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of more specious historians, and elucidate the character, the condition, and the institutions of those early ages, in which the foundations were laid of every thing that constitutes the glory and happiness of the English name.

As we travel onward, the notices of more important occurrences become progressively more circumstantial. From the time of Alfred, in particular, whose pervading mind gave impulse and direction to every thing that was connected with the intellect, as well as the political welfare of his country, history begins to assume a more intelligent aspect. It seems likely, as we have already suggested, that even his own hand may occasionally be traced in the record. The authenticity of the facts related of him in the Chronicle is, at least, corroborated by the testimony of his contemporary biographer, Bishop Asser.

From this time to the death of Harold, and through the four succeeding Norman reigns, an increasing flood of light continues to be poured in these annals, which may enable us, much better than the glossing pages of more popular historians, not only to comprehend the circumstances that prepared the way for the great change in the dynasty and the destinies of the nation, but to appreciate the comparative merits of the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman periods.

It is not, however, to be supposed, that in a compilation of the labours of a series of successive annalists, many of whom must be referred to periods of such high antiquity, every species of information it affects to transmit should be equally accurate. The Chronicle, as it now stands, commences with a brief description, copied from the venerable Bede, of the island of Britain which is said (in conformity, however, with Pliny and all the best authorities of those times) to be "eight hundred miles long, and two hundred broad;" while modern admeasurement has ascertained its length to be but about five hundred and fifty, and its breadth, at the widest part, to be about two hundred and ninety miles. The want of statistical knowledge in this particular, however, does not invalidate the tradition which follows-though the Caledonian antiquary may perhaps not be satisfied with so ancient an authority, which treats the Highland Scots as a colony from Ireland, instead of the Irish as a colony from them.

"The first inhabitants were the Britons, who came from Armenia [De tractu Armoricano, says Bede: and so also says Ælfred], and first peopled Britain." [Geoffrey of Monmouth, and, after him historians who should have looked for better authorities, derive the Britons of Armorica from our island Britons.] "Then happened it, that the Picts came south from Scythia, with long ships, not many; and, landing first in the northern part of Ireland, they told the Scots that

they must dwell there. But they would not give them leave; for the Scots told them that they could not all dwell there together; But,' said the Scots,' we can nevertheless give you advice. We know another island here to the east. There you may dwell, if you will; and whosoever withstandeth you, we will assist you, that you may gain it.' Then went the Picts and entered this land northward. Southward the Britons possessed it, as we before said. And the Picts obtained wives of the Scots, [of Ireland,] on condition that they chose their kings always on the female side; which they have continued to do, so long since. And it happened, in the run of years, that some party of Scots went from Ireland into Britain, and acquired some portion of this land. Their leader was called Reoda, from whom they are named Dalreodi (or Dalreathians.)”—Dalreadingas, Ælfred calls them -that is, holders of the portion of Reada,

It then proceeds to give us a brief account of the two expeditions of Cæsar against this island; the former of which, at least, may seem not entirely to discountenance the suggestion of Pope

"Ask why from Britain Cæsar made retreat?

Cæsar perhaps might tell you, he was beat.”

"Sixty winters ere that Christ was born, Caius Julius, Emperor of the Romans, with eighty ships, sought Britain. There he was first beaten in a dreadful fight, and lost a great part of his army. Then he let his army abide with the Scots, and went south into Gaul. There he gathered six hundred ships, with which he went back into Britain. When they first rushed together, Cæsar's tribune, whose name was Labienus, was slain. Then took the Welsh sharp piles, and drove them with great clubs into the water, at a certain ford of the river, called Thames. When the Romans found that, they would not go over the ford. Then fled the Britons to the fastnesses of the woods; and Cæsar, having after much fighting gained many of the chief towns, went back into Gaul."

From this time to the invitation of the Saxons, or more properly the Jutes and Angles, by Wyrtgeorne (or Vortigern) we have brief chronological notices of some of the principal events of general history, with an occasional seasoning of legendary marvels and miracles, for which no scribe of the days of our pagan ancestors will, of course, be regarded as responsible: such, for example, as

"A. D. 448. This year John the Baptist shewed his head to two monks, who came from the eastern country to Jerusalem for the sake of prayer, in the place that whilom was the palace of Herod."

Nor did the chroniclers, in succeeding centuries, forego, all

at once, their attachment to the marvellous, or neglect to travel into foreign countries in quest of it: for we find it recorded—

"A. D. 797. This year the Romans cut out the tongue of Pope Leo, put out his eyes, and drove him from his see; but soon after, by the assistance of God, he could see and speak, and became Pope as he was before."

Nor was Saxon England, it seems, excluded from its share of miraculous visitations: for to say nothing of prophetic comets, ominous eclipses, and portentous meteors,—and “immense sheets of light rushing through the air, and whirlwinds and fiery dragons flying across the firmament,"

"A. D. 616. Cadbald [king of Kent] renounced his baptism, and lived in a heathen manner; so that he took to wife the relict of his father. Then Laurentius, who was Archbishop of Kent, meant to depart southward over sea, and abandon every thing. But there came to him in the night the apostle Peter, and severely swinged him, because he would so desert the flock of God. And he charged him to go to the king, and teach him the right belief. And he did so; and the king returned to the right belief."

Probably not without apprehension that the apostle might otherwise pay him a similar visit. It is remarkable, however, that both Bede and Alfred record this matter as a vision, or dream; and the relation of it, as a matter of fact, is to be ascribed to the Norman interpolators of the Saxon annals. We suspect, however, that a Saxon monk could be a little tricksically superstitious sometimes, as well as a Norman or Italian. Even the venerable Bede, though he makes no actual miracle of this adventure, has his mysterious apparitions and supernatural interventions: as may be seen in his account of the conversion of his hero Edwin the Great, of Northumbria.* Be this as it may, the interspersion of a few superstitious passages of this description no more impeaches the general authenticity of these annals, than the prodigies and auguries detailed by Livy detract from the general credibility of the political and military events recorded by that prince of historians.

The Saxon Chronicle, properly speaking, commences at the year 449 in which year

"Hengist and Horsa, invited by Wurtgeorne, King of the Britons,

*It is, however, worthy of remark, that almost all the passages that magnify the power of the clergy and the see of Rome, or seem subservient to the purposes of monastic fraud and usurpation, bear in their very style and language the evident marks of Normo-monastic interpolation.

to his assistance, landed in Britain, in a place that is called Ipwinesfleet; first of all to support the Britons, but they afterwards fought against them. The King directed them to fight against the Picts; and they did so; and obtained the victory wheresoever they came. They then sent to the Angles, and desired them to send more assistance. They described the worthlessness of the Britons, and the richness of the land. Then they sent them greater support. Then came the men from three powers of Germany; the Old Saxons, the Angles, and the Jutes. From the Jutes are descended the men of Kent, the Wightwarians, (that is, the tribe that now dwelleth in the Isle of Wight,) and that kindred in Wessex that men yet call the kindred of the Jutes. From the Old Saxons came the people of Essex, and Sussex, and Wessex. From Anglia, which has ever since remained waste between the Jutes and the Saxons, came the East Angles, the Middle Angles, the Mercians, and all of those north of the Humber. Their leaders were two brothers, Hengist and Horsa; who were the sons of Wihtgils; Wihtgils was the son of Witta, Witta of Wecta, Wecta of Woden. From this Woden arose all our royal kindred, and that of the South-humbrians also."

This distinction, by the way, between our royal kindred (ure cyne-cynn,) and that (those) of the South-humbrians, (notwithstanding the hypothesis that Bede copied from the Saxon Chroniclers, rather than the Chronicle from him,) seems to reveal the hand of that venerable historian. For he was himself a Northumbrian; and, that principality or kingdom embracing the whole Anglo-Saxon territory, from the Humber to the Firths of Forth and Clyde, it was natural for him to refer to the two denominations of North-humbrians and South-humbrians, as including all the states of the Saxon Heptarchy. And certain it is, that all the genealogies of all the founders of the respective kingdoms agree, in tracing the descents of those respective chieftains from this identical Woden. And it may be observed by the way, that it is an additional argument against the supposition of any part of the Chronicle, as it now stands at least, being assignable to contemporary annalists prior to the conversion of the Saxons, that in none of those genealogies, nor in any part of the existing annals, is there any attempt to confound this universal progenitor of Heptarchic royalty (whoever he was) with the elder, or deified Woden :an ancestral distinction which the Pagan chieftains themselves would inevitably affect, and which no Pagan, scald or genealogist, would probably have failed to insinuate. This want of Pagan record, in one point of view, is particularly to be lamented, as it deprives us of all demonstrable traces of the particular rites and superstitions of our primitive ancestors. Perhaps, however, the darkness resulting from this privation is not impenetrable. Those ancestors were, in fact, a Scandi

VOL. VIII. PART II.

navian people, and brought with them the names, at any rate, of Scandinavian deities; several of which continue yet to be chronicled in our calendar. The presumption is, therefore, pretty strong, that they brought with them also the Scandinavian religion and Scandinavian rites; and that, if we would be acquainted with the superstitions of our Anglo-Saxon progenitors, we must seek them in the Danish and Norwegian Eddas. Thus Sunday is the day of the sun, and Monday of the moon; Tuesday is the day of Tucer, the god of hunting and archery; or, according to some, of Tuisco, the god of justice; Wednesday, the day of Woden, the god of war,-the All-father, or supreme god of the Edda; Thursday, the day of Thor, the god of thunder; Friday, the day of Friga, or Frea, the goddess of love and marriage; Saturday, the day of Satur, the god of fruits. So Easter is the season of the festival of Eoster, the Scandinavian Flora, or goddess of the spring; and Christmas continued for centuries beyond the Saxon era, not only in popular language, but even in parliamentary and judicial record, to be called Yule-tide, (and the twelfth-cake a yule-cake-such coincidence was there between the Christian and the Pagan festivals!)-from its being the season of the festival of Yule, the Scandinavian deity supposed to preside over the extinction and renovation of the sun, or transition of the solar year. The name is not even yet forgotten in some of the northern counties: and other instances might be adduced, in which popular and provincial phraseology still continues to illustrate the proposition, that the rude, but sublime superstitions of the northern mythology were once the established religion of England.

But it is time to return to the subject matter of the Chronicle; and give the reader a more particular idea of the style and import of the work itself. For this purpose we shall select a few passages from the time of the Heptarchy, that may illustrate, in some degree, the state of society during that turbulent period; and first in what relates to the assumptions of the Romish church.

We have already noticed the importance given to the endowment and consecration of the Abbey of Medeshamstede (Peterborough.) The passages themselves, curious as they are, are much too long to be given entire; but a portion of the last of them will illustrate, at once, the comparative particularity with which the monkish chroniclers treated the affairs of the church and of the state, and the arrogance of papal assumption over a converted—that is to say, a spiritually subjugated nation.

"A.D. 675. This year Wulfhere, [King of Mercia,] the son of Penda, and Escwin, the son of Cenfus, fought at Bedwin. The same

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