for fifty winters, when his valiant and beneficent life ends
in a litst victorious conflict with a hoard-guarding dragon.
The myth and tradition were not peculiarly Anglo-Saxon;
but the finally recast and finished work, noble in diction,
sentiment, and action, expresses the highest ethics of Anglo-

Mhration and damnation) were all translated into sheer Anglo-Saxon. See
Toller, (hUUmes tf Ikt HisUry •! Iki En^h iMngMCgf (MacmiDan k Co., 1900),
pp. 90-101. Some hnndreda oif years before, Ulfilas's fourth century Gothic
translation had shown a Teutonic tongue capable of rendering the thought of
the Pauline epistles.

> Cf. generally, R. W. Chambers, Widsiik (Cambridge, 1913), and W. P. Ker,
Em^kLUeraiun Medieval (London, 1913)*



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144 THE MEDIAEVAL MIND book i

Saxon heathendom. Beowulf does what he ought to do,
heroically; and finds satisfaction and reward. He does
not seek his pleasure, though that comes with gold and
mead-drinking; consciousness of deeds done bravely and
the assurance of fame sweeten death at last.^
p A century or more after the composition of this poem,
'there lived an Anglo-Saxon whose aims were ^iritualized

! through Christianity, whose vigorous mind was broadened
by such knowledge and philosophy as his epoch had gathered
from antique sources, and whose energies were trained in

,_ generalship and the office of a king. He presents a life
intrinsically good and true, manifesting itself in warfare
against heathen barbarism and in endeavour to rule his
people righteously and enlarge their knowledge. Many
of the qualities and activities of Alfred had no place in the
life of Beowulf. Yet the heathen hero and the Christian
king were hewn from the same rock of Saxon manhood.
Alfred's life was established upon principles of right conduct

I generically the same as those of the poem. But Christianity,
experience, contact with learned men, and education through

' books, had informed him of man's spiritual nature, and
taught him that human welfare depends on knowledge
and intent and will. Accordingly, his beneficence does
not stop with the armed safe-guarding of his realm, but
seeks to compass the instruction of those who should have
knowledge in order the better to guide the faith and conduct
of the people. "He seems to me a very foolish man and
inexcusable, who will not increase his knowledge the while
that he is in this world, and always wish and will that he
may come to the everlasting life where nothing shall be dark
or imknown." '

II

In spite of the general Teutonic traits and customs which
the Germans east and west of the Rhine possessed in common

1 See the "Beowulf" translated in Gumm^e's Oldest English Epk (Macmillan,
1909).

* This is the dosing sentence of Alfred's Blossoms, culled from divers sources.
Hereafter (Chapter IX.) when speaking of the introduction of antique and Christian
culture there will be occasion to note more specifically what Alfred accomplished in
his attempt to increase knowledge throughout his kingdom.



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CHAP, vm TEUTON QUALITIES i4S

with the Anglo-Saxons, distinct qualities appear in the one
and the other from the moment of our nearer acquaintance
with their sq>arate history and literature. So scanty,
however, are the literary remains of German heathendom
that recourse must be had to Christian productions to \/
discover, for example, that with the Germans the sentiment
of home and its dear relationships^ is as marked as the
Anglo-Saxon's elegiac meditative mood. Language bears
its witness to the spiritual endowment of both peoples.
The German dialects along the Rhine were rich in abstract
nouns ending in ung and keil and schafi and turn?

There remains one piece of imtouched German heathenism,
the Hildebrandsliedy which dates from the end of the eighth
century, and may possibly be the sole survivor of a collection
of German poems made at Charlemagne's conunand.' It is
a tale of single combat between a father and son, the counter-
part of which is foimd in the Persian, Irish, and Norse
literatxires. Such an incident might be diversely rendered;
armies might watch their champions engage, or the combat
might occur imwitnessed in some mountain gorge ; it might
be described pathetically or in warrior mood, and the heroes
might fight in ignorance, or one of them know well who was
the man confronting him. In German, this story is a part
of that huge mass of legend which grew up around the
memory of the terrible Him Attila, and transformed him to
the Atli of Norse literature, and to the worthy King Etzel of
the Nibdungenliedy at whose Court the flower of Burgundian
chivalry went down in that fierce feud in which Etzel had
little part. Among his vassal kings appears the mighty
exile Dietrich of Bern, who in the Nibdungen reluctantly
overcomes the last of the Burgundian heroes. This Dietrich
is none other than Theodoric the Ostrogoth, transformed in.
legend and represented as driven from his kingdom of Italy
by Odoacer, and for the time forced to take refuge with

> See e.g. in Otfried's EvangeHenbuck, posl^ p. 203.

*For example: skidunga (Scheidung), saligheit (Seligkeit), j£<mi!fc(^/ (Feind-
schaft), sheidefUuom (Heidentum). By the eighth century the High Gennan of
the Bavarians and Alemanni began to separate from the Low Gennan of the lower
Rhine, spoken by Saxons and certain of the Franks. The greater part of the
Prankish tribes, and the Thuringians, occupied intermediate sections of country
and spoke dialects midway between Low German and High.

• Text in Piper's Die iUieste Literal (Deutsche Nadonal Lit.).

VOL. I. L



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146 THE MEDIAEVAL MIND book i

Etzel; for the legend was not troubled by the fact that
Attila was dead before Theodoric was bom. Bern is the
name given to Verona, and l^;end saw Theodoric's castle
in that most beautiful of Roman amphitheatres, where the
traveller still may sit and meditate on many things. It is
told also that Theodoric recovered his khigdom in the
legendary Rabenschlacht fought by Ravenna's walls. Old
Hildebrand was his master-at-arms, who had fled with him.
In the Nibdungen it is he that cuts down Kriemhild, Etzd's
queen, before the monarch's eyes; for he could not endure
that a woman's hand had slain Gunther and Hagan, whom,
exhausted at last, Dietrich's strength had set before her
helpless and boimd. And now, after years of absence, he
has recrossed the mountains with his king come to claim his
kingdom, and before the armies he challenges the champion
of the opposing host. Here the Old German poem, which
is called the HUdebrandslied, takes up Uie story :

''Hildebrand spoke, the wiser man, and asked as to the other's
father — *0r tdl me of what race art thou; 'twill be enough;
every one in the realm is known to me.'

''Hadubrand spoke, Hildebrand's son: 'Our people, the old
and knowing of them, tell me Hildebrand was my father's name ;
mine b Hadubrand. Aforetime he fled to the east, from Otacher's
hate, fled with Dietrich and his knights. He left wife to mourn,
and ungrown child. Dietrich's need called him. He was alwa3rs
in the front; fighting was dear to him. I do not believe he is alive.'

" 'God forbid, from heaven above, that thou shouldst wage
fight with so near kin.' He took from his arm the ring given by
the king, lord of the Huns. 'Lo ! I give it thee graciously.'

"Hadubrand spoke: 'With spear alone a man receives gift,
point against pcHnt. Too cunning art thou, old Hun. Beguiling
me with words thou wouldst thrust me with thy spear. Tliou art
so old — thou hast a trick in store. Seafaring men have told me
Hildebrand is dead.'

"Hildebrand spoke: 'O mighty God, a drear fate happens.
Sixty summers and winters, ever placed by men among the spear-
men, I have so borne myself that bane got I never. Now shall
my own child smite me with the sword, or I be his death. ' "

There is a break here in the poem; but the imcon-
trolled son evidently taunted the father with cowardice.
The old warrior cries :



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CHAP, vm TEUTON QUALITIES 147

'' 'Be he the vilest of all the East people who now would refuse
thee the fight thou hankerest after. Hai^n it and show which of
us must give up his armour. ' "

The end fails, but probably the son was slain.

Stubborn and grim appears the Old German character.
Point to point shall foes .exchange gifts. Such also was
the way when a lord made reward; on the spear's point
presenting the arm-ring to him who had served, he accepting
it/in like fashion, each on his guard perhaps. The Hilde-
yvrandslied exhibits other qualities of the German spirit, for
If instance its blimtness and lack of tact ; even its clumsiness is
evinced in the seventy lines of the poem, which although
broken is not a fragment, but a short poem — 3, ballad gracer
less and shapeless because of its stiff unvarying lines.

In a later poem, which gives the story of Walter of
Aquitaine, the same set and stubborn mood appears,
although lightened by rough banter. This legend existed
in Old German as well as Anglo-Saxon. In the tenth
century, Ekkehart, a monk of St. Gall, freely altering and
adding to the tale, made of it the small Latin epic which is
extant.^ Monk as he was, he tells a spirited story in his
rugged hexameters. He had studied classic authors to good
purpose; and his poem of Walter fleeing with his love
Hildegund from the Hunnish Court (for the all-pervasive
Attila is here also) is vivid, diversified, well-constructed —
qualities which may not have been in the story till he
remodelled it. Its leading incidents still present German
traits. Walter and Hildegund carry off a treasure in their
flight; and it is to get this treasure that Gunther urges
Hagan (for they are here too) to attack the fugitive. This
is Teutonic. It was for plunder that Teuton tribes fought
their bravest fights from the time of Alaric and Genseric to
the \^king age, and the hoard has a great part in Teutonic
story. In the Waltarius Gunther's driving avarice, Walter's

> On the Waltari poem, see Ebert, AUgemeine Gesck, der LikraUw des MiUd-
alters, Bd. iii. 264-276; ako K. Strecker, "Probleme in der Walthariusfonchung,"
Neue JahrbUcher fir klass, AUertumsgtsck, und Dtutscke. LiieraUir, ate Jahigang,
(Leipzig, 1899), pp. 573-594* 629-645. The aut|ior is called Ekkehart I. (d. 973),
being the first of the celd>rated monks bearing that name at St. Gall. The poem
it edited by Pciper (Berlin, 1873), by Sche£fel and Holder (Stuttgart, 1874), «nd
by Althof (JLdpdg, X896) ; it is translated into German by San Marte (Magdeburg,
1853} wl 1^ Althof (Leipodg, 1902).



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148 THE MEDIAEVAL MIND book i

stubborn defence of his gold are Teutonic. The humour
and the banter are more distinctly German, and nobly
German is^ the relationship of trust and honour between
Walter and the maiden who is fleeing with him. Yet the
story does not revolve aroimd the woman in it, but rather
around the shrewdly got and bravely guarded treasure.

German traits obvious in theHUdebrandslied, and strong
through the Latin of the WaUarius^ evince themselves in the
epic of the Nibdungenlied and in the Kudrun, often caUed
its companion piece. The former holds the strength of
German manhood and the power of German hate, with the
edged energy of speech accompanying it. In the latter,
German womanhood is at its best. Both poems, in their
extant form, belong to the middle or latter part of the
twelfth century, and are not imaffected by influences which
were not native German.

The Nibdungenlied is but dimly reminiscent of any
bygone love between Si^ried and Brunhilde, and carries
within its own narrative a sufficient explanation of Brun-
hilde's jealous anger and Siegfried's death. Kriemhild is
left to nurse the wrath which shall never cease to devise
vengeance for her husband's mxirderers. Years afterwards,
Hagan warns Gunther, about to accept Etzel's invitation,
that Kriemhild is lancraeche (long vengeful). The course of
that vengeance is told with power ; for the constructive soul
of a race contributed to this Volksepos. The actors in the
tragedy are strikingly drawn and contrasted, and are lifted
in true epic fashion above the common stature by intensity
of feeling and the power of will to realize through imswerving
action the promptings of their natures. The fatefulness of
the tale is true to tragic reality, in which the far results of
an ill deed involve the innocent with the guilty.

A comparison of the poem with the HUdebrandslied
shows that the sense of the pathetic had deepened in the
intervening centuries. There is scarcely any pathos in^e
earlier composition, although its subject is the fatal combat
between father and son. But the Nibelungen, with a fiercer
hate, can set forth the heroic pathos of the lot of one, who,
struggling between fealties, is driven on to dishonour and to
death. This is the pathos of the death of Riidiger, who had



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CHAP, vm TEUTON QUALITIES 149

received the Burgundians in his castle on their way to Etzel's
Court, had exchanged gifts with them, and betrothed his
daughter to the youngest of the three kings. He was as
unsuspecting as Etzel of Kriemhild's plot. But in the end
Kriemhild forces him, on his fealty as liegeman, to outrage
his heart and honour, and attack those whom he had sheltered
and guided onward — to their death.

Not much love in this tale, only hate insatiable. But
the greatness of hate may show the passional power of the
hating soul. The centuries have raised to high relief the
elemental Teutonic qualities of hate, greed, courage and
devotion, and human personality has enlarged with the
heightened power of will. The reader is affected with
admiration and sympathy. First he is drawn to Siegfried's
bright morning courage, his noble masterfulness — ^his
character appears touched with the ideals of chivalry.^
After his death the interest tiuns to Kriemhild planning for
revenge. It may be that sympathy is repelled as her hate
draws within its tide so much of guiltlessness and honour;
and as the doomed Nibelungen heroes show themselves
haughty, strong-handed, and stout-hearted to the end, he
cheers them on, and most heartily that grim, consistent
Hagen in whom the old German troth and treachery for
troth's sake are incarnate.

The Kudrun* is a happier story, ending in weddings
instead of death. There was no licentiousness or infidelity
between man and wife in the Nibelungen^ and through all
its hate and horror no outrage is done to woman's honour.
That may be taken as the leading theme of the Kudrun.
An ardent wooer, to be sure, may seize and carry off the
heroine, and his father drag her by the hair on her refusal to
wed his son ; but her honour, and the honour of all women

<The description of Siegfried's love for Kriemhild is just touched by the
ddralric love, which exists in Wolfram's Paniwal, in Gottfried's Tristan, and of
coune in their French models. See post, Chapter XXIV. For example, as he
first sees her who was to be to him '^beide lieb und Idt/' he becomes "bleich
unde r6t"; and at her greeting, his spirit is Hfted up: "d6 wart im von dem
gmose vil wol gehoeh^ der muot." And the scene is Uid in May {Nibehmgen-
IM, Aventhire V., stanzas 284, 285, aga, 295).

*A convenient edition of the Kudnm is Pfeiffer's in DnUsckt Klastiker det
iiittelaUers (LeipBig, 1880). Under the name of Gudrun it is translated into
modem German by Simrock, and into English by M. P. Nichols (Boston, 1899).



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ISO THE MEDIAEVAL MIND book i

in the poem, is respected and maintained. The ideal of
womanhood is noble throughout: an old king thus bids
farewell to his daughter on setting forth to be married:
"You shall so wear your crown that I and your mother may
never hear that any one hates you. Rich as you are, it
would mar your fame to give any occasion for blame." ^

A mediaeval epic may tell of the fortunes of several
generations, and the Kudrun devotes a number of books to
the heroine's ancestors, making a half-savage narrative, in
which one feels a conflict between andent barbarities and a
newer and more courtly order. When the venturesome
wooing and wedded fortune of Kudrun's mother have been
told, the poem turns to its chief heroine, who grows to
stately maidenhood, and becomes betrothed to a yoimg
king, Herwig. A rejected wooer, the "Norman" JPrince
Hartmuth, by a sudden descent upon the land in the absence
of its defenders, carries off Kudrun and her women by force
of arms, and the king, her father, is killed in an abortive
attempt to recapture her. In Hartmuth's castle by the sea
Kudrun spends bitter years waiting for deliverance. His
sister, Ortnin, is kind to her, but his mother, Gerlint, treats
her shamefully. The maiden is steadfast. Between her and
Hartmuth stands a double barrier: his father had killed
hers; she was betrothed to Herwig. Hartmuth repels his
wicked mother's advice to force her to his will. In his
absence on a foray Gerlint compels Kudnm to do imfitting
tasks. Hartmuth, returning, asks her: "Kudrun, fair
lady, how has it been with you while I and my knights were
away?"

"Here I have been forced to serve, to your sin and my

^ Kudnm, viii. 558. Whatever may have been the facts of German life in
the Middle Ages, the literature shows respect for marriage and woman's virtue.
This remark appfies not only to those works of the Middle High German tongue
which are occupied with themes of Teutonic origin, but also to those — ^Wolfram's
Panival, for example— whose foreign themes do not force the poet to "**g"«*y
adulterous love. When, however, that is the theme of the story, the German
writer, as in Gottfried's Tristan, does not fail to do it justice.

WiUmans, in his Leben umd Dickkmg WaUkers von der Votdweidt (Bonn, i8Sa),
note I* on page 328, dtes a number of passages from Middle High German works
OD the serious regard for marriage held by the Gennans. Even the Gcrmaa
mfainesingerf sometimes felt the cont r adiction between the broken marriage vow
and the mnobling nature of chivalric k>ve. See WiUmans, ibid, p. i6s and
note 7.



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CHAP, vm TEUTON QUALITIES 151

shame," * answers Kudrun — a great answer, in its truth and
self-controL

After an interval of kind treatment the old "she-wolf"
Gerlint sets Kudrun with her faithful Hildeburg to washing
clothes in the sea. It is winter; their garments are mean,
their feet are naked. They see a boat approaching, in which
are Kudnm's brother Ortwin, and Herwig her betrothed, who
had come before their host as spies. A recognition follows ;
Herwig is for carrying them oflf; Ortwin forbids it. "With
open force they were taken; my hand shall not steal them
back"; dear as Kudrun is, he can take her only ndch (ren
(as becomes his honour). When they have gone, Kudrun
throws the clothes to be washed into the sea. "No more
will I wash for Gerlint ; two kings have kissed me and held
me in their arms."

Kudrun returns to the castle, which soon is stormed.
She ^ves Hartmuth and his sister from the slaughter, and
all safl home, where the thought is now of wedding festivals.

Kudrun is married to Herwig ; at her advice Ortwin weds
Ortrun, and then she thinks of Hartmuth's plight, and asks
her friend Hildeburg whether she will have him for a husband.
Hildeburg consents. Kudnm conmiands that Hartmuth
be brought, and bids him be seated by the side of her dear
friend "who had washed clothes along with her !"

"Queen, you would reproach me with that. I grieved
at the shame they put on you. It was kept from me."

"I cannot let it pass. I must speak with you alone,
Hartmuth."

"God grant she means well with me," thought he. She
took him aside and spoke: "If you will do as I bid, you
will part with your troubles."

Hartmuth answered: "I know you are so noble that
your behest can be only honourable and good. I can find
nothing in my heart to keep me from doing your bidding
gladly, Queen." * The high quality of speech between these .
two will rarely be outdone.

There is directness and troth in all these German poems. .
Troth is an ideal which must carry truth within it. The
more thoughtful and reflecting German spirit will evince

^Kudfwm, XT. 10x3. * Kudnm, zzz. 163a tqq.



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152 THE MEDIAEVAL MIND book i

loyalty to truth itself as an ideal. Wolfram's poem of
Parzival has this ; and by virtue of this same ideal, Walter
von der Vogeh^eide's judgments upon Ufe and emperors and
popes are whole and steady, imveiUng the sham, condemning
the lie and defying the liar.^ In them dawns the spirit of
Luther and the German Reformation, with its love of truth
stronger than its love of art.



m

Chronologically these last illustrations of German traits
belong to the mediaeval time ; and in fact the NiMungenlied
and Kudrun, and much more Wolfram's Parzival and
Walter's poems, are mediaeval, because to some extent
v^ affected by that interplay of influences which made the
<r ^ mediaeval genius.* On the other hand, the almost contem-
poraneous Norse Sagas and the somewhat older Eddie poems
exhibit Teutonic traits in their northern integrity. For the
Norse period of free and independent growth continued long
after the distinctive barbarism of other Teutons had become
mediaevalized. There resulted imder the strenuous con-
ditions of Norse life that unique heightening of energy which
is manifested in the deeds of the Viking age and reflected in
Norse literature.'

This time of extreme activity opens in the eighth century,
toward the end of which Viking ravagers began to harry

> As to the Panival, and Walter's poems, see post. Chapters XXV., XXVII.

* Ante, Chapter I.

*It b not known when Teutons first entered Denmark and the Scandinavian
peninsula. Although non-Teutonic populations may have preceded them, the
archaeological remains do not point clearly to a succession of races, while th^ do
indicate ages of stone, bronze, and iron (Sophus Mttller, Nordiscke Attertwns-
kunde). The bronze ages began in the Northlands a thousand years or more
before Christ. In course of time, beautiful bronze weapons show what skill the
race acquired in working metals not found in Scandinavia, but perhaps brought
there in exchange for the amber of the Baltic shores. The use of iron (native to
Scandinavia) b^ns about 500 B.C. A progressive facility in its treatment b
evinced down to the Christian Era. Then a foreign influence appears — Rome.
For Roman wares entered these countries where the legionaries never set foot,
and native handicraft copied Roman modds until the fourth century, when
northern styles reassert themselves. The Scandinavians themselves were im-
a£fected by Roman wares; but after the fifth century they began to profit from their
intercourse with Anglo-Saxons and Irish.



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CHAP, vm TEUTON QUALITIES 153

the British Isles. St. Cuthbert's holy island of Lindisfame
was sacked in 793, and similar raids multiplied with por-
tentous rapidity. The coasts of Ireland and Great Britain,
and the islands lying about them, were well plundered
while the ninth century was young. In Ireland permanent
conquests were made near Dublin, at Waterford, and
Limerick. The second half of this centiuy witnesses the
great Danish Viking invasion of England. On the 0>n-
tinent the Vikings worried the skirts of the Carolingian
colossus, and the Lowlands suffered before (Charlemagne
was in his grave. After his death the trouble began in
earnest. Not only the coasts were ravaged, but the river
towns trembled, on the Elbe, the Rhine, the Somme, the
Seine, the Loire. Paris foiled or succumbed to more than
one fierce si^e. About the middle of the ninth century the
Vikings b^an to winter where they had plimdered in the
summer.

The north was ruled by chiefs and petty kings imtil
Harold Fairhair overcame the chiefs of Norway and made
himself supreme about the year 870. But he established
his power only after great sea-fights, and many of the
conquered, choosing exile rather than submission, took
refuge in the Orkneys, the Faroes, and other islands. Harold
pursued with his fleets, and forced them to further flight.
It was thb exodus from the islands and from Norway in the
last years of the ninth century that gave Iceland the greater
part^^of its population. Thither also came other bold spirits
from the Norse holdings in Ireland.

While these events were happening in the west, the
Scandinavians had not failed to push easterly. Some