Hallecks New English Literature | Page 9

most like.
This line, also from Beowulf has eight syllables:--
"N=ipende niht, and norðan wind." Noisome night, and northern wind.
Vowel alliteration is less common. Where this is employed, the vowels
are generally different, as is shown in the principal words of the
following line:--
"On =ead, on =aeht, on eorcan st=an." On wealth, on goods, on
precious stone.
End rime is uncommon, but we must beware of thinking that there is no
rhythm, for that is a pronounced characteristic.
Anglo-Saxon verse was intended to be sung, and hence rhythm and
accent or stress are important. Stress and the length of the line are
varied; but we usually find that the four most important words, two in
each half of the line, are stressed on their most important syllable.
Alliteration usually shows where to place three stresses. A fourth stress
generally falls on a word presenting an emphatic idea near the end of

the line.
[Illustration: EXETER CATHEDRAL.]
The Manuscripts that have handed down Anglo-Saxon Literature.--The
earliest Anglo-Saxon poetry was transmitted by the memories of men.
Finally, with the slow growth of learning, a few acquired the art of
writing, and transcribed on parchment a small portion of the current
songs. The introduction of Christianity ushered in prose translations
and a few original compositions, which were taken down on parchment
and kept in the monasteries.
The study of Anglo-Saxon literature is comparatively recent, for its
treasures have not been long accessible. Its most famous poem,
Beowulf, was not printed until the dawn of the nineteenth century. In
1822 Dr. Blume, a German professor of law, happened to find in a
monastery at Vercelli, Italy, a large volume of Anglo-Saxon manuscript,
containing a number of fine poems and twenty-two sermons. This is
now known as the Vercelli Book. No one knows how it happened to
reach Italy. Another large parchment volume of poems and miscellany
was deposited by Bishop Leofric at the cathedral of Exeter in
Devonshire, about 1050 A.D. This collection, one of the prized
treasures of that cathedral, is now called the Exeter Book.
Many valuable manuscripts were destroyed at the dissolution of the
monasteries in the time of Henry VIII., between 1535 and 1540. John
Bale, a contemporary writer, says that "those who purchased the
monasteries reserved the books, some to scour their candlesticks, some
to rub their boots, some they sold to the grocers and soap sellers, and
some they sent over sea to the bookbinders, not in small numbers, but
at times whole ships full, to the wonder of foreign nations."
The Anglo-Saxon Scop and Gleeman.--Our earliest poetry was made
current and kept fresh in memory by the singers. The kings and nobles
often attached to them a scop, or maker of verses. When the warriors,
after some victorious battle, were feasting at their long tables, the
banquet was not complete without the songs of the scop. While the
warriors ate the flesh of boar and deer, and warmed their blood with
horns of foaming ale, the scop, standing where the blaze from a pile of
logs disclosed to him the grizzly features of the men, sang his most
stirring songs, often accompanying them with the music of a rude harp.
As the feasters roused his enthusiasm with their applause, he would

sometimes indulge in an outburst of eloquent extempore song. Not
infrequently the imagination of some king or noble would be fired, and
he would sing of his own great deeds.
We read in Beowulf that in Hrothgar's famous hall--
"...ð=aer was hearpan sw=eg, swutol sang scopes."
...there was sound of harp Loud the singing of the scop.
In addition to the scop, who was more or less permanently attached to
the royal court or hall of a noble, there was a craft of gleemen who
roved from hall to hall. In the song of _Widsið_ we catch a glimpse of
the life of a gleeman:--
"Sw=a scriðende gesceapum hweorfað gl=eomen gumena geond
grunda fela."
Thus roving, with shapéd songs there wander The gleemen of the
people through many lands.
The scop was an originator of poetry, the gleeman more often a mere
repeater, although this distinction in the use of the terms was not
observed in later times.
The Songs of Scop and Gleeman.--The subject matter of these songs
was suggested by the most common experiences of the time. These
were with war, the sea, and death.
[Illustration: ANGLO-SAXON GLEEMAN. _From the tapestry
designed by H.A. Bone_.]
The oldest Anglo-Saxon song known, which is called _Widsið_ or the
Far Traveler, has been preserved in the Exeter Book. This song was
probably composed in the older Angle-land on the continent and
brought to England in the memories of the singers. The poem is an
account of the wanderings of a gleeman over a great part of Europe.