Euriskodata Rare Book Series

POPULAR EPICS MIDDLE AGES. MIDDLE AGES NORSE-GERMAN AND CARLOVINGIAN CYCLES. BY JOHN MALCOLM LUDLOW. VOL. I. Jtottinm mtir MACMILLAN AND CO. 1865. Cambrihgt : PRINTED BY JONATHAN PALMER, SIDNEY STREET. PREFACE. SOME years ago, on the first appearance of the " Idylls of the King," I undertook to read the volume with a class at the Working Men's College, and to preface the reading by some account of ' those epics of chivalry of which the Idylls' are the latest and most precious outgrowth. I was acquainted with the Nibelungenlied, and knew its relation to the Edda; was tolerably familiar with both the German and the French of the twelfth or thirteenth centuries of the ; knew something ' Chanson de Roland,' and one or two of the Carlovingian poems earliest edited in the mis- named "Romans des douze Pairs," as well as of " the Tristans ;" had read the Mabinogion and Sir Thomas Mallory. In promising a general sketch, I quite expected, I must confess, to find the whole thing ready done to my hand, so that I should have only to condense, and to refer my hearers for VI PREFACE. further details to one or more standard works treating ex professo of the subject. To my sur- prise however, on referring to such authorities as Warton, Ellis, Ritson, Weber, De la Rue and others, I found nothing that suited my purpose : masses of antiquarian and bibliographical disqui- sition, nothing complete, nothing clear, nothing which I could feel to be sufficient. So I had to set to work at first hand, and make up my mind for myself. The time was short before me when I ventured upon this rash undertaking, and I soon found myself surrounded with such a mass of material as I could not hope to master before my readings began. When they were over however, I could not help feeling the wish to complete what I had attempted, to put into shape what I had rough- hewn. The ' Song of Roland,' which I now studied for the first time in the original, fully repaid the pains I bestowed upon it. I conceived the idea of a general work on those popular epics of the middle ages, which have done so much at bottom to fashion the modern mind. Friends urged me to out a with it. carry the plan ; publisher was taken PREFACE. Vll The first, but very likely the last instalment of the work is now offered to the reader. I dare not say that it has not often palled upon me in the doing, and that amidst the terrible realities of the last few years, the mock prowess of imaginary or mythicized personages has not been often a weari- ness to flesh and spirit alike. But a work of this description acquires as it were a momentum of its as it the more one the less own proceeds ; does, one likes to throw what one has done so away ; that in short, so far as it has gone, here it is. It would indeed require, for its completion, a volume on the Arthurian a cycle ; and supple- mentary one which should embrace (according to my view) the lesser cycles of the Cid and the Crusades, of the Theological epics, the Beast- epics, and finally, by way of appendix, the Clas- sico-chivalrous epics, such as those on the Siege of Troy, Alexander the Great, &c. But the last- named poems I believe to have never been really popular epics in the true sense of the term, and the same observation applies to the Arthurian cycle generally, a fact which makes me the less loth to leave this part of my original purpose, for the present Vlll PREFACE. at least, unfulfilled. Without in the least contest- ing either the antiquity or the originally popular character of much of the material which has been woven into the last-named cycle, I think it must be confessed that in its development it is the latest of the three great cycles, and courtly rather than popular, and that in no instance does any whole poem belonging to it rise to the height of a genuine epic. Nor can this be wondered at, since it does not appeal, if I may so speak, to the epical passions of mankind, patriotism, religious zeal, love, hatred, revenge, in their singleness and in their breadth, but only to the sentiments and to the fancy. We can only make Arthur epical by making him more and more unreal; the only patriotism he appeals to is a microscopic Welsh or Breton patriotism; no religious fervour can be kindled in his favour by making him a Christian hero against certain Paynim Saxons, long con- verted into good Catholics by the time the first minstrel sang of him, in any but a Kymric dia- lect. The real centres of interest in the Arthurian cycle are two essentially unpopular ones, the wire-drawn double adulteries of Lancelot with PREFACE. ix Guinevere and of Tristan with Isolt (to say nothing of the ugly tales of Arthur's own birth and of Mordred's); very fit themes for courtly pruriency and sentimentalism, very poor and dull ones for the healthy popular mind. Indeed it may be said that the only truly epical element in the Arthurian is the of the Grail cycle Quest Holy ; but that both comes too late, and is essentially too false, ever to develop itself into a true popular epic.* Caring myself less for the Arthurian cycle than for either of the others, I rejoice at the same time to think that it has been more thoroughly studied than any, so that whatever pains I might have bestowed upon it will be the less missed. Many will indeed find fault with me for de- voting so much space to works so well known as the Nibelungenlied, or even as the Gudrun, re- cently given to the public in an English form by Miss Letherbrow. A little reflection will however shew, I think, that the Nibelungenlied is the real standard of comparison for the whole Norse-Ger- * I do not indeed mean to say that some of the German poems of the cycle have not a really epical character, but it is then purely individual. They may be epical romances, they are not epics. x PREFACE. man cycle, and that a full abstract of it was absolutely needed on that account. I will add indeed that, well known as the work may be to many amongst us, I have found by experience that a man may have passed through school and college with the utmost distinction, and be a writer in the most dreaded of weekly journals, without having ever read a line of it. As respects Miss Lether- brow's work again, I can only say that these volumes were wholly finished and in the publisher's hands before hers and whilst appeared ; " her interesting Introduction" may be usefully referred to as a sketch of early Norse-German literature, I have borrowed nothing from it but a note or two ; whilst the liberties she has taken with the conduct of the poem are such that I have not been able, as I hoped, to shorten my own abstract of it by reference to her work. On the other hand, it is perhaps necessary to remind the reader that my purpose has been to give a notion of the cycles of popular epic in the middle ages, not of popular middle age epics generally. Hence any epic or fragment of epic that stands quite detached, does not enter into my PREFACE. XI plan. Had it been otherwise, I should have had to assign a substantive place and value to the " Jutish epic Beowulf" for instance, to the fragment on the battle of Finnesburh, &c., instead of dealing with Beowulf and other Anglo-Saxon fragments simply in relation to the Norse-German cycle. It seems undoubtedly true that these remains of Anglo-Saxon literature are among the earliest, if not the very earliest samples of popular middle age epic which have been preserved to us. But nothing clusters round them, nothing grows from them are rootless alike and fruitless. ; they Nor have they, I venture to think, any such distinctive character and worth as to claim consideration on their own account in a work like this, which lays no claim to be an exhaustive one ; whilst as monu- ments of the language of our Anglo-Saxon fore- fathers they have already enjoyed, and must con- tinue to enjoy, a full meed of attention in this country. Again, the reader must bear always in mind that it is the cycles of epic which I have en- deavoured to exhibit, not the cycles of legend. When the epic degenerates into the mere fanciful xii PREFACE. romance, still more when the language of the latter sinks into prose, I have no further concern with it. Those who wish to trace the noble old songs into their lowest stages of prosaic degradation, I must refer to Dunlop's "History of Fiction" or such like works. For myself I must confess that with the prose romances of chivalry I have but little pa- tience, and could heartily wish they had all re- mained in the ashes of Don Quijote's fireplace, from whence even Sir Thomas Mallory would never have deserved to escape without a singeing. I must indeed conclude by saying that I have to or other no pretensions bibliographic learning ; that I write, if not for the many to whom such a subject is scarcely capable of commending itself now-a-days, yet for all who may be ignorant of that subject, and not for the few who know all it.

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