Produced by Renald Levesque
WOMAN
VOLUME VIII
WOMEN OF THE TEUTONIC NATIONS
HERMANN SCHOENFELD, PH.D., LL. D.
PROFESSOR OF GERMANIC LITERATURE IN THE GEORGE
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
[Illustration 1:
EMMA CARRYING HER LOVER
After the painting by G. L. P. Saint-Ange
Charlemagne had so great an affection for his children, legitimate and
natural, that he prevented his daughters, of whom Emma was one, from
marrying, in order not to lose their company. They were reputed to be
very beautiful. Being debarred from marriage, they sought unlawful love
adventures, and gave birth to illegitimate children. The romantic story
of Emma's nightly meetings with Eginhard, and of her carrying her
learned lover through the freshly fallen snow to conceal his footprints,
is an unauthenticated legend.]
_Woman_
In all ages and in all countries
VOLUME VIII
WOMEN OF THE TEUTONIC
NATIONS
BY
HERMANN SCHOENFELD, PH.D., LL.D.
Professor of Germanic Literature in the
George Washington University
ILLUSTRATED
PHILADELPHIA
GEORGE BARRIE & SONS, PUBLISHERS
THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY
Dedicated to
MADAME CHRISTIAN HEURICH NEE KEYSER
PREFACE
Adequately to write the history of the woman of any race would mean the
writing of the history of the nation itself. There is no phase of the
cultural life of any people that is not founded upon the physical and
moral nature of its women. On the other hand, mental and moral heredity,
both through paternity and maternity, determines the character and
innermost being of woman. If we knew all the preponderating influences
of heredity for ages, we could with almost mathematical accuracy compute
the traits of human biology in every case. The forces of environment,
tremendous though they are, modify, but do not alter in any way the
original nature of man, which is established and standardized "by
eternal and immutable laws." Anthropology is continuously progressing
toward a firm scientific foundation, and is beginning to organize even
the vast domain of psychology into a well-defined system. The
interdependence between physical, mental, and moral traits is well
recognized, but its exact determination is impossible, owing to the
infinite complexity of the endless ancestral potencies.
So much is established, however: Teutonic woman, as she appears in
history, is the product of two groups of influences, the one group,
inherited nature; the other, environment; she is the exact sum of these
antecedent causes. And only so far as these causes differ does the
Teutonic woman differ from her sister of any other race of other times
and climes.
In this book of a purely historical, literary, and cultural character
must be excluded all that refers to the physiological and ethnographical
characteristics of the Teutonic woman and of her Slavic sister. Nor are
we concerned with the theory of their evolution, _i. e._, the search of
the physical principles according to which the consequences of their
existence are true to the laws of their antecedents. Many eminent
scientists have tried their great faculties on this subject of universal
interest and importance. Standard works of a scientific character, like
Floss's _Das Weib in der Natur und Volherhunde_, abound in scientific
and medical bibliography.
Our limited task is merely to deal succinctly with the most general
evolution of the social position and the cultural status of the Teutonic
and, even more briefly, of the Slavic woman at the various epochs of
their respective histories, and how far the history of civilization
among those races was influenced by them, how far the symptoms of
national morality and the degree of culture were shaped by feminine
achievements, proclivities, virtues, and vices. Two thousand years of
the richest, almost unfathomable, history had to be traversed in the
attempt to glean the essential red thread from the enormous masses of
facts which in their entirety would be inaccessible even to the most
universal historical scholar. Most difficult of all the periods is
perhaps the question of the present and actual women's movement, which
is now in its liveliest flux and in a most variable condition both in
the German and in the Slavic world. It is impossible as yet to
systematize the entirety of the problems and the requirements which have
resulted in recent times from the transformation of society with regard
to the position of woman among the two modern peoples. Many of the
questions belong to the domain of private and public law, of political
economy, of sociology, of education in all its phases. The leaders of
state and church and society, the higher schools and universities, are
signally undecided concerning the final solution, though the mist of the
conflict of opinion begins slowly to clear away. Even under the changed
conditions of modern society, one party still clings to the old
tradition of the family ideal of wifehood and motherhood, which is no
longer possible in all cases, as of yore, and considers extra-domestic
activity as abnormal, unhealthy, transient; the other extremists desire
to wipe out the natural differences and the limitations prescribed by
sex to human activity and capacity. A middle ground and a rational
solution will certainly be found during this century.
The author has strenuously endeavored to avail himself for every period
of all the source material and the secondary works accessible to him in
the Library of Congress and in the other libraries of the national
capital. The chapters on the Reformation Period, the Era of Desolation,
and on Woman Held in Tightening Bonds, a long period of dreariness so
distressing and humiliating to German pride, were prepared with skill
and scholarship by Miss Sarah H. Porter, A. M., at the time a graduate
student in the author's department. Credit for the chapter on Russian
Woman belongs to Mr. Alexis V. Babine, of the Library of Congress.
The author also expresses sincere gratitude to the publishers, and
especially to Mr. J. A. Burgan, the publishers' editor, for his careful
revision of the English text and for the generous, vigilant aid extended
to the author throughout the entire work.
HERMANN SCHOENFELD.
The George Washington University.
CHAPTER I
THE WOMEN OF THE PAGAN TEUTONS
Women were valued by the primeval Teutonic race, as by all other races
of the human family, as mere chattels means whereby the profit or the
pleasure of man might be maintained or increased. The custom of burning
the wife or wives with the dead master and husband was, from the
prehistoric times until far into the light of historic days, prevalent
in the tribes of the Teutonic family. Sacrifices of widows were
especially prescribed in eastern Germanic law, and the low status of
woman among the Teutons of the early times is sufficiently indicated by
the established and quasi-legalized right and prerogative of the
husband, as the owner of the female chattel, to bequeath, give, sell, or
hire her person or services to strangers, guests, or friends; or even to
kill her if she committed adultery, or if want and distress made such a
course expedient.
We must admit the harshness and cruelty to which woman, according to the
most ancient conscience of the Teutonic race, could lawfully be
subjected. Evidences that her status was outside of the pale of right
and law is manifest in all historical proofs. Traces of the old status
still abound. One lies in the present refinement of woman's actual
position a refinement which cannot obscure its real origin from the
student of culture and civilization.
It is certain that the prehistoric Germanic community began with the
communal use of women for pleasure or profit. This common use could be
broken and suppressed only by marriage by capture. If the man wished to
have exclusive possession of a wife, he had to procure her from outside
his own community. Besides this exogamic marriage, an endogamic marriage
was later recognized as conferring title, on the condition that the man
reconciled the woman's blood relatives by the payment of a definite
compensation. This system of marriage by capture survived the Migration
period, and was found in Sweden even in the early Middle Ages.
Marriage by treaty also existed even in prehistoric times. This compact
(_Gifta_) is always between the blood relatives of the bride and the
bridegroom. It is a presentation, a giving away (_Verschenkung_) of the
bride. The parent or guardian gives her away, an act which requires no
consent of the bride, but only a counter gift, or rather purchase money,
from the bridegroom. Thus a kind of purchase, the symbolic pursuit of
the bride (_Brautlauf_) as an imitation of the ancient marriage by
capture, and the technical consummation of marriage (_Beilager_), for
which the man, however, owes her a gift (_Morgengabe_), are the phases
of marriage.
Polygamy is the rule at first. The northern Teutons, especially the
Scandinavians, practised an unmitigated polygamy down to a very late
period, and only yielded after a most persistent struggle with the
ethics of Christianity. As late as the eighth century the bitter
accusations of the churchmen against Pepin of Heristal for having two
wives, and their arraignment of Charlemagne's sins of concupiscence,
show how ineradicable this ancient Teutonic usage was. However, as early
as B.C. 57, Caesar mentions King Ariovistus's marriage to two wives as an
exception to Teutonic custom, due, perhaps, to political motives.
Tacitus praises the Germans as those who, with few exceptions, live in
monogamy, and though Tacitus is not an unimpeachable authority, owing to
the fact that he wished to idealize the vigorous race as a model to the
decadent Roman world of his time, his statements seem to prove that at
the dawn of Christianity southern and western German tribes at least had
the highest conception of family purity. Later on, under the teachings
of Christianity, polygamy was first modified, then abolished; and
marriage by capture was either suppressed or treated as a crime.
Upon the status of women among the Teutonic tribes the study of
philology sheds some light. From it we learn that the Gothic _quind_,
woman (in general), and _queue_, married woman, signifies the
child-bearing one, from the verb _quinan, gignere_; or _wip_ (Saxon
_wif_, Old Norse _vif_), indicating the root of _wib_, motion, the
mobile being; though _frouwa, frau_ (Old Norse, _freyja_), means
originally "joyous, mild, gracious," and is used to signify "illustrious
ladies" down to the thirteenth century.
The female child was allowed to live only by grace of the father. If
this right of the father over the life of his female child appears
barbarous, we must understand that the valuation of life in primitive
times is always very low. Not only among the early Teutons, but also
among the early Romans and Slavs, a custom prevailed by which the
children might kill their old or incurably sick parents, because of the
conception that life is valuable only so long as physical vigor dwells
in the body. Believing this, it is easy to conclude that when vigor
departed death was a blessing, the bestowal of which parents could
legitimately expect from their children.
The daughter was bought from the father for marriage purposes for a
value, and, without recourse, she was placed in the absolute possession
of the buyer, who might be an entire stranger to her. Friendship, favor,
or material advantage might induce the buyer to transfer his wife to
whomsoever he chose. Nothing was left to her but resignation, and,
obeying a stern necessity, she followed her husband and taskmaster to
death, "not to sweeten his after-life, but to continue her dreary
service."
The Norse sources are full of tragic examples of immolation. When the
bright sun god Baldur, the wisest, most eloquent, and mildest of all the
Ases, is finally slain, at the instigation of the evil god Loki, by a
twig of mistletoe in the hands of the blind god Hodur, his wife, the
goddess Nanna, is burned with him. Likewise, the Valkyrie Brunhild, in
the Old Norse version of the Siegfried legend, kills herself so that she
may be burned with her beloved Sigurd. Hakon Jarl, the last great
partisan of paganism in Scandinavia, woos in his old age beautiful
Gunhild, but she is unwilling to expose her blooming youth to the risk
of being burned with her aged husband.
The toil and trouble of life rested upon woman's weak shoulders; the
menial work at home and in the field was her lot. The man roved in war
or on the hunting ground, and while at home was an impassive onlooker of
her labors. He gave himself up to the enjoyment of his barbarous
pleasures of drinking mead, lying idly on the skins of the wild beasts
killed by his rude weapons, or gambling with such desperateness as
sometimes to impel him, when all else was lost, to stake wife and
children, nay, his own person, on the result of chance. Freedom and
absolute liberty of life was the manly ideal, since according to the
word of Caesar "trained and accustomed from childhood to no business or
discipline (outside of war and hunt, to be sure,) they do nothing at all
against their own will."
A highly important occupation of the ancient Teutonic woman was the
brewing of beer from barley and other grain. Thus, the Edda relates that
King Alrek of Hordaland decides the question which of his two wives he
is to discard, in order to terminate their eternal altercations in his
household, by the superior skill of one of them in brewing beer. Also
the making and the care of wine, which the Teutons learned to know and
appreciate from the Romans, belonged to the sphere of woman, for women
not infrequently served as cupbearers to the men in their halls. It is,
however, true that the Suevi, at least, forbade the importation of wine
within their realm, because they believed that men by its use became
effeminate and unfit for heavy labors.
Even though we assume the menial labors of the household to have been
done by slaves, yet we learn that royal women took an active part in
washing. The pernicious strife between Brunhild and Gudrun breaks out in
the business of veil washing. (In the old Norse version.)
In its beginnings Teutonic family life was undoubtedly hard; it was,
however, destined to emerge from its early barbarity and one-sidedness
into a strong, sound, and healthy moral relation between the sexes. Only
thus could have been produced a race now dominant throughout the world,
and always capable, by this development, of the best and highest
progress in political advancement.
When first the light of history is shed by the two great historians,
Caesar and Tacitus, upon the Teutonic family eastward of the Rhine and
northward of the Danube, woman has already conquered and appropriated to
herself many traits of Freya and Frigg, the divine mothers of the
Teutons. Something holy and providential is perceived and acknowledged
in woman's nature: she has already become priestess and prophetess and a
political power in the state.
Of the sacrificing and prophesying priestesses of the Cimbri, the first
Teutons who knocked powerfully at the gates of Italy, we shall speak
later. When, in B. C. 58, Caesar offered battle daily to Ariovistus, the
Suevian king who had broken into Gaul and installed himself there, the
latter, though a fierce and heroic warrior, did not accept it. Caesar
learned from Teutonic prisoners that the prophetesses, in consequence of
lots and divinations, forbade the king, if he hoped for victory, to
engage in battle with the Romans before the new moon. The battle was,
however, forced by Caesar and it ended with the total rout of the
Teutons. Caesar's envoy, Procillus, who had been held in chains by
Ariovistus according to the barbarian fashion, escaped from his captors
and related to Caesar his terrible experiences in the camp of the king.
It had been a vital question whether Procillus should be burned at the
stake or kept for a future occasion, and this was thrice determined in
his favor by the lots cast in his presence by the wise women. Here, as
elsewhere, women interpreted the decree of fate. Tacitus mentions
Albruna (called Aliruna by Grimm) as an ancient prophetess venerated by
the Germans during the expeditions of Drusus and Tiberius in the
interior of Germania.
The greatest veneration, however, ever enjoyed by a prophetess, fell to
the lot of Veleda during the heroic war of liberation waged against the
Romans by the Batavi, a branch of the Chatti, under their great leader
Civilis. Veleda's influence extended far beyond the theatre of the
uprising on the "Island of the Batavi." Johannes Scherr, the historian
of German civilization, finds in her name an allusion to Valkyrie, Vala,
Volur, thus indicating the quasi-deification of Veleda. In reality, she
belonged to the tribe of the Bructeri. She received embassies, formed
alliances, and the most precious portions of the booty fell to her
share. Her power was at its height when she correctly predicted the
defeat of the Roman army. She dwelt solitary and inaccessible in a tower
and was the Pythia of the Low-Rhenish tribes. Approach to her was
forbidden in order to increase her divine prestige. On the downfall of
Civilis, she was brought to Rome as a captive to enhance the triumph of
the Roman conqueror, Crealis, the general of Emperor Vespasianus.
There are many other such divine women mentioned in the ancient books,
though the records of their deeds are scanty. Ganna is a prophetess
among the Semnones at the time of Emperor Domitianus. The Langobardian
Gambara and the Alemannian Thiota belong to a late time, probably the
ninth century.
From these few examples it appears clearly that in spite of the harsh
treatment of woman by the more ancient Germans the veneration of her is
inherent in the Teutonic soul. Hence prophetesses gradually become
goddesses in the consciousness of the people; hence the depth of the
later cult of the Virgin Mary (_Marienkultus_), and the extraordinary
sentimental and poetic evolution of the Love Service (_Minnediensf_)
which inspired and enriched what was perhaps, the greatest period of
German literature and life.
The oldest traces of German literature left to us are, in fact, charms
pronounced by such deified women. The Old Saxon word _idis_ (from ict,
ictn, work, activity, _i.e._, the working, active, skilful one) means
originally "divine virgin," especially a goddess of fate. This is
illustrated in the two charms found in Merseburg thus the first story
runs: The gods Phol and Wodan rode into the forest; suddenly Baldur's
horse sprained his foot. Sindgund and her sister Sunna uttered a charm
over him. Volla and her sister Freya did the same; but all in vain. Then
Wodan, who understood such things well, uttered his charm. He charmed
away the sprain in the bone, the blood, and the joint. He uttered the
potent formula: "Bone to bone, blood to blood, joint to joint, as if
they were glued." Great as the art of the four heavenly women is in the
treatment of wounds, it is yet inferior to that of Wodan. But it is an
indication of the Teutonic conception that the curing of the sick and
the tending of the wounded appertains to the domain of woman.
It will furnish a more accurate idea of the alliterative form of this
most ancient Germanic poetry if we place here a clever translation by
Professor Gummere of the story just told:
"Phol and Wodan fared to the holt:
Then Haider's foal's foot was wrenched.
Then Sinthgunt besang it and Sunna, her sister:
Then Fryja besang it and Volla, her sister:
Then Wodan besang it, who well knew how,
The wrenching of bone, the wrenching of blood,
The wrenching of limb: Bone to bone, blood to blood,
Limb to limb, as if it were limed."
The second Merseburg charm attributes to the Idisi (wise women) the
power, on the battlefield, of loosening prisoners' bonds. This is
apparent from its text, which runs:
"Once sat (wise) women (idisi), sat hither and thither.
Some bound bonds; some hindered the host;
Some unfastened the fetters:
Spring from fetters; fly from the foe."
It describes the activity of the heavenly women, the Valkyries, in
battle. They are, according to the charm, divided into three
detachments; the first, binds prisoners in the rear of the army which
they favor; the second, engages the foe; the third group appears in the
rear of the enemy where the prisoners are secured, and, touching their
fetters, utters the formula of deliverance: "Escape from your bonds,
flee from the enemy."
Though Weinhold, perhaps the foremost scholar on the position and
achievements of early Germanic womanhood, does not concede the existence
of a real priestcraft among the ancient Teutons, he gives, nevertheless,
numberless examples of their great influence and prophetic mission. Like
the above-mentioned mythological women, mortal women were supposed to
know secret charms to make the weapons of their men victorious: some
possessing the charm over the blade (_Schwertsegeri_). This spell was
worked by scratching secret runes (letters) upon the handle or blade of
the sword while calling thrice the name of the sword god Tyr.
The most potent influence of Teutonic women rests upon their
guardianship of the sacred runes, which are a primeval, Teutonic method
of searching the future: the power of divination. The Anglo-Saxon and
Scandinavian word _run_ signifies a letter, a writing, or literally a
secret, mystery, confidential speech, counsel. A letter was also called
_runstaef_. Little staffs with significant signs and symbols were thrown
by women, as dice are cast, to the accompaniment of prayers and charms,
and from the result of the cast prophecies were made. Odin (Wodan)
himself taught the wise women the greatest of runes "which [in this
connection] means both writing and magic, and many other arts of life."
Whittier, Kallundborg Church, says of them: "Of the Troll of the Church
they sing the rune: By the Northern Sea in the harvest moon."
The _runes_ or charms are twofold. The good and wholesome ones are
called _galdr_; the pernicious ones, carrying with them sickness,
madness, and death, are called _soidr_. The women of magic possessed of
the art of the _runes_ were called _volur_ or _seidkona_, and wandered
through the land in fantastic attire, a dark cloak set with pearls
around their limbs, a cap of black lambskin on the head, a staff with a
brass button, set with stones, in their hand. Wherever they appeared,
they were reverently invited to a feast and propitiated in every way,
that they might be induced to practise beneficent magic arts during the
night. They enjoyed an almost semi-divine veneration. There were,
however, "_balewise_ women" against whom the Scandinavian warrior was
warned. "The sons of men need an eye of foresight wherever the fray
rages, for _balewise_ [horrible, hideous] women often stand near the way
[with _baleful runes_] blunting swords and minds."
A still higher, more divine and poetic mission than that of bond
breakers is assigned to the Valkyries _i.e._, choosers of the slain or
Walmaids. Odin, the supreme god of the Germanic Olympus, sends them out
to every battlefield to turn the tide of battle and to make choice of
those who are to be slain. Glittering in their armor and their waving
golden hair, bright as the sun, they ride through the air and above the
sea with shields and helmets and sparkling breastplates to execute the
orders of the war god, whose handmaidens they are. With their spears
they designate the heroes who shall fall and whom they afterward conduct
to _Valhalle_ (Valholl), the hall of the slain, the heaven longed for by
the Germanic warrior. This magnificent hall is in Asgard, the garden of
the Ases, the gods of Old Norse mythology. Here Odin receives and
welcomes the gods and all the _einherjes_, the brave warriors who died
in battle.
The hall is resplendent with gold; spears support its ceiling, it is
roofed with shields, and coats of mail adorn it. According to the Elder
Edda it has six hundred and forty doors, through which nine hundred and
sixty _einherjes_ may enter side by side. The Valkyries make it a
perfect paradise. As the servants of the divine host they bear the
drink, take care of the mead horns and wait upon the table. Here they
appear in the loveliness of their peaceful, housewifely mission. This
unwarlike side of their nature should be emphasized, for it is apt to be
forgotten when we think of Valkyries as spirits of the clouds flying
over land and sea, driven by the wind, messengers of the storm god,
shining in lightning, rattling in thunder.
Nowhere does the poetry inherent in the primitive Germanic conscience,
in spite of all its apparent, warlike savagery, appear in a brighter
light than in the many sagas relative to those superhuman, semi-divine
beings. Their conception sheds a brilliant light upon the soul life of
the primitive German as we consider it in connection with womanhood, and
especially with womanhood elevated to the level of the divine.
In one way might the Valkyries be brought into subjection to man. A hero
who surprised them bathing in the quiet forest lake obtained power over
them if he succeeded in carrying off their feather garments, for he thus
prevented them from flying away. In this respect the swan-maiden and the
Valkyries are identical. A swan-maiden thus surprised must then follow
the hero as his wife, until she perchance finds again her feather
garment, for this will permit her to fly away as a swan. One of the
loveliest passages in the _Nibelungenlied_ is the story where fierce
Hagen, the slayer of the sunny hero Siegfried, surprises the
prophetesses of the Danube by stealing their raiment, and thereby forces
them to reveal to him the future fate of himself and of the Burgundians
wandering to the court of the Hunnish king Attila, or Etzel:
"Spake one of the mere women Hadburg was her name:
Here will we tell you, Hagen, O noble knight of fame;
If you now, gallant swordsman, our raiment but restore,
Your journey to Hunland, and all that waits you more.
"Her words were glad to Hagen and made his spirits glad.
He gave them back their raiment. No sooner were they clad
In all their magic garments they made him understand
In truth the fate that waited his ride to Etzel's land.
"It was the second mere-wife, Sigelind, who spake:
'O Son of Aldriana, Hagen, my warning take!
'Twas yearning for the raiment my sister's falsehood made;
And if thou goest to Hunland, Lord Hagen, thou'rt betrayed.'"
The number of the Valkyries varies; more than a dozen are named in the
Elder Edda. The belief prevailed that heroic women of transcendent
beauty could become Valkyries through Odin's choice and love. In the
Norse sagas we find Valkyries in the suites of great kings. In the poems
of the Edda, which deal with the _Volsungs_ and the _Hniflungs_, with
their wonderful power, there are accounts of love between Valkyries and
earthly heroes, ending in the premature tragic death of the hero. Best
known and of the highest poetic value is the _Volsung-saga of Brunhild_
(Brynhildr), the daughter of Odin, immortalized again in Richard
Wagner's music-drama, _Die Walkuere_.
In defiance of the order of Odin, Brunhild chooses victory for her
favorite, Siegmund the Volsung. At the last decisive moment of the
battle the Father of the Universe appears. Siegmund's spear is broken to
splinters by Odin's sword, and he himself sinks dead to the ground to
expiate the crime against Hunding's marital honor. The disobedient
Valkyrie tries to flee from the terrible wrath of Odin; but he overtakes
her and decrees that she shall lie and sleep until a man discovers her
and kisses her lips; to him shall she then belong. Moved by the sorrow
of the proud maiden and mindful of his former love for her, Odin
modifies his punishment by surrounding the sleeping beauty with a
blazing fire, to frighten back every cowardly and unworthy man. Finally,
after long, long years, Siegmund's son, the incomparable hero Siegfried
(Sigurd), penetrates the fire and carries away the divine bride, kissed
to life again, whose passionate outburst of delight is characteristic of
the fallen Valkyrie:
"Hail to thee, Day!
Hail to you, Sons of Day!
Hail to thee, Night and thy daughter Earth!
Hail to thee, fruit-bearing field!
Word and wisdom give to us two, and ever-healing hands!"
(H. S.)
In her unbridled passion lies the cause of her destruction and also that
of the beloved Sigurd. After their union, Sigurd abandons her for the
love of Gudrun, and even inflicts upon her the disgrace of winning her
for Gunnar, whom he impersonates. In an altercation with Gudrun, the
Nibelung princess, she learns that it was Sigurd, not Gunnar, who
conquered her and subjected her. Her wrath is unbounded. She causes the
Nibelungs to murder Sigurd, but in reawakened love she kills herself to
be united in death with her beloved.
Here we have the source of the lovely fairy tales of _Dornroschen and
Sneewittchen_. In the former, the Valkyrie Brunhild is pictured as a
beautiful princess, and the glowing flame becomes a hedge of thorns.
Instead of intrepid Siegfried (Sigurd), who penetrates the flames, a
fairy prince appears, and rescues the sleeping beauty, through a magic
kiss, from the doom of eternal sleep. In the second story, the
metamorphosis of Brunhild is accomplished through a poisoned comb which
is thrust in Sneewittchen's head: as Brunhild sleeps in her brilliant
castle, so the maiden sleeps in the mountains in a glass coffin, guarded
by seven dwarfs, until the prince rescues her.
But not in all cases are the divine women thus transformed into lovely
fairies. Under the influence of mediaeval theology and scholasticism and
their hostility toward the lingering ancient faith, they are distorted
into malicious, hideous beings witches. _Thrud_, the name of a Valkyrie,
is the mediaeval designation for "witch."
In the oldest Germanic sagas we find frequently confounded with the
Valkyries, the _Norns_, the rulers of the fate of gods and men. It is
characteristic, indeed, of the Germanic world conception, as, in fact,
also of the cognate Greek and Roman mythology, that the fate of men and
gods rests in the hands of divine women; for where the Valkyries act by
order of Odin, the _Norns_ act independently and by their own free will.
They weave the web of men's lives, "stretching it from the radiant dawn
to the glowing sunset." The destiny of the world lies with them, and
nothing that is, is exempt from their irrevocable decrees. Time and
space are embraced in the domain of their influence: _Urd_ (the Past),
_Verdande_ (the Present), and _Skuld_ (the Future) supervise, as it
were, the judgment place of the gods where they meet in council at the
sacred well, _Urdharbrunn_, at the foot of the ash tree _Yggdrasil_. It
is interesting to note how their influence is reflected and depicted by
Shakespeare's genius in Macbeth, where the three witches surely, though
perhaps unconsciously, derive their origin from the Norse Norns. In the
witches' kitchen in Goethe's Faust is brewed likewise the charm that
controls the fateful lives of Faust and Gretchen.
[Illustration 2:
_CAPTURE OF THUSNELDA
After the painting by H Konig_
_It is in the period of Roman attack that we meet for the first time
agreat royal character, Thusnelda, the wife of Arminius, the liberator
of Germania from a foreign yoke. Her history is the oldest Teutonic love
story. Betrothed to another man, she is by force carried away by
Arminius from her father Segestes, the friend of the Romans. Betrayed to
the latter under Drusus Germanicus, she is captured. Inspired more by
the spirit of her husband than by that of her father--no tear, no
complaint or entreaty came from Thusnelda's lips at her capture. The
news of the capture of his wife and of her slavery exasperated Arminius
to mad rage. But in vain he flew to her rescue. With her son and her
brother Segimunt she adorned the triumph of Drusus, while traitor
Segestes looked on._]
Under such circumstances the elevation of woman among the Teutons was
more of a religious than of a social character. The Teuton considered
woman as a physically weak but spiritually strong being, who had a just
claim to protection and reverence. Though it is true that women
prophetesses, like Veleda and Albruna with their far-reaching influence,
were regarded rather as semi-divine beings than as ordinary women, and
though the legal status of woman was thoroughly subordinated to that of
man, being in fact about equal to that of a minor child, yet her honor
and chastity were held sacred, and her intellectual gifts were highly
prized. Her natural physical weakness began to be her strength, and her
lack of legal rights was compensated for by her great spiritual
influence in family and society.
The potential and inherent virtue, in the Latin sense, and the physical
as well as moral vigor of Teutonic men began to assert itself earlier
than among many other races further advanced in civilization. It rose
unconsciously from the stage of crude sensuality to a free humanity. But
we must in no wise modernize the single trait of the ancient veneration
of woman, as mentioned above. Though harshness and cruelty were yet the
order of the day, nevertheless, gradually the cruel tenets of primitive
law began to be softened and modified in practice by many exceptions.
This occurred especially in the higher levels of primitive society. The
natural affections arising from family ties and blood relationship
steadily transformed woman's status in fact, if not in law. What the
dim, though growing intellect of the man, trained only for war and the
hunt, could not compass, the natural reasoning power of woman, her
natural womanly prudence, did accomplish. Concessions regarding the
purchase money, which originally subjected her absolutely to the buyer,
were made in her favor; the purchase of her body and soul became
gradually the acquisition of the right to protect her; the husband's
power over his wife's body became more limited; her immolation with her
dead husband fell into disuse; the widow's right over her children, even
her male children, arose and increased. Womanly power and influence made
many a free man dependent, regardless of law; women began to exert a
tremendous influence over their husbands, their tribes, their state
formations. All the Roman sources preserved to us prove that when the
Romans, after the conquest of Gaul, entered upon the gigantic task of
subjugating the Germans, women played a prominent part in the political
upheaval which then occurred.
It is in the period of Roman attack that we meet for the first time a
great royal character, a tragic type of a historical German woman:
Thusnelda, the wife of Arminius (Hermann), prince of the Cherusci, the
liberator of Germania from a foreign yoke. Her history is the oldest
Teutonic love story. History, legend, and poetry have vied in idealizing
and immortalizing her. Betrothed to another man, she is by force carried
away by Arminius from her father Segestes, Arminius's political
adversary, the friend of the Romans. Betrayed to the latter under Drusus
Germanicus, she is captured. "Inspired more by the spirit of her husband
than by that of her father no tear, no complaint or entreaty came from
Thusnelda's lips at her capture; with her hands clasped over her bosom,
she looked down silently at her pregnant body. The news of the capture
of his wife and of her slavery exasperated Arminius to mad rage. But in
vain he flew to her rescue. She was carried to Rome and there bore
Thumelicus. With her son and her brother Segimunt she adorned the
triumph of Drusus, while the traitor Segestes looked on, as son,
daughter, and grandson walked in chains before the carriage of the
triumphator." Indeed, Strabo, the celebrated Greek geographer, confirms
the story in his _Geographica_ (vii, i, 4): "To them, conquerors of
Varus in the Teutoburg forest, Drusus Germanicus owed a splendid triumph
at which the foremost enemies were carried personally in triumph:
Segimuntos, son of Segestes, chieftain of the Cherusci, and his sister
Thusnelda, with Thumelicus, her three years' old son. Segestes, however,
who from the beginning had not shared his son's policy, but had rather
passed to our side, overwhelmed with honors, beheld how those who ought
to have been dearest to him, walked in chains." Here Johannes Scherr
makes the pertinent remark that, eighteen centuries before Napoleon had
founded the Rhenish Confederacy, there were already in existence princes
of that Confederacy; that is, traitors to the German cause.
How long Thusnelda outlived the disgrace is unknown. It is reported,
however, that, to accomplish the revenge of the Romans, Thumelicus was
trained to be a gladiator at Ravenna, if nothing worse. Gottling, in
_Thusnelda and Thumelicus, in Contemporaneous Pictures_, 1856, seems to
have proved that the beautiful marble statue of a German woman in the
Loggia de' Lanzi at Florence represents Arminius's wife bearing herself
with a wonderful majesty to impress the Romans with her regality.
Now, in contrast to Thusnelda's strength, we have Bissula, a picture of
Germanic grace. Ausonius, a poet of the late Roman period, sketches the
portrait of this German maiden a prisoner who had been captured in the
expeditions of Emperor Valentinianus I. against the Alemanni on the
Neckar and Upper Rhine. She fell as booty to the poet, who stood high in
pedagogical and political offices. The beauty and grace of this charming
Alemannian maiden contrast strangely with the majesty and heroism and
tragic bitterness of Armin's wife. The slave Bissula becomes a queen, as
the queen had become a slave. Ausonius speaks with enthusiastic
tenderness of her shining countenance, her blue eyes and blonde hair.
"Art possesses no means," he says, "to imitate so much grace."
"'Bissula, inimitable in wax or in color,
Nature adorned with charms, as art never succeeds.
Mix then, O painter, the rose with the white of the lily,
Choose then the fragrant blend to paint fair Bissula's face.'"
(H. S.)
The ancient Teutonic woman is, in general, represented as beautiful in
countenance and form. Her rich, reddish-blond, flowing hair became the
envy and imitation of the Roman ladies of fashion. Ovid and other poets
mention how the Roman ladies tried to change their black hair to German
blond. The _rutilce comce_ of Tacitus, became a valued Roman article of
trade. In Heinrich von Kleist's drama, _Die Hermannschlacht_,
Thusnelda's revenge upon the Roman general Ventidius hinges upon an
intercepted letter of his, containing a lock of her golden hair obtained
by ruse, and sent to his Roman princess:
"Varus, O princess, stands with seven legions
Victorious on Cheruscan land:
Cheruscan land, mind well, where those locks do grow,
Shining like gold and soft like Roman silk.
Now mindful of the word spoken in jest by thee,
When last thou saw'st me parting for the war:
I send a lock of hair destined for thee,
When Hermann falls, to clip from his queen's head.
By Styx! the trader by the capitol can't offer it:
It's a love token from the foremost lady of the land:
The Princess of Cheruscia herself."
(H. S.)
The blue eyes, described by the Roman witnesses as full of fire and
chaste defiance, the white rose cheeks and the strong, well-proportioned
form make almost ideal the beauty of the German woman when undefiled by
foreign admixture. Emphatically does Tacitus state that the German
tribes not taking in foreign blood became a genuine, unmixed nation,
similar only to themselves (_Germanice populos, nullis aliis aliarum
nationum connubiis infectos, propriam et sinceram et tantum sui simikm
gentem exstitisse._)
The physical beauty of the ancient German woman was heightened by the
fashion of her garments, though Tacitus relates that these were not
essentially different from those of man. Despite the assertion of the
historian, we do not doubt that a touch of innocent vanity was present:
a cloak of skin or fur, held together by a gold buckle, or, in the case
of the poor and lowly, by a thorn, constituted the outer garment. This
usually covered a linen, purple-edged undergarment, somewhat like the
Roman tunic, which, by its cut, left the arms, neck, and the upper
breast uncovered. The question of dress is so interesting and so
indicative not only of the state of civilization of any people, but also
of their moral characteristics and habits, that works like Weiss's
_Kostumkunde_, and Falke's _Deutsche Trachten und Modenwelt_, with the
object lessons of good pictures, shed a flood of light upon the
subsequent stages of the evolution of dress. The scanty clothing of the
early historical period was chiefly for out-of-door use; it gave way to
absolute nakedness at the hearth-fire of home, as well as at the common
bathing of the two sexes.
Caesar's account of the sexual life of the Germans of his time is of
great importance to our theme. Says the imperial historian: "It is a
matter of the highest praise to the youth of a people whose minds, from
early childhood, had been directed to strenuous conditions and warlike
efforts, to remain sexually undeveloped as long as possible, since this
made the body stately and vigorous, and strengthened the muscles. It was
a disgrace for a youth to know a woman before his twentieth year. Nor
could such things be kept secret, since both sexes bathed together in
the rivers, and had only furs as garments, which left the body, to a
large part, naked."
Their garments, as described above, remained, on the whole, unchanged
for centuries; even until about the time of the Prankish kings. The
upper body was free, though often cloaked, the lower body clothed in
trousers, _braccce_, the genuine manly German garment, and it is thus
clothed that we meet their men in the first historic records. In winter
a sagum, mantle, was added, according to Tacitus and Pomponius Mela. We
have in plastic art only two pictorial reproductions: the so-called
_Vienna gemma_, Augustus's Pannonian triumph, and the _Parisian gemma_,
Germanicus's triumph, to show us objectively the vestments of the
ancient Germans.
A word concerning the proper names of ancient Teutonic women may be in
order here. Wilhelm Scherer, the eminent historian of German literature,
divides them into two distinct groups: those which combine nature and
beauty and tell of love, gentle grace, purity, and constancy; and those
which apply to battle, arms, victory counselling, inspiring, tending
men. Perhaps two different epochs in the spiritual growth of the nation
are thus indicated. Most ancient names seem to be: _Skonea_ (_schon_,
beautiful); _Berchta_ (shining); _Heidr_ (_heiter_, serene); _Liba_
(living); _Swinda_ (swift); compounds like _Swanhvit_ (swanwhite);
_Adalhert; Brunhild; Kriemhilde_ (maiden in armor, with helmet).
As we proceed through the centuries with the aid of existing documents,
we find again and again that in Germanic women chastity is the
fundamental trait, as loyalty and good faith is in man. And this despite
the evidences of the violation of the rule which are found in the law
that provided that adultery by women should be punished with unmitigated
cruelty, and that the punishment according to the ancient Germanic law
should be left entirely to the outraged husband. In the presence of her
relatives, her hair, the pride of a free woman, is cut; then she is
expelled naked from the house and scourged through the village, and
sometimes buried to her neck and left to die. There is many a Teutonic
Lucretia, though we meet also now and then with some German Judiths. The
Langobard king Sighart falls in love with the beautiful wife of Nannigo,
one of his men. She rejects his wooing with contempt. The prince,
employing the old means of tyrants since King David's time, sends the
husband as an ambassador to Africa, and forces the wife to submit to
him. Her heart is broken; she lays aside the vestments of a noblewoman,
and clothes herself in sackcloth and ashes. When her husband returns,
she bids him kill her, since a stranger has stained his and her honor.
Though her husband tried to console her, no smile ever sweetened her
lips again.
Paulus Diaconus relates, in the _Gesta Langobardorum_, a trait of
touching humility and modesty in a Teutonic woman, Radberg, wife of Duke
Bemmo, in the Forum Julii. Conscious of her lack of physical beauty and
deeming herself unworthy of her noble husband, she requests him to
divorce her for some better wife. But Bemmo esteemed her chastity and
loyalty higher than the beauty of others, and led an ideal life with
her.
But in spite of many such lovely traits, it cannot be denied that a
strong, fierce atmosphere pervades woman's life in Teutonic antiquity.
The womanly emotions for good or for evil almost surpass human measure.
Tremendous feelings find expression in Titanic passions and actions, or,
as Weinhold has it: "No tender tears are shed, but the flood of the eyes
rolls, mixed with blood, over the cheeks and garments of ancient
Teutonic woman." In a wild woe, Brunhild wrings her hands so that the
cups rattle on the wall boards and the fowl start up frightened in the
courtyard. The whole house shook to its foundations from her bitter
laugh at Siegfried's death, which she had caused. Freya's diadem bursts
because of the wrathful motion of her bosom. In the twilight between
mythology and history love is as unmeasured as hate in Teutonic women.
All the sagas of all the legendary circles (_Sagenkreise_), the sagas of
_Brunhild and Kriemhilde_, of _Hildegund, bride of Walther of
Aquitaine_, of _Gudrun_, of _Sigrun, Helgi's wife_, teach us the nature
of the Teutonic woman's love and hate. Only the strength and power of
the man awaken love in her bosom. She inclines toward even an unloved
man when he proves strong and heroic; and only to the bravest is the
Teutonic maiden willing to give her heart and hand. Brunhild stakes her
own person as a prize for the bravest hero in the games for warlike
honors. When she falls by fraud to the lot of the inferior and weaker
man, her nature rebels in a terrific wrath that destroys all, the
beloved and the unbeloved, and those connected with both. Pride, too, is
the incentive of woman's action, thus spurring man to crime or to noble
endeavor, as the case may be.
Harald Schonhaar (Fairhair), of Norway, wooes Gyda, daughter of a petty
Norwegian king. But she will not sacrifice her virginity to a man who
rules over a small land. Proudly she sneers: "Methinks it strange that
none of the princes of Norway strives to conquer the whole land, like
Gorm in Denmark, and Erich in Sweden." This arouses Harald the wooer,
and he begins that fight for the supremacy over all Norway that wins
both lands and Gyda. But a still prouder maiden, Reginhild of Denmark,
conquers him, though he has ten wives and twenty concubines. The maiden
scornfully rejects his love, claiming that no king in the world is
powerful and great enough for her to sacrifice her virginity for the
thirtieth part of his love. Thereupon, Harald dismisses his thirty women
and takes Reginhild as his sole bride.
The pride of the Teutonic woman extends, however, to an anxious regard
also for her husband's honor. The old German romance of Erek and Enite
demonstrates that she will rather lose her husband forever than see him
disgraced by effeminate idleness.
Even the beasts succumb to the influence of Swanhild, daughter of Gudrun
and Sigurd. On a false charge against her womanly honor, she is
condemned to be trampled to death by the hoofs of wild horses. "But when
she looked up at them, the horses dared not tread upon her, and Bike
(_Bicce, Sibich_), the treacherous counsellor of the king, had a sack
drawn over her eyes.... and so she ended her life."
The noblest poetic expression of the wonderful depth of ancient Teutonic
love is set forth in the _Helgi songs_ of the Elder Edda, the tragic
power of which truly raises them to the standard of the Germanic _Song
of Songs_.
Helgi, a Volsung, at the age of fifteen years, avenges the death of his
father, Siegmund, on Hunding and his whole race, whom he exterminates in
a fierce battle. As he is about to leave the battlefield, he sees the
train of Valkyries riding through the air in their golden armor, rays of
light shining from their spears and helmets. Helgi invites them to his
triumphal feast in his royal hall. Yet Sigrun, the most beautiful among
the Valkyries, exclaims from her lofty white horse:
"'Woe is me! Other cares than feasting oppress my heart.
All-father has betrothed me to an unbeloved man.
Fierce Hodbroddr will carry me off in a few nights, if you,
O hero, shining in the beauty of youth, will not save me and
challenge him to mortal combat.'"
With these words she entwines caressingly her white arms around the neck
of Helgi, whose heart melts and inclines to her. He challenges the hated
rival, and on the morning of the combat he stands against the countless
host of Hodbroddr, who is aided by Sigrun's father and brothers, who are
resentful of the bold Helgi's suit. The earth trembles and shakes under
the onslaught, but Helgi's resistless sword mows down his enemies.
Beasts and birds of the field hold a rich repast. When the tumult of the
battle subsides, Sigrun rides over the field, and her lamentation for
her slain father and brothers is heard amid the exultations of victory.
Only one brother, Dag, survives, and he weds her to Helgi. But impelled
by the sacred duty of blood revenge, he breaks the peace which he has
sworn. Odin himself, wrathful against the Volsung, offers Dag his
invincible spear. In the ensuing combat Helgi falls. Before his sister,
Helgi's loving wife, the slayer pleads the will of Odin and the Norns,
goddesses of immutable fate, and offers rich compensation to her. But
Sigrun breaks out in bitter woe, cursing her brother: he shall be a wolf
out in the forest, all joy shall be far away from him, no horse shall
carry him, the ship which may save him from his enemies shall stand
still under him.
The tomb is piled up over Helgi's corpse. When Sigrun's maid goes to the
grave, the dead master comes riding along and bids her ask his wife to
soothe his wounds. Before he can lay aside his bloody armor, Sigrun
embraces him, lamenting how cold are his hands, how wet he is with the
dew of the night. Helgi replies: "Thine is the blame; for every tear
which thou weepest falls as a cold and piercing drop of blood upon my
bosom. But let us be of good cheer and drink the sweet mead, let no one
complain of the wound on my breast, since, though dead am I, my wife is
with me." Sigrun prepares the couch to sleep on the breast of the
beloved dead, as she did when he was still alive. Helgi, touched by so
much love, exclaims: "It has happened what no one ever deemed possible:
the white daughter of Hagen, the living one, sleeps in the arms of the
dead." At the morning dawn, before the cock crows, Helgi is obliged to
return to Valhalla, and Sigrun returns to her solitary palace. In the
evening she awaits him, but waits in vain, and in her sorrow her heart
breaks.
The motive of this legend lives in German literature in varied forms.
Burger has reawakened it in _Lenore_, the greatest German ballad.
But, to conclude the chapter on the Teutonic women of antiquity, it is
necessary to return once more to the prose of history, where, for the
first time, the women of the Teutons, in their general aspect, enter
into the bright light of historical observation, in this instance so
much the more valuable, since it is the observation of the enemy. In
conformity with our other sources, the Greek-Roman historians, Plutarch,
Dion Cassius, and Strabo, have to report regarding Teutonic womanhood
only traits of tremendous strength, power, and love of liberty. Savage
virtue and heroism are there, but not a single trait of grace and
loveliness appears in their accounts. And if there is exaggeration, it
simply proves the terror the furor Teutonicus which was inculcated by
the Teutons into the hearts of the Romans at their very first encounter.
The years B. C. 113-101 witnessed the first Titanic clash and conflict
between the Cimbri and the Teutones, mere splinters of the Teutonic
race, and the world power of the Roman Republic at the height and zenith
of its greatness. For the first time, Teutons thundered at the gates of
the Alpine entrance to Rome, and thus began the incessant struggle which
continued for nearly six centuries between the two most powerful races
in the history of the world, until the Empire finally succumbed.
When one legionary army after another, led by the foremost commanders of
Rome, had been destroyed under the onslaught of the two combined tribes,
the Cimbri and the Teutones, it was only the military genius of Marius
which finally succeeded in stemming the tide of the Teutonic flood, and
then only after the tribes had divided their forces and, thus weakened,
hurled their naked bodies against the phalanx of the overwhelming Roman
army. When the legionaries of Rome pursued the defeated Teutones to
their camp, Plutarch relates: "the Teuton women met them with swords and
axes, and making a terrible outcry, drove the fugitives as well as the
pursuers back, the first as traitors, the others as enemies, and mixing
among the warriors, with their bare arms pulling away the shields of the
Romans and laying hold on their swords, endured the wounds and slashing
of their bodies invincible unto death with undaunted resolution."
An account by Valerius Maximus emphasizes not only the bravery, but also
the chastity of the Teuton women. When captured, they requested of the
victor Marius to consecrate them to the service of Vesta's sacred
virgins, promising to keep themselves as pure and immaculate as the
goddess and her servants. Upon the refusal of their request they
strangled themselves the following night. Thus ended the battle of Aquas
Sextise in B. C. 102, with the annihilation of the Teutones root and
branch.
In the subsequent year Marius destroyed the Cimbri also, on the Raudian
fields near Vercellas. Among their women were prophetesses, hoary with
age, barefooted, clothed in white garments with iron girdles, and fine
flaxen cloaks. Thus apparelled they went sword in hand to meet the
prisoners of war in camp, whom, after wreathing them, they conducted to
a large iron kettle. Then one of them mounted a high step and bending
over the kettle, cut the throat of the prisoner who had been lifted over
the edge, and prophesied from the blood which streamed into the brass
vessel.
During the battle they drummed on hides fastened over the wagons, and
made a horrible noise. When the largest and most warlike part of the
Cimbri had been annihilated, and the Romans pursued the rest within the
wall of the camp, they were astounded by a highly tragic spectacle. The
Cimbri women standing in black garments of mourning on the wagons,
inflicted death upon the fugitives: one upon her husband, another upon
her brother, another again upon her father. But their own children they
strangled and hurled under the wheels of the wagons and under the hoofs
of the horses. Finally they laid hands upon themselves. One, it is said,
was hanging from the top of a wagon with her children, tied with ropes,
dangling from her ankles.
The later struggles, too, between the Teuton and the Roman offer many
examples of the German woman's absolute contempt of a life which could
be preserved only in shame and servitude.
When Drusus battled with the Cherusci, Suevi, and Sigambri, it happened
that their women, besieged by the Romans in their wagon fortifications
(_Wageriburg_), instead of surrendering, desperately defended themselves
with everything that might serve as a weapon. Finally despairing, they
struck their children against the ground and hurled their dead bodies in
the face of the enemy. The most perfect model of heroic stoicism in
connection with those wars, Princess Thusnelda, whose fate we discussed
above, was only the first woman among her equals. Teutonic women in
those primitive times invariably followed their husbands to war,
carrying food and encouragement to the warriors in battle, counting
proudly the wounds of their husbands and sons, and nursing the wounded.
Through threats or entreaties they restored many a tottering battle
array, inciting the men to heroism.