THE ANGLES OF GERMANY--IMPERFECT RECONSTRUCTION OF THEIR HISTORY--
THEIR HEROIC AGE.--BEOWULF.--CONQUEST OF ANGLEN.--ANECDOTE FROM
PROCOPIUS.--THEIR REDUCTION UNDER THE CARLOVINGIAN DYNASTY.--THE
ANGLES OF THURINGIA.
As the previous chapter has shewn that a Saxon population, considered
simply as such, and without reference to the particular fact of its
date, locality, and similar important circumstances, may be in any or no
ethnological relation to the Angle (_i.e._, absolutely Angle under a
Keltic name, or, on the other hand, as little Angle as the Slavonians),
the attempt at the reconstruction of the history of all the Germanic
conquerors of Britain during the period of their occupation of Germany,
although, perhaps, not impracticable as the subject of a special
investigation, and as the matter of an elaborate monograph, must, in a
sketch like the present, be limited to that of the unequivocal and
undoubted Angles--this meaning those who are not only _Angle_ in
reality, but whose actions are described under the name of _Angle_. It
is only when this is the case that we can be sure of our men. A Saxon,
as aforesaid, may be anything, provided he be but a pirate. The greater
part, too, of the actions of the _Saxons_ can be shewn to have been
effected by the _Old_-Saxons rather than the _Anglo_-Saxons, and even by
Franks and Frisians. Indeed, it is not too much to assert that, with the
exception of the invasion of Britain and Sleswick, there is no recorded
act of any Saxon population which cannot be more fairly attributed to
some of the other allied sections of the Germanic stock than to the
Angle. That this was the case with the Saxons of the Gallic
frontier--the Saxons that, in the earlier periods of their history, came
into collision with Julian, and, in the later ones, with Charlemagne, is
undoubted; and, that it was also the case with the earlier Saxon pirates
of the coasts of Gaul and Britain is likely--though I do not press this
point. What I am considering now is the _unequivocal_ history of the
Angles of Germany under their own proper name. I have said that it is
fragmentary. It is more than this. The fragments themselves are
heterogeneous.
An Englishman, representing as he does the _insular_ Angles, and looking
to the part that _they_ have played in the world, may, with either pride
or regret, as the case may be, say that on their native soil of Germany,
the Angle history is next to a non-entity. It is like that of the
Majiars of Asia. What our ancestors did at home before they became the
Englishmen of Great Britain may have been of any amount of importance,
or, of any amount of insignificance. They were deeds without a record.
As to our own collateral relations, they suffered rather than acted.
They have, indeed, a history, but it is a history neither full nor
glorious.
The poem of Beowulf, an extract from Beda, and a similar extract from
Procopius constitute the notices that continue the history--if so it can
be called--of the Angles from the time of Ptolemy to the beginning of
the seventh century, and even these are doubtful in their
interpretation.
Beowulf is a poem in the Anglo-Saxon language, and, in the alliterative
metre of the Anglo-Saxon compositions in general, of unknown date and
authorship, of upwards of six thousand lines; a poem which, although
preserved in England, and in a form adapted to English hearers
subsequent to the conversion of our island to Christianity, is
essentially pagan and German--pagan in respect to its superstitions and
machinery, and German in respect to the scene of action; for in Germany,
and not in England, are all its actions achieved. This being the case,
it cannot but tell us _something_ of the ancient Germans; and, as the
hero is an _Angle_, the ancient Germans of whom this _something_ is
told, are, more or less, the _Angle_ ancestors of the English in their
original continental home.
Much more than this it is unsafe to say. The composition itself is a
poem--a romance--an epic. This is against the historical value of its
subject-matter. Then, it has taken its present form under the hands of a
Christian. This is against its value as cotemporaneous evidence.
Thirdly, it has the character, to no small extent, not only of a
rhapsody, but of a rhapsody of which the elements are heterogeneous.
This is against its value as a piece of _Anglicism_.
Nick and Grendel--the old Nick of the present English, and
Grendel--probably, the Geruthus of Saxo Grammaticus--are the chief
supernaturals, demons of the swamp and fen. These best localize the
legends in which they appear; for which most parts of Hanover and the
Cimbric Chersonesus suit indifferently, the Frisian portions
pre-eminently, well. The more exalted mythology of Woden, Thor, and
Balder, so generally considered to have been all-pervading in Germany
and Scandinavia, finds no place in Beowulf. Our Devil and the Devil's
Dam are rough analogues of Nick and Grendel.
Heort is the great palatial hall of Hroðgar, the kingly personage of the
poem, Beowulf being the hero. It stands in some part of the Cimbric
Chersonese. Seeing in this, as a _word_, only another form of the name
Hartz, I also see in it a proof of the rhapsodical character of the
poem, and the heterogeneous character of its elements.
An episode, of which Sigmund is the hero, gives us a narrative in which
we have, in an altered form, and an obscure outline, a portion of the
Nibelungenlied cycle--an element from the Rhine.
Another gives us an adventure apparently without a hero, or rather an
adventure whose hero has no proper name, but only a designating
adjective. Considering the indistinct shape which all legends take in
Beowulf, I cannot but think that the individual whose name stands in the
text as _Stearc heart_, and in the translation as _Strong-heart_, is
neither more nor less than the great Danish hero _Starcather_, of a not
unlike legend in Saxo.
Danes, Geats, Frisians, and Sweas (Swedes), are the populations with
whom the Angles are most brought in contact; and the following extract
shews the manner of their mention. The parties, here, are Jutish Danes
and Frisians.
1. "Hroðgar's poet after the mead-bench must excite joy in the hall,
concerning Finn's descendants, when the expedition came upon them;
Healfdene's hero, Hnæf the Scylding, was doomed to fall in
Friesland. Hildeburh had at least no cause to praise the fidelity of
the Jutes; guiltlessly was she deprived at the war-game of her
beloved sons and brothers; one after another they fell wounded with
javelins; that was a mournful lady. Not in vain did Hoce's daughter
mourn their death, after morning came, when she under the heaven
might behold the slaughterer of her son, where he before possessed
the most of earthly joys: war took away all Finn's thanes, except
only a few, so that he might not on the place of meeting gain any
thing by fighting against Hengest, nor defend in war his wretched
remnant against the king's thane; but they offered him conditions,
that they would give up to him entirely a second palace, a hall, and
throne, so that they should halve the power with the sons of the
Jutes, and at the gifts of treasure every day Folcwalda's son should
honour the Danes, the troops of Hengest should serve them with
rings, with hoarded treasures of solid gold, even as much as he
would furnish the race of Frisians in the beer-hall. There they
confirmed on both sides a fast treaty of peace. Finn strongly,
undisputingly, engaged by oath to Hengest, that he would graciously
maintain the poor survivors according to the judgment of his Witan,
that there no man, either by word or work, should break the peace,
nor through hostile machinations ever recall the quarrel, although
they, deprived of their prince, must follow the slaughterer of him
that gave them rings, since they were so compelled: if, then, any
one of the Frisians with insolent speech should make allusion to the
deadly feud, that then the edge of the sword should avenge it. The
oath was completed, and heaped up gold was borne from the hoard of
the warlike Scyldings: the best of warriors was ready upon the pile;
at the pile was easy to be seen the mail-shirt coloured with gore,
the hog of gold, the boar hard as iron, many a noble crippled with
wounds: some fell upon the dead. Then at Hnæf's pile Hildeburh
commanded her own son to be involved in flames, to burn his body,
and to place him on the pile, wretchedly upon his shoulder the lady
mourned; she lamented with songs; the warrior mounted the pile; the
greatest of death-fires whirled; the welkin sounded before the
mound; the mail-hoods melted; the gates of the wounds burst open;
the loathly bite of the body, when the blood sprang forth; the
flame, greediest of spirits, devoured all those whom there death
took away: of both the people was the glory departed.
"Thence the warriors set out to visit their dwellings, deprived of
friends, to see Friesland, their homes and lofty city; Hengest yet,
during the deadly-coloured winter, dwelt with Finn, boldly, without
casting of lots he cultivated the land, although he might drive upon
the sea the ship with the ringed prow; the deep boiled with storms,
wan against the wind, winter locked the wave with a chain of ice,
until the second year came to the dwellings; so doth yet, that which
eternally, happily provideth weather gloriously bright. When the
winter was departed, and the bosom of the earth was fair, the
wanderer set out to explore, the stranger from his dwellings. He
thought the more of vengeance than of his departing over the sea, if
he might bring to pass a hostile meeting, since he inwardly
remembered the sons of the Jutes. Thus he avoided not death when
Hunláf's descendant plunged into his bosom the flame of war, the
best of swords; therefore were among the Jutes, known by the edge of
the sword, what warriors bold of spirit Finn afterwards fell in
with, savage sword-slaughter at his own dwelling; since Guðláf and
Osláf after the sea-journey mourned the sorrow, the grim onset: they
avenged a part of their loss; nor might the cunning of mood refrain
in his bosom, when his hall was surrounded with the men of his foes.
Finn also was slain. The king amidst his band, and the queen was
taken; the warriors of the Scyldings bore to their ships all the
household wealth of the mighty king which they could find in Finn's
dwelling, the jewels and carved gems; they over the sea carried the
lordly lady to the Danes--led her to their people. The lay was sung,
the song of the glee-man, the joke rose again, the noise from the
benches grew loud, cupbearers gave the wine from wondrous vessels."
Hengist appears here as a Jute. Another English name, that of Offa,
occurs in the following:
2. "Hæredh's daughter; she was nevertheless not condescending, nor
too liberal of gifts, of hoarded treasures, to the people of the
Geáts; the violent queen of the people exercised violence of mood, a
terrible crime; no one of the dear comrades dared to venture upon
that beast, save her wedded lord, who daily looked upon her with
his eyes, but she allotted to him appointed bonds of
slaughter,--twisted with hands: soon after, after the clutch of
hands, was the matter settled with the knife, so that the excellent
sword must apportion the affair, must make known the fatal evil:
such is no womanly custom for a lady to accomplish, comely though
she be, that the weaver of peace should pursue for his life, should
follow with anger a dear man: that indeed disgusted Hemming's
kinsman. Others said, while drinking the ale, that she had committed
less mighty mischief, less crafty malice, since she was first given,
surrounded with gold, to the young warrior, the noble beast: since
by her father's counsel she sought, in a journey over the fallow
flood, the palace of Offa, where she afterwards well on her throne
in good repute living, enjoyed the living creations, and held high
love with the prince of men, the best between two seas of all
mankind, of the whole race of men, so far as I have heard: for Offa
the spear-bold warrior was far renowned both for his liberalities
and his wars, in wisdom he held his native inheritance, when he the
sad warrior sprang for the assistance of men, he the kinsman of
Hemming, the nephew of Garmund, mighty in warfare."
Beowulf approaches his end; the ceremonies of his funeral are described
in detail, the political complications created by his death are alluded
to:--
3. "Now is the joy-giver of the people of the Westerns, the Lord of
the Geáts, fast on the death-bed, he dwelleth in fatal rest: by him
lieth his deadly foe, sick with seax-wounds; with his sword he could
not by any means work a wound upon the wretch. Wigláf, Wihstán's
son, sitteth over Beówulf, one warrior over the other deprived of
life holdeth sorrowfully ward of good and evil: now may the people
expect a time of war, as soon as the fall of the king becomes
published among the Franks and Frisians: the feud was established,
fierce against the Hugas, after Hygelác came sailing with a fleet to
Friesland, where his foes humbled him from his war, boldly they went
with a superior force, so that the warrior must bow, he fell in
battle, nor did the chieftain give treasure to his valiant comrades:
ever since peace with the sea-wicings denied us: nor do I expect
peace or fidelity from Sweeden, but it was widely known that
Ongentheów deprived of life Hætheyn the Hrethling, beside
Hrefna-wood when for their pride the war-Scylfings first sought the
people of the Geáts. Soon did the prudent father of Ohthere, old and
terrible, give him a blow with the hand; he deprived the sea-king of
the troop of maidens, the old man took the old virgin, hung round
with gold, the mother of Onela and Ohthere, and then pursued the
homicides until they escaped with difficulty into Hrefnes-holt,
deprived of their Lord: then with a mighty force did he beset those
that the sword had left, weary with their wounds: shame did he often
threaten to the wretched race, the whole night long: he said that he
in the morning would take them with the edges of the sword, some he
would hang on the gallowses, for his sport: comfort came again to
the sad of mood, with early day, since they perceived the horn and
trumpets of Hygelác, when the good prince came upon their track with
the power of his people.
"For him then did the people of the Geáts prepare upon the earth a
funeral pile, strong, hung round with helmets, with war-boards and
bright Byrnies, as he had requested: weeping the heroes then laid
down, in the midst their dear lord; then began the warriors to awake
upon the hill the mightiest of bale fires; the wood-smoke rose
aloft, dark from the foe of wood; noisily it went, mingled with
weeping: the mixture of the wind lay on till it had broken the
bonehouse, hot in his breast: sad in mind, sorry of mood they moaned
the death of their lord:--The people of the Westerns wrought then a
mound over the sea, it was high and broad, easy to behold by the
sailors over the waves, and during ten days they built up the beacon
of the war-renowned, the mightiest of fires; they surrounded it with
a wall, in the most honourable manner that wise men could devise it:
they put into the mound rings and bright gems,--all such ornaments
as the fierce-minded men had before taken from the hoard; they
suffered the earth to hold the treasure of warriors, gold on the
the sand, there it yet remaineth as useless to men as it was of old.
Then round the mound rode a troop of beasts of war, of nobles,
twelve in all: they would speak about the king, they would call him
to mind, they would relate the song of words, they would themselves
speak: they praised his valour, and his deeds of bravery they judged
with praise, even as it is fitting that a man should extol his
friendly Lord, should love him in his soul, when he must depart from
the body to become valueless. Thus the people of the Geáts, his
domestic comrades, mourned their dear Lord; they said that he was of
the kings of the world, the mildest and gentlest of men, the most
gracious to his people, and the most jealous of glory."
That Norse, Frisian, Angle, and other Germanic elements are combined in
this poem is certain; and, looking to the extent to which Beowulf, the
hero, besides other points of indistinctness in respect to his
personality, is Geat as well as Angle, I cannot but suspect an
incorporation of some Slavonic and Lithuanic ones as well. _Finn_, too,
as a hero, not of the Laps and Finlanders (to whom he would be the
proper eponymus), but of the Frisians, creates a further complication.
Hroðgar, too, the Dane or Jute, has a name inconveniently unlike that of
the more historical Radiger who will soon come under notice.
The chief fact we get from Beowulf is, as is generally the case with
early poems, one in the history of Fiction; and, to guard against
disparaging such facts as these, let us remember that the history of
Fiction is the history of the Commerce of Ideas.
Now Beowulf tells us that, at the time of its composition, at latest,
and, probably, much earlier, there was a certain interchange of legend
or history between the Danes, Swedes, Lombards, Franks, Angles,
Frisians, and Geats. We may say, then, that the Angli had an Heroic Age.
In respect to their historic epoch, a well-known notice in Beda, freely
adopted by most of his after-comers, deduces the Angles from that part
of Germany which he calls _Angulus_, between the provinces of the Jutes
and Saxons, and which up to his own time remained a waste--"patria quæ
_Angulus_ dicitur, et ab eo tempore usque hodie desertus inter
provincias Jutarum et Saxonum perhibetur."
The Saxon Chronicle simply translates this. Alfred strengthens it,
writing that there "the English dwelt before they came hither."--_i.e._,
to England.
Ethelweard speaks of "Anglia vetus, sita inter Saxones et Giotos, habens
oppidum capitale, quod sermone Saxonico _Sleswic_ nuncupatur, secundum
vero Danos, _Hathaby_."
A well-known locality in the Duchy of Sleswick supplies the commentary
on these texts. A triangular block of land, about the size of the county
of Middlesex, is bounded on two of its sides by the Slie and the Firth
of Flensburg, and on the third by the road from that town to Sleswick.
Many writers think that the Angles should be placed here; and, thinking
this, maintain that no population except that of the Angles or some
closely allied tribe has a claim to be considered as the early occupants
of Holstein and Sleswick. They overlook, however, the important fact
that Ptolemy, who places the _Angili_ in a locality far south of the
parts in question, places, in those parts, populations which he
separates from his _Angili_. They also overlook the still more important
fact that the only populations earlier than the present of which
definite traces can be discovered in either Holstein or Sleswick, are
the Frisians and the Slavonians--the Frisians on the west, and the
Slavonians on the east.
In another point of view this district is important, although the line
of criticism upon which it has its bearing is gradually becoming
obsolete. When the direct influence of the Danes and Norwegians upon the
language of Britain was less recognized than it is now, it was by no
means uncommon to explain such Scandinavian words as occurred by the
assumption that they were _Angle_ as opposed to _Saxon_, the Angle being
the most Danish of all the proper German dialects--transitional,
perhaps, to the Teutonic and Scandinavian divisions of the so-called
Gothic stock. This was a line of criticism difficult to refute; since
the advocate of the Angle origin of Danish words might fairly argue that
it was not enough to shew that a word was Scandinavian. It must also be
shewn to have been non-existent in the North-German dialects. This
brought in the proverbial difficulty of proving a negative assertion.
Hence, the district of Anglen and Beda's statement concerning it are
important.
Now, at the present moment, this district of Anglen is just as _Angle_
or _English_ as the rest of Germany--that is, next to not at all. It is
Low German, tinctured with Danish; having once been more Danish still,
as is shewn by the geographical names ending in -_by_, -_skov_, and
-_gaard_.
The only piece of truly cotemporary evidence in Beda is the statement of
its being a _waste_ when he wrote, and this is better explained by
supposing it to have been a March, or Debateable Land, between the
Germanic and Danish occupants of Sleswick, than by the notion that it
was left empty by the exodus of its occupants to Great Britain. The
deduction of the Angli from an improbably small area, on the wrong side
of the Peninsula, must be looked upon as an inference under the garb of
a tradition. Such I believe it to have been; freely, however, admitted
that if Anglen poured forth upon England even half the Angles that
England contained, it was likely enough to have been most effectually
emptied.
At one time I went further than the mere denial of _Anglen_ being the
original home of the _Angles_ in the exclusive manner that Beda so
evidently considers it, and looked upon the word as a mere translation
of the word _Angulus_--since the area in question is certainly one of
the nooks and corners of the Peninsula. But the fact of there being one
or two small outlying districts, retaining (I believe) certain
privileges, beyond the area bounded by the Slie, the Firth of Flensburg
and the road to Sleswick, in the parts about Leck and Bredsted, and on
the North-Frisian frontier, has modified this view, and inclined me to
the notion that the _Anglen_ districts of Sleswick were really
_Angle_--though Angle only in the way that Britain was Angle, _i.e._,
from the effect of an invasion from Hanover. If so, although we fail in
finding in Sleswick the mother-country of the English, we get a detail
in the history of the Angles of Germany instead--this being that certain
Angles, probably at the time they were reducing Britain, may have turned
their faces northwards, and effected settlements in certain parts of
Sleswick, having, previously, reached the Trave. Hence they achieved a
small maritime conquest on the coast of the Baltic, just as they
effected certain large ones on the shores of Britain. Why do I suppose
this to have been by sea? Because, when true history begins, whatever
the men of _Anglen_ in Sleswick may have been, the intermediate parts of
Holstein are Wagrian. The settlement, then, in Anglen, is just a detail
in the naval history of the Angles, during the period of their rise and
progress--that is, if it be anything Angle at all.
A notice of Procopius now finds place. An Angle princess betrothed to
Radiger, prince of the Varni, is deserted by her promised husband for
Theodechild, his father's widow, and avenges herself by sailing for the
mouth of the Rhine with a large fleet, conquering her undervaluer,
forgiving him as women are likely, and dismissing her rival, as they are
sure to do in such cases. To deny "all historical foundation to this
tale," writes Mr. Kemble,[22] "would perhaps be carrying scepticism to
an unreasonable extent. Yet the most superficial examination proves that
in all its details, at least, it is devoid of accuracy. The period
during which the events described must be placed, is between the years
534 and 547; and it is very certain that the Varni were not settled at
that time where Procopius has placed them; on that locality we can only
look for Saxons. It is hardly necessary to say that a fleet of four
hundred ships and an army of one hundred thousand Angles, led by a
woman, are not data upon which we could implicitly rely in calculating
either the political or military power of any English principality at
the commencement of the sixth century, or that ships capable of carrying
two hundred-and-fifty men each, had hardly been launched at that time
from any port in England. Still I am not altogether disposed to deny the
possibility of predatory expeditions from the settled parts of the
island adjoining the eastern coasts."
From this criticism I only differ in thinking that, instead of Procopius
having mistaken Saxons for Varni, he has mistaken the Elbe for the
Rhine.
It is a point of some uncertainty, but of no great importance to
ascertain whether the Angle subjects of the insulted but forgiveful
princess were from Britain or from Hanover--islanders already in a state
of reaction against their continental fatherland, or simply Angles of
the Elbe. The accounts of Procopius respecting both countries are
eminently obscure and contradictory. It is only certain that as early as
the ninth century there were continental writers who attributed to the
Germans of Britain movements from the Island to the Continent as far
back from their own time as the fifth century. Nay, later still, there
were some historians who wholly reversed the order of Anglo-Saxon
migration, and deduced the true Fatherland Germans from England.
And now the history of the rise and progress of the Angles on the soil
of Germany ends. Even if it can be increased there is but _modicum_ of
information. Yet we could scarcely expect more. On the contrary, why
should not the Angles have shared the total obscurity of the Nuithones,
Sigulones, and others? What population amongst those with which they
came in contact could have recorded their alliances, their victories, or
their defeats? Not the Frisians, who were unlettered as long as they
were Pagan, and Pagan until the tenth century. Not the Slavonians, whose
spiritual and intellectual darkness was equal. Not the Romans, for
reasons already given. There only remained the Gauls and Britons. But,
unfortunately, in the eyes of the Gauls and Britons, although all Angles
were Saxons, all Saxons were not Angles--so that the proportion of
proper Angle history which we have in the Gallic and British accounts of
the Saxons cannot be determined.
The history of the Saxons of the continent has been stated to have been
the history of the _Old_-Saxons. And up to the time of Beda, and about
half a century later, such was the case. Hence, the rule is as
follows--where we hear of Saxon actions by sea, the actors may be
Old-Saxons, Angles, Frisians, Scandinavians, or Slavonians, and where
we hear of actions on the _Terra Firma_ of Germany, and also in the
times anterior to B.C. 800, the actors are Old-Saxons rather than
Anglo-Saxons. In this case, except in Britain, we have little or no
Angle history under the name of Saxon; and, as there is equally little
under the name of Angle, we have, as has been already seen, next to no
Angle history at all--_i.e._, _in Germany_.
But with the reign of Charlemagne the criticism changes. The _Saxon_
history, even in Germany, becomes _Anglo_-Saxon, as well as _Old_-Saxon,
and it may be that the events are pretty equally distributed between the
two divisions. The reason is clear. The arms of Southern and Middle
Europe have penetrated to the parts beyond the Weser, and it only
requires the _Angles_ to be described under their own proper name
(instead of that of Saxon) for us to have the materials of an average
history. It is a sickening and revolting history, and a history that few
nations but the English can afford. Throughout the whole length and
breadth of Germany there is not one village, hamlet, or family which can
shew definite signs of descent from the continental ancestors of the
Angles of England. There is not a man, woman, or child who can say, _I
have pure Angle blood in my veins_. In no nook or corner can dialect or
sub-dialect of the most provincial form of the German speech be found
which shall have a similar pedigree with the English. The Angles of the
Continent are either exterminated or undistinguishably mixed up with the
other Germans in proportions more or less large, and in combinations
more or less heterogeneous. And the history of the Conquest and
Conversion of the Saxons by Charlemagne is the history of this
extinction. It is this that makes it so impossible to argue backwards
from the present state of the Angles of Germany to an earlier one, and
so to reconstruct their history. They have _no_ present state. Neither
have the _Old_-Saxons--their next of kin. Of the Frisians only, the next
nearest, there are still fragments; for, although the enemy of the
Old-Saxons and the Anglo-Saxons was the enemy of the Frisians also, he
was not equally their exterminator. They may or may not have been braver
than the Angles and Old-Saxons. They certainly occupied a more
impracticable country. To this period--the period of their
reduction--the Angli and Werini of Thuringia are attributed. They may,
indeed, have got there as they did to Sleswick, by conquest, and at an
earlier period. If so, there was an alliance. They were, however, more
probably transplanted.
FOOTNOTES:
[22] Saxons in England, i. 24.