FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27  
28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   >>   >|  
why should they have any? Enough that in those Baltic regions, there are for the time (Year 600, and till long after Charlemagne is out) Sclaves in place of Suevi or of Holstein Saxons and Angli; that it is now shaggy Wends who have the task of taming the jungles, and keeping down the otters and wolves. Wends latterly in a waning condition, much beaten upon by Charlemagne and others; but never yet beaten out. And so it has to last, century after century; Wends, wolves, wild swine, all alike dumb to us. Dumb, or sounding only one huge unutterable message (seemingly of tragic import), like the voice of their old Forests, of their old Baltic Seas:--perhaps more edifying to us SO. Here at last is a definite date and event:-- "A.D. 928, Henry the Fowler, marching across the frozen bogs, took BRANNIBOR, a chief fortress of the Wends;" [Kohler, _Reichs-Historie_ (Frankfurth und Leipzig, 1737), p. 63. Michaelis, _Chur-und Furstlichen Hauser in Deutschland_ (Lemgo, 1759, 1760, 1785), i. 255.]--first mention in human speech of the place now called Brandenburg: Bor or "Burg of the Brenns" (if there ever was any TRIBE of Brenns,--BRENNUS, there as elsewhere, being name for KING or Leader); "Burg of the Woods," say others,--who as little know. Probably, at that time, a town of clay huts, with dit&h and palisaded sod-wall round it; certainly "a chief fortress of the Wends,"--who must have been a good deal surprised at sight of Henry on the rimy winter morning near a thousand years ago. This is the grand old Henry, called, "the Fowler" _(Heinrich der Vogler),_ because he was in his _Vogelheerde_ (Falconry or Hawk-establishment, seeing his Hawks fly) in the upland Hartz Country, when messengers came to tell him that the German Nation, through its Princes and Authorities assembled at Fritzlar, had made him King; and that he would have dreadful work henceforth. Which he undertook; and also did,--this of Brannibor only one small item of it,--warring right manfully all his days against Chaos in that country, no rest for him thenceforth till he died. The beginning of German Kings; the first, or essentially the first sovereign of united Germany,--Charlemagne's posterity to the last bastard having died out, and only Anarchy, Italian and other, being now the alternative. "A very high King," says one whose Note-books I have got, "an authentically noble human figure, visible still in clear outline in the gray dawn of Modern History. The Fa
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27  
28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Charlemagne

 

beaten

 

called

 
Brenns
 
fortress
 

Fowler

 
German
 

century

 

Baltic

 

wolves


surprised
 

Nation

 

Vogler

 

Fritzlar

 

assembled

 
Authorities
 

messengers

 

Princes

 

Country

 
morning

thousand

 
Vogelheerde
 

Falconry

 

winter

 

establishment

 

upland

 

Heinrich

 
alternative
 

bastard

 

posterity


Anarchy

 

Italian

 

outline

 

Modern

 

History

 

authentically

 

figure

 

visible

 

Germany

 

Brannibor


warring

 

undertook

 

dreadful

 

henceforth

 

manfully

 

beginning

 
essentially
 

sovereign

 

united

 

thenceforth