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The ideal of men dying with their lord in the Germania and in The Battle of Maldon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Rosemary Woolf
Rosemary Woolf
Affiliation:
Somerville College, Oxford
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Extract

There is a well-known resemblance between the heroic behaviour described in the Germania and in The Battle of Maldon: in his account of the martial code of honour of the Germanic tribes Tacitus says, ‘ Iam vero infame in omnem vitam ac probrosum superstitem principi suo ex acie recessisse’, whilst in Maldon the poet has the followers of Byrhtnoth affirm one after the other that it would be a disgrace to leave the battlefield now that their lord lies dead. For a long time it was assumed that this resemblance reflected historical fact, ties of loyalty and heroic aspirations having remained unchanged over 900 years. A more plausible modification of this view has been that, whilst the society of the tribes in first-century Germany had to be firmly distinguished from that of the Anglo-Saxons in tenth-century England, Old English poetry archaically preserved some of the ideals of conduct that characterized a much earlier form of society. But more recently still the harking back to Tacitus by students of Anglo-Saxon history and literature has been shown to be fallacious, originating in the ethnic romanticism of German scholars in the late nineteenth century. Nevertheless the long-standing view that there is a particular resemblance between the Germania and The Battle of Maldon cannot be lightly abandoned. Indeed the more one becomes aware that there is no evidence that the obligation of a retainer to die with his lord was a pervasive ideal in Germanic society which could well have lived on into tenth-century English life or literature, the more striking and curious the resemblance becomes. My aims in the present article are first to demonstrate the apparently total lack of historical or literary–historical continuity between the Germania and Maldon and second, nevertheless, to seek an explanation for a resemblance which is too remarkable to be dismissed as pure chance.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 5 , December 1976 , pp. 63 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

Page 63 note 1 De Origine et Situ Germanorum, ed. Anderson, J. G. C. (Oxford, 1938), c. xiv.Google Scholar ‘Moreover to survive the leader and retreat from the battlefield is a lifelong disgrace and infamy.’

Page 63 note 2 This view is, for instance, expressed in passing by Whitehead, Frederick, ‘Ofermod et Desmesure’, CCM 3 (1960), 115–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 63 note 3 See Stanley, E. G., ‘The Search for Anglo-Saxon Paganism’, N&Q 210 (1965), 9–17Google Scholar; repr. in his The Search for Anglo-Saxon Paganism (Cambridge and Totowa, N.J., 1975).

Page 64 note 1 Most of the references that follow (both to classical and Germanic authors) have been derived from Olrik, Axel, The Heroic Legends of Denmark, trans. Hollander, Lee M. (New York, 1919), pp. 158–60Google Scholar; cf. also Much, Rudolf, Die ‘Germania’ des Tacitus, 3rd ed. (Heidelberg, 1967), pp. 227–30.Google Scholar

Page 64 note 2 De Bello Gallico (111.22), ed. Stock, St George (Oxford, 1898) 11, 115–16Google Scholar; ‘nor within human memory has anybody been found who has refused to die when he to whom he was bound by a vow of friendship had been killed’.

Page 64 note 3 For the references to Plutarch and Servius, see below, p. 65, nn. 3 and 5. Plutarch's use of the Historiae for his Life of Sertorius is discussed by Syme, Ronald, Sallust (Cambridge, 1964), pp. 178–9 and 203–5.Google Scholar

Page 65 note 1 Tacitus's sources for the Germania cannot be fully identified, though it is generally agreed that they were literary; cf. Syme, Ronald, Tacitus (Oxford, 1958) 1, 127–8.Google Scholar

Page 65 note 2 For a useful listing of the evidence for the currency of the Historiae in the first five centuries, see Bolaffi, Ezio, Sallustio e la sua Fortuna nei Secoli (Rome, 1949).Google Scholar

Page 65 note 3 ‘Life of Sertorius’, Plutarch's Lives, ed. Perrin, Bernadotte, Loeb Classical Lib., viii (1919), 38.Google Scholar

Page 65 note 4 Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilium Libri Novem, ed. Kempf, K. (Leipzig, 1888), p. 80Google Scholar. ‘The Spaniards too held it to be a disgrace to survive in the battle when he, to whose welfare they had vowed themselves, had been killed.’

Page 65 note 5 Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii Carmina Commentarii, ed. Thilo, G. and Hagen, H., III.I (Leipzig, 1887), 336Google Scholar; ‘glorious because it is undergone for the king. He [Vergil] transferred this from the custom of the Spaniards, who, as we read in Sallust, vow themselves to their kings and refuse to survive them.’

Page 65 note 6 Ammien Marcellin, Historiae (i.xiv–xvi), ed. and trans. E. Galletier and J. Fontaine (Paris, 1968), pp. 186–7; ‘having judged it a disgrace to live after the death of their king or not to die for him if the opportunity occurred’.

Page 66 note 1 Agathias, , Historiarum Libri Quinque, ed. Rudolf, Keydell (Berlin, 1967), pp. 28–9Google Scholar; ‘some willingly, some cut down by the enemy’.

Page 66 note 2 Jacoby, F., Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 11A (Berlin, 1926), no. 80, p. 379.Google Scholar

Page 66 note 3 Cf. Cameron, Averil, Agathias (Oxford, 1970), pp: 30–56.Google Scholar

Page 67 note 1 ‘Epistola Bede ad Ecgbertum Episcopum’, Venerabilis Baedae Opera Historica, ed. Plummet, Charles (Oxford, 1896) 1, 415.Google Scholar

Page 67 note 2 Asser's Life of King Alfred, ed. Stevenson, W. H. (Oxford, 1904; repr. 1959 with contr. by Dorothy Whitelock), p. 87Google Scholar; cf. p. 337, n.

Page 68 note 1 Waltharius (lines 150–4 and 158–60), ed. Strecker, Karl (Berlin, 1947), pp. 30–2Google Scholar. ‘If I take a wife according to the command of my lord, I shall first of all be tied down by responsibilities and the love of my young wife and I shall be greatly hindered in the service of my king: I shall be compelled to build a house and look after the cultivation of the land… To me there is nothing so sweet as to be always faithfully occupied in the service of my lord: wherefore I beg you, allow me to lead my life unfettered by marriage!’

Page 69 note 1 The Old English equivalent to the Latin comitatus is usually taken to be gesipas. It may be worth noting that Old English does not appear to have a collective noun regularly used in Tacitus's sense of comitatus. A probable equivalent, gesiþ(þ), is recorded at most three times, twice in Genesis (A) (2403a and 2808a), where it has the general sense of company, and probably once in Deor (3a), where the nuances are unclear. Compounds, of which the second element is werod and the first a word for some part of the hall, seem to come nearest to the sense of comitatus, i.e. fletrwerod (Beowulf 476b) and beorðwerod (Maldon 24a). Heorðwerod, however, occurs three times in Genesis (A) (1605a, 2039b and 2076a), where its meaning is variable.

Page 69 note 2 For comment on this passage (2884–91) and others of interest from various other works see John, Eric, Land Tenure in Early England (Leicester, 1960), pp. 54–6Google Scholar. In the lines from Beowulf the meaning of londribt is probably anticipated by that eðelwyn and lufen (for the latter, see Hoops, Johannes, Kommentar zum Beowulf (Heidelberg, 1932), p. 301)Google Scholar.

Page 71 note 1 It has been suggested that the driving away of the horses was to prevent flight (cf. Swanton, M. J., ‘The Battle of Maldon: a Literary Caveat’, JEGP 67 (1968), 448)Google Scholar. If this were so, the gesture might be understood realistically (as Swanton takes it) or it might be reminiscent of famous stories such as that of how Hagen destroyed both boat and boatman which had carried the Burgundians across the Rhine or that of Stýr-Bjǫrn who burned his ship before his battle on the plains before Upsala. But the driving away of the horses in Maldon cannot be so interpreted, for the possibility of retreat on foot to the safety of the wood is made clear by desertion of the cowards: the decision to stay and fight is manifestly one that is freely taken.

Page 71 note 2 Earle and Plummer, for instance, in their note to the phrase oþ bie alle lægon (Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel (Oxford, 1892; repr. 1952 with contr. by Dorothy Whitelock, 11, 46), argue that the disgrace of a member of a comitatus surviving his lord is implied by the excuses made for the sole survivor. These excuses, however, imply only the shame that attaches itself to cowardice and disloyalty but not the precise moral precept that should have been obeyed. The idea of a sole survivor, which occurs twice in this story (perhaps with different implications on the second occasion), may be a traditional heroic theme; there is, for instance, a sole suvivor in one version of The Gododdin (trans. Jackson, K. H. (Edinburgh, 1969), p. 4)Google Scholar.

Page 72 note 1 This generalization stands, although it has not been uncommon for scholars to associate Germania xrv with some passages in Bede; cf. Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ed. Colgrave, Bertram and Mynors, R. A. B. (Oxford, 1969), p. 164Google Scholar, where, in the note to the story of Lilla, this and two other stories (one of them in the ‘Life of Cuthbert’) are connected with Tacitus. The story of Lilla itself is of a distinctive type and is discussed below, p. 74. That of Æthelhere (Ibid. p. 290) has only superficial affinities: ‘Inito ergo certamine fugati sunt et caesi pagani, duces regii xxx, qui ad auxilium uenerant, pene omnes interfecti; in quibus Aedilheri… auctor ipse belli, perditis militibus siue auxiliis interemtus.’ The emphasis in this passage seems to be on the number of enemy destroyed, but, more importantly, the Latin construction makes it plain that the milites siue auxilia were killed either before or at the same time as Æthelhere himself: they were not killed after him. The same comments apply to the description of the death of Ecgfrith and his followers in Bede's, ‘Life of Cuthbert’ (Two Lives of Saint Cutbbert, ed. Bertram, Colgrave (Cambridge, 1940), p. 248Google Scholar; the translation there given is misleading).

Page 73 note 1 De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum, ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton, Rolls Series (1870), p. 339. ‘Consider this: if laymen, wholly ignorant of divine learning, desert a gracious lord, dear to them in his days of prosperity, when he is no longer fortunate and rich but overtaken by calamity and adversity – if these men prefer the security and ease of their native land to sharing the burdens of exile with their lord, will not everyone think them worthy of execration, mocking laughter, ridicule and loud jeering? What then will be said of you, if you abandon the priest who cherished and raised you to the loneliness of exile?’

Page 73 note 2 Cf. Jones, P. F., ‘Aldhelm and the Comitatus-Ideal’, MLN 47 (1932), 378.Google Scholar

Page 73 note 3 Andreas 408–93; Andreas and tbe Fates ofthe Apostles, ed. Kenneth R. Brooks (Oxford, 1961), p. 14.

Page 73 note 4 Heliand(3995b–4002a), ed. Otto Behaghel, 6th ed. (Halle, 1948), p. 139. ‘Let us stand fast with him and endure with our lord. That is the chosen duty of a thegn that he should stand firm together with his lord and die there in the hour of decision. Let us act then and 3dhere to him on his road; let us value our life as nothing as long as we die with our lord in the following. Then our honour will live after us, a good reputation amongst men.’

Page 74 note 1 I do not include here the various references to exile in the Ecclesiastical History (cf. English Historical Documents c. 500–1042, ed. Dorothy Whitelock (London, 1955), p. 55), since they are related neutrally, and, if interpreted in terms of historical realism, a man's decision to go into exile with his banished lord is as likely to reflect prudent self-interest as self-sacrificial loyalty.

Page 74 note 2 Pauli Historia Langobardorum, ed. L. Bethmann and G. Waitz, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Script. Rer. Lang., p. 145; ‘that he would prefer to die with Perctarit than live anywhere else amongst the greatest delights’.

Page 74 note 3 Ibid.; ‘this man deserves to fare well who out of loyalty to his lord did not refuse to deliver himself to death’.

Page 74 note 4 Ecclesiastical History, ed. Colgrave and Mynors, p. 164; ‘a thegn who was the truest friend of his lord’.

Page 75 note 1 The much referred to story of Torhtmund, who avenged the death of Æthelred of Northumbria (cf.EHD, ed. Whitelock, pp. 250 and 794–5), is not included here, since Torhtmund survived, though he had to go into exile.

Page 75 note 2 Historia lumgobardorum, ed. Bethmann and Waitz, p. 139; ‘he outstandingly avenged the wrong done to his lord Godebertus’.

Page 75 note 3 Grammaticus, Saxo, Gesta Danorum, ed. Alfred Holder (Strassburg, 1886), p. 67Google Scholar. ‘Famous and memorable man, who valiantly fulfilled his vow, and willingly embracing death in service [to his lord] stained with his blood the tables of the usurper.’

Page 75 note 4 Heimskringla, ed. Finnur Jónsson rv (Copenhagen, 1900–1901), p. 490; ‘and justly is the courage of this man much praised’.

Page 76 note 1 Whilst this suddenness is very apparent to the modern reader it would have been less so to an Anglo-Saxon audience who knew a lay of the fall of Hygelac. Scholars agree that the name Dæghrefn is Frankish (cf. Beowulf, ed. Fr. Klaeber (Boston, 1922), n. to 2501 ff.) and the Beowulf poet therefore probably derived it from a heroic lay; for the argument that the poet knew a lay of the death of Hygelac see Campbell, Alistair, ‘The Use in Beowulf of Earlier Heroic Verse’, England Before the Conquest: Studies in Primary Sources presented to Dorothy Whitelock, ed. Peter, Clemoes and Kathleen, Hughes (Cambridge, 1971), p. 290.Google Scholar

Page 76 note 2 In lines 207–8 a possibility of avenging Byrhtnoth and, by implication, of living is briefly stated but with insufficient force to disturb the dominant theme of inevitable death.

Page 77 note 1 On the manuscripts of the Germania, see The Germania of Tacitus, ed. R. P. Robinson (Middletown Connecticut, 1935), p. 1, n. 1; for the manuscripts of Ammianus, see Robinson, Rodney P.The Hersfeldensis and the Fuldensis of Ammianus Marcellinus, Univ. of Missouri Stud. 11.3 (1956), 118–40Google Scholar, and Seyfarth, Wolfgang, Der Codex Fuldensis und der Codex E des Ammianus Marcellinus, Abhandlungen der deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Kl. f. Sprachen, Lit. u. Kunst, 1962 (2)Google Scholar.

Page 77 note 2 Levison, Wilhelm, England and the Continent in the Eighth Century (Oxford, 1946), pp. 141–4.Google Scholar

Page 77 note 3 For these references see Robinson, (ed.), Germania, p. 1, n. 1.Google Scholar

Page 78 note 1 It would be more probable if any significance could be attached to the description of Wulfmær as Byrhtnoth's saustersunu. The importance of the sister's son in medieval English and French literature has been examined respectively by Gummere, Francis B., ‘The Sister's Son’, An English Miscellany presented to Dr Furnivall (Oxford, 1901), pp. 133–49Google Scholar, and Farnsworth, W. O., Uncle and Nephew in Old French Chansons de Geste (New York, 1913)Google Scholar. The evidence presented in these two works needs a fresh and rigorous reconsideration. Linguistic evidence of course makes plain that at an early stage of European history a distinction was seen between a brother's son and a sister’s son (cf. Benviste, Fimile, Le Vocabulaire des Institutions Indo-Européennes 1 (Paris, 1969), 223–37)Google Scholar. But whether an emphasis on this bond of kinship is part of the poetic heroic tradition (and therefore unsurprising in Maldon) is uncertain. Beowulf and Roland are admittedly sisters’ sons by implication; but the lack of explicit interest in this might suggest that the reason for the invention of this relationship was not a poetic concern with the emotional priority which this relationship took over that of paternal uncle and nephew but the convenience of inserting a legendary figure into an historical genealogy through the female line.

Page 78 note 2 Since we lack the evidence to know whether the author of Maldon was the only Old English poet to use this conjectured foreign source, I leave out of account the possibility that its influence on Maldon was an indirect one through another Old English heroic poem. The only suggestion of the theme in question in extant works of English origin other than Maldon is in the probably slightly later Vita Saudi Oswaldi, where it is said of Stremwold and the thegns of Devon: ‘Nam occisus est ex nostris miles fortissimus, nomine Stremwold, cum aliis nonnullis, qui bellica morte magis elegerunt vitam finite, quam ignobiliter vivere’ (‘For among our men was killed a very brave warrior, Stremwold, with many others, who preferred ending their life in warlike death to living ignobly’); The Historians of the Church of York and its Archbishops, ed. J. Raine, RS, 1 (1879), 456). Though it is not said explicitly here that the thegns refused to outlive their lord, the placing of this story immediately before a recast version of the Battle of Maldon, shorn of the retainers’ last stand, makes it reasonable to suppose that the author was influenced by Maldon itself. On Byrhtferth of Ramsey as the author of the Vita, see Lapidge, Michael, ‘The Hermeneutic Style in Tenth-Century Anglo-Latin Literature’, ASE 4 (1975), 67–111, at 91–3.Google Scholar

Page 78 note 3 Phillpotts, B. S., ‘The Battle of Maldon: some Danish Affinities’, MLR 24 (1929), 172–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 79 note 1 Gesta Danorum, ed. Holder, p. 61. ‘The last day for all of us has dawned unless there should be anyone here so soft that he fears to expose himself to wounds or so cowardly that he dare not be the avenger of his lord and refuses to give fitting honours to his spirit.’

Page 79 note 2 Ibid. p. 67; ‘For so great a tribute was paid by the warriors to the most noble virtues of the king that his death inspired in all the desire to seek death, and to join him in death was held more pleasing than life.’

Page 80 note 1 Ibid. p. 66; ‘By the head of my dead leader I will die overpowered and at his feet you also shall sink forwards in death so that whosoever gazes upon the pile of corpses may see how we repaid our lord for the gold we received from him.… Thus it is fitting that leading warriors un-dismayed should fall, embracing their illustrious king in the companionship of death.’

Page 80 note 2 See Olrik, , Heroic Legends, pp. 169–99.Google Scholar

Page 81 note 1 For references see Trathnigg, Gilbert, Über Selbstmord den Germanen’, ZDA 72 (1936), 99–102.Google Scholar