Chapter LXXXVI: Part VII

1. How far do the present dialects of England coincide with the parts,
that took their names from the _Angles_ and the _Saxons_ respectively.

2. What traces of Danish or Norse occupancy do we find in local names?

* * * * *

NOTES.

* * * * *

[1] The immediate authority for these descents, dates, and localities is Sharon Turner. They are nearly the same as those which are noticed in Mr. Kemble's _Saxons in England_. In the former writer, however, they are given as historical facts; in the latter they are subjected to criticism, and considered as exceptionable.

[2] It is from Beda that the current opinions as to the details of the Anglo-Saxon invasion are taken; especially the threefold division into Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. These migrations were so large and numerous that the original country of the Angles was left a desert. The distribution of the three divisions over the different parts of England was also Beda's.

The work of this important writer--the great luminary of early England--is the _Historia Ecclesiastica_, a title which prepares us for a great preponderance of the ecclesiastical over the secular history.

Now Beda's date was the middle of the eighth century.

And his locality was the monastery of Wearmouth, in the county of Durham.

Both of these facts must be borne in mind when we consider the value of his authority, i.e., his means of knowing, as determined by the conditions of time and place.

Christianity was introduced among the Anglo-Saxons of Kent A.D. 597. For the times between them and A.D. 740, we have in Mr. Kemble's _Codex Diplomaticus_ eighty-five charters, all in Latin, and most of them of uncertain authenticity. They are chiefly grants of different kings of Kent, Wessex, the Hwiccas, Mercia, and Northumberland, a few being of Bishops.

[3] Gildas was a _British_ ecclesiastic, as Beda was an _English_ one. His locality was North Wales: his time earlier than Beda's by perhaps one hundred years.

He states that he was born the year of the _pugna Badonica_, currently called the _Battle of Bath_.

Now a chronological table called _Annales Cambrenses_, places that event within one hundred years of the supposed landing of Hengist.

But there is no reason for believing this to be a cotemporary entry. Hence, all that can be safely said of Gildas is that he was about as far removed from the seat of the Germanic invasions, in locality, as Beda, whilst in point of time he was nearer.

As a writer he is far inferior, being pre-eminently verbose, vague, and indefinite.

_Gildas_, as far as he states facts at all, gives the _British_ account of the conquest.

No other documents have come down to our time.

Beda's own authorities--as we learn from his introduction--were certain of the most learned bishops and abbots of his cotemporaries, of whom he sought special information as to the antiquities of their own establishments. Of cotemporary writers, in the way of authority, there is no mention.

For the times between the "accredited date of Hengist and Horsa's landing (A.D. 449) and A.D. 597 (a period of about one hundred and fifty years) the only authorities are a few quotations from Solinus, Gildas, and a Legendary Life of St. Germanus."--_Saxons in Engl._ i. 27.

[4] This account is from Jornandes, who is generally considered as the chief repertory of the traditions respecting the Gothic populations. He lived about A.D. 530. The Gepidæ were said to be the _laggards_ of the migration, and the vessel which carried them to have been left behind: and as _gepanta_ in their language meant _slow_, their name is taken therefrom.

[5] Widukind was a monk of Corvey in Flanders, who wrote the Ecclesiastical History of his monastery.

[6] Geoffry of Monmouth, like Gildas, is a _British_ authority. His date was the reign of Henry II. The _Welsh_ traditions form the staple of Geoffry's work, for which it is the great repertory.

[7] The _date_ of this was the reign of Marcus Antoninus. Its _place_, the Danubian provinces of Rhætia, and Pannonia. It was carried on by the Germans of the _frontier_ or _march_--from whence the name--in alliance with the Jazyges, who were undoubtedly Slavonic, and the Quadi, who were probably so. Its details are obscure--the chief authority being Dio Cassius.

[8] The reign of Valentinian was from A.D. 365 to A.D. 375.

[9] The date of this has been variously placed in A.D. 438, and between A.D. 395 and A.D. 407. Either is earlier than A.D. 449.

[10] The Saxon Chronicle consists of a series of entries from the earliest times to the reign of King Stephen, each under its year: the year of the Anglo-Saxon invasion being the usual one, i.e., A.D. 449. The value of such a work depends upon the extent to which the chronological entries are cotemporaneous with the events noticed. Where this is the case, the statement is of the highest historical value; where, however, it is merely taken from some earlier authority, or from a tradition, it loses the character of a _register_, and becomes merely a series of dates--correct or incorrect as the case may be. Where the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle really begins to be a cotemporaneous register is uncertain--all that is certain being that it _is_ so for the _latest_, and is _not_ so for _earliest_ entries. The notices in question come under the former class. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle had been edited by the Master of Trinity College, Oxford (Dr. Ingram), and analyzed by Miss Gurney.

[11] Asserius was a learned Welsh ecclesiastic who was invited by King Alfred into Wessex, and employed by that king as one of his associates and assistants in civilizing and instructing his subjects. Several works are mentioned as having been written by Asserius, but the only one extant is his history of King Alfred, which is a chronicle of various events between the year of Alfred's birth, A.D. 849, to A.D. 889.

Asserius is supposed to have died Bishop of Sherborne, A.D. 910.

[12] The compounds of the Anglo-Saxon word _ware_ = _occupants_, _inhabitants_, are too numerous to leave any doubt as to this, and several other, derivations. _Cant-ware_ = _Cant-icolæ_ = _people of Kent_: _Hwic-ware_ = _Hviccas_ = _the people_ of parts of Worcestershire,[67] Glostershire, and (to judge from the name) of _War-wick_shire also.

[13] The Annales Saxonici, or Saxon Chronicles, embrace the history of Britain, between the landing of Cæsar and the accession of Henry II. They are evidently the work of various and successive writers, who were Saxon ecclesiastics. But nothing certain can be affirmed of the authors of their respective portions.--See Note 10.

[14] See Note 2.

[15] Adam of Bremen was a Minor Canon of the Cathedral of Bremen, about the years 1067-1077. He travelled in Denmark, and was in great favour with King Sweyn of that country. He wrote an Ecclesiastical History of the spread of Christianity in the North, to which he appended a description of the geography, population, and archæology of Denmark and the neighbouring countries.

[16] Ethelward was an Anglo-Saxon nobleman, who wrote a chronicle of events from the creation of the world to the death of King Edgar, A.D. 875.

[17] The following is a specimen of the Frisian of Gysbert Japicx, in metre. It is part of a rustic song, supposed to be sung by a peasant on his return from a wedding feast. Date about A.D. 1650.

"Swíet, ja swíet, is't oer 'e míete,
'T boáskiere fóar é jonge lie,
Kreftich swíet is't, sizz ik jiette,
As it giet mei alders ríe.
Mai óars tiget 'et to 'n pléach,
As ik óan myn geafeunt seach."

Translation of the same from Bosworth's _Anglo-Saxon Dictionary_, p. lxxiii.

"Sweet, yes, sweet is over (_beyond_) measure,
The marrying for the young lede (_people_);
Most sweet is it, I say yet (_once more_),
When (_as_) it goes with the rede (_counsel_) of the elders.
But otherwise it tends to a plague,
As I saw on (_by the example of_) my village fellow."

[18] Of the early constitution of states of East Friesland, we have a remarkable illustration in the old Frisian Laws. These are in the native Frisian tongue, and, except that they represent republican rather than monarchical institutions, are similar in form, in spirit, to the Saxon.

[19] The great blow against the sovereignty of Rome, and the one which probably prevented Germany from becoming a Roman province, was struck by the Cheruscan Arminius against Quintilius Varus, in the reign of Augustus. The date of the organized insurrection of Arminius was A.D. 9; the place, the neighbourhood of Herford, or Engern, in Westphalia. Drawn into an inpracticable part of the country, the troops of Varus were suddenly attacked and cut to pieces--consisting of more than three legions. "Never was victory more decisive, never was the liberation of an oppressed people more instantaneous and complete. Throughout Germany the Roman garrisons were assailed and cut off; and, within a few weeks after Varus had fallen, the German soil was freed from the foot of an invader.

"Had Arminius been supine or unsuccessful, our Germanic ancestors would have been enslaved or exterminated in their original seats along the Eyder and the Elbe. This island would never have borne the name of England, and we, this great English nation, whose race and language are now overrunning the earth, from one end of it to the other, would have been utterly cut off from existence."[68]

[20] _Heliand_ is the gerund from _helian_ = _heal_, and means _the Healer_ or _Saviour_. It is the name of an old Saxon poem, in alliterative metre, of the tenth or eleventh century, in the dialect supposed to have belonged to the parts about Essen, Cleves, and Munster in Westphalia. It is a sort of Gospel Harmony, or Life of Christ, taken from the Gospels. It has been edited by Schmeller.

[21] Hildubrand and Hathubrant, father and son, are two legendary heroes belonging to that cycle of German fiction of which Theodoric of Verona is the centre. A fragment containing an account of their hostile meeting, being mutually unknown, in alliterative metre, represents the _fictional_ poetry of the old Saxons in the same way (though not to the same extent) that the Heliand represents their sacred poetry. The "Hildubrand and Hathubrant" have been edited by Grimm.

[22] In a language which for a long time was considered to be the Dutch of Holland in its oldest known form, there is an imperfect translation of the Psalms; referred by the best writers on the subject to the reign of Charlemagne, and thence called the Carolinian Psalms. The best text of this is to be found in a Dutch periodical, the _Taalkundig Magazijn_.

[23] _Beowulf_ is by far the most considerable poem, not only in Anglo-Saxon, but in any old Gothic tongue. It has been admirably edited and translated by Mr. Kemble. The subject is the account of Beowulf, an Angle hero--Angle but not English, as the scene of the poem is on the Continent. In its present form it shows traces of the revision of some Christian writer: the basis, however, of its subject, and the manners it describes, are essentially Pagan. The most remarkable feature in the poem is the fact that no allusion is made to England--so that, _Anglo_-Saxon as the work is--it belongs to the Anglo-Saxons of Germany before they became English.

[24] A Gospel Harmony translated from the one of Tatian, exists in a dialect too little purely High German, to pass absolutely as such, yet less _Low_ German than the Dutch of Holland. This belongs to the _Middle_ Rhine, and is called _Frank_.

[25] The Alemannic is the German of the _Upper_ Rhine; the dialect out of which the Bavarian and Swiss grew. Its chief specimens occur in--

a. _The Glosses of Kero_--
b. _The Psalms_ by a monk named _Notker_.
c. A life of _Anno_ of Cologne.
d. The Song of Solomon, by Willeram.
e. _Musrpilli_, an alliterative poem.
f. _Krist_, a life of Christ, by Otford, and others less important.

Most of these (along with Tatian), are to be found in Schilter's _Thesaurus_.

(Original footnotes)

[26] In Hampshire.

[27] In Northern Germany.

[28] The Eyder.

[29] See §§ 21-29.

[30] Saxons _North of the Elbe_ (_Albis_).

[31] See Notes 17 and 18.

[32] De Mor. Germ. 40.

[33] Meaning _ditch_

[34] This list is taken from Smart's valuable and logical English Grammar.

[35] As in _Shotover Hill_, near Oxford.

[36] As in _Jerusalem artichoke_.

[37] A sort of silk.

[38] _Ancient Cassio_--"Othello."

[39]

Be she constant, be she fickle,
Be she flame, or be she _ickle_.--SIR C. SEDLEY.

[40] Or _periphrastic_.

[41] That of the verb substantive, _if I were_, subjunctive, as opposed to _I was_, indicative.

[42] This by no means implies that such was the power of [sigma], [zeta], [gamma], [kappa], in Greek. They are merely convenient symbols.

[43] As a _name_, _Sigma = Samech_.

[44] Of the Hebrew and Greek tables.

[45] In _thin_.

[46] In _thine_.

[47] Write one letter twice.

[48] This explains the words, "Whatever they may have been originally," and "to a certain extent," in § 212.

[49] Used as adverbs.

[50] Used as the plurals of _he_, _she_, and _it_.

[51] Different from _ilk_.

[52] Or _call-s_.

[53] _Thou sangest_, _thou drankest_, &c.--For a reason given in the sequel, these forms are less exceptionable than _sungest_, _drunkest_, &c.

[54] The forms marked thus * are either obsolete or provincial.

[55] Obsolete.

[56] Sounded _wun_.

[57] Pronounced _ment_.

[58] Pronounced _herd_.

[59] Pronounced _sed_.

[60] So pronounced.

[61] Pronounced _leevd_, _cleevd_, _bereevd_, _deeld_, _feeld_, _dreemd_, _lernd_.

[62] Pronounced _delt_.

[63] Found rarely; _bist_ being the current form.--"Deutsche Grammatik," i. 894.

[64] Notwithstanding the extent to which a relative may take the appearance of a conjunction, there is always one unequivocal method of deciding its true nature. The relative is always a _part_ of the second proposition. A conjunction is _no part_ of either.

[65] "Latin Prose Composition," p. 123.

[66] This is worked out more fully in the "Germany of Tacitus, with Ethnological Notes," by the present author.

[67] Preserved in the name of the town Wick-war.

[68] "The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World," by Professor Creasy.

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UNABRIDGED.--SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.

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* * * * *

Corrections made to printed original.

Contents 83--90. "Miscellaneous elements": 'Miscellaneons' in original.

Contents 366. "Peacock, peahen": 'peahern' in original.

Contents 416. "Zeugma": 'Leugma' in original.

§ 29. "rather than the Anglo-Saxon itself": 'than' missing in original.

§ 40. Sing. Gen. "Túngunnar": 'Túngunnor' in original (this doesn't match the previous table, also checked in Cleasby & Vigfusson's Icelandic-English Dictionary).

§ 74. "They relate chiefly": 'The relate' in original.

§ 87. "The history of the language of the United States is the history of a Germanic language.": 'languages of the United States' in original, but the sense seems to need the singular, viz. American English.

§ 87. "gadus lota, or eel-pout": 'ell-pout' in original.

§ 100. 1. "Of the dative singular the e is retained": 'sing-gular' in original across line break.

§ 135. "or thus, riv-er, feve-r": 'fe-ver' in original (cannot be right as it is being contrasted to the previous 'fe-ver').

§ 136. "Let, however, the n and the t of note": 'not' in original but is being contrasted to the 'not' in the previous sentence.

§ 155. "it may be replaced by k": 'is may be ...' in original.

§ 159. "The letters x and q": 'The letter ...' in original.

§ 161. (Table of names) "17. Pe ... Pi": '17. Pi ... Phi' in original, but compare the preceding table and § 175.

§ 163. 16. (Hebrew) "Pe": 'Phi' in original, but compare § 175.

"§ 176." '§ 175' in original.

§ 199 c. "as if written peace": 'as is ...' in original.

§ 222. "it is me = it is I": 'it is me it = is I' in original.

§ 235. Compound pronouns. 3. "some such word as ei": 'some such wore ...' in original.

"§ 259." '§ 250' in original.

§ 267. "the words lambkin, ...": 'the works ...' in original.

§ 272. "the termination -ing": 'terminations ...' in original.

§ 290. Anglo-Saxon. "Swang ... swungon": 'Swang ... swangon' in original.

§ 308. "Þencan, þóhte.": 'Þeecan, þóhte.' in original.

§ 316. "the Latin word audeo": 'auedo' in original.

§ 322. 4. "As early as A.D. 1085": 'nearly' in original.

§ 324. "The current rule of the common grammarians is ...": 'is' missing in original.

§ 354. "by the word rose prefixed.": 'the word tree' in original.

§ 383. "The full amount of change in this respect": 'repect' in original.

§ 397. a. "Anglo-Saxon mec and þec": 'mec and pec' in original.

§ 408. "sôk-idêdun, from sôk-ja": 'sôk-iddêun' in original.

§ 418. "the words Roman emperor": 'word' in original.

§ 421. "the word speak is an infinitive": 'in an infinitive' in original.

§ 433. "villainouser": 'villanouser' in original.

§ 455. "4.": '3.' in original.

§ 508. 2. "lest he fall upon us with pestilence.": 'us' missing in original (KJV Exod. v. 3.)

§ 540. 5. "Blank verse.--Five measures": 'Pive measures' in original.

§ 540. 8. "leaves the world to darkness and to me": 'leaves the word ...' in original.