1. GERMAN LITERATURE AND ITS DIVISIONS.--Central Europe, from the Adriatic
to the Baltic, is occupied by a people who, however politically divided as
respects language and race, form but one nation. The name _Germans_ is
that given to them by the Romans; the appellation which they apply to
themselves is _Deutsch_, a term derived from _Teutones_, by which they
were generally known, as also by the term Goths, in the early history of
Europe.
In glancing at the various phases of German literature, we see the bards
at first uttering in primitive strains their war songs and traditions. The
introduction of Christianity brought with it the cultivation of the
classic languages, although the people had no part in this learned
literature, which was confined to the monasteries and schools. In the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, letters, so long monopolized by the
clergy, passed from their hands to those of the princes and nobles; and in
the next century the songs of the minnesingers gave way to the pedantic
craft of the mastersingers.
A great intellectual regeneration followed the Reformation, but it was of
brief duration. With the death of Luther and Melanchthon the lofty spirit
of reform degenerated into scholasticism, and the scholars were as
exclusive in their dispensation of intellectual light as the clergy had
been at an earlier period. While the priests, the minstrels, and the
bookmen had each enlarged the avenues to knowledge, they were still closed
and locked to the masses of the people; and so they remained, until
philosophy arose to break down all barriers and to throw open to humanity
at large the whole domain of knowledge and literature.
In the midst of the convulsions which marked the close of the eighteenth
century, the leading minds of Germany sought a solution of the great
problems of civilization in the abysses of philosophy. Kant and his
compeers gave an electric impulse to the German mind, the effects of which
were manifest in the men who soon arose to apply the new discoveries of
philosophy to literature. In Lessing, Herder, Goethe, and Schiller, the
clergy, the minstrels, and the bookmen were each represented, but
philosophy had breathed into them an all-embracing, cosmical spirit of
humanity, and under their influence German literature soon lost its
exclusive and sectional character, and became cosmopolitan and universal.
The long cycle of literary experiments, however, is not yet completed.
Since the philosophers have accomplished their mission by establishing
principles, and the poets have made themselves intelligible to the masses,
the German mind has entered upon the exploration of all spheres of
learning, and is making new and great advances in the solution of the
problems of humanity. The most eminent scholars, no longer pursuing their
studies as a matter of art or taste, are inspired by the noble desire of
diffusing knowledge and benefiting their fellow-beings; and to grapple
with the laws of nature, and to secure those conditions best adapted to
the highest human welfare, are their leading aims. The German explorers of
the universe have created a new school of natural philosophers; German
historians are sifting the records of the past and bringing forth great
political, social, and scientific revelations. In geography, ethnology,
philology, and in all branches of science, men of powerful minds are at
work, carrying the same enthusiasm into the world of fact that the poets
have shown in the fairy-land of the imagination. To these earnest
questioners, these untiring explorers, nature is reluctantly unveiling her
mysteries, and history is giving up the buried secrets of the ages. The
lyre of the bard may be silent for a time, but this mighty struggle with
the forces of nature and with the obscurities of the past will at last
inspire a new race of poets and open a new vein of poetry, far more rich
than the world of fancy has ever afforded. Science, regarded from this
lofty point of view, will gradually assume epic proportions, and other and
more powerful Schillers and Goethes will arise to illustrate its
achievements.
The history of German literature may be divided into three periods.
The first, extending from the earliest times to the beginning of the
Reformation, 1517, embraces the early literature; that of the reign of
Charlemagne and his successors; that of the Suabian age (1138-1272), and
of the first centuries of the reign of the House of Hapsburg.
The second period, extending from 1517 to 1700, includes the literature of
the age of the Reformation, and of the Thirty Years' War.
The third period, from 1700 to the present time, contains the development
of German literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
2. THE MYTHOLOGY.--The German mythology is almost identical with the
Scandinavian, and in it, as in all the legends of the North, women play an
important part. Indeed, they occupied a far higher position among these
ancient barbarians than in the polished nations of Greece and Rome. "It is
believed," says Tacitus, "that there is something holy and prophetic about
them, and therefore the warriors neither despise their counsels nor
disregard their responses."
The Paganism of the North, less graceful and beautiful than that of
Greece, had still the same tendency to people earth, air, and water with
beings of its own creation. The rivers had their Undines, the ocean its
Nixes, the caverns their Gnomes, and the woods their Sprites. Christianity
did not deny the existence of these supernatural races, but it invested
them with a demoniac character. They were not regarded as immortal,
although permitted to attain an age far beyond that granted to mankind,
and they were denied the hope of salvation, unless purchased by a union
with creatures of an earthly mould.
According to the Edda, the Dwarfs were formed by Odin from the dust. They
were either _Cobolds_--house spirits who attach themselves to the fortunes
of the family, and, if well fed and treated, nestle beside the domestic
hearth--or Gnomes, who haunt deserted mansions and deep caverns. The
mountain echoes are the mingled sounds of their voices as they mock the
cries of the wanderer, and the fissures of the rocks are the entrances to
their subterranean abodes. Here they have heaped up countless treasures of
gold, silver, and precious stones, and here they pass their time in
fabricating costly armor. The German Elves, like those of other climes,
have an irresistible propensity to dance and song, especially the Nixes,
who, rising from their river or ocean home, will seat themselves on the
shore and pour forth such sweet music as to enchant all who hear them, and
are ever ready to impart their wondrous skill for the hope or promise of
salvation. To secure this, they also lure young maidens to their watery
domains, and force or persuade them to become their brides. If they
submit, they are allowed to sit on the rocks and wreathe their tresses
with corals, sea-weeds, and shells; but if they manifest any desire to
return to their homes, a streak of blood on the surface of the waters
tells the dark story of their doom.
The Walkyres are the youthful maidens who have died upon their bridal eve,
and who, unable to rest in their graves, return to earth and dance in the
silver rays of the moon; but if a mortal chances to meet them, they
surround and draw him within their magic ring, till, faint and exhausted,
he falls lifeless to the earth. Not less dangerous are the river-maids,
who, rising to the surface of the stream, lure the unwary traveler into
the depths below. There are also the White Women, who often appear at dawn
or evening, with their pale faces and shadowy forms; these are the
goddesses of ancient Paganism, condemned to wander through ages to expiate
the guilt of having received divine worship, and to suffer eternal
punishment if not redeemed by mortal aid. Among the goddesses who, in the
form of White Women, were long believed to exercise an influence for good
or ill on human affairs, Hertha and Frigga play the most conspicuous
parts, and figure in many wild legends; proving how strong was the hold
which the creed of their ancestors had on the minds of the Germans long
after its idols had been broken and its shrines destroyed. Hertha still
cherished the same beneficent disposition ascribed to her in the old
mythology, and continued to watch over and aid mankind until driven away
by the calumnies of which she was the victim, while Frigga appears as a
fearful ogress and sorceress.
These popular superstitions, which retained their power over the minds of
the people during the Middle Ages, and which even now are not wholly
eradicated, have furnished a rich mine from which the poets and tale-
writers of Germany have derived that element of the supernatural by which
they are so often characterized.
3. THE LANGUAGE.--The Teutonic languages, which belong to the Indo-
European stock, consist of two branches; the Northern or Scandinavian, and
the Southern or German of the continent. The latter has three
subdivisions; the Eastern or Gothic, with its kindred idioms, the high
German or German proper,--the literary idiom of Germany,--and the low
German, which includes the Frisian, old Saxon, Anglo-Saxon, Dutch, and
Flemish. The high German, or German proper, comprehends the language of
three periods: the old high German, which prevailed from the seventh to
the eleventh century; the middle high German, from the eleventh century to
the time of the Reformation; and the new high German, which dates from the
time of Luther, and is the present literary language of the country.
No modern language equals the German in its productiveness and its
capacity of constant and homogeneous growth, in its aesthetical and
philosophical character, and in its originality and independence. Instead
of borrowing from the Greek, Latin, and other languages, to find
expressions for new combinations of ideas, it develops its own resources
by manifold compositions of its own roots, words, and particles. To
express one idea in its various modifications, the English requires
Teutonic, Greek, and Latin elements, while the German tongue unfolds all
the varieties of the same idea by a series of compositive words founded
upon one Gothic root. The German language, therefore, while it is far
superior in originality, flexibility, richness, and universality, does not
admit the varieties which distinguish the English.