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German, which is placed somewhat between the two extremes, appears gradually to develop itself, and to emerge from the weak and unsettled state in which it is before exhibited, till in the 11th century we find it (as in the legend of St. Anno) assuming a determinate character, approaching much nearer to the standard of Luther. During the same period, the rougher Alemanic or Suabian must also have been forming itself into that state of perfection in which it suddenly breaks upon us, as the court language of the Suabian dynasty, and the favourite dress of the poetry of the 12th and 13th centuries; while the Nether-German remained in the most pure and primitive form of all, as it appears in the specimens that have been preserved, which are not very numerous, the principal being romances.

In various periods during the Carlovingian dynasty we have valuable fragments of German poetry, which was gradually acquiring stability and importance, notwithstanding the endeavours of the learned to stop the progress of the new literature, by veiling every thing in their degenerate Latin. Many of the most valuable poetic monuments have been lost to the world by the laborious dullness of those who converted them into Latin prose; and many an author has deadened his fancy and destroyed his worth, by attempting to express in a dead language the thoughts and feelings which were the off

spring of a new state of society. What a treasure might not the good nun Roswitha have left us on the deeds of the Saxon emperors, if her vanity had not induced her to display her learning in Latin verse!

But this fragment is

Perhaps the most remarkable of all the remains of ancient German poetry is a fragment relating to the combat between Hildibrant and Hathubrant, which is assigned to the middle of the 8th century. The dialect in which it is written is the Francic, with a very great intermixture of the Nether-Saxon tongue. Bouterwek characterizes it as being just what one would suppose would be the result of a NetherSaxon trying to write Francic. most valuable on account of the direct and indisputable testimony which it bears to the fact, that the romances of the proper German Cyclus of the Suabian age, as well as many of the Scandinavian demimythological fables, have their basis in the ancient popular songs and traditions, current in the age of Charlemagne, and probably long previously. It is, moreover, curious, from its being written in alliterative rhythm, a circumstance which has escaped the observation of the authors of the "Illustrations of Northern Antiquities," who printed it in that work as prose.

The church was fated to become in Germany, as in many other countries, a powerful instrument, though against its will, in fixing and preserving the

rising popular tongue. Louis le Debonnaire piously banished from his court the vain themes which his father had loved to collect: but the multitude were not to be diverted from the objects which the bright recollections of their childhood and their dearest associations riveted in their minds. It therefore became politic to direct the current where it could not be stopt, and to apply the vehicle of popular rime to recording the deeds of holy men and scriptural histories; and thus by degrees to wean the populace from their heathen favourites. With this view, Louis caused a poetical translation or harmony of the New Testament to be made, which is supposed to be that of which part remains in the Cottonian Library, and of which other portions have been described, and selections given, from a MS. found by M. Gley at Bamberg, in his valuable little work "Langue et Literature des anciens Francs." With the same design Otfried a Benedictine monk of Weissenburg, who flourished between 840 and 870, lamenting over the vain and frivolous amusements of his flock, conquered his aversion for the rough idiom of the country, and published poetical versions of scriptural tales, which still exist, and were published by Schilter in his TheThree stanzas of this work may be selected

saurus.

as a specimen :

Ludouuig ther snello

Thes uuisduames follo

[blocks in formation]

The following version by Herder, in modern German, will illustrate the affinity of the tongues:

Ludwig der schnelle

Der weisheitvolle,

Der Ostreich richtet all

Wie der Franken König soll.

Dem sei immer Heil

Und Seligkeit gemein,

Gott höh' ihm das Gut
Erfreu' ihm den Muth.

Denn er ist edler Franke

Weiser Gedanken

Weiser Reden

Thut alles mit Ebne (Gleichmuth).

In the same century we have a valuable Francic

remain in the song of triumph for the victory of Louis III. over the Normans in 883. A few lines,

selected as before, will suffice :

Tho nam her skild indi sper,

Ellianlicho reit her:

Uuold her uuarer rahchon

Sina uuidarsahchon.

Tho ni uuas iz buro lango
Fand her thia Northmannon.

Gode lob; sageta.

Her siht thes her gereda.

Ther Kunig reit kuono,

Sang lioth frano,

Joh alle saman sungon
Kyrieleison!

Sang uuas gesungen,

Uuig uuas bigunnen,

Bluot skein in uuangon

Spilodunder Vrankon.

Which Bouterwek gives in modern German thus:—

Da nahm er Schild und Speer

Eilends ritt er;

Wollt' er wahrlich rächen

Seine widersacher (sich an ihnen).

Da nicht war es dauernd lange

Fand er die Normänner.

Gottlob! sagte (er).

Er sieht dass er begehrte.

Der König reitet kühn,

Sang (ein) Lied fromm,

Und alle zusammen sangen,

Kyrieleison !

Sang war gesungen,

Kampf war begonnen;

Blut schien in (den) Wangen

Spielender Franken.

The fragment of a song or legend in praise of St. George, published by Sandwig, probably belongs to the first half of the 10th century: and in the 11th we have the poem in honour of St. Anno bishop of Cologne (who died in 1075), or, more properly speaking, a chronicle of the world, into which the

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