9 They felt the presence of the mysterious forces of nature, and deified them in a colossal mythology. Traces of their religion are seen in the names of the days of the week. Wednesday is Woden's day,Thursday is Thor's day, Friday is Frea's day. Eostre, the goddess of dawn and of spring, lends her name to the festival of the Resurrection. With these Teutons the sense of obligation and duty was strong; and having once pledged fidelity to a leader or cause, they remained loyal to death. They honored women and revered virtue. In a word, they possessed a native seriousness, virtue, and strength, which, ennobled by Christianity and refined by culture, raised their descendants to an eminent position among the nations of the earth. 12. Anglo-Saxon Language.- The Anglo-Saxon belongs to the Teutonic branch of the Aryan family, and is closely related, on the one hand, to German, and on the other to Scandinavian. It is an inflected language with four cases. In England it was divided into four dialects, the Northumbrian, the Mercian, the Kentish, and the West Saxon. Most of our Anglo-Saxon remains are in the West Saxon dialect, though it is from the Mercian, which was spoken in central England, that modern English is most directly derived. The Lord's Prayer in Anglo-Saxon, with an interlinear translation, will serve for illustration. Ure Fæder, thu the eart on heofonum, si thin nama gehalgod. Our Father, thou who art in [the] heavens, be thy name hallowed. Tocume thin rice. Geweorthe thin willa on eorthan swa-swa on heofonum. May come thy kingdom. Be thy will on earth as in [the]heavens. Sele us to-dæg urn dæg-hwamlican hlaf. And forgif us ure gyltas And forgive us our guilts læd thu us on costnunge. And not lead thou us into temptation. Give us to-day our daily bread (loaf). swa-swa we fogifath urum gyl-tendum. And ne as we forgive our Ac alys us from yfel. Si but release us from evil. guilty ones. hit swa. Be it so. 13. The Gleeman.- The first literature of a people is poetry. In national as in individual life, the imagination is active during the period of youth. Among the Anglo-Saxons, as among some other nations, narrative poems, before they were reduced to writing, were sung by the wandering glee man,— "A man of celebrity, mindful of rhythms, New word-groups found properly bound." 1 The most pleasing picture that comes to us from the early days of our English forefathers, is that of the scop or gleeman at their feasts. While the stern warriors sit at their long tables and quaff their mead in the large hall hung with shields and armor, and lighted by great blazing logs on the hearth, the rude poet, to the sound of his harp, recounts the deeds of heroes in rhythmical song. 14. Alliterative Character.- The principle of AngloSaxon poetry is not rhyme nor metre, but alliteration. Each line is divided into two parts by a cæsura, and two principal words of the first hemistich, and one of the second, regularly begin with the same consonant. If these principal words begin with vowels, they are different. Parallelism the repetition of the same thought in different words, as in Hebrew poetry is also common. The following extract from "Beowulf" exhibits the Anglo-Saxon alliterative form: "His armor of iron- off him he did then, to his henchman committed, His chased-handled chain-sword,- choicest of weapons, 15. Style and Tone.- The language of Anglo-Saxon poetry is abrupt, elliptical, and highly metaphorical, but often of great energy. The range of ideas is necessarily limited. From what we already know of the life and character of the Angles and Saxons, it is not difficult to understand the spirit of their poetry. Not love, but war and religion form its leading themes. Its prevailing tone, especially of that portion which contains an echo of the continental home of the Angles and Saxons, is one of sadness. The inhospitable climate of northern Germany, and the stern struggle for existence on land 1 Beowulf, XIV. and sea, made life a deeply serious thing. Human agency was felt to be weak in comparison with the great invisible forces of nature. The sense of fate and death weighed heavily on the Anglo-Saxon mind. Thus, in "The Wanderer," a poem of an unknown author, we read: 16. "Earth is enwrapped in the lowering tempest, Fierce on the stone-cliff the storm rushes forth, Here the decrees of the Fates have their sway - Cædmon.-Cadmon, the earliest of English poets, lived in the latter part of the seventh century. He has with justice been called "the Milton of our forefathers"; and his poems are strongly suggestive of "Paradise Lost." He seems to have been a laborer on the lands attached to the monastery of St. Hilda at Whitby, and was advanced in years before his poetical powers were developed. When at festive gatherings it was agreed that all present should sing in turn, Cadmon was accustomed, as the harp approached him, quietly to retire with a humiliating sense of his want of skill. Having left the banqueting hall on one occasion, he went to the stable, where it was his turn to care for the horses. In a vision an angel appeared to him and said: "Cædmon, sing a song to me." He answered: "I cannot sing; for that is the reason why I left the entertainment, and retired to this place." "Nevertheless," said the heavenly visitor, "thou shalt sing." "What shall I sing?" inquired the poet, as he felt the movement of an awakening power. 66 Sing the beginning of created things," said the angel. 17. Paraphrase of Scripture.- His mission was thus assigned him. In the morning the good abbess Hilda, with a company of learned men, witnessed an exhibition of his newly awakened powers; and concluding that heavenly grace had been bestowed upon him, she bade him lay aside his secular habit and received him into the monastery as a monk. Here he led a humble, exemplary life in the exercise of his poetic gifts. "He sang the creation of the world, the origin of man, and all the history of Genesis; and made many verses on the departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt, and their entering into the Land of Promise, with many other histories from Holy Writ . . . by which he endeavored to turn away all men from the love of vice, and to excite in them the love of, and application to, good actions." 1 18. Beowulf. The most important Anglo-Saxon poem that has descended to us is " Beowulf," a primitive epic of some three thousand lines. It was probably composed in its present form in the eighth century, but the events it celebrates are of a much earlier date. It brings before us the spirit and manners of our forefathers, before they left their continental home. The hero of the poem is Beowulf: "Of heroes then living He was the stoutest and strongest, sturdy and noble." Sailing to the land of the Danes, he slew a monster of the fens called Grendel, whose nightly ravages brought dismay into Hrothgar's royal palace. After slaying the fiend of the marshes and his mother beneath the waters, Beowulf, loaded with presents and honors, returned to Sweden, where he became king, and ruled fifty years. But at last, in slaying a firedragon "under the earth, nigh to the sea-wave,' " he was mortally wounded. His body was burned on a lofty funeral pyre amidst the lamentations of his vassals. 19. Interesting Details. Such in brief is the story of this epic of heroic daring and achievement, in which the old Teutonic character is reflected in its fulness. Its details are full of interest. The fierceness of northern seas and skies is brought before us. We assist at mead-hall banquets, in which gracious queens and beautiful maidens hand the ale cup. The 1 Bede, "Ecclesiastical History." loyalty of liegemen is beautifully portrayed. A stern sense of honor prevails among the rude warriors: "Death is more pleasant To every earlman than infamous life is." Their courage is dauntless, and words count for less than actions. Beowulf thus states to the queen the object of his visit: 20. "I purposed in spirit when I mounted the ocean When I boarded my boat with a band of my liegemen, I would work to the fullest the will of your people, Or in foe's-clutches fastened fall in the battle. Deeds I shall do of daring and prowess, Or the last of my life-days live in this mead-hall." Other Poems.- Other Anglo-Saxon poems that deserve mention are The Seafarer," Deor's Complaint,' ""The Fight at Maldon," ""The Battle of Brunanburh," and "Judith." The former deal with the hardships and sorrows of life; the latter breathe the martial spirit of the Teutonic race. Besides these and other secular poems, there is a cycle of religious poetry dating from the eighth or ninth centuries. It was stimulated by the work of Cædmon. "Others after him," says Bede, "tried to make religious poems, but none could vie with him, for he did not learn the art of poetry from men, nor of men, but from God." This religious poetry is usually based on Scripture or on legends of saints. Cynewulf, a Northumbrian poet of the eighth century, was the author of several religious poems of acknowledged excellence, among which are the "Passion of St. Juliana," the Christ," and Elene, or the Finding of the Cross." 21. The Father of English Prose.- Bede may be justly regarded as the father of English prose. From an interesting autobiographical sketch at the close of his "Ecclesiastical History," we learn the leading events in his unpretentious life. He was born in 673, near the monastery of Jarrow in northern England. As pupil, deacon, and priest, he passed his entire life in that monastic institution. The leisure that re |