contributes to European civilization, but only
that they should take their natural and appropriate place in that
greater unity which is enriched and enlarged by the contribution of
every separate national society. European art is one; that is, the
common characteristics are far more important than the national
differences. And further, we often take to be national, characteristics
which happen to show themselves at one time in one place, while they may
have existed at another time in another place. The history of European
art is in a great measure the history of successive influences or
movements which were for the most part common to all Europe, but which
did not always exactly synchronize in the different European countries.

* * * * *

So far as there is such a thing as nationalism in literature it is
wholly modern, while in mediaeval literature and art there is hardly
anything of it. This may seem strange to those who imagine that it is
only the railway and the steamship which have brought the world
together, but the truth is that the movement of ideas and fashions was
probably at least as rapid in the Middle Ages as it is to-day. However
this may be, the fact is, I think, clear, that when we come to examine
mediaeval literature we find that it is practically homogeneous, that
whether we look at it in England or France, in Germany or in
Scandinavia, it has practically the same qualities. I do not speak of
Italy yet, for Italian literature is the latest-born of the great
European literatures, it has not at least come down to us in any forms
earlier than those of the thirteenth century.

Mediaeval literature is known to us primarily under two forms, the
heroic epic and the romance, and it is to these that we must first turn
our attention. We know the heroic epic in different languages throughout
a period which extends roughly from the eighth to the twelfth centuries.
The earliest example is the English Beowulf; among the latest are the
German Nibelungenlied and some of the French Chansons de Geste, which
belong to the end of the twelfth century. This epic literature is not
least interesting to us because it has, as far as we can judge, no
trace of that great classical influence of which you have already heard,
and which plays so great a part in the later developments of European
literature. Now what is the epic? Its materials are the stories of
northern mythology, the traditions of the