LITERATURE.
During that period when the Danes were making their conquests and
settlements in the North of England, art and literature did not hold
any high position in Europe. The fall of the Roman Empire gave a shock
to the pursuits of learning which had not recovered when Christian art
was in its infancy. The Northmen early distinguished themselves in the
art of shipbuilding, and also in the manufacture of ornaments, domestic
utensils, and weapons. This taste had arisen from the imitation of the
Roman and Arabesque articles of commerce which they brought up into the
North. Some Scandinavian antiquities have been discovered belonging
to the period called "the age of bronze," and also the later heathen
times, known as "the iron age." The Sagas record that the carving of
images was skilfully practised in the north, and the English Chronicles
provide records of richly carved figures on the bows of Danish and
Norse vessels. The Normans from Denmark who settled in Normandy were
first converted to Christianity, and early displayed the desire to
erect splendid buildings, especially churches and monasteries.
Long before the Norman Conquest, the Danes devoted themselves to
peaceful occupations. Several of the many churches and convents
were erected by Danish princes and chiefs, in the northern parts of
England, which have now been re-built, or disappeared; but their names
survive to distinguish their origin. It has been said that these
early buildings were composed of wood. This is proved from the work
recently issued by Mr. J. Francis Bumpus, in his "Cathedrals of Norway,
Sweden, and Denmark." The touching life story of the martyred Saint
Olaf is there told. A wooden chapel was built over his grave about the
year 1047. This became the centre of the national religion, and the
sanctuary of the national freedom and independence. Trondhjem, says Mr.
Bumpus, is the eloquent expression in stone of Norway's devotion to the
beloved St. Olaf. Despoiled of much of its ornamentation by Protestant
zeal, it retains in the octagon of its noble choir a true architectural
gem, equal in delicate beauty to the Angel Choir of Lincoln.
[Illustration: Example of Danish Carved Wood-work, with Runes, from
Thorpe Church, Hallingdal, Denmark.]
The phrase "skryke of day" is common to South Lancashire, and is the
same as the old English "at day pype," or "peep of day." "There is a
great intimacy," says Dr. Grimm, "between our ideas of light and sound,
of colour and music, and hence we are able to comprehend that rustling,
and that noise, which is ascribed to the rising and setting Sun."
Thomas Kingo, a Danish poet of the seventeenth century, and probably
others of his countrymen, make the rising of the Sun to pipe
(pfeifen), that is to utter a piercing sound.
Tacitus had long before recorded the Swedish superstition, that the
rising Sun made a noise. The form in which our skryke of day has come
down to us is Scandinavian. Grimm says, "Still more express are the
passages which connect the break of day, and blush of the morning, with
ideas of commotion and rustling." Goethe has in "Faust" borrowed from
the Pythagorean and Platonic doctrine of the harmony of the spheres,
and illustrated Grimm's proposition of the union of our ideas of light
and sound by describing the course of the Sun in its effulgence as a
march of thunder. Jonson regarded noise as an essential quality of the
heavenly bodies--
"Come, with our voices let us war,
And challenge all the spheres,
Till each of us be made a star,
And all the world turned ears."
The noise of daybreak may be gathered from the fracture of metal, and
applied to the severance of darkness and light, may well have sound
attributed to it. The old meaning of "peep (or pype) of day" was the
joyful cry which accompanied the birth of light. "Peep," as sound is
most ancient, and a "nest of peepers," that is, of young birds, is now
almost obsolete English. Milton, in "Paradise Lost," shows the setting
Sun to make a noise from its heated chariot axles being quenched in
the Atlantic. Once, at Creation, the morning stars sang for joy; but
afterwards moved in expressive silence.
BALLADS AND WAR SONGS.
As a consequence of the Danish and Norman conquests, a peculiar
composition arose called Anglo-Danish and Anglo-Norman. These
legends and war songs were produced by the Danish wars, and were
the expressions of an adventurous and knightly spirit, which became
prevalent in England. The most celebrated of them were the romances
of "Beowulf," "Havelock, the Dane," and "Guy, Earl of Warwick." In
the older romances of Scandinavian songs and sages, combats against
dragons, serpents, and plagues are celebrated; in later romances of
the age of chivalry, warriors are sung who had fallen in love with
beautiful damsels far above them in birth or rank, and whose hand
they could only acquire by some brilliant adventure or exploit. The
heathen poems of the Scandinavian North are all conceived in the same
spirit, and it is not unreasonable to recognise traces of Scandinavian
influence in English compositions. In later times, even to the middle
ages, this influence is still more apparent in the ballads and popular
songs, which are only to be found in the northern or old Danish parts
of England.
Many parts of the Edda or Sagas have been founded on songs in honour
of the gods and heroes worshipped in Scandinavia.
In Shakespeare's "Hamlet" the young prince is sent to Britain with a
letter carried by his two comrades. But he re-writes the letter and
saves his life.
In the original Amleth legend of Saxo Grammaticus the two companions of
Amleth, carry a wooden rune-carvel. But he cuts away some of the staves
and adds others, so that the letter now tells the British king to slay
the messengers, and to give his daughter in marriage to Amleth.
In the "Historie of Hamlet," London, 1608, we read, "Now to bear him
company were assigned two of Fengons' ministers, bearing letters
engraved on wood, that contained Hamlet's death, in such sort as he
had advertised to the King of England. But the subtle Danish prince,
being at sea, whilst his companions slept, raced out the letters that
concerned his death, and instead thereof graved others."
LAY OF THE NORSE GODS AND HEROES.
Step out of the misty veil
Which darkly winds round thee;
Step out of the olden days,
Thou great Divinity!
Across thy mental vision
Passes the godly host,
That Brugi's melodies
Made Asgard's proudest boast.
There rise the sounds of music
From harp strings sweet and clear,
Wonderfully enchanting
To the receiving ear.
Thou wast it, thou hast carried
Sagas of Northern fame,
Didst boldly strike the harp strings
Of old Skalds; just the same
Thou span'st the bridge of Birfrost,
The pathway of the Gods:
O name the mighty heroes,
Draw pictures of the Gods!
These fairy tales of the giants, dwarfs, and heroes, are not senseless
stories written for the amusement of the idle; but they contain the
deep faith or religion of our forefathers, which roused them to brave
actions, and inspired them with strength and courage. These Sagas
existed for over four hundred years, until they exchanged their
hero-god for St. Martin, and their Thumar, for St. Peter or St. Oswald,
when their glory in Scandinavia fell before the preaching of the Cross.
ART.
[Illustration: Bractaetes.]
Previous to their conquest of England, the Danes are said to have been
unacquainted with the art of coining money. They are said to have
imitated the Byzantine coins, by making the so-called "Bractaetes,"
which were stamped only on the one side, and were mostly used as
ornaments. The art of coinage was very ancient in England. It
was the custom of the Anglo-Saxon coiners to put their names on the
coins which they struck. In the eighth and ninth centuries the names
of the coiners are purely Anglo-Saxon. But in the tenth century, and
especially after the year 950, pure Danish or Scandinavian names begin
to appear; for instance, Thurmo, Grim, under King Edgar (959-975), and
Rafn, Thurstan, under King Edward (975-978); also Ingolf, Hargrim, and
others.
These Scandinavian names are mostly found in the coins minted in the
North of England, or in districts which were early occupied by the
Danes. Under King Ethelred II., who contended so long with Canute the
Great before the Danish conquest of England was completed, the number
of Scandinavian coiners arose rapidly, with the Danish power, and the
names of forty or fifty may be found on the coins of Ethelred alone.
Even after the fall of the Danish power, they are to be met with in
almost the same number as before on the coins of the Anglo-Saxon
King, Edward the Confessor. These coins prove much and justify us in
inferring a long continued coinage.
* * * * *
The great hoard of silver coins found at Cuerdale in 1840, some two
miles above Preston, were buried in a leaden chest, near an ancient
ford of the river Ribble. This treasure composed the war chest of
the Danish army, which was defeated at this ford early in the tenth
century, on its retreat into Northumbria. It contained nearly one
thousand English coins of Alfred the Great, and some forty-five of
Edward the Elder. The latest date of any of these coins being of the
latter reign, the date of the hoard being buried may be fixed between
the years 900 and 925. Many of the coins were continental, belonging
to the coast of Western France, and from the district round the mouth
of the river Seine. The appearance of this money agrees with the early
records of the Saxon Chronicle, that of the year 897, which tells us
that "the Danish army divided, one part went into the Eastern Counties,
and the other into Northumbria, and those who were without money,
procured ships and went southwards over the sea to the Seine."
The other Chronicle of 910 states that, "a great fleet came hither
from the south, from Brittany, and greatly ravaged the Severn, but
there they afterwards nearly all perished." It may be supposed that the
remnant of this band became united with the main Danish army, and would
account for the large proportion of foreign money. The bulk of the
coins were Danish, minted by Danish kings of Northumbria.
[Illustration: Halton Cup.]
[Illustration]
From these circumstances, we may believe, this hoard to have been the
treasure or war chest of this retreating army. This Cuerdale hoard is
by far the largest found in Lancashire; it contained 10,000 silver
coins, and nearly 1,000 ounces of silver ingots. A smaller find,
made at an early date, was the hoard of 300 silver pennies, discovered
in 1611 at Harkirke, which lies on the sea coast between Crosby and
Formby. Of this collection, some 35 coins were engraved at the latter
part of the tenth century.
This engraving shows that these coins were minted by Alfred, Edward the
Elder, and the Danish king Canute, and the ecclesiastical coinages of
York and East Anglia. These coins were buried within a few years of the
deposit at Cuerdale. We have numerous records of other Danish finds.
At Halton Moor, five miles above Lancaster, the discovery was made in
1815 of a silver cup of graceful design, containing 860 silver coins
of Canute, with ornaments, which included a torque of silver wire. Mr.
J. Coombe, of the British Museum, describes the coins as 21 Danish,
and 379 of Canute. The latter being nearly all of one type, having on
the obverse side the Head of the King with Helmet and Sceptre, and on
the reverse a cross, within the inner circle, with amulets in the four
angles.
The silver cup found on Halton Moor contained, in addition to the
coins of Canute, a silver torque, which had been squeezed into the
vessel. Both these silver articles are highly decorated and of great
interest. The cup weighed over ten ounces, and was composed of metal
containing three parts silver with one part copper. It appeared to
have been gilt originally, some of the gold still remaining, which
was of very pale colour. The ornamentation consisted of four circular
compartments, divided by branches which terminated in the heads of
animals, in Arabesque style. In these compartments are a panther and
a butting bull alternately. This ornament is included inside two
beautiful borders, which encircle the cup in parallel lines. The torque
is of equal interest, and is a peculiar example of Danish wire-work
metal rings, twisted and plated, with the ends beaten together for a
double fastening. The face of this portion of the necklace, which is
flattened, was decorated with small triangular pieces fixed by curious
rivets. It was of pure silver and weighed six ounces six penny-weights.
Along with these deposits were some gold pieces, struck on one side
only, with a rough outline of a human head. Similar pieces have been
found in Denmark, and the Danish element is predominant in the whole
decoration.
THE VIKING AGE.
Before the Normans came our district was Scandinavian. From the year
876 they began to settle and behaved not as raiders but as colonists.
They wanted homes and settled quietly down.
In the course of 200 years their descendants became leading landowners,
as we see from the Norse names of the 12th century records.
Naturally the art of the district must have been influenced by such
people: especially by the Scandinavians who had lived in Ireland, till
then a very artistic country. Whether Irish taught Norse or _vice
versa_, we see that there was a quantity of artistic work produced
especially along the seaboard, and we are lucky in having analogies not
far to seek.
In the Isle of Man the earliest series of Crosses have 11th century
runes and figure subjects from the Edda and the Sigurd story which were
late 11th century. Mr. Kermode, F.S.A., Scot., dates them 1050-1150
(Saga book of Viking Club, Vol. I., p. 369). We have them in the
remains in Man a kindred race to ours in the age before the Normans
came: and we find resemblances between these Manx Crosses and some of
ours both in subject and in style. In subjects the 11th century Crosses
of Kirk Andreas, Jurby, and Malew find a parallel at Halton, which Mr.
Calverley places late in 11th century and attributes to people under
strong Scandinavian influence: but Danish as it happens rather than
Norse.
The Halton Crosses are not Norse in style. They are like the late
pre-Norman work in Yorkshire where the Danes lived.
Then the Hogback stones have to be placed. We have fixed the Gosforth
and Plumland examples by their dragonesque work as of the Viking
settlement.
All these have the chain pattern, which Mr. Calverley called the Tree
Yggdrasil or Tree of Existence, which shows that these monuments are of
Viking origin.
From what models or pattern did these early sculptors copy their
designs? It is sometimes said that they imitated MSS.: assuming that
MSS. were fairly common and placed in the stone carver's hands. This is
far less likely than that sculptors, at a distance from good models in
stone, copied patterns from metal work which were the most portable,
and most accessible of all forms of art, in the days before printing
was invented.
Suppose, to make it plainer, the sorrowing survivor bids the British
workman carve a Cross for the dead. "What like shall I work it?" says
the mason. "Like the fair Crosses of England or Ireland, a knot above,
and a knot below, and so forth." "But," says the mason, and he might
say it in the 10th century, "I have never been in England or Ireland
or seen your Crosses." Then answers the patron, "Make it like this
swordhilt." (Calverley.)
The earlier Irish Christians were highly intellectual and literary, but
not at first artistic. Literature in all races precedes art; it would
be contrary to all historical analogy if Patrick and Columba had lived
in the artistic atmosphere of the eighth and ninth century in Ireland.
Patrick's bell is no great credit to Assicus his coppersmith: his
crosier was a plain stick. There is no indication in our remains that
Irish missionaries of the seventh century brought a single art idea
into the country. It was the Irish Viking Christians of the twelfth
century who did.
Mr. George Stephens, in his "Old Northern Runic Monuments of
Scandinavia and England," vol. iii., under the heading "Runic Remains
and Runic Writings," says:--
"I believe these stones, however altered and conventionalised, were
all originally made for worship as gods or fetishes, elfstones, or
what not, but in fact, at first as phallic symbols, the Zinga and the
Zoni, creation and preservation, placed on the tumulus as triumphant
emblems of Light out of Darkness, Life after Death. And the _priapus_
and _cups_ sometimes seen on burial-urns, must have the same meaning.
Several of the grave minnes bearing old Norse runes were worship
stones, carved with regular cups, etc., _ages before_ they were used a
second time for funereal purposes."
Prof. J. F. Simpson, M.D., Edinburgh, has a paper "On the Cup Cuttings
and Ring Cuttings on the Calder Stones near Liverpool," in the
Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol.
xvii., 1865, in which he states that--
"The Calder Stones near Liverpool afford an interesting and remarkable
example of these cup and ring carvings upon this variety of
stones--or, in words, upon the stones of a small megalithic circle.
Some of the Calder Stones afford ample evidence of modern chiselling
as marked by the sharpness and outray figurings. But in addition to
these there are cut upon them, though in some parts greatly faded
away, sculpturings of cups and concentric rings similar to those found
in various parts of England and Scotland, remarkable for not only
their archaic carvings, perfect and entire similarity to those found
elsewhere, but still more from the fact that we have here presented
upon a single circle almost every known and recognised type of these
cuttings.
The Calder circle is about six yards in diameter, consists of five
stones which are still upright and one that is fallen. The stones
consists of slabs and blocks of red sandstone, all different in size
and shape. The fallen stone is small, and shows nothing on its exposed
side, but possibly if turned over some markings might be discovered on
its other surface. Of the five standing stones the largest of the set,
No. 1, is a sandstone slab between 576 feet in height and in breadth.
On its outer surface, or the surface turned to the exterior of the
circle, there is a flaw above from disintegration and splintering of
the stone: but the remaining portion of the surface presents between
30 and 40 cup depressions varying from 2 to 3 and a half inches in
diameter, and at its lowest and left-hand corner is a concentric
circle about a foot in diameter, consisting of four enlarging rings,
but apparently without any central depression. The opposite surface of
this stone (No. 1) is that directed to the interior of the circle, has
near its centre a cup cut upon it, with the remains of one surrounding
ring. On the right side of this single-ringed cup are the faded remains
of a concentric circle of three rings. To the left of it there is
another three-ringed circle with a central depression, but the upper
portions of the ring are broken off. Above it is a double-ringed cup,
with this peculiarity, that the external ring is a volute leading from
the central cup, and between the outer and inner ring is a fragmentary
line of apparently another volute making a double-ringed spiral which
is common on some Irish stones, as on those of the great archaic
mausoleum at New Grange, but extremely rare in Great Britain. At the
very base of this stone towards the left are two small volutes, one
with a central depression or cup, and the other seemingly without it.
One of these small volutes consists of three turns, the other of two.
The cup and ring cuttings have been discovered in a variety of
relations and positions. Some are sculptured on the surface of rocks
_in situ_--on large stones placed inside and outside the walls of old
British cities and camps, on blocks used in the construction of the
olden dwellings and strongholds of archaic living man, in the interior
of the chambered sepulchres and kistvaens of the archaic dead, on
monoliths and on cromlechs, and repeatedly in Scotland on megalithic or
so-called "Druidical" circles.
The name Calder Stones is derived from Norse Calder or Caldag, the
calf-garth or yard enclosed to protect young cattle from straying.
NORSE AND DANISH GRAVE MOUNDS.
Amongst the ancient monuments of Britain the well-known remains called
Druidical Circles hold a foremost place, though their use, and the
people by whom they were erected, are questions which still remain
matters of dispute. The Stone enclosures of Denmark, which resemble the
Circles of Cumbria in many respects, mainly differ from them, in that
they are found in connection with burial chambers, whilst the latter
are generally situated on the flat surface of moors, with nothing
to indicate that they have ever been used for sepulchural purposes.
Therefore wherever no urns or other remains have been found, we have
negative evidence that the place was not intended for a place of
sepulture.
[Illustration: CALDER STONE No 1
OUTER SURFACE.]
[Illustration: INNER SURFACE.]
Cairns which are the most undisputed form of a Celtic burial place
were once very numerous in the northern districts: but a great many
have long since been removed. The graves of Norway bear an outward
resemblance to the Celtic Cairn, but the main cause appears to be
that in mountainous countries stones are more easily procurable than
earth. Where a doubt exists as to the proprietorship of these mounds,
the only means of deciding is by an examination of the interior. The
Norse Cairn should enclose a stone chest or wooden chamber and iron
weapons. The Norwegians burned the body until about their conversion to
Christianity.
[Illustration: CALDER STONE No 2.
OUTER ASPECT, TWO SIDES.]
[Illustration: INNER SIDE.]
[Illustration: CALDER STONE No 3.
OUTER ASPECT TWO SIDES.]
[Illustration: INNER SIDE]
Tumuli or barrows still remain in great numbers. As far as records
have been kept of those removed, nearly all must be claimed for the
Bronze age, and the main part of those yet standing are essentially of
a Danish character. In the description of this class of graves, we have
no actual mention of iron antiquities.
The Cairn called Mill Hill, Westmoreland, appears to have been a Celtic
burial place, whilst Loden How was more probably Danish than Norse.
Four different names are found in connection with sepulchres of this
kind, viz., "how, raise, barrow, and hill," but the distinction is
principally that of age, and the order of the words as here placed
indicates the period to which each belongs.
Few traces of the Iron age can be regarded as exclusively Norwegian
wherever the body has been burned. Ormstead, near Penrith, was possibly
a Norse burial place; while Thulbarrow, in the same neighbourhood, was
in all probability Danish.
Memorial stones still remain in considerable numbers, the most
remarkable of which is the Nine Standards in Westmoreland. Several
villages called Unthank take their names from Monuments no longer in
existence, the word being in English "onthink," and the phrase "to
think on" is still current in the dialect.
Mythology