Hector Munro Chadwick
Hector Munro Chadwick was an English philologist. Chadwick was the Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and the founder and head of the Department for Anglo-Saxon and Kindred Studies at the University of Cambridge. Chadwick was well known for his encouragement of interdisciplinary research on Celts and Germanic peoples, and for his theories on the Heroic Age in the history of human societies. Chadwick was a tutor of many notable students and the author of numerous influential works in his fields of study. Much of his research and teaching was conducted in cooperation with his wife, former student and fellow Cambridge scholar Nora Kershaw.
Family
On 22 October 1870, Hector Munro Chadwick was born in Thornhill Lees, Yorkshire, England, the third son of Reverend Edward Chadwick and Sarah Anne Bates.The Chadwick family traced its descent from John Chadwick of Chadwick Hall, Rochdale, who flourished during the reign of Elizabeth I. Edward was the seventh of the eight sons of James Chadwick, who in turn was a son of yet another John Chadwick. John and his sons were all members of the firm of John Chadwick & Sons, who were flannel manufacturers in Rochdale. The firm had a branch in Edinburgh, and it was there that James married Sarah Murray, daughter of George Murray and Margaret Munro, who was probably a sister of General Hector Munro. Sarah Murray was of Scottish descent.
Edward Chadwick was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, and met Sarah while he was Curate at Church of St George, Chester Road, Hulme. Sarah was the only daughter and one of eight children of an Oldham businessman of considerable prominence. Her grandfather was a member of the same business. Her cousin, Captain Chadwick, had served with distinction in the Crimean War. Sarah's father retired early from business and became a farmer at Old Trafford. Sarah's mother died on the day Sarah was to marry Edward Chadwick, allegedly heartbroken over the prospect of losing contact with her daughter. The marriage was subsequently postponed for a while. After finally marrying, Edward and Sarah spent their early years at Blue Pits, where their eldest son Edward was born. Shortly afterwards, the family moved to Thornhill Lees, Yorkshire, where Edward Chadwick senior became a close friend to a member of the Bibby family, which owned the Bibby Line. The Bibbys built a church for Edward in the suburbs of Thornhill Lees, where he became Vicar. It was during this time that the Chadwicks had their three remaining children, Dora, Murray, and then Hector. Edward ended his career as Rural Dean of Dewsbury, and his two oldest sons also joined the priesthood of the Church of England.
Early life and education
Hector was by far the youngest child of the family, and had a very close relationship with his sister. Dora taught him both letters and Latin, and he later said that she "brought me up". Chadwick's father strongly encouraged his children to study, and used to tell Hector that a bear would come and carry him off if he did not learn his Latin. As a result, one of Chadwick's memories was peering for the bear through a window near the vicarage's front door.Chadwick attended Bradford Grammar School from 1882 to 1883. At Bradford he showed himself a gifted student, but did not like school life, and often feigned sickness in order to stay home from school. In 1884 he was tutored at home by his sister and the curators. From 1885 to 1889, Chadwick attended Wakefield Grammar School as a day-boy. He commuted 8 miles to Wakefield each day, during which he learned German by himself. At Wakefield, Chadwick was a passionate player of tennis, and served as treasurer of the school cricket club. Contemporary students at Wakefield later described him as a determined but shy boy, who happily helped out his classmates with their Latin. Shyness, intelligence, determination and a strong willingness to help others were personality traits which were to characterize him into adulthood.
Upon leaving Wakefield in 1889, Chadwick obtained a Cave Exhibition at Clare College, Cambridge. That summer, he made a trip to Scotland, Ulster, Wales and the Isle of Man. He subsequently did his Little Go and entered Cambridge. While an undergraduate, Chadwick made memorable visits to Continental Europe with his brother Edward, during which they visited Austria and Italy. In 1890, Chadwick was elected Classical Scholar at Clare. In 1892, Chadwick obtained a First Class, Division 3 of Part I of the Classical Tripos, and gained his B.A. The next year, he obtained a First Class with distinction in Philology in the Classical Tripos. From 1893 to 1899, Chadwick was a Fellow at Clare.
In 1894, his "The Origin of the Latin Perfect Formation in -ui" was published in Adalbert Bezzenberger's Beitrage zur Kunde der indo-germanischen Sprachen. It was during this time, when visiting his brother Murray, that Chadwick came upon Paul Du Chaillu's The Viking Age. Through this book, Chadwick gained a strong interest in the early civilizations of Northern Europe. The book was characterized by an interdisciplinary approach to every aspect of its subject, which was an approach which was also to characterize his future teaching and research. In the summer of 1895, Chadwick attended lectures at the University of Freiburg under Wilhelm Streitberg.
Career
Starting out
Returning to Cambridge in 1895, Chadwick taught Old English for Section B of the Medieval and Modern Languages Tripos, while devoting himself to the study of the early North. He gained his M.A. in 1896. Section B had been established in 1894. Its teachers at the time included Israel Gollancz and George Campbell Macaulay. Its Chair was Walter William Skeat, the Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon. Skeat was primarily concerned with the study of Middle English. Section B covered Old English, Middle English, Anglo-French, Gothic and Icelandic, and English and Germanic linguistics. It was mostly limited to linguistics, and attracted few students, which however included future distinguished scholars such as Allen Mawer.Chadwick was quickly recognized as a highly gifted tutor. His lectures were conducted in an informal manner, and he was particularly noted for his supervisions, which he began giving his students individually while they were still undergraduates. Many a student of Chadwick later described these supervisions at his home as formative events in their scholarly careers. Chadwick gained a large and loyal following among his students, who gave him the pet name "Chadders". Many of his students were female, and he insisted that they were to be treated equally with their male peers, which was quite uncommon at English universities at the time. Chadwick treated his students as his intellectual peers, which sometimes resulted in him recommending them subjects which were beyond their capabilities. Around thirty of his students came to hold prominent positions in academia, not to mention the large number of museum officials, librarians and learned individuals of prominence who had studied under him.
From 1899 to 1919, Chadwick became solely responsible for teaching at the Section B of the Medieval and Modern Languages Tripos. In 1899, Chadwick published three works: "Ablaut problems in the Indo-Germanic Verb" in Indogermanische Forschungen, "Studies in Old English" in Transactions of the Cambridge Philological Society, and his first book, The Cult of Othin, which was published by Cambridge University Press. His "Studies in Old English" was a pioneering monograph on dialects and sound changes in Old English. In The Cult of Othin, he examined worship of Odin among the Germanic peoples. The book took all relevant evidence into consideration, including linguistic, literary, and archaeological evidence, which was to become a typical feature of his scholarly approach. In conclusion, Chadwick argued that worship of Odin was in all essential features the same among all the Germanic peoples, including Anglo-Saxons and Norse peoples. In 1899, his Fellowship at Clare was renewed.
In 1900, two important papers by Chadwick, "The Oak and the Thunder-God" and "The Ancient Teutonic Priesthood", appeared in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute and in Folk-Lore. From 1903 to 1911, he was Librarian at the college.
In 1905, Chadwick published Studies in Anglo-Saxon Institutions. It was at the time considered the best work ever published on Anglo-Saxon society, and was highly influential. In 1907, he contributed chapter III on "Early National Poetry" to the first volume of the Cambridge History of English Literature. The same year saw the publishing of his monumental The Origins of the English Nation. Investigating the origins of the Anglo-Saxons and the English people, this work has been highly praised for its interdisciplinary combination of archaeological, historical and philological evidence from both England and Northern Europe. In 1907, the scope of Section B at the Medieval and Modern Languages Tripos was broadened to cover Anglo-Saxon, Germanic and Viking Age history, culture and religion.
Upon a 1909 recommendation of the board of medieval and modern languages at Cambridge, Chadwick was in 1910 appointed Lecturer in Scandinavian at Cambridge, holding this position for two years.
''The Heroic Age''
In 1912, he published The Heroic Age, which is considered one of his most important works. In this work Chadwick conducted a pioneering examination of parallels between the epic poetry of the Greek Heroic Age and the Germanic Heroic Age. Celtic, Roman and Slavic epic poetry was also considered, which testifies to the wide and diverse knowledge possessed by Chadwick at this time.Chadwick postulated the Heroic Age as a distinct period in the history of numerous human societies. During such Heroic Ages, warrior aristocrats figure prominently, and courage and martial prowess is valued above all else. For Chadwick, such an Heroic Age was not one of primitiveness, but rather one of youthfulness, vigour and rebellion. According to him, Heroic Ages typically emerged when tribal societies came into close contact with more advanced civilizations, such as when the Germanic peoples encountered ancient Rome. Notably, Chadwick postulated the existence of Heroic Ages also among Celts and Slavs. The Heroic Age attracted strong interests from both Classicists and Germanicists. It remains a pioneering work of comparative literature.