Cyclopædia of English Literature: A Selection of the Choicest Productins of ...

in great abundance, written both in Latin and in the HE ENGLISH native tongue.* LANGUAGE is The earliest name in the list of Anglo-Saxon essentially a writers is that of Gildas, generally described as a branch of the missionary of British parentage, living in the first Teutonic, the half of the sixth century, and the author of a Latin language spo-tract on early British history. Owing to the ob

ken by the scurity of this portion of our annals, it has been the inhabitants of somewhat extraordinary fate of Gildas to be reprecentral Eu- sented, first as flourishing at two periods more than a rope immedi- century distant from each other, then as two differately before ent men of the same name, living at different times ;

the dawn of and finally as no man at all, for his very existence

history, and is now doubted. Nennius is another name of this which constitutes the foun- age, which, after being long connected with a small dation of the modern Ger- historical work, written, like that of Gildas, in Latin, man, Danish, and Dutch. has latterly been pronounced supposititious. The Introduced by the Anglo- first unquestionably real author of distinction is Saxons in the fifth century, ST COLUMBANUS, a native of Ireland, and a man it gradually spread, with the of vigorous ability, who contributed greatly to people who spoke it, over the advancement of Christianity in various parts of nearly the whole of England, Western Europe, and died in 615. He wrote reli

the Celtic, which had been gious treatises and Latin poetry. As yet, no eduthe language of the aboriginal people, shrinking cated writer composed in his vernacular tongue: it before it into Wales, Cornwall, and other remote was generally despised by the literary class, as was parts of the island, as the Indian tongues are now the case at some later periods of our history, and retiring before the advance of the British settlers Latin was held to be the only language fit for reguin North America.*

lar composition. From its first establishment, the Anglo-Saxon The first Anglo-Saxon writer of note, who comtongue experienced little change for five centuries, posed in his own language, and of whom there are the chief accessions which it received being Latin any remains, is CÆDMON, a monk of Whitby, who terms introduced by Christian missionaries. Dur- died about 680. Cædmon was a genius of the class ing this period, literature flourished to a much headed by Burns, a poet of nature's making, sprung greater extent than might be expected, when we from the bosom of the common people, and little consider the generally rude condition of the people. indebted to education. It appears that he at one It was chiefly cultivated by individuals of the reli- time acted in the capacity of a cow-herd. The cir. gions orders, a few of whom can easily be discerned, cumstances under which his talents were first dethrough their obscure biography, to have been men veloped, are narrated by Bede with a strong cast of of no mean genius. During the eighth century, the marvellous, under which it is possible, however, books were multiplied immensely by the labours of to trace a basis of natural truth. We are told that these men, and through their efforts learning de- he was so much less instructed than most of his scended into the upper classes of lay society. This equals, that he had not even learnt any poetry ; 80

that he was frequently obliged to retire, in order to It is now believed that the British language was not so hide his shame, when the harp was moved towards immediately or entirely extinguished by the Saxons as was him in the hall, where at supper it was customary generally stated by our historians down to the last age. But certainly it is true in the main, that the Saxon succeeded the for each person to sing in turn. On one of these British language in all parts of England, except Wales, Corn * Biographia Britannica Literaria : Anglo-Saxon Period. By wall, and some other districts of less note.

Thomas Wright, M.A.

occasions, it happened to be Cædmon's turn to keep Then spake he words :
guard at the stable during the night, and, overcome “This narrow place is most unlike
with vexation, he quitted the table and retired to that other that we formerly knew,
his post of duty, where, laying himself down, he fell high in heaven's kingdom,
into a sound slumber. In the midst of his sleep, a which my master bestowed on me,
stranger appeared to him, and, saluting him by his though we it, for the All-powerful,
name, said, “ Cædmon, sing me something." Cæd may not possess.
mon answered, “I know nothing to sing ; for my We must cede our realm ;
incapacity in this respect was the cause of my leav yet hath he not done rightly,
ing the hall to come hither." Nay," said the that he hath struck us down
stranger, “but thou hast something to sing.” “What to the fiery abyss
must I sing ?” said Cædmon. Sing the Creation,"

of the hot hell, was the reply, and thereupon Cadmon began to sing

bereft us of heaven's kingdom, verses " which he had never heard before,” and

hath decreed which are said to have been as follows:

to people it

with mankind. Nu we sceolan herian* Now we shall praise

That is to me of sorrows the greatest, heofon-ríces weard, the guardian of heaven,

that Adam, metodes mihte, the might of the creator,

who was wrought of earth, and his mod-ge-thonc, and his counsel,

shall possess wera wuldor fæder ! the glory-father of men !

my strong seat; swa he wundra ge-hwes, how he of all wonders,

that it shall be to him in delight, ece dryhten, the eternal lord,

and we endure this torment, oord onstealde. formed the beginning.

misery in this hell. He ærest ge-scéop He first created

Oh! had I the power of my hands * * ylda bearnum for the children of men

then with this host Iheofon to hrófe, heaven as a roof,

But around me lie halig scyppend ! the holy creator !

iron bonds ; tha middan-geard then the world

presseth this cord of chain ; mon-cynnes weard, the guardian of mankind,

I am powerless ! ece dryhten, the eternal lord,

me have so hard æfter teode, produced afterwards,

the clasps of hell firum foldan, the earth for men,

so firmly grasped ! frea ælmihtig ! the almighty master !

Here is a vast fire Cædmon then awoke ; and he was not only able to above and underneath ;

never did I see repeat the lines which he had made in his sleep, but he continued them in a strain of admirable versifica.

a loathlier landskip ; tion. In the morning, he hastened to the town

the flame abateth not,

hot over hell. reeve, or bailiff, of Whitby, who carried him before the Abbess Hilda ; and there, in the presence of

Me hath the clasping of these rings, some of the learned men of the place, he told his

this hard polished band,

impeded in my course, story, and they were all of opinion that he had re

debarred me from my way. ceived the gift of song from heaven. They then expounded to him in his mother tongue a portion

My feet are bound, of Scripture, which he was required to repeat in

my hands manacled ;

of these hell doors are Cædmon went home with his task, and the next morning he produced a poem which excelled

the ways obstructed ; in beauty all that they were accustomed to hear.

so that with aught I cannot

from these limb-bonds escape. He afterwards yielded to the earnest solicitations of

About me lie the Abbess Hilda, and became a monk of her house;

huge gratings aud she ordered him to transfer into verse the whole

of hard iron, of the sacred history. We are told that he was continually occupied in repeating to himself what he

forged with heat,

with which me God heard, and, " like a clean animal, ruminating it, he

hath fastened by the neck. turned it into most sweet verse."' + Cadmon thus

Thus perceive I that he knoweth my mind, composed many poems on the Bible histories, and

and that he knew also, on miscellaneous religious subjects, and some of

the Lord of hosts, these have been preserved. His account of the Fall

that should us through Adam of Man is somewhat like that given in Paradise Lost,

evil befall, and one passage in it might almost be supposed to

about the realm of heaven, have been the foundation of a corresponding one in

where I had power of my hands.'* Milton's sublime epic. It is that in which Satan is described as reviving from the consternation of his The specimen of Cædmon above given in the overthrow. A modern translation into English fol- original language may serve as a general one of lows:

Anglo-Saxon poetry. It will be observed that it is

neither in measured feet, like Latin verse, nor [Satan's Speech.]

rhymed, but that the sole peculiarity which distinBoiled within him

guishes it from prose is what Mr Wright calls a very his thought about his heart;

regular alliteration, so arranged, that in every couplet Hot was without him

there should be two principal words in the line behis dire punishment.

ginning with the same letter, which letter must also

be the initial of the first word on which the stress * In our specimens of the Anglo-Saxon, modern letters are of the voice falls in the second line. substituted for those peculiar characters employed in that lan

A few names of inferior note-Aldhelm, abbot of guage to express th, dh, and u. | Wright.

* Thorpe's edition of Cædmon, 1832.

verse.

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