Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/540

Rh mcient poetry. )pposi- ion of he -lergy. ?agan itera- ure. 522 G E R M A N Y PART 1V.—LlTF.l‘ .Tl']l E. There is a deep vein of poetry in the Teutonic nature, and it appears to have revealed itself in the earliest ages. According to Tacitus, the Germans of his time had ancient songs relating to the god Tiiisco, his son Mannus, and the three forefathers of the Teutonic race. They had also poems in honour of Arminius, the original subject of which was probably the god Irinin, whose pillar Charles the Great overthrew long afterwards in his first campaign against the Saxons. A song called “ bai'ditus,” celebrating the greatness of the war—god whom Tacitus calls Hercules, was sung or chanted by the freemen as they advanced to battle. The name “ barditus ” led some ingenious writers of the l8th century to speculate respecting an order of bards among the ancient Germans ; but there is no evidence that any such order existed. “ Barditus ” meant in the first instance a shield, and was transferred to the song because, while the singing went on, the shield was held to the mouth to make the sound more terrible. It is the opinion of many critics that the stories of “Reynard the Fox” and “Isengrim the Wolf” may be traced back to these remote times. If so, the probability is that they were brought b r the Teutons from Asia, and were originally common to the )Aryan family. There is every reason to believe that some elements of the -'z'bcIm2_r7enl2'ecl belong to the prehistoric age. The legend of Siegfried has all the marks of extreme antiquity, and it seems to have had at first a purely mythological character. Of the rhythm in which these primitive conceptions were embodied we have no certain knowledge ; but as the most ancient poems which have been preserved are in alliterative verse, it is reasonable to assume that this had grown up long before writing came into use. I. The Early Jfirldle Alf/€.——Vll€l1 the German tribes be- gan to accept Christianitythe clergy everywhere opposed the native ploetry, and strove to replace its rude conceptions by the mil er images of the gospel. Among the Goths of the 4th century Bishop Ulﬁlas took the most effectual means of achieving his purpose by preparing a clear, faithful, and simple rendering of the Scriptures,—a translation which has been of inestimable value in the scientiﬁc study of the Teutonic languages. No clergyman of like genius arose in Germany itself; but there, too, pagan compositions were steadily discouraged. Charles the Great was the ﬁrst to check this hostile movement. He showed his love of his native speech, not only by beginning to put together a German grammar, but by issuing orders for a collection of plld Gei}'man poetry. Louis the Pious had little sym- pat y wit 1 the taste of his father, but he could not efffarfle thle impression produced by the great emperor. Many o t e c ergy ceased to dislike that which so niicrht a friend of the church had approved, and in some nioriavsteiries there were ardent collectors of ancient epic fragments and ballads. These treasures of Old High and Low German literature are nearly all lost, but from the small portions which have come down to us, and from hints in Latin chronicles, we can at least make out the themes with which many of them dealt. Ermanrick, or Ermanaricus, the famous Gothic kinrr of the 4th century, was the subject of a large number of {poetical l.-gends. Siegfried continued to be great epic hero and from about the 7th century he appears to have beeli no longer treated as superhuman. The legend of the over- tptitigpa ofgtsllilen lfing, Gundicarius tor Gglllttllﬁlty. by .. .. - . ( -ms, and was a a a er nne connected with the story of Siegfried. Around the name of Theodoric the East Goth, as Dicterich, several legends soon grouped themselves ; and from about the 9th century he was associated with Attila, with whom in history he had nothing to do. Unfortunately, the frag- ments which have been preserved—all of which are alliterative—do not treat of these supreme heroes; their subjects are of subordinate importance and interest. The Ililrlebrrmtlslieil, which was written from traditional nar- ratives early in the 9th century, and is in a mixed dialect, introduces us to a follower of Dietericli. llildcbrand, re- turning from the wars carried on by his lord, is compelled to fight his own son ; but we are left in uncertainty whether father or son is conqueror. The I.mIzI-1'3/sIi'¢w.I is a ballad of the latter part of the 9th century, written in honour of a victory gained over the Nortliiiicii by Louis III., the Vest- Frankisli king. The author was probably a monk who had been a favourite at the court of Charles the Bald. There is also an Old High German ballad celebrating the reconcilia- tion of Otto I. with his brotherHenry _: and similar ballads are known to have kept up the fame of Duke l-Irnest of Swabia, who rebelled against Conrad II., and of many other popular heroes. Walter of Aquitania, who flies with his bride from the court of Attila, and at Vornis ﬁghts King liinther and his warriors, is the hero of a Latin poem of the l0th cen- tury, written by a monk of St Gall, whose materials were evidently taken from a more vigorous German original. The J][7‘S?(?'.rl€" (.'crIz':_-Ida, two songs of enchantment, were written in the lOtl1 century, but must have come down from a much more remote period. They are chieﬂy interesting for the light they throw upon the religious beliefs and customs of ancient Germany. The old ballads, which were intended to be sung as well Illin- as recited, were handed down from generation to generation, and necessarily underwent many changes. They were pre- served from an early period in the memory of the people by professional minstrels, who were held in considerable honour in the time of Charles the Great, but were after- wards rather tolerated than cncouraged by the higher classes. Many of them were blind men, and in their soli- tary wanderings the ancient stories must often have assumed in their minds new shapes. They usually accompanied their singing with the zither or the harp. Of the works with which the church sought to coiuiter- Religious The most iniport- P09“?- act pagan inﬂuences very few remain. ant is Ileliaml, a Low German poem in alliterative verse said to have been written by a Saxon at the request of Louis the Pious. It is a narrative of the life of Christ, and follows closely the Four Gospels, whose separate accounts it attempts to harmonize. The author has con- siderable forcc and freedom of expression, and seems to have been so absorbed in the grandeur of his theme as to have deliberately rejected rhetorical ornament. The so—called Ii'7'ist of Otfrid, a High German poet, who dedicated his work to Louis the German, has the same subject, but is not nearly so effective. It is the first rhymed German poem, and the necessities of rhyme often compel Otfrid to fill out his line with words and phrases which obscure his meaning. llis lyrical passages are too didactic to rank as genuine poetry. The fragment of .l[uspz'llz', a Bavarian poem of the 9th century on the Last Judgment, indicates power of a much higher order. Its form is alliterative; and reminiscences of paganism are strangely mingled with its Christian ideas. During the reigns of Charles the Great and Louis the Mona-siic Pious secular learning was zealously cultivated in the10m‘111l1S- monasteries of Germany as well as in those of other por- tions of the Frankish empire. The school established by Ilrabanus Maiirus in the famous abbey of Fulda vied with that of Tours, where Hrabanus had been a pupil