Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race
a power of bold and daring action, of reckless valour, of rapid
conception and execution, which contrasted strongly with the slower
and more placid temperament of the Anglo-Saxon, and to this Danish
strain modern Englishmen probably owe the power of initiative, the
love of adventure, and the daring action which have made England the
greatest colonising nation on the earth. The Danish, Norse, or Viking
element spread far and wide in mediaeval Europe--Iceland, Normandy
(Northman's Land), the Isle of Man, the Hebrides, the east of
Ireland, the Danelagh of East Anglia, and the Cumberland dales all
show traces of the conquering Danish race; and raider after raider
came to England and stayed, until half of our island was Danish, and
even our royal family became for a time one with the royal line of
Denmark. The acceptance of Christianity by the Danes in England when
Guthrum was baptized rendered much more easy their amalgamation with
the English; but it was not so in Ireland, where the Round Towers
still stand to show (as some authorities hold) how the terrified
native Irish sheltered from the Danish fury which nearly destroyed the
whole fabric of Irish Christianity. The legends of Ireland, too, are
full of the terror of the men of "Lochlann," which is generally taken
to mean Norway; and the great coast cities of Ireland--Dublin, Cork,
Waterford, Wexford, and others--were so entirely Danish that only the
decisive battle of Clontarf, in which the saintly and victorious Brian
Boru was slain, saved Ireland to Christendom and curbed the power of
the heathen invaders.
A second wave of Norse invasion swept over England at the Norman
Conquest, and for a time submerged the native English population. The
chivalrous Norman knights who followed William of Normandy's sacred
banner, whether from religious zeal or desire of plunder, were as
truly Vikings by race as were the Danes who settled in the Danelagh.
The days when Rolf (Rollo, or Rou), the Viking chief, won Normandy
were not yet so long gone by that the fierce piratical instincts of
his followers had ceased to influence their descendants: piety and
learning, feudal law and custom, had made some impression upon the
character of the Norman, but at heart he was still a Northman. The
Norman barons fought for their independence against Duke William with
all the determination of those Norse chiefs who would not acknowledge
the overlordship of Harold Fairhair, but fled to colonise Iceland when
he made himself King of Norway. The seafaring instincts which drove
the Vikings to harry other lands in like manner drove the Normans to
piratical plundering up and down the English Channel, and, when they
had settled in England, led to continual sea-fights in the Channel
between English and French, hardy Kentish and Norman, or Cornish and
Breton, sailors, with a common strain of fighting blood, and a common
love of the sea.
The Norman Conquest of England was but one instance of Norman
activity: Sicily, Italy, Constantinople, even Antioch, and the Holy
Land itself, showed in time Norman states, Norman laws, Norman
civilisation, and all alike felt the impulse of Norman energy and
inspiration. England lay ready to hand for Norman invasion--the hope
of peaceable succession to the saintly Edward the Confessor had to be
abandoned by William; the gradual permeation of sluggish England with
Norman earls, churchmen, courtiers, had been comprehended and checked
by Earl Godwin and his sons (themselves of Danish race); but there
still remained the way of open war and an appeal to religious zeal;
and this way William took. There was genius as well as statesmanship
in the idea of combining a personal claim to the throne held by Harold
the usurper with a crusading summons against the schismatic and
heretical English, who refused obedience to the true successor of St.
Peter. The success of the idea was its justification: the success of
the expedition proved the need that England had of some new leaven to
energise the sluggish temperament of her sons. The Norman Conquest not
only revived and quickened, but unified and solidified the English
nation. The tyranny of the Norman nobles, held in check at first only
by the tyranny of the Norman king, was the factor in mediaeval English
life that made for a national consciousness; it also helped the
appreciation of the heroism of revolt against tyranny which is seen in
Hereward the Wake, in Robin Hood, in William of Cloudeslee, and in
many other English hero-rebels; but it gradually led men to a
realization of their own rights as Englishmen. When all men alike felt
themselves sons of England, the days were past when Norman and Saxon
were aliens to each other, and Norman robber soon became as truly
English as Danish viking, Anglo-Saxon seafarer, or Celtic settler.
Then the full value of the Norman infusion was seen in quicker
intellectual apprehension, nimbler wit, a keener sense of reverence, a
more spiritual piety, a more refined courtesy, and a more enlightened
perception of the value of law. The materialism of the original Saxon
race was successively modified by many influences, and not least of
these was the Norman Conquest.
From the Norman Conquest onward England has welcomed men of many
nations--French, Flemings, Germans, Dutch: men brought by war, by
trade, by love of adventure, by religion; traders, refugees, exiles,
all have found in her a hospitable shelter and a second home, and all
have come to love the "grey old mother" that counted them among her
sons and grew to think them her own in very truth.
Geographically, also, we must recognise the admixture of races in our
islands. The farthest western borders show most strongly the type of
man whom we can imagine the Iberian to have been: Western Ireland, the
Hebrides, Central and South Wales, and Cornwall are still inhabited by
folk of Iberian descent. The blue-eyed Celt yet dwells in the
Highlands and the greater part of Wales and the Marches--Hereford and
Shropshire, and as far as Worcestershire and Cheshire; still the
Dales of Cumberland, the Fen Country, East Anglia, and the Isle of Man
show traces of Danish blood, speech, manners, and customs; still the
slow, stolid Saxon inhabits the lands south of the Thames from Sussex
to Hampshire and Dorset. The Angle has settled permanently over the
Lowlands of Scotland, with the Celt along the western fringe, and
Flemish blood shows its traces in Pembroke on the one side ("Little
England beyond Wales") and in Norfolk on the other.
With all these nations, all these natures, amalgamated in our own, it
is no wonder that the literature of our isles contains many different
ideals of heroism, changing according to nationality and epoch. Thus
the physical valour of Beowulf is not the same quality as the valour
of Havelok the Dane, though both are heroes of the strong arm; and the
chivalry of Diarmit is not the same as the chivalry of Roland. Again,
religion has its share in changing the ideals of a nation, and
Constantine, the warrior of the Early English poem of "Elene," is far
from being the same in character as the tender-hearted Constantine of
"moral Gower's" apocryphal tale. The law-abiding nature of the
earliest heroes, whose obedience to their king and their priest was
absolute, differs almost entirely from the lawlessness of Gamelyn and
Robin Hood, both of whom set church and king at defiance, and even
account it a merit to revolt from the rule of both. It follows from
this that we shall find our chosen heroes of very different types and
characters; but we shall recognise that each represented to his own
age an ideal of heroism, which that age loved sufficiently to put into
literature, and perpetuate by the best means in its power. Of many
another hero besides Arthur--of Barbarossa, of Hiawatha, even of
Napoleon--has the tradition grown that he is not dead, but has passed
away into the deathless land, whence he shall come again in his own
time. As Tennyson has sung,
"Great bards of him will sing
Hereafter; and dark sayings from of old
Ranging and ringing through the minds of men,
And echoed by old folk beside their fires
For comfort after their wage-work is done,
Speak of the King."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Lightfoot.
[2] Swinburne.
[3] Gerald Massey.
[4] J. R. Denning.
[5] W. W. Campbell.
[6] _Ibid._
[7] C. Roberts.
[8] T. Darcy McGee.
[9] Tennyson.
[10] Shakespeare, _Julius Caesar_.
[11] Tennyson.
CHAPTER I: BEOWULF
Introduction
The figure which meets us as we enter on the study of Heroes of the
British Race is one which appeals to us in a very special way, since
he is the one hero in whose legend we may see the ideals of our
English forefathers before they left their Continental home to settle
in this island. Opinions may differ as to the date at which the poem
of "Beowulf" was written, the place in which it was localised, and the
religion of the poet who combined the floating legends into one epic
whole, but all must accept the poem as embodying the life and feelings
of our Forefathers who dwelt in North Germany on the shores of the
North Sea and of the Baltic. The life depicted, the characters
portrayed, the events described, are such as a simple warrior race
would cherish in tradition and legend as relics of the life lived by
their ancestors in what doubtless seemed to them the Golden Age.
Perhaps stories of a divine Beowa, hero and ancestor of the English,
became merged in other myths of sun-hero and marsh-demon, but in any
case the stories are now crystallized around one central human figure,
who may even be considered an historical hero, Beowulf, the thane of
Hygelac, King of the Geats. It is this grand primitive hero who
embodies the ideal of English heroism. Bold to rashness for himself,
prudent for his comrades, daring, resourceful, knowing no fear, loyal
to his king and his kinsmen, generous in war and in peace,
self-sacrificing, Beowulf stands for all that is best in manhood in an
age of strife. It is fitting that our first British hero should be
physically and mentally strong, brave to seek danger and brave to look
on death and Fate undaunted, one whose life is a struggle against
evil forces, and whose death comes in a glorious victory over the
powers of evil, a victory gained for the sake of others to whom
Beowulf feels that he owes protection and devotion.
The Story. The Coming and Passing of Scyld
Once, long ago, the Danish land owned the sway of a mighty monarch,
Scyld Scefing, the founder of a great dynasty, the Scyldings. This
great king Scyld had come to Denmark in a mysterious manner, since no
man knew whence he sprang. As a babe he drifted to the Danish shore in
a vessel loaded with treasures; but no man was with him, and there was
no token to show his kindred and race. When Scyld grew up he increased
the power of Denmark and enlarged her borders; his fame spread far and
wide among men, and his glory shone undimmed until the day when, full
of years and honours, he died, leaving the throne securely established
in his family. Then the sorrowing Danes restored him to the mysterious
ocean from which he had come to them. Choosing their goodliest ship,
they laid within it the corpse of their departed king, and heaped
around him all their best and choicest treasures, until the venerable
countenance of Scyld looked to heaven from a bed of gold and jewels;
then they set up, high above his head, his glorious gold-wrought
banner, and left him alone in state. The vessel was loosed from the
shore where the mourning Danes bewailed their departing king, and
drifted slowly away to the unknown west from which Scyld had sailed to
his now sorrowing people; they watched until it was lost in the