Anglo-Saxon version, however, is older than this, and direct from the German. These wrecks of a vanished literature, which may have been extensive, show that the Anglo-Saxon gleemen (scôpas) were acquainted with the languages and legends of their neighbours, and justify the conclusion that they had not much invention of their own. As they must have been a numerous body, and their hearers must have required variety, their stock of lays was probably large, much larger than was ever committed to writing. They do not appear to have been organised into a guild, or to have been depositories of ritual or mythic lore like the bards of Wales and Ireland: and the story of Caedmon shows that the guests participated with them in the entertainment of the company.

Before proceeding further with the subject of Anglo-Saxon poetry, Anglo-Saxon it will be convenient to give some account of Anglo-Saxon metre, which metre cannot be done better than in the words of Vigfusson and Powell (Corpus Poeticum Boreale, vol. i. pp. 433, 434). For further details, Schipper's elaborate treatise on English metre may be consulted.

"Every line of old Teutonic poetry is a blank verse divided into two halves by a line-pause which always comes at the end of a word.

"Each half is made up of a fixed number of measures; a measure being a word, or a number of words, of which the first root-syllable is shaped, ie, forcibly pronounced, as one does in speaking when one wishes to draw attention to a particular word or syllable. In every line two stress syllables at least, one in each half line, must begin with a similar consonant or a vowel.

"In many lines there occur one or more unstressed syllables, which form, as it were, the elastic unmeasured part of the line; these for want of a better term we call slurred syllables, or collectively a slur. It is not meant that these syllables are gabbled over, they may be spoken fast or slow, but that they are redundant or unimportant for the 'make' or structure of the verse, and that they would be less emphasised, and spoken in a less vigorous tone than the rest of the line. There may be one or more slurs in a line.

"When a monosyllabic word is stressed and followed by no enclitic words before the next stress, it is succeeded by a short interval of silence, which we call a rest. Such a monosyllable with its rest is a measure in itself."

The of Anglo

It appears then that, like almost all the poetry of primitive nations, Difficulties the structure of Anglo-Saxon poetry was trochaic and alliterative. Saxon poets Greeks, the Indians, and in modern times the Italians have been enabled to ascend from this lowly plane to rich complication and voluminous harmony of metre, and less gifted nations have had to learn from these. In so doing they have parted with much of their originality, but have gained immensely in variety and flexibility. In In estimating the merits of the Anglo-Saxon poets we must remember that they were hampered no less by the imperfection of their metrical system than by the poverty

VOL. I.

B

Northum

brian school of poetry

of their vocabulary. The progress of amendment would have been very
tardy if it had not been accelerated by the drastic remedy of subjugation
by foreigners on a higher level of culture. If we are correct in our view
of the date and locality of Beowulf, which, as regards the first point at
least, is that generally accepted by modern criticism, we must be the
more impressed by the greatness of a poem which, however glossed or
interpolated in parts to suit the new belief, stands out in the main as a
relic of the past, a grand rough creation of the heroic age, which might
well have been contemporary with the events which it professes to
celebrate. It is the more impressive from the contrast it affords to the
Biblical school of poetry which had grown up since the conversion of
the Saxons, and which represented the dominant taste and prevalent
feeling of the period. At first sight Beowulf seems like a Milton writing
in the age of Pope; we shall, however, find reason to conclude that the
tradition of the past was not in fact so entirely abolished.
There were
idyllic poets who stood aloof from Christianity, and fervent believers
in Christ as heathen in spirit as any Viking. It will nevertheless be best
for the present to devote our attention to the two principal literary
names which, whether those of individuals or of schools of composition,
adorn the seventh and eighth centuries of Saxon England.

It is an ordinary phenomenon for literature, especially poetical literature, to be for a considerable time confined in its manifestations to a single nook of an extensive country. Ionian Greece in the days of Homer, Sicily and afterwards Tuscany in the early ages of Italian literature, Massachusetts in modern America, are familiar examples. For all these good reasons can be given; but it is not evident why, although the very earliest post-Christian productions of Anglo-Saxon literature-glossaries of merely linguistic interest-appear to proceed from Kent, Anglo-Saxon poetry should for a long period have been almost restricted to Northumbria. The fact - wheresoever Beowulf may have been written-seems indubitable. Of the two representative poets of whom we are now to treat, Caedmon was certainly Northumbrian, and although there is no direct evidence as respects Cynewulf, the maritime descriptions and allusions in the poems written by or ascribed to him almost prove that the author or authors were dwellers by the sea. The most probable explanation of the advanced literary position of Northumbria at the period would seem to be that which connects it with the evangelising exertions of Celtic missionaries. As already remarked, the ancient British churches, estranged by resentment and racial hatred, had done nothing for the conversion of the barbarous invaders before the mission of Augustine. After, however, the example thus shown them, they appear to have discerned where their duty and their interest lay; and the proximity of Northumbria to the great Celtic sanctuary of Iona and the British kingdom of Cumbria, as well as the survival of a Celtic population in some Northumbrian districts, would naturally indicate it as a sphere for missionary effort. It is important to observe

STORY OF CAEDMON

that the Celtic monks, though employing Latin
in the services of the Church, would be much
less Latinised than the Italian missionaries in the
south. Comparatively exempt from classical in-
fluences, they at the same time were by no
means animated by a fraternal spirit towards the
Romans, and the flight of the Roman Archbishop
Paulinus from York in 633 for long left them
a clear field. Celtic clergy came to Northumbria
in 634 on the invitation of King Oswald, and it
was not until 664 that they finally retreated.
Under these circumstances, it is comprehensible
that Anglo-Saxon literature might grow up in
Northumbria while it was elsewhere repressed
the addiction of the reading and writing classes
to Latin literature, and that Anglo-Saxon minstrels
would feel at liberty to versify Biblical narrative
in their own manner. This would seem to have
been the extent of the service rendered to Anglo-
Saxon poetry by the British clergy: nothing of
the visionary and delicately fanciful Celtic cast
of thought is to be detected in it at any period.

by

If the circumstances related of Caedmon's initiation into the poetic art are mythical, they at least attest the celebrity of the poems which gave birth to the legend; if, on the other hand, they are authentic, they are a poem in themselves. Whichever view is taken, they at all events serve to show the prevalence of minstrelsy at AngloSaxon banquets in the seventh century, and disclose the very interesting fact that the minstrel was not invariably a professional bard, but that music and singing were sufficiently cultivated to warrant the expectation that every guest would be able to bear a part in them. Caedmon, Beda tells us, lived nigh the abbey of Streoneshalch (Whitby) in the time of the Abbess Hilda (658-680). A farm servant in all probability, at all events simple and unlettered man, he was unable to play or sing, and whenever he saw the harp approaching him at a banquet he was accustomed to withdraw in haste. Having on one of these occasions fled from the banqueting-room to the stable where he was engaged in tending cattle, he fell asleep and dreamed that he heard a voice commanding

a

19

nufcrlun hq5in the fa&mcaquand

maudas madeni &nd his mod gidane

u&cuuldur Padur

Halgraß&- chamışdun geardmonGnnar uard Ardry can after-dadæ fimum Foldfreaallm&tz jueheuundragihuac &ıdrtuan orafelide heaquft sopaeldabar nu heben allpope primo Cantauit Caedmon I ftud Carmon

Caedmon's Hymn, the oldest Christian poem in Anglo-Saxon

From an eighth-century MS. in the University of Cambridge

Caedmon

him to sing. His excuses not being accepted he made the attempt, and
to his astonishment found himself hymning the praise of the Creator. On
awakening he remembered the verses he had composed, and recited them
to the steward under whom he served, who brought him to the Abbess.
His poetical gift was duly attested and authenticated, and he spent the
remainder of his life in versifying Scripture under the patronage of the
abbey. There is really no reason to doubt the substantial veracity of
the story; although, were it now possible to investigate the circumstances
on the spot, we should probably find that Caedmon was already versed

Poems altributea to Caedmon

Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise

From the Caedmon MS. (tenth century) in the Bodleian Library

in the Scriptures as an auditor if not as a reader, and that his reluc-
tance to perform his part as a minstrel was rather the effect of timidity than
of absolute inability. The endeavour to make him a mythical personage
may safely be dismissed. It would be impossible to find a more trustworthy
authority than Beda, who was actually the contemporary of Caedmon's
latter years.

The poetry attributed entirely or in part to Caedmon has come down
to us in a single manuscript, discovered by Archbishop Ussher, and now
preserved in the Bodleian Library. It nowhere claims to be the work of
Caedmon, and the ascription of a large portion of its contents to him by
its original editor, Franciscus Junius, is grounded upon their substantial
agreement with the description of Beda, who actually gives the general sense

1

CAEDMON'S PARAPHRASES

21

of the exordium in a Latin version sufficiently in accord with the diction of the Bodleian MS. to render it, all discrepancies notwithstanding, nearly certain that he is following the same text. King Alfred, or the translator who worked under his direction, rendering Beda into Anglo-Saxon, gives indeed quite a different text as Caedmon's; but it seems almost certain that, not having the poet himself to refer to, he is merely turning Beda's Latin back into the vernacular. Beda further gives an account of Caedmon's

Anglo-Saxon representation of Musicians

From a manuscript Psalter (eighth century) in the British Museum

writings which agrees with the contents of the MS. to a considerable extent. He describes them as paraphrases of Genesis and Exodus, "with many other histories of holy writ," also of the New Testament, and of poems on the world to come. So far as Genesis is concerned, the description, with one remarkable exception to be noticed, tallies exactly; and "the other histories" may be thought to be represented by a paraphrase of Daniel, also in the MS. The Caedmonian authorship of the Exodus is questioned on the ground of its superior poetical merit, and the internal evidence it seems to afford of the poet's having been a warrior. The poems contained in the MS. which relate to the New Testament and the invisible world do not agree so well, there are also linguistic variations, and the hand