.

A HANDBOOK OF GERMAN

LITERATURE.

CHAPTER I.

THE ORIGIN OF GERMAN LITERATURE.

It was the Roman historian, Tacitus, who first fully described the ancient Germanic tribes, or Teutons. His book, "Germania," written A.D. 98, if somewhat idealistic in tone, is still substantially true to nature.

The Germans, he tells us, know no riches but their flocks and herds, are simply clothed, and imperfectly armed, hospitable in the extreme, and hold their women in high honour. After telling the story of that barbarian who, having lost his whole possessions at dice, set his freedom on the last throw, lost, and voluntarily allowed himself to be sold as a slave, Tacitus adds: "So great, even in a bad cause, is the Germanic obstinacy; they themselves call it constancy," and this has remained the Teutonic boast to our own day.

More than three centuries earlier, Pytheas, a learned navigator, sailing from Marseilles on a voyage of discovery, had come upon the Teutons at the mouth of the Rhine. Cæsar fought with them, and wrote of their freedom from all control, their lawlessness, and love of plunder. These barbarians were the people who in the pride of their strength

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were to crush out the effete civilization of the Roman Empire, who were to form mighty armies, mighty nations, and who already possessed in themselves the germ of that poetic power out of which a great literature has grown. For young nations bear in themselves the "epische Stoff" they live the heroic poems which later generations write.

Mythology. In the earliest times all the Aryan or Indo-Germanic tribes worshipped one god, the Aryan Dyaus (Greek-Zeus); later, different tribes preferred different gods. The Goths and Vandals, for instance, worshipped two divine brothers (resembling Castor and Pollux); the people inhabiting the shores of the North Sea-the ancestors of the invaders of Britain-adored a goddess, Nerthus; round the Rhine, Wodan held supreme sway, and he, at last, became the chief of all the gods of the northern mythology, the husband of Freya, the sunny, joy-bringing spirit of the spring.

Sagas. Five cycles of legends grew up during the migration of the Germanic tribes, the "Völkerwanderung," viz.:

1. That of the Ostrogoths (Ostgotische Sage), treating firstly of Ermanrich (died 375 A.D.), and later of Dietrich von Bern, known in history as Theodoric the Great.

2. That of the Franks, or people of the Lower Rhine, whose hero was Siegfried.

3. The Burgundian Saga of the brothers King Gunther, Gernot and Giselherr, with their sister Kriemhilde, the tough old hero Volker, and the traitor Hagen.

4. The Saga of the Huns, whose hero is King EtzelAttila, "the Scourge of God, the Destroyer of nations" (died 453).

5. The Longobardische Sage, treating of King Rother, King Ortnit, Hugdietrich and Wolfdietrich.

These sagas, handed down as traditions from a time when the Germanic tribes were yet barbarians, furnished

material for poetic treatment at a later period when the German epic was in its full glory.

Translation of the Bible by Ulfilas.-Christianity was preached among the Teutons at a time when Arianism was rife in the Church. In the fourth century, the Arian Bishop of the Western Goths, Vulfila or Ulfilas (died 381), made his translation of the Bible. This is a most valuable work for the study of the Gothic language. The manuscript now preserved at Upsala is written in silver characters on purple parchment, and may once have been in the possession of some king of the Goths.

Wessobrunner Gebet.-The oldest fragment of German poetic literature is the so-called "Wessobrunner Gebet," a Saxon poem, written in Bavaria in the beginning of the ninth century. It opens with a description of chaos before the creation of the world, and ends in a prayer. Hence its name.

Characteristics of earliest Poetry and Language.—Alliteration was an essential element of old Germanic poetry, it gave not melody but strength. The search for forcible expression is especially visible. Unaccented syllables are discarded as the language grows, the Old High German "mannisko becomes German "Mensch," and the same process is everywhere noticeable. The melodious softness of the Gothic tongue stiffens into the rough strength of the German. The German language is rich in consonants, not in vowels.

The Hildebrandslied.-In the monastery of Fulda (Hesse-Cassel) was discovered the "Hildebrandslied," a fragment of a poem written in the beginning of the ninth century by an unknown monk. The subject is the combat of Hildebrand, the armour-bearer of Dietrich von Bern, (i.e. Theodoric of Verona) who has been many years in exile among the Huns, with his son Hadubrand. The father asks Hadubrand's parentage, and learning it, seeks pretexts

to avoid the combat; the son, believing Hildebrand long dead, insists upon the fight. They fight accordingly, and the poem breaks off leaving the issue unknown.

The "Hildebrandslied" shows wonderful dramatic power, is alliterative, and belongs to the Saga of the Ostrogoths. Muspilli.-Another early fragment by an unknown author, apparently a layman, is "Muspilli," the "World-Fire," a description of the destruction of the world set on fire by the blood dropping from Elijah, who conquers Antichrist in fight, but is wounded by him. The poem describes the pains of hell and the joys of heaven.

The Heliand and Krist.-Two early sacred epics are to be noticed in the ninth century, "Der Heliand," of unknown authorship, written about 830, picturing the Redeemer as a warlike hero whose kingdom was emphatically" of this world," and the "Krist" or "Evangelienharmonie," written about 870 by Otfried, a monk of Weissenburg. The former marks a transition when heathenism, only half conquered, left its stamp on Christianity; the latter is wholly Christian, and is the first work which bears no trace of the old paganism. Otfried wrote in rhyme, traces of which appear in the ninth century, and expressed his belief that the angels help pious poets in their work.

The Ludwigslied, written probably by the monk Hucbald, celebrated the victory of King Ludwig III. over the Normans.

Sacred Literature in the Tenth Century.-The monastery of St. Gallen was the centre of monkish learning; sacred poems in Latin were numerous. The two most famous of the monks of St. Gallen were Ekkehard, who died in 973 (known to us in modern times through Scheffel's masterly novel, though in fictitious environment), and Notker Labeo or "the Thick-lipped," who died in 1022. Ekkehard wrote, in the beginning of the tenth century, " Walther von Aquitanien, or Walther mit der starken Hand,” in Latin hexa