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CHAPTER I.
ОглавлениеGERMANIC ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.—DATE.
§ 1. The first point to be remembered in the history of the English Language, is that it was not the original language of any of the British Islands altogether or of any portion of them. Indeed, of the whole of Great Britain it is not the language at the present moment. Welsh is spoken in Wales, Manks in the Isle of Man, Scotch Gaelic in the Highlands of Scotland, and Irish Gaelic in Ireland. Hence, the English that is now spoken was once as foreign to our country as it is at present to the East Indies; and it is no more our primitive vernacular tongue, than it is the primitive vernacular tongue for North America, Jamaica, or Australia. Like the English of Sydney, or the English of Pennsylvania, the English of Great Britain spread itself at the expense of some earlier and more aboriginal language, which it displaced and superseded.
§ 2. The next point involves the real origin and the real affinities of the English Language. Its real origin is on the continent of Europe, and its real affinities are with certain languages there spoken. To speak more specifically, the native country of the English Language is Germany; and the Germanic languages are those that are the most closely connected with our own. In Germany, languages and dialects allied to each other and allied to the mother-tongue of the English have been spoken from times anterior to history; and these, for most purposes of philology, may be considered as the aboriginal languages and dialects of that country.
§ 3. Accredited details of the different immigrations from Germany into Britain.—Until lately the details of the different Germanic invasions of England, both in respect to the particular tribes by which they were made, and the order in which they succeeded each other, were received with but little doubt, and as little criticism.
Respecting the tribes by which they were made, the current opinion was, that they were chiefly, if not exclusively, those of the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles.
The particular chieftains that headed each descent were also known, as well as the different localities upon which they descended. These were as follows:—
§ 4. First settlement of invaders from Germany.—The account of this gives us the year 449 for the first permanent Germanic tribes settled in Britain. Ebbsfleet, in the Isle of Thanet, was the spot where they landed; and the particular name that these tribes gave themselves was that of Jutes. Their leaders were Hengist and Horsa. Six years after their landing they had established the kingdom of Kent; so that the county of Kent was the first district where the original British was superseded by the mother-tongue of the present English, introduced from Germany.
§ 5. Second settlement of invaders from Germany.—In the year 477 invaders from Northern Germany made the second permanent settlement in Britain. The coast of Sussex was the spot whereon they landed. The particular name that these tribes gave themselves was that of Saxons. Their leader was Ella. They established the kingdom of the South Saxons (Sussex); so that the county of Sussex was the second district where the original British was superseded by the mother-tongue of the present English, introduced from Northern Germany.
§ 6. Third settlement of invaders from Germany.—In the year 495 invaders from Northern Germany made the third permanent settlement in Britain. The coast of Hampshire was the spot whereon they landed. Like the invaders last mentioned, these tribes were Saxons. Their leader was Cerdic. They established the kingdom of the West Saxons (Wessex); so that the county of Hants was the third district where the original British was superseded by the mother-tongue of the present English, introduced from Northern Germany.
§ 7. Fourth settlement of invaders from Germany.—A.D. 530, certain Saxons landed in Essex, so that the county of Essex was the fourth district where the original British was superseded by the mother-tongue of the present English, introduced from Northern Germany.
§ 8. Fifth settlement of invaders from Germany.—These were Angles in Norfolk and Suffolk. This settlement, of which the precise date is not known, took place during the reign of Cerdic in Wessex. The fifth district where the original British was superseded by the mother-tongue of the present English was the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk; the particular dialect introduced being that of the Angles.
§ 9. Sixth settlement of invaders from Germany.—In the year 547 invaders from Northern Germany made the sixth permanent settlement in Britain. The south-eastern counties of Scotland, between the rivers Tweed and Forth, were the districts where they landed. They were of the tribe of the Angles, and their leader was Ida. The south-eastern parts of Scotland constituted the sixth district where the original British was superseded by the mother-tongue of the present English, introduced from Northern Germany.
§ 10. It would be satisfactory if these details rested upon cotemporary evidence; in which case the next question would be that of the relations of the immigrant tribes to each other as Germans, i.e. the extent to which the Jute differed from (or agreed with) the Angle, or the Saxon, and the relations of the Angle and the Saxon to each other. Did they speak different languages?—different dialects of a common tongue!—or dialects absolutely identical? Did they belong to the same or to different confederations? Was one polity common to all? Were the civilizations similar?
Questions like these being answered, and a certain amount of mutual difference being ascertained, it would then stand over to inquire whether any traces of this original difference were still to be found in the modern English. Have any provincial dialects characteristics which are Jute rather than Angle? or Angle rather than Saxon?
It is clear that the second of these questions is involved in the answer given to the first.
§ 11. The accredited relations of the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons to each other as Germans.—These are as follows:—
1. That the geographical locality of the Jutes was the Peninsula of Jutland.
2. That that of Angles, was the present Dutchy of Sleswick; so that they were the southern neighbours of the Jutes.
3. That that of the Saxons was a small tract north of the Elbe, and some distinct point—more or less extensive—between the Elbe and Rhine.
4. That, although there were, probably, dialectal differences between the languages, the speech of all the three tribes was mutually intelligible.
§ 12. Assuming, then, the accuracy of our historical facts, the inference is, that, without expecting to find any very prominent and characteristic differences between the different inhabitants of England arising out of the original differences between the Germanic immigrants, we are to look for what few there are in the following quarters—
1. For the characteristic differentiæ of the Jutes, in Kent, part of Sussex, and the Isle of Wight.
2. For those of the Saxons in Sussex, Essex, Hants (Wessex), and Middlesex.
3. For those of the Angles in Norfolk, Suffolk, Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland.
Or, changing the expression:—
1. The differentiæ of the people of Kent, part of Sussex, and the Isle of Wight (if any), are to be explained by the differentiæ of the original Jute immigrants—
2. Those of the rest of Sussex, Wessex, Essex, and Middlesex, by those of the Saxons—
3. Those of the people of Norfolk, &c., by those of the Angles.
Such is our reasoning, and such a sketch of our philological researches—assuming that the opinions just exhibited, concerning the dates, conductors, localities, and order, are absolute and unimpeachable historical facts.
§ 13. Criticism of the aforesaid details.—As a preliminary to this part of the subject, the present writer takes occasion to state once for all, that nearly the whole of the following criticism is not his own (except, of course, so far as he adopts it—which he does), but Mr. Kemble's, and that it forms the introduction to his valuable work on the Saxons in England.
1. The evidence to the details just given, is not historical, but traditional.—a. Bede, from whom it is chiefly taken, wrote more than 300 years after the supposed event, i.e., the landing of Hengist and Horsa, in A.D. 449.
b. The nearest contemporary author is Gildas, and he lived at least 100 years after it.
2. The account of Hengist's and Horsa's landing, has elements which are fictional rather than historical—a. Thus "when we find Hengist and Horsa approaching the coasts of Kent in three keels, and Ælli effecting a landing in Sussex with the same number, we are reminded of the Gothic tradition which carries a migration of Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Gepidæ, also in three vessels, to the mouths of the Vistula."
b. The murder of the British chieftains by Hengist is told totidem verbis, by Widukind, and others of the Old Saxons in Thuringia.
c. Geoffry of Monmouth relates also, how "Hengist obtained from the Britons as much land as could be enclosed by an ox-hide; then, cutting the hide into thongs, enclosed a much larger space than the granters intended, on which he erected Thong Castle—a tale too familiar to need illustration, and which runs throughout the mythus of many nations. Among the Old Saxons, the tradition is in reality the same, though recorded with a slight variety of detail. In their story, a lap-full of earth is purchased at a dear rate from a Thuringian; the companions of the Saxon jeer him for his imprudent bargain; but he sows the purchased earth upon a large space of ground, which he claims, and, by the aid of his comrades, ultimately wrests it from the Thuringians."
3. There is direct evidence in favour of there having been German tribes in England anterior to A.D. 447.—a. At the close of the Marcomannic war, Marcus Antoninus transplanted a number of Germans into Britain.—Dio Cassius, lxxi. lxiii.
b. Alemannic auxiliaries served along with Roman legions under Valentinian.
c. The Notitia utriusque imperii, of which the latest date is half a century earlier than the epoch of Hengist, mentions, as an officer of State, the Comes littoris Saxonici per Britannias; his government extending along the coast from Portsmouth to the Wash.
I conclude with the following extract:—"We are ignorant what fasti or even mode of reckoning the revolutions of seasons prevailed in England, previous to the introduction of Christianity. We know not how any event before the year 600 was recorded, or to what period the memory of man extended. There may have been rare annals: there may have been poems: if such there were they have perished, and have left no trace behind, unless we are to attribute to them such scanty notices as the Saxon Chronicle adds to Beda's account. From such sources, however, little could have been gained of accurate information either as to the real internal state, the domestic progress, or development of a people. The dry bare entries of the Chronicles in historical periods may supply the means of judging what sort of annals were likely to exist before the general introduction of the Roman alphabet and parchment, while, in all probability, runes supplied the place of letters, and stones, or the beech-wood, from which their name is derived, of books. Again, the traditions embodied in the epic, are pre-eminently those of kings and princes; they are heroical, devoted to celebrate the divine or half-divine founders of a race, the fortunes of their warlike descendants, the manners and mode of life of military adventurers, not the obscure progress, household peace, and orderly habits of the humble husband-man. They are full of feasts and fighting, shining arms and golden goblets: the gods mingle among men almost their equals, share in the same pursuits, are animated by the same passions of love, and jealousy, and hatred; or, blending the divine with the mortal nature, become the founders of races, kingly, because derived from divinity itself. But one race knows little of another, or its traditions, and cares as little for them. Alliances or wars alone bring them in contact with one another, and the terms of intercourse between the races will, for the most part, determine the character under which foreign heroes shall be admitted into the national epos, or whether they shall be admitted at all. All history, then, which is founded in any degree upon epical tradition (and national history is usually more or less so founded) must be to that extent imperfect, if not inaccurate; only when corrected by the written references of contemporaneous authors, can we assign any certainty to its records.
"Let us apply these observations to the early events of Saxon history: of Kent, indeed, we have the vague and uncertain notices which I have mentioned; even more vague and uncertain are those of Sussex and Wessex. Of the former, we learn that in the year 477, Ælli, with three sons, Cymen, Wlencing, and Cissa, landed in Sussex; that in the year 485 they defeated the Welsh, and that in 491 they destroyed the population of Anderida. Not another word is there about Sussex before the arrival of Augustine, except a late assertion of the military pre-eminence of Ælli among the Saxon chieftains. The events of Wessex are somewhat better detailed; we learn that in 495 two nobles, Cerdic and Cyneríc, came to England, and landed at Cerdices-ora, where, on the same day, they fought a battle: that in 501 they were followed by a noble named Port, who, with his two sons, Bieda and Mægla, made a forcible landing at Portsmouth: and that in 508, they gained a great battle over a British king, whom they slew, together with five thousand of his people. In 514 Stuff and Wihtgár, their nephews, brought them a reinforcement of three ships; in 519, they again defeated the Britons, and established the kingdom of Wessex. In 527, a new victory is recorded; in 530, the Isle of Wight was subdued and given to Wihtgár; and in 534, Cerdic died, and was succeeded by Cyneríc, who reigned twenty-six years. In 544, Wihtgár died. A victory of Cyneríc, in 552 and 556, and Ceawlin's accession to the throne of Wessex are next recorded. Wars of the West-Saxon kings are noted in 568, 571, 577, 584. From 590 to 595, a king of that race, named Ceól, is mentioned: in 591, we learn the expulsion of Ceawlin from power; in 593, the deaths of Ceawlin, Cwichelm, and Crida, are mentioned, and in 597, the year of Augustine's arrival, we learn that Ceólwulf ascended the throne of Wessex.
"Meagre as these details are, they far exceed what is related of Northumberland, Essex, or East-Anglia. In 547, we are told that Ida began to reign in the first of these kingdoms, and that he was succeeded in 560, by Ælli: that after a reign of thirty years, he died in 588, and was succeeded by Æþelríc, who again, in 593, was succeeded by Æþelfriþ. This is all we learn of Northumbria; of Mercia, Essex, East-Anglia, and the innumerable kingdoms that must have been comprised under these general appellations, we hear not a single word.
"If this be all that we can now recover of events, a great number of which must have fallen within the lives of those to whom Augustine preached, what credit shall we give to the inconsistent accounts of earlier actions? How shall we supply the almost total want of information respecting the first settlements? What explanation have we to give of the alliance between Jutes, Angles, and Saxon, which preceded the invasions of England? What knowledge will these records supply of the real number and quality of the chieftains, the language and blood of the populations who gradually spread themselves from the Atlantic to the Frith of Forth; of the remains of Roman cultivation, or the amount of British power with which they had to contend? of the vicissitudes of good and evil fortune which visited the independent principalities before they were swallowed up in the kingdoms of the heptarchy, or the extent of the influence which they retained after the event! On all these several points we are left entirely in the dark; and yet these are facts which it most imports us to know, if we would comprehend the growth of a society which endured for at least 700 years in England, and formed the foundation of that in which we live."—The Saxons in England. Vol. I, pp. 28-32.
§ 14. Inference.—As it is nearly certain, that the year 449 is not the date of the first introduction of German tribes into Britain, we must consider that the displacement of the original British began at an earlier period than the one usually admitted, and, consequently, that it was more gradual than is usually supposed.
Perhaps, if we substitute the middle of the fourth, instead of the middle of the fifth century, as the epoch of the Germanic immigrations into Britain, we shall not be far from the truth.
