СНАР.

IV.

On the whole, I am induced to believe that the AngloSaxons were not unacquainted with alphabetical characters when they came into England. However this may be, it is certain that if they had ancient letters, they ceased to use them after their conversion, with the exception of their p and p. It was the invariable policy of the Roman ecclesiastics to discourage the use of the Runic characters, because they were of pagan origin, and had been much connected with idolatrous superstitions. 22 Hence, as soon as the Christian clergy acquired influence in the Saxon octarchy, all that appeared in their literature was in the character which they had formed from the Romans.

We know nothing of the compositions of the AngloSaxons in their pagan state. Tacitus mentions generally of the Germans, that they had ancient songs 23, and therefore we may believe that the Anglo-Saxons were not without them. Indeed, Dunstan is said to have learned the vain songs of his countrymen in their pagan state; and we may suppose, that if such compositions had not been in existence at that period, Edgar would not have forbidden men, on festivals, to sing Heathen songs. But none of these have survived to us. If they were ever committed to writing, it was on wood, or stones; indeed, their word for book (boc) expresses a beech-tree, and seems to allude to the matter of which their earliest books were made. 25 The

24

So, I have found the book of the law," nunnamteoh naumatue book, 2 Kings, xxii. 8. "Hilkiah gave the book Hilkiah aninnumauau book. Ibid. v. 9.

22 The Swedes were persuaded by the Pope, in 1001, to lay aside the Runic letters, and to adopt the Roman in their stead. They were gradually abolished in Denmark, and afterwards in Iceland.

23 De Moribus German.

24 Wilk. Leg. Anglo-Sax. p. 83.

25 Wormius infers, that pieces of wood cut from the beechtree were the ancient northern books, Lit. Run. p. 6. Saxo Grammaticus mentions, that Fengo's ambassadors took with them literas ligno insculptas, "because," adds Saxo, "that was formerly a celebrated kind of material to write upon," lib. iii. p. 52. Besides the passage formerly cited from Fortunatus, we may notice another, in which he speaks of the bark as used

IV.

poets of barbarous ages usually confide the little effusions CHA P. of their genius to the care of tradition. They are seldom preserved in writing till literature becomes a serious study; and therefore we may easily believe, that if the AngloSaxons had alphabetical characters, they were much more used for divinations, charms, and funeral inscriptions, than for literary compositions.

to contain characters. See Worm. p. 9. who says, that no wood more abounds in Denmark than the beech, nor is any more adapted to receive impressions, ib. p. 7. In Welsh, gwydd, a tree, or wood, is used to denote a book. Thus Gwilym Tew talks of reading the gwydd. Owen's Dict. voc. Gwydd.

As the VOLUSPA has never appeared in English, and is very little known in Europe, and is the most ancient record of the traditions of the Northmen that has yet been found, a translation of the whole of it will be added at the end of this volume. It is obscure and difficult, and the meaning not always certain. The preceding extracts are given with Bartholin's ideas. I will attempt the version of the whole as literally as possible, and attending to its other late versions. In some parts, all the interpretations differ, but the reader will perceive, from my translation, the general tendency of this rude poem. Its best commentary will be found in Snorre's Edda.

241

BOOK III.

CHAP. I.

The Arrival of HENGIST.- His Transactions and Wars with the BRITONS, and final Settlement in KENT.

HITHERTO England had been inhabited by CHAP.

branches of the Kimmerian and Keltic races, apparently visited by the Phenicians and Carthaginians, and afterwards occupied by the Roman military and colonists. From this successive population, it had obtained all the benefits which each could impart. But in the fifth century, the period had arrived when both England and the south of Europe were to be possessed and commanded by a new description of people, who had been gradually formed amid the wars and vicissitudes of the Germanic continent; and to be led to manners, laws, and institutions peculiarly their own, and adapted, as the great result has shown, to produce national and social improvements, superior to those which either Greece or Rome had attained. The Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain must therefore not be contemplated as a barbarisation of the country. Our Saxon ancestors brought with them a superior domestic and moral character, and the rudiments of new political, juridical, and intellectual blessings. An interval of slaughter and desolation unavoidably occurred before

I.

III.

BOOK they established themselves and their new systems in the island. But when they had completed their conquest, they laid the foundations of that national constitution, of that internal polity, of those peculiar customs, of that female modesty, and of that vigour and direction of mind, to which Great Britain owes the social progress which it has so eminently acquired. Some parts of the civilisation which they found in the island assisted to produce this great result. Their desolations removed much of the moral degeneracy we have before alluded to.

ALTHOUGH in the fictions of romance kingdoms fall almost at the will of the assailant, yet in real life no great revolutions of states occur, without the preparatory and concurring operation of many political causes. The Saxons had for nearly two centuries been attacking Britain, with no greater successes than the half-naked Scoti from Ireland had obtained. They plundered where they arrived unexpectedly. They were defeated when they encountered a military or naval resistance. Hengist and Ella would not have been more fortunate than their depredatory countrymen who had preceded them, if the events of the day had not by their agencies conducted them and their successors from exile and piracy to the proprietorship and kingdoms of the English octarchy.

AMID the sovereignties into which the island was divided, and the civil distractions which this division of power produced, it appears that one ruler was made the supreme monarch, with the addition of a council of the other chiefs. The council is mentioned by all the ancient writers who treat of