14. As may be supposed, in vocabulary and in diction the poetry is quite distinct from the prose. In the The vocabuformer are found words which are never used in lary of poetry distinct from that of prose. the latter. Of such the material in this Chapter will afford illustration. For man or warrior we have hælep, rinc, beorn, oretta; for a chief baldor, brego, eodor, folc-toga, peod-guma, gum-drihten, man-drihten, beah-gifa, goldgifa, sinc-gifa; the epithets applied to such are rof, tīr-eadig, fierd-hwat, beadu-rōf, nallas hild-lata,hilde-deor,dād-cēne,prohtheard, ellen-rof; for war or battle we have beadu, hild, gūḥ, gārgewinn, cumbol-gehnāst, nip-plega, asc-plega; the battle-field is here-feld, meotud-wang; the glory gained on it is tir; the bird of prey that hovers over it is gūp-hafoc. Beside the single term in prose, sweord, the poetry can use bill, mēce, and heoru; gār, a spear, is poetical, while spere can be used in poetry and in prose; cumbol and rand in like manner are poetical, while words of corresponding meaning segn and scild are common. Sinc, again, is poetical while hord (hoard) is used in prose; and gif-heall is the poetical compound which is applied to the hall where gifts were distributed by the chief. These few examples, with the addition of the words given in Chap. IV., may serve to suggest that it was a vocabulary1 which contained not a few practical synonyms and abounded in epithets that denoted comparatively slight variations on one theme. It was a vocabulary which made it possible for the Old English poetry to present an idea, that would find simple expression in prose, in an amplified form, by the 1 A few instances of words connected with war, which do not occur in the passages quoted, may be added, to shew that the types seen in the seaterms are equally current in other cases. Thus the warrior is denominated from the weapon he carries, e.g. asc-berend (asc a spear), gār-berend, helm-berend, sweord-berend; arrows are hilde-nædran, war-adders; battle is gar-mitting and sweorda gelac, swords' play. For similar, but more elaborate forms in Scandinavian poetry, see Vigfusson and Powell's Corpus Poeticum Boreale, II. 447 sqq. gathering together of such synonyms and epithets. The contrast between the verse and prose renderings of the same material has been illustrated above, and two other instances may here be added to make the point clearer. Cædmon's verses, which were the first that any Englishman is known to have made, are preserved in a MS. of the first half of the 8th century in the following form: This is practically a rendering of the first verse of Genesis, but the poetry expands the material by using many terms for the single 'God' of the prose. The Deity is the ward of the kingdom of heaven, 2 metud (= fate), the glory father,* the eternal lord, the holy creator, the ward of mankind, 'the lord almighty. Men, too, are ælda barn and firas; earth is middun-geard and folde. A later instance may be taken from the version of Boethius' De Consolatione Philosophiae. The prose has simply : ‹ Ðā wæs sum consul, þæt we heretoha hātap, Boetius was hāten, se was in bōccræftum and on woruldpēawum se rihtwīsesta.' This in the metrical rendering is thus expanded : In Bede's History 8 See Sweet's Oldest English Texts, pp. 148—9. the sense of these verses is thus given: Nunc laudare debemus auctorem regni coelestis, potentiam creatoris, et consilium illius, facta patris gloriae. Quomodo ille cum sit aeternus Deus, omnium miraculorum auctor exstitit, qui primo filiis hominum coelum pro culmine tecti, dehinc terram custos humani generis omnipotens creavit.' Bede adds: 'Hic est sensus, non autem ordo ipse, verborum quae dormiens ille canebat.' þā was rīcra sum: on Rōme byrig pet was rihtwis rinc: næs mid Rōmwarum he was for weorulde wis: weorðmynda georn se hæle hätte se pone klisan geþah. then of the great was one: in the city of Rome, a leader exalted: loved of his lord, it was a righteous man: not 'mong the Romans was treasure-giver better: for long after: he was wise in this world's ways: eager for honour, the hero hight: who gained such fame. 15. One further point (which the quotations will illustrate) Alliteration. in reference to the poetry may be just noticedthe kind of rime used. It will be seen that in all the verses that have been given, there is alliteration, i.e. certain stressed words in each verse begin either with the same consonant, or with vowels (generally different ones). The number of alliterating words may be two or three, but in any case only one is found in the second of the half-verses into which each verse is divided by a pause. The last extract, in which the alliterative letters are italicized and the pause marked by a colon (:), may be taken as an example of the kind of rime which was used in all the Old English poetry. Loss of the 16. There is one point in connection with the special part of the language, which has been considered in this chapter, that, after reading the material poetic vocabulary. given in illustration, will probably have attracted notice, viz. the complete disappearance from the later language of all that was so characteristic of the earlier. While most of the work to be done by Modern English is done by the English words in it, yet that element of the old speech, which once was most highly prized, has long ceased to form part of the living vocabulary of England. Poetry still holds its place in our literature, but its verse and its vocabulary are no longer after the fashion of the early times. The chapter that has attempted to give some idea of that fashion may fitly close with words of Kemble, which may serve as a summary of the conclusions that might be drawn from our examples. Speaking of the Old English poetry he says it exhibits 'peculiarities which belong to the poetical language in contradistinction to that of prose, and which were kept up by tradition among their scopas or poets. To this is owing the retention, even in Christian works, of modes of expression, which must have had their origin in the heathen feeling, and which in order to fit them for their new application, are gradually softened down, and gain less personal and more abstract significations. The language of poetry is as distinct from that of prose among the Anglo-Saxons as any two different dialects. It is in their poems that the stubborn nationality of our forefathers shews itself most thoroughly; their prose works are almost always literal translations, and even if original are deeply imbued with tramontane feelings, derived from the models most in vogue. But the epic forms maintained themselves despite of the book learning, which was so overprized, and even translations become originals from the all-pervading Teutonic spirit, which was unconsciously preserved in the forms and phrases of heathen poetry.' CHAPTER VIII - Decay of learning in England after the appearance of the Danes—the outpouring from the ' populous north '— physical and political conditions of Norway and Denmark - Danish attacks on England and the settlements which followed-Alfred's treaty with the Danes - —a permanent Scandinavian element in England - Danish rule in England - the character of the Danes as shown in their conflict with the English Danish influence on language to some extent destructive Danish loanwords - not numerous, but many of them characteristic of their source terms connected with law, with the sea, with war - general terms amount of indebtedness implied by the loan-words- evidence from Middle English literature of borrowing in earlier times - Danish words in the literature and in dialects the determination of a Scandinavian origin for words used in English - Danish characteristics in English. Decay of learning in the 9th century. 1. It has been noticed in a preceding chapter (ante, p. 69) that at the close of the 8th century Alcuin, an Englishman living in Gaul, could point to his native land as a storehouse, to which the scholars England in of his adopted country might have recourse to supply deficiencies, of which his acquaintance with English libraries made him sensible; and it was York in particular that Alcuin must have had in his mind when he thought of England and its learning. But before the end of the 9th century the state of learning in England had utterly changed; and as we know from Alfred (ante, p. 73), so far was England from being a place to which men would come in search of learning, that the English of his time had to look to |