Christianity; and the poems have been grouped according to the predominance of one or the other. The relation between the two forces is explained by the history of the Teutonic conquest of England, and of the conversion of the conquerors to Christianity. "Of all the German conquests," says Green, "this was the most thorough and complete." On the continent, the conquest proved little more than a forcible settlement . . . . among tributary subjects who were destined in a long course of ages to absorb their conquerors. . . . . But almost to the close of the sixth century the English conquest of Britain was a sheer dispossession of the conquered people; and, so far as the English sword in these earlier days reached, Britain became England, a land, that is, not of Britons, but of Englishmen.' Green perhaps exaggerates the absolute character of the establishment of pure Teutonism; but it is at least certain that the influence of the conquered was less important than in any other Teutonic settlement. On the continent, the Teutonic conquerors were subdued by the culture of the Roman provincials, and in many cases adopted their religion. In England, the Roman civilization, never deep-rooted, did not remain a living force in the midst of the new rulers. They retained their native ideals and motives, and, in a very large degree, their form of society. When Augustine landed in 597 A. D., Christianity thus had to make its appeal to a spirit thoroughly Teutonic in its conceptions; and its introduction was accompanied by no rude assault upon that spirit. Despite the occasional union of political and religious motives in the struggle between rival kings, the conversion was essentially a conversion by persuasion, gradual, conciliatory, and assimilative. The old beliefs long remained side by side with the new, which became modified to minimize their divergence. In the words of Mr. Stopford Brooke The rites and beliefs of either religion took one another's clothing; the people reverted to heathen practices and then back again to Christian in times of trouble; the laws right up to the time of Cnut are still "forbidding heathendom, the worship of heathen gods, of Sun and Moon, 1 The Making of England, p. 135. 2 Undoubtedly Celtic influence was felt in the marches, especially of the later settlements; but during the period before the introduction of Christianity-and this is the point at issue-it was of little importance. 3 Cf. Stubbs, Constitutional History of England, Vol. I, chaps. 1 and 4. rivers and wells, fire, stones and trees." . . . . The long intermingling . . . . of heathenism and Christianity did not exile the captured deities, or utterly destroy the old habits of worship, but took them into service, gave them new names, and clothed them in Christian garments.' The survival of old pagan beliefs unchanged is very rare, though possible examples may be found in the scriptural poems. In descriptions of hell, for example, Teutonic recollections seem to mingle with the Christian terrors. Says Grimm: Niflheimr where Niphöggr and other serpents have their haunt is the dread dwelling-place of the death-goddess Hel; . . . . it is gloomy and black, like her; hence a Nebelheim, cold land of shadows, abode of the departed, but not a place of torment or punishment as in the Christian view.2 Hell includes serpents and terrors of cold in Christ, ll. 1545 ff.: Ac þær se deopa seað dreorje feded, zrundleas ziemeð zaesta on peostre, æled hy mid by ealdan lize and mid þy ezsan forste, frecnum feorhzomum folcum scendeð. Serpents are again mentioned in this connection in Christ, 11. 1251, 1252 (the wicked suffer "wyrma slite | bitrum ceaflum); cold in Christ, 1. 1630 ("caldan clommum"); while the phrase windsele gives a hint of a Teutonic conception in the midst of a very conventional description of hell in the Fallen Angels.3 Such evidence is certainly very slight; and it becomes still less capable of supporting any assertion that pagan beliefs persist directly, when it is recalled that "worms" are included in hell in the gospel of Mark' in the thrice repeated phrase "Ubi vermis eorum non moritur"—to which must almost certainly be attributed the allusions to wyrmas in that thoroughly conventional poem "On the Last Judgment." Even such examples as these are few. The wider influences of paganism merge indistinguishably into those of temperament and ideals. Temperament and ideals, indeed, were of very great 1 Early Eng. Lit., Vol. I, pp. 265 ff. 2 Teutonic Mythology, Stallybrass' translation, Vol. II, p. 800. 3 L. 320; cf. also ll. 135-37. 5 Grein-Walker, Vol. II, no. 6, ll. 157, 168, 210, 211. 49:43, 45, 47. importance in determining the character of the older beliefs themselves, for Teutonic paganism tended strongly to symbolism and typification. Teutonic characteristics in scriptural poems may result either from preservation of the old beliefs; from the application to the new religion of the ideals and motives which helped to shape the old; or from the influence of ideals and motives which, though very important for the earlier Teutonic society, as well as for the AngloSaxon, left little trace on the earlier religion, but were called into prominence by related motives and ideals in Christianity. Vital importance thus attaches to the dominant relations, conceptions, and emotions of Anglo-Saxon society. These may be gathered, in essentials, from the account given by Tacitus, at the end of the first century, of the customs and the structure of society of the Teutonic tribes on the continent; for, according to Green,' "the settlement of the conquerors was nothing less than a transfer of English society in its fullest form to the shores of Britain;"" while the freshness and vigor with which the Teutonic spirit was preserved has already been noticed and explained. In the Germania, the warlike propensities of the tribes are repeatedly emphasized: Si civitas, in qua orti sunt, longa pace et otio torpeat, plerique nobilium adulescentium petunt ultro eas nationes, quae tum bellum aliquod gerunt, quia et ingrata genti quies et facilius inter ancipitia clarescunt magnumque comitatum non nisi vi belloque tueare.3 Nec rubor inter comites adspici. . . . . Magnaque et comitum aemulatio, quibus primus apud principem suum locus, et principum, cui plurimi et acerrimi comites.* Valor and loyalty are the greatest virtues: Cum ventum in aciem, turpe principi virtute vinci, turpe comitatui virtutem principis non adaequare. Iam vero infame in omnem vitam ac probosum superstitem principi suo ex acie recessisse: illum defendere, tueri, sua quoque fortia facta gloriae eius adsignare praecipuum sacramentum est: principes pro victoria pugnant, comites pro principe. 1 Making of England, p. 154. .... 5 2 Cf. Stubbs's more cautious statement: "It is unnecessary to suppose that a migrating family exactly reproduced its old condition; every element of society would expect advancement and expansion. But all allowance being made for this, the framework of the older custom must have been the framework of the new."-Constit. Hist., Vol. I, p. 66. 3 Cap. xiv. 4 Cap. xiii. Cap. xiv. In the chief, liberality is also a necessary virtue.' Feasting, including hard drinking, is a pleasure second only to that of battle.2 "Proditores et transfugae, ignavi et imbelles" are among the worst types of criminal." Scutum reliquisse praecipuum flagitium, nec aut sacris adesse aut concilium inire ignominioso fas; multique superstites bellorum infamiam laqueo finierunt.* The relation between chief and follower is thus of the greatest importance. Very important also, and frequently associated with it, is the bond of the family. Quanto plus propinquorum, quanto maior adfinium numerus, tanto gratiosior senectus. Suscipere tam inimicitias seu patris seu propinqui quam amicitias necesse est." I have quoted at some length because these characteristics furnish the key to many Anglo-Saxon conceptions. In England, as on the continent, the warrior was the social unit; and the organization of the tribes, later to form a nation, developed from the relations of the family and of the warrior to his chief. As the office of king grew in importance under the circumstances of the conquest, a relation developed between king and ealdormen similar to that existing between ealdorman and followers, while still closer ties of personal allegiance bound the king's thanes to him. Other modifications also took place; the distaste for tillage and the work of cultivation noticed by Tacitus diminished; and, more important, the activity by sea, which was characteristic especially of the old Saxons, was almost abandoned. The sea gradually comes to be regarded with dread rather than with the daring and affectionate familiarity of the old rovers--a change noticeable on contrasting the Seafarer or the Wanderer, or the sea-passages in Guthlac and Andreas, with those in Beowulf." This change, however, is interesting chiefly in relation to the Anglo-Saxon view of nature; for the same relation of follower and chief, the same ideals of 1 Cap. xiv. 2 Caps. xv, xxii. 3 Cap. xii. 4 Cap. vi. 5 Cap. xx. 6 Cap. xxi. 7Cf. Green, Making of England, pp. 179, 180. 8 Tacitus mentions this quality only in the case of the Suiones, and there without emphasis; but with the exceptions of the Frisii and the Cimbri, the other tribes described in the Germania dwelt inland. The sea-daring of the Saxons is, however, vividly recorded in a letter of Sidonius Apollinaris (Ep., viii, 6), quoted by Green, Making of England, p. 16. 9 Cf. Mr. Stopford Brooke's Early Eng. Lit., Vol. I, chap. 10. bravery and loyalty, governed the warrior by sea and by land. And whatever other modifications might follow the settlement, the warrior conception of the individual and of society was not likely to lose its hold among a people constantly stirred up to battle.' The motives and conceptions of the earliest Anglo-Saxon poetry correspond very closely to those mentioned by Tacitus." Beowulf himself leaves home to seek the rumored adventure, and Hrothgar welcomes him and rewards him liberally. Beowulf realizes the ideals sketched in the Germania of leader, thane, and king alike. Wiglaf expresses the spirit noted by Tacitus almost in parallel phrases: Me is micle leofre, þæt minne lic-haman mid minne zold-3yfan zled fæðmiæ. Ne dynced me zerysne, þat we rondas beren eft to earde, nemne we æror maezen fane zefyllan, feorh ealzian Wedra diodnes.3 And again: Dead bip sella eorla zehwylcum ponne edwit-lif.* The same spirit breathes also in the song of Byrhtnoth's death at the Battle of Maldon in 991-at the close of the period of Anglo-Saxon poetry proper. Þa wearð afeallen paes folces ealdor, hi woldon pa ealle oder tweza lif forlætan odde leofne zewrecan.5 1"The world of these men was in fact a world of warfare; tribe warred with tribe, and village with village; even within the village itself feuds parted household from household, and passions of hatred and envy were handed on from father to son. To live at all, indeed, in this early world, it was needful, if not to fight, at any rate to be ready to fight.. The very form of the people was wholly military."-Green, Making of England, pp. 171, 172. 2 The evidence of vocabulary shows that Old Teutonic poetry generally preserved the direction of thought and feeling indicated in the Germania. Meyer, adopting Liliencron's theory that frequency of variation depends on the importance to poetry of the idea expressed, names as the three ideas most frequently varied in Old Teutonic poetry, "king," "treasure," and "battle."—Altgermanische Poesie, cap. ii, § 1. 3 Beowulf, 11. 2651 ff. 5 Grein-Walker, Vol. I, no. 16, 11. 202 ff. 4 Ibid., 1. 2890. |