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antiquary, he may be induced to condemn as a forgery what was merely intended to be an innocent fac-simile. The same reasons which occasioned the clergy to make transcripts of their charters in detached schedules or membranes, also induced them to enter their muniments in chartularies or registers. Great judgment and accuracy are sometimes displayed in these collections. In the most valuable chartulary of Worcester, for instance, the transcripts which we owe to the care of Hemingius leave nothing to be desired. But the indolence of the monk would sometimes induce him to omit the subscriptions of the charter. Successive copyists modernized the language and reduced it from the pure Anglo-Saxon to the Anglo-Norman or English of the Plantaganets. Or the ignorant clerk corrupted the unintelligible document into the most barbarous jargon. In some instances a skilful but equally injudicious scribe has destroyed the appearances of antiquity by paraphrasing the uncouth phraseology of the 'land-boc' in terms which were more familiar to his contemporaries. All these possibilities, which must be considered and weighed, add to the perplexity of a study in itself sufficiently difficult and doubtful. Lastly, all generalizations to be deduced from charters, and all the general reasonings founded upon the contents of charters, must be qualified by the recollection that those which we possess relate only to some of the foundations of Wessex and Mercia and their dependencies, together with a few gleanings from Northumbria. The devastations of the Danes will account for the absence of the documents relating to the establishments which they destroyed, but it is not so easy to explain the disappearance of almost all the charters of the Bishoprics whose seats were removed after the Conquest. Lincoln succeeded to the rights of Sidnacester, and we might have expected that the muniments would have accompanied the translation, but none can be recovered;and with the exception of some few charters belonging to the Bishopric of Sealsey, and which were entered in a register of the church of Chichester, lost during the civil wars, hardly any traces whatever can be discovered of the muniments of those ancient foundations.

We must now consider the materials of the Anglo-Saxon chronicles. Genealogies and pedigrees seem to have constituted the groundwork of their civil history, Aristocracy, in its most harsh and rigid form, was the essential principle of the Anglo-Saxon government. The higher classes were born to command, the inheritance of the people was legal subjection, and the opinions no less than the interest of the nobility would prompt them to preserve the remembrances of their ancestry with care and fidelity. Those were the first Anglo-Saxon histories. It is not probable

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that any other written memorials ascend into the heathen period, and the brief notices attached to the name of an Anglo-Saxon Ealdorman on the staff or the tablet preserved in his hall, may be conjectured to have afforded all the authentic knowledge which the chroniclers of the Minster possessed of his achievements.

Many of the genealogies of the chieftains of the Anglo-Saxon commonwealth have been preserved in the chronicles. Others, which would have been of great importance, are lost. Of the noble family of the Iclingas' only the name is known. No particulars have been preserved of the descent of the Sovereigns who, under the supremacy of Mercia, governed the Hwiccian territory for many generations. And the genealogies of the Mercian princes themselves are not clearly deduced. Most of the Anglo-Saxon names are significant, and the alliteration which was the basis of their poetry guided them in the selection of the appellations of their children. In the 'kin' of Cerdic, the same initial letter was retained for seven descents, and nearly to the same extent in a branch which sprang from the main line. If a foreign princess married an English king she assumed an Englishname; Emma of Normandy became the English Elfgiva. These circumstances, apparently trivial, are worthy of notice, since they show the strong nationality of the spirit which the Anglo-Saxons evinced in the matters connected with ancestry and family.

The mythological poems of the Anglo-Saxons have perished, but the former existence of lays extremely analogous to the strains of the Scandinavian Edda may be distinctly discovered in the verse of Cædmon and his successors. Epithets denoting the power and the attributes of the Scandinavian deities are employed without scruple in the metrical versions of Genesis, and the life of Judith. The history of the Bible is narrated in the phraseology of Valhalla. The Christian poet could not have borrowed from the lays of the heathen Scalld, had they been either dangerous or unintelligible to the multitude whom he addressed. Paganism must have become entirely extinct, but the imagery anciently consecrated to its doctrines must still have been familiar. A German antiquary of considerable learning, M. Ruhs, of Berlin, has promulgated a singular theory with respect to

These Wiccii seem to have inhabited all that tract which was anciently subject to the Bishops of Worcester,-all Worcestershire, excepting sixteen parishes lying beyond Abberley Hills and the river Tame,-all Gloucestershire on the east side Severn, and near the south half of Warwickshire, with Warwick town.-Gibson's Camden, 618.

In the genealogy inserted in the Saxon Chronicle the descent of the line of Cerdic is thus given:-Cerdic, Creoda, Cyneric, Celin or Ceawlin, Cuthwine, Cuthwulf, Ceolwald, Cenred-At the beginning of the genealogy Cyneric is called, as in the history, the son of Cerdic. Hence we obtain a proof that the word sunu is not to be restricted to the first degree of descent, but that, as in biblical language, it is to be extended as a general term to descendants.

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the evident relationship of Anglo Saxon and Scandinavian poetry. Following in some measure the path of Hardouin, he maintains that the Norwegian Scallds never existed. The wild theology of the Asi is asserted to be a gratuitous invention--the materials gathered and distorted from classical poetry and the rabbinical reveries of the Talmud. It would be less paradoxical to support a contrary theory, and to suppose that the Anglo-Saxon poetry was influenced by intercourse with Scandinavia. Northern Scallds were welcome guests at the courts of the English kings, and even in the days of Snorro, the similarity between the languages of England and Norway was so evident as to induce him to maintain their primitive identity. The historical poetry of the Anglo-Saxons appears to have embraced every possible variety, from the most fanciful romance to the mere colouring of praise and description. In the lays of Horne Childe, of Haveloke, and of Attla, king of East Anglia, all of Anglo-Saxon origin, though now existing only in versions of recent date, an historical name, or a well known locality may be discovered, but the entire superstructure is the invention of the minstrel. Not unfrequently a connexion may be discerned with the songs of the heroic age, which constituted the web both of the Teutonic Helden Buch' and the historical songs of the Edda.' Haveloke, so long lamented as lost, has lately been brought to light amongst the untouched stores of the Bodleian library. Perhaps the Tale of Wade' will in like manner reappear. The local traditions respecting his castle and his grave, indicate that Wade, the Northumbrian chieftain, had been confounded with Vade, the giant of the Wilkina-Saga.

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Historical songs preserved by memory and recitation were very popular. Every age added to their number. If the fleeting genealogy of song could be discovered, we should probably find that the humble ballads of the persecuted minstrels, even down to the period when they were declared by act of parliament to be rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars,' were often derived from these strains. One favourite ballad related to the fortunes of Gunhilda, the sister of king Canute, how she was espoused to Henry, the emperor of Almaine; how, like so many other fair Queens, she was accused of naughtiness; and how, like all such fair Queens in romance, the wicked informer was defeated and slain in single combat, the defender of the calumniated Gunhilda being the very Mimecan, or Mimetan, who had accompanied her from merry England. This tale, of which the outline is preserved

For this discovery we are indebted to Mr. Frederick Madden, who contemplates publishing this very interesting memorial. Mr. Madden is also in possession of a third English version of the gest of King Horne, unknown to Ritson.

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by Florilegus' and Malmesbury, is entirely lost in verse; but it is remarkable that the dwarf Mimretand, the least of men,' is the hero of one of the Kæmpe viser of the Danes, to whom Gunhillda and her fortunes seem to be entirely unknown. Malmesbury, who often appeals to ancient ballads, carefully distinguishes their authority from more faithful chronicles. Athelstane, the Lord of Earls, the Giver of Bracelets,' was the hero of an entire cycle. Many of the particulars of his life, as given by Malmesbury, have no other source; and his character, like that of Charlemagne, became that of a mythical monarch. Malmesbury enables us to pause before we adopt the statements derived from the tale of the gleeman. In older and less critical writers, the reader is not thus warned, and in the midst of the gravest narrations we may sometimes discover, or at least suspect, these pleasing fictions. Alfred and Anlaf, both disguised as harpers, both using the same identical stratagem for the same identical purpose, and both meeting with the same success, had probably their common prototype in some good Knight well taught of harp and song.'

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The poems which rank above the mere ballad are entitled to a reasonable share of credit. Notwithstanding the pompous diction of the well known ode on the battle of Brunnaburgh, it betrays no falsification or inaccuracy. Beortnoth, the strenuous adversary of the Danish invaders, who holds such a conspicuous place in history, is the hero of a poem of this description. The fragments of these historical poems enable us to judge of the merit of the class, and give us reason to deplore that so small a portion has been preserved.

The information derived, more or less directly, from poetry forms an essential element of ancient history, and the use to which it can be applied must often be a subject of consideration. In the metrical chronicle or metrical biography we may find a narrative almost as veracious as plain prose, allowing only for the occasional colouring of poetical phraseology, and the urgency of the laws of verse. The more these production's approach to the rhapsody or the epic, the more will anachronisms and incongruities increase, and the greater will be the necessity of submitting the assumed facts to the rigid test of chronology. If the date of the event or the age of the individual cannot be ascertained with a reasonable degree of certainty, the battle and the hero must be expunged from the page of history. Time is the essence of history, in its true and peculiar sense; and unless the facts can be arranged in their natural order, they cease to possess their authentic warranty. How far the fragments and incidents inscribed the scattered Sibylline leaves of the poet can be applied in commenting

upon

VOL. XXXIV. NO. LXVII.

commenting upon history, must depend in each instance upon special merits and peculiarities. Where fiction is the more predominant characteristic, as in the legend, in the romance, or in the remoter relics of mythology, evidence of opinions only can be obtained. The origin and wanderings of the race; the character of its primeval legislators and heroes; the spirit of the patriarchal customs and laws; in short, all subjects of inquiry anterior to the period of authentic history, can be susceptible of no other proof except national belief: possibly very erroneous, but still, being the only mode of proof, this must be admitted from the necessity of the case, for we cannot hope to discover a more satisfactory basis for our investigations. To this extent, the traditions of the nation, if conformable to the general course of its history, may be safely received. The least instructive method of employing ancient fictions is when the historian endeavours to develope the fables and to reduce them again into absolute truth. No department of historical inquiry has exhibited more examples of misapplied erudition and misemployed talent than such disquisitions. Mystic allegories will find as many expositions as there are hierophants; all perhaps equally plausible, all equally unsubstantial, visionary as the forms from whence they arise, but without their ghostly graudeur and awe. Under such management, the most trivial accidents and the most common expressions assume a disproportionate value. The pleasure attendant upon the solution of an enigma increases the earnestness of the writer. Names, numbers, times, seasons, all yield to his analysis, until at length he becomes persuaded that there is no difficulty which has not been conquered by his labour and sagacity. Suhm, in this manner, compiled a history of the Danish kings from the reign of Odin the First, who settled in Scandinavia exactly in the year fifty preceding the Christian era, to Rerek Hnanggranbaug, the forty-fifth king of Lethra, who was killed in battle by one Prince Amleth, his son-in-law, who had just returned from England, A.D. 562. Founded entirely upon poetry and romance, Suhm's history, comprehending the whole of the darkest mythological and heroic periods, and yet entirely destitute of gods, demons, enchanters, wonders, proceeds smoothly without chasm or interruption; all is plain, easy, and consistent, offering neither difficulties nor improbabilities. A history of the first crusade, manufactured out of the Gerusalemme Liberata, offers but a faint idea of Suhm's production, a work equally insipid and improbable, in which fictions are deprived of the aroma which gives them worth, at the same time that there is no possibility of imparting any appearance of truth to the caput mortuum which remains after the destructive process. This mode of treatment is most injurious

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