Поглавје VIII
АНГЛО-САКСОНЦИ
“There were no reasons of state
to lead the German conquerors in Britain to follow Roman traditions,
as in the other provinces of the Empire. There was no native population permeated
with Roman culture and ready to communicate this culture to the immigrants.”
The Teutons that have cross the North Sea and settled in England were of purer stock than the tribes of
the West and South and the East Teutons of the
period of migrations. The Romans, after an occupation of three hundred and
fifty years, had evacuated England ,
leaving behind buildings, walls, inscriptions, and other material evidences of
their occupation, but no permanent institutions that outlived their departure.
Roman rule in Britain
had always borne the character of military occupation, maintained by the aid of
a few legions. England had
not, like Gaul , become permeated with Roman
culture that outlasted the fall of Empire. Accordingly, when the Romans left Britain , the British
(Keltic) population was thrown practically into a state of anarchy and was left
defenceless against the Teutonic incursions. Even as late as the time of the
emperor Honorius they in vain besought protection from Rome against these invaders.
Invasions of seafaring Teutons
began as early as the fourth century. The Viking expedition run parallel with
the migration, though they cover a by far longer period. No permanent
settlement, however, was effected in England until the British king
Vortigern, in one with his feuds with his neighbors, was ill-advised to call in
the aid of the Saxon chief Hengist. Hengist and Horsa remained in the land
where their arms had proved victorious (449). They were followed for about a
century by constant fresh streams of Teutonic immigrants from the peninsula of Jutland
and from the mouth of the Elba . From Jutland
the Jutes came, who settled in Kent ,
from Sleswick the Angles, from Holstein the
Saxons. These tribes established small kingdoms along the entire eastern coast,
pushed back the Keltic population ever further to the west and the north, and
constantly extended their dominion.
With good reason Freeman has
pointed out the great difference existing between the Anglo-Saxon settlement in
England and the Frankish in Gaul . While the Franks became wholly Romanized, taking on
the language and civilization of the antique world, no such heritage fell to
the lot of the Anglo-Saxons. Nor did the conquerors intermingle with the native
Keltic population. They pushed them back, and the downfall of the British has
been depicted in a vivid colors by Gildas (560). The struggle with the Britons
and Scots covered a long period and broke out ever anew. As late as the year
603 the Northumbrian Saxons were compelled to drive back the Scots of Degsastan.
The Keltic element has, of course, not being exterminated everywhere in England . In
western districts, such as Devonshire and Somerset ,
it is more widely represent than in eastern. In the main, however, the
Anglo-Saxons conquest involved the supplanting of one people over by the other.
Christianity too, which Britons
had adopted about A.D. 200, was rejected by the Anglo-Saxons. For more than 150
years they remained true to their heathen traditions. Then the news religion
penetrated from two sides. First, of all Keltic (Irish) missionaries, Columba
in Iona as early as 563, worked among them. In
addition to this, since the year 600, missionaries were sent direct from Rome , of whom Augustine, who settled in Canterbury , was the first. Some fifty years
later, Christianity was generally among the Anglo-Saxons, in the form which
accepted the primacy of Rome .
These are the same currents, the more independent one of Irish mission, and the
papal one, triumphing under the leadership of Boniface, which we have already
met in the history of missions among the Germans.
If we possessed a native
literature from this period of Anglo-Saxon paganism, it would be of inestimable
value as a source for Teutonic mythology. But here again we must be content
with what we learn from writings of the period subsequent to the conversion,
and with what has continued to live in the tradition of the people. The value
of these latter sources has, however, at times been underestimated or, at any
rate, they have not been exploited for the study of Teutonic mythology to the
extent that would seem desirable, for the fairly rich Anglo-Saxon literature is
after all, oldest literature that a Teutonic tribe has produced in a Teutonic
language.
Unfortunately, the writer who was
most extensively read, and who, relatively speaking, still stood so near to the
pagan period of his people, forms an exception to this use of the native language. Bede (672-735) not only
wrote in Latin, but was so much preoccupied with the affairs of the church,
that he viewed the past of his people, whose ecclesiastical history he wrote,
entirely through the eyes of a monk. Yet there are a few chapters in Bede that
furnish us with some insight into the history of the conversion to
Christianity. In Northumbria
it was effected in a very peaceful manner, through the preaching of Paulinus
during the reign of king Edwin. Bede (II,13) unrolls for us the picture of a
conference, in which the king consults his nobles and also his chief priest
Coifi, in regard to the proposition. The latter at once shows his readiness to
give up the old gods. He has never found their service very advantageous, is
not convinced of the truth of the old religion, and being entirely free from
superstitious fear, stands ready to be the first to desecrate and raze the
sanctuary with sword and spear. Another of the nobles impresses us more
favorably. In a finely conceived smile, he tells of the bird that flies into
the warm festive hall from the rain and show without, only to pass out again on
the other side: “de hieme in hiemem”. Such is man’s brief span of life between
the unknown past and an unknown future. Why then should we not take need of the
new teaching that gives assurance concerning these things?
It is not, however, to be
supposed that the introduction of Christianity among Anglo-Saxons met with no
outward opposition. The Mercian king Penda (626-665) fought against it with
might and main, till the bitter end. The Northumbrian king Oswald. Who fell in
battle against him, is regarded as a martyr in the Christian cause, and Bede
recounts a number of miracles wrought at his grave or through his relics. The
heathen king had hung Oswald’s head and dismembered limbs on trees, perhaps as
a sacrifice to his gods. But Bede’s narrative, diffuse as it is its account of
the miracles, gives us no true insight into the real motives and the
significance of king Penda, who, as we learn from Bede himself, did not
exterminate the Christians in his realm, although he held them in great
contempt. At any rate, when Penda fell in battle against Oswin, the last
powerful opponent of Christianity perished. Before the end of the seventh
century, the organization of the Anglo-Saxon church under the primacy of the
pope was completed, and while politically the kingdoms were still separate and
distinct, ecclesiastical unity had been effected.
As in Germany ,
so in England
the old paganism lived after the conversion in numerous magic formulas and
observances. While Anglo-Saxon literature has not been transmitted any such,
like the Merseburg Charms, from the heathen period itself, are still several in
which pagan ideas are clearly discernible; so in incantation against rheumatic
pains, conceived of as brought into the blood or limbs by the arrows or shafts
of gods, elves, or hags (hiegtessan).
In the main, the charms were joined to a belief in, and invocation of powerful
elemental spirits. Thus, running water possessed magic power for the healing of
sickness, a conception which there is no need of deriving from the Christian
baptism. Mother Earth too, called Erce in a filed charm, was tilled with all
manner of symbolic rites and formulas, which served to promote fertility. The
introduction of large numbers of ecclesiastical formulas into these
incantations does not conceal their original pagan character. Though secular
and ecclesiastical laws united in inveighing against various forms of
divination and witchcraft, such as casting spells on man or beast, magic
draughts, the evil eye, and the like, they were not eradicated.
The Anglo-Saxon genealogical
tables have already been mentioned in connection with other tribal sagas. These
dreary lists represent in reality the skeleton of numerous legends, and while
we are not told that the latter received poetic treatment and development, they
must at all events have survived in the imaginations of the people. The
genealogies of the royal families have combined names of varied origin. Sceldwa
(Scyld) who was identified with the progenitor of the Danish kings, Beaw, and
king Offa, have all three been imported from the original home of the
Anglo-Saxons between the North Sea and the
Baltic. Opinions still differ as to what part of these characters and tales is
originally the property of the tribes themselves, and what is of Danish origin.
While the genealogies therefore, in their nucleus, point to the pre-English
period, they have been localized in England , and have been transferred
to the royal families of the individual kingdoms.
Our knowledge of the deities of
Anglo-Saxon paganism is based solely on these genealogies and on proper names.
It is, accordingly impossible to get beyond mere names. Attempts to define the
character of these gods must be depend upon material drawn from other Teutonic
tribes. From the sources at our command, we thus obtain Wodan, Thunor, Tiw,
Seaxneat, Beldrag (Baldr), the … water sprites, and possible some others. In
the first component part of such names as Oswald and Oswin we recognize the
word signifying god, in Alfred and similar names, the Elves. While these
gleanings seem meager, they suffice to prove that all Anglo-Saxons carried old
Teutonic gods with them from their original home. In the heroic sagas of other
tribes they also took a lively interest. These Anglo-Saxons celebrated in songs
foreign sagas of Ermanaric, Walther, and Wieland – a fact which indicates a
lively intercourse with various Teutonic tribes of the continent, through whom
they became acquainted with these legends.
The greater part of Anglo-Saxon
literature bears a Biblical and ecclesiastical character, and yet it is written
not in Latin, but in the vernacular. In the vernacular the herdsmen Kadmon
(680), who in nightly vision had received a gift of poetry, sang of the fall of
angels and other Biblical subjects, in poems that may be compared with the recently
discovered Genesis fragments of the Saxon Heliand
poet. Kynewulf also, the great Anglo-Saxon poet of the runic verses, of riddles
and the like, sang of legends of saints in Andreas,
and Elene. King Alfred was a generous
patron of native letters, and himself translated into Anglo-Saxon the writings
of Orosius, Bede, Boecius, and Gregory the Great. It is necessary to emphasize
the fact that all these works were written in the vernacular, inasmuch as this
tended to favor unconsciously, and eve contrary to the intention of the author,
the retention of many pagan conception. As we have seen, the same observation
applied to the Old Saxon Heliand: the
language was involuntarily the vehicle of ideas. Thus in Kynewulf’s Elene, we frequently find Wyrd use of fate, Wig of the God of war. The God of universe is represented as a
hidden treasure, and the nails of the cross as instruments of magic, while hell
is depicted with the characteristics of Nastrand, and very vivid scenes are
drawn from the seafarers life.
The chief monument of Anglo-Saxon
…
(Pierre Daniel Chantepie de la
Saussaye, THE RELIGION OF THE TEUTONS, Library of Princeton
- 1909, изд. GINN & comp. 1902 год)
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