18 THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND. [book i.
tale told by Saxo Grammaticus of a Danish prince
bearing the same name1.
The form itself in which details, which profess
to be authentic, have been preserved, ought to se-
cure us from falling into error. They are romantic,
not historical; and the romance has salient and
characteristic points, not very reconcilable with the
variety which marks the authentic records of fact.
For example, the details of a long and doubtful
struggle between the Saxons and the Britons are
obviously based upon no solid foundation ; the dates
and the events are alike traditional,—the usual and
melancholy consolation of the vanquished. In pro-
portion as we desert the older and apply to later
sources of information, do we meet with success-
ful wars, triumphant British chieftains, vanquished
Saxons, heroes endowed with supernatural powers
and blessed with supernatural luck. Gildas, Nen-
nius and Beda mention but a few contests, and
even these of a doubtful and suspicious character ;
Geoffry of Monmouth and gossipers of his class,
on the contrary, are full of wondrous incidents by
flood and field, of details calculated to flatter the
pride or console the sorrows of Keltic auditors : the
successes which those who lived in or near the
times described either pass over in modest silence
or vaguely insinuate under sweeping generalities,
are impudently related by this fabler and his copy-
ists with every richness of narration. According to
him the invaders are defeated in every part of the
1 Saxo Gramm, bk. iv. p. 69 seq.
CH. I.]
SAXON AND WELSH TRADITIONS.
19
island, nay even expelled from it ; army after army
is destroyed, chieftain after chieftain slain ; till he
winds up his enormous tissue of fabrications with
the defeat, the capture and execution of a hero
whose very existence becomes problematical when
tested by the severe principles of historical criti-
cism, and who, according to the strict theory of
our times, can hardly be otherwise than enrolled
among the gods, through a godlike or half-godlike
form1.
It is no doubt probable that the whole land
was not subdued without some pains in different
quarters ; that here and there a courageous leader
or a favourable position may have enabled the
aborigines to obtain even temporary successes over
the invaders : the new immigrants were not likely
to find land vacant for their occupation among
their kinsmen who had long been settled here,
though well-assured of their co-operation in any
, Woden in the gentile form of a horse, IIengest, equus admissarius,
the brother of Hors, and father of a line in which names of horses form
a distinguishing part of the royal appellatives. It is hardly necessary
to remind the classical reader of Poseidon in his favourite shape,
the shape in which he contended with Athene and mingled with
Ceres. In these remarks on Geoffiyand his sources, I do not mean to
deny the obligation under which the reader of romance has been laid
by him ; only to reject everything like historical authority. It is from
the countrymen of Geoffry that we have also gained the marvellous
Superstnicture of imagination which has supplied the tales of that time,
“when Charlemagne with all his peerage fell by Fontarabia,” and which
ɪs recognised by history in the very short entry, “ Inquo proelio Eggi-
hardus regiae mensae praepositus, Anselmus comes palatii, et Hruod-
Iandus Brittanici Iimitis praefectus, cum aliis Compluribus interfi-
ciuntur.” Einhardi Vita Karoli, § 9. Pertz, ii. 448. Letusbegrateful
for the Orlando Innamorato and Furioso, but not make history of
them.
c 2