The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1892-12-25
on to his followers his passionate and poetic

II
Irish poems Of HE are believed to still existsnd
N the song Of regret on his exile from Ireland
be really his 1t IL clear that he was truo yr.s,
We may DO suro that tho love OF POETRY con-
tinucd to he tradition in tho monastery. anu
tho English who came for education to lona.nnd
those also who were taught in Northumhria
their Christianity by missionaries from that
seat of Irish learning. would naturally be ir-
Cuenccd more or less deenly by tho clements
Of Columbas character. In 6l7 Oswald.
who aftcrward became King OF Northnm-
brio, took refuge with twelve comrnn-
ions al Lena and during sojomrn OF
seventeen years became stepped in the
spirit which COLUMBIA left behind him. lfe
learned Irish. and 1t Is fair to infer that II"
heard tho great Irish poems. When he camo
20 the throne he summoned missionaries from
Iona, and by them the whole OF Northumoria
was brought over 20 the Christian latin. IA
Oswald set up Lindsfarne and Its subject
monnsteries OH the pattern OF Iona so oswiu.
u subsequent King OF Northumbra founded
Whitby on tho same model. Whitby became
the grent educational centre of the southern
pnrt OF Northumbria, and from its root spranE
u number of related nj onnstcrcs. all more or
less directed 10y men who had received an.
Irish training and carried with them some
Irish literature. II is said that 40 fowcr than
forty-four monast cries were founded by Irish
men III I.1GluN'l. lThW IneHl lllc HOElllclH
English derived n learning not to be found
elsewhere IN Europe at tho epoch. Not only
religious but classic and literary studies were
pursued with caGcrness. Historical annals
were kent in the monastery and the arts were
practised architecture. craving. chselling
embroidery. music and poetry Irish in
nurnco in England may 10 said to have
had a career OF about seventy years
During that time tho passion. imnulsivencss.
,f I,;a al, 4
some. Mt least. OF the Irish poetry. with its Gle
men,s of color. romance. invention. and charm.
penetrated tho Ncrthumbrinns. and Mr.. Brooke
is doubtless justified in making this one OF
tho causes which rendered Northumbria moro
creative Of poetry than tho rost OF England.
1t is certain that Irish influence was at its
height In the north during the receptive
period OF tho life OF Ceadmon. He was about
30 when he began to make verse. and his first
poem is assigned to GTO. six years after tho
| Synod OF Whtby. when the Irish tyne OF
| Christianity was superseded by the Roman in
| the north. 1t is a matter OF controversy
| whether the other great writer OF Anglo
| Saxon poetry. Cynewulf. was Northum-
| brian. but Mr. Brooke maintains the afiirma-
tive for reasons that seem cogent.
Amid the anarchy by which Northumbria
! was racked in tho eighth century literature
| gradually decayed. Yet even in its latter days
| it produced in Alcuin tho greatest scholar OF
| western Europe whom ChariemaCne per-
suaded in 49, to Join his court and tnke
charge OF tho Palatine schools. He carried
| with him number OF men who had been edu-
Gated Mt York. and with their assistance set
up schools in Gnul and Germany. He sent so
frequently to York for books and for fresh
helpers that no may almost be said to have
drained Northunbria OF its manuscripts and
OF its scholars 1t is part Of tho glory Of Eng
land that it was an English scholar from York
who. exactly at the right time. bore of to the
Continent tho whole OF English learning. and
out OF it built up new world OF knowledge.
Had Alcuin remained in England. and had
learning been confined to Northumbria. it
would In few years hive persisted under the
devastating flood OF the Danes. AS it was,
instead OF small and dying kingdom in the
north Of England. the vast Frankish domin'
ion became the home of literature.
1t was, indeed. tho Danes who gave the
death blow to the literature and learning o.
northern England In 703 the Vikings dashed
for the first time upon the COASTS OF Northum
bria. and in the course OF the same year the
great abbey OF 1.ndisfarne was dcstroye cd
There was. owever al interval OF seventy -four
years between the sack OF Lindisfarne and the
final destruction OF tho Northumbrian seats o.
learning which took place in SG1. When
after the fall OF York. Northumbria became
wholly Danish there was with possibly a sin
Gle exception. no monastic house Of learning
left from the Humber to the Forth. Bishop
RIGS persisted. even so great an episcopal sea
rs Hcxham: all the libraries all tho schools. al
the stored. up knowledge oftwo hundred years
were swept away: and the same fate abou
tho same time befel tho monnstic houses O
East Anglia and through tho greater part o
Mercia. Amid this vast catastrophe. so over
whelming that Northumbrin did not re-
cover from it till long after the Norman
conquest, York, in Mr.. Brooke's opinion
still retained some traces OF learning
As this city seems partly to have es
capped destruction when the English tool
1t from the Brtons it seems to hav'
been partly spared by the Danes. Our autho
> thinks that the school Of York. so far as it re
tanned any organization. was unmolested. II |
I was let alone. it would savo the most precious
Of its surviving manuscripts. and nll tn
. scholars who succeeded in escaping from
3 other sents Of learning would find some shell
, ter there for themselves and for their books
l There would then be at York enough Of North
a umbrian literature left to supply WesscS IL
: Alfred's reign with English war poems lk
h Beowulf and with collections OF religious 10
Q ems like those in tho Exeter Book. When
. became known in the north that Alfred vel
= coined to his court all who could bring 1t
r manuscript to add to the library at Winches
Q ter. the remnants OF literature left ut ior
: would be carried southwark 1t was thus. III
Il Brooke suggests. that tho Northumbrian pc
: etry reached Wessex. and reaching 1t. WAS pr
h into tho wessex dialect. in which form it ha
It come do I'm to MS.
n With the Danish conquest OF Northumbri
o the FIRST act OF the drama OF the growth
= English literature comes to an end. Whe
d the curtain again rises with tho second vo
d umc OF this history it will rise upon differer
E. scene and in n different land. Wcssex wi
If take the place OF Northumbra: then. Groupe
% around King Alfred in his town OF Winche
d ter. will be seen the scholars Of new tim
the fashion OF whose speech will have bee
al changed. As the characters Of tho first act
10 English literature speak in poetry. those
10 tho second will speak in prose-
- PIoughed Up $500, Worth $4,000.
"a from he s.. LOai, Gio,e. D.moJu.
IL Speaking Of money" said John ]. Spence
-. Nl