle fight, and both ealdormen were slain, and the Wilts men won +the day." For twenty years, Ecgberht was engaged in consolidating his +ancestral dominions: but at the end of that time, he found himself able +to attack the Mercians, who had lost Offa six years before Ecgberht's +return. In 825, the West Saxons met the Mercian host at Ellandun, "and +Ecgberht gained the day, and there was muckle slaughter." Therefore all +the Saxon name, held tributary by the Mercians, gathered about the Saxon +champion. "The Kentish folk, and they of Surrey, and the South Saxons, +and the East Saxons turned to him." In the same year, the East Anglians, +anxious to avoid the power of Mercia, "sought Ecgberht for peace and for +aid." Beornwulf, the Mercian king, marched against his revolted +tributaries: but the East Anglians fought him stoutly, and slew him and +his successor in two battles. Ecgberht followed up this step by annexing +Mercia in 829: after which he marched northward against the +Northumbrians, who at once "offered him obedience and peace; and they +thereupon parted." One year later, Ecgberht led an army against the +northern Welsh, and "reduced them to humble obedience." Thus the West +Saxon kingdom absorbed all the others, at least so far as a loose +over-lordship was concerned. Ecgberht had rivalled his master Karl by +founding, after a fashion, the empire of the English. But all the local +jealousies smouldered on as fiercely as ever, the under-kings retained +their several dominions, and Ecgberht's supremacy was merely one of +superior force, unconnected with any real organic unity of the kingdom +as a whole. Ecgberht himself generally bore the title of King of the +West Saxons, like his ancestors: and though in dealing with his Anglian +subjects he styled himself Rex Anglorum, that title perhaps means little +more than the humbler one of Rex Gewissorum, which he used in addressing +his people of the lesser principality. The real kingdom of the English +never existed before the days of Eadward the Elder, and scarcely before +the days of William the Norman and Henry the Angevin. As to the kingdom +of England, that was a far later invention of the feudal lawyers. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE RESISTANCE TO THE DANES. + + +In the long period of three and a-half centuries which had elapsed +between the Jutish conquest of Kent and the establishment of the West +Saxon over-lordship, the politics of Britain had been wholly insular. +The island had been brought back by Augustine and his successors into +ecclesiastical, commercial, and literary union with the continent: but +no foreign war or invasion had ever broken the monotony of murdering the +Welsh and harrying the surrounding English. The isolation of England was +complete. Ship-building was almost an obsolete art: and the small trade +which still centred in London seems to have been mainly carried on in +Frisian bottoms; for the Low Dutch of the continent still retained the +seafaring habits which those of England had forgotten. But a new enemy +was now beginning to appear in northern Europe–the Scandinavians. The +history of the great wicking movement forms the subject of a separate +volume in this series: but the manner in which the English met it will +demand a brief treatment here. Some outline of the bare facts, however, +must first be premised. + +As early as 789, during the reign of Offa in Mercia, "three ships of +Northmen from Hæretha land" came on shore in Wessex. "Then the reeve +rode against them, and would have driven them to the king's town, for he +wist not what they were: and there men slew him. Those were the first +ships of Danish men that ever sought English kin's land." In 795, "the +harrying of heathen men wretchedly destroyed God's church at Lindisfarne +isle, through rapine and manslaughter." In the succeeding year, "the +heathen harried among the Northumbrians, and plundered Ecgberht's +monastery at Wearmouth." In 832, "heathen men ravaged Sheppey"; and a +year later, "King Ecgberht fought against the crews of thirty-five ships +at Charmouth, and there was muckle slaughter made, and the Danes held +the battle-field."[1] In 835, another host came to the West Welsh (now +almost reduced to the peninsula of Cornwall): and the Welsh readily +joined them against their West Saxon over-lord. Ecgberht met the united +hosts at Hengestesdun and put them both to flight. It was his last +success. In the succeeding year he died, and the kingdom descended to +his weak son, Æthelwulf. His second son, Æthelstan, was placed over +Kent, Essex, Surrey, and Sussex, as under-king. + + [1] This entry in the Chronicle, however, is probably + erroneous, as an exactly similar one occurs under Æthelwulf, + seven years later. + +Next spring, the flood of wickings began to pour in earnest over +England. Thirty-three piratical ships sailed up Southampton Water to +pillage Southampton, perhaps with an ultimate eye to the treasures of +royal Winchester, the capital and minster-town of the West Saxon +over-lord himself. This was a bold attempt, but the West Saxons met it +in full force. The ealdorman Wulfheard gathered together the levy of +fighting men, attacked the host, and put it to flight with great +slaughter. Shortly after a second Danish host landed near Portland, +doubtless to plunder Dorchester: and the local ealdorman Æthelhelm, +falling upon them with the levy of Dorset men, was defeated after a +sharp struggle, leaving the heathen in possession of the field. It was +not in Wessex, however, that the wickings were to make their great +success. The north had long suffered from terrible anarchy, and was a +ready prey for any invader. Out of fourteen kings who had reigned in +Northumbria during the eighth century, no less than seven were put to +death and six expelled by their rebellious subjects. Christian +Northumbria, which in Bæda's days had been the most flourishing part of +Britain, was now reduced to a mere agglomeration of petty princes and +clans, dependent on the West Saxon over-lord, and utterly unconnected +with one another in feeling or sympathy. Already we have seen how the +Danes harried Northumbria without opposition. The same was probably the +case with the whole Anglian coast on the east. In 840, the wickings fell +on the fen country. "The ealdorman Hereberht was slain by heathen men, +and many with him among the marsh-men." All down the east coast, the +piratical fleet proceeded, burning and slaughtering as it went. "In the +same year, in Lindsey, and in East Anglia, and among the Kent men, many +men were slain by the host." A year later, the wickings returned, +growing bolder as they found out the helplessness of the people. They +sailed up the Thames, and ravaged Rochester and London, with great +slaughter; after which they crossed the channel and fell upon Cwantawic, +or Étaples, a commercial port in the Saxon land of the Boulonnais. In +842, a Danish host defeated Æthelwulf himself at Charmouth in Dorset; +and in the succeeding summer "the ealdorman Eanulf, with the Somerset +levy, and Bishop Ealhstan and the ealdorman Osric, with the Dorset levy, +fought at Parretmouth with the host, and made a muckle slaughter, and +won the day." + +The utter weakness of the first English resistance is well shown in +these facts. A terrible flood of heathen savagery was let loose upon the +country, and the people were wholly unable to cope with it. There was +absolutely no central organisation, no army, no commissariat, no ships. +The heathen host landed suddenly wherever it found the people +unprepared, and fell upon the larger towns for plunder. The local +authority, the ealdorman or the under-king, hastily gathered together +the local levy in arms, and fell upon the pirates tumultuously with the +men of the shire as best he might. But he had no provisions for a long +campaign: and when the levy had fought once, it melted away immediately, +every man going back again of necessity to his own home. If it won the +battle, it went home to drink over its success: if it lost, it +dissolved, demoralized, and left the burghers to fight for their own +walls, or to buy off the heathen with their own money. But every shire +and every kingdom fought for itself alone. If the Dorset men could only +drive away the host from Charmouth and Portland, they cared little +whether it sailed away to harry Sussex and Hants. If the Northumbrians +could only drive it away from the Humber, they cared little whether it +set sail for the Thames and the Solent. The North Folk of East Anglia +were equally happy to send it off toward the South Folk. While there was +so little cohesion between the parts of the same kingdoms, there was no +cohesion at all between the different kingdoms over which Æthelwulf +exercised a nominal over-lordship. The West Saxon kings fought for +Dorset and for Kent, but there is no trace of their ever fighting for +East Anglia or for Northumbria. They left their northern vassals to take +care of themselves. "It was never a war between the Danes and the +national army," says Prof. Pearson, "but between the Danes and a local +militia." It would have been impossible, indeed, to resist the wickings +effectually without a strong central system, which could move large +armies rapidly from point to point: and such a system was quite undreamt +of in the half-consolidated England of the ninth century. Only war with +a foreign invader could bring it about even in a faint degree: and that +was exactly what the Danish invasion did for Wessex. + +The year 851 marks an important epoch in the English resistance. The +annual horde of wickings had now become as regular in its recurrence as +summer itself; and even the inert West Saxon kings began to feel that +permanent measures must be taken against them. They had built ships, +and tried to tackle the invaders in the only way in which so partially +civilised a race could tackle such tactics as those of the Danes–upon +the sea. A host of wickings came round to Sandwich in Kent. The +under-king Æthelstan fell upon them with his new navy, and took nine of +their ships, putting the rest to flight with great slaughter. But in the +same year another great host of 250 sail, by far the largest fleet of +which we have yet heard, came to the mouth of the Thames, and there +landed, a step which marks a fresh departure in the wicking tactics. +They took Canterbury by assault, and then marched on to London. There +they stormed the busy merchant town, and put to flight Beorhtwulf, the +under-king of the Mercians, with his local levy. Thence they proceeded +southward into Surrey, doubtless on their way to Winchester. King +Æthelwulf met them at Ockley, with the West-Saxon levy, "and there made +the greatest slaughter among the heathen host that we have yet heard, +and gained the day." In spite of these two great successes, however, +both of which show an increasing statesmanship on the part of the West +Saxons, this year was memorable in another way, for "the heathen men for +the first time sat over winter in Thanet." The loose predatory +excursions were beginning to take the complexion of regular conquest and +permanent settlement. + +Yet so little did the English still realise the terrible danger of the +heathen invasion, that next year Æthelwulf was fighting the Welsh of +Wales; and two years after he went on a pilgrimage to Rome, "with great +pomp, and dwelt there twelve months, and then fared homeward." In that +same year, "heathen men sat over winter in Sheppey." + +After Æthelwulf's death the English resistance grew fainter and fainter. +In 860, under his second son, Æthelberht, a Danish host took Winchester +itself by storm. Five years later, a heathen army settled in Thanet, and +the men of Kent agreed to buy peace of them–the first sign of that evil +habit of buying off the Dane, which grew gradually into a fixed custom. +But the host stole away during the truce for collecting the money, and +harried all Kent unawares. + +Meanwhile, we hear little of the North. The almost utter destruction of +its records during the heathen domination restricts us for information +to the West Saxon chronicles; and they have little to tell us about any +but their own affairs. In 866, however, we learn that there came a great +heathen host to East Anglia–an organised expedition under two +chieftains–"and took winter quarters there, and were horsed; and the +East Anglians made peace with them." Next year, this permanent host +sailed northward to Humber, and attacked York. The Northumbrians, as +usual, were at strife among themselves, two rival kings fighting for the +supremacy. The burghers of York admitted the heathen host within the +walls. Then the rival kings fell upon the town, broke the slender +fortifications, and rushed into the city. The Danes attacked them both, +and defeated them with great slaughter. Northumbria passed at once into +the power of the heathen. Their chiefs, Ingvar and Ubba, erected Deira +into a new Danish kingdom, leaving Bernicia to an English puppet; and +Northumbria ceases to exist for the present as a factor in Anglo-Saxon +history. We must hand it over for sixty years to the Scandinavian +division of this series. + +In 868, Ingvar and Ubba advanced again into Mercia and beset Nottingham. +Then the under-king Burhred called in the aid of his over-lord, Æthelred +of Wessex, who came to his assistance with a levy. "But there was no +hard fight there, and the Mercians made peace with the host." In 870, +the heathen overran East Anglia, and destroyed the great monastery of +Peterborough, probably the richest religious house in all England. +Eadmund, the under-king, came against them with the levy, but they slew +him; and the people held him for a martyr, whose shrine at Bury St. +Edmunds grew in after days into the holiest spot in East Anglia. The +Danes harried the whole country, burnt the monasteries, and annexed +Norfolk and Suffolk as a second Danish kingdom. East Anglia, too, +disappears for a while from our English annals. + +Lastly, the Danes turned against Mercia and Wessex. In 871, a host under +Bagsecg and Halfdene came to Reading, which belonged to the latter +territory, when the local ealdorman engaged them and won a slight +victory. Shortly afterward the West Saxon king Æthelred, with his +brother Ælfred, came up, and engaged them a second time with worse +success. Three other bloody battles followed, in all of which the Danes +were beaten with heavy loss; but the West Saxons also suffered severely. +For three years the host moved up and down through Mercia and Wessex; +and the Mercians stood by, aiding neither side, but "making peace with +the host" from time to time. At last, however, in 874, the heathens +finally annexed the greater part of Mercia itself. "The host fared from +Lindsey to Repton, and there sat for the winter, and drove King Burhred +over sea, two and twenty years after he came to the kingdom; and they +subdued all the land. And Burhred went to Rome, and there settled; and +his body lies in St. Mary's Church, in the school of the English kin. +And in the same year they gave the kingdom of Mercia in ward to +Ceolwulf, an unwise thegn; and he swore oaths to them, and gave hostages +that it should be ready for them on whatso day they willed; and that he +would be ready with his own body, and with all who would follow him, for +the behoof of the host." Thus Mercia, too, fades for a short while out +of our history, and Wessex alone of all the English kingdoms remains. + +This brief but inevitable record of wars and battles is necessarily +tedious, yet it cannot be omitted without slurring over some highly +important and interesting facts. It is impossible not to be struck with +the extraordinarily rapid way in which a body of fierce heathen invaders +overran two great Christian and comparatively civilised states. We +cannot but contrast the inertness of Northumbria and the lukewarmness +of Mercia with the stubborn resistance finally made by Ælfred in Wessex. +The contrast may be partly due, it is true, to the absence of native +Northumbrian and Mercian accounts. We might, perhaps, find, had we +fuller details, that the men of Bernicia and Deira made a harder fight +for their lands and their churches than the West Saxon annals would lead +us to suppose. Still, after making all allowance for the meagreness of +our authorities, there remains the indubitable fact that a heathen +kingdom was established in the pure English land of Bæda and Cuthberht, +while the Christian faith and the Saxon nationality held their own for +ever in peninsular and half-Celtic Wessex. + +The difference is doubtless due in part to merely surface causes. East +Anglia had long lost her autonomy, and, while sometimes ruled by Mercia, +was sometimes broken up under several ealdormen. For her and for +Northumbria the conquest was but a change from a West Saxon to a Danish +master. The house of Ecgberht had broken down the national and tribal +organisation, and was incapable of substituting a central organisation +in its place. With no roads and no communications such a centralising +scheme is really impracticable. The disintegrated English kingdoms made +little show of fighting for their Saxon over-lord. They could accept a +Dane for master almost as readily as they could accept a Saxon. + +But besides these surface causes, there was a deeper and more +fundamental cause underlying the difference. The Scandinavians were +nearer to the pure English in blood and speech than they were to the +Saxons. In their old home the two races had lived close together,–in +Sleswick, Jutland, and Scania,–while the Saxons had dwelt further +south, near the Frankish border, by the lowlands of the Elbe. To the +English of Northumbria, the Saxons of Wessex were almost foreigners. +Even at the present day, when the existence of a recognised literary +dialect has done so much to obliterate provincial varieties of speech in +England, a Dorsetshire peasant, speaking in a slightly altered form the +classical West Saxon of Ælfred, has great difficulty in understanding a +Yorkshire peasant, speaking in a slightly altered form the classical +Northumbrian of Bæda. But in the ninth century the differences between +the two dialects were probably far greater. On the other hand, though +Danish and Anglian have widely separated at the present day, and were +widely distinct even in the days of Cnut, it is probable that at this +earlier period they were still, to some extent, mutually comprehensible. +Thus, the heathen Scandinavian may have seemed to the Northumbrian and +the East Anglian almost like a fellow-countryman, while the West Saxon +seemed in part like an enemy and an intruder. At any rate, the +similarity of blood and language enabled the two races rapidly to +coalesce; and when the cloud rises again from the North half a century +later, the distinction of Dane and Englishman has almost ceased in the +conquered provinces. It is worthy of note in this connection that the +part of Mercia afterwards given over by Ælfred to Guthrum, was the +Anglian half, while the part retained by Wessex was mostly the Saxon +half–the land conquered by Penda from the West Saxons two hundred years +before. + +Nor must we suppose that this first wave of Scandinavian conquest in any +way swamped or destroyed the underlying English population of the North. +The conquerors came merely as a "host," or army of occupation, not as a +body of rural colonists. They left the conquered English in possession +of their homes, though they seized upon the manors for themselves, and +kept the higher dignities of the vanquished provinces in their own +hands. Being rapidly converted to Christianity, they amalgamated readily +with the native people. Few women came over with them, and intermarriage +with the English soon broke down the wall of separation. The +archbishopric of York continued its succession uninterruptedly +throughout the Danish occupation. The Bishops of Elmham lived through +the stormy period; those of Leicester transferred their see to +Dorchester-on-the-Thames; those of Lichfield apparently kept up an +unbroken series. We may gather that beneath the surface the North +remained just as steadily English under the Danish princes as the whole +country afterwards remained steadily English under the Norman kings. + +There was, however, one section of the true English race which kept +itself largely free from the Scandinavian host. North of the Tyne the +Danes apparently spread but sparsely; English ealdormen continued to +rule at Bamborough over the land between Forth and Tyne. Hence +Northumberland and the Lothians remained more purely English than any +other part of Britain. The people of the South are Saxons: the people of +the West are half Celts; the people of the North and the Midlands are +largely intermixed with Danes; but the people of the Scottish lowlands, +from Forth to Tweed, are almost purely English; and the dialect which we +always describe as Scotch is the strongest, the tersest, and the most +native modern form of the original Anglo-Saxon tongue. If we wish to +find the truest existing representative of the genuine pure-blooded +English race, we must look for him, not in Mercia or in Wessex, but +amongst the sturdy and hard-headed farmers of Tweedside and Lammermoor. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE SAXONS AT BAY IN WESSEX. + + +Only one English kingdom now held out against the wickings, and that was +Wessex. Its comparatively successful resistance may be set down, in some +slight degree, to the energy of a single man, Ælfred, though it was +doubtless far more largely due to the relatively strong organisation of +the West Saxon state. In judging of Ælfred, we must lay aside the false +notions derived from the application of words expressing late ideas to +an early and undeveloped stage of civilised society. To call him a great +general or a great statesman is to use utterly misleading terms. +Generalship and statesmanship, as we understand them, did not yet exist, +and to speak of them in the ninth century in England is to be guilty of +a common, but none the more excusable, anachronism. Ælfred was a sturdy +and hearty fighter, and a good king of a semi-barbaric people. As a lad, +he had visited Rome; and he retained throughout life a strong sense of +his own and his people's barbarism, and a genuine desire to civilise +himself and his subjects, so far as his limited lights could carry him. +He succeeded to a kingdom overrun from end to end by piratical hordes: +and he did his best to restore peace and to promote order. But his +character was merely that of a practical, common-sense, fighting West +Saxon, brought up in the camp of his father and brothers, and doing his +rough work in life with the honest straightforwardness of a simple, +hard-headed, religious, but only half-educated barbaric soldier. + +The successful East Anglian wickings, under their chief Guthrum, turned +at once to ravage Wessex. They "harried the West Saxons' land, and +settled there, and drove many of the folk over sea." For awhile it +seemed as if Wessex too was to fall into their hands. Ælfred himself, +with a little band, "withdrew to the woods and moor-fastnesses." He took +refuge in the Somerset marshes, and there occupied a little island of +dry land in the midst of the fens, by name Athelney. Here he threw up a +rude earthwork, from which he made raids against the Danes, with a petty +levy of the nearest Somerset men. But the mass of the West Saxons were +not disposed to give in so easily. The long border warfare with Devon +and Cornwall had probably kept up their organisation in a better state +than that of the anarchic North. The men of Somerset and Wilts, with +those Hampshire men who had not fled to the Continent, gathered at a +sacred stone on the borders of Selwood Forest, and there Ælfred met them +with his little band. They attacked the host, which they put to flight, +and then besieged it in its fortified camp. To escape the siege, Guthrum +consented to leave Wessex, and to accept Christianity. He was baptised +at once, with thirty of his principal chiefs, after the rough-and-ready +fashion of the fighting king, near Athelney. The treaty entered into +with Guthrum restored to Ælfred all Wessex, with the south-western part +of Mercia, from London to Bedford, and thence along the line of Watling +Street to Chester. Thus for a time the Saxons recovered their autonomy, +and the great Scandinavian horde retired to East Anglia. Æthelred, +Ælfred's son-in-law, was appointed under-king of recovered Mercia. +Henceforward, Teutonic Britain remains for awhile divided into Wessex +and the Denalagu–that is to say, the district governed by Danish law. + +Though peace was thus made with Guthrum, new bodies of wickings came +pouring southward from Scandinavia. One of these sailed up the Thames to +Fulham, but after spending some time there, they went over to the +Frankish coast, where their depredations were long and severe. +Throughout all Ælfred's reign, with only two intervals of peace, the +wickings kept up a constant series of attacks on the coast, and +frequently penetrated inland. From time to time, the great horde under +Hæsten poured across the country, cutting the corn and driving away the +cattle, and retreating into East Anglia, or Northumbria, or the +peninsula of the Wirrall, whenever they were seriously worsted. "Thanks +be to God," says the Chronicle pathetically "the host had not wholly +broken up all the English kin;" but the misery of England must have been +intense. Ælfred, however, introduced two military changes of great +importance. He set on foot something like a regular army, with a +settled commissariat, dividing his forces into two bodies, so that +one-half was constantly at home tilling the soil while the other half +was in the field; and he built large ships on a new plan, which he +manned with Frisians, as well as with English, and which largely aided +in keeping the coast fairly free from Danish invasion during the two +intervals of peace. + +Throughout the whole of the ninth century, however, and the early part +of the tenth, the whole history of England is the history of a perpetual +pillage. No man who sowed could tell whether he might reap or not. The +Englishman lived in constant fear of life and goods; he was liable at +any moment to be called out against the enemy. Whatever little +civilisation had ever existed in the country died out almost altogether. +The Latin language was forgotten even by the priests. War had turned +everybody into fighters; commerce was impossible when the towns were +sacked year after year by the pirates. But in the rare intervals of +peace, Ælfred did his best to civilise his people. The amount of work +with which he is credited is truly astonishing. He translated into +English with his own hand "The History of the World," by Orosius; Bæda's +"Ecclesiastical History;" Boethius's "De Consolatione," and Gregory's +"Regula Pastoralis." At his court, too, if not under his own direction, +the English Chronicle was first begun, and many of the sentences quoted +from that great document in this work are probably due to Ælfred +himself. His devotion to the church was shown by the regular +communication which he kept up with Rome, and by the gifts which he +sent from his impoverished kingdom, not only to the shrine of St. Peter +but even to that of St. Thomas in India. No doubt his vigorous +personality counted for much in the struggle with the Danes; but his +death in 901 left the West Saxons as ready as ever to contend against +the northern enemy. + +One result of the Danish invasion of Wessex must not be passed over. The +common danger seems to have firmly welded together Welshman and Saxon +into a single nationality. The most faithful part of Ælfred's dominions +were the West Welsh shires of Somerset and Devon, with the half Celtic +folk of Dorset and Wilts. The result is seen in the change which comes +over the relations between the two races. In Ine's laws the distinction +between Welshmen and Englishmen is strongly marked; the price of blood +for the servile population is far less than that of their lords: in +Ælfred's laws the distinction has died out. Compared to the heathen +Dane, West Saxons and West Welsh were equally Englishmen. From that day +to this, the Celtic peasantry of the West Country have utterly forgotten +their Welsh kinship, save in wholly Cymric Cornwall alone. The Devon and +Somerset men have for centuries been as English in tongue and feeling as +the people of Kent or Sussex. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE RECOVERY OF THE NORTH. + + +The history of the tenth century and the first half of the eleventh +consists entirely of the continued contest between the West Saxons and +the Scandinavians. It falls naturally into three periods. The first is +that of the English reaction, when the West Saxon kings, Eadward and +Æthelstan, gradually reconquered the Danish North by inches at a time. +The second is that of the Augustan age, when Dunstan and Eadgar held +together the whole of Britain for a while in the hands of a single West +Saxon over-lord. The third is that of the decadence, when, under +Æthelred, the ill-welded empire fell asunder, and the Danish kings, +Cnut, Harold, and Harthacnut, ruled over all England, including even the +unconquered Wessex of Ælfred himself. + +At Ælfred's death, his dominions comprised the larger Wessex, from Kent +to the Cornish border at Exeter, together with the portion of Mercia +south-west of Watling Street. The former kingdom passed into the hands +of his son Eadward; the latter was still held by the ealdorman Æthelred, +who had married Ælfred's daughter Æthelflæd. The departure of the Danish +host, led by Hæsten, left the English time to breathe and to recruit +their strength. Henceforth, for nearly a century, the direct wicking +incursions cease, and the war is confined to a long struggle with the +Northmen already settled in England. Four years later, the east Anglian +Danes broke the peace and harried Mercia and Wessex; but Eadward overran +their lands in return, and the Kentish men, in a separate battle, +attacked and slew Eric their king with several of his earls. In 912, +Æthelred the Mercian died, and Eadward at once incorporated London and +Oxford with his own dominions, leaving his sister Æthelflæd only the +northern half of her husband's principality. Thenceforth Æthelflæd, "the +Lady of the Mercians," turned deliberately to the conquest of the North. +She adopted a fresh kind of tactics, which mark again a new departure in +the English policy. Instead of keeping to the old plan of alternate +harryings on either side, and precarious tenure of lands from time to +time, Æthelflæd began building regular fortresses or _burhs_ all along +her north-eastern frontiers, using these afterwards as bases for fresh +operations against the enemy. The spade went hand in hand with the +sword: the English were becoming engineers as well as fighters. In the +year of her husband's death, the Lady built _burhs_ at Sarrat and +Bridgnorth. The next year "she went with all the Mercians to Tamworth, +and built the _burh_ there in early summer; and ere Lammas, that at +Stafford." In the two succeeding years she set up other strongholds at +Eddesbury, Warwick, Cherbury, Wardbury, and Runcorn. By 917, she found +herself strong enough to attack Derby, one of the chief cities in the +Danish confederacy of the Five Burgs, which she captured after a hard +siege. Thence she turned on Leicester, which capitulated on her +approach, the Danish host going over quietly to her side. She was in +communication with the Danes of York for the surrender of that city, +too, when she died suddenly in her royal town of Tamworth, in the year +918. + +Meanwhile Eadward had been pushing forward his own boundary in the east, +building _burhs_ at Hertford and Witham, and endeavouring to subjugate +the Danish league in Bedford, Huntingdon, and Northampton. In 915, +Thurketel, the jarl of Bedford, "sought him for lord," and Eadward +afterwards built a _burh_ there also. On his sister's death, he annexed +all her territories, and then, in a fierce and long doubtful struggle, +reconquered not only Huntingdon and Northampton but East Anglia as well. +The Christian English hailed him as a deliverer. Next, he turned on +Stamford, the Danish capital of the Fens, and on Nottingham, the +stronghold of the Southumbrian host. In both towns he erected _burhs_. +These successes once more placed the West Saxon king in the foremost +position amongst the many rulers of Britain. The smaller principalities, +unable to hold their own against the Scandinavians, began spontaneously +to rally round Eadward as their leader and suzerain. In the same year +with the conquest of Stamford, "the kings of the North Welsh, Howel, and +Cledauc, and Jeothwel, and all the North Welsh kin, sought him for +lord." In 923, Eadward pushed further northward, and sent a Mercian host +to conquer "Manchester in Northumbria," and fortify and man it. A line +of twenty fortresses now girdled the English frontier, from Colchester, +through Bedford and Nottingham, to Manchester and Chester. Next year, +Eadward himself, now immediate king of all England south of Humber, +attacked the last remaining Danish kingdom, Northumbria, throwing a +bridge across the Trent at Nottingham, and marching against Bakewell in +Peakland, where again he built a _burh_. The new tactics were too fine +for the rough and ready Danish leaders. Before Eadward reached York, the +entire North submitted without a blow. "The king of Scots, and all the +Scottish kin, and Ragnald [Danish king of York], and the sons of Eadulf +[English kings of Bamborough], and all who dwell in Northumbria, as well +English as Danes and Northmen and others, and also the king of the +Strathclyde Welsh and all the Strathclyde Welsh, sought him for father +and for lord." This was in 924. Next year, Eadward "rex invictus" died, +over-lord of all Britain from sea to sea, while the whole country south +of the Humber, save only Wales and Cornwall, was now practically united +into a single kingdom of England. + +But the seeming submission of the North was fallacious. The Danes had +reintroduced into Britain a fresh mass of incoherent barbarism, which +could not thus readily coalesce. The Scandinavian leaven in the +population had put back the shadow on the dial of England some three +centuries. Æthelstan, Eadward's son, found himself obliged to give his +sister in marriage to Sihtric or Sigtrig, Danish king of the Yorkshire +Northumbrians, which probably marks a recognition of his vassal's +equality. Soon after, however, Sihtric died, and Æthelstan made himself +first king of all England by adding Northumbria to his own immediate +dominions. Then "he bowed to himself all the kings who were in this +island; first, Howel, king of the West Welsh; and Constantine, king of +Scots; and Owen, king of Gwent [South Wales]; and Ealdred, son of +Ealdulf of Bamborough; and with pledge and with oaths sware they peace, +and forsook every kind of heathendom." In the West, he drove the Welsh +from Exeter, which they had till then occupied in common with the +English, and fixed their boundary at the Tamar. But once more the +pretended vassals rebelled. Constantine, king of Scots, threw off his +allegiance, and Æthelstan thereupon "went into Scotland, both with a +land host and a ship host, and harried a mickle deal of it." In 937, the +feudatories made a final and united effort to throw off the West Saxon +yoke. The Scots, the Strathclyde Welsh, the people of Wales and +Cornwall, the lords of Bamborough, and the Danes throughout the North +and East, all rose together in a great league against their over-lord. +Anlaf, king of the Dublin Danes, came over from Ireland to aid them, +with a large body of wickings. The confederates met the West Saxon +_fyrd_ or levy at an unknown spot named Brunanburh, where Æthelstan +overthrew them in a crushing defeat, which forms the subject of a fine +war-song, inserted in full in the English Chronicle.[1] Three years +later Æthelstan died, as his father had died before him, undisputed +over-lord of all Britain, and immediate king of the whole Teutonic +portion. + + [1] See chapter xx. + +Yet once more the feeble unity of the country broke hopelessly asunder. +Eadmund, who succeeded his brother, found the Danes of the North and the +Midlands again insubordinate. The year after his accession "the +Northumbrians belied their oath, and chose Anlaf of Ireland for king." +The Five Burgs went too, and the old boundary of Watling Street was once +more made the frontier of the Danish possessions. In 944, however, +Eadmund subdued all Northumbria, and expelled its Danish kings. His +recovery of the Five Burgs, and the joy of the Christian English +inhabitants, are vividly set forth in a fragmentary ballad embedded in +the Chronicle. The next year he harried Strathclyde or Cumberland, the +Welsh kingdom between Clyde and Morecambe, and handed it over to +Malcolm, king of Scots, as a pledge of his fidelity. At Eadmund's death +in 946–when he was stabbed in his royal hall by an outlaw–his kingdom +fell to his brother Eadred. Two years later Northumbria again revolted, +and chose Eric for its king. Eadred harried and burnt the province, +which he then handed over to an earl of his own creation, one of the +Bamborough family. The king himself died in 955, and was succeeded by +his nephew Eadwig. But Northumbria and Mercia revolted once more, and +chose Eadwig's brother, Eadgar, instead of their own Danish princes. +Eadwig died in 958, and Eadgar then became king of all three provinces; +thus finally uniting the whole of Teutonic England into one kingdom. + +Eadgar's reign forms the climax of the West Saxon power. It was, in +fact, the only period when England can be said to have enjoyed any +national unity under the Anglo-Saxon dynasties. The strong hand of a +priest gave peace for some years to the ill-organised mass. Dunstan was +probably the first Englishman who seriously deserves the name of +statesman. He was born in the half-Celtic region of Somerset, beside the +great abbey of Glastonbury, which held the bones of Arthur, and a good +deal of the imaginative Celtic temper ran probably with the blood in his +veins.[2] But he was above all the representative of the Roman +civilisation in the barbarised, half-Danish England of the tenth +century. He was a musician, a painter, a reader, and a scholar, in a +world of fierce warriors and ignorant nobles. Eadmund made him abbot of +Glastonbury. Eadgar appointed him first bishop of London, and then, on +Eadwig's death, Archbishop of Canterbury. It was Dunstan who really +ruled England throughout the remainder of his life. Essentially an +organiser and administrator, he was able to weld the unwieldy empire +into a rough unity, which lasted as long as its author lived, and no +longer. He appeased the discontent of Northumbria and the Five Burgs by +permitting them a certain amount of local independence, with the +enjoyment of their own laws and their own lawmen. He kept a fleet of +boats cruising in the Irish Sea to check the Danish hosts at Dublin and +Waterford. He put forward a code, known as the laws of Eadgar, for the +better government of Wessex and the South. He made the over-lordship of +the West Saxons over their British vassals more real than it had ever +been before; and a tale, preserved by Florence, tells us that eight +tributary kings rowed Eadgar in his royal barge on the Dee, in token of +their complete subjection. Internally, Dunstan revived the declining +spirit of monasticism, which had died down during the long struggle with +the Danes, and attempted to reintroduce some tinge of southern +civilisation into the barbarised and half-paganised country in which he +lived. Wherever it was possible, he "drove out the priests, and set +monks," and he endeavoured to make the monasteries, which had +degenerated during the long war into mere landowning communities, regain +once more their old position as centres of culture and learning. During +his own time his efforts were successful, and even after his death the +movement which he had begun continued in this direction to make itself +felt, though in a feebler and less intelligent form. + + [2] It is impossible to avoid noticing the increased + importance of semi-Celtic Britain under Dunstan's + administration. He was himself at first an abbot of the old + West Welsh monastery of Glastonbury: he promoted West + countrymen to the principal posts in the kingdom: and he had + Eadgar hallowed king at the ancient West Welsh royal city of + Bath, married to a Devonshire lady, and buried at + Glastonbury. Indeed, that monastery was under Dunstan what + Westminster was under the later kings. Florence uses the + strange expression that Eadgar was chosen "by the + Anglo-Britons:" and the meeting with the Welsh and Scotch + princes in the semi-Welsh town of Chester conveys a like + implication. + +One act of Dunstan's policy, however, had far-reaching results, of a +kind which he himself could never have anticipated. He handed over all +Northumbria beyond the Tweed–the region now known as the Lothians–as a +fief to Kenneth, king of Scots. This accession of territory wholly +changed the character of the Scottish kingdom, and largely promoted the +Teutonisation of the Celtic North. The Scottish princes now took up +their residence in the English town of Edinburgh, and learned to speak +the English language as their mother-tongue. Already Eadmund had made +over Strathclyde or Cumberland to Malcolm; and thus the dominions of the +Scottish kings extended over the whole of the country now known as +Scotland, save only the Scandinavian jarldoms of Caithness, Sutherland, +and the Isles. Strathclyde rapidly adopted the tongue of its masters, +and grew as English in language (though not in blood) as the Lothians +themselves. Fife, in turn, was quickly Anglicised, as was also the whole +region south of the Highland line. Thus a new and powerful kingdom arose +in the North; and at the same time the cession of an English district to +the Scottish kings had the curious result of thoroughly Anglicising two +large and important Celtic regions, which had hitherto resisted every +effort of the Northumbrian or West Saxon over-lords. There is no reason +to believe, however, that this introduction of the English tongue and +English manners was connected with any considerable immigration of +Teutonic settlers into the Anglicised tracts. The population of +Ayrshire, of Fife, of Perthshire, and of Aberdeen, still shows every +sign of Celtic descent, alike in physique, in temperament, and in habit +of thought. The change was, in all probability, exactly analogous to +that which we ourselves have seen taking place in Wales, in Ireland, and +in the Celtic north of Scotland at the present day. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE AUGUSTAN AGE AND THE LATER ANGLO-SAXON CIVILISATION. + + +The slight pause in the long course of Danish warfare which occurred +during the vigorous administration of Dunstan, affords the best +opportunity for considering the degree of civilisation reached by the +English in the last age before the Norman Conquest. Our materials for +such an estimate are partly to be found in existing buildings, +manuscripts, pictures, ornaments, and other archæological remains, and +partly in the documentary evidence of the chronicles and charters, and +more especially of the great survey undertaken by the Conqueror's +commissioners, and known as Domesday Book. From these sources we are +enabled to gain a fairly complete view of the Anglo-Saxon culture in the +period immediately preceding the immense influx of Romance civilisation +after the Conquest; and though some such Romance influence was already +exerted by the Normanising tendencies of Eadward the Confessor, we may +yet conveniently consider the whole subject here under the age of Eadgar +and Æthelred. It is difficult, indeed, to trace any very great +improvement in the arts of life between the days of Dunstan and the days +of Harold. + +In spite of constant wars and ravages from the northern pirates, there +can be little doubt that England had been slowly advancing in material +civilisation ever since the introduction of Christianity. The heathen +intermixture in the North and the Midlands had retarded the advance but +had not completely checked it; while in Wessex and the South the +intercourse with the continent and the consequent growth in culture had +been steadily increasing. Æthelwulf of Wessex married a daughter of Karl +the Bald; Ælfred gave his daughter to a count of Flanders; and Eadward's +princesses were married respectively to the emperor, to the king of +France, and to the king of Provence. Such alliances show a considerable +degree of intercourse between Wessex and the Roman world; and the relics +of material civilisation fully bear out the inference. The Institutes of +the city of London mention traders from Brabant, Liège, Rouen, Ponthieu, +France (in the restricted sense), and the Empire; but these came "in +their own vessels." England, which now has in her hands the carrying +trade of the world, was still dependent for her own supply on foreign +bottoms. We know also that officers were appointed to collect tolls from +foreign merchants at Canterbury, Dover, Arundel, and many other towns; +and London and Bristol certainly traded on their own account with the +Continent. + +As a whole, however, England still remained a purely agricultural +country to the very end of the Anglo-Saxon period. It had but little +foreign trade, and what little existed was chiefly confined to imports +of articles of luxury (wine, silk, spices, and artistic works) for the +wealthier nobles, and of ecclesiastical requisites, such as pictures, +incense, relics, vestments, and like southern products for the churches +and monasteries. The exports seem mainly to have consisted of slaves and +wool, though hides may possibly have been sent out of the country, and a +little of the famous English gold-work and embroidery was perhaps sold +abroad in return for the few imported luxuries. But taking the country +at a glance, we must still picture it to ourselves as composed almost +entirely of separate agricultural manors, each now owned by a +considerable landowner, and tilled mainly by his churls, whose position +had sunk during the Danish wars to that of semi-servile tenants, owing +customary rents of labour to their superiors. War had told against the +independence of the lesser freemen, who found themselves compelled to +choose themselves protectors among the higher born classes, till at last +the theory became general that every man must have a lord. The noble +himself lived upon his manor, accepted service from his churls in +tilling his own homestead, and allowed them lands in return in the +outlying portions of his estates. His sources of income were two only: +first, the agricultural produce of his lands, thus tilled for him by +free labour and by the hands of his serfs; and secondly, the breeding of +slaves, shipped from the ports of London and Bristol for the markets of +the south. The artisans depended wholly upon their lord, being often +serfs, or else churls holding on service-tenure. The mass of England +consisted of such manors, still largely interspersed with woodland, each +with the wooden hall of its lord occupying the centre of the homestead, +and with the huts of the churls and serfs among the hays and valleys of +the outskirts. The butter and cheese, bread and bacon, were made at +home; the corn was ground in the quern; the beer was brewed and the +honey collected by the family. The spinner and weaver, the shoemaker, +smith, and carpenter, were all parts of the household. Thus every manor +was wholly self-sufficing and self-sustaining, and towns were rendered +almost unnecessary. + +Forests and heaths still also covered about half the surface. These were +now the hunting-grounds of the kings and nobles, while in the leys, +hursts, and dens, small groups of huts gave shelter to the swineherds +and woodwards who had charge of their lord's property in the woodlands. +The great tree-covered region of Selwood still divided Wessex into two +halves; the forest of the Chilterns still spread close to the walls of +London; the Peakland was still overgrown by an inaccessible thicket; and +the long central ridge between Yorkshire and Scotland was still shadowed +by primæval oaks, pinewoods, and beeches. Agriculture continued to be +confined to the alluvial bottoms, and had nowhere as yet invaded the +uplands, or even the stiffer and drier lowland regions, such as the +Weald of Kent or the forests of Arden and Elmet. + +Only two elements broke the monotony of these self-sufficing +agricultural communities. Those elements were the monasteries and the +towns. + +A large part of the soil of England was owned by the monks. They now +possessed considerable buildings, with stone churches of some +pretensions, in which service was conducted with pomp and +impressiveness. The tiny chapel of St. Lawrence, at Bradford-on-Avon, +forms the best example of this primitive Romanesque architecture now +surviving in England. Around the monasteries stretched their well-tilled +lands, mostly reclaimed from fen or forest, and probably more +scientifically cultivated than those of the neighbouring manors. Most of +the monks were skilled in civilised handicrafts, introduced from the +more cultivated continent. They were excellent ecclesiastical +metalworkers; many of them were architects, who built in rude imitation +of Romanesque models; and others were designers or illuminators of +manuscripts. The books and charters of this age are delicately and +minutely wrought out, though not with all the artistic elaboration of +later mediæval work. The art of painting (almost always in miniature) +was considerably advanced, the figures being well drawn, in rather stiff +but not unlifelike attitudes, though perspective is very imperfectly +understood, and hardly ever attempted. Later Anglo-Saxon architecture, +such as that of Eadward's magnificent abbey church at Westminster +(afterwards destroyed by Henry III. to make way for his own building), +was not inferior to continental workmanship. All the arts practised in +the abbeys were of direct Roman origin, and most of the words relating +to them are immediately derived from the Latin. This is the case even +with terms relating to such common objects as _candle_, _pen_, _wine_, +and _oil_. Names of weights, measures, coins, and other exact +quantitative ideas are also derived from Roman sources. Carpenters, +smiths, bakers, tanners, and millers, were usually attached to the +abbeys. Thus, in many cases, as at Glastonbury, Peterborough, Ripon, +Beverley, and Bury St. Edmunds, the monastery grew into the nucleus of a +considerable town, though the development of such towns is more marked +after than before the Norman Conquest. As a whole, it was by means of +the monasteries, and especially of their constant interchange of inmates +with the continent, that England mainly kept up the touch with the +southern civilisation. There alone was Latin, the universal medium of +continental intercommunication, taught and spoken. There alone were +books written, preserved, and read. Through the Church alone was an +organisation kept up in direct communication with the central civilising +agencies of Italy and the south. And while the Church and the +monasteries thus preserved the connection with the continent, they also +formed schools of culture and of industrial arts for the country itself. +At the abbeys bells were cast, glass manufactured, buildings designed, +gold and silver ornaments wrought, jewels enamelled, and unskilled +labour organised by the most trained intelligence of the land. They thus +remained as they had begun, homes and retreats for those exceptional +minds which were capable of carrying on the arts and the knowledge of a +dying civilisation across the gulf of predatory barbarism which +separates the artificial culture of Rome from the industrial culture of +modern Europe. + +The towns were few and relatively unimportant, built entirely of wood +(except the churches), and very liable to be burnt down on the least +excuse. In considering them we must dismiss from our minds the ideas +derived from our own great and complex organisation, and bring ourselves +mentally into the attitude of a simple agricultural people, requiring +little beyond what was produced on each man's own farm or petty holding. +Such people are mainly fed from their own corn and meat, mainly clad +from their own homespun wool and linen. A little specialisation of +function, however, already existed. Salt was procured from the wyches or +pans of the coast, and also from the inland wyches or brine wells of +Cheshire and the midland counties. Such names as Nantwich, Middlewych, +Bromwich, and Droitwich, still preserve the memory of these early +saltworks. Iron was mined in the Forest of Dean, around Alcester, and in +the Somersetshire district. The city of Gloucester had six smiths' +forges in the days of Eadward the Confessor, and paid its tax to the +king in iron rods. Lead was found in Derbyshire, and was largely +employed for roofing churches. Cloth-weaving was specially carried on at +Stamford; but as a rule it is probable that every district supplied its +own clothing. English merchants attended the great fair at St. Denys, in +France, much as those of Central Asia now attend the fair at Kandahar; +and madder seems to have been bought there for dyeing cloth. In Kent, +Sussex, and East Anglia, herring fisheries already produced considerable +results. With these few exceptions, all the towns were apparently mere +local centres of exchange for produce, and small manufactured wares, +like the larger villages or bazaars of India in our own time. +Nevertheless, there was a distinct advance towards urban life in the +later Anglo-Saxon period. Bæda mentions very few towns, and most of +those were waste. By the date of the Conquest there were many, and their +functions were such as befitted a more diversified national life. +Communications had become far greater; and arts or trade had now to some +extent specialised themselves in special places. + +A list of the chief early English towns may possibly seem to give too +much importance to these very minor elements of English life; yet one +may, perhaps, be appended with due precaution against misapprehension. + +The capital, if any place deserved to be so called under the +perambulating early English dynasty, was Winchester (Wintan-ceaster), +with its old and new minsters, containing the tombs of the West-Saxon +kings. It possessed a large number of craftsmen, doubtless dependant +ultimately upon the court; and it was relatively a place of far greater +importance than at any later date. + +The chief ports were London (Lundenbyrig), situated at the head of tidal +navigation on the Thames; and Bristol (Bricgestow) and Gloucester +(Gleawan-ceaster), similarly placed on the Avon and Severn. These towns +were convenient for early shipping because of their tidal position, at +an age when artificial harbours were unknown; They were the seat of the +export traffic in slaves and the import traffic in continental goods. +Before Ælfred's reign the carrying trade by sea seems to have been in +the hands of the Frisian skippers and slave-dealers, who stood to the +English in the same relation as the Arabs now stand to the East African +and Central African negroes; but after the increased attention paid to +shipbuilding during the struggle with the Danes, English vessels began +to engage in trade on their own account. London must already have been +the largest and richest town in the kingdom. Even in Bæda's time it was +"the mart of many nations, resorting to it by sea and land." It seems, +indeed, to have been a sort of merchant commonwealth, governed by its +own port reeve, and it made its own dooms, which have been preserved to +the present day. From the Roman time onward, the position of London as a +great free commercial town was probably uninterrupted. + +York (Eoforwic), the capital of the North, had its own archbishop and +its Danish internal organisation. It seems to have been always an +important and considerable town, and it doubtless possessed the same +large body of handicraftsmen as Winchester. During the doubtful period +of Danish and English struggles, the archbishop apparently exercised +quasi-royal authority over the English burghers themselves. + +Among the cathedral towns the most important were Canterbury +(Cant-wara-byrig), the old capital of Kent and metropolis of all +England, which seems to have contained a relatively large trading +population; Dorchester, in Oxfordshire, first the royal city of the West +Saxons, and afterwards the seat of the exiled bishopric of Lincoln; +Rochester (Hrofes-ceaster), the old capital of the West Kentings, and +seat of their bishop: and Worcester (Wigorna-ceaster), the chief town of +the Huiccii. Of the monastic towns the chief were Peterborough (Burh), +Ely (Elig), and Glastonbury (Glæstingabyrig). Bath, Amesbury, +Colchester, Lincoln, Chester, and other towns of Roman origin were also +important. Exeter, the old capital of the West Welsh, situated at the +tidal head of the Exe, had considerable trade. Oxford was a place of +traffic and a fortified town. Hastings, Dover, and the other south-coast +ports had some communications with France. The only other places of any +note were Chippenham, Bensington, and Aylesbury; Northampton and +Southampton; Bamborough; the fortified posts built by Eadward and +Æthelflæd; and the Danish boroughs of Bedford, Derby, Leicester, +Stamford, Nottingham, and Huntingdon. The Witena-gemots and the synods +took place in any town, irrespective of size, according to royal +convenience. But as early as the days of Cnut, London was beginning to +be felt as the real centre of national life: and Eadward the Confessor, +by founding Westminster Abbey, made it practically the home of the +kings. The Conqueror "wore his crown on Eastertide at Winchester; on +Pentecost at Westminster; and on Midwinter at Gloucester:" which +probably marks the relative position of the three towns as the chief +places in the old West Saxon realm at least. Under Æthelstan, London had +eight moneyers or mint-masters, while Winchester had only six, and +Canterbury seven. + +As regards the arts and traffic in the towns, they were chiefly carried +on by guilds, which had their origin, as Dr. Brentano has shown with +great probability, in separate families, who combined to keep up their +own trade secrets as a family affair. In time, however, the guilds grew +into regular organisations, having their own code of rules and laws, +many of which (as at Cambridge, Exeter, and Abbotsbury) we still +possess. It is possible that the families of craftsmen may at first have +been Romanised Welsh inhabitants of the cities; for all the older +towns–London, Canterbury, York, Lincoln, and Rochester–were almost +certainly inhabited without interruption from the Roman period onward. +But in any case the guilds seem to have grown out of family compacts, +and to have retained always the character of close corporations. There +must have been considerable division of the various trades even before +the Conquest, and each trade must have inhabited a separate quarter; for +we find at Winchester, or elsewhere, in the reign of Æthelred, +Fellmonger, Horsemonger, Fleshmonger, Shieldwright, Shoewright, Turner, +and Salter Streets. + +The exact amount of the population of England cannot be ascertained, +even approximately; but we may obtain a rough approximation from the +estimates based upon Domesday Book. It seems probable that at the end +of the Conqueror's reign, England contained 1,800,000 souls. Allowing +for the large number of persons introduced at the Conquest, and for the +natural increase during the unusual peace in the reigns of Cnut, of +Eadward the Confessor, and, above all, of William himself, we may guess +that it could not have contained more than a million and a quarter in +the days of Eadgar. London may have had a population of some 10,000; +Winchester and York of 5,000 each; certainly that of York at the date of +Domesday could not have exceeded 7,000 persons, and we know that it +contained 1,800 houses in the time of Eadward the Confessor. + +The organisation of the country continued on the lines of the old +constitution. But the importance of the simple freeman had now quite +died out, and the gemot was rather a meeting of the earls, bishops, +abbots, and wealthy landholders, than a real assembly of the people. The +sub-divisions of the kingdom were now pretty generally conterminous with +the modern counties. In Wessex and the east the counties are either +older kingdoms, like Kent, Sussex, and Essex; or else tribal divisions +of the kingdom, like Dorset, Somerset, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Surrey. In +Mercia, the recovered country is artificially mapped out round the chief +Danish burgs, as in the case of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, +Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, and Leicestershire, where the county +town usually occupies the centre of the arbitrary shire. In Northumbria +it is divided into equally artificial counties by the rivers. Beneath +the counties stood the older organisation of the hundred, and beneath +that again the primitive unit of the township, known on its +ecclesiastical side as the parish. In the reign of Eadgar, England seems +to have contained about 3,000 parish churches. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE DECADENCE. + + +The death of Dunstan was the signal for the breaking down of the +artificial kingdom which he had held together by the mere power of his +solitary organising capacity. Æthelred, the son of Eadgar (who succeeded +after the brief reign of his brother Eadward), lost hopelessly all hold +over the Scandinavian north. At the same time, the wicking incursions, +intermitted for nearly a century, once more recommenced with the same +vigour as of old. Even before Dunstan's death, in 980, the pirates +ravaged Southampton, killing most of the townsfolk; and they also +pillaged Thanet, while another host overran Cheshire. In the succeeding +year, "great harm was done in Devonshire and in Wales;" and a year later +again, London was burnt and Portland ravaged. In 985, Æthelred, the +Unready, as after ages called him, from his lack of _rede_ or counsel, +quarrelled with Ælfric, ealdormen of the Mercians, whom he drove over +sea. The breach between Mercia and Wessex was thus widened, and as the +Danish attacks continued without interruption the redeless king soon +found himself comparatively isolated in his own paternal dominions. +Northumbria, under its earl, Uhtred (one of the house of Bamborough), +and the Five Burgs under their Danish leaders, acted almost +independently of Wessex throughout the whole of Æthelred's reign. In 991 +Sigeric, archbishop of Canterbury, advised that the Danes should be +bought off by a payment of ten thousand pounds, an enormous sum; but it +was raised somehow and duly paid. In 992, the command of a naval force, +gathered from the merchant craft of the Thames, was entrusted to Ælfric, +who had been recalled; and the Mercian leader went over on the eve of an +engagement at London to the side of the enemy. Bamborough was stormed +and captured with great booty, and the host sailed up Humber mouth. +There they stood in the midst of the old Danish kingdom, and found the +leading men of Northumbria and Lindsey by no means unfriendly to their +invasion. In fact, the Danish north was now far more ready to welcome +the kindred Scandinavian than the West Saxon stranger. Æthelred's realm +practically shrank at once to the narrow limits of Kent and Wessex. + +The Danes, however, were by no means content even with these successes. +Olaf Tryggvesson, king of Norway, and Swegen Forkbeard,[1] king of +Denmark, fell upon England. The era of mere plundering expeditions and +of scattered colonisation had ceased; the era of political conquest had +now begun. They had determined upon the complete subjugation of all +England. In 994 Olaf and Swegen attacked London with 94 ships, but were +put to flight by a gallant resistance of the townsmen, who did "more +harm and evil than ever they weened that any burghers could do them." +Thence the host sailed away to Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire, +burning and slaying all along the coast as they went. Æthelred and his +witan bought them off again, with the immense tribute of sixteen +thousand pounds. The host accepted the terms, but settled down for the +winter at Southampton–a sufficient indication of their +intentions–within easy reach of Winchester itself; and there "they fed +from all the West Saxons' land." Æthelred was alarmed, and sent to Olaf, +who consented to meet him at Andover. There the king received him "with +great worship," and gifted him with kinglike gifts, and sent him away +with a promise never again to attack England. Olaf kept his word, and +returned no more. But still Swegen remained, and went on pillaging +Devonshire and Cornwall, wending into Tamar mouth as far as Lidford, +where his men "burnt and slew all that they found." Thence they betook +themselves to the Frome, and so up into Dorset, and again to Wight. In +999, on the eve of doomsday as men then thought, they sailed up Thames +and Medway, and attacked Rochester. The men of Kent stoutly fought them, +but, as usual, without assistance from other shires; and the Danes took +horses, and rode over the land, almost ruining all the West Kentings. +The king and his witan resolved to send against them a land fyrd and a +ship fyrd or raw levy. But the spirit of the West Saxons was broken, and +though the craft were gathered together, yet in the end, as the +Chronicle plaintively puts it, "neither ship fyrd nor land fyrd wrought +anything save toil for the folk, and the emboldening of their foes." + + [1] See Mr. York-Powell's "Scandinavian Britain." + +So, year after year, the endless invasion dragged on its course, and +everywhere each shire of Wessex fought for itself against such enemies +as happened to attack it. At last, in the year 1002, Æthelred once more +bought off the fleet, this time with 24,000 pounds; and some of the +Danes obtained leave to settle down in Wessex. But on St. Brice's day, +the king treacherously gave orders that all Danes in the immediate +English territory should be massacred. The West Saxons rose on the +appointed night, and slew every one of them, including Gunhild, the +sister of King Swegen, and a Christian convert. It was a foolhardy +attempt. Swegen fell at once upon Wessex, and marched up and down the +whole country, for two years. He burnt Wilton and Sarum, and then sailed +round to Norwich, where Ulfkytel, of East Anglia, gave him "the hardest +hand-play" that he had ever known in England. A year of famine +intervened; but in 1006 Swegen returned again, harrying and burning +Sandwich. All autumn the West Saxon fyrd waited for the enemy, but in +the end "it came to naught more than it had oft erst done." The host +took up quarters in Wight, marched across Hants and Berks to Reading, +and burned Wallingford. Thence they returned with their booty to the +fleet, by the very walls of the royal city. "There might the Winchester +folk behold an insolent host and fearless wend past their gate to sea." +The king himself had fled into Shropshire. The tone of utter despair +with which the Chronicle narrates all these events is the best measure +of the national degradation. "There was so muckle awe of the host," says +the annalist, "that no man could think how man could drive them from +this earth or hold this earth against them; for that they had cruelly +marked each shire of Wessex with burning and with harrying." The English +had sunk into hopeless misery, and were only waiting for a strong rule +to rescue them from their misery. + +The strong rule came at last. Thorkell, a Danish jarl, marched all +through Wessex, and for three years more his host pillaged everywhere in +the South. In 1011, they killed Ælfheah, the archbishop of Canterbury, +at Greenwich. When the country was wholly weakened, Swegen turned +southward once more, this time with all Northumbria and Mercia at his +back. In 1013 he sailed round to Humber mouth, and thence up the Trent, +to Gainsborough. "Then Earl Uhtred and all Northumbrians soon bowed to +him, and all the folk in Lindsey; and sithence the folk of the Five +Burgs, and shortly after, all the host by north of Watling-street; and +men gave him hostages of each shire." Swegen at once led the united army +into England, leaving his son Cnut in Denalagu with the ships and +hostages. He marched to Oxford, which received him; then to the royal +city of Winchester, which made no resistance. At London Æthelred was +waiting; and for a time the town held out. So Swegen marched westward, +and took Bath. There, the thegns of the Welsh-kin counties–Somerset, +Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall–bowed to him and gave him hostages. "When +he had thus fared, he went north to his ships, and all the folk held him +then as full king." London itself gave way. Æthelred fled to Wight, and +thence to Normandy. He had married Ymma, the daughter of Richard the +Fearless; and he now took refuge with her brother, Richard the Good. + +Next year Swegen died, and the West Saxon witan sent back for Æthelred. +No lord was dearer to them, they said, than their lord by kin. But the +host had already chosen Cnut; and the host had a stronger claim than the +witan. For two years Æthelred carried on a desultory war with the +intruders, and then died, leaving it undecided. His son Eadmund, +nicknamed Ironside, continued the contest for a few months; but in the +autumn of 1016 he died–poisoned, the English said, by Cnut–and Cnut +succeeded to undisputed sway. He at once assumed Wessex as his own +peculiar dominion, and the political history of the English ends for two +centuries. Their social life went on, of course, as ever; but it was the +life of a people in strict subjection to foreign rulers–Danish, Norman, +or Angevin. The story of the next twenty-five years at least belongs to +the chronicles of Scandinavian Britain. + +At the end of that time, however, there was a slight reaction. Cnut and +his sons had bound the kingdom roughly into one; and the death of +Harthacnut left an opportunity for the return of a descendant of Ælfred. +But the English choice fell upon one who was practically a foreigner. +Eadward, son of Æthelred by Ymma of Normandy, had lived in his mother's +country during the greater part of his life. Recalled by Earl Godwine +and the witan, he came back to England a Norman, rather than an +Englishman. The administration remained really in the hands of Godwine +himself, and of the Danish or Danicised aristocracy. But Mercia and +Northumbria still stood apart from Wessex, and once procured the exile +of Godwine himself. The great earl returned, however, and at his death +passed on his power to his son Harold, a Danicised Englishman of great +rough ability, such as suited the hard times on which he was cast. +Harold employed the lifetime of Eadward, who was childless, in preparing +for his own succession. The king died in 1066, and Harold was quietly +chosen at once by the witan. He was the last Englishman who ever sat +upon the throne of England. + +The remaining story belongs chiefly to the annals of Norman Britain. +Harold was assailed at once from either side. On the north, his brother +Tostig, whom he had expelled from Northumbria, led against him his +namesake, Harold Hardrada, king of Norway. On the south, William of +Normandy, Eadward's cousin, claimed the right to present himself to the +English electors. Eadward's death, in fact, had broken up the temporary +status, and left England once more a prey to barbaric Scandinavians from +Denmark, or civilised Scandinavians from Normandy. The English +themselves had no organisation which could withstand either, and no +national unity to promote such organisation in future. Harold of Norway +came first, landing in the old Danish stronghold of Northumbria; and the +English Harold hurried northward to meet him, with his little body of +house-carls, aided by a large fyrd which he had hastily collected to use +against William. At Stamford-bridge he overthrew the invaders with great +slaughter, Harold Hardrada and Tostig being amongst the slain. +Meanwhile, William had crossed to Pevensey, and was ravaging the coast. +Harold hurried southward, and met him at Senlac, near Hastings. After a +hard day's fight, the Normans were successful, and Harold fell. But even +yet the English could not agree among themselves. In this crisis of the +national fate, the local jealousies burnt up as fiercely as ever. While +William was marching upon London, the witan were quarrelling and +intriguing in the city over the succession. "Archbishop Ealdred and the +townsmen of London would have Eadgar Child,"–a grandson of Eadmund +Ironside–"for king, as was his right by kin." But Eadwine and Morkere, +the representatives of the great Mercian family of Leofric, had hopes +that they might turn William's invasion to their own good, and secure +their independence in the north by allowing Wessex to fall unassisted +into his hands. After much shuffling, Eadgar was at last chosen for +king. "But as it ever should have been the forwarder, so was it ever, +from day to day, slower and worse." No resistance was organised. In the +midst of all this turmoil, the Peterborough Chronicler is engaged in +narrating the petty affairs of his own abbey, and the question which +arose through the application made to Eadgar for his consent to the +appointment of an abbot. In such a spirit did the English meet an +invasion from the stoutest and best organised soldiery in Europe. +William marched on without let or hindrance, and on his way, the +Lady–the Confessor's widow–surrendered the royal city of Winchester +into his hands. The duke reached the Thames, burnt Southwark, and then +made a détour to cross the river at Wallingford, whence he proceeded +into Hertfordshire, thus cutting off Eadwine and Morkere in London from +their earldoms. The Mercian and Northumbrian leaders being determined to +hold their own at all hazards, retreated northward; and the English +resistance crumbled into pieces. Eadgar, the rival king, with Ealdred, +the archbishop, and all the chief men of London, came out to meet +William, and "bowed to him for need." The Chronicler can only say that +it was very foolish they had not done so before. A people so helpless, +so utterly anarchic, so incapable of united action, deserved to undergo +a severe training from the hard taskmasters of Romance civilisation. The +nation remained, but it remained as a conquered race, to be drilled in +the stern school of the conquerors. For awhile, it is true, William +governed England like an English king; but the constant rebellion and +faithlessness of his new subjects drove him soon to severer measures; +and the great insurrection of 1068, with its results, put the whole +country at his feet in a very different sense from the battle of Senlac. +For a hundred and fifty years, the English people remained a mere race +of chapmen and serfs; and the English language died down meanwhile into +a servile dialect. When the native stock emerges again into the full +light of history, by the absorption of the Norman conquerors in the +reign of John, it reappears with all the super-added culture and +organisation of the Romance nationalities. The Conquest was an +inevitable step in the work of severing England from the barbarous +North, and binding it once more in bonds of union with the civilised +South. It was the necessary undoing of the Danish conquest; more still, +it was an inevitable step in the process whereby England itself was to +begin its unified existence by the final breaking down of the barriers +which divided Wessex from Mercia, and Mercia from Northumbria. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE ANGLO-SAXON LANGUAGE. + + +A description of Anglo-Saxon Britain, however brief, would not be +complete without some account of the English language in its earliest +and purest form. But it would be impossible within reasonable limits to +give anything more than a short general statement of the relation which +the old English tongue bears to the kindred Teutonic dialects, and of +the main differences which mark it off from our modern simplified and +modified speech. All that can be attempted here is such a broad outline +as may enable the general reader to grasp the true connexion between +modern English and so-called Anglo-Saxon, on the one hand, as well as +between Anglo-Saxon itself and the parent Teutonic language on the +other. Any full investigation of grammatical or etymological details +would be beyond the scope of this little volume. + +The tongue spoken by the English and Saxons at the period of their +invasion of Britain was an almost unmixed Low Dutch dialect. Originally +derived, of course, from the primitive Aryan language, it had already +undergone those changes which are summed up in what is known as Grimm's +Law. The principal consonants in the old Aryan tongue had been +regularly and slightly altered in certain directions; and these +alterations have been carried still further in the allied High German +language. Thus the original word for _father_, which closely resembled +the Latin _pater_, becomes in early English or Anglo-Saxon _fæder_, and +in modern High German _vater_. So, again, among the numerals, our _two_, +in early English _twa_, answers to Latin _duo_ and modern High German +_zwei_; while our _three_, in old English _threo_, answers to Latin +_tres_, and modern High German _drei_. So far as these permutations are +concerned, Sanscrit, Greek, and Latin may be regarded as most nearly +resembling the primitive Aryan speech, and with them the Celtic dialects +mainly agree. From these, the English varies one degree, the High German +two. The following table represents the nature of such changes +approximately for these three groups of languages:– + +-----------------+------------+---------------+---------------+ +Greek, Sanscrit, | | | | +Latin, Celtic | p. b. f. | t. d. th. | k. g. ch. | +-----------------+------------+---------------+---------------+ +Gothic, English, | | | | +Low Dutch | f. p. b. | th. t. d. | ch. k. g. | +-----------------+------------+---------------+---------------+ + | | | | +High German | b. f. p. | d. th. t. | g. ch. k. | +-----------------+------------+---------------+---------------+ + +In practice, several modifications arise; for example, the law is only +true for old High German, and that only approximately, but its general +truth may be accepted as governing most individual cases. + +Judged by this standard, English forms a dialect of the Low Dutch branch +of the Aryan language, together with Frisian, modern Dutch, and the +Scandinavian tongues. Within the group thus restricted its affinities +are closest with Frisian and old Dutch, less close with Icelandic and +Danish. While the English still lived on the shores of the Baltic, it is +probable that their language was perfectly intelligible to the ancestors +of the people who now inhabit Holland, and who then spoke very slightly +different local dialects. In other words, a single Low Dutch speech then +apparently prevailed from the mouth of the Elbe to that of the Scheldt, +with small local variations; and from this speech the Anglo-Saxon and +the modern English have developed in one direction, while the Dutch has +developed in another, the Frisian dialect long remaining intermediate +between them. Scandinavian ceased, perhaps, to be intelligible to +Englishmen at an earlier date, the old Icelandic being already marked +off from Anglo-Saxon by strong peculiarities, while modern Danish +differs even more widely from the spoken English of the present day. + +The relation of Anglo-Saxon to modern English is that of direct +parentage, it might almost be said of absolute identity. The language of +_Beowulf_ and of Ælfred is not, as many people still imagine, a +different language from our own; it is simply English in its earliest +and most unmixed form. What we commonly call Anglo-Saxon, indeed, is +more English than what we commonly call English at the present day. The +first is truly English, not only in its structure and grammar, but also +in the whole of its vocabulary: the second, though also truly English +in its structure and grammar, contains a large number of Latin, Greek, +and Romance elements in its vocabulary. Nevertheless, no break separates +us from the original Low Dutch tongue spoken in the marsh lands of +Sleswick. The English of _Beowulf_ grows slowly into the English of +Ælfred, into the English of Chaucer, into the English of Shakespeare and +Milton, and into the English of Macaulay and Tennyson. + +Old words drop out from time to time, old grammatical forms die away or +become obliterated, new names and verbs are borrowed, first from the +Norman-French at the Conquest, then from the classical Greek and Latin +at the Renaissance; but the continuity of the language remains unbroken, +and its substance is still essentially the same as at the beginning. The +Cornish, the Irish, and to some extent the Welsh, have left off speaking +their native tongues, and adopted the language of the dominant Teuton; +but there never was a time when Englishmen left off speaking Anglo-Saxon +and took to English, Norman-French, or any other form of speech +whatsoever. + +An illustration may serve to render clearer this fundamental and +important distinction. If at the present day a body of Englishmen were +to settle in China, they might learn and use the Chinese names for many +native plants, animals, and manufactured articles; but however many of +such words they adopted into their vocabulary, their language would +still remain essentially English. A visitor from England would have to +learn a number of unfamiliar words, but he would not have to learn a new +language. If, on the other hand, a body of Frenchmen were to settle in a +neighbouring Chinese province, and to adopt exactly the same Chinese +words, their language would still remain essentially French. The +dialects of the two settlements would contain many words in common, but +neither of them would be a Chinese dialect on that account. Just so, +English since the Norman Conquest has grafted many foreign words upon +the native stock; but it still remains at bottom the same language as in +the days of Eadgar. + +Nevertheless, Anglo-Saxon differs so far in externals from modern +English, that it is now necessary to learn it systematically with +grammar and dictionary, in somewhat the same manner as one would learn a +foreign tongue. Most of the words, indeed, are more or less familiar, at +least so far as their roots are concerned; but the inflexions of the +nouns and verbs are far more complicated than those now in use: and many +obsolete forms occur even in the vocabulary. On the other hand the +idioms closely resemble those still in use; and even where a root has +now dropped out of use, its meaning is often immediately suggested by +the cognate High German word, or by some archaic form preserved for us +in Chaucer, Shakespeare, or Milton, as well as by occasional survival in +the Lowland Scotch and other local dialects. + +English in its early form was an inflexional language; that is to say, +the mutual relations of nouns and of verbs were chiefly expressed, not +by means of particles, such as _of_, _to_, _by_, and so forth, but by +means of modifications either in the termination or in the body of the +root itself. The nouns were declined much as in Greek and Latin; the +verbs were conjugated in somewhat the same way as in modern French. +Every noun had gender expressed in its form. + +The following examples will give a sufficient idea of the commoner forms +of declension in the classical West Saxon of the time of Ælfred. The +pronunciation has already been briefly explained in the preface. + + + SING. PLUR. + +(1.) _Nom._ stan (_a stone_). _Nom._ stanas. + _Gen._ stanes. _Gen._ stana. + _Dat._ stane. _Dat._ stanum. + _Acc._ stan. _Acc._ stanas. + +This is the commonest declension for masculine nouns, and it has fixed +the normal plural for the modern English. + + + SING. PLUR. + +(2.) _Nom._ fot (_a foot_). _Nom._ fet. + _Gen._ fotes. _Gen._ fota. + _Dat._ fet. _Dat._ fotum. + _Acc._ fot. _Acc._ fet. + +Hence our modified plurals, such as _feet_, _teeth_, and _men_. + + + SING. PLUR. + +(3.) _Nom._ wudu (_a wood_). _Nom._ wuda. + _Gen._ wuda. _Gen._ wuda. + _Dat._ wuda. _Dat._ wudum. + _Acc._ wudu. _Acc._ wuda. + +All these are for masculine nouns. + +The commonest feminine declension is as follows:– + + + SING. PLUR. + +(4.) _Nom._ gifu (_a gift_). _Nom._ gifa. + _Gen._ gife. _Gen._ gifena. + _Dat._ gife. _Dat._ gifum. + _Acc._ gife. _Acc._ gifa. + +Less frequent is the modified form: + + + SING. PLUR. + +(5.) _Nom._ boc (_a book_). _Nom._ bec. + _Gen._ bec. _Gen._ boca. + _Dat._ bec. _Dat._ bocum. + _Acc._ boc. _Acc._ bec. + +Of neuters there are two principal declensions. The first has the plural +in _u_; the second leaves it unchanged. + + + SING. PLUR. + +(6.) _Nom._ scip (_a ship_). _Nom._ scipu. + _Gen._ scipes. _Gen._ scipa. + _Dat._ scipe. _Dat._ scipum. + _Acc._ scip. _Acc._ scipu. + + + SING. PLUR. + +(7.) _Nom._ hus (_a house_). _Nom._ hus. + _Gen._ huses. _Gen._ husa. + _Dat._ huse. _Dat._ husum. + _Acc._ hus. _Acc._ hus. + +Hence our "collective" plurals, such as _fish_, _deer_, _sheep_, and +_trout_. + +There is also a weak declension, much the same for all three genders, of +which the masculine form runs as follows:– + + + SING. PLUR. + +_Nom._ guma (_a man_). _Nom._ guman. +_Gen._ guman. _Gen._ gumena. +_Dat._ guman. _Dat._ guman. +_Acc._ guman. _Acc._ guman. + +Adjectives are declined throughout, as in Latin, through all the cases +(including an instrumental), numbers, and genders. The demonstrative +pronoun or definite article _se_ (the) may stand as an example. + + + SING. + + Masc. Fem. Neut. +_Nom._ se, seo, thæt. +_Gen._ thæs, thære, thæs. +_Dat._ tham, thære, tham. +_Acc._ thone, tha, thæt. +_Inst._ thy, thære, thy. + + + PLUR. + + Masc. Fem. Neut. +_Nom._ tha. +_Gen._ thara. +_Dat._ tham. +_Acc._ tha. +_Inst._ -- + +Verbs are conjugated about as fully as in Latin. There are two principal +forms: strong verbs, which form their preterite by vowel modification, +as _binde_, pret. _band_; and weak verbs, which form it by the addition +of _ode_ or _de_ to the root, as _lufige_, pret. _lufode_; _hire_, pret. +_hirde_. The present and preterite of the first form are as follows:– + + + IND. SUBJ. + +_Pres. sing._ 1. binde. binde. + 2. bindest. binde. + 3. bindeth. binde. + +_plur._ 1, 2, 3. bindath. binden. + +_Pret. sing._ 1. band. bunde. + 2. bunde. bunde. + 3. band. bunde. + +_plur._ 1, 2, 3. bundon. bunden. + +Both the grammatical forms and still more the orthography vary much from +time to time, from place to place, and even from writer to writer. The +forms used in this work are for the most part those employed by West +Saxons in the age of Ælfred. + +A few examples of the language as written at three periods will enable +the reader to form some idea of its relation to the existing type. The +first passage cited is from King Ælfred's translation of Orosius; but it +consists of the opening lines of a paragraph inserted by the king +himself from his own materials, and so affords an excellent illustration +of his style in original English prose. The reader is recommended to +compare it word for word with the parallel slightly modernised version, +bearing in mind the inflexional terminations. + +Ohthere sæde his hlaforde, | Othhere said [to] his lord, +Ælfrede cyninge, thæt he | Ælfred king, that he of all +ealra Northmonna northmest | Northmen northmost abode. +bude. He cwæth thæt he | He quoth that he abode +bude on thæm lande northweardum | on the land northward against +with tha West-sæ. | the West Sea. He said, +He sæde theah thæt thæt land | though, that that land was +sie swithe lang north thonan; | [or extended] much north +ac hit is eall weste, buton on | thence; eke it is all waste, +feawum stowum styccemælum | but [except that] on few stows +wiciath Finnas, on huntothe | [in a few places] piecemeal +on wintra, and on sumera on | dwelleth Finns, on hunting on +fiscathe be thære sæ. He | winter, and on summer on +sæde thæt he æt sumum cirre | fishing by the sea. He said +wolde fandian hu longe thæt | that he at some time [on one +land northryhte læge, oththe | occasion] would seek how long +hwæther ænig monn be northan | that land lay northright [due +thæm westenne bude. Tha | north], or whether any man by +for he northryhte be thæm | north of the waste abode. +lande: let him ealne weg | Then fore [fared] he northright, +thæt weste land on thæt steorbord, | by the land: left all the +and tha wid-sæ on thæt | way that waste land on the +bæcbord thrie dagas. Tha | starboard of him, and the wide +wæs he swa feor north swa tha | sea on the backboard [port, +hwæl-huntan firrest farath. | French _babord_] three days. + | Then was he so far north as + | the whale-hunters furthest + | fareth. + +In this passage it is easy to see that the variations which make it into +modern English are for the most part of a very simple kind. Some of the +words are absolutely identical, as _his_, _on_, _he_, _and_, _land_, or +_north_. Others, though differences of spelling mask the likeness, are +practically the same, as _sæ_, _sæde_, _cwæth_, _thæt_, _lang_, for +which we now write _sea_, _said_, _quoth_, _that_, _long_. A few have +undergone contraction or alteration, as _hlaford_, now _lord_, _cyning_, +now _king_, and _steorbord_, now _starboard_. _Stow_, a place, is now +obsolete, except in local names; _styccemælum_, stickmeal, has been +Normanised into _piecemeal_. In other cases new terminations have been +substituted for old ones; _huntath_ and _fiscath_ are now replaced by +_hunting_ and _fishing_; while _hunta_ has been superseded by _hunter_. +Only six words in the passage have died out wholly: _buan_, to abide +(_bude_); _swithe_, very; _wician_, to dwell; _cirr_, an occasion; +_fandian_, to enquire (connected with _find_); and _bæcbord_, port, +which still survives in French from Norman sources. _Dæg_, day, and +_ænig_, any, show how existing English has softened the final _g_ into a +_y_. But the main difference which separates the modern passage from its +ancient prototype is the consistent dropping of the grammatical +inflexions in _hlaforde_, _Ælfrede_, _ealra_, _feawum_, and _fandian_, +where we now say, _to his lord_, _of all_, _in few_, and _to enquire_. + +The next passage, from the old English epic of _Beowulf_, shows the +language in another aspect. Here, as in all poetry, archaic forms +abound, and the syntax is intentionally involved. It is written in the +old alliterative rhythm, described in the next chapter:– + + Beowulf mathelode bearn Ecgtheowes; + Hwæt! we the thas sæ-lac sunu Healfdenes + Leod Scyldinga lustum brohton, + Tires to tacne, the thu her to-locast. + Ic thæt un-softe ealdre gedigde + Wigge under wætere, weore genethde + Earfothlice; æt rihte wæs + Guth getwæfed nymthe mec god scylde. + + * * * * * + + Beowulf spake, the son of Ecgtheow: + See! We to thee this sea-gift, son of Healfdene, + Prince of the Scyldings, joyfully have brought, + For a token of glory, that thou here lookest on. + That I unsoftly, gloriously accomplished, + In war under water: the work I dared, + With much labour: rightly was + The battle divided, but that a god shielded me. + +Or, to translate more prosaically:– + +"Beowulf, the son of Ecgtheow, addressed the meeting. See, son of +Healfdene, Prince of the Scyldings; we have joyfully brought thee this +gift from the sea which thou beholdest, for a proof of our valour. I +obtained it with difficulty, gloriously, fighting beneath the waves: I +dared the task with great toil. Evenly was the battle decreed, but that +a god afforded me his protection." + +In this short passage, many of the words are now obsolete: for example, +_mathelian_, to address an assembly (_concionari_); _lac_, a gift; +_wig_, war; _guth_, battle; and _leod_, a prince. _Ge-digde_, +_ge-nethde_, and _ge-twæfed_ have the now obsolete particle _ge_-, which +bears much the same sense as in High German. On the other hand, _bearn_, +a bairn; _sunu_, a son; _sæ_, sea; _tacen_, a token; _wæter_, water; and +_weorc_, work, still survive: as do the verbs _to bring_, _to look_, and +_to shield_. _Lust_, pleasure, whence _lustum_, joyfully, has now +restricted its meaning in modern English, but retains its original sense +in High German. + +A few lines from the "Chronicle" under the year 1137, during the reign +of Stephen, will give an example of Anglo-Saxon in its later and corrupt +form, caught in the act of passing into Chaucerian English:– + +This gære for the King | This year fared the King +Stephan ofer sæ to Normandi; | Stephen over sea to Normandy; +and ther wes under | and there he was +fangen, forthi thæt hi wenden | accepted [received as duke] +thæt he sculde ben alsuic alse | because that they weened +the eom wæs, and for he | that he should be just as his +hadde get his tresor; ac he | uncle was, and because he +todeld it and scatered sotlice. | had got his treasure: but he +Micel hadde Henri king | to-dealt [distributed] and +gadered gold and sylver, and | scattered it sot-like [foolishly]. +na god ne dide men for his | Muckle had King +saule tharof. Tha the King | Henry gathered of gold and +Stephan to Englaland com, | silver; and man did no good +tha macod he his gadering | for his soul thereof. When +æt Oxeneford, and thar he | that King Stephan was come +nam the biscop Roger of | to England, then maked he +Sereberi, and Alexander | his gathering at Oxford, and +biscop of Lincoln, and the | there he took the bishop +Canceler Roger, hise neves, | Roger of Salisbury, and Alexander, +and dide ælle in prisun, til | bishop of Lincoln, and +hi iafen up hire castles. | the Chancellor Roger, his + | nephew, and did them all in + | prison [put them in prison] + | till they gave up their castles. + +The following passage from Ælfric's Life of King Oswold, in the best +period of early English prose, may perhaps be intelligible to modern +readers by the aid of a few explanatory notes only. _Mid_ means _with_; +while _with_ itself still bears only the meaning of _against_:– + +"Æfter tham the Augustinus to Englalande becom, wæs sum æthele cyning, +Oswold ge-haten [_hight_ or _called_], on North-hymbra-lande, ge-lyfed +swithe on God. Se ferde [went] on his iugothe [youth] fram his freondum +and magum [relations] to Scotlande on sæ, and thær sona wearth ge-fullod +[baptised], and his ge-feran [companions] samod the mid him sithedon +[journeyed]. Betwux tham wearth of-slagen [off-slain] Eadwine his eam +[uncle], North-hymbra cyning, on Crist ge-lyfed, fram Brytta cyninge, +Ceadwalla ge-ciged [called, named], and twegen his æfter-gengan binnan +twam gearum [years]; and se Ceadwalla sloh and to sceame tucode tha +North-hymbran leode [people] æfter heora hlafordes fylle, oth thæt +[until] Oswold se eadiga his yfelnysse adwæscte [extinguished]. Oswold +him com to, and him cenlice [boldly] with feaht mid lytlum werode +[troop], ac his geleafa [belief] hine ge-trymde [encouraged], and Crist +him ge-fylste [helped] to his feonda [fiends, enemies] slege." + +It will be noticed in every case that the syntactical arrangement of the +words in the sentences follows as a whole the rule that the governed +word precedes the governing, as in Latin or High German, not _vice +versa_, as in modern English. + +A brief list will show the principal modifications undergone by nouns in +the process of modernisation. _Stan_, stone; _snaw_, snow; _ban_, bone. +_Cræft_, craft; _stæf_, staff; _bæc_, back. _Weg_, way; _dæg_, day; +_nægel_, nail; _fugol_, fowl. _Gear_, year; _geong_, young. _Finger_, +finger; _winter_, winter; _ford_, ford. _Æfen_, even; _morgen_, morn. +_Monath_, month; _heofon_, heaven; _heafod_, head. _Fot_, foot; _toth_, +tooth; _boc_, book; _freond_, friend. _Modor_, mother; _fæder_, father; +_dohtor_, daughter. _Sunu_, son; _wudu_, wood; _caru_, care; _denu_, +dene (valley). _Scip_, ship; _cild_, child; _ceorl_, churl; _cynn_, kin; +_ceald_, cold. Wherever a word has not become wholly obsolete, or +assumed a new termination, (_e.g._, _gifu_, gift; _morgen_, morn-ing), +it usually follows one or other of these analogies. + +The changes which the English language, as a whole, has undergone in +passing from its earlier to its later form, may best be considered under +the two heads of form and matter. + +As regards form or structure, the language has been simplified in three +separate ways. First, the nouns and adjectives have for the most part +lost their inflexions, at least so far as the cases are concerned. +Secondly, the nouns have also lost their gender. And thirdly, the verbs +have been simplified in conjugation, weak preterites being often +substituted for strong ones, and differential terminations largely lost. +On the other hand, the plural of nouns is still distinguished from the +singular by its termination in _s_, which is derived from the first +declension of Anglo-Saxon nouns, not as is often asserted, from the +Norman-French usage. In other words, all plurals have been assimilated +to this the commonest model; just as in French they have been +assimilated to the final _s_ of the third declension in Latin. A few +plurals of the other types still survive, such as _men_, _geese_, +_mice_, _sheep_, _deer_, _oxen_, _children_ and (dialectically) +_peasen_. To make up for this loss of inflexions, the language now +employs a larger number of particles, and to some extent, of +auxiliaries. Instead of _wines_, we now say _of a friend_; instead of +_wine_, we now say _to a friend_; and instead of _winum_, we now say _to +friends_. English, in short, has almost ceased to be inflexional and has +become analytic. + +As regards matter or vocabulary, the language has lost in certain +directions, and gained in others. It has lost many old Teutonic roots, +such as _wig_, war; _rice_, kingdom; _tungol_, light; with their +derivatives, _wigend_, warrior; _rixian_, to rule; _tungol-witega_, +astrologer; and so forth. The relative number of such losses to the +survivals may be roughly gauged from the passages quoted above. On the +other hand, the language has gained by the incorporation of many Romance +words, shortly after the Norman Conquest, such as _place_, _voice_, +_judge_, _war_, and _royal_. Some of these have entirely superseded +native old English words. Thus the Norman-French _uncle_, _aunt_, +_cousin_, _nephew_, and _niece_, have wholly ousted their Anglo-Saxon +equivalents. In other instances the Romance words have enriched the +language with symbols for really new ideas. This is still more +strikingly the case with the direct importations from the classical +Greek and Latin which began at the period of the Renaissance. Such words +usually refer either to abstract conceptions for which the English +language had no suitable expression, or to the accurate terminology of +the advanced sciences. In every-day conversation our vocabulary is +almost entirely English; in speaking or writing upon philosophical or +scientific subjects it is largely intermixed with Romance and +Græco-Latin elements. On the whole, though it is to be regretted that +many strong, vigorous or poetical old Teutonic roots should have been +allowed to fall into disuse, it may safely be asserted that our gains +have far more than outbalanced our losses in this respect. + +It must never be forgotten, however, that the whole framework of our +language still remains, in every case, purely English–that is to say, +Anglo-Saxon or Low Dutch–however many foreign elements may happen to +enter into its vocabulary. We can frame many sentences without using one +word of Romance or classical origin: we cannot frame a single sentence +without using words of English origin. The Authorised Version of the +Bible, "The Pilgrim's Progress," and such poems as Tennyson's "Dora," +consist almost entirely of Teutonic elements. Even when the vocabulary +is largely classical, as in Johnson's "Rasselas" and some parts of +"Paradise Lost," the grammatical structure, the prepositions, the +pronouns, the auxiliary verbs, and the connecting particles, are all +necessarily and purely English. Two examples will suffice to make this +principle perfectly clear. In the first, which is the most familiar +quotation from Shakespeare, all the words of foreign origin have been +printed in italics:– + + To be, or not to be,–that is the _question_: + Whether 'tis _nobler_ in the mind to _suffer_ + The slings and arrows of _outrageous fortune_; + Or to take _arms_ against a sea of _troubles_, + And, by _opposing_, end them? To die,–to sleep,– + No more; and, by a sleep, to say we end + The heart-ache, and the thousand _natural_ shocks + That flesh is _heir_ to,–'tis a _consummation_ + _Devoutly_ to be wished. To die,–to sleep;– + To sleep! _perchance_ to dream: ay, there's the rub + For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, + When we have shuffled off this _mortal_ coil, + Must give us _pause_: there's the _respect_ + That makes _calamity_ of so long life; + For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, + The _oppressor's_ wrong, the proud man's _contumely_, + The _pangs_ of _despised_ love, the law's _delay_, + The _insolence_ of _office_, and the _spurns_ + That _patient merit_ of the unworthy takes, + When he himself might his _quietus_ make + With a bare bodkin? + +Here, out of 167 words, we find only 28 of foreign origin; and even +these are Englished in their terminations or adjuncts. _Noble_ is +Norman-French; but the comparative _nobler_ stamps it with the Teutonic +mark. _Oppose_ is Latin; but the participle _opposing_ is true English. +_Devout_ is naturalised by the native adverbial termination, _devoutly_. +_Oppressor's_ and _despised_ take English inflexions. The formative +elements, _or_, _not_, _that_, _the_, _in_, _and_, _by_, _we_, and the +rest, are all English. The only complete sentence which we could frame +of wholly Latin words would be an imperative standing alone, as, +"Observe," and even this would be English in form. + +On the other hand, we may take the following passage from Mr. Herbert +Spencer as a specimen of the largely Latinised vocabulary needed for +expressing the exact ideas of science or philosophy. Here also borrowed +words are printed in italics:– + +"The _constitution_ which we _assign_ to this _etherial medium_, +however, like the _constitution_ we _assign_ to _solid substance_, is +_necessarily_ an _abstract_ of the _impressions received_ from +_tangible_ bodies. The _opposition_ to _pressure_ which a _tangible_ +body _offers_ to us is not shown in one _direction_ only, but in all +_directions_; and so likewise is its _tenacity_. _Suppose countless +lines radiating_ from its _centre_ on every side, and it _resists_ along +each of these _lines_ and _coheres_ along each of these _lines_. Hence +the _constitution_ of those _ultimate units_ through the +_instrumentality_ of which _phenomena_ are _interpreted_. Be they +_atoms_ of _ponderable matter_ or _molecules_ of _ether_, the +_properties_ we _conceive_ them to _possess_ are nothing else than these +_perceptible properties idealised_." + +In this case, out of 122 words we find no less than 46 are of foreign +origin. Though this large proportion sufficiently shows the amount of +our indebtedness to the classical languages for our abstract or +specialised scientific terms, the absolutely indisputable nature of the +English substratum remains clearly evident. The tongue which we use +to-day is enriched by valuable loan words from many separate sources; +but it is still as it has always been, English and nothing else. It is +the self-same speech with the tongue of the Sleswick pirates and the +West Saxon over-lords. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +ANGLO-SAXON NOMENCLATURE. + + +Perhaps nothing tends more to repel the modern English student from the +early history of his country than the very unfamiliar appearance of the +personal names which he meets before the Norman Conquest. There can be +no doubt that such a shrinking from the first stages of our national +annals does really exist; and it seems to be largely due to this very +superficial and somewhat unphilosophical cause. Before the Norman +invasion, the modern Englishman finds himself apparently among complete +foreigners, in the Æthelwulfs, the Eadgyths, the Oswius, and the +Seaxburhs of the Chronicle; while he hails the Norman invaders, the +Johns, Henrys, Williams, and Roberts, of the period immediately +succeeding the conquest, as familiar English friends. The contrast can +scarcely be better given than in the story told about Æthelred's Norman +wife. Her name was Ymma, or Emma; but the English of that time murmured +against such an outlandish sound, and so the Lady received a new English +name as Ælfgifu. At the present day our nomenclature has changed so +utterly that Emma sounds like ordinary English, while Ælfgifu sounds +like a wholly foreign word. The incidental light thrown upon our history +by the careful study of personal names is indeed so valuable that a few +remarks upon the subject seem necessary in order to complete our hasty +survey of Anglo-Saxon Britain. + +During the very earliest period when we catch a glimpse of the English +people on the Continent or in eastern Britain, a double system of naming +seems to have prevailed, not wholly unlike our modern plan of Christian +and surname. The clan name was appended to the personal one. A man was +apparently described as Wulf the Holting, or as Creoda the Æscing. The +clan names were in many cases common to the English and the Continental +Teutons. Thus we find Helsings in the English Helsington and the Swedish +Helsingland; Harlings in the English Harlingham and the Frisian +Harlingen; and Bleccings in the English Bletchingley and the +Scandinavian Bleckingen. Our Thyrings at Thorrington answer, perhaps, to +the Thuringians; our Myrgings at Merrington to the Frankish Merwings or +Merovingians; our Wærings at Warrington to the Norse Væringjar or +Varangians. At any rate, the clan organization was one common to both +great branches of the Teutonic stock, and it has left its mark deeply +upon our modern nomenclature, both in England and in Germany. Mr. Kemble +has enumerated nearly 200 clan names found in early English charters and +documents, besides over 600 others inferred from local names in England +at the present day. Taking one letter of the alphabet alone, his list +includes the Glæstings, Geddings, Gumenings, Gustings, Getings, +Grundlings, Gildlings, and Gillings, from documentary evidence; and the +Gærsings, Gestings, Geofonings, Goldings, and Garings, with many +others, from the inferential evidence of existing towns and villages. + +The personal names of the earliest period are in many cases +untranslateable–that is to say, as with the first stratum of Greek +names, they bear no obvious meaning in the language as we know it. +Others are names of animals or natural objects. Unlike the later +historical cognomens, they each consist, as a rule, of a single element, +not of two elements in composition. Such are the names which we get in +the narrative of the colonization and in the mythical genealogies; +Hengest, Horsa, Æsc, Ælle, Cymen, Cissa, Bieda, Mægla; Ceol, Penda, +Offa, Blecca; Esla, Gewis, Wig, Brand, and so forth. A few of these +names (such as Penda and Offa), are undoubtedly historical; but of the +rest, some seem to be etymological blunders, like Port and Wihtgar; +others to be pure myths, like Wig and Brand; and others, again, to be +doubtfully true, like Cerdic, Cissa, and Bieda, eponyms, perhaps, of +Cerdices-ford, Cissan-ceaster, and Biedan-heafod. + +In the truly historical age, the clan system seems to have died out, and +each person bore, as a rule, only a single personal name. These names +are almost invariably compounded of two elements, and the elements thus +employed were comparatively few in number. Thus, we get the root +_æthel_, noble, as the first half in Æthelred, Æthelwulf, Æthelberht, +Æthelstan, and Æthelbald. Again, the root _ead_, rich, or powerful, +occurs in Eadgar, Eadred, Eadward, Eadwine, and Eadwulf. _Ælf_, an elf, +forms the prime element in Ælfred, Ælfric, Ælfwine, Ælfward, and +Ælfstan. These were the favourite names of the West-Saxon royal house; +the Northumbrian kings seem rather to have affected the syllable _os_, +divine, as in Oswald, Oswiu, Osric, Osred, and Oslaf. _Wine_, friend, is +a favourite termination found in Æscwine, Eadwine, Æthelwine, Oswine, +and Ælfwine, whose meanings need no further explanation. _Wulf_ appears +as the first half in Wulfstan, Wulfric, Wulfred, and Wulfhere; while it +forms the second half in Æthelwulf, Eadwulf, Ealdwulf, and Cenwulf. +_Beorht_, _berht_, or _briht_, bright, or glorious, appears in +Beorhtric, Beorhtwulf, Brihtwald; Æthelberht, Ealdbriht, and Eadbyrht. +_Burh_, a fortress, enters into many female names, as Eadburh, +Æthelburh, Sexburh, and Wihtburh. As a rule, a certain number of +syllables seem to have been regarded as proper elements for forming +personal names, and to have been combined somewhat fancifully, without +much regard to the resulting meaning. The following short list of such +elements, in addition to the roots given above, will suffice to explain +most of the names mentioned in this work. + +_Helm_: helmet. +_Gar_: spear. +_Gifu_: gift. +_Here_: army. +_Sige_: victory. +_Cyne_: royal. +_Leof_: dear. +_Wig_: war. +_Stan_: stone. +_Eald_: old, venerable. +_Weard_, _ward_: ward, protection. +_Red_: counsel. +_Eeg_: edge, sword. +_Theod_: people, nation. + +By combining these elements with those already given most of the royal +or noble names in use in early England were obtained. + +With the people, however, it would seem that shorter and older forms +were still in vogue. The following document, the original of which is +printed in Kemble's collection, represents the pedigree of a serf, and +is interesting, both as showing the sort of names in use among the +servile class, and the care with which their family relationships were +recorded, in order to preserve the rights of their lord. + + Dudda was a boor at Hatfield, and he had three daughters: + one hight Deorwyn, the other Deorswith, the third Golde. And + Wulflaf at Hatfield has Deorwyn to wife. Ælfstan, at + Tatchingworth, has Deorswith to wife: and Ealhstan, + Ælfstan's brother, has Golde to wife. There was a man hight + Hwita, bee-master at Hatfield, and he had a daughter Tate, + mother of Wulfsige, the bowman; and Wulfsige's sister Lulle + has Hehstan to wife, at Walden. Wifus and Dunne and Seoloce + are inborn at Hatfield. Duding, son of Wifus, lives at + Walden; and Ceolmund, Dunne's son, also sits at Walden; and + Æthelheah, Seoloce's son, also sits at Walden. And Tate, + Cenwold's sister, Mæg has to wife at Welgun; and Eadhelm, + Herethryth's son, has Tate's daughter to wife. Wærlaf, + Wærstan's father, was a right serf at Hatfield; he kept the + grey swine there. + +In the west, and especially in Cornwall, the names of the serfs were +mainly Celtic,–Griffith, Modred, Riol, and so forth,–as may be seen +from the list of manumissions preserved in a mass-book at St. Petroc's, +or Padstow. Elsewhere, however, the Celtic names seem to have dropped +out, for the most part, with the Celtic language. It is true, we meet +with cases of apparently Welsh forms, like Maccus, or Rum, even in +purely Teutonic districts; and some names, such as Cerdic and Ceadwalla, +seem to have been borrowed by one race from the other: while such forms +as Wealtheow and Waltheof are at least suggestive of British descent: +but on the whole, the conquered Britons appear everywhere to have +quickly adopted the names in vogue among their conquerors. Such names +would doubtless be considered fashionable, as was the case at a later +date with those introduced by the Danes and the Normans. Even in +Cornwall a good many English forms occur among the serfs: while in very +Celtic Devonshire, English names were probably universal. + +The Danish Conquest introduced a number of Scandinavian names, +especially in the North, the consideration of which belongs rather to a +companion volume. They must be briefly noted here, however, to prevent +confusion with the genuine English forms. Amongst such Scandinavian +introductions, the commonest are perhaps Harold, Swegen or Swend, Ulf, +Gorm or Guthrum, Orm, Yric or Eric, Cnut, and Ulfcytel. During and after +the time of the Danish dynasty, these forms, rendered fashionable by +royal usage, became very general even among the native English. Thus +Earl Godwine's sons bore Scandinavian names; and at an earlier period we +even find persons, apparently Scandinavian, fighting on the English side +against the Danes in East Anglia. + +But the sequel to the Norman Conquest shows us most clearly how the +whole nomenclature of a nation may be entirely altered without any large +change of race. Immediately after the Conquest the native English names +begin to disappear, and in their place we get a crop of Williams, +Walters, Rogers, Henries, Ralphs, Richards, Gilberts, and Roberts. Most +of these were originally High German forms, taken into Gaul by the +Franks, borrowed from them by the Normans, and then copied by the +English from their foreign lords. A few, however, such as Arthur, Owen, +and Alan, were Breton Welsh. Side by side with these French names, the +Normans introduced the Scriptural forms, John, Matthew, Thomas, Simon, +Stephen, Piers or Peter, and James; for though a few cases of Scriptural +names occur in the earlier history–for example, St. John of Beverley +and Daniel, bishop of the West Saxons–these are always borne by +ecclesiastics, probably as names of religion. All through the middle +ages, and down to very recent times, the vast majority of English men +and women continued to bear these baptismal names of Norman +introduction. Only two native English forms practically survived–Edward +and Edmund–owing to mere accidents of royal favour. They were the names +of two great English saints, Eadward the Confessor and Eadmund of East +Anglia; and Henry III. bestowed them upon his two sons, Edward I. and +Edmund of Lancaster. In this manner they became adopted into the royal +and fashionable circle, and so were perpetuated to our own day. All the +others died out in mediæval times, while the few old forms now current, +such as Alfred, Edgar, Athelstane, and Edwin, are mere artificial +revivals of the two last centuries. If we were to judge by nomenclature +alone, we might almost fancy that the Norman Conquest had wholly +extinguished the English people. + +A few steps towards the adoption of surnames were taken even before the +Conquest. Titles of office were usually placed after the personal name, +as Ælfred King, Lilla Thegn, Wulfnoth Cild, Ælfward Bishop, Æthelberht +Ealdorman, and Harold Earl. Double names occasionally occur, the second +being a nickname or true surname, as Osgod Clapa, Benedict Biscop, +Thurkytel Myranheafod, Godwine Bace, and Ælfric Cerm. Trade names are +also found, as Ecceard smith, or Godwig boor. Everywhere, but especially +in the Danish North, patronymics were in common use; for example, Harold +Godwine's son, or Thored Gunnor's son. In all these cases we get +surnames in the germ; but their general and official adoption dates from +after the Norman Conquest. + +Local nomenclature also demands a short explanation. Most of the Roman +towns continued to be called by their Roman names: Londinium, Lunden, +London; Eburacum, Eoforwic, Eurewic, York; Lindum Colonia, Lincolne, +Lincoln. Often _ceaster_, from _castrum_, was added: Gwent, Venta +Belgarum, Wintan-ceaster, Winteceaster, Winchester; Isca, Exan-ceaster, +Execestre, Exeter; Corinium, Cyren-ceaster, Cirencester. Almost every +place which is known to have had a name at the English Conquest retained +that name afterwards, in a more or less clipped or altered form. +Examples are Kent, Wight, Devon, Dorset; Manchester, Lancaster, +Doncaster, Leicester, Gloucester, Worcester, Colchester, Silchester, +Uttoxeter, Wroxeter, and Chester; Thames, Severn, Ouse, Don, Aire, +Derwent, Swale, and Tyne. Even where the Roman name is now lost, as at +Pevensey, the old form was retained in Early English days; for the +"Chronicle" calls it Andredes-ceaster, that is to say, Anderida. So the +old name of Bath is Akemannes-ceaster, derived from the Latin _Aqua_, +Cissan-ceaster, Chichester, forms an almost solitary exception. +Canterbury, or Cant-wara-byrig, was correctly known as Dwrovernum or +Doroberna in Latin documents of the Anglo-Saxon period. + +On the other hand, the true English towns which grew up around the +strictly English settlements, bore names of three sorts. The first were +the clan villages, the _hams_ or _tuns_, such as Bænesingatun, +Bensington; Snotingaham, Nottingham; Glæstingabyrig, Glastonbury; and +Wæringwica, Warwick. These have already been sufficiently illustrated; +and they were situated, for the most part, in the richest agricultural +lowlands. The second were towns which grew up slowly for purposes of +trade by fords of rivers or at ports: such are Oxeneford, Oxford; +Bedcanford, Bedford (a British town); Stretford, Stratford; and +Wealingaford, Wallingford. The third were the towns which grew up in the +wastes and wealds, with names of varied form but more modern origin. As +a whole, it may be said that during the entire early English period the +names of cities were mostly Roman, the names of villages and country +towns were mostly English. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE. + + +Nothing better illustrates the original peculiarities and subsequent +development of the early English mind than the Anglo-Saxon literature. A +vast mass of manuscripts has been preserved for us, embracing works in +prose and verse of the most varied kind; and all the most important of +these have been made accessible to modern readers in printed copies. +They cast a flood of light upon the workings of the English mind in all +ages, from the old pagan period in Sleswick to the date of the Norman +Conquest, and the subsequent gradual supplanting of our native +literature by a new culture based upon the Romance models. + +All national literature everywhere begins with rude songs. From the +earliest period at which the English and Saxon people existed as +separate tribes at all, we may be sure that they possessed battle-songs, +like those common to the whole Aryan stock. But among the Teutonic races +poetry was not distinguished by either of the peculiarities–rime or +metre–which mark off modern verse from prose, so far as its external +form is concerned. Our existing English system of versification is not +derived from our old native poetry at all; it is a development of the +Romance system, adopted by the school of Gower and Chaucer from the +French and Italian poets. Its metre, or syllabic arrangement, is an +adaptation from the Greek quantitative prosody, handed down through +Latin and the neo-Latin dialects; its rime is a Celtic peculiarity +borrowed by the Romance nationalities, and handed on through them to +modern English literature by the Romance school of the fourteenth +century. Our original English versification, on the other hand, was +neither rimed nor rhythmic. What answered to metre was a certain +irregular swing, produced by a roughly recurrent number of accents in +each couplet, without restriction as to the number of feet or syllables. +What answered to rime was a regular and marked alliteration, each +couplet having a certain key-letter, with which three principal words in +the couplet began. In addition to these two poetical devices, +Anglo-Saxon verse shows traces of parallelism, similar to that which +distinguishes Hebrew poetry. But the alliteration and parallelism do not +run quite side by side, the second half of each alliterative couplet +being parallel with the first half of the next couplet. Accordingly, +each new sentence begins somewhat clumsily in the middle of the couplet. +All these peculiarities are not, however, always to be distinguished in +every separate poem. + +The following rough translation of a very early Teutonic spell for the +cure of a sprained ankle, belonging to the heathen period, will +illustrate the earliest form of this alliterative verse. The key-letter +in each couplet is printed in capitals, and the verse is read from end +to end, not as two separate columns.[1] + + Balder and Woden Went to the Woodland: + There Balder's Foal Fell, wrenching its Foot. + Then Sinthgunt beguiled him, and Sunna her Sister: + Then Frua beguiled him, and Folla her sister, + Then Woden beguiled him, as Well he knew how; + Wrench of blood, Wrench of bone, and eke Wrench of limb: + Bone unto Bone, Blood unto Blood, + Limb unto Limb as though Limèd it were. + + [1] The original of this heathen charm is in the Old High + German dialect; but it is quoted here as a good specimen of + the early form of alliterative verse. A similar charm + undoubtedly existed in Anglo-Saxon, though no copy of it has + come down to our days, as we possess a modernised and + Christianised English version, in which the name of our Lord + is substituted for that of Balder. + +In this simple spell the alliteration serves rather as an aid to memory +than as an ornamental device. The following lines, translated from the +ballad on Æthelstan's victory at Brunanburh, in 937, will show the +developed form of the same versificatory system. The parallelism and +alliteration are here well marked:– + + Æthelstan king, lord of Earls, + Bestower of Bracelets, and his Brother eke, + Eadmund the Ætheling, honour Eternal + Won in the Slaughter, with edge of the Sword + By Brunnanbury. The Bucklers they clave, + Hewed the Helmets, with Hammered steel, + Heirs of Edward, as was their Heritage, + From their Fore-Fathers, that oft the Field + They should Guard their Good folk Gainst every comer, + Their Home and their Hoard. The Hated foe cringed to them, + The Scottish Sailors, and the Northern Shipmen; + Fated they Fell. The Field lay gory + With Swordsmen's blood Since the Sun rose + On Morning tide a Mighty globe, + To Glide o'er the Ground, God's candle bright, + The endless Lord's taper, till the great Light + Sank to its Setting. There Soldiers lay, + Warriors Wounded, Northern Wights, + Shot over Shields; and so Scotsmen eke, + Wearied with War. The West Saxon onwards, + The Live-Long day in Linkèd order + Followed the Footsteps of the Foul Foe. + +Of course no songs of the old heathen period were committed to writing +either in Sleswick or in Britain. The minstrels who composed them taught +them by word of mouth to their pupils, and so handed them down from +generation to generation, much as the Achæan rhapsodists handed down the +Homeric poems. Nevertheless, two or three such old songs were afterwards +written out in Christian Northumbria or Wessex; and though their +heathendom has been greatly toned down by the transcribers, enough +remains to give us a graphic glimpse of the fierce and gloomy old +English nature which we could not otherwise obtain. One fragment, known +as the _Fight at Finnesburh_ (rescued from a book-cover into which it +had been pasted), probably dates back before the colonisation of +Britain, and closely resembles in style the above-quoted ode. Two other +early pieces, the _Traveller's Song_ and the _Lament of Deor_, are +inserted from pagan tradition in a book of later devotional poems +preserved at Exeter. But the great epic of _Beowulf_, a work composed +when the English and the Danes were still living in close connexion with +one another by the shores of the Baltic, has been handed down to us +entire, thanks to the kind intervention of some Northumbrian monk, who, +by Christianising the most flagrantly heathen portions, has saved the +entire work from the fate which would otherwise have overtaken it. As a +striking representation of early English life and thought, this great +epic deserves a fuller description.[2] + + [2] It is right to state, however, that many scholars regard + _Beowulf_ as a late translation from a Danish original. + +_Beowulf_ is written in the same short alliterative metre as that of the +Brunanburh ballad, and takes its name from its hero, a servant or +companion of the mighty Hygelac, king of the Geatas (Jutes or Goths). At +a distance from his home lay the kingdom of the Scyldings, a Danish +tribe, ruled over by Hrothgar. There stood Heorot, the high hall of +heroes, the greatest mead-house ever raised. But the land of the Danes +was haunted by a terrible fiend, known as Grendel, who dwelt in a dark +fen in the forest belt, girt round with shadows and lit up at eve by +flitting flames. Every night Grendel came forth and carried off some of +the Danes to devour in his home. The description of the monster himself +and of the marshland where he had his lair is full of that weird and +gloomy superstition which everywhere darkens and overshadows the life +of the savage and the heathen barbarian. The terror inspired in the rude +English mind by the mark and the woodland, the home of wild beasts and +of hostile ghosts, of deadly spirits and of fierce enemies, gleams +luridly through every line. The fen and the forest are dim and dark; +will-o'-the-wisps flit above them, and gloom closes them in; wolves and +wild boars lurk there, the quagmire opens its jaws and swallows the +horse and his rider; the foeman comes through it to bring fire and +slaughter to the clan-village at the dead of night. To these real +terrors and dangers of the mark are added the fancied ones of +superstition. There the terrible forms begotten of man's vague dread of +the unknown–elves and nickors and fiends–have their murky +dwelling-place. The atmosphere of the strange old heathen epic is +oppressive in its gloominess. Nevertheless, its poetry sometimes rises +to a height of great, though barbaric, sublimity. Beowulf himself, +hearing of the evil wrought by Grendel, set sail from his home for the +land of the Danes. Hrothgar received him kindly, and entertained him and +his Goths with ale and song in Heorot. Wealtheow, Hrothgar's queen, +gold-decked, served them with mead. But when all had retired to rest on +the couches of the great hall, in the murky night, Grendel came. He +seized and slew one of Beowulf's companions. Then the warrior of the +Goths followed the monster, and wounded him sorely with his hands. +Grendel fled to his lair to die. But after the contest, Grendel's +mother, a no less hateful creature–the "Devil's dam" of our mediæval +legends–carries on the war against the slayer of her son. Beowulf +descends to her home beneath the water, grapples with her in her cave, +turns against her the weapons he finds there, and is again victorious. +The Goths return to their own country laden with gifts by Hrothgar. +After the death of Hygelac, Beowulf succeeds to the kingship of the +Geatas, whom he rules well and prosperously for many years. At length a +mysterious being, named the Fire Drake, a sort of dragon guarding a +hidden treasure, some of which has been stolen while its guardian +sleeps, comes out to slaughter his people. The old hero buckles on his +rune-covered sword again, and goes forth to battle with the monster. He +slays it, indeed, but is blasted by its fiery breath, and dies after the +encounter. His companions light his pyre upon a lofty spit of land +jutting out into the winter sea. Weapons and jewels and drinking bowls, +taken from the Fire Drake's treasure, were thrown into the tomb for the +use of the ghost in the other world; and a mighty barrow was raised upon +the spot to be a beacon far and wide to seafaring men. So ends the great +heathen epic. It gives us the most valuable picture which we possess of +the daily life led by our pagan forefathers. + +But though these poems are the oldest in tone, they are not the oldest +in form of all that we possess. It is probable that the most primitive +Anglo-Saxon verse was identical with prose, and consisted merely of +sentences bound together by parallelism. As alliteration, at first a +mere _memoria technica_, became an ornamental adjunct, and grew more +developed, the parallelism gradually dropped out. Gnomes or short +proverbs of this character were in common use, and they closely +resembled the mediæval proverbs current in England to the present day. + +With the introduction of Christianity, English verse took a new +direction. It was chiefly occupied in devotional and sacred poetry, or +rather, such poems only have come down to us, as the monks transcribed +them alone, leaving the half-heathen war-songs of the minstrels attached +to the great houses to die out unwritten. The first piece of English +literature which we can actually date is a fragment of the great +religious epic of Cædmon, written about the year 670. Cædmon was a poor +brother in Hild's monastery at Whitby, and he acquired the art of poetry +by a miracle. Northumbria, in the sixth and seventh centuries, took the +lead in Teutonic Britain; and all the early literature is Northumbrian, +as all the later literature is West Saxon. Cædmon's poem consisted in a +paraphrase of the Bible history, from the Creation to the Ascension. The +idea of a translation of the Bible from Latin into English would never +have occurred to any one at that early time. English had as yet no +literary form into which it could be thrown. But Cædmon conceived the +notion of paraphrasing the Bible story in the old alliterative Teutonic +verse, which was familiar to his hearers in songs like _Beowulf_. Some +of the brethren translated or interpreted for him portions of the +Vulgate, and he threw them into rude metre. Only a single short excerpt +has come down to us in the original form. There is a later complete +epic, however, also attributed to Cædmon, of the same scope and purport; +and it retains so much of the old heathen spirit that it may very +possibly represent a modernised version of the real Cædmon's poem, by a +reviser in the ninth century. At any rate, the latter work may be +treated here under the name of Cædmon, by which it is universally known. +It consists of a long Scriptural paraphrase, written in the alliterative +metre, short, sharp, and decisive, but not without a wild and passionate +beauty of its own. In tone it differs wonderfully little from _Beowulf_, +being most at home in the war of heaven and Satan, and in the titanic +descriptions of the devils and their deeds. The conduct of the poem is +singularly like that of _Paradise Lost_. Its wild and rapid stanzas show +how little Christianity had yet moulded the barbaric nature of the +newly-converted English. The epic is essentially a war-song; the Hebrew +element is far stronger than the Christian; hell takes the place of +Grendel's mere; and, to borrow Mr. Green's admirable phrase, "the verses +fall like sword-strokes in the thick of battle." + +In all these works we get the genuine native English note, the wild song +of a pirate race, shaped in early minstrelsy for celebrating the deeds +of gods and warriors, and scarcely half-adapted afterward to the not +wholly alien tone of the oldest Hebrew Scriptures. But the Latin +schools, set up by the Italian monks, introduced into England a totally +new and highly-developed literature. The pagan Anglo-Saxons had not +advanced beyond the stage of ballads; they had no history, or other +prose literature of their own, except, perhaps, a few traditional +genealogical lists, mostly mythical, and adapted to an artificial +grouping by eights and forties. The Roman missionaries brought over the +Roman works, with their developed historical and philosophical style; +and the change induced in England by copying these originals was as +great as the change would now be from the rude Polynesian myths and +ballads to a history of Polynesia written in English, and after English +prototypes, by a native convert. In fact, the Latin language was almost +as important to the new departure as the Latin models. While the old +English literary form, restricted entirely to poetry, was unfitted for +any serious narrative or any reflective work, the old English tongue, +suited only to the practical needs of a rude warrior race, was unfitted +for the expression of any but the simplest and most material ideas. It +is true, the vocabulary was copious, especially in terms for natural +objects, and it was far richer than might be expected even in words +referring to mental states and emotions; but in the expression of +abstract ideas, and in idioms suitable for philosophical discussion, it +remained still, of course, very deficient. Hence the new serious +literature was necessarily written entirely in the Latin language, which +alone possessed the words and modes of speech fitted for its +development; but to exclude it on that account from the consideration of +Anglo-Saxon literature, as many writers have done, would be an absurd +affectation. The Latin writings of Englishmen are an integral part of +English thought, and an important factor in the evolution of English +culture. Gradually, as English monks grew to read Latin from generation +to generation, they invented corresponding compounds in their own +language for the abstract words of the southern tongue; and therefore by +the beginning of the eleventh century, the West Saxon speech of Ælfred +and his successors had grown into a comparatively wealthy dialect, +suitable for the expression of many ideas unfamiliar to the rude pirates +and farmers of Sleswick and East Anglia. Thus, in later days, a rich +vernacular literature grew up with many distinct branches. But, in the +earlier period, the use of a civilised idiom for all purposes connected +with the higher civilisation introduced by the missionaries was +absolutely necessary; and so we find the codes of laws, the penitentials +of the Church, the charters, and the prose literature generally, almost +all written at first in Latin alone. Gradually, as the English tongue +grew fuller, we find it creeping into use for one after another of these +purposes; but to the last an educated Anglo-Saxon could express himself +far more accurately and philosophically in the cultivated tongue of Rome +than in the rough dialect of his Teutonic countrymen. We have only to +contrast the bald and meagre style of the "English Chronicle," written +in the mother-tongue, with the fulness and ease of Bæda's +"Ecclesiastical History," written two centuries earlier in Latin, in +order to see how great an advantage the rough Northumbrians of the early +Christian period obtained in the gift of an old and polished instrument +for conveying to one another their higher thoughts. + +Of this new literature (which began with the Latin biography of Wilfrith +by Æddi or Eddius, and the Latin verses of Ealdhelm) the great +representative is, in fact, Bæda, whose life has already been +sufficiently described in an earlier chapter. Living at Jarrow, a +Benedictine monastery of the strictest type, in close connection with +Rome, and supplied with Roman works in abundance, Bæda had thoroughly +imbibed the spirit of the southern culture, and his books reflect for us +a true picture of the English barbarian toned down and almost +obliterated in all distinctive features by receptivity for Italian +civilisation. The Northumbrian kingdom had just passed its prime in his +days; and he was able to record the early history of the English Church +and People with something like Roman breadth of view. His scientific +knowledge was up to that of his contemporaries abroad; while his +somewhat childish tales of miracles and visions, though they often +betray traces of the old heathen spirit, were not below the average +level of European thought in his own day. Altogether, Bæda may be taken +as a fair specimen of the Romanised Englishman, alike in his strength +and in his weakness. The samples of his historical style already given +will suffice for illustration of his Latin works; but it must not be +forgotten that he was also one of the first writers to try his hand at +regular English prose in his translation of St. John's Gospel. A few +English verses from his lips have also come down to us, breathing the +old Teutonic spirit more deeply than might be expected from his other +works. + +During the interval between the Northumbrian and West Saxon +supremacies–the interval embraced by the eighth century, and covered by +the greatness of Mercia under Æthelbald and Offa–we have few remains of +English literature. The laws of Ine the West Saxon, and of Offa the +Mercian, with the Penitentials of the Church, and the Charters, form the +chief documents. But England gained no little credit for learning from +the works of two Englishmen who had taken up their abode in the old +Germanic kingdom: Boniface or Winfrith, the apostle of the heathen +Teutons subjugated by the Franks, and Alcuin (Ealhwine), the famous +friend and secretary of Karl the Great. Many devotional Anglo-Saxon +poems, of various dates, are kept for us in the two books preserved at +Exeter, and at Vercelli in North Italy. Amongst them are some by +Cynewulf, perhaps the most genuinely poetical of all the early minstrels +after Cædmon. The following lines, taken from the beginning of his poem +"The Phœnix" (a transcript from Lactantius), will sufficiently +illustrate his style:– + + I have heard that hidden Afar from hence + On the east of earth Is a fairest isle, + Lovely and famous. The lap of that land + May not be reached By many mortals, + Dwellers on earth; But it is divided + Through the might of the Maker From all misdoers. + Fair is the field, Full happy and glad, + Filled with the sweetest Scented flowers. + Unique is that island, Almighty the worker + Mickle of might Who moulded that land. + There oft lieth open To the eyes of the blest, + With happiest harmony, The gate of heaven. + Winsome its woods And its fair green wolds, + Roomy with reaches. No rain there nor snow, + Nor breath of frost, Nor fiery blast, + Nor summer's heat, Nor scattered sleet, + Nor fall of hail, Nor hoary rime, + Nor weltering weather, Nor wintry shower, + Falleth on any; But the field resteth + Ever in peace, And the princely land + Bloometh with blossoms. Berg there nor mount + Standeth not steep, Nor stony crag + High lifteth the head, As here with us, + Nor vale, nor dale, Nor deep-caverned down, + Hollows or hills; Nor hangeth aloft + Aught of unsmooth; But ever the plain, + Basks in the beam, Joyfully blooming. + Twelve fathoms taller Towereth that land + (As quoth in their writs Many wise men) + Than ever a berg That bright among mortals + High lifteth the head Among heaven's stars. + +Two noteworthy points may be marked in this extract. Its feeling for +natural scenery is quite different from the wild sublimity of the +descriptions of nature in _Beowulf_. Cynewulf's verse is essentially the +verse of an agriculturist; it looks with disfavour upon mountains and +rugged scenes, while its ideal is one of peaceful tillage. The monk +speaks out in it as cultivator and dreamer. Its tone is wholly different +from that of the Brunanburh ballad or the other fierce war-songs. +Moreover, it contains one or two rimes, preserved in this translation, +whose full significance will be pointed out hereafter. + +The anarchy of Northumbria, and still more the Danish inroads, put an +end to the literary movement in the North and the Midlands; but the +struggle in Wessex gave new life to the West Saxon people. Under Ælfred, +Winchester became the centre of English thought. But the West Saxon +literature is almost entirely written in English, not in Latin; a fact +which marks the progressive development of vocabulary and idiom in the +native tongue. Ælfred himself did much to encourage literature, inviting +over learned men from the continent, and founding schools for the West +Saxon youth in his dwarfed dominions. Most of the Winchester works are +attributed to his own pen, though doubtless he was largely aided by his +advisers, and amongst others by Asser, his Welsh secretary and Bishop of +Sherborne. They comprise translations into the Anglo-Saxon of Boëthius +_de Consolatione_, the Universal History of Orosius, Bæda's +Ecclesiastical History, and Pope Gregory's _Regula Pastoralis_. But the +fact that Ælfred still has recourse to Roman originals, marks the stage +of civilisation as yet mainly imitative; while the interesting passages +intercalated by the king himself show that the beginnings of a really +native prose literature were already taking shape in English hands. + +The chief monument of this truly Anglo-Saxon literature, begun and +completed by English writers in the English tongue alone, is the +Chronicle. That invaluable document, the oldest history of any Teutonic +race in its own language, was probably first compiled at the court of +Ælfred. Its earlier part consists of mere royal genealogies of the +first West Saxon kings, together with a few traditions of the +colonisation, and some excerpts from Bæda. But with the reign of +Æthelwulf, Ælfred's father, it becomes comparatively copious, though its +records still remain dry and matter-of-fact, a bare statement of facts, +without comment or emotional display. The following extract, giving the +account of Ælfred's death, will show its meagre nature. The passage has +been modernised as little as is consistent with its intelligibility at +the present day:– + + An. 901. Here died Ælfred Æthulfing [Æthelwulfing–the son + of Æthelwulf], six nights ere All Hallow Mass. He was king + over all English-kin, bar that deal that was under Danish + weald [dominion]; and he held that kingdom three half-years + less than thirty winters. There came Eadward his son to the + rule. And there seized Æthelwold ætheling, his father's + brother's son, the ham [villa] at Winburne [Wimbourne], and + at Tweoxneam [Christchurch], by the king's unthank and his + witan's [without leave from the king]. There rode the king + with his fyrd till he reached Badbury against Winburne. And + Æthelwold sat within the ham, with the men that to him had + bowed, and he had forwrought [obstructed] all the gates in, + and said that he would either there live or there lie. + Thereupon rode the ætheling on night away, and sought the + [Danish] host in Northumbria, and they took him for king and + bowed to him. And the king bade ride after him, but they + could not outride him. Then beset man the woman that he had + erst taken without the king's leave, and against the + bishop's word, for that she was ere that hallowed a nun. And + on this ilk year forth-fared Æthelred (he was ealdorman on + Devon) four weeks ere Ælfred king. + +During the Augustan age the Chronicle grows less full, but contains +several fine war-songs, of the genuine old English type, full of +savagery in sentiment, and abrupt or broken in manner, but marked by the +same wild poetry and harsh inversions as the older heathen ballads. +Amongst them stand the lines on the fight of Brunanburh, whose exordium +is quoted above. Its close forms one of the finest passages in old +English verse:– + + Behind them they Left, the Lych to devour, + The Sallow kite and the Swart raven, + Horny of beak,– and Him, the dusk-coated, + The white-afted Erne, the corse to Enjoy, + The Greedy war-hawk, and that Grey beast, + The Wolf of the Wood. No such Woeful slaughter + Aye on this Island Ever hath been, + By edge of the Sword, as book Sayeth, + Writers of Eld, since of Eastward hither + English and Saxons Sailed over Sea, + O'er the Broad Brine,– landed in Britain, + Proud Workers of War, and o'ercame the Welsh, + Earls Eager of fame, Obtaining this Earth. + +During the decadence, in the disastrous reign of Æthelred, the Chronicle +regains its fulness, and the following passage may be taken as a good +specimen of its later style. It shows the approach to comment and +reflection, as the compilers grew more accustomed to historical writing +in their own tongue:– + + An. 1009. Here on this year were the ships ready of which we + ere spake, and there were so many of them as never ere (so + far as books tell us) were made among English kin in no + king's day. And man brought them all together to Sandwich, + and there should they lie, and hold this earth against all + outlanders [foreigners'] hosts. But we had not yet the luck + nor the worship [valour] that the ship-fyrd should be of + any good to this land, no more than it oft was afore. Then + befel it at this ilk time or a little ere, that Brihtric, + Eadric's brother the ealdorman's, forwrayed [accused] + Wulfnoth child to the king: and he went out and drew unto + him twenty ships, and there harried everywhere by the south + shore, and wrought all evil. Then quoth man to the ship-fyrd + that man might easily take them, if man were about it. Then + took Brihtric to himself eighty ships and thought that he + should work himself great fame if he should get Wulfnoth, + quick or dead. But as they were thitherward, there came such + a wind against them such as no man ere minded [remembered], + and it all to-beat and to-brake the ships, and warped them + on land: and soon came Wulfnoth and for-burned the ships. + When this was couth [known] to the other ships where the + king was, how the others fared, then was it as though it + were all redeless, and the king fared him home, and the + ealdormen, and the high witan, and forlet the ships thus + lightly. And the folk that were on the ships brought them + round eft to Lunden, and let all the people's toil thus + lightly go for nought: and the victory that all English kin + hoped for was no better. There this ship-fyrd was thus + ended; then came, soon after Lammas, the huge foreign host, + that we hight Thurkill's host, to Sandwich, and soon wended + their way to Canterbury, and would quickly have won the burg + if they had not rather yearned for peace of them. And all + the East Kentings made peace with the host, and gave it + three thousand pound. And the host there, soon after that, + wended till it came to Wightland, and there everywhere in + Suth-Sex, and on Hamtunshire, and eke on Berkshire harried + and burnt, as their wont is. Then bade the king call out all + the people, that men should hold against them on every half + [side]: but none the less, look! they fared where they + willed. Then one time had the king foregone before them with + all the fyrd as they were going to their ships, and all the + folk was ready to fight them. But it was let, through Eadric + ealdorman, as it ever yet was. Then, after St. Martin's + mass, they fared eft again into Kent, and took them a winter + seat on Thames, and victualled themselves from East-Sex and + from the shires that there next were, on the twain halves + of Thames. And oft they fought against the burg of Lunden, + but praise be to God, it yet stands sound, and they ever + there fared evilly. And there after mid-winter they took + their way up, out through Chiltern, and so to Oxenaford + [Oxford], and for-burnt the burg, and took their way on to + the twa halves of Thames to shipward. There man warned them + that there was fyrd gathered at Lunden against them; then + wended they over at Stane [Staines]. And thus fared they all + the winter, and that Lent were in Kent and bettered + [repaired] their ships. + +We possess several manuscript versions of the Chronicle, belonging to +different abbeys, and containing in places somewhat different accounts. +Thus the Peterborough copy is fullest on matters affecting that +monastery, and even inserts several spurious grants, which, however, are +of value as showing how incapable the writers were of scientific +forgery, and so as guarantees of the general accuracy of the document. +But in the main facts they all agree. Nor do they stop short at the +Norman Conquest. Most of them continue half through the reign of +William, and then cease; while one manuscript goes on uninterruptedly +till the reign of Stephen, and breaks off abruptly in the year 1154 with +an unfinished sentence. With it, native prose literature dies down +altogether until the reign of Edward III. + +As a whole, however, the Conquest struck the death-blow of Anglo-Saxon +literature almost at once. During the reigns of Ælfred's descendants +Wessex had produced a rich crop of native works on all subjects, but +especially religious. In this literature the greatest name was that of +Ælfric, whose Homilies are models of the classical West Saxon prose. +But after the Conquest our native literature died out wholly, and a new +literature, founded on Romance models, took its place. The Anglo-Saxon +style lingered on among the people, but it was gradually killed down by +the Romance style of the court writers. In prose, the history of William +of Malmesbury, written in Latin, and in a wider continental spirit, +marks the change. In poetry, the English school struggled on longer, but +at last succumbed. A few words on the nature of this process will not be +thrown away. + +The old Teutonic poetry, with its treble system of accent, alliteration, +and parallelism, was wholly different from the Romance poetry, with its +double system of rime and metre. But, from an early date, the English +themselves were fond of verbal jingles, such as "Scot and lot," "sac and +soc," "frith and grith," "eorl and ceorl," or "might and right." Even in +the alliterative poems we find many occasional rimes, such as "hlynede +and dynede," "wide and side," "Dryht-guman sine drencte mid wine," or +such as the rimes already quoted from Cynewulf. As time went on, and +intercourse with other countries became greater, the tendency to rime +settled down into a fixed habit. Rimed Latin verse was already familiar +to the clergy, and was imitated in their works. Much of the very ornate +Anglo-Saxon prose of the latest period is full of strange verbal tricks, +as shown in the following modernised extract from a sermon of Wulfstan. +Here, the alliterative letters are printed in capitals, and the rimes in +italics:– + + No Wonder is it that Woes befall us, for Well We Wot that + now full many a year men little _care_ what thing they + _dare_ in word or deed; and Sorely has this nation Sinned, + whate'er man Say, with Manifold Sins and with right Manifold + Misdeeds, with Slayings and with Slaughters, with _robbing_ + and with _stabbing_, with Grasping _deed_ and hungry + _Greed_, through Christian Treason and through heathen + Treachery, through _guile_ and through _wile_, through + _lawlessness_ and _awelessness_, through Murder of Friends + and Murder of Foes, through broken Troth and broken Truth, + through wedded unchastity and cloistered impurity. Little + they _trow_ of marriage _vow_, as ere this I said: little + they reck the breach of _oath_ or _troth_; swearing and + for-swearing, on every _side_, far and _wide_, Fast and + Feast they hold not, Peace and Pact they keep not, oft and + anon. Thus in this _land_ they _stand_, Foes to Christendom, + Friends to heathendom, Persecutors of Priests, Persecutors + of People, all too many; spurners of godly law and Christian + bond, who Loudly Laugh at the _Teaching_ of God's _Teachers_ + and the _Preaching_ of God's _Preachers_, and whatso rightly + to God's rites belongs. + +The nation was thus clearly preparing itself from within for the +adoption of the Romance system. Immediately after the Conquest, rimes +begin to appear distinctly, while alliteration begins to die out. An +Anglo-Saxon poem on the character of William the Conqueror, inserted in +the Chronicle under the year of his death, consists of very rude rimes +which may be modernised as follows– + + Gold he took by might, + And of great unright, + From his folk with evil deed + For sore little need. + He was on greediness befallen, + And getsomeness he loved withal. + He set a mickle deer frith, + And he laid laws therewith, + That whoso slew hart or hind + Him should man then blinden. + He forbade to slay the harts, + And so eke the boars. + So well he loved the high deer + As if he their father were. + Eke he set by the hares + That they might freely fare. + His rich men mourned it + And the poor men wailed it. + But he was so firmly wrought + That he recked of all nought. + And they must all withal + The king's will follow, + If they wished to live + Or their land have, + Or their goods eke, + Or his peace to seek. + Woe is me, + That any man so proud should be, + Thus himself up to raise, + And over all men to boast. + May God Almighty show his soul mild-heart-ness, + And do him for his sins forgiveness! + +From that time English poetry bifurcates. On the one hand, we have the +survival of the old Teutonic alliterative swing in Layamon's Brut and in +Piers Plowman–the native verse of the people sung by native minstrels: +and on the other hand we have the new Romance rimed metre in Robert of +Gloucester, "William of Palerne," Gower, and Chaucer. But from Piers +Plowman and Chaucer onward the Romance system conquers and the Teutonic +system dies rapidly. Our modern poetry is wholly Romance in descent, +form, and spirit. + +Thus in literature as in civilisation generally, the culture of old +Rome, either as handed down ecclesiastically through the Latin, or as +handed down popularly through the Norman-French, overcame the native +Anglo-Saxon culture, such as it was, and drove it utterly out of the +England which we now know. Though a new literature, in Latin and +English, sprang up after the Conquest, that literature had its roots, +not in Sleswick or in Wessex, but in Greece, in Rome, in Provence, and +in Normandy. With the Normans, a new era began–an era when Romance +civilisation was grafted by harsh but strong hands on to the Anglo-Saxon +stock, the Anglo-Saxon institutions, and the Anglo-Saxon tongue. With +the first step in this revolution, our present volume has completed its +assigned task. The story of the Normans will be told by another pen in +the same series. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +ANGLO-SAXON INFLUENCES IN MODERN BRITAIN. + + +Perhaps the best way of summing up the results of the present inquiry +will be by considering briefly the main elements of our existing life +and our actual empire which we owe to the Anglo-Saxon nationality. We +may most easily glance at them under the five separate heads of blood, +character, language, civilisation, and institutions. + +In _blood_, it is probable that the importance of the Anglo-Saxon +element has been generally over-estimated. It has been too usual to +speak of England as though it were synonymous with Britain, and to +overlook the numerical strength of the Celtic population in Scotland, +Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland. It has been too usual, also, to neglect +the considerable Danish, Norwegian, and Norman element, which, though +belonging to the same Low German and Scandinavian stock, yet differs in +some important particulars from the Anglo-Saxon. But we have seen reason +to conclude that even in the most purely Teutonic region of Britain, the +district between Forth and Southampton Water, a considerable proportion +of the people were of Celtic or pre-Celtic descent, from the very first +age of English settlement. This conclusion is borne out both by the +physical traits of the peasantry and the nature of the early remains. In +the western half of South Britain, from Clyde to Cornwall, the +proportion of Anglo-Saxon blood has probably always been far smaller. +The Norman conquerors themselves were of mixed Scandinavian, Gaulish, +and Breton descent. Throughout the middle ages, the more Teutonic half +of Britain–the southern and eastern tract–was undoubtedly the most +important: and the English, mixed with Scandinavians from Denmark or +Normandy, formed the ruling caste. Up to the days of Elizabeth, Teutonic +Britain led the van in civilisation, population, and commerce. But since +the age of the Tudors, it seems probable, as Dr. Rolleston and others +have shown, that the Celtic element has largely reasserted itself. A +return wave of Celts has inundated the Teutonic region. Scottish +Highlanders have poured into Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London: Welshmen +have poured into Liverpool, Manchester, and all the great towns of +England: Irishmen have poured into every part of the British dominions. +During the middle ages, the Teutonic portion of Britain was by far the +most densely populated; but at the present day, the almost complete +restriction of coal to the Celtic or semi-Celtic area has aggregated the +greatest masses of population in the west and north. If we take into +consideration the probable large substratum of Celts or earlier races in +the Teutonic counties, the wide area of the undoubted Celtic region +which pours forth a constant stream of emigrants towards the Teutonic +tract, the change of importance between south-east and north-west, since +the industrial development of the coal country, and the more rapid rate +of increase among the Celts, it becomes highly probable that not +one-half the population of the British Isles is really of Teutonic +descent. Moreover, it must be remembered that, whatever may have been +the case in the primitive Anglo-Saxon period, intermarriages between +Celts and Teutons have been common for at least four centuries past; and +that therefore almost all Englishmen at the present day possess at least +a fraction of Celtic blood. + +"The people," says Professor Huxley, "are vastly less Teutonic than +their language." It is not likely that any absolutely pure-blooded +Anglo-Saxons now exist in our midst at all, except perhaps among the +farmer class in the most Teutonic and agricultural shires: and even this +exception is extremely doubtful. Persons bearing the most obviously +Celtic names–Welsh, Cornish, Irish, or Highland Scots–are to be found +in all our large towns, and scattered up and down through the country +districts. Hence we may conclude with great probability that the +Anglo-Saxon blood has long since been everywhere diluted by a strong +Celtic intermixture. Even in the earliest times and in the most Teutonic +counties, many serfs of non-Teutonic race existed from the very +beginning: their masters have ere now mixed with other non-Teutonic +families elsewhere, till even the restricted English people at the +present day can hardly claim to be much more than half Anglo-Saxon. Nor +do the Teutons now even retain their position as a ruling caste. Mixed +Celts in England itself have long since risen to many high places. +Leading families of Welsh, Cornish, Scotch, and Irish blood have also +been admitted into the peerage of the United Kingdom, and form a large +proportion of the House of Commons, of the official world, and of the +governing class in India, the Colonies, and the empire generally. These +families have again intermarried with the nobility and gentry of +English, Danish, or Norman extraction, and thus have added their part to +the intricate intermixture of the two races. At the present day, we can +only speak of the British people as Anglo-Saxons in a conventional +sense: so far as blood goes, we need hardly hesitate to set them down as +a pretty equal admixture of Teutonic and Celtic elements. + +In _character_, the Anglo-Saxons have bequeathed to us much of the +German solidity, industry, and patience, traits which have been largely +amalgamated with the intellectual quickness and emotional nature of the +Celt, and have thus produced the prevailing English temperament as we +actually know it. To the Anglo-Saxon blood we may doubtless attribute +our general sobriety, steadiness, and persistence; our scientific +patience and thoroughness; our political moderation and endurance; our +marked love of individual freedom and impatience of arbitrary restraint. +The Anglo-Saxon was slow to learn, but retentive of what he learnt. On +the other hand, he was unimaginative; and this want of imagination may +be traced in the more Teutonic counties to the present day. But when +these qualities have been counteracted by the Celtic wealth of fancy, +the race has produced the great English literature,–a literature whose +form is wholly Roman, while in matter, its more solid parts doubtless +owe much to the Teuton, and its lighter portions, especially its poetry +and romance, can be definitely traced in great measure to known Celtic +elements. While the Teutonic blood differentiates our somewhat slow and +steady character from the more logical but volatile and unstable Gaul, +the Celtic blood differentiates it from the far slower, heavier, and +less quick or less imaginative Teutons of Germany and Scandinavia. + +In _language_ we owe almost everything to the Anglo-Saxons. The Low +German dialect which they brought with them from Sleswick and Hanover +still remains in all essentials the identical speech employed by +ourselves at the present day. It received a few grammatical forms from +the cognate Scandinavian dialects; it borrowed a few score or so of +words from the Welsh; it adopted a small Latin vocabulary of +ecclesiastical terms from the early missionaries; it took in a +considerable number of Romance elements after the Norman Conquest; it +enriched itself with an immense variety of learned compounds from the +Greek and Latin at the Renaissance period: but all these additions +affected almost exclusively its stock of words, and did not in the least +interfere with its structure or its place in the scientific +classification of languages. The English which we now speak is not in +any sense a Romance tongue. It is the lineal descendant of the English +of Ælfred and of Bæda, enlarged in its vocabulary by many words which +they did not use, impoverished by the loss of a few which they employed, +yet still essentially identical in grammar and idiom with the language +of the first Teutonic settlers. Gradually losing its inflexions from the +days of Eadgar onward, it assumed its existing type before the +thirteenth century, and continuously incorporated an immense number of +French and Latin words, which greatly increased its value as an +instrument of thought. But it is important to recollect that the English +tongue has nothing at all to do in its origin with either Welsh or +French. The Teutonic speech of the Anglo-Saxon settlers drove out the +old Celtic speech throughout almost all England and the Scotch Lowlands +before the end of the eleventh century; it drove out the Cornish in the +eighteenth century; and it is now driving out the Welsh, the Erse, and +the Gaelic, under our very eyes. In language at least the British empire +(save of course India) is now almost entirely English, or in other +words, Anglo-Saxon. + +In _civilisation_, on the other hand, we owe comparatively little to the +direct Teutonic influence. The native Anglo-Saxon culture was low, and +even before its transplantation to Britain it had undergone some +modification by mediate mercantile transactions with Rome and the +Mediterranean states. The alphabet, coins, and even a few southern +words, (such as "alms") had already filtered through to the shores of +the Baltic. After the colonisation of Britain, the Anglo-Saxons learnt +something of the higher agriculture from their Romanised serfs, and +adopted, as early as the heathen period, some small portion of the Roman +system, so far as regarded roads, fortifications, and, perhaps +buildings. The Roman towns still stood in their midst, and a fragment, +at least, of the Romanised population still carried on commerce with the +half-Roman Frankish kingdom across the Channel. The re-introduction of +Christianity was at the same time the re-introduction of Roman culture +in its later form. The Latin language and the Mediterranean arts once +more took their place in Britain. The Romanising prelates,–Wilfrith, +Theodore, Dunstan,–were also the leaders of civilisation in their own +times. The Norman Conquest brought England into yet closer connection +with the Continent; and Roman law and Roman arts still more deeply +affected our native culture. Norman artificers supplanted the rude +English handicraftsmen in many cases, and became a dominant class in +towns. The old English literature, and especially the old English +poetry, died utterly out with Piers Plowman; while a new literature, +based upon Romance models, took its origin with Chaucer and the other +Court poets. Celtic-Latin rhyme ousted the genuine Teutonic +alliteration. With the Renaissance, the triumph of the southern culture +was complete. Greek philosophy and Greek science formed the +starting-point for our modern developments. The ecclesiastical revolt +from papal Rome was accompanied by a literary and artistic return to the +models of pagan Rome. The Renaissance was, in fact, the throwing off of +all that was Teutonic and mediæval, the resumption of progressive +thought and scientific knowledge, at the point where it had been +interrupted by the Germanic inroads of the fifth century. The unjaded +vigour of the German races, indeed, counted for much; and Europe took up +the lost thread of the dying empire with a youthful freshness very +different from the effete listlessness of the Mediterranean culture in +its last stage. Yet it is none the less true that our whole civilisation +is even now the carrying out and completion of the Greek and Roman +culture in new fields and with fresh intellects. We owe little here to +the Anglo-Saxon; we owe everything to the great stream of western +culture, which began in Egypt and Assyria, permeated Greece and the +Archipelago, spread to Italy and the Roman empire, and, finally, now +embraces the whole European and American world. The Teutonic intellect +and the Teutonic character have largely modified the spirit of the +Mediterranean civilisation; but the tools, the instruments, the +processes themselves, are all legacies from a different race. Englishmen +did not invent letters, money, metallurgy, glass, architecture, and +science; they received them all ready-made, from Italy and the Ægean, or +more remotely still from the Euphrates and the Nile. Nor is it necessary +to add that in religion we have no debt to the Anglo-Saxon, our existing +creed being entirely derived through Rome from the Semitic race. + +In _institutions_, once more, the Anglo-Saxon has contributed almost +everything. Our political government, our limited monarchy, our +parliament, our shires, our hundreds, our townships, are considered by +the dominant school of historians to be all Anglo-Saxon in origin. Our +jury is derived from an Anglo-Saxon custom; our nobility and officials +are representatives of Anglo-Saxon earls and reeves. The Teuton, when he +settled in Britain, brought with him the Teutonic organisation in its +entirety. He established it throughout the whole territory which he +occupied or conquered. As the West Saxon over-lordship grew to be the +English kingdom, and as the English kingdom gradually annexed or +coalesced with the Welsh and Cornish principalities, the Scotch and +Irish kingdoms,–the Teutonic system spread over the whole of Britain. +It underwent some little modification at the hands of the Normans, and +more still at those of the Angevins; but, on the whole, it is still a +wide yet natural development of the old Germanic constitution. + +Thus, to sum up in a single sentence, the Anglo-Saxons have contributed +about one-half the blood of Britain, or rather less; but they have +contributed the whole framework of the language, and the whole social +and political organisation; while, on the other hand, they have +contributed hardly any of the civilisation, and none of the religion. We +are now a mixed race, almost equally Celtic and Teutonic by descent; we +speak a purely Teutonic language, with a large admixture of Latin roots +in its vocabulary; we live under Teutonic institutions; we enjoy the +fruits of a Græco-Roman civilisation; and we possess a Christian +Church, handed down to us directly through Roman sources from a Hebrew +original. To the extent so indicated, and to that extent only, we may +still be justly styled an Anglo-Saxon people. + + + + +INDEX. + + +Ælfheah of Canterbury, 168 + +Ælfred the West Saxon, 136; + his life, 139; + his death, 140; + his writings, 216 + +Ælle of Sussex, 24, 30 + +Æsc the Jute, 29 + +Æthelbald of Mercia, 117 + +Æthelberht of Kent, 85 + +Æthelberht of Wessex, 129 + +Æthelflæd of Mercia, 142 + +Æthelfrith of Northumbria, 53, 62 + +Æthelred of Wessex, 130 + +Æthelred the Unready, 164 + +Æthelstan of Wessex, 144 + +Æthelwulf of Wessex, 124 + +Aidan of Lindisfarne, 95 + +Akerman, Mr., on survival of Celts, 59 + +Anderida, 30, 41 + +Anglo-Saxons, 8; + their religion, 16; + language, 174 + +Architecture, 155 + +Aryans, 1 + +Augustine, St., of Canterbury, arrives in England, 85; + colloquy with Welsh bishops, 93 + + +Bæda, 61; + his life, 109; + his writings, 213, and _passim_ + +Bamborough built, 34; + princes of, 134, 144 + +Bayeux, Saxon settlement at, 22 + +Benedict Biscop, 109 + +Beowulf, 185, 206, and _passim_ + +Bercta, queen of Kentmen, 85 + +Bernicia settled, 34; + coalesces with Deira, 35 + +Boulogne, Saxon settlement at, 22 + +Brunanburh, battle of, 145 + ballad on, 204, 218 + +Burhred of Mercia, 131 + + +Cadwalla, 92, 94 + +Cædmon the poet, 103; + his epic, 209 + +Cerdic the Briton, 31, 67 + +Cerdic the West Saxon, 24, 31 + +Chester, battle of, 58 + +Chronicle, English, 63; + its origin and nature, 216; + quoted, _passim_ + +Clans, 8, 43; + meanings of their names, 80; + occurrence in different shires, 81 + +Cnut, 169 + +Coifi the priest, 89 + +Count of the Saxon Shore, 22 + +Cuthberht of Lindisfarne, 97 + +Cuthwine of Wessex, 51 + +Cuthwulf of Wessex, 50 + +Cynewulf the poet, 214 + +Cynewulf of Wessex, 119 + + +Danish invasions, 123 _et seq._ + +Dawkins, Prof. Boyd, 2 + +Deira settled, 34 + +Deorham, battle of, 51 + +Dunstan, 147 + + +Eadgar of Wessex, 147 + +Eadmund of East Anglia, 130 + +Eadward (the Elder), 141 + +Eadward (the Confessor), 170 + +Eadwine of Northumbria, 63; + converted, 88 + +East Anglia colonised, 36; + conquered by Danes, 130 + +Ecgberht of Wessex, 120 + +Elmet, 35; + conquered by English, 67 + +English (or Anglians), 5; + their language, _see_ Anglo-Saxons + +English Chronicle, _see_ Chronicle, English + +Essex colonised, 36 + + +Felix converts East Anglia, 96 + +Freeman, Dr. E.A., 57, 64, 65, 69, and _passim_ + +Frisians, 5; + as slave merchants, 75; + ships, 123; + employed by Ælfred, 139 + + +Germanic race, 4 + +Gewissas, 37 + +Gildas, 28, 47; + his book, 60 + +Gregory the Great sends mission to England, 85 + +Grimm's Law, 175 + +Guthrum the Dane, 137 + +Gyrwas, 49 + + +Hæsten the pirate, 138, 141 + +Harold, 170 + +Hastings, battle of, 171 + +Heathendom, 16, 71 + +Hengest, 28 + +Horsa, 28 + +Huxley, Prof., on English Ethnography, 5 + +Hyring, king of Bernicia, 33 + + +Ida of Northumbria, 25, 32; + his pedigree, 46 + +Iona, 93 + + +Jutes, 5; + settle in Kent, 23, 28; + in the Isle of Wight, 24, 37; + in Northumbria, 32 + + +Kemble, on British in towns, 65; + on Celtic personal names in England, 66 + +Kent, settled by Jutes, 23, 28; + converted, 85 + + +Lincolnshire colonised, 35; + converted, 91 + +Lindisfarne, 95 + +Loidis, 35 + +London, 37, 158 + +Lothian, originally English, 35; + unconquered by Danes, 135; + granted to king of Scots, 149 + +Low Germans, 5; + their language, 176 + + +Marriage in heathen times, 74, 81 + +Meonwaras, 37 + +Mercia colonised, 49; + its rise under Penda, 92; + its supremacy, 117; + conquered by Wessex, 122; + by the Danes, 131 + +Monasteries, 102 + + +Nennius, 32, 67 + +Nithard, 9 + +Northumbria settled, 32; + converted, 88; + conquered by Danes, 130 + +Notitia Imperii, 22 + + +Offa of Mercia, 117; + his dyke, 118 + +Oswald of Northumbria, 94 + +Oswiu of Northumbria, 95 + + +Palgrave, Sir F., 66 + +Paulinus, 88 + +Penda of Mercia, 91, 94 + +Phillips, Prof., on Celtic blood in Yorkshire, 57 + +Port, mythical hero, 31 + + +Rolleston, Prof., on Anglo-Saxon barrows, 25; + on survival of Celts, 59 + +Ruim, old name of Thanet, 23 + +Runes, 97 + + +Salisbury conquered by English, 50 + +Saxons, 5; + English, so called by Celtic races, 21; + settle in Sussex, 24; + in Essex, 36; + in Wessex, 37 + +Saxons, Old, 7; + their constitution, 9 + +Ships of bronze age, 19; + of iron age, 20; + king Ælfred's, 139 + +Stubbs, Rev. Canon, 120, and _passim_ + +Sussex settled, 24, 29 + +Swegen, 165 + + +Taylor, Rev. Isaac, on Hundreds, 68 + +Teutonic race, 4 + +Thanet, 23 + +Theodore of Canterbury, 107 + +Thunor, 16; + his worship, 77 + +Towns, 157 + +Totemism, 79 + + +Vortigern, 28 + + +Wessex settled, 24, 31 + +Whitby, synod of, 97; + abbey at, 103 + +Wight, settled by Jutes, 23 + +Wihtgar, 31 + +Wilfrith of York, 97, 105, 108 + +Winchester, 37, 158 + +Winwidfield, 96 + +Woden, 16, 46; + his worship, 76 + + + +THE END. + + + * * * * * + +WYMAN AND SONS, PRINTERS, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LONDON, W.C. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Early Britain, by Grant Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EARLY BRITAIN *** + +***** This file should be named 16790-0.txt or 16790-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/9/16790/ + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Annika Feilbach and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/16790-0.zip b/16790-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0cd49b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/16790-0.zip diff --git a/16790-8.txt b/16790-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1923b62 --- /dev/null +++ b/16790-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6556 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Early Britain, by Grant Allen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Early Britain + Anglo-Saxon Britain + +Author: Grant Allen + +Release Date: October 2, 2005 [EBook #16790] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EARLY BRITAIN *** + + + + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Annika Feilbach and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +[Illustration: BRITAIN IN A.D. 500] + + +EARLY BRITAIN. + + + +ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN. + +BY + +GRANT ALLEN, B.A. + + + +PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND +EDUCATION APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. + + +LONDON: +SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, +NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, S.W.; +43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.; 48, PICCADILLY, W.; +AND 135, NORTH STREET, BRIGHTON. + +NEW YORK: E. & J.B. YOUNG & CO. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +This little book is an attempt to give a brief sketch of Britain under +the early English conquerors, rather from the social than from the +political point of view. For that purpose not much has been said about +the doings of kings and statesmen; but attention has been mainly +directed towards the less obvious evidence afforded us by existing +monuments as to the life and mode of thought of the people themselves. +The principal object throughout has been to estimate the importance of +those elements in modern British life which are chiefly due to purely +English or Low-Dutch influences. + +The original authorities most largely consulted have been, first and +above all, the "English Chronicle," and to an almost equal extent, +Bda's "Ecclesiastical History." These have been supplemented, where +necessary, by Florence of Worcester and the other Latin writers of later +date. I have not thought it needful, however, to repeat any of the +gossiping stories from William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon, and +their compeers, which make up the bulk of our early history as told in +most modern books. Still less have I paid any attention to the romances +of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Gildas, Nennius, and the other Welsh tracts +have been sparingly employed, and always with a reference by name. Asser +has been used with caution, where his information seems to be really +contemporary. I have also derived some occasional hints from the old +British bards, from _Beowulf_, from the laws, and from the charters in +the "Codex Diplomaticus." These written documents have been helped out +by some personal study of the actual early English relics preserved in +various museums, and by the indirect evidence of local nomenclature. + +Among modern books, I owe my acknowledgments in the first and highest +degree to Dr. E.A. Freeman, from whose great and just authority, +however, I have occasionally ventured to differ in some minor matters. +Next, my acknowledgments are due to Canon Stubbs, to Mr. Kemble, and to +Mr. J.R. Green. Dr. Guest's valuable papers in the Transactions of the +Archological Institute have supplied many useful suggestions. To +Lappenberg and Sir Francis Palgrave I am also indebted for various +details. Professor Rolleston's contributions to "Archologia," as well +as his Appendix to Canon Greenwell's "British Barrows," have been +consulted for anthropological and antiquarian points; on which also +Professor Huxley and Mr. Akerman have published useful papers. Professor +Boyd Dawkins's work on "Early Man in Britain," as well as the writings +of Worsaae and Steenstrup have helped in elucidating the condition of +the English at the date of the Conquest. Nor must I forget the aid +derived from Mr. Isaac Taylor's "Words and Places," from Professor +Henry Morley's "English Literature," and from Messrs. Haddan and Stubbs' +"Councils." To Mr. Gomme, Mr. E.B. Tylor, Mr. Sweet, Mr. James Collier, +Dr. H. Leo, and perhaps others, I am under various obligations; and if +any acknowledgments have been overlooked, I trust the injured person +will forgive me when I have had already to quote so many authorities for +so small a book. The popular character of the work renders it +undesirable to load the pages with footnotes of reference; and scholars +will generally see for themselves the source of the information given in +the text. + +Personally, my thanks are due to my friend, Mr. York Powell, for much +valuable aid and assistance, and to the Rev. E. McClure, one of the +Society's secretaries, for his kind revision of the volume in proof, and +for several suggestions of which I have gladly availed myself. + +As various early English names and phrases occur throughout the book, it +will be best, perhaps, to say a few words about their pronunciation +here, rather than to leave over that subject to the chapter on the +Anglo-Saxon language, near the close of the work. A few notes on this +matter are therefore appended below. + + [Transcriber's note: For this Latin-1 version, macrons have + been marked as [=x], and breve accents as [)x]. See the + Unicode version for a proper rendering of these accents.] + +The simple vowels, as a rule, have their continental pronunciation, +approximately thus: [=a] as in _father_, [)a] as in _ask_; [=e] as in +_there_, [)e] as in _men_; [=i] as in _marine_, [)i] as _fit_; [=o] as +in _note_, [)o] as in _not_; [=u] as in _brute_, [)u] as in _full_; [=y] +as in _grn_ (German), [)y] as in _hbsch_ (German). The quantity of +the vowels is not marked in this work. __ is not a diphthong, but a +simple vowel sound, the same as our own short _a_ in _man_, _that_, &c. +_Ea_ is pronounced like _ya_. _C_ is always hard, like _k_; and _g_ is +also always hard, as in _begin_: they must _never_ be pronounced like +_s_ or _j_. The other consonants have the same values as in modern +English. No vowel or consonant is ever mute. Hence we get the following +approximate pronunciations: lfred and thelred, as if written Alfred +and Athelred; thelstan and Dunstan, as Athelstahn and Doonstahn; +Eadwine and Oswine, nearly as Yahd-weena and Ose-weena; Wulfsige and +Sigeberht, as Wolf-seeg-a and Seeg-a-bayrt; Ceolred and Cynewulf, as +Keole-red and Kne-wolf. These approximations look a little absurd when +written down in the only modern phonetic equivalents; but that is the +fault of our own existing spelling, not of the early English names +themselves. + +G.A. + + + + + +ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH. + + +At a period earlier than the dawn of written history there lived +somewhere among the great table-lands and plains of Central Asia a race +known to us only by the uncertain name of Aryans. These Aryans were a +fair-skinned and well-built people, long past the stage of aboriginal +savagery, and possessed of a considerable degree of primitive culture. +Though mainly pastoral in habit, they were acquainted with tillage, and +they grew for themselves at least one kind of cereal grain. They spoke a +language whose existence and nature we infer from the remnants of it +which survive in the tongues of their descendants, and from these +remnants we are able to judge, in some measure, of their civilisation +and their modes of thought. The indications thus preserved for us show +the Aryans to have been a simple and fierce community of early warriors, +farmers, and shepherds, still in a partially nomad condition, living +under a patriarchal rule, originally ignorant of all metals save gold, +but possessing weapons and implements of stone,[1] and worshipping as +their chief god the open heaven. We must not regard them as an idyllic +and peaceable people: on the contrary, they were the fiercest and most +conquering tribe ever known. In mental power and in plasticity of +manners, however, they probably rose far superior to any race then +living, except only the Semitic nations of the Mediterranean coast. + + [1] Professor Boyd Dawkins has shown that the Continental + Celts were still in their stone age when they invaded + Europe; whence we must conclude that the original Aryans + were unacquainted with the use of bronze. + +From the common Central Asian home, colonies of warlike Aryans gradually +dispersed themselves, still in the pre-historic period, under pressure +of population or hostile invasion, over many districts of Europe and +Asia. Some of them moved southward, across the passes of Afghanistan, +and occupied the fertile plains of the Indus and the Ganges, where they +became the ancestors of the Brahmans and other modern high-caste +Hindoos. The language which they took with them to their new settlements +beyond the Himalayas was the Sanskrit, which still remains to this day +the nearest of all dialects that we now possess to the primitive Aryan +speech. From it are derived the chief modern tongues of northern India, +from the Vindhyas to the Hindu Kush. Other Aryan tribes settled in the +mountain districts west of Hindustan; and yet others found themselves a +home in the hills of Iran or Persia, where they still preserve an allied +dialect of the ancient mother tongue. + +But the mass of the emigrants from the Central Asian fatherland moved +further westward in successive waves, and occupied, one after another, +the midland plains and mountainous peninsulas of Europe. First of all, +apparently, came the Celts, who spread slowly across the South of Russia +and Germany, and who are found at the dawn of authentic history +extending over the entire western coasts and islands of the continent, +from Spain to Scotland. Mingled in many places with the still earlier +non-Aryan aborigines--perhaps Iberians and Euskarians, a short and +swarthy race, armed only with weapons of polished stone, and represented +at the present day by the Basques of the Pyrenees and the Asturias--the +Celts held rule in Spain, Gaul, and Britain, up to the date of the +several Roman conquests. A second great wave of Aryan immigration, that +of the Hellenic and Italian races, broke over the shores of the _gean_ +and the Adriatic, where their cognate languages have become familiar to +us in the two extreme and typical forms of the classical Greek and +Latin. A third wave was that of the Teutonic or German people, who +followed and drove out the Celts over a large part of central and +western Europe; while a fourth and final swarm was that of the Slavonic +tribes, which still inhabit only the extreme eastern portion of the +continent. + +With the Slavonians we shall have nothing to do in this enquiry; and +with the Greek and Italian races we need only deal very incidentally. +But the Celts, whom the English invaders found in possession of all +Britain when they began their settlements in the island, form the +subject of another volume in this series, and will necessarily call for +some small portion of our attention here also; while it is to the +Germanic race that the English stock itself actually belongs, so that we +must examine somewhat more closely the course of Germanic immigration +through Europe, and the nature of the primitive Teutonic civilisation. + +The Germanic family of peoples consisted of a race which early split up +into two great hordes or stocks, speaking dialects which differed +slightly from one another through the action of the various +circumstances to which they were each exposed. These two stocks are the +High German and the Low German (with which last may be included the +Gothic and the Scandinavian). Moving across Europe from east to west, +they slowly drove out the Celts from Germany and the central plains, and +took possession of the whole district between the Alps, the Rhine, and +the Baltic, which formed their limits at the period when they first came +into contact with the Roman power. The Goths, living in closest +proximity to the empire, fell upon it during the decline and decay of +Rome, settled in Italy, Gaul, and Spain, and becoming absorbed in the +mass of the native population, disappear altogether from history as a +distinguishable nationality. But the High and Low Germans retain to the +present day their distinctive language and features; and the latter +branch, to which the English people belong, still lives for the most +part in the same lands which it has held ever since the date of the +early Germanic immigration. + +The Low Germans, in the third century after Christ, occupied in the main +the belt of flat country between the Baltic and the mouths of the Rhine. +Between them and the old High German Swabians lay a race intermediate in +tongue and blood, the Franks. The Low Germans were divided, like most +other barbaric races, into several fluctuating and ill-marked tribes, +whose names are loosely and perhaps interchangeably used by the few +authorities which remain to us. We must not expect to find among them +the definiteness of modern civilised nations, but rather such a +vagueness as that which characterised the loose confederacies of North +American Indians or the various shifting peoples of South Africa. But +there are three of their tribes which stand fairly well marked off from +one another in early history, and which bore, at least, the chief share +in the colonisation of Britain. These three tribes are the Jutes, the +English, and the Saxons. Closely connected with them, but less strictly +bound in the same family tie, were the Frisians. + +The Jutes, the northernmost of the three divisions, lived in the marshy +forests and along the winding fjords of Jutland, the extreme peninsula +of Denmark, which still preserves their name in our own day. The English +dwelt just to the south, in the heath-clad neck of the peninsula, which +we now call Sleswick. And the Saxons, a much larger tribe, occupied the +flat continental shore, from the mouth of the Oder to that of the Rhine. +At the period when history lifts the curtain upon the future Germanic +colonists of Britain, we thus discover them as the inhabitants of the +low-lying lands around the Baltic and the North Sea, and closely +connected with other tribes on either side, such as the Frisians and the +Danes, who still speak very cognate Low German and Scandinavian +languages. + +But we have not yet fully grasped the extent of the relationship between +the first Teutonic settlers in Britain and their continental brethren. +Not only are the true Englishmen of modern England distantly connected +with the Franks, who never to our knowledge took part in the +colonisation of the island at all; and more closely connected with the +Frisians, some of whom probably accompanied the earliest piratical +hordes; as well as with the Danes, who settled at a later date in all +the northern counties: but they are also most closely connected of all +with those members of the colonising tribes who did not themselves bear +a share in the settlement, and whose descendants are still living in +Denmark and in various parts of Germany. The English proper, it is true, +seem to have deserted their old home in Sleswick in a body; so that, +according to Bda, the Christian historian of Northumberland, in his +time this oldest England by the shores of the Baltic lay waste and +unpeopled, through the completeness of the exodus. But the Jutes appear +to have migrated in small numbers, while the larger part of the tribe +remained at home in their native marshland; and of the more numerous +Saxons, though a great swarm went out to conquer southern Britain, a +vast body was still left behind in Germany, where it continued +independent and pagan till the time of Karl the Great, long after the +Teutonic colonists of Britain had grown into peaceable and civilised +Christians. It is from the statements of later historians with regard to +these continental Saxons that our knowledge of the early English customs +and institutions, during the continental period of English history, must +be mainly inferred. We gather our picture of the English and Saxons who +first came to this country from the picture drawn for us of those among +their brethren whom they left behind in the primitive English home. + +These three tribes, the Jutes, the English, and the Saxons, had not yet, +apparently, advanced far enough in the idea of national unity to possess +a separate general name, distinguishing them altogether from the other +tribes of the Germanic stock. Most probably they did not regard +themselves at this period as a single nation at all, or even as more +closely bound to one another than to the surrounding and kindred tribes. +They may have united at times for purposes of a special war; but their +union was merely analogous to that of two North American peoples, or two +modern European nations, pursuing a common policy for awhile. At a later +date, in Britain, the three tribes learned to call themselves +collectively by the name of that one among them which earliest rose to +supremacy--the English; and the whole southern half of the island came +to be known by their name as England. Even from the first it seems +probable that their language was spoken of as English only, and +comparatively little as Saxon. But since it would be inconvenient to use +the name of one dominant tribe alone, the English, as equivalent to +those of the three, and since it is desirable to have a common title for +all the Germanic colonists of Britain, whenever it is necessary to speak +of them together, we shall employ the late and, strictly speaking, +incorrect form of "Anglo-Saxons" for this purpose. Similarly, in order +to distinguish the earliest pure form of the English language from its +later modern form, now largely enriched and altered by the addition of +Romance or Latin words and the disuse of native ones, we shall always +speak of it, where distinction is necessary, as Anglo-Saxon. The term is +now too deeply rooted in our language to be again uprooted; and it has, +besides, the merit of supplying a want. At the same time, it should be +remembered that the expression Anglo-Saxon is purely artificial, and was +never used by the people themselves in describing their fellows or their +tongue. When they did not speak of themselves as Jutes, English, and +Saxons respectively, they spoke of themselves as English alone. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE ENGLISH BY THE SHORES OF THE BALTIC. + + +From the notices left us by Bda in Britain, and by Nithard and others +on the continent, of the habits and manners which distinguished those +Saxons who remained in the old fatherland, we are able to form some idea +of the primitive condition of those other Saxons, English, and Jutes, +who afterwards colonized Britain, during the period while they still all +lived together in the heather-clad wastes and marshy lowlands of Denmark +and Northern Germany. The early heathen poem of _Beowulf_ also gives us +a glimpse of their ideas and their mode of thought. The known physical +characteristics of the race, the nature of the country which they +inhabited, the analogy of other Germanic tribes, and the recent +discoveries of pre-historic archology, all help us to piece out a +fairly consistent picture of their appearance, their manner of life, and +their rude political institutions. + +We must begin by dismissing from our minds all those modern notions +which are almost inevitably implied by the use of language directly +derived from that of our heathen ancestors, but now mixed up in our +conceptions with the most advanced forms of European civilisation. We +must not allow such words as "king" and "English" to mislead us into a +species of filial blindness to the real nature of our Teutonic +forefathers. The little community of wild farmers and warriors who lived +among the dim woodlands of Sleswick, beside the swampy margin of the +North Sea, has grown into the nucleus of a vast empire, only very +partially Germanic in blood, and enriched by all the alien culture of +Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and Rome. But as it still preserves the +identical tongue of its early barbarous days, we are naturally tempted +to read our modern acquired feelings into the simple but familiar terms +employed by our continental predecessors. What the early English called +a king we should now-a-days call a chief; what they called a meeting of +wise men we should now-a-days call a palaver. In fact, we must recollect +that we are dealing with a purely barbaric race--not savage, indeed, nor +without a certain rude culture of its own, the result of long centuries +of previous development; yet essentially military and predatory in its +habits, and akin in its material civilisation to many races which we now +regard as immeasurably our inferiors. If we wish for a modern equivalent +of the primitive Anglo-Saxon level of culture, we may perhaps best find +it in the Kurds of the Turkish and Persian frontier, or in the Mahrattas +of the wild mountain region of the western Deccan. + +The early English in Sleswick and Friesland had partially reached the +agricultural stage of civilisation. They tilled little plots of ground +in the forest; but they depended more largely for subsistence upon their +cattle, and they were also hunters and trappers in the great belts of +woodland or marsh which everywhere surrounded their isolated villages. +They were acquainted with the use of bronze from the first period of +their settlement in Europe, and some of the battle-axes or shields which +they manufactured from this metal were beautifully chased with exquisite +decorative patterns, equalling in taste the ornamental designs still +employed by the Polynesian islanders. Such weapons, however, were +doubtless intended for the use of the chieftains only, and were probably +employed as insignia of rank alone. They are still discovered in the +barrows which cover the remains of the early chieftains; though it is +possible that they may really belong to the monuments of a yet earlier +race. But iron was certainly employed by the English, at least, from +about the first century of the Christian era, and its use was perhaps +introduced into the marshlands of Sleswick by the Germanic conquerors of +the north. Even at this early date, abundant proof exists of mercantile +intercourse with the Roman world (probably through Pannonia), whereby +the alien culture of the south was already engrafted in part upon the +low civilisation of the native English. Amber was then exported from the +Baltic, while gold, silver, and glass beads were given in return. Roman +coins are discovered in Low German tombs of the first five centuries in +Sleswick, Holstein, Friesland, and the Isles; and Roman patterns are +imitated in the iron weapons and utensils of the same period. Gold +byzants of the fifth century prove an intercourse with Constantinople +at the exact date of the colonisation of Britain. From the very earliest +moment when we catch a glimpse of its nature, the home-grown English +culture had already begun to be modified by the superior arts of Rome. +Even the alphabet was known and used in its Runic form, though the +absence of writing materials caused its employment to be restricted to +inscriptions on wooden tablets, on rude stone monuments, or on utensils +of metal-work. A golden drinking-horn found in Sleswick, and engraved +with the maker's name, referred to the middle of the fourth century, +contains the earliest known specimen of the English language. + +The early English society was founded entirely on the tie of blood. +Every clan or family lived by itself and formed a guild for mutual +protection, each kinsman being his brother's keeper, and bound to avenge +his death by feud with the tribe or clan which had killed him. This duty +of blood-revenge was the supreme religion of the race. Moreover, the +clan was answerable as a whole for the ill-deeds of all its members; and +the fine payable for murder or injury was handed over by the family of +the wrong-doer to the family of the injured man. + +Each little village of the old English community possessed a general +independence of its own, and lay apart from all the others, often +surrounded by a broad belt or mark of virgin forest. It consisted of a +clearing like those of the American backwoods, where a single family or +kindred had made its home, and preserved its separate independence +intact. Each of these families was known by the name of its real or +supposed ancestor, the patronymic being formed by the addition of the +syllable _ing_. Thus the descendants of lla would be called llings, +and their _ham_ or stockade would be known as llingaham, or in modern +form Allingham. So the _tun_ or enclosure of the Culmings would be +Culmingatun, similarly modernised into Culmington. Names of this type +abound in the newer England at the present day; as in the case of +Birmingham, Buckingham, Wellington, Kensington, Basingstoke, and +Paddington. But while in America the clearing is merely a temporary +phase, and the border of forest is soon cut down so as to connect the +village with its neighbours, in the old Anglo-Saxon fatherland the +border of woodland, heath, or fen was jealously guarded as a frontier +and natural defence for the little predatory and agricultural community. +Whoever crossed it was bound to give notice of his coming by blowing a +horn; else he was cut down at once as a stealthy enemy. The marksmen +wished to remain separate from all others, and only to mix with those of +their own kin. In this primitive love of separation we have the germ of +that local independence and that isolated private home life which is one +of the most marked characteristics of modern Englishmen. + +In the middle of the clearing, surrounded by a wooden stockade, stood +the village, a group of rude detached huts. The marksmen each possessed +a separate little homestead, consisting usually of a small wooden house +or shanty, a courtyard, and a cattle-fold. So far, private property in +land had already begun. But the forest and the pasture land were not +appropriated: each man had a right from year to year to let loose his +kine or horses on a certain equal or proportionate space of land +assigned to him by the village in council. The wealth of the people +consisted mainly in cattle which fed on the pasture, and pigs turned out +to fatten on the acorns of the forest: but a small portion of the soil +was ploughed and sown; and this portion also was distributed to the +villagers for tillage by annual arrangement. The hall of the chief rose +in the midst of the lesser houses, open to all comers. The village moot, +or assembly of freemen, met in the open air, under some sacred tree, or +beside some old monumental stone, often a relic of the older aboriginal +race, marking the tomb of a dead chieftain, but worshipped as a god by +the English immigrants. At these informal meetings, every head of a +family had a right to appear and deliberate. The primitive English +constitution was a pure republican aristocracy or oligarchy of +householders, like that which still survives in the Swiss forest +cantons. + +But there were yet distinctions of rank in the villages and in the loose +tribes formed by their union for purposes of war or otherwise. The +people were divided into three classes of _thelings_ or chieftains, +_freolings_ or freemen, and _theows_ or slaves. The _thelings_ were the +nobles and rulers of each tribe. There was no king: but when the tribes +joined together in a war, their _thelings_ cast lots together, and +whoever drew the winning lot was made commander for the time being. As +soon as the war was over, each tribe returned to its own independence. +Indeed, the only really coherent body was the village or kindred: and +the whole course of early English history consists of a long and tedious +effort at increased national unity, which was never fully realised till +the Norman conquerors bound the whole nation together in the firm grasp +of William, Henry, and Edward. + +In personal appearance, the primitive Anglo-Saxons were typical Germans +of very unmixed blood. Tall, fair-haired, and gray-eyed, their limbs +were large and stout, and their heads of the round or brachycephalic +type, common to most Aryan races. They did not intermarry with other +nations, preserving their Germanic blood pure and unadulterated. But as +they had slaves, and as these slaves must in many cases have been +captives spared in war, we must suppose that such descriptions apply, +strictly speaking, to the freemen and chieftains alone. The slaves might +be of any race, and in process of time they must have learnt to speak +English, and their children must have become English in all but blood. +Many of them, indeed, would probably be actually English on the father's +side, though born of slave mothers. Hence we must be careful not to +interpret the expressions of historians, who would be thinking of the +free classes only, and especially of the nobles, as though they applied +to the slaves as well. Wherever slavery exists, the blood of the slave +community is necessarily very mixed. The picture which the heathen +English have drawn of themselves in _Beowulf_ is one of savage pirates, +clad in shirts of ring-armour, and greedy of gold and ale. Fighting and +drinking are their two delights. The noblest leader is he who builds a +great hall, throws it open for his people to carouse in, and liberally +deals out beer, and bracelets, and money at the feast. The joy of battle +is keen in their breasts. The sea and the storm are welcome to them. +They are fearless and greedy pirates, not ashamed of living by the +strong hand alone. + +In creed, the English were pagans, having a religion of beliefs rather +than of rites. Their chief deity, perhaps, was a form of the old Aryan +Sky-god, who took with them the guise of Thunor or Thunder (in +Scandinavian, Thor), an angry warrior hurling his hammer, the +thunder-bolt, from the stormy clouds. These thunder-bolts were often +found buried in the earth; and being really the polished stone-axes of +the earlier inhabitants, they do actually resemble a hammer in shape. +But Woden, the special god of the Teutonic race, had practically usurped +the highest place in their mythology: he is represented as the leader of +the Germans in their exodus from Asia to north-western Europe, and since +all the pedigrees of their chieftains were traced back to Woden, it is +not improbable that he may have been really a deified ancestor of the +principal Germanic families. The popular creed, however, was mainly one +of lesser gods, such as elves, ogres, giants, and monsters, inhabitants +of the mark and fen, stories of whom still survive in English villages +as folk-lore or fairy tales. A few legends of the pagan time are +preserved for us in Christian books. _Beowulf_ is rich in allusions to +these ancient superstitions. If we may build upon the slender materials +which alone are available, it would seem that the dead chieftains were +buried in barrows, and ghost-worship was practised at their tombs. The +temples were mere stockades of wood, with rude blocks or monoliths to +represent deities and altars. Probably their few rites consisted merely +of human or other sacrifices to the gods or the ghosts of departed +chiefs. There was a regular priesthood of the great gods, but each man +was priest for his own household. As in most other heathen communities, +the real worship of the people was mainly directed to the special family +deities of every hearth. The great gods were appealed to by the +chieftains and by the race in battle: but the household gods or deified +ancestors received the chief homage of the churls by their own +firesides. + +Thus the Anglo-Saxons, before the great exodus from Denmark and North +Germany, appear as a race of fierce, cruel, and barbaric pagans, +delighting in the sea, in slaughter, and in drink. They dwelt in little +isolated communities, bound together internally by ties of blood, and +uniting occasionally with others only for purposes of rapine. They lived +a life which mainly alternated between grazing, piratical seafaring, and +cattle-lifting; always on the war-trail against the possessions of +others, when they were not specially engaged in taking care of their +own. Every record and every indication shows them to us as fiercer +heathen prototypes of the Scotch clans in the most lawless days of the +Highlands. Incapable of union for any peaceful purpose at home, they +learned their earliest lesson of subordination in their piratical +attacks upon the civilised Christian community of Roman Britain. We +first meet with them in history in the character of destroyers and +sea-robbers. Yet they possessed already in their wild marshy home the +germs of those free institutions which have made the history of England +unique amongst the nations of Europe. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE ENGLISH SETTLE IN BRITAIN. + + +Proximity to the sea turns robbers into corsairs. When predatory tribes +reach the seaboard they always take to piracy, provided they have +attained the shipbuilding level of culture. In the ancient gean, in the +Malay Archipelago, in the China seas, we see the same process always +taking place. Probably from the first period of their severance from the +main Aryan stock in Central Asia, the Low German race and their +ancestors had been a predatory and conquering people, for ever engaged +in raids and smouldering warfare with their neighbours. When they +reached the Baltic and the islands of the Frisian coast, they grew +naturally into a nation of pirates. Even during the bronze age, we find +sculptured stones with representations of long row-boats, manned by +several oarsmen, and in one or two cases actually bearing a rude sail. +Their prows and sterns stand high out of the water, and are adorned with +intricate carvings. They seem like the predecessors of the long +ships--snakes and sea-dragons--which afterwards bore the northern +corsairs into every river of Europe. Such boats, adapted for long +sea-voyages, show a considerable intercourse, piratical or commercial, +between the Anglo-Saxon or Scandinavian North and other distant +countries. Certainly, from the earliest days of Roman rule on the German +Ocean to the thirteenth century, the Low Dutch and Scandinavian tribes +carried on an almost unbroken course of expeditions by sea, beginning in +every case with mere descents upon the coast for the purposes of +plunder, but ending, as a rule, with regular colonisation or political +supremacy. In this manner the people of the Baltic and the North Sea +ravaged or settled in every country on the sea-shore, from Orkney, +Shetland, and the Faroes, to Normandy, Apulia, and Greece; from Boulogne +and Kent, to Iceland, Greenland, and, perhaps, America. The colonisation +of South-Eastern Britain was but the first chapter in this long history +of predatory excursions on the part of the Low German peoples. + +The piratical ships of the early English were row-boats of very simple +construction. We actually possess one undoubted specimen at the present +day, whose very date is fixed for us by the circumstances of its +discovery. It was dug up, some years since, from a peat-bog in Sleswick, +the old England of our forefathers, along with iron arms and implements, +and in association with Roman coins ranging in date from A.D. 67 to A.D. +217. It may therefore be pretty confidently assigned to the first half +of the third century. In this interesting relic, then, we have one of +the identical boats in which the descents upon the British coast were +first made. The craft is rudely built of oaken boards, and is seventy +feet long by nine broad. The stem and stern are alike in shape, and the +boat is fitted for being beached upon the foreshore. A sculptured stone +at Hggeby, in Uplande, roughly represents for us such a ship under way, +probably of about the same date. It is rowed with twelve pairs of oars, +and has no sails; and it contains no other persons but the rowers and a +coxswain, who acted doubtless as leader of the expedition. Such a boat +might convey about 120 fighting men. + +There are some grounds for believing that, even before the establishment +of the Roman power in Britain, Teutonic pirates from the northern +marshlands were already in the habit of plundering the Celtic +inhabitants of the country between the Wash and the mouth of the Thames; +and it is possible that an English colony may, even then, have +established itself in the modern Lincolnshire. But, be this as it may, +we know at least that during the period of the Roman occupation, Low +German adventurers were constantly engaged in descending upon the +exposed coasts of the English Channel and the North Sea. The Low German +tribe nearest to the Roman provinces was that of the Saxons, and +accordingly these Teutonic pirates, of whatever race, were known as +Saxons by the provincials, and all Englishmen are still so called by the +modern Celts, in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. + +The outlying Roman provinces were close at hand, easy to reach, rich, +ill-defended, and a tempting prey for the barbaric tribesmen of the +north. Setting out in their light open skiffs from the islands at the +mouth of the Elbe, or off the shore afterwards submerged in what is now +the Zuyder Zee, the English or Saxon pirates crossed the sea with the +prevalent north-east wind, and landed all along the provincial coasts of +Gaul and Britain. As the empire decayed under the assaults of the Goths, +their ravages turned into regular settlements. One great body pillaged, +age after age, the neighbourhood of Bayeux, where, before the middle of +the fifth century, it established a flourishing colony, and where the +towns and villages all still bear names of Saxon origin. Another horde +first plundered and then took up its abode near Boulogne, where local +names of the English patronymic type also abound to the present day. In +Britain itself, at a date not later than the end of the fourth century, +we find (in the "Notitia Imperil") an officer who bears the title of +Count of the Saxon Shore, and whose jurisdiction extended from +Lincolnshire to Southampton Water. The title probably indicates that +piratical incursions had already set in on Britain, and the duty of the +count was most likely that of repelling the English invaders. + +As soon as the Romans found themselves compelled to withdraw their +garrison from Britain, leaving the provinces to defend themselves as +best they might, the temptation to the English pirates became a thousand +times stronger than before. Though the so-called history of the +conquest, handed down to us by Bda and the "English Chronicle,"[1] is +now considered by many enquirers to be mythical in almost every +particular, the facts themselves speak out for us with unhesitating +certainty. We know that about the middle of the fifth century, shortly +after the withdrawal of the regular Roman troops, several bodies of +heathen Anglo-Saxons, belonging to the three tribes of Jutes, English, +and Saxons, settled _en masse_ on the south-eastern shores of Britain, +from the Firth of Forth to the Isle of Wight. The age of mere plundering +descents was decisively over, and the age of settlement and colonisation +had set in. These heathen Anglo-Saxons drove away, exterminated, or +enslaved the Romanised and Christianised Celts, broke down every vestige +of Roman civilisation, destroyed the churches, burnt the villas, laid +waste many of the towns, and re-introduced a long period of pagan +barbarism. For a while Britain remains enveloped in an age of complete +uncertainty, and heathen myths intervene between the Christian +historical period of the Romans and the Christian historical period +initiated by the conversion of Kent. Of South-Eastern Britain under the +pagan Anglo-Saxons we know practically nothing, save by inference and +analogy, or by the scanty evidence of archology. + + [1] For an account of these two main authorities see further + on, Bda in chapter xi., and the "Chronicle" in chapter + xviii. + +According to tradition the Jutes came first. In 449, says the Celtic +legend (the date is quite untrustworthy), they landed in Kent, where +they first settled in Ruim, which we English call Thanet--then really an +island, and gradually spread themselves over the mainland, capturing the +great Roman fortress of Rochester and coast land as far as London. +Though the details of this story are full of mythical absurdities, the +analogy of the later Danish colonies gives it an air of great +probability, as the Danes always settled first in islands or peninsulas, +and thence proceeded to overrun, and finally to annex, the adjacent +district. A second Jutish horde established itself in the Isle of Wight +and on the opposite shore of Hampshire. But the whole share borne by the +Jutes in the settlement of Britain seems to have been but small. + +The Saxons came second in time, if we may believe the legends. In 477, +lle, with his three sons, is said to have landed on the south coast, +where he founded the colony of the South Saxons, or Sussex. In 495, +Cerdic and Cynric led another kindred horde to the south-western shore, +and made the first settlement of the West Saxons, or Wessex. Of the +beginnings of the East Saxon community in Essex, and of the Middle +Saxons in Middlesex, we know little, even by tradition. The Saxons +undoubtedly came over in large numbers; but a considerable body of their +fellow-tribesmen still remained upon the Continent, where they were +still independent and unconverted up to the time of Karl the Great. + +The English, on the other hand, apparently migrated in a body. There is +no trace of any Englishmen in Denmark or Germany after the exodus to +Britain. Their language, of which a dialect still survives in Friesland, +has utterly died out in Sleswick. The English took for their share of +Britain the nearest east coast. We have little record of their arrival, +even in the legendary story; we merely learn that in 547, Ida "succeeded +to the kingdom" of the Northumbrians, whence we may possibly conclude +that the colony was already established. The English settlement extended +from the Forth to Essex, and was subdivided into Bernicia, Deira, and +East Anglia. + +Wherever the Anglo-Saxons came, their first work was to stamp out with +fire and sword every trace of the Roman civilisation. Modern +investigations amongst pagan Anglo-Saxon barrows in Britain show the Low +German race as pure barbarians, great at destruction, but incapable of +constructive work. Professor Rolleston, who has opened several of these +early heathen tombs of our Teutonic ancestors, finds in them everywhere +abundant evidence of "their great aptness at destroying, and their great +slowness in elaborating, material civilisation." Until the Anglo-Saxon +received from the Continent the Christian religion and the Roman +culture, he was a mere average Aryan barbarian, with a strong taste for +war and plunder, but with small love for any of the arts of peace. +Wherever else, in Gaul, Spain, or Italy, the Teutonic barbarians came in +contact with the Roman civilisation, they received the religion of +Christ, and the arts of the conquered people, during or before their +conquest of the country. But in Britain the Teutonic invaders remained +pagans long after their settlement in the island; and they utterly +destroyed, in the south-eastern tract, almost every relic of the Roman +rule and of the Christian faith. Hence we have here the curious fact +that, during the fifth and sixth centuries, a belt of intrusive and +aggressive heathendom intervenes between the Christians of the Continent +and the Christian Welsh and Irish of western Britain. The Church of the +Celtic Welsh was cut off for more than a hundred years from the Churches +of the Roman world by a hostile and impassable barrier of heathen +English, Jutes, and Saxons. Their separation produced many momentous +effects on the after history both of the Welsh themselves and of their +English conquerors. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE COLONISATION OF THE COAST. + + +Though the myths which surround the arrival of the English in Britain +have little historical value, they are yet interesting for the light +which they throw incidentally upon the habits and modes of thought of +the colonists. They have one character in common with all other legends, +that they grow fuller and more circumstantial the further they proceed +from the original time. Bda, who wrote about A.D. 700, gives them in a +very meagre form: the English Chronicle, compiled at the court of +lfred, about A.D. 900, adds several important traditional particulars: +while with the romantic Geoffrey of Monmouth, A.D. 1152, they assume the +character of full and circumstantial tales. The less men knew about the +conquest, the more they had to tell about it. + +Among the most sacred animals of the Aryan race was the horse. Even in +the Indian epics, the sacrifice of a horse was the highest rite of the +primitive religion. Tacitus tells us that the Germans kept sacred white +horses at the public expense, in the groves and woods of the gods: and +that from their neighings and snortings, auguries were taken. Amongst +the people of the northern marshlands, the white horse seems to have +been held in especial honour, and to this day a white horse rampant +forms the cognisance of Hanover and Brunswick. The English settlers +brought this, their national emblem, with them to Britain, and cut its +figure on the chalk downs as they advanced westward, to mark the +progress of their conquest. The white horses on the Berkshire and +Wiltshire hills still bear witness to their settlement. A white horse is +even now the symbol of Kent. Hence it is not surprising to learn that in +the legendary story of the first colonisation, the Jutish leaders who +led the earliest Teutonic host into Thanet should bear the names of +Hengest and Horsa, the stallion and the mare. They came in three +keels--a ridiculously inadequate number, considering their size and the +necessities of a conquering army: and they settled in 449 (for the +legends are always most precise where they are least historical) in the +Isle of Thanet. "A multitude of whelps," says the Welsh monk Gildas, +"came forth from the lair of the barbaric lioness, in three cyuls, as +they call them." Vortigern, King of the Welsh, had invited them to come +to his aid against the Picts of North Britain and the Scots of Ireland, +who were making piratical incursions into the deserted province, left +unprotected through the heavy levies made by the departing Romans. The +Jutes attacked and conquered the Gaels, but then turned against their +Welsh allies. + +In 455, the Jutes advanced from Thanet to conquer the whole of Kent, +"and Hengest and Horsa fought with Vortigern the king," says the English +Chronicle, "at the place that is cleped glesthrep; and there men slew +Horsa his brother, and after that Hengest came to rule, and sc his +son." One year later, Hengest and sc fought once more with the Welsh at +Crayford, "and offslew 4,000 men; and the Britons then forsook +Kent-land, and fled with mickle awe to London-bury." In this account we +may see a dim recollection of the settlement of the two petty Jutish +kingdoms in Kent, with their respective capitals at Canterbury and +Rochester, whose separate dioceses still point back to the two original +principalities. It may be worth while to note, too, that the name sc +means the ash-tree; and that this tree was as sacred among plants as the +horse was among animals. + +Nevertheless, a kernel of truth doubtless lingers in the traditional +story. Thanet was afterwards one of the first landing-places of the +Danes: and its isolated position--for a broad belt of sea then separated +the island from the Kentish main--would make it a natural post to be +assigned by the Welsh to their doubtful piratical allies. The inlet was +guarded by the great Roman fortress of Rhutupi: and after the fall of +that important stronghold, the English may probably have occupied the +principality of East Kent, with its capital of Canterbury. The walls of +Rochester may have held out longer: and the West Kentish kingdom may +well have been founded by two successful battles at the passage of the +Medway and the Cray. + +The legend as to the settlement of Sussex is of much the same sort. In +477, lle the Saxon came to Britain also with the suspiciously +symmetrical number of three ships. With him came his three sons, Kymen, +Wlencing, and Cissa. These names are obviously invented to account for +those of three important places in the South-Saxon chieftainship. The +host landed at Kymenes ora, probably Keynor, in the Bill of Selsey, +then, as its title imports, a separate island girt round by the tidal +sea: their capital and, in days after the Norman conquest, their +cathedral was at Cissan-ceaster, the Roman Regnum, now Chichester: while +the third name survives in the modern village of Lancing, near Shoreham. +The Saxons at once fought the natives "and offslew many Welsh, and drove +some in flight into the wood that is named Andredes-leag," now the Weald +of Kent and Sussex. A little colony thus occupied the western half of +the modern county: but the eastern portion still remained in the hands +of the Welsh. For awhile the great Roman fortress of Anderida (now +Pevensey) held out against the invaders; until in 491 "lle and Cissa +beset Anderida, and offslew all that were therein; nor was there after +even one Briton left alive." All Sussex became a single Saxon kingdom, +ringed round by the great forest of the Weald. Here again the obviously +unhistorical character of the main facts throws the utmost doubt upon +the nature of the details. Yet, in this case too, the central idea +itself is likely enough,--that the South Saxons first occupied the +solitary coast islet of Selsey; then conquered the fortress of Regnum +and the western shore as far as Eastbourne; and finally captured +Anderida and the eastern half of the county up to the line of the +Romney marshes. + +Even more improbable is the story of the Saxon settlement on the more +distant portion of the south coast. In 495 "came twain aldermen to +Britain, Cerdic and Cynric his son, with five ships, at that place that +is cleped Cerdices ora, and fought that ilk day with the Welsh." +Clearly, the name of Cerdic may be invented solely to account for the +name of the place: since we see by the sequel that the English freely +imagined such personages as pegs on which to hang their mythical +history.[1] For, six years later, one Port landed at Portsmouth with two +ships, and there slew a Welsh nobleman. But we know positively that the +name of Portsmouth comes from the Latin _Portus_; and therefore Port +must have been simply invented to explain the unknown derivation. Still +more flagrant is the case of Wihtgar, who conquered the Isle of Wight, +and was buried at Wihtgarasbyrig, or Carisbrooke. For the origin of that +name is really quite different: the Wiht-ware or Wiht-gare are the men +of Wight, just as the Cant-ware are the men of Kent: and Wiht-gara-byrig +is the Wight-men's-bury, just as Cant-wara-byrig or Canterbury is the +Kent-men's-bury. Moreover, a double story is told in the Chronicle as to +the original colonisation of Wessex; the first attributing the conquest +to Cerdic and Cynric, and the second to Stuf and Wihtgar. + + [1] Cerdic is apparently a British rather than an English + name, since Bda mentions a certain "Cerdic, rex Brettonum." + This may have been a Caradoc. Perhaps the first element in + the names Cerdices ora, Cerdices ford, &c., was older than + the English conquest. The legends are invariably connected + with local names. + +The only other existing legend refers to the great English kingdom of +Northumbria: and about it the English Chronicle, which is mainly West +Saxon in origin, merely tells us in dry terms under the year 547, "Here +Ida came to rule." There are no details, even of the meagre kind, +vouchsafed in the south; no account of the conquest of the great Roman +town of York, or of the resistance offered by the powerful Brigantian +tribes. But a fragment of some old Northumbrian tradition, embedded in +the later and spurious Welsh compilation which bears the name of +Nennius, tells us a not improbable tale--that the first settlement on +the coast of the Lothians was made as early as the conquest of Kent, by +Jutes of the same stock as those who colonised Thanet. A hundred years +later, the Welsh poems seem to say, Ida "the flame-bearer," fought his +way down from a petty principality on the Forth, and occupied the whole +Northumbrian coast, in spite of the stubborn guerilla warfare of the +despairing provincials. Still less do we learn about the beginnings of +Mercia, the powerful English kingdom which occupied the midlands; or +about the first colonisation of East Anglia. In short, the legends of +the settlement, unhistorical and meagre as they are, refer only to the +Jutish and Saxon conquests in the south, and tell us nothing at all +about the origin of the main English kingdoms in the north. It is +important to bear in mind this fact, because the current conceptions as +to the spread of the Anglo-Saxon race and the extermination of the +native Welsh are largely based upon the very limited accounts of the +conquest of Kent and Sussex, and the mournful dirges of the Welsh monks +or bards. + +It seems improbable, however, that the north-eastern coast of Britain, +naturally exposed above every other part to the ravages of northern +pirates, and in later days the head-quarters of the Danish intruders in +our island, should so long have remained free from English incursions. +If the Teutonic settlers really first established themselves here a +century later than their conquest of Kent, we can only account for it by +the supposition that York and the Brigantes, the old metropolis of the +provinces, held out far more stubbornly and successfully than Rochester +and Anderida, with their very servile Romanised population. But even the +words of the Chronicle do not necessarily imply that Ida was the first +king of the Northumbrians, or that the settlement of the country took +place in his days.[2] And if they did, we need not feel bound to accept +their testimony, considering that the earliest date we can assign for +the composition of the chronicle is the reign of lfred: while Bda, the +earlier native Northumbrian historian, throws no light at all upon the +question. Hence it seems probable that Nennius preserves a truthful +tradition, and that the English settled in the region between the Forth +and the Tyne, at least as early as the Jutes settled in Kent or the +Saxons along the South Coast, from Pevensey Bay to Southampton Water. + + [2] A remarkable passage in the Third Continuator of + Florence mentions Hyring as the first king of Bernicia, + followed by Woden and five other mythical personages, before + Ida. Clearly, this is mere unhistorical guesswork on the + part of the monk of Bury; but it may enclose a genuine + tradition so far as Hyring is concerned. + +If, then, we leave out of consideration the etymological myths and +numerical absurdities of the English or Welsh legends, and look only at +the facts disclosed to us by the subsequent condition of the country, we +shall find that the early Anglo-Saxon settlements took place somewhat +after this wise. In the extreme north, the English apparently did not +care to settle in the rugged mountain country between Aberdeen and +Edinburgh, inhabited by the free and warlike Picts. But from the Firth +of Forth to the borders of Essex, a succession of colonies, belonging to +the restricted English tribe, occupied the whole provincial coast, +burning, plundering, and massacring in many places as they went. First +and northernmost of all came the people whom we know by their Latinised +title of Bernicians, and who descended upon the rocky braes between +Forth and Tyne. These are the English of Ida's kingdom, the modern +Lothians and Northumberland. Their chief town was at Bebbanburh, now +Bamborough, which Ida "timbered, and betyned it with a hedge." Next in +geographical order stood the people of Deira, or Yorkshire, who occupied +the rich agricultural valley of the Ouse, the fertile alluvial tract of +Holderness, and the bleak coast-line from Tyne to Humber. Whether they +conquered the Roman capital of York, or whether it made terms with the +invaders, we do not know; but it is not mentioned as the chief town of +the English kings before the days of Eadwine, under whom the two +Northumbrian chieftainships were united into a single kingdom. However, +as Eadwine assumed some of the imperial Roman trappings, it seems not +unlikely that a portion at least of the Romanised population survived +the conquest. The two principalities probably spread back politically in +most places as far as the watershed which separates the basins of the +German Ocean and the Irish Sea; but the English population seems to have +lived mainly along the coast or in the fertile valley of the Ouse and +its tributaries; for Elmet and Loidis, two Welsh principalities, long +held out in the Leeds district, and the people of the dales and the +inland parts, as we shall see reason hereafter to conclude, even now +show evident marks of Celtic descent. Together the two chieftainships +were generally known by the name of Northumberland, now confined to +their central portion; but it must never be forgotten that the Lothians, +which at present form part of modern Scotland, were originally a portion +of this early English kingdom, and are still, perhaps, more purely +English in blood and speech than any other district in our island. + +From Humber to the Wash was occupied by a second English colony, the men +of Lincolnshire, divided into three minor tribes, one of which, the +Gainas, has left its name to Gainsborough. Here, again, we hear nothing +of the conquest, nor of the means by which the powerful Roman colony of +Lincoln fell into the hands of the English. But the town still retains +its Roman name, and in part its Roman walls; so that we may conclude the +native population was not entirely exterminated. + +East Anglia, as its name imports, was likewise colonised by an English +horde, divided, like the men of Kent, into two minor bodies, the North +Folk and the South Folk, whose names survive in the modern counties of +Norfolk and Suffolk. But in East Anglia, as in Yorkshire, we shall see +reason hereafter to conclude that the lower orders of Welsh were largely +spared, and that their descendants still form in part the labouring +classes of the two counties. Here, too, the English settlers probably +clustered thickest along the coast, like the Danes in later days; and +the great swampy expanse of the Fens, then a mere waste of marshland +tenanted by beavers and wild fowl, formed the inland boundary or mark of +their almost insular kingdom. + +The southern half of the coast was peopled by Englishmen of the Saxon +and Jutish tribes. First came the country of the East Saxons, or Essex, +the flat land stretching from the borders of East Anglia to the estuary +of the Thames. This had been one of the most thickly-populated Roman +regions, containing the important stations of Camalodunum, London, and +Verulam. But we know nothing, even by report, of its conquest. Beyond +it, and separated by the fenland of the Lea, lay the outlying little +principality of Middlesex. The upper reaches of the Thames were still +in the hands of the Welsh natives, for the great merchant city of London +blocked the way for the pirates to the head-waters of the river. + +On the south side of the estuary lay the Jutish principalities of East +and West Kent, including the strong Roman posts of Rhutupi, Dover, +Rochester, and Canterbury. The great forest of the Weald and the Romney +Marshes separated them from Sussex; and the insular positions of Thanet +and Sheppey had always special attractions for the northern pirates. + +Beyond the marshes, again, the strip of southern shore, between the +downs and the sea, as far as Hayling Island, fell into the hands of the +South Saxons, whose boundary to the east was formed by Romney Marsh, and +to the west by the flats near Chichester, where the forest runs down to +the tidal swamp by the sea. The district north of the Weald, now known +as Surrey, was also peopled by Saxon freebooters, at a later date, +though doubtless far more sparsely. + +Finally, along the wooded coast from Portsmouth to Poole Harbour, the +Gewissas, afterwards known as the West Saxons, established their power. +The Isle of Wight and the region about Southampton Water, however, were +occupied by the Meonwaras, a small intrusive colony of Jutes. Up the +rich valley overlooked by the great Roman city of Winchester (Venta +Belgarum), the West Saxons made their way, not without severe +opposition, as their own legends and traditions tell us; and in +Winchester they fixed their capital for awhile. The long chain of chalk +downs behind the city formed their weak northern mark or boundary, +while to the west they seem always to have carried on a desultory +warfare with the yet unsubdued Welsh, commanded by their great leader +Ambrosius, who has left his name to Ambres-byrig, or Amesbury. + +We must not, however, suppose that each of these colonies had from the +first a united existence as a political community. We know that even the +eight or ten kingdoms into which England was divided at the dawn of the +historical period were each themselves produced by the consolidation of +several still smaller chieftainships. Even in the two petty Kentish +kingdoms there were under-kings, who had once been independent. Wight +was a distinct kingdom till the reign of Ceadwalla in Wessex. The later +province of Mercia was composed of minor divisions, known as the +Hwiccas, the Middle English, the West Hecan, and so forth. Henry of +Huntingdon, a historian of the twelfth century, who had access, however, +to several valuable and original sources of information now lost, tells +us that many chieftains came from Germany, occupied Mercia and East +Anglia, and often fought with one another for the supremacy. In fact, +the petty kingdoms of the eighth century were themselves the result of a +consolidation of many forgotten principalities founded by the first +conquerors. + +Thus the earliest England with which we are historically acquainted +consisted of a mere long strip or borderland of Teutonic coast, divided +into tiny chieftainships, and girding round half of the eastern and +southern shores of a still Celtic Britain. Its area was discontinuous, +and its inland boundaries towards the back country were vaguely defined. +As Massachusetts and Connecticut stood off from Virginia and Georgia--as +New South Wales and Victoria stand off from South Australia and +Queensland--so Northumbria stood off from East Anglia, and Kent from +Sussex. Each colony represented a little English nucleus along the coast +or up the mouths of the greater rivers, such as the Thames and Humber, +where the pirates could easily drive in their light craft. From such a +nucleus, perched at first on some steep promontory like Bamborough, some +separate island like Thanet, Wight, and Selsey, or some long spit of +land like Holderness and Hurst Castle, the barbarians could extend their +dominions on every side, till they reached some natural line of +demarcation in the direction of their nearest Teutonic neighbours, which +formed their necessary mark. Inland they spread as far as they could +conquer; but coastwise the rivers and fens were their limits against one +another. Thus this oldest insular England is marked off into at least +eight separate colonies by the Forth, the Tyne, the Humber, the Wash, +the Harwich Marshes, the Thames, the Weald Forest, and the Chichester +tidal swamp region. As to how the pirates settled down along this wide +stretch of coast, we know practically nothing; of their westward advance +we know a little, and as time proceeds, that knowledge becomes more and +more. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE ENGLISH IN THEIR NEW HOMES. + + +If any trust at all can be placed in the legends, a lull in the conquest +followed the first settlement, and for some fifty years the English--or +at least the West Saxons--were engaged in consolidating their own +dominions, without making any further attack upon those of the Welsh. It +may be well, therefore, to enquire what changes of manners had come over +them in consequence of their change of place from the shores of the +Baltic and the North Sea to those of the Channel and the German Ocean. + +As a whole, English society remained much the same in Britain as it had +been in Sleswick and North Holland. The English came over in a body, +with their women and children, their flocks and herds, their goods and +chattels. The peculiar breed of cattle which they brought with them may +still be distinguished in their remains from the earlier Celtic +short-horn associated with Roman ruins and pre-historic barrows. They +came as settlers, not as mere marauders; and they remained banded +together in their original tribes and families after they had occupied +the soil of Britain. + +From the moment of their landing in Britain the savage corsairs of the +Sleswick flats seem wholly to have laid aside their seafaring habits. +They built no more ships, apparently; for many years after Bishop +Wilfrith had to teach the South Saxons how to catch sea-fish; while +during the early Danish incursions we hear distinctly that the English +had no vessels; nor is there much incidental mention of shipping between +the age of the settlement and that of lfred. The new-comers took up +their abode at once on the richest parts of Roman Britain, and came into +full enjoyment of orchards which they had not planted and fields which +they had not sown. The state of cultivation in which they found the vale +of York and the Kentish glens must have been widely different from that +to which they were accustomed in their old heath-clad home. Accordingly, +they settled down at once into farmers and landowners on a far larger +scale than of yore; and they were not anxious to move away from the rich +lands which they had so easily acquired. From being sailors and graziers +they took to be agriculturists and landmen. In the towns, indeed, they +did not settle; and most of these continued to bear their old Roman or +Celtic titles. A few may have been destroyed, especially in the first +onset, like Anderida, and, at a later date, Chester; but the greater +number seem to have been still scantily inhabited, under English +protection, by a mixed urban population, mainly Celtic in blood, and +known by the name of Loegrians. It was in the country, however, that the +English conquerers took up their abode. They were tillers of the soil, +not merchants or skippers, and it was long before they acquired a taste +for urban life. The whole eastern half of England is filled with +villages bearing the characteristic English clan names, and marking each +the home of a distinct family of early settlers. As soon as the +new-comers had burnt the villa of the old Roman proprietor, and killed, +driven out, or enslaved his abandoned serfs, they took the land to +themselves and divided it out on their national system. Hence the whole +government and social organisation of England is purely Teutonic, and +the country even lost its old name of Britain for its new one of +England. + +In England, as of old in Sleswick, the village community formed the unit +of English society. Each such township was still bounded by its mark of +forest, mere, or fen, which divided it from its nearest neighbours. In +each lived a single clan, supposed to be of kindred blood and bearing a +common name. The marksmen and their serfs, the latter being conquered +Welshmen, cultivated the soil under cereals for bread, and also for an +unnecessarily large supply of beer, as we learn at a later date from +numerous charters. Cattle and horses grazed in the pastures, while large +herds of pigs were kept in the forest which formed the mark. Thus the +early English settled down at once from a nation of pirates into one of +agriculturists. Here and there, among the woods and fens which still +covered a large part of the country, their little separate communities +rose in small fenced clearings or on low islets, now joined by drainage +to the mainland; while in the wider valleys, tilled in Roman times, the +wealthier chieftains formed their settlements and allotted lands to +their Welsh tributaries. Many family names appear in different parts of +England, for a reason which will hereafter be explained. Thus we find +the Bassingas at Bassingbourn, in Cambridgeshire; at Bassingfield, in +Notts; at Bassingham and Bassingthorpe, in Lincolnshire; and at +Bassington, in Northumberland. The Billings have left their stamp at +Billing, in Northampton; Billingford, in Norfolk; Billingham, in Durham; +Billingley, in Yorkshire; Billinghurst, in Sussex; and five other places +in various other counties. Birmingham, Nottingham, Wellington, +Faringdon, Warrington, and Wallingford are well-known names formed on +the same analogy. How thickly these clan settlements lie scattered over +Teutonic England may be judged from the number which occur in the London +district alone--Kensington, Paddington, Notting-hill, Billingsgate, +Islington, Newington, Kennington, Wapping, and Teddington. There are +altogether 1,400 names of this type in England. Their value as a test of +Teutonic colonisation is shown by the fact that while 48 occur in +Northumberland, 127 in Yorkshire, 76 in Lincolnshire, 153 in Norfolk and +Suffolk, 48 in Essex, 60 in Kent, and 86 in Sussex and Surrey, only 2 +are found in Cornwall, 6 in Cumberland, 24 in Devon, 13 in Worcester, 2 +in Westmoreland, and none in Monmouth. Speaking generally, these clan +names are thickest along the original English coast, from Forth to +Portland; they decrease rapidly as we move inland; and they die away +altogether as we approach the purely Celtic west. + +The English families, however, probably tilled the soil by the aid of +Welsh slaves; indeed, in Anglo-Saxon, the word serf and Welshman are +used almost interchangeably as equivalent synonyms. But though many +Welshmen were doubtless spared from the very first, nothing is more +certain than the fact that they became thoroughly Anglicized. A few new +words from Welsh or Latin were introduced into the English tongue, but +they were far too few sensibly to affect its vocabulary. The language +was and still is essentially Low German; and though it now contains +numerous words of Latin or French origin, it does not and never did +contain any but the very smallest Celtic element. The slight number of +additions made from the Welsh consisted chiefly of words connected with +the higher Roman civilisation--such as wall, street, and chester--or the +new methods of agriculture which the Teuton learnt from his more +civilised serfs. The Celt has always shown a great tendency to cast +aside his native language in Gaul, in Spain, and in Ireland; and the +isolation of the English townships must have had the effect of greatly +accelerating the process. Within a few generations the Celtic slave had +forgotten his tongue, his origin, and his religion, and had developed +into a pagan English serf. Whatever else the Teutonic conquest did, it +turned every man within the English pale into a thorough Englishman. + +But the removal to Britain effected one immense change. "War begat the +king." In Sleswick the English had lived within their little marks as +free and independent communities. In Britain all the clans of each +colony gradually came under the military command of a king. The +ealdormen who led the various marauding bands assumed royal power in the +new country. Such a change was indeed inevitable. For not only had the +English to win the new England, but they had also to keep it and extend +it. During four hundred years a constant smouldering warfare was carried +on between the foreigners and the native Welsh on their western +frontier. Thus the townships of each colony entered into a closer union +with one another for military purposes, and so arose the separate +chieftainships or petty kingdoms of early England. But the king's power +was originally very small. He was merely the semi-hereditary general and +representative of the people, of royal stock, but elected by the free +suffrages of the freemen. Only as the kingdoms coalesced, and as the +power of meeting became consequently less, did the king acquire his +greater prerogatives. From the first, however, he seems to have +possessed the right of granting public lands, with the consent of the +freemen, to particular individuals; and such book-land, as the early +English called it, after the introduction of Roman writing, became the +origin of our system of private property in land. + +Every township had its moot or assembly of freemen, which met around the +sacred oak, or on some holy hill, or beside the great stone monument of +some forgotten Celtic chieftain. Every hundred also had its moot, and +many of these still survive in their original form to the present day, +being held in the open air, near some sacred site or conspicuous +landmark. And the colony as a whole had also its moot, at which all +freemen might attend, and which settled the general affairs of the +kingdom. At these last-named moots the kings were elected; and though +the selection was practically confined to men of royal kin, the king +nevertheless represented the free choice of the tribe. Before the +conversion to Christianity, the royal families all traced their origin +to Woden. Thus the pedigree of Ida, King of Northumbria, runs as +follows:--"Ida was Eopping, Eoppa was Esing, Esa was Inguing, Ingui +Angenwiting, Angenwit Alocing, Aloc Benocing, Benoc Branding, Brand +Baldging, Bldg Wodening." But in later Christian times the +chroniclers felt the necessity of reconciling these heathen genealogies +with the Scriptural account in Genesis; so they affiliated Woden himself +upon the Hebrew patriarchs. Thus the pedigree of the West Saxon kings, +inserted in the Chronicle under the year 855, after conveying back the +genealogy of thelwulf to Woden, continues to say, "Woden was +Frealafing, Frealaf Finning," and so on till it reaches "Sceafing, _id +est filius Noe_; he was born in Noe's Ark. Lamech, Mathusalem, Enoc, +Jared, Malalehel, Camon, Enos, Seth, Adam, _primus homo et pater +noster_." + +The Anglo-Saxons, when they settled in Eastern and Southern Britain, +were a horde of barbarous heathen pirates. They massacred or enslaved +the civilised or half-civilised Celtic inhabitants with savage +ruthlessness. They burnt or destroyed the monuments of Roman occupation. +They let the roads and cities fall into utter disrepair. They stamped +out Christianity with fire and sword from end to end of their new +domain. They occupied a civilised and Christian land, and they restored +it to its primitive barbarism. Nor was there any improvement until +Christian teachers from Rome and Scotland once more introduced the +forgotten culture which the English pirates had utterly destroyed. As +Gildas phrases it, with true Celtic eloquence, the red tongue of flame +licked up the whole land from end to end, till it slaked its horrid +thirst in the western ocean. For 150 years the whole of English Britain, +save, perhaps, Kent and London, was cut off from all intercourse with +Christendom and the Roman world. The country consisted of several petty +chieftainships, at constant feud with their Teutonic neighbours, and +perpetually waging a border war with Welsh, Picts, and Scots. Within +each colony, much of the land remained untilled, while the clan +settlements appeared like little islands of cultivation in the midst of +forest, waste, and common. The villages were mere groups of wooden +homesteads, with barns and cattle-sheds, surrounded by rough stockades, +and destitute of roads or communications. Even the palace of the king +was a long wooden hall with numerous outhouses; for the English built no +stone houses, and burnt down those of their Roman predecessors. Trade +seems to have been confined to the south coast, and few manufactured +articles of any sort were in use. The English degraded their Celtic +serfs to their own barbaric level; and the very memory of Roman +civilization almost died out of the land for a hundred and fifty years. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE CONQUEST OF THE INTERIOR. + + +From the little strip of eastern and southern coast on which they first +settled, the English advanced slowly into the interior by the valleys of +the great rivers, and finally swarmed across the central dividing ridge +into the basins of the Severn and the Irish Sea. Up the open river +mouths they could make their way in their shallow-bottomed boats, as the +Scandinavian pirates did three centuries later; and when they reached +the head of navigation in each stream for the small draught of their +light vessels, they probably took to the land and settled down at once, +leaving further inland expeditions to their sons and successors. For +this second step in the Teutonic colonisation of Britain we have some +few traditional accounts, which seem somewhat more trustworthy than +those of the first settlement. Unfortunately, however, they apply for +the most part only to the kingdom of Wessex, and not to the North and +the Midlands, where such details would be of far greater value. + +The valley of the Humber gives access to the great central basin of the +Trent. Up this fruitful basin, at a somewhat later date, apparently, +than the settlement of Deira and Lincolnshire, scattered bodies of +English colonists, under petty leaders whose names have been forgotten, +seem to have pushed their way forward through the broad lowlands towards +Derby, Nottingham, and Leicester. They bore the name of Middle English. +Westward, again, other settlers raised their capital at Lichfield. These +formed the advanced guard of the English against the Welsh, and hence +their country was generally known as the Mark, or March, a name which +was afterwards latinized into the familiar form of Mercia. The absence +of all tradition as to the colonisation of this important tract, the +heart of England, and afterwards one of the three dominant Anglo-Saxon +states, leads one to suppose that the process was probably very gradual, +and the change came about so slowly as to have left but little trace on +the popular memory. At any rate, it is certain that the central ridge +long formed the division between the two races; and that the Welsh at +this period still occupied the whole western watershed, except in the +lower portion of the Severn valley. + +The Welland, the Nene, and the Great Ouse, flowing through the centre of +the Fen Country, then a vast morass, studded with low and marshy +islands, gave access to the districts about Peterborough, Stamford, and +Cambridge. Here, too, a body of unknown settlers, the Gyrwas, seem about +the same time to have planted their colonies. At a later date they +coalesced with the Mercians. However, the comparative scarcity of +villages bearing the English clan names throughout all these regions +suggests the probability that Mercia, Middle England, and the Fen +Country were not by any means so densely colonised as the coast +districts; and independent Welsh communities long held out among the +isolated dry tracts of the fens as robbers and outlaws. + +In the south, the advance of the West Saxons had been checked in 520, +according to the legend, by the prowess of Arthur, king of the +Devonshire Welsh. As Mr. Guest acutely notes, some special cause must +have been at work to make the Britons resist here so desperately as to +maintain for half a century a weak frontier within little more than +twenty miles of Winchester, the West Saxon capital. He suggests that the +great choir of Ambrosius at Amesbury was probably the chief Christian +monastery of Britain, and that the Welshman may here have been fighting +for all that was most sacred to him on earth. Moreover, just behind +stood the mysterious national monument of Stonehenge, the honoured tomb +of some Celtic or still earlier aboriginal chief. But in 552, the +English Chronicle tells us, Cynric, the West Saxon king, crossed the +downs behind Winchester, and descended upon the dale at Salisbury. The +Roman town occupied the square hill-fort of Old Sarum, and there Cynric +put the Welsh to flight and took the stronghold by storm. + +The road was thus opened in the rear to the upper waters of the Thames +(impassable before because of the Roman population of London), as well +as towards the valley of the Bath Avon. Four years later Cynric and his +son Ceawlin once more advanced as far as Barbury hill-fort, probably on +a mere plundering raid. But in 571 Cuthwulf, brother of Ceawlin, again +marched northward, and "fought against the Welsh at Bedford, and took +four towns, Lenbury (or Leighton Buzzard), Aylesbury, Bensington (near +Dorchester in Oxfordshire), and Ensham." Thus the West Saxons overran +the whole upper valley of the Thames from Berkshire to above Oxford, and +formed a junction with the Middle Saxons to the north of London; while +eastward they spread as far as the northern boundaries of Essex. In 577 +the same intruders made a still more important move. Crossing the +central watershed of England, near Chippenham, they descended upon the +broken valley of the Bath Avon, and found themselves the first +Englishmen who reached any of the basins which point westward towards +the Atlantic seaboard. At a doubtful place named Deorham (probably +Dyrham near Bath), "Cuthwine and Ceawlin fought against the Welsh, and +slew three kings, Conmail, and Condidan, and Farinmail, and took three +towns from them, Gloucester, and Cirencester, and Bath." Thus the three +great Roman cities of the lower Severn valley fell into the hands of the +West Saxons, and the English for the first time stood face to face with +the western sea. Though the story of these conquests is of course +recorded from mere tradition at a much later date, it still has a ring +of truth, or at least of probability, about it, which is wholly wanting +to the earlier legends. If we are not certain as to the facts, we can at +least accept them as symbolical of the manner in which the West Saxon +power wormed its way over the upper basin of the Thames, and crept +gradually along the southern valley of the Severn. + +The victory of Deorham has a deeper importance of its own, however, than +the mere capture of the three great Roman cities in the south-west of +Britain. By the conquest of Bath and Gloucester, the West Saxons cut off +the Welsh of Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset from their brethren in the +Midlands and in Wales. This isolation of the West Welsh, as the English +thenceforth called them, largely broke the power of the native +resistance. Step by step in the succeeding age the West Saxons advanced +by hard fighting, but with no serious difficulty, to the Axe, to the +Parret, to the Tone, to the Exe, to the Tamar, till at last the West +Welsh, confined to the peninsula of Cornwall, became known merely as the +Cornish men, and in the reign of thelstan were finally subjugated by +the English, though still retaining their own language and national +existence. But in all the western regions the Celtic population was +certainly spared to a far greater extent than in the east; and the +position of the English might rather be described as an occupation than +as a settlement in the strict sense of the word. + +The westward progress of the Northumbrians is later and much more +historical. Theodoric, son of Ida, as we may perhaps infer from the old +Welsh ballads, fought long and not always successfully with Urien of +Strathclyde. But in 592, says Bda, who lived himself but three-quarters +of a century later than the event he describes, "there reigned over the +kingdom of the Northumbrians a most brave and ambitious king, +thelfrith, who, more than all other nobles of the English, wasted the +race of the Britons; for no one of our kings, no one of our chieftains, +has rendered more of their lands either tributary to or an integral part +of the English territories, whether by subjugating or expatriating the +natives." In 606 thelfrith rounded the Peakland, now known as +Derbyshire, and marched from the upper Trent upon the Roman city of +Chester. There "he made a terrible slaughter of the perfidious race." +Over two thousand Welsh monks from the monastery of Bangor Iscoed were +slain by the heathen invader; but Bda explains that thelfrith put them +to death because they prayed against him; a sentence which strongly +suggests the idea that the English did not usually kill non-combatant +Welshmen. + +The victory of Chester divided the Welsh power in the north as that of +Deorham had divided it in the south. Henceforward, the Northumbrians +bore rule from sea to sea, from the mouth of the Humber to the mouths of +the Mersey and the Dee. thelfrith even kept up a rude navy in the Irish +Sea. Thus the Welsh nationality was broken up into three separate and +weak divisions--Strathclyde in the north, Wales in the centre, and +Damnonia, or Cornwall, in the south. Against these three fragments the +English presented an unbroken and aggressive front, Northumbria standing +over against Strathclyde, Mercia steadily pushing its way along the +upper valley of the Severn against North Wales, and Wessex advancing in +the south against South Wales and the West Welsh of Somerset, Devon, and +Cornwall. Thus the conquest of the interior was practically complete. +There still remained, it is true, the subjugation of the west; but the +west was brought under the English over-lordship by slow degrees, and in +a very different manner from the east and the south coast, or even the +central belt. Cornwall finally yielded under thelstan; Strathclyde was +gradually absorbed by the English in the south and the Scottish kingdom +on the north; and the last remnant of Wales only succumbed to the +intruders under the rule of the Angevin Edward I. + +There were, in fact, three epochs of English extension in Britain. The +first epoch was one of colonisation on the coasts and along the valleys +of the eastward rivers. The second epoch was one of conquest and partial +settlement in the central plateau and the westward basins. The third +epoch was one of merely political subjugation in the western mountain +regions. The proofs of these assertions we must examine at length in the +succeeding chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. + + +It has been usual to represent the English conquest of South-eastern +Britain as an absolute change of race throughout the greater part of our +island. The Anglo-Saxons, it is commonly believed, came to England and +the Lowlands of Scotland in overpowering numbers, and actually +exterminated or drove into the rugged west the native Celts. The +population of the whole country south of Forth and Clyde is supposed to +be now, and to have been ever since the conquest, purely Teutonic or +Scandinavian in blood, save only in Wales, Cornwall, and, perhaps, +Cumberland and Galloway. But of late years this belief has met with +strenuous opposition from several able scholars; and though many of our +greatest historians still uphold the Teutonic theory, with certain +modifications and admissions, there are, nevertheless, good reasons +which may lead us to believe that a large proportion of the Celts were +spared as tillers of the soil, and that Celtic blood may yet be found +abundantly even in the most Teutonic portions of England. + +In the first place, it must be remembered that, by common consent, only +the east and south coasts and the country as far as the central +dividing ridge can be accounted as to any overwhelming extent English in +blood. It is admitted that the population of the Scottish Highlands, of +Wales, and of Cornwall is certainly Celtic. It is also admitted that +there exists a large mixed population of Celts and Teutons in +Strathclyde and Cumbria, in Lancashire, in the Severn Valley, in Devon, +Somerset, and Dorset. The northern and western half of Britain is +acknowledged to be mainly Celtic. Thus the question really narrows +itself down to the ethnical peculiarities of the south and east. + +Here, the surest evidence is that of anthropology. We know that the pure +Anglo-Saxons were a round-skulled, fair-haired, light-eyed, +blonde-complexioned race; and we know that wherever (if anywhere) we +find unmixed Germanic races at the present day, High Dutch, Low Dutch, +or Scandinavian, we always meet with some of these same personal +peculiarities in almost every individual of the community. But we also +know that the Celts, originally themselves a similar blonde Aryan race, +mixed largely in Britain with one or more long-skulled dark-haired, +black-eyed, and brown-complexioned races, generally identified with the +Basques or Euskarians, and with the Ligurians. The nation which resulted +from this mixture showed traces of both types, being sometimes blonde, +sometimes brunette; sometimes black-haired, sometimes red-haired, and +sometimes yellow-haired. Individuals of all these types are still found +in the undoubtedly Celtic portions of Britain, though the dark type +there unquestionably preponderates so far as numbers are concerned. It +is this mixed race of fair and dark people, of Aryan Celts with +non-Aryan Euskarians or Ligurians, which we usually describe as Celtic +in modern Britain, by contradistinction to the later wave of Teutonic +English. + +Now, according to the evidence of the early historians, as interpreted +by Mr. Freeman and other authors (whose arguments we shall presently +examine), the English settlers in the greater part of South Britain +almost entirely exterminated the Celtic population. But if this be so, +how comes it that at the present day a large proportion of our people, +even in the east, belong to the dark and long-skulled type? The fact is +that upon this subject the historians are largely at variance with the +anthropologists; and as the historical evidence is weak and inferential, +while the anthropological evidence is strong and direct, there can be +very little doubt which we ought to accept. Professor Huxley [Essay "On +some Fixed Points in British Ethnography,"] has shown that the +melanochroic or dark type of Englishmen is identical in the shape of the +skull, the anatomical peculiarities, and the colour of skin, hair, and +eyes with that of the continent, which is undeniably Celtic in the wider +sense--that is to say, belonging to the primitive non-Teutonic race, +which spoke a Celtic language, and was composed of mixed Celtic, +Iberian, and Ligurian elements. Professor Phillips points out that in +Yorkshire, and especially in the plain of York, an essentially dark, +short, non-Teutonic type is common; while persons of the same +characteristics abound among the supposed pure Anglians of +Lincolnshire. They are found in great numbers in East Anglia, and they +are not rare even in Kent. In Sussex and Essex they occur less +frequently, and they are also comparatively scarce in the Lothians. Dr. +Beddoe, Dr. Thurnam, and other anthropologists have collected much +evidence to the same effect. Hence we may conclude with great +probability that large numbers of the descendants of the dark Britons +still survive even on the Teutonic coast. As to the descendants of the +light Britons, we cannot, of course, separate them from those of the +like-complexioned English invaders. But in truth, even in the east +itself, save only perhaps in Sussex and Essex, the dark and fair types +have long since so largely coalesced by marriage that there are probably +few or no real Teutons or real Celts individually distinguishable at +all. Absolutely fair people, of the Scandinavian or true German sort, +with very light hair and very pale blue eyes, are almost unknown among +us; and when they do occur, they occur side by side with relations of +every other shade. As a rule, our people vary infinitely in complexion +and anatomical type, from the quite squat, long-headed, swarthy peasants +whom we sometimes meet with in rural Yorkshire, to the tall, +flaxen-haired, red-cheeked men whom we occasionally find not only in +Danish Derbyshire, but even in mainly Celtic Wales and Cornwall. As to +the west, Professor Huxley declares, on purely anthropological grounds, +that it is probably, on the whole, more deeply Celtic than Ireland +itself. + +These anthropological opinions are fully borne out by those scientific +archologists who have done most in the way of exploring the tombs and +other remains of the early Anglo-Saxon invaders. Professor Rolleston, +who has probably examined more skulls of this period than any other +investigator, sums up his consideration of those obtained from +Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon interments by saying, "I should be +inclined to think that wholesale massacres of the conquered +Romano-Britons were rare, and that wholesale importations of Anglo-Saxon +women were not much more frequent." He points out that "we have +anatomical evidence for saying that two or more distinct varieties of +men existed in England both previously to and during the period of the +Teutonic invasion and domination." The interments show us that the races +which inhabited Britain before the English conquest continued in part to +inhabit it after that conquest. The dolichocephali, or long-skulled type +of men, who, in part, preceded the English, "have been found abundantly +in the Suffolk region of the Littus Saxonicum, where the Celt and Saxon +[Englishman] are not known to have met as enemies when East Anglia +became a kingdom." Thus we see that just where people of the dark type +occur abundantly at the present day, skulls of the corresponding sort +are met with abundantly in interments of the Anglo-Saxon period. +Similarly, Mr. Akerman, after explorations in tombs, observes, "The +total expulsion or extinction of the Romano-British population by the +invaders will scarcely be insisted upon in this age of enquiry." Nay, +even in Teutonic Kent, Jute and Briton still lie side by side in the +same sepulchres. Most modern Englishmen have somewhat long rather than +round skulls. The evidence of archology supports the evidence of +anthropology in favour of the belief that some, at least, of the native +Britons were spared by the invading host. + +On the other hand, against these unequivocal testimonies of modern +research we have to set the testimony of the early historical +authorities, on which the Teutonic theory mainly relies. The authorities +in question are three, Gildas, Bda, and the English Chronicle. Gildas +was, or professes to be, a British monk, who wrote in the very midst of +the English conquest, when the invaders were still confined, for the +most part, to the south-eastern region. Objections have been raised to +the authenticity of his work, a small rhetorical Latin pamphlet, +entitled, "The History of the Britons;" but these objections have, +perhaps, been set at rest for many minds by Dr. Guest and Mr. Green. +Nevertheless, what little Gildas has to tell us is of slight historical +importance. His book is a disappointing Jeremiad, couched in the florid +and inflated Latin rhetoric so common during the decadence of the Roman +empire, intermingled with a strong flavour of hyperbolical Celtic +imagination; and it teaches us practically nothing as to the state of +the conquered districts. It is wholly occupied with fierce diatribes +against the Saxons, and complaints as to the weakness, wickedness, and +apathy of the British chieftains. It says little that can throw any +light on the question as to whether the Welsh were largely spared, +though it abounds with wild and vague declamation about the +extermination of the natives. Even Gildas, however, mentions that some +of his countrymen, "constrained by famine, came and yielded themselves +up to their enemies as slaves for ever;" while others, "committing the +safeguard of their lives to mountains, crags, thick forests, and rocky +isles, though with trembling hearts, remained in their fatherland." +These passages certainly suggest that a Welsh remnant survived in two +ways within the English pale, first as slaves, and secondly as isolated +outlaws. + +Bda stands on a very different footing. His authenticity is undoubted; +his language is simple and straightforward. He was born in or about the +year 672, only two hundred years after the landing of the first English +colonists in Thanet. Scarcely more than a century separated him from the +days of Ida. The constant lingering warfare with the Welsh on the +western frontier was still for him a living fact. The Celt still held +half of Britain. At the date of his birth the northern Welsh still +retained their independence in Strathclyde; the Welsh proper still +spread to the banks of the Severn; and the West Welsh of Cornwall still +owned all the peninsula south of the Bristol Channel as far eastward as +the Somersetshire marshes. Beyond Forth and Clyde, the Picts yet ruled +over the greater part of the Highlands, while the Scots, who have now +given the name of Scotland to the whole of Britain beyond the Cheviots, +were a mere intrusive Irish colony in Argyllshire and the Western Isles. +He lived, in short, at the very period when Britain was still in the +act of becoming England; and no historical doubts of any sort hang over +the authenticity of his great work, "The Ecclesiastical History of the +English people." But Bda unfortunately knows little more about the +first settlement than he could learn from Gildas, whom he quotes almost +_verbatim_. He tells us, however, nothing of extermination of the Welsh. +"Some," he says, "were slaughtered; some gave themselves up to undergo +slavery: some retreated beyond the sea: and some, remaining in their own +land, lived a miserable life in the mountains and forests." In all this, +he is merely transcribing Gildas, but he saw no improbability in the +words. At a later date, thelfrith, of Northumbria, he tells us, +"rendered more of their lands either tributary to or an integral part of +the English territory, whether by subjugating or expatriating[1] the +natives," than any previous king. Eadwine, before his conversion, +"subdued to the empire of the English the Mevanian islands," Man and +Anglesey; but we know that the population of both islands is still +mainly Celtic in blood and speech. These examples sufficiently show us, +that even before the introduction of Christianity, the English did not +always utterly destroy the Welsh inhabitants of conquered districts. And +it is universally admitted that, after their conversion, they fought +with the Welsh in a milder manner, sparing their lives as +fellow-Christians, and permitting them to retain their lands as +tributary proprietors. + + [1] The word in the original is _exterminatis_, but of + course _exterminare_ then bore its etymological sense of + expatriation or expulsion, if not merely of confiscation, + while it certainly did not imply the idea of slaughter, + connoted by the modern word. + +The English Chronicle, our third authority, was first compiled at the +court of lfred, four and a-half centuries after the Conquest; and so +its value as original testimony is very slight. Its earlier portions are +mainly condensed from Bda; but it contains a few fragments of +traditional information from some other unknown sources. These +fragments, however, refer chiefly to Kent, Sussex, and the older parts +of Wessex, where we have reason to believe that the Teutonic +colonisation was exceptionally thorough; and they tell us nothing about +Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and East Anglia, where we find at the present +day so large a proportion of the population possessing an unmistakably +Celtic physique. The Chronicle undoubtedly describes the conflict in the +south as sharp and bloody; and in spite of the mythical character of the +names and events, it is probable that in this respect it rightly +preserves the popular memory of the conquest, and its general nature. In +Kent, "the Welsh fled the English like fire;" and Hengest and sc, in a +single battle, slew 4,000 men. In Sussex, lle and Cissa killed or drove +out the natives in the western rapes on their first landing, and +afterwards massacred every Briton at Anderida. In Wessex, in the first +struggle, "Cerdic and Cynric offslew a British king whose name was +Natanleod, and 5,000 men with him." And so the dismal annals of rapine +and slaughter run on from year to year, with simple, unquestioning +conciseness, showing us, at least, the manner in which the later +English believed their forefathers had acquired the land. Moreover, +these frightful details accord well enough with the vague generalities +of Gildas, from which, however, they may very possibly have been +manufactured. Yet even the Chronicle nowhere speaks of absolute +extermination: that idea has been wholly read into its words, not +directly inferred from them. A great deal has been made of the massacre +at Pevensey; but we hear nothing of similar massacres at the great Roman +cities--at London, at York, at Verulam, at Bath, at Cirencester, which +would surely have attracted more attention than a small outlying +fortress like Anderida. Even the Teutonic champions themselves admit +that some, at least, of the Celts were incorporated into the English +community. "The women," says Mr. Freeman, "would, doubtless, be largely +spared;" while as to the men, he observes, "we may be sure that death, +emigration, or personal slavery were the only alternatives which the +vanquished found at the hands of our fathers." But there is a vast gulf, +from the ethnological point of view, between exterminating a nation and +enslaving it.[2] + + [2] In this and a few other cases, modern authorities are + quoted merely to show that the essential facts of a large + Welsh survival are really admitted even by those who most + strongly argue in favour of the general Teutonic origin of + Englishmen. + +In the cities, indeed, it would seem that the Britons remained in great +numbers. The Welsh bards complain that the urban race of Romanised +natives known as Loegrians, "became as Saxons." Mr. Kemble has shown +that the English did not by any means always massacre the inhabitants of +the cities. Mr. Freeman observes, "It is probable that within the +[English] frontier there still were Roman towns tributary to the +conquerors rather than occupied by them;" and Canon Stubbs himself +remarks, that "in some of the cities there were probably elements of +continuous life: London, the mart of the merchants, York, the capital of +the north, and some others, have a continuous political existence." +"Wherever the cities were spared," he adds, "a portion, at least, of the +city population must have continued also. In the country, too, +especially towards the west and the debateable border, great numbers of +Britons may have survived in a servile or half-servile condition." But +we must remember that in only two cases, Anderida and Chester, do we +actually hear of massacres; in all the other towns, Bda and the +Chronicle tell us nothing about them. It is a significant fact that +Sussex, the one kingdom in which we hear of a complete annihilation, is +the very one where the Teutonic type of physique still remains the +purest. But there are nowhere any traces of English clan nomenclature in +any of the cities. They all retain their Celtic or Roman names. At +Cambridge itself, in the heart of the true English country, the charter +of the thegn's guild, a late document, mentions a special distinction of +penalties for killing a Welshman, "if the slain be a ceorl, 2 ores, if +he be a Welshman, one ore." "The large Romanised towns," says Professor +Rolleston, "no doubt made terms with the Saxons, who abhorred city +life, and would probably be content to leave the unwarlike burghers in a +condition of heavily-taxed submissiveness." + +Thus, even in the east it is admitted that a Celtic element probably +entered into the population in three ways,--by sparing the women, by +making rural slaves of the men, and by preserving some, at least, of the +inhabitants of cities. The skulls of these Anglicised Welshmen are found +in ancient interments; their descendants are still to be recognised by +their physical type in modern England. "It is quite possible," says Mr. +Freeman, "that even at the end of the sixth century there may have been +within the English frontier inaccessible points where detached bodies of +Welshmen still retained a precarious independence." Sir F. Palgrave has +collected passages tending to show that parties of independent Welshmen +held out in the Fens till a very late period; and this conclusion is +admitted by Mr. Freeman to be probably correct. But more important is +the general survival of scattered Britons within the English communities +themselves. Traces of this we find even in Anglo-Saxon documents. The +signatures to very early charters,[3] collected by Thorpe and Kemble, +supply us with names some of which are assuredly not Teutonic, while +others are demonstrably Celtic; and these names are borne by people +occupying high positions at the court of English kings. Names of this +class occur even in Kent itself; while others are borne by members of +the royal family of Wessex. The local dialect of the West Riding of +Yorkshire still contains many Celtic words; and the shepherds of +Northumberland and the Lothians still reckon their sheep by what is +known as "the rhyming score," which is really a corrupt form of the +Welsh numerals from one to twenty. The laws of Northumbria mention the +Welshmen who pay rent to the king. Indeed, it is clear that even in the +east itself the English were from the first a body of rural colonists +and landowners, holding in subjection a class of native serfs, with whom +they did not intermingle, but who gradually became Anglicised, and +finally coalesced with their former masters, under the stress of the +Danish and Norman supremacies. + + [3] Kemble "On Anglo-Saxon Names." Proc. Arch. Inst., 1845. + +In the west, however, the English occupation took even less the form of +a regular colonisation. The laws of Ine, a West Saxon king, show us that +in his territories, bordering on yet unconquered British lands, the +Welshman often occupied the position of a rent-paying inferior, as well +as that of a slave. The so-called Nennius tells us that Elmet in +Yorkshire, long an intrusive Welsh principality, was not subdued by the +English till the reign of Eadwine of Northumbria; when, we learn, the +Northumbrian prince "seized Elmet, and expelled Cerdic its king:" but +nothing is said as to any extermination of its people. As Bda +incidentally mentions this Cerdic, "king of the Britons," Nennius may +probably be trusted upon the point. As late as the beginning of the +tenth century, King lfred in his will describes the people of Devon, +Dorset, Somerset, and Wilts, as "Welsh kin." The physical appearance of +the peasantry in the Severn valley, and especially in Shropshire, +Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, and Herefordshire, indicates that the +western parts of Mercia were equally Celtic in blood. The dialect of +Lancashire contains a large Celtic infusion. Similarly, the English +clan-villages decrease gradually in numbers as we move westward, till +they almost disappear beyond the central dividing ridge. We learn from +Domesday Book that at the date of the Norman conquest the number of +serfs was greater from east to west, and largest on the Welsh border. +Mr. Isaac Taylor points out that a similar argument may be derived from +the area of the hundreds in various counties. The hundred was originally +a body of one hundred English families (more or less), bound together by +mutual pledge, and answerable for one another's conduct. In Sussex, the +average number of square miles in each hundred is only twenty-three; in +Kent, twenty-four; in Surrey, fifty-eight; and in Herts, seventy-nine: +but in Gloucester it is ninety-seven; in Derby, one hundred and +sixty-two; in Warwick, one hundred and seventy-nine; and in Lancashire, +three hundred and two. These facts imply that the English population +clustered thickest in the old settled east, but grew thinner and thinner +towards the Welsh and Cumbrian border. Altogether, the historical +evidence regarding the western slopes of England bears out Professor +Huxley's dictum as to the thoroughly Celtic character of their +population. + +On the other hand, it is impossible to deny that Mr. Freeman and Canon +Stubbs have proved their point as to the thorough Teutonisation of +Southern Britain by the English invaders. Though it may be true that +much Welsh blood survived in England, especially amongst the servile +class, yet it is none the less true that the nation which rose upon the +ruins of Roman Britain was, in form and organisation, almost purely +English. The language spoken by the whole country was the same which had +been spoken in Sleswick. Only a few words of Welsh origin relating to +agriculture, household service, and smithcraft, were introduced by the +serfs into the tongue of their masters. The dialects of the Yorkshire +moors, of the Lake District, and of Dorset or Devon, spoken only by wild +herdsmen in the least cultivated tracts, retained a few more evident +traces of the Welsh vocabulary: but in York, in London, in Winchester, +and in all the large towns, the pure Anglo-Saxon of the old England by +the shores of the Baltic was alone spoken. The Celtic serfs and their +descendants quickly assumed English names, talked English to one +another, and soon forgot, in a few generations, that they had not always +been Englishmen in blood and tongue. The whole organisation of the +state, the whole social life of the people, was entirely Teutonic. "The +historical civilisation," as Canon Stubbs admirably puts it, "is English +and not Celtic." Though there may have been much Welsh blood left, it +ran in the veins of serfs and rent-paying churls, who were of no +political or social importance. These two aspects of the case should be +kept carefully distinct. Had they always been separated, much of the +discussion which has arisen on the subject would doubtless have been +avoided; for the strongest advocates of the Teutonic theory are +generally ready to allow that Celtic women, children, and slaves may +have been largely spared: while the Celtic enthusiasts have thought +incumbent upon them to derive English words from Welsh roots, and to +trace the origin of English social institutions to Celtic models. The +facts seem to indicate that while the modern English nation is largely +Welsh in blood, it is wholly Teutonic in form and language. Each of us +probably traces back his descent to mixed Celtic and Germanic ancestry: +but while the Celts have contributed the material alone, the Teutons +have contributed both the material and the form. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +HEATHEN ENGLAND. + + +We can now picture to ourselves the general aspect of the country after +the English colonies had established themselves as far west as the +Somersetshire marshes, the Severn, and the Dee. The whole land was +occupied by little groups of Teutonic settlers, each isolated by the +mark within their own township; each tilling the ground with their own +hands and those of their Welsh serfs. The townships were rudely gathered +together into petty chieftainships; and these chieftainships tended +gradually to aggregate into larger kingdoms, which finally merged in the +three great historical divisions of Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex; +divisions that survive to our own time as the North, the Midlands, and +the South. Meanwhile, most of the Roman towns were slowly depopulated +and fell into disrepair, so that a "waste chester" becomes a common +object in Anglo-Saxon history. Towns belong to a higher civilisation, +and had little place in agricultural England. The roads were neglected +for want of commerce; and trade only survived in London and along the +coast of Kent, where the discovery of Frankish coins proves the +existence of intercourse with the Teutonic kingdom of Neustria, which +had grown up on the ruins of northern Gaul. Everywhere in Britain the +Roman civilisation fell into abeyance: in improved agriculture alone did +any notable relic of its existence remain. The century and a half +between the conquest and the arrival of Augustine is a dreary period of +unmixed barbarism and perpetual anarchy. + +From time to time the older settled colonies kept sending out fresh +swarms of young emigrants towards the yet unconquered west, much as the +Americans and Canadians have done in our own days. Armed with their long +swords and battle-axes, the new colonists went forth in family bands, +under petty chieftains, to war against the Welsh; and when they had +conquered themselves a district, they settled on it as lords of the +soil, enslaved the survivors of their enemies, and made their leader +into a king. Meanwhile, the older colonies kept up their fighting spirit +by constant wars amongst themselves. Thus we read of contests between +the men of Kent and the West Saxons, or between conflicting nobles in +Wessex itself. Fighting, in fact, was the one business of the English +freeman, and it was but slowly that he settled down into a quiet +agriculturist. The influence of Christianity alone seems to have wrought +the change. Before the conversion of England, all the glimpses which we +get of the English freeman represent him only as a rude and turbulent +warrior, with the very spirit of his kinsmen, the later wickings of the +north. + +An enormous amount of the country still remained overgrown with wild +forest. The whole weald of Kent and Sussex, the great tract of Selwood +in Wessex, the larger part of Warwickshire, the entire Peakland, the +central dividing ridge between the two seas from Yorkshire to the Forth, +and other wide regions elsewhere, were covered with primval woodlands. +Arden, Charnwood, Wychwood, Sherwood, and the rest, are but the relics +of vast forests which once stretched over half England. The bear still +lurked in the remotest thickets; packs of wolves still issued forth at +night to ravage the herdsman's folds; wild boars wallowed in the fens or +munched acorns under the oakwoods; deer ranged over all the heathy +tracts throughout the whole island; and the wild white cattle, now +confined to Chillingham Park, roamed in many spots from north to south. +Hence hunting was the chief pastime of the princes and ealdormen when +they were not engaged in war with one another or with the Welsh. Game, +boar-flesh, and venison formed an important portion of diet throughout +the whole early English period, up to the Norman conquest, and long +after. + +The king was the recognised head of each community, though his position +was hardly more than that of leader of the nobles in war. He received an +original lot in the conquered land, and remained a private possessor of +estates, tilled by his Welsh slaves. He was king of the people, not of +the country, and is always so described in the early monuments. Each +king seems to have had a chief priest in his kingdom. + +There was no distinct capital for the petty kingdoms, though a principal +royal residence appears to have been usual. But the kings possessed many +separate _hams_ or estates in their domain, in each of which food and +other material for their use were collected by their serfs. They moved +about with their suite from one of these to another, consuming all that +had been prepared for them in each, and then passing on to the next. The +king himself made the journey in the waggon drawn by oxen, which formed +his rude prerogative. Such primitive royal progresses were absolutely +necessary in so disjointed a state of society, if the king was to govern +at all. Only by moving about and seeing with his own eyes could he gain +any information in a country where organisation was feeble and writing +practically unknown: only by consuming what was grown for him on the +spot where it was grown could he and his suite obtain provisions in the +rude state of Anglo-Saxon communications. But such government as existed +was mainly that of the local ealdormen and the village gentry. + +Marriages were practically conducted by purchase, the wife being bought +by the husband from her father's family. A relic of this custom perhaps +still survives in the modern ceremony, when the father gives the bride +in marriage to the bridegroom. Polygamy was not unknown; and it was +usual for men to marry their father's widows. The wives, being part of +the father's property, naturally became part of the son's heritage. +Fathers probably possessed the right of selling their children into +slavery; and we know that English slaves were sold at Rome, being +conveyed thither by Frisian merchants. + +The artizan class, such as it was, must have been attached to the houses +of the chieftains, probably in a servile position. Pottery was +manufactured of excellent but simple patterns. Metal work was, of +course, thoroughly understood, and the Anglo-Saxon swords and knives +discovered in barrows are of good construction. Every chief had also his +minstrel, who sang the short and jerky Anglo-Saxon songs to the +accompaniment of a harp. The dead were burnt and their ashes placed in +tumuli in the north: the southern tribes buried their warriors in full +military dress, and from their tombs much of the little knowledge which +we possess as to their habits is derived. Thence have been taken their +swords, a yard long, with ornamental hilt and double-cutting edge, often +covered by runic inscriptions; their small girdle knives; their long +spears; and their round, leather-faced, wooden shields. The jewellery is +of gold, enriched with coloured enamel, pearl, or sliced garnet. +Buckles, rings, bracelets, hairpins, necklaces, scissors, and toilet +requisites were also buried with the dead. Glass drinking-cups which +occur amongst the tombs, were probably imported from the continent to +Kent or London; and some small trade certainly existed with the Roman +world, as we learn from Bda. + +In faith the English remained true to their old Teutonic myths. Their +intercourse with the Christian Welsh was not of a kind to make them +embrace the religion which must have seemed to them that of slaves and +enemies. Bda tells us that the English worshipped idols, and sacrificed +oxen to their gods. Many traces of their mythology are still left in our +midst. + +First in importance among their deities came Woden, the Odin of our +Scandinavian kinsmen, whose name we still preserve in Wednesday (dies +Mercurii). To him every royal family of the English traced its descent. +Mr. Kemble has pointed out many high places in England which keep his +name to the present day. Wanborough, in Surrey, at the +heaven-water-parting of the Hog's Back, was originally Wodnesbeorh, or +the hill of Woden. Wanborough, in Wiltshire, which divides the valleys +of the Kennet and the Isis, has the same origin; as has also +Woodnesborough in Kent. Wonston, in Hants, was probably Woden's stone; +Wambrook, Wampool, and Wansford, his brook, his pool, and his ford. All +these names are redolent of that nature-worship which was so marked a +portion of the Anglo-Saxon religion. Godshill, in the Isle of Wight, now +crowned by a Christian church, was also probably the site of early Woden +worship. The boundaries of estates, as mentioned in charters, give +instances of trees, stones, and posts, used as landmarks, and dedicated +to Woden, thus conferring upon them a religious sanction, like that of +Hermes amongst the Greeks. Anglo-Saxon worship generally gathered around +natural features; and sacred oaks, ashes, wells, hills, and rivers are +among the commonest memorials of our heathen ancestors. Many of them +were reconsecrated after the introduction of Christianity to saints of +the church, and so have retained their character for sanctity almost to +our own time. + +Thunor, the same word as our modern English thunder, was practically, +though not philologically, the Anglo-Saxon representative of Zeus. We +are more familiar with his name in its clipped Norse form of Thor. +Thursday is Thunor's day (Thunres dg: dies Jovis) and the thunderbolt, +really a polished stone axe of the aboriginal neolithic savages, was +supposed to be his weapon. Thundersfield, in Surrey; Thundersley, in +Essex; and Thursley, in Surrey, still preserve the memory of his sacred +sites. Thurleigh, in Bedford; Thurlow, in Essex; Thursley, in +Cumberland; Thursfield, in Staffordshire; and Thursford, in Norfolk, are +more probably due to later Danish influence, and commemorate namesakes +of the Norse Thor rather than the English Thunor. + +Tiw, the philological equivalent of Zeus, answered rather in character +to Ares, and had for his day Tuesday (dies Martis). Tiw's mere and Tiw's +thorn occur in charters, and a few places still retain his name. Frea +gives his title to Friday (dies Veneris), and Stere to Saturday (dies +Saturni). But the Anglo-Saxon worship really paid more attention to +certain deified heroes,--Bldg, Geat, and Sceaf; and to certain +personified abstractions,--Wig (war), Death, and Sige (victory), than to +these minor gods. And, as often happens in Polytheistic religions, there +is reason to believe that the popular creed had much less reference to +the gods at all than to many inferior spirits of a naturalistic sort. +For the early English farmer, the world around was full of spiritual +beings, half divine, half devilish. Fiends and monsters peopled the +fens, and tales of their doings terrified his childhood. Spirits of +flood and fell swamped his boat or misled him at night. Water nicors +haunted the streams; fairies danced on the green rings of the pasture; +dwarfs lived in the barrows of Celtic or neolithic chieftains, and +wrought strange weapons underground. The mark, the forest, the hills, +were all full for the early Englishman of mysterious and often hostile +beings. At length the Weirds or Fates swept him away. Beneath the earth +itself, Hel, mistress of the cold and joyless world of shades, at last +received him; unless, indeed, by dying a warrior's death, he was +admitted to the happy realms of Wlheal. As a whole, the Anglo-Saxon +heathendom was a religion of terrorism. Evil spirits surrounded men on +every side, dwelt in all solitary places, and stalked over the land by +night. Ghosts dwelt in the forest; elves haunted the rude stone circles +of elder days. The woodland, still really tenanted by deer, wolves, and +wild boars, was also filled by popular imagination with demons and imps. +Charms, spells, and incantations formed the most real and living part of +the national faith; and many of these survived into Christian times as +witchcraft. Some of them, and of the early myths, even continue to be +repeated in the folk-lore of the present day. Such are the legends of +the Wild Huntsman and of Wayland Smith. Indeed, heathendom had a strong +hold over the common English mind long after the public adoption of +Christianity; and heathen sacrifices continued to be offered in secret +as late as the thirteenth century. Our poetry and our ordinary language +is tinged with heathen ideas even in modern times. + +Still more interesting, however, are those relics of yet earlier social +states, which we find amongst the Anglo-Saxons themselves. The +production of fire by rubbing together two sticks is a common practice +amongst all savages; and it has acquired a sacred significance which +causes it to live on into more civilised stages. Once a year the +needfire was so lighted, and all the hearths of the village were +rekindled from the blaze thus obtained. Cattle were "passed through the +fire" to preserve them from the attacks of fiends; and perhaps even +children were sometimes treated in the same manner. The ceremony, +originally adopted, perhaps, by the English from their Celtic serfs, +still lingers in remote parts of the country, as the lighting of fires +on St. John's Eve. Tattooing the face was practised by the noble +classes. It seems probable that the early English sacrificed human +victims, as the Germans certainly did to Wuotan (the High Dutch Woden); +and we know that the practice of suttee existed, and that widows slew +themselves on the death of their husbands, in order to accompany them to +the other world. Even more curious are the vestiges of Totemism, or +primitive animal worship, common to all branches of the Aryan race, as +well as to the North American Indians, the Australian black fellows, and +many other savages. Totemism consists in the belief that each family is +literally descended from a particular plant or animal, whose name it +bears; and members of the family generally refuse to pluck the plant or +kill the animal after which they are named. Of these beliefs we find +apparently several traces in Anglo-Saxon life. The genealogies of the +kings include such names as those of the horse, the mare, the ash, and +the whale. In the very early Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf, two of the +characters bear the names of Wulf and Eofer (boar). The wolf and the +raven were sacred animals, and have left their memory in many places, as +well as in such personal titles as thelwulf, the noble wolf. The boar +was also greatly reverenced; its head was used as an amulet, or as a +crest for helmets, and oaths were taken upon it till late in the middle +ages. Our own boar's head at Christmas is a relic of the old belief. The +sanctity of the horse and the ash has been already mentioned. Now many +of the Anglo-Saxon clans bore names implying their descent from such +plants or animals. Thus a charter mentions the scings, or sons of the +ash, in Surrey; another refers to the Earnings, or sons of the eagle +(earn); a third to the Heartings, or sons of the hart; a fourth to the +Wylfings, or sons of the wolf; and a fifth to the Thornings, or sons of +the thorn. The oak has left traces of his descendants at Oakington, in +Cambridge: the birch, at Birchington, in Kent; the boar (Eofer) at +Evringham, in Yorkshire; the hawk, at Hawkinge, in Kent; the horse, at +Horsington, in Lincolnshire; the raven, at Raveningham, in Norfolk; the +sun, at Sunning, in Berks; and the serpent (Wyrm), at Wormingford, +Worminghall, and Wormington, in Essex, Bucks, and Gloucester, +respectively. Every one of these objects is a common and well-known +totem amongst savage tribes; and the inference that at some earlier +period the Anglo-Saxons had been Totemists is almost irresistible. + +Moreover, it is an ascertained fact that the custom of exogamy (marriage +by capture outside the tribe), and of counting kindred on the female +side alone, accompanies the low stage of culture with which Totemism is +usually associated. We know also that this method of reckoning +relationship obtained amongst certain Aryan tribes, such as the Picts. +Traces of the ceremonial form of marriage by capture survived in England +to a late date in the middle ages; and therefore the custom of exogamy, +upon which the ceremony is based, must probably have existed amongst the +English themselves at some earlier period. Even in the first historical +age, a conquered king generally gave his daughter in marriage to his +conqueror, as a mark of submission, which is a relic of the same custom. +Now, if members of the various tribes--Jutes, English, and Saxons,--used +at one time habitually to intermarry with one another, and to give their +children the clan-name of the father, it would follow that persons +bearing the same clan-name would appear in all the tribes. Such we find +to be actually the case. The Hemings, for instance, are met with in six +counties--York, Lincoln, Huntingdon, Suffolk, Northampton, and Somerset; +the Mannings occur in English Norfolk and in Saxon Dorset; the +Billings, and many other clans, have left their names over the whole +land, from north to south and from east to west alike. It has often been +assumed that these facts prove the intimate intermixture of the invading +tribes; but the supposition of the former existence of exogamy, and +consequent appearance of similar clan-names in all the tribes, seems far +more probable than such an extreme mingling of different tribesmen over +the whole conquered territory.[1] Part of the early English ceremony of +marriage consisted in the bridegroom touching the head of the bride with +a shoe, a relic, doubtless, of the original mode of capture, when the +captor placed his foot on the neck of his prisoner or slave. After +marriage, the wife's hair was cut short, which is a universal mark of +slavery. + + [1] I owe this ingenious explanation to a note in Mr. Andrew + Lang's essays prefixed to Mr. Holland's translation of + Aristotle's _Politics_. He has there also suggested the + analysis of the clan names for traces of Totemism, whose + results I have given above in part. + +Thus we may divide the early English religion into four elements. First, +the remnants of a very primitive savage faith, represented by the +sanctity of animals and plants, by Totemism, by the needfire, and by the +use of amulets, charms, and spells. Second, the relics of the old common +Aryan nature-worship, found in the reverence paid to Thunor, or Thunder, +who is a form of Zeus, and in the sacredness of hills, rivers, wells, +fords, and the open air. Third, a system of Teutonic hero or +ancestor-worship, typified by Woden, Bldg, and the other great names +of the genealogies, and having its origin in the belief in ghosts. +Fourth, a deification of certain abstract ideas, such as War, Fate, +Victory, and Death. But the average heathen Anglo-Saxon religion was +merely a vast mass of superstition, a dark and gloomy terrorism, +begotten of the vague dread of misfortune which barbarians naturally +feel in a half-peopled land, where war and massacre are the highest +business of every man's lifetime, and a violent death the ordinary way +in which he meets his end. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH. + + +It was impossible that a country lying within sight of the orthodox +Frankish kingdom, and enclosed between two Christian Churches on either +side, should long remain in such a state of isolated heathendom. For to +be cut off from Christendom was to be cut off from the whole social, +political, intellectual, and commercial life of the civilised world. In +Britain, as distinctly as in the Pacific Islands in our own day, the +missionary was the pioneer of civilisation. The change which +Christianity wrought in England in a few generations was almost as +enormous as the change which it has wrought in Hawaii at the present +time. Before the arrival of the missionary, there was no written +literature, no industrial arts, no peace, no social intercourse between +district and district. The church came as a teacher and civiliser, and +in a few years the barbarous heathen English warrior had settled down +into a toilsome agriculturist, an eager scholar, a peaceful law-giver, +or an earnest priest. The change was not merely a change of religion, it +was a revolution from a life of barbarism to a life of incipient +culture, and slow but progressive civilisation. + +So inevitable was the Christianisation of England, that even while the +flood of paganism was pouring westward, the east was beginning to +receive the faith of Rome from the Frankish kingdom and from Italy. It +has been necessary, indeed, to anticipate a little, in order to show the +story of the conquest in its true light. Ten years before the heathen +thelfrith of Northumbria massacred the Welsh monks at Chester, +Augustine had brought Christianity to the people of Kent. + +In 596, Gregory the Great determined to send a mission to England. Even +before that time, Kent had been in closer union with the Continent than +any other part of the country. Trade went on with the kindred Saxon +coast of the Frankish kingdom, and thelberht, the ambitious Kentish +king, and over-lord of all England south of the Humber, had even married +Bercta, a daughter of the Frankish king of Paris. Bercta was of course a +Christian, and she brought her own Frankish chaplain, who officiated in +the old Roman church of St. Martin, at Canterbury. But Gregory's mission +was on a far larger scale. Augustine, prior of the monastery on the +Coelian Hill, was sent with forty monks to convert the heathen +English. They landed in Thanet, in 597, with all the pomp of Roman +civilisation and ecclesiastical symbolism. Gregory had rightly +determined to try by ritual and show to impress the barbarian mind. +thelberht, already predisposed to accept the Continental culture, and +to assimilate his rude kingdom to the Roman model, met them in the open +air at a solemn meeting; for he feared, says Bda, to meet them within +four walls, lest they should practice incantations upon him. The foreign +monks advanced in procession to the king's presence, chanting their +litanies, and displaying a silver cross. thelberht yielded almost at +once. He and all his court became Christians; and the people, as is +usual amongst barbarous tribes, quickly conformed to the faith of their +rulers. thelberht gave the missionaries leave to build new churches, or +to repair the old ones erected by the Welsh Christians. Augustine +returned to Gaul, where he was consecrated as Archbishop of the English +nation, at Arles. Kent became thenceforth a part of the great +Continental system. Canterbury has ever since remained the metropolis of +the English Church; and the modern archbishops trace back their +succession directly to St. Augustine. + +For awhile, the young Church seemed to make vigorous progress. Augustine +built a monastery at Canterbury, where thelberht founded a new church +to SS. Peter and Paul, to be a sort of Westminster Abbey for the tombs +of all future Kentish kings and archbishops. He also restored an old +Roman church in the city. The pope sent him sacramental vessels, altar +cloths, ornaments, relics, and, above all, many books. Ten years later, +Augustine enlarged his missionary field by ordaining two new +bishops--Mellitus, to preach to the East Saxons, "whose metropolis," +says Bda, "is the city of London, which is the mart of many nations, +resorting to it by sea and land;" and Justus to the episcopal see of +West Kent, with his bishop-stool at Rochester. The East Saxons +nominally accepted the faith at the bidding of their over-lord, +thelberht; but the people of London long remained pagans at heart. On +Augustine's death, however, all life seemed again to die out of the +struggling mission. Laurentius, who succeeded him, found the labour too +great for his weaker hands. In 613 thelberht died, and his son Eadbald +at once apostatised, returning to the worship of Woden and the ancestral +gods. The East Saxons drove out Mellitus, who, with Justus, retired to +Gaul; and Archbishop Laurentius himself was minded to follow them. Then +the Kentish king, admonished by a dream of the archbishop's, made +submission, recalled the truant bishops, and restored Justus to +Rochester. The Londoners, however, would not receive back Mellitus, +"choosing rather to be under their idolatrous high-priests." Soon +Laurentius died too, and Mellitus was called to take his place, and +consecrated at last a church in London in the monastery of St. Peter. In +624, the third archbishop was carried off by gout, and Justus of +Rochester succeeded to the primacy of the struggling church. Up to this +point little had been gained, except the conversion of Kent itself, with +its dependent kingdom of Essex--the two parts of England in closest +union with the Continent, through the mercantile intercourse by way of +London and Richborough. + +Under the new primate, however, an unexpected opening occurred for the +conversion of the North. The Northumbrian kings had now risen to the +first place in Britain. thelfrith had done much to establish their +supremacy; under Eadwine it rose to a height of acknowledged +over-lordship. "As an earnest of this king's future conversion and +translation to the kingdom of heaven," says Bda, with pardonable +Northumbrian patriotic pride, "even his temporal power was allowed to +increase greatly, so that he did what no Englishman had done +before--that is to say, he united under his own over-lordship all the +provinces of Britain, whether inhabited by English or by Welsh." Eadwine +now took in marriage thelburh, daughter of thelberht, and sister of +the reigning Kentish king. Justus seized the opportunity to introduce +the Church into Northumbria. He ordained one Paulinus as bishop, to +accompany the Christian lady, to watch over her faith, and if possible +to convert her husband and his people. + +Gregory had planned his scheme with systematic completeness; he had +decided that there should be two metropolitan provinces, of York and +London (which he knew as the old Roman capitals of Britain), and that +each should consist of twelve episcopal sees. Paulinus now went to York +in furtherance of this comprehensive but abortive scheme. A miraculous +escape from assassination, or what was reputed one, gave the Roman monk +a hold over Eadwine's mind; but the king decided to put off his +conversion till he had tried the efficacy of the new faith by a +practical appeal. He went on an expedition against the treacherous king +of the West Saxons, who had endeavoured to assassinate him, and +determined to abide by the result. Having overthrown his enemy with +great slaughter, he returned to his royal city of Coningsborough (the +king's town), and put himself as a catechumen under the care of +Paulinus. The pope himself was induced to interest himself in so +promising a convert; and he wrote a couple of briefs to Eadwine and his +queen. These letters, the originals of which were carefully preserved at +Rome, are copied out in full by Bda. No doubt, the honour of receiving +such an epistle from the pontiff of the Eternal City was not without its +effect upon the semi-barbaric mind of Eadwine, who seems in some +respects to have inherited the old Roman traditions of Eboracum. + +Still the king held back. To change his own faith was to change the +faith of the whole nation, and he thought it well to consult his witan. +The old English assembly was always aristocratic in character, despite +its ostensible democracy, for it consisted only of the heads of +families; and as the kingdoms grew larger, their aristocratic character +necessarily became more pronounced, as only the wealthier persons could +be in attendance upon the king. The folk-moot had grown into the +witena-gemot, or assembly of wise men. Eadwine assembled such a meeting +on the banks of the Derwent--for moots were always held in the open air +at some sacred spot--and there the priests and thegns declared their +willingness to accept the new religion. Coifi, chief priest of the +heathen gods, himself led the way, and flung a lance in derision at the +temple of his own deities. To the surprise of all, the gods did not +avenge the insult. Thereupon "King duin, with all the nobles and most +of the common folk of his nation, received the faith and the font of +holy regeneration, in the eleventh year of his reign, which is the year +of our Lord's incarnation the six hundred and twenty-seventh, and about +the hundred and eightieth after the arrival of the English in Britain. +He was baptized at York on Easter-day, the first before the Ides of +April (April 12), in the church of St. Peter the Apostle, which he +himself had hastily built of wood, while he was being catechised and +prepared for Baptism; and in the same city he gave the bishopric to his +prelate and sponsor Paulinus. But after his Baptism he took care, by +Paulinus's direction, to build a larger and finer church of stone, in +the midst whereof his original chapel should be enclosed." To this day, +York Minster, the lineal descendant of Eadwine's wooden church, remains +dedicated to St. Peter; and the archbishops still sit in the +bishop-stool of Paulinus. Part of Eadwine's later stone cathedral was +discovered under the existing choir during the repairs rendered +necessary by the incendiary Martin. As to the heathen temple, its traces +still remained even in Bda's day. "That place, formerly the abode of +idols, is now pointed out not far from York to the westward, beyond the +river Dornuentio, and is to-day called Godmundingaham, where the priest +himself, through the inspiration of the true God, polluted and destroyed +the altars which he himself had consecrated." So close did Bda live to +these early heathen English times. From the date of St. Augustine's +arrival, indeed, Bda stands upon the surer ground of almost +contemporary narrative. + +Still the greater part of English Britain remained heathen. Kent, Essex, +and Northumbria were converted, or at least their kings and nobles had +been baptised: but East Anglia, Mercia, Sussex, Wessex, and the minor +interior principalities were as yet wholly heathen. Indeed, the various +Teutonic colonies seemed to have received Christianity in the exact +order of their settlement: the older and more civilised first, the newer +and ruder last. Paulinus, however, made another conquest for the church +in Lindsey (Lincolnshire), "where the first who believed," says the +Chronicle, "was a certain great man who hight Blecca, with all his +clan." In the very same year with these successes, Justus died, and +Honorius received the See of Canterbury from Paulinus at the old Roman +city of Lincoln. So far the Roman missionaries remained the only +Christian teachers in England: no English convert seems as yet to have +taken holy orders. + +Again, however, the church received a severe check. Mercia, the youngest +and roughest principality, stood out for heathendom. The western colony +was beginning to raise itself into a great power, under its fierce and +strong old king Penda, who seems to have consolidated all the petty +chieftainships of the Midlands into a single fairly coherent kingdom. +Penda hated Northumbria, which, under Eadwine, had made itself the chief +English state: and he also hated Christianity, which he knew only as a +religion fit for Welsh slaves, not for English warriors. For twenty-two +years, therefore, the old heathen king waged an untiring war against +Christian Northumbria. In 633, he allied himself with Cadwalla, the +Christian Welsh king of Gwynedd, or North Wales, in a war against +Eadwine; an alliance which supplies one more proof that the gulf between +Welsh and English was not so wide as it is sometimes represented to be. +The Welsh and Mercian host met the Northumbrians at Heathfield (perhaps +Hatfield Chase) and utterly destroyed them. Eadwine himself and his son +Osfrith were slain. Penda and Cadwalla "fared thence, and undid all +Northumbria." The country was once more divided into Deira and Bernicia, +and two heathen rulers succeeded to the northern kingdom. Paulinus, +taking thelburh, the widow of Eadwine, went by sea to Kent, where +Honorius, whom he had himself consecrated, received him cordially, and +gave him the vacant see of Rochester. There he remained till his death, +and so for a time ended the Christian mission to York. Penda made the +best of his victory by annexing the Southumbrians, the Middle English, +and the Lindiswaras, as well as by conquering the Severn Valley from the +West Saxons. Henceforth, Mercia stands forth as one of the three leading +Teutonic states in Britain. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +ROME AND IONA. + + +It was not the Roman mission which finally succeeded in converting the +North and the Midlands. That success was due to the Scottish and Pictish +Church. At the end of the sixth century, Columba, an Irish missionary, +crossed over to the solitary rock of Iona, where he established an abbey +on the Irish model, and quickly evangelised the northern Picts. From +Iona, some generations later, went forth the devoted missionaries who +finally converted the northern half of England. + +The native churches of the west, cut off from direct intercourse with +the main body of Latin Christendom, had retained certain habits which +were now regarded by Rome as schismatical. Chief among these were the +date of celebrating Easter, and the uncanonical method of cutting the +tonsure in a crescent instead of a circle. Augustine, shortly after his +arrival, endeavoured to obtain unity between the two churches on these +matters of discipline, to which great importance was attached as tests +of submission to the Latin rule. He obtained from thelberht a +safe-conduct through the heathen West-Saxon territories as far as what +is now Worcestershire; and there, "on the borders of the Huiccii and +the West-Saxons," says Bda, "he convened to a colloquy the bishops and +doctors of the nearest province of the Britons, in the place which, to +the present day, is called in the English language, Augustine's Oak." +Such open-air meetings by sacred trees or stones were universal in +England both before and after its conversion. "He began to admonish them +with a brotherly admonition to embrace with him the Catholic faith, and +to undertake the common task of evangelising the pagans. For they did +not observe Easter at the proper period: moreover, they did many other +things contrary to the unity of the Church." But the Welsh were jealous +of the intruders, and refused to abandon their old customs. Thereupon, +Augustine declared that if they would not help him against the heathen, +they would perish by the heathen. A few years later, after Augustine's +death, this prediction was verified by thelfrith of Northumbria, whose +massacre of the monks of Bangor has already been noticed. + +It was in return for the destruction of Chester and the slaughter of the +monks that Cadwalla joined the heathen Penda against his fellow +Christian Eadwine. But the death of Eadwine left the throne open for the +house of thelfrith, whose place Eadwine had taken. After a year of +renewed heathendom, however, during part of which the Welsh Cadwalla +reigned over Northumbria, Oswald, son of thelfrith, again united Deira +and Bernicia under his own rule. Oswald was a Christian, but he had +learnt his Christianity from the Scots, amongst whom he had spent his +exile, and he favoured the introduction of Pictish and Scottish +missionaries into Northumbria. The Italian monks who had accompanied +Augustine were men of foreign speech and manners, representatives of an +alien civilisation, and they attempted to convert whole kingdoms _en +bloc_ by the previous conversion of their rulers. Their method was +political and systematic. But the Pictish and Irish preachers were men +of more Britannic feelings, and they went to work with true missionary +earnestness to convert the half Celtic people of Northumbria, man by +man, in their own homes. Aidan, the apostle of the north, carried the +Pictish faith into the Lothians and Northumberland. He placed his +bishop-stool not far from the royal town of Bamborough, at Lindisfarne, +the Holy Island of the Northumbrian coast. Other Celtic missionaries +penetrated further south, even into the heathen realm of Penda and his +tributary princes. Ceadda or Chad, the patron saint of Lichfield, +carried Christianity to the Mercians. Diuma preached to the Middle +English of Leicester with much success, Peada, their ealdorman, son of +Penda, having himself already embraced the new faith. Penda had slain +Oswald in a great battle at Maserfeld in 641; but the martyr only +brought increased glory to the Christians: and Oswiu, who succeeded him, +after an interval of anarchy, as king of Deira (for Bernicia now chose a +king of its own), was also a zealous adherent of the Celtic +missionaries. Thus the heterodox Church made rapid strides throughout +the whole of the north. + +Meanwhile, in the south the Latin missionaries, urged to activity, +perhaps, by the Pictish successes, had been making fresh progress. In +the very year when Oswald was chosen king by the Northumbrians, Birinus, +a priest from northern Italy, went by command of the pope to the West +Saxons: and after twelve months he was able to baptise their king, +Cynegils, at his capital of Dorchester, on the Thames, his sponsor being +Oswald of Northumbria. A year later, Felix, a Burgundian, "preached the +faith of Christ to the East Anglians," who had indeed been converted by +the Augustinian missionaries, but afterwards relapsed. Only Sussex and +Mercia still remained heathen. But, in 655, Penda made a last attempt +against Northumbria, which he had harried year after year, and was met +by Oswiu at Winwidfield, near Leeds; the Christians were successful, and +Penda was slain, together with thirty royal persons--petty princes of +the tributary Mercian states, no doubt. His son, Peada, the Christian +ealdorman of the Middle English, succeeded him, and the Mercians became +Christians of the Pictish or Irish type. "Their first bishop," says +Bda, "was Diuma, who died and was buried among the Middle English. The +second was Cellach, who abandoned his bishopric, and returned during his +lifetime to Scotland (perhaps Ireland, but more probably the Scottish +kingdom in Argyllshire). Both of these were by birth Irishmen. The third +was Trumhere, by race an Englishman, but educated and ordained by the +Irish." Thus Roman Christianity spread over the whole of England south +of the Wash (save only heathen Sussex): while the Irish Church had made +its way over all the north, from the Wash to the Firth of Forth. The +Roman influence may be partly traced by the Roman alphabet superseding +the old English runes. Runic inscriptions are rare in the south, where +they were regarded as heathenish relics, and so destroyed: but they are +comparatively common in the north. Runics appear on the coins of the +first Christian kings of Mercia, Peada and thelred, but soon die out +under their successors. + +Heathendom was now fairly vanquished. It survived only in Sussex, cut +off from the rest of England by the forest belt of the Weald. The next +trial of strength must clearly lie between Rome and Iona. + +The northern bishops and abbots traced their succession, not to +Augustine, but to Columba. Cuthberht, the English apostle of the north, +who really converted the _people_ of Northumbria, as earlier +missionaries had converted its _kings_, derived his orders from Iona. +Rome or Ireland, was now the practical question of the English Church. +As might be expected, Rome conquered. To allay the discord, King Oswiu +summoned a synod at Streoneshalch (now known by its later Danish name of +Whitby) in 664, to settle the vexed question as to the date of Easter. +The Irish priests claimed the authority of St. John for their crescent +tonsure; the Romans, headed by Wilfrith, a most vigorous priest, +appealed to the authority of St. Peter for the canonical circle. "I will +never offend the saint who holds the keys of heaven," said Oswiu, with +the frank, half-heathendom of a recent convert; and the meeting shortly +decided as the king would have it. The Irish party acquiesced or else +returned to Scotland; and thenceforth the new English Church remained in +close communion with Rome and the Continent. Whatever may be our +ecclesiastical judgment of this decision, there can be little doubt that +its material effects were most excellent. By bringing England into +connection with Rome, it brought her into connection with the centre of +all then-existing civilisation, and endowed her with arts and +manufactures which she could never otherwise have attained. The +connection with Ireland and the north would have been as fatal, from a +purely secular point of view, to early English culture as was the later +connection with half-barbaric Scandinavia. Rome gave England the Roman +letters, arts, and organisation: Ireland could only have given her a +more insular form of Celtic civilisation. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +CHRISTIAN ENGLAND. + + +The change wrought in England by the introduction of the new faith was +immense and sudden at the moment, as well as deep-reaching in its after +consequences. The isolated heathen barbaric communities became at once +an integral part of the great Roman and Christian civilisation. Even +before the arrival of Augustine, some slight tincture of Roman influence +had filtered through into the English world. The Welsh serfs had +preserved some traditional knowledge of Roman agriculture; Kent had kept +up some intercourse with the Continent; and even in York, Eadwine +affected a certain imitation of Roman pomp. But after the introduction +of Christianity, Roman civilisation began to produce marked results over +the whole country. Writing, before almost unknown, or confined to the +engraving of runic characters on metal objects, grew rapidly into a +common art. The Latin language was introduced, and with it the key to +the Latin literature and Latin science, the heirlooms of Greece and the +East. Roman influences affected the little courts of the English kings; +and the customary laws began to be written down in regular codes. Before +the conversion we have not a single written document upon which to base +our history; from the moment of Augustine's landing we have the +invaluable works of Bda, and a host of lesser writings (chiefly lives +of saints), besides an immense number of charters or royal grants of +land to monasteries and private persons. These grants, written at first +in Latin, but afterwards in Anglo-Saxon, were preserved in the +monasteries down to the date of their dissolution, and then became the +property of various collectors. They have been transcribed and published +by Mr. Kemble and Mr. Thorpe, and they form some of our most useful +materials for the early history of Christian England. + +It was mainly by means of the monasteries that Christianity became a +great civilising and teaching agency in England. Those who judge +monastic institutions only by their later and worst days, when they had, +perhaps, ceased to perform any useful function, are apt to forget the +benefits which they conferred upon the people in the earlier stages of +their existence. The state of England during this first Christian period +was one of chronic and bloody warfare. There was no regular army, but +every freeman was a soldier, and raids of one English tribe upon another +were everyday occurrences; while pillaging frays on the part of the +Welsh, followed by savage reprisals on the part of the English, were +still more frequent. During the heathen period, even the Picts seem +often to have made piractical expeditions far into the south of England. +In 597, for example, we read in the Chronicle that Ceolwulf, king of the +West Saxons, constantly fought "either against the English, or against +the Welsh, or against the Picts." But in 603, the Argyllshire Scots made +a raid against Northumbria, and were so completely crushed by +thelfrith, that "since then no king of Scots durst lead a host against +this folk"; while the southern Picts of Galloway became tributaries of +the Northumbrian kings. But war between Saxons and English, or between +Teutons and Welsh, still remained chronic; and Christianity did little +to prevent these perpetual border wars and raids. In 633, Cadwalla and +Penda wasted Northumbria; in 644, Penda drove out King Kenwealh, of the +West Saxons, from his possessions along the Severn; in 671, Wulfhere, +the Mercian, ravaged Wessex and the south as far as Ashdown, and +conquered Wight, which he gave to the South Saxons; and so, from time to +time, we catch glimpses of the unceasing strife between each folk and +its neighbours, besides many hints of intestine struggles between prince +and prince, or of rivalries between one petty shire and others of the +same kingdom, far too numerous and unimportant to be detailed here in +full. + +With such a state of affairs as this, it became a matter of deep +importance that there should be some one institution where the arts of +peace might be carried on in safety; where agriculture might be sure of +its reward; where literature and science might be studied; and where +civilising influences might be safe from interruption or rapine. The +monasteries gave an opportunity for such an ameliorating influence to +spring up. They were spared even in war by the reverence of the people +for the Church; and they became places where peaceful minds might +retire for honest work, and learning, and thinking, away from the fierce +turmoil of a still essentially barbaric and predatory community. At the +same time, they encouraged the development of this very type of mind by +turning the reproach of cowardice, which it would have carried with it +in heathen times, into an honour and a mark of holiness. Every monastery +became a centre of light and of struggling culture for the surrounding +district. They were at once, to the early English recluse, universities +and refuges, places of education, of retirement, and of peace, in the +midst of a jarring and discordant world. + +Hence, almost the first act of every newly-converted prince was to found +a monastery in his dominions. That of Canterbury dates from the arrival +of Augustine. In 643, Kenwealh of Wessex "bade timber the old minster at +Winchester." In 654, shortly after the conversion of East Anglia, +"Botulf began to build a monastery at Icanho," since called after his +name Botulf's tun, or Boston. In 657, Peada of Mercia and Oswiu of +Northumbria "said that they would rear a monastery to the glory of +Christ and the honour of St. Peter; and they did so, and gave it the +name of Medeshamstede"; but it is now known as Peterborough.[1] + + [1] The charter is a late forgery, but there is no reason to + doubt that it represents the correct tradition. + +Before the battle of Winwidfield, Oswiu had vowed to build twelve +minsters in his kingdom, and he redeemed his vow by founding six in +Bernicia and six in Deira. In 669, Ecgberht of Kent "gave Reculver to +Bass, the mass-priest, to build a monastery thereon." In 663, +thelthryth, a lady of royal blood, better known by the Latinised name +of St. Etheldreda, "began the monastery at Ely." Before Bda's death, in +735, religious houses already existed at Lastingham, Melrose, +Lindisfarne, Whithern, Bardney, Gilling, Bury, Ripon, Chertsey, Barking, +Abercorn, Selsey, Redbridge, Coldingham, Towcester, Hackness, and +several other places. So the whole of England was soon covered with +monastic establishments, each liberally endowed with land, and each +engaged in tilling the soil without, and cultivating peaceful arts +within, like little islands of southern civilisation, dotted about in +the wide sea of Teutonic barbarism. + +In the Roman south, many, if not all, of the monasteries seem to have +been planned on the regular models; but in the north, where the Irish +missionaries had borne the largest share in the work of conversion, the +monasteries were irregular bodies on the Irish plan, where an abbot or +abbess ruled over a mixed community of monks and nuns. Hild, a member of +the Northumbrian princely family, founded such an abbey at Streoneshalch +(Whitby), made memorable by numbering amongst its members the first +known English poet, Cdmon. St. John of Beverley, Bishop of Hexham, set +up a similar monastery at the place with which his name is so closely +associated. The Irish monks themselves founded others at Lindisfarne and +elsewhere. Even in the south, some Irish abbeys existed. An Irish monk +had set up one at Bosham, in Sussex, even before Wilfrith converted that +kingdom; and one of his countrymen, Maidulf (or Maeldubh?) was the +original head of Malmesbury. In process of time, however, as the union +with Rome grew stronger, all these houses conformed to the more regular +usage, and became monasteries of the ordinary Benedictine type. + +The civilising value of the monasteries can hardly be over-rated. Secure +in the peace conferred upon them by a religious sanction, the monks +became the builders of schools, the drainers of marshland, the clearers +of forest, the tillers of heath. Many of the earliest religious houses +rose in the midst of what had previously been trackless wilds. +Peterborough and Ely grew up on islands of the Fen country. Crowland +gathered round the cell of Guthlac in the midst of a desolate mere. +Evesham occupied a glade in the wild forests of the western march. +Glastonbury, an old Welsh foundation, stood on a solitary islet, where +the abrupt knoll of the Tor looks down upon the broad waste of the +Somersetshire marshes. Beverley, as its name imports, had been a haunt +of beavers before the monks began to till its fruitful dingles. In every +case agriculture soon turned the wild lands into orchards and +cornfields, or drove drains through the fens which converted their +marshes into meadows and pastures for the long-horned English cattle. +Roman architecture, too, came with the Roman church. We hear nothing +before of stone buildings; but Eadwine erected a church of stone at +York, under the direction of Paulinus; and Bishop Wilfrith, a +generation later, restored and decorated it, covering the roof with lead +and filling the windows with panes of glass. Masons had already been +settled in Kent, though Benedict, the founder of Wearmouth and Jarrow, +found it desirable to bring over others from the Franks. Metal-working +had always been a special gift of the English, and their gold jewellery +was well made even before the conversion, but it became still more +noticeable after the monks took the craft into their own hands. Bda +mentions mines of copper, iron, lead, silver, and jet. Abbot Benedict +not only brought manuscripts and pictures from Rome, which were copied +and imitated in his monasteries at Wearmouth and Jarrow, but he also +brought over glass-blowers, who introduced the art of glass-making into +England. Cuthberht, Bda's scholar, writes to Lull, asking for workmen +who can make glass vessels. Bells appear to have been equally early +introductions. Roman music of course accompanied the Roman liturgy. The +connection established with the clergy of the continent favoured the +dispersion of European goods throughout England. We constantly hear of +presents, consisting of skilled handicraft, passing from the civilised +south to the rude and barbaric north. Wilfrith and Benedict journeyed +several times to and from Rome, enlarging their own minds by intercourse +with Roman society, and returning laden with works of art or manuscripts +of value. Bda was acquainted with the writings of all the chief +classical poets and philosophers, whom he often quotes. We can only +liken the results of such intercourse to those which in our own time +have proceeded from the opening of Japan to western ideas, or of the +Hawaiian Islands to European civilisation and European missionaries. The +English school which soon sprang up at Rome, and the Latin schools which +soon sprang up at York and Canterbury, are precise equivalents of the +educational movements in both those countries which we see in our own +day. The monks were to learn Latin and Greek "as well as they learned +their own tongue," and were so to be given the key of all the literature +and all the science that the world then possessed. + +The monasteries thus became real manufacturing, agricultural, and +literary centres on a small scale. The monks boiled down the salt of the +brine-pits; they copied and illuminated manuscripts in the library; they +painted pictures not without rude merit of their own; they ran rhines +through the marshy moorland; they tilled the soil with vigour and +success. A new culture began to occupy the land--the culture whose +fully-developed form we now see around us. But it must never be +forgotten that in its origin it is wholly Roman, and not at all +Anglo-Saxon. Our people showed themselves singularly apt at embracing +it, like the modern Polynesians, and unlike the American Indians; but +they did not invent it for themselves. Our existing culture is not +home-bred at all; it is simply the inherited and widened culture of +Greece and Italy. + +The most perfect picture of the monastic life and of early English +Christianity which we possess is that drawn for us in the life and +works of Bda. Before giving any account, however, of the sketch which +he has left us, it will be necessary to follow briefly the course of +events in the English church during the few intervening years. + +The Church of England in its existing form owes its organisation to a +Greek monk. In 667, Oswiu of Northumbria and Ecgberht of Kent, in order +to bring their dominions into closer connection with Rome, united in +sending Wigheard the priest to the pope, that he might be hallowed +Archbishop of Canterbury. No Englishman had yet held that office, and +the choice may be regarded as a symptom of growth in the native Church. +But Wigheard died at Rome, and the pope seized the opportunity to +consecrate an archbishop in the Roman interest. His choice fell upon one +Theodore, a monk of Tarsus in Cilicia, who was in the orders of the +Eastern church. The pope was particular, however, that Theodore should +not "introduce anything contrary to the verity of the faith into the +Church over which he was to preside." Theodore accepted Roman orders and +the Roman tonsure, and set out for his province, where he arrived after +various adventures on the way. His re-organisation of the young Church +was thorough and systematic. Originally England had been divided into +seven great dioceses, corresponding to the principal kingdoms (save only +still heathen Sussex), and having their sees in their chief towns--East +and West Kent, at Canterbury and Rochester; Essex, at London; Wessex, at +Dorchester or Winchester; Northumbria, at York; East Anglia, at +Dunwich; and Mercia, at Lichfield. The Scottish bishopric of Lindisfarne +coincided with Bernicia. Theodore divided these great dioceses into +smaller ones; East Anglia had two, for its north and south folk, at +Elmham and Dunwich; Bernicia was divided between Lindisfarne and Hexham; +Lincolnshire had its see placed at Sidnacester; and the sub-kingdoms of +Mercia were also made into dioceses, the Huiccii having their +bishop-stool at Worcester; the Hecans, at Hereford; and the Middle +English, at Leicester. But Theodore's great work was the establishment +of the national synod, in which all the clergy of the various English +kingdoms met together as a single people. This was the first step ever +taken towards the unification of England; and the ecclesiastical unity +thus preceded and paved the way for the political unity which was to +follow it. Theodore's organisation brought the whole Church into +connection with Rome. The bishops owing their orders to the Scots +conformed or withdrew, and henceforward Rome held undisputed sway. +Before Theodore, all the archbishops of Canterbury and all the bishops +of the southern kingdoms had been Roman missionaries; those of the north +had been Scots or in Scottish orders. After Theodore they were all +Englishmen in Roman orders. The native church became thenceforward +wholly self-supporting. + +Theodore was much aided in his projects by Wilfrith of York, a man of +fiery energy and a devoted adherent of the Roman see, who had carried +the Roman supremacy at the Synod of Whitby, and who spent a large part +of his time in journeys between England and Italy. His life, by ddi, +forms one of the most important documents for early English history. In +681 he completed the conversion of England by his preaching to the South +Saxons, whom he endeavoured to civilise as well as Christianise. His +monastery of Selsey was built on land granted by the under-king (now a +tributary of Wessex), and his first act was to emancipate the slaves +whom he found upon the soil. Equally devoted to Rome was the young +Northumbrian noble, who took the religious name of Benedict Biscop. +Benedict became at first an inmate of the Abbey of Lrins, near Cannes. +He afterwards founded two regular Benedictine abbeys on the same model +at Wearmouth and Jarrow, and made at least four visits to the papal +court, whence he returned laden with manuscripts to introduce Roman +learning among his wild Northumbrian countrymen. He likewise carried +over silk robes for sale to the kings in exchange for grants of land; +and he brought glaziers from Gaul for his churches. Jarrow alone +contained 500 monks, and possessed endowments of 15,000 acres. + +It was under the walls of Jarrow that Bda himself was born, in the year +672. Only fifty years had passed since his native Northumbria was still +a heathen land. Not more than forty years had gone since the conversion +of Wessex, and Sussex was still given over to the worship of Thunor and +Woden. But Bda's own life was one which brought him wholly into +connection with Christian teachers and Roman culture. Left an orphan at +the age of seven years, he was handed over to the care of Abbot +Benedict, after whose death Abbot Ceolfrid took charge of the young +aspirant. "Thenceforth," says the aged monk, fifty years later, "I +passed all my lifetime in the building of that monastery [Jarrow], and +gave all my days to meditating on Scripture. In the intervals of my +regular monastic discipline, and of my daily task of chanting in chapel, +I have always amused myself either by learning, teaching, or writing. In +the nineteenth year of my life I received ordination as deacon; in my +thirtieth year I attained to the priesthood; both functions being +administered by the most reverend bishop John [afterwards known as St. +John of Beverley], at the request of Abbot Ceolfrid. From the time of my +ordination as priest to the fifty-ninth year of my life, I have occupied +myself in briefly commenting upon Holy Scripture, for the use of myself +and my brethren, from the works of the venerable fathers, and in some +cases I have added interpretations of my own to aid in their +comprehension." + +The variety of Bda's works, the large knowledge of science and of +classical literature which he displays (when judged by the continental +standard of the eighth century), and his familiar acquaintance with the +Latin language, which he writes easily and correctly, show that the +library of Jarrow must have been extensive and valuable. Besides his +Scriptural commentaries, he wrote a treatise _De Natura Rerum_, Letters +on the Reason of Leap-Year, a Life of St. Anastasius, and a History of +his Own Abbey, all in Latin. In verse, he composed many pieces, both in +hexameters and elegiacs, together with a treatise on prosody. But his +greatest work is his "Ecclesiastical History of the English People," the +authority from which we derive almost all our knowledge of early +Christian England. It was doubtless suggested by the Frankish history of +Gregory of Tours, and it consists of five books, divided into short +chapters, making up about 400 pages of a modern octavo. Five +manuscripts, one of them transcribed only two years after Bda's death, +and now deposited in the Cambridge library, preserve for us the text of +this priceless document. The work itself should be read in the original, +or in one of the many excellent translations, by every person who takes +any intelligent interest in our early history. + +Bda's accomplishments included even a knowledge of Greek--then a rare +acquisition in the west--which he probably derived from Archbishop +Theodore's school at Canterbury. He was likewise an English author, for +he translated the Gospel of St. John into his native Northumbrian; and +the task proved the last of his useful life. Several manuscripts have +preserved to us the letter of Cuthberht, afterwards Abbot of Jarrow, to +his friend Cuthwine, giving us the very date of his death, May 27, A.D. +735, and also narrating the pathetic but somewhat overdrawn picture, +with which we are all familiar, of how he died just as he had completed +his translation of the last chapter. "Thus saying, he passed the day in +peace till eventide. The boy [his scribe] said to him, 'Still one +sentence, beloved master, is yet unwritten.' He answered, 'Write it +quickly.' After a while the boy said, 'Now the sentence is written.' +Then he replied, 'It is well,' quoth he, 'thou hast said the truth: it +is finished.'... And so he passed away to the kingdom of heaven." + +It is impossible to overrate the importance of the change which made +such a life of earnest study and intellectual labour as Bda's possible +amongst the rough and barbaric English. Nor was it only in producing +thinkers and readers from a people who could not spell a word half a +century before, that the monastic system did good to England. The +monasteries owned large tracts of land which they could cultivate on a +co-operative plan, as cultivation was impossible elsewhere. _Laborare +est orare_ was the true monastic motto: and the documents of the +religious houses, relating to lands and leases, show us the other or +material side of the picture, which was not less important in its way +than the spiritual and intellectual side. Everywhere the monks settled +in the woodland by the rivers, cut down the forests, drove out the +wolves and the beavers, cultivated the soil with the aid of their +tenants and serfs, and became colonisers and civilisers at the same time +that they were teachers and preachers. The reclamation of waste land +throughout the marshes of England was due almost entirely to the +monastic bodies. + +The value of the civilising influence thus exerted is seen especially in +the written laws, and it affected even the actions of the fierce English +princes. The dooms of thelberht of Kent are the earliest English +documents which we possess, and they were reduced to writing shortly +after the conversion of the first English Christian king: while Bda +expressly mentions that they were compiled after Roman models. The +Church was not able to hold the warlike princes really in check; but it +imposed penances, and encouraged many of them to make pilgrimages to +Rome, and to end their days in a cloister. The importance of such +pilgrimages was doubtless immense. They induced the rude insular +nobility to pay a visit to what was still, after all, the most civilised +country of the world, and so to gain some knowledge of a foreign +culture, which they afterwards endeavoured to introduce into their own +homes. In 688, Ceadwalla, the ferocious king of the West Saxons, whose +brother Mul had been burnt alive by the men of Kent, and who harried the +Jutish kingdom in return, and who also murdered two princes of Wight, +with all their people, in cold blood, went on a pilgrimage to Rome, +where he was baptised, and died immediately after.[2] Ine, who succeeded +him, re-endowed the old British monastery of Glastonbury, in territory +just conquered from the West Welsh, and reduced the laws of the West +Saxons to writing. He, too, retired to Rome, where he died. In 704, +thelred, son of Penda, king of the Mercians, "assumed monkhood." In +709, Cenred, his successor, and Offa of Essex, went to Rome. And so on +for many years, king after king resigned his kingship, and submitted, in +his latter days, to the Church. Within two centuries, no less than +thirty kings and queens are recorded to have embraced a conventual life: +and far more probably did so, but were passed over in silence. Bda +tells us that many Englishmen went into monasteries in Gaul. + + [2] He was buried at St. Peter's, and his tomb still exists + in the remodelled building. Bda quotes the inscription in + full, and quotes it correctly; a fact which may be taken as + an excellent test of his historical accuracy, and the care + with which he collected his materials. + +On the other hand, it cannot be denied that while Christianity made +great progress, many marks of heathendom were still left among the +people. Well-worship and stone-worship, devil-craft and sacrifices to +idols, are mentioned in every Anglo-Saxon code of laws, and had to be +provided against even as late as the time of Eadgar. The belief in elves +and other semi-heathen beings, and the reverence for heathen memorials, +was rife, and shows itself in such names as lfred, elf-counsel; +lfstan, elf-stone; lfgifu, elf-given; thelstan, noble-stone; and +Wulfstan, wolf-stone. Heathendom was banished from high places, but it +lingered on among the lower classes, and affected the nomenclature even +of the later West Saxon kings themselves. Indeed, it was closely +interwoven with all the life and thought of the people, and entered, in +altered forms, even into the conceptions of Christianity current amongst +them. The Christian poem of Cdmon is tinctured on every page with ideas +derived from the legends of the old heathen mythology. And it will +probably surprise many to learn that even at this late date, tattooing +continued to be practised by the English chieftains. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE KINGDOMS. + + +With the final triumph of Christianity, all the formative elements of +Anglo-Saxon Britain are complete. We see it, a rough conglomeration of +loosely-aggregated principalities, composed of a fighting aristocracy +and a body of unvalued serfs; while interspersed through its parts are +the bishops, monks, and clergy, centres of nascent civilisation for the +seething mass of noble barbarism. The country is divided into +agricultural colonies, and its only industry is agriculture, its only +wealth, land. We want but one more conspicuous change to make it into +the England of the Augustan Anglo-Saxon age--the reign of Eadgar--and +that one change is the consolidation of the discordant kingdoms under a +single loose over-lordship. To understand this final step, we must +glance briefly at the dull record of the political history. + +Under thelfrith, Eadwine, and Oswiu, Northumbria had been the chief +power in England. But the eighth century is taken up with the greatness +of Mercia. Ecgfrith, the last great king of Northumbria, whose +over-lordship extended over the Picts of Galloway and the Cumbrians of +Strathclyde, endeavoured to carry his conquests beyond the Forth, and +annex the free land lying to the north of the old Roman line. He was +defeated and slain, and with him fell the supremacy of Northumbria. +Mercia, which already, under Penda and Wulfhere, had risen to the second +place, now assumed the first position among the Teutonic kingdoms. +Unfortunately we know little of the period of Mercian supremacy. The +West Saxon chronicle contains few notices of the rival state, and we are +thrown for information chiefly on the second-hand Latin historians of +the twelfth century. thelbald, the first powerful Mercian king +(716-755), "ravaged the land of the Northumbrians," and made Wessex +acknowledge his supremacy. By this time all the minor kingdoms had +practically become subject to the three great powers, though still +retaining their native princes: and Wessex, Mercia, and Northumbria +shared between them, as suzerains, the whole of Teutonic Britain. The +meagre annals of the Chronicle, upon which alone (with the Charters and +Latin writers of later date) we rest after the death of Bda, show us a +chaotic list of wars and battles between these three great powers +themselves, or between them and their vassals, or with the Welsh and +Devonians. thelbald was succeeded, after a short interval, by Offa, +whose reign of nearly forty years (758-796), is the first settled period +in English history. Offa ruled over the subject princes with rigour, and +seems to have made his power really felt. He drove the Prince of Powys +from Shrewsbury, and carried his ravages into the heart of Wales. He +conquered the land between the Severn and the Wye, and his dyke from +the Dee to the Severn, and the Wye, marked the new limits of the Welsh +and English borders; while his laws codified the customs of Mercia, as +those of thelberht and Ine had done with the customs of Kent and +Wessex. He set up for awhile an archbishopric at Lichfield, which seems +to mark his determination to erect Mercia into a sovereign power. He +also founded the great monastery of St. Alban's, and is said to have +established the English college at Rome, though another account +attributes it to Ine, the West Saxon. East Anglia, Kent, Essex, and +Sussex all acknowledged his supremacy. Karl the Great was then reviving +the Roman Empire in its Germanic form, and Offa ventured to correspond +with the Frank emperor as an equal. The possession of London, now a +Mercian city, gave Offa an interest in continental affairs; and the +growth of trade is marked by the fact that when a quarrel arose between +them, they formally closed the ports of their respective kingdoms +against each other's subjects. + +Nevertheless, English kingship still remained a mere military office, +and consolidation, in our modern sense, was clearly impossible. Local +jealousies divided all the little kingdoms and their component +principalities; and any real subordination was impracticable amongst a +purely agricultural and warlike people, with no regular army, and +governed only by their own anarchic desires. Like the Afghans of the +present time, the early English were incapable of union, except in a +temporary way under the strong hand of a single warlike leader against a +common foe. As soon as that was removed, they fell asunder at once into +their original separateness. Hence the chaotic nature of our early +annals, in which it is impossible to discover any real order underlying +the perpetual flux of states and princes. + +A single story from the Chronicle will sufficiently illustrate the type +of men whose actions make up the history of these predatory times. In +754, King Cuthred of the West Saxons died. His kinsman, Sigeberht, +succeeded him. One year later, however, Cynewulf and the witan deprived +Sigeberht of his kingdom, making over to him only the petty principality +of Hampshire, while Cynewulf himself reigned in his stead. After a time +Sigeberht murdered an ealdorman of his suite named Cymbra; whereupon +Cynewulf deprived him of his remaining territory and drove him forth +into the forest of the Weald. There he lived a wild life till a herdsman +met him in the forest and stabbed him, to avenge the death of his +master, Cymbra. Cynewulf, in turn, after spending his days in fighting +the Welsh, lost his life in a quarrel with Cyneheard, brother of the +outlawed Sigeberht. He had endeavoured to drive out the theling; but +Cyneheard surprised him at Merton, and slew him with all his thegns, +except one Welsh hostage. Next day, the king's friends, headed by the +ealdorman Osric, fell upon the theling, and killed him with all his +followers. In the very same year, thelbald of Mercia was killed +fighting at Seckington; and Offa drove out his successor, Beornred. Of +such murders, wars, surprises, and dynastic quarrels, the history of +the eighth century is full. But no modern reader need know more of them +than the fact that they existed, and that they prove the wholly +ungoverned and ungovernable nature of the early English temper. + +Until the Danish invasions of the ninth century, the tribal kingdoms +still remained practically separate, and such cohesion as existed was +only secured for the purpose of temporary defence or aggression. Essex +kept its own kings under thelberht of Kent; Huiccia retained its royal +house under thelred of Mercia; and later on, Mercia itself had its +ealdormen, after the conquest by Ecgberht of Wessex. Each royal line +reigned under the supreme power until it died out naturally, like our +own great feudatories in India at the present day. "When Wessex and +Mercia have worked their way to the rival hegemonies," says Canon +Stubbs, "Sussex and Essex do not cease to be numbered among the +kingdoms, until their royal houses are extinct. When Wessex has +conquered Mercia and brought Northumbria on its knees, there are still +kings in both Northumbria and Mercia. The royal house of Kent dies out, +but the title of King of Kent is bestowed on an theling, first of the +Mercian, then of the West Saxon house. Until the Danish conquest, the +dependant royalties seem to have been spared; and even afterwards +organic union can scarcely be said to exist." + +The final supremacy of the West Saxons was mainly brought about by the +Danish invasion. But the man who laid the foundation of the West Saxon +power was Ecgberht, the so-called first king of all England. Banished +from Wessex during his youth by one of the constant dynastic quarrels, +through the enmity of Offa, the young theling had taken refuge with +Karl the Great, at the court of Aachen, and there had learnt to +understand the rising statesmanship of the Frankish race and of the +restored Roman empire. The death of his enemy Beorhtric, in 802, left +the kingdom open to him: but the very day of his accession showed him +the character of the people whom he had come to rule. The men of +Worcester celebrated his arrival by a raid on the men of Wilts. "On that +ilk day," says the Chronicle, "rode thelhund, ealdorman of the Huiccias +[who were Mercians], over at Cynemres ford; and there Weohstan the +ealdorman met him with the Wilts men [who were West Saxons:] and there +was a muckle fight, and both ealdormen were slain, and the Wilts men won +the day." For twenty years, Ecgberht was engaged in consolidating his +ancestral dominions: but at the end of that time, he found himself able +to attack the Mercians, who had lost Offa six years before Ecgberht's +return. In 825, the West Saxons met the Mercian host at Ellandun, "and +Ecgberht gained the day, and there was muckle slaughter." Therefore all +the Saxon name, held tributary by the Mercians, gathered about the Saxon +champion. "The Kentish folk, and they of Surrey, and the South Saxons, +and the East Saxons turned to him." In the same year, the East Anglians, +anxious to avoid the power of Mercia, "sought Ecgberht for peace and for +aid." Beornwulf, the Mercian king, marched against his revolted +tributaries: but the East Anglians fought him stoutly, and slew him and +his successor in two battles. Ecgberht followed up this step by annexing +Mercia in 829: after which he marched northward against the +Northumbrians, who at once "offered him obedience and peace; and they +thereupon parted." One year later, Ecgberht led an army against the +northern Welsh, and "reduced them to humble obedience." Thus the West +Saxon kingdom absorbed all the others, at least so far as a loose +over-lordship was concerned. Ecgberht had rivalled his master Karl by +founding, after a fashion, the empire of the English. But all the local +jealousies smouldered on as fiercely as ever, the under-kings retained +their several dominions, and Ecgberht's supremacy was merely one of +superior force, unconnected with any real organic unity of the kingdom +as a whole. Ecgberht himself generally bore the title of King of the +West Saxons, like his ancestors: and though in dealing with his Anglian +subjects he styled himself Rex Anglorum, that title perhaps means little +more than the humbler one of Rex Gewissorum, which he used in addressing +his people of the lesser principality. The real kingdom of the English +never existed before the days of Eadward the Elder, and scarcely before +the days of William the Norman and Henry the Angevin. As to the kingdom +of England, that was a far later invention of the feudal lawyers. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE RESISTANCE TO THE DANES. + + +In the long period of three and a-half centuries which had elapsed +between the Jutish conquest of Kent and the establishment of the West +Saxon over-lordship, the politics of Britain had been wholly insular. +The island had been brought back by Augustine and his successors into +ecclesiastical, commercial, and literary union with the continent: but +no foreign war or invasion had ever broken the monotony of murdering the +Welsh and harrying the surrounding English. The isolation of England was +complete. Ship-building was almost an obsolete art: and the small trade +which still centred in London seems to have been mainly carried on in +Frisian bottoms; for the Low Dutch of the continent still retained the +seafaring habits which those of England had forgotten. But a new enemy +was now beginning to appear in northern Europe--the Scandinavians. The +history of the great wicking movement forms the subject of a separate +volume in this series: but the manner in which the English met it will +demand a brief treatment here. Some outline of the bare facts, however, +must first be premised. + +As early as 789, during the reign of Offa in Mercia, "three ships of +Northmen from Hretha land" came on shore in Wessex. "Then the reeve +rode against them, and would have driven them to the king's town, for he +wist not what they were: and there men slew him. Those were the first +ships of Danish men that ever sought English kin's land." In 795, "the +harrying of heathen men wretchedly destroyed God's church at Lindisfarne +isle, through rapine and manslaughter." In the succeeding year, "the +heathen harried among the Northumbrians, and plundered Ecgberht's +monastery at Wearmouth." In 832, "heathen men ravaged Sheppey"; and a +year later, "King Ecgberht fought against the crews of thirty-five ships +at Charmouth, and there was muckle slaughter made, and the Danes held +the battle-field."[1] In 835, another host came to the West Welsh (now +almost reduced to the peninsula of Cornwall): and the Welsh readily +joined them against their West Saxon over-lord. Ecgberht met the united +hosts at Hengestesdun and put them both to flight. It was his last +success. In the succeeding year he died, and the kingdom descended to +his weak son, thelwulf. His second son, thelstan, was placed over +Kent, Essex, Surrey, and Sussex, as under-king. + + [1] This entry in the Chronicle, however, is probably + erroneous, as an exactly similar one occurs under thelwulf, + seven years later. + +Next spring, the flood of wickings began to pour in earnest over +England. Thirty-three piratical ships sailed up Southampton Water to +pillage Southampton, perhaps with an ultimate eye to the treasures of +royal Winchester, the capital and minster-town of the West Saxon +over-lord himself. This was a bold attempt, but the West Saxons met it +in full force. The ealdorman Wulfheard gathered together the levy of +fighting men, attacked the host, and put it to flight with great +slaughter. Shortly after a second Danish host landed near Portland, +doubtless to plunder Dorchester: and the local ealdorman thelhelm, +falling upon them with the levy of Dorset men, was defeated after a +sharp struggle, leaving the heathen in possession of the field. It was +not in Wessex, however, that the wickings were to make their great +success. The north had long suffered from terrible anarchy, and was a +ready prey for any invader. Out of fourteen kings who had reigned in +Northumbria during the eighth century, no less than seven were put to +death and six expelled by their rebellious subjects. Christian +Northumbria, which in Bda's days had been the most flourishing part of +Britain, was now reduced to a mere agglomeration of petty princes and +clans, dependent on the West Saxon over-lord, and utterly unconnected +with one another in feeling or sympathy. Already we have seen how the +Danes harried Northumbria without opposition. The same was probably the +case with the whole Anglian coast on the east. In 840, the wickings fell +on the fen country. "The ealdorman Hereberht was slain by heathen men, +and many with him among the marsh-men." All down the east coast, the +piratical fleet proceeded, burning and slaughtering as it went. "In the +same year, in Lindsey, and in East Anglia, and among the Kent men, many +men were slain by the host." A year later, the wickings returned, +growing bolder as they found out the helplessness of the people. They +sailed up the Thames, and ravaged Rochester and London, with great +slaughter; after which they crossed the channel and fell upon Cwantawic, +or taples, a commercial port in the Saxon land of the Boulonnais. In +842, a Danish host defeated thelwulf himself at Charmouth in Dorset; +and in the succeeding summer "the ealdorman Eanulf, with the Somerset +levy, and Bishop Ealhstan and the ealdorman Osric, with the Dorset levy, +fought at Parretmouth with the host, and made a muckle slaughter, and +won the day." + +The utter weakness of the first English resistance is well shown in +these facts. A terrible flood of heathen savagery was let loose upon the +country, and the people were wholly unable to cope with it. There was +absolutely no central organisation, no army, no commissariat, no ships. +The heathen host landed suddenly wherever it found the people +unprepared, and fell upon the larger towns for plunder. The local +authority, the ealdorman or the under-king, hastily gathered together +the local levy in arms, and fell upon the pirates tumultuously with the +men of the shire as best he might. But he had no provisions for a long +campaign: and when the levy had fought once, it melted away immediately, +every man going back again of necessity to his own home. If it won the +battle, it went home to drink over its success: if it lost, it +dissolved, demoralized, and left the burghers to fight for their own +walls, or to buy off the heathen with their own money. But every shire +and every kingdom fought for itself alone. If the Dorset men could only +drive away the host from Charmouth and Portland, they cared little +whether it sailed away to harry Sussex and Hants. If the Northumbrians +could only drive it away from the Humber, they cared little whether it +set sail for the Thames and the Solent. The North Folk of East Anglia +were equally happy to send it off toward the South Folk. While there was +so little cohesion between the parts of the same kingdoms, there was no +cohesion at all between the different kingdoms over which thelwulf +exercised a nominal over-lordship. The West Saxon kings fought for +Dorset and for Kent, but there is no trace of their ever fighting for +East Anglia or for Northumbria. They left their northern vassals to take +care of themselves. "It was never a war between the Danes and the +national army," says Prof. Pearson, "but between the Danes and a local +militia." It would have been impossible, indeed, to resist the wickings +effectually without a strong central system, which could move large +armies rapidly from point to point: and such a system was quite undreamt +of in the half-consolidated England of the ninth century. Only war with +a foreign invader could bring it about even in a faint degree: and that +was exactly what the Danish invasion did for Wessex. + +The year 851 marks an important epoch in the English resistance. The +annual horde of wickings had now become as regular in its recurrence as +summer itself; and even the inert West Saxon kings began to feel that +permanent measures must be taken against them. They had built ships, +and tried to tackle the invaders in the only way in which so partially +civilised a race could tackle such tactics as those of the Danes--upon +the sea. A host of wickings came round to Sandwich in Kent. The +under-king thelstan fell upon them with his new navy, and took nine of +their ships, putting the rest to flight with great slaughter. But in the +same year another great host of 250 sail, by far the largest fleet of +which we have yet heard, came to the mouth of the Thames, and there +landed, a step which marks a fresh departure in the wicking tactics. +They took Canterbury by assault, and then marched on to London. There +they stormed the busy merchant town, and put to flight Beorhtwulf, the +under-king of the Mercians, with his local levy. Thence they proceeded +southward into Surrey, doubtless on their way to Winchester. King +thelwulf met them at Ockley, with the West-Saxon levy, "and there made +the greatest slaughter among the heathen host that we have yet heard, +and gained the day." In spite of these two great successes, however, +both of which show an increasing statesmanship on the part of the West +Saxons, this year was memorable in another way, for "the heathen men for +the first time sat over winter in Thanet." The loose predatory +excursions were beginning to take the complexion of regular conquest and +permanent settlement. + +Yet so little did the English still realise the terrible danger of the +heathen invasion, that next year thelwulf was fighting the Welsh of +Wales; and two years after he went on a pilgrimage to Rome, "with great +pomp, and dwelt there twelve months, and then fared homeward." In that +same year, "heathen men sat over winter in Sheppey." + +After thelwulf's death the English resistance grew fainter and fainter. +In 860, under his second son, thelberht, a Danish host took Winchester +itself by storm. Five years later, a heathen army settled in Thanet, and +the men of Kent agreed to buy peace of them--the first sign of that evil +habit of buying off the Dane, which grew gradually into a fixed custom. +But the host stole away during the truce for collecting the money, and +harried all Kent unawares. + +Meanwhile, we hear little of the North. The almost utter destruction of +its records during the heathen domination restricts us for information +to the West Saxon chronicles; and they have little to tell us about any +but their own affairs. In 866, however, we learn that there came a great +heathen host to East Anglia--an organised expedition under two +chieftains--"and took winter quarters there, and were horsed; and the +East Anglians made peace with them." Next year, this permanent host +sailed northward to Humber, and attacked York. The Northumbrians, as +usual, were at strife among themselves, two rival kings fighting for the +supremacy. The burghers of York admitted the heathen host within the +walls. Then the rival kings fell upon the town, broke the slender +fortifications, and rushed into the city. The Danes attacked them both, +and defeated them with great slaughter. Northumbria passed at once into +the power of the heathen. Their chiefs, Ingvar and Ubba, erected Deira +into a new Danish kingdom, leaving Bernicia to an English puppet; and +Northumbria ceases to exist for the present as a factor in Anglo-Saxon +history. We must hand it over for sixty years to the Scandinavian +division of this series. + +In 868, Ingvar and Ubba advanced again into Mercia and beset Nottingham. +Then the under-king Burhred called in the aid of his over-lord, thelred +of Wessex, who came to his assistance with a levy. "But there was no +hard fight there, and the Mercians made peace with the host." In 870, +the heathen overran East Anglia, and destroyed the great monastery of +Peterborough, probably the richest religious house in all England. +Eadmund, the under-king, came against them with the levy, but they slew +him; and the people held him for a martyr, whose shrine at Bury St. +Edmunds grew in after days into the holiest spot in East Anglia. The +Danes harried the whole country, burnt the monasteries, and annexed +Norfolk and Suffolk as a second Danish kingdom. East Anglia, too, +disappears for a while from our English annals. + +Lastly, the Danes turned against Mercia and Wessex. In 871, a host under +Bagsecg and Halfdene came to Reading, which belonged to the latter +territory, when the local ealdorman engaged them and won a slight +victory. Shortly afterward the West Saxon king thelred, with his +brother lfred, came up, and engaged them a second time with worse +success. Three other bloody battles followed, in all of which the Danes +were beaten with heavy loss; but the West Saxons also suffered severely. +For three years the host moved up and down through Mercia and Wessex; +and the Mercians stood by, aiding neither side, but "making peace with +the host" from time to time. At last, however, in 874, the heathens +finally annexed the greater part of Mercia itself. "The host fared from +Lindsey to Repton, and there sat for the winter, and drove King Burhred +over sea, two and twenty years after he came to the kingdom; and they +subdued all the land. And Burhred went to Rome, and there settled; and +his body lies in St. Mary's Church, in the school of the English kin. +And in the same year they gave the kingdom of Mercia in ward to +Ceolwulf, an unwise thegn; and he swore oaths to them, and gave hostages +that it should be ready for them on whatso day they willed; and that he +would be ready with his own body, and with all who would follow him, for +the behoof of the host." Thus Mercia, too, fades for a short while out +of our history, and Wessex alone of all the English kingdoms remains. + +This brief but inevitable record of wars and battles is necessarily +tedious, yet it cannot be omitted without slurring over some highly +important and interesting facts. It is impossible not to be struck with +the extraordinarily rapid way in which a body of fierce heathen invaders +overran two great Christian and comparatively civilised states. We +cannot but contrast the inertness of Northumbria and the lukewarmness +of Mercia with the stubborn resistance finally made by lfred in Wessex. +The contrast may be partly due, it is true, to the absence of native +Northumbrian and Mercian accounts. We might, perhaps, find, had we +fuller details, that the men of Bernicia and Deira made a harder fight +for their lands and their churches than the West Saxon annals would lead +us to suppose. Still, after making all allowance for the meagreness of +our authorities, there remains the indubitable fact that a heathen +kingdom was established in the pure English land of Bda and Cuthberht, +while the Christian faith and the Saxon nationality held their own for +ever in peninsular and half-Celtic Wessex. + +The difference is doubtless due in part to merely surface causes. East +Anglia had long lost her autonomy, and, while sometimes ruled by Mercia, +was sometimes broken up under several ealdormen. For her and for +Northumbria the conquest was but a change from a West Saxon to a Danish +master. The house of Ecgberht had broken down the national and tribal +organisation, and was incapable of substituting a central organisation +in its place. With no roads and no communications such a centralising +scheme is really impracticable. The disintegrated English kingdoms made +little show of fighting for their Saxon over-lord. They could accept a +Dane for master almost as readily as they could accept a Saxon. + +But besides these surface causes, there was a deeper and more +fundamental cause underlying the difference. The Scandinavians were +nearer to the pure English in blood and speech than they were to the +Saxons. In their old home the two races had lived close together,--in +Sleswick, Jutland, and Scania,--while the Saxons had dwelt further +south, near the Frankish border, by the lowlands of the Elbe. To the +English of Northumbria, the Saxons of Wessex were almost foreigners. +Even at the present day, when the existence of a recognised literary +dialect has done so much to obliterate provincial varieties of speech in +England, a Dorsetshire peasant, speaking in a slightly altered form the +classical West Saxon of lfred, has great difficulty in understanding a +Yorkshire peasant, speaking in a slightly altered form the classical +Northumbrian of Bda. But in the ninth century the differences between +the two dialects were probably far greater. On the other hand, though +Danish and Anglian have widely separated at the present day, and were +widely distinct even in the days of Cnut, it is probable that at this +earlier period they were still, to some extent, mutually comprehensible. +Thus, the heathen Scandinavian may have seemed to the Northumbrian and +the East Anglian almost like a fellow-countryman, while the West Saxon +seemed in part like an enemy and an intruder. At any rate, the +similarity of blood and language enabled the two races rapidly to +coalesce; and when the cloud rises again from the North half a century +later, the distinction of Dane and Englishman has almost ceased in the +conquered provinces. It is worthy of note in this connection that the +part of Mercia afterwards given over by lfred to Guthrum, was the +Anglian half, while the part retained by Wessex was mostly the Saxon +half--the land conquered by Penda from the West Saxons two hundred years +before. + +Nor must we suppose that this first wave of Scandinavian conquest in any +way swamped or destroyed the underlying English population of the North. +The conquerors came merely as a "host," or army of occupation, not as a +body of rural colonists. They left the conquered English in possession +of their homes, though they seized upon the manors for themselves, and +kept the higher dignities of the vanquished provinces in their own +hands. Being rapidly converted to Christianity, they amalgamated readily +with the native people. Few women came over with them, and intermarriage +with the English soon broke down the wall of separation. The +archbishopric of York continued its succession uninterruptedly +throughout the Danish occupation. The Bishops of Elmham lived through +the stormy period; those of Leicester transferred their see to +Dorchester-on-the-Thames; those of Lichfield apparently kept up an +unbroken series. We may gather that beneath the surface the North +remained just as steadily English under the Danish princes as the whole +country afterwards remained steadily English under the Norman kings. + +There was, however, one section of the true English race which kept +itself largely free from the Scandinavian host. North of the Tyne the +Danes apparently spread but sparsely; English ealdormen continued to +rule at Bamborough over the land between Forth and Tyne. Hence +Northumberland and the Lothians remained more purely English than any +other part of Britain. The people of the South are Saxons: the people of +the West are half Celts; the people of the North and the Midlands are +largely intermixed with Danes; but the people of the Scottish lowlands, +from Forth to Tweed, are almost purely English; and the dialect which we +always describe as Scotch is the strongest, the tersest, and the most +native modern form of the original Anglo-Saxon tongue. If we wish to +find the truest existing representative of the genuine pure-blooded +English race, we must look for him, not in Mercia or in Wessex, but +amongst the sturdy and hard-headed farmers of Tweedside and Lammermoor. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE SAXONS AT BAY IN WESSEX. + + +Only one English kingdom now held out against the wickings, and that was +Wessex. Its comparatively successful resistance may be set down, in some +slight degree, to the energy of a single man, lfred, though it was +doubtless far more largely due to the relatively strong organisation of +the West Saxon state. In judging of lfred, we must lay aside the false +notions derived from the application of words expressing late ideas to +an early and undeveloped stage of civilised society. To call him a great +general or a great statesman is to use utterly misleading terms. +Generalship and statesmanship, as we understand them, did not yet exist, +and to speak of them in the ninth century in England is to be guilty of +a common, but none the more excusable, anachronism. lfred was a sturdy +and hearty fighter, and a good king of a semi-barbaric people. As a lad, +he had visited Rome; and he retained throughout life a strong sense of +his own and his people's barbarism, and a genuine desire to civilise +himself and his subjects, so far as his limited lights could carry him. +He succeeded to a kingdom overrun from end to end by piratical hordes: +and he did his best to restore peace and to promote order. But his +character was merely that of a practical, common-sense, fighting West +Saxon, brought up in the camp of his father and brothers, and doing his +rough work in life with the honest straightforwardness of a simple, +hard-headed, religious, but only half-educated barbaric soldier. + +The successful East Anglian wickings, under their chief Guthrum, turned +at once to ravage Wessex. They "harried the West Saxons' land, and +settled there, and drove many of the folk over sea." For awhile it +seemed as if Wessex too was to fall into their hands. lfred himself, +with a little band, "withdrew to the woods and moor-fastnesses." He took +refuge in the Somerset marshes, and there occupied a little island of +dry land in the midst of the fens, by name Athelney. Here he threw up a +rude earthwork, from which he made raids against the Danes, with a petty +levy of the nearest Somerset men. But the mass of the West Saxons were +not disposed to give in so easily. The long border warfare with Devon +and Cornwall had probably kept up their organisation in a better state +than that of the anarchic North. The men of Somerset and Wilts, with +those Hampshire men who had not fled to the Continent, gathered at a +sacred stone on the borders of Selwood Forest, and there lfred met them +with his little band. They attacked the host, which they put to flight, +and then besieged it in its fortified camp. To escape the siege, Guthrum +consented to leave Wessex, and to accept Christianity. He was baptised +at once, with thirty of his principal chiefs, after the rough-and-ready +fashion of the fighting king, near Athelney. The treaty entered into +with Guthrum restored to lfred all Wessex, with the south-western part +of Mercia, from London to Bedford, and thence along the line of Watling +Street to Chester. Thus for a time the Saxons recovered their autonomy, +and the great Scandinavian horde retired to East Anglia. thelred, +lfred's son-in-law, was appointed under-king of recovered Mercia. +Henceforward, Teutonic Britain remains for awhile divided into Wessex +and the Denalagu--that is to say, the district governed by Danish law. + +Though peace was thus made with Guthrum, new bodies of wickings came +pouring southward from Scandinavia. One of these sailed up the Thames to +Fulham, but after spending some time there, they went over to the +Frankish coast, where their depredations were long and severe. +Throughout all lfred's reign, with only two intervals of peace, the +wickings kept up a constant series of attacks on the coast, and +frequently penetrated inland. From time to time, the great horde under +Hsten poured across the country, cutting the corn and driving away the +cattle, and retreating into East Anglia, or Northumbria, or the +peninsula of the Wirrall, whenever they were seriously worsted. "Thanks +be to God," says the Chronicle pathetically "the host had not wholly +broken up all the English kin;" but the misery of England must have been +intense. lfred, however, introduced two military changes of great +importance. He set on foot something like a regular army, with a +settled commissariat, dividing his forces into two bodies, so that +one-half was constantly at home tilling the soil while the other half +was in the field; and he built large ships on a new plan, which he +manned with Frisians, as well as with English, and which largely aided +in keeping the coast fairly free from Danish invasion during the two +intervals of peace. + +Throughout the whole of the ninth century, however, and the early part +of the tenth, the whole history of England is the history of a perpetual +pillage. No man who sowed could tell whether he might reap or not. The +Englishman lived in constant fear of life and goods; he was liable at +any moment to be called out against the enemy. Whatever little +civilisation had ever existed in the country died out almost altogether. +The Latin language was forgotten even by the priests. War had turned +everybody into fighters; commerce was impossible when the towns were +sacked year after year by the pirates. But in the rare intervals of +peace, lfred did his best to civilise his people. The amount of work +with which he is credited is truly astonishing. He translated into +English with his own hand "The History of the World," by Orosius; Bda's +"Ecclesiastical History;" Boethius's "De Consolatione," and Gregory's +"Regula Pastoralis." At his court, too, if not under his own direction, +the English Chronicle was first begun, and many of the sentences quoted +from that great document in this work are probably due to lfred +himself. His devotion to the church was shown by the regular +communication which he kept up with Rome, and by the gifts which he +sent from his impoverished kingdom, not only to the shrine of St. Peter +but even to that of St. Thomas in India. No doubt his vigorous +personality counted for much in the struggle with the Danes; but his +death in 901 left the West Saxons as ready as ever to contend against +the northern enemy. + +One result of the Danish invasion of Wessex must not be passed over. The +common danger seems to have firmly welded together Welshman and Saxon +into a single nationality. The most faithful part of lfred's dominions +were the West Welsh shires of Somerset and Devon, with the half Celtic +folk of Dorset and Wilts. The result is seen in the change which comes +over the relations between the two races. In Ine's laws the distinction +between Welshmen and Englishmen is strongly marked; the price of blood +for the servile population is far less than that of their lords: in +lfred's laws the distinction has died out. Compared to the heathen +Dane, West Saxons and West Welsh were equally Englishmen. From that day +to this, the Celtic peasantry of the West Country have utterly forgotten +their Welsh kinship, save in wholly Cymric Cornwall alone. The Devon and +Somerset men have for centuries been as English in tongue and feeling as +the people of Kent or Sussex. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE RECOVERY OF THE NORTH. + + +The history of the tenth century and the first half of the eleventh +consists entirely of the continued contest between the West Saxons and +the Scandinavians. It falls naturally into three periods. The first is +that of the English reaction, when the West Saxon kings, Eadward and +thelstan, gradually reconquered the Danish North by inches at a time. +The second is that of the Augustan age, when Dunstan and Eadgar held +together the whole of Britain for a while in the hands of a single West +Saxon over-lord. The third is that of the decadence, when, under +thelred, the ill-welded empire fell asunder, and the Danish kings, +Cnut, Harold, and Harthacnut, ruled over all England, including even the +unconquered Wessex of lfred himself. + +At lfred's death, his dominions comprised the larger Wessex, from Kent +to the Cornish border at Exeter, together with the portion of Mercia +south-west of Watling Street. The former kingdom passed into the hands +of his son Eadward; the latter was still held by the ealdorman thelred, +who had married lfred's daughter thelfld. The departure of the Danish +host, led by Hsten, left the English time to breathe and to recruit +their strength. Henceforth, for nearly a century, the direct wicking +incursions cease, and the war is confined to a long struggle with the +Northmen already settled in England. Four years later, the east Anglian +Danes broke the peace and harried Mercia and Wessex; but Eadward overran +their lands in return, and the Kentish men, in a separate battle, +attacked and slew Eric their king with several of his earls. In 912, +thelred the Mercian died, and Eadward at once incorporated London and +Oxford with his own dominions, leaving his sister thelfld only the +northern half of her husband's principality. Thenceforth thelfld, "the +Lady of the Mercians," turned deliberately to the conquest of the North. +She adopted a fresh kind of tactics, which mark again a new departure in +the English policy. Instead of keeping to the old plan of alternate +harryings on either side, and precarious tenure of lands from time to +time, thelfld began building regular fortresses or _burhs_ all along +her north-eastern frontiers, using these afterwards as bases for fresh +operations against the enemy. The spade went hand in hand with the +sword: the English were becoming engineers as well as fighters. In the +year of her husband's death, the Lady built _burhs_ at Sarrat and +Bridgnorth. The next year "she went with all the Mercians to Tamworth, +and built the _burh_ there in early summer; and ere Lammas, that at +Stafford." In the two succeeding years she set up other strongholds at +Eddesbury, Warwick, Cherbury, Wardbury, and Runcorn. By 917, she found +herself strong enough to attack Derby, one of the chief cities in the +Danish confederacy of the Five Burgs, which she captured after a hard +siege. Thence she turned on Leicester, which capitulated on her +approach, the Danish host going over quietly to her side. She was in +communication with the Danes of York for the surrender of that city, +too, when she died suddenly in her royal town of Tamworth, in the year +918. + +Meanwhile Eadward had been pushing forward his own boundary in the east, +building _burhs_ at Hertford and Witham, and endeavouring to subjugate +the Danish league in Bedford, Huntingdon, and Northampton. In 915, +Thurketel, the jarl of Bedford, "sought him for lord," and Eadward +afterwards built a _burh_ there also. On his sister's death, he annexed +all her territories, and then, in a fierce and long doubtful struggle, +reconquered not only Huntingdon and Northampton but East Anglia as well. +The Christian English hailed him as a deliverer. Next, he turned on +Stamford, the Danish capital of the Fens, and on Nottingham, the +stronghold of the Southumbrian host. In both towns he erected _burhs_. +These successes once more placed the West Saxon king in the foremost +position amongst the many rulers of Britain. The smaller principalities, +unable to hold their own against the Scandinavians, began spontaneously +to rally round Eadward as their leader and suzerain. In the same year +with the conquest of Stamford, "the kings of the North Welsh, Howel, and +Cledauc, and Jeothwel, and all the North Welsh kin, sought him for +lord." In 923, Eadward pushed further northward, and sent a Mercian host +to conquer "Manchester in Northumbria," and fortify and man it. A line +of twenty fortresses now girdled the English frontier, from Colchester, +through Bedford and Nottingham, to Manchester and Chester. Next year, +Eadward himself, now immediate king of all England south of Humber, +attacked the last remaining Danish kingdom, Northumbria, throwing a +bridge across the Trent at Nottingham, and marching against Bakewell in +Peakland, where again he built a _burh_. The new tactics were too fine +for the rough and ready Danish leaders. Before Eadward reached York, the +entire North submitted without a blow. "The king of Scots, and all the +Scottish kin, and Ragnald [Danish king of York], and the sons of Eadulf +[English kings of Bamborough], and all who dwell in Northumbria, as well +English as Danes and Northmen and others, and also the king of the +Strathclyde Welsh and all the Strathclyde Welsh, sought him for father +and for lord." This was in 924. Next year, Eadward "rex invictus" died, +over-lord of all Britain from sea to sea, while the whole country south +of the Humber, save only Wales and Cornwall, was now practically united +into a single kingdom of England. + +But the seeming submission of the North was fallacious. The Danes had +reintroduced into Britain a fresh mass of incoherent barbarism, which +could not thus readily coalesce. The Scandinavian leaven in the +population had put back the shadow on the dial of England some three +centuries. thelstan, Eadward's son, found himself obliged to give his +sister in marriage to Sihtric or Sigtrig, Danish king of the Yorkshire +Northumbrians, which probably marks a recognition of his vassal's +equality. Soon after, however, Sihtric died, and thelstan made himself +first king of all England by adding Northumbria to his own immediate +dominions. Then "he bowed to himself all the kings who were in this +island; first, Howel, king of the West Welsh; and Constantine, king of +Scots; and Owen, king of Gwent [South Wales]; and Ealdred, son of +Ealdulf of Bamborough; and with pledge and with oaths sware they peace, +and forsook every kind of heathendom." In the West, he drove the Welsh +from Exeter, which they had till then occupied in common with the +English, and fixed their boundary at the Tamar. But once more the +pretended vassals rebelled. Constantine, king of Scots, threw off his +allegiance, and thelstan thereupon "went into Scotland, both with a +land host and a ship host, and harried a mickle deal of it." In 937, the +feudatories made a final and united effort to throw off the West Saxon +yoke. The Scots, the Strathclyde Welsh, the people of Wales and +Cornwall, the lords of Bamborough, and the Danes throughout the North +and East, all rose together in a great league against their over-lord. +Anlaf, king of the Dublin Danes, came over from Ireland to aid them, +with a large body of wickings. The confederates met the West Saxon +_fyrd_ or levy at an unknown spot named Brunanburh, where thelstan +overthrew them in a crushing defeat, which forms the subject of a fine +war-song, inserted in full in the English Chronicle.[1] Three years +later thelstan died, as his father had died before him, undisputed +over-lord of all Britain, and immediate king of the whole Teutonic +portion. + + [1] See chapter xx. + +Yet once more the feeble unity of the country broke hopelessly asunder. +Eadmund, who succeeded his brother, found the Danes of the North and the +Midlands again insubordinate. The year after his accession "the +Northumbrians belied their oath, and chose Anlaf of Ireland for king." +The Five Burgs went too, and the old boundary of Watling Street was once +more made the frontier of the Danish possessions. In 944, however, +Eadmund subdued all Northumbria, and expelled its Danish kings. His +recovery of the Five Burgs, and the joy of the Christian English +inhabitants, are vividly set forth in a fragmentary ballad embedded in +the Chronicle. The next year he harried Strathclyde or Cumberland, the +Welsh kingdom between Clyde and Morecambe, and handed it over to +Malcolm, king of Scots, as a pledge of his fidelity. At Eadmund's death +in 946--when he was stabbed in his royal hall by an outlaw--his kingdom +fell to his brother Eadred. Two years later Northumbria again revolted, +and chose Eric for its king. Eadred harried and burnt the province, +which he then handed over to an earl of his own creation, one of the +Bamborough family. The king himself died in 955, and was succeeded by +his nephew Eadwig. But Northumbria and Mercia revolted once more, and +chose Eadwig's brother, Eadgar, instead of their own Danish princes. +Eadwig died in 958, and Eadgar then became king of all three provinces; +thus finally uniting the whole of Teutonic England into one kingdom. + +Eadgar's reign forms the climax of the West Saxon power. It was, in +fact, the only period when England can be said to have enjoyed any +national unity under the Anglo-Saxon dynasties. The strong hand of a +priest gave peace for some years to the ill-organised mass. Dunstan was +probably the first Englishman who seriously deserves the name of +statesman. He was born in the half-Celtic region of Somerset, beside the +great abbey of Glastonbury, which held the bones of Arthur, and a good +deal of the imaginative Celtic temper ran probably with the blood in his +veins.[2] But he was above all the representative of the Roman +civilisation in the barbarised, half-Danish England of the tenth +century. He was a musician, a painter, a reader, and a scholar, in a +world of fierce warriors and ignorant nobles. Eadmund made him abbot of +Glastonbury. Eadgar appointed him first bishop of London, and then, on +Eadwig's death, Archbishop of Canterbury. It was Dunstan who really +ruled England throughout the remainder of his life. Essentially an +organiser and administrator, he was able to weld the unwieldy empire +into a rough unity, which lasted as long as its author lived, and no +longer. He appeased the discontent of Northumbria and the Five Burgs by +permitting them a certain amount of local independence, with the +enjoyment of their own laws and their own lawmen. He kept a fleet of +boats cruising in the Irish Sea to check the Danish hosts at Dublin and +Waterford. He put forward a code, known as the laws of Eadgar, for the +better government of Wessex and the South. He made the over-lordship of +the West Saxons over their British vassals more real than it had ever +been before; and a tale, preserved by Florence, tells us that eight +tributary kings rowed Eadgar in his royal barge on the Dee, in token of +their complete subjection. Internally, Dunstan revived the declining +spirit of monasticism, which had died down during the long struggle with +the Danes, and attempted to reintroduce some tinge of southern +civilisation into the barbarised and half-paganised country in which he +lived. Wherever it was possible, he "drove out the priests, and set +monks," and he endeavoured to make the monasteries, which had +degenerated during the long war into mere landowning communities, regain +once more their old position as centres of culture and learning. During +his own time his efforts were successful, and even after his death the +movement which he had begun continued in this direction to make itself +felt, though in a feebler and less intelligent form. + + [2] It is impossible to avoid noticing the increased + importance of semi-Celtic Britain under Dunstan's + administration. He was himself at first an abbot of the old + West Welsh monastery of Glastonbury: he promoted West + countrymen to the principal posts in the kingdom: and he had + Eadgar hallowed king at the ancient West Welsh royal city of + Bath, married to a Devonshire lady, and buried at + Glastonbury. Indeed, that monastery was under Dunstan what + Westminster was under the later kings. Florence uses the + strange expression that Eadgar was chosen "by the + Anglo-Britons:" and the meeting with the Welsh and Scotch + princes in the semi-Welsh town of Chester conveys a like + implication. + +One act of Dunstan's policy, however, had far-reaching results, of a +kind which he himself could never have anticipated. He handed over all +Northumbria beyond the Tweed--the region now known as the Lothians--as a +fief to Kenneth, king of Scots. This accession of territory wholly +changed the character of the Scottish kingdom, and largely promoted the +Teutonisation of the Celtic North. The Scottish princes now took up +their residence in the English town of Edinburgh, and learned to speak +the English language as their mother-tongue. Already Eadmund had made +over Strathclyde or Cumberland to Malcolm; and thus the dominions of the +Scottish kings extended over the whole of the country now known as +Scotland, save only the Scandinavian jarldoms of Caithness, Sutherland, +and the Isles. Strathclyde rapidly adopted the tongue of its masters, +and grew as English in language (though not in blood) as the Lothians +themselves. Fife, in turn, was quickly Anglicised, as was also the whole +region south of the Highland line. Thus a new and powerful kingdom arose +in the North; and at the same time the cession of an English district to +the Scottish kings had the curious result of thoroughly Anglicising two +large and important Celtic regions, which had hitherto resisted every +effort of the Northumbrian or West Saxon over-lords. There is no reason +to believe, however, that this introduction of the English tongue and +English manners was connected with any considerable immigration of +Teutonic settlers into the Anglicised tracts. The population of +Ayrshire, of Fife, of Perthshire, and of Aberdeen, still shows every +sign of Celtic descent, alike in physique, in temperament, and in habit +of thought. The change was, in all probability, exactly analogous to +that which we ourselves have seen taking place in Wales, in Ireland, and +in the Celtic north of Scotland at the present day. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE AUGUSTAN AGE AND THE LATER ANGLO-SAXON CIVILISATION. + + +The slight pause in the long course of Danish warfare which occurred +during the vigorous administration of Dunstan, affords the best +opportunity for considering the degree of civilisation reached by the +English in the last age before the Norman Conquest. Our materials for +such an estimate are partly to be found in existing buildings, +manuscripts, pictures, ornaments, and other archological remains, and +partly in the documentary evidence of the chronicles and charters, and +more especially of the great survey undertaken by the Conqueror's +commissioners, and known as Domesday Book. From these sources we are +enabled to gain a fairly complete view of the Anglo-Saxon culture in the +period immediately preceding the immense influx of Romance civilisation +after the Conquest; and though some such Romance influence was already +exerted by the Normanising tendencies of Eadward the Confessor, we may +yet conveniently consider the whole subject here under the age of Eadgar +and thelred. It is difficult, indeed, to trace any very great +improvement in the arts of life between the days of Dunstan and the days +of Harold. + +In spite of constant wars and ravages from the northern pirates, there +can be little doubt that England had been slowly advancing in material +civilisation ever since the introduction of Christianity. The heathen +intermixture in the North and the Midlands had retarded the advance but +had not completely checked it; while in Wessex and the South the +intercourse with the continent and the consequent growth in culture had +been steadily increasing. thelwulf of Wessex married a daughter of Karl +the Bald; lfred gave his daughter to a count of Flanders; and Eadward's +princesses were married respectively to the emperor, to the king of +France, and to the king of Provence. Such alliances show a considerable +degree of intercourse between Wessex and the Roman world; and the relics +of material civilisation fully bear out the inference. The Institutes of +the city of London mention traders from Brabant, Lige, Rouen, Ponthieu, +France (in the restricted sense), and the Empire; but these came "in +their own vessels." England, which now has in her hands the carrying +trade of the world, was still dependent for her own supply on foreign +bottoms. We know also that officers were appointed to collect tolls from +foreign merchants at Canterbury, Dover, Arundel, and many other towns; +and London and Bristol certainly traded on their own account with the +Continent. + +As a whole, however, England still remained a purely agricultural +country to the very end of the Anglo-Saxon period. It had but little +foreign trade, and what little existed was chiefly confined to imports +of articles of luxury (wine, silk, spices, and artistic works) for the +wealthier nobles, and of ecclesiastical requisites, such as pictures, +incense, relics, vestments, and like southern products for the churches +and monasteries. The exports seem mainly to have consisted of slaves and +wool, though hides may possibly have been sent out of the country, and a +little of the famous English gold-work and embroidery was perhaps sold +abroad in return for the few imported luxuries. But taking the country +at a glance, we must still picture it to ourselves as composed almost +entirely of separate agricultural manors, each now owned by a +considerable landowner, and tilled mainly by his churls, whose position +had sunk during the Danish wars to that of semi-servile tenants, owing +customary rents of labour to their superiors. War had told against the +independence of the lesser freemen, who found themselves compelled to +choose themselves protectors among the higher born classes, till at last +the theory became general that every man must have a lord. The noble +himself lived upon his manor, accepted service from his churls in +tilling his own homestead, and allowed them lands in return in the +outlying portions of his estates. His sources of income were two only: +first, the agricultural produce of his lands, thus tilled for him by +free labour and by the hands of his serfs; and secondly, the breeding of +slaves, shipped from the ports of London and Bristol for the markets of +the south. The artisans depended wholly upon their lord, being often +serfs, or else churls holding on service-tenure. The mass of England +consisted of such manors, still largely interspersed with woodland, each +with the wooden hall of its lord occupying the centre of the homestead, +and with the huts of the churls and serfs among the hays and valleys of +the outskirts. The butter and cheese, bread and bacon, were made at +home; the corn was ground in the quern; the beer was brewed and the +honey collected by the family. The spinner and weaver, the shoemaker, +smith, and carpenter, were all parts of the household. Thus every manor +was wholly self-sufficing and self-sustaining, and towns were rendered +almost unnecessary. + +Forests and heaths still also covered about half the surface. These were +now the hunting-grounds of the kings and nobles, while in the leys, +hursts, and dens, small groups of huts gave shelter to the swineherds +and woodwards who had charge of their lord's property in the woodlands. +The great tree-covered region of Selwood still divided Wessex into two +halves; the forest of the Chilterns still spread close to the walls of +London; the Peakland was still overgrown by an inaccessible thicket; and +the long central ridge between Yorkshire and Scotland was still shadowed +by primval oaks, pinewoods, and beeches. Agriculture continued to be +confined to the alluvial bottoms, and had nowhere as yet invaded the +uplands, or even the stiffer and drier lowland regions, such as the +Weald of Kent or the forests of Arden and Elmet. + +Only two elements broke the monotony of these self-sufficing +agricultural communities. Those elements were the monasteries and the +towns. + +A large part of the soil of England was owned by the monks. They now +possessed considerable buildings, with stone churches of some +pretensions, in which service was conducted with pomp and +impressiveness. The tiny chapel of St. Lawrence, at Bradford-on-Avon, +forms the best example of this primitive Romanesque architecture now +surviving in England. Around the monasteries stretched their well-tilled +lands, mostly reclaimed from fen or forest, and probably more +scientifically cultivated than those of the neighbouring manors. Most of +the monks were skilled in civilised handicrafts, introduced from the +more cultivated continent. They were excellent ecclesiastical +metalworkers; many of them were architects, who built in rude imitation +of Romanesque models; and others were designers or illuminators of +manuscripts. The books and charters of this age are delicately and +minutely wrought out, though not with all the artistic elaboration of +later medival work. The art of painting (almost always in miniature) +was considerably advanced, the figures being well drawn, in rather stiff +but not unlifelike attitudes, though perspective is very imperfectly +understood, and hardly ever attempted. Later Anglo-Saxon architecture, +such as that of Eadward's magnificent abbey church at Westminster +(afterwards destroyed by Henry III. to make way for his own building), +was not inferior to continental workmanship. All the arts practised in +the abbeys were of direct Roman origin, and most of the words relating +to them are immediately derived from the Latin. This is the case even +with terms relating to such common objects as _candle_, _pen_, _wine_, +and _oil_. Names of weights, measures, coins, and other exact +quantitative ideas are also derived from Roman sources. Carpenters, +smiths, bakers, tanners, and millers, were usually attached to the +abbeys. Thus, in many cases, as at Glastonbury, Peterborough, Ripon, +Beverley, and Bury St. Edmunds, the monastery grew into the nucleus of a +considerable town, though the development of such towns is more marked +after than before the Norman Conquest. As a whole, it was by means of +the monasteries, and especially of their constant interchange of inmates +with the continent, that England mainly kept up the touch with the +southern civilisation. There alone was Latin, the universal medium of +continental intercommunication, taught and spoken. There alone were +books written, preserved, and read. Through the Church alone was an +organisation kept up in direct communication with the central civilising +agencies of Italy and the south. And while the Church and the +monasteries thus preserved the connection with the continent, they also +formed schools of culture and of industrial arts for the country itself. +At the abbeys bells were cast, glass manufactured, buildings designed, +gold and silver ornaments wrought, jewels enamelled, and unskilled +labour organised by the most trained intelligence of the land. They thus +remained as they had begun, homes and retreats for those exceptional +minds which were capable of carrying on the arts and the knowledge of a +dying civilisation across the gulf of predatory barbarism which +separates the artificial culture of Rome from the industrial culture of +modern Europe. + +The towns were few and relatively unimportant, built entirely of wood +(except the churches), and very liable to be burnt down on the least +excuse. In considering them we must dismiss from our minds the ideas +derived from our own great and complex organisation, and bring ourselves +mentally into the attitude of a simple agricultural people, requiring +little beyond what was produced on each man's own farm or petty holding. +Such people are mainly fed from their own corn and meat, mainly clad +from their own homespun wool and linen. A little specialisation of +function, however, already existed. Salt was procured from the wyches or +pans of the coast, and also from the inland wyches or brine wells of +Cheshire and the midland counties. Such names as Nantwich, Middlewych, +Bromwich, and Droitwich, still preserve the memory of these early +saltworks. Iron was mined in the Forest of Dean, around Alcester, and in +the Somersetshire district. The city of Gloucester had six smiths' +forges in the days of Eadward the Confessor, and paid its tax to the +king in iron rods. Lead was found in Derbyshire, and was largely +employed for roofing churches. Cloth-weaving was specially carried on at +Stamford; but as a rule it is probable that every district supplied its +own clothing. English merchants attended the great fair at St. Denys, in +France, much as those of Central Asia now attend the fair at Kandahar; +and madder seems to have been bought there for dyeing cloth. In Kent, +Sussex, and East Anglia, herring fisheries already produced considerable +results. With these few exceptions, all the towns were apparently mere +local centres of exchange for produce, and small manufactured wares, +like the larger villages or bazaars of India in our own time. +Nevertheless, there was a distinct advance towards urban life in the +later Anglo-Saxon period. Bda mentions very few towns, and most of +those were waste. By the date of the Conquest there were many, and their +functions were such as befitted a more diversified national life. +Communications had become far greater; and arts or trade had now to some +extent specialised themselves in special places. + +A list of the chief early English towns may possibly seem to give too +much importance to these very minor elements of English life; yet one +may, perhaps, be appended with due precaution against misapprehension. + +The capital, if any place deserved to be so called under the +perambulating early English dynasty, was Winchester (Wintan-ceaster), +with its old and new minsters, containing the tombs of the West-Saxon +kings. It possessed a large number of craftsmen, doubtless dependant +ultimately upon the court; and it was relatively a place of far greater +importance than at any later date. + +The chief ports were London (Lundenbyrig), situated at the head of tidal +navigation on the Thames; and Bristol (Bricgestow) and Gloucester +(Gleawan-ceaster), similarly placed on the Avon and Severn. These towns +were convenient for early shipping because of their tidal position, at +an age when artificial harbours were unknown; They were the seat of the +export traffic in slaves and the import traffic in continental goods. +Before lfred's reign the carrying trade by sea seems to have been in +the hands of the Frisian skippers and slave-dealers, who stood to the +English in the same relation as the Arabs now stand to the East African +and Central African negroes; but after the increased attention paid to +shipbuilding during the struggle with the Danes, English vessels began +to engage in trade on their own account. London must already have been +the largest and richest town in the kingdom. Even in Bda's time it was +"the mart of many nations, resorting to it by sea and land." It seems, +indeed, to have been a sort of merchant commonwealth, governed by its +own port reeve, and it made its own dooms, which have been preserved to +the present day. From the Roman time onward, the position of London as a +great free commercial town was probably uninterrupted. + +York (Eoforwic), the capital of the North, had its own archbishop and +its Danish internal organisation. It seems to have been always an +important and considerable town, and it doubtless possessed the same +large body of handicraftsmen as Winchester. During the doubtful period +of Danish and English struggles, the archbishop apparently exercised +quasi-royal authority over the English burghers themselves. + +Among the cathedral towns the most important were Canterbury +(Cant-wara-byrig), the old capital of Kent and metropolis of all +England, which seems to have contained a relatively large trading +population; Dorchester, in Oxfordshire, first the royal city of the West +Saxons, and afterwards the seat of the exiled bishopric of Lincoln; +Rochester (Hrofes-ceaster), the old capital of the West Kentings, and +seat of their bishop: and Worcester (Wigorna-ceaster), the chief town of +the Huiccii. Of the monastic towns the chief were Peterborough (Burh), +Ely (Elig), and Glastonbury (Glstingabyrig). Bath, Amesbury, +Colchester, Lincoln, Chester, and other towns of Roman origin were also +important. Exeter, the old capital of the West Welsh, situated at the +tidal head of the Exe, had considerable trade. Oxford was a place of +traffic and a fortified town. Hastings, Dover, and the other south-coast +ports had some communications with France. The only other places of any +note were Chippenham, Bensington, and Aylesbury; Northampton and +Southampton; Bamborough; the fortified posts built by Eadward and +thelfld; and the Danish boroughs of Bedford, Derby, Leicester, +Stamford, Nottingham, and Huntingdon. The Witena-gemots and the synods +took place in any town, irrespective of size, according to royal +convenience. But as early as the days of Cnut, London was beginning to +be felt as the real centre of national life: and Eadward the Confessor, +by founding Westminster Abbey, made it practically the home of the +kings. The Conqueror "wore his crown on Eastertide at Winchester; on +Pentecost at Westminster; and on Midwinter at Gloucester:" which +probably marks the relative position of the three towns as the chief +places in the old West Saxon realm at least. Under thelstan, London had +eight moneyers or mint-masters, while Winchester had only six, and +Canterbury seven. + +As regards the arts and traffic in the towns, they were chiefly carried +on by guilds, which had their origin, as Dr. Brentano has shown with +great probability, in separate families, who combined to keep up their +own trade secrets as a family affair. In time, however, the guilds grew +into regular organisations, having their own code of rules and laws, +many of which (as at Cambridge, Exeter, and Abbotsbury) we still +possess. It is possible that the families of craftsmen may at first have +been Romanised Welsh inhabitants of the cities; for all the older +towns--London, Canterbury, York, Lincoln, and Rochester--were almost +certainly inhabited without interruption from the Roman period onward. +But in any case the guilds seem to have grown out of family compacts, +and to have retained always the character of close corporations. There +must have been considerable division of the various trades even before +the Conquest, and each trade must have inhabited a separate quarter; for +we find at Winchester, or elsewhere, in the reign of thelred, +Fellmonger, Horsemonger, Fleshmonger, Shieldwright, Shoewright, Turner, +and Salter Streets. + +The exact amount of the population of England cannot be ascertained, +even approximately; but we may obtain a rough approximation from the +estimates based upon Domesday Book. It seems probable that at the end +of the Conqueror's reign, England contained 1,800,000 souls. Allowing +for the large number of persons introduced at the Conquest, and for the +natural increase during the unusual peace in the reigns of Cnut, of +Eadward the Confessor, and, above all, of William himself, we may guess +that it could not have contained more than a million and a quarter in +the days of Eadgar. London may have had a population of some 10,000; +Winchester and York of 5,000 each; certainly that of York at the date of +Domesday could not have exceeded 7,000 persons, and we know that it +contained 1,800 houses in the time of Eadward the Confessor. + +The organisation of the country continued on the lines of the old +constitution. But the importance of the simple freeman had now quite +died out, and the gemot was rather a meeting of the earls, bishops, +abbots, and wealthy landholders, than a real assembly of the people. The +sub-divisions of the kingdom were now pretty generally conterminous with +the modern counties. In Wessex and the east the counties are either +older kingdoms, like Kent, Sussex, and Essex; or else tribal divisions +of the kingdom, like Dorset, Somerset, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Surrey. In +Mercia, the recovered country is artificially mapped out round the chief +Danish burgs, as in the case of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, +Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, and Leicestershire, where the county +town usually occupies the centre of the arbitrary shire. In Northumbria +it is divided into equally artificial counties by the rivers. Beneath +the counties stood the older organisation of the hundred, and beneath +that again the primitive unit of the township, known on its +ecclesiastical side as the parish. In the reign of Eadgar, England seems +to have contained about 3,000 parish churches. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE DECADENCE. + + +The death of Dunstan was the signal for the breaking down of the +artificial kingdom which he had held together by the mere power of his +solitary organising capacity. thelred, the son of Eadgar (who succeeded +after the brief reign of his brother Eadward), lost hopelessly all hold +over the Scandinavian north. At the same time, the wicking incursions, +intermitted for nearly a century, once more recommenced with the same +vigour as of old. Even before Dunstan's death, in 980, the pirates +ravaged Southampton, killing most of the townsfolk; and they also +pillaged Thanet, while another host overran Cheshire. In the succeeding +year, "great harm was done in Devonshire and in Wales;" and a year later +again, London was burnt and Portland ravaged. In 985, thelred, the +Unready, as after ages called him, from his lack of _rede_ or counsel, +quarrelled with lfric, ealdormen of the Mercians, whom he drove over +sea. The breach between Mercia and Wessex was thus widened, and as the +Danish attacks continued without interruption the redeless king soon +found himself comparatively isolated in his own paternal dominions. +Northumbria, under its earl, Uhtred (one of the house of Bamborough), +and the Five Burgs under their Danish leaders, acted almost +independently of Wessex throughout the whole of thelred's reign. In 991 +Sigeric, archbishop of Canterbury, advised that the Danes should be +bought off by a payment of ten thousand pounds, an enormous sum; but it +was raised somehow and duly paid. In 992, the command of a naval force, +gathered from the merchant craft of the Thames, was entrusted to lfric, +who had been recalled; and the Mercian leader went over on the eve of an +engagement at London to the side of the enemy. Bamborough was stormed +and captured with great booty, and the host sailed up Humber mouth. +There they stood in the midst of the old Danish kingdom, and found the +leading men of Northumbria and Lindsey by no means unfriendly to their +invasion. In fact, the Danish north was now far more ready to welcome +the kindred Scandinavian than the West Saxon stranger. thelred's realm +practically shrank at once to the narrow limits of Kent and Wessex. + +The Danes, however, were by no means content even with these successes. +Olaf Tryggvesson, king of Norway, and Swegen Forkbeard,[1] king of +Denmark, fell upon England. The era of mere plundering expeditions and +of scattered colonisation had ceased; the era of political conquest had +now begun. They had determined upon the complete subjugation of all +England. In 994 Olaf and Swegen attacked London with 94 ships, but were +put to flight by a gallant resistance of the townsmen, who did "more +harm and evil than ever they weened that any burghers could do them." +Thence the host sailed away to Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire, +burning and slaying all along the coast as they went. thelred and his +witan bought them off again, with the immense tribute of sixteen +thousand pounds. The host accepted the terms, but settled down for the +winter at Southampton--a sufficient indication of their +intentions--within easy reach of Winchester itself; and there "they fed +from all the West Saxons' land." thelred was alarmed, and sent to Olaf, +who consented to meet him at Andover. There the king received him "with +great worship," and gifted him with kinglike gifts, and sent him away +with a promise never again to attack England. Olaf kept his word, and +returned no more. But still Swegen remained, and went on pillaging +Devonshire and Cornwall, wending into Tamar mouth as far as Lidford, +where his men "burnt and slew all that they found." Thence they betook +themselves to the Frome, and so up into Dorset, and again to Wight. In +999, on the eve of doomsday as men then thought, they sailed up Thames +and Medway, and attacked Rochester. The men of Kent stoutly fought them, +but, as usual, without assistance from other shires; and the Danes took +horses, and rode over the land, almost ruining all the West Kentings. +The king and his witan resolved to send against them a land fyrd and a +ship fyrd or raw levy. But the spirit of the West Saxons was broken, and +though the craft were gathered together, yet in the end, as the +Chronicle plaintively puts it, "neither ship fyrd nor land fyrd wrought +anything save toil for the folk, and the emboldening of their foes." + + [1] See Mr. York-Powell's "Scandinavian Britain." + +So, year after year, the endless invasion dragged on its course, and +everywhere each shire of Wessex fought for itself against such enemies +as happened to attack it. At last, in the year 1002, thelred once more +bought off the fleet, this time with 24,000 pounds; and some of the +Danes obtained leave to settle down in Wessex. But on St. Brice's day, +the king treacherously gave orders that all Danes in the immediate +English territory should be massacred. The West Saxons rose on the +appointed night, and slew every one of them, including Gunhild, the +sister of King Swegen, and a Christian convert. It was a foolhardy +attempt. Swegen fell at once upon Wessex, and marched up and down the +whole country, for two years. He burnt Wilton and Sarum, and then sailed +round to Norwich, where Ulfkytel, of East Anglia, gave him "the hardest +hand-play" that he had ever known in England. A year of famine +intervened; but in 1006 Swegen returned again, harrying and burning +Sandwich. All autumn the West Saxon fyrd waited for the enemy, but in +the end "it came to naught more than it had oft erst done." The host +took up quarters in Wight, marched across Hants and Berks to Reading, +and burned Wallingford. Thence they returned with their booty to the +fleet, by the very walls of the royal city. "There might the Winchester +folk behold an insolent host and fearless wend past their gate to sea." +The king himself had fled into Shropshire. The tone of utter despair +with which the Chronicle narrates all these events is the best measure +of the national degradation. "There was so muckle awe of the host," says +the annalist, "that no man could think how man could drive them from +this earth or hold this earth against them; for that they had cruelly +marked each shire of Wessex with burning and with harrying." The English +had sunk into hopeless misery, and were only waiting for a strong rule +to rescue them from their misery. + +The strong rule came at last. Thorkell, a Danish jarl, marched all +through Wessex, and for three years more his host pillaged everywhere in +the South. In 1011, they killed lfheah, the archbishop of Canterbury, +at Greenwich. When the country was wholly weakened, Swegen turned +southward once more, this time with all Northumbria and Mercia at his +back. In 1013 he sailed round to Humber mouth, and thence up the Trent, +to Gainsborough. "Then Earl Uhtred and all Northumbrians soon bowed to +him, and all the folk in Lindsey; and sithence the folk of the Five +Burgs, and shortly after, all the host by north of Watling-street; and +men gave him hostages of each shire." Swegen at once led the united army +into England, leaving his son Cnut in Denalagu with the ships and +hostages. He marched to Oxford, which received him; then to the royal +city of Winchester, which made no resistance. At London thelred was +waiting; and for a time the town held out. So Swegen marched westward, +and took Bath. There, the thegns of the Welsh-kin counties--Somerset, +Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall--bowed to him and gave him hostages. "When +he had thus fared, he went north to his ships, and all the folk held him +then as full king." London itself gave way. thelred fled to Wight, and +thence to Normandy. He had married Ymma, the daughter of Richard the +Fearless; and he now took refuge with her brother, Richard the Good. + +Next year Swegen died, and the West Saxon witan sent back for thelred. +No lord was dearer to them, they said, than their lord by kin. But the +host had already chosen Cnut; and the host had a stronger claim than the +witan. For two years thelred carried on a desultory war with the +intruders, and then died, leaving it undecided. His son Eadmund, +nicknamed Ironside, continued the contest for a few months; but in the +autumn of 1016 he died--poisoned, the English said, by Cnut--and Cnut +succeeded to undisputed sway. He at once assumed Wessex as his own +peculiar dominion, and the political history of the English ends for two +centuries. Their social life went on, of course, as ever; but it was the +life of a people in strict subjection to foreign rulers--Danish, Norman, +or Angevin. The story of the next twenty-five years at least belongs to +the chronicles of Scandinavian Britain. + +At the end of that time, however, there was a slight reaction. Cnut and +his sons had bound the kingdom roughly into one; and the death of +Harthacnut left an opportunity for the return of a descendant of lfred. +But the English choice fell upon one who was practically a foreigner. +Eadward, son of thelred by Ymma of Normandy, had lived in his mother's +country during the greater part of his life. Recalled by Earl Godwine +and the witan, he came back to England a Norman, rather than an +Englishman. The administration remained really in the hands of Godwine +himself, and of the Danish or Danicised aristocracy. But Mercia and +Northumbria still stood apart from Wessex, and once procured the exile +of Godwine himself. The great earl returned, however, and at his death +passed on his power to his son Harold, a Danicised Englishman of great +rough ability, such as suited the hard times on which he was cast. +Harold employed the lifetime of Eadward, who was childless, in preparing +for his own succession. The king died in 1066, and Harold was quietly +chosen at once by the witan. He was the last Englishman who ever sat +upon the throne of England. + +The remaining story belongs chiefly to the annals of Norman Britain. +Harold was assailed at once from either side. On the north, his brother +Tostig, whom he had expelled from Northumbria, led against him his +namesake, Harold Hardrada, king of Norway. On the south, William of +Normandy, Eadward's cousin, claimed the right to present himself to the +English electors. Eadward's death, in fact, had broken up the temporary +status, and left England once more a prey to barbaric Scandinavians from +Denmark, or civilised Scandinavians from Normandy. The English +themselves had no organisation which could withstand either, and no +national unity to promote such organisation in future. Harold of Norway +came first, landing in the old Danish stronghold of Northumbria; and the +English Harold hurried northward to meet him, with his little body of +house-carls, aided by a large fyrd which he had hastily collected to use +against William. At Stamford-bridge he overthrew the invaders with great +slaughter, Harold Hardrada and Tostig being amongst the slain. +Meanwhile, William had crossed to Pevensey, and was ravaging the coast. +Harold hurried southward, and met him at Senlac, near Hastings. After a +hard day's fight, the Normans were successful, and Harold fell. But even +yet the English could not agree among themselves. In this crisis of the +national fate, the local jealousies burnt up as fiercely as ever. While +William was marching upon London, the witan were quarrelling and +intriguing in the city over the succession. "Archbishop Ealdred and the +townsmen of London would have Eadgar Child,"--a grandson of Eadmund +Ironside--"for king, as was his right by kin." But Eadwine and Morkere, +the representatives of the great Mercian family of Leofric, had hopes +that they might turn William's invasion to their own good, and secure +their independence in the north by allowing Wessex to fall unassisted +into his hands. After much shuffling, Eadgar was at last chosen for +king. "But as it ever should have been the forwarder, so was it ever, +from day to day, slower and worse." No resistance was organised. In the +midst of all this turmoil, the Peterborough Chronicler is engaged in +narrating the petty affairs of his own abbey, and the question which +arose through the application made to Eadgar for his consent to the +appointment of an abbot. In such a spirit did the English meet an +invasion from the stoutest and best organised soldiery in Europe. +William marched on without let or hindrance, and on his way, the +Lady--the Confessor's widow--surrendered the royal city of Winchester +into his hands. The duke reached the Thames, burnt Southwark, and then +made a dtour to cross the river at Wallingford, whence he proceeded +into Hertfordshire, thus cutting off Eadwine and Morkere in London from +their earldoms. The Mercian and Northumbrian leaders being determined to +hold their own at all hazards, retreated northward; and the English +resistance crumbled into pieces. Eadgar, the rival king, with Ealdred, +the archbishop, and all the chief men of London, came out to meet +William, and "bowed to him for need." The Chronicler can only say that +it was very foolish they had not done so before. A people so helpless, +so utterly anarchic, so incapable of united action, deserved to undergo +a severe training from the hard taskmasters of Romance civilisation. The +nation remained, but it remained as a conquered race, to be drilled in +the stern school of the conquerors. For awhile, it is true, William +governed England like an English king; but the constant rebellion and +faithlessness of his new subjects drove him soon to severer measures; +and the great insurrection of 1068, with its results, put the whole +country at his feet in a very different sense from the battle of Senlac. +For a hundred and fifty years, the English people remained a mere race +of chapmen and serfs; and the English language died down meanwhile into +a servile dialect. When the native stock emerges again into the full +light of history, by the absorption of the Norman conquerors in the +reign of John, it reappears with all the super-added culture and +organisation of the Romance nationalities. The Conquest was an +inevitable step in the work of severing England from the barbarous +North, and binding it once more in bonds of union with the civilised +South. It was the necessary undoing of the Danish conquest; more still, +it was an inevitable step in the process whereby England itself was to +begin its unified existence by the final breaking down of the barriers +which divided Wessex from Mercia, and Mercia from Northumbria. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE ANGLO-SAXON LANGUAGE. + + +A description of Anglo-Saxon Britain, however brief, would not be +complete without some account of the English language in its earliest +and purest form. But it would be impossible within reasonable limits to +give anything more than a short general statement of the relation which +the old English tongue bears to the kindred Teutonic dialects, and of +the main differences which mark it off from our modern simplified and +modified speech. All that can be attempted here is such a broad outline +as may enable the general reader to grasp the true connexion between +modern English and so-called Anglo-Saxon, on the one hand, as well as +between Anglo-Saxon itself and the parent Teutonic language on the +other. Any full investigation of grammatical or etymological details +would be beyond the scope of this little volume. + +The tongue spoken by the English and Saxons at the period of their +invasion of Britain was an almost unmixed Low Dutch dialect. Originally +derived, of course, from the primitive Aryan language, it had already +undergone those changes which are summed up in what is known as Grimm's +Law. The principal consonants in the old Aryan tongue had been +regularly and slightly altered in certain directions; and these +alterations have been carried still further in the allied High German +language. Thus the original word for _father_, which closely resembled +the Latin _pater_, becomes in early English or Anglo-Saxon _fder_, and +in modern High German _vater_. So, again, among the numerals, our _two_, +in early English _twa_, answers to Latin _duo_ and modern High German +_zwei_; while our _three_, in old English _threo_, answers to Latin +_tres_, and modern High German _drei_. So far as these permutations are +concerned, Sanscrit, Greek, and Latin may be regarded as most nearly +resembling the primitive Aryan speech, and with them the Celtic dialects +mainly agree. From these, the English varies one degree, the High German +two. The following table represents the nature of such changes +approximately for these three groups of languages:-- + +-----------------+------------+---------------+---------------+ +Greek, Sanscrit, | | | | +Latin, Celtic | p. b. f. | t. d. th. | k. g. ch. | +-----------------+------------+---------------+---------------+ +Gothic, English, | | | | +Low Dutch | f. p. b. | th. t. d. | ch. k. g. | +-----------------+------------+---------------+---------------+ + | | | | +High German | b. f. p. | d. th. t. | g. ch. k. | +-----------------+------------+---------------+---------------+ + +In practice, several modifications arise; for example, the law is only +true for old High German, and that only approximately, but its general +truth may be accepted as governing most individual cases. + +Judged by this standard, English forms a dialect of the Low Dutch branch +of the Aryan language, together with Frisian, modern Dutch, and the +Scandinavian tongues. Within the group thus restricted its affinities +are closest with Frisian and old Dutch, less close with Icelandic and +Danish. While the English still lived on the shores of the Baltic, it is +probable that their language was perfectly intelligible to the ancestors +of the people who now inhabit Holland, and who then spoke very slightly +different local dialects. In other words, a single Low Dutch speech then +apparently prevailed from the mouth of the Elbe to that of the Scheldt, +with small local variations; and from this speech the Anglo-Saxon and +the modern English have developed in one direction, while the Dutch has +developed in another, the Frisian dialect long remaining intermediate +between them. Scandinavian ceased, perhaps, to be intelligible to +Englishmen at an earlier date, the old Icelandic being already marked +off from Anglo-Saxon by strong peculiarities, while modern Danish +differs even more widely from the spoken English of the present day. + +The relation of Anglo-Saxon to modern English is that of direct +parentage, it might almost be said of absolute identity. The language of +_Beowulf_ and of lfred is not, as many people still imagine, a +different language from our own; it is simply English in its earliest +and most unmixed form. What we commonly call Anglo-Saxon, indeed, is +more English than what we commonly call English at the present day. The +first is truly English, not only in its structure and grammar, but also +in the whole of its vocabulary: the second, though also truly English +in its structure and grammar, contains a large number of Latin, Greek, +and Romance elements in its vocabulary. Nevertheless, no break separates +us from the original Low Dutch tongue spoken in the marsh lands of +Sleswick. The English of _Beowulf_ grows slowly into the English of +lfred, into the English of Chaucer, into the English of Shakespeare and +Milton, and into the English of Macaulay and Tennyson. + +Old words drop out from time to time, old grammatical forms die away or +become obliterated, new names and verbs are borrowed, first from the +Norman-French at the Conquest, then from the classical Greek and Latin +at the Renaissance; but the continuity of the language remains unbroken, +and its substance is still essentially the same as at the beginning. The +Cornish, the Irish, and to some extent the Welsh, have left off speaking +their native tongues, and adopted the language of the dominant Teuton; +but there never was a time when Englishmen left off speaking Anglo-Saxon +and took to English, Norman-French, or any other form of speech +whatsoever. + +An illustration may serve to render clearer this fundamental and +important distinction. If at the present day a body of Englishmen were +to settle in China, they might learn and use the Chinese names for many +native plants, animals, and manufactured articles; but however many of +such words they adopted into their vocabulary, their language would +still remain essentially English. A visitor from England would have to +learn a number of unfamiliar words, but he would not have to learn a new +language. If, on the other hand, a body of Frenchmen were to settle in a +neighbouring Chinese province, and to adopt exactly the same Chinese +words, their language would still remain essentially French. The +dialects of the two settlements would contain many words in common, but +neither of them would be a Chinese dialect on that account. Just so, +English since the Norman Conquest has grafted many foreign words upon +the native stock; but it still remains at bottom the same language as in +the days of Eadgar. + +Nevertheless, Anglo-Saxon differs so far in externals from modern +English, that it is now necessary to learn it systematically with +grammar and dictionary, in somewhat the same manner as one would learn a +foreign tongue. Most of the words, indeed, are more or less familiar, at +least so far as their roots are concerned; but the inflexions of the +nouns and verbs are far more complicated than those now in use: and many +obsolete forms occur even in the vocabulary. On the other hand the +idioms closely resemble those still in use; and even where a root has +now dropped out of use, its meaning is often immediately suggested by +the cognate High German word, or by some archaic form preserved for us +in Chaucer, Shakespeare, or Milton, as well as by occasional survival in +the Lowland Scotch and other local dialects. + +English in its early form was an inflexional language; that is to say, +the mutual relations of nouns and of verbs were chiefly expressed, not +by means of particles, such as _of_, _to_, _by_, and so forth, but by +means of modifications either in the termination or in the body of the +root itself. The nouns were declined much as in Greek and Latin; the +verbs were conjugated in somewhat the same way as in modern French. +Every noun had gender expressed in its form. + +The following examples will give a sufficient idea of the commoner forms +of declension in the classical West Saxon of the time of lfred. The +pronunciation has already been briefly explained in the preface. + + + SING. PLUR. + +(1.) _Nom._ stan (_a stone_). _Nom._ stanas. + _Gen._ stanes. _Gen._ stana. + _Dat._ stane. _Dat._ stanum. + _Acc._ stan. _Acc._ stanas. + +This is the commonest declension for masculine nouns, and it has fixed +the normal plural for the modern English. + + + SING. PLUR. + +(2.) _Nom._ fot (_a foot_). _Nom._ fet. + _Gen._ fotes. _Gen._ fota. + _Dat._ fet. _Dat._ fotum. + _Acc._ fot. _Acc._ fet. + +Hence our modified plurals, such as _feet_, _teeth_, and _men_. + + + SING. PLUR. + +(3.) _Nom._ wudu (_a wood_). _Nom._ wuda. + _Gen._ wuda. _Gen._ wuda. + _Dat._ wuda. _Dat._ wudum. + _Acc._ wudu. _Acc._ wuda. + +All these are for masculine nouns. + +The commonest feminine declension is as follows:-- + + + SING. PLUR. + +(4.) _Nom._ gifu (_a gift_). _Nom._ gifa. + _Gen._ gife. _Gen._ gifena. + _Dat._ gife. _Dat._ gifum. + _Acc._ gife. _Acc._ gifa. + +Less frequent is the modified form: + + + SING. PLUR. + +(5.) _Nom._ boc (_a book_). _Nom._ bec. + _Gen._ bec. _Gen._ boca. + _Dat._ bec. _Dat._ bocum. + _Acc._ boc. _Acc._ bec. + +Of neuters there are two principal declensions. The first has the plural +in _u_; the second leaves it unchanged. + + + SING. PLUR. + +(6.) _Nom._ scip (_a ship_). _Nom._ scipu. + _Gen._ scipes. _Gen._ scipa. + _Dat._ scipe. _Dat._ scipum. + _Acc._ scip. _Acc._ scipu. + + + SING. PLUR. + +(7.) _Nom._ hus (_a house_). _Nom._ hus. + _Gen._ huses. _Gen._ husa. + _Dat._ huse. _Dat._ husum. + _Acc._ hus. _Acc._ hus. + +Hence our "collective" plurals, such as _fish_, _deer_, _sheep_, and +_trout_. + +There is also a weak declension, much the same for all three genders, of +which the masculine form runs as follows:-- + + + SING. PLUR. + +_Nom._ guma (_a man_). _Nom._ guman. +_Gen._ guman. _Gen._ gumena. +_Dat._ guman. _Dat._ guman. +_Acc._ guman. _Acc._ guman. + +Adjectives are declined throughout, as in Latin, through all the cases +(including an instrumental), numbers, and genders. The demonstrative +pronoun or definite article _se_ (the) may stand as an example. + + + SING. + + Masc. Fem. Neut. +_Nom._ se, seo, tht. +_Gen._ ths, thre, ths. +_Dat._ tham, thre, tham. +_Acc._ thone, tha, tht. +_Inst._ thy, thre, thy. + + + PLUR. + + Masc. Fem. Neut. +_Nom._ tha. +_Gen._ thara. +_Dat._ tham. +_Acc._ tha. +_Inst._ -- + +Verbs are conjugated about as fully as in Latin. There are two principal +forms: strong verbs, which form their preterite by vowel modification, +as _binde_, pret. _band_; and weak verbs, which form it by the addition +of _ode_ or _de_ to the root, as _lufige_, pret. _lufode_; _hire_, pret. +_hirde_. The present and preterite of the first form are as follows:-- + + + IND. SUBJ. + +_Pres. sing._ 1. binde. binde. + 2. bindest. binde. + 3. bindeth. binde. + +_plur._ 1, 2, 3. bindath. binden. + +_Pret. sing._ 1. band. bunde. + 2. bunde. bunde. + 3. band. bunde. + +_plur._ 1, 2, 3. bundon. bunden. + +Both the grammatical forms and still more the orthography vary much from +time to time, from place to place, and even from writer to writer. The +forms used in this work are for the most part those employed by West +Saxons in the age of lfred. + +A few examples of the language as written at three periods will enable +the reader to form some idea of its relation to the existing type. The +first passage cited is from King lfred's translation of Orosius; but it +consists of the opening lines of a paragraph inserted by the king +himself from his own materials, and so affords an excellent illustration +of his style in original English prose. The reader is recommended to +compare it word for word with the parallel slightly modernised version, +bearing in mind the inflexional terminations. + +Ohthere sde his hlaforde, | Othhere said [to] his lord, +lfrede cyninge, tht he | lfred king, that he of all +ealra Northmonna northmest | Northmen northmost abode. +bude. He cwth tht he | He quoth that he abode +bude on thm lande northweardum | on the land northward against +with tha West-s. | the West Sea. He said, +He sde theah tht tht land | though, that that land was +sie swithe lang north thonan; | [or extended] much north +ac hit is eall weste, buton on | thence; eke it is all waste, +feawum stowum styccemlum | but [except that] on few stows +wiciath Finnas, on huntothe | [in a few places] piecemeal +on wintra, and on sumera on | dwelleth Finns, on hunting on +fiscathe be thre s. He | winter, and on summer on +sde tht he t sumum cirre | fishing by the sea. He said +wolde fandian hu longe tht | that he at some time [on one +land northryhte lge, oththe | occasion] would seek how long +hwther nig monn be northan | that land lay northright [due +thm westenne bude. Tha | north], or whether any man by +for he northryhte be thm | north of the waste abode. +lande: let him ealne weg | Then fore [fared] he northright, +tht weste land on tht steorbord, | by the land: left all the +and tha wid-s on tht | way that waste land on the +bcbord thrie dagas. Tha | starboard of him, and the wide +ws he swa feor north swa tha | sea on the backboard [port, +hwl-huntan firrest farath. | French _babord_] three days. + | Then was he so far north as + | the whale-hunters furthest + | fareth. + +In this passage it is easy to see that the variations which make it into +modern English are for the most part of a very simple kind. Some of the +words are absolutely identical, as _his_, _on_, _he_, _and_, _land_, or +_north_. Others, though differences of spelling mask the likeness, are +practically the same, as _s_, _sde_, _cwth_, _tht_, _lang_, for +which we now write _sea_, _said_, _quoth_, _that_, _long_. A few have +undergone contraction or alteration, as _hlaford_, now _lord_, _cyning_, +now _king_, and _steorbord_, now _starboard_. _Stow_, a place, is now +obsolete, except in local names; _styccemlum_, stickmeal, has been +Normanised into _piecemeal_. In other cases new terminations have been +substituted for old ones; _huntath_ and _fiscath_ are now replaced by +_hunting_ and _fishing_; while _hunta_ has been superseded by _hunter_. +Only six words in the passage have died out wholly: _buan_, to abide +(_bude_); _swithe_, very; _wician_, to dwell; _cirr_, an occasion; +_fandian_, to enquire (connected with _find_); and _bcbord_, port, +which still survives in French from Norman sources. _Dg_, day, and +_nig_, any, show how existing English has softened the final _g_ into a +_y_. But the main difference which separates the modern passage from its +ancient prototype is the consistent dropping of the grammatical +inflexions in _hlaforde_, _lfrede_, _ealra_, _feawum_, and _fandian_, +where we now say, _to his lord_, _of all_, _in few_, and _to enquire_. + +The next passage, from the old English epic of _Beowulf_, shows the +language in another aspect. Here, as in all poetry, archaic forms +abound, and the syntax is intentionally involved. It is written in the +old alliterative rhythm, described in the next chapter:-- + + Beowulf mathelode bearn Ecgtheowes; + Hwt! we the thas s-lac sunu Healfdenes + Leod Scyldinga lustum brohton, + Tires to tacne, the thu her to-locast. + Ic tht un-softe ealdre gedigde + Wigge under wtere, weore genethde + Earfothlice; t rihte ws + Guth getwfed nymthe mec god scylde. + + * * * * * + + Beowulf spake, the son of Ecgtheow: + See! We to thee this sea-gift, son of Healfdene, + Prince of the Scyldings, joyfully have brought, + For a token of glory, that thou here lookest on. + That I unsoftly, gloriously accomplished, + In war under water: the work I dared, + With much labour: rightly was + The battle divided, but that a god shielded me. + +Or, to translate more prosaically:-- + +"Beowulf, the son of Ecgtheow, addressed the meeting. See, son of +Healfdene, Prince of the Scyldings; we have joyfully brought thee this +gift from the sea which thou beholdest, for a proof of our valour. I +obtained it with difficulty, gloriously, fighting beneath the waves: I +dared the task with great toil. Evenly was the battle decreed, but that +a god afforded me his protection." + +In this short passage, many of the words are now obsolete: for example, +_mathelian_, to address an assembly (_concionari_); _lac_, a gift; +_wig_, war; _guth_, battle; and _leod_, a prince. _Ge-digde_, +_ge-nethde_, and _ge-twfed_ have the now obsolete particle _ge_-, which +bears much the same sense as in High German. On the other hand, _bearn_, +a bairn; _sunu_, a son; _s_, sea; _tacen_, a token; _wter_, water; and +_weorc_, work, still survive: as do the verbs _to bring_, _to look_, and +_to shield_. _Lust_, pleasure, whence _lustum_, joyfully, has now +restricted its meaning in modern English, but retains its original sense +in High German. + +A few lines from the "Chronicle" under the year 1137, during the reign +of Stephen, will give an example of Anglo-Saxon in its later and corrupt +form, caught in the act of passing into Chaucerian English:-- + +This gre for the King | This year fared the King +Stephan ofer s to Normandi; | Stephen over sea to Normandy; +and ther wes under | and there he was +fangen, forthi tht hi wenden | accepted [received as duke] +tht he sculde ben alsuic alse | because that they weened +the eom ws, and for he | that he should be just as his +hadde get his tresor; ac he | uncle was, and because he +todeld it and scatered sotlice. | had got his treasure: but he +Micel hadde Henri king | to-dealt [distributed] and +gadered gold and sylver, and | scattered it sot-like [foolishly]. +na god ne dide men for his | Muckle had King +saule tharof. Tha the King | Henry gathered of gold and +Stephan to Englaland com, | silver; and man did no good +tha macod he his gadering | for his soul thereof. When +t Oxeneford, and thar he | that King Stephan was come +nam the biscop Roger of | to England, then maked he +Sereberi, and Alexander | his gathering at Oxford, and +biscop of Lincoln, and the | there he took the bishop +Canceler Roger, hise neves, | Roger of Salisbury, and Alexander, +and dide lle in prisun, til | bishop of Lincoln, and +hi iafen up hire castles. | the Chancellor Roger, his + | nephew, and did them all in + | prison [put them in prison] + | till they gave up their castles. + +The following passage from lfric's Life of King Oswold, in the best +period of early English prose, may perhaps be intelligible to modern +readers by the aid of a few explanatory notes only. _Mid_ means _with_; +while _with_ itself still bears only the meaning of _against_:-- + +"fter tham the Augustinus to Englalande becom, ws sum thele cyning, +Oswold ge-haten [_hight_ or _called_], on North-hymbra-lande, ge-lyfed +swithe on God. Se ferde [went] on his iugothe [youth] fram his freondum +and magum [relations] to Scotlande on s, and thr sona wearth ge-fullod +[baptised], and his ge-feran [companions] samod the mid him sithedon +[journeyed]. Betwux tham wearth of-slagen [off-slain] Eadwine his eam +[uncle], North-hymbra cyning, on Crist ge-lyfed, fram Brytta cyninge, +Ceadwalla ge-ciged [called, named], and twegen his fter-gengan binnan +twam gearum [years]; and se Ceadwalla sloh and to sceame tucode tha +North-hymbran leode [people] fter heora hlafordes fylle, oth tht +[until] Oswold se eadiga his yfelnysse adwscte [extinguished]. Oswold +him com to, and him cenlice [boldly] with feaht mid lytlum werode +[troop], ac his geleafa [belief] hine ge-trymde [encouraged], and Crist +him ge-fylste [helped] to his feonda [fiends, enemies] slege." + +It will be noticed in every case that the syntactical arrangement of the +words in the sentences follows as a whole the rule that the governed +word precedes the governing, as in Latin or High German, not _vice +versa_, as in modern English. + +A brief list will show the principal modifications undergone by nouns in +the process of modernisation. _Stan_, stone; _snaw_, snow; _ban_, bone. +_Crft_, craft; _stf_, staff; _bc_, back. _Weg_, way; _dg_, day; +_ngel_, nail; _fugol_, fowl. _Gear_, year; _geong_, young. _Finger_, +finger; _winter_, winter; _ford_, ford. _fen_, even; _morgen_, morn. +_Monath_, month; _heofon_, heaven; _heafod_, head. _Fot_, foot; _toth_, +tooth; _boc_, book; _freond_, friend. _Modor_, mother; _fder_, father; +_dohtor_, daughter. _Sunu_, son; _wudu_, wood; _caru_, care; _denu_, +dene (valley). _Scip_, ship; _cild_, child; _ceorl_, churl; _cynn_, kin; +_ceald_, cold. Wherever a word has not become wholly obsolete, or +assumed a new termination, (_e.g._, _gifu_, gift; _morgen_, morn-ing), +it usually follows one or other of these analogies. + +The changes which the English language, as a whole, has undergone in +passing from its earlier to its later form, may best be considered under +the two heads of form and matter. + +As regards form or structure, the language has been simplified in three +separate ways. First, the nouns and adjectives have for the most part +lost their inflexions, at least so far as the cases are concerned. +Secondly, the nouns have also lost their gender. And thirdly, the verbs +have been simplified in conjugation, weak preterites being often +substituted for strong ones, and differential terminations largely lost. +On the other hand, the plural of nouns is still distinguished from the +singular by its termination in _s_, which is derived from the first +declension of Anglo-Saxon nouns, not as is often asserted, from the +Norman-French usage. In other words, all plurals have been assimilated +to this the commonest model; just as in French they have been +assimilated to the final _s_ of the third declension in Latin. A few +plurals of the other types still survive, such as _men_, _geese_, +_mice_, _sheep_, _deer_, _oxen_, _children_ and (dialectically) +_peasen_. To make up for this loss of inflexions, the language now +employs a larger number of particles, and to some extent, of +auxiliaries. Instead of _wines_, we now say _of a friend_; instead of +_wine_, we now say _to a friend_; and instead of _winum_, we now say _to +friends_. English, in short, has almost ceased to be inflexional and has +become analytic. + +As regards matter or vocabulary, the language has lost in certain +directions, and gained in others. It has lost many old Teutonic roots, +such as _wig_, war; _rice_, kingdom; _tungol_, light; with their +derivatives, _wigend_, warrior; _rixian_, to rule; _tungol-witega_, +astrologer; and so forth. The relative number of such losses to the +survivals may be roughly gauged from the passages quoted above. On the +other hand, the language has gained by the incorporation of many Romance +words, shortly after the Norman Conquest, such as _place_, _voice_, +_judge_, _war_, and _royal_. Some of these have entirely superseded +native old English words. Thus the Norman-French _uncle_, _aunt_, +_cousin_, _nephew_, and _niece_, have wholly ousted their Anglo-Saxon +equivalents. In other instances the Romance words have enriched the +language with symbols for really new ideas. This is still more +strikingly the case with the direct importations from the classical +Greek and Latin which began at the period of the Renaissance. Such words +usually refer either to abstract conceptions for which the English +language had no suitable expression, or to the accurate terminology of +the advanced sciences. In every-day conversation our vocabulary is +almost entirely English; in speaking or writing upon philosophical or +scientific subjects it is largely intermixed with Romance and +Grco-Latin elements. On the whole, though it is to be regretted that +many strong, vigorous or poetical old Teutonic roots should have been +allowed to fall into disuse, it may safely be asserted that our gains +have far more than outbalanced our losses in this respect. + +It must never be forgotten, however, that the whole framework of our +language still remains, in every case, purely English--that is to say, +Anglo-Saxon or Low Dutch--however many foreign elements may happen to +enter into its vocabulary. We can frame many sentences without using one +word of Romance or classical origin: we cannot frame a single sentence +without using words of English origin. The Authorised Version of the +Bible, "The Pilgrim's Progress," and such poems as Tennyson's "Dora," +consist almost entirely of Teutonic elements. Even when the vocabulary +is largely classical, as in Johnson's "Rasselas" and some parts of +"Paradise Lost," the grammatical structure, the prepositions, the +pronouns, the auxiliary verbs, and the connecting particles, are all +necessarily and purely English. Two examples will suffice to make this +principle perfectly clear. In the first, which is the most familiar +quotation from Shakespeare, all the words of foreign origin have been +printed in italics:-- + + To be, or not to be,--that is the _question_: + Whether 'tis _nobler_ in the mind to _suffer_ + The slings and arrows of _outrageous fortune_; + Or to take _arms_ against a sea of _troubles_, + And, by _opposing_, end them? To die,--to sleep,-- + No more; and, by a sleep, to say we end + The heart-ache, and the thousand _natural_ shocks + That flesh is _heir_ to,--'tis a _consummation_ + _Devoutly_ to be wished. To die,--to sleep;-- + To sleep! _perchance_ to dream: ay, there's the rub + For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, + When we have shuffled off this _mortal_ coil, + Must give us _pause_: there's the _respect_ + That makes _calamity_ of so long life; + For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, + The _oppressor's_ wrong, the proud man's _contumely_, + The _pangs_ of _despised_ love, the law's _delay_, + The _insolence_ of _office_, and the _spurns_ + That _patient merit_ of the unworthy takes, + When he himself might his _quietus_ make + With a bare bodkin? + +Here, out of 167 words, we find only 28 of foreign origin; and even +these are Englished in their terminations or adjuncts. _Noble_ is +Norman-French; but the comparative _nobler_ stamps it with the Teutonic +mark. _Oppose_ is Latin; but the participle _opposing_ is true English. +_Devout_ is naturalised by the native adverbial termination, _devoutly_. +_Oppressor's_ and _despised_ take English inflexions. The formative +elements, _or_, _not_, _that_, _the_, _in_, _and_, _by_, _we_, and the +rest, are all English. The only complete sentence which we could frame +of wholly Latin words would be an imperative standing alone, as, +"Observe," and even this would be English in form. + +On the other hand, we may take the following passage from Mr. Herbert +Spencer as a specimen of the largely Latinised vocabulary needed for +expressing the exact ideas of science or philosophy. Here also borrowed +words are printed in italics:-- + +"The _constitution_ which we _assign_ to this _etherial medium_, +however, like the _constitution_ we _assign_ to _solid substance_, is +_necessarily_ an _abstract_ of the _impressions received_ from +_tangible_ bodies. The _opposition_ to _pressure_ which a _tangible_ +body _offers_ to us is not shown in one _direction_ only, but in all +_directions_; and so likewise is its _tenacity_. _Suppose countless +lines radiating_ from its _centre_ on every side, and it _resists_ along +each of these _lines_ and _coheres_ along each of these _lines_. Hence +the _constitution_ of those _ultimate units_ through the +_instrumentality_ of which _phenomena_ are _interpreted_. Be they +_atoms_ of _ponderable matter_ or _molecules_ of _ether_, the +_properties_ we _conceive_ them to _possess_ are nothing else than these +_perceptible properties idealised_." + +In this case, out of 122 words we find no less than 46 are of foreign +origin. Though this large proportion sufficiently shows the amount of +our indebtedness to the classical languages for our abstract or +specialised scientific terms, the absolutely indisputable nature of the +English substratum remains clearly evident. The tongue which we use +to-day is enriched by valuable loan words from many separate sources; +but it is still as it has always been, English and nothing else. It is +the self-same speech with the tongue of the Sleswick pirates and the +West Saxon over-lords. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +ANGLO-SAXON NOMENCLATURE. + + +Perhaps nothing tends more to repel the modern English student from the +early history of his country than the very unfamiliar appearance of the +personal names which he meets before the Norman Conquest. There can be +no doubt that such a shrinking from the first stages of our national +annals does really exist; and it seems to be largely due to this very +superficial and somewhat unphilosophical cause. Before the Norman +invasion, the modern Englishman finds himself apparently among complete +foreigners, in the thelwulfs, the Eadgyths, the Oswius, and the +Seaxburhs of the Chronicle; while he hails the Norman invaders, the +Johns, Henrys, Williams, and Roberts, of the period immediately +succeeding the conquest, as familiar English friends. The contrast can +scarcely be better given than in the story told about thelred's Norman +wife. Her name was Ymma, or Emma; but the English of that time murmured +against such an outlandish sound, and so the Lady received a new English +name as lfgifu. At the present day our nomenclature has changed so +utterly that Emma sounds like ordinary English, while lfgifu sounds +like a wholly foreign word. The incidental light thrown upon our history +by the careful study of personal names is indeed so valuable that a few +remarks upon the subject seem necessary in order to complete our hasty +survey of Anglo-Saxon Britain. + +During the very earliest period when we catch a glimpse of the English +people on the Continent or in eastern Britain, a double system of naming +seems to have prevailed, not wholly unlike our modern plan of Christian +and surname. The clan name was appended to the personal one. A man was +apparently described as Wulf the Holting, or as Creoda the scing. The +clan names were in many cases common to the English and the Continental +Teutons. Thus we find Helsings in the English Helsington and the Swedish +Helsingland; Harlings in the English Harlingham and the Frisian +Harlingen; and Bleccings in the English Bletchingley and the +Scandinavian Bleckingen. Our Thyrings at Thorrington answer, perhaps, to +the Thuringians; our Myrgings at Merrington to the Frankish Merwings or +Merovingians; our Wrings at Warrington to the Norse Vringjar or +Varangians. At any rate, the clan organization was one common to both +great branches of the Teutonic stock, and it has left its mark deeply +upon our modern nomenclature, both in England and in Germany. Mr. Kemble +has enumerated nearly 200 clan names found in early English charters and +documents, besides over 600 others inferred from local names in England +at the present day. Taking one letter of the alphabet alone, his list +includes the Glstings, Geddings, Gumenings, Gustings, Getings, +Grundlings, Gildlings, and Gillings, from documentary evidence; and the +Grsings, Gestings, Geofonings, Goldings, and Garings, with many +others, from the inferential evidence of existing towns and villages. + +The personal names of the earliest period are in many cases +untranslateable--that is to say, as with the first stratum of Greek +names, they bear no obvious meaning in the language as we know it. +Others are names of animals or natural objects. Unlike the later +historical cognomens, they each consist, as a rule, of a single element, +not of two elements in composition. Such are the names which we get in +the narrative of the colonization and in the mythical genealogies; +Hengest, Horsa, sc, lle, Cymen, Cissa, Bieda, Mgla; Ceol, Penda, +Offa, Blecca; Esla, Gewis, Wig, Brand, and so forth. A few of these +names (such as Penda and Offa), are undoubtedly historical; but of the +rest, some seem to be etymological blunders, like Port and Wihtgar; +others to be pure myths, like Wig and Brand; and others, again, to be +doubtfully true, like Cerdic, Cissa, and Bieda, eponyms, perhaps, of +Cerdices-ford, Cissan-ceaster, and Biedan-heafod. + +In the truly historical age, the clan system seems to have died out, and +each person bore, as a rule, only a single personal name. These names +are almost invariably compounded of two elements, and the elements thus +employed were comparatively few in number. Thus, we get the root +_thel_, noble, as the first half in thelred, thelwulf, thelberht, +thelstan, and thelbald. Again, the root _ead_, rich, or powerful, +occurs in Eadgar, Eadred, Eadward, Eadwine, and Eadwulf. _lf_, an elf, +forms the prime element in lfred, lfric, lfwine, lfward, and +lfstan. These were the favourite names of the West-Saxon royal house; +the Northumbrian kings seem rather to have affected the syllable _os_, +divine, as in Oswald, Oswiu, Osric, Osred, and Oslaf. _Wine_, friend, is +a favourite termination found in scwine, Eadwine, thelwine, Oswine, +and lfwine, whose meanings need no further explanation. _Wulf_ appears +as the first half in Wulfstan, Wulfric, Wulfred, and Wulfhere; while it +forms the second half in thelwulf, Eadwulf, Ealdwulf, and Cenwulf. +_Beorht_, _berht_, or _briht_, bright, or glorious, appears in +Beorhtric, Beorhtwulf, Brihtwald; thelberht, Ealdbriht, and Eadbyrht. +_Burh_, a fortress, enters into many female names, as Eadburh, +thelburh, Sexburh, and Wihtburh. As a rule, a certain number of +syllables seem to have been regarded as proper elements for forming +personal names, and to have been combined somewhat fancifully, without +much regard to the resulting meaning. The following short list of such +elements, in addition to the roots given above, will suffice to explain +most of the names mentioned in this work. + +_Helm_: helmet. +_Gar_: spear. +_Gifu_: gift. +_Here_: army. +_Sige_: victory. +_Cyne_: royal. +_Leof_: dear. +_Wig_: war. +_Stan_: stone. +_Eald_: old, venerable. +_Weard_, _ward_: ward, protection. +_Red_: counsel. +_Eeg_: edge, sword. +_Theod_: people, nation. + +By combining these elements with those already given most of the royal +or noble names in use in early England were obtained. + +With the people, however, it would seem that shorter and older forms +were still in vogue. The following document, the original of which is +printed in Kemble's collection, represents the pedigree of a serf, and +is interesting, both as showing the sort of names in use among the +servile class, and the care with which their family relationships were +recorded, in order to preserve the rights of their lord. + + Dudda was a boor at Hatfield, and he had three daughters: + one hight Deorwyn, the other Deorswith, the third Golde. And + Wulflaf at Hatfield has Deorwyn to wife. lfstan, at + Tatchingworth, has Deorswith to wife: and Ealhstan, + lfstan's brother, has Golde to wife. There was a man hight + Hwita, bee-master at Hatfield, and he had a daughter Tate, + mother of Wulfsige, the bowman; and Wulfsige's sister Lulle + has Hehstan to wife, at Walden. Wifus and Dunne and Seoloce + are inborn at Hatfield. Duding, son of Wifus, lives at + Walden; and Ceolmund, Dunne's son, also sits at Walden; and + thelheah, Seoloce's son, also sits at Walden. And Tate, + Cenwold's sister, Mg has to wife at Welgun; and Eadhelm, + Herethryth's son, has Tate's daughter to wife. Wrlaf, + Wrstan's father, was a right serf at Hatfield; he kept the + grey swine there. + +In the west, and especially in Cornwall, the names of the serfs were +mainly Celtic,--Griffith, Modred, Riol, and so forth,--as may be seen +from the list of manumissions preserved in a mass-book at St. Petroc's, +or Padstow. Elsewhere, however, the Celtic names seem to have dropped +out, for the most part, with the Celtic language. It is true, we meet +with cases of apparently Welsh forms, like Maccus, or Rum, even in +purely Teutonic districts; and some names, such as Cerdic and Ceadwalla, +seem to have been borrowed by one race from the other: while such forms +as Wealtheow and Waltheof are at least suggestive of British descent: +but on the whole, the conquered Britons appear everywhere to have +quickly adopted the names in vogue among their conquerors. Such names +would doubtless be considered fashionable, as was the case at a later +date with those introduced by the Danes and the Normans. Even in +Cornwall a good many English forms occur among the serfs: while in very +Celtic Devonshire, English names were probably universal. + +The Danish Conquest introduced a number of Scandinavian names, +especially in the North, the consideration of which belongs rather to a +companion volume. They must be briefly noted here, however, to prevent +confusion with the genuine English forms. Amongst such Scandinavian +introductions, the commonest are perhaps Harold, Swegen or Swend, Ulf, +Gorm or Guthrum, Orm, Yric or Eric, Cnut, and Ulfcytel. During and after +the time of the Danish dynasty, these forms, rendered fashionable by +royal usage, became very general even among the native English. Thus +Earl Godwine's sons bore Scandinavian names; and at an earlier period we +even find persons, apparently Scandinavian, fighting on the English side +against the Danes in East Anglia. + +But the sequel to the Norman Conquest shows us most clearly how the +whole nomenclature of a nation may be entirely altered without any large +change of race. Immediately after the Conquest the native English names +begin to disappear, and in their place we get a crop of Williams, +Walters, Rogers, Henries, Ralphs, Richards, Gilberts, and Roberts. Most +of these were originally High German forms, taken into Gaul by the +Franks, borrowed from them by the Normans, and then copied by the +English from their foreign lords. A few, however, such as Arthur, Owen, +and Alan, were Breton Welsh. Side by side with these French names, the +Normans introduced the Scriptural forms, John, Matthew, Thomas, Simon, +Stephen, Piers or Peter, and James; for though a few cases of Scriptural +names occur in the earlier history--for example, St. John of Beverley +and Daniel, bishop of the West Saxons--these are always borne by +ecclesiastics, probably as names of religion. All through the middle +ages, and down to very recent times, the vast majority of English men +and women continued to bear these baptismal names of Norman +introduction. Only two native English forms practically survived--Edward +and Edmund--owing to mere accidents of royal favour. They were the names +of two great English saints, Eadward the Confessor and Eadmund of East +Anglia; and Henry III. bestowed them upon his two sons, Edward I. and +Edmund of Lancaster. In this manner they became adopted into the royal +and fashionable circle, and so were perpetuated to our own day. All the +others died out in medival times, while the few old forms now current, +such as Alfred, Edgar, Athelstane, and Edwin, are mere artificial +revivals of the two last centuries. If we were to judge by nomenclature +alone, we might almost fancy that the Norman Conquest had wholly +extinguished the English people. + +A few steps towards the adoption of surnames were taken even before the +Conquest. Titles of office were usually placed after the personal name, +as lfred King, Lilla Thegn, Wulfnoth Cild, lfward Bishop, thelberht +Ealdorman, and Harold Earl. Double names occasionally occur, the second +being a nickname or true surname, as Osgod Clapa, Benedict Biscop, +Thurkytel Myranheafod, Godwine Bace, and lfric Cerm. Trade names are +also found, as Ecceard smith, or Godwig boor. Everywhere, but especially +in the Danish North, patronymics were in common use; for example, Harold +Godwine's son, or Thored Gunnor's son. In all these cases we get +surnames in the germ; but their general and official adoption dates from +after the Norman Conquest. + +Local nomenclature also demands a short explanation. Most of the Roman +towns continued to be called by their Roman names: Londinium, Lunden, +London; Eburacum, Eoforwic, Eurewic, York; Lindum Colonia, Lincolne, +Lincoln. Often _ceaster_, from _castrum_, was added: Gwent, Venta +Belgarum, Wintan-ceaster, Winteceaster, Winchester; Isca, Exan-ceaster, +Execestre, Exeter; Corinium, Cyren-ceaster, Cirencester. Almost every +place which is known to have had a name at the English Conquest retained +that name afterwards, in a more or less clipped or altered form. +Examples are Kent, Wight, Devon, Dorset; Manchester, Lancaster, +Doncaster, Leicester, Gloucester, Worcester, Colchester, Silchester, +Uttoxeter, Wroxeter, and Chester; Thames, Severn, Ouse, Don, Aire, +Derwent, Swale, and Tyne. Even where the Roman name is now lost, as at +Pevensey, the old form was retained in Early English days; for the +"Chronicle" calls it Andredes-ceaster, that is to say, Anderida. So the +old name of Bath is Akemannes-ceaster, derived from the Latin _Aqua_, +Cissan-ceaster, Chichester, forms an almost solitary exception. +Canterbury, or Cant-wara-byrig, was correctly known as Dwrovernum or +Doroberna in Latin documents of the Anglo-Saxon period. + +On the other hand, the true English towns which grew up around the +strictly English settlements, bore names of three sorts. The first were +the clan villages, the _hams_ or _tuns_, such as Bnesingatun, +Bensington; Snotingaham, Nottingham; Glstingabyrig, Glastonbury; and +Wringwica, Warwick. These have already been sufficiently illustrated; +and they were situated, for the most part, in the richest agricultural +lowlands. The second were towns which grew up slowly for purposes of +trade by fords of rivers or at ports: such are Oxeneford, Oxford; +Bedcanford, Bedford (a British town); Stretford, Stratford; and +Wealingaford, Wallingford. The third were the towns which grew up in the +wastes and wealds, with names of varied form but more modern origin. As +a whole, it may be said that during the entire early English period the +names of cities were mostly Roman, the names of villages and country +towns were mostly English. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE. + + +Nothing better illustrates the original peculiarities and subsequent +development of the early English mind than the Anglo-Saxon literature. A +vast mass of manuscripts has been preserved for us, embracing works in +prose and verse of the most varied kind; and all the most important of +these have been made accessible to modern readers in printed copies. +They cast a flood of light upon the workings of the English mind in all +ages, from the old pagan period in Sleswick to the date of the Norman +Conquest, and the subsequent gradual supplanting of our native +literature by a new culture based upon the Romance models. + +All national literature everywhere begins with rude songs. From the +earliest period at which the English and Saxon people existed as +separate tribes at all, we may be sure that they possessed battle-songs, +like those common to the whole Aryan stock. But among the Teutonic races +poetry was not distinguished by either of the peculiarities--rime or +metre--which mark off modern verse from prose, so far as its external +form is concerned. Our existing English system of versification is not +derived from our old native poetry at all; it is a development of the +Romance system, adopted by the school of Gower and Chaucer from the +French and Italian poets. Its metre, or syllabic arrangement, is an +adaptation from the Greek quantitative prosody, handed down through +Latin and the neo-Latin dialects; its rime is a Celtic peculiarity +borrowed by the Romance nationalities, and handed on through them to +modern English literature by the Romance school of the fourteenth +century. Our original English versification, on the other hand, was +neither rimed nor rhythmic. What answered to metre was a certain +irregular swing, produced by a roughly recurrent number of accents in +each couplet, without restriction as to the number of feet or syllables. +What answered to rime was a regular and marked alliteration, each +couplet having a certain key-letter, with which three principal words in +the couplet began. In addition to these two poetical devices, +Anglo-Saxon verse shows traces of parallelism, similar to that which +distinguishes Hebrew poetry. But the alliteration and parallelism do not +run quite side by side, the second half of each alliterative couplet +being parallel with the first half of the next couplet. Accordingly, +each new sentence begins somewhat clumsily in the middle of the couplet. +All these peculiarities are not, however, always to be distinguished in +every separate poem. + +The following rough translation of a very early Teutonic spell for the +cure of a sprained ankle, belonging to the heathen period, will +illustrate the earliest form of this alliterative verse. The key-letter +in each couplet is printed in capitals, and the verse is read from end +to end, not as two separate columns.[1] + + Balder and Woden Went to the Woodland: + There Balder's Foal Fell, wrenching its Foot. + Then Sinthgunt beguiled him, and Sunna her Sister: + Then Frua beguiled him, and Folla her sister, + Then Woden beguiled him, as Well he knew how; + Wrench of blood, Wrench of bone, and eke Wrench of limb: + Bone unto Bone, Blood unto Blood, + Limb unto Limb as though Limd it were. + + [1] The original of this heathen charm is in the Old High + German dialect; but it is quoted here as a good specimen of + the early form of alliterative verse. A similar charm + undoubtedly existed in Anglo-Saxon, though no copy of it has + come down to our days, as we possess a modernised and + Christianised English version, in which the name of our Lord + is substituted for that of Balder. + +In this simple spell the alliteration serves rather as an aid to memory +than as an ornamental device. The following lines, translated from the +ballad on thelstan's victory at Brunanburh, in 937, will show the +developed form of the same versificatory system. The parallelism and +alliteration are here well marked:-- + + thelstan king, lord of Earls, + Bestower of Bracelets, and his Brother eke, + Eadmund the theling, honour Eternal + Won in the Slaughter, with edge of the Sword + By Brunnanbury. The Bucklers they clave, + Hewed the Helmets, with Hammered steel, + Heirs of Edward, as was their Heritage, + From their Fore-Fathers, that oft the Field + They should Guard their Good folk Gainst every comer, + Their Home and their Hoard. The Hated foe cringed to them, + The Scottish Sailors, and the Northern Shipmen; + Fated they Fell. The Field lay gory + With Swordsmen's blood Since the Sun rose + On Morning tide a Mighty globe, + To Glide o'er the Ground, God's candle bright, + The endless Lord's taper, till the great Light + Sank to its Setting. There Soldiers lay, + Warriors Wounded, Northern Wights, + Shot over Shields; and so Scotsmen eke, + Wearied with War. The West Saxon onwards, + The Live-Long day in Linkd order + Followed the Footsteps of the Foul Foe. + +Of course no songs of the old heathen period were committed to writing +either in Sleswick or in Britain. The minstrels who composed them taught +them by word of mouth to their pupils, and so handed them down from +generation to generation, much as the Achan rhapsodists handed down the +Homeric poems. Nevertheless, two or three such old songs were afterwards +written out in Christian Northumbria or Wessex; and though their +heathendom has been greatly toned down by the transcribers, enough +remains to give us a graphic glimpse of the fierce and gloomy old +English nature which we could not otherwise obtain. One fragment, known +as the _Fight at Finnesburh_ (rescued from a book-cover into which it +had been pasted), probably dates back before the colonisation of +Britain, and closely resembles in style the above-quoted ode. Two other +early pieces, the _Traveller's Song_ and the _Lament of Deor_, are +inserted from pagan tradition in a book of later devotional poems +preserved at Exeter. But the great epic of _Beowulf_, a work composed +when the English and the Danes were still living in close connexion with +one another by the shores of the Baltic, has been handed down to us +entire, thanks to the kind intervention of some Northumbrian monk, who, +by Christianising the most flagrantly heathen portions, has saved the +entire work from the fate which would otherwise have overtaken it. As a +striking representation of early English life and thought, this great +epic deserves a fuller description.[2] + + [2] It is right to state, however, that many scholars regard + _Beowulf_ as a late translation from a Danish original. + +_Beowulf_ is written in the same short alliterative metre as that of the +Brunanburh ballad, and takes its name from its hero, a servant or +companion of the mighty Hygelac, king of the Geatas (Jutes or Goths). At +a distance from his home lay the kingdom of the Scyldings, a Danish +tribe, ruled over by Hrothgar. There stood Heorot, the high hall of +heroes, the greatest mead-house ever raised. But the land of the Danes +was haunted by a terrible fiend, known as Grendel, who dwelt in a dark +fen in the forest belt, girt round with shadows and lit up at eve by +flitting flames. Every night Grendel came forth and carried off some of +the Danes to devour in his home. The description of the monster himself +and of the marshland where he had his lair is full of that weird and +gloomy superstition which everywhere darkens and overshadows the life +of the savage and the heathen barbarian. The terror inspired in the rude +English mind by the mark and the woodland, the home of wild beasts and +of hostile ghosts, of deadly spirits and of fierce enemies, gleams +luridly through every line. The fen and the forest are dim and dark; +will-o'-the-wisps flit above them, and gloom closes them in; wolves and +wild boars lurk there, the quagmire opens its jaws and swallows the +horse and his rider; the foeman comes through it to bring fire and +slaughter to the clan-village at the dead of night. To these real +terrors and dangers of the mark are added the fancied ones of +superstition. There the terrible forms begotten of man's vague dread of +the unknown--elves and nickors and fiends--have their murky +dwelling-place. The atmosphere of the strange old heathen epic is +oppressive in its gloominess. Nevertheless, its poetry sometimes rises +to a height of great, though barbaric, sublimity. Beowulf himself, +hearing of the evil wrought by Grendel, set sail from his home for the +land of the Danes. Hrothgar received him kindly, and entertained him and +his Goths with ale and song in Heorot. Wealtheow, Hrothgar's queen, +gold-decked, served them with mead. But when all had retired to rest on +the couches of the great hall, in the murky night, Grendel came. He +seized and slew one of Beowulf's companions. Then the warrior of the +Goths followed the monster, and wounded him sorely with his hands. +Grendel fled to his lair to die. But after the contest, Grendel's +mother, a no less hateful creature--the "Devil's dam" of our medival +legends--carries on the war against the slayer of her son. Beowulf +descends to her home beneath the water, grapples with her in her cave, +turns against her the weapons he finds there, and is again victorious. +The Goths return to their own country laden with gifts by Hrothgar. +After the death of Hygelac, Beowulf succeeds to the kingship of the +Geatas, whom he rules well and prosperously for many years. At length a +mysterious being, named the Fire Drake, a sort of dragon guarding a +hidden treasure, some of which has been stolen while its guardian +sleeps, comes out to slaughter his people. The old hero buckles on his +rune-covered sword again, and goes forth to battle with the monster. He +slays it, indeed, but is blasted by its fiery breath, and dies after the +encounter. His companions light his pyre upon a lofty spit of land +jutting out into the winter sea. Weapons and jewels and drinking bowls, +taken from the Fire Drake's treasure, were thrown into the tomb for the +use of the ghost in the other world; and a mighty barrow was raised upon +the spot to be a beacon far and wide to seafaring men. So ends the great +heathen epic. It gives us the most valuable picture which we possess of +the daily life led by our pagan forefathers. + +But though these poems are the oldest in tone, they are not the oldest +in form of all that we possess. It is probable that the most primitive +Anglo-Saxon verse was identical with prose, and consisted merely of +sentences bound together by parallelism. As alliteration, at first a +mere _memoria technica_, became an ornamental adjunct, and grew more +developed, the parallelism gradually dropped out. Gnomes or short +proverbs of this character were in common use, and they closely +resembled the medival proverbs current in England to the present day. + +With the introduction of Christianity, English verse took a new +direction. It was chiefly occupied in devotional and sacred poetry, or +rather, such poems only have come down to us, as the monks transcribed +them alone, leaving the half-heathen war-songs of the minstrels attached +to the great houses to die out unwritten. The first piece of English +literature which we can actually date is a fragment of the great +religious epic of Cdmon, written about the year 670. Cdmon was a poor +brother in Hild's monastery at Whitby, and he acquired the art of poetry +by a miracle. Northumbria, in the sixth and seventh centuries, took the +lead in Teutonic Britain; and all the early literature is Northumbrian, +as all the later literature is West Saxon. Cdmon's poem consisted in a +paraphrase of the Bible history, from the Creation to the Ascension. The +idea of a translation of the Bible from Latin into English would never +have occurred to any one at that early time. English had as yet no +literary form into which it could be thrown. But Cdmon conceived the +notion of paraphrasing the Bible story in the old alliterative Teutonic +verse, which was familiar to his hearers in songs like _Beowulf_. Some +of the brethren translated or interpreted for him portions of the +Vulgate, and he threw them into rude metre. Only a single short excerpt +has come down to us in the original form. There is a later complete +epic, however, also attributed to Cdmon, of the same scope and purport; +and it retains so much of the old heathen spirit that it may very +possibly represent a modernised version of the real Cdmon's poem, by a +reviser in the ninth century. At any rate, the latter work may be +treated here under the name of Cdmon, by which it is universally known. +It consists of a long Scriptural paraphrase, written in the alliterative +metre, short, sharp, and decisive, but not without a wild and passionate +beauty of its own. In tone it differs wonderfully little from _Beowulf_, +being most at home in the war of heaven and Satan, and in the titanic +descriptions of the devils and their deeds. The conduct of the poem is +singularly like that of _Paradise Lost_. Its wild and rapid stanzas show +how little Christianity had yet moulded the barbaric nature of the +newly-converted English. The epic is essentially a war-song; the Hebrew +element is far stronger than the Christian; hell takes the place of +Grendel's mere; and, to borrow Mr. Green's admirable phrase, "the verses +fall like sword-strokes in the thick of battle." + +In all these works we get the genuine native English note, the wild song +of a pirate race, shaped in early minstrelsy for celebrating the deeds +of gods and warriors, and scarcely half-adapted afterward to the not +wholly alien tone of the oldest Hebrew Scriptures. But the Latin +schools, set up by the Italian monks, introduced into England a totally +new and highly-developed literature. The pagan Anglo-Saxons had not +advanced beyond the stage of ballads; they had no history, or other +prose literature of their own, except, perhaps, a few traditional +genealogical lists, mostly mythical, and adapted to an artificial +grouping by eights and forties. The Roman missionaries brought over the +Roman works, with their developed historical and philosophical style; +and the change induced in England by copying these originals was as +great as the change would now be from the rude Polynesian myths and +ballads to a history of Polynesia written in English, and after English +prototypes, by a native convert. In fact, the Latin language was almost +as important to the new departure as the Latin models. While the old +English literary form, restricted entirely to poetry, was unfitted for +any serious narrative or any reflective work, the old English tongue, +suited only to the practical needs of a rude warrior race, was unfitted +for the expression of any but the simplest and most material ideas. It +is true, the vocabulary was copious, especially in terms for natural +objects, and it was far richer than might be expected even in words +referring to mental states and emotions; but in the expression of +abstract ideas, and in idioms suitable for philosophical discussion, it +remained still, of course, very deficient. Hence the new serious +literature was necessarily written entirely in the Latin language, which +alone possessed the words and modes of speech fitted for its +development; but to exclude it on that account from the consideration of +Anglo-Saxon literature, as many writers have done, would be an absurd +affectation. The Latin writings of Englishmen are an integral part of +English thought, and an important factor in the evolution of English +culture. Gradually, as English monks grew to read Latin from generation +to generation, they invented corresponding compounds in their own +language for the abstract words of the southern tongue; and therefore by +the beginning of the eleventh century, the West Saxon speech of lfred +and his successors had grown into a comparatively wealthy dialect, +suitable for the expression of many ideas unfamiliar to the rude pirates +and farmers of Sleswick and East Anglia. Thus, in later days, a rich +vernacular literature grew up with many distinct branches. But, in the +earlier period, the use of a civilised idiom for all purposes connected +with the higher civilisation introduced by the missionaries was +absolutely necessary; and so we find the codes of laws, the penitentials +of the Church, the charters, and the prose literature generally, almost +all written at first in Latin alone. Gradually, as the English tongue +grew fuller, we find it creeping into use for one after another of these +purposes; but to the last an educated Anglo-Saxon could express himself +far more accurately and philosophically in the cultivated tongue of Rome +than in the rough dialect of his Teutonic countrymen. We have only to +contrast the bald and meagre style of the "English Chronicle," written +in the mother-tongue, with the fulness and ease of Bda's +"Ecclesiastical History," written two centuries earlier in Latin, in +order to see how great an advantage the rough Northumbrians of the early +Christian period obtained in the gift of an old and polished instrument +for conveying to one another their higher thoughts. + +Of this new literature (which began with the Latin biography of Wilfrith +by ddi or Eddius, and the Latin verses of Ealdhelm) the great +representative is, in fact, Bda, whose life has already been +sufficiently described in an earlier chapter. Living at Jarrow, a +Benedictine monastery of the strictest type, in close connection with +Rome, and supplied with Roman works in abundance, Bda had thoroughly +imbibed the spirit of the southern culture, and his books reflect for us +a true picture of the English barbarian toned down and almost +obliterated in all distinctive features by receptivity for Italian +civilisation. The Northumbrian kingdom had just passed its prime in his +days; and he was able to record the early history of the English Church +and People with something like Roman breadth of view. His scientific +knowledge was up to that of his contemporaries abroad; while his +somewhat childish tales of miracles and visions, though they often +betray traces of the old heathen spirit, were not below the average +level of European thought in his own day. Altogether, Bda may be taken +as a fair specimen of the Romanised Englishman, alike in his strength +and in his weakness. The samples of his historical style already given +will suffice for illustration of his Latin works; but it must not be +forgotten that he was also one of the first writers to try his hand at +regular English prose in his translation of St. John's Gospel. A few +English verses from his lips have also come down to us, breathing the +old Teutonic spirit more deeply than might be expected from his other +works. + +During the interval between the Northumbrian and West Saxon +supremacies--the interval embraced by the eighth century, and covered by +the greatness of Mercia under thelbald and Offa--we have few remains of +English literature. The laws of Ine the West Saxon, and of Offa the +Mercian, with the Penitentials of the Church, and the Charters, form the +chief documents. But England gained no little credit for learning from +the works of two Englishmen who had taken up their abode in the old +Germanic kingdom: Boniface or Winfrith, the apostle of the heathen +Teutons subjugated by the Franks, and Alcuin (Ealhwine), the famous +friend and secretary of Karl the Great. Many devotional Anglo-Saxon +poems, of various dates, are kept for us in the two books preserved at +Exeter, and at Vercelli in North Italy. Amongst them are some by +Cynewulf, perhaps the most genuinely poetical of all the early minstrels +after Cdmon. The following lines, taken from the beginning of his poem +"The Phoenix" (a transcript from Lactantius), will sufficiently +illustrate his style:-- + + I have heard that hidden Afar from hence + On the east of earth Is a fairest isle, + Lovely and famous. The lap of that land + May not be reached By many mortals, + Dwellers on earth; But it is divided + Through the might of the Maker From all misdoers. + Fair is the field, Full happy and glad, + Filled with the sweetest Scented flowers. + Unique is that island, Almighty the worker + Mickle of might Who moulded that land. + There oft lieth open To the eyes of the blest, + With happiest harmony, The gate of heaven. + Winsome its woods And its fair green wolds, + Roomy with reaches. No rain there nor snow, + Nor breath of frost, Nor fiery blast, + Nor summer's heat, Nor scattered sleet, + Nor fall of hail, Nor hoary rime, + Nor weltering weather, Nor wintry shower, + Falleth on any; But the field resteth + Ever in peace, And the princely land + Bloometh with blossoms. Berg there nor mount + Standeth not steep, Nor stony crag + High lifteth the head, As here with us, + Nor vale, nor dale, Nor deep-caverned down, + Hollows or hills; Nor hangeth aloft + Aught of unsmooth; But ever the plain, + Basks in the beam, Joyfully blooming. + Twelve fathoms taller Towereth that land + (As quoth in their writs Many wise men) + Than ever a berg That bright among mortals + High lifteth the head Among heaven's stars. + +Two noteworthy points may be marked in this extract. Its feeling for +natural scenery is quite different from the wild sublimity of the +descriptions of nature in _Beowulf_. Cynewulf's verse is essentially the +verse of an agriculturist; it looks with disfavour upon mountains and +rugged scenes, while its ideal is one of peaceful tillage. The monk +speaks out in it as cultivator and dreamer. Its tone is wholly different +from that of the Brunanburh ballad or the other fierce war-songs. +Moreover, it contains one or two rimes, preserved in this translation, +whose full significance will be pointed out hereafter. + +The anarchy of Northumbria, and still more the Danish inroads, put an +end to the literary movement in the North and the Midlands; but the +struggle in Wessex gave new life to the West Saxon people. Under lfred, +Winchester became the centre of English thought. But the West Saxon +literature is almost entirely written in English, not in Latin; a fact +which marks the progressive development of vocabulary and idiom in the +native tongue. lfred himself did much to encourage literature, inviting +over learned men from the continent, and founding schools for the West +Saxon youth in his dwarfed dominions. Most of the Winchester works are +attributed to his own pen, though doubtless he was largely aided by his +advisers, and amongst others by Asser, his Welsh secretary and Bishop of +Sherborne. They comprise translations into the Anglo-Saxon of Bothius +_de Consolatione_, the Universal History of Orosius, Bda's +Ecclesiastical History, and Pope Gregory's _Regula Pastoralis_. But the +fact that lfred still has recourse to Roman originals, marks the stage +of civilisation as yet mainly imitative; while the interesting passages +intercalated by the king himself show that the beginnings of a really +native prose literature were already taking shape in English hands. + +The chief monument of this truly Anglo-Saxon literature, begun and +completed by English writers in the English tongue alone, is the +Chronicle. That invaluable document, the oldest history of any Teutonic +race in its own language, was probably first compiled at the court of +lfred. Its earlier part consists of mere royal genealogies of the +first West Saxon kings, together with a few traditions of the +colonisation, and some excerpts from Bda. But with the reign of +thelwulf, lfred's father, it becomes comparatively copious, though its +records still remain dry and matter-of-fact, a bare statement of facts, +without comment or emotional display. The following extract, giving the +account of lfred's death, will show its meagre nature. The passage has +been modernised as little as is consistent with its intelligibility at +the present day:-- + + An. 901. Here died lfred thulfing [thelwulfing--the son + of thelwulf], six nights ere All Hallow Mass. He was king + over all English-kin, bar that deal that was under Danish + weald [dominion]; and he held that kingdom three half-years + less than thirty winters. There came Eadward his son to the + rule. And there seized thelwold theling, his father's + brother's son, the ham [villa] at Winburne [Wimbourne], and + at Tweoxneam [Christchurch], by the king's unthank and his + witan's [without leave from the king]. There rode the king + with his fyrd till he reached Badbury against Winburne. And + thelwold sat within the ham, with the men that to him had + bowed, and he had forwrought [obstructed] all the gates in, + and said that he would either there live or there lie. + Thereupon rode the theling on night away, and sought the + [Danish] host in Northumbria, and they took him for king and + bowed to him. And the king bade ride after him, but they + could not outride him. Then beset man the woman that he had + erst taken without the king's leave, and against the + bishop's word, for that she was ere that hallowed a nun. And + on this ilk year forth-fared thelred (he was ealdorman on + Devon) four weeks ere lfred king. + +During the Augustan age the Chronicle grows less full, but contains +several fine war-songs, of the genuine old English type, full of +savagery in sentiment, and abrupt or broken in manner, but marked by the +same wild poetry and harsh inversions as the older heathen ballads. +Amongst them stand the lines on the fight of Brunanburh, whose exordium +is quoted above. Its close forms one of the finest passages in old +English verse:-- + + Behind them they Left, the Lych to devour, + The Sallow kite and the Swart raven, + Horny of beak,-- and Him, the dusk-coated, + The white-afted Erne, the corse to Enjoy, + The Greedy war-hawk, and that Grey beast, + The Wolf of the Wood. No such Woeful slaughter + Aye on this Island Ever hath been, + By edge of the Sword, as book Sayeth, + Writers of Eld, since of Eastward hither + English and Saxons Sailed over Sea, + O'er the Broad Brine,-- landed in Britain, + Proud Workers of War, and o'ercame the Welsh, + Earls Eager of fame, Obtaining this Earth. + +During the decadence, in the disastrous reign of thelred, the Chronicle +regains its fulness, and the following passage may be taken as a good +specimen of its later style. It shows the approach to comment and +reflection, as the compilers grew more accustomed to historical writing +in their own tongue:-- + + An. 1009. Here on this year were the ships ready of which we + ere spake, and there were so many of them as never ere (so + far as books tell us) were made among English kin in no + king's day. And man brought them all together to Sandwich, + and there should they lie, and hold this earth against all + outlanders [foreigners'] hosts. But we had not yet the luck + nor the worship [valour] that the ship-fyrd should be of + any good to this land, no more than it oft was afore. Then + befel it at this ilk time or a little ere, that Brihtric, + Eadric's brother the ealdorman's, forwrayed [accused] + Wulfnoth child to the king: and he went out and drew unto + him twenty ships, and there harried everywhere by the south + shore, and wrought all evil. Then quoth man to the ship-fyrd + that man might easily take them, if man were about it. Then + took Brihtric to himself eighty ships and thought that he + should work himself great fame if he should get Wulfnoth, + quick or dead. But as they were thitherward, there came such + a wind against them such as no man ere minded [remembered], + and it all to-beat and to-brake the ships, and warped them + on land: and soon came Wulfnoth and for-burned the ships. + When this was couth [known] to the other ships where the + king was, how the others fared, then was it as though it + were all redeless, and the king fared him home, and the + ealdormen, and the high witan, and forlet the ships thus + lightly. And the folk that were on the ships brought them + round eft to Lunden, and let all the people's toil thus + lightly go for nought: and the victory that all English kin + hoped for was no better. There this ship-fyrd was thus + ended; then came, soon after Lammas, the huge foreign host, + that we hight Thurkill's host, to Sandwich, and soon wended + their way to Canterbury, and would quickly have won the burg + if they had not rather yearned for peace of them. And all + the East Kentings made peace with the host, and gave it + three thousand pound. And the host there, soon after that, + wended till it came to Wightland, and there everywhere in + Suth-Sex, and on Hamtunshire, and eke on Berkshire harried + and burnt, as their wont is. Then bade the king call out all + the people, that men should hold against them on every half + [side]: but none the less, look! they fared where they + willed. Then one time had the king foregone before them with + all the fyrd as they were going to their ships, and all the + folk was ready to fight them. But it was let, through Eadric + ealdorman, as it ever yet was. Then, after St. Martin's + mass, they fared eft again into Kent, and took them a winter + seat on Thames, and victualled themselves from East-Sex and + from the shires that there next were, on the twain halves + of Thames. And oft they fought against the burg of Lunden, + but praise be to God, it yet stands sound, and they ever + there fared evilly. And there after mid-winter they took + their way up, out through Chiltern, and so to Oxenaford + [Oxford], and for-burnt the burg, and took their way on to + the twa halves of Thames to shipward. There man warned them + that there was fyrd gathered at Lunden against them; then + wended they over at Stane [Staines]. And thus fared they all + the winter, and that Lent were in Kent and bettered + [repaired] their ships. + +We possess several manuscript versions of the Chronicle, belonging to +different abbeys, and containing in places somewhat different accounts. +Thus the Peterborough copy is fullest on matters affecting that +monastery, and even inserts several spurious grants, which, however, are +of value as showing how incapable the writers were of scientific +forgery, and so as guarantees of the general accuracy of the document. +But in the main facts they all agree. Nor do they stop short at the +Norman Conquest. Most of them continue half through the reign of +William, and then cease; while one manuscript goes on uninterruptedly +till the reign of Stephen, and breaks off abruptly in the year 1154 with +an unfinished sentence. With it, native prose literature dies down +altogether until the reign of Edward III. + +As a whole, however, the Conquest struck the death-blow of Anglo-Saxon +literature almost at once. During the reigns of lfred's descendants +Wessex had produced a rich crop of native works on all subjects, but +especially religious. In this literature the greatest name was that of +lfric, whose Homilies are models of the classical West Saxon prose. +But after the Conquest our native literature died out wholly, and a new +literature, founded on Romance models, took its place. The Anglo-Saxon +style lingered on among the people, but it was gradually killed down by +the Romance style of the court writers. In prose, the history of William +of Malmesbury, written in Latin, and in a wider continental spirit, +marks the change. In poetry, the English school struggled on longer, but +at last succumbed. A few words on the nature of this process will not be +thrown away. + +The old Teutonic poetry, with its treble system of accent, alliteration, +and parallelism, was wholly different from the Romance poetry, with its +double system of rime and metre. But, from an early date, the English +themselves were fond of verbal jingles, such as "Scot and lot," "sac and +soc," "frith and grith," "eorl and ceorl," or "might and right." Even in +the alliterative poems we find many occasional rimes, such as "hlynede +and dynede," "wide and side," "Dryht-guman sine drencte mid wine," or +such as the rimes already quoted from Cynewulf. As time went on, and +intercourse with other countries became greater, the tendency to rime +settled down into a fixed habit. Rimed Latin verse was already familiar +to the clergy, and was imitated in their works. Much of the very ornate +Anglo-Saxon prose of the latest period is full of strange verbal tricks, +as shown in the following modernised extract from a sermon of Wulfstan. +Here, the alliterative letters are printed in capitals, and the rimes in +italics:-- + + No Wonder is it that Woes befall us, for Well We Wot that + now full many a year men little _care_ what thing they + _dare_ in word or deed; and Sorely has this nation Sinned, + whate'er man Say, with Manifold Sins and with right Manifold + Misdeeds, with Slayings and with Slaughters, with _robbing_ + and with _stabbing_, with Grasping _deed_ and hungry + _Greed_, through Christian Treason and through heathen + Treachery, through _guile_ and through _wile_, through + _lawlessness_ and _awelessness_, through Murder of Friends + and Murder of Foes, through broken Troth and broken Truth, + through wedded unchastity and cloistered impurity. Little + they _trow_ of marriage _vow_, as ere this I said: little + they reck the breach of _oath_ or _troth_; swearing and + for-swearing, on every _side_, far and _wide_, Fast and + Feast they hold not, Peace and Pact they keep not, oft and + anon. Thus in this _land_ they _stand_, Foes to Christendom, + Friends to heathendom, Persecutors of Priests, Persecutors + of People, all too many; spurners of godly law and Christian + bond, who Loudly Laugh at the _Teaching_ of God's _Teachers_ + and the _Preaching_ of God's _Preachers_, and whatso rightly + to God's rites belongs. + +The nation was thus clearly preparing itself from within for the +adoption of the Romance system. Immediately after the Conquest, rimes +begin to appear distinctly, while alliteration begins to die out. An +Anglo-Saxon poem on the character of William the Conqueror, inserted in +the Chronicle under the year of his death, consists of very rude rimes +which may be modernised as follows-- + + Gold he took by might, + And of great unright, + From his folk with evil deed + For sore little need. + He was on greediness befallen, + And getsomeness he loved withal. + He set a mickle deer frith, + And he laid laws therewith, + That whoso slew hart or hind + Him should man then blinden. + He forbade to slay the harts, + And so eke the boars. + So well he loved the high deer + As if he their father were. + Eke he set by the hares + That they might freely fare. + His rich men mourned it + And the poor men wailed it. + But he was so firmly wrought + That he recked of all nought. + And they must all withal + The king's will follow, + If they wished to live + Or their land have, + Or their goods eke, + Or his peace to seek. + Woe is me, + That any man so proud should be, + Thus himself up to raise, + And over all men to boast. + May God Almighty show his soul mild-heart-ness, + And do him for his sins forgiveness! + +From that time English poetry bifurcates. On the one hand, we have the +survival of the old Teutonic alliterative swing in Layamon's Brut and in +Piers Plowman--the native verse of the people sung by native minstrels: +and on the other hand we have the new Romance rimed metre in Robert of +Gloucester, "William of Palerne," Gower, and Chaucer. But from Piers +Plowman and Chaucer onward the Romance system conquers and the Teutonic +system dies rapidly. Our modern poetry is wholly Romance in descent, +form, and spirit. + +Thus in literature as in civilisation generally, the culture of old +Rome, either as handed down ecclesiastically through the Latin, or as +handed down popularly through the Norman-French, overcame the native +Anglo-Saxon culture, such as it was, and drove it utterly out of the +England which we now know. Though a new literature, in Latin and +English, sprang up after the Conquest, that literature had its roots, +not in Sleswick or in Wessex, but in Greece, in Rome, in Provence, and +in Normandy. With the Normans, a new era began--an era when Romance +civilisation was grafted by harsh but strong hands on to the Anglo-Saxon +stock, the Anglo-Saxon institutions, and the Anglo-Saxon tongue. With +the first step in this revolution, our present volume has completed its +assigned task. The story of the Normans will be told by another pen in +the same series. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +ANGLO-SAXON INFLUENCES IN MODERN BRITAIN. + + +Perhaps the best way of summing up the results of the present inquiry +will be by considering briefly the main elements of our existing life +and our actual empire which we owe to the Anglo-Saxon nationality. We +may most easily glance at them under the five separate heads of blood, +character, language, civilisation, and institutions. + +In _blood_, it is probable that the importance of the Anglo-Saxon +element has been generally over-estimated. It has been too usual to +speak of England as though it were synonymous with Britain, and to +overlook the numerical strength of the Celtic population in Scotland, +Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland. It has been too usual, also, to neglect +the considerable Danish, Norwegian, and Norman element, which, though +belonging to the same Low German and Scandinavian stock, yet differs in +some important particulars from the Anglo-Saxon. But we have seen reason +to conclude that even in the most purely Teutonic region of Britain, the +district between Forth and Southampton Water, a considerable proportion +of the people were of Celtic or pre-Celtic descent, from the very first +age of English settlement. This conclusion is borne out both by the +physical traits of the peasantry and the nature of the early remains. In +the western half of South Britain, from Clyde to Cornwall, the +proportion of Anglo-Saxon blood has probably always been far smaller. +The Norman conquerors themselves were of mixed Scandinavian, Gaulish, +and Breton descent. Throughout the middle ages, the more Teutonic half +of Britain--the southern and eastern tract--was undoubtedly the most +important: and the English, mixed with Scandinavians from Denmark or +Normandy, formed the ruling caste. Up to the days of Elizabeth, Teutonic +Britain led the van in civilisation, population, and commerce. But since +the age of the Tudors, it seems probable, as Dr. Rolleston and others +have shown, that the Celtic element has largely reasserted itself. A +return wave of Celts has inundated the Teutonic region. Scottish +Highlanders have poured into Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London: Welshmen +have poured into Liverpool, Manchester, and all the great towns of +England: Irishmen have poured into every part of the British dominions. +During the middle ages, the Teutonic portion of Britain was by far the +most densely populated; but at the present day, the almost complete +restriction of coal to the Celtic or semi-Celtic area has aggregated the +greatest masses of population in the west and north. If we take into +consideration the probable large substratum of Celts or earlier races in +the Teutonic counties, the wide area of the undoubted Celtic region +which pours forth a constant stream of emigrants towards the Teutonic +tract, the change of importance between south-east and north-west, since +the industrial development of the coal country, and the more rapid rate +of increase among the Celts, it becomes highly probable that not +one-half the population of the British Isles is really of Teutonic +descent. Moreover, it must be remembered that, whatever may have been +the case in the primitive Anglo-Saxon period, intermarriages between +Celts and Teutons have been common for at least four centuries past; and +that therefore almost all Englishmen at the present day possess at least +a fraction of Celtic blood. + +"The people," says Professor Huxley, "are vastly less Teutonic than +their language." It is not likely that any absolutely pure-blooded +Anglo-Saxons now exist in our midst at all, except perhaps among the +farmer class in the most Teutonic and agricultural shires: and even this +exception is extremely doubtful. Persons bearing the most obviously +Celtic names--Welsh, Cornish, Irish, or Highland Scots--are to be found +in all our large towns, and scattered up and down through the country +districts. Hence we may conclude with great probability that the +Anglo-Saxon blood has long since been everywhere diluted by a strong +Celtic intermixture. Even in the earliest times and in the most Teutonic +counties, many serfs of non-Teutonic race existed from the very +beginning: their masters have ere now mixed with other non-Teutonic +families elsewhere, till even the restricted English people at the +present day can hardly claim to be much more than half Anglo-Saxon. Nor +do the Teutons now even retain their position as a ruling caste. Mixed +Celts in England itself have long since risen to many high places. +Leading families of Welsh, Cornish, Scotch, and Irish blood have also +been admitted into the peerage of the United Kingdom, and form a large +proportion of the House of Commons, of the official world, and of the +governing class in India, the Colonies, and the empire generally. These +families have again intermarried with the nobility and gentry of +English, Danish, or Norman extraction, and thus have added their part to +the intricate intermixture of the two races. At the present day, we can +only speak of the British people as Anglo-Saxons in a conventional +sense: so far as blood goes, we need hardly hesitate to set them down as +a pretty equal admixture of Teutonic and Celtic elements. + +In _character_, the Anglo-Saxons have bequeathed to us much of the +German solidity, industry, and patience, traits which have been largely +amalgamated with the intellectual quickness and emotional nature of the +Celt, and have thus produced the prevailing English temperament as we +actually know it. To the Anglo-Saxon blood we may doubtless attribute +our general sobriety, steadiness, and persistence; our scientific +patience and thoroughness; our political moderation and endurance; our +marked love of individual freedom and impatience of arbitrary restraint. +The Anglo-Saxon was slow to learn, but retentive of what he learnt. On +the other hand, he was unimaginative; and this want of imagination may +be traced in the more Teutonic counties to the present day. But when +these qualities have been counteracted by the Celtic wealth of fancy, +the race has produced the great English literature,--a literature whose +form is wholly Roman, while in matter, its more solid parts doubtless +owe much to the Teuton, and its lighter portions, especially its poetry +and romance, can be definitely traced in great measure to known Celtic +elements. While the Teutonic blood differentiates our somewhat slow and +steady character from the more logical but volatile and unstable Gaul, +the Celtic blood differentiates it from the far slower, heavier, and +less quick or less imaginative Teutons of Germany and Scandinavia. + +In _language_ we owe almost everything to the Anglo-Saxons. The Low +German dialect which they brought with them from Sleswick and Hanover +still remains in all essentials the identical speech employed by +ourselves at the present day. It received a few grammatical forms from +the cognate Scandinavian dialects; it borrowed a few score or so of +words from the Welsh; it adopted a small Latin vocabulary of +ecclesiastical terms from the early missionaries; it took in a +considerable number of Romance elements after the Norman Conquest; it +enriched itself with an immense variety of learned compounds from the +Greek and Latin at the Renaissance period: but all these additions +affected almost exclusively its stock of words, and did not in the least +interfere with its structure or its place in the scientific +classification of languages. The English which we now speak is not in +any sense a Romance tongue. It is the lineal descendant of the English +of lfred and of Bda, enlarged in its vocabulary by many words which +they did not use, impoverished by the loss of a few which they employed, +yet still essentially identical in grammar and idiom with the language +of the first Teutonic settlers. Gradually losing its inflexions from the +days of Eadgar onward, it assumed its existing type before the +thirteenth century, and continuously incorporated an immense number of +French and Latin words, which greatly increased its value as an +instrument of thought. But it is important to recollect that the English +tongue has nothing at all to do in its origin with either Welsh or +French. The Teutonic speech of the Anglo-Saxon settlers drove out the +old Celtic speech throughout almost all England and the Scotch Lowlands +before the end of the eleventh century; it drove out the Cornish in the +eighteenth century; and it is now driving out the Welsh, the Erse, and +the Gaelic, under our very eyes. In language at least the British empire +(save of course India) is now almost entirely English, or in other +words, Anglo-Saxon. + +In _civilisation_, on the other hand, we owe comparatively little to the +direct Teutonic influence. The native Anglo-Saxon culture was low, and +even before its transplantation to Britain it had undergone some +modification by mediate mercantile transactions with Rome and the +Mediterranean states. The alphabet, coins, and even a few southern +words, (such as "alms") had already filtered through to the shores of +the Baltic. After the colonisation of Britain, the Anglo-Saxons learnt +something of the higher agriculture from their Romanised serfs, and +adopted, as early as the heathen period, some small portion of the Roman +system, so far as regarded roads, fortifications, and, perhaps +buildings. The Roman towns still stood in their midst, and a fragment, +at least, of the Romanised population still carried on commerce with the +half-Roman Frankish kingdom across the Channel. The re-introduction of +Christianity was at the same time the re-introduction of Roman culture +in its later form. The Latin language and the Mediterranean arts once +more took their place in Britain. The Romanising prelates,--Wilfrith, +Theodore, Dunstan,--were also the leaders of civilisation in their own +times. The Norman Conquest brought England into yet closer connection +with the Continent; and Roman law and Roman arts still more deeply +affected our native culture. Norman artificers supplanted the rude +English handicraftsmen in many cases, and became a dominant class in +towns. The old English literature, and especially the old English +poetry, died utterly out with Piers Plowman; while a new literature, +based upon Romance models, took its origin with Chaucer and the other +Court poets. Celtic-Latin rhyme ousted the genuine Teutonic +alliteration. With the Renaissance, the triumph of the southern culture +was complete. Greek philosophy and Greek science formed the +starting-point for our modern developments. The ecclesiastical revolt +from papal Rome was accompanied by a literary and artistic return to the +models of pagan Rome. The Renaissance was, in fact, the throwing off of +all that was Teutonic and medival, the resumption of progressive +thought and scientific knowledge, at the point where it had been +interrupted by the Germanic inroads of the fifth century. The unjaded +vigour of the German races, indeed, counted for much; and Europe took up +the lost thread of the dying empire with a youthful freshness very +different from the effete listlessness of the Mediterranean culture in +its last stage. Yet it is none the less true that our whole civilisation +is even now the carrying out and completion of the Greek and Roman +culture in new fields and with fresh intellects. We owe little here to +the Anglo-Saxon; we owe everything to the great stream of western +culture, which began in Egypt and Assyria, permeated Greece and the +Archipelago, spread to Italy and the Roman empire, and, finally, now +embraces the whole European and American world. The Teutonic intellect +and the Teutonic character have largely modified the spirit of the +Mediterranean civilisation; but the tools, the instruments, the +processes themselves, are all legacies from a different race. Englishmen +did not invent letters, money, metallurgy, glass, architecture, and +science; they received them all ready-made, from Italy and the gean, or +more remotely still from the Euphrates and the Nile. Nor is it necessary +to add that in religion we have no debt to the Anglo-Saxon, our existing +creed being entirely derived through Rome from the Semitic race. + +In _institutions_, once more, the Anglo-Saxon has contributed almost +everything. Our political government, our limited monarchy, our +parliament, our shires, our hundreds, our townships, are considered by +the dominant school of historians to be all Anglo-Saxon in origin. Our +jury is derived from an Anglo-Saxon custom; our nobility and officials +are representatives of Anglo-Saxon earls and reeves. The Teuton, when he +settled in Britain, brought with him the Teutonic organisation in its +entirety. He established it throughout the whole territory which he +occupied or conquered. As the West Saxon over-lordship grew to be the +English kingdom, and as the English kingdom gradually annexed or +coalesced with the Welsh and Cornish principalities, the Scotch and +Irish kingdoms,--the Teutonic system spread over the whole of Britain. +It underwent some little modification at the hands of the Normans, and +more still at those of the Angevins; but, on the whole, it is still a +wide yet natural development of the old Germanic constitution. + +Thus, to sum up in a single sentence, the Anglo-Saxons have contributed +about one-half the blood of Britain, or rather less; but they have +contributed the whole framework of the language, and the whole social +and political organisation; while, on the other hand, they have +contributed hardly any of the civilisation, and none of the religion. We +are now a mixed race, almost equally Celtic and Teutonic by descent; we +speak a purely Teutonic language, with a large admixture of Latin roots +in its vocabulary; we live under Teutonic institutions; we enjoy the +fruits of a Grco-Roman civilisation; and we possess a Christian +Church, handed down to us directly through Roman sources from a Hebrew +original. To the extent so indicated, and to that extent only, we may +still be justly styled an Anglo-Saxon people. + + + + +INDEX. + + +lfheah of Canterbury, 168 + +lfred the West Saxon, 136; + his life, 139; + his death, 140; + his writings, 216 + +lle of Sussex, 24, 30 + +sc the Jute, 29 + +thelbald of Mercia, 117 + +thelberht of Kent, 85 + +thelberht of Wessex, 129 + +thelfld of Mercia, 142 + +thelfrith of Northumbria, 53, 62 + +thelred of Wessex, 130 + +thelred the Unready, 164 + +thelstan of Wessex, 144 + +thelwulf of Wessex, 124 + +Aidan of Lindisfarne, 95 + +Akerman, Mr., on survival of Celts, 59 + +Anderida, 30, 41 + +Anglo-Saxons, 8; + their religion, 16; + language, 174 + +Architecture, 155 + +Aryans, 1 + +Augustine, St., of Canterbury, arrives in England, 85; + colloquy with Welsh bishops, 93 + + +Bda, 61; + his life, 109; + his writings, 213, and _passim_ + +Bamborough built, 34; + princes of, 134, 144 + +Bayeux, Saxon settlement at, 22 + +Benedict Biscop, 109 + +Beowulf, 185, 206, and _passim_ + +Bercta, queen of Kentmen, 85 + +Bernicia settled, 34; + coalesces with Deira, 35 + +Boulogne, Saxon settlement at, 22 + +Brunanburh, battle of, 145 + ballad on, 204, 218 + +Burhred of Mercia, 131 + + +Cadwalla, 92, 94 + +Cdmon the poet, 103; + his epic, 209 + +Cerdic the Briton, 31, 67 + +Cerdic the West Saxon, 24, 31 + +Chester, battle of, 58 + +Chronicle, English, 63; + its origin and nature, 216; + quoted, _passim_ + +Clans, 8, 43; + meanings of their names, 80; + occurrence in different shires, 81 + +Cnut, 169 + +Coifi the priest, 89 + +Count of the Saxon Shore, 22 + +Cuthberht of Lindisfarne, 97 + +Cuthwine of Wessex, 51 + +Cuthwulf of Wessex, 50 + +Cynewulf the poet, 214 + +Cynewulf of Wessex, 119 + + +Danish invasions, 123 _et seq._ + +Dawkins, Prof. Boyd, 2 + +Deira settled, 34 + +Deorham, battle of, 51 + +Dunstan, 147 + + +Eadgar of Wessex, 147 + +Eadmund of East Anglia, 130 + +Eadward (the Elder), 141 + +Eadward (the Confessor), 170 + +Eadwine of Northumbria, 63; + converted, 88 + +East Anglia colonised, 36; + conquered by Danes, 130 + +Ecgberht of Wessex, 120 + +Elmet, 35; + conquered by English, 67 + +English (or Anglians), 5; + their language, _see_ Anglo-Saxons + +English Chronicle, _see_ Chronicle, English + +Essex colonised, 36 + + +Felix converts East Anglia, 96 + +Freeman, Dr. E.A., 57, 64, 65, 69, and _passim_ + +Frisians, 5; + as slave merchants, 75; + ships, 123; + employed by lfred, 139 + + +Germanic race, 4 + +Gewissas, 37 + +Gildas, 28, 47; + his book, 60 + +Gregory the Great sends mission to England, 85 + +Grimm's Law, 175 + +Guthrum the Dane, 137 + +Gyrwas, 49 + + +Hsten the pirate, 138, 141 + +Harold, 170 + +Hastings, battle of, 171 + +Heathendom, 16, 71 + +Hengest, 28 + +Horsa, 28 + +Huxley, Prof., on English Ethnography, 5 + +Hyring, king of Bernicia, 33 + + +Ida of Northumbria, 25, 32; + his pedigree, 46 + +Iona, 93 + + +Jutes, 5; + settle in Kent, 23, 28; + in the Isle of Wight, 24, 37; + in Northumbria, 32 + + +Kemble, on British in towns, 65; + on Celtic personal names in England, 66 + +Kent, settled by Jutes, 23, 28; + converted, 85 + + +Lincolnshire colonised, 35; + converted, 91 + +Lindisfarne, 95 + +Loidis, 35 + +London, 37, 158 + +Lothian, originally English, 35; + unconquered by Danes, 135; + granted to king of Scots, 149 + +Low Germans, 5; + their language, 176 + + +Marriage in heathen times, 74, 81 + +Meonwaras, 37 + +Mercia colonised, 49; + its rise under Penda, 92; + its supremacy, 117; + conquered by Wessex, 122; + by the Danes, 131 + +Monasteries, 102 + + +Nennius, 32, 67 + +Nithard, 9 + +Northumbria settled, 32; + converted, 88; + conquered by Danes, 130 + +Notitia Imperii, 22 + + +Offa of Mercia, 117; + his dyke, 118 + +Oswald of Northumbria, 94 + +Oswiu of Northumbria, 95 + + +Palgrave, Sir F., 66 + +Paulinus, 88 + +Penda of Mercia, 91, 94 + +Phillips, Prof., on Celtic blood in Yorkshire, 57 + +Port, mythical hero, 31 + + +Rolleston, Prof., on Anglo-Saxon barrows, 25; + on survival of Celts, 59 + +Ruim, old name of Thanet, 23 + +Runes, 97 + + +Salisbury conquered by English, 50 + +Saxons, 5; + English, so called by Celtic races, 21; + settle in Sussex, 24; + in Essex, 36; + in Wessex, 37 + +Saxons, Old, 7; + their constitution, 9 + +Ships of bronze age, 19; + of iron age, 20; + king lfred's, 139 + +Stubbs, Rev. Canon, 120, and _passim_ + +Sussex settled, 24, 29 + +Swegen, 165 + + +Taylor, Rev. Isaac, on Hundreds, 68 + +Teutonic race, 4 + +Thanet, 23 + +Theodore of Canterbury, 107 + +Thunor, 16; + his worship, 77 + +Towns, 157 + +Totemism, 79 + + +Vortigern, 28 + + +Wessex settled, 24, 31 + +Whitby, synod of, 97; + abbey at, 103 + +Wight, settled by Jutes, 23 + +Wihtgar, 31 + +Wilfrith of York, 97, 105, 108 + +Winchester, 37, 158 + +Winwidfield, 96 + +Woden, 16, 46; + his worship, 76 + + + +THE END. + + + * * * * * + +WYMAN AND SONS, PRINTERS, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LONDON, W.C. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Early Britain, by Grant Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EARLY BRITAIN *** + +***** This file should be named 16790-8.txt or 16790-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/9/16790/ + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Annika Feilbach and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Early Britain + Anglo-Saxon Britain + +Author: Grant Allen + +Release Date: October 2, 2005 [EBook #16790] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EARLY BRITAIN *** + + + + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Annika Feilbach and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +</pre> + +<h4>EARLY BRITAIN.</h4> + + + +<h1>ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN.</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>GRANT ALLEN, B.A.</h2> + + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p class="centre" style="font-size: 80%" > +PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND +EDUCATION APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.</p> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p style="text-align: center; margin-top: .75em; margin-bottom: .75em;"> +LONDON:<br /> +SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,<br /> +NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, S.W.;<br /> +<span style="font-size: 80%;" >43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.; 48, PICCADILLY, W.;<br /> +AND 135, NORTH STREET, BRIGHTON.</span> +</p> + +<p class="centre"><span class="smcap">New York</span>: E. & J.B. YOUNG & CO.</p> + +<hr /> + + +<div class="centre"> +<a href="images/map.jpg"> +<img src="images/map_small.jpg" +alt="Frontispiece: Map of Britain in 500 A.D." +title="Frontispiece: Map of Britain in 500 A.D." /> +</a> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<h2>Table of Contents.</h2> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#preface">PREFACE.</a> +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter1">CHAPTER I.</a><br /> +The Origin of the English. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter2">CHAPTER II.</a><br /> +The English by the Shores of the Baltic. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter3">CHAPTER III.</a><br /> +The English Settle in Britain. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter4">CHAPTER IV.</a><br /> +The Colonisation of the Coast. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter5">CHAPTER V.</a><br /> +The English in Their New Homes. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter6">CHAPTER VI.</a><br /> +The Conquest of the Interior. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter7">CHAPTER VII.</a><br /> +The Nature and Extent of the English Settlement. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter8">CHAPTER VIII.</a><br /> +Heathen England. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter9">CHAPTER IX.</a><br /> +The Conversion of the English. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter10">CHAPTER X.</a><br /> +Rome and Iona. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter11">CHAPTER XI.</a><br /> +Christian England. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter12">CHAPTER XII.</a><br /> +The Consolidation of the Kingdoms. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter13">CHAPTER XIII.</a><br /> +The Resistance to the Danes. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter14">CHAPTER XIV.</a><br /> +The Saxons at Bay in Wessex. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter15">CHAPTER XV.</a><br /> +The Recovery of the North. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter16">CHAPTER XVI.</a><br /> +The Augustan Age and the Later Anglo-Saxon Civilisation. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter17">CHAPTER XVII.</a><br /> +The Decadence. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter18">CHAPTER XVIII.</a><br /> +The Anglo-Saxon Language. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter19">CHAPTER XIX.</a><br /> +Anglo-Saxon Nomenclature. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter20">CHAPTER XX.</a><br /> +Anglo-Saxon Literature. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#chapter21">CHAPTER XXI.</a><br /> +Anglo-Saxon Influences in Modern Britain. +</div> + +<div class="tocitem"> +<a href="#index">INDEX.</a> +</div> + + + +<p><a name="pagev" id="pagev"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2><a name="preface" id="preface"></a>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p>This little book is an attempt to give a brief sketch of Britain under +the early English conquerors, rather from the social than from the +political point of view. For that purpose not much has been said about +the doings of kings and statesmen; but attention has been mainly +directed towards the less obvious evidence afforded us by existing +monuments as to the life and mode of thought of the people themselves. +The principal object throughout has been to estimate the importance of +those elements in modern British life which are chiefly due to purely +English or Low-Dutch influences.</p> + +<p>The original authorities most largely consulted have been, first and +above all, the "English Chronicle," and to an almost equal extent, +Bæda's "Ecclesiastical History." These have been supplemented, where +necessary, by Florence of Worcester and the other Latin writers of later +date. I have not thought it needful, however, to repeat any of the +gossiping stories from William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon, and +their compeers, which make up the bulk of our early history as told in +most modern books. Still less have I paid any attention to the romances +of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Gildas, +<a name="pagevi" id="pagevi"></a> +Nennius, and the other Welsh tracts +have been sparingly employed, and always with a reference by name. Asser +has been used with caution, where his information seems to be really +contemporary. I have also derived some occasional hints from the old +British bards, from <i>Beowulf</i>, from the laws, and from the charters in +the "Codex Diplomaticus." These written documents have been helped out +by some personal study of the actual early English relics preserved in +various museums, and by the indirect evidence of local nomenclature.</p> + +<p>Among modern books, I owe my acknowledgments in the first and highest +degree to Dr. E.A. Freeman, from whose great and just authority, +however, I have occasionally ventured to differ in some minor matters. +Next, my acknowledgments are due to Canon Stubbs, to Mr. Kemble, and to +Mr. J.R. Green. Dr. Guest's valuable papers in the Transactions of the +Archæological Institute have supplied many useful suggestions. To +Lappenberg and Sir Francis Palgrave I am also indebted for various +details. Professor Rolleston's contributions to "Archæologia," as well +as his Appendix to Canon Greenwell's "British Barrows," have been +consulted for anthropological and antiquarian points; on which also +Professor Huxley and Mr. Akerman have published useful papers. Professor +Boyd Dawkins's work on "Early Man in Britain," as well as the writings +of Worsaae and Steenstrup have helped in elucidating the condition of +the English at the date of the Conquest. Nor must I forget the aid +derived +<a name="pagevii" id="pagevii"></a> +from Mr. Isaac Taylor's "Words and Places," from Professor +Henry Morley's "English Literature," and from Messrs. Haddan and Stubbs' +"Councils." To Mr. Gomme, Mr. E.B. Tylor, Mr. Sweet, Mr. James Collier, +Dr. H. Leo, and perhaps others, I am under various obligations; and if +any acknowledgments have been overlooked, I trust the injured person +will forgive me when I have had already to quote so many authorities for +so small a book. The popular character of the work renders it +undesirable to load the pages with footnotes of reference; and scholars +will generally see for themselves the source of the information given in +the text.</p> + +<p>Personally, my thanks are due to my friend, Mr. York Powell, for much +valuable aid and assistance, and to the Rev. E. McClure, one of the +Society's secretaries, for his kind revision of the volume in proof, and +for several suggestions of which I have gladly availed myself.</p> + +<p>As various early English names and phrases occur throughout the book, it +will be best, perhaps, to say a few words about their pronunciation +here, rather than to leave over that subject to the chapter on the +<a href="#chapter18">Anglo-Saxon language</a>, near the close of the work. A few notes on this +matter are therefore appended below.</p> + +<p class="note"><a name="note" id="note"></a>[Transcriber's note: If +any of the characters in the following paragraph +do not display for you, please click <a href="#transcript">here</a> for a transcribed version.] +</p> + +<p>The simple vowels, as a rule, have their continental pronunciation, +approximately thus: <i>ā</i> as in <i>father</i>, <i>ă</i> as in <i>ask</i>; <i>ē</i> as in +<i>there</i>, <i>ĕ</i> as in <i>men</i>; <i>ī</i> as in +<i>marine</i>, <i>ĭ</i> as <i>fit</i>; <i>ō</i> as +in <i>note</i>, <i>ŏ</i> as in <i>not</i>; <i>ū</i> +as in <i>brute</i>, <i>ŏ</i> as in <i>full</i>; <i>ȳ</i> +as in <i>grün</i> (German), <i>y̆</i> as in <i> +<a name="pageviii" id="pageviii"></a> +hübsch</i> (German). The quantity of +the vowels is not marked in this work. <i>Æ</i> is not a diphthong, but a +simple vowel sound, the same as our own short <i>a</i> in <i>man</i>, <i>that</i>, &c. +<i>Ea</i> is pronounced like <i>ya</i>. <i>C</i> is always hard, like <i>k</i>; and <i>g</i> is +also always hard, as in <i>begin</i>: they must <i>never</i> be pronounced like +<i>s</i> or <i>j</i>. The other consonants have the same values as in modern +English. No vowel or consonant is ever mute. Hence we get the following +approximate pronunciations: Ælfred and Æthelred, as if written Alfred +and Athelred; Æthelstan and Dunstan, as Athelstahn and Doonstahn; +Eadwine and Oswine, nearly as Yahd-weena and Ose-weena; Wulfsige and +Sigeberht, as Wolf-seeg-a and Seeg-a-bayrt; Ceolred and Cynewulf, as +Keole-red and Küne-wolf. These approximations look a little absurd when +written down in the only modern phonetic equivalents; but that is the +fault of our own existing spelling, not of the early English names +themselves.</p> + +<p>G.A.</p> +<p><a name="page1" id="page1"></a></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN.</h2> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="chapter1" id="chapter1"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH.</h3> + + +<p>At a period earlier than the dawn of written history there lived +somewhere among the great table-lands and plains of Central Asia a race +known to us only by the uncertain name of Aryans. These Aryans were a +fair-skinned and well-built people, long past the stage of aboriginal +savagery, and possessed of a considerable degree of primitive culture. +Though mainly pastoral in habit, they were acquainted with tillage, and +they grew for themselves at least one kind of cereal grain. They spoke a +language whose existence and nature we infer from the remnants of it +which survive in the tongues of their descendants, and from these +remnants we are able to judge, in some measure, of their civilisation +and their modes of thought. The indications thus preserved for us show +the Aryans to have been a simple and fierce community of early warriors, +farmers, and shepherds, still in a partially nomad condition, living +under a patriarchal rule, originally ignorant of all metals save gold, +but possessing <a name="page2" id="page2"></a> +weapons and implements of +stone,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +and worshipping as +their chief god the open heaven. We must not regard them as an idyllic +and peaceable people: on the contrary, they were the fiercest and most +conquering tribe ever known. In mental power and in plasticity of +manners, however, they probably rose far superior to any race then +living, except only the Semitic nations of the Mediterranean coast.</p> + +<p>From the common Central Asian home, colonies of warlike Aryans gradually +dispersed themselves, still in the pre-historic period, under pressure +of population or hostile invasion, over many districts of Europe and +Asia. Some of them moved southward, across the passes of Afghanistan, +and occupied the fertile plains of the Indus and the Ganges, where they +became the ancestors of the Brahmans and other modern high-caste +Hindoos. The language which they took with them to their new settlements +beyond the Himalayas was the Sanskrit, which still remains to this day +the nearest of all dialects that we now possess to the primitive Aryan +speech. From it are derived the chief modern tongues of northern India, +from the Vindhyas to the Hindu Kush. Other Aryan tribes settled in the +mountain districts west of Hindustan; and yet others found themselves a +home in the hills of Iran or Persia, where they still preserve an allied +dialect of the ancient mother tongue.</p> + +<p><a name="page3" id="page3"></a> +But the mass of the emigrants from the Central Asian fatherland moved +further westward in successive waves, and occupied, one after another, +the midland plains and mountainous peninsulas of Europe. First of all, +apparently, came the Celts, who spread slowly across the South of Russia +and Germany, and who are found at the dawn of authentic history +extending over the entire western coasts and islands of the continent, +from Spain to Scotland. Mingled in many places with the still earlier +non-Aryan aborigines—perhaps Iberians and Euskarians, a short and +swarthy race, armed only with weapons of polished stone, and represented +at the present day by the Basques of the Pyrenees and the Asturias—the +Celts held rule in Spain, Gaul, and Britain, up to the date of the +several Roman conquests. A second great wave of Aryan immigration, that +of the Hellenic and Italian races, broke over the shores of the <i>Ægean</i> +and the Adriatic, where their cognate languages have become familiar to +us in the two extreme and typical forms of the classical Greek and +Latin. A third wave was that of the Teutonic or German people, who +followed and drove out the Celts over a large part of central and +western Europe; while a fourth and final swarm was that of the Slavonic +tribes, which still inhabit only the extreme eastern portion of the +continent.</p> + +<p>With the Slavonians we shall have nothing to do in this enquiry; and +with the Greek and Italian races we need only deal very incidentally. +But the Celts, whom the English invaders found in possession of all +Britain when they began their settlements in the +<a name="page4" id="page4"></a>island, form the +subject of another volume in this series, and will necessarily call for +some small portion of our attention here also; while it is to the +Germanic race that the English stock itself actually belongs, so that we +must examine somewhat more closely the course of Germanic immigration +through Europe, and the nature of the primitive Teutonic civilisation.</p> + +<p>The Germanic family of peoples consisted of a race which early split up +into two great hordes or stocks, speaking dialects which differed +slightly from one another through the action of the various +circumstances to which they were each exposed. These two stocks are the +High German and the Low German (with which last may be included the +Gothic and the Scandinavian). Moving across Europe from east to west, +they slowly drove out the Celts from Germany and the central plains, and +took possession of the whole district between the Alps, the Rhine, and +the Baltic, which formed their limits at the period when they first came +into contact with the Roman power. The Goths, living in closest +proximity to the empire, fell upon it during the decline and decay of +Rome, settled in Italy, Gaul, and Spain, and becoming absorbed in the +mass of the native population, disappear altogether from history as a +distinguishable nationality. But the High and Low Germans retain to the +present day their distinctive language and features; and the latter +branch, to which the English people belong, still lives for the most +part in the same lands which it has held ever since the date of the +early Germanic immigration.<a name="page5" id="page5"></a></p> + +<p>The Low Germans, in the third century after Christ, occupied in the main +the belt of flat country between the Baltic and the mouths of the Rhine. +Between them and the old High German Swabians lay a race intermediate in +tongue and blood, the Franks. The Low Germans were divided, like most +other barbaric races, into several fluctuating and ill-marked tribes, +whose names are loosely and perhaps interchangeably used by the few +authorities which remain to us. We must not expect to find among them +the definiteness of modern civilised nations, but rather such a +vagueness as that which characterised the loose confederacies of North +American Indians or the various shifting peoples of South Africa. But +there are three of their tribes which stand fairly well marked off from +one another in early history, and which bore, at least, the chief share +in the colonisation of Britain. These three tribes are the Jutes, the +English, and the Saxons. Closely connected with them, but less strictly +bound in the same family tie, were the Frisians.</p> + +<p>The Jutes, the northernmost of the three divisions, lived in the marshy +forests and along the winding fjords of Jutland, the extreme peninsula +of Denmark, which still preserves their name in our own day. The English +dwelt just to the south, in the heath-clad neck of the peninsula, which +we now call Sleswick. And the Saxons, a much larger tribe, occupied the +flat continental shore, from the mouth of the Oder to that of the Rhine. +At the period when history lifts the curtain upon the future Germanic +colonists of<a name="page6" id="page6"></a> Britain, we thus discover them as the inhabitants of the +low-lying lands around the Baltic and the North Sea, and closely +connected with other tribes on either side, such as the Frisians and the +Danes, who still speak very cognate Low German and Scandinavian +languages.</p> + +<p>But we have not yet fully grasped the extent of the relationship between +the first Teutonic settlers in Britain and their continental brethren. +Not only are the true Englishmen of modern England distantly connected +with the Franks, who never to our knowledge took part in the +colonisation of the island at all; and more closely connected with the +Frisians, some of whom probably accompanied the earliest piratical +hordes; as well as with the Danes, who settled at a later date in all +the northern counties: but they are also most closely connected of all +with those members of the colonising tribes who did not themselves bear +a share in the settlement, and whose descendants are still living in +Denmark and in various parts of Germany. The English proper, it is true, +seem to have deserted their old home in Sleswick in a body; so that, +according to Bæda, the Christian historian of Northumberland, in his +time this oldest England by the shores of the Baltic lay waste and +unpeopled, through the completeness of the exodus. But the Jutes appear +to have migrated in small numbers, while the larger part of the tribe +remained at home in their native marshland; and of the more numerous +Saxons, though a great swarm went out to conquer southern Britain, a +vast body was still left behind <a name="page7" id="page7"></a>in Germany, where it continued +independent and pagan till the time of Karl the Great, long after the +Teutonic colonists of Britain had grown into peaceable and civilised +Christians. It is from the statements of later historians with regard to +these continental Saxons that our knowledge of the early English customs +and institutions, during the continental period of English history, must +be mainly inferred. We gather our picture of the English and Saxons who +first came to this country from the picture drawn for us of those among +their brethren whom they left behind in the primitive English home.</p> + +<p>These three tribes, the Jutes, the English, and the Saxons, had not yet, +apparently, advanced far enough in the idea of national unity to possess +a separate general name, distinguishing them altogether from the other +tribes of the Germanic stock. Most probably they did not regard +themselves at this period as a single nation at all, or even as more +closely bound to one another than to the surrounding and kindred tribes. +They may have united at times for purposes of a special war; but their +union was merely analogous to that of two North American peoples, or two +modern European nations, pursuing a common policy for awhile. At a later +date, in Britain, the three tribes learned to call themselves +collectively by the name of that one among them which earliest rose to +supremacy—the English; and the whole southern half of the island came +to be known by their name as England. Even from the first it seems +probable that their language was spoken of as English only, <a name="page8" id="page8"></a>and +comparatively little as Saxon. But since it would be inconvenient to use +the name of one dominant tribe alone, the English, as equivalent to +those of the three, and since it is desirable to have a common title for +all the Germanic colonists of Britain, whenever it is necessary to speak +of them together, we shall employ the late and, strictly speaking, +incorrect form of "Anglo-Saxons" for this purpose. Similarly, in order +to distinguish the earliest pure form of the English language from its +later modern form, now largely enriched and altered by the addition of +Romance or Latin words and the disuse of native ones, we shall always +speak of it, where distinction is necessary, as Anglo-Saxon. The term is +now too deeply rooted in our language to be again uprooted; and it has, +besides, the merit of supplying a want. At the same time, it should be +remembered that the expression Anglo-Saxon is purely artificial, and was +never used by the people themselves in describing their fellows or their +tongue. When they did not speak of themselves as Jutes, English, and +Saxons respectively, they spoke of themselves as English alone.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p> +<a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1">[1]</a> Professor +Boyd Dawkins has shown that the Continental +Celts were still in their stone age when they invaded +Europe; whence we must conclude that the original Aryans +were unacquainted with the use of bronze.</p> +</div> +<p><a name="page9" id="page9"></a></p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="chapter2" id="chapter2"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>THE ENGLISH BY THE SHORES OF THE BALTIC.</h3> + + +<p>From the notices left us by Bæda in Britain, and by Nithard and others +on the continent, of the habits and manners which distinguished those +Saxons who remained in the old fatherland, we are able to form some idea +of the primitive condition of those other Saxons, English, and Jutes, +who afterwards colonized Britain, during the period while they still all +lived together in the heather-clad wastes and marshy lowlands of Denmark +and Northern Germany. The early heathen poem of <i>Beowulf</i> also gives us +a glimpse of their ideas and their mode of thought. The known physical +characteristics of the race, the nature of the country which they +inhabited, the analogy of other Germanic tribes, and the recent +discoveries of pre-historic archæology, all help us to piece out a +fairly consistent picture of their appearance, their manner of life, and +their rude political institutions.</p> + +<p>We must begin by dismissing from our minds all those modern notions +which are almost inevitably implied by the use of language directly +derived from that of our heathen ancestors, but now mixed up in our +conceptions with the most advanced forms of European civilisation. We +must not allow such words <a name="page10" id="page10"></a>as "king" and "English" to mislead us into a +species of filial blindness to the real nature of our Teutonic +forefathers. The little community of wild farmers and warriors who lived +among the dim woodlands of Sleswick, beside the swampy margin of the +North Sea, has grown into the nucleus of a vast empire, only very +partially Germanic in blood, and enriched by all the alien culture of +Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and Rome. But as it still preserves the +identical tongue of its early barbarous days, we are naturally tempted +to read our modern acquired feelings into the simple but familiar terms +employed by our continental predecessors. What the early English called +a king we should now-a-days call a chief; what they called a meeting of +wise men we should now-a-days call a palaver. In fact, we must recollect +that we are dealing with a purely barbaric race—not savage, indeed, nor +without a certain rude culture of its own, the result of long centuries +of previous development; yet essentially military and predatory in its +habits, and akin in its material civilisation to many races which we now +regard as immeasurably our inferiors. If we wish for a modern equivalent +of the primitive Anglo-Saxon level of culture, we may perhaps best find +it in the Kurds of the Turkish and Persian frontier, or in the Mahrattas +of the wild mountain region of the western Deccan.</p> + +<p>The early English in Sleswick and Friesland had partially reached the +agricultural stage of civilisation. They tilled little plots of ground +in the forest; but they depended more largely for subsistence upon their +<a name="page11" id="page11"></a>cattle, and they were also hunters and trappers in the great belts of +woodland or marsh which everywhere surrounded their isolated villages. +They were acquainted with the use of bronze from the first period of +their settlement in Europe, and some of the battle-axes or shields which +they manufactured from this metal were beautifully chased with exquisite +decorative patterns, equalling in taste the ornamental designs still +employed by the Polynesian islanders. Such weapons, however, were +doubtless intended for the use of the chieftains only, and were probably +employed as insignia of rank alone. They are still discovered in the +barrows which cover the remains of the early chieftains; though it is +possible that they may really belong to the monuments of a yet earlier +race. But iron was certainly employed by the English, at least, from +about the first century of the Christian era, and its use was perhaps +introduced into the marshlands of Sleswick by the Germanic conquerors of +the north. Even at this early date, abundant proof exists of mercantile +intercourse with the Roman world (probably through Pannonia), whereby +the alien culture of the south was already engrafted in part upon the +low civilisation of the native English. Amber was then exported from the +Baltic, while gold, silver, and glass beads were given in return. Roman +coins are discovered in Low German tombs of the first five centuries in +Sleswick, Holstein, Friesland, and the Isles; and Roman patterns are +imitated in the iron weapons and utensils of the same period. Gold +byzants of the fifth century prove an intercourse with<a name="page12" id="page12"></a> Constantinople +at the exact date of the colonisation of Britain. From the very earliest +moment when we catch a glimpse of its nature, the home-grown English +culture had already begun to be modified by the superior arts of Rome. +Even the alphabet was known and used in its Runic form, though the +absence of writing materials caused its employment to be restricted to +inscriptions on wooden tablets, on rude stone monuments, or on utensils +of metal-work. A golden drinking-horn found in Sleswick, and engraved +with the maker's name, referred to the middle of the fourth century, +contains the earliest known specimen of the English language.</p> + +<p>The early English society was founded entirely on the tie of blood. +Every clan or family lived by itself and formed a guild for mutual +protection, each kinsman being his brother's keeper, and bound to avenge +his death by feud with the tribe or clan which had killed him. This duty +of blood-revenge was the supreme religion of the race. Moreover, the +clan was answerable as a whole for the ill-deeds of all its members; and +the fine payable for murder or injury was handed over by the family of +the wrong-doer to the family of the injured man.</p> + +<p>Each little village of the old English community possessed a general +independence of its own, and lay apart from all the others, often +surrounded by a broad belt or mark of virgin forest. It consisted of a +clearing like those of the American backwoods, where a single family or +kindred had made its home, and preserved its separate independence +intact. Each <a name="page13" id="page13"></a>of these families was known by the name of its real or +supposed ancestor, the patronymic being formed by the addition of the +syllable <i>ing</i>. Thus the descendants of Ælla would be called Ællings, +and their <i>ham</i> or stockade would be known as Ællingaham, or in modern +form Allingham. So the <i>tun</i> or enclosure of the Culmings would be +Culmingatun, similarly modernised into Culmington. Names of this type +abound in the newer England at the present day; as in the case of +Birmingham, Buckingham, Wellington, Kensington, Basingstoke, and +Paddington. But while in America the clearing is merely a temporary +phase, and the border of forest is soon cut down so as to connect the +village with its neighbours, in the old Anglo-Saxon fatherland the +border of woodland, heath, or fen was jealously guarded as a frontier +and natural defence for the little predatory and agricultural community. +Whoever crossed it was bound to give notice of his coming by blowing a +horn; else he was cut down at once as a stealthy enemy. The marksmen +wished to remain separate from all others, and only to mix with those of +their own kin. In this primitive love of separation we have the germ of +that local independence and that isolated private home life which is one +of the most marked characteristics of modern Englishmen.</p> + +<p>In the middle of the clearing, surrounded by a wooden stockade, stood +the village, a group of rude detached huts. The marksmen each possessed +a separate little homestead, consisting usually of a small wooden house +or shanty, a courtyard, and a cattle-fold. So <a name="page14" id="page14"></a>far, private property in +land had already begun. But the forest and the pasture land were not +appropriated: each man had a right from year to year to let loose his +kine or horses on a certain equal or proportionate space of land +assigned to him by the village in council. The wealth of the people +consisted mainly in cattle which fed on the pasture, and pigs turned out +to fatten on the acorns of the forest: but a small portion of the soil +was ploughed and sown; and this portion also was distributed to the +villagers for tillage by annual arrangement. The hall of the chief rose +in the midst of the lesser houses, open to all comers. The village moot, +or assembly of freemen, met in the open air, under some sacred tree, or +beside some old monumental stone, often a relic of the older aboriginal +race, marking the tomb of a dead chieftain, but worshipped as a god by +the English immigrants. At these informal meetings, every head of a +family had a right to appear and deliberate. The primitive English +constitution was a pure republican aristocracy or oligarchy of +householders, like that which still survives in the Swiss forest +cantons.</p> + +<p>But there were yet distinctions of rank in the villages and in the loose +tribes formed by their union for purposes of war or otherwise. The +people were divided into three classes of <i>æthelings</i> or chieftains, +<i>freolings</i> or freemen, and <i>theows</i> or slaves. The <i>æthelings</i> were the +nobles and rulers of each tribe. There was no king: but when the tribes +joined together in a war, their <i>æthelings</i> cast lots together, and +whoever drew the winning lot was made commander <a name="page15" id="page15"></a>for the time being. As +soon as the war was over, each tribe returned to its own independence. +Indeed, the only really coherent body was the village or kindred: and +the whole course of early English history consists of a long and tedious +effort at increased national unity, which was never fully realised till +the Norman conquerors bound the whole nation together in the firm grasp +of William, Henry, and Edward.</p> + +<p>In personal appearance, the primitive Anglo-Saxons were typical Germans +of very unmixed blood. Tall, fair-haired, and gray-eyed, their limbs +were large and stout, and their heads of the round or brachycephalic +type, common to most Aryan races. They did not intermarry with other +nations, preserving their Germanic blood pure and unadulterated. But as +they had slaves, and as these slaves must in many cases have been +captives spared in war, we must suppose that such descriptions apply, +strictly speaking, to the freemen and chieftains alone. The slaves might +be of any race, and in process of time they must have learnt to speak +English, and their children must have become English in all but blood. +Many of them, indeed, would probably be actually English on the father's +side, though born of slave mothers. Hence we must be careful not to +interpret the expressions of historians, who would be thinking of the +free classes only, and especially of the nobles, as though they applied +to the slaves as well. Wherever slavery exists, the blood of the slave +community is necessarily very mixed. The picture which the heathen +English <a name="page16" id="page16"></a>have drawn of themselves in <i>Beowulf</i> is one of savage pirates, +clad in shirts of ring-armour, and greedy of gold and ale. Fighting and +drinking are their two delights. The noblest leader is he who builds a +great hall, throws it open for his people to carouse in, and liberally +deals out beer, and bracelets, and money at the feast. The joy of battle +is keen in their breasts. The sea and the storm are welcome to them. +They are fearless and greedy pirates, not ashamed of living by the +strong hand alone.</p> + +<p>In creed, the English were pagans, having a religion of beliefs rather +than of rites. Their chief deity, perhaps, was a form of the old Aryan +Sky-god, who took with them the guise of Thunor or Thunder (in +Scandinavian, Thor), an angry warrior hurling his hammer, the +thunder-bolt, from the stormy clouds. These thunder-bolts were often +found buried in the earth; and being really the polished stone-axes of +the earlier inhabitants, they do actually resemble a hammer in shape. +But Woden, the special god of the Teutonic race, had practically usurped +the highest place in their mythology: he is represented as the leader of +the Germans in their exodus from Asia to north-western Europe, and since +all the pedigrees of their chieftains were traced back to Woden, it is +not improbable that he may have been really a deified ancestor of the +principal Germanic families. The popular creed, however, was mainly one +of lesser gods, such as elves, ogres, giants, and monsters, inhabitants +of the mark and fen, stories of whom still survive in English villages +as folk-lore or fairy tales. A few legends of the pagan <a name="page17" id="page17"></a>time are +preserved for us in Christian books. <i>Beowulf</i> is rich in allusions to +these ancient superstitions. If we may build upon the slender materials +which alone are available, it would seem that the dead chieftains were +buried in barrows, and ghost-worship was practised at their tombs. The +temples were mere stockades of wood, with rude blocks or monoliths to +represent deities and altars. Probably their few rites consisted merely +of human or other sacrifices to the gods or the ghosts of departed +chiefs. There was a regular priesthood of the great gods, but each man +was priest for his own household. As in most other heathen communities, +the real worship of the people was mainly directed to the special family +deities of every hearth. The great gods were appealed to by the +chieftains and by the race in battle: but the household gods or deified +ancestors received the chief homage of the churls by their own +firesides.</p> + +<p>Thus the Anglo-Saxons, before the great exodus from Denmark and North +Germany, appear as a race of fierce, cruel, and barbaric pagans, +delighting in the sea, in slaughter, and in drink. They dwelt in little +isolated communities, bound together internally by ties of blood, and +uniting occasionally with others only for purposes of rapine. They lived +a life which mainly alternated between grazing, piratical seafaring, and +cattle-lifting; always on the war-trail against the possessions of +others, when they were not specially engaged in taking care of their +own. Every record and every indication shows them to us as fiercer +heathen prototypes of the Scotch clans in the most <a name="page18" id="page18"></a>lawless days of the +Highlands. Incapable of union for any peaceful purpose at home, they +learned their earliest lesson of subordination in their piratical +attacks upon the civilised Christian community of Roman Britain. We +first meet with them in history in the character of destroyers and +sea-robbers. Yet they possessed already in their wild marshy home the +germs of those free institutions which have made the history of England +unique amongst the nations of Europe.</p><p><a name="page19" id="page19"></a></p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="chapter3" id="chapter3"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>THE ENGLISH SETTLE IN BRITAIN.</h3> + + +<p>Proximity to the sea turns robbers into corsairs. When predatory tribes +reach the seaboard they always take to piracy, provided they have +attained the shipbuilding level of culture. In the ancient Ægean, in the +Malay Archipelago, in the China seas, we see the same process always +taking place. Probably from the first period of their severance from the +main Aryan stock in Central Asia, the Low German race and their +ancestors had been a predatory and conquering people, for ever engaged +in raids and smouldering warfare with their neighbours. When they +reached the Baltic and the islands of the Frisian coast, they grew +naturally into a nation of pirates. Even during the bronze age, we find +sculptured stones with representations of long row-boats, manned by +several oarsmen, and in one or two cases actually bearing a rude sail. +Their prows and sterns stand high out of the water, and are adorned with +intricate carvings. They seem like the predecessors of the long +ships—snakes and sea-dragons—which afterwards bore the northern +corsairs into every river of Europe. Such boats, adapted for long +sea-voyages, show a considerable intercourse, piratical or commercial, +<a name="page20" id="page20"></a>between the Anglo-Saxon or Scandinavian North and other distant +countries. Certainly, from the earliest days of Roman rule on the German +Ocean to the thirteenth century, the Low Dutch and Scandinavian tribes +carried on an almost unbroken course of expeditions by sea, beginning in +every case with mere descents upon the coast for the purposes of +plunder, but ending, as a rule, with regular colonisation or political +supremacy. In this manner the people of the Baltic and the North Sea +ravaged or settled in every country on the sea-shore, from Orkney, +Shetland, and the Faroes, to Normandy, Apulia, and Greece; from Boulogne +and Kent, to Iceland, Greenland, and, perhaps, America. The colonisation +of South-Eastern Britain was but the first chapter in this long history +of predatory excursions on the part of the Low German peoples.</p> + +<p>The piratical ships of the early English were row-boats of very simple +construction. We actually possess one undoubted specimen at the present +day, whose very date is fixed for us by the circumstances of its +discovery. It was dug up, some years since, from a peat-bog in Sleswick, +the old England of our forefathers, along with iron arms and implements, +and in association with Roman coins ranging in date from A.D. 67 to A.D. +217. It may therefore be pretty confidently assigned to the first half +of the third century. In this interesting relic, then, we have one of +the identical boats in which the descents upon the British coast were +first made. The craft is rudely built of oaken boards, and is seventy +feet long <a name="page21" id="page21"></a>by nine broad. The stem and stern are alike in shape, and the +boat is fitted for being beached upon the foreshore. A sculptured stone +at Häggeby, in Uplande, roughly represents for us such a ship under way, +probably of about the same date. It is rowed with twelve pairs of oars, +and has no sails; and it contains no other persons but the rowers and a +coxswain, who acted doubtless as leader of the expedition. Such a boat +might convey about 120 fighting men.</p> + +<p>There are some grounds for believing that, even before the establishment +of the Roman power in Britain, Teutonic pirates from the northern +marshlands were already in the habit of plundering the Celtic +inhabitants of the country between the Wash and the mouth of the Thames; +and it is possible that an English colony may, even then, have +established itself in the modern Lincolnshire. But, be this as it may, +we know at least that during the period of the Roman occupation, Low +German adventurers were constantly engaged in descending upon the +exposed coasts of the English Channel and the North Sea. The Low German +tribe nearest to the Roman provinces was that of the Saxons, and +accordingly these Teutonic pirates, of whatever race, were known as +Saxons by the provincials, and all Englishmen are still so called by the +modern Celts, in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.</p> + +<p>The outlying Roman provinces were close at hand, easy to reach, rich, +ill-defended, and a tempting prey for the barbaric tribesmen of the +north. Setting out in their light open skiffs from the islands at the +<a name="page22" id="page22"></a>mouth of the Elbe, or off the shore afterwards submerged in what is now +the Zuyder Zee, the English or Saxon pirates crossed the sea with the +prevalent north-east wind, and landed all along the provincial coasts of +Gaul and Britain. As the empire decayed under the assaults of the Goths, +their ravages turned into regular settlements. One great body pillaged, +age after age, the neighbourhood of Bayeux, where, before the middle of +the fifth century, it established a flourishing colony, and where the +towns and villages all still bear names of Saxon origin. Another horde +first plundered and then took up its abode near Boulogne, where local +names of the English patronymic type also abound to the present day. In +Britain itself, at a date not later than the end of the fourth century, +we find (in the "Notitia Imperil") an officer who bears the title of +Count of the Saxon Shore, and whose jurisdiction extended from +Lincolnshire to Southampton Water. The title probably indicates that +piratical incursions had already set in on Britain, and the duty of the +count was most likely that of repelling the English invaders.</p> + +<p>As soon as the Romans found themselves compelled to withdraw their +garrison from Britain, leaving the provinces to defend themselves as +best they might, the temptation to the English pirates became a thousand +times stronger than before. Though the so-called history of the +conquest, handed down to us by Bæda and the +"English Chronicle,"<a name="FNanchor_1_2" id="FNanchor_1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_2" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> is +now considered <a name="page23" id="page23"></a>by many enquirers to be mythical in almost every +particular, the facts themselves speak out for us with unhesitating +certainty. We know that about the middle of the fifth century, shortly +after the withdrawal of the regular Roman troops, several bodies of +heathen Anglo-Saxons, belonging to the three tribes of Jutes, English, +and Saxons, settled <i>en masse</i> on the south-eastern shores of Britain, +from the Firth of Forth to the Isle of Wight. The age of mere plundering +descents was decisively over, and the age of settlement and colonisation +had set in. These heathen Anglo-Saxons drove away, exterminated, or +enslaved the Romanised and Christianised Celts, broke down every vestige +of Roman civilisation, destroyed the churches, burnt the villas, laid +waste many of the towns, and re-introduced a long period of pagan +barbarism. For a while Britain remains enveloped in an age of complete +uncertainty, and heathen myths intervene between the Christian +historical period of the Romans and the Christian historical period +initiated by the conversion of Kent. Of South-Eastern Britain under the +pagan Anglo-Saxons we know practically nothing, save by inference and +analogy, or by the scanty evidence of archæology.</p> + +<p>According to tradition the Jutes came first. In 449, says the Celtic +legend (the date is quite untrustworthy), they landed in Kent, where +they first settled in Ruim, which we English call Thanet—then really an +island, and gradually spread themselves over the mainland, capturing the +great Roman fortress <a name="page24" id="page24"></a>of Rochester and coast land as far as London. +Though the details of this story are full of mythical absurdities, the +analogy of the later Danish colonies gives it an air of great +probability, as the Danes always settled first in islands or peninsulas, +and thence proceeded to overrun, and finally to annex, the adjacent +district. A second Jutish horde established itself in the Isle of Wight +and on the opposite shore of Hampshire. But the whole share borne by the +Jutes in the settlement of Britain seems to have been but small.</p> + +<p>The Saxons came second in time, if we may believe the legends. In 477, +Ælle, with his three sons, is said to have landed on the south coast, +where he founded the colony of the South Saxons, or Sussex. In 495, +Cerdic and Cynric led another kindred horde to the south-western shore, +and made the first settlement of the West Saxons, or Wessex. Of the +beginnings of the East Saxon community in Essex, and of the Middle +Saxons in Middlesex, we know little, even by tradition. The Saxons +undoubtedly came over in large numbers; but a considerable body of their +fellow-tribesmen still remained upon the Continent, where they were +still independent and unconverted up to the time of Karl the Great.</p> + +<p>The English, on the other hand, apparently migrated in a body. There is +no trace of any Englishmen in Denmark or Germany after the exodus to +Britain. Their language, of which a dialect still survives in Friesland, +has utterly died out in Sleswick. The English took for their share of +Britain the <a name="page25" id="page25"></a>nearest east coast. We have little record of their arrival, +even in the legendary story; we merely learn that in 547, Ida "succeeded +to the kingdom" of the Northumbrians, whence we may possibly conclude +that the colony was already established. The English settlement extended +from the Forth to Essex, and was subdivided into Bernicia, Deira, and +East Anglia.</p> + +<p>Wherever the Anglo-Saxons came, their first work was to stamp out with +fire and sword every trace of the Roman civilisation. Modern +investigations amongst pagan Anglo-Saxon barrows in Britain show the Low +German race as pure barbarians, great at destruction, but incapable of +constructive work. Professor Rolleston, who has opened several of these +early heathen tombs of our Teutonic ancestors, finds in them everywhere +abundant evidence of "their great aptness at destroying, and their great +slowness in elaborating, material civilisation." Until the Anglo-Saxon +received from the Continent the Christian religion and the Roman +culture, he was a mere average Aryan barbarian, with a strong taste for +war and plunder, but with small love for any of the arts of peace. +Wherever else, in Gaul, Spain, or Italy, the Teutonic barbarians came in +contact with the Roman civilisation, they received the religion of +Christ, and the arts of the conquered people, during or before their +conquest of the country. But in Britain the Teutonic invaders remained +pagans long after their settlement in the island; and they utterly +destroyed, in the south-eastern tract, almost every relic of the Roman +rule and of <a name="page26" id="page26"></a>the Christian faith. Hence we have here the curious fact +that, during the fifth and sixth centuries, a belt of intrusive and +aggressive heathendom intervenes between the Christians of the Continent +and the Christian Welsh and Irish of western Britain. The Church of the +Celtic Welsh was cut off for more than a hundred years from the Churches +of the Roman world by a hostile and impassable barrier of heathen +English, Jutes, and Saxons. Their separation produced many momentous +effects on the after history both of the Welsh themselves and of their +English conquerors.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_2" id="Footnote_1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_2">[1]</a> For +an account of these two main authorities see further +on, Bæda in <a href="#chapter11">chapter xi.</a>, and the "Chronicle" in <a href="#chapter18">chapter +xviii.</a></p> +</div> +<p><a name="page27" id="page27"></a></p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="chapter4" id="chapter4"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>THE COLONISATION OF THE COAST.</h3> + + +<p>Though the myths which surround the arrival of the English in Britain +have little historical value, they are yet interesting for the light +which they throw incidentally upon the habits and modes of thought of +the colonists. They have one character in common with all other legends, +that they grow fuller and more circumstantial the further they proceed +from the original time. Bæda, who wrote about A.D. 700, gives them in a +very meagre form: the English Chronicle, compiled at the court of +Ælfred, about A.D. 900, adds several important traditional particulars: +while with the romantic Geoffrey of Monmouth, A.D. 1152, they assume the +character of full and circumstantial tales. The less men knew about the +conquest, the more they had to tell about it.</p> + +<p>Among the most sacred animals of the Aryan race was the horse. Even in +the Indian epics, the sacrifice of a horse was the highest rite of the +primitive religion. Tacitus tells us that the Germans kept sacred white +horses at the public expense, in the groves and woods of the gods: and +that from their neighings and snortings, auguries were taken. Amongst +the people of the northern marshlands, the white horse seems <a name="page28" id="page28"></a>to have +been held in especial honour, and to this day a white horse rampant +forms the cognisance of Hanover and Brunswick. The English settlers +brought this, their national emblem, with them to Britain, and cut its +figure on the chalk downs as they advanced westward, to mark the +progress of their conquest. The white horses on the Berkshire and +Wiltshire hills still bear witness to their settlement. A white horse is +even now the symbol of Kent. Hence it is not surprising to learn that in +the legendary story of the first colonisation, the Jutish leaders who +led the earliest Teutonic host into Thanet should bear the names of +Hengest and Horsa, the stallion and the mare. They came in three +keels—a ridiculously inadequate number, considering their size and the +necessities of a conquering army: and they settled in 449 (for the +legends are always most precise where they are least historical) in the +Isle of Thanet. "A multitude of whelps," says the Welsh monk Gildas, +"came forth from the lair of the barbaric lioness, in three cyuls, as +they call them." Vortigern, King of the Welsh, had invited them to come +to his aid against the Picts of North Britain and the Scots of Ireland, +who were making piratical incursions into the deserted province, left +unprotected through the heavy levies made by the departing Romans. The +Jutes attacked and conquered the Gaels, but then turned against their +Welsh allies.</p> + +<p>In 455, the Jutes advanced from Thanet to conquer the whole of Kent, +"and Hengest and Horsa fought with Vortigern the king," says the English +Chronicle,<a name="page29" id="page29"></a> "at the place that is cleped Æglesthrep; and there men slew +Horsa his brother, and after that Hengest came to rule, and Æsc his +son." One year later, Hengest and Æsc fought once more with the Welsh at +Crayford, "and offslew 4,000 men; and the Britons then forsook +Kent-land, and fled with mickle awe to London-bury." In this account we +may see a dim recollection of the settlement of the two petty Jutish +kingdoms in Kent, with their respective capitals at Canterbury and +Rochester, whose separate dioceses still point back to the two original +principalities. It may be worth while to note, too, that the name Æsc +means the ash-tree; and that this tree was as sacred among plants as the +horse was among animals.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, a kernel of truth doubtless lingers in the traditional +story. Thanet was afterwards one of the first landing-places of the +Danes: and its isolated position—for a broad belt of sea then separated +the island from the Kentish main—would make it a natural post to be +assigned by the Welsh to their doubtful piratical allies. The inlet was +guarded by the great Roman fortress of Rhutupiæ: and after the fall of +that important stronghold, the English may probably have occupied the +principality of East Kent, with its capital of Canterbury. The walls of +Rochester may have held out longer: and the West Kentish kingdom may +well have been founded by two successful battles at the passage of the +Medway and the Cray.</p> + +<p>The legend as to the settlement of Sussex is of much the same sort. In +477, Ælle the Saxon came <a name="page30" id="page30"></a>to Britain also with the suspiciously +symmetrical number of three ships. With him came his three sons, Kymen, +Wlencing, and Cissa. These names are obviously invented to account for +those of three important places in the South-Saxon chieftainship. The +host landed at Kymenes ora, probably Keynor, in the Bill of Selsey, +then, as its title imports, a separate island girt round by the tidal +sea: their capital and, in days after the Norman conquest, their +cathedral was at Cissan-ceaster, the Roman Regnum, now Chichester: while +the third name survives in the modern village of Lancing, near Shoreham. +The Saxons at once fought the natives "and offslew many Welsh, and drove +some in flight into the wood that is named Andredes-leag," now the Weald +of Kent and Sussex. A little colony thus occupied the western half of +the modern county: but the eastern portion still remained in the hands +of the Welsh. For awhile the great Roman fortress of Anderida (now +Pevensey) held out against the invaders; until in 491 "Ælle and Cissa +beset Anderida, and offslew all that were therein; nor was there after +even one Briton left alive." All Sussex became a single Saxon kingdom, +ringed round by the great forest of the Weald. Here again the obviously +unhistorical character of the main facts throws the utmost doubt upon +the nature of the details. Yet, in this case too, the central idea +itself is likely enough,—that the South Saxons first occupied the +solitary coast islet of Selsey; then conquered the fortress of Regnum +and the western shore as far as Eastbourne; and finally captured +Anderida and the <a name="page31" id="page31"></a>eastern half of the county up to the line of the +Romney marshes.</p> + +<p>Even more improbable is the story of the Saxon settlement on the more +distant portion of the south coast. In 495 "came twain aldermen to +Britain, Cerdic and Cynric his son, with five ships, at that place that +is cleped Cerdices ora, and fought that ilk day with the Welsh." +Clearly, the name of Cerdic may be invented solely to account for the +name of the place: since we see by the sequel that the English freely +imagined such personages as pegs on which to hang their mythical +history.<a name="FNanchor_1_3" id="FNanchor_1_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_3" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> For, +six years later, one Port landed at Portsmouth with two +ships, and there slew a Welsh nobleman. But we know positively that the +name of Portsmouth comes from the Latin <i>Portus</i>; and therefore Port +must have been simply invented to explain the unknown derivation. Still +more flagrant is the case of Wihtgar, who conquered the Isle of Wight, +and was buried at Wihtgarasbyrig, or Carisbrooke. For the origin of that +name is really quite different: the Wiht-ware or Wiht-gare are the men +of Wight, just as the Cant-ware are the men of Kent: and Wiht-gara-byrig +is the Wight-men's-bury, just as Cant-wara-byrig or Canterbury is the +Kent-men's-bury. Moreover, a double story is told in the Chronicle as to +the original colonisation of Wessex; <a name="page32" id="page32"></a>the first attributing the conquest +to Cerdic and Cynric, and the second to Stuf and Wihtgar.</p> + +<p>The only other existing legend refers to the great English kingdom of +Northumbria: and about it the English Chronicle, which is mainly West +Saxon in origin, merely tells us in dry terms under the year 547, "Here +Ida came to rule." There are no details, even of the meagre kind, +vouchsafed in the south; no account of the conquest of the great Roman +town of York, or of the resistance offered by the powerful Brigantian +tribes. But a fragment of some old Northumbrian tradition, embedded in +the later and spurious Welsh compilation which bears the name of +Nennius, tells us a not improbable tale—that the first settlement on +the coast of the Lothians was made as early as the conquest of Kent, by +Jutes of the same stock as those who colonised Thanet. A hundred years +later, the Welsh poems seem to say, Ida "the flame-bearer," fought his +way down from a petty principality on the Forth, and occupied the whole +Northumbrian coast, in spite of the stubborn guerilla warfare of the +despairing provincials. Still less do we learn about the beginnings of +Mercia, the powerful English kingdom which occupied the midlands; or +about the first colonisation of East Anglia. In short, the legends of +the settlement, unhistorical and meagre as they are, refer only to the +Jutish and Saxon conquests in the south, and tell us nothing at all +about the origin of the main English kingdoms in the north. It is +important to bear in mind this fact, because the current conceptions as +to the spread of the Anglo-Saxon <a name="page33" id="page33"></a>race and the extermination of the +native Welsh are largely based upon the very limited accounts of the +conquest of Kent and Sussex, and the mournful dirges of the Welsh monks +or bards.</p> + +<p>It seems improbable, however, that the north-eastern coast of Britain, +naturally exposed above every other part to the ravages of northern +pirates, and in later days the head-quarters of the Danish intruders in +our island, should so long have remained free from English incursions. +If the Teutonic settlers really first established themselves here a +century later than their conquest of Kent, we can only account for it by +the supposition that York and the Brigantes, the old metropolis of the +provinces, held out far more stubbornly and successfully than Rochester +and Anderida, with their very servile Romanised population. But even the +words of the Chronicle do not necessarily imply that Ida was the first +king of the Northumbrians, or that the settlement of the country took +place in his days.<a name="FNanchor_2_4" id="FNanchor_2_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_4" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> And +if they did, we need not feel bound to accept +their testimony, considering that the earliest date we can assign for +the composition of the chronicle is the reign of Ælfred: while Bæda, the +earlier native Northumbrian historian, throws no light at all upon the +question. Hence it <a name="page34" id="page34"></a>seems probable that Nennius preserves a truthful +tradition, and that the English settled in the region between the Forth +and the Tyne, at least as early as the Jutes settled in Kent or the +Saxons along the South Coast, from Pevensey Bay to Southampton Water.</p> + +<p>If, then, we leave out of consideration the etymological myths and +numerical absurdities of the English or Welsh legends, and look only at +the facts disclosed to us by the subsequent condition of the country, we +shall find that the early Anglo-Saxon settlements took place somewhat +after this wise. In the extreme north, the English apparently did not +care to settle in the rugged mountain country between Aberdeen and +Edinburgh, inhabited by the free and warlike Picts. But from the Firth +of Forth to the borders of Essex, a succession of colonies, belonging to +the restricted English tribe, occupied the whole provincial coast, +burning, plundering, and massacring in many places as they went. First +and northernmost of all came the people whom we know by their Latinised +title of Bernicians, and who descended upon the rocky braes between +Forth and Tyne. These are the English of Ida's kingdom, the modern +Lothians and Northumberland. Their chief town was at Bebbanburh, now +Bamborough, which Ida "timbered, and betyned it with a hedge." Next in +geographical order stood the people of Deira, or Yorkshire, who occupied +the rich agricultural valley of the Ouse, the fertile alluvial tract of +Holderness, and the bleak coast-line from Tyne to Humber. Whether they +conquered the Roman capital of York, <a name="page35" id="page35"></a>or whether it made terms with the +invaders, we do not know; but it is not mentioned as the chief town of +the English kings before the days of Eadwine, under whom the two +Northumbrian chieftainships were united into a single kingdom. However, +as Eadwine assumed some of the imperial Roman trappings, it seems not +unlikely that a portion at least of the Romanised population survived +the conquest. The two principalities probably spread back politically in +most places as far as the watershed which separates the basins of the +German Ocean and the Irish Sea; but the English population seems to have +lived mainly along the coast or in the fertile valley of the Ouse and +its tributaries; for Elmet and Loidis, two Welsh principalities, long +held out in the Leeds district, and the people of the dales and the +inland parts, as we shall see reason hereafter to conclude, even now +show evident marks of Celtic descent. Together the two chieftainships +were generally known by the name of Northumberland, now confined to +their central portion; but it must never be forgotten that the Lothians, +which at present form part of modern Scotland, were originally a portion +of this early English kingdom, and are still, perhaps, more purely +English in blood and speech than any other district in our island.</p> + +<p>From Humber to the Wash was occupied by a second English colony, the men +of Lincolnshire, divided into three minor tribes, one of which, the +Gainas, has left its name to Gainsborough. Here, again, we hear nothing +of the conquest, nor of the <a name="page36" id="page36"></a>means by which the powerful Roman colony of +Lincoln fell into the hands of the English. But the town still retains +its Roman name, and in part its Roman walls; so that we may conclude the +native population was not entirely exterminated.</p> + +<p>East Anglia, as its name imports, was likewise colonised by an English +horde, divided, like the men of Kent, into two minor bodies, the North +Folk and the South Folk, whose names survive in the modern counties of +Norfolk and Suffolk. But in East Anglia, as in Yorkshire, we shall see +reason hereafter to conclude that the lower orders of Welsh were largely +spared, and that their descendants still form in part the labouring +classes of the two counties. Here, too, the English settlers probably +clustered thickest along the coast, like the Danes in later days; and +the great swampy expanse of the Fens, then a mere waste of marshland +tenanted by beavers and wild fowl, formed the inland boundary or mark of +their almost insular kingdom.</p> + +<p>The southern half of the coast was peopled by Englishmen of the Saxon +and Jutish tribes. First came the country of the East Saxons, or Essex, +the flat land stretching from the borders of East Anglia to the estuary +of the Thames. This had been one of the most thickly-populated Roman +regions, containing the important stations of Camalodunum, London, and +Verulam. But we know nothing, even by report, of its conquest. Beyond +it, and separated by the fenland of the Lea, lay the outlying little +principality of Middlesex. The upper reaches of the Thames <a name="page37" id="page37"></a>were still +in the hands of the Welsh natives, for the great merchant city of London +blocked the way for the pirates to the head-waters of the river.</p> + +<p>On the south side of the estuary lay the Jutish principalities of East +and West Kent, including the strong Roman posts of Rhutupiæ, Dover, +Rochester, and Canterbury. The great forest of the Weald and the Romney +Marshes separated them from Sussex; and the insular positions of Thanet +and Sheppey had always special attractions for the northern pirates.</p> + +<p>Beyond the marshes, again, the strip of southern shore, between the +downs and the sea, as far as Hayling Island, fell into the hands of the +South Saxons, whose boundary to the east was formed by Romney Marsh, and +to the west by the flats near Chichester, where the forest runs down to +the tidal swamp by the sea. The district north of the Weald, now known +as Surrey, was also peopled by Saxon freebooters, at a later date, +though doubtless far more sparsely.</p> + +<p>Finally, along the wooded coast from Portsmouth to Poole Harbour, the +Gewissas, afterwards known as the West Saxons, established their power. +The Isle of Wight and the region about Southampton Water, however, were +occupied by the Meonwaras, a small intrusive colony of Jutes. Up the +rich valley overlooked by the great Roman city of Winchester (Venta +Belgarum), the West Saxons made their way, not without severe +opposition, as their own legends and traditions tell us; and in +Winchester they fixed their capital for awhile. The long chain of chalk +downs <a name="page38" id="page38"></a>behind the city formed their weak northern mark or boundary, +while to the west they seem always to have carried on a desultory +warfare with the yet unsubdued Welsh, commanded by their great leader +Ambrosius, who has left his name to Ambres-byrig, or Amesbury.</p> + +<p>We must not, however, suppose that each of these colonies had from the +first a united existence as a political community. We know that even the +eight or ten kingdoms into which England was divided at the dawn of the +historical period were each themselves produced by the consolidation of +several still smaller chieftainships. Even in the two petty Kentish +kingdoms there were under-kings, who had once been independent. Wight +was a distinct kingdom till the reign of Ceadwalla in Wessex. The later +province of Mercia was composed of minor divisions, known as the +Hwiccas, the Middle English, the West Hecan, and so forth. Henry of +Huntingdon, a historian of the twelfth century, who had access, however, +to several valuable and original sources of information now lost, tells +us that many chieftains came from Germany, occupied Mercia and East +Anglia, and often fought with one another for the supremacy. In fact, +the petty kingdoms of the eighth century were themselves the result of a +consolidation of many forgotten principalities founded by the first +conquerors.</p> + +<p>Thus the earliest England with which we are historically acquainted +consisted of a mere long strip or borderland of Teutonic coast, divided +into tiny chieftainships, and girding round half of the eastern and +southern <a name="page39" id="page39"></a>shores of a still Celtic Britain. Its area was discontinuous, +and its inland boundaries towards the back country were vaguely defined. +As Massachusetts and Connecticut stood off from Virginia and Georgia—as +New South Wales and Victoria stand off from South Australia and +Queensland—so Northumbria stood off from East Anglia, and Kent from +Sussex. Each colony represented a little English nucleus along the coast +or up the mouths of the greater rivers, such as the Thames and Humber, +where the pirates could easily drive in their light craft. From such a +nucleus, perched at first on some steep promontory like Bamborough, some +separate island like Thanet, Wight, and Selsey, or some long spit of +land like Holderness and Hurst Castle, the barbarians could extend their +dominions on every side, till they reached some natural line of +demarcation in the direction of their nearest Teutonic neighbours, which +formed their necessary mark. Inland they spread as far as they could +conquer; but coastwise the rivers and fens were their limits against one +another. Thus this oldest insular England is marked off into at least +eight separate colonies by the Forth, the Tyne, the Humber, the Wash, +the Harwich Marshes, the Thames, the Weald Forest, and the Chichester +tidal swamp region. As to how the pirates settled down along this wide +stretch of coast, we know practically nothing; of their westward advance +we know a little, and as time proceeds, that knowledge becomes more and +more.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_3" id="Footnote_1_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_3">[1]</a> Cerdic +is apparently a British rather than an English +name, since Bæda mentions a certain "Cerdic, rex Brettonum." +This may have been a Caradoc. Perhaps the first element in +the names Cerdices ora, Cerdices ford, &c., was older than +the English conquest. The legends are invariably connected +with local names.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_2_4" id="Footnote_2_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_4">[2]</a> A +remarkable passage in the Third Continuator of +Florence mentions Hyring as the first king of Bernicia, +followed by Woden and five other mythical personages, before +Ida. Clearly, this is mere unhistorical guesswork on the +part of the monk of Bury; but it may enclose a genuine +tradition so far as Hyring is concerned.</p> +</div> +<p><a name="page40" id="page40"></a></p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="chapter5" id="chapter5"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>THE ENGLISH IN THEIR NEW HOMES.</h3> + + +<p>If any trust at all can be placed in the legends, a lull in the conquest +followed the first settlement, and for some fifty years the English—or +at least the West Saxons—were engaged in consolidating their own +dominions, without making any further attack upon those of the Welsh. It +may be well, therefore, to enquire what changes of manners had come over +them in consequence of their change of place from the shores of the +Baltic and the North Sea to those of the Channel and the German Ocean.</p> + +<p>As a whole, English society remained much the same in Britain as it had +been in Sleswick and North Holland. The English came over in a body, +with their women and children, their flocks and herds, their goods and +chattels. The peculiar breed of cattle which they brought with them may +still be distinguished in their remains from the earlier Celtic +short-horn associated with Roman ruins and pre-historic barrows. They +came as settlers, not as mere marauders; and they remained banded +together in their original tribes and families after they had occupied +the soil of Britain.</p> + +<p>From the moment of their landing in Britain the <a name="page41" id="page41"></a>savage corsairs of the +Sleswick flats seem wholly to have laid aside their seafaring habits. +They built no more ships, apparently; for many years after Bishop +Wilfrith had to teach the South Saxons how to catch sea-fish; while +during the early Danish incursions we hear distinctly that the English +had no vessels; nor is there much incidental mention of shipping between +the age of the settlement and that of Ælfred. The new-comers took up +their abode at once on the richest parts of Roman Britain, and came into +full enjoyment of orchards which they had not planted and fields which +they had not sown. The state of cultivation in which they found the vale +of York and the Kentish glens must have been widely different from that +to which they were accustomed in their old heath-clad home. Accordingly, +they settled down at once into farmers and landowners on a far larger +scale than of yore; and they were not anxious to move away from the rich +lands which they had so easily acquired. From being sailors and graziers +they took to be agriculturists and landmen. In the towns, indeed, they +did not settle; and most of these continued to bear their old Roman or +Celtic titles. A few may have been destroyed, especially in the first +onset, like Anderida, and, at a later date, Chester; but the greater +number seem to have been still scantily inhabited, under English +protection, by a mixed urban population, mainly Celtic in blood, and +known by the name of Loegrians. It was in the country, however, that the +English conquerers took up their abode. They were tillers of the soil, +not <a name="page42" id="page42"></a>merchants or skippers, and it was long before they acquired a taste +for urban life. The whole eastern half of England is filled with +villages bearing the characteristic English clan names, and marking each +the home of a distinct family of early settlers. As soon as the +new-comers had burnt the villa of the old Roman proprietor, and killed, +driven out, or enslaved his abandoned serfs, they took the land to +themselves and divided it out on their national system. Hence the whole +government and social organisation of England is purely Teutonic, and +the country even lost its old name of Britain for its new one of +England.</p> + +<p>In England, as of old in Sleswick, the village community formed the unit +of English society. Each such township was still bounded by its mark of +forest, mere, or fen, which divided it from its nearest neighbours. In +each lived a single clan, supposed to be of kindred blood and bearing a +common name. The marksmen and their serfs, the latter being conquered +Welshmen, cultivated the soil under cereals for bread, and also for an +unnecessarily large supply of beer, as we learn at a later date from +numerous charters. Cattle and horses grazed in the pastures, while large +herds of pigs were kept in the forest which formed the mark. Thus the +early English settled down at once from a nation of pirates into one of +agriculturists. Here and there, among the woods and fens which still +covered a large part of the country, their little separate communities +rose in small fenced clearings or on low islets, now joined by drainage +to the mainland; while in the wider valleys, tilled in Roman times, the +<a name="page43" id="page43"></a>wealthier chieftains formed their settlements and allotted lands to +their Welsh tributaries. Many family names appear in different parts of +England, for a reason which will hereafter be explained. Thus we find +the Bassingas at Bassingbourn, in Cambridgeshire; at Bassingfield, in +Notts; at Bassingham and Bassingthorpe, in Lincolnshire; and at +Bassington, in Northumberland. The Billings have left their stamp at +Billing, in Northampton; Billingford, in Norfolk; Billingham, in Durham; +Billingley, in Yorkshire; Billinghurst, in Sussex; and five other places +in various other counties. Birmingham, Nottingham, Wellington, +Faringdon, Warrington, and Wallingford are well-known names formed on +the same analogy. How thickly these clan settlements lie scattered over +Teutonic England may be judged from the number which occur in the London +district alone—Kensington, Paddington, Notting-hill, Billingsgate, +Islington, Newington, Kennington, Wapping, and Teddington. There are +altogether 1,400 names of this type in England. Their value as a test of +Teutonic colonisation is shown by the fact that while 48 occur in +Northumberland, 127 in Yorkshire, 76 in Lincolnshire, 153 in Norfolk and +Suffolk, 48 in Essex, 60 in Kent, and 86 in Sussex and Surrey, only 2 +are found in Cornwall, 6 in Cumberland, 24 in Devon, 13 in Worcester, 2 +in Westmoreland, and none in Monmouth. Speaking generally, these clan +names are thickest along the original English coast, from Forth to +Portland; they decrease rapidly as we move inland; and they die away +altogether as we approach the purely Celtic west.</p><p><a name="page44" id="page44"></a></p> + +<p>The English families, however, probably tilled the soil by the aid of +Welsh slaves; indeed, in Anglo-Saxon, the word serf and Welshman are +used almost interchangeably as equivalent synonyms. But though many +Welshmen were doubtless spared from the very first, nothing is more +certain than the fact that they became thoroughly Anglicized. A few new +words from Welsh or Latin were introduced into the English tongue, but +they were far too few sensibly to affect its vocabulary. The language +was and still is essentially Low German; and though it now contains +numerous words of Latin or French origin, it does not and never did +contain any but the very smallest Celtic element. The slight number of +additions made from the Welsh consisted chiefly of words connected with +the higher Roman civilisation—such as wall, street, and chester—or the +new methods of agriculture which the Teuton learnt from his more +civilised serfs. The Celt has always shown a great tendency to cast +aside his native language in Gaul, in Spain, and in Ireland; and the +isolation of the English townships must have had the effect of greatly +accelerating the process. Within a few generations the Celtic slave had +forgotten his tongue, his origin, and his religion, and had developed +into a pagan English serf. Whatever else the Teutonic conquest did, it +turned every man within the English pale into a thorough Englishman.</p> + +<p>But the removal to Britain effected one immense change. "War begat the +king." In Sleswick the English had lived within their little marks as +free and independent communities. In Britain all the clans of <a name="page45" id="page45"></a>each +colony gradually came under the military command of a king. The +ealdormen who led the various marauding bands assumed royal power in the +new country. Such a change was indeed inevitable. For not only had the +English to win the new England, but they had also to keep it and extend +it. During four hundred years a constant smouldering warfare was carried +on between the foreigners and the native Welsh on their western +frontier. Thus the townships of each colony entered into a closer union +with one another for military purposes, and so arose the separate +chieftainships or petty kingdoms of early England. But the king's power +was originally very small. He was merely the semi-hereditary general and +representative of the people, of royal stock, but elected by the free +suffrages of the freemen. Only as the kingdoms coalesced, and as the +power of meeting became consequently less, did the king acquire his +greater prerogatives. From the first, however, he seems to have +possessed the right of granting public lands, with the consent of the +freemen, to particular individuals; and such book-land, as the early +English called it, after the introduction of Roman writing, became the +origin of our system of private property in land.</p> + +<p>Every township had its moot or assembly of freemen, which met around the +sacred oak, or on some holy hill, or beside the great stone monument of +some forgotten Celtic chieftain. Every hundred also had its moot, and +many of these still survive in their original form to the present day, +being held in the open air, near some sacred site or conspicuous +landmark.<a name="page46" id="page46"></a> And the colony as a whole had also its moot, at which all +freemen might attend, and which settled the general affairs of the +kingdom. At these last-named moots the kings were elected; and though +the selection was practically confined to men of royal kin, the king +nevertheless represented the free choice of the tribe. Before the +conversion to Christianity, the royal families all traced their origin +to Woden. Thus the pedigree of Ida, King of Northumbria, runs as +follows:—"Ida was Eopping, Eoppa was Esing, Esa was Inguing, Ingui +Angenwiting, Angenwit Alocing, Aloc Benocing, Benoc Branding, Brand +Baldæging, Bældæg Wodening." But in later Christian times the +chroniclers felt the necessity of reconciling these heathen genealogies +with the Scriptural account in Genesis; so they affiliated Woden himself +upon the Hebrew patriarchs. Thus the pedigree of the West Saxon kings, +inserted in the Chronicle under the year 855, after conveying back the +genealogy of Æthelwulf to Woden, continues to say, "Woden was +Frealafing, Frealaf Finning," and so on till it reaches "Sceafing, <i>id +est filius Noe</i>; he was born in Noe's Ark. Lamech, Mathusalem, Enoc, +Jared, Malalehel, Camon, Enos, Seth, Adam, <i>primus homo et pater +noster</i>."</p> + +<p>The Anglo-Saxons, when they settled in Eastern and Southern Britain, +were a horde of barbarous heathen pirates. They massacred or enslaved +the civilised or half-civilised Celtic inhabitants with savage +ruthlessness. They burnt or destroyed the monuments of Roman occupation. +They let the roads and cities fall into utter disrepair. They stamped +out<a name="page47" id="page47"></a> Christianity with fire and sword from end to end of their new +domain. They occupied a civilised and Christian land, and they restored +it to its primitive barbarism. Nor was there any improvement until +Christian teachers from Rome and Scotland once more introduced the +forgotten culture which the English pirates had utterly destroyed. As +Gildas phrases it, with true Celtic eloquence, the red tongue of flame +licked up the whole land from end to end, till it slaked its horrid +thirst in the western ocean. For 150 years the whole of English Britain, +save, perhaps, Kent and London, was cut off from all intercourse with +Christendom and the Roman world. The country consisted of several petty +chieftainships, at constant feud with their Teutonic neighbours, and +perpetually waging a border war with Welsh, Picts, and Scots. Within +each colony, much of the land remained untilled, while the clan +settlements appeared like little islands of cultivation in the midst of +forest, waste, and common. The villages were mere groups of wooden +homesteads, with barns and cattle-sheds, surrounded by rough stockades, +and destitute of roads or communications. Even the palace of the king +was a long wooden hall with numerous outhouses; for the English built no +stone houses, and burnt down those of their Roman predecessors. Trade +seems to have been confined to the south coast, and few manufactured +articles of any sort were in use. The English degraded their Celtic +serfs to their own barbaric level; and the very memory of Roman +civilization almost died out of the land for a hundred and fifty years. +<a name="page48" id="page48"></a></p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="chapter6" id="chapter6"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>THE CONQUEST OF THE INTERIOR.</h3> + + +<p>From the little strip of eastern and southern coast on which they first +settled, the English advanced slowly into the interior by the valleys of +the great rivers, and finally swarmed across the central dividing ridge +into the basins of the Severn and the Irish Sea. Up the open river +mouths they could make their way in their shallow-bottomed boats, as the +Scandinavian pirates did three centuries later; and when they reached +the head of navigation in each stream for the small draught of their +light vessels, they probably took to the land and settled down at once, +leaving further inland expeditions to their sons and successors. For +this second step in the Teutonic colonisation of Britain we have some +few traditional accounts, which seem somewhat more trustworthy than +those of the first settlement. Unfortunately, however, they apply for +the most part only to the kingdom of Wessex, and not to the North and +the Midlands, where such details would be of far greater value.</p> + +<p>The valley of the Humber gives access to the great central basin of the +Trent. Up this fruitful basin, at a somewhat later date, apparently, +than the settlement of Deira and Lincolnshire, scattered bodies of<a name="page49" id="page49"></a> +English colonists, under petty leaders whose names have been forgotten, +seem to have pushed their way forward through the broad lowlands towards +Derby, Nottingham, and Leicester. They bore the name of Middle English. +Westward, again, other settlers raised their capital at Lichfield. These +formed the advanced guard of the English against the Welsh, and hence +their country was generally known as the Mark, or March, a name which +was afterwards latinized into the familiar form of Mercia. The absence +of all tradition as to the colonisation of this important tract, the +heart of England, and afterwards one of the three dominant Anglo-Saxon +states, leads one to suppose that the process was probably very gradual, +and the change came about so slowly as to have left but little trace on +the popular memory. At any rate, it is certain that the central ridge +long formed the division between the two races; and that the Welsh at +this period still occupied the whole western watershed, except in the +lower portion of the Severn valley.</p> + +<p>The Welland, the Nene, and the Great Ouse, flowing through the centre of +the Fen Country, then a vast morass, studded with low and marshy +islands, gave access to the districts about Peterborough, Stamford, and +Cambridge. Here, too, a body of unknown settlers, the Gyrwas, seem about +the same time to have planted their colonies. At a later date they +coalesced with the Mercians. However, the comparative scarcity of +villages bearing the English clan names throughout all these regions +suggests the probability that Mercia, Middle England, and the<a name="page50" id="page50"></a> Fen +Country were not by any means so densely colonised as the coast +districts; and independent Welsh communities long held out among the +isolated dry tracts of the fens as robbers and outlaws.</p> + +<p>In the south, the advance of the West Saxons had been checked in 520, +according to the legend, by the prowess of Arthur, king of the +Devonshire Welsh. As Mr. Guest acutely notes, some special cause must +have been at work to make the Britons resist here so desperately as to +maintain for half a century a weak frontier within little more than +twenty miles of Winchester, the West Saxon capital. He suggests that the +great choir of Ambrosius at Amesbury was probably the chief Christian +monastery of Britain, and that the Welshman may here have been fighting +for all that was most sacred to him on earth. Moreover, just behind +stood the mysterious national monument of Stonehenge, the honoured tomb +of some Celtic or still earlier aboriginal chief. But in 552, the +English Chronicle tells us, Cynric, the West Saxon king, crossed the +downs behind Winchester, and descended upon the dale at Salisbury. The +Roman town occupied the square hill-fort of Old Sarum, and there Cynric +put the Welsh to flight and took the stronghold by storm.</p> + +<p>The road was thus opened in the rear to the upper waters of the Thames +(impassable before because of the Roman population of London), as well +as towards the valley of the Bath Avon. Four years later Cynric and his +son Ceawlin once more advanced as far as Barbury hill-fort, probably on +a mere plundering raid. But in 571 Cuthwulf, brother of Ceawlin, again +<a name="page51" id="page51"></a>marched northward, and "fought against the Welsh at Bedford, and took +four towns, Lenbury (or Leighton Buzzard), Aylesbury, Bensington (near +Dorchester in Oxfordshire), and Ensham." Thus the West Saxons overran +the whole upper valley of the Thames from Berkshire to above Oxford, and +formed a junction with the Middle Saxons to the north of London; while +eastward they spread as far as the northern boundaries of Essex. In 577 +the same intruders made a still more important move. Crossing the +central watershed of England, near Chippenham, they descended upon the +broken valley of the Bath Avon, and found themselves the first +Englishmen who reached any of the basins which point westward towards +the Atlantic seaboard. At a doubtful place named Deorham (probably +Dyrham near Bath), "Cuthwine and Ceawlin fought against the Welsh, and +slew three kings, Conmail, and Condidan, and Farinmail, and took three +towns from them, Gloucester, and Cirencester, and Bath." Thus the three +great Roman cities of the lower Severn valley fell into the hands of the +West Saxons, and the English for the first time stood face to face with +the western sea. Though the story of these conquests is of course +recorded from mere tradition at a much later date, it still has a ring +of truth, or at least of probability, about it, which is wholly wanting +to the earlier legends. If we are not certain as to the facts, we can at +least accept them as symbolical of the manner in which the West Saxon +power wormed its way over the upper basin of the Thames, and <a name="page52" id="page52"></a>crept +gradually along the southern valley of the Severn.</p> + +<p>The victory of Deorham has a deeper importance of its own, however, than +the mere capture of the three great Roman cities in the south-west of +Britain. By the conquest of Bath and Gloucester, the West Saxons cut off +the Welsh of Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset from their brethren in the +Midlands and in Wales. This isolation of the West Welsh, as the English +thenceforth called them, largely broke the power of the native +resistance. Step by step in the succeeding age the West Saxons advanced +by hard fighting, but with no serious difficulty, to the Axe, to the +Parret, to the Tone, to the Exe, to the Tamar, till at last the West +Welsh, confined to the peninsula of Cornwall, became known merely as the +Cornish men, and in the reign of Æthelstan were finally subjugated by +the English, though still retaining their own language and national +existence. But in all the western regions the Celtic population was +certainly spared to a far greater extent than in the east; and the +position of the English might rather be described as an occupation than +as a settlement in the strict sense of the word.</p> + +<p>The westward progress of the Northumbrians is later and much more +historical. Theodoric, son of Ida, as we may perhaps infer from the old +Welsh ballads, fought long and not always successfully with Urien of +Strathclyde. But in 592, says Bæda, who lived himself but three-quarters +of a century later than the event he describes, "there reigned over the +<a name="page53" id="page53"></a>kingdom of the Northumbrians a most brave and ambitious king, +Æthelfrith, who, more than all other nobles of the English, wasted the +race of the Britons; for no one of our kings, no one of our chieftains, +has rendered more of their lands either tributary to or an integral part +of the English territories, whether by subjugating or expatriating the +natives." In 606 Æthelfrith rounded the Peakland, now known as +Derbyshire, and marched from the upper Trent upon the Roman city of +Chester. There "he made a terrible slaughter of the perfidious race." +Over two thousand Welsh monks from the monastery of Bangor Iscoed were +slain by the heathen invader; but Bæda explains that Æthelfrith put them +to death because they prayed against him; a sentence which strongly +suggests the idea that the English did not usually kill non-combatant +Welshmen.</p> + +<p>The victory of Chester divided the Welsh power in the north as that of +Deorham had divided it in the south. Henceforward, the Northumbrians +bore rule from sea to sea, from the mouth of the Humber to the mouths of +the Mersey and the Dee. Æthelfrith even kept up a rude navy in the Irish +Sea. Thus the Welsh nationality was broken up into three separate and +weak divisions—Strathclyde in the north, Wales in the centre, and +Damnonia, or Cornwall, in the south. Against these three fragments the +English presented an unbroken and aggressive front, Northumbria standing +over against Strathclyde, Mercia steadily pushing its way along the +upper valley of the Severn against North Wales, and Wessex advancing <a name="page54" id="page54"></a>in +the south against South Wales and the West Welsh of Somerset, Devon, and +Cornwall. Thus the conquest of the interior was practically complete. +There still remained, it is true, the subjugation of the west; but the +west was brought under the English over-lordship by slow degrees, and in +a very different manner from the east and the south coast, or even the +central belt. Cornwall finally yielded under Æthelstan; Strathclyde was +gradually absorbed by the English in the south and the Scottish kingdom +on the north; and the last remnant of Wales only succumbed to the +intruders under the rule of the Angevin Edward I.</p> + +<p>There were, in fact, three epochs of English extension in Britain. The +first epoch was one of colonisation on the coasts and along the valleys +of the eastward rivers. The second epoch was one of conquest and partial +settlement in the central plateau and the westward basins. The third +epoch was one of merely political subjugation in the western mountain +regions. The proofs of these assertions we must examine at length in the +succeeding chapter.<a name="page55" id="page55"></a></p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="chapter7" id="chapter7"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENT.</h3> + + +<p>It has been usual to represent the English conquest of South-eastern +Britain as an absolute change of race throughout the greater part of our +island. The Anglo-Saxons, it is commonly believed, came to England and +the Lowlands of Scotland in overpowering numbers, and actually +exterminated or drove into the rugged west the native Celts. The +population of the whole country south of Forth and Clyde is supposed to +be now, and to have been ever since the conquest, purely Teutonic or +Scandinavian in blood, save only in Wales, Cornwall, and, perhaps, +Cumberland and Galloway. But of late years this belief has met with +strenuous opposition from several able scholars; and though many of our +greatest historians still uphold the Teutonic theory, with certain +modifications and admissions, there are, nevertheless, good reasons +which may lead us to believe that a large proportion of the Celts were +spared as tillers of the soil, and that Celtic blood may yet be found +abundantly even in the most Teutonic portions of England.</p> + +<p>In the first place, it must be remembered that, by common consent, only +the east and south coasts and <a name="page56" id="page56"></a>the country as far as the central +dividing ridge can be accounted as to any overwhelming extent English in +blood. It is admitted that the population of the Scottish Highlands, of +Wales, and of Cornwall is certainly Celtic. It is also admitted that +there exists a large mixed population of Celts and Teutons in +Strathclyde and Cumbria, in Lancashire, in the Severn Valley, in Devon, +Somerset, and Dorset. The northern and western half of Britain is +acknowledged to be mainly Celtic. Thus the question really narrows +itself down to the ethnical peculiarities of the south and east.</p> + +<p>Here, the surest evidence is that of anthropology. We know that the pure +Anglo-Saxons were a round-skulled, fair-haired, light-eyed, +blonde-complexioned race; and we know that wherever (if anywhere) we +find unmixed Germanic races at the present day, High Dutch, Low Dutch, +or Scandinavian, we always meet with some of these same personal +peculiarities in almost every individual of the community. But we also +know that the Celts, originally themselves a similar blonde Aryan race, +mixed largely in Britain with one or more long-skulled dark-haired, +black-eyed, and brown-complexioned races, generally identified with the +Basques or Euskarians, and with the Ligurians. The nation which resulted +from this mixture showed traces of both types, being sometimes blonde, +sometimes brunette; sometimes black-haired, sometimes red-haired, and +sometimes yellow-haired. Individuals of all these types are still found +in the undoubtedly Celtic portions of Britain, though the dark type +there unquestionably preponderates so far <a name="page57" id="page57"></a>as numbers are concerned. It +is this mixed race of fair and dark people, of Aryan Celts with +non-Aryan Euskarians or Ligurians, which we usually describe as Celtic +in modern Britain, by contradistinction to the later wave of Teutonic +English.</p> + +<p>Now, according to the evidence of the early historians, as interpreted +by Mr. Freeman and other authors (whose arguments we shall presently +examine), the English settlers in the greater part of South Britain +almost entirely exterminated the Celtic population. But if this be so, +how comes it that at the present day a large proportion of our people, +even in the east, belong to the dark and long-skulled type? The fact is +that upon this subject the historians are largely at variance with the +anthropologists; and as the historical evidence is weak and inferential, +while the anthropological evidence is strong and direct, there can be +very little doubt which we ought to accept. Professor Huxley [Essay "On +some Fixed Points in British Ethnography,"] has shown that the +melanochroic or dark type of Englishmen is identical in the shape of the +skull, the anatomical peculiarities, and the colour of skin, hair, and +eyes with that of the continent, which is undeniably Celtic in the wider +sense—that is to say, belonging to the primitive non-Teutonic race, +which spoke a Celtic language, and was composed of mixed Celtic, +Iberian, and Ligurian elements. Professor Phillips points out that in +Yorkshire, and especially in the plain of York, an essentially dark, +short, non-Teutonic type is common; while persons of the same +characteristics abound <a name="page58" id="page58"></a>among the supposed pure Anglians of +Lincolnshire. They are found in great numbers in East Anglia, and they +are not rare even in Kent. In Sussex and Essex they occur less +frequently, and they are also comparatively scarce in the Lothians. Dr. +Beddoe, Dr. Thurnam, and other anthropologists have collected much +evidence to the same effect. Hence we may conclude with great +probability that large numbers of the descendants of the dark Britons +still survive even on the Teutonic coast. As to the descendants of the +light Britons, we cannot, of course, separate them from those of the +like-complexioned English invaders. But in truth, even in the east +itself, save only perhaps in Sussex and Essex, the dark and fair types +have long since so largely coalesced by marriage that there are probably +few or no real Teutons or real Celts individually distinguishable at +all. Absolutely fair people, of the Scandinavian or true German sort, +with very light hair and very pale blue eyes, are almost unknown among +us; and when they do occur, they occur side by side with relations of +every other shade. As a rule, our people vary infinitely in complexion +and anatomical type, from the quite squat, long-headed, swarthy peasants +whom we sometimes meet with in rural Yorkshire, to the tall, +flaxen-haired, red-cheeked men whom we occasionally find not only in +Danish Derbyshire, but even in mainly Celtic Wales and Cornwall. As to +the west, Professor Huxley declares, on purely anthropological grounds, +that it is probably, on the whole, more deeply Celtic than Ireland +itself.</p> + +<p>These anthropological opinions are fully borne out <a name="page59" id="page59"></a>by those scientific +archæologists who have done most in the way of exploring the tombs and +other remains of the early Anglo-Saxon invaders. Professor Rolleston, +who has probably examined more skulls of this period than any other +investigator, sums up his consideration of those obtained from +Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon interments by saying, "I should be +inclined to think that wholesale massacres of the conquered +Romano-Britons were rare, and that wholesale importations of Anglo-Saxon +women were not much more frequent." He points out that "we have +anatomical evidence for saying that two or more distinct varieties of +men existed in England both previously to and during the period of the +Teutonic invasion and domination." The interments show us that the races +which inhabited Britain before the English conquest continued in part to +inhabit it after that conquest. The dolichocephali, or long-skulled type +of men, who, in part, preceded the English, "have been found abundantly +in the Suffolk region of the Littus Saxonicum, where the Celt and Saxon +[Englishman] are not known to have met as enemies when East Anglia +became a kingdom." Thus we see that just where people of the dark type +occur abundantly at the present day, skulls of the corresponding sort +are met with abundantly in interments of the Anglo-Saxon period. +Similarly, Mr. Akerman, after explorations in tombs, observes, "The +total expulsion or extinction of the Romano-British population by the +invaders will scarcely be insisted upon in this age of enquiry." Nay, +even in Teutonic Kent, Jute and<a name="page60" id="page60"></a> Briton still lie side by side in the +same sepulchres. Most modern Englishmen have somewhat long rather than +round skulls. The evidence of archæology supports the evidence of +anthropology in favour of the belief that some, at least, of the native +Britons were spared by the invading host.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, against these unequivocal testimonies of modern +research we have to set the testimony of the early historical +authorities, on which the Teutonic theory mainly relies. The authorities +in question are three, Gildas, Bæda, and the English Chronicle. Gildas +was, or professes to be, a British monk, who wrote in the very midst of +the English conquest, when the invaders were still confined, for the +most part, to the south-eastern region. Objections have been raised to +the authenticity of his work, a small rhetorical Latin pamphlet, +entitled, "The History of the Britons;" but these objections have, +perhaps, been set at rest for many minds by Dr. Guest and Mr. Green. +Nevertheless, what little Gildas has to tell us is of slight historical +importance. His book is a disappointing Jeremiad, couched in the florid +and inflated Latin rhetoric so common during the decadence of the Roman +empire, intermingled with a strong flavour of hyperbolical Celtic +imagination; and it teaches us practically nothing as to the state of +the conquered districts. It is wholly occupied with fierce diatribes +against the Saxons, and complaints as to the weakness, wickedness, and +apathy of the British chieftains. It says little that can throw any +light on the question as to whether the Welsh were largely spared, +<a name="page61" id="page61"></a>though it abounds with wild and vague declamation about the +extermination of the natives. Even Gildas, however, mentions that some +of his countrymen, "constrained by famine, came and yielded themselves +up to their enemies as slaves for ever;" while others, "committing the +safeguard of their lives to mountains, crags, thick forests, and rocky +isles, though with trembling hearts, remained in their fatherland." +These passages certainly suggest that a Welsh remnant survived in two +ways within the English pale, first as slaves, and secondly as isolated +outlaws.</p> + +<p>Bæda stands on a very different footing. His authenticity is undoubted; +his language is simple and straightforward. He was born in or about the +year 672, only two hundred years after the landing of the first English +colonists in Thanet. Scarcely more than a century separated him from the +days of Ida. The constant lingering warfare with the Welsh on the +western frontier was still for him a living fact. The Celt still held +half of Britain. At the date of his birth the northern Welsh still +retained their independence in Strathclyde; the Welsh proper still +spread to the banks of the Severn; and the West Welsh of Cornwall still +owned all the peninsula south of the Bristol Channel as far eastward as +the Somersetshire marshes. Beyond Forth and Clyde, the Picts yet ruled +over the greater part of the Highlands, while the Scots, who have now +given the name of Scotland to the whole of Britain beyond the Cheviots, +were a mere intrusive Irish colony in Argyllshire and the Western Isles. +He lived, in short, at the very period <a name="page62" id="page62"></a>when Britain was still in the +act of becoming England; and no historical doubts of any sort hang over +the authenticity of his great work, "The Ecclesiastical History of the +English people." But Bæda unfortunately knows little more about the +first settlement than he could learn from Gildas, whom he quotes almost +<i>verbatim</i>. He tells us, however, nothing of extermination of the Welsh. +"Some," he says, "were slaughtered; some gave themselves up to undergo +slavery: some retreated beyond the sea: and some, remaining in their own +land, lived a miserable life in the mountains and forests." In all this, +he is merely transcribing Gildas, but he saw no improbability in the +words. At a later date, Æthelfrith, of Northumbria, he tells us, +"rendered more of their lands either tributary to or an integral part of +the English territory, whether by subjugating or +expatriating<a name="FNanchor_1_5" id="FNanchor_1_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_5" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> the +natives," than any previous king. Eadwine, before his conversion, +"subdued to the empire of the English the Mevanian islands," Man and +Anglesey; but we know that the population of both islands is still +mainly Celtic in blood and speech. These examples sufficiently show us, +that even before the introduction of Christianity, the English did not +always utterly destroy the Welsh inhabitants of conquered districts. And +it is universally admitted that, after their conversion, they fought +with the Welsh in a milder manner, <a name="page63" id="page63"></a>sparing their lives as +fellow-Christians, and permitting them to retain their lands as +tributary proprietors.</p> + +<p>The English Chronicle, our third authority, was first compiled at the +court of Ælfred, four and a-half centuries after the Conquest; and so +its value as original testimony is very slight. Its earlier portions are +mainly condensed from Bæda; but it contains a few fragments of +traditional information from some other unknown sources. These +fragments, however, refer chiefly to Kent, Sussex, and the older parts +of Wessex, where we have reason to believe that the Teutonic +colonisation was exceptionally thorough; and they tell us nothing about +Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and East Anglia, where we find at the present +day so large a proportion of the population possessing an unmistakably +Celtic physique. The Chronicle undoubtedly describes the conflict in the +south as sharp and bloody; and in spite of the mythical character of the +names and events, it is probable that in this respect it rightly +preserves the popular memory of the conquest, and its general nature. In +Kent, "the Welsh fled the English like fire;" and Hengest and Æsc, in a +single battle, slew 4,000 men. In Sussex, Ælle and Cissa killed or drove +out the natives in the western rapes on their first landing, and +afterwards massacred every Briton at Anderida. In Wessex, in the first +struggle, "Cerdic and Cynric offslew a British king whose name was +Natanleod, and 5,000 men with him." And so the dismal annals of rapine +and slaughter run on from year to year, with simple, unquestioning +conciseness, showing <a name="page64" id="page64"></a>us, at least, the manner in which the later +English believed their forefathers had acquired the land. Moreover, +these frightful details accord well enough with the vague generalities +of Gildas, from which, however, they may very possibly have been +manufactured. Yet even the Chronicle nowhere speaks of absolute +extermination: that idea has been wholly read into its words, not +directly inferred from them. A great deal has been made of the massacre +at Pevensey; but we hear nothing of similar massacres at the great Roman +cities—at London, at York, at Verulam, at Bath, at Cirencester, which +would surely have attracted more attention than a small outlying +fortress like Anderida. Even the Teutonic champions themselves admit +that some, at least, of the Celts were incorporated into the English +community. "The women," says Mr. Freeman, "would, doubtless, be largely +spared;" while as to the men, he observes, "we may be sure that death, +emigration, or personal slavery were the only alternatives which the +vanquished found at the hands of our fathers." But there is a vast gulf, +from the ethnological point of view, between exterminating a nation and +enslaving it.<a name="FNanchor_2_6" id="FNanchor_2_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_6" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>In the cities, indeed, it would seem that the Britons remained in great +numbers. The Welsh bards complain that the urban race of Romanised +natives known as Loegrians, "became as Saxons." <a name="page65" id="page65"></a>Mr. Kemble has shown +that the English did not by any means always massacre the inhabitants of +the cities. Mr. Freeman observes, "It is probable that within the +[English] frontier there still were Roman towns tributary to the +conquerors rather than occupied by them;" and Canon Stubbs himself +remarks, that "in some of the cities there were probably elements of +continuous life: London, the mart of the merchants, York, the capital of +the north, and some others, have a continuous political existence." +"Wherever the cities were spared," he adds, "a portion, at least, of the +city population must have continued also. In the country, too, +especially towards the west and the debateable border, great numbers of +Britons may have survived in a servile or half-servile condition." But +we must remember that in only two cases, Anderida and Chester, do we +actually hear of massacres; in all the other towns, Bæda and the +Chronicle tell us nothing about them. It is a significant fact that +Sussex, the one kingdom in which we hear of a complete annihilation, is +the very one where the Teutonic type of physique still remains the +purest. But there are nowhere any traces of English clan nomenclature in +any of the cities. They all retain their Celtic or Roman names. At +Cambridge itself, in the heart of the true English country, the charter +of the thegn's guild, a late document, mentions a special distinction of +penalties for killing a Welshman, "if the slain be a ceorl, 2 ores, if +he be a Welshman, one ore." "The large Romanised towns," says Professor +Rolleston, "no doubt made terms with the<a name="page66" id="page66"></a> Saxons, who abhorred city +life, and would probably be content to leave the unwarlike burghers in a +condition of heavily-taxed submissiveness."</p> + +<p>Thus, even in the east it is admitted that a Celtic element probably +entered into the population in three ways,—by sparing the women, by +making rural slaves of the men, and by preserving some, at least, of the +inhabitants of cities. The skulls of these Anglicised Welshmen are found +in ancient interments; their descendants are still to be recognised by +their physical type in modern England. "It is quite possible," says Mr. +Freeman, "that even at the end of the sixth century there may have been +within the English frontier inaccessible points where detached bodies of +Welshmen still retained a precarious independence." Sir F. Palgrave has +collected passages tending to show that parties of independent Welshmen +held out in the Fens till a very late period; and this conclusion is +admitted by Mr. Freeman to be probably correct. But more important is +the general survival of scattered Britons within the English communities +themselves. Traces of this we find even in Anglo-Saxon documents. The +signatures to very early +charters,<a name="FNanchor_3_7" id="FNanchor_3_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_7" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> collected +by Thorpe and Kemble, +supply us with names some of which are assuredly not Teutonic, while +others are demonstrably Celtic; and these names are borne by people +occupying high positions at the court of English kings. Names of this +class occur even in Kent itself; while others are borne by members of +the royal family of Wessex. <a name="page67" id="page67"></a>The local dialect of the West Riding of +Yorkshire still contains many Celtic words; and the shepherds of +Northumberland and the Lothians still reckon their sheep by what is +known as "the rhyming score," which is really a corrupt form of the +Welsh numerals from one to twenty. The laws of Northumbria mention the +Welshmen who pay rent to the king. Indeed, it is clear that even in the +east itself the English were from the first a body of rural colonists +and landowners, holding in subjection a class of native serfs, with whom +they did not intermingle, but who gradually became Anglicised, and +finally coalesced with their former masters, under the stress of the +Danish and Norman supremacies.</p> + +<p>In the west, however, the English occupation took even less the form of +a regular colonisation. The laws of Ine, a West Saxon king, show us that +in his territories, bordering on yet unconquered British lands, the +Welshman often occupied the position of a rent-paying inferior, as well +as that of a slave. The so-called Nennius tells us that Elmet in +Yorkshire, long an intrusive Welsh principality, was not subdued by the +English till the reign of Eadwine of Northumbria; when, we learn, the +Northumbrian prince "seized Elmet, and expelled Cerdic its king:" but +nothing is said as to any extermination of its people. As Bæda +incidentally mentions this Cerdic, "king of the Britons," Nennius may +probably be trusted upon the point. As late as the beginning of the +tenth century, King Ælfred in his will describes the people of Devon, +Dorset, Somerset, and Wilts, as "Welsh <a name="page68" id="page68"></a>kin." The physical appearance of +the peasantry in the Severn valley, and especially in Shropshire, +Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, and Herefordshire, indicates that the +western parts of Mercia were equally Celtic in blood. The dialect of +Lancashire contains a large Celtic infusion. Similarly, the English +clan-villages decrease gradually in numbers as we move westward, till +they almost disappear beyond the central dividing ridge. We learn from +Domesday Book that at the date of the Norman conquest the number of +serfs was greater from east to west, and largest on the Welsh border. +Mr. Isaac Taylor points out that a similar argument may be derived from +the area of the hundreds in various counties. The hundred was originally +a body of one hundred English families (more or less), bound together by +mutual pledge, and answerable for one another's conduct. In Sussex, the +average number of square miles in each hundred is only twenty-three; in +Kent, twenty-four; in Surrey, fifty-eight; and in Herts, seventy-nine: +but in Gloucester it is ninety-seven; in Derby, one hundred and +sixty-two; in Warwick, one hundred and seventy-nine; and in Lancashire, +three hundred and two. These facts imply that the English population +clustered thickest in the old settled east, but grew thinner and thinner +towards the Welsh and Cumbrian border. Altogether, the historical +evidence regarding the western slopes of England bears out Professor +Huxley's dictum as to the thoroughly Celtic character of their +population.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, it is impossible to deny that<a name="page69" id="page69"></a> Mr. Freeman and Canon +Stubbs have proved their point as to the thorough Teutonisation of +Southern Britain by the English invaders. Though it may be true that +much Welsh blood survived in England, especially amongst the servile +class, yet it is none the less true that the nation which rose upon the +ruins of Roman Britain was, in form and organisation, almost purely +English. The language spoken by the whole country was the same which had +been spoken in Sleswick. Only a few words of Welsh origin relating to +agriculture, household service, and smithcraft, were introduced by the +serfs into the tongue of their masters. The dialects of the Yorkshire +moors, of the Lake District, and of Dorset or Devon, spoken only by wild +herdsmen in the least cultivated tracts, retained a few more evident +traces of the Welsh vocabulary: but in York, in London, in Winchester, +and in all the large towns, the pure Anglo-Saxon of the old England by +the shores of the Baltic was alone spoken. The Celtic serfs and their +descendants quickly assumed English names, talked English to one +another, and soon forgot, in a few generations, that they had not always +been Englishmen in blood and tongue. The whole organisation of the +state, the whole social life of the people, was entirely Teutonic. "The +historical civilisation," as Canon Stubbs admirably puts it, "is English +and not Celtic." Though there may have been much Welsh blood left, it +ran in the veins of serfs and rent-paying churls, who were of no +political or social importance. These two aspects of the case should be +kept carefully <a name="page70" id="page70"></a>distinct. Had they always been separated, much of the +discussion which has arisen on the subject would doubtless have been +avoided; for the strongest advocates of the Teutonic theory are +generally ready to allow that Celtic women, children, and slaves may +have been largely spared: while the Celtic enthusiasts have thought +incumbent upon them to derive English words from Welsh roots, and to +trace the origin of English social institutions to Celtic models. The +facts seem to indicate that while the modern English nation is largely +Welsh in blood, it is wholly Teutonic in form and language. Each of us +probably traces back his descent to mixed Celtic and Germanic ancestry: +but while the Celts have contributed the material alone, the Teutons +have contributed both the material and the form. +<a name="page71" id="page71"></a></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_5" id="Footnote_1_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_5">[1]</a> The +word in the original is <i>exterminatis</i>, but of +course <i>exterminare</i> then bore its etymological sense of +expatriation or expulsion, if not merely of confiscation, +while it certainly did not imply the idea of slaughter, +connoted by the modern word.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_2_6" id="Footnote_2_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_6">[2]</a> In +this and a few other cases, modern authorities are +quoted merely to show that the essential facts of a large +Welsh survival are really admitted even by those who most +strongly argue in favour of the general Teutonic origin of +Englishmen.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_3_7" id="Footnote_3_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_7">[3]</a> Kemble +"On Anglo-Saxon Names." Proc. Arch. Inst., 1845.</p> +</div> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="chapter8" id="chapter8"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>HEATHEN ENGLAND.</h3> + + +<p>We can now picture to ourselves the general aspect of the country after +the English colonies had established themselves as far west as the +Somersetshire marshes, the Severn, and the Dee. The whole land was +occupied by little groups of Teutonic settlers, each isolated by the +mark within their own township; each tilling the ground with their own +hands and those of their Welsh serfs. The townships were rudely gathered +together into petty chieftainships; and these chieftainships tended +gradually to aggregate into larger kingdoms, which finally merged in the +three great historical divisions of Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex; +divisions that survive to our own time as the North, the Midlands, and +the South. Meanwhile, most of the Roman towns were slowly depopulated +and fell into disrepair, so that a "waste chester" becomes a common +object in Anglo-Saxon history. Towns belong to a higher civilisation, +and had little place in agricultural England. The roads were neglected +for want of commerce; and trade only survived in London and along the +coast of Kent, where the discovery of Frankish coins proves the +existence of intercourse with the Teutonic kingdom <a name="page72" id="page72"></a>of Neustria, which +had grown up on the ruins of northern Gaul. Everywhere in Britain the +Roman civilisation fell into abeyance: in improved agriculture alone did +any notable relic of its existence remain. The century and a half +between the conquest and the arrival of Augustine is a dreary period of +unmixed barbarism and perpetual anarchy.</p> + +<p>From time to time the older settled colonies kept sending out fresh +swarms of young emigrants towards the yet unconquered west, much as the +Americans and Canadians have done in our own days. Armed with their long +swords and battle-axes, the new colonists went forth in family bands, +under petty chieftains, to war against the Welsh; and when they had +conquered themselves a district, they settled on it as lords of the +soil, enslaved the survivors of their enemies, and made their leader +into a king. Meanwhile, the older colonies kept up their fighting spirit +by constant wars amongst themselves. Thus we read of contests between +the men of Kent and the West Saxons, or between conflicting nobles in +Wessex itself. Fighting, in fact, was the one business of the English +freeman, and it was but slowly that he settled down into a quiet +agriculturist. The influence of Christianity alone seems to have wrought +the change. Before the conversion of England, all the glimpses which we +get of the English freeman represent him only as a rude and turbulent +warrior, with the very spirit of his kinsmen, the later wickings of the +north.</p> + +<p>An enormous amount of the country still remained <a name="page73" id="page73"></a>overgrown with wild +forest. The whole weald of Kent and Sussex, the great tract of Selwood +in Wessex, the larger part of Warwickshire, the entire Peakland, the +central dividing ridge between the two seas from Yorkshire to the Forth, +and other wide regions elsewhere, were covered with primæval woodlands. +Arden, Charnwood, Wychwood, Sherwood, and the rest, are but the relics +of vast forests which once stretched over half England. The bear still +lurked in the remotest thickets; packs of wolves still issued forth at +night to ravage the herdsman's folds; wild boars wallowed in the fens or +munched acorns under the oakwoods; deer ranged over all the heathy +tracts throughout the whole island; and the wild white cattle, now +confined to Chillingham Park, roamed in many spots from north to south. +Hence hunting was the chief pastime of the princes and ealdormen when +they were not engaged in war with one another or with the Welsh. Game, +boar-flesh, and venison formed an important portion of diet throughout +the whole early English period, up to the Norman conquest, and long +after.</p> + +<p>The king was the recognised head of each community, though his position +was hardly more than that of leader of the nobles in war. He received an +original lot in the conquered land, and remained a private possessor of +estates, tilled by his Welsh slaves. He was king of the people, not of +the country, and is always so described in the early monuments. Each +king seems to have had a chief priest in his kingdom.</p><p><a name="page74" id="page74"></a></p> + +<p>There was no distinct capital for the petty kingdoms, though a principal +royal residence appears to have been usual. But the kings possessed many +separate <i>hams</i> or estates in their domain, in each of which food and +other material for their use were collected by their serfs. They moved +about with their suite from one of these to another, consuming all that +had been prepared for them in each, and then passing on to the next. The +king himself made the journey in the waggon drawn by oxen, which formed +his rude prerogative. Such primitive royal progresses were absolutely +necessary in so disjointed a state of society, if the king was to govern +at all. Only by moving about and seeing with his own eyes could he gain +any information in a country where organisation was feeble and writing +practically unknown: only by consuming what was grown for him on the +spot where it was grown could he and his suite obtain provisions in the +rude state of Anglo-Saxon communications. But such government as existed +was mainly that of the local ealdormen and the village gentry.</p> + +<p>Marriages were practically conducted by purchase, the wife being bought +by the husband from her father's family. A relic of this custom perhaps +still survives in the modern ceremony, when the father gives the bride +in marriage to the bridegroom. Polygamy was not unknown; and it was +usual for men to marry their father's widows. The wives, being part of +the father's property, naturally became part of the son's heritage. +Fathers probably possessed the right of selling their children into +slavery; and we know that<a name="page75" id="page75"></a> English slaves were sold at Rome, being +conveyed thither by Frisian merchants.</p> + +<p>The artizan class, such as it was, must have been attached to the houses +of the chieftains, probably in a servile position. Pottery was +manufactured of excellent but simple patterns. Metal work was, of +course, thoroughly understood, and the Anglo-Saxon swords and knives +discovered in barrows are of good construction. Every chief had also his +minstrel, who sang the short and jerky Anglo-Saxon songs to the +accompaniment of a harp. The dead were burnt and their ashes placed in +tumuli in the north: the southern tribes buried their warriors in full +military dress, and from their tombs much of the little knowledge which +we possess as to their habits is derived. Thence have been taken their +swords, a yard long, with ornamental hilt and double-cutting edge, often +covered by runic inscriptions; their small girdle knives; their long +spears; and their round, leather-faced, wooden shields. The jewellery is +of gold, enriched with coloured enamel, pearl, or sliced garnet. +Buckles, rings, bracelets, hairpins, necklaces, scissors, and toilet +requisites were also buried with the dead. Glass drinking-cups which +occur amongst the tombs, were probably imported from the continent to +Kent or London; and some small trade certainly existed with the Roman +world, as we learn from Bæda.</p> + +<p>In faith the English remained true to their old Teutonic myths. Their +intercourse with the Christian Welsh was not of a kind to make them +embrace the religion which must have seemed to them that of <a name="page76" id="page76"></a>slaves and +enemies. Bæda tells us that the English worshipped idols, and sacrificed +oxen to their gods. Many traces of their mythology are still left in our +midst.</p> + +<p>First in importance among their deities came Woden, the Odin of our +Scandinavian kinsmen, whose name we still preserve in Wednesday (dies +Mercurii). To him every royal family of the English traced its descent. +Mr. Kemble has pointed out many high places in England which keep his +name to the present day. Wanborough, in Surrey, at the +heaven-water-parting of the Hog's Back, was originally Wodnesbeorh, or +the hill of Woden. Wanborough, in Wiltshire, which divides the valleys +of the Kennet and the Isis, has the same origin; as has also +Woodnesborough in Kent. Wonston, in Hants, was probably Woden's stone; +Wambrook, Wampool, and Wansford, his brook, his pool, and his ford. All +these names are redolent of that nature-worship which was so marked a +portion of the Anglo-Saxon religion. Godshill, in the Isle of Wight, now +crowned by a Christian church, was also probably the site of early Woden +worship. The boundaries of estates, as mentioned in charters, give +instances of trees, stones, and posts, used as landmarks, and dedicated +to Woden, thus conferring upon them a religious sanction, like that of +Hermes amongst the Greeks. Anglo-Saxon worship generally gathered around +natural features; and sacred oaks, ashes, wells, hills, and rivers are +among the commonest memorials of our heathen ancestors. Many of them +were reconsecrated after the introduction of Christianity to saints of +the church, <a name="page77" id="page77"></a>and so have retained their character for sanctity almost to +our own time.</p> + +<p>Thunor, the same word as our modern English thunder, was practically, +though not philologically, the Anglo-Saxon representative of Zeus. We +are more familiar with his name in its clipped Norse form of Thor. +Thursday is Thunor's day (Thunres dæg: dies Jovis) and the thunderbolt, +really a polished stone axe of the aboriginal neolithic savages, was +supposed to be his weapon. Thundersfield, in Surrey; Thundersley, in +Essex; and Thursley, in Surrey, still preserve the memory of his sacred +sites. Thurleigh, in Bedford; Thurlow, in Essex; Thursley, in +Cumberland; Thursfield, in Staffordshire; and Thursford, in Norfolk, are +more probably due to later Danish influence, and commemorate namesakes +of the Norse Thor rather than the English Thunor.</p> + +<p>Tiw, the philological equivalent of Zeus, answered rather in character +to Ares, and had for his day Tuesday (dies Martis). Tiw's mere and Tiw's +thorn occur in charters, and a few places still retain his name. Frea +gives his title to Friday (dies Veneris), and Sætere to Saturday (dies +Saturni). But the Anglo-Saxon worship really paid more attention to +certain deified heroes,—Bældæg, Geat, and Sceaf; and to certain +personified abstractions,—Wig (war), Death, and Sige (victory), than to +these minor gods. And, as often happens in Polytheistic religions, there +is reason to believe that the popular creed had much less reference to +the gods at all than to many inferior spirits of a naturalistic sort. +For the early English <a name="page78" id="page78"></a>farmer, the world around was full of spiritual +beings, half divine, half devilish. Fiends and monsters peopled the +fens, and tales of their doings terrified his childhood. Spirits of +flood and fell swamped his boat or misled him at night. Water nicors +haunted the streams; fairies danced on the green rings of the pasture; +dwarfs lived in the barrows of Celtic or neolithic chieftains, and +wrought strange weapons underground. The mark, the forest, the hills, +were all full for the early Englishman of mysterious and often hostile +beings. At length the Weirds or Fates swept him away. Beneath the earth +itself, Hel, mistress of the cold and joyless world of shades, at last +received him; unless, indeed, by dying a warrior's death, he was +admitted to the happy realms of Wælheal. As a whole, the Anglo-Saxon +heathendom was a religion of terrorism. Evil spirits surrounded men on +every side, dwelt in all solitary places, and stalked over the land by +night. Ghosts dwelt in the forest; elves haunted the rude stone circles +of elder days. The woodland, still really tenanted by deer, wolves, and +wild boars, was also filled by popular imagination with demons and imps. +Charms, spells, and incantations formed the most real and living part of +the national faith; and many of these survived into Christian times as +witchcraft. Some of them, and of the early myths, even continue to be +repeated in the folk-lore of the present day. Such are the legends of +the Wild Huntsman and of Wayland Smith. Indeed, heathendom had a strong +hold over the common English mind long after the <a name="page79" id="page79"></a>public adoption of +Christianity; and heathen sacrifices continued to be offered in secret +as late as the thirteenth century. Our poetry and our ordinary language +is tinged with heathen ideas even in modern times.</p> + +<p>Still more interesting, however, are those relics of yet earlier social +states, which we find amongst the Anglo-Saxons themselves. The +production of fire by rubbing together two sticks is a common practice +amongst all savages; and it has acquired a sacred significance which +causes it to live on into more civilised stages. Once a year the +needfire was so lighted, and all the hearths of the village were +rekindled from the blaze thus obtained. Cattle were "passed through the +fire" to preserve them from the attacks of fiends; and perhaps even +children were sometimes treated in the same manner. The ceremony, +originally adopted, perhaps, by the English from their Celtic serfs, +still lingers in remote parts of the country, as the lighting of fires +on St. John's Eve. Tattooing the face was practised by the noble +classes. It seems probable that the early English sacrificed human +victims, as the Germans certainly did to Wuotan (the High Dutch Woden); +and we know that the practice of suttee existed, and that widows slew +themselves on the death of their husbands, in order to accompany them to +the other world. Even more curious are the vestiges of Totemism, or +primitive animal worship, common to all branches of the Aryan race, as +well as to the North American Indians, the Australian black fellows, and +many other savages. Totemism consists in the belief <a name="page80" id="page80"></a>that each family is +literally descended from a particular plant or animal, whose name it +bears; and members of the family generally refuse to pluck the plant or +kill the animal after which they are named. Of these beliefs we find +apparently several traces in Anglo-Saxon life. The genealogies of the +kings include such names as those of the horse, the mare, the ash, and +the whale. In the very early Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf, two of the +characters bear the names of Wulf and Eofer (boar). The wolf and the +raven were sacred animals, and have left their memory in many places, as +well as in such personal titles as Æthelwulf, the noble wolf. The boar +was also greatly reverenced; its head was used as an amulet, or as a +crest for helmets, and oaths were taken upon it till late in the middle +ages. Our own boar's head at Christmas is a relic of the old belief. The +sanctity of the horse and the ash has been already mentioned. Now many +of the Anglo-Saxon clans bore names implying their descent from such +plants or animals. Thus a charter mentions the Æscings, or sons of the +ash, in Surrey; another refers to the Earnings, or sons of the eagle +(earn); a third to the Heartings, or sons of the hart; a fourth to the +Wylfings, or sons of the wolf; and a fifth to the Thornings, or sons of +the thorn. The oak has left traces of his descendants at Oakington, in +Cambridge: the birch, at Birchington, in Kent; the boar (Eofer) at +Evringham, in Yorkshire; the hawk, at Hawkinge, in Kent; the horse, at +Horsington, in Lincolnshire; the raven, at Raveningham, in Norfolk; the +sun, at Sunning, in Berks; and the serpent (Wyrm), <a name="page81" id="page81"></a>at Wormingford, +Worminghall, and Wormington, in Essex, Bucks, and Gloucester, +respectively. Every one of these objects is a common and well-known +totem amongst savage tribes; and the inference that at some earlier +period the Anglo-Saxons had been Totemists is almost irresistible.</p> + +<p>Moreover, it is an ascertained fact that the custom of exogamy (marriage +by capture outside the tribe), and of counting kindred on the female +side alone, accompanies the low stage of culture with which Totemism is +usually associated. We know also that this method of reckoning +relationship obtained amongst certain Aryan tribes, such as the Picts. +Traces of the ceremonial form of marriage by capture survived in England +to a late date in the middle ages; and therefore the custom of exogamy, +upon which the ceremony is based, must probably have existed amongst the +English themselves at some earlier period. Even in the first historical +age, a conquered king generally gave his daughter in marriage to his +conqueror, as a mark of submission, which is a relic of the same custom. +Now, if members of the various tribes—Jutes, English, and Saxons,—used +at one time habitually to intermarry with one another, and to give their +children the clan-name of the father, it would follow that persons +bearing the same clan-name would appear in all the tribes. Such we find +to be actually the case. The Hemings, for instance, are met with in six +counties—York, Lincoln, Huntingdon, Suffolk, Northampton, and Somerset; +the Mannings occur in English Norfolk and in Saxon<a name="page82" id="page82"></a> Dorset; the +Billings, and many other clans, have left their names over the whole +land, from north to south and from east to west alike. It has often been +assumed that these facts prove the intimate intermixture of the invading +tribes; but the supposition of the former existence of exogamy, and +consequent appearance of similar clan-names in all the tribes, seems far +more probable than such an extreme mingling of different tribesmen over +the whole conquered +territory.<a name="FNanchor_1_8" id="FNanchor_1_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_8" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Part +of the early English ceremony of +marriage consisted in the bridegroom touching the head of the bride with +a shoe, a relic, doubtless, of the original mode of capture, when the +captor placed his foot on the neck of his prisoner or slave. After +marriage, the wife's hair was cut short, which is a universal mark of +slavery.</p> + +<p>Thus we may divide the early English religion into four elements. First, +the remnants of a very primitive savage faith, represented by the +sanctity of animals and plants, by Totemism, by the needfire, and by the +use of amulets, charms, and spells. Second, the relics of the old common +Aryan nature-worship, found in the reverence paid to Thunor, or Thunder, +who is a form of Zeus, and in the sacredness of hills, rivers, wells, +fords, and the open air. Third, a system of Teutonic hero or +ancestor-worship, <a name="page83" id="page83"></a>typified by Woden, Bældæg, and the other great names +of the genealogies, and having its origin in the belief in ghosts. +Fourth, a deification of certain abstract ideas, such as War, Fate, +Victory, and Death. But the average heathen Anglo-Saxon religion was +merely a vast mass of superstition, a dark and gloomy terrorism, +begotten of the vague dread of misfortune which barbarians naturally +feel in a half-peopled land, where war and massacre are the highest +business of every man's lifetime, and a violent death the ordinary way +in which he meets his end.<a name="page84" id="page84"></a></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_8" id="Footnote_1_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_8">[1]</a> I +owe this ingenious explanation to a note in Mr. Andrew +Lang's essays prefixed to Mr. Holland's translation of +Aristotle's <i>Politics</i>. He has there also suggested the +analysis of the clan names for traces of Totemism, whose +results I have given above in part.</p> +</div> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="chapter9" id="chapter9"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>THE CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH.</h3> + + +<p>It was impossible that a country lying within sight of the orthodox +Frankish kingdom, and enclosed between two Christian Churches on either +side, should long remain in such a state of isolated heathendom. For to +be cut off from Christendom was to be cut off from the whole social, +political, intellectual, and commercial life of the civilised world. In +Britain, as distinctly as in the Pacific Islands in our own day, the +missionary was the pioneer of civilisation. The change which +Christianity wrought in England in a few generations was almost as +enormous as the change which it has wrought in Hawaii at the present +time. Before the arrival of the missionary, there was no written +literature, no industrial arts, no peace, no social intercourse between +district and district. The church came as a teacher and civiliser, and +in a few years the barbarous heathen English warrior had settled down +into a toilsome agriculturist, an eager scholar, a peaceful law-giver, +or an earnest priest. The change was not merely a change of religion, it +was a revolution from a life of barbarism to a life of incipient +culture, and slow but progressive civilisation.<a name="page85" id="page85"></a></p> + +<p>So inevitable was the Christianisation of England, that even while the +flood of paganism was pouring westward, the east was beginning to +receive the faith of Rome from the Frankish kingdom and from Italy. It +has been necessary, indeed, to anticipate a little, in order to show the +story of the conquest in its true light. Ten years before the heathen +Æthelfrith of Northumbria massacred the Welsh monks at Chester, +Augustine had brought Christianity to the people of Kent.</p> + +<p>In 596, Gregory the Great determined to send a mission to England. Even +before that time, Kent had been in closer union with the Continent than +any other part of the country. Trade went on with the kindred Saxon +coast of the Frankish kingdom, and Æthelberht, the ambitious Kentish +king, and over-lord of all England south of the Humber, had even married +Bercta, a daughter of the Frankish king of Paris. Bercta was of course a +Christian, and she brought her own Frankish chaplain, who officiated in +the old Roman church of St. Martin, at Canterbury. But Gregory's mission +was on a far larger scale. Augustine, prior of the monastery on the +Cœlian Hill, was sent with forty monks to convert the heathen +English. They landed in Thanet, in 597, with all the pomp of Roman +civilisation and ecclesiastical symbolism. Gregory had rightly +determined to try by ritual and show to impress the barbarian mind. +Æthelberht, already predisposed to accept the Continental culture, and +to assimilate his rude kingdom to the Roman model, met them in the open +air at a solemn meeting; <a name="page86" id="page86"></a>for he feared, says Bæda, to meet them within +four walls, lest they should practice incantations upon him. The foreign +monks advanced in procession to the king's presence, chanting their +litanies, and displaying a silver cross. Æthelberht yielded almost at +once. He and all his court became Christians; and the people, as is +usual amongst barbarous tribes, quickly conformed to the faith of their +rulers. Æthelberht gave the missionaries leave to build new churches, or +to repair the old ones erected by the Welsh Christians. Augustine +returned to Gaul, where he was consecrated as Archbishop of the English +nation, at Arles. Kent became thenceforth a part of the great +Continental system. Canterbury has ever since remained the metropolis of +the English Church; and the modern archbishops trace back their +succession directly to St. Augustine.</p> + +<p>For awhile, the young Church seemed to make vigorous progress. Augustine +built a monastery at Canterbury, where Æthelberht founded a new church +to SS. Peter and Paul, to be a sort of Westminster Abbey for the tombs +of all future Kentish kings and archbishops. He also restored an old +Roman church in the city. The pope sent him sacramental vessels, altar +cloths, ornaments, relics, and, above all, many books. Ten years later, +Augustine enlarged his missionary field by ordaining two new +bishops—Mellitus, to preach to the East Saxons, "whose metropolis," +says Bæda, "is the city of London, which is the mart of many nations, +resorting to it by sea and land;" and Justus to the episcopal see of +West<a name="page87" id="page87"></a> Kent, with his bishop-stool at Rochester. The East Saxons +nominally accepted the faith at the bidding of their over-lord, +Æthelberht; but the people of London long remained pagans at heart. On +Augustine's death, however, all life seemed again to die out of the +struggling mission. Laurentius, who succeeded him, found the labour too +great for his weaker hands. In 613 Æthelberht died, and his son Eadbald +at once apostatised, returning to the worship of Woden and the ancestral +gods. The East Saxons drove out Mellitus, who, with Justus, retired to +Gaul; and Archbishop Laurentius himself was minded to follow them. Then +the Kentish king, admonished by a dream of the archbishop's, made +submission, recalled the truant bishops, and restored Justus to +Rochester. The Londoners, however, would not receive back Mellitus, +"choosing rather to be under their idolatrous high-priests." Soon +Laurentius died too, and Mellitus was called to take his place, and +consecrated at last a church in London in the monastery of St. Peter. In +624, the third archbishop was carried off by gout, and Justus of +Rochester succeeded to the primacy of the struggling church. Up to this +point little had been gained, except the conversion of Kent itself, with +its dependent kingdom of Essex—the two parts of England in closest +union with the Continent, through the mercantile intercourse by way of +London and Richborough.</p> + +<p>Under the new primate, however, an unexpected opening occurred for the +conversion of the North. The Northumbrian kings had now risen to the +first <a name="page88" id="page88"></a>place in Britain. Æthelfrith had done much to establish their +supremacy; under Eadwine it rose to a height of acknowledged +over-lordship. "As an earnest of this king's future conversion and +translation to the kingdom of heaven," says Bæda, with pardonable +Northumbrian patriotic pride, "even his temporal power was allowed to +increase greatly, so that he did what no Englishman had done +before—that is to say, he united under his own over-lordship all the +provinces of Britain, whether inhabited by English or by Welsh." Eadwine +now took in marriage Æthelburh, daughter of Æthelberht, and sister of +the reigning Kentish king. Justus seized the opportunity to introduce +the Church into Northumbria. He ordained one Paulinus as bishop, to +accompany the Christian lady, to watch over her faith, and if possible +to convert her husband and his people.</p> + +<p>Gregory had planned his scheme with systematic completeness; he had +decided that there should be two metropolitan provinces, of York and +London (which he knew as the old Roman capitals of Britain), and that +each should consist of twelve episcopal sees. Paulinus now went to York +in furtherance of this comprehensive but abortive scheme. A miraculous +escape from assassination, or what was reputed one, gave the Roman monk +a hold over Eadwine's mind; but the king decided to put off his +conversion till he had tried the efficacy of the new faith by a +practical appeal. He went on an expedition against the treacherous king +of the West Saxons, who had endeavoured to assassinate him, and +determined to <a name="page89" id="page89"></a>abide by the result. Having overthrown his enemy with +great slaughter, he returned to his royal city of Coningsborough (the +king's town), and put himself as a catechumen under the care of +Paulinus. The pope himself was induced to interest himself in so +promising a convert; and he wrote a couple of briefs to Eadwine and his +queen. These letters, the originals of which were carefully preserved at +Rome, are copied out in full by Bæda. No doubt, the honour of receiving +such an epistle from the pontiff of the Eternal City was not without its +effect upon the semi-barbaric mind of Eadwine, who seems in some +respects to have inherited the old Roman traditions of Eboracum.</p> + +<p>Still the king held back. To change his own faith was to change the +faith of the whole nation, and he thought it well to consult his witan. +The old English assembly was always aristocratic in character, despite +its ostensible democracy, for it consisted only of the heads of +families; and as the kingdoms grew larger, their aristocratic character +necessarily became more pronounced, as only the wealthier persons could +be in attendance upon the king. The folk-moot had grown into the +witena-gemot, or assembly of wise men. Eadwine assembled such a meeting +on the banks of the Derwent—for moots were always held in the open air +at some sacred spot—and there the priests and thegns declared their +willingness to accept the new religion. Coifi, chief priest of the +heathen gods, himself led the way, and flung a lance in derision at the +temple of his own deities. To the surprise of <a name="page90" id="page90"></a>all, the gods did not +avenge the insult. Thereupon "King Æduin, with all the nobles and most +of the common folk of his nation, received the faith and the font of +holy regeneration, in the eleventh year of his reign, which is the year +of our Lord's incarnation the six hundred and twenty-seventh, and about +the hundred and eightieth after the arrival of the English in Britain. +He was baptized at York on Easter-day, the first before the Ides of +April (April 12), in the church of St. Peter the Apostle, which he +himself had hastily built of wood, while he was being catechised and +prepared for Baptism; and in the same city he gave the bishopric to his +prelate and sponsor Paulinus. But after his Baptism he took care, by +Paulinus's direction, to build a larger and finer church of stone, in +the midst whereof his original chapel should be enclosed." To this day, +York Minster, the lineal descendant of Eadwine's wooden church, remains +dedicated to St. Peter; and the archbishops still sit in the +bishop-stool of Paulinus. Part of Eadwine's later stone cathedral was +discovered under the existing choir during the repairs rendered +necessary by the incendiary Martin. As to the heathen temple, its traces +still remained even in Bæda's day. "That place, formerly the abode of +idols, is now pointed out not far from York to the westward, beyond the +river Dornuentio, and is to-day called Godmundingaham, where the priest +himself, through the inspiration of the true God, polluted and destroyed +the altars which he himself had consecrated." So close did Bæda live to +these early heathen English <a name="page91" id="page91"></a>times. From the date of St. Augustine's +arrival, indeed, Bæda stands upon the surer ground of almost +contemporary narrative.</p> + +<p>Still the greater part of English Britain remained heathen. Kent, Essex, +and Northumbria were converted, or at least their kings and nobles had +been baptised: but East Anglia, Mercia, Sussex, Wessex, and the minor +interior principalities were as yet wholly heathen. Indeed, the various +Teutonic colonies seemed to have received Christianity in the exact +order of their settlement: the older and more civilised first, the newer +and ruder last. Paulinus, however, made another conquest for the church +in Lindsey (Lincolnshire), "where the first who believed," says the +Chronicle, "was a certain great man who hight Blecca, with all his +clan." In the very same year with these successes, Justus died, and +Honorius received the See of Canterbury from Paulinus at the old Roman +city of Lincoln. So far the Roman missionaries remained the only +Christian teachers in England: no English convert seems as yet to have +taken holy orders.</p> + +<p>Again, however, the church received a severe check. Mercia, the youngest +and roughest principality, stood out for heathendom. The western colony +was beginning to raise itself into a great power, under its fierce and +strong old king Penda, who seems to have consolidated all the petty +chieftainships of the Midlands into a single fairly coherent kingdom. +Penda hated Northumbria, which, under Eadwine, had made itself the chief +English state:<a name="page92" id="page92"></a> and he also hated Christianity, which he knew only as a +religion fit for Welsh slaves, not for English warriors. For twenty-two +years, therefore, the old heathen king waged an untiring war against +Christian Northumbria. In 633, he allied himself with Cadwalla, the +Christian Welsh king of Gwynedd, or North Wales, in a war against +Eadwine; an alliance which supplies one more proof that the gulf between +Welsh and English was not so wide as it is sometimes represented to be. +The Welsh and Mercian host met the Northumbrians at Heathfield (perhaps +Hatfield Chase) and utterly destroyed them. Eadwine himself and his son +Osfrith were slain. Penda and Cadwalla "fared thence, and undid all +Northumbria." The country was once more divided into Deira and Bernicia, +and two heathen rulers succeeded to the northern kingdom. Paulinus, +taking Æthelburh, the widow of Eadwine, went by sea to Kent, where +Honorius, whom he had himself consecrated, received him cordially, and +gave him the vacant see of Rochester. There he remained till his death, +and so for a time ended the Christian mission to York. Penda made the +best of his victory by annexing the Southumbrians, the Middle English, +and the Lindiswaras, as well as by conquering the Severn Valley from the +West Saxons. Henceforth, Mercia stands forth as one of the three leading +Teutonic states in Britain. +<a name="page93" id="page93"></a></p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="chapter10" id="chapter10"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>ROME AND IONA.</h3> + + +<p>It was not the Roman mission which finally succeeded in converting the +North and the Midlands. That success was due to the Scottish and Pictish +Church. At the end of the sixth century, Columba, an Irish missionary, +crossed over to the solitary rock of Iona, where he established an abbey +on the Irish model, and quickly evangelised the northern Picts. From +Iona, some generations later, went forth the devoted missionaries who +finally converted the northern half of England.</p> + +<p>The native churches of the west, cut off from direct intercourse with +the main body of Latin Christendom, had retained certain habits which +were now regarded by Rome as schismatical. Chief among these were the +date of celebrating Easter, and the uncanonical method of cutting the +tonsure in a crescent instead of a circle. Augustine, shortly after his +arrival, endeavoured to obtain unity between the two churches on these +matters of discipline, to which great importance was attached as tests +of submission to the Latin rule. He obtained from Æthelberht a +safe-conduct through the heathen West-Saxon territories as far as what +is now Worcestershire; and there, "on the borders of the Huiccii <a name="page94" id="page94"></a>and +the West-Saxons," says Bæda, "he convened to a colloquy the bishops and +doctors of the nearest province of the Britons, in the place which, to +the present day, is called in the English language, Augustine's Oak." +Such open-air meetings by sacred trees or stones were universal in +England both before and after its conversion. "He began to admonish them +with a brotherly admonition to embrace with him the Catholic faith, and +to undertake the common task of evangelising the pagans. For they did +not observe Easter at the proper period: moreover, they did many other +things contrary to the unity of the Church." But the Welsh were jealous +of the intruders, and refused to abandon their old customs. Thereupon, +Augustine declared that if they would not help him against the heathen, +they would perish by the heathen. A few years later, after Augustine's +death, this prediction was verified by Æthelfrith of Northumbria, whose +massacre of the monks of Bangor has already been noticed.</p> + +<p>It was in return for the destruction of Chester and the slaughter of the +monks that Cadwalla joined the heathen Penda against his fellow +Christian Eadwine. But the death of Eadwine left the throne open for the +house of Æthelfrith, whose place Eadwine had taken. After a year of +renewed heathendom, however, during part of which the Welsh Cadwalla +reigned over Northumbria, Oswald, son of Æthelfrith, again united Deira +and Bernicia under his own rule. Oswald was a Christian, but he had +learnt his Christianity from the Scots, amongst whom he had spent his +exile, <a name="page95" id="page95"></a>and he favoured the introduction of Pictish and Scottish +missionaries into Northumbria. The Italian monks who had accompanied +Augustine were men of foreign speech and manners, representatives of an +alien civilisation, and they attempted to convert whole kingdoms <i>en +bloc</i> by the previous conversion of their rulers. Their method was +political and systematic. But the Pictish and Irish preachers were men +of more Britannic feelings, and they went to work with true missionary +earnestness to convert the half Celtic people of Northumbria, man by +man, in their own homes. Aidan, the apostle of the north, carried the +Pictish faith into the Lothians and Northumberland. He placed his +bishop-stool not far from the royal town of Bamborough, at Lindisfarne, +the Holy Island of the Northumbrian coast. Other Celtic missionaries +penetrated further south, even into the heathen realm of Penda and his +tributary princes. Ceadda or Chad, the patron saint of Lichfield, +carried Christianity to the Mercians. Diuma preached to the Middle +English of Leicester with much success, Peada, their ealdorman, son of +Penda, having himself already embraced the new faith. Penda had slain +Oswald in a great battle at Maserfeld in 641; but the martyr only +brought increased glory to the Christians: and Oswiu, who succeeded him, +after an interval of anarchy, as king of Deira (for Bernicia now chose a +king of its own), was also a zealous adherent of the Celtic +missionaries. Thus the heterodox Church made rapid strides throughout +the whole of the north.</p><p><a name="page96" id="page96"></a></p> + +<p>Meanwhile, in the south the Latin missionaries, urged to activity, +perhaps, by the Pictish successes, had been making fresh progress. In +the very year when Oswald was chosen king by the Northumbrians, Birinus, +a priest from northern Italy, went by command of the pope to the West +Saxons: and after twelve months he was able to baptise their king, +Cynegils, at his capital of Dorchester, on the Thames, his sponsor being +Oswald of Northumbria. A year later, Felix, a Burgundian, "preached the +faith of Christ to the East Anglians," who had indeed been converted by +the Augustinian missionaries, but afterwards relapsed. Only Sussex and +Mercia still remained heathen. But, in 655, Penda made a last attempt +against Northumbria, which he had harried year after year, and was met +by Oswiu at Winwidfield, near Leeds; the Christians were successful, and +Penda was slain, together with thirty royal persons—petty princes of +the tributary Mercian states, no doubt. His son, Peada, the Christian +ealdorman of the Middle English, succeeded him, and the Mercians became +Christians of the Pictish or Irish type. "Their first bishop," says +Bæda, "was Diuma, who died and was buried among the Middle English. The +second was Cellach, who abandoned his bishopric, and returned during his +lifetime to Scotland (perhaps Ireland, but more probably the Scottish +kingdom in Argyllshire). Both of these were by birth Irishmen. The third +was Trumhere, by race an Englishman, but educated and ordained by the +Irish." Thus Roman Christianity spread over the whole of<a name="page97" id="page97"></a> England south +of the Wash (save only heathen Sussex): while the Irish Church had made +its way over all the north, from the Wash to the Firth of Forth. The +Roman influence may be partly traced by the Roman alphabet superseding +the old English runes. Runic inscriptions are rare in the south, where +they were regarded as heathenish relics, and so destroyed: but they are +comparatively common in the north. Runics appear on the coins of the +first Christian kings of Mercia, Peada and Æthelred, but soon die out +under their successors.</p> + +<p>Heathendom was now fairly vanquished. It survived only in Sussex, cut +off from the rest of England by the forest belt of the Weald. The next +trial of strength must clearly lie between Rome and Iona.</p> + +<p>The northern bishops and abbots traced their succession, not to +Augustine, but to Columba. Cuthberht, the English apostle of the north, +who really converted the <i>people</i> of Northumbria, as earlier +missionaries had converted its <i>kings</i>, derived his orders from Iona. +Rome or Ireland, was now the practical question of the English Church. +As might be expected, Rome conquered. To allay the discord, King Oswiu +summoned a synod at Streoneshalch (now known by its later Danish name of +Whitby) in 664, to settle the vexed question as to the date of Easter. +The Irish priests claimed the authority of St. John for their crescent +tonsure; the Romans, headed by Wilfrith, a most vigorous priest, +appealed to the authority of St. Peter for the canonical circle. "I will +never offend the saint who holds the keys of <a name="page98" id="page98"></a>heaven," said Oswiu, with +the frank, half-heathendom of a recent convert; and the meeting shortly +decided as the king would have it. The Irish party acquiesced or else +returned to Scotland; and thenceforth the new English Church remained in +close communion with Rome and the Continent. Whatever may be our +ecclesiastical judgment of this decision, there can be little doubt that +its material effects were most excellent. By bringing England into +connection with Rome, it brought her into connection with the centre of +all then-existing civilisation, and endowed her with arts and +manufactures which she could never otherwise have attained. The +connection with Ireland and the north would have been as fatal, from a +purely secular point of view, to early English culture as was the later +connection with half-barbaric Scandinavia. Rome gave England the Roman +letters, arts, and organisation: Ireland could only have given her a +more insular form of Celtic civilisation.<a name="page99" id="page99"></a></p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="chapter11" id="chapter11"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3>CHRISTIAN ENGLAND.</h3> + + +<p>The change wrought in England by the introduction of the new faith was +immense and sudden at the moment, as well as deep-reaching in its after +consequences. The isolated heathen barbaric communities became at once +an integral part of the great Roman and Christian civilisation. Even +before the arrival of Augustine, some slight tincture of Roman influence +had filtered through into the English world. The Welsh serfs had +preserved some traditional knowledge of Roman agriculture; Kent had kept +up some intercourse with the Continent; and even in York, Eadwine +affected a certain imitation of Roman pomp. But after the introduction +of Christianity, Roman civilisation began to produce marked results over +the whole country. Writing, before almost unknown, or confined to the +engraving of runic characters on metal objects, grew rapidly into a +common art. The Latin language was introduced, and with it the key to +the Latin literature and Latin science, the heirlooms of Greece and the +East. Roman influences affected the little courts of the English kings; +and the customary laws began to be written down in regular codes. Before +the conversion we have not a single <a name="page100" id="page100"></a>written document upon which to base +our history; from the moment of Augustine's landing we have the +invaluable works of Bæda, and a host of lesser writings (chiefly lives +of saints), besides an immense number of charters or royal grants of +land to monasteries and private persons. These grants, written at first +in Latin, but afterwards in Anglo-Saxon, were preserved in the +monasteries down to the date of their dissolution, and then became the +property of various collectors. They have been transcribed and published +by Mr. Kemble and Mr. Thorpe, and they form some of our most useful +materials for the early history of Christian England.</p> + +<p>It was mainly by means of the monasteries that Christianity became a +great civilising and teaching agency in England. Those who judge +monastic institutions only by their later and worst days, when they had, +perhaps, ceased to perform any useful function, are apt to forget the +benefits which they conferred upon the people in the earlier stages of +their existence. The state of England during this first Christian period +was one of chronic and bloody warfare. There was no regular army, but +every freeman was a soldier, and raids of one English tribe upon another +were everyday occurrences; while pillaging frays on the part of the +Welsh, followed by savage reprisals on the part of the English, were +still more frequent. During the heathen period, even the Picts seem +often to have made piractical expeditions far into the south of England. +In 597, for example, we read in the Chronicle that Ceolwulf, king of the +West Saxons, constantly fought "either against the<a name="page101" id="page101"></a> English, or against +the Welsh, or against the Picts." But in 603, the Argyllshire Scots made +a raid against Northumbria, and were so completely crushed by +Æthelfrith, that "since then no king of Scots durst lead a host against +this folk"; while the southern Picts of Galloway became tributaries of +the Northumbrian kings. But war between Saxons and English, or between +Teutons and Welsh, still remained chronic; and Christianity did little +to prevent these perpetual border wars and raids. In 633, Cadwalla and +Penda wasted Northumbria; in 644, Penda drove out King Kenwealh, of the +West Saxons, from his possessions along the Severn; in 671, Wulfhere, +the Mercian, ravaged Wessex and the south as far as Ashdown, and +conquered Wight, which he gave to the South Saxons; and so, from time to +time, we catch glimpses of the unceasing strife between each folk and +its neighbours, besides many hints of intestine struggles between prince +and prince, or of rivalries between one petty shire and others of the +same kingdom, far too numerous and unimportant to be detailed here in +full.</p> + +<p>With such a state of affairs as this, it became a matter of deep +importance that there should be some one institution where the arts of +peace might be carried on in safety; where agriculture might be sure of +its reward; where literature and science might be studied; and where +civilising influences might be safe from interruption or rapine. The +monasteries gave an opportunity for such an ameliorating influence to +spring up. They were spared even in war by the reverence of the people +for the Church; and <a name="page102" id="page102"></a>they became places where peaceful minds might +retire for honest work, and learning, and thinking, away from the fierce +turmoil of a still essentially barbaric and predatory community. At the +same time, they encouraged the development of this very type of mind by +turning the reproach of cowardice, which it would have carried with it +in heathen times, into an honour and a mark of holiness. Every monastery +became a centre of light and of struggling culture for the surrounding +district. They were at once, to the early English recluse, universities +and refuges, places of education, of retirement, and of peace, in the +midst of a jarring and discordant world.</p> + +<p>Hence, almost the first act of every newly-converted prince was to found +a monastery in his dominions. That of Canterbury dates from the arrival +of Augustine. In 643, Kenwealh of Wessex "bade timber the old minster at +Winchester." In 654, shortly after the conversion of East Anglia, +"Botulf began to build a monastery at Icanho," since called after his +name Botulf's tun, or Boston. In 657, Peada of Mercia and Oswiu of +Northumbria "said that they would rear a monastery to the glory of +Christ and the honour of St. Peter; and they did so, and gave it the +name of Medeshamstede"; but it is now known as +Peterborough.<a name="FNanchor_1_9" id="FNanchor_1_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_9" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>Before the battle of Winwidfield, Oswiu had vowed to build twelve +minsters in his kingdom, and he redeemed <a name="page103" id="page103"></a>his vow by founding six in +Bernicia and six in Deira. In 669, Ecgberht of Kent "gave Reculver to +Bass, the mass-priest, to build a monastery thereon." In 663, +Æthelthryth, a lady of royal blood, better known by the Latinised name +of St. Etheldreda, "began the monastery at Ely." Before Bæda's death, in +735, religious houses already existed at Lastingham, Melrose, +Lindisfarne, Whithern, Bardney, Gilling, Bury, Ripon, Chertsey, Barking, +Abercorn, Selsey, Redbridge, Coldingham, Towcester, Hackness, and +several other places. So the whole of England was soon covered with +monastic establishments, each liberally endowed with land, and each +engaged in tilling the soil without, and cultivating peaceful arts +within, like little islands of southern civilisation, dotted about in +the wide sea of Teutonic barbarism.</p> + +<p>In the Roman south, many, if not all, of the monasteries seem to have +been planned on the regular models; but in the north, where the Irish +missionaries had borne the largest share in the work of conversion, the +monasteries were irregular bodies on the Irish plan, where an abbot or +abbess ruled over a mixed community of monks and nuns. Hild, a member of +the Northumbrian princely family, founded such an abbey at Streoneshalch +(Whitby), made memorable by numbering amongst its members the first +known English poet, Cædmon. St. John of Beverley, Bishop of Hexham, set +up a similar monastery at the place with which his name is so closely +associated. The Irish monks themselves founded others at Lindisfarne and +elsewhere. Even in the <a name="page104" id="page104"></a>south, some Irish abbeys existed. An Irish monk +had set up one at Bosham, in Sussex, even before Wilfrith converted that +kingdom; and one of his countrymen, Maidulf (or Maeldubh?) was the +original head of Malmesbury. In process of time, however, as the union +with Rome grew stronger, all these houses conformed to the more regular +usage, and became monasteries of the ordinary Benedictine type.</p> + +<p>The civilising value of the monasteries can hardly be over-rated. Secure +in the peace conferred upon them by a religious sanction, the monks +became the builders of schools, the drainers of marshland, the clearers +of forest, the tillers of heath. Many of the earliest religious houses +rose in the midst of what had previously been trackless wilds. +Peterborough and Ely grew up on islands of the Fen country. Crowland +gathered round the cell of Guthlac in the midst of a desolate mere. +Evesham occupied a glade in the wild forests of the western march. +Glastonbury, an old Welsh foundation, stood on a solitary islet, where +the abrupt knoll of the Tor looks down upon the broad waste of the +Somersetshire marshes. Beverley, as its name imports, had been a haunt +of beavers before the monks began to till its fruitful dingles. In every +case agriculture soon turned the wild lands into orchards and +cornfields, or drove drains through the fens which converted their +marshes into meadows and pastures for the long-horned English cattle. +Roman architecture, too, came with the Roman church. We hear nothing +before of stone buildings; but Eadwine erected a church of stone at +York, under the direction <a name="page105" id="page105"></a>of Paulinus; and Bishop Wilfrith, a +generation later, restored and decorated it, covering the roof with lead +and filling the windows with panes of glass. Masons had already been +settled in Kent, though Benedict, the founder of Wearmouth and Jarrow, +found it desirable to bring over others from the Franks. Metal-working +had always been a special gift of the English, and their gold jewellery +was well made even before the conversion, but it became still more +noticeable after the monks took the craft into their own hands. Bæda +mentions mines of copper, iron, lead, silver, and jet. Abbot Benedict +not only brought manuscripts and pictures from Rome, which were copied +and imitated in his monasteries at Wearmouth and Jarrow, but he also +brought over glass-blowers, who introduced the art of glass-making into +England. Cuthberht, Bæda's scholar, writes to Lull, asking for workmen +who can make glass vessels. Bells appear to have been equally early +introductions. Roman music of course accompanied the Roman liturgy. The +connection established with the clergy of the continent favoured the +dispersion of European goods throughout England. We constantly hear of +presents, consisting of skilled handicraft, passing from the civilised +south to the rude and barbaric north. Wilfrith and Benedict journeyed +several times to and from Rome, enlarging their own minds by intercourse +with Roman society, and returning laden with works of art or manuscripts +of value. Bæda was acquainted with the writings of all the chief +classical poets and philosophers, whom he often quotes. We can only +liken the results <a name="page106" id="page106"></a>of such intercourse to those which in our own time +have proceeded from the opening of Japan to western ideas, or of the +Hawaiian Islands to European civilisation and European missionaries. The +English school which soon sprang up at Rome, and the Latin schools which +soon sprang up at York and Canterbury, are precise equivalents of the +educational movements in both those countries which we see in our own +day. The monks were to learn Latin and Greek "as well as they learned +their own tongue," and were so to be given the key of all the literature +and all the science that the world then possessed.</p> + +<p>The monasteries thus became real manufacturing, agricultural, and +literary centres on a small scale. The monks boiled down the salt of the +brine-pits; they copied and illuminated manuscripts in the library; they +painted pictures not without rude merit of their own; they ran rhines +through the marshy moorland; they tilled the soil with vigour and +success. A new culture began to occupy the land—the culture whose +fully-developed form we now see around us. But it must never be +forgotten that in its origin it is wholly Roman, and not at all +Anglo-Saxon. Our people showed themselves singularly apt at embracing +it, like the modern Polynesians, and unlike the American Indians; but +they did not invent it for themselves. Our existing culture is not +home-bred at all; it is simply the inherited and widened culture of +Greece and Italy.</p> + +<p>The most perfect picture of the monastic life and of early English +Christianity which we possess is that <a name="page107" id="page107"></a>drawn for us in the life and +works of Bæda. Before giving any account, however, of the sketch which +he has left us, it will be necessary to follow briefly the course of +events in the English church during the few intervening years.</p> + +<p>The Church of England in its existing form owes its organisation to a +Greek monk. In 667, Oswiu of Northumbria and Ecgberht of Kent, in order +to bring their dominions into closer connection with Rome, united in +sending Wigheard the priest to the pope, that he might be hallowed +Archbishop of Canterbury. No Englishman had yet held that office, and +the choice may be regarded as a symptom of growth in the native Church. +But Wigheard died at Rome, and the pope seized the opportunity to +consecrate an archbishop in the Roman interest. His choice fell upon one +Theodore, a monk of Tarsus in Cilicia, who was in the orders of the +Eastern church. The pope was particular, however, that Theodore should +not "introduce anything contrary to the verity of the faith into the +Church over which he was to preside." Theodore accepted Roman orders and +the Roman tonsure, and set out for his province, where he arrived after +various adventures on the way. His re-organisation of the young Church +was thorough and systematic. Originally England had been divided into +seven great dioceses, corresponding to the principal kingdoms (save only +still heathen Sussex), and having their sees in their chief towns—East +and West Kent, at Canterbury and Rochester; Essex, at London; Wessex, at +Dorchester or Winchester; Northumbria, <a name="page108" id="page108"></a>at York; East Anglia, at +Dunwich; and Mercia, at Lichfield. The Scottish bishopric of Lindisfarne +coincided with Bernicia. Theodore divided these great dioceses into +smaller ones; East Anglia had two, for its north and south folk, at +Elmham and Dunwich; Bernicia was divided between Lindisfarne and Hexham; +Lincolnshire had its see placed at Sidnacester; and the sub-kingdoms of +Mercia were also made into dioceses, the Huiccii having their +bishop-stool at Worcester; the Hecans, at Hereford; and the Middle +English, at Leicester. But Theodore's great work was the establishment +of the national synod, in which all the clergy of the various English +kingdoms met together as a single people. This was the first step ever +taken towards the unification of England; and the ecclesiastical unity +thus preceded and paved the way for the political unity which was to +follow it. Theodore's organisation brought the whole Church into +connection with Rome. The bishops owing their orders to the Scots +conformed or withdrew, and henceforward Rome held undisputed sway. +Before Theodore, all the archbishops of Canterbury and all the bishops +of the southern kingdoms had been Roman missionaries; those of the north +had been Scots or in Scottish orders. After Theodore they were all +Englishmen in Roman orders. The native church became thenceforward +wholly self-supporting.</p> + +<p>Theodore was much aided in his projects by Wilfrith of York, a man of +fiery energy and a devoted adherent of the Roman see, who had carried +the Roman supremacy at the Synod of Whitby, and who spent a <a name="page109" id="page109"></a>large part +of his time in journeys between England and Italy. His life, by Æddi, +forms one of the most important documents for early English history. In +681 he completed the conversion of England by his preaching to the South +Saxons, whom he endeavoured to civilise as well as Christianise. His +monastery of Selsey was built on land granted by the under-king (now a +tributary of Wessex), and his first act was to emancipate the slaves +whom he found upon the soil. Equally devoted to Rome was the young +Northumbrian noble, who took the religious name of Benedict Biscop. +Benedict became at first an inmate of the Abbey of Lérins, near Cannes. +He afterwards founded two regular Benedictine abbeys on the same model +at Wearmouth and Jarrow, and made at least four visits to the papal +court, whence he returned laden with manuscripts to introduce Roman +learning among his wild Northumbrian countrymen. He likewise carried +over silk robes for sale to the kings in exchange for grants of land; +and he brought glaziers from Gaul for his churches. Jarrow alone +contained 500 monks, and possessed endowments of 15,000 acres.</p> + +<p>It was under the walls of Jarrow that Bæda himself was born, in the year +672. Only fifty years had passed since his native Northumbria was still +a heathen land. Not more than forty years had gone since the conversion +of Wessex, and Sussex was still given over to the worship of Thunor and +Woden. But Bæda's own life was one which brought him wholly into +connection with Christian teachers and Roman culture. Left an orphan at +the age of seven <a name="page110" id="page110"></a>years, he was handed over to the care of Abbot +Benedict, after whose death Abbot Ceolfrid took charge of the young +aspirant. "Thenceforth," says the aged monk, fifty years later, "I +passed all my lifetime in the building of that monastery [Jarrow], and +gave all my days to meditating on Scripture. In the intervals of my +regular monastic discipline, and of my daily task of chanting in chapel, +I have always amused myself either by learning, teaching, or writing. In +the nineteenth year of my life I received ordination as deacon; in my +thirtieth year I attained to the priesthood; both functions being +administered by the most reverend bishop John [afterwards known as St. +John of Beverley], at the request of Abbot Ceolfrid. From the time of my +ordination as priest to the fifty-ninth year of my life, I have occupied +myself in briefly commenting upon Holy Scripture, for the use of myself +and my brethren, from the works of the venerable fathers, and in some +cases I have added interpretations of my own to aid in their +comprehension."</p> + +<p>The variety of Bæda's works, the large knowledge of science and of +classical literature which he displays (when judged by the continental +standard of the eighth century), and his familiar acquaintance with the +Latin language, which he writes easily and correctly, show that the +library of Jarrow must have been extensive and valuable. Besides his +Scriptural commentaries, he wrote a treatise <i>De Natura Rerum</i>, Letters +on the Reason of Leap-Year, a Life of St. Anastasius, and a History of +his Own Abbey, all in<a name="page111" id="page111"></a> Latin. In verse, he composed many pieces, both in +hexameters and elegiacs, together with a treatise on prosody. But his +greatest work is his "Ecclesiastical History of the English People," the +authority from which we derive almost all our knowledge of early +Christian England. It was doubtless suggested by the Frankish history of +Gregory of Tours, and it consists of five books, divided into short +chapters, making up about 400 pages of a modern octavo. Five +manuscripts, one of them transcribed only two years after Bæda's death, +and now deposited in the Cambridge library, preserve for us the text of +this priceless document. The work itself should be read in the original, +or in one of the many excellent translations, by every person who takes +any intelligent interest in our early history.</p> + +<p>Bæda's accomplishments included even a knowledge of Greek—then a rare +acquisition in the west—which he probably derived from Archbishop +Theodore's school at Canterbury. He was likewise an English author, for +he translated the Gospel of St. John into his native Northumbrian; and +the task proved the last of his useful life. Several manuscripts have +preserved to us the letter of Cuthberht, afterwards Abbot of Jarrow, to +his friend Cuthwine, giving us the very date of his death, May 27, A.D. +735, and also narrating the pathetic but somewhat overdrawn picture, +with which we are all familiar, of how he died just as he had completed +his translation of the last chapter. "Thus saying, he passed the day in +peace till eventide. The boy [his scribe] said to him, 'Still one +<a name="page112" id="page112"></a>sentence, beloved master, is yet unwritten.' He answered, 'Write it +quickly.' After a while the boy said, 'Now the sentence is written.' +Then he replied, 'It is well,' quoth he, 'thou hast said the truth: it +is finished.'... And so he passed away to the kingdom of heaven."</p> + +<p>It is impossible to overrate the importance of the change which made +such a life of earnest study and intellectual labour as Bæda's possible +amongst the rough and barbaric English. Nor was it only in producing +thinkers and readers from a people who could not spell a word half a +century before, that the monastic system did good to England. The +monasteries owned large tracts of land which they could cultivate on a +co-operative plan, as cultivation was impossible elsewhere. <i>Laborare +est orare</i> was the true monastic motto: and the documents of the +religious houses, relating to lands and leases, show us the other or +material side of the picture, which was not less important in its way +than the spiritual and intellectual side. Everywhere the monks settled +in the woodland by the rivers, cut down the forests, drove out the +wolves and the beavers, cultivated the soil with the aid of their +tenants and serfs, and became colonisers and civilisers at the same time +that they were teachers and preachers. The reclamation of waste land +throughout the marshes of England was due almost entirely to the +monastic bodies.</p> + +<p>The value of the civilising influence thus exerted is seen especially in +the written laws, and it affected even the actions of the fierce English +princes. The <a name="page113" id="page113"></a>dooms of Æthelberht of Kent are the earliest English +documents which we possess, and they were reduced to writing shortly +after the conversion of the first English Christian king: while Bæda +expressly mentions that they were compiled after Roman models. The +Church was not able to hold the warlike princes really in check; but it +imposed penances, and encouraged many of them to make pilgrimages to +Rome, and to end their days in a cloister. The importance of such +pilgrimages was doubtless immense. They induced the rude insular +nobility to pay a visit to what was still, after all, the most civilised +country of the world, and so to gain some knowledge of a foreign +culture, which they afterwards endeavoured to introduce into their own +homes. In 688, Ceadwalla, the ferocious king of the West Saxons, whose +brother Mul had been burnt alive by the men of Kent, and who harried the +Jutish kingdom in return, and who also murdered two princes of Wight, +with all their people, in cold blood, went on a pilgrimage to Rome, +where he was baptised, and died immediately +after.<a name="FNanchor_2_10" id="FNanchor_2_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_10" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Ine, +who succeeded +him, re-endowed the old British monastery of Glastonbury, in territory +just conquered from the West Welsh, and reduced the laws of the West +Saxons to writing. He, too, retired to Rome, <a name="page114" id="page114"></a>where he died. In 704, +Æthelred, son of Penda, king of the Mercians, "assumed monkhood." In +709, Cenred, his successor, and Offa of Essex, went to Rome. And so on +for many years, king after king resigned his kingship, and submitted, in +his latter days, to the Church. Within two centuries, no less than +thirty kings and queens are recorded to have embraced a conventual life: +and far more probably did so, but were passed over in silence. Bæda +tells us that many Englishmen went into monasteries in Gaul.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, it cannot be denied that while Christianity made +great progress, many marks of heathendom were still left among the +people. Well-worship and stone-worship, devil-craft and sacrifices to +idols, are mentioned in every Anglo-Saxon code of laws, and had to be +provided against even as late as the time of Eadgar. The belief in elves +and other semi-heathen beings, and the reverence for heathen memorials, +was rife, and shows itself in such names as Ælfred, elf-counsel; +Ælfstan, elf-stone; Ælfgifu, elf-given; Æthelstan, noble-stone; and +Wulfstan, wolf-stone. Heathendom was banished from high places, but it +lingered on among the lower classes, and affected the nomenclature even +of the later West Saxon kings themselves. Indeed, it was closely +interwoven with all the life and thought of the people, and entered, in +altered forms, even into the conceptions of Christianity current amongst +them. The Christian poem of Cædmon is tinctured on every page with ideas +derived from the legends of the old <a name="page115" id="page115"></a>heathen mythology. And it will +probably surprise many to learn that even at this late date, tattooing +continued to be practised by the English chieftains. +<a name="page116" id="page116"></a></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_9" id="Footnote_1_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_9">[1]</a> The +charter is a late forgery, but there is no reason to +doubt that it represents the correct tradition.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_2_10" id="Footnote_2_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_10">[2]</a> He +was buried at St. Peter's, and his tomb still exists +in the remodelled building. Bæda quotes the inscription in +full, and quotes it correctly; a fact which may be taken as +an excellent test of his historical accuracy, and the care +with which he collected his materials.</p> +</div> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="chapter12" id="chapter12"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3>THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE KINGDOMS.</h3> + + +<p>With the final triumph of Christianity, all the formative elements of +Anglo-Saxon Britain are complete. We see it, a rough conglomeration of +loosely-aggregated principalities, composed of a fighting aristocracy +and a body of unvalued serfs; while interspersed through its parts are +the bishops, monks, and clergy, centres of nascent civilisation for the +seething mass of noble barbarism. The country is divided into +agricultural colonies, and its only industry is agriculture, its only +wealth, land. We want but one more conspicuous change to make it into +the England of the Augustan Anglo-Saxon age—the reign of Eadgar—and +that one change is the consolidation of the discordant kingdoms under a +single loose over-lordship. To understand this final step, we must +glance briefly at the dull record of the political history.</p> + +<p>Under Æthelfrith, Eadwine, and Oswiu, Northumbria had been the chief +power in England. But the eighth century is taken up with the greatness +of Mercia. Ecgfrith, the last great king of Northumbria, whose +over-lordship extended over the Picts of Galloway and the Cumbrians of +Strathclyde, endeavoured to carry his conquests beyond the Forth, <a name="page117" id="page117"></a>and +annex the free land lying to the north of the old Roman line. He was +defeated and slain, and with him fell the supremacy of Northumbria. +Mercia, which already, under Penda and Wulfhere, had risen to the second +place, now assumed the first position among the Teutonic kingdoms. +Unfortunately we know little of the period of Mercian supremacy. The +West Saxon chronicle contains few notices of the rival state, and we are +thrown for information chiefly on the second-hand Latin historians of +the twelfth century. Æthelbald, the first powerful Mercian king +(716-755), "ravaged the land of the Northumbrians," and made Wessex +acknowledge his supremacy. By this time all the minor kingdoms had +practically become subject to the three great powers, though still +retaining their native princes: and Wessex, Mercia, and Northumbria +shared between them, as suzerains, the whole of Teutonic Britain. The +meagre annals of the Chronicle, upon which alone (with the Charters and +Latin writers of later date) we rest after the death of Bæda, show us a +chaotic list of wars and battles between these three great powers +themselves, or between them and their vassals, or with the Welsh and +Devonians. Æthelbald was succeeded, after a short interval, by Offa, +whose reign of nearly forty years (758-796), is the first settled period +in English history. Offa ruled over the subject princes with rigour, and +seems to have made his power really felt. He drove the Prince of Powys +from Shrewsbury, and carried his ravages into the heart of Wales. He +conquered the land between the Severn and the Wye, <a name="page118" id="page118"></a>and his dyke from +the Dee to the Severn, and the Wye, marked the new limits of the Welsh +and English borders; while his laws codified the customs of Mercia, as +those of Æthelberht and Ine had done with the customs of Kent and +Wessex. He set up for awhile an archbishopric at Lichfield, which seems +to mark his determination to erect Mercia into a sovereign power. He +also founded the great monastery of St. Alban's, and is said to have +established the English college at Rome, though another account +attributes it to Ine, the West Saxon. East Anglia, Kent, Essex, and +Sussex all acknowledged his supremacy. Karl the Great was then reviving +the Roman Empire in its Germanic form, and Offa ventured to correspond +with the Frank emperor as an equal. The possession of London, now a +Mercian city, gave Offa an interest in continental affairs; and the +growth of trade is marked by the fact that when a quarrel arose between +them, they formally closed the ports of their respective kingdoms +against each other's subjects.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, English kingship still remained a mere military office, +and consolidation, in our modern sense, was clearly impossible. Local +jealousies divided all the little kingdoms and their component +principalities; and any real subordination was impracticable amongst a +purely agricultural and warlike people, with no regular army, and +governed only by their own anarchic desires. Like the Afghans of the +present time, the early English were incapable of union, except in a +temporary way under the strong hand of a single warlike leader against a +common foe. As <a name="page119" id="page119"></a>soon as that was removed, they fell asunder at once into +their original separateness. Hence the chaotic nature of our early +annals, in which it is impossible to discover any real order underlying +the perpetual flux of states and princes.</p> + +<p>A single story from the Chronicle will sufficiently illustrate the type +of men whose actions make up the history of these predatory times. In +754, King Cuthred of the West Saxons died. His kinsman, Sigeberht, +succeeded him. One year later, however, Cynewulf and the witan deprived +Sigeberht of his kingdom, making over to him only the petty principality +of Hampshire, while Cynewulf himself reigned in his stead. After a time +Sigeberht murdered an ealdorman of his suite named Cymbra; whereupon +Cynewulf deprived him of his remaining territory and drove him forth +into the forest of the Weald. There he lived a wild life till a herdsman +met him in the forest and stabbed him, to avenge the death of his +master, Cymbra. Cynewulf, in turn, after spending his days in fighting +the Welsh, lost his life in a quarrel with Cyneheard, brother of the +outlawed Sigeberht. He had endeavoured to drive out the ætheling; but +Cyneheard surprised him at Merton, and slew him with all his thegns, +except one Welsh hostage. Next day, the king's friends, headed by the +ealdorman Osric, fell upon the ætheling, and killed him with all his +followers. In the very same year, Æthelbald of Mercia was killed +fighting at Seckington; and Offa drove out his successor, Beornred. Of +such murders, wars, surprises, and dynastic quarrels, the history of +<a name="page120" id="page120"></a>the eighth century is full. But no modern reader need know more of them +than the fact that they existed, and that they prove the wholly +ungoverned and ungovernable nature of the early English temper.</p> + +<p>Until the Danish invasions of the ninth century, the tribal kingdoms +still remained practically separate, and such cohesion as existed was +only secured for the purpose of temporary defence or aggression. Essex +kept its own kings under Æthelberht of Kent; Huiccia retained its royal +house under Æthelred of Mercia; and later on, Mercia itself had its +ealdormen, after the conquest by Ecgberht of Wessex. Each royal line +reigned under the supreme power until it died out naturally, like our +own great feudatories in India at the present day. "When Wessex and +Mercia have worked their way to the rival hegemonies," says Canon +Stubbs, "Sussex and Essex do not cease to be numbered among the +kingdoms, until their royal houses are extinct. When Wessex has +conquered Mercia and brought Northumbria on its knees, there are still +kings in both Northumbria and Mercia. The royal house of Kent dies out, +but the title of King of Kent is bestowed on an ætheling, first of the +Mercian, then of the West Saxon house. Until the Danish conquest, the +dependant royalties seem to have been spared; and even afterwards +organic union can scarcely be said to exist."</p> + +<p>The final supremacy of the West Saxons was mainly brought about by the +Danish invasion. But the man who laid the foundation of the West Saxon +power was Ecgberht, the so-called first king of all<a name="page121" id="page121"></a> England. Banished +from Wessex during his youth by one of the constant dynastic quarrels, +through the enmity of Offa, the young ætheling had taken refuge with +Karl the Great, at the court of Aachen, and there had learnt to +understand the rising statesmanship of the Frankish race and of the +restored Roman empire. The death of his enemy Beorhtric, in 802, left +the kingdom open to him: but the very day of his accession showed him +the character of the people whom he had come to rule. The men of +Worcester celebrated his arrival by a raid on the men of Wilts. "On that +ilk day," says the Chronicle, "rode Æthelhund, ealdorman of the Huiccias +[who were Mercians], over at Cynemæres ford; and there Weohstan the +ealdorman met him with the Wilts men [who were West Saxons:] and there +was a muckle fight, and both ealdormen were slain, and the Wilts men won +the day." For twenty years, Ecgberht was engaged in consolidating his +ancestral dominions: but at the end of that time, he found himself able +to attack the Mercians, who had lost Offa six years before Ecgberht's +return. In 825, the West Saxons met the Mercian host at Ellandun, "and +Ecgberht gained the day, and there was muckle slaughter." Therefore all +the Saxon name, held tributary by the Mercians, gathered about the Saxon +champion. "The Kentish folk, and they of Surrey, and the South Saxons, +and the East Saxons turned to him." In the same year, the East Anglians, +anxious to avoid the power of Mercia, "sought Ecgberht for peace and for +aid." Beornwulf, the Mercian king, marched against his <a name="page122" id="page122"></a>revolted +tributaries: but the East Anglians fought him stoutly, and slew him and +his successor in two battles. Ecgberht followed up this step by annexing +Mercia in 829: after which he marched northward against the +Northumbrians, who at once "offered him obedience and peace; and they +thereupon parted." One year later, Ecgberht led an army against the +northern Welsh, and "reduced them to humble obedience." Thus the West +Saxon kingdom absorbed all the others, at least so far as a loose +over-lordship was concerned. Ecgberht had rivalled his master Karl by +founding, after a fashion, the empire of the English. But all the local +jealousies smouldered on as fiercely as ever, the under-kings retained +their several dominions, and Ecgberht's supremacy was merely one of +superior force, unconnected with any real organic unity of the kingdom +as a whole. Ecgberht himself generally bore the title of King of the +West Saxons, like his ancestors: and though in dealing with his Anglian +subjects he styled himself Rex Anglorum, that title perhaps means little +more than the humbler one of Rex Gewissorum, which he used in addressing +his people of the lesser principality. The real kingdom of the English +never existed before the days of Eadward the Elder, and scarcely before +the days of William the Norman and Henry the Angevin. As to the kingdom +of England, that was a far later invention of the feudal lawyers. +<a name="page123" id="page123"></a></p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="chapter13" id="chapter13"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h3>THE RESISTANCE TO THE DANES.</h3> + + +<p>In the long period of three and a-half centuries which had elapsed +between the Jutish conquest of Kent and the establishment of the West +Saxon over-lordship, the politics of Britain had been wholly insular. +The island had been brought back by Augustine and his successors into +ecclesiastical, commercial, and literary union with the continent: but +no foreign war or invasion had ever broken the monotony of murdering the +Welsh and harrying the surrounding English. The isolation of England was +complete. Ship-building was almost an obsolete art: and the small trade +which still centred in London seems to have been mainly carried on in +Frisian bottoms; for the Low Dutch of the continent still retained the +seafaring habits which those of England had forgotten. But a new enemy +was now beginning to appear in northern Europe—the Scandinavians. The +history of the great wicking movement forms the subject of a separate +volume in this series: but the manner in which the English met it will +demand a brief treatment here. Some outline of the bare facts, however, +must first be premised.</p> + +<p>As early as 789, during the reign of Offa in Mercia, "three ships of +Northmen from Hæretha land" came <a name="page124" id="page124"></a>on shore in Wessex. "Then the reeve +rode against them, and would have driven them to the king's town, for he +wist not what they were: and there men slew him. Those were the first +ships of Danish men that ever sought English kin's land." In 795, "the +harrying of heathen men wretchedly destroyed God's church at Lindisfarne +isle, through rapine and manslaughter." In the succeeding year, "the +heathen harried among the Northumbrians, and plundered Ecgberht's +monastery at Wearmouth." In 832, "heathen men ravaged Sheppey"; and a +year later, "King Ecgberht fought against the crews of thirty-five ships +at Charmouth, and there was muckle slaughter made, and the Danes held +the battle-field."<a name="FNanchor_1_11" id="FNanchor_1_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_11" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> In +835, another host came to the West Welsh (now +almost reduced to the peninsula of Cornwall): and the Welsh readily +joined them against their West Saxon over-lord. Ecgberht met the united +hosts at Hengestesdun and put them both to flight. It was his last +success. In the succeeding year he died, and the kingdom descended to +his weak son, Æthelwulf. His second son, Æthelstan, was placed over +Kent, Essex, Surrey, and Sussex, as under-king.</p> + +<p>Next spring, the flood of wickings began to pour in earnest over +England. Thirty-three piratical ships sailed up Southampton Water to +pillage Southampton, perhaps with an ultimate eye to the treasures of +royal Winchester, the capital and minster-town of the West <a name="page125" id="page125"></a>Saxon +over-lord himself. This was a bold attempt, but the West Saxons met it +in full force. The ealdorman Wulfheard gathered together the levy of +fighting men, attacked the host, and put it to flight with great +slaughter. Shortly after a second Danish host landed near Portland, +doubtless to plunder Dorchester: and the local ealdorman Æthelhelm, +falling upon them with the levy of Dorset men, was defeated after a +sharp struggle, leaving the heathen in possession of the field. It was +not in Wessex, however, that the wickings were to make their great +success. The north had long suffered from terrible anarchy, and was a +ready prey for any invader. Out of fourteen kings who had reigned in +Northumbria during the eighth century, no less than seven were put to +death and six expelled by their rebellious subjects. Christian +Northumbria, which in Bæda's days had been the most flourishing part of +Britain, was now reduced to a mere agglomeration of petty princes and +clans, dependent on the West Saxon over-lord, and utterly unconnected +with one another in feeling or sympathy. Already we have seen how the +Danes harried Northumbria without opposition. The same was probably the +case with the whole Anglian coast on the east. In 840, the wickings fell +on the fen country. "The ealdorman Hereberht was slain by heathen men, +and many with him among the marsh-men." All down the east coast, the +piratical fleet proceeded, burning and slaughtering as it went. "In the +same year, in Lindsey, and in East Anglia, and among the Kent men, many +men were slain by the host." A year <a name="page126" id="page126"></a>later, the wickings returned, +growing bolder as they found out the helplessness of the people. They +sailed up the Thames, and ravaged Rochester and London, with great +slaughter; after which they crossed the channel and fell upon Cwantawic, +or Étaples, a commercial port in the Saxon land of the Boulonnais. In +842, a Danish host defeated Æthelwulf himself at Charmouth in Dorset; +and in the succeeding summer "the ealdorman Eanulf, with the Somerset +levy, and Bishop Ealhstan and the ealdorman Osric, with the Dorset levy, +fought at Parretmouth with the host, and made a muckle slaughter, and +won the day."</p> + +<p>The utter weakness of the first English resistance is well shown in +these facts. A terrible flood of heathen savagery was let loose upon the +country, and the people were wholly unable to cope with it. There was +absolutely no central organisation, no army, no commissariat, no ships. +The heathen host landed suddenly wherever it found the people +unprepared, and fell upon the larger towns for plunder. The local +authority, the ealdorman or the under-king, hastily gathered together +the local levy in arms, and fell upon the pirates tumultuously with the +men of the shire as best he might. But he had no provisions for a long +campaign: and when the levy had fought once, it melted away immediately, +every man going back again of necessity to his own home. If it won the +battle, it went home to drink over its success: if it lost, it +dissolved, demoralized, and left the burghers to fight for their own +walls, or to buy off the heathen with their own money. But every shire +and every kingdom <a name="page127" id="page127"></a>fought for itself alone. If the Dorset men could only +drive away the host from Charmouth and Portland, they cared little +whether it sailed away to harry Sussex and Hants. If the Northumbrians +could only drive it away from the Humber, they cared little whether it +set sail for the Thames and the Solent. The North Folk of East Anglia +were equally happy to send it off toward the South Folk. While there was +so little cohesion between the parts of the same kingdoms, there was no +cohesion at all between the different kingdoms over which Æthelwulf +exercised a nominal over-lordship. The West Saxon kings fought for +Dorset and for Kent, but there is no trace of their ever fighting for +East Anglia or for Northumbria. They left their northern vassals to take +care of themselves. "It was never a war between the Danes and the +national army," says Prof. Pearson, "but between the Danes and a local +militia." It would have been impossible, indeed, to resist the wickings +effectually without a strong central system, which could move large +armies rapidly from point to point: and such a system was quite undreamt +of in the half-consolidated England of the ninth century. Only war with +a foreign invader could bring it about even in a faint degree: and that +was exactly what the Danish invasion did for Wessex.</p> + +<p>The year 851 marks an important epoch in the English resistance. The +annual horde of wickings had now become as regular in its recurrence as +summer itself; and even the inert West Saxon kings began to feel that +permanent measures must be taken <a name="page128" id="page128"></a>against them. They had built ships, +and tried to tackle the invaders in the only way in which so partially +civilised a race could tackle such tactics as those of the Danes—upon +the sea. A host of wickings came round to Sandwich in Kent. The +under-king Æthelstan fell upon them with his new navy, and took nine of +their ships, putting the rest to flight with great slaughter. But in the +same year another great host of 250 sail, by far the largest fleet of +which we have yet heard, came to the mouth of the Thames, and there +landed, a step which marks a fresh departure in the wicking tactics. +They took Canterbury by assault, and then marched on to London. There +they stormed the busy merchant town, and put to flight Beorhtwulf, the +under-king of the Mercians, with his local levy. Thence they proceeded +southward into Surrey, doubtless on their way to Winchester. King +Æthelwulf met them at Ockley, with the West-Saxon levy, "and there made +the greatest slaughter among the heathen host that we have yet heard, +and gained the day." In spite of these two great successes, however, +both of which show an increasing statesmanship on the part of the West +Saxons, this year was memorable in another way, for "the heathen men for +the first time sat over winter in Thanet." The loose predatory +excursions were beginning to take the complexion of regular conquest and +permanent settlement.</p> + +<p>Yet so little did the English still realise the terrible danger of the +heathen invasion, that next year Æthelwulf was fighting the Welsh of +Wales; and two years <a name="page129" id="page129"></a>after he went on a pilgrimage to Rome, "with great +pomp, and dwelt there twelve months, and then fared homeward." In that +same year, "heathen men sat over winter in Sheppey."</p> + +<p>After Æthelwulf's death the English resistance grew fainter and fainter. +In 860, under his second son, Æthelberht, a Danish host took Winchester +itself by storm. Five years later, a heathen army settled in Thanet, and +the men of Kent agreed to buy peace of them—the first sign of that evil +habit of buying off the Dane, which grew gradually into a fixed custom. +But the host stole away during the truce for collecting the money, and +harried all Kent unawares.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, we hear little of the North. The almost utter destruction of +its records during the heathen domination restricts us for information +to the West Saxon chronicles; and they have little to tell us about any +but their own affairs. In 866, however, we learn that there came a great +heathen host to East Anglia—an organised expedition under two +chieftains—"and took winter quarters there, and were horsed; and the +East Anglians made peace with them." Next year, this permanent host +sailed northward to Humber, and attacked York. The Northumbrians, as +usual, were at strife among themselves, two rival kings fighting for the +supremacy. The burghers of York admitted the heathen host within the +walls. Then the rival kings fell upon the town, broke the slender +fortifications, and rushed into the city. The Danes attacked them both, +and <a name="page130" id="page130"></a>defeated them with great slaughter. Northumbria passed at once into +the power of the heathen. Their chiefs, Ingvar and Ubba, erected Deira +into a new Danish kingdom, leaving Bernicia to an English puppet; and +Northumbria ceases to exist for the present as a factor in Anglo-Saxon +history. We must hand it over for sixty years to the Scandinavian +division of this series.</p> + +<p>In 868, Ingvar and Ubba advanced again into Mercia and beset Nottingham. +Then the under-king Burhred called in the aid of his over-lord, Æthelred +of Wessex, who came to his assistance with a levy. "But there was no +hard fight there, and the Mercians made peace with the host." In 870, +the heathen overran East Anglia, and destroyed the great monastery of +Peterborough, probably the richest religious house in all England. +Eadmund, the under-king, came against them with the levy, but they slew +him; and the people held him for a martyr, whose shrine at Bury St. +Edmunds grew in after days into the holiest spot in East Anglia. The +Danes harried the whole country, burnt the monasteries, and annexed +Norfolk and Suffolk as a second Danish kingdom. East Anglia, too, +disappears for a while from our English annals.</p> + +<p>Lastly, the Danes turned against Mercia and Wessex. In 871, a host under +Bagsecg and Halfdene came to Reading, which belonged to the latter +territory, when the local ealdorman engaged them and won a slight +victory. Shortly afterward the West Saxon king Æthelred, with his +brother Ælfred, came <a name="page131" id="page131"></a>up, and engaged them a second time with worse +success. Three other bloody battles followed, in all of which the Danes +were beaten with heavy loss; but the West Saxons also suffered severely. +For three years the host moved up and down through Mercia and Wessex; +and the Mercians stood by, aiding neither side, but "making peace with +the host" from time to time. At last, however, in 874, the heathens +finally annexed the greater part of Mercia itself. "The host fared from +Lindsey to Repton, and there sat for the winter, and drove King Burhred +over sea, two and twenty years after he came to the kingdom; and they +subdued all the land. And Burhred went to Rome, and there settled; and +his body lies in St. Mary's Church, in the school of the English kin. +And in the same year they gave the kingdom of Mercia in ward to +Ceolwulf, an unwise thegn; and he swore oaths to them, and gave hostages +that it should be ready for them on whatso day they willed; and that he +would be ready with his own body, and with all who would follow him, for +the behoof of the host." Thus Mercia, too, fades for a short while out +of our history, and Wessex alone of all the English kingdoms remains.</p> + +<p>This brief but inevitable record of wars and battles is necessarily +tedious, yet it cannot be omitted without slurring over some highly +important and interesting facts. It is impossible not to be struck with +the extraordinarily rapid way in which a body of fierce heathen invaders +overran two great Christian and comparatively civilised states. We +cannot but contrast <a name="page132" id="page132"></a>the inertness of Northumbria and the lukewarmness +of Mercia with the stubborn resistance finally made by Ælfred in Wessex. +The contrast may be partly due, it is true, to the absence of native +Northumbrian and Mercian accounts. We might, perhaps, find, had we +fuller details, that the men of Bernicia and Deira made a harder fight +for their lands and their churches than the West Saxon annals would lead +us to suppose. Still, after making all allowance for the meagreness of +our authorities, there remains the indubitable fact that a heathen +kingdom was established in the pure English land of Bæda and Cuthberht, +while the Christian faith and the Saxon nationality held their own for +ever in peninsular and half-Celtic Wessex.</p> + +<p>The difference is doubtless due in part to merely surface causes. East +Anglia had long lost her autonomy, and, while sometimes ruled by Mercia, +was sometimes broken up under several ealdormen. For her and for +Northumbria the conquest was but a change from a West Saxon to a Danish +master. The house of Ecgberht had broken down the national and tribal +organisation, and was incapable of substituting a central organisation +in its place. With no roads and no communications such a centralising +scheme is really impracticable. The disintegrated English kingdoms made +little show of fighting for their Saxon over-lord. They could accept a +Dane for master almost as readily as they could accept a Saxon.</p> + +<p>But besides these surface causes, there was a deeper and more +fundamental cause underlying the difference.<a name="page133" id="page133"></a> The Scandinavians were +nearer to the pure English in blood and speech than they were to the +Saxons. In their old home the two races had lived close together,—in +Sleswick, Jutland, and Scania,—while the Saxons had dwelt further +south, near the Frankish border, by the lowlands of the Elbe. To the +English of Northumbria, the Saxons of Wessex were almost foreigners. +Even at the present day, when the existence of a recognised literary +dialect has done so much to obliterate provincial varieties of speech in +England, a Dorsetshire peasant, speaking in a slightly altered form the +classical West Saxon of Ælfred, has great difficulty in understanding a +Yorkshire peasant, speaking in a slightly altered form the classical +Northumbrian of Bæda. But in the ninth century the differences between +the two dialects were probably far greater. On the other hand, though +Danish and Anglian have widely separated at the present day, and were +widely distinct even in the days of Cnut, it is probable that at this +earlier period they were still, to some extent, mutually comprehensible. +Thus, the heathen Scandinavian may have seemed to the Northumbrian and +the East Anglian almost like a fellow-countryman, while the West Saxon +seemed in part like an enemy and an intruder. At any rate, the +similarity of blood and language enabled the two races rapidly to +coalesce; and when the cloud rises again from the North half a century +later, the distinction of Dane and Englishman has almost ceased in the +conquered provinces. It is worthy of note in this connection that the +part of Mercia afterwards <a name="page134" id="page134"></a>given over by Ælfred to Guthrum, was the +Anglian half, while the part retained by Wessex was mostly the Saxon +half—the land conquered by Penda from the West Saxons two hundred years +before.</p> + +<p>Nor must we suppose that this first wave of Scandinavian conquest in any +way swamped or destroyed the underlying English population of the North. +The conquerors came merely as a "host," or army of occupation, not as a +body of rural colonists. They left the conquered English in possession +of their homes, though they seized upon the manors for themselves, and +kept the higher dignities of the vanquished provinces in their own +hands. Being rapidly converted to Christianity, they amalgamated readily +with the native people. Few women came over with them, and intermarriage +with the English soon broke down the wall of separation. The +archbishopric of York continued its succession uninterruptedly +throughout the Danish occupation. The Bishops of Elmham lived through +the stormy period; those of Leicester transferred their see to +Dorchester-on-the-Thames; those of Lichfield apparently kept up an +unbroken series. We may gather that beneath the surface the North +remained just as steadily English under the Danish princes as the whole +country afterwards remained steadily English under the Norman kings.</p> + +<p>There was, however, one section of the true English race which kept +itself largely free from the Scandinavian host. North of the Tyne the +Danes apparently spread but sparsely; English ealdormen continued to +rule at Bamborough over the land between<a name="page135" id="page135"></a> Forth and Tyne. Hence +Northumberland and the Lothians remained more purely English than any +other part of Britain. The people of the South are Saxons: the people of +the West are half Celts; the people of the North and the Midlands are +largely intermixed with Danes; but the people of the Scottish lowlands, +from Forth to Tweed, are almost purely English; and the dialect which we +always describe as Scotch is the strongest, the tersest, and the most +native modern form of the original Anglo-Saxon tongue. If we wish to +find the truest existing representative of the genuine pure-blooded +English race, we must look for him, not in Mercia or in Wessex, but +amongst the sturdy and hard-headed farmers of Tweedside and Lammermoor. +<a name="page136" id="page136"></a></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_11" id="Footnote_1_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_11">[1]</a> This +entry in the Chronicle, however, is probably +erroneous, as an exactly similar one occurs under Æthelwulf, +seven years later.</p> +</div> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="chapter14" id="chapter14"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h3>THE SAXONS AT BAY IN WESSEX.</h3> + + +<p>Only one English kingdom now held out against the wickings, and that was +Wessex. Its comparatively successful resistance may be set down, in some +slight degree, to the energy of a single man, Ælfred, though it was +doubtless far more largely due to the relatively strong organisation of +the West Saxon state. In judging of Ælfred, we must lay aside the false +notions derived from the application of words expressing late ideas to +an early and undeveloped stage of civilised society. To call him a great +general or a great statesman is to use utterly misleading terms. +Generalship and statesmanship, as we understand them, did not yet exist, +and to speak of them in the ninth century in England is to be guilty of +a common, but none the more excusable, anachronism. Ælfred was a sturdy +and hearty fighter, and a good king of a semi-barbaric people. As a lad, +he had visited Rome; and he retained throughout life a strong sense of +his own and his people's barbarism, and a genuine desire to civilise +himself and his subjects, so far as his limited lights could carry him. +He succeeded to a kingdom overrun from end to end by piratical hordes: +and he did his best to restore peace and to promote order.<a name="page137" id="page137"></a> But his +character was merely that of a practical, common-sense, fighting West +Saxon, brought up in the camp of his father and brothers, and doing his +rough work in life with the honest straightforwardness of a simple, +hard-headed, religious, but only half-educated barbaric soldier.</p> + +<p>The successful East Anglian wickings, under their chief Guthrum, turned +at once to ravage Wessex. They "harried the West Saxons' land, and +settled there, and drove many of the folk over sea." For awhile it +seemed as if Wessex too was to fall into their hands. Ælfred himself, +with a little band, "withdrew to the woods and moor-fastnesses." He took +refuge in the Somerset marshes, and there occupied a little island of +dry land in the midst of the fens, by name Athelney. Here he threw up a +rude earthwork, from which he made raids against the Danes, with a petty +levy of the nearest Somerset men. But the mass of the West Saxons were +not disposed to give in so easily. The long border warfare with Devon +and Cornwall had probably kept up their organisation in a better state +than that of the anarchic North. The men of Somerset and Wilts, with +those Hampshire men who had not fled to the Continent, gathered at a +sacred stone on the borders of Selwood Forest, and there Ælfred met them +with his little band. They attacked the host, which they put to flight, +and then besieged it in its fortified camp. To escape the siege, Guthrum +consented to leave Wessex, and to accept Christianity. He was baptised +at once, with thirty of his principal chiefs, after <a name="page138" id="page138"></a>the rough-and-ready +fashion of the fighting king, near Athelney. The treaty entered into +with Guthrum restored to Ælfred all Wessex, with the south-western part +of Mercia, from London to Bedford, and thence along the line of Watling +Street to Chester. Thus for a time the Saxons recovered their autonomy, +and the great Scandinavian horde retired to East Anglia. Æthelred, +Ælfred's son-in-law, was appointed under-king of recovered Mercia. +Henceforward, Teutonic Britain remains for awhile divided into Wessex +and the Denalagu—that is to say, the district governed by Danish law.</p> + +<p>Though peace was thus made with Guthrum, new bodies of wickings came +pouring southward from Scandinavia. One of these sailed up the Thames to +Fulham, but after spending some time there, they went over to the +Frankish coast, where their depredations were long and severe. +Throughout all Ælfred's reign, with only two intervals of peace, the +wickings kept up a constant series of attacks on the coast, and +frequently penetrated inland. From time to time, the great horde under +Hæsten poured across the country, cutting the corn and driving away the +cattle, and retreating into East Anglia, or Northumbria, or the +peninsula of the Wirrall, whenever they were seriously worsted. "Thanks +be to God," says the Chronicle pathetically "the host had not wholly +broken up all the English kin;" but the misery of England must have been +intense. Ælfred, however, introduced two military changes of great +importance. He set on foot something like a regular army, with a +<a name="page139" id="page139"></a>settled commissariat, dividing his forces into two bodies, so that +one-half was constantly at home tilling the soil while the other half +was in the field; and he built large ships on a new plan, which he +manned with Frisians, as well as with English, and which largely aided +in keeping the coast fairly free from Danish invasion during the two +intervals of peace.</p> + +<p>Throughout the whole of the ninth century, however, and the early part +of the tenth, the whole history of England is the history of a perpetual +pillage. No man who sowed could tell whether he might reap or not. The +Englishman lived in constant fear of life and goods; he was liable at +any moment to be called out against the enemy. Whatever little +civilisation had ever existed in the country died out almost altogether. +The Latin language was forgotten even by the priests. War had turned +everybody into fighters; commerce was impossible when the towns were +sacked year after year by the pirates. But in the rare intervals of +peace, Ælfred did his best to civilise his people. The amount of work +with which he is credited is truly astonishing. He translated into +English with his own hand "The History of the World," by Orosius; Bæda's +"Ecclesiastical History;" Boethius's "De Consolatione," and Gregory's +"Regula Pastoralis." At his court, too, if not under his own direction, +the English Chronicle was first begun, and many of the sentences quoted +from that great document in this work are probably due to Ælfred +himself. His devotion to the church was shown by the regular +communication which he kept up with Rome, and by <a name="page140" id="page140"></a>the gifts which he +sent from his impoverished kingdom, not only to the shrine of St. Peter +but even to that of St. Thomas in India. No doubt his vigorous +personality counted for much in the struggle with the Danes; but his +death in 901 left the West Saxons as ready as ever to contend against +the northern enemy.</p> + +<p>One result of the Danish invasion of Wessex must not be passed over. The +common danger seems to have firmly welded together Welshman and Saxon +into a single nationality. The most faithful part of Ælfred's dominions +were the West Welsh shires of Somerset and Devon, with the half Celtic +folk of Dorset and Wilts. The result is seen in the change which comes +over the relations between the two races. In Ine's laws the distinction +between Welshmen and Englishmen is strongly marked; the price of blood +for the servile population is far less than that of their lords: in +Ælfred's laws the distinction has died out. Compared to the heathen +Dane, West Saxons and West Welsh were equally Englishmen. From that day +to this, the Celtic peasantry of the West Country have utterly forgotten +their Welsh kinship, save in wholly Cymric Cornwall alone. The Devon and +Somerset men have for centuries been as English in tongue and feeling as +the people of Kent or Sussex. +<a name="page141" id="page141"></a></p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="chapter15" id="chapter15"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h3>THE RECOVERY OF THE NORTH.</h3> + + +<p>The history of the tenth century and the first half of the eleventh +consists entirely of the continued contest between the West Saxons and +the Scandinavians. It falls naturally into three periods. The first is +that of the English reaction, when the West Saxon kings, Eadward and +Æthelstan, gradually reconquered the Danish North by inches at a time. +The second is that of the Augustan age, when Dunstan and Eadgar held +together the whole of Britain for a while in the hands of a single West +Saxon over-lord. The third is that of the decadence, when, under +Æthelred, the ill-welded empire fell asunder, and the Danish kings, +Cnut, Harold, and Harthacnut, ruled over all England, including even the +unconquered Wessex of Ælfred himself.</p> + +<p>At Ælfred's death, his dominions comprised the larger Wessex, from Kent +to the Cornish border at Exeter, together with the portion of Mercia +south-west of Watling Street. The former kingdom passed into the hands +of his son Eadward; the latter was still held by the ealdorman Æthelred, +who had married Ælfred's daughter Æthelflæd. The departure of the Danish +host, led by Hæsten, left the English <a name="page142" id="page142"></a>time to breathe and to recruit +their strength. Henceforth, for nearly a century, the direct wicking +incursions cease, and the war is confined to a long struggle with the +Northmen already settled in England. Four years later, the east Anglian +Danes broke the peace and harried Mercia and Wessex; but Eadward overran +their lands in return, and the Kentish men, in a separate battle, +attacked and slew Eric their king with several of his earls. In 912, +Æthelred the Mercian died, and Eadward at once incorporated London and +Oxford with his own dominions, leaving his sister Æthelflæd only the +northern half of her husband's principality. Thenceforth Æthelflæd, "the +Lady of the Mercians," turned deliberately to the conquest of the North. +She adopted a fresh kind of tactics, which mark again a new departure in +the English policy. Instead of keeping to the old plan of alternate +harryings on either side, and precarious tenure of lands from time to +time, Æthelflæd began building regular fortresses or <i>burhs</i> all along +her north-eastern frontiers, using these afterwards as bases for fresh +operations against the enemy. The spade went hand in hand with the +sword: the English were becoming engineers as well as fighters. In the +year of her husband's death, the Lady built <i>burhs</i> at Sarrat and +Bridgnorth. The next year "she went with all the Mercians to Tamworth, +and built the <i>burh</i> there in early summer; and ere Lammas, that at +Stafford." In the two succeeding years she set up other strongholds at +Eddesbury, Warwick, Cherbury, Wardbury, and Runcorn. By 917, she <a name="page143" id="page143"></a>found +herself strong enough to attack Derby, one of the chief cities in the +Danish confederacy of the Five Burgs, which she captured after a hard +siege. Thence she turned on Leicester, which capitulated on her +approach, the Danish host going over quietly to her side. She was in +communication with the Danes of York for the surrender of that city, +too, when she died suddenly in her royal town of Tamworth, in the year +918.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Eadward had been pushing forward his own boundary in the east, +building <i>burhs</i> at Hertford and Witham, and endeavouring to subjugate +the Danish league in Bedford, Huntingdon, and Northampton. In 915, +Thurketel, the jarl of Bedford, "sought him for lord," and Eadward +afterwards built a <i>burh</i> there also. On his sister's death, he annexed +all her territories, and then, in a fierce and long doubtful struggle, +reconquered not only Huntingdon and Northampton but East Anglia as well. +The Christian English hailed him as a deliverer. Next, he turned on +Stamford, the Danish capital of the Fens, and on Nottingham, the +stronghold of the Southumbrian host. In both towns he erected <i>burhs</i>. +These successes once more placed the West Saxon king in the foremost +position amongst the many rulers of Britain. The smaller principalities, +unable to hold their own against the Scandinavians, began spontaneously +to rally round Eadward as their leader and suzerain. In the same year +with the conquest of Stamford, "the kings of the North Welsh, Howel, and +Cledauc, and Jeothwel, and all the North Welsh kin, sought him <a name="page144" id="page144"></a>for +lord." In 923, Eadward pushed further northward, and sent a Mercian host +to conquer "Manchester in Northumbria," and fortify and man it. A line +of twenty fortresses now girdled the English frontier, from Colchester, +through Bedford and Nottingham, to Manchester and Chester. Next year, +Eadward himself, now immediate king of all England south of Humber, +attacked the last remaining Danish kingdom, Northumbria, throwing a +bridge across the Trent at Nottingham, and marching against Bakewell in +Peakland, where again he built a <i>burh</i>. The new tactics were too fine +for the rough and ready Danish leaders. Before Eadward reached York, the +entire North submitted without a blow. "The king of Scots, and all the +Scottish kin, and Ragnald [Danish king of York], and the sons of Eadulf +[English kings of Bamborough], and all who dwell in Northumbria, as well +English as Danes and Northmen and others, and also the king of the +Strathclyde Welsh and all the Strathclyde Welsh, sought him for father +and for lord." This was in 924. Next year, Eadward "rex invictus" died, +over-lord of all Britain from sea to sea, while the whole country south +of the Humber, save only Wales and Cornwall, was now practically united +into a single kingdom of England.</p> + +<p>But the seeming submission of the North was fallacious. The Danes had +reintroduced into Britain a fresh mass of incoherent barbarism, which +could not thus readily coalesce. The Scandinavian leaven in the +population had put back the shadow on the dial of England some three +centuries. Æthelstan, Eadward's <a name="page145" id="page145"></a>son, found himself obliged to give his +sister in marriage to Sihtric or Sigtrig, Danish king of the Yorkshire +Northumbrians, which probably marks a recognition of his vassal's +equality. Soon after, however, Sihtric died, and Æthelstan made himself +first king of all England by adding Northumbria to his own immediate +dominions. Then "he bowed to himself all the kings who were in this +island; first, Howel, king of the West Welsh; and Constantine, king of +Scots; and Owen, king of Gwent [South Wales]; and Ealdred, son of +Ealdulf of Bamborough; and with pledge and with oaths sware they peace, +and forsook every kind of heathendom." In the West, he drove the Welsh +from Exeter, which they had till then occupied in common with the +English, and fixed their boundary at the Tamar. But once more the +pretended vassals rebelled. Constantine, king of Scots, threw off his +allegiance, and Æthelstan thereupon "went into Scotland, both with a +land host and a ship host, and harried a mickle deal of it." In 937, the +feudatories made a final and united effort to throw off the West Saxon +yoke. The Scots, the Strathclyde Welsh, the people of Wales and +Cornwall, the lords of Bamborough, and the Danes throughout the North +and East, all rose together in a great league against their over-lord. +Anlaf, king of the Dublin Danes, came over from Ireland to aid them, +with a large body of wickings. The confederates met the West Saxon +<i>fyrd</i> or levy at an unknown spot named Brunanburh, where Æthelstan +overthrew them in a crushing defeat, which forms the subject of a fine +war-song, <a name="page146" id="page146"></a> +inserted in full in the English +Chronicle.<a name="FNanchor_1_12" id="FNanchor_1_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_12" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Three +years +later Æthelstan died, as his father had died before him, undisputed +over-lord of all Britain, and immediate king of the whole Teutonic +portion.</p> + +<p>Yet once more the feeble unity of the country broke hopelessly asunder. +Eadmund, who succeeded his brother, found the Danes of the North and the +Midlands again insubordinate. The year after his accession "the +Northumbrians belied their oath, and chose Anlaf of Ireland for king." +The Five Burgs went too, and the old boundary of Watling Street was once +more made the frontier of the Danish possessions. In 944, however, +Eadmund subdued all Northumbria, and expelled its Danish kings. His +recovery of the Five Burgs, and the joy of the Christian English +inhabitants, are vividly set forth in a fragmentary ballad embedded in +the Chronicle. The next year he harried Strathclyde or Cumberland, the +Welsh kingdom between Clyde and Morecambe, and handed it over to +Malcolm, king of Scots, as a pledge of his fidelity. At Eadmund's death +in 946—when he was stabbed in his royal hall by an outlaw—his kingdom +fell to his brother Eadred. Two years later Northumbria again revolted, +and chose Eric for its king. Eadred harried and burnt the province, +which he then handed over to an earl of his own creation, one of the +Bamborough family. The king himself died in 955, and was succeeded by +his nephew Eadwig. But Northumbria and Mercia revolted once more, <a name="page147" id="page147"></a>and +chose Eadwig's brother, Eadgar, instead of their own Danish princes. +Eadwig died in 958, and Eadgar then became king of all three provinces; +thus finally uniting the whole of Teutonic England into one kingdom.</p> + +<p>Eadgar's reign forms the climax of the West Saxon power. It was, in +fact, the only period when England can be said to have enjoyed any +national unity under the Anglo-Saxon dynasties. The strong hand of a +priest gave peace for some years to the ill-organised mass. Dunstan was +probably the first Englishman who seriously deserves the name of +statesman. He was born in the half-Celtic region of Somerset, beside the +great abbey of Glastonbury, which held the bones of Arthur, and a good +deal of the imaginative Celtic temper ran probably with the blood in +his +veins.<a name="FNanchor_2_13" id="FNanchor_2_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_13" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> But +he was above all the representative of the Roman +civilisation in the barbarised, half-Danish England of the tenth +century. He was a musician, a painter, a reader, and a scholar, in a +world of fierce warriors <a name="page148" id="page148"></a>and ignorant nobles. Eadmund made him abbot of +Glastonbury. Eadgar appointed him first bishop of London, and then, on +Eadwig's death, Archbishop of Canterbury. It was Dunstan who really +ruled England throughout the remainder of his life. Essentially an +organiser and administrator, he was able to weld the unwieldy empire +into a rough unity, which lasted as long as its author lived, and no +longer. He appeased the discontent of Northumbria and the Five Burgs by +permitting them a certain amount of local independence, with the +enjoyment of their own laws and their own lawmen. He kept a fleet of +boats cruising in the Irish Sea to check the Danish hosts at Dublin and +Waterford. He put forward a code, known as the laws of Eadgar, for the +better government of Wessex and the South. He made the over-lordship of +the West Saxons over their British vassals more real than it had ever +been before; and a tale, preserved by Florence, tells us that eight +tributary kings rowed Eadgar in his royal barge on the Dee, in token of +their complete subjection. Internally, Dunstan revived the declining +spirit of monasticism, which had died down during the long struggle with +the Danes, and attempted to reintroduce some tinge of southern +civilisation into the barbarised and half-paganised country in which he +lived. Wherever it was possible, he "drove out the priests, and set +monks," and he endeavoured to make the monasteries, which had +degenerated during the long war into mere landowning communities, regain +once more their old position as centres of culture <a name="page149" id="page149"></a>and learning. During +his own time his efforts were successful, and even after his death the +movement which he had begun continued in this direction to make itself +felt, though in a feebler and less intelligent form.</p> + +<p>One act of Dunstan's policy, however, had far-reaching results, of a +kind which he himself could never have anticipated. He handed over all +Northumbria beyond the Tweed—the region now known as the Lothians—as a +fief to Kenneth, king of Scots. This accession of territory wholly +changed the character of the Scottish kingdom, and largely promoted the +Teutonisation of the Celtic North. The Scottish princes now took up +their residence in the English town of Edinburgh, and learned to speak +the English language as their mother-tongue. Already Eadmund had made +over Strathclyde or Cumberland to Malcolm; and thus the dominions of the +Scottish kings extended over the whole of the country now known as +Scotland, save only the Scandinavian jarldoms of Caithness, Sutherland, +and the Isles. Strathclyde rapidly adopted the tongue of its masters, +and grew as English in language (though not in blood) as the Lothians +themselves. Fife, in turn, was quickly Anglicised, as was also the whole +region south of the Highland line. Thus a new and powerful kingdom arose +in the North; and at the same time the cession of an English district to +the Scottish kings had the curious result of thoroughly Anglicising two +large and important Celtic regions, which had hitherto resisted every +effort of the Northumbrian or West<a name="page150" id="page150"></a> Saxon over-lords. There is no reason +to believe, however, that this introduction of the English tongue and +English manners was connected with any considerable immigration of +Teutonic settlers into the Anglicised tracts. The population of +Ayrshire, of Fife, of Perthshire, and of Aberdeen, still shows every +sign of Celtic descent, alike in physique, in temperament, and in habit +of thought. The change was, in all probability, exactly analogous to +that which we ourselves have seen taking place in Wales, in Ireland, and +in the Celtic north of Scotland at the present day. +<a name="page151" id="page151"></a></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_12" id="Footnote_1_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_12">[1]</a> See +<a href="#chapter20">chapter xx.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_2_13" id="Footnote_2_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_13">[2]</a> It +is impossible to avoid noticing the increased +importance of semi-Celtic Britain under Dunstan's +administration. He was himself at first an abbot of the old +West Welsh monastery of Glastonbury: he promoted West +countrymen to the principal posts in the kingdom: and he had +Eadgar hallowed king at the ancient West Welsh royal city of +Bath, married to a Devonshire lady, and buried at +Glastonbury. Indeed, that monastery was under Dunstan what +Westminster was under the later kings. Florence uses the +strange expression that Eadgar was chosen "by the +Anglo-Britons:" and the meeting with the Welsh and Scotch +princes in the semi-Welsh town of Chester conveys a like +implication.</p> +</div> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="chapter16" id="chapter16"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<h3>THE AUGUSTAN AGE AND THE LATER ANGLO-SAXON CIVILISATION.</h3> + + +<p>The slight pause in the long course of Danish warfare which occurred +during the vigorous administration of Dunstan, affords the best +opportunity for considering the degree of civilisation reached by the +English in the last age before the Norman Conquest. Our materials for +such an estimate are partly to be found in existing buildings, +manuscripts, pictures, ornaments, and other archæological remains, and +partly in the documentary evidence of the chronicles and charters, and +more especially of the great survey undertaken by the Conqueror's +commissioners, and known as Domesday Book. From these sources we are +enabled to gain a fairly complete view of the Anglo-Saxon culture in the +period immediately preceding the immense influx of Romance civilisation +after the Conquest; and though some such Romance influence was already +exerted by the Normanising tendencies of Eadward the Confessor, we may +yet conveniently consider the whole subject here under the age of Eadgar +and Æthelred. It is difficult, indeed, to trace any very great +improvement in the arts of life between the days of Dunstan and the days +of Harold.</p><p><a name="page152" id="page152"></a></p> + +<p>In spite of constant wars and ravages from the northern pirates, there +can be little doubt that England had been slowly advancing in material +civilisation ever since the introduction of Christianity. The heathen +intermixture in the North and the Midlands had retarded the advance but +had not completely checked it; while in Wessex and the South the +intercourse with the continent and the consequent growth in culture had +been steadily increasing. Æthelwulf of Wessex married a daughter of Karl +the Bald; Ælfred gave his daughter to a count of Flanders; and Eadward's +princesses were married respectively to the emperor, to the king of +France, and to the king of Provence. Such alliances show a considerable +degree of intercourse between Wessex and the Roman world; and the relics +of material civilisation fully bear out the inference. The Institutes of +the city of London mention traders from Brabant, Liège, Rouen, Ponthieu, +France (in the restricted sense), and the Empire; but these came "in +their own vessels." England, which now has in her hands the carrying +trade of the world, was still dependent for her own supply on foreign +bottoms. We know also that officers were appointed to collect tolls from +foreign merchants at Canterbury, Dover, Arundel, and many other towns; +and London and Bristol certainly traded on their own account with the +Continent.</p> + +<p>As a whole, however, England still remained a purely agricultural +country to the very end of the Anglo-Saxon period. It had but little +foreign trade, <a name="page153" id="page153"></a>and what little existed was chiefly confined to imports +of articles of luxury (wine, silk, spices, and artistic works) for the +wealthier nobles, and of ecclesiastical requisites, such as pictures, +incense, relics, vestments, and like southern products for the churches +and monasteries. The exports seem mainly to have consisted of slaves and +wool, though hides may possibly have been sent out of the country, and a +little of the famous English gold-work and embroidery was perhaps sold +abroad in return for the few imported luxuries. But taking the country +at a glance, we must still picture it to ourselves as composed almost +entirely of separate agricultural manors, each now owned by a +considerable landowner, and tilled mainly by his churls, whose position +had sunk during the Danish wars to that of semi-servile tenants, owing +customary rents of labour to their superiors. War had told against the +independence of the lesser freemen, who found themselves compelled to +choose themselves protectors among the higher born classes, till at last +the theory became general that every man must have a lord. The noble +himself lived upon his manor, accepted service from his churls in +tilling his own homestead, and allowed them lands in return in the +outlying portions of his estates. His sources of income were two only: +first, the agricultural produce of his lands, thus tilled for him by +free labour and by the hands of his serfs; and secondly, the breeding of +slaves, shipped from the ports of London and Bristol for the markets of +the south. The artisans depended wholly upon their lord, being often +serfs, or else <a name="page154" id="page154"></a>churls holding on service-tenure. The mass of England +consisted of such manors, still largely interspersed with woodland, each +with the wooden hall of its lord occupying the centre of the homestead, +and with the huts of the churls and serfs among the hays and valleys of +the outskirts. The butter and cheese, bread and bacon, were made at +home; the corn was ground in the quern; the beer was brewed and the +honey collected by the family. The spinner and weaver, the shoemaker, +smith, and carpenter, were all parts of the household. Thus every manor +was wholly self-sufficing and self-sustaining, and towns were rendered +almost unnecessary.</p> + +<p>Forests and heaths still also covered about half the surface. These were +now the hunting-grounds of the kings and nobles, while in the leys, +hursts, and dens, small groups of huts gave shelter to the swineherds +and woodwards who had charge of their lord's property in the woodlands. +The great tree-covered region of Selwood still divided Wessex into two +halves; the forest of the Chilterns still spread close to the walls of +London; the Peakland was still overgrown by an inaccessible thicket; and +the long central ridge between Yorkshire and Scotland was still shadowed +by primæval oaks, pinewoods, and beeches. Agriculture continued to be +confined to the alluvial bottoms, and had nowhere as yet invaded the +uplands, or even the stiffer and drier lowland regions, such as the +Weald of Kent or the forests of Arden and Elmet.</p> + +<p>Only two elements broke the monotony of these <a name="page155" id="page155"></a>self-sufficing +agricultural communities. Those elements were the monasteries and the +towns.</p> + +<p>A large part of the soil of England was owned by the monks. They now +possessed considerable buildings, with stone churches of some +pretensions, in which service was conducted with pomp and +impressiveness. The tiny chapel of St. Lawrence, at Bradford-on-Avon, +forms the best example of this primitive Romanesque architecture now +surviving in England. Around the monasteries stretched their well-tilled +lands, mostly reclaimed from fen or forest, and probably more +scientifically cultivated than those of the neighbouring manors. Most of +the monks were skilled in civilised handicrafts, introduced from the +more cultivated continent. They were excellent ecclesiastical +metalworkers; many of them were architects, who built in rude imitation +of Romanesque models; and others were designers or illuminators of +manuscripts. The books and charters of this age are delicately and +minutely wrought out, though not with all the artistic elaboration of +later mediæval work. The art of painting (almost always in miniature) +was considerably advanced, the figures being well drawn, in rather stiff +but not unlifelike attitudes, though perspective is very imperfectly +understood, and hardly ever attempted. Later Anglo-Saxon architecture, +such as that of Eadward's magnificent abbey church at Westminster +(afterwards destroyed by Henry III. to make way for his own building), +was not inferior to continental workmanship. All the arts practised in +the abbeys were of direct Roman origin, and most of the <a name="page156" id="page156"></a>words relating +to them are immediately derived from the Latin. This is the case even +with terms relating to such common objects as <i>candle</i>, <i>pen</i>, <i>wine</i>, +and <i>oil</i>. Names of weights, measures, coins, and other exact +quantitative ideas are also derived from Roman sources. Carpenters, +smiths, bakers, tanners, and millers, were usually attached to the +abbeys. Thus, in many cases, as at Glastonbury, Peterborough, Ripon, +Beverley, and Bury St. Edmunds, the monastery grew into the nucleus of a +considerable town, though the development of such towns is more marked +after than before the Norman Conquest. As a whole, it was by means of +the monasteries, and especially of their constant interchange of inmates +with the continent, that England mainly kept up the touch with the +southern civilisation. There alone was Latin, the universal medium of +continental intercommunication, taught and spoken. There alone were +books written, preserved, and read. Through the Church alone was an +organisation kept up in direct communication with the central civilising +agencies of Italy and the south. And while the Church and the +monasteries thus preserved the connection with the continent, they also +formed schools of culture and of industrial arts for the country itself. +At the abbeys bells were cast, glass manufactured, buildings designed, +gold and silver ornaments wrought, jewels enamelled, and unskilled +labour organised by the most trained intelligence of the land. They thus +remained as they had begun, homes and retreats for those exceptional +minds which were capable of carrying on the arts <a name="page157" id="page157"></a>and the knowledge of a +dying civilisation across the gulf of predatory barbarism which +separates the artificial culture of Rome from the industrial culture of +modern Europe.</p> + +<p>The towns were few and relatively unimportant, built entirely of wood +(except the churches), and very liable to be burnt down on the least +excuse. In considering them we must dismiss from our minds the ideas +derived from our own great and complex organisation, and bring ourselves +mentally into the attitude of a simple agricultural people, requiring +little beyond what was produced on each man's own farm or petty holding. +Such people are mainly fed from their own corn and meat, mainly clad +from their own homespun wool and linen. A little specialisation of +function, however, already existed. Salt was procured from the wyches or +pans of the coast, and also from the inland wyches or brine wells of +Cheshire and the midland counties. Such names as Nantwich, Middlewych, +Bromwich, and Droitwich, still preserve the memory of these early +saltworks. Iron was mined in the Forest of Dean, around Alcester, and in +the Somersetshire district. The city of Gloucester had six smiths' +forges in the days of Eadward the Confessor, and paid its tax to the +king in iron rods. Lead was found in Derbyshire, and was largely +employed for roofing churches. Cloth-weaving was specially carried on at +Stamford; but as a rule it is probable that every district supplied its +own clothing. English merchants attended the great fair at St. Denys, in +France, much as those of Central Asia now attend the fair at<a name="page158" id="page158"></a> Kandahar; +and madder seems to have been bought there for dyeing cloth. In Kent, +Sussex, and East Anglia, herring fisheries already produced considerable +results. With these few exceptions, all the towns were apparently mere +local centres of exchange for produce, and small manufactured wares, +like the larger villages or bazaars of India in our own time. +Nevertheless, there was a distinct advance towards urban life in the +later Anglo-Saxon period. Bæda mentions very few towns, and most of +those were waste. By the date of the Conquest there were many, and their +functions were such as befitted a more diversified national life. +Communications had become far greater; and arts or trade had now to some +extent specialised themselves in special places.</p> + +<p>A list of the chief early English towns may possibly seem to give too +much importance to these very minor elements of English life; yet one +may, perhaps, be appended with due precaution against misapprehension.</p> + +<p>The capital, if any place deserved to be so called under the +perambulating early English dynasty, was Winchester (Wintan-ceaster), +with its old and new minsters, containing the tombs of the West-Saxon +kings. It possessed a large number of craftsmen, doubtless dependant +ultimately upon the court; and it was relatively a place of far greater +importance than at any later date.</p> + +<p>The chief ports were London (Lundenbyrig), situated at the head of tidal +navigation on the Thames; and Bristol (Bricgestow) and Gloucester +(Gleawan-ceaster), <a name="page159" id="page159"></a>similarly placed on the Avon and Severn. These towns +were convenient for early shipping because of their tidal position, at +an age when artificial harbours were unknown; They were the seat of the +export traffic in slaves and the import traffic in continental goods. +Before Ælfred's reign the carrying trade by sea seems to have been in +the hands of the Frisian skippers and slave-dealers, who stood to the +English in the same relation as the Arabs now stand to the East African +and Central African negroes; but after the increased attention paid to +shipbuilding during the struggle with the Danes, English vessels began +to engage in trade on their own account. London must already have been +the largest and richest town in the kingdom. Even in Bæda's time it was +"the mart of many nations, resorting to it by sea and land." It seems, +indeed, to have been a sort of merchant commonwealth, governed by its +own port reeve, and it made its own dooms, which have been preserved to +the present day. From the Roman time onward, the position of London as a +great free commercial town was probably uninterrupted.</p> + +<p>York (Eoforwic), the capital of the North, had its own archbishop and +its Danish internal organisation. It seems to have been always an +important and considerable town, and it doubtless possessed the same +large body of handicraftsmen as Winchester. During the doubtful period +of Danish and English struggles, the archbishop apparently exercised +quasi-royal authority over the English burghers themselves.</p> + +<p>Among the cathedral towns the most important <a name="page160" id="page160"></a>were Canterbury +(Cant-wara-byrig), the old capital of Kent and metropolis of all +England, which seems to have contained a relatively large trading +population; Dorchester, in Oxfordshire, first the royal city of the West +Saxons, and afterwards the seat of the exiled bishopric of Lincoln; +Rochester (Hrofes-ceaster), the old capital of the West Kentings, and +seat of their bishop: and Worcester (Wigorna-ceaster), the chief town of +the Huiccii. Of the monastic towns the chief were Peterborough (Burh), +Ely (Elig), and Glastonbury (Glæstingabyrig). Bath, Amesbury, +Colchester, Lincoln, Chester, and other towns of Roman origin were also +important. Exeter, the old capital of the West Welsh, situated at the +tidal head of the Exe, had considerable trade. Oxford was a place of +traffic and a fortified town. Hastings, Dover, and the other south-coast +ports had some communications with France. The only other places of any +note were Chippenham, Bensington, and Aylesbury; Northampton and +Southampton; Bamborough; the fortified posts built by Eadward and +Æthelflæd; and the Danish boroughs of Bedford, Derby, Leicester, +Stamford, Nottingham, and Huntingdon. The Witena-gemots and the synods +took place in any town, irrespective of size, according to royal +convenience. But as early as the days of Cnut, London was beginning to +be felt as the real centre of national life: and Eadward the Confessor, +by founding Westminster Abbey, made it practically the home of the +kings. The Conqueror "wore his crown on Eastertide at Winchester; on +Pentecost at Westminster; and on<a name="page161" id="page161"></a> Midwinter at Gloucester:" which +probably marks the relative position of the three towns as the chief +places in the old West Saxon realm at least. Under Æthelstan, London had +eight moneyers or mint-masters, while Winchester had only six, and +Canterbury seven.</p> + +<p>As regards the arts and traffic in the towns, they were chiefly carried +on by guilds, which had their origin, as Dr. Brentano has shown with +great probability, in separate families, who combined to keep up their +own trade secrets as a family affair. In time, however, the guilds grew +into regular organisations, having their own code of rules and laws, +many of which (as at Cambridge, Exeter, and Abbotsbury) we still +possess. It is possible that the families of craftsmen may at first have +been Romanised Welsh inhabitants of the cities; for all the older +towns—London, Canterbury, York, Lincoln, and Rochester—were almost +certainly inhabited without interruption from the Roman period onward. +But in any case the guilds seem to have grown out of family compacts, +and to have retained always the character of close corporations. There +must have been considerable division of the various trades even before +the Conquest, and each trade must have inhabited a separate quarter; for +we find at Winchester, or elsewhere, in the reign of Æthelred, +Fellmonger, Horsemonger, Fleshmonger, Shieldwright, Shoewright, Turner, +and Salter Streets.</p> + +<p>The exact amount of the population of England cannot be ascertained, +even approximately; but we may obtain a rough approximation from the +estimates based upon Domesday Book. It seems probable that <a name="page162" id="page162"></a>at the end +of the Conqueror's reign, England contained 1,800,000 souls. Allowing +for the large number of persons introduced at the Conquest, and for the +natural increase during the unusual peace in the reigns of Cnut, of +Eadward the Confessor, and, above all, of William himself, we may guess +that it could not have contained more than a million and a quarter in +the days of Eadgar. London may have had a population of some 10,000; +Winchester and York of 5,000 each; certainly that of York at the date of +Domesday could not have exceeded 7,000 persons, and we know that it +contained 1,800 houses in the time of Eadward the Confessor.</p> + +<p>The organisation of the country continued on the lines of the old +constitution. But the importance of the simple freeman had now quite +died out, and the gemot was rather a meeting of the earls, bishops, +abbots, and wealthy landholders, than a real assembly of the people. The +sub-divisions of the kingdom were now pretty generally conterminous with +the modern counties. In Wessex and the east the counties are either +older kingdoms, like Kent, Sussex, and Essex; or else tribal divisions +of the kingdom, like Dorset, Somerset, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Surrey. In +Mercia, the recovered country is artificially mapped out round the chief +Danish burgs, as in the case of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, +Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, and Leicestershire, where the county +town usually occupies the centre of the arbitrary shire. In Northumbria +it is divided into equally artificial counties by the rivers. Beneath +the counties <a name="page163" id="page163"></a>stood the older organisation of the hundred, and beneath +that again the primitive unit of the township, known on its +ecclesiastical side as the parish. In the reign of Eadgar, England seems +to have contained about 3,000 parish churches. +<a name="page164" id="page164"></a></p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="chapter17" id="chapter17"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<h3>THE DECADENCE.</h3> + + +<p>The death of Dunstan was the signal for the breaking down of the +artificial kingdom which he had held together by the mere power of his +solitary organising capacity. Æthelred, the son of Eadgar (who succeeded +after the brief reign of his brother Eadward), lost hopelessly all hold +over the Scandinavian north. At the same time, the wicking incursions, +intermitted for nearly a century, once more recommenced with the same +vigour as of old. Even before Dunstan's death, in 980, the pirates +ravaged Southampton, killing most of the townsfolk; and they also +pillaged Thanet, while another host overran Cheshire. In the succeeding +year, "great harm was done in Devonshire and in Wales;" and a year later +again, London was burnt and Portland ravaged. In 985, Æthelred, the +Unready, as after ages called him, from his lack of <i>rede</i> or counsel, +quarrelled with Ælfric, ealdormen of the Mercians, whom he drove over +sea. The breach between Mercia and Wessex was thus widened, and as the +Danish attacks continued without interruption the redeless king soon +found himself comparatively isolated in his own paternal dominions. +Northumbria, under its earl, Uhtred (one of the house of<a name="page165" id="page165"></a> Bamborough), +and the Five Burgs under their Danish leaders, acted almost +independently of Wessex throughout the whole of Æthelred's reign. In 991 +Sigeric, archbishop of Canterbury, advised that the Danes should be +bought off by a payment of ten thousand pounds, an enormous sum; but it +was raised somehow and duly paid. In 992, the command of a naval force, +gathered from the merchant craft of the Thames, was entrusted to Ælfric, +who had been recalled; and the Mercian leader went over on the eve of an +engagement at London to the side of the enemy. Bamborough was stormed +and captured with great booty, and the host sailed up Humber mouth. +There they stood in the midst of the old Danish kingdom, and found the +leading men of Northumbria and Lindsey by no means unfriendly to their +invasion. In fact, the Danish north was now far more ready to welcome +the kindred Scandinavian than the West Saxon stranger. Æthelred's realm +practically shrank at once to the narrow limits of Kent and Wessex.</p> + +<p>The Danes, however, were by no means content even with these successes. +Olaf Tryggvesson, king of Norway, and Swegen +Forkbeard,<a name="FNanchor_1_14" id="FNanchor_1_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_14" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> king of +Denmark, fell upon England. The era of mere plundering expeditions and +of scattered colonisation had ceased; the era of political conquest had +now begun. They had determined upon the complete subjugation of all +England. In 994 Olaf and Swegen attacked London with 94 ships, but were +put to <a name="page166" id="page166"></a>flight by a gallant resistance of the townsmen, who did "more +harm and evil than ever they weened that any burghers could do them." +Thence the host sailed away to Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire, +burning and slaying all along the coast as they went. Æthelred and his +witan bought them off again, with the immense tribute of sixteen +thousand pounds. The host accepted the terms, but settled down for the +winter at Southampton—a sufficient indication of their +intentions—within easy reach of Winchester itself; and there "they fed +from all the West Saxons' land." Æthelred was alarmed, and sent to Olaf, +who consented to meet him at Andover. There the king received him "with +great worship," and gifted him with kinglike gifts, and sent him away +with a promise never again to attack England. Olaf kept his word, and +returned no more. But still Swegen remained, and went on pillaging +Devonshire and Cornwall, wending into Tamar mouth as far as Lidford, +where his men "burnt and slew all that they found." Thence they betook +themselves to the Frome, and so up into Dorset, and again to Wight. In +999, on the eve of doomsday as men then thought, they sailed up Thames +and Medway, and attacked Rochester. The men of Kent stoutly fought them, +but, as usual, without assistance from other shires; and the Danes took +horses, and rode over the land, almost ruining all the West Kentings. +The king and his witan resolved to send against them a land fyrd and a +ship fyrd or raw levy. But the spirit of the West Saxons was broken, and +though the craft were gathered together, <a name="page167" id="page167"></a>yet in the end, as the +Chronicle plaintively puts it, "neither ship fyrd nor land fyrd wrought +anything save toil for the folk, and the emboldening of their foes."</p> + +<p>So, year after year, the endless invasion dragged on its course, and +everywhere each shire of Wessex fought for itself against such enemies +as happened to attack it. At last, in the year 1002, Æthelred once more +bought off the fleet, this time with 24,000 pounds; and some of the +Danes obtained leave to settle down in Wessex. But on St. Brice's day, +the king treacherously gave orders that all Danes in the immediate +English territory should be massacred. The West Saxons rose on the +appointed night, and slew every one of them, including Gunhild, the +sister of King Swegen, and a Christian convert. It was a foolhardy +attempt. Swegen fell at once upon Wessex, and marched up and down the +whole country, for two years. He burnt Wilton and Sarum, and then sailed +round to Norwich, where Ulfkytel, of East Anglia, gave him "the hardest +hand-play" that he had ever known in England. A year of famine +intervened; but in 1006 Swegen returned again, harrying and burning +Sandwich. All autumn the West Saxon fyrd waited for the enemy, but in +the end "it came to naught more than it had oft erst done." The host +took up quarters in Wight, marched across Hants and Berks to Reading, +and burned Wallingford. Thence they returned with their booty to the +fleet, by the very walls of the royal city. "There might the Winchester +folk behold an insolent host and fearless wend past their gate to sea." +The king himself had <a name="page168" id="page168"></a>fled into Shropshire. The tone of utter despair +with which the Chronicle narrates all these events is the best measure +of the national degradation. "There was so muckle awe of the host," says +the annalist, "that no man could think how man could drive them from +this earth or hold this earth against them; for that they had cruelly +marked each shire of Wessex with burning and with harrying." The English +had sunk into hopeless misery, and were only waiting for a strong rule +to rescue them from their misery.</p> + +<p>The strong rule came at last. Thorkell, a Danish jarl, marched all +through Wessex, and for three years more his host pillaged everywhere in +the South. In 1011, they killed Ælfheah, the archbishop of Canterbury, +at Greenwich. When the country was wholly weakened, Swegen turned +southward once more, this time with all Northumbria and Mercia at his +back. In 1013 he sailed round to Humber mouth, and thence up the Trent, +to Gainsborough. "Then Earl Uhtred and all Northumbrians soon bowed to +him, and all the folk in Lindsey; and sithence the folk of the Five +Burgs, and shortly after, all the host by north of Watling-street; and +men gave him hostages of each shire." Swegen at once led the united army +into England, leaving his son Cnut in Denalagu with the ships and +hostages. He marched to Oxford, which received him; then to the royal +city of Winchester, which made no resistance. At London Æthelred was +waiting; and for a time the town held out. So Swegen marched westward, +and took Bath. There, the thegns of the Welsh-kin counties—Somerset,<a name="page169" id="page169"></a> +Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall—bowed to him and gave him hostages. "When +he had thus fared, he went north to his ships, and all the folk held him +then as full king." London itself gave way. Æthelred fled to Wight, and +thence to Normandy. He had married Ymma, the daughter of Richard the +Fearless; and he now took refuge with her brother, Richard the Good.</p> + +<p>Next year Swegen died, and the West Saxon witan sent back for Æthelred. +No lord was dearer to them, they said, than their lord by kin. But the +host had already chosen Cnut; and the host had a stronger claim than the +witan. For two years Æthelred carried on a desultory war with the +intruders, and then died, leaving it undecided. His son Eadmund, +nicknamed Ironside, continued the contest for a few months; but in the +autumn of 1016 he died—poisoned, the English said, by Cnut—and Cnut +succeeded to undisputed sway. He at once assumed Wessex as his own +peculiar dominion, and the political history of the English ends for two +centuries. Their social life went on, of course, as ever; but it was the +life of a people in strict subjection to foreign rulers—Danish, Norman, +or Angevin. The story of the next twenty-five years at least belongs to +the chronicles of Scandinavian Britain.</p> + +<p>At the end of that time, however, there was a slight reaction. Cnut and +his sons had bound the kingdom roughly into one; and the death of +Harthacnut left an opportunity for the return of a descendant of Ælfred. +But the English choice fell upon one <a name="page170" id="page170"></a>who was practically a foreigner. +Eadward, son of Æthelred by Ymma of Normandy, had lived in his mother's +country during the greater part of his life. Recalled by Earl Godwine +and the witan, he came back to England a Norman, rather than an +Englishman. The administration remained really in the hands of Godwine +himself, and of the Danish or Danicised aristocracy. But Mercia and +Northumbria still stood apart from Wessex, and once procured the exile +of Godwine himself. The great earl returned, however, and at his death +passed on his power to his son Harold, a Danicised Englishman of great +rough ability, such as suited the hard times on which he was cast. +Harold employed the lifetime of Eadward, who was childless, in preparing +for his own succession. The king died in 1066, and Harold was quietly +chosen at once by the witan. He was the last Englishman who ever sat +upon the throne of England.</p> + +<p>The remaining story belongs chiefly to the annals of Norman Britain. +Harold was assailed at once from either side. On the north, his brother +Tostig, whom he had expelled from Northumbria, led against him his +namesake, Harold Hardrada, king of Norway. On the south, William of +Normandy, Eadward's cousin, claimed the right to present himself to the +English electors. Eadward's death, in fact, had broken up the temporary +status, and left England once more a prey to barbaric Scandinavians from +Denmark, or civilised Scandinavians from Normandy. The English +themselves had no organisation which could withstand either, and no +national unity to promote <a name="page171" id="page171"></a>such organisation in future. Harold of Norway +came first, landing in the old Danish stronghold of Northumbria; and the +English Harold hurried northward to meet him, with his little body of +house-carls, aided by a large fyrd which he had hastily collected to use +against William. At Stamford-bridge he overthrew the invaders with great +slaughter, Harold Hardrada and Tostig being amongst the slain. +Meanwhile, William had crossed to Pevensey, and was ravaging the coast. +Harold hurried southward, and met him at Senlac, near Hastings. After a +hard day's fight, the Normans were successful, and Harold fell. But even +yet the English could not agree among themselves. In this crisis of the +national fate, the local jealousies burnt up as fiercely as ever. While +William was marching upon London, the witan were quarrelling and +intriguing in the city over the succession. "Archbishop Ealdred and the +townsmen of London would have Eadgar Child,"—a grandson of Eadmund +Ironside—"for king, as was his right by kin." But Eadwine and Morkere, +the representatives of the great Mercian family of Leofric, had hopes +that they might turn William's invasion to their own good, and secure +their independence in the north by allowing Wessex to fall unassisted +into his hands. After much shuffling, Eadgar was at last chosen for +king. "But as it ever should have been the forwarder, so was it ever, +from day to day, slower and worse." No resistance was organised. In the +midst of all this turmoil, the Peterborough Chronicler is engaged in +narrating the petty affairs of his <a name="page172" id="page172"></a>own abbey, and the question which +arose through the application made to Eadgar for his consent to the +appointment of an abbot. In such a spirit did the English meet an +invasion from the stoutest and best organised soldiery in Europe. +William marched on without let or hindrance, and on his way, the +Lady—the Confessor's widow—surrendered the royal city of Winchester +into his hands. The duke reached the Thames, burnt Southwark, and then +made a détour to cross the river at Wallingford, whence he proceeded +into Hertfordshire, thus cutting off Eadwine and Morkere in London from +their earldoms. The Mercian and Northumbrian leaders being determined to +hold their own at all hazards, retreated northward; and the English +resistance crumbled into pieces. Eadgar, the rival king, with Ealdred, +the archbishop, and all the chief men of London, came out to meet +William, and "bowed to him for need." The Chronicler can only say that +it was very foolish they had not done so before. A people so helpless, +so utterly anarchic, so incapable of united action, deserved to undergo +a severe training from the hard taskmasters of Romance civilisation. The +nation remained, but it remained as a conquered race, to be drilled in +the stern school of the conquerors. For awhile, it is true, William +governed England like an English king; but the constant rebellion and +faithlessness of his new subjects drove him soon to severer measures; +and the great insurrection of 1068, with its results, put the whole +country at his feet in a very different sense from the battle of Senlac. +For a hundred and <a name="page173" id="page173"></a>fifty years, the English people remained a mere race +of chapmen and serfs; and the English language died down meanwhile into +a servile dialect. When the native stock emerges again into the full +light of history, by the absorption of the Norman conquerors in the +reign of John, it reappears with all the super-added culture and +organisation of the Romance nationalities. The Conquest was an +inevitable step in the work of severing England from the barbarous +North, and binding it once more in bonds of union with the civilised +South. It was the necessary undoing of the Danish conquest; more still, +it was an inevitable step in the process whereby England itself was to +begin its unified existence by the final breaking down of the barriers +which divided Wessex from Mercia, and Mercia from Northumbria. +<a name="page174" id="page174"></a></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_14" id="Footnote_1_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_14">[1]</a> See +Mr. York-Powell's "Scandinavian Britain."</p> +</div> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="chapter18" id="chapter18"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h3>THE ANGLO-SAXON LANGUAGE.</h3> + + +<p>A description of Anglo-Saxon Britain, however brief, would not be +complete without some account of the English language in its earliest +and purest form. But it would be impossible within reasonable limits to +give anything more than a short general statement of the relation which +the old English tongue bears to the kindred Teutonic dialects, and of +the main differences which mark it off from our modern simplified and +modified speech. All that can be attempted here is such a broad outline +as may enable the general reader to grasp the true connexion between +modern English and so-called Anglo-Saxon, on the one hand, as well as +between Anglo-Saxon itself and the parent Teutonic language on the +other. Any full investigation of grammatical or etymological details +would be beyond the scope of this little volume.</p> + +<p>The tongue spoken by the English and Saxons at the period of their +invasion of Britain was an almost unmixed Low Dutch dialect. Originally +derived, of course, from the primitive Aryan language, it had already +undergone those changes which are summed up in what is known as Grimm's +Law. The principal <a name="page175" id="page175"></a>consonants in the old Aryan tongue had been +regularly and slightly altered in certain directions; and these +alterations have been carried still further in the allied High German +language. Thus the original word for <i>father</i>, which closely resembled +the Latin <i>pater</i>, becomes in early English or Anglo-Saxon <i>fæder</i>, and +in modern High German <i>vater</i>. So, again, among the numerals, our <i>two</i>, +in early English <i>twa</i>, answers to Latin <i>duo</i> and modern High German +<i>zwei</i>; while our <i>three</i>, in old English <i>threo</i>, answers to Latin +<i>tres</i>, and modern High German <i>drei</i>. So far as these permutations are +concerned, Sanscrit, Greek, and Latin may be regarded as most nearly +resembling the primitive Aryan speech, and with them the Celtic dialects +mainly agree. From these, the English varies one degree, the High German +two. The following table represents the nature of such changes +approximately for these three groups of languages:—</p> + +<table cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr> +<td class="bb bt bl br">Greek, Sanscrit, Latin, Celtic</td> +<td class="bl bt bb">p.</td> +<td class="bt bb">b.</td> +<td class="bb bt br">f.</td> +<td class="bl bt bb">t.</td> +<td class="bt bb">d.</td> +<td class="bt bb br">th.</td> +<td class="bl bt bb">k.</td> +<td class="bt bb">g.</td> +<td class="bt bb br">ch.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="bb bl br">Gothic, English, Low Dutch</td> +<td class="bl bb">f.</td> +<td class="bb">p.</td> +<td class="bb br">b.</td> +<td class="bl bb">th.</td> +<td class="bb">t.</td> +<td class="bb br">d.</td> +<td class="bl bb">ch.</td> +<td class="bb">k.</td> +<td class="bb br">g.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="bl bb br">High German</td> +<td class="bb bl">b.</td> +<td class="bb">f.</td> +<td class="bb br">p.</td> +<td class="bb bl">d.</td> +<td class="bb">th.</td> +<td class="bb br">t.</td> +<td class="bb bl">g.</td> +<td class="bb">ch.</td> +<td class="bb br">k.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>In practice, several modifications arise; for example, the law is only +true for old High German, and that only approximately, but its general +truth may be accepted as governing most individual cases.</p> + +<p>Judged by this standard, English forms a dialect of the Low Dutch branch +of the Aryan language, <a name="page176" id="page176"></a>together with Frisian, modern Dutch, and the +Scandinavian tongues. Within the group thus restricted its affinities +are closest with Frisian and old Dutch, less close with Icelandic and +Danish. While the English still lived on the shores of the Baltic, it is +probable that their language was perfectly intelligible to the ancestors +of the people who now inhabit Holland, and who then spoke very slightly +different local dialects. In other words, a single Low Dutch speech then +apparently prevailed from the mouth of the Elbe to that of the Scheldt, +with small local variations; and from this speech the Anglo-Saxon and +the modern English have developed in one direction, while the Dutch has +developed in another, the Frisian dialect long remaining intermediate +between them. Scandinavian ceased, perhaps, to be intelligible to +Englishmen at an earlier date, the old Icelandic being already marked +off from Anglo-Saxon by strong peculiarities, while modern Danish +differs even more widely from the spoken English of the present day.</p> + +<p>The relation of Anglo-Saxon to modern English is that of direct +parentage, it might almost be said of absolute identity. The language of +<i>Beowulf</i> and of Ælfred is not, as many people still imagine, a +different language from our own; it is simply English in its earliest +and most unmixed form. What we commonly call Anglo-Saxon, indeed, is +more English than what we commonly call English at the present day. The +first is truly English, not only in its structure and grammar, but also +in the whole of its <a name="page177" id="page177"></a>vocabulary: the second, though also truly English +in its structure and grammar, contains a large number of Latin, Greek, +and Romance elements in its vocabulary. Nevertheless, no break separates +us from the original Low Dutch tongue spoken in the marsh lands of +Sleswick. The English of <i>Beowulf</i> grows slowly into the English of +Ælfred, into the English of Chaucer, into the English of Shakespeare and +Milton, and into the English of Macaulay and Tennyson.</p> + +<p>Old words drop out from time to time, old grammatical forms die away or +become obliterated, new names and verbs are borrowed, first from the +Norman-French at the Conquest, then from the classical Greek and Latin +at the Renaissance; but the continuity of the language remains unbroken, +and its substance is still essentially the same as at the beginning. The +Cornish, the Irish, and to some extent the Welsh, have left off speaking +their native tongues, and adopted the language of the dominant Teuton; +but there never was a time when Englishmen left off speaking Anglo-Saxon +and took to English, Norman-French, or any other form of speech +whatsoever.</p> + +<p>An illustration may serve to render clearer this fundamental and +important distinction. If at the present day a body of Englishmen were +to settle in China, they might learn and use the Chinese names for many +native plants, animals, and manufactured articles; but however many of +such words they adopted into their vocabulary, their language would +still remain essentially English. A visitor from<a name="page178" id="page178"></a> England would have to +learn a number of unfamiliar words, but he would not have to learn a new +language. If, on the other hand, a body of Frenchmen were to settle in a +neighbouring Chinese province, and to adopt exactly the same Chinese +words, their language would still remain essentially French. The +dialects of the two settlements would contain many words in common, but +neither of them would be a Chinese dialect on that account. Just so, +English since the Norman Conquest has grafted many foreign words upon +the native stock; but it still remains at bottom the same language as in +the days of Eadgar.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, Anglo-Saxon differs so far in externals from modern +English, that it is now necessary to learn it systematically with +grammar and dictionary, in somewhat the same manner as one would learn a +foreign tongue. Most of the words, indeed, are more or less familiar, at +least so far as their roots are concerned; but the inflexions of the +nouns and verbs are far more complicated than those now in use: and many +obsolete forms occur even in the vocabulary. On the other hand the +idioms closely resemble those still in use; and even where a root has +now dropped out of use, its meaning is often immediately suggested by +the cognate High German word, or by some archaic form preserved for us +in Chaucer, Shakespeare, or Milton, as well as by occasional survival in +the Lowland Scotch and other local dialects.</p> + +<p>English in its early form was an inflexional language; that is to say, +the mutual relations of nouns <a name="page179" id="page179"></a>and of verbs were chiefly expressed, not +by means of particles, such as <i>of</i>, <i>to</i>, <i>by</i>, and so forth, but by +means of modifications either in the termination or in the body of the +root itself. The nouns were declined much as in Greek and Latin; the +verbs were conjugated in somewhat the same way as in modern French. +Every noun had gender expressed in its form.</p> + +<p>The following examples will give a sufficient idea of the commoner forms +of declension in the classical West Saxon of the time of Ælfred. The +pronunciation has already been briefly explained in the preface.</p> + +<table summary=""> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td align="center"><span class="smcap">Sing.</span></td> +<td> </td> +<td align="center"><span class="smcap">Plur.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>(1.) <i>Nom.</i></td><td>stan (<i>a stone</i>).</td> +<td><i>Nom.</i></td><td>stanas.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Gen.</i></td><td>stanes.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Gen.</i></td><td>stana.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Dat.</i></td><td>stane.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Dat.</i></td><td>stanum.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Acc.</i></td><td>stan.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Acc.</i></td><td>stanas.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>This is the commonest declension for masculine nouns, and it has fixed +the normal plural for the modern English.</p> + +<table summary=""> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td align="center"><span class="smcap">Sing.</span></td> +<td> </td> +<td align="center"><span class="smcap">Plur.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>(2.) <i>Nom.</i></td><td>fot (<i>a foot</i>).</td> +<td align="right"><i>Nom.</i></td><td>fet.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Gen.</i></td><td>fotes.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Gen.</i></td><td>fota.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Dat.</i></td><td>fet.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Dat.</i></td><td>fotum.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Acc.</i></td><td>fot.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Acc.</i></td><td>fet.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>Hence our modified plurals, such as <i>feet</i>, <i>teeth</i>, and <i>men</i>.</p> + +<table summary=""> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td align="center"><span class="smcap">Sing.</span></td> +<td> </td> +<td align="center"><span class="smcap">Plur.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>(3.) <i>Nom.</i></td><td>wudu (<i>a wood</i>).</td> +<td><i>Nom.</i></td><td>wuda.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Gen.</i></td><td>wuda.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Gen.</i></td><td>wuda.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Dat.</i></td><td>wuda.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Dat.</i></td><td>wudum.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Acc.</i></td><td>wudu.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Acc.</i></td><td>wuda.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>All these are for masculine nouns. +<a name="page180" id="page180"></a></p> + +<p>The commonest feminine declension is as follows:—</p> + +<table summary=""> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td><span class="smcap">Sing.</span></td> +<td> </td> +<td><span class="smcap">Plur.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>(4.) <i>Nom.</i></td><td>gifu (<i>a gift</i>).</td> +<td><i>Nom.</i></td><td>gifa.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Gen.</i></td><td>gife.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Gen.</i></td><td>gifena.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Dat.</i></td><td>gife.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Dat.</i></td><td>gifum.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Acc.</i></td><td>gife.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Acc.</i></td><td>gifa.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>Less frequent is the modified form:</p> + +<table summary=""> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td align="center"><span class="smcap">Sing.</span></td> +<td> </td> +<td align="center"><span class="smcap">Plur.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>(5.) <i>Nom.</i></td><td>boc (<i>a book</i>).</td> +<td><i>Nom.</i></td><td>bec.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Gen.</i></td><td>bec.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Gen.</i></td><td>boca.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Dat.</i></td><td>bec.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Dat.</i></td><td>bocum.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Acc.</i></td><td>boc.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Acc.</i></td><td>bec.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>Of neuters there are two principal declensions. The first has the plural +in <i>u</i>; the second leaves it unchanged.</p> + +<table summary=""> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td align="center"><span class="smcap">Sing.</span></td> +<td> </td> +<td align="center"><span class="smcap">Plur.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>(6.) <i>Nom.</i></td><td>scip (<i>a ship</i>).</td> +<td><i>Nom.</i></td><td>scipu.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Gen.</i></td><td>scipes.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Gen.</i></td><td>scipa.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Dat.</i></td><td>scipe.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Dat.</i></td><td>scipum.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Acc.</i></td><td>scip.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Acc.</i></td><td>scipu.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p> </p> + +<table summary=""> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td align="center"><span class="smcap">Sing.</span></td> +<td> </td> +<td align="center"><span class="smcap">Plur.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>(7.) <i>Nom.</i></td><td>hus (<i>a house</i>).</td> +<td><i>Nom.</i></td><td>hus.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Gen.</i></td><td>huses.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Gen.</i></td><td>husa.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Dat.</i></td><td>huse.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Dat.</i></td><td>husum.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Acc.</i></td><td>hus.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Acc.</i></td><td>hus.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>Hence our "collective" plurals, such as <i>fish</i>, <i>deer</i>, <i>sheep</i>, and +<i>trout</i>.</p> + +<p>There is also a weak declension, much the same for all three genders, of +which the masculine form runs as follows:— +<a name="page181" id="page181"></a></p> + + +<table summary=""> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td align="center"><span class="smcap">Sing.</span></td> +<td> </td> +<td align="center"><span class="smcap">Plur.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><i>Nom.</i></td><td>guma (<i>a man</i>).</td> +<td><i>Nom.</i></td><td>guman.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Gen.</i></td><td>guman.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Gen.</i></td><td>gumena.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Dat.</i></td><td>guman.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Dat.</i></td><td>guman.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Acc.</i></td><td>guman.</td> +<td align="right"><i>Acc.</i></td><td>guman.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>Adjectives are declined throughout, as in Latin, through all the cases +(including an instrumental), numbers, and genders. The demonstrative +pronoun or definite article <i>se</i> (the) may stand as an example.</p> + +<table cellspacing="5" summary=""> +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="4"><span class="smcap">Sing.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td align="center">Masc.</td> +<td align="center">Fem.</td> +<td align="center">Neut.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><i>Nom.</i></td><td>se,</td><td>seo,</td><td>thæt.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Gen.</i></td><td>thæs,</td><td>thære,</td><td>thæs.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Dat.</i></td><td>tham,</td><td>thære,</td><td>tham.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="center"><i>Acc.</i></td><td>thone,</td><td>tha,</td><td>thæt.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="center"><i>Inst.</i></td><td>thy,</td><td>thære,</td><td>thy.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="center" colspan="4"><span class="smcap">Plur.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td align="center" colspan="3">Masc. Fem. Neut.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><i>Nom.</i></td><td align="center" colspan="3">tha.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Gen.</i></td><td align="center" colspan="3">thara.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Dat.</i></td><td align="center" colspan="3">tham.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Acc.</i></td><td align="center" colspan="3">tha.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Inst.</i></td><td align="center" colspan="3">—</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>Verbs are conjugated about as fully as in Latin. There are two principal +forms: strong verbs, which form their preterite by vowel modification, +as <i>binde</i>, pret. <i>band</i>; and weak verbs, which form it by the addition +of <i>ode</i> or <i>de</i> to the root, as <i>lufige</i>, pret. <i>lufode</i>; <i>hire</i>, pret. +<i>hirde</i>. The present and preterite of the first form are as follows:—</p> + + +<table cellspacing="5" summary=""> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +<td align="center"><span class="smcap">Ind.</span></td> +<td><span class="smcap">Subj.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Pres. sing.</i></td><td>1.</td><td>binde.</td><td>binde.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td>2.</td><td>bindest.</td><td>binde.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td><td>3.</td><td>bindeth.</td><td>binde.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><a name="page182" id="page182"></a><i>plur.</i></td> +<td>1, 2, 3.</td><td>bindath.</td><td>binden.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>Pret. sing.</i></td><td>1.</td><td>band.</td><td>bunde.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td><td>2.</td><td>bunde.</td><td>bunde.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td><td>3.</td><td>band.</td><td>bunde.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="right"><i>plur.</i></td><td>1, 2, 3.</td><td>bundon</td><td>bunden.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>Both the grammatical forms and still more the orthography vary much from +time to time, from place to place, and even from writer to writer. The +forms used in this work are for the most part those employed by West +Saxons in the age of Ælfred.</p> + +<p>A few examples of the language as written at three periods will enable +the reader to form some idea of its relation to the existing type. The +first passage cited is from King Ælfred's translation of Orosius; but it +consists of the opening lines of a paragraph inserted by the king +himself from his own materials, and so affords an excellent illustration +of his style in original English prose. The reader is recommended to +compare it word for word with the parallel slightly modernised version, +bearing in mind the inflexional terminations.</p> + +<table style="width: 50%;" cellspacing="5" summary=""> +<tr> +<td style="width: 50%;" class="br"> +Ohthere sæde his hlaforde, +Ælfrede cyninge, thæt he +ealra Northmonna northmest +bude. He cwæth thæt he +bude on thæm lande northweardum +with tha West-sæ. +He sæde theah thæt thæt land +sie swithe lang north thonan; +ac hit is eall weste, buton on +feawum stowum styccemælum +wiciath Finnas, on huntothe +<a name="page183" id="page183"></a>on wintra, and on sumera on +fiscathe be thære sæ. He +sæde thæt he æt sumum cirre +wolde fandian hu longe thæt +land northryhte læge, oththe +hwæther ænig monn be northan +thæm westenne bude. Tha +for he northryhte be thæm +lande: let him ealne weg +thæt weste land on thæt steorbord, +and tha wid-sæ on thæt +bæcbord thrie dagas. Tha +wæs he swa feor north swa tha +hwæl-huntan firrest farath.<br /> +<br /> +</td> +<td> +Othhere said [to] his lord, +Ælfred king, that he of all +Northmen northmost abode. +He quoth that he abode +on the land northward against +the West Sea. He said, +though, that that land was +[or extended] much north +thence; eke it is all waste, +but [except that] on few stows +[in a few places] piecemeal +dwelleth Finns, on hunting on +winter, and on summer on +fishing by the sea. He said +that he at some time [on one +occasion] would seek how long +that land lay northright [due +north], or whether any man by +north of the waste abode. +Then fore [fared] he northright, +by the land: left all the +way that waste land on the +starboard of him, and the wide +sea on the backboard [port, +French <i>babord</i>] three days. +Then was he so far north as +the whale-hunters furthest +fareth. +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>In this passage it is easy to see that the variations which make it into +modern English are for the most part of a very simple kind. Some of the +words are absolutely identical, as <i>his</i>, <i>on</i>, <i>he</i>, <i>and</i>, <i>land</i>, or +<i>north</i>. Others, though differences of spelling mask the likeness, are +practically the same, as <i>sæ</i>, <i>sæde</i>, <i>cwæth</i>, <i>thæt</i>, <i>lang</i>, for +which we now write <i>sea</i>, <i>said</i>, <i>quoth</i>, <i>that</i>, <i>long</i>. A few have +undergone contraction or alteration, as <i>hlaford</i>, now <i>lord</i>, <i>cyning</i>, +now <i>king</i>, and <i>steorbord</i>, now <i>starboard</i>. <i>Stow</i>, a place, is now +obsolete, except in local names; <i>styccemælum</i>, stickmeal, has been +Normanised into <i>piecemeal</i>. In other cases new terminations have been +substituted for old ones; <i>huntath</i> and <i>fiscath</i> are now replaced by +<i>hunting</i> and <i>fishing</i>; while <i>hunta</i> has been superseded by <i>hunter</i>. +Only six words in the passage have <a name="page184" id="page184"></a>died out wholly: <i>buan</i>, to abide +(<i>bude</i>); <i>swithe</i>, very; <i>wician</i>, to dwell; <i>cirr</i>, an occasion; +<i>fandian</i>, to enquire (connected with <i>find</i>); and <i>bæcbord</i>, port, +which still survives in French from Norman sources. <i>Dæg</i>, day, and +<i>ænig</i>, any, show how existing English has softened the final <i>g</i> into a +<i>y</i>. But the main difference which separates the modern passage from its +ancient prototype is the consistent dropping of the grammatical +inflexions in <i>hlaforde</i>, <i>Ælfrede</i>, <i>ealra</i>, <i>feawum</i>, and <i>fandian</i>, +where we now say, <i>to his lord</i>, <i>of all</i>, <i>in few</i>, and <i>to enquire</i>.</p> + +<p>The next passage, from the old English epic of <i>Beowulf</i>, shows the +language in another aspect. Here, as in all poetry, archaic forms +abound, and the syntax is intentionally involved. It is written in the +old alliterative rhythm, described in <a href="#chapter20">the next chapter</a>:—</p> + +<table summary=""> +<tr> +<td>Beowulf mathelode</td><td> </td><td>bearn Ecgtheowes;</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Hwæt! we the thas sæ-lac</td><td> </td><td>sunu Healfdenes</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Leod Scyldinga</td><td> </td><td>lustum brohton,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Tires to tacne,</td><td> </td><td>the thu her to-locast.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Ic thæt un-softe</td><td> </td><td>ealdre gedigde</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Wigge under wætere,</td><td> </td><td>weore genethde</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Earfothlice;</td><td> </td><td>æt rihte wæs</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Guth getwæfed</td><td> </td><td>nymthe mec god scylde.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="3"> +<hr style="width: 10%;" /> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Beowulf spake,</td><td> </td><td>the son of Ecgtheow:</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>See! We to thee this sea-gift,</td><td> </td><td>son of Healfdene,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Prince of the Scyldings,</td><td> </td><td>joyfully have brought,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>For a token of glory,</td><td> </td><td>that thou here lookest on.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>That I unsoftly,</td><td> </td><td>gloriously accomplished,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>In war under water:</td><td> </td><td>the work I dared,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>With much labour:</td><td> </td><td>rightly was</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>The battle divided,</td><td> </td><td>but that a god shielded me.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p><a name="page185" id="page185"></a> +Or, to translate more prosaically:—</p> + +<p>"Beowulf, the son of Ecgtheow, addressed the meeting. See, son of +Healfdene, Prince of the Scyldings; we have joyfully brought thee this +gift from the sea which thou beholdest, for a proof of our valour. I +obtained it with difficulty, gloriously, fighting beneath the waves: I +dared the task with great toil. Evenly was the battle decreed, but that +a god afforded me his protection."</p> + +<p>In this short passage, many of the words are now obsolete: for example, +<i>mathelian</i>, to address an assembly (<i>concionari</i>); <i>lac</i>, a gift; +<i>wig</i>, war; <i>guth</i>, battle; and <i>leod</i>, a prince. <i>Ge-digde</i>, +<i>ge-nethde</i>, and <i>ge-twæfed</i> have the now obsolete particle <i>ge</i>-, which +bears much the same sense as in High German. On the other hand, <i>bearn</i>, +a bairn; <i>sunu</i>, a son; <i>sæ</i>, sea; <i>tacen</i>, a token; <i>wæter</i>, water; and +<i>weorc</i>, work, still survive: as do the verbs <i>to bring</i>, <i>to look</i>, and +<i>to shield</i>. <i>Lust</i>, pleasure, whence <i>lustum</i>, joyfully, has now +restricted its meaning in modern English, but retains its original sense +in High German.</p> + +<p>A few lines from the "Chronicle" under the year 1137, during the reign +of Stephen, will give an example of Anglo-Saxon in its later and corrupt +form, caught in the act of passing into Chaucerian English:—</p> + +<table style="width: 50%;" cellpadding="5" summary=""> +<tr> +<td class="br" style="width: 50%;"> +This gære for the King +Stephan ofer sæ to Normandi; +and ther wes under +fangen, forthi thæt hi wenden +thæt he sculde ben alsuic alse +<a name="page186" id="page186"></a>the eom wæs, and for he +hadde get his tresor; ac he +todeld it and scatered sotlice. +Micel hadde Henri king +gadered gold and sylver, and +na god ne dide men for his +saule tharof. Tha the King +Stephan to Englaland com, +tha macod he his gadering +æt Oxeneford, and thar he +nam the biscop Roger of +Sereberi, and Alexander +biscop of Lincoln, and the +Canceler Roger, hise neves, +and dide ælle in prisun, til +hi iafen up hire castles.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</td> +<td> +This year fared the King +Stephen over sea to Normandy; +and there he was +accepted [received as duke] +because that they weened +that he should be just as his +uncle was, and because he +had got his treasure: but he +to-dealt [distributed] and +scattered it sot-like [foolishly]. +Muckle had King +Henry gathered of gold and +silver; and man did no good +for his soul thereof. When +that King Stephan was come +to England, then maked he +his gathering at Oxford, and +there he took the bishop +Roger of Salisbury, and Alexander, +bishop of Lincoln, and +the Chancellor Roger, his +nephew, and did them all in +prison [put them in prison] +till they gave up their castles. +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>The following passage from Ælfric's Life of King Oswold, in the best +period of early English prose, may perhaps be intelligible to modern +readers by the aid of a few explanatory notes only. <i>Mid</i> means <i>with</i>; +while <i>with</i> itself still bears only the meaning of <i>against</i>:—</p> + +<p>"Æfter tham the Augustinus to Englalande becom, wæs sum æthele cyning, +Oswold ge-haten [<i>hight</i> or <i>called</i>], on North-hymbra-lande, ge-lyfed +swithe on God. Se ferde [went] on his iugothe [youth] fram his freondum +and magum [relations] to Scotlande on sæ, and thær sona wearth ge-fullod +[baptised], and his ge-feran [companions] samod the mid him sithedon +[journeyed]. Betwux tham wearth of-slagen [off-slain]<a name="page187" id="page187"></a> Eadwine his eam +[uncle], North-hymbra cyning, on Crist ge-lyfed, fram Brytta cyninge, +Ceadwalla ge-ciged [called, named], and twegen his æfter-gengan binnan +twam gearum [years]; and se Ceadwalla sloh and to sceame tucode tha +North-hymbran leode [people] æfter heora hlafordes fylle, oth thæt +[until] Oswold se eadiga his yfelnysse adwæscte [extinguished]. Oswold +him com to, and him cenlice [boldly] with feaht mid lytlum werode +[troop], ac his geleafa [belief] hine ge-trymde [encouraged], and Crist +him ge-fylste [helped] to his feonda [fiends, enemies] slege."</p> + +<p>It will be noticed in every case that the syntactical arrangement of the +words in the sentences follows as a whole the rule that the governed +word precedes the governing, as in Latin or High German, not <i>vice +versa</i>, as in modern English.</p> + +<p>A brief list will show the principal modifications undergone by nouns in +the process of modernisation. <i>Stan</i>, stone; <i>snaw</i>, snow; <i>ban</i>, bone. +<i>Cræft</i>, craft; <i>stæf</i>, staff; <i>bæc</i>, back. <i>Weg</i>, way; <i>dæg</i>, day; +<i>nægel</i>, nail; <i>fugol</i>, fowl. <i>Gear</i>, year; <i>geong</i>, young. <i>Finger</i>, +finger; <i>winter</i>, winter; <i>ford</i>, ford. <i>Æfen</i>, even; <i>morgen</i>, morn. +<i>Monath</i>, month; <i>heofon</i>, heaven; <i>heafod</i>, head. <i>Fot</i>, foot; <i>toth</i>, +tooth; <i>boc</i>, book; <i>freond</i>, friend. <i>Modor</i>, mother; <i>fæder</i>, father; +<i>dohtor</i>, daughter. <i>Sunu</i>, son; <i>wudu</i>, wood; <i>caru</i>, care; <i>denu</i>, +dene (valley). <i>Scip</i>, ship; <i>cild</i>, child; <i>ceorl</i>, churl; <i>cynn</i>, kin; +<i>ceald</i>, cold. Wherever a word has not become wholly obsolete, or +assumed a new termination, (<i>e.g.</i>, <i>gifu</i>, gift; <i>morgen</i>, morn-ing), +it usually follows one or other of these analogies. +<a name="page188" id="page188"></a></p> + +<p>The changes which the English language, as a whole, has undergone in +passing from its earlier to its later form, may best be considered under +the two heads of form and matter.</p> + +<p>As regards form or structure, the language has been simplified in three +separate ways. First, the nouns and adjectives have for the most part +lost their inflexions, at least so far as the cases are concerned. +Secondly, the nouns have also lost their gender. And thirdly, the verbs +have been simplified in conjugation, weak preterites being often +substituted for strong ones, and differential terminations largely lost. +On the other hand, the plural of nouns is still distinguished from the +singular by its termination in <i>s</i>, which is derived from the first +declension of Anglo-Saxon nouns, not as is often asserted, from the +Norman-French usage. In other words, all plurals have been assimilated +to this the commonest model; just as in French they have been +assimilated to the final <i>s</i> of the third declension in Latin. A few +plurals of the other types still survive, such as <i>men</i>, <i>geese</i>, +<i>mice</i>, <i>sheep</i>, <i>deer</i>, <i>oxen</i>, <i>children</i> and (dialectically) +<i>peasen</i>. To make up for this loss of inflexions, the language now +employs a larger number of particles, and to some extent, of +auxiliaries. Instead of <i>wines</i>, we now say <i>of a friend</i>; instead of +<i>wine</i>, we now say <i>to a friend</i>; and instead of <i>winum</i>, we now say <i>to +friends</i>. English, in short, has almost ceased to be inflexional and has +become analytic.</p> + +<p>As regards matter or vocabulary, the language has lost in certain +directions, and gained in others. It <a name="page189" id="page189"></a>has lost many old Teutonic roots, +such as <i>wig</i>, war; <i>rice</i>, kingdom; <i>tungol</i>, light; with their +derivatives, <i>wigend</i>, warrior; <i>rixian</i>, to rule; <i>tungol-witega</i>, +astrologer; and so forth. The relative number of such losses to the +survivals may be roughly gauged from the passages quoted above. On the +other hand, the language has gained by the incorporation of many Romance +words, shortly after the Norman Conquest, such as <i>place</i>, <i>voice</i>, +<i>judge</i>, <i>war</i>, and <i>royal</i>. Some of these have entirely superseded +native old English words. Thus the Norman-French <i>uncle</i>, <i>aunt</i>, +<i>cousin</i>, <i>nephew</i>, and <i>niece</i>, have wholly ousted their Anglo-Saxon +equivalents. In other instances the Romance words have enriched the +language with symbols for really new ideas. This is still more +strikingly the case with the direct importations from the classical +Greek and Latin which began at the period of the Renaissance. Such words +usually refer either to abstract conceptions for which the English +language had no suitable expression, or to the accurate terminology of +the advanced sciences. In every-day conversation our vocabulary is +almost entirely English; in speaking or writing upon philosophical or +scientific subjects it is largely intermixed with Romance and +Græco-Latin elements. On the whole, though it is to be regretted that +many strong, vigorous or poetical old Teutonic roots should have been +allowed to fall into disuse, it may safely be asserted that our gains +have far more than outbalanced our losses in this respect.</p> + +<p>It must never be forgotten, however, that the whole <a name="page190" id="page190"></a>framework of our +language still remains, in every case, purely English—that is to say, +Anglo-Saxon or Low Dutch—however many foreign elements may happen to +enter into its vocabulary. We can frame many sentences without using one +word of Romance or classical origin: we cannot frame a single sentence +without using words of English origin. The Authorised Version of the +Bible, "The Pilgrim's Progress," and such poems as Tennyson's "Dora," +consist almost entirely of Teutonic elements. Even when the vocabulary +is largely classical, as in Johnson's "Rasselas" and some parts of +"Paradise Lost," the grammatical structure, the prepositions, the +pronouns, the auxiliary verbs, and the connecting particles, are all +necessarily and purely English. Two examples will suffice to make this +principle perfectly clear. In the first, which is the most familiar +quotation from Shakespeare, all the words of foreign origin have been +printed in italics:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>To be, or not to be,—that is the <i>question</i>:<br /></span> +<span>Whether 'tis <i>nobler</i> in the mind to <i>suffer</i><br /></span> +<span>The slings and arrows of <i>outrageous fortune</i>;<br /></span> +<span>Or to take <i>arms</i> against a sea of <i>troubles</i>,<br /></span> +<span>And, by <i>opposing</i>, end them? To die,—to sleep,—<br /></span> +<span>No more; and, by a sleep, to say we end<br /></span> +<span>The heart-ache, and the thousand <i>natural</i> shocks<br /></span> +<span>That flesh is <i>heir</i> to,—'tis a <i>consummation</i><br /></span> +<span><i>Devoutly</i> to be wished. To die,—to sleep;—<br /></span> +<span>To sleep! <i>perchance</i> to dream: ay, there's the rub<br /></span> +<span>For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,<br /></span> +<span>When we have shuffled off this <i>mortal</i> coil,<br /></span> +<span>Must give us <i>pause</i>: there's the <i>respect</i><a name="page191" id="page191"></a><br /></span> +<span>That makes <i>calamity</i> of so long life;<br /></span> +<span>For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,<br /></span> +<span>The <i>oppressor's</i> wrong, the proud man's <i>contumely</i>,<br /></span> +<span>The <i>pangs</i> of <i>despised</i> love, the law's <i>delay</i>,<br /></span> +<span>The <i>insolence</i> of <i>office</i>, and the <i>spurns</i><br /></span> +<span>That <i>patient merit</i> of the unworthy takes,<br /></span> +<span>When he himself might his <i>quietus</i> make<br /></span> +<span>With a bare bodkin?<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Here, out of 167 words, we find only 28 of foreign origin; and even +these are Englished in their terminations or adjuncts. <i>Noble</i> is +Norman-French; but the comparative <i>nobler</i> stamps it with the Teutonic +mark. <i>Oppose</i> is Latin; but the participle <i>opposing</i> is true English. +<i>Devout</i> is naturalised by the native adverbial termination, <i>devoutly</i>. +<i>Oppressor's</i> and <i>despised</i> take English inflexions. The formative +elements, <i>or</i>, <i>not</i>, <i>that</i>, <i>the</i>, <i>in</i>, <i>and</i>, <i>by</i>, <i>we</i>, and the +rest, are all English. The only complete sentence which we could frame +of wholly Latin words would be an imperative standing alone, as, +"Observe," and even this would be English in form.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, we may take the following passage from Mr. Herbert +Spencer as a specimen of the largely Latinised vocabulary needed for +expressing the exact ideas of science or philosophy. Here also borrowed +words are printed in italics:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"The <i>constitution</i> which we <i>assign</i> to this <i>etherial medium</i>, +however, like the <i>constitution</i> we <i>assign</i> to <i>solid substance</i>, is +<i>necessarily</i> an <i>abstract</i> of the <i>impressions received</i> from +<i>tangible</i> bodies. The <i>opposition</i> to <i>pressure</i> which a <i>tangible</i> +body <i>offers</i> to u<a name="page192" id="page192"></a>s is not shown in one <i>direction</i> only, but in all +<i>directions</i>; and so likewise is its <i>tenacity</i>. <i>Suppose countless +lines radiating</i> from its <i>centre</i> on every side, and it <i>resists</i> along +each of these <i>lines</i> and <i>coheres</i> along each of these <i>lines</i>. Hence +the <i>constitution</i> of those <i>ultimate units</i> through the +<i>instrumentality</i> of which <i>phenomena</i> are <i>interpreted</i>. Be they +<i>atoms</i> of <i>ponderable matter</i> or <i>molecules</i> of <i>ether</i>, the +<i>properties</i> we <i>conceive</i> them to <i>possess</i> are nothing else than these +<i>perceptible properties idealised</i>."</p> +</div> + +<p>In this case, out of 122 words we find no less than 46 are of foreign +origin. Though this large proportion sufficiently shows the amount of +our indebtedness to the classical languages for our abstract or +specialised scientific terms, the absolutely indisputable nature of the +English substratum remains clearly evident. The tongue which we use +to-day is enriched by valuable loan words from many separate sources; +but it is still as it has always been, English and nothing else. It is +the self-same speech with the tongue of the Sleswick pirates and the +West Saxon over-lords. +<a name="page193" id="page193"></a></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="chapter19" id="chapter19"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<h3>ANGLO-SAXON NOMENCLATURE.</h3> + + +<p>Perhaps nothing tends more to repel the modern English student from the +early history of his country than the very unfamiliar appearance of the +personal names which he meets before the Norman Conquest. There can be +no doubt that such a shrinking from the first stages of our national +annals does really exist; and it seems to be largely due to this very +superficial and somewhat unphilosophical cause. Before the Norman +invasion, the modern Englishman finds himself apparently among complete +foreigners, in the Æthelwulfs, the Eadgyths, the Oswius, and the +Seaxburhs of the Chronicle; while he hails the Norman invaders, the +Johns, Henrys, Williams, and Roberts, of the period immediately +succeeding the conquest, as familiar English friends. The contrast can +scarcely be better given than in the story told about Æthelred's Norman +wife. Her name was Ymma, or Emma; but the English of that time murmured +against such an outlandish sound, and so the Lady received a new English +name as Ælfgifu. At the present day our nomenclature has changed so +utterly that Emma sounds like ordinary English, while Ælfgifu sounds +like a wholly foreign word. The incidental light thrown upon our history +by the careful <a name="page194" id="page194"></a>study of personal names is indeed so valuable that a few +remarks upon the subject seem necessary in order to complete our hasty +survey of Anglo-Saxon Britain.</p> + +<p>During the very earliest period when we catch a glimpse of the English +people on the Continent or in eastern Britain, a double system of naming +seems to have prevailed, not wholly unlike our modern plan of Christian +and surname. The clan name was appended to the personal one. A man was +apparently described as Wulf the Holting, or as Creoda the Æscing. The +clan names were in many cases common to the English and the Continental +Teutons. Thus we find Helsings in the English Helsington and the Swedish +Helsingland; Harlings in the English Harlingham and the Frisian +Harlingen; and Bleccings in the English Bletchingley and the +Scandinavian Bleckingen. Our Thyrings at Thorrington answer, perhaps, to +the Thuringians; our Myrgings at Merrington to the Frankish Merwings or +Merovingians; our Wærings at Warrington to the Norse Væringjar or +Varangians. At any rate, the clan organization was one common to both +great branches of the Teutonic stock, and it has left its mark deeply +upon our modern nomenclature, both in England and in Germany. Mr. Kemble +has enumerated nearly 200 clan names found in early English charters and +documents, besides over 600 others inferred from local names in England +at the present day. Taking one letter of the alphabet alone, his list +includes the Glæstings, Geddings, Gumenings, Gustings, Getings, +Grundlings, Gildlings, and Gillings, from documentary evidence; and the +Gærsings,<a name="page195" id="page195"></a> Gestings, Geofonings, Goldings, and Garings, with many +others, from the inferential evidence of existing towns and villages.</p> + +<p>The personal names of the earliest period are in many cases +untranslateable—that is to say, as with the first stratum of Greek +names, they bear no obvious meaning in the language as we know it. +Others are names of animals or natural objects. Unlike the later +historical cognomens, they each consist, as a rule, of a single element, +not of two elements in composition. Such are the names which we get in +the narrative of the colonization and in the mythical genealogies; +Hengest, Horsa, Æsc, Ælle, Cymen, Cissa, Bieda, Mægla; Ceol, Penda, +Offa, Blecca; Esla, Gewis, Wig, Brand, and so forth. A few of these +names (such as Penda and Offa), are undoubtedly historical; but of the +rest, some seem to be etymological blunders, like Port and Wihtgar; +others to be pure myths, like Wig and Brand; and others, again, to be +doubtfully true, like Cerdic, Cissa, and Bieda, eponyms, perhaps, of +Cerdices-ford, Cissan-ceaster, and Biedan-heafod.</p> + +<p>In the truly historical age, the clan system seems to have died out, and +each person bore, as a rule, only a single personal name. These names +are almost invariably compounded of two elements, and the elements thus +employed were comparatively few in number. Thus, we get the root +<i>æthel</i>, noble, as the first half in Æthelred, Æthelwulf, Æthelberht, +Æthelstan, and Æthelbald. Again, the root <i>ead</i>, rich, or powerful, +occurs in Eadgar, Eadred, Eadward, Eadwine, and<a name="page196" id="page196"></a> Eadwulf. <i>Ælf</i>, an elf, +forms the prime element in Ælfred, Ælfric, Ælfwine, Ælfward, and +Ælfstan. These were the favourite names of the West-Saxon royal house; +the Northumbrian kings seem rather to have affected the syllable <i>os</i>, +divine, as in Oswald, Oswiu, Osric, Osred, and Oslaf. <i>Wine</i>, friend, is +a favourite termination found in Æscwine, Eadwine, Æthelwine, Oswine, +and Ælfwine, whose meanings need no further explanation. <i>Wulf</i> appears +as the first half in Wulfstan, Wulfric, Wulfred, and Wulfhere; while it +forms the second half in Æthelwulf, Eadwulf, Ealdwulf, and Cenwulf. +<i>Beorht</i>, <i>berht</i>, or <i>briht</i>, bright, or glorious, appears in +Beorhtric, Beorhtwulf, Brihtwald; Æthelberht, Ealdbriht, and Eadbyrht. +<i>Burh</i>, a fortress, enters into many female names, as Eadburh, +Æthelburh, Sexburh, and Wihtburh. As a rule, a certain number of +syllables seem to have been regarded as proper elements for forming +personal names, and to have been combined somewhat fancifully, without +much regard to the resulting meaning. The following short list of such +elements, in addition to the roots given above, will suffice to explain +most of the names mentioned in this work.</p> + +<ul style="margin-left: 20%;"> +<li><i>Helm</i>: helmet.</li> +<li><i>Gar</i>: spear.</li> +<li><i>Gifu</i>: gift.</li> +<li><i>Here</i>: army.</li> +<li><i>Sige</i>: victory.</li> +<li><i>Cyne</i>: royal.</li> +<li><i>Leof</i>: dear.</li> +<li><i>Wig</i>: war.</li> +<li><i>Stan</i>: stone.</li> +<li><i>Eald</i>: old, venerable.</li> +<li><i>Weard</i>, <i>ward</i>: ward, protection.</li> +<li><i>Red</i>: counsel.</li> +<li><i>Eeg</i>: edge, sword.</li> +<li><i>Theod</i>: people, nation.</li> +</ul> + +<p>By combining these elements with those already given <a name="page197" id="page197"></a>most of the royal +or noble names in use in early England were obtained.</p> + +<p>With the people, however, it would seem that shorter and older forms +were still in vogue. The following document, the original of which is +printed in Kemble's collection, represents the pedigree of a serf, and +is interesting, both as showing the sort of names in use among the +servile class, and the care with which their family relationships were +recorded, in order to preserve the rights of their lord.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +Dudda was a boor at Hatfield, and he had three daughters: +one hight Deorwyn, the other Deorswith, the third Golde. And +Wulflaf at Hatfield has Deorwyn to wife. Ælfstan, at +Tatchingworth, has Deorswith to wife: and Ealhstan, +Ælfstan's brother, has Golde to wife. There was a man hight +Hwita, bee-master at Hatfield, and he had a daughter Tate, +mother of Wulfsige, the bowman; and Wulfsige's sister Lulle +has Hehstan to wife, at Walden. Wifus and Dunne and Seoloce +are inborn at Hatfield. Duding, son of Wifus, lives at +Walden; and Ceolmund, Dunne's son, also sits at Walden; and +Æthelheah, Seoloce's son, also sits at Walden. And Tate, +Cenwold's sister, Mæg has to wife at Welgun; and Eadhelm, +Herethryth's son, has Tate's daughter to wife. Wærlaf, +Wærstan's father, was a right serf at Hatfield; he kept the +grey swine there.</p> +</div> + +<p>In the west, and especially in Cornwall, the names of the serfs were +mainly Celtic,—Griffith, Modred, Riol, and so forth,—as may be seen +from the list of manumissions preserved in a mass-book at St. Petroc's, +or Padstow. Elsewhere, however, the Celtic names seem to have dropped +out, for the most part, with the Celtic language. It is true, we meet +with cases of apparently Welsh forms, like Maccus, or Rum, <a name="page198" id="page198"></a>even in +purely Teutonic districts; and some names, such as Cerdic and Ceadwalla, +seem to have been borrowed by one race from the other: while such forms +as Wealtheow and Waltheof are at least suggestive of British descent: +but on the whole, the conquered Britons appear everywhere to have +quickly adopted the names in vogue among their conquerors. Such names +would doubtless be considered fashionable, as was the case at a later +date with those introduced by the Danes and the Normans. Even in +Cornwall a good many English forms occur among the serfs: while in very +Celtic Devonshire, English names were probably universal.</p> + +<p>The Danish Conquest introduced a number of Scandinavian names, +especially in the North, the consideration of which belongs rather to a +companion volume. They must be briefly noted here, however, to prevent +confusion with the genuine English forms. Amongst such Scandinavian +introductions, the commonest are perhaps Harold, Swegen or Swend, Ulf, +Gorm or Guthrum, Orm, Yric or Eric, Cnut, and Ulfcytel. During and after +the time of the Danish dynasty, these forms, rendered fashionable by +royal usage, became very general even among the native English. Thus +Earl Godwine's sons bore Scandinavian names; and at an earlier period we +even find persons, apparently Scandinavian, fighting on the English side +against the Danes in East Anglia.</p> + +<p>But the sequel to the Norman Conquest shows us most clearly how the +whole nomenclature of a nation may be entirely altered without any large +change of <a name="page199" id="page199"></a>race. Immediately after the Conquest the native English names +begin to disappear, and in their place we get a crop of Williams, +Walters, Rogers, Henries, Ralphs, Richards, Gilberts, and Roberts. Most +of these were originally High German forms, taken into Gaul by the +Franks, borrowed from them by the Normans, and then copied by the +English from their foreign lords. A few, however, such as Arthur, Owen, +and Alan, were Breton Welsh. Side by side with these French names, the +Normans introduced the Scriptural forms, John, Matthew, Thomas, Simon, +Stephen, Piers or Peter, and James; for though a few cases of Scriptural +names occur in the earlier history—for example, St. John of Beverley +and Daniel, bishop of the West Saxons—these are always borne by +ecclesiastics, probably as names of religion. All through the middle +ages, and down to very recent times, the vast majority of English men +and women continued to bear these baptismal names of Norman +introduction. Only two native English forms practically survived—Edward +and Edmund—owing to mere accidents of royal favour. They were the names +of two great English saints, Eadward the Confessor and Eadmund of East +Anglia; and Henry III. bestowed them upon his two sons, Edward I. and +Edmund of Lancaster. In this manner they became adopted into the royal +and fashionable circle, and so were perpetuated to our own day. All the +others died out in mediæval times, while the few old forms now current, +such as Alfred, Edgar, Athelstane, and Edwin, are mere <a name="page200" id="page200"></a>artificial +revivals of the two last centuries. If we were to judge by nomenclature +alone, we might almost fancy that the Norman Conquest had wholly +extinguished the English people.</p> + +<p>A few steps towards the adoption of surnames were taken even before the +Conquest. Titles of office were usually placed after the personal name, +as Ælfred King, Lilla Thegn, Wulfnoth Cild, Ælfward Bishop, Æthelberht +Ealdorman, and Harold Earl. Double names occasionally occur, the second +being a nickname or true surname, as Osgod Clapa, Benedict Biscop, +Thurkytel Myranheafod, Godwine Bace, and Ælfric Cerm. Trade names are +also found, as Ecceard smith, or Godwig boor. Everywhere, but especially +in the Danish North, patronymics were in common use; for example, Harold +Godwine's son, or Thored Gunnor's son. In all these cases we get +surnames in the germ; but their general and official adoption dates from +after the Norman Conquest.</p> + +<p>Local nomenclature also demands a short explanation. Most of the Roman +towns continued to be called by their Roman names: Londinium, Lunden, +London; Eburacum, Eoforwic, Eurewic, York; Lindum Colonia, Lincolne, +Lincoln. Often <i>ceaster</i>, from <i>castrum</i>, was added: Gwent, Venta +Belgarum, Wintan-ceaster, Winteceaster, Winchester; Isca, Exan-ceaster, +Execestre, Exeter; Corinium, Cyren-ceaster, Cirencester. Almost every +place which is known to have had a name at the English Conquest retained +that name afterwards, in a more or less clipped or altered form. +Examples are Kent, Wight, Devon,<a name="page201" id="page201"></a> Dorset; Manchester, Lancaster, +Doncaster, Leicester, Gloucester, Worcester, Colchester, Silchester, +Uttoxeter, Wroxeter, and Chester; Thames, Severn, Ouse, Don, Aire, +Derwent, Swale, and Tyne. Even where the Roman name is now lost, as at +Pevensey, the old form was retained in Early English days; for the +"Chronicle" calls it Andredes-ceaster, that is to say, Anderida. So the +old name of Bath is Akemannes-ceaster, derived from the Latin <i>Aqua</i>, +Cissan-ceaster, Chichester, forms an almost solitary exception. +Canterbury, or Cant-wara-byrig, was correctly known as Dwrovernum or +Doroberna in Latin documents of the Anglo-Saxon period.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, the true English towns which grew up around the +strictly English settlements, bore names of three sorts. The first were +the clan villages, the <i>hams</i> or <i>tuns</i>, such as Bænesingatun, +Bensington; Snotingaham, Nottingham; Glæstingabyrig, Glastonbury; and +Wæringwica, Warwick. These have already been sufficiently illustrated; +and they were situated, for the most part, in the richest agricultural +lowlands. The second were towns which grew up slowly for purposes of +trade by fords of rivers or at ports: such are Oxeneford, Oxford; +Bedcanford, Bedford (a British town); Stretford, Stratford; and +Wealingaford, Wallingford. The third were the towns which grew up in the +wastes and wealds, with names of varied form but more modern origin. As +a whole, it may be said that during the entire early English period the +names of cities were mostly Roman, the names of villages and country +towns were mostly English. +<a name="page202" id="page202"></a></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="chapter20" id="chapter20"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<h3>ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE.</h3> + + +<p>Nothing better illustrates the original peculiarities and subsequent +development of the early English mind than the Anglo-Saxon literature. A +vast mass of manuscripts has been preserved for us, embracing works in +prose and verse of the most varied kind; and all the most important of +these have been made accessible to modern readers in printed copies. +They cast a flood of light upon the workings of the English mind in all +ages, from the old pagan period in Sleswick to the date of the Norman +Conquest, and the subsequent gradual supplanting of our native +literature by a new culture based upon the Romance models.</p> + +<p>All national literature everywhere begins with rude songs. From the +earliest period at which the English and Saxon people existed as +separate tribes at all, we may be sure that they possessed battle-songs, +like those common to the whole Aryan stock. But among the Teutonic races +poetry was not distinguished by either of the peculiarities—rime or +metre—which mark off modern verse from prose, so far as its external +form is concerned. Our existing English system of versification is not +derived from our old <a name="page203" id="page203"></a>native poetry at all; it is a development of the +Romance system, adopted by the school of Gower and Chaucer from the +French and Italian poets. Its metre, or syllabic arrangement, is an +adaptation from the Greek quantitative prosody, handed down through +Latin and the neo-Latin dialects; its rime is a Celtic peculiarity +borrowed by the Romance nationalities, and handed on through them to +modern English literature by the Romance school of the fourteenth +century. Our original English versification, on the other hand, was +neither rimed nor rhythmic. What answered to metre was a certain +irregular swing, produced by a roughly recurrent number of accents in +each couplet, without restriction as to the number of feet or syllables. +What answered to rime was a regular and marked alliteration, each +couplet having a certain key-letter, with which three principal words in +the couplet began. In addition to these two poetical devices, +Anglo-Saxon verse shows traces of parallelism, similar to that which +distinguishes Hebrew poetry. But the alliteration and parallelism do not +run quite side by side, the second half of each alliterative couplet +being parallel with the first half of the next couplet. Accordingly, +each new sentence begins somewhat clumsily in the middle of the couplet. +All these peculiarities are not, however, always to be distinguished in +every separate poem.</p> + +<p>The following rough translation of a very early Teutonic spell for the +cure of a sprained ankle, belonging to the heathen period, will +illustrate the earliest form of this alliterative verse. The key-letter +<a name="page204" id="page204"></a>in each couplet is printed in capitals, and the verse is read from end +to end, not as two separate +columns.<a name="FNanchor_1_15" id="FNanchor_1_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_15" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<table summary=""> +<tr> +<td>Balder and Woden</td><td> </td><td>Went to the Woodland:</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>There Balder's Foal</td><td> </td><td>Fell, wrenching its Foot.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Then Sinthgunt beguiled him,</td><td> </td><td>and Sunna her Sister:</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Then Frua beguiled him,</td><td> </td><td>and Folla her sister,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Then Woden beguiled him,</td><td> </td><td>as Well he knew how;</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Wrench of blood, Wrench of bone,</td><td> </td><td>and eke Wrench of limb:</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Bone unto Bone,</td><td> </td><td>Blood unto Blood,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Limb unto Limb</td><td> </td><td>as though Limèd it were.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>In this simple spell the alliteration serves rather as an aid to memory +than as an ornamental device. The following lines, translated from the +ballad on Æthelstan's victory at Brunanburh, in 937, will show the +developed form of the same versificatory system. The parallelism and +alliteration are here well marked:—</p> + +<table summary=""> +<tr> +<td>Æthelstan king,</td><td> </td><td>lord of Earls,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Bestower of Bracelets,</td><td> </td><td>and his Brother eke,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Eadmund the Ætheling,</td><td> </td><td>honour Eternal</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Won in the Slaughter,</td><td> </td><td>with edge of the Sword</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>By Brunnanbury.</td><td> </td><td>The Bucklers they clave,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Hewed the Helmets</td><td> </td><td>with Hammered steel,<a name="page205" id="page205"></a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Heirs of Edward,</td><td> </td><td>as was their Heritage,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>From their Fore-Fathers,</td><td> </td><td>that oft the Field</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>They should Guard their Good folk</td><td> </td><td>Gainst every comer,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Their Home and their Hoard.</td><td> </td><td>The Hated foe cringed to them,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>The Scottish Sailors,</td><td> </td><td>and the Northern Shipmen;</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Fated they Fell.</td><td> </td><td>The Field lay gory</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>With Swordsmen's blood</td><td> </td><td>Since the Sun rose</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>On Morning tide</td><td> </td><td>a Mighty globe,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>To Glide o'er the Ground,</td><td> </td><td>God's candle bright,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>The endless Lord's taper,</td><td> </td><td>till the great Light</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Sank to its Setting.</td><td> </td><td>There Soldiers lay,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Warriors Wounded,</td><td> </td><td>Northern Wights,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Shot over Shields;</td><td> </td><td>and so Scotsmen eke,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Wearied with War.</td><td> </td><td>The West Saxon onwards,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>The Live-Long day</td><td> </td><td>in Linkèd order</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Followed the Footsteps</td><td> </td><td>of the Foul Foe.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>Of course no songs of the old heathen period were committed to writing +either in Sleswick or in Britain. The minstrels who composed them taught +them by word of mouth to their pupils, and so handed them down from +generation to generation, much as the Achæan rhapsodists handed down the +Homeric poems. Nevertheless, two or three such old songs were afterwards +written out in Christian Northumbria or Wessex; and though their +heathendom has been greatly toned down by the transcribers, enough +remains to give us a graphic glimpse of the fierce and gloomy old +English nature which we could not otherwise obtain. One fragment, known +as the <i>Fight at Finnesburh</i> (rescued from a book-cover into which it +had been pasted), probably dates back before the colonisation of +Britain, and closely resembles in style <a name="page206" id="page206"></a>the above-quoted ode. Two other +early pieces, the <i>Traveller's Song</i> and the <i>Lament of Deor</i>, are +inserted from pagan tradition in a book of later devotional poems +preserved at Exeter. But the great epic of <i>Beowulf</i>, a work composed +when the English and the Danes were still living in close connexion with +one another by the shores of the Baltic, has been handed down to us +entire, thanks to the kind intervention of some Northumbrian monk, who, +by Christianising the most flagrantly heathen portions, has saved the +entire work from the fate which would otherwise have overtaken it. As a +striking representation of early English life and thought, this great +epic deserves a fuller +description.<a name="FNanchor_2_16" id="FNanchor_2_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_16" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p><i>Beowulf</i> is written in the same short alliterative metre as that of the +Brunanburh ballad, and takes its name from its hero, a servant or +companion of the mighty Hygelac, king of the Geatas (Jutes or Goths). At +a distance from his home lay the kingdom of the Scyldings, a Danish +tribe, ruled over by Hrothgar. There stood Heorot, the high hall of +heroes, the greatest mead-house ever raised. But the land of the Danes +was haunted by a terrible fiend, known as Grendel, who dwelt in a dark +fen in the forest belt, girt round with shadows and lit up at eve by +flitting flames. Every night Grendel came forth and carried off some of +the Danes to devour in his home. The description of the monster himself +and of the marshland where he had his lair is full of that weird and +<a name="page207" id="page207"></a>gloomy superstition which everywhere darkens and overshadows the life +of the savage and the heathen barbarian. The terror inspired in the rude +English mind by the mark and the woodland, the home of wild beasts and +of hostile ghosts, of deadly spirits and of fierce enemies, gleams +luridly through every line. The fen and the forest are dim and dark; +will-o'-the-wisps flit above them, and gloom closes them in; wolves and +wild boars lurk there, the quagmire opens its jaws and swallows the +horse and his rider; the foeman comes through it to bring fire and +slaughter to the clan-village at the dead of night. To these real +terrors and dangers of the mark are added the fancied ones of +superstition. There the terrible forms begotten of man's vague dread of +the unknown—elves and nickors and fiends—have their murky +dwelling-place. The atmosphere of the strange old heathen epic is +oppressive in its gloominess. Nevertheless, its poetry sometimes rises +to a height of great, though barbaric, sublimity. Beowulf himself, +hearing of the evil wrought by Grendel, set sail from his home for the +land of the Danes. Hrothgar received him kindly, and entertained him and +his Goths with ale and song in Heorot. Wealtheow, Hrothgar's queen, +gold-decked, served them with mead. But when all had retired to rest on +the couches of the great hall, in the murky night, Grendel came. He +seized and slew one of Beowulf's companions. Then the warrior of the +Goths followed the monster, and wounded him sorely with his hands. +Grendel fled to his lair to die. But after the contest, Grendel's +mother, a no less <a name="page208" id="page208"></a>hateful creature—the "Devil's dam" of our mediæval +legends—carries on the war against the slayer of her son. Beowulf +descends to her home beneath the water, grapples with her in her cave, +turns against her the weapons he finds there, and is again victorious. +The Goths return to their own country laden with gifts by Hrothgar. +After the death of Hygelac, Beowulf succeeds to the kingship of the +Geatas, whom he rules well and prosperously for many years. At length a +mysterious being, named the Fire Drake, a sort of dragon guarding a +hidden treasure, some of which has been stolen while its guardian +sleeps, comes out to slaughter his people. The old hero buckles on his +rune-covered sword again, and goes forth to battle with the monster. He +slays it, indeed, but is blasted by its fiery breath, and dies after the +encounter. His companions light his pyre upon a lofty spit of land +jutting out into the winter sea. Weapons and jewels and drinking bowls, +taken from the Fire Drake's treasure, were thrown into the tomb for the +use of the ghost in the other world; and a mighty barrow was raised upon +the spot to be a beacon far and wide to seafaring men. So ends the great +heathen epic. It gives us the most valuable picture which we possess of +the daily life led by our pagan forefathers.</p> + +<p>But though these poems are the oldest in tone, they are not the oldest +in form of all that we possess. It is probable that the most primitive +Anglo-Saxon verse was identical with prose, and consisted merely of +sentences bound together by parallelism. As alliteration, at first a +mere <i>memoria technica</i>, becam<a name="page209" id="page209"></a>e an ornamental adjunct, and grew more +developed, the parallelism gradually dropped out. Gnomes or short +proverbs of this character were in common use, and they closely +resembled the mediæval proverbs current in England to the present day.</p> + +<p>With the introduction of Christianity, English verse took a new +direction. It was chiefly occupied in devotional and sacred poetry, or +rather, such poems only have come down to us, as the monks transcribed +them alone, leaving the half-heathen war-songs of the minstrels attached +to the great houses to die out unwritten. The first piece of English +literature which we can actually date is a fragment of the great +religious epic of Cædmon, written about the year 670. Cædmon was a poor +brother in Hild's monastery at Whitby, and he acquired the art of poetry +by a miracle. Northumbria, in the sixth and seventh centuries, took the +lead in Teutonic Britain; and all the early literature is Northumbrian, +as all the later literature is West Saxon. Cædmon's poem consisted in a +paraphrase of the Bible history, from the Creation to the Ascension. The +idea of a translation of the Bible from Latin into English would never +have occurred to any one at that early time. English had as yet no +literary form into which it could be thrown. But Cædmon conceived the +notion of paraphrasing the Bible story in the old alliterative Teutonic +verse, which was familiar to his hearers in songs like <i>Beowulf</i>. Some +of the brethren translated or interpreted for him portions of the +Vulgate, and he threw them into rude metre. Only a single short excerpt +<a name="page210" id="page210"></a>has come down to us in the original form. There is a later complete +epic, however, also attributed to Cædmon, of the same scope and purport; +and it retains so much of the old heathen spirit that it may very +possibly represent a modernised version of the real Cædmon's poem, by a +reviser in the ninth century. At any rate, the latter work may be +treated here under the name of Cædmon, by which it is universally known. +It consists of a long Scriptural paraphrase, written in the alliterative +metre, short, sharp, and decisive, but not without a wild and passionate +beauty of its own. In tone it differs wonderfully little from <i>Beowulf</i>, +being most at home in the war of heaven and Satan, and in the titanic +descriptions of the devils and their deeds. The conduct of the poem is +singularly like that of <i>Paradise Lost</i>. Its wild and rapid stanzas show +how little Christianity had yet moulded the barbaric nature of the +newly-converted English. The epic is essentially a war-song; the Hebrew +element is far stronger than the Christian; hell takes the place of +Grendel's mere; and, to borrow Mr. Green's admirable phrase, "the verses +fall like sword-strokes in the thick of battle."</p> + +<p>In all these works we get the genuine native English note, the wild song +of a pirate race, shaped in early minstrelsy for celebrating the deeds +of gods and warriors, and scarcely half-adapted afterward to the not +wholly alien tone of the oldest Hebrew Scriptures. But the Latin +schools, set up by the Italian monks, introduced into England a totally +new and highly-developed literature. The pagan Anglo-Saxons had not +advanced beyond the stage of ballads; they had no <a name="page211" id="page211"></a>history, or other +prose literature of their own, except, perhaps, a few traditional +genealogical lists, mostly mythical, and adapted to an artificial +grouping by eights and forties. The Roman missionaries brought over the +Roman works, with their developed historical and philosophical style; +and the change induced in England by copying these originals was as +great as the change would now be from the rude Polynesian myths and +ballads to a history of Polynesia written in English, and after English +prototypes, by a native convert. In fact, the Latin language was almost +as important to the new departure as the Latin models. While the old +English literary form, restricted entirely to poetry, was unfitted for +any serious narrative or any reflective work, the old English tongue, +suited only to the practical needs of a rude warrior race, was unfitted +for the expression of any but the simplest and most material ideas. It +is true, the vocabulary was copious, especially in terms for natural +objects, and it was far richer than might be expected even in words +referring to mental states and emotions; but in the expression of +abstract ideas, and in idioms suitable for philosophical discussion, it +remained still, of course, very deficient. Hence the new serious +literature was necessarily written entirely in the Latin language, which +alone possessed the words and modes of speech fitted for its +development; but to exclude it on that account from the consideration of +Anglo-Saxon literature, as many writers have done, would be an absurd +affectation. The Latin writings of Englishmen are an integral part of +English thought, <a name="page212" id="page212"></a>and an important factor in the evolution of English +culture. Gradually, as English monks grew to read Latin from generation +to generation, they invented corresponding compounds in their own +language for the abstract words of the southern tongue; and therefore by +the beginning of the eleventh century, the West Saxon speech of Ælfred +and his successors had grown into a comparatively wealthy dialect, +suitable for the expression of many ideas unfamiliar to the rude pirates +and farmers of Sleswick and East Anglia. Thus, in later days, a rich +vernacular literature grew up with many distinct branches. But, in the +earlier period, the use of a civilised idiom for all purposes connected +with the higher civilisation introduced by the missionaries was +absolutely necessary; and so we find the codes of laws, the penitentials +of the Church, the charters, and the prose literature generally, almost +all written at first in Latin alone. Gradually, as the English tongue +grew fuller, we find it creeping into use for one after another of these +purposes; but to the last an educated Anglo-Saxon could express himself +far more accurately and philosophically in the cultivated tongue of Rome +than in the rough dialect of his Teutonic countrymen. We have only to +contrast the bald and meagre style of the "English Chronicle," written +in the mother-tongue, with the fulness and ease of Bæda's +"Ecclesiastical History," written two centuries earlier in Latin, in +order to see how great an advantage the rough Northumbrians of the early +Christian period obtained in the gift of an old and polished instrument +<a name="page213" id="page213"></a>for conveying to one another their higher thoughts.</p> + +<p>Of this new literature (which began with the Latin biography of Wilfrith +by Æddi or Eddius, and the Latin verses of Ealdhelm) the great +representative is, in fact, Bæda, whose life has already been +sufficiently described in <a href="#chapter11">an earlier chapter</a>. Living at Jarrow, a +Benedictine monastery of the strictest type, in close connection with +Rome, and supplied with Roman works in abundance, Bæda had thoroughly +imbibed the spirit of the southern culture, and his books reflect for us +a true picture of the English barbarian toned down and almost +obliterated in all distinctive features by receptivity for Italian +civilisation. The Northumbrian kingdom had just passed its prime in his +days; and he was able to record the early history of the English Church +and People with something like Roman breadth of view. His scientific +knowledge was up to that of his contemporaries abroad; while his +somewhat childish tales of miracles and visions, though they often +betray traces of the old heathen spirit, were not below the average +level of European thought in his own day. Altogether, Bæda may be taken +as a fair specimen of the Romanised Englishman, alike in his strength +and in his weakness. The samples of his historical style already given +will suffice for illustration of his Latin works; but it must not be +forgotten that he was also one of the first writers to try his hand at +regular English prose in his translation of St. John's Gospel. A few +English verses from his lips have also come down to us, <a name="page214" id="page214"></a>breathing the +old Teutonic spirit more deeply than might be expected from his other +works.</p> + +<p>During the interval between the Northumbrian and West Saxon +supremacies—the interval embraced by the eighth century, and covered by +the greatness of Mercia under Æthelbald and Offa—we have few remains of +English literature. The laws of Ine the West Saxon, and of Offa the +Mercian, with the Penitentials of the Church, and the Charters, form the +chief documents. But England gained no little credit for learning from +the works of two Englishmen who had taken up their abode in the old +Germanic kingdom: Boniface or Winfrith, the apostle of the heathen +Teutons subjugated by the Franks, and Alcuin (Ealhwine), the famous +friend and secretary of Karl the Great. Many devotional Anglo-Saxon +poems, of various dates, are kept for us in the two books preserved at +Exeter, and at Vercelli in North Italy. Amongst them are some by +Cynewulf, perhaps the most genuinely poetical of all the early minstrels +after Cædmon. The following lines, taken from the beginning of his poem +"The Phœnix" (a transcript from Lactantius), will sufficiently +illustrate his style:—</p> + +<table summary=""> +<tr> +<td>I have heard that hidden</td><td> </td><td>Afar from hence</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>On the east of earth</td><td> </td><td>Is a fairest isle,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Lovely and famous.</td><td> </td><td>The lap of that land</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>May not be reached</td><td> </td><td>By many mortals,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Dwellers on earth;</td><td> </td><td>But it is divided</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Through the might of the Maker</td><td> </td><td>From all misdoers.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Fair is the field,</td><td> </td><td>Full happy and glad,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Filled with the sweetest</td><td> </td><td>Scented flowers.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Unique is that island,</td><td> </td><td>Almighty the worker<a name="page215" id="page215"></a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Mickle of might</td><td> </td><td>Who moulded that land.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>There oft lieth open</td><td> </td><td>To the eyes of the blest,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>With happiest harmony,</td><td> </td><td>The gate of heaven.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Winsome its woods</td><td> </td><td>And its fair green wolds,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Roomy with reaches.</td><td> </td><td>No rain there nor snow,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Nor breath of frost,</td><td> </td><td>Nor fiery blast,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Nor summer's heat,</td><td> </td><td>Nor scattered sleet,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Nor fall of hail,</td><td> </td><td>Nor hoary rime,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Nor weltering weather,</td><td> </td><td>Nor wintry shower,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Falleth on any;</td><td> </td><td>But the field resteth</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Ever in peace,</td><td> </td><td>And the princely land</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Bloometh with blossoms.</td><td> </td><td>Berg there nor mount</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Standeth not steep,</td><td> </td><td>Nor stony crag</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>High lifteth the head,</td><td> </td><td>As here with us,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Nor vale, nor dale,</td><td> </td><td>Nor deep-caverned down,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Hollows or hills;</td><td> </td><td>Nor hangeth aloft</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Aught of unsmooth;</td><td> </td><td>But ever the plain,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Basks in the beam,</td><td> </td><td>Joyfully blooming.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Twelve fathoms taller</td><td> </td><td>Towereth that land</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>(As quoth in their writs</td><td> </td><td>Many wise men)</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Than ever a berg</td><td> </td><td>That bright among mortals</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>High lifteth the head</td><td> </td><td>Among heaven's stars.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>Two noteworthy points may be marked in this extract. Its feeling for +natural scenery is quite different from the wild sublimity of the +descriptions of nature in <i>Beowulf</i>. Cynewulf's verse is essentially the +verse of an agriculturist; it looks with disfavour upon mountains and +rugged scenes, while its ideal is one of peaceful tillage. The monk +speaks out in it as cultivator and dreamer. Its tone is wholly different +from that of the Brunanburh ballad or the other fierce war-songs. +Moreover, it contains one or two rimes, preserved in this translation, +whose full significance will be pointed out hereafter.</p><p><a name="page216" id="page216"></a></p> + +<p>The anarchy of Northumbria, and still more the Danish inroads, put an +end to the literary movement in the North and the Midlands; but the +struggle in Wessex gave new life to the West Saxon people. Under Ælfred, +Winchester became the centre of English thought. But the West Saxon +literature is almost entirely written in English, not in Latin; a fact +which marks the progressive development of vocabulary and idiom in the +native tongue. Ælfred himself did much to encourage literature, inviting +over learned men from the continent, and founding schools for the West +Saxon youth in his dwarfed dominions. Most of the Winchester works are +attributed to his own pen, though doubtless he was largely aided by his +advisers, and amongst others by Asser, his Welsh secretary and Bishop of +Sherborne. They comprise translations into the Anglo-Saxon of Boëthius +<i>de Consolatione</i>, the Universal History of Orosius, Bæda's +Ecclesiastical History, and Pope Gregory's <i>Regula Pastoralis</i>. But the +fact that Ælfred still has recourse to Roman originals, marks the stage +of civilisation as yet mainly imitative; while the interesting passages +intercalated by the king himself show that the beginnings of a really +native prose literature were already taking shape in English hands.</p> + +<p>The chief monument of this truly Anglo-Saxon literature, begun and +completed by English writers in the English tongue alone, is the +Chronicle. That invaluable document, the oldest history of any Teutonic +race in its own language, was probably first compiled at the court of +Ælfred. Its earlier part <a name="page217" id="page217"></a>consists of mere royal genealogies of the +first West Saxon kings, together with a few traditions of the +colonisation, and some excerpts from Bæda. But with the reign of +Æthelwulf, Ælfred's father, it becomes comparatively copious, though its +records still remain dry and matter-of-fact, a bare statement of facts, +without comment or emotional display. The following extract, giving the +account of Ælfred's death, will show its meagre nature. The passage has +been modernised as little as is consistent with its intelligibility at +the present day:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +An. 901. Here died Ælfred Æthulfing [Æthelwulfing—the son +of Æthelwulf], six nights ere All Hallow Mass. He was king +over all English-kin, bar that deal that was under Danish +weald [dominion]; and he held that kingdom three half-years +less than thirty winters. There came Eadward his son to the +rule. And there seized Æthelwold ætheling, his father's +brother's son, the ham [villa] at Winburne [Wimbourne], and +at Tweoxneam [Christchurch], by the king's unthank and his +witan's [without leave from the king]. There rode the king +with his fyrd till he reached Badbury against Winburne. And +Æthelwold sat within the ham, with the men that to him had +bowed, and he had forwrought [obstructed] all the gates in, +and said that he would either there live or there lie. +Thereupon rode the ætheling on night away, and sought the +[Danish] host in Northumbria, and they took him for king and +bowed to him. And the king bade ride after him, but they +could not outride him. Then beset man the woman that he had +erst taken without the king's leave, and against the +bishop's word, for that she was ere that hallowed a nun. And +on this ilk year forth-fared Æthelred (he was ealdorman on +Devon) four weeks ere Ælfred king. +</p> +</div> + +<p>During the Augustan age the Chronicle grows less <a name="page218" id="page218"></a>full, but contains +several fine war-songs, of the genuine old English type, full of +savagery in sentiment, and abrupt or broken in manner, but marked by the +same wild poetry and harsh inversions as the older heathen ballads. +Amongst them stand the lines on the fight of Brunanburh, whose exordium +is quoted above. Its close forms one of the finest passages in old +English verse:—</p> + +<table summary=""> +<tr> +<td>Behind them they Left,</td><td> </td><td>the Lych to devour,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>The Sallow kite</td><td> </td><td>and the Swart raven,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Horny of beak,—</td><td> </td><td>and Him, the dusk-coated,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>The white-afted Erne,</td><td> </td><td>the corse to Enjoy,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>The Greedy war-hawk,</td><td> </td><td>and that Grey beast,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>The Wolf of the Wood.</td><td> </td><td>No such Woeful slaughter</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Aye on this Island</td><td> </td><td>Ever hath been,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>By edge of the Sword,</td><td> </td><td>as book Sayeth,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Writers of Eld,</td><td> </td><td>since of Eastward hither</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>English and Saxons</td><td> </td><td>Sailed over Sea,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>O'er the Broad Brine,—</td><td> </td><td>landed in Britain,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Proud Workers of War,</td><td> </td><td>and o'ercame the Welsh,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Earls Eager of fame,</td><td> </td><td>Obtaining this Earth.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>During the decadence, in the disastrous reign of Æthelred, the Chronicle +regains its fulness, and the following passage may be taken as a good +specimen of its later style. It shows the approach to comment and +reflection, as the compilers grew more accustomed to historical writing +in their own tongue:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +An. 1009. Here on this year were the ships ready of which we +ere spake, and there were so many of them as never ere (so +far as books tell us) were made among English kin in no +king's day. And man brought them all together to Sandwich, +and there should they lie, and hold this earth against all +outlanders [foreigners'] hosts. But we had not yet the luck +nor the worship [valour] that the ship-fyrd should be of<a name="page219" id="page219"></a> +any good to this land, no more than it oft was afore. Then +befel it at this ilk time or a little ere, that Brihtric, +Eadric's brother the ealdorman's, forwrayed [accused] +Wulfnoth child to the king: and he went out and drew unto +him twenty ships, and there harried everywhere by the south +shore, and wrought all evil. Then quoth man to the ship-fyrd +that man might easily take them, if man were about it. Then +took Brihtric to himself eighty ships and thought that he +should work himself great fame if he should get Wulfnoth, +quick or dead. But as they were thitherward, there came such +a wind against them such as no man ere minded [remembered], +and it all to-beat and to-brake the ships, and warped them +on land: and soon came Wulfnoth and for-burned the ships. +When this was couth [known] to the other ships where the +king was, how the others fared, then was it as though it +were all redeless, and the king fared him home, and the +ealdormen, and the high witan, and forlet the ships thus +lightly. And the folk that were on the ships brought them +round eft to Lunden, and let all the people's toil thus +lightly go for nought: and the victory that all English kin +hoped for was no better. There this ship-fyrd was thus +ended; then came, soon after Lammas, the huge foreign host, +that we hight Thurkill's host, to Sandwich, and soon wended +their way to Canterbury, and would quickly have won the burg +if they had not rather yearned for peace of them. And all +the East Kentings made peace with the host, and gave it +three thousand pound. And the host there, soon after that, +wended till it came to Wightland, and there everywhere in +Suth-Sex, and on Hamtunshire, and eke on Berkshire harried +and burnt, as their wont is. Then bade the king call out all +the people, that men should hold against them on every half +[side]: but none the less, look! they fared where they +willed. Then one time had the king foregone before them with +all the fyrd as they were going to their ships, and all the +folk was ready to fight them. But it was let, through Eadric +ealdorman, as it ever yet was. Then, after St. Martin's +mass, they fared eft again into Kent, and took them a winter +seat on Thames, and victualled themselves from East-Sex and +from the shires that there next were, on the twain halves<a name="page220" id="page220"></a> +of Thames. And oft they fought against the burg of Lunden, +but praise be to God, it yet stands sound, and they ever +there fared evilly. And there after mid-winter they took +their way up, out through Chiltern, and so to Oxenaford +[Oxford], and for-burnt the burg, and took their way on to +the twa halves of Thames to shipward. There man warned them +that there was fyrd gathered at Lunden against them; then +wended they over at Stane [Staines]. And thus fared they all +the winter, and that Lent were in Kent and bettered +[repaired] their ships. +</p> +</div> + +<p>We possess several manuscript versions of the Chronicle, belonging to +different abbeys, and containing in places somewhat different accounts. +Thus the Peterborough copy is fullest on matters affecting that +monastery, and even inserts several spurious grants, which, however, are +of value as showing how incapable the writers were of scientific +forgery, and so as guarantees of the general accuracy of the document. +But in the main facts they all agree. Nor do they stop short at the +Norman Conquest. Most of them continue half through the reign of +William, and then cease; while one manuscript goes on uninterruptedly +till the reign of Stephen, and breaks off abruptly in the year 1154 with +an unfinished sentence. With it, native prose literature dies down +altogether until the reign of Edward III.</p> + +<p>As a whole, however, the Conquest struck the death-blow of Anglo-Saxon +literature almost at once. During the reigns of Ælfred's descendants +Wessex had produced a rich crop of native works on all subjects, but +especially religious. In this literature the greatest name was that of +Ælfric, whose Homilies are <a name="page221" id="page221"></a>models of the classical West Saxon prose. +But after the Conquest our native literature died out wholly, and a new +literature, founded on Romance models, took its place. The Anglo-Saxon +style lingered on among the people, but it was gradually killed down by +the Romance style of the court writers. In prose, the history of William +of Malmesbury, written in Latin, and in a wider continental spirit, +marks the change. In poetry, the English school struggled on longer, but +at last succumbed. A few words on the nature of this process will not be +thrown away.</p> + +<p>The old Teutonic poetry, with its treble system of accent, alliteration, +and parallelism, was wholly different from the Romance poetry, with its +double system of rime and metre. But, from an early date, the English +themselves were fond of verbal jingles, such as "Scot and lot," "sac and +soc," "frith and grith," "eorl and ceorl," or "might and right." Even in +the alliterative poems we find many occasional rimes, such as "hlynede +and dynede," "wide and side," "Dryht-guman sine drencte mid wine," or +such as the rimes already quoted from Cynewulf. As time went on, and +intercourse with other countries became greater, the tendency to rime +settled down into a fixed habit. Rimed Latin verse was already familiar +to the clergy, and was imitated in their works. Much of the very ornate +Anglo-Saxon prose of the latest period is full of strange verbal tricks, +as shown in the following modernised extract from a sermon of Wulfstan. +Here, the alliterative letters are printed in capitals, and the rimes in +italics:—<a name="page222" id="page222"></a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +No Wonder is it that Woes befall us, for Well We Wot that +now full many a year men little <i>care</i> what thing they +<i>dare</i> in word or deed; and Sorely has this nation Sinned, +whate'er man Say, with Manifold Sins and with right Manifold +Misdeeds, with Slayings and with Slaughters, with <i>robbing</i> +and with <i>stabbing</i>, with Grasping <i>deed</i> and hungry +<i>Greed</i>, through Christian Treason and through heathen +Treachery, through <i>guile</i> and through <i>wile</i>, through +<i>lawlessness</i> and <i>awelessness</i>, through Murder of Friends +and Murder of Foes, through broken Troth and broken Truth, +through wedded unchastity and cloistered impurity. Little +they <i>trow</i> of marriage <i>vow</i>, as ere this I said: little +they reck the breach of <i>oath</i> or <i>troth</i>; swearing and +for-swearing, on every <i>side</i>, far and <i>wide</i>, Fast and +Feast they hold not, Peace and Pact they keep not, oft and +anon. Thus in this <i>land</i> they <i>stand</i>, Foes to Christendom, +Friends to heathendom, Persecutors of Priests, Persecutors +of People, all too many; spurners of godly law and Christian +bond, who Loudly Laugh at the <i>Teaching</i> of God's <i>Teachers</i> +and the <i>Preaching</i> of God's <i>Preachers</i>, and whatso rightly +to God's rites belongs. +</p> +</div> + +<p>The nation was thus clearly preparing itself from within for the +adoption of the Romance system. Immediately after the Conquest, rimes +begin to appear distinctly, while alliteration begins to die out. An +Anglo-Saxon poem on the character of William the Conqueror, inserted in +the Chronicle under the year of his death, consists of very rude rimes +which may be modernised as follows—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>Gold he took by might,<br /></span> +<span>And of great unright,<br /></span> +<span>From his folk with evil deed<br /></span> +<span>For sore little need.<br /></span> +<span>He was on greediness befallen,<br /></span> +<span>And getsomeness he loved withal.<br /></span> +<span>He set a mickle deer frith,<a name="page223" id="page223"></a><br /></span> +<span>And he laid laws therewith,<br /></span> +<span>That whoso slew hart or hind<br /></span> +<span>Him should man then blinden.<br /></span> +<span>He forbade to slay the harts,<br /></span> +<span>And so eke the boars.<br /></span> +<span>So well he loved the high deer<br /></span> +<span>As if he their father were.<br /></span> +<span>Eke he set by the hares<br /></span> +<span>That they might freely fare.<br /></span> +<span>His rich men mourned it<br /></span> +<span>And the poor men wailed it.<br /></span> +<span>But he was so firmly wrought<br /></span> +<span>That he recked of all nought.<br /></span> +<span>And they must all withal<br /></span> +<span>The king's will follow,<br /></span> +<span>If they wished to live<br /></span> +<span>Or their land have,<br /></span> +<span>Or their goods eke,<br /></span> +<span>Or his peace to seek.<br /></span> +<span>Woe is me,<br /></span> +<span>That any man so proud should be,<br /></span> +<span>Thus himself up to raise,<br /></span> +<span>And over all men to boast.<br /></span> +<span>May God Almighty show his soul mild-heart-ness,<br /></span> +<span>And do him for his sins forgiveness!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>From that time English poetry bifurcates. On the one hand, we have the +survival of the old Teutonic alliterative swing in Layamon's Brut and in +Piers Plowman—the native verse of the people sung by native minstrels: +and on the other hand we have the new Romance rimed metre in Robert of +Gloucester, "William of Palerne," Gower, and Chaucer. But from Piers +Plowman and Chaucer onward the Romance system conquers and the Teutonic +system <a name="page224" id="page224"></a>dies rapidly. Our modern poetry is wholly Romance in descent, +form, and spirit.</p> + +<p>Thus in literature as in civilisation generally, the culture of old +Rome, either as handed down ecclesiastically through the Latin, or as +handed down popularly through the Norman-French, overcame the native +Anglo-Saxon culture, such as it was, and drove it utterly out of the +England which we now know. Though a new literature, in Latin and +English, sprang up after the Conquest, that literature had its roots, +not in Sleswick or in Wessex, but in Greece, in Rome, in Provence, and +in Normandy. With the Normans, a new era began—an era when Romance +civilisation was grafted by harsh but strong hands on to the Anglo-Saxon +stock, the Anglo-Saxon institutions, and the Anglo-Saxon tongue. With +the first step in this revolution, our present volume has completed its +assigned task. The story of the Normans will be told by another pen in +the same series.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_15" id="Footnote_1_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_15">[1]</a> The +original of this heathen charm is in the Old High +German dialect; but it is quoted here as a good specimen of +the early form of alliterative verse. A similar charm +undoubtedly existed in Anglo-Saxon, though no copy of it has +come down to our days, as we possess a modernised and +Christianised English version, in which the name of our Lord +is substituted for that of Balder.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_2_16" id="Footnote_2_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_16">[2]</a> It +is right to state, however, that many scholars regard +<i>Beowulf</i> as a late translation from a Danish original.<a name="page225" id="page225"></a></p> +</div> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="chapter21" id="chapter21"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<h3>ANGLO-SAXON INFLUENCES IN MODERN BRITAIN.</h3> + + +<p>Perhaps the best way of summing up the results of the present inquiry +will be by considering briefly the main elements of our existing life +and our actual empire which we owe to the Anglo-Saxon nationality. We +may most easily glance at them under the five separate heads of blood, +character, language, civilisation, and institutions.</p> + +<p>In <i>blood</i>, it is probable that the importance of the Anglo-Saxon +element has been generally over-estimated. It has been too usual to +speak of England as though it were synonymous with Britain, and to +overlook the numerical strength of the Celtic population in Scotland, +Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland. It has been too usual, also, to neglect +the considerable Danish, Norwegian, and Norman element, which, though +belonging to the same Low German and Scandinavian stock, yet differs in +some important particulars from the Anglo-Saxon. But we have seen reason +to conclude that even in the most purely Teutonic region of Britain, the +district between Forth and Southampton Water, a considerable proportion +of the people were of Celtic or pre-Celtic descent, from the very first +age of English settlement. This conclusion <a name="page226" id="page226"></a>is borne out both by the +physical traits of the peasantry and the nature of the early remains. In +the western half of South Britain, from Clyde to Cornwall, the +proportion of Anglo-Saxon blood has probably always been far smaller. +The Norman conquerors themselves were of mixed Scandinavian, Gaulish, +and Breton descent. Throughout the middle ages, the more Teutonic half +of Britain—the southern and eastern tract—was undoubtedly the most +important: and the English, mixed with Scandinavians from Denmark or +Normandy, formed the ruling caste. Up to the days of Elizabeth, Teutonic +Britain led the van in civilisation, population, and commerce. But since +the age of the Tudors, it seems probable, as Dr. Rolleston and others +have shown, that the Celtic element has largely reasserted itself. A +return wave of Celts has inundated the Teutonic region. Scottish +Highlanders have poured into Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London: Welshmen +have poured into Liverpool, Manchester, and all the great towns of +England: Irishmen have poured into every part of the British dominions. +During the middle ages, the Teutonic portion of Britain was by far the +most densely populated; but at the present day, the almost complete +restriction of coal to the Celtic or semi-Celtic area has aggregated the +greatest masses of population in the west and north. If we take into +consideration the probable large substratum of Celts or earlier races in +the Teutonic counties, the wide area of the undoubted Celtic region +which pours forth a constant stream of emigrants towards the<a name="page227" id="page227"></a> Teutonic +tract, the change of importance between south-east and north-west, since +the industrial development of the coal country, and the more rapid rate +of increase among the Celts, it becomes highly probable that not +one-half the population of the British Isles is really of Teutonic +descent. Moreover, it must be remembered that, whatever may have been +the case in the primitive Anglo-Saxon period, intermarriages between +Celts and Teutons have been common for at least four centuries past; and +that therefore almost all Englishmen at the present day possess at least +a fraction of Celtic blood.</p> + +<p>"The people," says Professor Huxley, "are vastly less Teutonic than +their language." It is not likely that any absolutely pure-blooded +Anglo-Saxons now exist in our midst at all, except perhaps among the +farmer class in the most Teutonic and agricultural shires: and even this +exception is extremely doubtful. Persons bearing the most obviously +Celtic names—Welsh, Cornish, Irish, or Highland Scots—are to be found +in all our large towns, and scattered up and down through the country +districts. Hence we may conclude with great probability that the +Anglo-Saxon blood has long since been everywhere diluted by a strong +Celtic intermixture. Even in the earliest times and in the most Teutonic +counties, many serfs of non-Teutonic race existed from the very +beginning: their masters have ere now mixed with other non-Teutonic +families elsewhere, till even the restricted English people at the +present day can hardly claim to be much more than <a name="page228" id="page228"></a>half Anglo-Saxon. Nor +do the Teutons now even retain their position as a ruling caste. Mixed +Celts in England itself have long since risen to many high places. +Leading families of Welsh, Cornish, Scotch, and Irish blood have also +been admitted into the peerage of the United Kingdom, and form a large +proportion of the House of Commons, of the official world, and of the +governing class in India, the Colonies, and the empire generally. These +families have again intermarried with the nobility and gentry of +English, Danish, or Norman extraction, and thus have added their part to +the intricate intermixture of the two races. At the present day, we can +only speak of the British people as Anglo-Saxons in a conventional +sense: so far as blood goes, we need hardly hesitate to set them down as +a pretty equal admixture of Teutonic and Celtic elements.</p> + +<p>In <i>character</i>, the Anglo-Saxons have bequeathed to us much of the +German solidity, industry, and patience, traits which have been largely +amalgamated with the intellectual quickness and emotional nature of the +Celt, and have thus produced the prevailing English temperament as we +actually know it. To the Anglo-Saxon blood we may doubtless attribute +our general sobriety, steadiness, and persistence; our scientific +patience and thoroughness; our political moderation and endurance; our +marked love of individual freedom and impatience of arbitrary restraint. +The Anglo-Saxon was slow to learn, but retentive of what he learnt. On +the other hand, he was unimaginative; and this want of imagination <a name="page229" id="page229"></a>may +be traced in the more Teutonic counties to the present day. But when +these qualities have been counteracted by the Celtic wealth of fancy, +the race has produced the great English literature,—a literature whose +form is wholly Roman, while in matter, its more solid parts doubtless +owe much to the Teuton, and its lighter portions, especially its poetry +and romance, can be definitely traced in great measure to known Celtic +elements. While the Teutonic blood differentiates our somewhat slow and +steady character from the more logical but volatile and unstable Gaul, +the Celtic blood differentiates it from the far slower, heavier, and +less quick or less imaginative Teutons of Germany and Scandinavia.</p> + +<p>In <i>language</i> we owe almost everything to the Anglo-Saxons. The Low +German dialect which they brought with them from Sleswick and Hanover +still remains in all essentials the identical speech employed by +ourselves at the present day. It received a few grammatical forms from +the cognate Scandinavian dialects; it borrowed a few score or so of +words from the Welsh; it adopted a small Latin vocabulary of +ecclesiastical terms from the early missionaries; it took in a +considerable number of Romance elements after the Norman Conquest; it +enriched itself with an immense variety of learned compounds from the +Greek and Latin at the Renaissance period: but all these additions +affected almost exclusively its stock of words, and did not in the least +interfere with its structure or its place in the scientific +classification of languages. The English which we now speak is not <a name="page230" id="page230"></a>in +any sense a Romance tongue. It is the lineal descendant of the English +of Ælfred and of Bæda, enlarged in its vocabulary by many words which +they did not use, impoverished by the loss of a few which they employed, +yet still essentially identical in grammar and idiom with the language +of the first Teutonic settlers. Gradually losing its inflexions from the +days of Eadgar onward, it assumed its existing type before the +thirteenth century, and continuously incorporated an immense number of +French and Latin words, which greatly increased its value as an +instrument of thought. But it is important to recollect that the English +tongue has nothing at all to do in its origin with either Welsh or +French. The Teutonic speech of the Anglo-Saxon settlers drove out the +old Celtic speech throughout almost all England and the Scotch Lowlands +before the end of the eleventh century; it drove out the Cornish in the +eighteenth century; and it is now driving out the Welsh, the Erse, and +the Gaelic, under our very eyes. In language at least the British empire +(save of course India) is now almost entirely English, or in other +words, Anglo-Saxon.</p> + +<p>In <i>civilisation</i>, on the other hand, we owe comparatively little to the +direct Teutonic influence. The native Anglo-Saxon culture was low, and +even before its transplantation to Britain it had undergone some +modification by mediate mercantile transactions with Rome and the +Mediterranean states. The alphabet, coins, and even a few southern +words, (such as "alms") had already filtered through to the shores of +the Baltic.<a name="page231" id="page231"></a> After the colonisation of Britain, the Anglo-Saxons learnt +something of the higher agriculture from their Romanised serfs, and +adopted, as early as the heathen period, some small portion of the Roman +system, so far as regarded roads, fortifications, and, perhaps +buildings. The Roman towns still stood in their midst, and a fragment, +at least, of the Romanised population still carried on commerce with the +half-Roman Frankish kingdom across the Channel. The re-introduction of +Christianity was at the same time the re-introduction of Roman culture +in its later form. The Latin language and the Mediterranean arts once +more took their place in Britain. The Romanising prelates,—Wilfrith, +Theodore, Dunstan,—were also the leaders of civilisation in their own +times. The Norman Conquest brought England into yet closer connection +with the Continent; and Roman law and Roman arts still more deeply +affected our native culture. Norman artificers supplanted the rude +English handicraftsmen in many cases, and became a dominant class in +towns. The old English literature, and especially the old English +poetry, died utterly out with Piers Plowman; while a new literature, +based upon Romance models, took its origin with Chaucer and the other +Court poets. Celtic-Latin rhyme ousted the genuine Teutonic +alliteration. With the Renaissance, the triumph of the southern culture +was complete. Greek philosophy and Greek science formed the +starting-point for our modern developments. The ecclesiastical revolt +from papal Rome was accompanied by a literary and artistic return to the +models <a name="page232" id="page232"></a>of pagan Rome. The Renaissance was, in fact, the throwing off of +all that was Teutonic and mediæval, the resumption of progressive +thought and scientific knowledge, at the point where it had been +interrupted by the Germanic inroads of the fifth century. The unjaded +vigour of the German races, indeed, counted for much; and Europe took up +the lost thread of the dying empire with a youthful freshness very +different from the effete listlessness of the Mediterranean culture in +its last stage. Yet it is none the less true that our whole civilisation +is even now the carrying out and completion of the Greek and Roman +culture in new fields and with fresh intellects. We owe little here to +the Anglo-Saxon; we owe everything to the great stream of western +culture, which began in Egypt and Assyria, permeated Greece and the +Archipelago, spread to Italy and the Roman empire, and, finally, now +embraces the whole European and American world. The Teutonic intellect +and the Teutonic character have largely modified the spirit of the +Mediterranean civilisation; but the tools, the instruments, the +processes themselves, are all legacies from a different race. Englishmen +did not invent letters, money, metallurgy, glass, architecture, and +science; they received them all ready-made, from Italy and the Ægean, or +more remotely still from the Euphrates and the Nile. Nor is it necessary +to add that in religion we have no debt to the Anglo-Saxon, our existing +creed being entirely derived through Rome from the Semitic race.</p> + +<p>In <i>institutions</i>, once more, the Anglo-Saxon<a name="page233" id="page233"></a> has contributed almost +everything. Our political government, our limited monarchy, our +parliament, our shires, our hundreds, our townships, are considered by +the dominant school of historians to be all Anglo-Saxon in origin. Our +jury is derived from an Anglo-Saxon custom; our nobility and officials +are representatives of Anglo-Saxon earls and reeves. The Teuton, when he +settled in Britain, brought with him the Teutonic organisation in its +entirety. He established it throughout the whole territory which he +occupied or conquered. As the West Saxon over-lordship grew to be the +English kingdom, and as the English kingdom gradually annexed or +coalesced with the Welsh and Cornish principalities, the Scotch and +Irish kingdoms,—the Teutonic system spread over the whole of Britain. +It underwent some little modification at the hands of the Normans, and +more still at those of the Angevins; but, on the whole, it is still a +wide yet natural development of the old Germanic constitution.</p> + +<p>Thus, to sum up in a single sentence, the Anglo-Saxons have contributed +about one-half the blood of Britain, or rather less; but they have +contributed the whole framework of the language, and the whole social +and political organisation; while, on the other hand, they have +contributed hardly any of the civilisation, and none of the religion. We +are now a mixed race, almost equally Celtic and Teutonic by descent; we +speak a purely Teutonic language, with a large admixture of Latin roots +in its vocabulary; we live under Teutonic institutions; we enjoy the +fruits <a name="page234" id="page234"></a>of a Græco-Roman civilisation; and we possess a Christian +Church, handed down to us directly through Roman sources from a Hebrew +original. To the extent so indicated, and to that extent only, we may +still be justly styled an Anglo-Saxon people. +<a name="page235" id="page235"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2><a name="index" id="index"></a>INDEX.</h2> + +<ul> +<li>Ælfheah of Canterbury, <a href="#page168">168</a></li> +<li>Ælfred the West Saxon, <a href="#page136">136</a>; +<ul> +<li>his life, <a href="#page139">139</a>;</li> +<li>his death, <a href="#page140">140</a>;</li> +<li>his writings, <a href="#page216">216</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Ælle of Sussex, <a href="#page24">24</a>, <a href="#page30">30</a></li> +<li>Æsc the Jute, <a href="#page29">29</a></li> +<li>Æthelbald of Mercia, <a href="#page117">117</a></li> +<li>Æthelberht of Kent, <a href="#page85">85</a></li> +<li>Æthelberht of Wessex, <a href="#page129">129</a></li> +<li>Æthelflæd of Mercia, <a href="#page142">142</a></li> +<li>Æthelfrith of Northumbria, <a href="#page53">53</a>, <a href="#page62">62</a></li> +<li>Æthelred of Wessex, <a href="#page130">130</a></li> +<li>Æthelred the Unready, <a href="#page164">164</a></li> +<li>Æthelstan of Wessex, <a href="#page144">144</a></li> +<li>Æthelwulf of Wessex, <a href="#page124">124</a></li> +<li>Aidan of Lindisfarne, <a href="#page95">95</a></li> +<li>Akerman, Mr., on survival of Celts, <a href="#page59">59</a></li> +<li>Anderida, <a href="#page30">30</a>, <a href="#page41">41</a></li> +<li><a name="anglosaxons" id="anglosaxons"></a>Anglo-Saxons, <a href="#page8">8</a>; +<ul> +<li>their religion, <a href="#page16">16</a>;</li> +<li>language, <a href="#page174">174</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Architecture, <a href="#page155">155</a></li> +<li>Aryans, <a href="#page1">1</a></li> +<li>Augustine, St., of Canterbury, arrives in England, <a href="#page85">85</a>; +<ul> +<li>colloquy with Welsh bishops, <a href="#page93">93</a></li> +</ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Bæda, <a href="#page61">61</a>; +<ul> +<li>his life, <a href="#page109">109</a>;</li> +<li>his writings, <a href="#page213">213</a>, and <i>passim</i></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Bamborough built, <a href="#page34">34</a>; +<ul> +<li>princes of, <a href="#page134">134</a>, <a href="#page144">144</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Bayeux, Saxon settlement at, <a href="#page22">22</a></li> +<li>Benedict Biscop, <a href="#page109">109</a></li> +<li>Beowulf, <a href="#page185">185</a>, <a href="#page206">206</a>, and <i>passim</i></li> +<li>Bercta, queen of Kentmen, <a href="#page85">85</a></li> +<li>Bernicia settled, <a href="#page34">34</a>; +<ul> +<li>coalesces with Deira, <a href="#page35">35</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Boulogne, Saxon settlement at, <a href="#page22">22</a></li> +<li>Brunanburh, battle of, <a href="#page145">145</a> +<ul> +<li>ballad on, <a href="#page204">204</a>, <a href="#page218">218</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Burhred of Mercia, <a href="#page131">131</a></li> +</ul> + + +<ul> +<li>Cadwalla, <a href="#page92">92</a>, <a href="#page94">94</a></li> +<li>Cædmon the poet, <a href="#page103">103</a>; +<ul> +<li>his epic, <a href="#page209">209</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Cerdic the Briton, <a href="#page31">31</a>, <a href="#page67">67</a></li> +<li>Cerdic the West Saxon, <a href="#page24">24</a>, <a href="#page31">31</a></li> +<li>Chester, battle of, <a href="#page58">58</a></li> +<li><a name="chronicle" id="chronicle"></a>Chronicle, English, <a href="#page63">63</a>; +<ul> +<li>its origin and nature, <a href="#page216">216</a>;</li> +<li>quoted, <i>passim</i></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Clans, <a href="#page8">8</a>, <a href="#page43">43</a>; +<ul> +<li>meanings of their names, <a href="#page80">80</a>;</li> +<li>occurrence in different shires, <a href="#page81">81</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Cnut, <a href="#page169">169</a></li> +<li>Coifi the priest, <a href="#page89">89</a></li> +<li>Count of the Saxon Shore, <a href="#page22">22</a></li> +<li>Cuthberht of Lindisfarne, <a href="#page97">97</a></li> +<li>Cuthwine of Wessex, <a href="#page51">51</a></li> +<li>Cuthwulf of Wessex, <a href="#page50">50</a></li> +<li>Cynewulf the poet, <a href="#page214">214</a></li> +<li>Cynewulf of Wessex, <a href="#page119">119</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Danish invasions, <a href="#page123">123</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> +<li>Dawkins, Prof. Boyd, <a href="#page2">2</a></li> +<li>Deira settled, <a href="#page34">34</a></li> +<li>Deorham, battle of, <a href="#page51">51</a></li> +<li>Dunstan, <a href="#page147">147</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li><a name="page236" id="page236"></a>Eadgar of Wessex, <a href="#page147">147</a></li> +<li>Eadmund of East Anglia, <a href="#page130">130</a></li> +<li>Eadward (the Elder), <a href="#page141">141</a></li> +<li>Eadward (the Confessor), <a href="#page170">170</a></li> +<li>Eadwine of Northumbria, <a href="#page63">63</a>; +<ul> +<li>converted, <a href="#page88">88</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>East Anglia colonised, <a href="#page36">36</a>; +<ul> +<li>conquered by Danes, <a href="#page130">130</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Ecgberht of Wessex, <a href="#page120">120</a></li> +<li>Elmet, <a href="#page35">35</a>; +<ul> +<li>conquered by English, <a href="#page67">67</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>English (or Anglians), <a href="#page5">5</a>; +<ul> +<li>their language, <i>see</i> <a href="#anglosaxons">Anglo-Saxons</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>English Chronicle, <i>see</i> <a href="#chronicle">Chronicle, English</a></li> +<li>Essex colonised, <a href="#page36">36</a></li> +</ul> + + +<ul> +<li>Felix converts East Anglia, <a href="#page96">96</a></li> +<li>Freeman, Dr. E.A., <a href="#page57">57</a>, <a href="#page64">64</a>, +<a href="#page65">65</a>, <a href="#page69">69</a>, and <i>passim</i></li> +<li>Frisians, <a href="#page5">5</a>; +<ul> +<li>as slave merchants, <a href="#page75">75</a>;</li> +<li>ships, <a href="#page123">123</a>;</li> +<li>employed by Ælfred, <a href="#page139">139</a></li> +</ul></li> +</ul> + + +<ul> +<li>Germanic race, <a href="#page4">4</a></li> +<li>Gewissas, <a href="#page37">37</a></li> +<li>Gildas, <a href="#page28">28</a>, <a href="#page47">47</a>; +<ul> +<li>his book, <a href="#page60">60</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Gregory the Great sends mission to England, <a href="#page85">85</a></li> +<li>Grimm's Law, <a href="#page175">175</a></li> +<li>Guthrum the Dane, <a href="#page137">137</a></li> +<li>Gyrwas, <a href="#page49">49</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Hæsten the pirate, <a href="#page138">138</a>, <a href="#page141">141</a></li> +<li>Harold, <a href="#page170">170</a></li> +<li>Hastings, battle of, <a href="#page171">171</a></li> +<li>Heathendom, <a href="#page16">16</a>, <a href="#page71">71</a></li> +<li>Hengest, <a href="#page28">28</a></li> +<li>Horsa, <a href="#page28">28</a></li> +<li>Huxley, Prof., on English Ethnography, <a href="#page5">5</a></li> +<li>Hyring, king of Bernicia, <a href="#page33">33</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Ida of Northumbria, <a href="#page25">25</a>, <a href="#page32">32</a>; +<ul> +<li>his pedigree, <a href="#page46">46</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Iona, <a href="#page93">93</a></li> +</ul> + + +<ul> +<li>Jutes, <a href="#page5">5</a>; +<ul> +<li>settle in Kent, <a href="#page23">23</a>, <a href="#page28">28</a>;</li> +<li>in the Isle of Wight, <a href="#page24">24</a>, <a href="#page37">37</a>;</li> +<li>in Northumbria, <a href="#page32">32</a></li> +</ul></li> +</ul> + + +<ul> +<li>Kemble, on British in towns, <a href="#page65">65</a>; +<ul> +<li>on Celtic personal names in England, <a href="#page66">66</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Kent, settled by Jutes, <a href="#page23">23</a>, <a href="#page28">28</a>; +<ul> +<li>converted, <a href="#page85">85</a></li> +</ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Lincolnshire colonised, <a href="#page35">35</a>; +<ul> +<li>converted, <a href="#page91">91</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Lindisfarne, <a href="#page95">95</a></li> +<li>Loidis, <a href="#page35">35</a></li> +<li>London, <a href="#page37">37</a>, <a href="#page158">158</a></li> +<li>Lothian, originally English, <a href="#page35">35</a>; +<ul> +<li>unconquered by Danes, <a href="#page135">135</a>;</li> +<li>granted to king of Scots, <a href="#page149">149</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Low Germans, <a href="#page5">5</a>; +<ul> +<li>their language, <a href="#page176">176</a></li> +</ul></li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Marriage in heathen times, <a href="#page74">74</a>, <a href="#page81">81</a></li> +<li>Meonwaras, <a href="#page37">37</a></li> +<li>Mercia colonised, <a href="#page49">49</a>; +<ul> +<li>its rise under Penda, <a href="#page92">92</a>;</li> +<li>its supremacy, <a href="#page117">117</a>;</li> +<li>conquered by Wessex, <a href="#page122">122</a>;</li> +<li>by the Danes, <a href="#page131">131</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Monasteries, <a href="#page102">102</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Nennius, <a href="#page32">32</a>, <a href="#page67">67</a></li> +<li>Nithard, <a href="#page9">9</a></li> +<li>Northumbria settled, <a href="#page32">32</a>; +<ul> +<li>converted, <a href="#page88">88</a>;</li> +<li>conquered by Danes, <a href="#page130">130</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Notitia Imperii, <a href="#page22">22</a></li> +</ul> + + +<ul> +<li>Offa of Mercia, <a href="#page117">117</a>; +<ul> +<li>his dyke, <a href="#page118">118</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Oswald of Northumbria, <a href="#page94">94</a></li> +<li>Oswiu of Northumbria, <a href="#page95">95</a><a name="page237" id="page237"></a></li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Palgrave, Sir F., <a href="#page66">66</a></li> +<li>Paulinus, <a href="#page88">88</a></li> +<li>Penda of Mercia, <a href="#page91">91</a>, <a href="#page94">94</a></li> +<li>Phillips, Prof., on Celtic blood in Yorkshire, <a href="#page57">57</a></li> +<li>Port, mythical hero, <a href="#page31">31</a></li> +</ul> + + +<ul> +<li>Rolleston, Prof., on Anglo-Saxon barrows, <a href="#page25">25</a>; +<ul> +<li>on survival of Celts, <a href="#page59">59</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Ruim, old name of Thanet, <a href="#page23">23</a></li> +<li>Runes, <a href="#page97">97</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Salisbury conquered by English, <a href="#page50">50</a></li> +<li>Saxons, <a href="#page5">5</a>; +<ul> +<li>English, so called by Celtic races, <a href="#page21">21</a>;</li> +<li>settle in Sussex, <a href="#page24">24</a>;</li> +<li>in Essex, <a href="#page36">36</a>;</li> +<li>in Wessex, <a href="#page37">37</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Saxons, Old, <a href="#page7">7</a>; +<ul> +<li>their constitution, <a href="#page9">9</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Ships of bronze age, <a href="#page19">19</a>; +<ul> +<li>of iron age, <a href="#page20">20</a>;</li> +<li>king Ælfred's, <a href="#page139">139</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Stubbs, Rev. Canon, <a href="#page120">120</a>, and <i>passim</i></li> +<li>Sussex settled, <a href="#page24">24</a>, <a href="#page29">29</a></li> +<li>Swegen, <a href="#page165">165</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Taylor, Rev. Isaac, on Hundreds, <a href="#page68">68</a></li> +<li>Teutonic race, <a href="#page4">4</a></li> +<li>Thanet, <a href="#page23">23</a></li> +<li>Theodore of Canterbury, <a href="#page107">107</a></li> +<li>Thunor, <a href="#page16">16</a>; +<ul> +<li>his worship, <a href="#page77">77</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Towns, <a href="#page157">157</a></li> +<li>Totemism, <a href="#page79">79</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Vortigern, <a href="#page28">28</a></li> +</ul> + +<ul> +<li>Wessex settled, <a href="#page24">24</a>, <a href="#page31">31</a></li> +<li>Whitby, synod of, <a href="#page97">97</a>; +<ul> +<li>abbey at, <a href="#page103">103</a></li> +</ul></li> +<li>Wight, settled by Jutes, <a href="#page23">23</a></li> +<li>Wihtgar, <a href="#page31">31</a></li> +<li>Wilfrith of York, <a href="#page97">97</a>, <a href="#page105">105</a>, <a href="#page108">108</a></li> +<li>Winchester, <a href="#page37">37</a>, <a href="#page158">158</a></li> +<li>Winwidfield, <a href="#page96">96</a></li> +<li>Woden, <a href="#page16">16</a>, <a href="#page46">46</a>; +<ul> +<li>his worship, <a href="#page76">76</a></li> +</ul></li> +</ul> + +<p> </p> + +<h4>THE END.</h4> + + +<hr /> + +<p class="centre">WYMAN AND SONS, PRINTERS, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LONDON, W.C.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4><a name="transcript" id="transcript"></a>Transcriber's note:</h4> +<h4>Unicode characters transcribed.</h4> + + +<p class="note">In the following, characters with macrons have been transcribed +as [=x], and those with breve accents as [)x].<br /> +Click <a href="#note">here</a> to return to the text.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;">The simple vowels, as a rule, have their continental pronunciation, +approximately thus: <i>[=a]</i> as in <i>father</i>, <i>[)a]</i> as in <i>ask</i>; <i>[=e]</i> as in +<i>there</i>, <i>[)e]</i> as in <i>men</i>; <i>[=i]</i> as in +<i>marine</i>, <i>[)i]</i> as <i>fit</i>; <i>[=o]</i> as +in <i>note</i>, <i>[)o]</i> as in <i>not</i>; <i>[=u]</i> +as in <i>brute</i>, <i>[)u]</i> as in <i>full</i>; <i>[=y]</i> +as in <i>grün</i> (German), <i>[)y]</i> as in <i>hübsch</i> (German). +</p> + +<p> </p> + +<pre> + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Early Britain, by Grant Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EARLY BRITAIN *** + +***** This file should be named 16790-h.htm or 16790-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/9/16790/ + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Annika Feilbach and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> + + diff --git a/16790-h/images/map.jpg b/16790-h/images/map.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff1adcb --- /dev/null +++ b/16790-h/images/map.jpg diff --git a/16790-h/images/map_small.jpg b/16790-h/images/map_small.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e826749 --- /dev/null +++ b/16790-h/images/map_small.jpg diff --git a/16790.txt b/16790.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3782872 --- /dev/null +++ b/16790.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6556 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Early Britain, by Grant Allen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Early Britain + Anglo-Saxon Britain + +Author: Grant Allen + +Release Date: October 2, 2005 [EBook #16790] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EARLY BRITAIN *** + + + + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Annika Feilbach and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +[Illustration: BRITAIN IN A.D. 500] + + +EARLY BRITAIN. + + + +ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN. + +BY + +GRANT ALLEN, B.A. + + + +PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND +EDUCATION APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. + + +LONDON: +SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, +NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, S.W.; +43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.; 48, PICCADILLY, W.; +AND 135, NORTH STREET, BRIGHTON. + +NEW YORK: E. & J.B. YOUNG & CO. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +This little book is an attempt to give a brief sketch of Britain under +the early English conquerors, rather from the social than from the +political point of view. For that purpose not much has been said about +the doings of kings and statesmen; but attention has been mainly +directed towards the less obvious evidence afforded us by existing +monuments as to the life and mode of thought of the people themselves. +The principal object throughout has been to estimate the importance of +those elements in modern British life which are chiefly due to purely +English or Low-Dutch influences. + +The original authorities most largely consulted have been, first and +above all, the "English Chronicle," and to an almost equal extent, +Baeda's "Ecclesiastical History." These have been supplemented, where +necessary, by Florence of Worcester and the other Latin writers of later +date. I have not thought it needful, however, to repeat any of the +gossiping stories from William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon, and +their compeers, which make up the bulk of our early history as told in +most modern books. Still less have I paid any attention to the romances +of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Gildas, Nennius, and the other Welsh tracts +have been sparingly employed, and always with a reference by name. Asser +has been used with caution, where his information seems to be really +contemporary. I have also derived some occasional hints from the old +British bards, from _Beowulf_, from the laws, and from the charters in +the "Codex Diplomaticus." These written documents have been helped out +by some personal study of the actual early English relics preserved in +various museums, and by the indirect evidence of local nomenclature. + +Among modern books, I owe my acknowledgments in the first and highest +degree to Dr. E.A. Freeman, from whose great and just authority, +however, I have occasionally ventured to differ in some minor matters. +Next, my acknowledgments are due to Canon Stubbs, to Mr. Kemble, and to +Mr. J.R. Green. Dr. Guest's valuable papers in the Transactions of the +Archaeological Institute have supplied many useful suggestions. To +Lappenberg and Sir Francis Palgrave I am also indebted for various +details. Professor Rolleston's contributions to "Archaeologia," as well +as his Appendix to Canon Greenwell's "British Barrows," have been +consulted for anthropological and antiquarian points; on which also +Professor Huxley and Mr. Akerman have published useful papers. Professor +Boyd Dawkins's work on "Early Man in Britain," as well as the writings +of Worsaae and Steenstrup have helped in elucidating the condition of +the English at the date of the Conquest. Nor must I forget the aid +derived from Mr. Isaac Taylor's "Words and Places," from Professor +Henry Morley's "English Literature," and from Messrs. Haddan and Stubbs' +"Councils." To Mr. Gomme, Mr. E.B. Tylor, Mr. Sweet, Mr. James Collier, +Dr. H. Leo, and perhaps others, I am under various obligations; and if +any acknowledgments have been overlooked, I trust the injured person +will forgive me when I have had already to quote so many authorities for +so small a book. The popular character of the work renders it +undesirable to load the pages with footnotes of reference; and scholars +will generally see for themselves the source of the information given in +the text. + +Personally, my thanks are due to my friend, Mr. York Powell, for much +valuable aid and assistance, and to the Rev. E. McClure, one of the +Society's secretaries, for his kind revision of the volume in proof, and +for several suggestions of which I have gladly availed myself. + +As various early English names and phrases occur throughout the book, it +will be best, perhaps, to say a few words about their pronunciation +here, rather than to leave over that subject to the chapter on the +Anglo-Saxon language, near the close of the work. A few notes on this +matter are therefore appended below. + + [Transcriber's note: For this Latin-1 version, macrons have + been marked as [=x], and breve accents as [)x]. See the + Unicode version for a proper rendering of these accents.] + +The simple vowels, as a rule, have their continental pronunciation, +approximately thus: [=a] as in _father_, [)a] as in _ask_; [=e] as in +_there_, [)e] as in _men_; [=i] as in _marine_, [)i] as _fit_; [=o] as +in _note_, [)o] as in _not_; [=u] as in _brute_, [)u] as in _full_; [=y] +as in _gruen_ (German), [)y] as in _huebsch_ (German). The quantity of +the vowels is not marked in this work. _AE_ is not a diphthong, but a +simple vowel sound, the same as our own short _a_ in _man_, _that_, &c. +_Ea_ is pronounced like _ya_. _C_ is always hard, like _k_; and _g_ is +also always hard, as in _begin_: they must _never_ be pronounced like +_s_ or _j_. The other consonants have the same values as in modern +English. No vowel or consonant is ever mute. Hence we get the following +approximate pronunciations: AElfred and AEthelred, as if written Alfred +and Athelred; AEthelstan and Dunstan, as Athelstahn and Doonstahn; +Eadwine and Oswine, nearly as Yahd-weena and Ose-weena; Wulfsige and +Sigeberht, as Wolf-seeg-a and Seeg-a-bayrt; Ceolred and Cynewulf, as +Keole-red and Kuene-wolf. These approximations look a little absurd when +written down in the only modern phonetic equivalents; but that is the +fault of our own existing spelling, not of the early English names +themselves. + +G.A. + + + + + +ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH. + + +At a period earlier than the dawn of written history there lived +somewhere among the great table-lands and plains of Central Asia a race +known to us only by the uncertain name of Aryans. These Aryans were a +fair-skinned and well-built people, long past the stage of aboriginal +savagery, and possessed of a considerable degree of primitive culture. +Though mainly pastoral in habit, they were acquainted with tillage, and +they grew for themselves at least one kind of cereal grain. They spoke a +language whose existence and nature we infer from the remnants of it +which survive in the tongues of their descendants, and from these +remnants we are able to judge, in some measure, of their civilisation +and their modes of thought. The indications thus preserved for us show +the Aryans to have been a simple and fierce community of early warriors, +farmers, and shepherds, still in a partially nomad condition, living +under a patriarchal rule, originally ignorant of all metals save gold, +but possessing weapons and implements of stone,[1] and worshipping as +their chief god the open heaven. We must not regard them as an idyllic +and peaceable people: on the contrary, they were the fiercest and most +conquering tribe ever known. In mental power and in plasticity of +manners, however, they probably rose far superior to any race then +living, except only the Semitic nations of the Mediterranean coast. + + [1] Professor Boyd Dawkins has shown that the Continental + Celts were still in their stone age when they invaded + Europe; whence we must conclude that the original Aryans + were unacquainted with the use of bronze. + +From the common Central Asian home, colonies of warlike Aryans gradually +dispersed themselves, still in the pre-historic period, under pressure +of population or hostile invasion, over many districts of Europe and +Asia. Some of them moved southward, across the passes of Afghanistan, +and occupied the fertile plains of the Indus and the Ganges, where they +became the ancestors of the Brahmans and other modern high-caste +Hindoos. The language which they took with them to their new settlements +beyond the Himalayas was the Sanskrit, which still remains to this day +the nearest of all dialects that we now possess to the primitive Aryan +speech. From it are derived the chief modern tongues of northern India, +from the Vindhyas to the Hindu Kush. Other Aryan tribes settled in the +mountain districts west of Hindustan; and yet others found themselves a +home in the hills of Iran or Persia, where they still preserve an allied +dialect of the ancient mother tongue. + +But the mass of the emigrants from the Central Asian fatherland moved +further westward in successive waves, and occupied, one after another, +the midland plains and mountainous peninsulas of Europe. First of all, +apparently, came the Celts, who spread slowly across the South of Russia +and Germany, and who are found at the dawn of authentic history +extending over the entire western coasts and islands of the continent, +from Spain to Scotland. Mingled in many places with the still earlier +non-Aryan aborigines--perhaps Iberians and Euskarians, a short and +swarthy race, armed only with weapons of polished stone, and represented +at the present day by the Basques of the Pyrenees and the Asturias--the +Celts held rule in Spain, Gaul, and Britain, up to the date of the +several Roman conquests. A second great wave of Aryan immigration, that +of the Hellenic and Italian races, broke over the shores of the _AEgean_ +and the Adriatic, where their cognate languages have become familiar to +us in the two extreme and typical forms of the classical Greek and +Latin. A third wave was that of the Teutonic or German people, who +followed and drove out the Celts over a large part of central and +western Europe; while a fourth and final swarm was that of the Slavonic +tribes, which still inhabit only the extreme eastern portion of the +continent. + +With the Slavonians we shall have nothing to do in this enquiry; and +with the Greek and Italian races we need only deal very incidentally. +But the Celts, whom the English invaders found in possession of all +Britain when they began their settlements in the island, form the +subject of another volume in this series, and will necessarily call for +some small portion of our attention here also; while it is to the +Germanic race that the English stock itself actually belongs, so that we +must examine somewhat more closely the course of Germanic immigration +through Europe, and the nature of the primitive Teutonic civilisation. + +The Germanic family of peoples consisted of a race which early split up +into two great hordes or stocks, speaking dialects which differed +slightly from one another through the action of the various +circumstances to which they were each exposed. These two stocks are the +High German and the Low German (with which last may be included the +Gothic and the Scandinavian). Moving across Europe from east to west, +they slowly drove out the Celts from Germany and the central plains, and +took possession of the whole district between the Alps, the Rhine, and +the Baltic, which formed their limits at the period when they first came +into contact with the Roman power. The Goths, living in closest +proximity to the empire, fell upon it during the decline and decay of +Rome, settled in Italy, Gaul, and Spain, and becoming absorbed in the +mass of the native population, disappear altogether from history as a +distinguishable nationality. But the High and Low Germans retain to the +present day their distinctive language and features; and the latter +branch, to which the English people belong, still lives for the most +part in the same lands which it has held ever since the date of the +early Germanic immigration. + +The Low Germans, in the third century after Christ, occupied in the main +the belt of flat country between the Baltic and the mouths of the Rhine. +Between them and the old High German Swabians lay a race intermediate in +tongue and blood, the Franks. The Low Germans were divided, like most +other barbaric races, into several fluctuating and ill-marked tribes, +whose names are loosely and perhaps interchangeably used by the few +authorities which remain to us. We must not expect to find among them +the definiteness of modern civilised nations, but rather such a +vagueness as that which characterised the loose confederacies of North +American Indians or the various shifting peoples of South Africa. But +there are three of their tribes which stand fairly well marked off from +one another in early history, and which bore, at least, the chief share +in the colonisation of Britain. These three tribes are the Jutes, the +English, and the Saxons. Closely connected with them, but less strictly +bound in the same family tie, were the Frisians. + +The Jutes, the northernmost of the three divisions, lived in the marshy +forests and along the winding fjords of Jutland, the extreme peninsula +of Denmark, which still preserves their name in our own day. The English +dwelt just to the south, in the heath-clad neck of the peninsula, which +we now call Sleswick. And the Saxons, a much larger tribe, occupied the +flat continental shore, from the mouth of the Oder to that of the Rhine. +At the period when history lifts the curtain upon the future Germanic +colonists of Britain, we thus discover them as the inhabitants of the +low-lying lands around the Baltic and the North Sea, and closely +connected with other tribes on either side, such as the Frisians and the +Danes, who still speak very cognate Low German and Scandinavian +languages. + +But we have not yet fully grasped the extent of the relationship between +the first Teutonic settlers in Britain and their continental brethren. +Not only are the true Englishmen of modern England distantly connected +with the Franks, who never to our knowledge took part in the +colonisation of the island at all; and more closely connected with the +Frisians, some of whom probably accompanied the earliest piratical +hordes; as well as with the Danes, who settled at a later date in all +the northern counties: but they are also most closely connected of all +with those members of the colonising tribes who did not themselves bear +a share in the settlement, and whose descendants are still living in +Denmark and in various parts of Germany. The English proper, it is true, +seem to have deserted their old home in Sleswick in a body; so that, +according to Baeda, the Christian historian of Northumberland, in his +time this oldest England by the shores of the Baltic lay waste and +unpeopled, through the completeness of the exodus. But the Jutes appear +to have migrated in small numbers, while the larger part of the tribe +remained at home in their native marshland; and of the more numerous +Saxons, though a great swarm went out to conquer southern Britain, a +vast body was still left behind in Germany, where it continued +independent and pagan till the time of Karl the Great, long after the +Teutonic colonists of Britain had grown into peaceable and civilised +Christians. It is from the statements of later historians with regard to +these continental Saxons that our knowledge of the early English customs +and institutions, during the continental period of English history, must +be mainly inferred. We gather our picture of the English and Saxons who +first came to this country from the picture drawn for us of those among +their brethren whom they left behind in the primitive English home. + +These three tribes, the Jutes, the English, and the Saxons, had not yet, +apparently, advanced far enough in the idea of national unity to possess +a separate general name, distinguishing them altogether from the other +tribes of the Germanic stock. Most probably they did not regard +themselves at this period as a single nation at all, or even as more +closely bound to one another than to the surrounding and kindred tribes. +They may have united at times for purposes of a special war; but their +union was merely analogous to that of two North American peoples, or two +modern European nations, pursuing a common policy for awhile. At a later +date, in Britain, the three tribes learned to call themselves +collectively by the name of that one among them which earliest rose to +supremacy--the English; and the whole southern half of the island came +to be known by their name as England. Even from the first it seems +probable that their language was spoken of as English only, and +comparatively little as Saxon. But since it would be inconvenient to use +the name of one dominant tribe alone, the English, as equivalent to +those of the three, and since it is desirable to have a common title for +all the Germanic colonists of Britain, whenever it is necessary to speak +of them together, we shall employ the late and, strictly speaking, +incorrect form of "Anglo-Saxons" for this purpose. Similarly, in order +to distinguish the earliest pure form of the English language from its +later modern form, now largely enriched and altered by the addition of +Romance or Latin words and the disuse of native ones, we shall always +speak of it, where distinction is necessary, as Anglo-Saxon. The term is +now too deeply rooted in our language to be again uprooted; and it has, +besides, the merit of supplying a want. At the same time, it should be +remembered that the expression Anglo-Saxon is purely artificial, and was +never used by the people themselves in describing their fellows or their +tongue. When they did not speak of themselves as Jutes, English, and +Saxons respectively, they spoke of themselves as English alone. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE ENGLISH BY THE SHORES OF THE BALTIC. + + +From the notices left us by Baeda in Britain, and by Nithard and others +on the continent, of the habits and manners which distinguished those +Saxons who remained in the old fatherland, we are able to form some idea +of the primitive condition of those other Saxons, English, and Jutes, +who afterwards colonized Britain, during the period while they still all +lived together in the heather-clad wastes and marshy lowlands of Denmark +and Northern Germany. The early heathen poem of _Beowulf_ also gives us +a glimpse of their ideas and their mode of thought. The known physical +characteristics of the race, the nature of the country which they +inhabited, the analogy of other Germanic tribes, and the recent +discoveries of pre-historic archaeology, all help us to piece out a +fairly consistent picture of their appearance, their manner of life, and +their rude political institutions. + +We must begin by dismissing from our minds all those modern notions +which are almost inevitably implied by the use of language directly +derived from that of our heathen ancestors, but now mixed up in our +conceptions with the most advanced forms of European civilisation. We +must not allow such words as "king" and "English" to mislead us into a +species of filial blindness to the real nature of our Teutonic +forefathers. The little community of wild farmers and warriors who lived +among the dim woodlands of Sleswick, beside the swampy margin of the +North Sea, has grown into the nucleus of a vast empire, only very +partially Germanic in blood, and enriched by all the alien culture of +Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and Rome. But as it still preserves the +identical tongue of its early barbarous days, we are naturally tempted +to read our modern acquired feelings into the simple but familiar terms +employed by our continental predecessors. What the early English called +a king we should now-a-days call a chief; what they called a meeting of +wise men we should now-a-days call a palaver. In fact, we must recollect +that we are dealing with a purely barbaric race--not savage, indeed, nor +without a certain rude culture of its own, the result of long centuries +of previous development; yet essentially military and predatory in its +habits, and akin in its material civilisation to many races which we now +regard as immeasurably our inferiors. If we wish for a modern equivalent +of the primitive Anglo-Saxon level of culture, we may perhaps best find +it in the Kurds of the Turkish and Persian frontier, or in the Mahrattas +of the wild mountain region of the western Deccan. + +The early English in Sleswick and Friesland had partially reached the +agricultural stage of civilisation. They tilled little plots of ground +in the forest; but they depended more largely for subsistence upon their +cattle, and they were also hunters and trappers in the great belts of +woodland or marsh which everywhere surrounded their isolated villages. +They were acquainted with the use of bronze from the first period of +their settlement in Europe, and some of the battle-axes or shields which +they manufactured from this metal were beautifully chased with exquisite +decorative patterns, equalling in taste the ornamental designs still +employed by the Polynesian islanders. Such weapons, however, were +doubtless intended for the use of the chieftains only, and were probably +employed as insignia of rank alone. They are still discovered in the +barrows which cover the remains of the early chieftains; though it is +possible that they may really belong to the monuments of a yet earlier +race. But iron was certainly employed by the English, at least, from +about the first century of the Christian era, and its use was perhaps +introduced into the marshlands of Sleswick by the Germanic conquerors of +the north. Even at this early date, abundant proof exists of mercantile +intercourse with the Roman world (probably through Pannonia), whereby +the alien culture of the south was already engrafted in part upon the +low civilisation of the native English. Amber was then exported from the +Baltic, while gold, silver, and glass beads were given in return. Roman +coins are discovered in Low German tombs of the first five centuries in +Sleswick, Holstein, Friesland, and the Isles; and Roman patterns are +imitated in the iron weapons and utensils of the same period. Gold +byzants of the fifth century prove an intercourse with Constantinople +at the exact date of the colonisation of Britain. From the very earliest +moment when we catch a glimpse of its nature, the home-grown English +culture had already begun to be modified by the superior arts of Rome. +Even the alphabet was known and used in its Runic form, though the +absence of writing materials caused its employment to be restricted to +inscriptions on wooden tablets, on rude stone monuments, or on utensils +of metal-work. A golden drinking-horn found in Sleswick, and engraved +with the maker's name, referred to the middle of the fourth century, +contains the earliest known specimen of the English language. + +The early English society was founded entirely on the tie of blood. +Every clan or family lived by itself and formed a guild for mutual +protection, each kinsman being his brother's keeper, and bound to avenge +his death by feud with the tribe or clan which had killed him. This duty +of blood-revenge was the supreme religion of the race. Moreover, the +clan was answerable as a whole for the ill-deeds of all its members; and +the fine payable for murder or injury was handed over by the family of +the wrong-doer to the family of the injured man. + +Each little village of the old English community possessed a general +independence of its own, and lay apart from all the others, often +surrounded by a broad belt or mark of virgin forest. It consisted of a +clearing like those of the American backwoods, where a single family or +kindred had made its home, and preserved its separate independence +intact. Each of these families was known by the name of its real or +supposed ancestor, the patronymic being formed by the addition of the +syllable _ing_. Thus the descendants of AElla would be called AEllings, +and their _ham_ or stockade would be known as AEllingaham, or in modern +form Allingham. So the _tun_ or enclosure of the Culmings would be +Culmingatun, similarly modernised into Culmington. Names of this type +abound in the newer England at the present day; as in the case of +Birmingham, Buckingham, Wellington, Kensington, Basingstoke, and +Paddington. But while in America the clearing is merely a temporary +phase, and the border of forest is soon cut down so as to connect the +village with its neighbours, in the old Anglo-Saxon fatherland the +border of woodland, heath, or fen was jealously guarded as a frontier +and natural defence for the little predatory and agricultural community. +Whoever crossed it was bound to give notice of his coming by blowing a +horn; else he was cut down at once as a stealthy enemy. The marksmen +wished to remain separate from all others, and only to mix with those of +their own kin. In this primitive love of separation we have the germ of +that local independence and that isolated private home life which is one +of the most marked characteristics of modern Englishmen. + +In the middle of the clearing, surrounded by a wooden stockade, stood +the village, a group of rude detached huts. The marksmen each possessed +a separate little homestead, consisting usually of a small wooden house +or shanty, a courtyard, and a cattle-fold. So far, private property in +land had already begun. But the forest and the pasture land were not +appropriated: each man had a right from year to year to let loose his +kine or horses on a certain equal or proportionate space of land +assigned to him by the village in council. The wealth of the people +consisted mainly in cattle which fed on the pasture, and pigs turned out +to fatten on the acorns of the forest: but a small portion of the soil +was ploughed and sown; and this portion also was distributed to the +villagers for tillage by annual arrangement. The hall of the chief rose +in the midst of the lesser houses, open to all comers. The village moot, +or assembly of freemen, met in the open air, under some sacred tree, or +beside some old monumental stone, often a relic of the older aboriginal +race, marking the tomb of a dead chieftain, but worshipped as a god by +the English immigrants. At these informal meetings, every head of a +family had a right to appear and deliberate. The primitive English +constitution was a pure republican aristocracy or oligarchy of +householders, like that which still survives in the Swiss forest +cantons. + +But there were yet distinctions of rank in the villages and in the loose +tribes formed by their union for purposes of war or otherwise. The +people were divided into three classes of _aethelings_ or chieftains, +_freolings_ or freemen, and _theows_ or slaves. The _aethelings_ were the +nobles and rulers of each tribe. There was no king: but when the tribes +joined together in a war, their _aethelings_ cast lots together, and +whoever drew the winning lot was made commander for the time being. As +soon as the war was over, each tribe returned to its own independence. +Indeed, the only really coherent body was the village or kindred: and +the whole course of early English history consists of a long and tedious +effort at increased national unity, which was never fully realised till +the Norman conquerors bound the whole nation together in the firm grasp +of William, Henry, and Edward. + +In personal appearance, the primitive Anglo-Saxons were typical Germans +of very unmixed blood. Tall, fair-haired, and gray-eyed, their limbs +were large and stout, and their heads of the round or brachycephalic +type, common to most Aryan races. They did not intermarry with other +nations, preserving their Germanic blood pure and unadulterated. But as +they had slaves, and as these slaves must in many cases have been +captives spared in war, we must suppose that such descriptions apply, +strictly speaking, to the freemen and chieftains alone. The slaves might +be of any race, and in process of time they must have learnt to speak +English, and their children must have become English in all but blood. +Many of them, indeed, would probably be actually English on the father's +side, though born of slave mothers. Hence we must be careful not to +interpret the expressions of historians, who would be thinking of the +free classes only, and especially of the nobles, as though they applied +to the slaves as well. Wherever slavery exists, the blood of the slave +community is necessarily very mixed. The picture which the heathen +English have drawn of themselves in _Beowulf_ is one of savage pirates, +clad in shirts of ring-armour, and greedy of gold and ale. Fighting and +drinking are their two delights. The noblest leader is he who builds a +great hall, throws it open for his people to carouse in, and liberally +deals out beer, and bracelets, and money at the feast. The joy of battle +is keen in their breasts. The sea and the storm are welcome to them. +They are fearless and greedy pirates, not ashamed of living by the +strong hand alone. + +In creed, the English were pagans, having a religion of beliefs rather +than of rites. Their chief deity, perhaps, was a form of the old Aryan +Sky-god, who took with them the guise of Thunor or Thunder (in +Scandinavian, Thor), an angry warrior hurling his hammer, the +thunder-bolt, from the stormy clouds. These thunder-bolts were often +found buried in the earth; and being really the polished stone-axes of +the earlier inhabitants, they do actually resemble a hammer in shape. +But Woden, the special god of the Teutonic race, had practically usurped +the highest place in their mythology: he is represented as the leader of +the Germans in their exodus from Asia to north-western Europe, and since +all the pedigrees of their chieftains were traced back to Woden, it is +not improbable that he may have been really a deified ancestor of the +principal Germanic families. The popular creed, however, was mainly one +of lesser gods, such as elves, ogres, giants, and monsters, inhabitants +of the mark and fen, stories of whom still survive in English villages +as folk-lore or fairy tales. A few legends of the pagan time are +preserved for us in Christian books. _Beowulf_ is rich in allusions to +these ancient superstitions. If we may build upon the slender materials +which alone are available, it would seem that the dead chieftains were +buried in barrows, and ghost-worship was practised at their tombs. The +temples were mere stockades of wood, with rude blocks or monoliths to +represent deities and altars. Probably their few rites consisted merely +of human or other sacrifices to the gods or the ghosts of departed +chiefs. There was a regular priesthood of the great gods, but each man +was priest for his own household. As in most other heathen communities, +the real worship of the people was mainly directed to the special family +deities of every hearth. The great gods were appealed to by the +chieftains and by the race in battle: but the household gods or deified +ancestors received the chief homage of the churls by their own +firesides. + +Thus the Anglo-Saxons, before the great exodus from Denmark and North +Germany, appear as a race of fierce, cruel, and barbaric pagans, +delighting in the sea, in slaughter, and in drink. They dwelt in little +isolated communities, bound together internally by ties of blood, and +uniting occasionally with others only for purposes of rapine. They lived +a life which mainly alternated between grazing, piratical seafaring, and +cattle-lifting; always on the war-trail against the possessions of +others, when they were not specially engaged in taking care of their +own. Every record and every indication shows them to us as fiercer +heathen prototypes of the Scotch clans in the most lawless days of the +Highlands. Incapable of union for any peaceful purpose at home, they +learned their earliest lesson of subordination in their piratical +attacks upon the civilised Christian community of Roman Britain. We +first meet with them in history in the character of destroyers and +sea-robbers. Yet they possessed already in their wild marshy home the +germs of those free institutions which have made the history of England +unique amongst the nations of Europe. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE ENGLISH SETTLE IN BRITAIN. + + +Proximity to the sea turns robbers into corsairs. When predatory tribes +reach the seaboard they always take to piracy, provided they have +attained the shipbuilding level of culture. In the ancient AEgean, in the +Malay Archipelago, in the China seas, we see the same process always +taking place. Probably from the first period of their severance from the +main Aryan stock in Central Asia, the Low German race and their +ancestors had been a predatory and conquering people, for ever engaged +in raids and smouldering warfare with their neighbours. When they +reached the Baltic and the islands of the Frisian coast, they grew +naturally into a nation of pirates. Even during the bronze age, we find +sculptured stones with representations of long row-boats, manned by +several oarsmen, and in one or two cases actually bearing a rude sail. +Their prows and sterns stand high out of the water, and are adorned with +intricate carvings. They seem like the predecessors of the long +ships--snakes and sea-dragons--which afterwards bore the northern +corsairs into every river of Europe. Such boats, adapted for long +sea-voyages, show a considerable intercourse, piratical or commercial, +between the Anglo-Saxon or Scandinavian North and other distant +countries. Certainly, from the earliest days of Roman rule on the German +Ocean to the thirteenth century, the Low Dutch and Scandinavian tribes +carried on an almost unbroken course of expeditions by sea, beginning in +every case with mere descents upon the coast for the purposes of +plunder, but ending, as a rule, with regular colonisation or political +supremacy. In this manner the people of the Baltic and the North Sea +ravaged or settled in every country on the sea-shore, from Orkney, +Shetland, and the Faroes, to Normandy, Apulia, and Greece; from Boulogne +and Kent, to Iceland, Greenland, and, perhaps, America. The colonisation +of South-Eastern Britain was but the first chapter in this long history +of predatory excursions on the part of the Low German peoples. + +The piratical ships of the early English were row-boats of very simple +construction. We actually possess one undoubted specimen at the present +day, whose very date is fixed for us by the circumstances of its +discovery. It was dug up, some years since, from a peat-bog in Sleswick, +the old England of our forefathers, along with iron arms and implements, +and in association with Roman coins ranging in date from A.D. 67 to A.D. +217. It may therefore be pretty confidently assigned to the first half +of the third century. In this interesting relic, then, we have one of +the identical boats in which the descents upon the British coast were +first made. The craft is rudely built of oaken boards, and is seventy +feet long by nine broad. The stem and stern are alike in shape, and the +boat is fitted for being beached upon the foreshore. A sculptured stone +at Haeggeby, in Uplande, roughly represents for us such a ship under way, +probably of about the same date. It is rowed with twelve pairs of oars, +and has no sails; and it contains no other persons but the rowers and a +coxswain, who acted doubtless as leader of the expedition. Such a boat +might convey about 120 fighting men. + +There are some grounds for believing that, even before the establishment +of the Roman power in Britain, Teutonic pirates from the northern +marshlands were already in the habit of plundering the Celtic +inhabitants of the country between the Wash and the mouth of the Thames; +and it is possible that an English colony may, even then, have +established itself in the modern Lincolnshire. But, be this as it may, +we know at least that during the period of the Roman occupation, Low +German adventurers were constantly engaged in descending upon the +exposed coasts of the English Channel and the North Sea. The Low German +tribe nearest to the Roman provinces was that of the Saxons, and +accordingly these Teutonic pirates, of whatever race, were known as +Saxons by the provincials, and all Englishmen are still so called by the +modern Celts, in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. + +The outlying Roman provinces were close at hand, easy to reach, rich, +ill-defended, and a tempting prey for the barbaric tribesmen of the +north. Setting out in their light open skiffs from the islands at the +mouth of the Elbe, or off the shore afterwards submerged in what is now +the Zuyder Zee, the English or Saxon pirates crossed the sea with the +prevalent north-east wind, and landed all along the provincial coasts of +Gaul and Britain. As the empire decayed under the assaults of the Goths, +their ravages turned into regular settlements. One great body pillaged, +age after age, the neighbourhood of Bayeux, where, before the middle of +the fifth century, it established a flourishing colony, and where the +towns and villages all still bear names of Saxon origin. Another horde +first plundered and then took up its abode near Boulogne, where local +names of the English patronymic type also abound to the present day. In +Britain itself, at a date not later than the end of the fourth century, +we find (in the "Notitia Imperil") an officer who bears the title of +Count of the Saxon Shore, and whose jurisdiction extended from +Lincolnshire to Southampton Water. The title probably indicates that +piratical incursions had already set in on Britain, and the duty of the +count was most likely that of repelling the English invaders. + +As soon as the Romans found themselves compelled to withdraw their +garrison from Britain, leaving the provinces to defend themselves as +best they might, the temptation to the English pirates became a thousand +times stronger than before. Though the so-called history of the +conquest, handed down to us by Baeda and the "English Chronicle,"[1] is +now considered by many enquirers to be mythical in almost every +particular, the facts themselves speak out for us with unhesitating +certainty. We know that about the middle of the fifth century, shortly +after the withdrawal of the regular Roman troops, several bodies of +heathen Anglo-Saxons, belonging to the three tribes of Jutes, English, +and Saxons, settled _en masse_ on the south-eastern shores of Britain, +from the Firth of Forth to the Isle of Wight. The age of mere plundering +descents was decisively over, and the age of settlement and colonisation +had set in. These heathen Anglo-Saxons drove away, exterminated, or +enslaved the Romanised and Christianised Celts, broke down every vestige +of Roman civilisation, destroyed the churches, burnt the villas, laid +waste many of the towns, and re-introduced a long period of pagan +barbarism. For a while Britain remains enveloped in an age of complete +uncertainty, and heathen myths intervene between the Christian +historical period of the Romans and the Christian historical period +initiated by the conversion of Kent. Of South-Eastern Britain under the +pagan Anglo-Saxons we know practically nothing, save by inference and +analogy, or by the scanty evidence of archaeology. + + [1] For an account of these two main authorities see further + on, Baeda in chapter xi., and the "Chronicle" in chapter + xviii. + +According to tradition the Jutes came first. In 449, says the Celtic +legend (the date is quite untrustworthy), they landed in Kent, where +they first settled in Ruim, which we English call Thanet--then really an +island, and gradually spread themselves over the mainland, capturing the +great Roman fortress of Rochester and coast land as far as London. +Though the details of this story are full of mythical absurdities, the +analogy of the later Danish colonies gives it an air of great +probability, as the Danes always settled first in islands or peninsulas, +and thence proceeded to overrun, and finally to annex, the adjacent +district. A second Jutish horde established itself in the Isle of Wight +and on the opposite shore of Hampshire. But the whole share borne by the +Jutes in the settlement of Britain seems to have been but small. + +The Saxons came second in time, if we may believe the legends. In 477, +AElle, with his three sons, is said to have landed on the south coast, +where he founded the colony of the South Saxons, or Sussex. In 495, +Cerdic and Cynric led another kindred horde to the south-western shore, +and made the first settlement of the West Saxons, or Wessex. Of the +beginnings of the East Saxon community in Essex, and of the Middle +Saxons in Middlesex, we know little, even by tradition. The Saxons +undoubtedly came over in large numbers; but a considerable body of their +fellow-tribesmen still remained upon the Continent, where they were +still independent and unconverted up to the time of Karl the Great. + +The English, on the other hand, apparently migrated in a body. There is +no trace of any Englishmen in Denmark or Germany after the exodus to +Britain. Their language, of which a dialect still survives in Friesland, +has utterly died out in Sleswick. The English took for their share of +Britain the nearest east coast. We have little record of their arrival, +even in the legendary story; we merely learn that in 547, Ida "succeeded +to the kingdom" of the Northumbrians, whence we may possibly conclude +that the colony was already established. The English settlement extended +from the Forth to Essex, and was subdivided into Bernicia, Deira, and +East Anglia. + +Wherever the Anglo-Saxons came, their first work was to stamp out with +fire and sword every trace of the Roman civilisation. Modern +investigations amongst pagan Anglo-Saxon barrows in Britain show the Low +German race as pure barbarians, great at destruction, but incapable of +constructive work. Professor Rolleston, who has opened several of these +early heathen tombs of our Teutonic ancestors, finds in them everywhere +abundant evidence of "their great aptness at destroying, and their great +slowness in elaborating, material civilisation." Until the Anglo-Saxon +received from the Continent the Christian religion and the Roman +culture, he was a mere average Aryan barbarian, with a strong taste for +war and plunder, but with small love for any of the arts of peace. +Wherever else, in Gaul, Spain, or Italy, the Teutonic barbarians came in +contact with the Roman civilisation, they received the religion of +Christ, and the arts of the conquered people, during or before their +conquest of the country. But in Britain the Teutonic invaders remained +pagans long after their settlement in the island; and they utterly +destroyed, in the south-eastern tract, almost every relic of the Roman +rule and of the Christian faith. Hence we have here the curious fact +that, during the fifth and sixth centuries, a belt of intrusive and +aggressive heathendom intervenes between the Christians of the Continent +and the Christian Welsh and Irish of western Britain. The Church of the +Celtic Welsh was cut off for more than a hundred years from the Churches +of the Roman world by a hostile and impassable barrier of heathen +English, Jutes, and Saxons. Their separation produced many momentous +effects on the after history both of the Welsh themselves and of their +English conquerors. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE COLONISATION OF THE COAST. + + +Though the myths which surround the arrival of the English in Britain +have little historical value, they are yet interesting for the light +which they throw incidentally upon the habits and modes of thought of +the colonists. They have one character in common with all other legends, +that they grow fuller and more circumstantial the further they proceed +from the original time. Baeda, who wrote about A.D. 700, gives them in a +very meagre form: the English Chronicle, compiled at the court of +AElfred, about A.D. 900, adds several important traditional particulars: +while with the romantic Geoffrey of Monmouth, A.D. 1152, they assume the +character of full and circumstantial tales. The less men knew about the +conquest, the more they had to tell about it. + +Among the most sacred animals of the Aryan race was the horse. Even in +the Indian epics, the sacrifice of a horse was the highest rite of the +primitive religion. Tacitus tells us that the Germans kept sacred white +horses at the public expense, in the groves and woods of the gods: and +that from their neighings and snortings, auguries were taken. Amongst +the people of the northern marshlands, the white horse seems to have +been held in especial honour, and to this day a white horse rampant +forms the cognisance of Hanover and Brunswick. The English settlers +brought this, their national emblem, with them to Britain, and cut its +figure on the chalk downs as they advanced westward, to mark the +progress of their conquest. The white horses on the Berkshire and +Wiltshire hills still bear witness to their settlement. A white horse is +even now the symbol of Kent. Hence it is not surprising to learn that in +the legendary story of the first colonisation, the Jutish leaders who +led the earliest Teutonic host into Thanet should bear the names of +Hengest and Horsa, the stallion and the mare. They came in three +keels--a ridiculously inadequate number, considering their size and the +necessities of a conquering army: and they settled in 449 (for the +legends are always most precise where they are least historical) in the +Isle of Thanet. "A multitude of whelps," says the Welsh monk Gildas, +"came forth from the lair of the barbaric lioness, in three cyuls, as +they call them." Vortigern, King of the Welsh, had invited them to come +to his aid against the Picts of North Britain and the Scots of Ireland, +who were making piratical incursions into the deserted province, left +unprotected through the heavy levies made by the departing Romans. The +Jutes attacked and conquered the Gaels, but then turned against their +Welsh allies. + +In 455, the Jutes advanced from Thanet to conquer the whole of Kent, +"and Hengest and Horsa fought with Vortigern the king," says the English +Chronicle, "at the place that is cleped AEglesthrep; and there men slew +Horsa his brother, and after that Hengest came to rule, and AEsc his +son." One year later, Hengest and AEsc fought once more with the Welsh at +Crayford, "and offslew 4,000 men; and the Britons then forsook +Kent-land, and fled with mickle awe to London-bury." In this account we +may see a dim recollection of the settlement of the two petty Jutish +kingdoms in Kent, with their respective capitals at Canterbury and +Rochester, whose separate dioceses still point back to the two original +principalities. It may be worth while to note, too, that the name AEsc +means the ash-tree; and that this tree was as sacred among plants as the +horse was among animals. + +Nevertheless, a kernel of truth doubtless lingers in the traditional +story. Thanet was afterwards one of the first landing-places of the +Danes: and its isolated position--for a broad belt of sea then separated +the island from the Kentish main--would make it a natural post to be +assigned by the Welsh to their doubtful piratical allies. The inlet was +guarded by the great Roman fortress of Rhutupiae: and after the fall of +that important stronghold, the English may probably have occupied the +principality of East Kent, with its capital of Canterbury. The walls of +Rochester may have held out longer: and the West Kentish kingdom may +well have been founded by two successful battles at the passage of the +Medway and the Cray. + +The legend as to the settlement of Sussex is of much the same sort. In +477, AElle the Saxon came to Britain also with the suspiciously +symmetrical number of three ships. With him came his three sons, Kymen, +Wlencing, and Cissa. These names are obviously invented to account for +those of three important places in the South-Saxon chieftainship. The +host landed at Kymenes ora, probably Keynor, in the Bill of Selsey, +then, as its title imports, a separate island girt round by the tidal +sea: their capital and, in days after the Norman conquest, their +cathedral was at Cissan-ceaster, the Roman Regnum, now Chichester: while +the third name survives in the modern village of Lancing, near Shoreham. +The Saxons at once fought the natives "and offslew many Welsh, and drove +some in flight into the wood that is named Andredes-leag," now the Weald +of Kent and Sussex. A little colony thus occupied the western half of +the modern county: but the eastern portion still remained in the hands +of the Welsh. For awhile the great Roman fortress of Anderida (now +Pevensey) held out against the invaders; until in 491 "AElle and Cissa +beset Anderida, and offslew all that were therein; nor was there after +even one Briton left alive." All Sussex became a single Saxon kingdom, +ringed round by the great forest of the Weald. Here again the obviously +unhistorical character of the main facts throws the utmost doubt upon +the nature of the details. Yet, in this case too, the central idea +itself is likely enough,--that the South Saxons first occupied the +solitary coast islet of Selsey; then conquered the fortress of Regnum +and the western shore as far as Eastbourne; and finally captured +Anderida and the eastern half of the county up to the line of the +Romney marshes. + +Even more improbable is the story of the Saxon settlement on the more +distant portion of the south coast. In 495 "came twain aldermen to +Britain, Cerdic and Cynric his son, with five ships, at that place that +is cleped Cerdices ora, and fought that ilk day with the Welsh." +Clearly, the name of Cerdic may be invented solely to account for the +name of the place: since we see by the sequel that the English freely +imagined such personages as pegs on which to hang their mythical +history.[1] For, six years later, one Port landed at Portsmouth with two +ships, and there slew a Welsh nobleman. But we know positively that the +name of Portsmouth comes from the Latin _Portus_; and therefore Port +must have been simply invented to explain the unknown derivation. Still +more flagrant is the case of Wihtgar, who conquered the Isle of Wight, +and was buried at Wihtgarasbyrig, or Carisbrooke. For the origin of that +name is really quite different: the Wiht-ware or Wiht-gare are the men +of Wight, just as the Cant-ware are the men of Kent: and Wiht-gara-byrig +is the Wight-men's-bury, just as Cant-wara-byrig or Canterbury is the +Kent-men's-bury. Moreover, a double story is told in the Chronicle as to +the original colonisation of Wessex; the first attributing the conquest +to Cerdic and Cynric, and the second to Stuf and Wihtgar. + + [1] Cerdic is apparently a British rather than an English + name, since Baeda mentions a certain "Cerdic, rex Brettonum." + This may have been a Caradoc. Perhaps the first element in + the names Cerdices ora, Cerdices ford, &c., was older than + the English conquest. The legends are invariably connected + with local names. + +The only other existing legend refers to the great English kingdom of +Northumbria: and about it the English Chronicle, which is mainly West +Saxon in origin, merely tells us in dry terms under the year 547, "Here +Ida came to rule." There are no details, even of the meagre kind, +vouchsafed in the south; no account of the conquest of the great Roman +town of York, or of the resistance offered by the powerful Brigantian +tribes. But a fragment of some old Northumbrian tradition, embedded in +the later and spurious Welsh compilation which bears the name of +Nennius, tells us a not improbable tale--that the first settlement on +the coast of the Lothians was made as early as the conquest of Kent, by +Jutes of the same stock as those who colonised Thanet. A hundred years +later, the Welsh poems seem to say, Ida "the flame-bearer," fought his +way down from a petty principality on the Forth, and occupied the whole +Northumbrian coast, in spite of the stubborn guerilla warfare of the +despairing provincials. Still less do we learn about the beginnings of +Mercia, the powerful English kingdom which occupied the midlands; or +about the first colonisation of East Anglia. In short, the legends of +the settlement, unhistorical and meagre as they are, refer only to the +Jutish and Saxon conquests in the south, and tell us nothing at all +about the origin of the main English kingdoms in the north. It is +important to bear in mind this fact, because the current conceptions as +to the spread of the Anglo-Saxon race and the extermination of the +native Welsh are largely based upon the very limited accounts of the +conquest of Kent and Sussex, and the mournful dirges of the Welsh monks +or bards. + +It seems improbable, however, that the north-eastern coast of Britain, +naturally exposed above every other part to the ravages of northern +pirates, and in later days the head-quarters of the Danish intruders in +our island, should so long have remained free from English incursions. +If the Teutonic settlers really first established themselves here a +century later than their conquest of Kent, we can only account for it by +the supposition that York and the Brigantes, the old metropolis of the +provinces, held out far more stubbornly and successfully than Rochester +and Anderida, with their very servile Romanised population. But even the +words of the Chronicle do not necessarily imply that Ida was the first +king of the Northumbrians, or that the settlement of the country took +place in his days.[2] And if they did, we need not feel bound to accept +their testimony, considering that the earliest date we can assign for +the composition of the chronicle is the reign of AElfred: while Baeda, the +earlier native Northumbrian historian, throws no light at all upon the +question. Hence it seems probable that Nennius preserves a truthful +tradition, and that the English settled in the region between the Forth +and the Tyne, at least as early as the Jutes settled in Kent or the +Saxons along the South Coast, from Pevensey Bay to Southampton Water. + + [2] A remarkable passage in the Third Continuator of + Florence mentions Hyring as the first king of Bernicia, + followed by Woden and five other mythical personages, before + Ida. Clearly, this is mere unhistorical guesswork on the + part of the monk of Bury; but it may enclose a genuine + tradition so far as Hyring is concerned. + +If, then, we leave out of consideration the etymological myths and +numerical absurdities of the English or Welsh legends, and look only at +the facts disclosed to us by the subsequent condition of the country, we +shall find that the early Anglo-Saxon settlements took place somewhat +after this wise. In the extreme north, the English apparently did not +care to settle in the rugged mountain country between Aberdeen and +Edinburgh, inhabited by the free and warlike Picts. But from the Firth +of Forth to the borders of Essex, a succession of colonies, belonging to +the restricted English tribe, occupied the whole provincial coast, +burning, plundering, and massacring in many places as they went. First +and northernmost of all came the people whom we know by their Latinised +title of Bernicians, and who descended upon the rocky braes between +Forth and Tyne. These are the English of Ida's kingdom, the modern +Lothians and Northumberland. Their chief town was at Bebbanburh, now +Bamborough, which Ida "timbered, and betyned it with a hedge." Next in +geographical order stood the people of Deira, or Yorkshire, who occupied +the rich agricultural valley of the Ouse, the fertile alluvial tract of +Holderness, and the bleak coast-line from Tyne to Humber. Whether they +conquered the Roman capital of York, or whether it made terms with the +invaders, we do not know; but it is not mentioned as the chief town of +the English kings before the days of Eadwine, under whom the two +Northumbrian chieftainships were united into a single kingdom. However, +as Eadwine assumed some of the imperial Roman trappings, it seems not +unlikely that a portion at least of the Romanised population survived +the conquest. The two principalities probably spread back politically in +most places as far as the watershed which separates the basins of the +German Ocean and the Irish Sea; but the English population seems to have +lived mainly along the coast or in the fertile valley of the Ouse and +its tributaries; for Elmet and Loidis, two Welsh principalities, long +held out in the Leeds district, and the people of the dales and the +inland parts, as we shall see reason hereafter to conclude, even now +show evident marks of Celtic descent. Together the two chieftainships +were generally known by the name of Northumberland, now confined to +their central portion; but it must never be forgotten that the Lothians, +which at present form part of modern Scotland, were originally a portion +of this early English kingdom, and are still, perhaps, more purely +English in blood and speech than any other district in our island. + +From Humber to the Wash was occupied by a second English colony, the men +of Lincolnshire, divided into three minor tribes, one of which, the +Gainas, has left its name to Gainsborough. Here, again, we hear nothing +of the conquest, nor of the means by which the powerful Roman colony of +Lincoln fell into the hands of the English. But the town still retains +its Roman name, and in part its Roman walls; so that we may conclude the +native population was not entirely exterminated. + +East Anglia, as its name imports, was likewise colonised by an English +horde, divided, like the men of Kent, into two minor bodies, the North +Folk and the South Folk, whose names survive in the modern counties of +Norfolk and Suffolk. But in East Anglia, as in Yorkshire, we shall see +reason hereafter to conclude that the lower orders of Welsh were largely +spared, and that their descendants still form in part the labouring +classes of the two counties. Here, too, the English settlers probably +clustered thickest along the coast, like the Danes in later days; and +the great swampy expanse of the Fens, then a mere waste of marshland +tenanted by beavers and wild fowl, formed the inland boundary or mark of +their almost insular kingdom. + +The southern half of the coast was peopled by Englishmen of the Saxon +and Jutish tribes. First came the country of the East Saxons, or Essex, +the flat land stretching from the borders of East Anglia to the estuary +of the Thames. This had been one of the most thickly-populated Roman +regions, containing the important stations of Camalodunum, London, and +Verulam. But we know nothing, even by report, of its conquest. Beyond +it, and separated by the fenland of the Lea, lay the outlying little +principality of Middlesex. The upper reaches of the Thames were still +in the hands of the Welsh natives, for the great merchant city of London +blocked the way for the pirates to the head-waters of the river. + +On the south side of the estuary lay the Jutish principalities of East +and West Kent, including the strong Roman posts of Rhutupiae, Dover, +Rochester, and Canterbury. The great forest of the Weald and the Romney +Marshes separated them from Sussex; and the insular positions of Thanet +and Sheppey had always special attractions for the northern pirates. + +Beyond the marshes, again, the strip of southern shore, between the +downs and the sea, as far as Hayling Island, fell into the hands of the +South Saxons, whose boundary to the east was formed by Romney Marsh, and +to the west by the flats near Chichester, where the forest runs down to +the tidal swamp by the sea. The district north of the Weald, now known +as Surrey, was also peopled by Saxon freebooters, at a later date, +though doubtless far more sparsely. + +Finally, along the wooded coast from Portsmouth to Poole Harbour, the +Gewissas, afterwards known as the West Saxons, established their power. +The Isle of Wight and the region about Southampton Water, however, were +occupied by the Meonwaras, a small intrusive colony of Jutes. Up the +rich valley overlooked by the great Roman city of Winchester (Venta +Belgarum), the West Saxons made their way, not without severe +opposition, as their own legends and traditions tell us; and in +Winchester they fixed their capital for awhile. The long chain of chalk +downs behind the city formed their weak northern mark or boundary, +while to the west they seem always to have carried on a desultory +warfare with the yet unsubdued Welsh, commanded by their great leader +Ambrosius, who has left his name to Ambres-byrig, or Amesbury. + +We must not, however, suppose that each of these colonies had from the +first a united existence as a political community. We know that even the +eight or ten kingdoms into which England was divided at the dawn of the +historical period were each themselves produced by the consolidation of +several still smaller chieftainships. Even in the two petty Kentish +kingdoms there were under-kings, who had once been independent. Wight +was a distinct kingdom till the reign of Ceadwalla in Wessex. The later +province of Mercia was composed of minor divisions, known as the +Hwiccas, the Middle English, the West Hecan, and so forth. Henry of +Huntingdon, a historian of the twelfth century, who had access, however, +to several valuable and original sources of information now lost, tells +us that many chieftains came from Germany, occupied Mercia and East +Anglia, and often fought with one another for the supremacy. In fact, +the petty kingdoms of the eighth century were themselves the result of a +consolidation of many forgotten principalities founded by the first +conquerors. + +Thus the earliest England with which we are historically acquainted +consisted of a mere long strip or borderland of Teutonic coast, divided +into tiny chieftainships, and girding round half of the eastern and +southern shores of a still Celtic Britain. Its area was discontinuous, +and its inland boundaries towards the back country were vaguely defined. +As Massachusetts and Connecticut stood off from Virginia and Georgia--as +New South Wales and Victoria stand off from South Australia and +Queensland--so Northumbria stood off from East Anglia, and Kent from +Sussex. Each colony represented a little English nucleus along the coast +or up the mouths of the greater rivers, such as the Thames and Humber, +where the pirates could easily drive in their light craft. From such a +nucleus, perched at first on some steep promontory like Bamborough, some +separate island like Thanet, Wight, and Selsey, or some long spit of +land like Holderness and Hurst Castle, the barbarians could extend their +dominions on every side, till they reached some natural line of +demarcation in the direction of their nearest Teutonic neighbours, which +formed their necessary mark. Inland they spread as far as they could +conquer; but coastwise the rivers and fens were their limits against one +another. Thus this oldest insular England is marked off into at least +eight separate colonies by the Forth, the Tyne, the Humber, the Wash, +the Harwich Marshes, the Thames, the Weald Forest, and the Chichester +tidal swamp region. As to how the pirates settled down along this wide +stretch of coast, we know practically nothing; of their westward advance +we know a little, and as time proceeds, that knowledge becomes more and +more. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE ENGLISH IN THEIR NEW HOMES. + + +If any trust at all can be placed in the legends, a lull in the conquest +followed the first settlement, and for some fifty years the English--or +at least the West Saxons--were engaged in consolidating their own +dominions, without making any further attack upon those of the Welsh. It +may be well, therefore, to enquire what changes of manners had come over +them in consequence of their change of place from the shores of the +Baltic and the North Sea to those of the Channel and the German Ocean. + +As a whole, English society remained much the same in Britain as it had +been in Sleswick and North Holland. The English came over in a body, +with their women and children, their flocks and herds, their goods and +chattels. The peculiar breed of cattle which they brought with them may +still be distinguished in their remains from the earlier Celtic +short-horn associated with Roman ruins and pre-historic barrows. They +came as settlers, not as mere marauders; and they remained banded +together in their original tribes and families after they had occupied +the soil of Britain. + +From the moment of their landing in Britain the savage corsairs of the +Sleswick flats seem wholly to have laid aside their seafaring habits. +They built no more ships, apparently; for many years after Bishop +Wilfrith had to teach the South Saxons how to catch sea-fish; while +during the early Danish incursions we hear distinctly that the English +had no vessels; nor is there much incidental mention of shipping between +the age of the settlement and that of AElfred. The new-comers took up +their abode at once on the richest parts of Roman Britain, and came into +full enjoyment of orchards which they had not planted and fields which +they had not sown. The state of cultivation in which they found the vale +of York and the Kentish glens must have been widely different from that +to which they were accustomed in their old heath-clad home. Accordingly, +they settled down at once into farmers and landowners on a far larger +scale than of yore; and they were not anxious to move away from the rich +lands which they had so easily acquired. From being sailors and graziers +they took to be agriculturists and landmen. In the towns, indeed, they +did not settle; and most of these continued to bear their old Roman or +Celtic titles. A few may have been destroyed, especially in the first +onset, like Anderida, and, at a later date, Chester; but the greater +number seem to have been still scantily inhabited, under English +protection, by a mixed urban population, mainly Celtic in blood, and +known by the name of Loegrians. It was in the country, however, that the +English conquerers took up their abode. They were tillers of the soil, +not merchants or skippers, and it was long before they acquired a taste +for urban life. The whole eastern half of England is filled with +villages bearing the characteristic English clan names, and marking each +the home of a distinct family of early settlers. As soon as the +new-comers had burnt the villa of the old Roman proprietor, and killed, +driven out, or enslaved his abandoned serfs, they took the land to +themselves and divided it out on their national system. Hence the whole +government and social organisation of England is purely Teutonic, and +the country even lost its old name of Britain for its new one of +England. + +In England, as of old in Sleswick, the village community formed the unit +of English society. Each such township was still bounded by its mark of +forest, mere, or fen, which divided it from its nearest neighbours. In +each lived a single clan, supposed to be of kindred blood and bearing a +common name. The marksmen and their serfs, the latter being conquered +Welshmen, cultivated the soil under cereals for bread, and also for an +unnecessarily large supply of beer, as we learn at a later date from +numerous charters. Cattle and horses grazed in the pastures, while large +herds of pigs were kept in the forest which formed the mark. Thus the +early English settled down at once from a nation of pirates into one of +agriculturists. Here and there, among the woods and fens which still +covered a large part of the country, their little separate communities +rose in small fenced clearings or on low islets, now joined by drainage +to the mainland; while in the wider valleys, tilled in Roman times, the +wealthier chieftains formed their settlements and allotted lands to +their Welsh tributaries. Many family names appear in different parts of +England, for a reason which will hereafter be explained. Thus we find +the Bassingas at Bassingbourn, in Cambridgeshire; at Bassingfield, in +Notts; at Bassingham and Bassingthorpe, in Lincolnshire; and at +Bassington, in Northumberland. The Billings have left their stamp at +Billing, in Northampton; Billingford, in Norfolk; Billingham, in Durham; +Billingley, in Yorkshire; Billinghurst, in Sussex; and five other places +in various other counties. Birmingham, Nottingham, Wellington, +Faringdon, Warrington, and Wallingford are well-known names formed on +the same analogy. How thickly these clan settlements lie scattered over +Teutonic England may be judged from the number which occur in the London +district alone--Kensington, Paddington, Notting-hill, Billingsgate, +Islington, Newington, Kennington, Wapping, and Teddington. There are +altogether 1,400 names of this type in England. Their value as a test of +Teutonic colonisation is shown by the fact that while 48 occur in +Northumberland, 127 in Yorkshire, 76 in Lincolnshire, 153 in Norfolk and +Suffolk, 48 in Essex, 60 in Kent, and 86 in Sussex and Surrey, only 2 +are found in Cornwall, 6 in Cumberland, 24 in Devon, 13 in Worcester, 2 +in Westmoreland, and none in Monmouth. Speaking generally, these clan +names are thickest along the original English coast, from Forth to +Portland; they decrease rapidly as we move inland; and they die away +altogether as we approach the purely Celtic west. + +The English families, however, probably tilled the soil by the aid of +Welsh slaves; indeed, in Anglo-Saxon, the word serf and Welshman are +used almost interchangeably as equivalent synonyms. But though many +Welshmen were doubtless spared from the very first, nothing is more +certain than the fact that they became thoroughly Anglicized. A few new +words from Welsh or Latin were introduced into the English tongue, but +they were far too few sensibly to affect its vocabulary. The language +was and still is essentially Low German; and though it now contains +numerous words of Latin or French origin, it does not and never did +contain any but the very smallest Celtic element. The slight number of +additions made from the Welsh consisted chiefly of words connected with +the higher Roman civilisation--such as wall, street, and chester--or the +new methods of agriculture which the Teuton learnt from his more +civilised serfs. The Celt has always shown a great tendency to cast +aside his native language in Gaul, in Spain, and in Ireland; and the +isolation of the English townships must have had the effect of greatly +accelerating the process. Within a few generations the Celtic slave had +forgotten his tongue, his origin, and his religion, and had developed +into a pagan English serf. Whatever else the Teutonic conquest did, it +turned every man within the English pale into a thorough Englishman. + +But the removal to Britain effected one immense change. "War begat the +king." In Sleswick the English had lived within their little marks as +free and independent communities. In Britain all the clans of each +colony gradually came under the military command of a king. The +ealdormen who led the various marauding bands assumed royal power in the +new country. Such a change was indeed inevitable. For not only had the +English to win the new England, but they had also to keep it and extend +it. During four hundred years a constant smouldering warfare was carried +on between the foreigners and the native Welsh on their western +frontier. Thus the townships of each colony entered into a closer union +with one another for military purposes, and so arose the separate +chieftainships or petty kingdoms of early England. But the king's power +was originally very small. He was merely the semi-hereditary general and +representative of the people, of royal stock, but elected by the free +suffrages of the freemen. Only as the kingdoms coalesced, and as the +power of meeting became consequently less, did the king acquire his +greater prerogatives. From the first, however, he seems to have +possessed the right of granting public lands, with the consent of the +freemen, to particular individuals; and such book-land, as the early +English called it, after the introduction of Roman writing, became the +origin of our system of private property in land. + +Every township had its moot or assembly of freemen, which met around the +sacred oak, or on some holy hill, or beside the great stone monument of +some forgotten Celtic chieftain. Every hundred also had its moot, and +many of these still survive in their original form to the present day, +being held in the open air, near some sacred site or conspicuous +landmark. And the colony as a whole had also its moot, at which all +freemen might attend, and which settled the general affairs of the +kingdom. At these last-named moots the kings were elected; and though +the selection was practically confined to men of royal kin, the king +nevertheless represented the free choice of the tribe. Before the +conversion to Christianity, the royal families all traced their origin +to Woden. Thus the pedigree of Ida, King of Northumbria, runs as +follows:--"Ida was Eopping, Eoppa was Esing, Esa was Inguing, Ingui +Angenwiting, Angenwit Alocing, Aloc Benocing, Benoc Branding, Brand +Baldaeging, Baeldaeg Wodening." But in later Christian times the +chroniclers felt the necessity of reconciling these heathen genealogies +with the Scriptural account in Genesis; so they affiliated Woden himself +upon the Hebrew patriarchs. Thus the pedigree of the West Saxon kings, +inserted in the Chronicle under the year 855, after conveying back the +genealogy of AEthelwulf to Woden, continues to say, "Woden was +Frealafing, Frealaf Finning," and so on till it reaches "Sceafing, _id +est filius Noe_; he was born in Noe's Ark. Lamech, Mathusalem, Enoc, +Jared, Malalehel, Camon, Enos, Seth, Adam, _primus homo et pater +noster_." + +The Anglo-Saxons, when they settled in Eastern and Southern Britain, +were a horde of barbarous heathen pirates. They massacred or enslaved +the civilised or half-civilised Celtic inhabitants with savage +ruthlessness. They burnt or destroyed the monuments of Roman occupation. +They let the roads and cities fall into utter disrepair. They stamped +out Christianity with fire and sword from end to end of their new +domain. They occupied a civilised and Christian land, and they restored +it to its primitive barbarism. Nor was there any improvement until +Christian teachers from Rome and Scotland once more introduced the +forgotten culture which the English pirates had utterly destroyed. As +Gildas phrases it, with true Celtic eloquence, the red tongue of flame +licked up the whole land from end to end, till it slaked its horrid +thirst in the western ocean. For 150 years the whole of English Britain, +save, perhaps, Kent and London, was cut off from all intercourse with +Christendom and the Roman world. The country consisted of several petty +chieftainships, at constant feud with their Teutonic neighbours, and +perpetually waging a border war with Welsh, Picts, and Scots. Within +each colony, much of the land remained untilled, while the clan +settlements appeared like little islands of cultivation in the midst of +forest, waste, and common. The villages were mere groups of wooden +homesteads, with barns and cattle-sheds, surrounded by rough stockades, +and destitute of roads or communications. Even the palace of the king +was a long wooden hall with numerous outhouses; for the English built no +stone houses, and burnt down those of their Roman predecessors. Trade +seems to have been confined to the south coast, and few manufactured +articles of any sort were in use. The English degraded their Celtic +serfs to their own barbaric level; and the very memory of Roman +civilization almost died out of the land for a hundred and fifty years. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE CONQUEST OF THE INTERIOR. + + +From the little strip of eastern and southern coast on which they first +settled, the English advanced slowly into the interior by the valleys of +the great rivers, and finally swarmed across the central dividing ridge +into the basins of the Severn and the Irish Sea. Up the open river +mouths they could make their way in their shallow-bottomed boats, as the +Scandinavian pirates did three centuries later; and when they reached +the head of navigation in each stream for the small draught of their +light vessels, they probably took to the land and settled down at once, +leaving further inland expeditions to their sons and successors. For +this second step in the Teutonic colonisation of Britain we have some +few traditional accounts, which seem somewhat more trustworthy than +those of the first settlement. Unfortunately, however, they apply for +the most part only to the kingdom of Wessex, and not to the North and +the Midlands, where such details would be of far greater value. + +The valley of the Humber gives access to the great central basin of the +Trent. Up this fruitful basin, at a somewhat later date, apparently, +than the settlement of Deira and Lincolnshire, scattered bodies of +English colonists, under petty leaders whose names have been forgotten, +seem to have pushed their way forward through the broad lowlands towards +Derby, Nottingham, and Leicester. They bore the name of Middle English. +Westward, again, other settlers raised their capital at Lichfield. These +formed the advanced guard of the English against the Welsh, and hence +their country was generally known as the Mark, or March, a name which +was afterwards latinized into the familiar form of Mercia. The absence +of all tradition as to the colonisation of this important tract, the +heart of England, and afterwards one of the three dominant Anglo-Saxon +states, leads one to suppose that the process was probably very gradual, +and the change came about so slowly as to have left but little trace on +the popular memory. At any rate, it is certain that the central ridge +long formed the division between the two races; and that the Welsh at +this period still occupied the whole western watershed, except in the +lower portion of the Severn valley. + +The Welland, the Nene, and the Great Ouse, flowing through the centre of +the Fen Country, then a vast morass, studded with low and marshy +islands, gave access to the districts about Peterborough, Stamford, and +Cambridge. Here, too, a body of unknown settlers, the Gyrwas, seem about +the same time to have planted their colonies. At a later date they +coalesced with the Mercians. However, the comparative scarcity of +villages bearing the English clan names throughout all these regions +suggests the probability that Mercia, Middle England, and the Fen +Country were not by any means so densely colonised as the coast +districts; and independent Welsh communities long held out among the +isolated dry tracts of the fens as robbers and outlaws. + +In the south, the advance of the West Saxons had been checked in 520, +according to the legend, by the prowess of Arthur, king of the +Devonshire Welsh. As Mr. Guest acutely notes, some special cause must +have been at work to make the Britons resist here so desperately as to +maintain for half a century a weak frontier within little more than +twenty miles of Winchester, the West Saxon capital. He suggests that the +great choir of Ambrosius at Amesbury was probably the chief Christian +monastery of Britain, and that the Welshman may here have been fighting +for all that was most sacred to him on earth. Moreover, just behind +stood the mysterious national monument of Stonehenge, the honoured tomb +of some Celtic or still earlier aboriginal chief. But in 552, the +English Chronicle tells us, Cynric, the West Saxon king, crossed the +downs behind Winchester, and descended upon the dale at Salisbury. The +Roman town occupied the square hill-fort of Old Sarum, and there Cynric +put the Welsh to flight and took the stronghold by storm. + +The road was thus opened in the rear to the upper waters of the Thames +(impassable before because of the Roman population of London), as well +as towards the valley of the Bath Avon. Four years later Cynric and his +son Ceawlin once more advanced as far as Barbury hill-fort, probably on +a mere plundering raid. But in 571 Cuthwulf, brother of Ceawlin, again +marched northward, and "fought against the Welsh at Bedford, and took +four towns, Lenbury (or Leighton Buzzard), Aylesbury, Bensington (near +Dorchester in Oxfordshire), and Ensham." Thus the West Saxons overran +the whole upper valley of the Thames from Berkshire to above Oxford, and +formed a junction with the Middle Saxons to the north of London; while +eastward they spread as far as the northern boundaries of Essex. In 577 +the same intruders made a still more important move. Crossing the +central watershed of England, near Chippenham, they descended upon the +broken valley of the Bath Avon, and found themselves the first +Englishmen who reached any of the basins which point westward towards +the Atlantic seaboard. At a doubtful place named Deorham (probably +Dyrham near Bath), "Cuthwine and Ceawlin fought against the Welsh, and +slew three kings, Conmail, and Condidan, and Farinmail, and took three +towns from them, Gloucester, and Cirencester, and Bath." Thus the three +great Roman cities of the lower Severn valley fell into the hands of the +West Saxons, and the English for the first time stood face to face with +the western sea. Though the story of these conquests is of course +recorded from mere tradition at a much later date, it still has a ring +of truth, or at least of probability, about it, which is wholly wanting +to the earlier legends. If we are not certain as to the facts, we can at +least accept them as symbolical of the manner in which the West Saxon +power wormed its way over the upper basin of the Thames, and crept +gradually along the southern valley of the Severn. + +The victory of Deorham has a deeper importance of its own, however, than +the mere capture of the three great Roman cities in the south-west of +Britain. By the conquest of Bath and Gloucester, the West Saxons cut off +the Welsh of Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset from their brethren in the +Midlands and in Wales. This isolation of the West Welsh, as the English +thenceforth called them, largely broke the power of the native +resistance. Step by step in the succeeding age the West Saxons advanced +by hard fighting, but with no serious difficulty, to the Axe, to the +Parret, to the Tone, to the Exe, to the Tamar, till at last the West +Welsh, confined to the peninsula of Cornwall, became known merely as the +Cornish men, and in the reign of AEthelstan were finally subjugated by +the English, though still retaining their own language and national +existence. But in all the western regions the Celtic population was +certainly spared to a far greater extent than in the east; and the +position of the English might rather be described as an occupation than +as a settlement in the strict sense of the word. + +The westward progress of the Northumbrians is later and much more +historical. Theodoric, son of Ida, as we may perhaps infer from the old +Welsh ballads, fought long and not always successfully with Urien of +Strathclyde. But in 592, says Baeda, who lived himself but three-quarters +of a century later than the event he describes, "there reigned over the +kingdom of the Northumbrians a most brave and ambitious king, +AEthelfrith, who, more than all other nobles of the English, wasted the +race of the Britons; for no one of our kings, no one of our chieftains, +has rendered more of their lands either tributary to or an integral part +of the English territories, whether by subjugating or expatriating the +natives." In 606 AEthelfrith rounded the Peakland, now known as +Derbyshire, and marched from the upper Trent upon the Roman city of +Chester. There "he made a terrible slaughter of the perfidious race." +Over two thousand Welsh monks from the monastery of Bangor Iscoed were +slain by the heathen invader; but Baeda explains that AEthelfrith put them +to death because they prayed against him; a sentence which strongly +suggests the idea that the English did not usually kill non-combatant +Welshmen. + +The victory of Chester divided the Welsh power in the north as that of +Deorham had divided it in the south. Henceforward, the Northumbrians +bore rule from sea to sea, from the mouth of the Humber to the mouths of +the Mersey and the Dee. AEthelfrith even kept up a rude navy in the Irish +Sea. Thus the Welsh nationality was broken up into three separate and +weak divisions--Strathclyde in the north, Wales in the centre, and +Damnonia, or Cornwall, in the south. Against these three fragments the +English presented an unbroken and aggressive front, Northumbria standing +over against Strathclyde, Mercia steadily pushing its way along the +upper valley of the Severn against North Wales, and Wessex advancing in +the south against South Wales and the West Welsh of Somerset, Devon, and +Cornwall. Thus the conquest of the interior was practically complete. +There still remained, it is true, the subjugation of the west; but the +west was brought under the English over-lordship by slow degrees, and in +a very different manner from the east and the south coast, or even the +central belt. Cornwall finally yielded under AEthelstan; Strathclyde was +gradually absorbed by the English in the south and the Scottish kingdom +on the north; and the last remnant of Wales only succumbed to the +intruders under the rule of the Angevin Edward I. + +There were, in fact, three epochs of English extension in Britain. The +first epoch was one of colonisation on the coasts and along the valleys +of the eastward rivers. The second epoch was one of conquest and partial +settlement in the central plateau and the westward basins. The third +epoch was one of merely political subjugation in the western mountain +regions. The proofs of these assertions we must examine at length in the +succeeding chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. + + +It has been usual to represent the English conquest of South-eastern +Britain as an absolute change of race throughout the greater part of our +island. The Anglo-Saxons, it is commonly believed, came to England and +the Lowlands of Scotland in overpowering numbers, and actually +exterminated or drove into the rugged west the native Celts. The +population of the whole country south of Forth and Clyde is supposed to +be now, and to have been ever since the conquest, purely Teutonic or +Scandinavian in blood, save only in Wales, Cornwall, and, perhaps, +Cumberland and Galloway. But of late years this belief has met with +strenuous opposition from several able scholars; and though many of our +greatest historians still uphold the Teutonic theory, with certain +modifications and admissions, there are, nevertheless, good reasons +which may lead us to believe that a large proportion of the Celts were +spared as tillers of the soil, and that Celtic blood may yet be found +abundantly even in the most Teutonic portions of England. + +In the first place, it must be remembered that, by common consent, only +the east and south coasts and the country as far as the central +dividing ridge can be accounted as to any overwhelming extent English in +blood. It is admitted that the population of the Scottish Highlands, of +Wales, and of Cornwall is certainly Celtic. It is also admitted that +there exists a large mixed population of Celts and Teutons in +Strathclyde and Cumbria, in Lancashire, in the Severn Valley, in Devon, +Somerset, and Dorset. The northern and western half of Britain is +acknowledged to be mainly Celtic. Thus the question really narrows +itself down to the ethnical peculiarities of the south and east. + +Here, the surest evidence is that of anthropology. We know that the pure +Anglo-Saxons were a round-skulled, fair-haired, light-eyed, +blonde-complexioned race; and we know that wherever (if anywhere) we +find unmixed Germanic races at the present day, High Dutch, Low Dutch, +or Scandinavian, we always meet with some of these same personal +peculiarities in almost every individual of the community. But we also +know that the Celts, originally themselves a similar blonde Aryan race, +mixed largely in Britain with one or more long-skulled dark-haired, +black-eyed, and brown-complexioned races, generally identified with the +Basques or Euskarians, and with the Ligurians. The nation which resulted +from this mixture showed traces of both types, being sometimes blonde, +sometimes brunette; sometimes black-haired, sometimes red-haired, and +sometimes yellow-haired. Individuals of all these types are still found +in the undoubtedly Celtic portions of Britain, though the dark type +there unquestionably preponderates so far as numbers are concerned. It +is this mixed race of fair and dark people, of Aryan Celts with +non-Aryan Euskarians or Ligurians, which we usually describe as Celtic +in modern Britain, by contradistinction to the later wave of Teutonic +English. + +Now, according to the evidence of the early historians, as interpreted +by Mr. Freeman and other authors (whose arguments we shall presently +examine), the English settlers in the greater part of South Britain +almost entirely exterminated the Celtic population. But if this be so, +how comes it that at the present day a large proportion of our people, +even in the east, belong to the dark and long-skulled type? The fact is +that upon this subject the historians are largely at variance with the +anthropologists; and as the historical evidence is weak and inferential, +while the anthropological evidence is strong and direct, there can be +very little doubt which we ought to accept. Professor Huxley [Essay "On +some Fixed Points in British Ethnography,"] has shown that the +melanochroic or dark type of Englishmen is identical in the shape of the +skull, the anatomical peculiarities, and the colour of skin, hair, and +eyes with that of the continent, which is undeniably Celtic in the wider +sense--that is to say, belonging to the primitive non-Teutonic race, +which spoke a Celtic language, and was composed of mixed Celtic, +Iberian, and Ligurian elements. Professor Phillips points out that in +Yorkshire, and especially in the plain of York, an essentially dark, +short, non-Teutonic type is common; while persons of the same +characteristics abound among the supposed pure Anglians of +Lincolnshire. They are found in great numbers in East Anglia, and they +are not rare even in Kent. In Sussex and Essex they occur less +frequently, and they are also comparatively scarce in the Lothians. Dr. +Beddoe, Dr. Thurnam, and other anthropologists have collected much +evidence to the same effect. Hence we may conclude with great +probability that large numbers of the descendants of the dark Britons +still survive even on the Teutonic coast. As to the descendants of the +light Britons, we cannot, of course, separate them from those of the +like-complexioned English invaders. But in truth, even in the east +itself, save only perhaps in Sussex and Essex, the dark and fair types +have long since so largely coalesced by marriage that there are probably +few or no real Teutons or real Celts individually distinguishable at +all. Absolutely fair people, of the Scandinavian or true German sort, +with very light hair and very pale blue eyes, are almost unknown among +us; and when they do occur, they occur side by side with relations of +every other shade. As a rule, our people vary infinitely in complexion +and anatomical type, from the quite squat, long-headed, swarthy peasants +whom we sometimes meet with in rural Yorkshire, to the tall, +flaxen-haired, red-cheeked men whom we occasionally find not only in +Danish Derbyshire, but even in mainly Celtic Wales and Cornwall. As to +the west, Professor Huxley declares, on purely anthropological grounds, +that it is probably, on the whole, more deeply Celtic than Ireland +itself. + +These anthropological opinions are fully borne out by those scientific +archaeologists who have done most in the way of exploring the tombs and +other remains of the early Anglo-Saxon invaders. Professor Rolleston, +who has probably examined more skulls of this period than any other +investigator, sums up his consideration of those obtained from +Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon interments by saying, "I should be +inclined to think that wholesale massacres of the conquered +Romano-Britons were rare, and that wholesale importations of Anglo-Saxon +women were not much more frequent." He points out that "we have +anatomical evidence for saying that two or more distinct varieties of +men existed in England both previously to and during the period of the +Teutonic invasion and domination." The interments show us that the races +which inhabited Britain before the English conquest continued in part to +inhabit it after that conquest. The dolichocephali, or long-skulled type +of men, who, in part, preceded the English, "have been found abundantly +in the Suffolk region of the Littus Saxonicum, where the Celt and Saxon +[Englishman] are not known to have met as enemies when East Anglia +became a kingdom." Thus we see that just where people of the dark type +occur abundantly at the present day, skulls of the corresponding sort +are met with abundantly in interments of the Anglo-Saxon period. +Similarly, Mr. Akerman, after explorations in tombs, observes, "The +total expulsion or extinction of the Romano-British population by the +invaders will scarcely be insisted upon in this age of enquiry." Nay, +even in Teutonic Kent, Jute and Briton still lie side by side in the +same sepulchres. Most modern Englishmen have somewhat long rather than +round skulls. The evidence of archaeology supports the evidence of +anthropology in favour of the belief that some, at least, of the native +Britons were spared by the invading host. + +On the other hand, against these unequivocal testimonies of modern +research we have to set the testimony of the early historical +authorities, on which the Teutonic theory mainly relies. The authorities +in question are three, Gildas, Baeda, and the English Chronicle. Gildas +was, or professes to be, a British monk, who wrote in the very midst of +the English conquest, when the invaders were still confined, for the +most part, to the south-eastern region. Objections have been raised to +the authenticity of his work, a small rhetorical Latin pamphlet, +entitled, "The History of the Britons;" but these objections have, +perhaps, been set at rest for many minds by Dr. Guest and Mr. Green. +Nevertheless, what little Gildas has to tell us is of slight historical +importance. His book is a disappointing Jeremiad, couched in the florid +and inflated Latin rhetoric so common during the decadence of the Roman +empire, intermingled with a strong flavour of hyperbolical Celtic +imagination; and it teaches us practically nothing as to the state of +the conquered districts. It is wholly occupied with fierce diatribes +against the Saxons, and complaints as to the weakness, wickedness, and +apathy of the British chieftains. It says little that can throw any +light on the question as to whether the Welsh were largely spared, +though it abounds with wild and vague declamation about the +extermination of the natives. Even Gildas, however, mentions that some +of his countrymen, "constrained by famine, came and yielded themselves +up to their enemies as slaves for ever;" while others, "committing the +safeguard of their lives to mountains, crags, thick forests, and rocky +isles, though with trembling hearts, remained in their fatherland." +These passages certainly suggest that a Welsh remnant survived in two +ways within the English pale, first as slaves, and secondly as isolated +outlaws. + +Baeda stands on a very different footing. His authenticity is undoubted; +his language is simple and straightforward. He was born in or about the +year 672, only two hundred years after the landing of the first English +colonists in Thanet. Scarcely more than a century separated him from the +days of Ida. The constant lingering warfare with the Welsh on the +western frontier was still for him a living fact. The Celt still held +half of Britain. At the date of his birth the northern Welsh still +retained their independence in Strathclyde; the Welsh proper still +spread to the banks of the Severn; and the West Welsh of Cornwall still +owned all the peninsula south of the Bristol Channel as far eastward as +the Somersetshire marshes. Beyond Forth and Clyde, the Picts yet ruled +over the greater part of the Highlands, while the Scots, who have now +given the name of Scotland to the whole of Britain beyond the Cheviots, +were a mere intrusive Irish colony in Argyllshire and the Western Isles. +He lived, in short, at the very period when Britain was still in the +act of becoming England; and no historical doubts of any sort hang over +the authenticity of his great work, "The Ecclesiastical History of the +English people." But Baeda unfortunately knows little more about the +first settlement than he could learn from Gildas, whom he quotes almost +_verbatim_. He tells us, however, nothing of extermination of the Welsh. +"Some," he says, "were slaughtered; some gave themselves up to undergo +slavery: some retreated beyond the sea: and some, remaining in their own +land, lived a miserable life in the mountains and forests." In all this, +he is merely transcribing Gildas, but he saw no improbability in the +words. At a later date, AEthelfrith, of Northumbria, he tells us, +"rendered more of their lands either tributary to or an integral part of +the English territory, whether by subjugating or expatriating[1] the +natives," than any previous king. Eadwine, before his conversion, +"subdued to the empire of the English the Mevanian islands," Man and +Anglesey; but we know that the population of both islands is still +mainly Celtic in blood and speech. These examples sufficiently show us, +that even before the introduction of Christianity, the English did not +always utterly destroy the Welsh inhabitants of conquered districts. And +it is universally admitted that, after their conversion, they fought +with the Welsh in a milder manner, sparing their lives as +fellow-Christians, and permitting them to retain their lands as +tributary proprietors. + + [1] The word in the original is _exterminatis_, but of + course _exterminare_ then bore its etymological sense of + expatriation or expulsion, if not merely of confiscation, + while it certainly did not imply the idea of slaughter, + connoted by the modern word. + +The English Chronicle, our third authority, was first compiled at the +court of AElfred, four and a-half centuries after the Conquest; and so +its value as original testimony is very slight. Its earlier portions are +mainly condensed from Baeda; but it contains a few fragments of +traditional information from some other unknown sources. These +fragments, however, refer chiefly to Kent, Sussex, and the older parts +of Wessex, where we have reason to believe that the Teutonic +colonisation was exceptionally thorough; and they tell us nothing about +Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and East Anglia, where we find at the present +day so large a proportion of the population possessing an unmistakably +Celtic physique. The Chronicle undoubtedly describes the conflict in the +south as sharp and bloody; and in spite of the mythical character of the +names and events, it is probable that in this respect it rightly +preserves the popular memory of the conquest, and its general nature. In +Kent, "the Welsh fled the English like fire;" and Hengest and AEsc, in a +single battle, slew 4,000 men. In Sussex, AElle and Cissa killed or drove +out the natives in the western rapes on their first landing, and +afterwards massacred every Briton at Anderida. In Wessex, in the first +struggle, "Cerdic and Cynric offslew a British king whose name was +Natanleod, and 5,000 men with him." And so the dismal annals of rapine +and slaughter run on from year to year, with simple, unquestioning +conciseness, showing us, at least, the manner in which the later +English believed their forefathers had acquired the land. Moreover, +these frightful details accord well enough with the vague generalities +of Gildas, from which, however, they may very possibly have been +manufactured. Yet even the Chronicle nowhere speaks of absolute +extermination: that idea has been wholly read into its words, not +directly inferred from them. A great deal has been made of the massacre +at Pevensey; but we hear nothing of similar massacres at the great Roman +cities--at London, at York, at Verulam, at Bath, at Cirencester, which +would surely have attracted more attention than a small outlying +fortress like Anderida. Even the Teutonic champions themselves admit +that some, at least, of the Celts were incorporated into the English +community. "The women," says Mr. Freeman, "would, doubtless, be largely +spared;" while as to the men, he observes, "we may be sure that death, +emigration, or personal slavery were the only alternatives which the +vanquished found at the hands of our fathers." But there is a vast gulf, +from the ethnological point of view, between exterminating a nation and +enslaving it.[2] + + [2] In this and a few other cases, modern authorities are + quoted merely to show that the essential facts of a large + Welsh survival are really admitted even by those who most + strongly argue in favour of the general Teutonic origin of + Englishmen. + +In the cities, indeed, it would seem that the Britons remained in great +numbers. The Welsh bards complain that the urban race of Romanised +natives known as Loegrians, "became as Saxons." Mr. Kemble has shown +that the English did not by any means always massacre the inhabitants of +the cities. Mr. Freeman observes, "It is probable that within the +[English] frontier there still were Roman towns tributary to the +conquerors rather than occupied by them;" and Canon Stubbs himself +remarks, that "in some of the cities there were probably elements of +continuous life: London, the mart of the merchants, York, the capital of +the north, and some others, have a continuous political existence." +"Wherever the cities were spared," he adds, "a portion, at least, of the +city population must have continued also. In the country, too, +especially towards the west and the debateable border, great numbers of +Britons may have survived in a servile or half-servile condition." But +we must remember that in only two cases, Anderida and Chester, do we +actually hear of massacres; in all the other towns, Baeda and the +Chronicle tell us nothing about them. It is a significant fact that +Sussex, the one kingdom in which we hear of a complete annihilation, is +the very one where the Teutonic type of physique still remains the +purest. But there are nowhere any traces of English clan nomenclature in +any of the cities. They all retain their Celtic or Roman names. At +Cambridge itself, in the heart of the true English country, the charter +of the thegn's guild, a late document, mentions a special distinction of +penalties for killing a Welshman, "if the slain be a ceorl, 2 ores, if +he be a Welshman, one ore." "The large Romanised towns," says Professor +Rolleston, "no doubt made terms with the Saxons, who abhorred city +life, and would probably be content to leave the unwarlike burghers in a +condition of heavily-taxed submissiveness." + +Thus, even in the east it is admitted that a Celtic element probably +entered into the population in three ways,--by sparing the women, by +making rural slaves of the men, and by preserving some, at least, of the +inhabitants of cities. The skulls of these Anglicised Welshmen are found +in ancient interments; their descendants are still to be recognised by +their physical type in modern England. "It is quite possible," says Mr. +Freeman, "that even at the end of the sixth century there may have been +within the English frontier inaccessible points where detached bodies of +Welshmen still retained a precarious independence." Sir F. Palgrave has +collected passages tending to show that parties of independent Welshmen +held out in the Fens till a very late period; and this conclusion is +admitted by Mr. Freeman to be probably correct. But more important is +the general survival of scattered Britons within the English communities +themselves. Traces of this we find even in Anglo-Saxon documents. The +signatures to very early charters,[3] collected by Thorpe and Kemble, +supply us with names some of which are assuredly not Teutonic, while +others are demonstrably Celtic; and these names are borne by people +occupying high positions at the court of English kings. Names of this +class occur even in Kent itself; while others are borne by members of +the royal family of Wessex. The local dialect of the West Riding of +Yorkshire still contains many Celtic words; and the shepherds of +Northumberland and the Lothians still reckon their sheep by what is +known as "the rhyming score," which is really a corrupt form of the +Welsh numerals from one to twenty. The laws of Northumbria mention the +Welshmen who pay rent to the king. Indeed, it is clear that even in the +east itself the English were from the first a body of rural colonists +and landowners, holding in subjection a class of native serfs, with whom +they did not intermingle, but who gradually became Anglicised, and +finally coalesced with their former masters, under the stress of the +Danish and Norman supremacies. + + [3] Kemble "On Anglo-Saxon Names." Proc. Arch. Inst., 1845. + +In the west, however, the English occupation took even less the form of +a regular colonisation. The laws of Ine, a West Saxon king, show us that +in his territories, bordering on yet unconquered British lands, the +Welshman often occupied the position of a rent-paying inferior, as well +as that of a slave. The so-called Nennius tells us that Elmet in +Yorkshire, long an intrusive Welsh principality, was not subdued by the +English till the reign of Eadwine of Northumbria; when, we learn, the +Northumbrian prince "seized Elmet, and expelled Cerdic its king:" but +nothing is said as to any extermination of its people. As Baeda +incidentally mentions this Cerdic, "king of the Britons," Nennius may +probably be trusted upon the point. As late as the beginning of the +tenth century, King AElfred in his will describes the people of Devon, +Dorset, Somerset, and Wilts, as "Welsh kin." The physical appearance of +the peasantry in the Severn valley, and especially in Shropshire, +Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, and Herefordshire, indicates that the +western parts of Mercia were equally Celtic in blood. The dialect of +Lancashire contains a large Celtic infusion. Similarly, the English +clan-villages decrease gradually in numbers as we move westward, till +they almost disappear beyond the central dividing ridge. We learn from +Domesday Book that at the date of the Norman conquest the number of +serfs was greater from east to west, and largest on the Welsh border. +Mr. Isaac Taylor points out that a similar argument may be derived from +the area of the hundreds in various counties. The hundred was originally +a body of one hundred English families (more or less), bound together by +mutual pledge, and answerable for one another's conduct. In Sussex, the +average number of square miles in each hundred is only twenty-three; in +Kent, twenty-four; in Surrey, fifty-eight; and in Herts, seventy-nine: +but in Gloucester it is ninety-seven; in Derby, one hundred and +sixty-two; in Warwick, one hundred and seventy-nine; and in Lancashire, +three hundred and two. These facts imply that the English population +clustered thickest in the old settled east, but grew thinner and thinner +towards the Welsh and Cumbrian border. Altogether, the historical +evidence regarding the western slopes of England bears out Professor +Huxley's dictum as to the thoroughly Celtic character of their +population. + +On the other hand, it is impossible to deny that Mr. Freeman and Canon +Stubbs have proved their point as to the thorough Teutonisation of +Southern Britain by the English invaders. Though it may be true that +much Welsh blood survived in England, especially amongst the servile +class, yet it is none the less true that the nation which rose upon the +ruins of Roman Britain was, in form and organisation, almost purely +English. The language spoken by the whole country was the same which had +been spoken in Sleswick. Only a few words of Welsh origin relating to +agriculture, household service, and smithcraft, were introduced by the +serfs into the tongue of their masters. The dialects of the Yorkshire +moors, of the Lake District, and of Dorset or Devon, spoken only by wild +herdsmen in the least cultivated tracts, retained a few more evident +traces of the Welsh vocabulary: but in York, in London, in Winchester, +and in all the large towns, the pure Anglo-Saxon of the old England by +the shores of the Baltic was alone spoken. The Celtic serfs and their +descendants quickly assumed English names, talked English to one +another, and soon forgot, in a few generations, that they had not always +been Englishmen in blood and tongue. The whole organisation of the +state, the whole social life of the people, was entirely Teutonic. "The +historical civilisation," as Canon Stubbs admirably puts it, "is English +and not Celtic." Though there may have been much Welsh blood left, it +ran in the veins of serfs and rent-paying churls, who were of no +political or social importance. These two aspects of the case should be +kept carefully distinct. Had they always been separated, much of the +discussion which has arisen on the subject would doubtless have been +avoided; for the strongest advocates of the Teutonic theory are +generally ready to allow that Celtic women, children, and slaves may +have been largely spared: while the Celtic enthusiasts have thought +incumbent upon them to derive English words from Welsh roots, and to +trace the origin of English social institutions to Celtic models. The +facts seem to indicate that while the modern English nation is largely +Welsh in blood, it is wholly Teutonic in form and language. Each of us +probably traces back his descent to mixed Celtic and Germanic ancestry: +but while the Celts have contributed the material alone, the Teutons +have contributed both the material and the form. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +HEATHEN ENGLAND. + + +We can now picture to ourselves the general aspect of the country after +the English colonies had established themselves as far west as the +Somersetshire marshes, the Severn, and the Dee. The whole land was +occupied by little groups of Teutonic settlers, each isolated by the +mark within their own township; each tilling the ground with their own +hands and those of their Welsh serfs. The townships were rudely gathered +together into petty chieftainships; and these chieftainships tended +gradually to aggregate into larger kingdoms, which finally merged in the +three great historical divisions of Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex; +divisions that survive to our own time as the North, the Midlands, and +the South. Meanwhile, most of the Roman towns were slowly depopulated +and fell into disrepair, so that a "waste chester" becomes a common +object in Anglo-Saxon history. Towns belong to a higher civilisation, +and had little place in agricultural England. The roads were neglected +for want of commerce; and trade only survived in London and along the +coast of Kent, where the discovery of Frankish coins proves the +existence of intercourse with the Teutonic kingdom of Neustria, which +had grown up on the ruins of northern Gaul. Everywhere in Britain the +Roman civilisation fell into abeyance: in improved agriculture alone did +any notable relic of its existence remain. The century and a half +between the conquest and the arrival of Augustine is a dreary period of +unmixed barbarism and perpetual anarchy. + +From time to time the older settled colonies kept sending out fresh +swarms of young emigrants towards the yet unconquered west, much as the +Americans and Canadians have done in our own days. Armed with their long +swords and battle-axes, the new colonists went forth in family bands, +under petty chieftains, to war against the Welsh; and when they had +conquered themselves a district, they settled on it as lords of the +soil, enslaved the survivors of their enemies, and made their leader +into a king. Meanwhile, the older colonies kept up their fighting spirit +by constant wars amongst themselves. Thus we read of contests between +the men of Kent and the West Saxons, or between conflicting nobles in +Wessex itself. Fighting, in fact, was the one business of the English +freeman, and it was but slowly that he settled down into a quiet +agriculturist. The influence of Christianity alone seems to have wrought +the change. Before the conversion of England, all the glimpses which we +get of the English freeman represent him only as a rude and turbulent +warrior, with the very spirit of his kinsmen, the later wickings of the +north. + +An enormous amount of the country still remained overgrown with wild +forest. The whole weald of Kent and Sussex, the great tract of Selwood +in Wessex, the larger part of Warwickshire, the entire Peakland, the +central dividing ridge between the two seas from Yorkshire to the Forth, +and other wide regions elsewhere, were covered with primaeval woodlands. +Arden, Charnwood, Wychwood, Sherwood, and the rest, are but the relics +of vast forests which once stretched over half England. The bear still +lurked in the remotest thickets; packs of wolves still issued forth at +night to ravage the herdsman's folds; wild boars wallowed in the fens or +munched acorns under the oakwoods; deer ranged over all the heathy +tracts throughout the whole island; and the wild white cattle, now +confined to Chillingham Park, roamed in many spots from north to south. +Hence hunting was the chief pastime of the princes and ealdormen when +they were not engaged in war with one another or with the Welsh. Game, +boar-flesh, and venison formed an important portion of diet throughout +the whole early English period, up to the Norman conquest, and long +after. + +The king was the recognised head of each community, though his position +was hardly more than that of leader of the nobles in war. He received an +original lot in the conquered land, and remained a private possessor of +estates, tilled by his Welsh slaves. He was king of the people, not of +the country, and is always so described in the early monuments. Each +king seems to have had a chief priest in his kingdom. + +There was no distinct capital for the petty kingdoms, though a principal +royal residence appears to have been usual. But the kings possessed many +separate _hams_ or estates in their domain, in each of which food and +other material for their use were collected by their serfs. They moved +about with their suite from one of these to another, consuming all that +had been prepared for them in each, and then passing on to the next. The +king himself made the journey in the waggon drawn by oxen, which formed +his rude prerogative. Such primitive royal progresses were absolutely +necessary in so disjointed a state of society, if the king was to govern +at all. Only by moving about and seeing with his own eyes could he gain +any information in a country where organisation was feeble and writing +practically unknown: only by consuming what was grown for him on the +spot where it was grown could he and his suite obtain provisions in the +rude state of Anglo-Saxon communications. But such government as existed +was mainly that of the local ealdormen and the village gentry. + +Marriages were practically conducted by purchase, the wife being bought +by the husband from her father's family. A relic of this custom perhaps +still survives in the modern ceremony, when the father gives the bride +in marriage to the bridegroom. Polygamy was not unknown; and it was +usual for men to marry their father's widows. The wives, being part of +the father's property, naturally became part of the son's heritage. +Fathers probably possessed the right of selling their children into +slavery; and we know that English slaves were sold at Rome, being +conveyed thither by Frisian merchants. + +The artizan class, such as it was, must have been attached to the houses +of the chieftains, probably in a servile position. Pottery was +manufactured of excellent but simple patterns. Metal work was, of +course, thoroughly understood, and the Anglo-Saxon swords and knives +discovered in barrows are of good construction. Every chief had also his +minstrel, who sang the short and jerky Anglo-Saxon songs to the +accompaniment of a harp. The dead were burnt and their ashes placed in +tumuli in the north: the southern tribes buried their warriors in full +military dress, and from their tombs much of the little knowledge which +we possess as to their habits is derived. Thence have been taken their +swords, a yard long, with ornamental hilt and double-cutting edge, often +covered by runic inscriptions; their small girdle knives; their long +spears; and their round, leather-faced, wooden shields. The jewellery is +of gold, enriched with coloured enamel, pearl, or sliced garnet. +Buckles, rings, bracelets, hairpins, necklaces, scissors, and toilet +requisites were also buried with the dead. Glass drinking-cups which +occur amongst the tombs, were probably imported from the continent to +Kent or London; and some small trade certainly existed with the Roman +world, as we learn from Baeda. + +In faith the English remained true to their old Teutonic myths. Their +intercourse with the Christian Welsh was not of a kind to make them +embrace the religion which must have seemed to them that of slaves and +enemies. Baeda tells us that the English worshipped idols, and sacrificed +oxen to their gods. Many traces of their mythology are still left in our +midst. + +First in importance among their deities came Woden, the Odin of our +Scandinavian kinsmen, whose name we still preserve in Wednesday (dies +Mercurii). To him every royal family of the English traced its descent. +Mr. Kemble has pointed out many high places in England which keep his +name to the present day. Wanborough, in Surrey, at the +heaven-water-parting of the Hog's Back, was originally Wodnesbeorh, or +the hill of Woden. Wanborough, in Wiltshire, which divides the valleys +of the Kennet and the Isis, has the same origin; as has also +Woodnesborough in Kent. Wonston, in Hants, was probably Woden's stone; +Wambrook, Wampool, and Wansford, his brook, his pool, and his ford. All +these names are redolent of that nature-worship which was so marked a +portion of the Anglo-Saxon religion. Godshill, in the Isle of Wight, now +crowned by a Christian church, was also probably the site of early Woden +worship. The boundaries of estates, as mentioned in charters, give +instances of trees, stones, and posts, used as landmarks, and dedicated +to Woden, thus conferring upon them a religious sanction, like that of +Hermes amongst the Greeks. Anglo-Saxon worship generally gathered around +natural features; and sacred oaks, ashes, wells, hills, and rivers are +among the commonest memorials of our heathen ancestors. Many of them +were reconsecrated after the introduction of Christianity to saints of +the church, and so have retained their character for sanctity almost to +our own time. + +Thunor, the same word as our modern English thunder, was practically, +though not philologically, the Anglo-Saxon representative of Zeus. We +are more familiar with his name in its clipped Norse form of Thor. +Thursday is Thunor's day (Thunres daeg: dies Jovis) and the thunderbolt, +really a polished stone axe of the aboriginal neolithic savages, was +supposed to be his weapon. Thundersfield, in Surrey; Thundersley, in +Essex; and Thursley, in Surrey, still preserve the memory of his sacred +sites. Thurleigh, in Bedford; Thurlow, in Essex; Thursley, in +Cumberland; Thursfield, in Staffordshire; and Thursford, in Norfolk, are +more probably due to later Danish influence, and commemorate namesakes +of the Norse Thor rather than the English Thunor. + +Tiw, the philological equivalent of Zeus, answered rather in character +to Ares, and had for his day Tuesday (dies Martis). Tiw's mere and Tiw's +thorn occur in charters, and a few places still retain his name. Frea +gives his title to Friday (dies Veneris), and Saetere to Saturday (dies +Saturni). But the Anglo-Saxon worship really paid more attention to +certain deified heroes,--Baeldaeg, Geat, and Sceaf; and to certain +personified abstractions,--Wig (war), Death, and Sige (victory), than to +these minor gods. And, as often happens in Polytheistic religions, there +is reason to believe that the popular creed had much less reference to +the gods at all than to many inferior spirits of a naturalistic sort. +For the early English farmer, the world around was full of spiritual +beings, half divine, half devilish. Fiends and monsters peopled the +fens, and tales of their doings terrified his childhood. Spirits of +flood and fell swamped his boat or misled him at night. Water nicors +haunted the streams; fairies danced on the green rings of the pasture; +dwarfs lived in the barrows of Celtic or neolithic chieftains, and +wrought strange weapons underground. The mark, the forest, the hills, +were all full for the early Englishman of mysterious and often hostile +beings. At length the Weirds or Fates swept him away. Beneath the earth +itself, Hel, mistress of the cold and joyless world of shades, at last +received him; unless, indeed, by dying a warrior's death, he was +admitted to the happy realms of Waelheal. As a whole, the Anglo-Saxon +heathendom was a religion of terrorism. Evil spirits surrounded men on +every side, dwelt in all solitary places, and stalked over the land by +night. Ghosts dwelt in the forest; elves haunted the rude stone circles +of elder days. The woodland, still really tenanted by deer, wolves, and +wild boars, was also filled by popular imagination with demons and imps. +Charms, spells, and incantations formed the most real and living part of +the national faith; and many of these survived into Christian times as +witchcraft. Some of them, and of the early myths, even continue to be +repeated in the folk-lore of the present day. Such are the legends of +the Wild Huntsman and of Wayland Smith. Indeed, heathendom had a strong +hold over the common English mind long after the public adoption of +Christianity; and heathen sacrifices continued to be offered in secret +as late as the thirteenth century. Our poetry and our ordinary language +is tinged with heathen ideas even in modern times. + +Still more interesting, however, are those relics of yet earlier social +states, which we find amongst the Anglo-Saxons themselves. The +production of fire by rubbing together two sticks is a common practice +amongst all savages; and it has acquired a sacred significance which +causes it to live on into more civilised stages. Once a year the +needfire was so lighted, and all the hearths of the village were +rekindled from the blaze thus obtained. Cattle were "passed through the +fire" to preserve them from the attacks of fiends; and perhaps even +children were sometimes treated in the same manner. The ceremony, +originally adopted, perhaps, by the English from their Celtic serfs, +still lingers in remote parts of the country, as the lighting of fires +on St. John's Eve. Tattooing the face was practised by the noble +classes. It seems probable that the early English sacrificed human +victims, as the Germans certainly did to Wuotan (the High Dutch Woden); +and we know that the practice of suttee existed, and that widows slew +themselves on the death of their husbands, in order to accompany them to +the other world. Even more curious are the vestiges of Totemism, or +primitive animal worship, common to all branches of the Aryan race, as +well as to the North American Indians, the Australian black fellows, and +many other savages. Totemism consists in the belief that each family is +literally descended from a particular plant or animal, whose name it +bears; and members of the family generally refuse to pluck the plant or +kill the animal after which they are named. Of these beliefs we find +apparently several traces in Anglo-Saxon life. The genealogies of the +kings include such names as those of the horse, the mare, the ash, and +the whale. In the very early Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf, two of the +characters bear the names of Wulf and Eofer (boar). The wolf and the +raven were sacred animals, and have left their memory in many places, as +well as in such personal titles as AEthelwulf, the noble wolf. The boar +was also greatly reverenced; its head was used as an amulet, or as a +crest for helmets, and oaths were taken upon it till late in the middle +ages. Our own boar's head at Christmas is a relic of the old belief. The +sanctity of the horse and the ash has been already mentioned. Now many +of the Anglo-Saxon clans bore names implying their descent from such +plants or animals. Thus a charter mentions the AEscings, or sons of the +ash, in Surrey; another refers to the Earnings, or sons of the eagle +(earn); a third to the Heartings, or sons of the hart; a fourth to the +Wylfings, or sons of the wolf; and a fifth to the Thornings, or sons of +the thorn. The oak has left traces of his descendants at Oakington, in +Cambridge: the birch, at Birchington, in Kent; the boar (Eofer) at +Evringham, in Yorkshire; the hawk, at Hawkinge, in Kent; the horse, at +Horsington, in Lincolnshire; the raven, at Raveningham, in Norfolk; the +sun, at Sunning, in Berks; and the serpent (Wyrm), at Wormingford, +Worminghall, and Wormington, in Essex, Bucks, and Gloucester, +respectively. Every one of these objects is a common and well-known +totem amongst savage tribes; and the inference that at some earlier +period the Anglo-Saxons had been Totemists is almost irresistible. + +Moreover, it is an ascertained fact that the custom of exogamy (marriage +by capture outside the tribe), and of counting kindred on the female +side alone, accompanies the low stage of culture with which Totemism is +usually associated. We know also that this method of reckoning +relationship obtained amongst certain Aryan tribes, such as the Picts. +Traces of the ceremonial form of marriage by capture survived in England +to a late date in the middle ages; and therefore the custom of exogamy, +upon which the ceremony is based, must probably have existed amongst the +English themselves at some earlier period. Even in the first historical +age, a conquered king generally gave his daughter in marriage to his +conqueror, as a mark of submission, which is a relic of the same custom. +Now, if members of the various tribes--Jutes, English, and Saxons,--used +at one time habitually to intermarry with one another, and to give their +children the clan-name of the father, it would follow that persons +bearing the same clan-name would appear in all the tribes. Such we find +to be actually the case. The Hemings, for instance, are met with in six +counties--York, Lincoln, Huntingdon, Suffolk, Northampton, and Somerset; +the Mannings occur in English Norfolk and in Saxon Dorset; the +Billings, and many other clans, have left their names over the whole +land, from north to south and from east to west alike. It has often been +assumed that these facts prove the intimate intermixture of the invading +tribes; but the supposition of the former existence of exogamy, and +consequent appearance of similar clan-names in all the tribes, seems far +more probable than such an extreme mingling of different tribesmen over +the whole conquered territory.[1] Part of the early English ceremony of +marriage consisted in the bridegroom touching the head of the bride with +a shoe, a relic, doubtless, of the original mode of capture, when the +captor placed his foot on the neck of his prisoner or slave. After +marriage, the wife's hair was cut short, which is a universal mark of +slavery. + + [1] I owe this ingenious explanation to a note in Mr. Andrew + Lang's essays prefixed to Mr. Holland's translation of + Aristotle's _Politics_. He has there also suggested the + analysis of the clan names for traces of Totemism, whose + results I have given above in part. + +Thus we may divide the early English religion into four elements. First, +the remnants of a very primitive savage faith, represented by the +sanctity of animals and plants, by Totemism, by the needfire, and by the +use of amulets, charms, and spells. Second, the relics of the old common +Aryan nature-worship, found in the reverence paid to Thunor, or Thunder, +who is a form of Zeus, and in the sacredness of hills, rivers, wells, +fords, and the open air. Third, a system of Teutonic hero or +ancestor-worship, typified by Woden, Baeldaeg, and the other great names +of the genealogies, and having its origin in the belief in ghosts. +Fourth, a deification of certain abstract ideas, such as War, Fate, +Victory, and Death. But the average heathen Anglo-Saxon religion was +merely a vast mass of superstition, a dark and gloomy terrorism, +begotten of the vague dread of misfortune which barbarians naturally +feel in a half-peopled land, where war and massacre are the highest +business of every man's lifetime, and a violent death the ordinary way +in which he meets his end. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH. + + +It was impossible that a country lying within sight of the orthodox +Frankish kingdom, and enclosed between two Christian Churches on either +side, should long remain in such a state of isolated heathendom. For to +be cut off from Christendom was to be cut off from the whole social, +political, intellectual, and commercial life of the civilised world. In +Britain, as distinctly as in the Pacific Islands in our own day, the +missionary was the pioneer of civilisation. The change which +Christianity wrought in England in a few generations was almost as +enormous as the change which it has wrought in Hawaii at the present +time. Before the arrival of the missionary, there was no written +literature, no industrial arts, no peace, no social intercourse between +district and district. The church came as a teacher and civiliser, and +in a few years the barbarous heathen English warrior had settled down +into a toilsome agriculturist, an eager scholar, a peaceful law-giver, +or an earnest priest. The change was not merely a change of religion, it +was a revolution from a life of barbarism to a life of incipient +culture, and slow but progressive civilisation. + +So inevitable was the Christianisation of England, that even while the +flood of paganism was pouring westward, the east was beginning to +receive the faith of Rome from the Frankish kingdom and from Italy. It +has been necessary, indeed, to anticipate a little, in order to show the +story of the conquest in its true light. Ten years before the heathen +AEthelfrith of Northumbria massacred the Welsh monks at Chester, +Augustine had brought Christianity to the people of Kent. + +In 596, Gregory the Great determined to send a mission to England. Even +before that time, Kent had been in closer union with the Continent than +any other part of the country. Trade went on with the kindred Saxon +coast of the Frankish kingdom, and AEthelberht, the ambitious Kentish +king, and over-lord of all England south of the Humber, had even married +Bercta, a daughter of the Frankish king of Paris. Bercta was of course a +Christian, and she brought her own Frankish chaplain, who officiated in +the old Roman church of St. Martin, at Canterbury. But Gregory's mission +was on a far larger scale. Augustine, prior of the monastery on the +Coelian Hill, was sent with forty monks to convert the heathen +English. They landed in Thanet, in 597, with all the pomp of Roman +civilisation and ecclesiastical symbolism. Gregory had rightly +determined to try by ritual and show to impress the barbarian mind. +AEthelberht, already predisposed to accept the Continental culture, and +to assimilate his rude kingdom to the Roman model, met them in the open +air at a solemn meeting; for he feared, says Baeda, to meet them within +four walls, lest they should practice incantations upon him. The foreign +monks advanced in procession to the king's presence, chanting their +litanies, and displaying a silver cross. AEthelberht yielded almost at +once. He and all his court became Christians; and the people, as is +usual amongst barbarous tribes, quickly conformed to the faith of their +rulers. AEthelberht gave the missionaries leave to build new churches, or +to repair the old ones erected by the Welsh Christians. Augustine +returned to Gaul, where he was consecrated as Archbishop of the English +nation, at Arles. Kent became thenceforth a part of the great +Continental system. Canterbury has ever since remained the metropolis of +the English Church; and the modern archbishops trace back their +succession directly to St. Augustine. + +For awhile, the young Church seemed to make vigorous progress. Augustine +built a monastery at Canterbury, where AEthelberht founded a new church +to SS. Peter and Paul, to be a sort of Westminster Abbey for the tombs +of all future Kentish kings and archbishops. He also restored an old +Roman church in the city. The pope sent him sacramental vessels, altar +cloths, ornaments, relics, and, above all, many books. Ten years later, +Augustine enlarged his missionary field by ordaining two new +bishops--Mellitus, to preach to the East Saxons, "whose metropolis," +says Baeda, "is the city of London, which is the mart of many nations, +resorting to it by sea and land;" and Justus to the episcopal see of +West Kent, with his bishop-stool at Rochester. The East Saxons +nominally accepted the faith at the bidding of their over-lord, +AEthelberht; but the people of London long remained pagans at heart. On +Augustine's death, however, all life seemed again to die out of the +struggling mission. Laurentius, who succeeded him, found the labour too +great for his weaker hands. In 613 AEthelberht died, and his son Eadbald +at once apostatised, returning to the worship of Woden and the ancestral +gods. The East Saxons drove out Mellitus, who, with Justus, retired to +Gaul; and Archbishop Laurentius himself was minded to follow them. Then +the Kentish king, admonished by a dream of the archbishop's, made +submission, recalled the truant bishops, and restored Justus to +Rochester. The Londoners, however, would not receive back Mellitus, +"choosing rather to be under their idolatrous high-priests." Soon +Laurentius died too, and Mellitus was called to take his place, and +consecrated at last a church in London in the monastery of St. Peter. In +624, the third archbishop was carried off by gout, and Justus of +Rochester succeeded to the primacy of the struggling church. Up to this +point little had been gained, except the conversion of Kent itself, with +its dependent kingdom of Essex--the two parts of England in closest +union with the Continent, through the mercantile intercourse by way of +London and Richborough. + +Under the new primate, however, an unexpected opening occurred for the +conversion of the North. The Northumbrian kings had now risen to the +first place in Britain. AEthelfrith had done much to establish their +supremacy; under Eadwine it rose to a height of acknowledged +over-lordship. "As an earnest of this king's future conversion and +translation to the kingdom of heaven," says Baeda, with pardonable +Northumbrian patriotic pride, "even his temporal power was allowed to +increase greatly, so that he did what no Englishman had done +before--that is to say, he united under his own over-lordship all the +provinces of Britain, whether inhabited by English or by Welsh." Eadwine +now took in marriage AEthelburh, daughter of AEthelberht, and sister of +the reigning Kentish king. Justus seized the opportunity to introduce +the Church into Northumbria. He ordained one Paulinus as bishop, to +accompany the Christian lady, to watch over her faith, and if possible +to convert her husband and his people. + +Gregory had planned his scheme with systematic completeness; he had +decided that there should be two metropolitan provinces, of York and +London (which he knew as the old Roman capitals of Britain), and that +each should consist of twelve episcopal sees. Paulinus now went to York +in furtherance of this comprehensive but abortive scheme. A miraculous +escape from assassination, or what was reputed one, gave the Roman monk +a hold over Eadwine's mind; but the king decided to put off his +conversion till he had tried the efficacy of the new faith by a +practical appeal. He went on an expedition against the treacherous king +of the West Saxons, who had endeavoured to assassinate him, and +determined to abide by the result. Having overthrown his enemy with +great slaughter, he returned to his royal city of Coningsborough (the +king's town), and put himself as a catechumen under the care of +Paulinus. The pope himself was induced to interest himself in so +promising a convert; and he wrote a couple of briefs to Eadwine and his +queen. These letters, the originals of which were carefully preserved at +Rome, are copied out in full by Baeda. No doubt, the honour of receiving +such an epistle from the pontiff of the Eternal City was not without its +effect upon the semi-barbaric mind of Eadwine, who seems in some +respects to have inherited the old Roman traditions of Eboracum. + +Still the king held back. To change his own faith was to change the +faith of the whole nation, and he thought it well to consult his witan. +The old English assembly was always aristocratic in character, despite +its ostensible democracy, for it consisted only of the heads of +families; and as the kingdoms grew larger, their aristocratic character +necessarily became more pronounced, as only the wealthier persons could +be in attendance upon the king. The folk-moot had grown into the +witena-gemot, or assembly of wise men. Eadwine assembled such a meeting +on the banks of the Derwent--for moots were always held in the open air +at some sacred spot--and there the priests and thegns declared their +willingness to accept the new religion. Coifi, chief priest of the +heathen gods, himself led the way, and flung a lance in derision at the +temple of his own deities. To the surprise of all, the gods did not +avenge the insult. Thereupon "King AEduin, with all the nobles and most +of the common folk of his nation, received the faith and the font of +holy regeneration, in the eleventh year of his reign, which is the year +of our Lord's incarnation the six hundred and twenty-seventh, and about +the hundred and eightieth after the arrival of the English in Britain. +He was baptized at York on Easter-day, the first before the Ides of +April (April 12), in the church of St. Peter the Apostle, which he +himself had hastily built of wood, while he was being catechised and +prepared for Baptism; and in the same city he gave the bishopric to his +prelate and sponsor Paulinus. But after his Baptism he took care, by +Paulinus's direction, to build a larger and finer church of stone, in +the midst whereof his original chapel should be enclosed." To this day, +York Minster, the lineal descendant of Eadwine's wooden church, remains +dedicated to St. Peter; and the archbishops still sit in the +bishop-stool of Paulinus. Part of Eadwine's later stone cathedral was +discovered under the existing choir during the repairs rendered +necessary by the incendiary Martin. As to the heathen temple, its traces +still remained even in Baeda's day. "That place, formerly the abode of +idols, is now pointed out not far from York to the westward, beyond the +river Dornuentio, and is to-day called Godmundingaham, where the priest +himself, through the inspiration of the true God, polluted and destroyed +the altars which he himself had consecrated." So close did Baeda live to +these early heathen English times. From the date of St. Augustine's +arrival, indeed, Baeda stands upon the surer ground of almost +contemporary narrative. + +Still the greater part of English Britain remained heathen. Kent, Essex, +and Northumbria were converted, or at least their kings and nobles had +been baptised: but East Anglia, Mercia, Sussex, Wessex, and the minor +interior principalities were as yet wholly heathen. Indeed, the various +Teutonic colonies seemed to have received Christianity in the exact +order of their settlement: the older and more civilised first, the newer +and ruder last. Paulinus, however, made another conquest for the church +in Lindsey (Lincolnshire), "where the first who believed," says the +Chronicle, "was a certain great man who hight Blecca, with all his +clan." In the very same year with these successes, Justus died, and +Honorius received the See of Canterbury from Paulinus at the old Roman +city of Lincoln. So far the Roman missionaries remained the only +Christian teachers in England: no English convert seems as yet to have +taken holy orders. + +Again, however, the church received a severe check. Mercia, the youngest +and roughest principality, stood out for heathendom. The western colony +was beginning to raise itself into a great power, under its fierce and +strong old king Penda, who seems to have consolidated all the petty +chieftainships of the Midlands into a single fairly coherent kingdom. +Penda hated Northumbria, which, under Eadwine, had made itself the chief +English state: and he also hated Christianity, which he knew only as a +religion fit for Welsh slaves, not for English warriors. For twenty-two +years, therefore, the old heathen king waged an untiring war against +Christian Northumbria. In 633, he allied himself with Cadwalla, the +Christian Welsh king of Gwynedd, or North Wales, in a war against +Eadwine; an alliance which supplies one more proof that the gulf between +Welsh and English was not so wide as it is sometimes represented to be. +The Welsh and Mercian host met the Northumbrians at Heathfield (perhaps +Hatfield Chase) and utterly destroyed them. Eadwine himself and his son +Osfrith were slain. Penda and Cadwalla "fared thence, and undid all +Northumbria." The country was once more divided into Deira and Bernicia, +and two heathen rulers succeeded to the northern kingdom. Paulinus, +taking AEthelburh, the widow of Eadwine, went by sea to Kent, where +Honorius, whom he had himself consecrated, received him cordially, and +gave him the vacant see of Rochester. There he remained till his death, +and so for a time ended the Christian mission to York. Penda made the +best of his victory by annexing the Southumbrians, the Middle English, +and the Lindiswaras, as well as by conquering the Severn Valley from the +West Saxons. Henceforth, Mercia stands forth as one of the three leading +Teutonic states in Britain. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +ROME AND IONA. + + +It was not the Roman mission which finally succeeded in converting the +North and the Midlands. That success was due to the Scottish and Pictish +Church. At the end of the sixth century, Columba, an Irish missionary, +crossed over to the solitary rock of Iona, where he established an abbey +on the Irish model, and quickly evangelised the northern Picts. From +Iona, some generations later, went forth the devoted missionaries who +finally converted the northern half of England. + +The native churches of the west, cut off from direct intercourse with +the main body of Latin Christendom, had retained certain habits which +were now regarded by Rome as schismatical. Chief among these were the +date of celebrating Easter, and the uncanonical method of cutting the +tonsure in a crescent instead of a circle. Augustine, shortly after his +arrival, endeavoured to obtain unity between the two churches on these +matters of discipline, to which great importance was attached as tests +of submission to the Latin rule. He obtained from AEthelberht a +safe-conduct through the heathen West-Saxon territories as far as what +is now Worcestershire; and there, "on the borders of the Huiccii and +the West-Saxons," says Baeda, "he convened to a colloquy the bishops and +doctors of the nearest province of the Britons, in the place which, to +the present day, is called in the English language, Augustine's Oak." +Such open-air meetings by sacred trees or stones were universal in +England both before and after its conversion. "He began to admonish them +with a brotherly admonition to embrace with him the Catholic faith, and +to undertake the common task of evangelising the pagans. For they did +not observe Easter at the proper period: moreover, they did many other +things contrary to the unity of the Church." But the Welsh were jealous +of the intruders, and refused to abandon their old customs. Thereupon, +Augustine declared that if they would not help him against the heathen, +they would perish by the heathen. A few years later, after Augustine's +death, this prediction was verified by AEthelfrith of Northumbria, whose +massacre of the monks of Bangor has already been noticed. + +It was in return for the destruction of Chester and the slaughter of the +monks that Cadwalla joined the heathen Penda against his fellow +Christian Eadwine. But the death of Eadwine left the throne open for the +house of AEthelfrith, whose place Eadwine had taken. After a year of +renewed heathendom, however, during part of which the Welsh Cadwalla +reigned over Northumbria, Oswald, son of AEthelfrith, again united Deira +and Bernicia under his own rule. Oswald was a Christian, but he had +learnt his Christianity from the Scots, amongst whom he had spent his +exile, and he favoured the introduction of Pictish and Scottish +missionaries into Northumbria. The Italian monks who had accompanied +Augustine were men of foreign speech and manners, representatives of an +alien civilisation, and they attempted to convert whole kingdoms _en +bloc_ by the previous conversion of their rulers. Their method was +political and systematic. But the Pictish and Irish preachers were men +of more Britannic feelings, and they went to work with true missionary +earnestness to convert the half Celtic people of Northumbria, man by +man, in their own homes. Aidan, the apostle of the north, carried the +Pictish faith into the Lothians and Northumberland. He placed his +bishop-stool not far from the royal town of Bamborough, at Lindisfarne, +the Holy Island of the Northumbrian coast. Other Celtic missionaries +penetrated further south, even into the heathen realm of Penda and his +tributary princes. Ceadda or Chad, the patron saint of Lichfield, +carried Christianity to the Mercians. Diuma preached to the Middle +English of Leicester with much success, Peada, their ealdorman, son of +Penda, having himself already embraced the new faith. Penda had slain +Oswald in a great battle at Maserfeld in 641; but the martyr only +brought increased glory to the Christians: and Oswiu, who succeeded him, +after an interval of anarchy, as king of Deira (for Bernicia now chose a +king of its own), was also a zealous adherent of the Celtic +missionaries. Thus the heterodox Church made rapid strides throughout +the whole of the north. + +Meanwhile, in the south the Latin missionaries, urged to activity, +perhaps, by the Pictish successes, had been making fresh progress. In +the very year when Oswald was chosen king by the Northumbrians, Birinus, +a priest from northern Italy, went by command of the pope to the West +Saxons: and after twelve months he was able to baptise their king, +Cynegils, at his capital of Dorchester, on the Thames, his sponsor being +Oswald of Northumbria. A year later, Felix, a Burgundian, "preached the +faith of Christ to the East Anglians," who had indeed been converted by +the Augustinian missionaries, but afterwards relapsed. Only Sussex and +Mercia still remained heathen. But, in 655, Penda made a last attempt +against Northumbria, which he had harried year after year, and was met +by Oswiu at Winwidfield, near Leeds; the Christians were successful, and +Penda was slain, together with thirty royal persons--petty princes of +the tributary Mercian states, no doubt. His son, Peada, the Christian +ealdorman of the Middle English, succeeded him, and the Mercians became +Christians of the Pictish or Irish type. "Their first bishop," says +Baeda, "was Diuma, who died and was buried among the Middle English. The +second was Cellach, who abandoned his bishopric, and returned during his +lifetime to Scotland (perhaps Ireland, but more probably the Scottish +kingdom in Argyllshire). Both of these were by birth Irishmen. The third +was Trumhere, by race an Englishman, but educated and ordained by the +Irish." Thus Roman Christianity spread over the whole of England south +of the Wash (save only heathen Sussex): while the Irish Church had made +its way over all the north, from the Wash to the Firth of Forth. The +Roman influence may be partly traced by the Roman alphabet superseding +the old English runes. Runic inscriptions are rare in the south, where +they were regarded as heathenish relics, and so destroyed: but they are +comparatively common in the north. Runics appear on the coins of the +first Christian kings of Mercia, Peada and AEthelred, but soon die out +under their successors. + +Heathendom was now fairly vanquished. It survived only in Sussex, cut +off from the rest of England by the forest belt of the Weald. The next +trial of strength must clearly lie between Rome and Iona. + +The northern bishops and abbots traced their succession, not to +Augustine, but to Columba. Cuthberht, the English apostle of the north, +who really converted the _people_ of Northumbria, as earlier +missionaries had converted its _kings_, derived his orders from Iona. +Rome or Ireland, was now the practical question of the English Church. +As might be expected, Rome conquered. To allay the discord, King Oswiu +summoned a synod at Streoneshalch (now known by its later Danish name of +Whitby) in 664, to settle the vexed question as to the date of Easter. +The Irish priests claimed the authority of St. John for their crescent +tonsure; the Romans, headed by Wilfrith, a most vigorous priest, +appealed to the authority of St. Peter for the canonical circle. "I will +never offend the saint who holds the keys of heaven," said Oswiu, with +the frank, half-heathendom of a recent convert; and the meeting shortly +decided as the king would have it. The Irish party acquiesced or else +returned to Scotland; and thenceforth the new English Church remained in +close communion with Rome and the Continent. Whatever may be our +ecclesiastical judgment of this decision, there can be little doubt that +its material effects were most excellent. By bringing England into +connection with Rome, it brought her into connection with the centre of +all then-existing civilisation, and endowed her with arts and +manufactures which she could never otherwise have attained. The +connection with Ireland and the north would have been as fatal, from a +purely secular point of view, to early English culture as was the later +connection with half-barbaric Scandinavia. Rome gave England the Roman +letters, arts, and organisation: Ireland could only have given her a +more insular form of Celtic civilisation. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +CHRISTIAN ENGLAND. + + +The change wrought in England by the introduction of the new faith was +immense and sudden at the moment, as well as deep-reaching in its after +consequences. The isolated heathen barbaric communities became at once +an integral part of the great Roman and Christian civilisation. Even +before the arrival of Augustine, some slight tincture of Roman influence +had filtered through into the English world. The Welsh serfs had +preserved some traditional knowledge of Roman agriculture; Kent had kept +up some intercourse with the Continent; and even in York, Eadwine +affected a certain imitation of Roman pomp. But after the introduction +of Christianity, Roman civilisation began to produce marked results over +the whole country. Writing, before almost unknown, or confined to the +engraving of runic characters on metal objects, grew rapidly into a +common art. The Latin language was introduced, and with it the key to +the Latin literature and Latin science, the heirlooms of Greece and the +East. Roman influences affected the little courts of the English kings; +and the customary laws began to be written down in regular codes. Before +the conversion we have not a single written document upon which to base +our history; from the moment of Augustine's landing we have the +invaluable works of Baeda, and a host of lesser writings (chiefly lives +of saints), besides an immense number of charters or royal grants of +land to monasteries and private persons. These grants, written at first +in Latin, but afterwards in Anglo-Saxon, were preserved in the +monasteries down to the date of their dissolution, and then became the +property of various collectors. They have been transcribed and published +by Mr. Kemble and Mr. Thorpe, and they form some of our most useful +materials for the early history of Christian England. + +It was mainly by means of the monasteries that Christianity became a +great civilising and teaching agency in England. Those who judge +monastic institutions only by their later and worst days, when they had, +perhaps, ceased to perform any useful function, are apt to forget the +benefits which they conferred upon the people in the earlier stages of +their existence. The state of England during this first Christian period +was one of chronic and bloody warfare. There was no regular army, but +every freeman was a soldier, and raids of one English tribe upon another +were everyday occurrences; while pillaging frays on the part of the +Welsh, followed by savage reprisals on the part of the English, were +still more frequent. During the heathen period, even the Picts seem +often to have made piractical expeditions far into the south of England. +In 597, for example, we read in the Chronicle that Ceolwulf, king of the +West Saxons, constantly fought "either against the English, or against +the Welsh, or against the Picts." But in 603, the Argyllshire Scots made +a raid against Northumbria, and were so completely crushed by +AEthelfrith, that "since then no king of Scots durst lead a host against +this folk"; while the southern Picts of Galloway became tributaries of +the Northumbrian kings. But war between Saxons and English, or between +Teutons and Welsh, still remained chronic; and Christianity did little +to prevent these perpetual border wars and raids. In 633, Cadwalla and +Penda wasted Northumbria; in 644, Penda drove out King Kenwealh, of the +West Saxons, from his possessions along the Severn; in 671, Wulfhere, +the Mercian, ravaged Wessex and the south as far as Ashdown, and +conquered Wight, which he gave to the South Saxons; and so, from time to +time, we catch glimpses of the unceasing strife between each folk and +its neighbours, besides many hints of intestine struggles between prince +and prince, or of rivalries between one petty shire and others of the +same kingdom, far too numerous and unimportant to be detailed here in +full. + +With such a state of affairs as this, it became a matter of deep +importance that there should be some one institution where the arts of +peace might be carried on in safety; where agriculture might be sure of +its reward; where literature and science might be studied; and where +civilising influences might be safe from interruption or rapine. The +monasteries gave an opportunity for such an ameliorating influence to +spring up. They were spared even in war by the reverence of the people +for the Church; and they became places where peaceful minds might +retire for honest work, and learning, and thinking, away from the fierce +turmoil of a still essentially barbaric and predatory community. At the +same time, they encouraged the development of this very type of mind by +turning the reproach of cowardice, which it would have carried with it +in heathen times, into an honour and a mark of holiness. Every monastery +became a centre of light and of struggling culture for the surrounding +district. They were at once, to the early English recluse, universities +and refuges, places of education, of retirement, and of peace, in the +midst of a jarring and discordant world. + +Hence, almost the first act of every newly-converted prince was to found +a monastery in his dominions. That of Canterbury dates from the arrival +of Augustine. In 643, Kenwealh of Wessex "bade timber the old minster at +Winchester." In 654, shortly after the conversion of East Anglia, +"Botulf began to build a monastery at Icanho," since called after his +name Botulf's tun, or Boston. In 657, Peada of Mercia and Oswiu of +Northumbria "said that they would rear a monastery to the glory of +Christ and the honour of St. Peter; and they did so, and gave it the +name of Medeshamstede"; but it is now known as Peterborough.[1] + + [1] The charter is a late forgery, but there is no reason to + doubt that it represents the correct tradition. + +Before the battle of Winwidfield, Oswiu had vowed to build twelve +minsters in his kingdom, and he redeemed his vow by founding six in +Bernicia and six in Deira. In 669, Ecgberht of Kent "gave Reculver to +Bass, the mass-priest, to build a monastery thereon." In 663, +AEthelthryth, a lady of royal blood, better known by the Latinised name +of St. Etheldreda, "began the monastery at Ely." Before Baeda's death, in +735, religious houses already existed at Lastingham, Melrose, +Lindisfarne, Whithern, Bardney, Gilling, Bury, Ripon, Chertsey, Barking, +Abercorn, Selsey, Redbridge, Coldingham, Towcester, Hackness, and +several other places. So the whole of England was soon covered with +monastic establishments, each liberally endowed with land, and each +engaged in tilling the soil without, and cultivating peaceful arts +within, like little islands of southern civilisation, dotted about in +the wide sea of Teutonic barbarism. + +In the Roman south, many, if not all, of the monasteries seem to have +been planned on the regular models; but in the north, where the Irish +missionaries had borne the largest share in the work of conversion, the +monasteries were irregular bodies on the Irish plan, where an abbot or +abbess ruled over a mixed community of monks and nuns. Hild, a member of +the Northumbrian princely family, founded such an abbey at Streoneshalch +(Whitby), made memorable by numbering amongst its members the first +known English poet, Caedmon. St. John of Beverley, Bishop of Hexham, set +up a similar monastery at the place with which his name is so closely +associated. The Irish monks themselves founded others at Lindisfarne and +elsewhere. Even in the south, some Irish abbeys existed. An Irish monk +had set up one at Bosham, in Sussex, even before Wilfrith converted that +kingdom; and one of his countrymen, Maidulf (or Maeldubh?) was the +original head of Malmesbury. In process of time, however, as the union +with Rome grew stronger, all these houses conformed to the more regular +usage, and became monasteries of the ordinary Benedictine type. + +The civilising value of the monasteries can hardly be over-rated. Secure +in the peace conferred upon them by a religious sanction, the monks +became the builders of schools, the drainers of marshland, the clearers +of forest, the tillers of heath. Many of the earliest religious houses +rose in the midst of what had previously been trackless wilds. +Peterborough and Ely grew up on islands of the Fen country. Crowland +gathered round the cell of Guthlac in the midst of a desolate mere. +Evesham occupied a glade in the wild forests of the western march. +Glastonbury, an old Welsh foundation, stood on a solitary islet, where +the abrupt knoll of the Tor looks down upon the broad waste of the +Somersetshire marshes. Beverley, as its name imports, had been a haunt +of beavers before the monks began to till its fruitful dingles. In every +case agriculture soon turned the wild lands into orchards and +cornfields, or drove drains through the fens which converted their +marshes into meadows and pastures for the long-horned English cattle. +Roman architecture, too, came with the Roman church. We hear nothing +before of stone buildings; but Eadwine erected a church of stone at +York, under the direction of Paulinus; and Bishop Wilfrith, a +generation later, restored and decorated it, covering the roof with lead +and filling the windows with panes of glass. Masons had already been +settled in Kent, though Benedict, the founder of Wearmouth and Jarrow, +found it desirable to bring over others from the Franks. Metal-working +had always been a special gift of the English, and their gold jewellery +was well made even before the conversion, but it became still more +noticeable after the monks took the craft into their own hands. Baeda +mentions mines of copper, iron, lead, silver, and jet. Abbot Benedict +not only brought manuscripts and pictures from Rome, which were copied +and imitated in his monasteries at Wearmouth and Jarrow, but he also +brought over glass-blowers, who introduced the art of glass-making into +England. Cuthberht, Baeda's scholar, writes to Lull, asking for workmen +who can make glass vessels. Bells appear to have been equally early +introductions. Roman music of course accompanied the Roman liturgy. The +connection established with the clergy of the continent favoured the +dispersion of European goods throughout England. We constantly hear of +presents, consisting of skilled handicraft, passing from the civilised +south to the rude and barbaric north. Wilfrith and Benedict journeyed +several times to and from Rome, enlarging their own minds by intercourse +with Roman society, and returning laden with works of art or manuscripts +of value. Baeda was acquainted with the writings of all the chief +classical poets and philosophers, whom he often quotes. We can only +liken the results of such intercourse to those which in our own time +have proceeded from the opening of Japan to western ideas, or of the +Hawaiian Islands to European civilisation and European missionaries. The +English school which soon sprang up at Rome, and the Latin schools which +soon sprang up at York and Canterbury, are precise equivalents of the +educational movements in both those countries which we see in our own +day. The monks were to learn Latin and Greek "as well as they learned +their own tongue," and were so to be given the key of all the literature +and all the science that the world then possessed. + +The monasteries thus became real manufacturing, agricultural, and +literary centres on a small scale. The monks boiled down the salt of the +brine-pits; they copied and illuminated manuscripts in the library; they +painted pictures not without rude merit of their own; they ran rhines +through the marshy moorland; they tilled the soil with vigour and +success. A new culture began to occupy the land--the culture whose +fully-developed form we now see around us. But it must never be +forgotten that in its origin it is wholly Roman, and not at all +Anglo-Saxon. Our people showed themselves singularly apt at embracing +it, like the modern Polynesians, and unlike the American Indians; but +they did not invent it for themselves. Our existing culture is not +home-bred at all; it is simply the inherited and widened culture of +Greece and Italy. + +The most perfect picture of the monastic life and of early English +Christianity which we possess is that drawn for us in the life and +works of Baeda. Before giving any account, however, of the sketch which +he has left us, it will be necessary to follow briefly the course of +events in the English church during the few intervening years. + +The Church of England in its existing form owes its organisation to a +Greek monk. In 667, Oswiu of Northumbria and Ecgberht of Kent, in order +to bring their dominions into closer connection with Rome, united in +sending Wigheard the priest to the pope, that he might be hallowed +Archbishop of Canterbury. No Englishman had yet held that office, and +the choice may be regarded as a symptom of growth in the native Church. +But Wigheard died at Rome, and the pope seized the opportunity to +consecrate an archbishop in the Roman interest. His choice fell upon one +Theodore, a monk of Tarsus in Cilicia, who was in the orders of the +Eastern church. The pope was particular, however, that Theodore should +not "introduce anything contrary to the verity of the faith into the +Church over which he was to preside." Theodore accepted Roman orders and +the Roman tonsure, and set out for his province, where he arrived after +various adventures on the way. His re-organisation of the young Church +was thorough and systematic. Originally England had been divided into +seven great dioceses, corresponding to the principal kingdoms (save only +still heathen Sussex), and having their sees in their chief towns--East +and West Kent, at Canterbury and Rochester; Essex, at London; Wessex, at +Dorchester or Winchester; Northumbria, at York; East Anglia, at +Dunwich; and Mercia, at Lichfield. The Scottish bishopric of Lindisfarne +coincided with Bernicia. Theodore divided these great dioceses into +smaller ones; East Anglia had two, for its north and south folk, at +Elmham and Dunwich; Bernicia was divided between Lindisfarne and Hexham; +Lincolnshire had its see placed at Sidnacester; and the sub-kingdoms of +Mercia were also made into dioceses, the Huiccii having their +bishop-stool at Worcester; the Hecans, at Hereford; and the Middle +English, at Leicester. But Theodore's great work was the establishment +of the national synod, in which all the clergy of the various English +kingdoms met together as a single people. This was the first step ever +taken towards the unification of England; and the ecclesiastical unity +thus preceded and paved the way for the political unity which was to +follow it. Theodore's organisation brought the whole Church into +connection with Rome. The bishops owing their orders to the Scots +conformed or withdrew, and henceforward Rome held undisputed sway. +Before Theodore, all the archbishops of Canterbury and all the bishops +of the southern kingdoms had been Roman missionaries; those of the north +had been Scots or in Scottish orders. After Theodore they were all +Englishmen in Roman orders. The native church became thenceforward +wholly self-supporting. + +Theodore was much aided in his projects by Wilfrith of York, a man of +fiery energy and a devoted adherent of the Roman see, who had carried +the Roman supremacy at the Synod of Whitby, and who spent a large part +of his time in journeys between England and Italy. His life, by AEddi, +forms one of the most important documents for early English history. In +681 he completed the conversion of England by his preaching to the South +Saxons, whom he endeavoured to civilise as well as Christianise. His +monastery of Selsey was built on land granted by the under-king (now a +tributary of Wessex), and his first act was to emancipate the slaves +whom he found upon the soil. Equally devoted to Rome was the young +Northumbrian noble, who took the religious name of Benedict Biscop. +Benedict became at first an inmate of the Abbey of Lerins, near Cannes. +He afterwards founded two regular Benedictine abbeys on the same model +at Wearmouth and Jarrow, and made at least four visits to the papal +court, whence he returned laden with manuscripts to introduce Roman +learning among his wild Northumbrian countrymen. He likewise carried +over silk robes for sale to the kings in exchange for grants of land; +and he brought glaziers from Gaul for his churches. Jarrow alone +contained 500 monks, and possessed endowments of 15,000 acres. + +It was under the walls of Jarrow that Baeda himself was born, in the year +672. Only fifty years had passed since his native Northumbria was still +a heathen land. Not more than forty years had gone since the conversion +of Wessex, and Sussex was still given over to the worship of Thunor and +Woden. But Baeda's own life was one which brought him wholly into +connection with Christian teachers and Roman culture. Left an orphan at +the age of seven years, he was handed over to the care of Abbot +Benedict, after whose death Abbot Ceolfrid took charge of the young +aspirant. "Thenceforth," says the aged monk, fifty years later, "I +passed all my lifetime in the building of that monastery [Jarrow], and +gave all my days to meditating on Scripture. In the intervals of my +regular monastic discipline, and of my daily task of chanting in chapel, +I have always amused myself either by learning, teaching, or writing. In +the nineteenth year of my life I received ordination as deacon; in my +thirtieth year I attained to the priesthood; both functions being +administered by the most reverend bishop John [afterwards known as St. +John of Beverley], at the request of Abbot Ceolfrid. From the time of my +ordination as priest to the fifty-ninth year of my life, I have occupied +myself in briefly commenting upon Holy Scripture, for the use of myself +and my brethren, from the works of the venerable fathers, and in some +cases I have added interpretations of my own to aid in their +comprehension." + +The variety of Baeda's works, the large knowledge of science and of +classical literature which he displays (when judged by the continental +standard of the eighth century), and his familiar acquaintance with the +Latin language, which he writes easily and correctly, show that the +library of Jarrow must have been extensive and valuable. Besides his +Scriptural commentaries, he wrote a treatise _De Natura Rerum_, Letters +on the Reason of Leap-Year, a Life of St. Anastasius, and a History of +his Own Abbey, all in Latin. In verse, he composed many pieces, both in +hexameters and elegiacs, together with a treatise on prosody. But his +greatest work is his "Ecclesiastical History of the English People," the +authority from which we derive almost all our knowledge of early +Christian England. It was doubtless suggested by the Frankish history of +Gregory of Tours, and it consists of five books, divided into short +chapters, making up about 400 pages of a modern octavo. Five +manuscripts, one of them transcribed only two years after Baeda's death, +and now deposited in the Cambridge library, preserve for us the text of +this priceless document. The work itself should be read in the original, +or in one of the many excellent translations, by every person who takes +any intelligent interest in our early history. + +Baeda's accomplishments included even a knowledge of Greek--then a rare +acquisition in the west--which he probably derived from Archbishop +Theodore's school at Canterbury. He was likewise an English author, for +he translated the Gospel of St. John into his native Northumbrian; and +the task proved the last of his useful life. Several manuscripts have +preserved to us the letter of Cuthberht, afterwards Abbot of Jarrow, to +his friend Cuthwine, giving us the very date of his death, May 27, A.D. +735, and also narrating the pathetic but somewhat overdrawn picture, +with which we are all familiar, of how he died just as he had completed +his translation of the last chapter. "Thus saying, he passed the day in +peace till eventide. The boy [his scribe] said to him, 'Still one +sentence, beloved master, is yet unwritten.' He answered, 'Write it +quickly.' After a while the boy said, 'Now the sentence is written.' +Then he replied, 'It is well,' quoth he, 'thou hast said the truth: it +is finished.'... And so he passed away to the kingdom of heaven." + +It is impossible to overrate the importance of the change which made +such a life of earnest study and intellectual labour as Baeda's possible +amongst the rough and barbaric English. Nor was it only in producing +thinkers and readers from a people who could not spell a word half a +century before, that the monastic system did good to England. The +monasteries owned large tracts of land which they could cultivate on a +co-operative plan, as cultivation was impossible elsewhere. _Laborare +est orare_ was the true monastic motto: and the documents of the +religious houses, relating to lands and leases, show us the other or +material side of the picture, which was not less important in its way +than the spiritual and intellectual side. Everywhere the monks settled +in the woodland by the rivers, cut down the forests, drove out the +wolves and the beavers, cultivated the soil with the aid of their +tenants and serfs, and became colonisers and civilisers at the same time +that they were teachers and preachers. The reclamation of waste land +throughout the marshes of England was due almost entirely to the +monastic bodies. + +The value of the civilising influence thus exerted is seen especially in +the written laws, and it affected even the actions of the fierce English +princes. The dooms of AEthelberht of Kent are the earliest English +documents which we possess, and they were reduced to writing shortly +after the conversion of the first English Christian king: while Baeda +expressly mentions that they were compiled after Roman models. The +Church was not able to hold the warlike princes really in check; but it +imposed penances, and encouraged many of them to make pilgrimages to +Rome, and to end their days in a cloister. The importance of such +pilgrimages was doubtless immense. They induced the rude insular +nobility to pay a visit to what was still, after all, the most civilised +country of the world, and so to gain some knowledge of a foreign +culture, which they afterwards endeavoured to introduce into their own +homes. In 688, Ceadwalla, the ferocious king of the West Saxons, whose +brother Mul had been burnt alive by the men of Kent, and who harried the +Jutish kingdom in return, and who also murdered two princes of Wight, +with all their people, in cold blood, went on a pilgrimage to Rome, +where he was baptised, and died immediately after.[2] Ine, who succeeded +him, re-endowed the old British monastery of Glastonbury, in territory +just conquered from the West Welsh, and reduced the laws of the West +Saxons to writing. He, too, retired to Rome, where he died. In 704, +AEthelred, son of Penda, king of the Mercians, "assumed monkhood." In +709, Cenred, his successor, and Offa of Essex, went to Rome. And so on +for many years, king after king resigned his kingship, and submitted, in +his latter days, to the Church. Within two centuries, no less than +thirty kings and queens are recorded to have embraced a conventual life: +and far more probably did so, but were passed over in silence. Baeda +tells us that many Englishmen went into monasteries in Gaul. + + [2] He was buried at St. Peter's, and his tomb still exists + in the remodelled building. Baeda quotes the inscription in + full, and quotes it correctly; a fact which may be taken as + an excellent test of his historical accuracy, and the care + with which he collected his materials. + +On the other hand, it cannot be denied that while Christianity made +great progress, many marks of heathendom were still left among the +people. Well-worship and stone-worship, devil-craft and sacrifices to +idols, are mentioned in every Anglo-Saxon code of laws, and had to be +provided against even as late as the time of Eadgar. The belief in elves +and other semi-heathen beings, and the reverence for heathen memorials, +was rife, and shows itself in such names as AElfred, elf-counsel; +AElfstan, elf-stone; AElfgifu, elf-given; AEthelstan, noble-stone; and +Wulfstan, wolf-stone. Heathendom was banished from high places, but it +lingered on among the lower classes, and affected the nomenclature even +of the later West Saxon kings themselves. Indeed, it was closely +interwoven with all the life and thought of the people, and entered, in +altered forms, even into the conceptions of Christianity current amongst +them. The Christian poem of Caedmon is tinctured on every page with ideas +derived from the legends of the old heathen mythology. And it will +probably surprise many to learn that even at this late date, tattooing +continued to be practised by the English chieftains. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE KINGDOMS. + + +With the final triumph of Christianity, all the formative elements of +Anglo-Saxon Britain are complete. We see it, a rough conglomeration of +loosely-aggregated principalities, composed of a fighting aristocracy +and a body of unvalued serfs; while interspersed through its parts are +the bishops, monks, and clergy, centres of nascent civilisation for the +seething mass of noble barbarism. The country is divided into +agricultural colonies, and its only industry is agriculture, its only +wealth, land. We want but one more conspicuous change to make it into +the England of the Augustan Anglo-Saxon age--the reign of Eadgar--and +that one change is the consolidation of the discordant kingdoms under a +single loose over-lordship. To understand this final step, we must +glance briefly at the dull record of the political history. + +Under AEthelfrith, Eadwine, and Oswiu, Northumbria had been the chief +power in England. But the eighth century is taken up with the greatness +of Mercia. Ecgfrith, the last great king of Northumbria, whose +over-lordship extended over the Picts of Galloway and the Cumbrians of +Strathclyde, endeavoured to carry his conquests beyond the Forth, and +annex the free land lying to the north of the old Roman line. He was +defeated and slain, and with him fell the supremacy of Northumbria. +Mercia, which already, under Penda and Wulfhere, had risen to the second +place, now assumed the first position among the Teutonic kingdoms. +Unfortunately we know little of the period of Mercian supremacy. The +West Saxon chronicle contains few notices of the rival state, and we are +thrown for information chiefly on the second-hand Latin historians of +the twelfth century. AEthelbald, the first powerful Mercian king +(716-755), "ravaged the land of the Northumbrians," and made Wessex +acknowledge his supremacy. By this time all the minor kingdoms had +practically become subject to the three great powers, though still +retaining their native princes: and Wessex, Mercia, and Northumbria +shared between them, as suzerains, the whole of Teutonic Britain. The +meagre annals of the Chronicle, upon which alone (with the Charters and +Latin writers of later date) we rest after the death of Baeda, show us a +chaotic list of wars and battles between these three great powers +themselves, or between them and their vassals, or with the Welsh and +Devonians. AEthelbald was succeeded, after a short interval, by Offa, +whose reign of nearly forty years (758-796), is the first settled period +in English history. Offa ruled over the subject princes with rigour, and +seems to have made his power really felt. He drove the Prince of Powys +from Shrewsbury, and carried his ravages into the heart of Wales. He +conquered the land between the Severn and the Wye, and his dyke from +the Dee to the Severn, and the Wye, marked the new limits of the Welsh +and English borders; while his laws codified the customs of Mercia, as +those of AEthelberht and Ine had done with the customs of Kent and +Wessex. He set up for awhile an archbishopric at Lichfield, which seems +to mark his determination to erect Mercia into a sovereign power. He +also founded the great monastery of St. Alban's, and is said to have +established the English college at Rome, though another account +attributes it to Ine, the West Saxon. East Anglia, Kent, Essex, and +Sussex all acknowledged his supremacy. Karl the Great was then reviving +the Roman Empire in its Germanic form, and Offa ventured to correspond +with the Frank emperor as an equal. The possession of London, now a +Mercian city, gave Offa an interest in continental affairs; and the +growth of trade is marked by the fact that when a quarrel arose between +them, they formally closed the ports of their respective kingdoms +against each other's subjects. + +Nevertheless, English kingship still remained a mere military office, +and consolidation, in our modern sense, was clearly impossible. Local +jealousies divided all the little kingdoms and their component +principalities; and any real subordination was impracticable amongst a +purely agricultural and warlike people, with no regular army, and +governed only by their own anarchic desires. Like the Afghans of the +present time, the early English were incapable of union, except in a +temporary way under the strong hand of a single warlike leader against a +common foe. As soon as that was removed, they fell asunder at once into +their original separateness. Hence the chaotic nature of our early +annals, in which it is impossible to discover any real order underlying +the perpetual flux of states and princes. + +A single story from the Chronicle will sufficiently illustrate the type +of men whose actions make up the history of these predatory times. In +754, King Cuthred of the West Saxons died. His kinsman, Sigeberht, +succeeded him. One year later, however, Cynewulf and the witan deprived +Sigeberht of his kingdom, making over to him only the petty principality +of Hampshire, while Cynewulf himself reigned in his stead. After a time +Sigeberht murdered an ealdorman of his suite named Cymbra; whereupon +Cynewulf deprived him of his remaining territory and drove him forth +into the forest of the Weald. There he lived a wild life till a herdsman +met him in the forest and stabbed him, to avenge the death of his +master, Cymbra. Cynewulf, in turn, after spending his days in fighting +the Welsh, lost his life in a quarrel with Cyneheard, brother of the +outlawed Sigeberht. He had endeavoured to drive out the aetheling; but +Cyneheard surprised him at Merton, and slew him with all his thegns, +except one Welsh hostage. Next day, the king's friends, headed by the +ealdorman Osric, fell upon the aetheling, and killed him with all his +followers. In the very same year, AEthelbald of Mercia was killed +fighting at Seckington; and Offa drove out his successor, Beornred. Of +such murders, wars, surprises, and dynastic quarrels, the history of +the eighth century is full. But no modern reader need know more of them +than the fact that they existed, and that they prove the wholly +ungoverned and ungovernable nature of the early English temper. + +Until the Danish invasions of the ninth century, the tribal kingdoms +still remained practically separate, and such cohesion as existed was +only secured for the purpose of temporary defence or aggression. Essex +kept its own kings under AEthelberht of Kent; Huiccia retained its royal +house under AEthelred of Mercia; and later on, Mercia itself had its +ealdormen, after the conquest by Ecgberht of Wessex. Each royal line +reigned under the supreme power until it died out naturally, like our +own great feudatories in India at the present day. "When Wessex and +Mercia have worked their way to the rival hegemonies," says Canon +Stubbs, "Sussex and Essex do not cease to be numbered among the +kingdoms, until their royal houses are extinct. When Wessex has +conquered Mercia and brought Northumbria on its knees, there are still +kings in both Northumbria and Mercia. The royal house of Kent dies out, +but the title of King of Kent is bestowed on an aetheling, first of the +Mercian, then of the West Saxon house. Until the Danish conquest, the +dependant royalties seem to have been spared; and even afterwards +organic union can scarcely be said to exist." + +The final supremacy of the West Saxons was mainly brought about by the +Danish invasion. But the man who laid the foundation of the West Saxon +power was Ecgberht, the so-called first king of all England. Banished +from Wessex during his youth by one of the constant dynastic quarrels, +through the enmity of Offa, the young aetheling had taken refuge with +Karl the Great, at the court of Aachen, and there had learnt to +understand the rising statesmanship of the Frankish race and of the +restored Roman empire. The death of his enemy Beorhtric, in 802, left +the kingdom open to him: but the very day of his accession showed him +the character of the people whom he had come to rule. The men of +Worcester celebrated his arrival by a raid on the men of Wilts. "On that +ilk day," says the Chronicle, "rode AEthelhund, ealdorman of the Huiccias +[who were Mercians], over at Cynemaeres ford; and there Weohstan the +ealdorman met him with the Wilts men [who were West Saxons:] and there +was a muckle fight, and both ealdormen were slain, and the Wilts men won +the day." For twenty years, Ecgberht was engaged in consolidating his +ancestral dominions: but at the end of that time, he found himself able +to attack the Mercians, who had lost Offa six years before Ecgberht's +return. In 825, the West Saxons met the Mercian host at Ellandun, "and +Ecgberht gained the day, and there was muckle slaughter." Therefore all +the Saxon name, held tributary by the Mercians, gathered about the Saxon +champion. "The Kentish folk, and they of Surrey, and the South Saxons, +and the East Saxons turned to him." In the same year, the East Anglians, +anxious to avoid the power of Mercia, "sought Ecgberht for peace and for +aid." Beornwulf, the Mercian king, marched against his revolted +tributaries: but the East Anglians fought him stoutly, and slew him and +his successor in two battles. Ecgberht followed up this step by annexing +Mercia in 829: after which he marched northward against the +Northumbrians, who at once "offered him obedience and peace; and they +thereupon parted." One year later, Ecgberht led an army against the +northern Welsh, and "reduced them to humble obedience." Thus the West +Saxon kingdom absorbed all the others, at least so far as a loose +over-lordship was concerned. Ecgberht had rivalled his master Karl by +founding, after a fashion, the empire of the English. But all the local +jealousies smouldered on as fiercely as ever, the under-kings retained +their several dominions, and Ecgberht's supremacy was merely one of +superior force, unconnected with any real organic unity of the kingdom +as a whole. Ecgberht himself generally bore the title of King of the +West Saxons, like his ancestors: and though in dealing with his Anglian +subjects he styled himself Rex Anglorum, that title perhaps means little +more than the humbler one of Rex Gewissorum, which he used in addressing +his people of the lesser principality. The real kingdom of the English +never existed before the days of Eadward the Elder, and scarcely before +the days of William the Norman and Henry the Angevin. As to the kingdom +of England, that was a far later invention of the feudal lawyers. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE RESISTANCE TO THE DANES. + + +In the long period of three and a-half centuries which had elapsed +between the Jutish conquest of Kent and the establishment of the West +Saxon over-lordship, the politics of Britain had been wholly insular. +The island had been brought back by Augustine and his successors into +ecclesiastical, commercial, and literary union with the continent: but +no foreign war or invasion had ever broken the monotony of murdering the +Welsh and harrying the surrounding English. The isolation of England was +complete. Ship-building was almost an obsolete art: and the small trade +which still centred in London seems to have been mainly carried on in +Frisian bottoms; for the Low Dutch of the continent still retained the +seafaring habits which those of England had forgotten. But a new enemy +was now beginning to appear in northern Europe--the Scandinavians. The +history of the great wicking movement forms the subject of a separate +volume in this series: but the manner in which the English met it will +demand a brief treatment here. Some outline of the bare facts, however, +must first be premised. + +As early as 789, during the reign of Offa in Mercia, "three ships of +Northmen from Haeretha land" came on shore in Wessex. "Then the reeve +rode against them, and would have driven them to the king's town, for he +wist not what they were: and there men slew him. Those were the first +ships of Danish men that ever sought English kin's land." In 795, "the +harrying of heathen men wretchedly destroyed God's church at Lindisfarne +isle, through rapine and manslaughter." In the succeeding year, "the +heathen harried among the Northumbrians, and plundered Ecgberht's +monastery at Wearmouth." In 832, "heathen men ravaged Sheppey"; and a +year later, "King Ecgberht fought against the crews of thirty-five ships +at Charmouth, and there was muckle slaughter made, and the Danes held +the battle-field."[1] In 835, another host came to the West Welsh (now +almost reduced to the peninsula of Cornwall): and the Welsh readily +joined them against their West Saxon over-lord. Ecgberht met the united +hosts at Hengestesdun and put them both to flight. It was his last +success. In the succeeding year he died, and the kingdom descended to +his weak son, AEthelwulf. His second son, AEthelstan, was placed over +Kent, Essex, Surrey, and Sussex, as under-king. + + [1] This entry in the Chronicle, however, is probably + erroneous, as an exactly similar one occurs under AEthelwulf, + seven years later. + +Next spring, the flood of wickings began to pour in earnest over +England. Thirty-three piratical ships sailed up Southampton Water to +pillage Southampton, perhaps with an ultimate eye to the treasures of +royal Winchester, the capital and minster-town of the West Saxon +over-lord himself. This was a bold attempt, but the West Saxons met it +in full force. The ealdorman Wulfheard gathered together the levy of +fighting men, attacked the host, and put it to flight with great +slaughter. Shortly after a second Danish host landed near Portland, +doubtless to plunder Dorchester: and the local ealdorman AEthelhelm, +falling upon them with the levy of Dorset men, was defeated after a +sharp struggle, leaving the heathen in possession of the field. It was +not in Wessex, however, that the wickings were to make their great +success. The north had long suffered from terrible anarchy, and was a +ready prey for any invader. Out of fourteen kings who had reigned in +Northumbria during the eighth century, no less than seven were put to +death and six expelled by their rebellious subjects. Christian +Northumbria, which in Baeda's days had been the most flourishing part of +Britain, was now reduced to a mere agglomeration of petty princes and +clans, dependent on the West Saxon over-lord, and utterly unconnected +with one another in feeling or sympathy. Already we have seen how the +Danes harried Northumbria without opposition. The same was probably the +case with the whole Anglian coast on the east. In 840, the wickings fell +on the fen country. "The ealdorman Hereberht was slain by heathen men, +and many with him among the marsh-men." All down the east coast, the +piratical fleet proceeded, burning and slaughtering as it went. "In the +same year, in Lindsey, and in East Anglia, and among the Kent men, many +men were slain by the host." A year later, the wickings returned, +growing bolder as they found out the helplessness of the people. They +sailed up the Thames, and ravaged Rochester and London, with great +slaughter; after which they crossed the channel and fell upon Cwantawic, +or Etaples, a commercial port in the Saxon land of the Boulonnais. In +842, a Danish host defeated AEthelwulf himself at Charmouth in Dorset; +and in the succeeding summer "the ealdorman Eanulf, with the Somerset +levy, and Bishop Ealhstan and the ealdorman Osric, with the Dorset levy, +fought at Parretmouth with the host, and made a muckle slaughter, and +won the day." + +The utter weakness of the first English resistance is well shown in +these facts. A terrible flood of heathen savagery was let loose upon the +country, and the people were wholly unable to cope with it. There was +absolutely no central organisation, no army, no commissariat, no ships. +The heathen host landed suddenly wherever it found the people +unprepared, and fell upon the larger towns for plunder. The local +authority, the ealdorman or the under-king, hastily gathered together +the local levy in arms, and fell upon the pirates tumultuously with the +men of the shire as best he might. But he had no provisions for a long +campaign: and when the levy had fought once, it melted away immediately, +every man going back again of necessity to his own home. If it won the +battle, it went home to drink over its success: if it lost, it +dissolved, demoralized, and left the burghers to fight for their own +walls, or to buy off the heathen with their own money. But every shire +and every kingdom fought for itself alone. If the Dorset men could only +drive away the host from Charmouth and Portland, they cared little +whether it sailed away to harry Sussex and Hants. If the Northumbrians +could only drive it away from the Humber, they cared little whether it +set sail for the Thames and the Solent. The North Folk of East Anglia +were equally happy to send it off toward the South Folk. While there was +so little cohesion between the parts of the same kingdoms, there was no +cohesion at all between the different kingdoms over which AEthelwulf +exercised a nominal over-lordship. The West Saxon kings fought for +Dorset and for Kent, but there is no trace of their ever fighting for +East Anglia or for Northumbria. They left their northern vassals to take +care of themselves. "It was never a war between the Danes and the +national army," says Prof. Pearson, "but between the Danes and a local +militia." It would have been impossible, indeed, to resist the wickings +effectually without a strong central system, which could move large +armies rapidly from point to point: and such a system was quite undreamt +of in the half-consolidated England of the ninth century. Only war with +a foreign invader could bring it about even in a faint degree: and that +was exactly what the Danish invasion did for Wessex. + +The year 851 marks an important epoch in the English resistance. The +annual horde of wickings had now become as regular in its recurrence as +summer itself; and even the inert West Saxon kings began to feel that +permanent measures must be taken against them. They had built ships, +and tried to tackle the invaders in the only way in which so partially +civilised a race could tackle such tactics as those of the Danes--upon +the sea. A host of wickings came round to Sandwich in Kent. The +under-king AEthelstan fell upon them with his new navy, and took nine of +their ships, putting the rest to flight with great slaughter. But in the +same year another great host of 250 sail, by far the largest fleet of +which we have yet heard, came to the mouth of the Thames, and there +landed, a step which marks a fresh departure in the wicking tactics. +They took Canterbury by assault, and then marched on to London. There +they stormed the busy merchant town, and put to flight Beorhtwulf, the +under-king of the Mercians, with his local levy. Thence they proceeded +southward into Surrey, doubtless on their way to Winchester. King +AEthelwulf met them at Ockley, with the West-Saxon levy, "and there made +the greatest slaughter among the heathen host that we have yet heard, +and gained the day." In spite of these two great successes, however, +both of which show an increasing statesmanship on the part of the West +Saxons, this year was memorable in another way, for "the heathen men for +the first time sat over winter in Thanet." The loose predatory +excursions were beginning to take the complexion of regular conquest and +permanent settlement. + +Yet so little did the English still realise the terrible danger of the +heathen invasion, that next year AEthelwulf was fighting the Welsh of +Wales; and two years after he went on a pilgrimage to Rome, "with great +pomp, and dwelt there twelve months, and then fared homeward." In that +same year, "heathen men sat over winter in Sheppey." + +After AEthelwulf's death the English resistance grew fainter and fainter. +In 860, under his second son, AEthelberht, a Danish host took Winchester +itself by storm. Five years later, a heathen army settled in Thanet, and +the men of Kent agreed to buy peace of them--the first sign of that evil +habit of buying off the Dane, which grew gradually into a fixed custom. +But the host stole away during the truce for collecting the money, and +harried all Kent unawares. + +Meanwhile, we hear little of the North. The almost utter destruction of +its records during the heathen domination restricts us for information +to the West Saxon chronicles; and they have little to tell us about any +but their own affairs. In 866, however, we learn that there came a great +heathen host to East Anglia--an organised expedition under two +chieftains--"and took winter quarters there, and were horsed; and the +East Anglians made peace with them." Next year, this permanent host +sailed northward to Humber, and attacked York. The Northumbrians, as +usual, were at strife among themselves, two rival kings fighting for the +supremacy. The burghers of York admitted the heathen host within the +walls. Then the rival kings fell upon the town, broke the slender +fortifications, and rushed into the city. The Danes attacked them both, +and defeated them with great slaughter. Northumbria passed at once into +the power of the heathen. Their chiefs, Ingvar and Ubba, erected Deira +into a new Danish kingdom, leaving Bernicia to an English puppet; and +Northumbria ceases to exist for the present as a factor in Anglo-Saxon +history. We must hand it over for sixty years to the Scandinavian +division of this series. + +In 868, Ingvar and Ubba advanced again into Mercia and beset Nottingham. +Then the under-king Burhred called in the aid of his over-lord, AEthelred +of Wessex, who came to his assistance with a levy. "But there was no +hard fight there, and the Mercians made peace with the host." In 870, +the heathen overran East Anglia, and destroyed the great monastery of +Peterborough, probably the richest religious house in all England. +Eadmund, the under-king, came against them with the levy, but they slew +him; and the people held him for a martyr, whose shrine at Bury St. +Edmunds grew in after days into the holiest spot in East Anglia. The +Danes harried the whole country, burnt the monasteries, and annexed +Norfolk and Suffolk as a second Danish kingdom. East Anglia, too, +disappears for a while from our English annals. + +Lastly, the Danes turned against Mercia and Wessex. In 871, a host under +Bagsecg and Halfdene came to Reading, which belonged to the latter +territory, when the local ealdorman engaged them and won a slight +victory. Shortly afterward the West Saxon king AEthelred, with his +brother AElfred, came up, and engaged them a second time with worse +success. Three other bloody battles followed, in all of which the Danes +were beaten with heavy loss; but the West Saxons also suffered severely. +For three years the host moved up and down through Mercia and Wessex; +and the Mercians stood by, aiding neither side, but "making peace with +the host" from time to time. At last, however, in 874, the heathens +finally annexed the greater part of Mercia itself. "The host fared from +Lindsey to Repton, and there sat for the winter, and drove King Burhred +over sea, two and twenty years after he came to the kingdom; and they +subdued all the land. And Burhred went to Rome, and there settled; and +his body lies in St. Mary's Church, in the school of the English kin. +And in the same year they gave the kingdom of Mercia in ward to +Ceolwulf, an unwise thegn; and he swore oaths to them, and gave hostages +that it should be ready for them on whatso day they willed; and that he +would be ready with his own body, and with all who would follow him, for +the behoof of the host." Thus Mercia, too, fades for a short while out +of our history, and Wessex alone of all the English kingdoms remains. + +This brief but inevitable record of wars and battles is necessarily +tedious, yet it cannot be omitted without slurring over some highly +important and interesting facts. It is impossible not to be struck with +the extraordinarily rapid way in which a body of fierce heathen invaders +overran two great Christian and comparatively civilised states. We +cannot but contrast the inertness of Northumbria and the lukewarmness +of Mercia with the stubborn resistance finally made by AElfred in Wessex. +The contrast may be partly due, it is true, to the absence of native +Northumbrian and Mercian accounts. We might, perhaps, find, had we +fuller details, that the men of Bernicia and Deira made a harder fight +for their lands and their churches than the West Saxon annals would lead +us to suppose. Still, after making all allowance for the meagreness of +our authorities, there remains the indubitable fact that a heathen +kingdom was established in the pure English land of Baeda and Cuthberht, +while the Christian faith and the Saxon nationality held their own for +ever in peninsular and half-Celtic Wessex. + +The difference is doubtless due in part to merely surface causes. East +Anglia had long lost her autonomy, and, while sometimes ruled by Mercia, +was sometimes broken up under several ealdormen. For her and for +Northumbria the conquest was but a change from a West Saxon to a Danish +master. The house of Ecgberht had broken down the national and tribal +organisation, and was incapable of substituting a central organisation +in its place. With no roads and no communications such a centralising +scheme is really impracticable. The disintegrated English kingdoms made +little show of fighting for their Saxon over-lord. They could accept a +Dane for master almost as readily as they could accept a Saxon. + +But besides these surface causes, there was a deeper and more +fundamental cause underlying the difference. The Scandinavians were +nearer to the pure English in blood and speech than they were to the +Saxons. In their old home the two races had lived close together,--in +Sleswick, Jutland, and Scania,--while the Saxons had dwelt further +south, near the Frankish border, by the lowlands of the Elbe. To the +English of Northumbria, the Saxons of Wessex were almost foreigners. +Even at the present day, when the existence of a recognised literary +dialect has done so much to obliterate provincial varieties of speech in +England, a Dorsetshire peasant, speaking in a slightly altered form the +classical West Saxon of AElfred, has great difficulty in understanding a +Yorkshire peasant, speaking in a slightly altered form the classical +Northumbrian of Baeda. But in the ninth century the differences between +the two dialects were probably far greater. On the other hand, though +Danish and Anglian have widely separated at the present day, and were +widely distinct even in the days of Cnut, it is probable that at this +earlier period they were still, to some extent, mutually comprehensible. +Thus, the heathen Scandinavian may have seemed to the Northumbrian and +the East Anglian almost like a fellow-countryman, while the West Saxon +seemed in part like an enemy and an intruder. At any rate, the +similarity of blood and language enabled the two races rapidly to +coalesce; and when the cloud rises again from the North half a century +later, the distinction of Dane and Englishman has almost ceased in the +conquered provinces. It is worthy of note in this connection that the +part of Mercia afterwards given over by AElfred to Guthrum, was the +Anglian half, while the part retained by Wessex was mostly the Saxon +half--the land conquered by Penda from the West Saxons two hundred years +before. + +Nor must we suppose that this first wave of Scandinavian conquest in any +way swamped or destroyed the underlying English population of the North. +The conquerors came merely as a "host," or army of occupation, not as a +body of rural colonists. They left the conquered English in possession +of their homes, though they seized upon the manors for themselves, and +kept the higher dignities of the vanquished provinces in their own +hands. Being rapidly converted to Christianity, they amalgamated readily +with the native people. Few women came over with them, and intermarriage +with the English soon broke down the wall of separation. The +archbishopric of York continued its succession uninterruptedly +throughout the Danish occupation. The Bishops of Elmham lived through +the stormy period; those of Leicester transferred their see to +Dorchester-on-the-Thames; those of Lichfield apparently kept up an +unbroken series. We may gather that beneath the surface the North +remained just as steadily English under the Danish princes as the whole +country afterwards remained steadily English under the Norman kings. + +There was, however, one section of the true English race which kept +itself largely free from the Scandinavian host. North of the Tyne the +Danes apparently spread but sparsely; English ealdormen continued to +rule at Bamborough over the land between Forth and Tyne. Hence +Northumberland and the Lothians remained more purely English than any +other part of Britain. The people of the South are Saxons: the people of +the West are half Celts; the people of the North and the Midlands are +largely intermixed with Danes; but the people of the Scottish lowlands, +from Forth to Tweed, are almost purely English; and the dialect which we +always describe as Scotch is the strongest, the tersest, and the most +native modern form of the original Anglo-Saxon tongue. If we wish to +find the truest existing representative of the genuine pure-blooded +English race, we must look for him, not in Mercia or in Wessex, but +amongst the sturdy and hard-headed farmers of Tweedside and Lammermoor. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE SAXONS AT BAY IN WESSEX. + + +Only one English kingdom now held out against the wickings, and that was +Wessex. Its comparatively successful resistance may be set down, in some +slight degree, to the energy of a single man, AElfred, though it was +doubtless far more largely due to the relatively strong organisation of +the West Saxon state. In judging of AElfred, we must lay aside the false +notions derived from the application of words expressing late ideas to +an early and undeveloped stage of civilised society. To call him a great +general or a great statesman is to use utterly misleading terms. +Generalship and statesmanship, as we understand them, did not yet exist, +and to speak of them in the ninth century in England is to be guilty of +a common, but none the more excusable, anachronism. AElfred was a sturdy +and hearty fighter, and a good king of a semi-barbaric people. As a lad, +he had visited Rome; and he retained throughout life a strong sense of +his own and his people's barbarism, and a genuine desire to civilise +himself and his subjects, so far as his limited lights could carry him. +He succeeded to a kingdom overrun from end to end by piratical hordes: +and he did his best to restore peace and to promote order. But his +character was merely that of a practical, common-sense, fighting West +Saxon, brought up in the camp of his father and brothers, and doing his +rough work in life with the honest straightforwardness of a simple, +hard-headed, religious, but only half-educated barbaric soldier. + +The successful East Anglian wickings, under their chief Guthrum, turned +at once to ravage Wessex. They "harried the West Saxons' land, and +settled there, and drove many of the folk over sea." For awhile it +seemed as if Wessex too was to fall into their hands. AElfred himself, +with a little band, "withdrew to the woods and moor-fastnesses." He took +refuge in the Somerset marshes, and there occupied a little island of +dry land in the midst of the fens, by name Athelney. Here he threw up a +rude earthwork, from which he made raids against the Danes, with a petty +levy of the nearest Somerset men. But the mass of the West Saxons were +not disposed to give in so easily. The long border warfare with Devon +and Cornwall had probably kept up their organisation in a better state +than that of the anarchic North. The men of Somerset and Wilts, with +those Hampshire men who had not fled to the Continent, gathered at a +sacred stone on the borders of Selwood Forest, and there AElfred met them +with his little band. They attacked the host, which they put to flight, +and then besieged it in its fortified camp. To escape the siege, Guthrum +consented to leave Wessex, and to accept Christianity. He was baptised +at once, with thirty of his principal chiefs, after the rough-and-ready +fashion of the fighting king, near Athelney. The treaty entered into +with Guthrum restored to AElfred all Wessex, with the south-western part +of Mercia, from London to Bedford, and thence along the line of Watling +Street to Chester. Thus for a time the Saxons recovered their autonomy, +and the great Scandinavian horde retired to East Anglia. AEthelred, +AElfred's son-in-law, was appointed under-king of recovered Mercia. +Henceforward, Teutonic Britain remains for awhile divided into Wessex +and the Denalagu--that is to say, the district governed by Danish law. + +Though peace was thus made with Guthrum, new bodies of wickings came +pouring southward from Scandinavia. One of these sailed up the Thames to +Fulham, but after spending some time there, they went over to the +Frankish coast, where their depredations were long and severe. +Throughout all AElfred's reign, with only two intervals of peace, the +wickings kept up a constant series of attacks on the coast, and +frequently penetrated inland. From time to time, the great horde under +Haesten poured across the country, cutting the corn and driving away the +cattle, and retreating into East Anglia, or Northumbria, or the +peninsula of the Wirrall, whenever they were seriously worsted. "Thanks +be to God," says the Chronicle pathetically "the host had not wholly +broken up all the English kin;" but the misery of England must have been +intense. AElfred, however, introduced two military changes of great +importance. He set on foot something like a regular army, with a +settled commissariat, dividing his forces into two bodies, so that +one-half was constantly at home tilling the soil while the other half +was in the field; and he built large ships on a new plan, which he +manned with Frisians, as well as with English, and which largely aided +in keeping the coast fairly free from Danish invasion during the two +intervals of peace. + +Throughout the whole of the ninth century, however, and the early part +of the tenth, the whole history of England is the history of a perpetual +pillage. No man who sowed could tell whether he might reap or not. The +Englishman lived in constant fear of life and goods; he was liable at +any moment to be called out against the enemy. Whatever little +civilisation had ever existed in the country died out almost altogether. +The Latin language was forgotten even by the priests. War had turned +everybody into fighters; commerce was impossible when the towns were +sacked year after year by the pirates. But in the rare intervals of +peace, AElfred did his best to civilise his people. The amount of work +with which he is credited is truly astonishing. He translated into +English with his own hand "The History of the World," by Orosius; Baeda's +"Ecclesiastical History;" Boethius's "De Consolatione," and Gregory's +"Regula Pastoralis." At his court, too, if not under his own direction, +the English Chronicle was first begun, and many of the sentences quoted +from that great document in this work are probably due to AElfred +himself. His devotion to the church was shown by the regular +communication which he kept up with Rome, and by the gifts which he +sent from his impoverished kingdom, not only to the shrine of St. Peter +but even to that of St. Thomas in India. No doubt his vigorous +personality counted for much in the struggle with the Danes; but his +death in 901 left the West Saxons as ready as ever to contend against +the northern enemy. + +One result of the Danish invasion of Wessex must not be passed over. The +common danger seems to have firmly welded together Welshman and Saxon +into a single nationality. The most faithful part of AElfred's dominions +were the West Welsh shires of Somerset and Devon, with the half Celtic +folk of Dorset and Wilts. The result is seen in the change which comes +over the relations between the two races. In Ine's laws the distinction +between Welshmen and Englishmen is strongly marked; the price of blood +for the servile population is far less than that of their lords: in +AElfred's laws the distinction has died out. Compared to the heathen +Dane, West Saxons and West Welsh were equally Englishmen. From that day +to this, the Celtic peasantry of the West Country have utterly forgotten +their Welsh kinship, save in wholly Cymric Cornwall alone. The Devon and +Somerset men have for centuries been as English in tongue and feeling as +the people of Kent or Sussex. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE RECOVERY OF THE NORTH. + + +The history of the tenth century and the first half of the eleventh +consists entirely of the continued contest between the West Saxons and +the Scandinavians. It falls naturally into three periods. The first is +that of the English reaction, when the West Saxon kings, Eadward and +AEthelstan, gradually reconquered the Danish North by inches at a time. +The second is that of the Augustan age, when Dunstan and Eadgar held +together the whole of Britain for a while in the hands of a single West +Saxon over-lord. The third is that of the decadence, when, under +AEthelred, the ill-welded empire fell asunder, and the Danish kings, +Cnut, Harold, and Harthacnut, ruled over all England, including even the +unconquered Wessex of AElfred himself. + +At AElfred's death, his dominions comprised the larger Wessex, from Kent +to the Cornish border at Exeter, together with the portion of Mercia +south-west of Watling Street. The former kingdom passed into the hands +of his son Eadward; the latter was still held by the ealdorman AEthelred, +who had married AElfred's daughter AEthelflaed. The departure of the Danish +host, led by Haesten, left the English time to breathe and to recruit +their strength. Henceforth, for nearly a century, the direct wicking +incursions cease, and the war is confined to a long struggle with the +Northmen already settled in England. Four years later, the east Anglian +Danes broke the peace and harried Mercia and Wessex; but Eadward overran +their lands in return, and the Kentish men, in a separate battle, +attacked and slew Eric their king with several of his earls. In 912, +AEthelred the Mercian died, and Eadward at once incorporated London and +Oxford with his own dominions, leaving his sister AEthelflaed only the +northern half of her husband's principality. Thenceforth AEthelflaed, "the +Lady of the Mercians," turned deliberately to the conquest of the North. +She adopted a fresh kind of tactics, which mark again a new departure in +the English policy. Instead of keeping to the old plan of alternate +harryings on either side, and precarious tenure of lands from time to +time, AEthelflaed began building regular fortresses or _burhs_ all along +her north-eastern frontiers, using these afterwards as bases for fresh +operations against the enemy. The spade went hand in hand with the +sword: the English were becoming engineers as well as fighters. In the +year of her husband's death, the Lady built _burhs_ at Sarrat and +Bridgnorth. The next year "she went with all the Mercians to Tamworth, +and built the _burh_ there in early summer; and ere Lammas, that at +Stafford." In the two succeeding years she set up other strongholds at +Eddesbury, Warwick, Cherbury, Wardbury, and Runcorn. By 917, she found +herself strong enough to attack Derby, one of the chief cities in the +Danish confederacy of the Five Burgs, which she captured after a hard +siege. Thence she turned on Leicester, which capitulated on her +approach, the Danish host going over quietly to her side. She was in +communication with the Danes of York for the surrender of that city, +too, when she died suddenly in her royal town of Tamworth, in the year +918. + +Meanwhile Eadward had been pushing forward his own boundary in the east, +building _burhs_ at Hertford and Witham, and endeavouring to subjugate +the Danish league in Bedford, Huntingdon, and Northampton. In 915, +Thurketel, the jarl of Bedford, "sought him for lord," and Eadward +afterwards built a _burh_ there also. On his sister's death, he annexed +all her territories, and then, in a fierce and long doubtful struggle, +reconquered not only Huntingdon and Northampton but East Anglia as well. +The Christian English hailed him as a deliverer. Next, he turned on +Stamford, the Danish capital of the Fens, and on Nottingham, the +stronghold of the Southumbrian host. In both towns he erected _burhs_. +These successes once more placed the West Saxon king in the foremost +position amongst the many rulers of Britain. The smaller principalities, +unable to hold their own against the Scandinavians, began spontaneously +to rally round Eadward as their leader and suzerain. In the same year +with the conquest of Stamford, "the kings of the North Welsh, Howel, and +Cledauc, and Jeothwel, and all the North Welsh kin, sought him for +lord." In 923, Eadward pushed further northward, and sent a Mercian host +to conquer "Manchester in Northumbria," and fortify and man it. A line +of twenty fortresses now girdled the English frontier, from Colchester, +through Bedford and Nottingham, to Manchester and Chester. Next year, +Eadward himself, now immediate king of all England south of Humber, +attacked the last remaining Danish kingdom, Northumbria, throwing a +bridge across the Trent at Nottingham, and marching against Bakewell in +Peakland, where again he built a _burh_. The new tactics were too fine +for the rough and ready Danish leaders. Before Eadward reached York, the +entire North submitted without a blow. "The king of Scots, and all the +Scottish kin, and Ragnald [Danish king of York], and the sons of Eadulf +[English kings of Bamborough], and all who dwell in Northumbria, as well +English as Danes and Northmen and others, and also the king of the +Strathclyde Welsh and all the Strathclyde Welsh, sought him for father +and for lord." This was in 924. Next year, Eadward "rex invictus" died, +over-lord of all Britain from sea to sea, while the whole country south +of the Humber, save only Wales and Cornwall, was now practically united +into a single kingdom of England. + +But the seeming submission of the North was fallacious. The Danes had +reintroduced into Britain a fresh mass of incoherent barbarism, which +could not thus readily coalesce. The Scandinavian leaven in the +population had put back the shadow on the dial of England some three +centuries. AEthelstan, Eadward's son, found himself obliged to give his +sister in marriage to Sihtric or Sigtrig, Danish king of the Yorkshire +Northumbrians, which probably marks a recognition of his vassal's +equality. Soon after, however, Sihtric died, and AEthelstan made himself +first king of all England by adding Northumbria to his own immediate +dominions. Then "he bowed to himself all the kings who were in this +island; first, Howel, king of the West Welsh; and Constantine, king of +Scots; and Owen, king of Gwent [South Wales]; and Ealdred, son of +Ealdulf of Bamborough; and with pledge and with oaths sware they peace, +and forsook every kind of heathendom." In the West, he drove the Welsh +from Exeter, which they had till then occupied in common with the +English, and fixed their boundary at the Tamar. But once more the +pretended vassals rebelled. Constantine, king of Scots, threw off his +allegiance, and AEthelstan thereupon "went into Scotland, both with a +land host and a ship host, and harried a mickle deal of it." In 937, the +feudatories made a final and united effort to throw off the West Saxon +yoke. The Scots, the Strathclyde Welsh, the people of Wales and +Cornwall, the lords of Bamborough, and the Danes throughout the North +and East, all rose together in a great league against their over-lord. +Anlaf, king of the Dublin Danes, came over from Ireland to aid them, +with a large body of wickings. The confederates met the West Saxon +_fyrd_ or levy at an unknown spot named Brunanburh, where AEthelstan +overthrew them in a crushing defeat, which forms the subject of a fine +war-song, inserted in full in the English Chronicle.[1] Three years +later AEthelstan died, as his father had died before him, undisputed +over-lord of all Britain, and immediate king of the whole Teutonic +portion. + + [1] See chapter xx. + +Yet once more the feeble unity of the country broke hopelessly asunder. +Eadmund, who succeeded his brother, found the Danes of the North and the +Midlands again insubordinate. The year after his accession "the +Northumbrians belied their oath, and chose Anlaf of Ireland for king." +The Five Burgs went too, and the old boundary of Watling Street was once +more made the frontier of the Danish possessions. In 944, however, +Eadmund subdued all Northumbria, and expelled its Danish kings. His +recovery of the Five Burgs, and the joy of the Christian English +inhabitants, are vividly set forth in a fragmentary ballad embedded in +the Chronicle. The next year he harried Strathclyde or Cumberland, the +Welsh kingdom between Clyde and Morecambe, and handed it over to +Malcolm, king of Scots, as a pledge of his fidelity. At Eadmund's death +in 946--when he was stabbed in his royal hall by an outlaw--his kingdom +fell to his brother Eadred. Two years later Northumbria again revolted, +and chose Eric for its king. Eadred harried and burnt the province, +which he then handed over to an earl of his own creation, one of the +Bamborough family. The king himself died in 955, and was succeeded by +his nephew Eadwig. But Northumbria and Mercia revolted once more, and +chose Eadwig's brother, Eadgar, instead of their own Danish princes. +Eadwig died in 958, and Eadgar then became king of all three provinces; +thus finally uniting the whole of Teutonic England into one kingdom. + +Eadgar's reign forms the climax of the West Saxon power. It was, in +fact, the only period when England can be said to have enjoyed any +national unity under the Anglo-Saxon dynasties. The strong hand of a +priest gave peace for some years to the ill-organised mass. Dunstan was +probably the first Englishman who seriously deserves the name of +statesman. He was born in the half-Celtic region of Somerset, beside the +great abbey of Glastonbury, which held the bones of Arthur, and a good +deal of the imaginative Celtic temper ran probably with the blood in his +veins.[2] But he was above all the representative of the Roman +civilisation in the barbarised, half-Danish England of the tenth +century. He was a musician, a painter, a reader, and a scholar, in a +world of fierce warriors and ignorant nobles. Eadmund made him abbot of +Glastonbury. Eadgar appointed him first bishop of London, and then, on +Eadwig's death, Archbishop of Canterbury. It was Dunstan who really +ruled England throughout the remainder of his life. Essentially an +organiser and administrator, he was able to weld the unwieldy empire +into a rough unity, which lasted as long as its author lived, and no +longer. He appeased the discontent of Northumbria and the Five Burgs by +permitting them a certain amount of local independence, with the +enjoyment of their own laws and their own lawmen. He kept a fleet of +boats cruising in the Irish Sea to check the Danish hosts at Dublin and +Waterford. He put forward a code, known as the laws of Eadgar, for the +better government of Wessex and the South. He made the over-lordship of +the West Saxons over their British vassals more real than it had ever +been before; and a tale, preserved by Florence, tells us that eight +tributary kings rowed Eadgar in his royal barge on the Dee, in token of +their complete subjection. Internally, Dunstan revived the declining +spirit of monasticism, which had died down during the long struggle with +the Danes, and attempted to reintroduce some tinge of southern +civilisation into the barbarised and half-paganised country in which he +lived. Wherever it was possible, he "drove out the priests, and set +monks," and he endeavoured to make the monasteries, which had +degenerated during the long war into mere landowning communities, regain +once more their old position as centres of culture and learning. During +his own time his efforts were successful, and even after his death the +movement which he had begun continued in this direction to make itself +felt, though in a feebler and less intelligent form. + + [2] It is impossible to avoid noticing the increased + importance of semi-Celtic Britain under Dunstan's + administration. He was himself at first an abbot of the old + West Welsh monastery of Glastonbury: he promoted West + countrymen to the principal posts in the kingdom: and he had + Eadgar hallowed king at the ancient West Welsh royal city of + Bath, married to a Devonshire lady, and buried at + Glastonbury. Indeed, that monastery was under Dunstan what + Westminster was under the later kings. Florence uses the + strange expression that Eadgar was chosen "by the + Anglo-Britons:" and the meeting with the Welsh and Scotch + princes in the semi-Welsh town of Chester conveys a like + implication. + +One act of Dunstan's policy, however, had far-reaching results, of a +kind which he himself could never have anticipated. He handed over all +Northumbria beyond the Tweed--the region now known as the Lothians--as a +fief to Kenneth, king of Scots. This accession of territory wholly +changed the character of the Scottish kingdom, and largely promoted the +Teutonisation of the Celtic North. The Scottish princes now took up +their residence in the English town of Edinburgh, and learned to speak +the English language as their mother-tongue. Already Eadmund had made +over Strathclyde or Cumberland to Malcolm; and thus the dominions of the +Scottish kings extended over the whole of the country now known as +Scotland, save only the Scandinavian jarldoms of Caithness, Sutherland, +and the Isles. Strathclyde rapidly adopted the tongue of its masters, +and grew as English in language (though not in blood) as the Lothians +themselves. Fife, in turn, was quickly Anglicised, as was also the whole +region south of the Highland line. Thus a new and powerful kingdom arose +in the North; and at the same time the cession of an English district to +the Scottish kings had the curious result of thoroughly Anglicising two +large and important Celtic regions, which had hitherto resisted every +effort of the Northumbrian or West Saxon over-lords. There is no reason +to believe, however, that this introduction of the English tongue and +English manners was connected with any considerable immigration of +Teutonic settlers into the Anglicised tracts. The population of +Ayrshire, of Fife, of Perthshire, and of Aberdeen, still shows every +sign of Celtic descent, alike in physique, in temperament, and in habit +of thought. The change was, in all probability, exactly analogous to +that which we ourselves have seen taking place in Wales, in Ireland, and +in the Celtic north of Scotland at the present day. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE AUGUSTAN AGE AND THE LATER ANGLO-SAXON CIVILISATION. + + +The slight pause in the long course of Danish warfare which occurred +during the vigorous administration of Dunstan, affords the best +opportunity for considering the degree of civilisation reached by the +English in the last age before the Norman Conquest. Our materials for +such an estimate are partly to be found in existing buildings, +manuscripts, pictures, ornaments, and other archaeological remains, and +partly in the documentary evidence of the chronicles and charters, and +more especially of the great survey undertaken by the Conqueror's +commissioners, and known as Domesday Book. From these sources we are +enabled to gain a fairly complete view of the Anglo-Saxon culture in the +period immediately preceding the immense influx of Romance civilisation +after the Conquest; and though some such Romance influence was already +exerted by the Normanising tendencies of Eadward the Confessor, we may +yet conveniently consider the whole subject here under the age of Eadgar +and AEthelred. It is difficult, indeed, to trace any very great +improvement in the arts of life between the days of Dunstan and the days +of Harold. + +In spite of constant wars and ravages from the northern pirates, there +can be little doubt that England had been slowly advancing in material +civilisation ever since the introduction of Christianity. The heathen +intermixture in the North and the Midlands had retarded the advance but +had not completely checked it; while in Wessex and the South the +intercourse with the continent and the consequent growth in culture had +been steadily increasing. AEthelwulf of Wessex married a daughter of Karl +the Bald; AElfred gave his daughter to a count of Flanders; and Eadward's +princesses were married respectively to the emperor, to the king of +France, and to the king of Provence. Such alliances show a considerable +degree of intercourse between Wessex and the Roman world; and the relics +of material civilisation fully bear out the inference. The Institutes of +the city of London mention traders from Brabant, Liege, Rouen, Ponthieu, +France (in the restricted sense), and the Empire; but these came "in +their own vessels." England, which now has in her hands the carrying +trade of the world, was still dependent for her own supply on foreign +bottoms. We know also that officers were appointed to collect tolls from +foreign merchants at Canterbury, Dover, Arundel, and many other towns; +and London and Bristol certainly traded on their own account with the +Continent. + +As a whole, however, England still remained a purely agricultural +country to the very end of the Anglo-Saxon period. It had but little +foreign trade, and what little existed was chiefly confined to imports +of articles of luxury (wine, silk, spices, and artistic works) for the +wealthier nobles, and of ecclesiastical requisites, such as pictures, +incense, relics, vestments, and like southern products for the churches +and monasteries. The exports seem mainly to have consisted of slaves and +wool, though hides may possibly have been sent out of the country, and a +little of the famous English gold-work and embroidery was perhaps sold +abroad in return for the few imported luxuries. But taking the country +at a glance, we must still picture it to ourselves as composed almost +entirely of separate agricultural manors, each now owned by a +considerable landowner, and tilled mainly by his churls, whose position +had sunk during the Danish wars to that of semi-servile tenants, owing +customary rents of labour to their superiors. War had told against the +independence of the lesser freemen, who found themselves compelled to +choose themselves protectors among the higher born classes, till at last +the theory became general that every man must have a lord. The noble +himself lived upon his manor, accepted service from his churls in +tilling his own homestead, and allowed them lands in return in the +outlying portions of his estates. His sources of income were two only: +first, the agricultural produce of his lands, thus tilled for him by +free labour and by the hands of his serfs; and secondly, the breeding of +slaves, shipped from the ports of London and Bristol for the markets of +the south. The artisans depended wholly upon their lord, being often +serfs, or else churls holding on service-tenure. The mass of England +consisted of such manors, still largely interspersed with woodland, each +with the wooden hall of its lord occupying the centre of the homestead, +and with the huts of the churls and serfs among the hays and valleys of +the outskirts. The butter and cheese, bread and bacon, were made at +home; the corn was ground in the quern; the beer was brewed and the +honey collected by the family. The spinner and weaver, the shoemaker, +smith, and carpenter, were all parts of the household. Thus every manor +was wholly self-sufficing and self-sustaining, and towns were rendered +almost unnecessary. + +Forests and heaths still also covered about half the surface. These were +now the hunting-grounds of the kings and nobles, while in the leys, +hursts, and dens, small groups of huts gave shelter to the swineherds +and woodwards who had charge of their lord's property in the woodlands. +The great tree-covered region of Selwood still divided Wessex into two +halves; the forest of the Chilterns still spread close to the walls of +London; the Peakland was still overgrown by an inaccessible thicket; and +the long central ridge between Yorkshire and Scotland was still shadowed +by primaeval oaks, pinewoods, and beeches. Agriculture continued to be +confined to the alluvial bottoms, and had nowhere as yet invaded the +uplands, or even the stiffer and drier lowland regions, such as the +Weald of Kent or the forests of Arden and Elmet. + +Only two elements broke the monotony of these self-sufficing +agricultural communities. Those elements were the monasteries and the +towns. + +A large part of the soil of England was owned by the monks. They now +possessed considerable buildings, with stone churches of some +pretensions, in which service was conducted with pomp and +impressiveness. The tiny chapel of St. Lawrence, at Bradford-on-Avon, +forms the best example of this primitive Romanesque architecture now +surviving in England. Around the monasteries stretched their well-tilled +lands, mostly reclaimed from fen or forest, and probably more +scientifically cultivated than those of the neighbouring manors. Most of +the monks were skilled in civilised handicrafts, introduced from the +more cultivated continent. They were excellent ecclesiastical +metalworkers; many of them were architects, who built in rude imitation +of Romanesque models; and others were designers or illuminators of +manuscripts. The books and charters of this age are delicately and +minutely wrought out, though not with all the artistic elaboration of +later mediaeval work. The art of painting (almost always in miniature) +was considerably advanced, the figures being well drawn, in rather stiff +but not unlifelike attitudes, though perspective is very imperfectly +understood, and hardly ever attempted. Later Anglo-Saxon architecture, +such as that of Eadward's magnificent abbey church at Westminster +(afterwards destroyed by Henry III. to make way for his own building), +was not inferior to continental workmanship. All the arts practised in +the abbeys were of direct Roman origin, and most of the words relating +to them are immediately derived from the Latin. This is the case even +with terms relating to such common objects as _candle_, _pen_, _wine_, +and _oil_. Names of weights, measures, coins, and other exact +quantitative ideas are also derived from Roman sources. Carpenters, +smiths, bakers, tanners, and millers, were usually attached to the +abbeys. Thus, in many cases, as at Glastonbury, Peterborough, Ripon, +Beverley, and Bury St. Edmunds, the monastery grew into the nucleus of a +considerable town, though the development of such towns is more marked +after than before the Norman Conquest. As a whole, it was by means of +the monasteries, and especially of their constant interchange of inmates +with the continent, that England mainly kept up the touch with the +southern civilisation. There alone was Latin, the universal medium of +continental intercommunication, taught and spoken. There alone were +books written, preserved, and read. Through the Church alone was an +organisation kept up in direct communication with the central civilising +agencies of Italy and the south. And while the Church and the +monasteries thus preserved the connection with the continent, they also +formed schools of culture and of industrial arts for the country itself. +At the abbeys bells were cast, glass manufactured, buildings designed, +gold and silver ornaments wrought, jewels enamelled, and unskilled +labour organised by the most trained intelligence of the land. They thus +remained as they had begun, homes and retreats for those exceptional +minds which were capable of carrying on the arts and the knowledge of a +dying civilisation across the gulf of predatory barbarism which +separates the artificial culture of Rome from the industrial culture of +modern Europe. + +The towns were few and relatively unimportant, built entirely of wood +(except the churches), and very liable to be burnt down on the least +excuse. In considering them we must dismiss from our minds the ideas +derived from our own great and complex organisation, and bring ourselves +mentally into the attitude of a simple agricultural people, requiring +little beyond what was produced on each man's own farm or petty holding. +Such people are mainly fed from their own corn and meat, mainly clad +from their own homespun wool and linen. A little specialisation of +function, however, already existed. Salt was procured from the wyches or +pans of the coast, and also from the inland wyches or brine wells of +Cheshire and the midland counties. Such names as Nantwich, Middlewych, +Bromwich, and Droitwich, still preserve the memory of these early +saltworks. Iron was mined in the Forest of Dean, around Alcester, and in +the Somersetshire district. The city of Gloucester had six smiths' +forges in the days of Eadward the Confessor, and paid its tax to the +king in iron rods. Lead was found in Derbyshire, and was largely +employed for roofing churches. Cloth-weaving was specially carried on at +Stamford; but as a rule it is probable that every district supplied its +own clothing. English merchants attended the great fair at St. Denys, in +France, much as those of Central Asia now attend the fair at Kandahar; +and madder seems to have been bought there for dyeing cloth. In Kent, +Sussex, and East Anglia, herring fisheries already produced considerable +results. With these few exceptions, all the towns were apparently mere +local centres of exchange for produce, and small manufactured wares, +like the larger villages or bazaars of India in our own time. +Nevertheless, there was a distinct advance towards urban life in the +later Anglo-Saxon period. Baeda mentions very few towns, and most of +those were waste. By the date of the Conquest there were many, and their +functions were such as befitted a more diversified national life. +Communications had become far greater; and arts or trade had now to some +extent specialised themselves in special places. + +A list of the chief early English towns may possibly seem to give too +much importance to these very minor elements of English life; yet one +may, perhaps, be appended with due precaution against misapprehension. + +The capital, if any place deserved to be so called under the +perambulating early English dynasty, was Winchester (Wintan-ceaster), +with its old and new minsters, containing the tombs of the West-Saxon +kings. It possessed a large number of craftsmen, doubtless dependant +ultimately upon the court; and it was relatively a place of far greater +importance than at any later date. + +The chief ports were London (Lundenbyrig), situated at the head of tidal +navigation on the Thames; and Bristol (Bricgestow) and Gloucester +(Gleawan-ceaster), similarly placed on the Avon and Severn. These towns +were convenient for early shipping because of their tidal position, at +an age when artificial harbours were unknown; They were the seat of the +export traffic in slaves and the import traffic in continental goods. +Before AElfred's reign the carrying trade by sea seems to have been in +the hands of the Frisian skippers and slave-dealers, who stood to the +English in the same relation as the Arabs now stand to the East African +and Central African negroes; but after the increased attention paid to +shipbuilding during the struggle with the Danes, English vessels began +to engage in trade on their own account. London must already have been +the largest and richest town in the kingdom. Even in Baeda's time it was +"the mart of many nations, resorting to it by sea and land." It seems, +indeed, to have been a sort of merchant commonwealth, governed by its +own port reeve, and it made its own dooms, which have been preserved to +the present day. From the Roman time onward, the position of London as a +great free commercial town was probably uninterrupted. + +York (Eoforwic), the capital of the North, had its own archbishop and +its Danish internal organisation. It seems to have been always an +important and considerable town, and it doubtless possessed the same +large body of handicraftsmen as Winchester. During the doubtful period +of Danish and English struggles, the archbishop apparently exercised +quasi-royal authority over the English burghers themselves. + +Among the cathedral towns the most important were Canterbury +(Cant-wara-byrig), the old capital of Kent and metropolis of all +England, which seems to have contained a relatively large trading +population; Dorchester, in Oxfordshire, first the royal city of the West +Saxons, and afterwards the seat of the exiled bishopric of Lincoln; +Rochester (Hrofes-ceaster), the old capital of the West Kentings, and +seat of their bishop: and Worcester (Wigorna-ceaster), the chief town of +the Huiccii. Of the monastic towns the chief were Peterborough (Burh), +Ely (Elig), and Glastonbury (Glaestingabyrig). Bath, Amesbury, +Colchester, Lincoln, Chester, and other towns of Roman origin were also +important. Exeter, the old capital of the West Welsh, situated at the +tidal head of the Exe, had considerable trade. Oxford was a place of +traffic and a fortified town. Hastings, Dover, and the other south-coast +ports had some communications with France. The only other places of any +note were Chippenham, Bensington, and Aylesbury; Northampton and +Southampton; Bamborough; the fortified posts built by Eadward and +AEthelflaed; and the Danish boroughs of Bedford, Derby, Leicester, +Stamford, Nottingham, and Huntingdon. The Witena-gemots and the synods +took place in any town, irrespective of size, according to royal +convenience. But as early as the days of Cnut, London was beginning to +be felt as the real centre of national life: and Eadward the Confessor, +by founding Westminster Abbey, made it practically the home of the +kings. The Conqueror "wore his crown on Eastertide at Winchester; on +Pentecost at Westminster; and on Midwinter at Gloucester:" which +probably marks the relative position of the three towns as the chief +places in the old West Saxon realm at least. Under AEthelstan, London had +eight moneyers or mint-masters, while Winchester had only six, and +Canterbury seven. + +As regards the arts and traffic in the towns, they were chiefly carried +on by guilds, which had their origin, as Dr. Brentano has shown with +great probability, in separate families, who combined to keep up their +own trade secrets as a family affair. In time, however, the guilds grew +into regular organisations, having their own code of rules and laws, +many of which (as at Cambridge, Exeter, and Abbotsbury) we still +possess. It is possible that the families of craftsmen may at first have +been Romanised Welsh inhabitants of the cities; for all the older +towns--London, Canterbury, York, Lincoln, and Rochester--were almost +certainly inhabited without interruption from the Roman period onward. +But in any case the guilds seem to have grown out of family compacts, +and to have retained always the character of close corporations. There +must have been considerable division of the various trades even before +the Conquest, and each trade must have inhabited a separate quarter; for +we find at Winchester, or elsewhere, in the reign of AEthelred, +Fellmonger, Horsemonger, Fleshmonger, Shieldwright, Shoewright, Turner, +and Salter Streets. + +The exact amount of the population of England cannot be ascertained, +even approximately; but we may obtain a rough approximation from the +estimates based upon Domesday Book. It seems probable that at the end +of the Conqueror's reign, England contained 1,800,000 souls. Allowing +for the large number of persons introduced at the Conquest, and for the +natural increase during the unusual peace in the reigns of Cnut, of +Eadward the Confessor, and, above all, of William himself, we may guess +that it could not have contained more than a million and a quarter in +the days of Eadgar. London may have had a population of some 10,000; +Winchester and York of 5,000 each; certainly that of York at the date of +Domesday could not have exceeded 7,000 persons, and we know that it +contained 1,800 houses in the time of Eadward the Confessor. + +The organisation of the country continued on the lines of the old +constitution. But the importance of the simple freeman had now quite +died out, and the gemot was rather a meeting of the earls, bishops, +abbots, and wealthy landholders, than a real assembly of the people. The +sub-divisions of the kingdom were now pretty generally conterminous with +the modern counties. In Wessex and the east the counties are either +older kingdoms, like Kent, Sussex, and Essex; or else tribal divisions +of the kingdom, like Dorset, Somerset, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Surrey. In +Mercia, the recovered country is artificially mapped out round the chief +Danish burgs, as in the case of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, +Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, and Leicestershire, where the county +town usually occupies the centre of the arbitrary shire. In Northumbria +it is divided into equally artificial counties by the rivers. Beneath +the counties stood the older organisation of the hundred, and beneath +that again the primitive unit of the township, known on its +ecclesiastical side as the parish. In the reign of Eadgar, England seems +to have contained about 3,000 parish churches. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE DECADENCE. + + +The death of Dunstan was the signal for the breaking down of the +artificial kingdom which he had held together by the mere power of his +solitary organising capacity. AEthelred, the son of Eadgar (who succeeded +after the brief reign of his brother Eadward), lost hopelessly all hold +over the Scandinavian north. At the same time, the wicking incursions, +intermitted for nearly a century, once more recommenced with the same +vigour as of old. Even before Dunstan's death, in 980, the pirates +ravaged Southampton, killing most of the townsfolk; and they also +pillaged Thanet, while another host overran Cheshire. In the succeeding +year, "great harm was done in Devonshire and in Wales;" and a year later +again, London was burnt and Portland ravaged. In 985, AEthelred, the +Unready, as after ages called him, from his lack of _rede_ or counsel, +quarrelled with AElfric, ealdormen of the Mercians, whom he drove over +sea. The breach between Mercia and Wessex was thus widened, and as the +Danish attacks continued without interruption the redeless king soon +found himself comparatively isolated in his own paternal dominions. +Northumbria, under its earl, Uhtred (one of the house of Bamborough), +and the Five Burgs under their Danish leaders, acted almost +independently of Wessex throughout the whole of AEthelred's reign. In 991 +Sigeric, archbishop of Canterbury, advised that the Danes should be +bought off by a payment of ten thousand pounds, an enormous sum; but it +was raised somehow and duly paid. In 992, the command of a naval force, +gathered from the merchant craft of the Thames, was entrusted to AElfric, +who had been recalled; and the Mercian leader went over on the eve of an +engagement at London to the side of the enemy. Bamborough was stormed +and captured with great booty, and the host sailed up Humber mouth. +There they stood in the midst of the old Danish kingdom, and found the +leading men of Northumbria and Lindsey by no means unfriendly to their +invasion. In fact, the Danish north was now far more ready to welcome +the kindred Scandinavian than the West Saxon stranger. AEthelred's realm +practically shrank at once to the narrow limits of Kent and Wessex. + +The Danes, however, were by no means content even with these successes. +Olaf Tryggvesson, king of Norway, and Swegen Forkbeard,[1] king of +Denmark, fell upon England. The era of mere plundering expeditions and +of scattered colonisation had ceased; the era of political conquest had +now begun. They had determined upon the complete subjugation of all +England. In 994 Olaf and Swegen attacked London with 94 ships, but were +put to flight by a gallant resistance of the townsmen, who did "more +harm and evil than ever they weened that any burghers could do them." +Thence the host sailed away to Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire, +burning and slaying all along the coast as they went. AEthelred and his +witan bought them off again, with the immense tribute of sixteen +thousand pounds. The host accepted the terms, but settled down for the +winter at Southampton--a sufficient indication of their +intentions--within easy reach of Winchester itself; and there "they fed +from all the West Saxons' land." AEthelred was alarmed, and sent to Olaf, +who consented to meet him at Andover. There the king received him "with +great worship," and gifted him with kinglike gifts, and sent him away +with a promise never again to attack England. Olaf kept his word, and +returned no more. But still Swegen remained, and went on pillaging +Devonshire and Cornwall, wending into Tamar mouth as far as Lidford, +where his men "burnt and slew all that they found." Thence they betook +themselves to the Frome, and so up into Dorset, and again to Wight. In +999, on the eve of doomsday as men then thought, they sailed up Thames +and Medway, and attacked Rochester. The men of Kent stoutly fought them, +but, as usual, without assistance from other shires; and the Danes took +horses, and rode over the land, almost ruining all the West Kentings. +The king and his witan resolved to send against them a land fyrd and a +ship fyrd or raw levy. But the spirit of the West Saxons was broken, and +though the craft were gathered together, yet in the end, as the +Chronicle plaintively puts it, "neither ship fyrd nor land fyrd wrought +anything save toil for the folk, and the emboldening of their foes." + + [1] See Mr. York-Powell's "Scandinavian Britain." + +So, year after year, the endless invasion dragged on its course, and +everywhere each shire of Wessex fought for itself against such enemies +as happened to attack it. At last, in the year 1002, AEthelred once more +bought off the fleet, this time with 24,000 pounds; and some of the +Danes obtained leave to settle down in Wessex. But on St. Brice's day, +the king treacherously gave orders that all Danes in the immediate +English territory should be massacred. The West Saxons rose on the +appointed night, and slew every one of them, including Gunhild, the +sister of King Swegen, and a Christian convert. It was a foolhardy +attempt. Swegen fell at once upon Wessex, and marched up and down the +whole country, for two years. He burnt Wilton and Sarum, and then sailed +round to Norwich, where Ulfkytel, of East Anglia, gave him "the hardest +hand-play" that he had ever known in England. A year of famine +intervened; but in 1006 Swegen returned again, harrying and burning +Sandwich. All autumn the West Saxon fyrd waited for the enemy, but in +the end "it came to naught more than it had oft erst done." The host +took up quarters in Wight, marched across Hants and Berks to Reading, +and burned Wallingford. Thence they returned with their booty to the +fleet, by the very walls of the royal city. "There might the Winchester +folk behold an insolent host and fearless wend past their gate to sea." +The king himself had fled into Shropshire. The tone of utter despair +with which the Chronicle narrates all these events is the best measure +of the national degradation. "There was so muckle awe of the host," says +the annalist, "that no man could think how man could drive them from +this earth or hold this earth against them; for that they had cruelly +marked each shire of Wessex with burning and with harrying." The English +had sunk into hopeless misery, and were only waiting for a strong rule +to rescue them from their misery. + +The strong rule came at last. Thorkell, a Danish jarl, marched all +through Wessex, and for three years more his host pillaged everywhere in +the South. In 1011, they killed AElfheah, the archbishop of Canterbury, +at Greenwich. When the country was wholly weakened, Swegen turned +southward once more, this time with all Northumbria and Mercia at his +back. In 1013 he sailed round to Humber mouth, and thence up the Trent, +to Gainsborough. "Then Earl Uhtred and all Northumbrians soon bowed to +him, and all the folk in Lindsey; and sithence the folk of the Five +Burgs, and shortly after, all the host by north of Watling-street; and +men gave him hostages of each shire." Swegen at once led the united army +into England, leaving his son Cnut in Denalagu with the ships and +hostages. He marched to Oxford, which received him; then to the royal +city of Winchester, which made no resistance. At London AEthelred was +waiting; and for a time the town held out. So Swegen marched westward, +and took Bath. There, the thegns of the Welsh-kin counties--Somerset, +Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall--bowed to him and gave him hostages. "When +he had thus fared, he went north to his ships, and all the folk held him +then as full king." London itself gave way. AEthelred fled to Wight, and +thence to Normandy. He had married Ymma, the daughter of Richard the +Fearless; and he now took refuge with her brother, Richard the Good. + +Next year Swegen died, and the West Saxon witan sent back for AEthelred. +No lord was dearer to them, they said, than their lord by kin. But the +host had already chosen Cnut; and the host had a stronger claim than the +witan. For two years AEthelred carried on a desultory war with the +intruders, and then died, leaving it undecided. His son Eadmund, +nicknamed Ironside, continued the contest for a few months; but in the +autumn of 1016 he died--poisoned, the English said, by Cnut--and Cnut +succeeded to undisputed sway. He at once assumed Wessex as his own +peculiar dominion, and the political history of the English ends for two +centuries. Their social life went on, of course, as ever; but it was the +life of a people in strict subjection to foreign rulers--Danish, Norman, +or Angevin. The story of the next twenty-five years at least belongs to +the chronicles of Scandinavian Britain. + +At the end of that time, however, there was a slight reaction. Cnut and +his sons had bound the kingdom roughly into one; and the death of +Harthacnut left an opportunity for the return of a descendant of AElfred. +But the English choice fell upon one who was practically a foreigner. +Eadward, son of AEthelred by Ymma of Normandy, had lived in his mother's +country during the greater part of his life. Recalled by Earl Godwine +and the witan, he came back to England a Norman, rather than an +Englishman. The administration remained really in the hands of Godwine +himself, and of the Danish or Danicised aristocracy. But Mercia and +Northumbria still stood apart from Wessex, and once procured the exile +of Godwine himself. The great earl returned, however, and at his death +passed on his power to his son Harold, a Danicised Englishman of great +rough ability, such as suited the hard times on which he was cast. +Harold employed the lifetime of Eadward, who was childless, in preparing +for his own succession. The king died in 1066, and Harold was quietly +chosen at once by the witan. He was the last Englishman who ever sat +upon the throne of England. + +The remaining story belongs chiefly to the annals of Norman Britain. +Harold was assailed at once from either side. On the north, his brother +Tostig, whom he had expelled from Northumbria, led against him his +namesake, Harold Hardrada, king of Norway. On the south, William of +Normandy, Eadward's cousin, claimed the right to present himself to the +English electors. Eadward's death, in fact, had broken up the temporary +status, and left England once more a prey to barbaric Scandinavians from +Denmark, or civilised Scandinavians from Normandy. The English +themselves had no organisation which could withstand either, and no +national unity to promote such organisation in future. Harold of Norway +came first, landing in the old Danish stronghold of Northumbria; and the +English Harold hurried northward to meet him, with his little body of +house-carls, aided by a large fyrd which he had hastily collected to use +against William. At Stamford-bridge he overthrew the invaders with great +slaughter, Harold Hardrada and Tostig being amongst the slain. +Meanwhile, William had crossed to Pevensey, and was ravaging the coast. +Harold hurried southward, and met him at Senlac, near Hastings. After a +hard day's fight, the Normans were successful, and Harold fell. But even +yet the English could not agree among themselves. In this crisis of the +national fate, the local jealousies burnt up as fiercely as ever. While +William was marching upon London, the witan were quarrelling and +intriguing in the city over the succession. "Archbishop Ealdred and the +townsmen of London would have Eadgar Child,"--a grandson of Eadmund +Ironside--"for king, as was his right by kin." But Eadwine and Morkere, +the representatives of the great Mercian family of Leofric, had hopes +that they might turn William's invasion to their own good, and secure +their independence in the north by allowing Wessex to fall unassisted +into his hands. After much shuffling, Eadgar was at last chosen for +king. "But as it ever should have been the forwarder, so was it ever, +from day to day, slower and worse." No resistance was organised. In the +midst of all this turmoil, the Peterborough Chronicler is engaged in +narrating the petty affairs of his own abbey, and the question which +arose through the application made to Eadgar for his consent to the +appointment of an abbot. In such a spirit did the English meet an +invasion from the stoutest and best organised soldiery in Europe. +William marched on without let or hindrance, and on his way, the +Lady--the Confessor's widow--surrendered the royal city of Winchester +into his hands. The duke reached the Thames, burnt Southwark, and then +made a detour to cross the river at Wallingford, whence he proceeded +into Hertfordshire, thus cutting off Eadwine and Morkere in London from +their earldoms. The Mercian and Northumbrian leaders being determined to +hold their own at all hazards, retreated northward; and the English +resistance crumbled into pieces. Eadgar, the rival king, with Ealdred, +the archbishop, and all the chief men of London, came out to meet +William, and "bowed to him for need." The Chronicler can only say that +it was very foolish they had not done so before. A people so helpless, +so utterly anarchic, so incapable of united action, deserved to undergo +a severe training from the hard taskmasters of Romance civilisation. The +nation remained, but it remained as a conquered race, to be drilled in +the stern school of the conquerors. For awhile, it is true, William +governed England like an English king; but the constant rebellion and +faithlessness of his new subjects drove him soon to severer measures; +and the great insurrection of 1068, with its results, put the whole +country at his feet in a very different sense from the battle of Senlac. +For a hundred and fifty years, the English people remained a mere race +of chapmen and serfs; and the English language died down meanwhile into +a servile dialect. When the native stock emerges again into the full +light of history, by the absorption of the Norman conquerors in the +reign of John, it reappears with all the super-added culture and +organisation of the Romance nationalities. The Conquest was an +inevitable step in the work of severing England from the barbarous +North, and binding it once more in bonds of union with the civilised +South. It was the necessary undoing of the Danish conquest; more still, +it was an inevitable step in the process whereby England itself was to +begin its unified existence by the final breaking down of the barriers +which divided Wessex from Mercia, and Mercia from Northumbria. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE ANGLO-SAXON LANGUAGE. + + +A description of Anglo-Saxon Britain, however brief, would not be +complete without some account of the English language in its earliest +and purest form. But it would be impossible within reasonable limits to +give anything more than a short general statement of the relation which +the old English tongue bears to the kindred Teutonic dialects, and of +the main differences which mark it off from our modern simplified and +modified speech. All that can be attempted here is such a broad outline +as may enable the general reader to grasp the true connexion between +modern English and so-called Anglo-Saxon, on the one hand, as well as +between Anglo-Saxon itself and the parent Teutonic language on the +other. Any full investigation of grammatical or etymological details +would be beyond the scope of this little volume. + +The tongue spoken by the English and Saxons at the period of their +invasion of Britain was an almost unmixed Low Dutch dialect. Originally +derived, of course, from the primitive Aryan language, it had already +undergone those changes which are summed up in what is known as Grimm's +Law. The principal consonants in the old Aryan tongue had been +regularly and slightly altered in certain directions; and these +alterations have been carried still further in the allied High German +language. Thus the original word for _father_, which closely resembled +the Latin _pater_, becomes in early English or Anglo-Saxon _faeder_, and +in modern High German _vater_. So, again, among the numerals, our _two_, +in early English _twa_, answers to Latin _duo_ and modern High German +_zwei_; while our _three_, in old English _threo_, answers to Latin +_tres_, and modern High German _drei_. So far as these permutations are +concerned, Sanscrit, Greek, and Latin may be regarded as most nearly +resembling the primitive Aryan speech, and with them the Celtic dialects +mainly agree. From these, the English varies one degree, the High German +two. The following table represents the nature of such changes +approximately for these three groups of languages:-- + +-----------------+------------+---------------+---------------+ +Greek, Sanscrit, | | | | +Latin, Celtic | p. b. f. | t. d. th. | k. g. ch. | +-----------------+------------+---------------+---------------+ +Gothic, English, | | | | +Low Dutch | f. p. b. | th. t. d. | ch. k. g. | +-----------------+------------+---------------+---------------+ + | | | | +High German | b. f. p. | d. th. t. | g. ch. k. | +-----------------+------------+---------------+---------------+ + +In practice, several modifications arise; for example, the law is only +true for old High German, and that only approximately, but its general +truth may be accepted as governing most individual cases. + +Judged by this standard, English forms a dialect of the Low Dutch branch +of the Aryan language, together with Frisian, modern Dutch, and the +Scandinavian tongues. Within the group thus restricted its affinities +are closest with Frisian and old Dutch, less close with Icelandic and +Danish. While the English still lived on the shores of the Baltic, it is +probable that their language was perfectly intelligible to the ancestors +of the people who now inhabit Holland, and who then spoke very slightly +different local dialects. In other words, a single Low Dutch speech then +apparently prevailed from the mouth of the Elbe to that of the Scheldt, +with small local variations; and from this speech the Anglo-Saxon and +the modern English have developed in one direction, while the Dutch has +developed in another, the Frisian dialect long remaining intermediate +between them. Scandinavian ceased, perhaps, to be intelligible to +Englishmen at an earlier date, the old Icelandic being already marked +off from Anglo-Saxon by strong peculiarities, while modern Danish +differs even more widely from the spoken English of the present day. + +The relation of Anglo-Saxon to modern English is that of direct +parentage, it might almost be said of absolute identity. The language of +_Beowulf_ and of AElfred is not, as many people still imagine, a +different language from our own; it is simply English in its earliest +and most unmixed form. What we commonly call Anglo-Saxon, indeed, is +more English than what we commonly call English at the present day. The +first is truly English, not only in its structure and grammar, but also +in the whole of its vocabulary: the second, though also truly English +in its structure and grammar, contains a large number of Latin, Greek, +and Romance elements in its vocabulary. Nevertheless, no break separates +us from the original Low Dutch tongue spoken in the marsh lands of +Sleswick. The English of _Beowulf_ grows slowly into the English of +AElfred, into the English of Chaucer, into the English of Shakespeare and +Milton, and into the English of Macaulay and Tennyson. + +Old words drop out from time to time, old grammatical forms die away or +become obliterated, new names and verbs are borrowed, first from the +Norman-French at the Conquest, then from the classical Greek and Latin +at the Renaissance; but the continuity of the language remains unbroken, +and its substance is still essentially the same as at the beginning. The +Cornish, the Irish, and to some extent the Welsh, have left off speaking +their native tongues, and adopted the language of the dominant Teuton; +but there never was a time when Englishmen left off speaking Anglo-Saxon +and took to English, Norman-French, or any other form of speech +whatsoever. + +An illustration may serve to render clearer this fundamental and +important distinction. If at the present day a body of Englishmen were +to settle in China, they might learn and use the Chinese names for many +native plants, animals, and manufactured articles; but however many of +such words they adopted into their vocabulary, their language would +still remain essentially English. A visitor from England would have to +learn a number of unfamiliar words, but he would not have to learn a new +language. If, on the other hand, a body of Frenchmen were to settle in a +neighbouring Chinese province, and to adopt exactly the same Chinese +words, their language would still remain essentially French. The +dialects of the two settlements would contain many words in common, but +neither of them would be a Chinese dialect on that account. Just so, +English since the Norman Conquest has grafted many foreign words upon +the native stock; but it still remains at bottom the same language as in +the days of Eadgar. + +Nevertheless, Anglo-Saxon differs so far in externals from modern +English, that it is now necessary to learn it systematically with +grammar and dictionary, in somewhat the same manner as one would learn a +foreign tongue. Most of the words, indeed, are more or less familiar, at +least so far as their roots are concerned; but the inflexions of the +nouns and verbs are far more complicated than those now in use: and many +obsolete forms occur even in the vocabulary. On the other hand the +idioms closely resemble those still in use; and even where a root has +now dropped out of use, its meaning is often immediately suggested by +the cognate High German word, or by some archaic form preserved for us +in Chaucer, Shakespeare, or Milton, as well as by occasional survival in +the Lowland Scotch and other local dialects. + +English in its early form was an inflexional language; that is to say, +the mutual relations of nouns and of verbs were chiefly expressed, not +by means of particles, such as _of_, _to_, _by_, and so forth, but by +means of modifications either in the termination or in the body of the +root itself. The nouns were declined much as in Greek and Latin; the +verbs were conjugated in somewhat the same way as in modern French. +Every noun had gender expressed in its form. + +The following examples will give a sufficient idea of the commoner forms +of declension in the classical West Saxon of the time of AElfred. The +pronunciation has already been briefly explained in the preface. + + + SING. PLUR. + +(1.) _Nom._ stan (_a stone_). _Nom._ stanas. + _Gen._ stanes. _Gen._ stana. + _Dat._ stane. _Dat._ stanum. + _Acc._ stan. _Acc._ stanas. + +This is the commonest declension for masculine nouns, and it has fixed +the normal plural for the modern English. + + + SING. PLUR. + +(2.) _Nom._ fot (_a foot_). _Nom._ fet. + _Gen._ fotes. _Gen._ fota. + _Dat._ fet. _Dat._ fotum. + _Acc._ fot. _Acc._ fet. + +Hence our modified plurals, such as _feet_, _teeth_, and _men_. + + + SING. PLUR. + +(3.) _Nom._ wudu (_a wood_). _Nom._ wuda. + _Gen._ wuda. _Gen._ wuda. + _Dat._ wuda. _Dat._ wudum. + _Acc._ wudu. _Acc._ wuda. + +All these are for masculine nouns. + +The commonest feminine declension is as follows:-- + + + SING. PLUR. + +(4.) _Nom._ gifu (_a gift_). _Nom._ gifa. + _Gen._ gife. _Gen._ gifena. + _Dat._ gife. _Dat._ gifum. + _Acc._ gife. _Acc._ gifa. + +Less frequent is the modified form: + + + SING. PLUR. + +(5.) _Nom._ boc (_a book_). _Nom._ bec. + _Gen._ bec. _Gen._ boca. + _Dat._ bec. _Dat._ bocum. + _Acc._ boc. _Acc._ bec. + +Of neuters there are two principal declensions. The first has the plural +in _u_; the second leaves it unchanged. + + + SING. PLUR. + +(6.) _Nom._ scip (_a ship_). _Nom._ scipu. + _Gen._ scipes. _Gen._ scipa. + _Dat._ scipe. _Dat._ scipum. + _Acc._ scip. _Acc._ scipu. + + + SING. PLUR. + +(7.) _Nom._ hus (_a house_). _Nom._ hus. + _Gen._ huses. _Gen._ husa. + _Dat._ huse. _Dat._ husum. + _Acc._ hus. _Acc._ hus. + +Hence our "collective" plurals, such as _fish_, _deer_, _sheep_, and +_trout_. + +There is also a weak declension, much the same for all three genders, of +which the masculine form runs as follows:-- + + + SING. PLUR. + +_Nom._ guma (_a man_). _Nom._ guman. +_Gen._ guman. _Gen._ gumena. +_Dat._ guman. _Dat._ guman. +_Acc._ guman. _Acc._ guman. + +Adjectives are declined throughout, as in Latin, through all the cases +(including an instrumental), numbers, and genders. The demonstrative +pronoun or definite article _se_ (the) may stand as an example. + + + SING. + + Masc. Fem. Neut. +_Nom._ se, seo, thaet. +_Gen._ thaes, thaere, thaes. +_Dat._ tham, thaere, tham. +_Acc._ thone, tha, thaet. +_Inst._ thy, thaere, thy. + + + PLUR. + + Masc. Fem. Neut. +_Nom._ tha. +_Gen._ thara. +_Dat._ tham. +_Acc._ tha. +_Inst._ -- + +Verbs are conjugated about as fully as in Latin. There are two principal +forms: strong verbs, which form their preterite by vowel modification, +as _binde_, pret. _band_; and weak verbs, which form it by the addition +of _ode_ or _de_ to the root, as _lufige_, pret. _lufode_; _hire_, pret. +_hirde_. The present and preterite of the first form are as follows:-- + + + IND. SUBJ. + +_Pres. sing._ 1. binde. binde. + 2. bindest. binde. + 3. bindeth. binde. + +_plur._ 1, 2, 3. bindath. binden. + +_Pret. sing._ 1. band. bunde. + 2. bunde. bunde. + 3. band. bunde. + +_plur._ 1, 2, 3. bundon. bunden. + +Both the grammatical forms and still more the orthography vary much from +time to time, from place to place, and even from writer to writer. The +forms used in this work are for the most part those employed by West +Saxons in the age of AElfred. + +A few examples of the language as written at three periods will enable +the reader to form some idea of its relation to the existing type. The +first passage cited is from King AElfred's translation of Orosius; but it +consists of the opening lines of a paragraph inserted by the king +himself from his own materials, and so affords an excellent illustration +of his style in original English prose. The reader is recommended to +compare it word for word with the parallel slightly modernised version, +bearing in mind the inflexional terminations. + +Ohthere saede his hlaforde, | Othhere said [to] his lord, +AElfrede cyninge, thaet he | AElfred king, that he of all +ealra Northmonna northmest | Northmen northmost abode. +bude. He cwaeth thaet he | He quoth that he abode +bude on thaem lande northweardum | on the land northward against +with tha West-sae. | the West Sea. He said, +He saede theah thaet thaet land | though, that that land was +sie swithe lang north thonan; | [or extended] much north +ac hit is eall weste, buton on | thence; eke it is all waste, +feawum stowum styccemaelum | but [except that] on few stows +wiciath Finnas, on huntothe | [in a few places] piecemeal +on wintra, and on sumera on | dwelleth Finns, on hunting on +fiscathe be thaere sae. He | winter, and on summer on +saede thaet he aet sumum cirre | fishing by the sea. He said +wolde fandian hu longe thaet | that he at some time [on one +land northryhte laege, oththe | occasion] would seek how long +hwaether aenig monn be northan | that land lay northright [due +thaem westenne bude. Tha | north], or whether any man by +for he northryhte be thaem | north of the waste abode. +lande: let him ealne weg | Then fore [fared] he northright, +thaet weste land on thaet steorbord, | by the land: left all the +and tha wid-sae on thaet | way that waste land on the +baecbord thrie dagas. Tha | starboard of him, and the wide +waes he swa feor north swa tha | sea on the backboard [port, +hwael-huntan firrest farath. | French _babord_] three days. + | Then was he so far north as + | the whale-hunters furthest + | fareth. + +In this passage it is easy to see that the variations which make it into +modern English are for the most part of a very simple kind. Some of the +words are absolutely identical, as _his_, _on_, _he_, _and_, _land_, or +_north_. Others, though differences of spelling mask the likeness, are +practically the same, as _sae_, _saede_, _cwaeth_, _thaet_, _lang_, for +which we now write _sea_, _said_, _quoth_, _that_, _long_. A few have +undergone contraction or alteration, as _hlaford_, now _lord_, _cyning_, +now _king_, and _steorbord_, now _starboard_. _Stow_, a place, is now +obsolete, except in local names; _styccemaelum_, stickmeal, has been +Normanised into _piecemeal_. In other cases new terminations have been +substituted for old ones; _huntath_ and _fiscath_ are now replaced by +_hunting_ and _fishing_; while _hunta_ has been superseded by _hunter_. +Only six words in the passage have died out wholly: _buan_, to abide +(_bude_); _swithe_, very; _wician_, to dwell; _cirr_, an occasion; +_fandian_, to enquire (connected with _find_); and _baecbord_, port, +which still survives in French from Norman sources. _Daeg_, day, and +_aenig_, any, show how existing English has softened the final _g_ into a +_y_. But the main difference which separates the modern passage from its +ancient prototype is the consistent dropping of the grammatical +inflexions in _hlaforde_, _AElfrede_, _ealra_, _feawum_, and _fandian_, +where we now say, _to his lord_, _of all_, _in few_, and _to enquire_. + +The next passage, from the old English epic of _Beowulf_, shows the +language in another aspect. Here, as in all poetry, archaic forms +abound, and the syntax is intentionally involved. It is written in the +old alliterative rhythm, described in the next chapter:-- + + Beowulf mathelode bearn Ecgtheowes; + Hwaet! we the thas sae-lac sunu Healfdenes + Leod Scyldinga lustum brohton, + Tires to tacne, the thu her to-locast. + Ic thaet un-softe ealdre gedigde + Wigge under waetere, weore genethde + Earfothlice; aet rihte waes + Guth getwaefed nymthe mec god scylde. + + * * * * * + + Beowulf spake, the son of Ecgtheow: + See! We to thee this sea-gift, son of Healfdene, + Prince of the Scyldings, joyfully have brought, + For a token of glory, that thou here lookest on. + That I unsoftly, gloriously accomplished, + In war under water: the work I dared, + With much labour: rightly was + The battle divided, but that a god shielded me. + +Or, to translate more prosaically:-- + +"Beowulf, the son of Ecgtheow, addressed the meeting. See, son of +Healfdene, Prince of the Scyldings; we have joyfully brought thee this +gift from the sea which thou beholdest, for a proof of our valour. I +obtained it with difficulty, gloriously, fighting beneath the waves: I +dared the task with great toil. Evenly was the battle decreed, but that +a god afforded me his protection." + +In this short passage, many of the words are now obsolete: for example, +_mathelian_, to address an assembly (_concionari_); _lac_, a gift; +_wig_, war; _guth_, battle; and _leod_, a prince. _Ge-digde_, +_ge-nethde_, and _ge-twaefed_ have the now obsolete particle _ge_-, which +bears much the same sense as in High German. On the other hand, _bearn_, +a bairn; _sunu_, a son; _sae_, sea; _tacen_, a token; _waeter_, water; and +_weorc_, work, still survive: as do the verbs _to bring_, _to look_, and +_to shield_. _Lust_, pleasure, whence _lustum_, joyfully, has now +restricted its meaning in modern English, but retains its original sense +in High German. + +A few lines from the "Chronicle" under the year 1137, during the reign +of Stephen, will give an example of Anglo-Saxon in its later and corrupt +form, caught in the act of passing into Chaucerian English:-- + +This gaere for the King | This year fared the King +Stephan ofer sae to Normandi; | Stephen over sea to Normandy; +and ther wes under | and there he was +fangen, forthi thaet hi wenden | accepted [received as duke] +thaet he sculde ben alsuic alse | because that they weened +the eom waes, and for he | that he should be just as his +hadde get his tresor; ac he | uncle was, and because he +todeld it and scatered sotlice. | had got his treasure: but he +Micel hadde Henri king | to-dealt [distributed] and +gadered gold and sylver, and | scattered it sot-like [foolishly]. +na god ne dide men for his | Muckle had King +saule tharof. Tha the King | Henry gathered of gold and +Stephan to Englaland com, | silver; and man did no good +tha macod he his gadering | for his soul thereof. When +aet Oxeneford, and thar he | that King Stephan was come +nam the biscop Roger of | to England, then maked he +Sereberi, and Alexander | his gathering at Oxford, and +biscop of Lincoln, and the | there he took the bishop +Canceler Roger, hise neves, | Roger of Salisbury, and Alexander, +and dide aelle in prisun, til | bishop of Lincoln, and +hi iafen up hire castles. | the Chancellor Roger, his + | nephew, and did them all in + | prison [put them in prison] + | till they gave up their castles. + +The following passage from AElfric's Life of King Oswold, in the best +period of early English prose, may perhaps be intelligible to modern +readers by the aid of a few explanatory notes only. _Mid_ means _with_; +while _with_ itself still bears only the meaning of _against_:-- + +"AEfter tham the Augustinus to Englalande becom, waes sum aethele cyning, +Oswold ge-haten [_hight_ or _called_], on North-hymbra-lande, ge-lyfed +swithe on God. Se ferde [went] on his iugothe [youth] fram his freondum +and magum [relations] to Scotlande on sae, and thaer sona wearth ge-fullod +[baptised], and his ge-feran [companions] samod the mid him sithedon +[journeyed]. Betwux tham wearth of-slagen [off-slain] Eadwine his eam +[uncle], North-hymbra cyning, on Crist ge-lyfed, fram Brytta cyninge, +Ceadwalla ge-ciged [called, named], and twegen his aefter-gengan binnan +twam gearum [years]; and se Ceadwalla sloh and to sceame tucode tha +North-hymbran leode [people] aefter heora hlafordes fylle, oth thaet +[until] Oswold se eadiga his yfelnysse adwaescte [extinguished]. Oswold +him com to, and him cenlice [boldly] with feaht mid lytlum werode +[troop], ac his geleafa [belief] hine ge-trymde [encouraged], and Crist +him ge-fylste [helped] to his feonda [fiends, enemies] slege." + +It will be noticed in every case that the syntactical arrangement of the +words in the sentences follows as a whole the rule that the governed +word precedes the governing, as in Latin or High German, not _vice +versa_, as in modern English. + +A brief list will show the principal modifications undergone by nouns in +the process of modernisation. _Stan_, stone; _snaw_, snow; _ban_, bone. +_Craeft_, craft; _staef_, staff; _baec_, back. _Weg_, way; _daeg_, day; +_naegel_, nail; _fugol_, fowl. _Gear_, year; _geong_, young. _Finger_, +finger; _winter_, winter; _ford_, ford. _AEfen_, even; _morgen_, morn. +_Monath_, month; _heofon_, heaven; _heafod_, head. _Fot_, foot; _toth_, +tooth; _boc_, book; _freond_, friend. _Modor_, mother; _faeder_, father; +_dohtor_, daughter. _Sunu_, son; _wudu_, wood; _caru_, care; _denu_, +dene (valley). _Scip_, ship; _cild_, child; _ceorl_, churl; _cynn_, kin; +_ceald_, cold. Wherever a word has not become wholly obsolete, or +assumed a new termination, (_e.g._, _gifu_, gift; _morgen_, morn-ing), +it usually follows one or other of these analogies. + +The changes which the English language, as a whole, has undergone in +passing from its earlier to its later form, may best be considered under +the two heads of form and matter. + +As regards form or structure, the language has been simplified in three +separate ways. First, the nouns and adjectives have for the most part +lost their inflexions, at least so far as the cases are concerned. +Secondly, the nouns have also lost their gender. And thirdly, the verbs +have been simplified in conjugation, weak preterites being often +substituted for strong ones, and differential terminations largely lost. +On the other hand, the plural of nouns is still distinguished from the +singular by its termination in _s_, which is derived from the first +declension of Anglo-Saxon nouns, not as is often asserted, from the +Norman-French usage. In other words, all plurals have been assimilated +to this the commonest model; just as in French they have been +assimilated to the final _s_ of the third declension in Latin. A few +plurals of the other types still survive, such as _men_, _geese_, +_mice_, _sheep_, _deer_, _oxen_, _children_ and (dialectically) +_peasen_. To make up for this loss of inflexions, the language now +employs a larger number of particles, and to some extent, of +auxiliaries. Instead of _wines_, we now say _of a friend_; instead of +_wine_, we now say _to a friend_; and instead of _winum_, we now say _to +friends_. English, in short, has almost ceased to be inflexional and has +become analytic. + +As regards matter or vocabulary, the language has lost in certain +directions, and gained in others. It has lost many old Teutonic roots, +such as _wig_, war; _rice_, kingdom; _tungol_, light; with their +derivatives, _wigend_, warrior; _rixian_, to rule; _tungol-witega_, +astrologer; and so forth. The relative number of such losses to the +survivals may be roughly gauged from the passages quoted above. On the +other hand, the language has gained by the incorporation of many Romance +words, shortly after the Norman Conquest, such as _place_, _voice_, +_judge_, _war_, and _royal_. Some of these have entirely superseded +native old English words. Thus the Norman-French _uncle_, _aunt_, +_cousin_, _nephew_, and _niece_, have wholly ousted their Anglo-Saxon +equivalents. In other instances the Romance words have enriched the +language with symbols for really new ideas. This is still more +strikingly the case with the direct importations from the classical +Greek and Latin which began at the period of the Renaissance. Such words +usually refer either to abstract conceptions for which the English +language had no suitable expression, or to the accurate terminology of +the advanced sciences. In every-day conversation our vocabulary is +almost entirely English; in speaking or writing upon philosophical or +scientific subjects it is largely intermixed with Romance and +Graeco-Latin elements. On the whole, though it is to be regretted that +many strong, vigorous or poetical old Teutonic roots should have been +allowed to fall into disuse, it may safely be asserted that our gains +have far more than outbalanced our losses in this respect. + +It must never be forgotten, however, that the whole framework of our +language still remains, in every case, purely English--that is to say, +Anglo-Saxon or Low Dutch--however many foreign elements may happen to +enter into its vocabulary. We can frame many sentences without using one +word of Romance or classical origin: we cannot frame a single sentence +without using words of English origin. The Authorised Version of the +Bible, "The Pilgrim's Progress," and such poems as Tennyson's "Dora," +consist almost entirely of Teutonic elements. Even when the vocabulary +is largely classical, as in Johnson's "Rasselas" and some parts of +"Paradise Lost," the grammatical structure, the prepositions, the +pronouns, the auxiliary verbs, and the connecting particles, are all +necessarily and purely English. Two examples will suffice to make this +principle perfectly clear. In the first, which is the most familiar +quotation from Shakespeare, all the words of foreign origin have been +printed in italics:-- + + To be, or not to be,--that is the _question_: + Whether 'tis _nobler_ in the mind to _suffer_ + The slings and arrows of _outrageous fortune_; + Or to take _arms_ against a sea of _troubles_, + And, by _opposing_, end them? To die,--to sleep,-- + No more; and, by a sleep, to say we end + The heart-ache, and the thousand _natural_ shocks + That flesh is _heir_ to,--'tis a _consummation_ + _Devoutly_ to be wished. To die,--to sleep;-- + To sleep! _perchance_ to dream: ay, there's the rub + For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, + When we have shuffled off this _mortal_ coil, + Must give us _pause_: there's the _respect_ + That makes _calamity_ of so long life; + For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, + The _oppressor's_ wrong, the proud man's _contumely_, + The _pangs_ of _despised_ love, the law's _delay_, + The _insolence_ of _office_, and the _spurns_ + That _patient merit_ of the unworthy takes, + When he himself might his _quietus_ make + With a bare bodkin? + +Here, out of 167 words, we find only 28 of foreign origin; and even +these are Englished in their terminations or adjuncts. _Noble_ is +Norman-French; but the comparative _nobler_ stamps it with the Teutonic +mark. _Oppose_ is Latin; but the participle _opposing_ is true English. +_Devout_ is naturalised by the native adverbial termination, _devoutly_. +_Oppressor's_ and _despised_ take English inflexions. The formative +elements, _or_, _not_, _that_, _the_, _in_, _and_, _by_, _we_, and the +rest, are all English. The only complete sentence which we could frame +of wholly Latin words would be an imperative standing alone, as, +"Observe," and even this would be English in form. + +On the other hand, we may take the following passage from Mr. Herbert +Spencer as a specimen of the largely Latinised vocabulary needed for +expressing the exact ideas of science or philosophy. Here also borrowed +words are printed in italics:-- + +"The _constitution_ which we _assign_ to this _etherial medium_, +however, like the _constitution_ we _assign_ to _solid substance_, is +_necessarily_ an _abstract_ of the _impressions received_ from +_tangible_ bodies. The _opposition_ to _pressure_ which a _tangible_ +body _offers_ to us is not shown in one _direction_ only, but in all +_directions_; and so likewise is its _tenacity_. _Suppose countless +lines radiating_ from its _centre_ on every side, and it _resists_ along +each of these _lines_ and _coheres_ along each of these _lines_. Hence +the _constitution_ of those _ultimate units_ through the +_instrumentality_ of which _phenomena_ are _interpreted_. Be they +_atoms_ of _ponderable matter_ or _molecules_ of _ether_, the +_properties_ we _conceive_ them to _possess_ are nothing else than these +_perceptible properties idealised_." + +In this case, out of 122 words we find no less than 46 are of foreign +origin. Though this large proportion sufficiently shows the amount of +our indebtedness to the classical languages for our abstract or +specialised scientific terms, the absolutely indisputable nature of the +English substratum remains clearly evident. The tongue which we use +to-day is enriched by valuable loan words from many separate sources; +but it is still as it has always been, English and nothing else. It is +the self-same speech with the tongue of the Sleswick pirates and the +West Saxon over-lords. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +ANGLO-SAXON NOMENCLATURE. + + +Perhaps nothing tends more to repel the modern English student from the +early history of his country than the very unfamiliar appearance of the +personal names which he meets before the Norman Conquest. There can be +no doubt that such a shrinking from the first stages of our national +annals does really exist; and it seems to be largely due to this very +superficial and somewhat unphilosophical cause. Before the Norman +invasion, the modern Englishman finds himself apparently among complete +foreigners, in the AEthelwulfs, the Eadgyths, the Oswius, and the +Seaxburhs of the Chronicle; while he hails the Norman invaders, the +Johns, Henrys, Williams, and Roberts, of the period immediately +succeeding the conquest, as familiar English friends. The contrast can +scarcely be better given than in the story told about AEthelred's Norman +wife. Her name was Ymma, or Emma; but the English of that time murmured +against such an outlandish sound, and so the Lady received a new English +name as AElfgifu. At the present day our nomenclature has changed so +utterly that Emma sounds like ordinary English, while AElfgifu sounds +like a wholly foreign word. The incidental light thrown upon our history +by the careful study of personal names is indeed so valuable that a few +remarks upon the subject seem necessary in order to complete our hasty +survey of Anglo-Saxon Britain. + +During the very earliest period when we catch a glimpse of the English +people on the Continent or in eastern Britain, a double system of naming +seems to have prevailed, not wholly unlike our modern plan of Christian +and surname. The clan name was appended to the personal one. A man was +apparently described as Wulf the Holting, or as Creoda the AEscing. The +clan names were in many cases common to the English and the Continental +Teutons. Thus we find Helsings in the English Helsington and the Swedish +Helsingland; Harlings in the English Harlingham and the Frisian +Harlingen; and Bleccings in the English Bletchingley and the +Scandinavian Bleckingen. Our Thyrings at Thorrington answer, perhaps, to +the Thuringians; our Myrgings at Merrington to the Frankish Merwings or +Merovingians; our Waerings at Warrington to the Norse Vaeringjar or +Varangians. At any rate, the clan organization was one common to both +great branches of the Teutonic stock, and it has left its mark deeply +upon our modern nomenclature, both in England and in Germany. Mr. Kemble +has enumerated nearly 200 clan names found in early English charters and +documents, besides over 600 others inferred from local names in England +at the present day. Taking one letter of the alphabet alone, his list +includes the Glaestings, Geddings, Gumenings, Gustings, Getings, +Grundlings, Gildlings, and Gillings, from documentary evidence; and the +Gaersings, Gestings, Geofonings, Goldings, and Garings, with many +others, from the inferential evidence of existing towns and villages. + +The personal names of the earliest period are in many cases +untranslateable--that is to say, as with the first stratum of Greek +names, they bear no obvious meaning in the language as we know it. +Others are names of animals or natural objects. Unlike the later +historical cognomens, they each consist, as a rule, of a single element, +not of two elements in composition. Such are the names which we get in +the narrative of the colonization and in the mythical genealogies; +Hengest, Horsa, AEsc, AElle, Cymen, Cissa, Bieda, Maegla; Ceol, Penda, +Offa, Blecca; Esla, Gewis, Wig, Brand, and so forth. A few of these +names (such as Penda and Offa), are undoubtedly historical; but of the +rest, some seem to be etymological blunders, like Port and Wihtgar; +others to be pure myths, like Wig and Brand; and others, again, to be +doubtfully true, like Cerdic, Cissa, and Bieda, eponyms, perhaps, of +Cerdices-ford, Cissan-ceaster, and Biedan-heafod. + +In the truly historical age, the clan system seems to have died out, and +each person bore, as a rule, only a single personal name. These names +are almost invariably compounded of two elements, and the elements thus +employed were comparatively few in number. Thus, we get the root +_aethel_, noble, as the first half in AEthelred, AEthelwulf, AEthelberht, +AEthelstan, and AEthelbald. Again, the root _ead_, rich, or powerful, +occurs in Eadgar, Eadred, Eadward, Eadwine, and Eadwulf. _AElf_, an elf, +forms the prime element in AElfred, AElfric, AElfwine, AElfward, and +AElfstan. These were the favourite names of the West-Saxon royal house; +the Northumbrian kings seem rather to have affected the syllable _os_, +divine, as in Oswald, Oswiu, Osric, Osred, and Oslaf. _Wine_, friend, is +a favourite termination found in AEscwine, Eadwine, AEthelwine, Oswine, +and AElfwine, whose meanings need no further explanation. _Wulf_ appears +as the first half in Wulfstan, Wulfric, Wulfred, and Wulfhere; while it +forms the second half in AEthelwulf, Eadwulf, Ealdwulf, and Cenwulf. +_Beorht_, _berht_, or _briht_, bright, or glorious, appears in +Beorhtric, Beorhtwulf, Brihtwald; AEthelberht, Ealdbriht, and Eadbyrht. +_Burh_, a fortress, enters into many female names, as Eadburh, +AEthelburh, Sexburh, and Wihtburh. As a rule, a certain number of +syllables seem to have been regarded as proper elements for forming +personal names, and to have been combined somewhat fancifully, without +much regard to the resulting meaning. The following short list of such +elements, in addition to the roots given above, will suffice to explain +most of the names mentioned in this work. + +_Helm_: helmet. +_Gar_: spear. +_Gifu_: gift. +_Here_: army. +_Sige_: victory. +_Cyne_: royal. +_Leof_: dear. +_Wig_: war. +_Stan_: stone. +_Eald_: old, venerable. +_Weard_, _ward_: ward, protection. +_Red_: counsel. +_Eeg_: edge, sword. +_Theod_: people, nation. + +By combining these elements with those already given most of the royal +or noble names in use in early England were obtained. + +With the people, however, it would seem that shorter and older forms +were still in vogue. The following document, the original of which is +printed in Kemble's collection, represents the pedigree of a serf, and +is interesting, both as showing the sort of names in use among the +servile class, and the care with which their family relationships were +recorded, in order to preserve the rights of their lord. + + Dudda was a boor at Hatfield, and he had three daughters: + one hight Deorwyn, the other Deorswith, the third Golde. And + Wulflaf at Hatfield has Deorwyn to wife. AElfstan, at + Tatchingworth, has Deorswith to wife: and Ealhstan, + AElfstan's brother, has Golde to wife. There was a man hight + Hwita, bee-master at Hatfield, and he had a daughter Tate, + mother of Wulfsige, the bowman; and Wulfsige's sister Lulle + has Hehstan to wife, at Walden. Wifus and Dunne and Seoloce + are inborn at Hatfield. Duding, son of Wifus, lives at + Walden; and Ceolmund, Dunne's son, also sits at Walden; and + AEthelheah, Seoloce's son, also sits at Walden. And Tate, + Cenwold's sister, Maeg has to wife at Welgun; and Eadhelm, + Herethryth's son, has Tate's daughter to wife. Waerlaf, + Waerstan's father, was a right serf at Hatfield; he kept the + grey swine there. + +In the west, and especially in Cornwall, the names of the serfs were +mainly Celtic,--Griffith, Modred, Riol, and so forth,--as may be seen +from the list of manumissions preserved in a mass-book at St. Petroc's, +or Padstow. Elsewhere, however, the Celtic names seem to have dropped +out, for the most part, with the Celtic language. It is true, we meet +with cases of apparently Welsh forms, like Maccus, or Rum, even in +purely Teutonic districts; and some names, such as Cerdic and Ceadwalla, +seem to have been borrowed by one race from the other: while such forms +as Wealtheow and Waltheof are at least suggestive of British descent: +but on the whole, the conquered Britons appear everywhere to have +quickly adopted the names in vogue among their conquerors. Such names +would doubtless be considered fashionable, as was the case at a later +date with those introduced by the Danes and the Normans. Even in +Cornwall a good many English forms occur among the serfs: while in very +Celtic Devonshire, English names were probably universal. + +The Danish Conquest introduced a number of Scandinavian names, +especially in the North, the consideration of which belongs rather to a +companion volume. They must be briefly noted here, however, to prevent +confusion with the genuine English forms. Amongst such Scandinavian +introductions, the commonest are perhaps Harold, Swegen or Swend, Ulf, +Gorm or Guthrum, Orm, Yric or Eric, Cnut, and Ulfcytel. During and after +the time of the Danish dynasty, these forms, rendered fashionable by +royal usage, became very general even among the native English. Thus +Earl Godwine's sons bore Scandinavian names; and at an earlier period we +even find persons, apparently Scandinavian, fighting on the English side +against the Danes in East Anglia. + +But the sequel to the Norman Conquest shows us most clearly how the +whole nomenclature of a nation may be entirely altered without any large +change of race. Immediately after the Conquest the native English names +begin to disappear, and in their place we get a crop of Williams, +Walters, Rogers, Henries, Ralphs, Richards, Gilberts, and Roberts. Most +of these were originally High German forms, taken into Gaul by the +Franks, borrowed from them by the Normans, and then copied by the +English from their foreign lords. A few, however, such as Arthur, Owen, +and Alan, were Breton Welsh. Side by side with these French names, the +Normans introduced the Scriptural forms, John, Matthew, Thomas, Simon, +Stephen, Piers or Peter, and James; for though a few cases of Scriptural +names occur in the earlier history--for example, St. John of Beverley +and Daniel, bishop of the West Saxons--these are always borne by +ecclesiastics, probably as names of religion. All through the middle +ages, and down to very recent times, the vast majority of English men +and women continued to bear these baptismal names of Norman +introduction. Only two native English forms practically survived--Edward +and Edmund--owing to mere accidents of royal favour. They were the names +of two great English saints, Eadward the Confessor and Eadmund of East +Anglia; and Henry III. bestowed them upon his two sons, Edward I. and +Edmund of Lancaster. In this manner they became adopted into the royal +and fashionable circle, and so were perpetuated to our own day. All the +others died out in mediaeval times, while the few old forms now current, +such as Alfred, Edgar, Athelstane, and Edwin, are mere artificial +revivals of the two last centuries. If we were to judge by nomenclature +alone, we might almost fancy that the Norman Conquest had wholly +extinguished the English people. + +A few steps towards the adoption of surnames were taken even before the +Conquest. Titles of office were usually placed after the personal name, +as AElfred King, Lilla Thegn, Wulfnoth Cild, AElfward Bishop, AEthelberht +Ealdorman, and Harold Earl. Double names occasionally occur, the second +being a nickname or true surname, as Osgod Clapa, Benedict Biscop, +Thurkytel Myranheafod, Godwine Bace, and AElfric Cerm. Trade names are +also found, as Ecceard smith, or Godwig boor. Everywhere, but especially +in the Danish North, patronymics were in common use; for example, Harold +Godwine's son, or Thored Gunnor's son. In all these cases we get +surnames in the germ; but their general and official adoption dates from +after the Norman Conquest. + +Local nomenclature also demands a short explanation. Most of the Roman +towns continued to be called by their Roman names: Londinium, Lunden, +London; Eburacum, Eoforwic, Eurewic, York; Lindum Colonia, Lincolne, +Lincoln. Often _ceaster_, from _castrum_, was added: Gwent, Venta +Belgarum, Wintan-ceaster, Winteceaster, Winchester; Isca, Exan-ceaster, +Execestre, Exeter; Corinium, Cyren-ceaster, Cirencester. Almost every +place which is known to have had a name at the English Conquest retained +that name afterwards, in a more or less clipped or altered form. +Examples are Kent, Wight, Devon, Dorset; Manchester, Lancaster, +Doncaster, Leicester, Gloucester, Worcester, Colchester, Silchester, +Uttoxeter, Wroxeter, and Chester; Thames, Severn, Ouse, Don, Aire, +Derwent, Swale, and Tyne. Even where the Roman name is now lost, as at +Pevensey, the old form was retained in Early English days; for the +"Chronicle" calls it Andredes-ceaster, that is to say, Anderida. So the +old name of Bath is Akemannes-ceaster, derived from the Latin _Aqua_, +Cissan-ceaster, Chichester, forms an almost solitary exception. +Canterbury, or Cant-wara-byrig, was correctly known as Dwrovernum or +Doroberna in Latin documents of the Anglo-Saxon period. + +On the other hand, the true English towns which grew up around the +strictly English settlements, bore names of three sorts. The first were +the clan villages, the _hams_ or _tuns_, such as Baenesingatun, +Bensington; Snotingaham, Nottingham; Glaestingabyrig, Glastonbury; and +Waeringwica, Warwick. These have already been sufficiently illustrated; +and they were situated, for the most part, in the richest agricultural +lowlands. The second were towns which grew up slowly for purposes of +trade by fords of rivers or at ports: such are Oxeneford, Oxford; +Bedcanford, Bedford (a British town); Stretford, Stratford; and +Wealingaford, Wallingford. The third were the towns which grew up in the +wastes and wealds, with names of varied form but more modern origin. As +a whole, it may be said that during the entire early English period the +names of cities were mostly Roman, the names of villages and country +towns were mostly English. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE. + + +Nothing better illustrates the original peculiarities and subsequent +development of the early English mind than the Anglo-Saxon literature. A +vast mass of manuscripts has been preserved for us, embracing works in +prose and verse of the most varied kind; and all the most important of +these have been made accessible to modern readers in printed copies. +They cast a flood of light upon the workings of the English mind in all +ages, from the old pagan period in Sleswick to the date of the Norman +Conquest, and the subsequent gradual supplanting of our native +literature by a new culture based upon the Romance models. + +All national literature everywhere begins with rude songs. From the +earliest period at which the English and Saxon people existed as +separate tribes at all, we may be sure that they possessed battle-songs, +like those common to the whole Aryan stock. But among the Teutonic races +poetry was not distinguished by either of the peculiarities--rime or +metre--which mark off modern verse from prose, so far as its external +form is concerned. Our existing English system of versification is not +derived from our old native poetry at all; it is a development of the +Romance system, adopted by the school of Gower and Chaucer from the +French and Italian poets. Its metre, or syllabic arrangement, is an +adaptation from the Greek quantitative prosody, handed down through +Latin and the neo-Latin dialects; its rime is a Celtic peculiarity +borrowed by the Romance nationalities, and handed on through them to +modern English literature by the Romance school of the fourteenth +century. Our original English versification, on the other hand, was +neither rimed nor rhythmic. What answered to metre was a certain +irregular swing, produced by a roughly recurrent number of accents in +each couplet, without restriction as to the number of feet or syllables. +What answered to rime was a regular and marked alliteration, each +couplet having a certain key-letter, with which three principal words in +the couplet began. In addition to these two poetical devices, +Anglo-Saxon verse shows traces of parallelism, similar to that which +distinguishes Hebrew poetry. But the alliteration and parallelism do not +run quite side by side, the second half of each alliterative couplet +being parallel with the first half of the next couplet. Accordingly, +each new sentence begins somewhat clumsily in the middle of the couplet. +All these peculiarities are not, however, always to be distinguished in +every separate poem. + +The following rough translation of a very early Teutonic spell for the +cure of a sprained ankle, belonging to the heathen period, will +illustrate the earliest form of this alliterative verse. The key-letter +in each couplet is printed in capitals, and the verse is read from end +to end, not as two separate columns.[1] + + Balder and Woden Went to the Woodland: + There Balder's Foal Fell, wrenching its Foot. + Then Sinthgunt beguiled him, and Sunna her Sister: + Then Frua beguiled him, and Folla her sister, + Then Woden beguiled him, as Well he knew how; + Wrench of blood, Wrench of bone, and eke Wrench of limb: + Bone unto Bone, Blood unto Blood, + Limb unto Limb as though Limed it were. + + [1] The original of this heathen charm is in the Old High + German dialect; but it is quoted here as a good specimen of + the early form of alliterative verse. A similar charm + undoubtedly existed in Anglo-Saxon, though no copy of it has + come down to our days, as we possess a modernised and + Christianised English version, in which the name of our Lord + is substituted for that of Balder. + +In this simple spell the alliteration serves rather as an aid to memory +than as an ornamental device. The following lines, translated from the +ballad on AEthelstan's victory at Brunanburh, in 937, will show the +developed form of the same versificatory system. The parallelism and +alliteration are here well marked:-- + + AEthelstan king, lord of Earls, + Bestower of Bracelets, and his Brother eke, + Eadmund the AEtheling, honour Eternal + Won in the Slaughter, with edge of the Sword + By Brunnanbury. The Bucklers they clave, + Hewed the Helmets, with Hammered steel, + Heirs of Edward, as was their Heritage, + From their Fore-Fathers, that oft the Field + They should Guard their Good folk Gainst every comer, + Their Home and their Hoard. The Hated foe cringed to them, + The Scottish Sailors, and the Northern Shipmen; + Fated they Fell. The Field lay gory + With Swordsmen's blood Since the Sun rose + On Morning tide a Mighty globe, + To Glide o'er the Ground, God's candle bright, + The endless Lord's taper, till the great Light + Sank to its Setting. There Soldiers lay, + Warriors Wounded, Northern Wights, + Shot over Shields; and so Scotsmen eke, + Wearied with War. The West Saxon onwards, + The Live-Long day in Linked order + Followed the Footsteps of the Foul Foe. + +Of course no songs of the old heathen period were committed to writing +either in Sleswick or in Britain. The minstrels who composed them taught +them by word of mouth to their pupils, and so handed them down from +generation to generation, much as the Achaean rhapsodists handed down the +Homeric poems. Nevertheless, two or three such old songs were afterwards +written out in Christian Northumbria or Wessex; and though their +heathendom has been greatly toned down by the transcribers, enough +remains to give us a graphic glimpse of the fierce and gloomy old +English nature which we could not otherwise obtain. One fragment, known +as the _Fight at Finnesburh_ (rescued from a book-cover into which it +had been pasted), probably dates back before the colonisation of +Britain, and closely resembles in style the above-quoted ode. Two other +early pieces, the _Traveller's Song_ and the _Lament of Deor_, are +inserted from pagan tradition in a book of later devotional poems +preserved at Exeter. But the great epic of _Beowulf_, a work composed +when the English and the Danes were still living in close connexion with +one another by the shores of the Baltic, has been handed down to us +entire, thanks to the kind intervention of some Northumbrian monk, who, +by Christianising the most flagrantly heathen portions, has saved the +entire work from the fate which would otherwise have overtaken it. As a +striking representation of early English life and thought, this great +epic deserves a fuller description.[2] + + [2] It is right to state, however, that many scholars regard + _Beowulf_ as a late translation from a Danish original. + +_Beowulf_ is written in the same short alliterative metre as that of the +Brunanburh ballad, and takes its name from its hero, a servant or +companion of the mighty Hygelac, king of the Geatas (Jutes or Goths). At +a distance from his home lay the kingdom of the Scyldings, a Danish +tribe, ruled over by Hrothgar. There stood Heorot, the high hall of +heroes, the greatest mead-house ever raised. But the land of the Danes +was haunted by a terrible fiend, known as Grendel, who dwelt in a dark +fen in the forest belt, girt round with shadows and lit up at eve by +flitting flames. Every night Grendel came forth and carried off some of +the Danes to devour in his home. The description of the monster himself +and of the marshland where he had his lair is full of that weird and +gloomy superstition which everywhere darkens and overshadows the life +of the savage and the heathen barbarian. The terror inspired in the rude +English mind by the mark and the woodland, the home of wild beasts and +of hostile ghosts, of deadly spirits and of fierce enemies, gleams +luridly through every line. The fen and the forest are dim and dark; +will-o'-the-wisps flit above them, and gloom closes them in; wolves and +wild boars lurk there, the quagmire opens its jaws and swallows the +horse and his rider; the foeman comes through it to bring fire and +slaughter to the clan-village at the dead of night. To these real +terrors and dangers of the mark are added the fancied ones of +superstition. There the terrible forms begotten of man's vague dread of +the unknown--elves and nickors and fiends--have their murky +dwelling-place. The atmosphere of the strange old heathen epic is +oppressive in its gloominess. Nevertheless, its poetry sometimes rises +to a height of great, though barbaric, sublimity. Beowulf himself, +hearing of the evil wrought by Grendel, set sail from his home for the +land of the Danes. Hrothgar received him kindly, and entertained him and +his Goths with ale and song in Heorot. Wealtheow, Hrothgar's queen, +gold-decked, served them with mead. But when all had retired to rest on +the couches of the great hall, in the murky night, Grendel came. He +seized and slew one of Beowulf's companions. Then the warrior of the +Goths followed the monster, and wounded him sorely with his hands. +Grendel fled to his lair to die. But after the contest, Grendel's +mother, a no less hateful creature--the "Devil's dam" of our mediaeval +legends--carries on the war against the slayer of her son. Beowulf +descends to her home beneath the water, grapples with her in her cave, +turns against her the weapons he finds there, and is again victorious. +The Goths return to their own country laden with gifts by Hrothgar. +After the death of Hygelac, Beowulf succeeds to the kingship of the +Geatas, whom he rules well and prosperously for many years. At length a +mysterious being, named the Fire Drake, a sort of dragon guarding a +hidden treasure, some of which has been stolen while its guardian +sleeps, comes out to slaughter his people. The old hero buckles on his +rune-covered sword again, and goes forth to battle with the monster. He +slays it, indeed, but is blasted by its fiery breath, and dies after the +encounter. His companions light his pyre upon a lofty spit of land +jutting out into the winter sea. Weapons and jewels and drinking bowls, +taken from the Fire Drake's treasure, were thrown into the tomb for the +use of the ghost in the other world; and a mighty barrow was raised upon +the spot to be a beacon far and wide to seafaring men. So ends the great +heathen epic. It gives us the most valuable picture which we possess of +the daily life led by our pagan forefathers. + +But though these poems are the oldest in tone, they are not the oldest +in form of all that we possess. It is probable that the most primitive +Anglo-Saxon verse was identical with prose, and consisted merely of +sentences bound together by parallelism. As alliteration, at first a +mere _memoria technica_, became an ornamental adjunct, and grew more +developed, the parallelism gradually dropped out. Gnomes or short +proverbs of this character were in common use, and they closely +resembled the mediaeval proverbs current in England to the present day. + +With the introduction of Christianity, English verse took a new +direction. It was chiefly occupied in devotional and sacred poetry, or +rather, such poems only have come down to us, as the monks transcribed +them alone, leaving the half-heathen war-songs of the minstrels attached +to the great houses to die out unwritten. The first piece of English +literature which we can actually date is a fragment of the great +religious epic of Caedmon, written about the year 670. Caedmon was a poor +brother in Hild's monastery at Whitby, and he acquired the art of poetry +by a miracle. Northumbria, in the sixth and seventh centuries, took the +lead in Teutonic Britain; and all the early literature is Northumbrian, +as all the later literature is West Saxon. Caedmon's poem consisted in a +paraphrase of the Bible history, from the Creation to the Ascension. The +idea of a translation of the Bible from Latin into English would never +have occurred to any one at that early time. English had as yet no +literary form into which it could be thrown. But Caedmon conceived the +notion of paraphrasing the Bible story in the old alliterative Teutonic +verse, which was familiar to his hearers in songs like _Beowulf_. Some +of the brethren translated or interpreted for him portions of the +Vulgate, and he threw them into rude metre. Only a single short excerpt +has come down to us in the original form. There is a later complete +epic, however, also attributed to Caedmon, of the same scope and purport; +and it retains so much of the old heathen spirit that it may very +possibly represent a modernised version of the real Caedmon's poem, by a +reviser in the ninth century. At any rate, the latter work may be +treated here under the name of Caedmon, by which it is universally known. +It consists of a long Scriptural paraphrase, written in the alliterative +metre, short, sharp, and decisive, but not without a wild and passionate +beauty of its own. In tone it differs wonderfully little from _Beowulf_, +being most at home in the war of heaven and Satan, and in the titanic +descriptions of the devils and their deeds. The conduct of the poem is +singularly like that of _Paradise Lost_. Its wild and rapid stanzas show +how little Christianity had yet moulded the barbaric nature of the +newly-converted English. The epic is essentially a war-song; the Hebrew +element is far stronger than the Christian; hell takes the place of +Grendel's mere; and, to borrow Mr. Green's admirable phrase, "the verses +fall like sword-strokes in the thick of battle." + +In all these works we get the genuine native English note, the wild song +of a pirate race, shaped in early minstrelsy for celebrating the deeds +of gods and warriors, and scarcely half-adapted afterward to the not +wholly alien tone of the oldest Hebrew Scriptures. But the Latin +schools, set up by the Italian monks, introduced into England a totally +new and highly-developed literature. The pagan Anglo-Saxons had not +advanced beyond the stage of ballads; they had no history, or other +prose literature of their own, except, perhaps, a few traditional +genealogical lists, mostly mythical, and adapted to an artificial +grouping by eights and forties. The Roman missionaries brought over the +Roman works, with their developed historical and philosophical style; +and the change induced in England by copying these originals was as +great as the change would now be from the rude Polynesian myths and +ballads to a history of Polynesia written in English, and after English +prototypes, by a native convert. In fact, the Latin language was almost +as important to the new departure as the Latin models. While the old +English literary form, restricted entirely to poetry, was unfitted for +any serious narrative or any reflective work, the old English tongue, +suited only to the practical needs of a rude warrior race, was unfitted +for the expression of any but the simplest and most material ideas. It +is true, the vocabulary was copious, especially in terms for natural +objects, and it was far richer than might be expected even in words +referring to mental states and emotions; but in the expression of +abstract ideas, and in idioms suitable for philosophical discussion, it +remained still, of course, very deficient. Hence the new serious +literature was necessarily written entirely in the Latin language, which +alone possessed the words and modes of speech fitted for its +development; but to exclude it on that account from the consideration of +Anglo-Saxon literature, as many writers have done, would be an absurd +affectation. The Latin writings of Englishmen are an integral part of +English thought, and an important factor in the evolution of English +culture. Gradually, as English monks grew to read Latin from generation +to generation, they invented corresponding compounds in their own +language for the abstract words of the southern tongue; and therefore by +the beginning of the eleventh century, the West Saxon speech of AElfred +and his successors had grown into a comparatively wealthy dialect, +suitable for the expression of many ideas unfamiliar to the rude pirates +and farmers of Sleswick and East Anglia. Thus, in later days, a rich +vernacular literature grew up with many distinct branches. But, in the +earlier period, the use of a civilised idiom for all purposes connected +with the higher civilisation introduced by the missionaries was +absolutely necessary; and so we find the codes of laws, the penitentials +of the Church, the charters, and the prose literature generally, almost +all written at first in Latin alone. Gradually, as the English tongue +grew fuller, we find it creeping into use for one after another of these +purposes; but to the last an educated Anglo-Saxon could express himself +far more accurately and philosophically in the cultivated tongue of Rome +than in the rough dialect of his Teutonic countrymen. We have only to +contrast the bald and meagre style of the "English Chronicle," written +in the mother-tongue, with the fulness and ease of Baeda's +"Ecclesiastical History," written two centuries earlier in Latin, in +order to see how great an advantage the rough Northumbrians of the early +Christian period obtained in the gift of an old and polished instrument +for conveying to one another their higher thoughts. + +Of this new literature (which began with the Latin biography of Wilfrith +by AEddi or Eddius, and the Latin verses of Ealdhelm) the great +representative is, in fact, Baeda, whose life has already been +sufficiently described in an earlier chapter. Living at Jarrow, a +Benedictine monastery of the strictest type, in close connection with +Rome, and supplied with Roman works in abundance, Baeda had thoroughly +imbibed the spirit of the southern culture, and his books reflect for us +a true picture of the English barbarian toned down and almost +obliterated in all distinctive features by receptivity for Italian +civilisation. The Northumbrian kingdom had just passed its prime in his +days; and he was able to record the early history of the English Church +and People with something like Roman breadth of view. His scientific +knowledge was up to that of his contemporaries abroad; while his +somewhat childish tales of miracles and visions, though they often +betray traces of the old heathen spirit, were not below the average +level of European thought in his own day. Altogether, Baeda may be taken +as a fair specimen of the Romanised Englishman, alike in his strength +and in his weakness. The samples of his historical style already given +will suffice for illustration of his Latin works; but it must not be +forgotten that he was also one of the first writers to try his hand at +regular English prose in his translation of St. John's Gospel. A few +English verses from his lips have also come down to us, breathing the +old Teutonic spirit more deeply than might be expected from his other +works. + +During the interval between the Northumbrian and West Saxon +supremacies--the interval embraced by the eighth century, and covered by +the greatness of Mercia under AEthelbald and Offa--we have few remains of +English literature. The laws of Ine the West Saxon, and of Offa the +Mercian, with the Penitentials of the Church, and the Charters, form the +chief documents. But England gained no little credit for learning from +the works of two Englishmen who had taken up their abode in the old +Germanic kingdom: Boniface or Winfrith, the apostle of the heathen +Teutons subjugated by the Franks, and Alcuin (Ealhwine), the famous +friend and secretary of Karl the Great. Many devotional Anglo-Saxon +poems, of various dates, are kept for us in the two books preserved at +Exeter, and at Vercelli in North Italy. Amongst them are some by +Cynewulf, perhaps the most genuinely poetical of all the early minstrels +after Caedmon. The following lines, taken from the beginning of his poem +"The Phoenix" (a transcript from Lactantius), will sufficiently +illustrate his style:-- + + I have heard that hidden Afar from hence + On the east of earth Is a fairest isle, + Lovely and famous. The lap of that land + May not be reached By many mortals, + Dwellers on earth; But it is divided + Through the might of the Maker From all misdoers. + Fair is the field, Full happy and glad, + Filled with the sweetest Scented flowers. + Unique is that island, Almighty the worker + Mickle of might Who moulded that land. + There oft lieth open To the eyes of the blest, + With happiest harmony, The gate of heaven. + Winsome its woods And its fair green wolds, + Roomy with reaches. No rain there nor snow, + Nor breath of frost, Nor fiery blast, + Nor summer's heat, Nor scattered sleet, + Nor fall of hail, Nor hoary rime, + Nor weltering weather, Nor wintry shower, + Falleth on any; But the field resteth + Ever in peace, And the princely land + Bloometh with blossoms. Berg there nor mount + Standeth not steep, Nor stony crag + High lifteth the head, As here with us, + Nor vale, nor dale, Nor deep-caverned down, + Hollows or hills; Nor hangeth aloft + Aught of unsmooth; But ever the plain, + Basks in the beam, Joyfully blooming. + Twelve fathoms taller Towereth that land + (As quoth in their writs Many wise men) + Than ever a berg That bright among mortals + High lifteth the head Among heaven's stars. + +Two noteworthy points may be marked in this extract. Its feeling for +natural scenery is quite different from the wild sublimity of the +descriptions of nature in _Beowulf_. Cynewulf's verse is essentially the +verse of an agriculturist; it looks with disfavour upon mountains and +rugged scenes, while its ideal is one of peaceful tillage. The monk +speaks out in it as cultivator and dreamer. Its tone is wholly different +from that of the Brunanburh ballad or the other fierce war-songs. +Moreover, it contains one or two rimes, preserved in this translation, +whose full significance will be pointed out hereafter. + +The anarchy of Northumbria, and still more the Danish inroads, put an +end to the literary movement in the North and the Midlands; but the +struggle in Wessex gave new life to the West Saxon people. Under AElfred, +Winchester became the centre of English thought. But the West Saxon +literature is almost entirely written in English, not in Latin; a fact +which marks the progressive development of vocabulary and idiom in the +native tongue. AElfred himself did much to encourage literature, inviting +over learned men from the continent, and founding schools for the West +Saxon youth in his dwarfed dominions. Most of the Winchester works are +attributed to his own pen, though doubtless he was largely aided by his +advisers, and amongst others by Asser, his Welsh secretary and Bishop of +Sherborne. They comprise translations into the Anglo-Saxon of Boethius +_de Consolatione_, the Universal History of Orosius, Baeda's +Ecclesiastical History, and Pope Gregory's _Regula Pastoralis_. But the +fact that AElfred still has recourse to Roman originals, marks the stage +of civilisation as yet mainly imitative; while the interesting passages +intercalated by the king himself show that the beginnings of a really +native prose literature were already taking shape in English hands. + +The chief monument of this truly Anglo-Saxon literature, begun and +completed by English writers in the English tongue alone, is the +Chronicle. That invaluable document, the oldest history of any Teutonic +race in its own language, was probably first compiled at the court of +AElfred. Its earlier part consists of mere royal genealogies of the +first West Saxon kings, together with a few traditions of the +colonisation, and some excerpts from Baeda. But with the reign of +AEthelwulf, AElfred's father, it becomes comparatively copious, though its +records still remain dry and matter-of-fact, a bare statement of facts, +without comment or emotional display. The following extract, giving the +account of AElfred's death, will show its meagre nature. The passage has +been modernised as little as is consistent with its intelligibility at +the present day:-- + + An. 901. Here died AElfred AEthulfing [AEthelwulfing--the son + of AEthelwulf], six nights ere All Hallow Mass. He was king + over all English-kin, bar that deal that was under Danish + weald [dominion]; and he held that kingdom three half-years + less than thirty winters. There came Eadward his son to the + rule. And there seized AEthelwold aetheling, his father's + brother's son, the ham [villa] at Winburne [Wimbourne], and + at Tweoxneam [Christchurch], by the king's unthank and his + witan's [without leave from the king]. There rode the king + with his fyrd till he reached Badbury against Winburne. And + AEthelwold sat within the ham, with the men that to him had + bowed, and he had forwrought [obstructed] all the gates in, + and said that he would either there live or there lie. + Thereupon rode the aetheling on night away, and sought the + [Danish] host in Northumbria, and they took him for king and + bowed to him. And the king bade ride after him, but they + could not outride him. Then beset man the woman that he had + erst taken without the king's leave, and against the + bishop's word, for that she was ere that hallowed a nun. And + on this ilk year forth-fared AEthelred (he was ealdorman on + Devon) four weeks ere AElfred king. + +During the Augustan age the Chronicle grows less full, but contains +several fine war-songs, of the genuine old English type, full of +savagery in sentiment, and abrupt or broken in manner, but marked by the +same wild poetry and harsh inversions as the older heathen ballads. +Amongst them stand the lines on the fight of Brunanburh, whose exordium +is quoted above. Its close forms one of the finest passages in old +English verse:-- + + Behind them they Left, the Lych to devour, + The Sallow kite and the Swart raven, + Horny of beak,-- and Him, the dusk-coated, + The white-afted Erne, the corse to Enjoy, + The Greedy war-hawk, and that Grey beast, + The Wolf of the Wood. No such Woeful slaughter + Aye on this Island Ever hath been, + By edge of the Sword, as book Sayeth, + Writers of Eld, since of Eastward hither + English and Saxons Sailed over Sea, + O'er the Broad Brine,-- landed in Britain, + Proud Workers of War, and o'ercame the Welsh, + Earls Eager of fame, Obtaining this Earth. + +During the decadence, in the disastrous reign of AEthelred, the Chronicle +regains its fulness, and the following passage may be taken as a good +specimen of its later style. It shows the approach to comment and +reflection, as the compilers grew more accustomed to historical writing +in their own tongue:-- + + An. 1009. Here on this year were the ships ready of which we + ere spake, and there were so many of them as never ere (so + far as books tell us) were made among English kin in no + king's day. And man brought them all together to Sandwich, + and there should they lie, and hold this earth against all + outlanders [foreigners'] hosts. But we had not yet the luck + nor the worship [valour] that the ship-fyrd should be of + any good to this land, no more than it oft was afore. Then + befel it at this ilk time or a little ere, that Brihtric, + Eadric's brother the ealdorman's, forwrayed [accused] + Wulfnoth child to the king: and he went out and drew unto + him twenty ships, and there harried everywhere by the south + shore, and wrought all evil. Then quoth man to the ship-fyrd + that man might easily take them, if man were about it. Then + took Brihtric to himself eighty ships and thought that he + should work himself great fame if he should get Wulfnoth, + quick or dead. But as they were thitherward, there came such + a wind against them such as no man ere minded [remembered], + and it all to-beat and to-brake the ships, and warped them + on land: and soon came Wulfnoth and for-burned the ships. + When this was couth [known] to the other ships where the + king was, how the others fared, then was it as though it + were all redeless, and the king fared him home, and the + ealdormen, and the high witan, and forlet the ships thus + lightly. And the folk that were on the ships brought them + round eft to Lunden, and let all the people's toil thus + lightly go for nought: and the victory that all English kin + hoped for was no better. There this ship-fyrd was thus + ended; then came, soon after Lammas, the huge foreign host, + that we hight Thurkill's host, to Sandwich, and soon wended + their way to Canterbury, and would quickly have won the burg + if they had not rather yearned for peace of them. And all + the East Kentings made peace with the host, and gave it + three thousand pound. And the host there, soon after that, + wended till it came to Wightland, and there everywhere in + Suth-Sex, and on Hamtunshire, and eke on Berkshire harried + and burnt, as their wont is. Then bade the king call out all + the people, that men should hold against them on every half + [side]: but none the less, look! they fared where they + willed. Then one time had the king foregone before them with + all the fyrd as they were going to their ships, and all the + folk was ready to fight them. But it was let, through Eadric + ealdorman, as it ever yet was. Then, after St. Martin's + mass, they fared eft again into Kent, and took them a winter + seat on Thames, and victualled themselves from East-Sex and + from the shires that there next were, on the twain halves + of Thames. And oft they fought against the burg of Lunden, + but praise be to God, it yet stands sound, and they ever + there fared evilly. And there after mid-winter they took + their way up, out through Chiltern, and so to Oxenaford + [Oxford], and for-burnt the burg, and took their way on to + the twa halves of Thames to shipward. There man warned them + that there was fyrd gathered at Lunden against them; then + wended they over at Stane [Staines]. And thus fared they all + the winter, and that Lent were in Kent and bettered + [repaired] their ships. + +We possess several manuscript versions of the Chronicle, belonging to +different abbeys, and containing in places somewhat different accounts. +Thus the Peterborough copy is fullest on matters affecting that +monastery, and even inserts several spurious grants, which, however, are +of value as showing how incapable the writers were of scientific +forgery, and so as guarantees of the general accuracy of the document. +But in the main facts they all agree. Nor do they stop short at the +Norman Conquest. Most of them continue half through the reign of +William, and then cease; while one manuscript goes on uninterruptedly +till the reign of Stephen, and breaks off abruptly in the year 1154 with +an unfinished sentence. With it, native prose literature dies down +altogether until the reign of Edward III. + +As a whole, however, the Conquest struck the death-blow of Anglo-Saxon +literature almost at once. During the reigns of AElfred's descendants +Wessex had produced a rich crop of native works on all subjects, but +especially religious. In this literature the greatest name was that of +AElfric, whose Homilies are models of the classical West Saxon prose. +But after the Conquest our native literature died out wholly, and a new +literature, founded on Romance models, took its place. The Anglo-Saxon +style lingered on among the people, but it was gradually killed down by +the Romance style of the court writers. In prose, the history of William +of Malmesbury, written in Latin, and in a wider continental spirit, +marks the change. In poetry, the English school struggled on longer, but +at last succumbed. A few words on the nature of this process will not be +thrown away. + +The old Teutonic poetry, with its treble system of accent, alliteration, +and parallelism, was wholly different from the Romance poetry, with its +double system of rime and metre. But, from an early date, the English +themselves were fond of verbal jingles, such as "Scot and lot," "sac and +soc," "frith and grith," "eorl and ceorl," or "might and right." Even in +the alliterative poems we find many occasional rimes, such as "hlynede +and dynede," "wide and side," "Dryht-guman sine drencte mid wine," or +such as the rimes already quoted from Cynewulf. As time went on, and +intercourse with other countries became greater, the tendency to rime +settled down into a fixed habit. Rimed Latin verse was already familiar +to the clergy, and was imitated in their works. Much of the very ornate +Anglo-Saxon prose of the latest period is full of strange verbal tricks, +as shown in the following modernised extract from a sermon of Wulfstan. +Here, the alliterative letters are printed in capitals, and the rimes in +italics:-- + + No Wonder is it that Woes befall us, for Well We Wot that + now full many a year men little _care_ what thing they + _dare_ in word or deed; and Sorely has this nation Sinned, + whate'er man Say, with Manifold Sins and with right Manifold + Misdeeds, with Slayings and with Slaughters, with _robbing_ + and with _stabbing_, with Grasping _deed_ and hungry + _Greed_, through Christian Treason and through heathen + Treachery, through _guile_ and through _wile_, through + _lawlessness_ and _awelessness_, through Murder of Friends + and Murder of Foes, through broken Troth and broken Truth, + through wedded unchastity and cloistered impurity. Little + they _trow_ of marriage _vow_, as ere this I said: little + they reck the breach of _oath_ or _troth_; swearing and + for-swearing, on every _side_, far and _wide_, Fast and + Feast they hold not, Peace and Pact they keep not, oft and + anon. Thus in this _land_ they _stand_, Foes to Christendom, + Friends to heathendom, Persecutors of Priests, Persecutors + of People, all too many; spurners of godly law and Christian + bond, who Loudly Laugh at the _Teaching_ of God's _Teachers_ + and the _Preaching_ of God's _Preachers_, and whatso rightly + to God's rites belongs. + +The nation was thus clearly preparing itself from within for the +adoption of the Romance system. Immediately after the Conquest, rimes +begin to appear distinctly, while alliteration begins to die out. An +Anglo-Saxon poem on the character of William the Conqueror, inserted in +the Chronicle under the year of his death, consists of very rude rimes +which may be modernised as follows-- + + Gold he took by might, + And of great unright, + From his folk with evil deed + For sore little need. + He was on greediness befallen, + And getsomeness he loved withal. + He set a mickle deer frith, + And he laid laws therewith, + That whoso slew hart or hind + Him should man then blinden. + He forbade to slay the harts, + And so eke the boars. + So well he loved the high deer + As if he their father were. + Eke he set by the hares + That they might freely fare. + His rich men mourned it + And the poor men wailed it. + But he was so firmly wrought + That he recked of all nought. + And they must all withal + The king's will follow, + If they wished to live + Or their land have, + Or their goods eke, + Or his peace to seek. + Woe is me, + That any man so proud should be, + Thus himself up to raise, + And over all men to boast. + May God Almighty show his soul mild-heart-ness, + And do him for his sins forgiveness! + +From that time English poetry bifurcates. On the one hand, we have the +survival of the old Teutonic alliterative swing in Layamon's Brut and in +Piers Plowman--the native verse of the people sung by native minstrels: +and on the other hand we have the new Romance rimed metre in Robert of +Gloucester, "William of Palerne," Gower, and Chaucer. But from Piers +Plowman and Chaucer onward the Romance system conquers and the Teutonic +system dies rapidly. Our modern poetry is wholly Romance in descent, +form, and spirit. + +Thus in literature as in civilisation generally, the culture of old +Rome, either as handed down ecclesiastically through the Latin, or as +handed down popularly through the Norman-French, overcame the native +Anglo-Saxon culture, such as it was, and drove it utterly out of the +England which we now know. Though a new literature, in Latin and +English, sprang up after the Conquest, that literature had its roots, +not in Sleswick or in Wessex, but in Greece, in Rome, in Provence, and +in Normandy. With the Normans, a new era began--an era when Romance +civilisation was grafted by harsh but strong hands on to the Anglo-Saxon +stock, the Anglo-Saxon institutions, and the Anglo-Saxon tongue. With +the first step in this revolution, our present volume has completed its +assigned task. The story of the Normans will be told by another pen in +the same series. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +ANGLO-SAXON INFLUENCES IN MODERN BRITAIN. + + +Perhaps the best way of summing up the results of the present inquiry +will be by considering briefly the main elements of our existing life +and our actual empire which we owe to the Anglo-Saxon nationality. We +may most easily glance at them under the five separate heads of blood, +character, language, civilisation, and institutions. + +In _blood_, it is probable that the importance of the Anglo-Saxon +element has been generally over-estimated. It has been too usual to +speak of England as though it were synonymous with Britain, and to +overlook the numerical strength of the Celtic population in Scotland, +Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland. It has been too usual, also, to neglect +the considerable Danish, Norwegian, and Norman element, which, though +belonging to the same Low German and Scandinavian stock, yet differs in +some important particulars from the Anglo-Saxon. But we have seen reason +to conclude that even in the most purely Teutonic region of Britain, the +district between Forth and Southampton Water, a considerable proportion +of the people were of Celtic or pre-Celtic descent, from the very first +age of English settlement. This conclusion is borne out both by the +physical traits of the peasantry and the nature of the early remains. In +the western half of South Britain, from Clyde to Cornwall, the +proportion of Anglo-Saxon blood has probably always been far smaller. +The Norman conquerors themselves were of mixed Scandinavian, Gaulish, +and Breton descent. Throughout the middle ages, the more Teutonic half +of Britain--the southern and eastern tract--was undoubtedly the most +important: and the English, mixed with Scandinavians from Denmark or +Normandy, formed the ruling caste. Up to the days of Elizabeth, Teutonic +Britain led the van in civilisation, population, and commerce. But since +the age of the Tudors, it seems probable, as Dr. Rolleston and others +have shown, that the Celtic element has largely reasserted itself. A +return wave of Celts has inundated the Teutonic region. Scottish +Highlanders have poured into Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London: Welshmen +have poured into Liverpool, Manchester, and all the great towns of +England: Irishmen have poured into every part of the British dominions. +During the middle ages, the Teutonic portion of Britain was by far the +most densely populated; but at the present day, the almost complete +restriction of coal to the Celtic or semi-Celtic area has aggregated the +greatest masses of population in the west and north. If we take into +consideration the probable large substratum of Celts or earlier races in +the Teutonic counties, the wide area of the undoubted Celtic region +which pours forth a constant stream of emigrants towards the Teutonic +tract, the change of importance between south-east and north-west, since +the industrial development of the coal country, and the more rapid rate +of increase among the Celts, it becomes highly probable that not +one-half the population of the British Isles is really of Teutonic +descent. Moreover, it must be remembered that, whatever may have been +the case in the primitive Anglo-Saxon period, intermarriages between +Celts and Teutons have been common for at least four centuries past; and +that therefore almost all Englishmen at the present day possess at least +a fraction of Celtic blood. + +"The people," says Professor Huxley, "are vastly less Teutonic than +their language." It is not likely that any absolutely pure-blooded +Anglo-Saxons now exist in our midst at all, except perhaps among the +farmer class in the most Teutonic and agricultural shires: and even this +exception is extremely doubtful. Persons bearing the most obviously +Celtic names--Welsh, Cornish, Irish, or Highland Scots--are to be found +in all our large towns, and scattered up and down through the country +districts. Hence we may conclude with great probability that the +Anglo-Saxon blood has long since been everywhere diluted by a strong +Celtic intermixture. Even in the earliest times and in the most Teutonic +counties, many serfs of non-Teutonic race existed from the very +beginning: their masters have ere now mixed with other non-Teutonic +families elsewhere, till even the restricted English people at the +present day can hardly claim to be much more than half Anglo-Saxon. Nor +do the Teutons now even retain their position as a ruling caste. Mixed +Celts in England itself have long since risen to many high places. +Leading families of Welsh, Cornish, Scotch, and Irish blood have also +been admitted into the peerage of the United Kingdom, and form a large +proportion of the House of Commons, of the official world, and of the +governing class in India, the Colonies, and the empire generally. These +families have again intermarried with the nobility and gentry of +English, Danish, or Norman extraction, and thus have added their part to +the intricate intermixture of the two races. At the present day, we can +only speak of the British people as Anglo-Saxons in a conventional +sense: so far as blood goes, we need hardly hesitate to set them down as +a pretty equal admixture of Teutonic and Celtic elements. + +In _character_, the Anglo-Saxons have bequeathed to us much of the +German solidity, industry, and patience, traits which have been largely +amalgamated with the intellectual quickness and emotional nature of the +Celt, and have thus produced the prevailing English temperament as we +actually know it. To the Anglo-Saxon blood we may doubtless attribute +our general sobriety, steadiness, and persistence; our scientific +patience and thoroughness; our political moderation and endurance; our +marked love of individual freedom and impatience of arbitrary restraint. +The Anglo-Saxon was slow to learn, but retentive of what he learnt. On +the other hand, he was unimaginative; and this want of imagination may +be traced in the more Teutonic counties to the present day. But when +these qualities have been counteracted by the Celtic wealth of fancy, +the race has produced the great English literature,--a literature whose +form is wholly Roman, while in matter, its more solid parts doubtless +owe much to the Teuton, and its lighter portions, especially its poetry +and romance, can be definitely traced in great measure to known Celtic +elements. While the Teutonic blood differentiates our somewhat slow and +steady character from the more logical but volatile and unstable Gaul, +the Celtic blood differentiates it from the far slower, heavier, and +less quick or less imaginative Teutons of Germany and Scandinavia. + +In _language_ we owe almost everything to the Anglo-Saxons. The Low +German dialect which they brought with them from Sleswick and Hanover +still remains in all essentials the identical speech employed by +ourselves at the present day. It received a few grammatical forms from +the cognate Scandinavian dialects; it borrowed a few score or so of +words from the Welsh; it adopted a small Latin vocabulary of +ecclesiastical terms from the early missionaries; it took in a +considerable number of Romance elements after the Norman Conquest; it +enriched itself with an immense variety of learned compounds from the +Greek and Latin at the Renaissance period: but all these additions +affected almost exclusively its stock of words, and did not in the least +interfere with its structure or its place in the scientific +classification of languages. The English which we now speak is not in +any sense a Romance tongue. It is the lineal descendant of the English +of AElfred and of Baeda, enlarged in its vocabulary by many words which +they did not use, impoverished by the loss of a few which they employed, +yet still essentially identical in grammar and idiom with the language +of the first Teutonic settlers. Gradually losing its inflexions from the +days of Eadgar onward, it assumed its existing type before the +thirteenth century, and continuously incorporated an immense number of +French and Latin words, which greatly increased its value as an +instrument of thought. But it is important to recollect that the English +tongue has nothing at all to do in its origin with either Welsh or +French. The Teutonic speech of the Anglo-Saxon settlers drove out the +old Celtic speech throughout almost all England and the Scotch Lowlands +before the end of the eleventh century; it drove out the Cornish in the +eighteenth century; and it is now driving out the Welsh, the Erse, and +the Gaelic, under our very eyes. In language at least the British empire +(save of course India) is now almost entirely English, or in other +words, Anglo-Saxon. + +In _civilisation_, on the other hand, we owe comparatively little to the +direct Teutonic influence. The native Anglo-Saxon culture was low, and +even before its transplantation to Britain it had undergone some +modification by mediate mercantile transactions with Rome and the +Mediterranean states. The alphabet, coins, and even a few southern +words, (such as "alms") had already filtered through to the shores of +the Baltic. After the colonisation of Britain, the Anglo-Saxons learnt +something of the higher agriculture from their Romanised serfs, and +adopted, as early as the heathen period, some small portion of the Roman +system, so far as regarded roads, fortifications, and, perhaps +buildings. The Roman towns still stood in their midst, and a fragment, +at least, of the Romanised population still carried on commerce with the +half-Roman Frankish kingdom across the Channel. The re-introduction of +Christianity was at the same time the re-introduction of Roman culture +in its later form. The Latin language and the Mediterranean arts once +more took their place in Britain. The Romanising prelates,--Wilfrith, +Theodore, Dunstan,--were also the leaders of civilisation in their own +times. The Norman Conquest brought England into yet closer connection +with the Continent; and Roman law and Roman arts still more deeply +affected our native culture. Norman artificers supplanted the rude +English handicraftsmen in many cases, and became a dominant class in +towns. The old English literature, and especially the old English +poetry, died utterly out with Piers Plowman; while a new literature, +based upon Romance models, took its origin with Chaucer and the other +Court poets. Celtic-Latin rhyme ousted the genuine Teutonic +alliteration. With the Renaissance, the triumph of the southern culture +was complete. Greek philosophy and Greek science formed the +starting-point for our modern developments. The ecclesiastical revolt +from papal Rome was accompanied by a literary and artistic return to the +models of pagan Rome. The Renaissance was, in fact, the throwing off of +all that was Teutonic and mediaeval, the resumption of progressive +thought and scientific knowledge, at the point where it had been +interrupted by the Germanic inroads of the fifth century. The unjaded +vigour of the German races, indeed, counted for much; and Europe took up +the lost thread of the dying empire with a youthful freshness very +different from the effete listlessness of the Mediterranean culture in +its last stage. Yet it is none the less true that our whole civilisation +is even now the carrying out and completion of the Greek and Roman +culture in new fields and with fresh intellects. We owe little here to +the Anglo-Saxon; we owe everything to the great stream of western +culture, which began in Egypt and Assyria, permeated Greece and the +Archipelago, spread to Italy and the Roman empire, and, finally, now +embraces the whole European and American world. The Teutonic intellect +and the Teutonic character have largely modified the spirit of the +Mediterranean civilisation; but the tools, the instruments, the +processes themselves, are all legacies from a different race. Englishmen +did not invent letters, money, metallurgy, glass, architecture, and +science; they received them all ready-made, from Italy and the AEgean, or +more remotely still from the Euphrates and the Nile. Nor is it necessary +to add that in religion we have no debt to the Anglo-Saxon, our existing +creed being entirely derived through Rome from the Semitic race. + +In _institutions_, once more, the Anglo-Saxon has contributed almost +everything. Our political government, our limited monarchy, our +parliament, our shires, our hundreds, our townships, are considered by +the dominant school of historians to be all Anglo-Saxon in origin. Our +jury is derived from an Anglo-Saxon custom; our nobility and officials +are representatives of Anglo-Saxon earls and reeves. The Teuton, when he +settled in Britain, brought with him the Teutonic organisation in its +entirety. He established it throughout the whole territory which he +occupied or conquered. As the West Saxon over-lordship grew to be the +English kingdom, and as the English kingdom gradually annexed or +coalesced with the Welsh and Cornish principalities, the Scotch and +Irish kingdoms,--the Teutonic system spread over the whole of Britain. +It underwent some little modification at the hands of the Normans, and +more still at those of the Angevins; but, on the whole, it is still a +wide yet natural development of the old Germanic constitution. + +Thus, to sum up in a single sentence, the Anglo-Saxons have contributed +about one-half the blood of Britain, or rather less; but they have +contributed the whole framework of the language, and the whole social +and political organisation; while, on the other hand, they have +contributed hardly any of the civilisation, and none of the religion. We +are now a mixed race, almost equally Celtic and Teutonic by descent; we +speak a purely Teutonic language, with a large admixture of Latin roots +in its vocabulary; we live under Teutonic institutions; we enjoy the +fruits of a Graeco-Roman civilisation; and we possess a Christian +Church, handed down to us directly through Roman sources from a Hebrew +original. To the extent so indicated, and to that extent only, we may +still be justly styled an Anglo-Saxon people. + + + + +INDEX. + + +AElfheah of Canterbury, 168 + +AElfred the West Saxon, 136; + his life, 139; + his death, 140; + his writings, 216 + +AElle of Sussex, 24, 30 + +AEsc the Jute, 29 + +AEthelbald of Mercia, 117 + +AEthelberht of Kent, 85 + +AEthelberht of Wessex, 129 + +AEthelflaed of Mercia, 142 + +AEthelfrith of Northumbria, 53, 62 + +AEthelred of Wessex, 130 + +AEthelred the Unready, 164 + +AEthelstan of Wessex, 144 + +AEthelwulf of Wessex, 124 + +Aidan of Lindisfarne, 95 + +Akerman, Mr., on survival of Celts, 59 + +Anderida, 30, 41 + +Anglo-Saxons, 8; + their religion, 16; + language, 174 + +Architecture, 155 + +Aryans, 1 + +Augustine, St., of Canterbury, arrives in England, 85; + colloquy with Welsh bishops, 93 + + +Baeda, 61; + his life, 109; + his writings, 213, and _passim_ + +Bamborough built, 34; + princes of, 134, 144 + +Bayeux, Saxon settlement at, 22 + +Benedict Biscop, 109 + +Beowulf, 185, 206, and _passim_ + +Bercta, queen of Kentmen, 85 + +Bernicia settled, 34; + coalesces with Deira, 35 + +Boulogne, Saxon settlement at, 22 + +Brunanburh, battle of, 145 + ballad on, 204, 218 + +Burhred of Mercia, 131 + + +Cadwalla, 92, 94 + +Caedmon the poet, 103; + his epic, 209 + +Cerdic the Briton, 31, 67 + +Cerdic the West Saxon, 24, 31 + +Chester, battle of, 58 + +Chronicle, English, 63; + its origin and nature, 216; + quoted, _passim_ + +Clans, 8, 43; + meanings of their names, 80; + occurrence in different shires, 81 + +Cnut, 169 + +Coifi the priest, 89 + +Count of the Saxon Shore, 22 + +Cuthberht of Lindisfarne, 97 + +Cuthwine of Wessex, 51 + +Cuthwulf of Wessex, 50 + +Cynewulf the poet, 214 + +Cynewulf of Wessex, 119 + + +Danish invasions, 123 _et seq._ + +Dawkins, Prof. Boyd, 2 + +Deira settled, 34 + +Deorham, battle of, 51 + +Dunstan, 147 + + +Eadgar of Wessex, 147 + +Eadmund of East Anglia, 130 + +Eadward (the Elder), 141 + +Eadward (the Confessor), 170 + +Eadwine of Northumbria, 63; + converted, 88 + +East Anglia colonised, 36; + conquered by Danes, 130 + +Ecgberht of Wessex, 120 + +Elmet, 35; + conquered by English, 67 + +English (or Anglians), 5; + their language, _see_ Anglo-Saxons + +English Chronicle, _see_ Chronicle, English + +Essex colonised, 36 + + +Felix converts East Anglia, 96 + +Freeman, Dr. E.A., 57, 64, 65, 69, and _passim_ + +Frisians, 5; + as slave merchants, 75; + ships, 123; + employed by AElfred, 139 + + +Germanic race, 4 + +Gewissas, 37 + +Gildas, 28, 47; + his book, 60 + +Gregory the Great sends mission to England, 85 + +Grimm's Law, 175 + +Guthrum the Dane, 137 + +Gyrwas, 49 + + +Haesten the pirate, 138, 141 + +Harold, 170 + +Hastings, battle of, 171 + +Heathendom, 16, 71 + +Hengest, 28 + +Horsa, 28 + +Huxley, Prof., on English Ethnography, 5 + +Hyring, king of Bernicia, 33 + + +Ida of Northumbria, 25, 32; + his pedigree, 46 + +Iona, 93 + + +Jutes, 5; + settle in Kent, 23, 28; + in the Isle of Wight, 24, 37; + in Northumbria, 32 + + +Kemble, on British in towns, 65; + on Celtic personal names in England, 66 + +Kent, settled by Jutes, 23, 28; + converted, 85 + + +Lincolnshire colonised, 35; + converted, 91 + +Lindisfarne, 95 + +Loidis, 35 + +London, 37, 158 + +Lothian, originally English, 35; + unconquered by Danes, 135; + granted to king of Scots, 149 + +Low Germans, 5; + their language, 176 + + +Marriage in heathen times, 74, 81 + +Meonwaras, 37 + +Mercia colonised, 49; + its rise under Penda, 92; + its supremacy, 117; + conquered by Wessex, 122; + by the Danes, 131 + +Monasteries, 102 + + +Nennius, 32, 67 + +Nithard, 9 + +Northumbria settled, 32; + converted, 88; + conquered by Danes, 130 + +Notitia Imperii, 22 + + +Offa of Mercia, 117; + his dyke, 118 + +Oswald of Northumbria, 94 + +Oswiu of Northumbria, 95 + + +Palgrave, Sir F., 66 + +Paulinus, 88 + +Penda of Mercia, 91, 94 + +Phillips, Prof., on Celtic blood in Yorkshire, 57 + +Port, mythical hero, 31 + + +Rolleston, Prof., on Anglo-Saxon barrows, 25; + on survival of Celts, 59 + +Ruim, old name of Thanet, 23 + +Runes, 97 + + +Salisbury conquered by English, 50 + +Saxons, 5; + English, so called by Celtic races, 21; + settle in Sussex, 24; + in Essex, 36; + in Wessex, 37 + +Saxons, Old, 7; + their constitution, 9 + +Ships of bronze age, 19; + of iron age, 20; + king AElfred's, 139 + +Stubbs, Rev. Canon, 120, and _passim_ + +Sussex settled, 24, 29 + +Swegen, 165 + + +Taylor, Rev. Isaac, on Hundreds, 68 + +Teutonic race, 4 + +Thanet, 23 + +Theodore of Canterbury, 107 + +Thunor, 16; + his worship, 77 + +Towns, 157 + +Totemism, 79 + + +Vortigern, 28 + + +Wessex settled, 24, 31 + +Whitby, synod of, 97; + abbey at, 103 + +Wight, settled by Jutes, 23 + +Wihtgar, 31 + +Wilfrith of York, 97, 105, 108 + +Winchester, 37, 158 + +Winwidfield, 96 + +Woden, 16, 46; + his worship, 76 + + + +THE END. + + + * * * * * + +WYMAN AND SONS, PRINTERS, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LONDON, W.C. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Early Britain, by Grant Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EARLY BRITAIN *** + +***** This file should be named 16790.txt or 16790.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/9/16790/ + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Annika Feilbach and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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