Chapter XI: Section VIII: Virility of the Saxon Race

Such was this race, the last born of the sister races, which, in the decay of the other two, the Latin and the Greek, brings to the world a new civilization, with a new character and genius. Inferior to these in many respects, it surpasses them in not a few. Amidst the woods and mire and snows, under a sad, inclement sky, gross instincts have gained the day during this long barbarism. The German has not acquired gay humor, unreserved facility, the feeling for harmonious beauty; his great phlegmatic body continues savage and stiff, greedy and brutal; his rude and unpliable mind is still inclined to savagery, and restive under culture. Dull and congealed, his ideas cannot expand with facility and freedom, with a natural sequence and an instinctive regularity. But this spirit, void of the sentiment of the beautiful, is all the more apt for the sentiment of the true. The deep and incisive impression which he receives from contact with objects, and which as yet he can only express by a cry, will afterwards liberate him from the Latin rhetoric, and will vent itself on things rather than on words. Moreover, under the constraint of climate and solitude, by the habit of resistance and effort, his ideal is changed. Manly and moral instincts have gained the empire over him; and amongst them the need of independence, the disposition for serious and strict manners, the inclination for devotion and veneration, the worship of heroism. Here are the foundations and the elements of a civilization, slower but sounder, less careful of what is agreeable and elegant, more based on justice and truth.[94] Hitherto at least the race is intact, intact in its primitive coarseness; the Roman cultivation could neither develop nor deform it. If Christianity took root, it was owing to natural affinities, but it produced no change in the native genius. Now approaches a new conquest, which is to bring this time men, as well as ideas. The Saxons, meanwhile, after the wont of German races, vigorous and fertile, have within the past six centuries multiplied enormously. They were now about two millions, and the Norman army numbered sixty thousand.[95] In vain these Normans become transformed, gallicized; by their origin, and substantially in themselves they are still the relatives of those whom they conquered. In vain they imported their manners and their poesy, and introduced into the language a third part of its words; this language continues altogether German in element and in substance.[96] Though the grammar changed, it changed integrally, by an internal action, in the same sense as its continental cognates. At the end of three hundred years the conquerors themselves were conquered; their speech became English; and owing to frequent intermarriage, the English blood ended by gaining the predominance over the Norman blood in their veins. The race finally remains Saxon. If the old poetic genius disappears after the Conquest, it is as a river disappears, and flows for a while underground. In five centuries it will emerge once more.

[Footnote 8: Malte-Brun, IV. 398. Not counting bays, gulfs, and canals, the sixteenth part of the country is covered by water. The dialect of Jutland bears still a great resemblance to English.]

[Footnote 9: See Ruysdaal's painting in Mr. Baring's collection. Of the three Saxon islands, North Strandt, Busen, and Heligoland, North Strandt was inundated by the sea in 1300, 1483, 1532, 1615, and almost destroyed in 1634. Busen is a level plain, beaten by storms, which it has been found necessary to surround by a dyke. Heligoland was laid waste by the sea in 800, 1300, 1500, 1649, the last time so violently that only a portion of it remained.--Turner, "History of Anglo-Saxons," 1852, I. 97.]

[Footnote 10: Heine, "The North Sea," translated by Charles G. Leland. See Tacitus, "Annals," book 2, for the impressions of the Romans, "truculentia cœli."]

[Footnote 11: Watten, Platen, Sande, Düneninseln.]

[Footnote 12: Nine or ten miles out near Heligoland, are the nearest soundings of about fifty fathoms.]

[Footnote 13: Palgrave, "Saxon Commonwealth," vol. I.]

[Footnote 14: "Notes of a Journey in England."]

[Footnote 15: Léonce de Lavergne, "De l'Agriculture anglaise." "The soil is much worse than that of France."]

[Footnote 16: There are at least four rivers in England passing by the name of "Ouse," which is only another form of "ooze."--Tr.]

[Footnote 17: Tacitus, "De moribus Germanorum," passim: Diem noctemque continuare potando, nulli proborum.--Sera juvenum Venus.--Totos dies juxta focum atque ignem agunt. Dargaud, "Voyage en Danemark. They take six meals per day, the first at five o'clock in the morning. One should see the faces and meals at Hamburg and at Amsterdam."]

[Footnote 18: Bede, v. 10. Sidonius, VIII. 6. Lingard, "History of England," 1854, I. chap. 2.]

[Footnote 19: Zozimos, III. 147. Amm. Marcellinus, XXVIII. 526.]

[Footnote 20: Aug. Thierry, "Hist. S. Edmundi," VI. 441. See Ynglingasaga, and especially Egil's Saga.]

[Footnote 21: Lingard, "History of England," I. 164, says, however, "Every tenth man out of the six hundred received his liberty, and of the rest a few were selected for slavery."--Tr.]

[Footnote 22: Franks, Frisians, Saxons, Danes, up the gaps that exist in the history of Norwegians, Icelanders are one and the same people. Their language, laws, religion, poetry, differ but little. The more northern continue longest in their primitive manners. Germany in the fourth and fifth centuries, Denmark and Norway in the seventh and eighth. Iceland in the tenth and eleventh centuries, present the same condition, and the muniments of each country will fill up the gaps that exist in the history of the others.]

[Footnote 23: Tacitus, De moribus Germanotum, XXII: Gens nec astuta nec callida.]

[Footnote 24: William of Malmesbury. Henry of Huntingdon, VI. 365.]

[Footnote 25: Tacitus, "De moribus Germanorum," XXII., XXIII.]

[Footnote 26: Kemble, "Saxons in England," 1849, I. 70, II. 184. "The Acts of an Anglo-Saxon parliament are a series of treaties of peace between all the associations which make up the State; a continual revision and renewal of the alliances offensive and defensive of all the free men. They are universally mutual contracts for the maintenance of the frid or peace."]

[Footnote 27: A large district; the word is still existing in German, as Rheingau, Breiasgau.--Tr.]

[Footnote 28: Turner, "History of the Anglo-Saxons," II. 440, Laws of Ina.]

[Footnote 29: Such a band consisted of thirty-five men or more.]

[Footnote 30: Milton's expression. Lingard's History, I. chap. 3. This history bears much resemblance to that of the Franks in Gaul. See Gregory of Tours. The Saxons, like the Franks, somewhat softened, but rather degenerated, were pillaged and massacred by those of their Northern brothers who still remained in a savage state.]

[Footnote 31: Vita S. Dunstani, "Anglia Sacra," II.]

[Footnote 32: It is amusing to compare the story of Edwy and Elgiva in Turner, II. 216, etc., and then Lingard, I. 132, etc. The first accuses Dunstan, the other defends him.--Tr.]

[Footnote 33: "Life of Bishop Wolstan."]

[Footnote 34: Tantæ sævitiæ erant fratres illi quod, cum alicujus nitidam villam conspicerent, dominatorem de nocte interfici juberent, totamque progeniem illius possessionemque defuncti obtinerent. Turner, III. 27. Henry of Huntingdon, VI. 367.]

[Footnote 35: "Pene gigas statura," says the chronicler. Henry of Huntingdon, VI. 367. Kemble, I. 393. Turner, II. 318.]

[Footnote 36: Grimm, "Mythology," 53, Preface.]

[Footnote 37: Tacitus, XX. XXIII., XI., XII. et passim. We may still see the traces of this taste in English dwellings.]

[Footnote 38: Ibid. XIII.]

[Footnote 39: Tacitus, XIX., VIII., XVI. Kemble, I. 232.]

[Footnote 40: Tacitus, XIV.]

[Footnote 41: "In omni domo, nudi et sordidi... Plus per otium transigunt, dediti somno, ciboque, otos dies juxta focum atque ignem agunt."]

[Footnote 42: Grimm, 53, Preface. Tacitus, X.]

[Footnote 43: "Deorum nominibus appellant secretum illud, quod sola reverentia vident." Later on, at Upsala for instance, they had images (Adam of Bremen, "Historia Ecclesiastica"). Wuotan (Odin), signifies etymologically the All-Powerful, him who penetrates and circulates through everything (Grimm, "Mythology").]

[Footnote 44: "Sæmundar Edda, Snorra Edda," ed. Copenhagen, three vols., passim. Mr. Bergmann has translated several of these poems into French, which Mr. Taine quotes. The translator has generally made use of the edition of Mr. Thorpe, London, 1866.]

[Footnote 45: Hel, the goddess of death, born of Loki and Angrboda.--Tr.]

[Footnote 46: Thorpe, "The Edda of Sæmund, the Vala's Prophecy," str. 48-56, p. 9 et passim.]

[Footnote 47: "Fafnismâl Edda." This epic is common to the Northern races, as is the Iliad to the Greek populations, and is found almost entire in Germany in the Nibelungen Lied. The translator has also used Magnusson and Morris's poetical version of the "Völsunga Saga," and certain songs of the "Elder Edda," London, 1870.]

[Footnote 48: "Thorpe, The Edda of Sæmund, Third Lay of Sigurd Fafnicide," str. 62-64, p. 83.]

[Footnote 49: Magnusson and Morris, "Story of the Volsungs and Nibelungs, Lamentation of Guaran," p. 118 et passim.]

[Footnote 50: Thorpe, "The Edda of Sæmund, Lay of Atli," str. 21-27, p. 117.]

[Footnote 51: Ibid., str. 38, p. 119.]

[Footnote 52: This word signifies men who fought without a breastplate, perhaps in shirts only; Scottice, "Baresarks."--Tr.]

[Footnote 53: See the "Life of Sweyn," of Hereward, etc., even up to the time of the Conquest.]

[Footnote 54: Beowulf, passim. Death of Byrhtnoth.]

[Footnote 55: "The Wanderer, the Exile's Song, Codex Exoniensis," published by Thorpe.]

[Footnote 56: Turner, "History of the Anglo-saxons", III. 63.]

[Footnote 57: Alfred borrows his portrait from Boethius, but almost entirely rewrites it.]

[Footnote 58: Kemble thinks that the origin of this poem is very ancient, perhaps contemporary with the invasion of the Angles and Saxons, but that the version we possess is later than the seventh century.--Kemble's "Beowulf," text and translation, 1833. The characters are Danish.]

[Footnote 59: Kemble's "Beowulf," XI. p. 32.]

[Footnote 60: Ibid. XII. p. 34.]

[Footnote 61: "Beowulf," XXII., XXIII. p. 62 et passim.]

[Footnote 62: "Beowulf," XXXIII., XXXVI. p. 94 et passim.]

[Footnote 63: Ibid, XXXVII., XXXVIII. p. 110 et passim. I have throughout always used the very words of Kemble's translation.--Tr.]

[Footnote 64: Conybeare's "Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry," 1826, "Battle of Finsborough," p. 175. The complete collection of Anglo-Saxon poetry has been published by M. Grein.]

[Footnote 65: Turner, "History of Anglo-Saxons," III. book 9, ch. I. p. 245.]

[Footnote 66: The cleverest Anglo-Saxon scholars, Turner, Conybeare, Thorpe, recognize this difficulty.]

[Footnote 67: Turner, III. 231 et passim. The translations in French, however literal, do injustice to the text; that language is too clear, too logical. No Frenchman can understand this extraordinary phase of intellect, except by taking a dictionary, and deciphering some pages of Anglo-Saxon for a fortnight.]

[Footnote 68: Turner remarks that the same idea expressed by King Alfred, in prose and then in verse takes in the first case seven words, in the second five.--"History of the Anglo-Saxons," III. 235.]

[Footnote 69: 596-625. Aug. Thierry, I. 81; Bede, XII. 2.]

[Footnote 70: Jouffroy, "Problem of Human Destiny."]

[Footnote 71: Michelet, preface to "La Renaissance"; Didron, "Histoire de Dieu."]

[Footnote 72: About 630. See "Codex Exoniensis," Thorpe.]

[Footnote 73: Bede, IV. 24.]

[Footnote 74: Conybeare's "Illustrations," p. 271.]

[Footnote 75: Bretwalda was a species of warking, or temporary and elective chief of all the Saxons.--Tr.]

[Footnote 76: The Æsir (sing. As) are the gods of the Scandinavian nations, of whom Odin was the chief.--Tr.]

[Footnote 77: Kemble, I. I. XII. In this chapter he has collected many features which show the endurance of the ancient mythology.]

[Footnote 78: Nástrand is the strand or shore of the dead.--Tr.]

[Footnote 79: Turner, "History of Anglo-Saxons," III. book 9, ch. 3, p. 271.]

[Footnote 80: Ibid. III. book o, ch. 3, p. 272.]

[Footnote 81: Turner, "History of Anglo-Saxons," III. book 9, ch. 3, p. 274.]

[Footnote 82: Grein, "Bibliothek der Angelsæchsischen poesie."]

[Footnote 83: Thorpe, "Cædmon," 1832, XLVII. p. 206.]

[Footnote 84: Ibid. II. p. 7. A likeness exists between this song and corresponding portions of the Edda.]

[Footnote 85: Ibid. IV. p. 18.]

[Footnote 86: This is Milton's opening also. (See "Paradise Lost," book I. verse 242, etc.) One would think that he must have had some knowledge of Cædmon from the translation of Junius.]

[Footnote 87: Thorpe, "Cædmon," IV. p. 23.]

[Footnote 88: They themselves feel their impotence and decrepitude. Bede, dividing the history of the world into six periods, says that the fifth, which stretches from the return out of Babylon to the birth of Christ, is the senile period; the sixth is the present, "ætas decrepita, totius morte sæculi consummanda."]

[Footnote 89: Died in 901; Adhelm died 709, Bede died 735, Alcuin lived under Charlemagne, Erigena under Charles the Bald (843-877).]

[Footnote 90: Fox's "Alfred's Boethius," chap. 35, sec. 6, 1864.]

[Footnote 91: All these extracts are taken from Ingram's "Saxon Chronicle," 1823.]

[Footnote 92: William of Malmesbury's expression.]

[Footnote 93: Primitus (pantorum procerum prætorumque pio potissimum paternoque præsertim privilegio) panegyricum poemataque passim prosatori sub polo promulgantes, stridula vocum symphonia ac melodiæ cantilenæque carmine modulaturi hymnizemus.]

[Footnote 94: In Iceland, the country of the fiercest sea-kings, crimes are unknown; prisons have been turned to other uses; fines are the only punishment.]

[Footnote 95: Following Doomsday Book, Mr. Turner reckons at three hundred thousand the heads of families mentioned. If each family consisted of five persons, that would make one million five hundred thousand people. He adds five hundred thousand for the four northern counties, for London and several large towns, for the monks and provincial clergy not enumerated.... We must accept these figures with caution. Still they agree with those of Mackintosh, George Chalmers, and several others. Many facts show that the Saxon population was very numerous, and quite out of proportion to the Norman population.]

[Footnote 96: Warton, "History of English Poetry," 1840, 3 vols., Preface.]

CHAPTER SECOND

The Normans