iron, etc.--our present splendid civilization, in the course of a
few thousand years, will disappear; leaving here and there, perhaps,
in some happy isle of the Pacific seas, a prosperous and cultivated
population descended from some surviving element of the present
American stock. Peering painfully through the mists of tradition, they
have vague glimpses of ancestral races fighting for supremacy in a
vast continental war--the Yenghees in the North and the Dixees in the
South--remote ancestral races in internecine conflict.
It was thus with the Teutonic and Scandinavian races of to-day. In
far-off Central Asia, beyond the Caspian Sea and beyond the definite
historic boundaries of the past, they see great races in perpetual
movement of migration or war; multitudinous peoples; two distinct
groups or divisions; but all of one race. As they emerge into the
twilight of history--into the savage gloaming betwixt the dog and
the wolf--the observer recognizes two races, the Teutones and the
Gothones, or Goths. The vast migratory columns of the former take
possession of Central Europe. The other column,--the kindred Gothones
or Goths,--making its exit from Central Asia, sweeps along the valley
of the Vistula, follows the southern shores of the Baltic Sea, and
moving to the mouths of the Elbe and the Rhine directs its columns
of colonization into Denmark and the Danish Islands, and to the vast
Scandinavian peninsula of the north. As the northern column loitered
along the shores of the Baltic they gathered great quantities of amber
from the sea, which with early instincts of commercial thrift they sold
to the Teutones on the south, by whom, with early mechanic aptitude, it
was wrought into many exquisite and profitable shapes for the markets
of the world. "Made in Germany" is an antique trademark in the history
of men, and there is a pleasant, if trivial, significance in the
circumstance that the first historic article of traffic between these
primitive races--the founders of modern civilization--was the substance
which first manifested the property of "electricity" to the eyes of
man.
But in pursuing this inquiry we are less concerned in ascertaining
the exact relations of the ancestral kinsmen than in studying the
ethnic material (in this instance the Scandinavian) which was molded
or modified by the geographical _milieu_. What was the moral geography
of the race? Why should the Norseman differ from his kindred Teuton in
the South? There may have been original differences in the psychology
of race which made one, for example, an explorer and trader, and the
other an unrivaled artisan and exploiter. But there is something to
be considered in the plastic influence of the physical and social
conditions. It is no melodramatic assumption, for example, to declare
that no slave could live in the free air of Scandinavia. Not because
the air is "free," but because the soil is thin. The slave could not
subsist himself, much less pay tribute to a lord. If slavery or serfage
was impossible, a nobility was equally so. Where subsistence was scant,
accumulation was at least slow. Wealth could not exist as a basis of
privilege, and class legislation upon primogeniture gave support to
this natural law. The "five" and "fifty" acre holdings could not be
consolidated into big estates. The rocky ridges, the high levels, the
nipping airs, the thin, worn soil, the short seasons, and the fleeting
harvests were conditions fatal to the growth of feudalism. Retainers
were superfluous where slaves could not make their keep. Fish from the
sea, a little pasturage in the glens--that was all. No smiling abundant
harvests; no patient laborious thralls, no baronial _bas_ or boss; none
of those iron Teutonic laws that not only shaped the conditions of
society but wrought changes in the very soul of man. The Scandinavians
were not Germans or Saxons or Angles or Celts. This rocky Scandinavian
peninsula was cradling the masters of the world. They were literally
driven by their wild, arid nurse to follow the furrows of the sea and
recast the corrupted civilizations of the earth. Between the sheltering
group of islands that fringe the western front of Norway and curtain
the main shore, there is a broad passage of the sea where a navy of
dragon-prows might float secure from observation or attack. Near the
center of this insular barrier, Rolf Ganger--the greatest force of that
hyperborean world--had constructed a system of dry-docks, from which,
in the idle hours of summer and autumn, he launched those portentous
fleets of dragons and serpents that sailed upon every sea and ravaged
the most distant shores. From one point of view, it was a nest of
Scandinavian free-booters; from another, it was the naval station of
a great sea-faring race--a race that, having failed as traders in
amber and timber and fish, were now about to try their luck in ravage
and loot upon the gravelly loams of the Cheviot Hills and deep in the
sunny heart of France.
[Illustration: COLONEL RICHARD M. JOHNSON.]
William the Conqueror was fifth in descent from this great Captain of
the northern seas--the potential reconstructor of the modern world.
XV
When the great Gothic column of migration, sweeping past the Caspian
and crossing the Asian frontier, followed the river valleys and the
shores of the Baltic Sea, making a reconnoissance in force that reached
as far as the waters of the northern sea, it pushed its exploring
columns through every part of Scandinavia, peopling every shore it
passed, and leaving every promontory and peninsula in every nook and
hook and cranny and on every continental headland, every island inlet,
and in every peaceful arm of the Danish seas strewn with the wrecks
of the migrant column, battered by the hardships of a long, unbroken
march. Only the strong survived. The weak and unenterprising, as the
head of the resistless column bent toward the northern sea, shrank
from the toils and terrors of a march in a northern clime. Upon these
geographical points of "refuge" the racial weaklings had been gathering
for years. Nothing stayed the mighty Goth. The Norman could turn the
sharpest corners in the Danish world. Once planted in the footsteps
of a pioneer, even a phlegmatic Teuton might pursue his way. But the
exhausted weakling dropped in his tracks, and crawled to the shelter
of some inviting _angulus_ or nook. Here they were--the drift in the
eddy of an archipelagic sea. Jutes from Jutland (in Denmark); _Saxons_
from the shores to the south; Angles, from the Anglen in Sleswick--in
all a seething colluvian of ethnic stragglers swarming for an ultimate
raid upon British soil. The great Teutonic nation was seemingly planted
on the best lands of _Central Europe_; the great Scandinavian people
lay far to the north; the Jutes, the Angles, the Saxons, the Frisians,
_lay between_;--the Angli, who gave their name to England, lying
at the point (_Angulus_) where the coast of the Baltic first bends
sharply toward the north. Are these the peoples that gave substance and
strength and splendor to the English race? The men who fall out in a
forced march (said a great Virginian captain) are not the men to stand
up in a long fight.
Toward the close of the Eighth Century the Scandinavians of the North
began their work of devastation upon English soil. For at least three
centuries the Anglo-Saxons held the Rover's name in dread. Contemporary
English abounds with Scandinavian words and forms; numerous traces of
Scandinavian occupancy are found on English soil to-day. The men of the
Heptarchy were in the main bred upon English soil. At least they were
not a broken race of stragglers when they came. They were a vigorous,
fighting breed. But if Bismarck were looking for "mixed races" in his
carefully calculated career of annexation (no "dreaming" here), he
certainly found what he sought at the point where the column of Goths
that had marched from Central Asia, turning its head to the German
Ocean, took courage from the bracing prospect and--gathering their
veterans into one compact, invulnerable mass--debouched boldly toward
the vast, inhospitable regions of the North. The Angles and Saxons
were cradled among the mixed or mongrel peoples that had been dropped
by the great migrant races in the southeastern corner of the northern
sea--a population, says Marsh, of "very mixed and diversified blood."
These furnished the original "comelings" upon British soil, but it
is scarcely credible that the outcome of this mongrel stock was the
_Anglo-Saxon Race_,--which in the great Triple Alliance of Norman and
Saxon and Dane has for centuries maintained an unbroken front and kept
the world in awe.
XVI
The learned author of "British Family Names," speaking of certain
lists of ancient Norman names alleged to be authentic, says: "Of
this great array of time-honored names, few are now borne by direct
representatives. They exist among the old gentry rather than in the
peerage. In the majority of cases, the later descendants of illustrious
families have sunk into poverty and obscurity, unconscious of their
origin." They have not "vanished from the world" (as Mr. Freeman says),
but are daily coming to the front in circumstances requiring capacity
for leadership in affairs. "Even now," says the observant author of
an anonymous treatise,[9] "agricultural laborers and coal miners can
not combine for objects which demand the exercise of practical ability
without finding themselves led by those who, though in humble stations,
bear names of undoubted Norman origin," citing, by way of example,
Joseph Arch (_De Arques_, Normandy). These quotations will fitly
introduce to the reader the long and suggestive alphabetical series of
Norman names which the compiler has made the basis of extended critical
remark.
[9] The Norman People.
In examining this series, one naturally inquires: How do we know
that the thousands of names, taken from an old English Directory,
are Norman? Simply by the circumstance that the same names occur in
the records of Normandy in the Eleventh and Twelfth centuries--the
references in most cases being to the great Rolls of the Exchequer,
1180-1200. Comparative reference to the English records at an early
date--Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth centuries--raises a strong
presumption that names appearing on the Norman Rolls _before the
Conquest_, and on English records _after the Conquest_, were derived
from Normandy, and that names now accounted _English_ were originally
_Norman_ names. A similar correspondence between the names in the
records of a Virginian court house and those of official records in
Kentucky, to the mind of a contemporary genealogist, would carry
decisive weight. It is the weight of concurrent testimony of high
character from authentic sources. _Identitas colligitur ex multitudine
signorum._ Even one surname in like circumstances is a significant
record of individual descent. What shall be said of thousands
historically traced--the continuous record of a single race? Thirty
years ago it was estimated by an English scholar that the English
race proper comprised thirty millions of people--a great composite
nation; the Saxon, Dane, and Norman--a trinity of races all derived
from the same ancient stock (the Gothic) and each forming about one
third of a homogeneous race. The Saxon came immediately from the
southeastern shores and islands of the North Sea, and is of Gothic
descent; the Dane from Denmark or the Danish Isles, and is of pure
Scandinavian stock; the Norman from Normandy, remotely Gothic, is
of direct descent from the Scandinavian race. If this statement be
correct the conclusion seems to be inevitable, _not_ that "we are
Scandinavians"--as the London _Times_ says--but that we are all deeply
_Scandinavianized_ and that there is a preponderance of Scandinavian
blood in the English race. If there has been a thorough intermixture
of the three racial elements during the past eight hundred years, we
may assume that every Kentuckian of Anglo-Virginian stock represents a
practically definite ethnical product: Saxon, one third; Scandinavian,
two thirds--for all controversial purposes a sufficiently conclusive
result. The long-commingled blood of this composite race is, in effect,
an adamantine cement, and the racial plexus, fusion, or combination is
one and inseparable in every sense. If it were possible to _remove_
either of these constituent elements--the _Scandinavian_ or Saxon--the
Kentuckian in his present admirable form would disappear and nothing
but a restoration of the racial balance by a reconstitution of the
original parts would restore him to the position of primacy assigned
him by Mr. Bart Kennedy in his recent contribution to the London
_Mail_. How true, then, in a deep ethnological sense, the familiar
legend of our Commonwealth--"United we stand, divided we fall."
Be this as it may, it is desirable to have it understood that so
long as the Saxon holds his _own_ (and no more) in the constitution
of our common race, there can arise no possible "unpleasantness"
between the parts of which it is composed. In that duplex anthropoidal
abnormity to which its creator has given a significant binominal
appellation--_Jekyll_ and _Hyde_--some _regulative_ element seems to
be lacking. Is it an element of race? The author does not say as much
in express terms, but apparently he suggests it in his selection of
names. Have we not a _Norman_ in Mr. Jekyll? And a _Saxon_ in Mr. Hyde?
That we have not a normal Englishman is quite clear. Is the dominant
Scandinavian element _short_? or has some demoniac "Berserker" blood
slipped into the cross?
Subtle and descriminative writers (such as Stevenson and Disraeli) do
not express themselves after a careless fashion, as a rule. They mean
something, even in the selection of a name.
[Illustration: COLONEL J. STODDARD JOHNSTON.]
There is something, too, no doubt, that appeals to the popular
imagination merely in a _Norman_ name, and Lord Lytton has cleverly
exploited this predilection in many fascinating volumes of historical
romance; tales of love and chivalry that in our soft mid-century
days had rivaled, and for a time eclipsed, the magical creations
of Scott. The later school of Scandinavian writers has not won the
Kentuckian from his early love of English and Scottish romance.
His conception of the actual Scandinavian--the Scandinavian in the
flesh--the Scandinavian of to-day, is still undefined and vague.
Until Du Chaillu came he had given the matter but little thought.
And, yet, fifty years before--in the busy, brooding twenties--another
Frenchman, wandering among the Scandinavians of Gothia, describes
their predominant characteristics thus: "Fair hair, blue eyes, a
middle stature, light and slim; a physiognomy indicating frankness,
gentleness, and a certain sentimental elevation of mind, especially
among the fair sex. The people in the other provinces partake of these
different physical and moral qualities."
How completely this description by a Frenchman in Scandinavia verifies
the casual observation of another Frenchman in Kentucky! Their
hospitality, M. Du Chaillu informed us in his charming lecture, was
almost without bounds, and at times to a Kentuckian would have been
embarrassing in the extreme, as when those snowy-handed hostesses
bathed the traveler's feet and tucked him away in bed. But Monsieur
seems to have suffered no embarrassment on this account.
Among the population of the Northern provinces of Scandinavia there are
men of almost gigantic stature, with dark hair, deep-set eyes, a look
somewhat fierce, but full of expression and vivacity. Their muscles are
large, firm, and distinct, the bones prominent, the features regular
and clear cut. A cheerful temper and "an enterprising disposition" are
qualities common to the whole population. A stranger is welcome in
all circles. Even in the polar circles the hospitality loses none of
its warmth. Probably it is in dispensing their hospitality that their
passion for "strong liquor" is most marked. This liquor they drink
out of horns; and that is why, said Du Chaillu, convincingly, that we
say in Kentucky, "Will you take a horn?" But the Kentuckian seems to
derive this peculiarity from every side. "Fill the largest horns," said
the Saxon, Cedric, when his slaves were arranging the banquet for his
Norman guests.
XVII
The impression we derive from the foregoing description of the
Scandinavian physique among the more northern tribes recalls Professor
Shaler's conclusions from a careful study of the measurement of
fifty thousand troops from Kentucky, made by the astronomer Gould
(a distinguished mathematician), who after the war took service in
the Argentine Republic. "The results," he says, "are surprising.
Their average height was nearly an inch greater than that of the New
England troops; they exceed them equally in girth of chest, and the
circumference of head is also very much larger. In size they come
up to the level of the _picked regiments of the Northern armies_ of
Europe."[10] Yet these results were obtained from what was a levy _en
masse_. It did not include "the rebel exiles" who were the "first
running from the press," or, as is often said, "the flower of the
State," and being in the main of a more exuberant habit of body would
doubtless have given still better results. It is questionable if
all Scandinavia could furnish two such _heads_ as William Nelson's
and Humphrey Marshall's. _Ceteris paribus_, said Leidy, "size is a
measure of power"--referring to _size of head_. When General Marshall
was warned that his great size would attract the attention of
_sharpshooters_, he answered, "I have provided for that. I have a _fat
staff_. There be _six_ Richmonds in the field!" His aide and secretary
was a Norman of wholly different type; of a slight figure, but of an
activity, courage, vivacity, and endurance wholly unsurpassed. Captain
Shaler (himself a capable soldier, with a strong dash of New England
blood) singles out for special commendation the soldiers and officers
of Morgan's command. He especially notes their high social quality,
their physical vigor and activity, their endurance under severe tests,
and their peculiar aptitude and penchant for the business of war. He
waxes vigorously poetic in describing the martial qualities of the
"Orphan Brigade."
[10] KENTUCKY. By N. S. Shaler (Harvard College), 1885.
* * * * *
Hereditary surnames are said to be memorials of race that can never be
obliterated. If thousands of men, swept along in some great historic
migratory movement which is followed and described by critical
observers through country after country, through century after century,
never "breaking ranks" except to plant and build, leaving the same
names upon the official records of every dukedom, or kingdom, or
commonwealth through which they pass; when their names, their features,
their instincts, their mental habits, their daily speech, their terms
of law, the language and routine of their courts, are impressed with
the same ethnic stamp; when the same mental, physical, and moral
characteristics are manifest generation after generation; when myriads
of minute resemblances confirm the conclusions of the larger view,
why lose one's self in the haunting mystery of apparent discrepancies
in detail? Let us give full credit to each member of the triune
ethnical Trust--which is charged with all the responsibilities of this
magnificent modern world. If you wish to know how much can be said to
thrill with delight that old SAXON element of your blood, read what the
Count de Montalembert (another Frenchman) has said in his "Monks of the
West." The enormous difficulties encountered by the Church in that old
chaotic day approximately measure the shortcomings of the race. That
the crude, repulsive Saxon should have been fashioned into the noble
figure which Montalembert describes, speaks well for the essential
worth of the _Saxon_; but what a tribute to the miraculous power of the
_Monk_!
In the original prolusion and in the present preface the writer has
simply tried to prepare the way for investigators of greater gifts.
Here the PHILOLOGIST is in his proper field. In pursuing this work, he
becomes the genealogist of a race. Names of localities, names of men,
are subject--like all other words--to every variety of phonetic change,
and, it may be said, are in a perpetual state of flux. But there is a
soul that survives all changes. It is for the scholar to catch it on
the wing and fix a fleeting syllable for all time.
XVIII
The student who is interested in this subject may find some help in the
following series of NAMES (to which frequent reference has been made),
compiled by an anonymous English scholar whose learning and ability
have been recognized in the critical reviews. It was to one of these
reviews that the present writer was indebted for suggestions that at
once quickened his interest in M. Du Chaillu and his researches, and
induced him in the republication of the English writer's list (taken
from a London Directory) to add to the selections a few names of
obvious Scandinavian derivation--Danish, Swedish, and Old Norse. Any
fixed rule of selection, in a discussion like this, it is difficult to
apply. Readers who comprehend how easily errors creep into an ordinary
record of "family" pedigrees will make due allowance for errors that
may be found in this modestly illustrative Anglo-Norman list, in which
there is but little attempt to trace lineal family descent. With a
body of names so pregnant with significance as this, the credentials
of any branch of the Anglo-Norman race in any part of the earth will
be recognized as good. The difficulties of the problem are apparent
to all. Its interest and importance it is impossible to exaggerate or
deny. If more simply stated, probably it were more easily understood,
but, failing in simplicity of statement, very frequent _repetitions_
may be excused.
The origin of the general discussion ought to encourage every scholar.
According to the pleasing conception of the great Scottish romancer,
the originator of this controversy was a Saxon slave who understood
the art of deducing philosophic conclusions from unconsidered trifles.
While herding his master's swine in the West Riding of Yorkshire, he
spoke to a fellow thrall who stalked about in the full enjoyment of
Saxon freedom with a brazen collar about his neck:
"And _swine_ is good English," said the jester. "But how call you the
sow when she is flayed, drawn and quartered, and hung up by the heels
like a traitor?"
"Pork," said Gurth.
"And _pork_, I think, is good Norman French. When alive and in charge
of a Saxon slave, she goes by a _Saxon_ name. She is a _Norman_ when
dressed for the table in the castle hall. What dost thou think of
_that_, friend Gurth?"
"It is but too true doctrine, friend Wamba, _however it got into thy
fool's pate_."
This is elementary, but it was an inspiration to one of the greatest
writers of France. The nimble wits of the Scottish wizard are not at
the service of all the Wambas of the Saxon race.
* * * * *