A clearer case is that of the poems attributed by Saxo to Starcatherus, in which that warrior exhorts Ingellus to avenge his father. These are clearly to be connected with the speech of the old warrior to Ingeld in Beowulf (vv. 2047-2056), though there is little verbal resemblance. Moreover we have seen (p. [41] f.) that in Alcuin's time poems dealing with Ingeld were known and probably popular in England. The relationship of the passage in Beowulf to these may be compared with that of another passage (vv. 1068-1159) to the fragment dealing with Finn. The poems on Ingeld given by Saxo are traced by Prof. Olrik[78] to a Danish source; and there can be little doubt that his view is correct, as they share the characteristics exhibited by other stories which appear to come from the same quarter (cf. p. [111]). Thus the queen's name is not given and her brothers are described simply as sons of Suertingus. Further, the story is cut right away from the surroundings in which we find it in Beowulf, and it may be that for a time it survived in Denmark only in ballad form. Yet, however much change it had undergone before it came under Saxo's treatment, there can be little doubt, in view of the English evidence, that its origin is ultimately to be sought in heroic poetry, or at all events heroic narrative, dating from the sixth century.
Lastly we must mention the story of Uffo's single combat, though, strictly speaking, this is probably not of Danish origin. It was certainly well known in England and there is good reason for believing that its home is to be found in the district to which it refers, i.e. the neighbourhood of Angel, Slesvig and Rendsburg. I have tried elsewhere[79] to show that this story also rests on historical foundations. But the details of the combat, as given by Saxo and Svend Aagesen, and certain legendary features, such as the dumbness or silence of the hero, which are present in both the Danish and English versions of the story, strongly favour the view that it was embodied in poetic form at a very early period. On the other hand there is nothing to show that such poems survived till Saxo's time. The story is apparently unknown to all Norse authorities.
Many of the German poems which have come down to us are known to be derived, directly or indirectly, from earlier ones, but regarding the antiquity of the latter nothing can be stated with certainty. The Hildebrandslied, which is the only extant piece of early poetry, goes back at all events to the eighth century. Further, the language[80] used by Einhard in describing the poems collected by Charlemagne (cf. p. [5] f.) would scarcely be appropriate unless they were believed to be more than a century old by that time. We may probably therefore refer them at least to the seventh century.
It seems likely that some of the lost poems of the Langobardi were of still greater antiquity. In the poem which celebrated their victory over the Vandals (cf. p. [10]), a story with which we shall have to deal more fully in a later chapter, a very prominent part appears to have been played by the heathen gods. Such a piece can hardly have been composed after the end of the fifth century, at which time the Langobardi were already Christians.
Regarding the antiquity of Gothic heroic poetry there can be no question, for Jordanes, our chief authority on this subject, wrote about the middle of the sixth century, i.e. during the Heroic Age itself. We have already noticed (p. [37]) that his account of Eormenric appears to be coloured by poetic tradition. But of the heroes whom he enumerates (cap. 5) as celebrated in poetry, the only one of whom we know anything, Vidigoia, is described as Gothorum fortissimus in a quotation (cap. 34) from Priscus, who lived about a century earlier[81]. There is good reason therefore for believing that the Goths possessed heroic poems as early as the first half of the fifth century.
We may now sum up briefly the results of our discussion. The heroic poetry of the Goths certainly belonged to the Heroic Age itself, and it is more than likely that certain Langobardic poems were nearly as old. Some heroic poems belonging to other German peoples may probably be referred at least to the seventh century. The chief monument of English heroic poetry must be ascribed to the first half of that century, while some of the other poems claim to be of greater antiquity. The lost heroic poetry of the Danes seems to have been occupied largely with the same subjects as the English poems, and since the stories generally refer to the Baltic we may reasonably infer that heroic poetry flourished in that region during the sixth century. On the whole then it seems probable that the development of heroic poetry began in the Heroic Age itself, not only among the Goths but throughout the greater part of the Teutonic world.
FOOTNOTES:
[33] Verba Dei legantur in sacerdotali conuiuio. ibi decet lectorem audiri, non citharistam; sermones patrum, non carmina gentilium. quid Hinieldus cum Christo? angusta est domus; utrosque tenere non poterit. non uult rex coelestis cum paganis et perditis nominetenus regibus communionem habere, quia rex ille aeternus regnat in coelo, ille paganus perditus plangit in inferno. uoces legentium audiri in domibus tuis, non ridentium turuam in plateis. Mon. Germ., Epist. Carol. II 124; cf. O. Jänicke, ZfdA. XV 314.