MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON
IWAS distressed last week to observe that Strix, in the absence of our Pater Matutinus, had condoned and even praised the Viking ship. I have never possessed much sense of humour, and such fragments of it as I have retained from childhood have become worn and shredded with the passage of years. I notice that events and episodes, which cause merriment to those who take pride in their sense of humour, fill me with heavy gloom. I justify my dolefulness with the reflection that our English sense of humour is a deleterious or debilitating thing. Either it is a protective mechanism, operating to assuage the wounds of life, and as such no more valuable than the giggle of satisfied vanity which we observe in the mentally deficient. Or else it is an escape from seriousness and a symptom of that intellectual indolence which tempts us to run away from difficult or unpleasant fact. Or else it has about it a sardonic element, being akin to what the Germans call Hohn- geliichter, and as such justifying Hobbes' cynical contention that " the passion of laughter is nothing else but sudden glory, arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by com- parison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly." I do not assert that Strix was amused by the Viking ship solely because it suggested to him some eminency in himself. But I do assert that those who regard the ' Hugin ' as a correct cause for merri- ment arc indifferent to the beautiful and the true and are deficient in imagination. The ' Hugin ' is an elaborate lie and one ought surely to be saddened and not amused by lies. And even the least imagina- tive person, if he gives the matter a moment's thought, must realise the utter silliness of the whole procedure. I contend, therefore, that I am justified in my distress.
* * a *
Whatever one may feel about the ancient Vikings, who were the most butchcrous of all marauders, no civilised person can have anything but respect for the modern Dane. I do not wish to be rude to the Danes, nor do I in any way begrudge them their boating expedition. But the voyage of the ' Hugin ' was designed and advertised to mark "the fifteenth centenary of the original Viking invasion," whereas a moment's reflection should show one that it marks nothing of the kind The episode which occurred in 449 A.D. had nothing whatever to do with Danes or Vikings ; it was exclusively concerned with a compact entered into by Guorthigirnus Wyrtgeorn, or Vortigern, king of the Britons, and two Jutes. The Venerable Bede was an accurate historian and one who refrained from repeating unnecessary legends. In his Ecclesiastical History he related how Vortigern, being much harassed by the Picts, invited two Jute chieftains, Hengest and Horsa, to come to his assistance. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle they landed at Ypwines fleot in 449, established themselves in the Isle of Thanet, refused to leave, and in 455 fought a battle with Vortigern at Agaeles threp. Horsa was killed in this battle and was buried "in orientalibus Cantiae partibus" in a mound which still existed in Bede's day. There are those who identify Horsa's tomb with the cromlech known as Kits-Coty House at Horsted in the vicinity of Aylesford. There- after Hengest drove the Britons out of Kent and in 488 was suc- ceeded by his son Aesc who remained King of the Kentishmen for twenty-four years. Those of us who regard Kent as the most civilised part of England were much incensed when some pedants tried to pretend that there never was such a man as Hengest but that he and his brother were no more than tribal totems representing a stallion and a mare. It was a relief when later scholars reaffirmed the identity of the two brothers and allowed us to think of them again, not as totem poles, but as valorous, progressive and enlightened statesmen.
* * * * Who were these Jutes ? The Venerable Bede states that they came from the district north of that inhabited by the Angli. If we assume that the latter lived in the area now called Angeln in Slesvig, then we might conclude, as the Danes seem to conclude, that the Jutes came from Jutland. This is not the conclusion approved
by modern scholars, who argue that, in this respect at least, the Venerable Bede made a mistake. It seems that it is difficult to suppose that the Scandinavian word jotar, from which Jutland is derived, bore any relation at all to the old English word Jute. Moreover the social customs of the ancient men of Kent and Kentish men were markedly different from those of the Angles and Saxons. It is thus held by modern scholars that the Jutes did not come from Jutland or Denmark but from the Rhineland, and that, there- fore, the Danes arc incorrect in claiming that Hengest and Horsa were of Scandinavian origin. It is perhaps a pardonable error on the part of the seamen of the ' Hugin ' to have claimed these eminent Rhinelanders as kinsmen of their own. What is unpardon- able is to have confused, or ignored, four centuries of time. The Vikings in their dragon ships did not begin to infest the coasts and inlets of our island until four hundred years after the death of Hengest. Even if the Hugin ' is an exact replica of a Viking ship, even if her crew have all the appearance and valour of the early marauders, neither she nor they bear any closer relation to Hengest than does Mr. Aneurin Bevan to Charles I. The whole thing is not an anachronism merely, but a falsification. I am sorry that Strix should be so pleased.
a It was disturbing to read in the Kentish Express (which should know better) of the " landing of the Viking ship Hugin,' ambassador of a great seafaring nation, with its crew of bronzed young Danes, modern counterparts of their Viking ancestors who invaded Thanet 1,5oo years ago." Such a statement must have caused Hengest and Horsa (whose descendants fought the Vikings for many generations) to turn in their cromlechs. The members of the Danish rowing club who propelled the vessel from Esbjerg may well have been bronzed after their expedition, but they were not all of them young. The leader of the party, a man of fifty-four years, is a prominent dentist at Copenhagen. Among the other Vikings were a greengrocer, an architect, a bookseller, a paperhanger, a cigar-sorter, a gardener, a surgeon and two policemen. One cannot but admire the endurance of these elderly gentlemen, but to describe them as " modern counter- parts of their Viking ancestors " is to strain the picturesque. On reaching Broadstairs (since Ypwines fleot or Ebbsfleet has since been discarded by the sea) the Vikings raised their spears aloft and descended upon the beach, exclaiming "Hil!" to Lord Hacking (Chairman of the British Travel Association) and the assembled crowds. A party of eight " Anglo-Saxons " then pushed through the mass of autograph-hunters to present the Vikings with mead. After which the invaders marched to the Pavilion for luncheon, preceded by the Medway Imperial Silver Band. Strix is obviously amused by this episode, does not mind the distortion of history, and is not in the least embarrassed by the silliness of the ensuing dumb-crambo. I envy him his sense of humour. The falsity and vulgarity of the whole charade make me angry and ashamed.
a a Kent after all—our lovely County Palatine—should not allow the rowing clubs of Denmark to make nonsense of her traditions. It seems even that some memorial is to be unveiled in the presence of the Vikings to commemorate the landing of 449 as " the begin- ning of English history." How can the Kent Archaeological Society permit such a travesty ? My protest is not inspired solely by local patriotism ; I regard all this Hugin ' rubbish as symptomatic of an increasing disregard of historical fact, of an increasing indifference to knowledge. It may be that the identity of Hengest and Horsa, or the origins of the Jutes, is somewhat uncertain ; but assuredly they were not Vikings, and it is more than doubtful whether they were Danes at all. How can the County of Kent be so unfaithful to the white horse of Hengest, so unfaithful to the stallion and the mare ? I have never enjoyed jokes about history. But then, I am glad to say, I possess no sense of humour.
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