Chapter 16

The first collected edition of Heine’s works was edited by A. Strodtmann in 21 vols. (1861-1866), the best critical edition is theSämtliche Werke, edited by E. Elster (7 vols., 1887-1890). Heine has been more translated into other tongues than any other German writer of his time. Mention may here be made of the French translation of hisŒuvres complètes(14 vols., 1852-1868), and the English translation (by C. G. Leland and others) recently completed,The Works of Heinrich Heine(13 vols., 1892-1905). For biography and criticism see the following works: A. Strodtmann,Heines Leben und Werke(3rd ed., 1884); H. Hueffer,Aus dem Leben H. Heines(1878); and by the same author,H. Heine: Gesammelte Aufsätze(1906); G. Karpeles,H. Heine und seine Zeitgenossen(1888), and by the same author,H. Heine: aus seinem Leben und aus seiner Zeit(1900); W. Bölsche,H. Heine: Versuch einer ästhetischkritischen Analyse seiner Werke und seiner Weltanschauung(1888); G. Brandes,Det unge Tyskland(1890; Eng. trans., 1905). An English biography by W. Stigand,Life, Works and Opinions of Heinrich Heine, appeared in 1875, but it has little value; there is also a short life by W. Sharp (1888). The essays on Heine by George Eliot and Matthew Arnold are well known. The best French contributions to Heine criticism are J. Legras,H. Heine, poète(1897), and H. Lichtenberger,H. Heine, penseur(1905). See also L.P. Betz,Heine in Frankreich(1895).

(J. W. F.; J. G. R.)

HEINECCIUS, JOHANN GOTTLIEB(1681-1741), German jurist, was born on the 11th of September 1681 at Eisenberg, Altenburg. He studied theology at Leipzig, and law at Halle; and at the latter university he was appointed in 1713 professor of philosophy, and in 1718 professor of jurisprudence. He subsequently filled legal chairs at Franeker in Holland and at Frankfort, but finally returned to Halle in 1733 as professor of philosophy and jurisprudence. He died there on the 31st of August 1741. Heineccius belonged to the school of philosophical jurists. He endeavoured to treat law as a rational science, and not merely as an empirical art whose rules had no deeper source than expediency. Thus he continually refers to first principles, and he develops his legal doctrines as a system of philosophy.

His chief works wereAntiquitatum Romanarum jurisprudentiam illustrantium syntagma(1718),Historia juris civilis Romani ac Germanici(1733),Elementa juris Germanici(1735),Elementa juris naturae et gentium(1737; Eng. trans. by Turnbull, 2 vols., London, 1763). Besides these works he wrote on purely philosophical subjects, and edited the works of several of the classical jurists. HisOpera omnia(9 vols., Geneva, 1771, &c.) were edited by his son Johann Christian Gottlieb Heineccius (1718-1791).

Heineccius’s brother,Johann Michael Heineccius(1674-1722), was a well-known preacher and theologian, but is remembered more from the fact that he was the first to make a systematic study of seals, concerning which he left a book,De veteribus Germanorum aliarumque nationum sigillis(Leipzig, 1710; 2nd ed., 1719).

HEINECKEN, CHRISTIAN HEINRICH(1721-1725), a child remarkable for precocity of intellect, was born on the 6th of February 1721 at Lübeck, where his father was a painter. Able to speak at the age of ten months, by the time he was one year old he knew by heart the principal incidents in the Pentateuch. At two years of age he had mastered sacred history; at three he was intimately acquainted with history and geography, ancient and modern, sacred and profane, besides being able to speak French and Latin; and in his fourth year he devoted himself to the study of religion and church history. This wonderful precocity was no mere feat of memory, for the youthful savant could reason on and discuss the knowledge he had acquired. Crowds of people flocked to Lübeck to see the wonderful child; and in 1724 he was taken to Copenhagen at the desire of the king of Denmark. On his return to Lübeckhe began to learn writing, but his sickly constitution gave way, and he died on the 22nd of June 1725.

The Life, Deeds, Travels and Death of the Child of Lübeckwere published in the following year by his tutor Schöneich. See alsoTeutsche Bibliothek, xvii., andMémoires de Trévoux(Jan. 1731).

HEINICKE, SAMUEL(1727-1790), the originator in Germany of systematic education for the deaf and dumb, was born on the 10th of April 1727, at Nautschütz, Germany. Entering the electoral bodyguard at Dresden, he subsequently supported himself by teaching. About 1754 his first deaf and dumb pupil was brought him. His success in teaching this pupil was so great that he determined to devote himself entirely to this work. The outbreak of the Seven Years’ War upset his plans for a time. Taken prisoner at Pirna, he was brought to Dresden, but soon made his escape. In 1768, when living in Hamburg, he successfully taught a deaf and dumb boy to talk, following the methods prescribed by Amman in his bookSurdus loquens, but improving on them. Recalled to his own country by the elector of Saxony, he opened in Leipzig, in 1778, the first deaf and dumb institution in Germany. This school he directed till his death, which took place on the 30th of April 1790. He was the author of a variety of books on the instruction of the deaf and dumb.

HEINSE, JOHANN JAKOB WILHELM(1749-1803), German author, was born at Langewiesen near Ilmenau in Thuringia on the 16th of February 1749. After attending the gymnasium at Schleusingen he studied law at Jena and Erfurt. In Erfurt he became acquainted with Wieland and through him with “Father” Gleim who in 1772 procured him the post of tutor in a family at Quedlinburg. In 1774 he went to Düsseldorf, where he assisted the poet J. G. Jacobi to edit the periodicalIris. Here the famous picture gallery inspired him with a passion for art, to the study of which he devoted himself with so much zeal and insight that Jacobi furnished him with funds for a stay in Italy, where he remained for three years (1780-1783), He returned to Düsseldorf in 1784, and in 1786 was appointed reader to the elector Frederick Charles Joseph, archbishop of Mainz, who subsequently made him his librarian at Aschaffenburg, where he died on the 22nd of June 1803.

The work upon which Heinse’s fame mainly rests isArdinghello und die glückseligen Inseln(1787), a novel which forms the framework for the exposition of his views on art and life, the plot being laid in the Italy of the 16th century. This and his other novelsLaidion, oder die eleusinischen Geheimnisse(1774) andHildegard von Hohenthal(1796) combine the frank voluptuousness of Wieland with the enthusiasm of the “Sturm und Drang.” Both as novelist and art critic, Heinse had considerable influence on the romantic school.

Heinse’s complete works (Sämtliche Schriften) were published by H. Laube in 10 vols. (Leipzig, 1838). A new edition by C. Schüddekopf is in course of publication (Leipzig, 1901 sqq.). See H. Pröhle,Lessing, Wieland, Heinse(Berlin, 1877), and J. Schober,Johann Jacob Wilhelm Heinse, sein Leben und seine Werke(Leipzig, 1882); also K. D. Jessen,Heinses Stellung zur bildenden Kunst(Berlin, 1903).

HEINSIUS(orHeins)DANIEL(1580-1655), one of the most famous scholars of the Dutch Renaissance, was born at Ghent on the 9th of June 1580. The troubles of the Spanish war drove his parents to settle first at Veere in Zeeland, then in England, next at Ryswick and lastly at Flushing. In 1594, being already remarkable for his attainments, he was sent to the university of Franeker to perfect himself in Greek under Henricus Schotanus. He stayed at Franeker half a year, and then settled at Leiden for the remaining sixty years of his life. There he studied under Joseph Scaliger, and there he found Marnix de St Aldegonde, Janus Douza, Paulus Merula and others, and was soon taken into the society of these celebrated men as their equal. His proficiency in the classic languages won the praise of all the best scholars of Europe, and offers were made to him, but in vain, to accept honourable positions outside Holland. He soon rose in dignity at the university of Leiden. In 1602 he was made professor of Latin, in 1605 professor of Greek, and at the death of Merula in 1607 he succeeded that illustrious scholar as librarian to the university. The remainder of his life is recorded in a list of his productions. He died at the Hague on the 25th of February 1655. The Dutch poetry of Heinsius is of the school of Roemer Visscher, but attains no very high excellence. It was, however, greatly admired by Martin Opitz, who was the pupil of Heinsius, and who, in translating the poetry of the latter, introduced the German public to the use of the rhyming alexandrine.

He published his original Latin poems in three volumes—Iambi(1602),Elegiae(1603) andPoëmata(1605); hisEmblemata amatoria, poems in Dutch and Latin, were first printed in 1604. In the same year he edited Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, having edited Hesiod in 1603. In 1609 he printed his LatinOrations. In 1610 he edited Horace, and in 1611 Aristotle and Seneca. In 1613 appeared in Dutch his tragedy ofThe Massacre of the Innocents; and in 1614 his treatiseDe politico sapientia. In 1616 he collected his original Dutch poems into a volume. He edited Terence in 1618, Livy in 1620, published his orationDe contemptu mortisin 1621, and brought out theEpistlesof Joseph Scaliger in 1627.

HEINSIUS, NIKOLAES(1620-1681), Dutch scholar, son of Daniel Heinsius, was born at Leiden on the 20th of July 1620. His boyish Latin poem ofBreda expugnatawas printed in 1637, and attracted much attention. In 1642 he began his wanderings with a visit to England in search of MSS. of the classics; but he met with little courtesy from the English scholars. In 1644 he was sent to Spa to drink the waters; his health restored, he set out once more in search of codices, passing through Louvain, Brussels, Mechlin, Antwerp and so back to Leiden, everywhere collating MSS. and taking philological and textual notes. Almost immediately he set out again, and arriving in Paris was welcomed with open arms by the French savants. After investigating all the classical texts he could lay hands on, he proceeded southwards, and visited on the same quest Lyons, Marseilles, Pisa, Florence (where he paused to issue a new edition of Ovid) and Rome. Next year, 1647, found him in Naples, from which he fled during the reign of Masaniello; he pursued his labours in Leghorn, Bologna, Venice and Padua, at which latter city he published in 1648 his volume of original Latin verse entitledItalica. He proceeded to Milan, and worked for a considerable time in the Ambrosian library; he was preparing to explore Switzerland in the same patient manner, when the news of his father’s illness recalled him hurriedly to Leiden. He was soon called away to Stockholm at the invitation of Queen Christina, at whose court he waged war with Salmasius, who accused him of having supplied Milton with facts from the life of that great but irritable scholar. Heinsius paid a flying visit to Leiden in 1650, but immediately returned to Stockholm. In 1651 he once more visited Italy; the remainder of his life was divided between Upsala and Holland. He collected his Latin poems into a volume in 1653. His latest labours were the editing of Velleius Paterculus in 1678, and of Valerius Flaccus in 1680. He died at the Hague on the 7th of October 1681. Nikolaes Heinsius was one of the purest and most elegant of Latinists, and if his scholarship was not quite so perfect as that of his father, he displayed higher gifts as an original writer.

His illegitimate son,Nikolaes Heinsius(b. 1655), was the author ofThe Delightful Adventures and Wonderful Life of Mirandor(1675), the single Dutch romance of the 17th century. He had to flee the country in 1677 for committing a murder in the streets of the Hague, and died in obscurity.

HEIR(Lat.heres, from a root meaning to grasp, seen inherusorerus, master of a house, Gr.χείρ, hand, Sans,harana, hand), in law, technically one who succeeds, by descent, to an estate of inheritance, in contradistinction to one who succeeds to personal property,i.e.next of kin. The word is now used generally to denote the person who is entitled by law to inherit property, titles, &c., of another. The rules regulating the descent of property to an heir will be found in the articlesInheritance,Succession, &c.

Anheir apparent(Lat.apparens, manifest) is he whose right of inheritance is indefeasible, provided he outlives the ancestor,e.g.an eldest or only son.

Heir by custom, or customary heir, he who inherits by a particular and local custom, as in borough-English, wherebythe youngest son inherits, or in gavelkind, whereby all the sons inherit as parceners, and made but one heir.

Heir general, or heir at law, he who after the death of his ancestor has, by law, the right to the inheritance.

Heir presumptive, one who is next in succession, but whose right is defeasible by the birth of a nearer heir,e.g.a brother or nephew, whose presumptive right may be destroyed by the birth of a child, or a daughter, whose right may be defeated by the birth of a son.

Special heir, one not heir at law (i.e.at common law), but by special custom.

Ultimate heir, he to whom lands come by escheat on failure of proper heirs. In Scots law the technical use of the word “heir” is not confined to the succession to real property, but includes succession to personal property as well.

HEIRLOOM,strictly so called in English law, a chattel (“loom” meaning originally a tool) which by immemorial usage is regarded as annexed by inheritance to a family estate. Any owner of such heirloom may dispose of it during his lifetime, but he cannot bequeath it by will away from the estate. If he dies intestate it goes to his heir-at-law, and if he devises the estate it goes to the devisee. At the present time such heirlooms are almost unknown, and the word has acquired a secondary and popular meaning and is applied to furniture, pictures, &c., vested in trustees to hold on trust for the person for the time being entitled to the possession of a settled house. Such things are more properly called settled chattels. An heirloom in the strict sense is made by family custom, not by settlement. A settled chattel may, under the Settled Land Act 1882, be sold under the direction of the court, and the money arising under such sale is capital money. The court will only sanction such a sale if it be shown that it is to the benefit of all parties concerned; and if the article proposed to be sold is of unique or historical character, it will have regard to the intention of the settlor and the wishes of the remainder men (ReHope,De Cettov.Hope, 1899, 2 ch. 679).

HEJAZ(Hijaz), a Turkish vilayet and a province of Western Arabia, extending along the Red Sea coast from the head of the Gulf of Akaba in 29° 30′ N. to the south of Taif in 20° N. It is bounded N. by Syria, E. by the Nafud desert and by Nejd and S. by Asir. Its length is about 750 m. and its greatest breadth from the Harra east of Khaibar to the coast is 200 m. The name Hejaz, which signifies “separating,” is sometimes limited to the region extending from Medina in the north to Taif in the south, which separates the island province Nejd from the Tehama (Tihama) or coastal district, but most authorities, both Arab and European, define it in the wider sense. Though physically the most desolate and uninviting province in Arabia, it has a special interest and importance as containing the two sacred cities of Islam, Mecca and Medina (q.v.), respectively the birthplace and burial-place of Mahomet, which are visited yearly by large numbers of Moslem pilgrims from all parts of the world.

Hejaz is divided longitudinally by the Tehama range of mountains into two zones, a narrow littoral and a broader upland. This range attains its greatest height in Jebel Shar, the Mount Seir of scripture, overlooking the Midian coast, which probably reaches 7000 ft., and Jebel Radhwa a little N.E. of Yambu rising to 6000 ft. It is broken through by several valleys which carry off the drainage of the inland zone; the principal of these is the Wadi Hamd, the main source of which is on the Harra east of Khaibar. Its northern tributary the Wadi Jizil drains the Harrat el Awerid and a southern branch comes from the neighbourhood of Medina. Farther south the Wadi es Safra cuts through the mountains and affords the principal access to the valley of Medina from Yambu or Jidda. None of the Hejaz Wadis has a perennial stream, but they are liable to heavy floods after the winter rains, and thick groves of date-palms and occasional settlements are met with along their courses wherever permanent springs are found. The northern part of Hejaz contains but few inhabited sites. Muwela, Damgha and El Wijh are small ports used by coasting craft. The last named was formerly an important station on the Egyptian pilgrim route, and in ancient days was a Roman settlement, and the port of the Nabataean towns of el Hajr 150 m. to the east. Inland the sandstone desert of El Hisma reaches from the Syrian border at Ma’an to Jebel Awerid, where the volcanic tracts known asharrabegin, and extend southwards along the western borders of the Nejd plateau as far as the latitude of Mecca. East of Jebel Awerid lies the oasis of Tema, identified with the Biblical Teman, which belongs to the Shammar tribe; its fertility depends on the famous well, known as Bir el Hudaj. Farther south and on the main pilgrim route is El ‘Ala, the principal settlement of El Hajr, the Egra of Ptolemy, to whom it was known as an oasis town on the gold and frankincense road. Higher up the same valley are the rock-cut tombs of Medina Salih, similar to those at Petra and shown by the Nabataean coins and inscriptions discovered there by Doughty and Huber to date from the beginning of the Christian era. To the south-east again is the oasis of Khaibar, with some 2500 inhabitants, chiefly negroes, the remnants of an earlier slave population. The citadel, known as the Kasr el Yahudi, preserves the tradition of its former Jewish ownership. With these exceptions there are no settled villages between Ma’an and Medina, the stations on the pilgrim road being merely small fortified posts with reservoirs, at intervals of 30 or 40 m., which are kept up by the Turkish government for the protection of the yearly caravan.

The southern part of the province is more favoured by nature. Medina is a city of 25,000 to 30,000 inhabitants, situated in a broad plain between the coast range and the low hills across which lies the road to Nejd. Its altitude above the sea is about 2500 ft. It is well supplied with water and is surrounded by gardens and plantations; barley and wheat are grown, but the staple produce, as in all the cultivated districts of Hejaz, is dates, of which 100 different sorts are said to grow. Yambu’ has a certain importance as the port for Medina. The route follows for part of the way along the Wadi es Safra, which contains several small settlements with abundant date groves; from Badr Hunen, the last of these, the route usually taken from Medina to Mecca runs near the coast, passing villages with some cultivation at each stage. The eastern route though more direct is less used; it passes through a barren country described by Burton as a succession of low plains and basins surrounded by rolling hills and intersected by torrent beds; the predominant formation is basalt. Suwerikiya and Es Safina are the only villages of importance on this route.

Mecca and the holy places in its vicinity are described in a separate article; it is about 48 m. from the port of Jidda, the most important trade centre of the Hejaz province. The great majority of pilgrims for Mecca arrive by sea at Jidda. Their transport and the supply of their wants is therefore the chief business of the place; in 1904 the number was 66,500, and the imports amounted in value to £1,400,000.

From the hot lowland in which Mecca is situated the country rises steeply up to the Taif plateau, some 6000 ft. above sea-level, a district resembling in climate and physical character the highlands of Asir and Yemen. Jebel el Kura at the northern edge of the plateau is a fertile well-watered district, producing wheat and barley and fruit. Taif, a day’s journey farther south, lies in a sandy plain, surrounded by low mountains. The houses, though small, are well built of stone; the gardens for which it is celebrated lie at a distance of a mile or more to the S.W. at the foot of the mountains.

Hejaz, together with the other provinces of Arabia which on the overthrow of the Bagdad Caliphate in 1258 had fallen under Egyptian domination, became by the conquest of Egypt in 1517 a dependency of the Ottoman empire. Beyond assuming the title of Caliph, neither Salim I. nor his successors interfered much in the government, which remained in the hands of the sharifs of Mecca until the religious upheaval which culminated at the beginning of the 19th century in the pillage of the holy cities by the Wahhabi fanatics. Mehemet Ali, viceroy of Egypt, was entrusted by the sultan with the task of establishing order, and after several arduous campaigns the Wahhabis were routedand their capital Deraiya in Nejd taken by Ibrahim Pasha in 1817. Hejaz remained in Egyptian occupation until 1845, when its administration was taken over directly by Constantinople, and it was constituted a vilayet under a vali or governor-general. The population is estimated at 300,000, about half of which are inhabitants of the towns and the remainder Bedouin, leading a nomad or pastoral life. The principal tribes are the Sherarat, Beni Atiya and Huwetat in the north; the Juhena between Yambu’ and Medina, and the various sections of the Harb throughout the centre and south; the Ateba also touch the Mecca border on the south-east. All these tribes receive surra or money payments of large amount from the Turkish government to ensure the safe conduct of the annual pilgrimage, otherwise they are practically independent of the Turkish administration, which is limited to the large towns and garrisons. The troops occupying these latter belong to the 16th (Hejaz) division of the Turkish army.

The difficulties of communication with his Arabian provinces, and of relieving or reinforcing the garrisons there, induced the sultan Abdul Hamid in 1900 to undertake the construction of a railway directly connecting the HejazThe Hejaz railway.cities with Damascus without the necessity of leaving Turkish territory at any point, as hitherto required by the Suez Canal. Actual construction was begun in May 1901 and on the 1st of September 1904 the section Damascus-Ma’an (285 m.) was officially opened. The line has a narrow gauge of 1.05 metre = 41 in., the same gauge as that of the Damascus-Beirut line; it has a ruling gradient of 1 in 50 and follows generally the pilgrim track, through a desert country presenting no serious engineering difficulties. The graver difficulties due to the scarcity of water, and the lack of fuel, supplies and labour were successfully overcome; in 1906 the line was completed to El Akhdar, 470 m. from Damascus and 350 from Medina, In time to be used by the pilgrim caravan of that year; and the section to Medina was opened in 1908. Its military value was shown in the previous year, when it conveyed 28 battalions from Damascus to Ma’an, from which station the troops marched to Akaba for embarkationen routeto Hodeda. The length of the line from Damascus to Medina is approximately 820 m., and from Medina to Mecca 280 m.; the highest level attained is about 4000 ft. at Dar el Hamra in the section Ma‘an-Medina.

Authorities.—J. L. Burckhardt,Travels in Arabia(London, 1829); ‘Ali Bey,Travels(London, 1816); R. F. Burton,Pilgrimage to Medinah and Mecca(1893);Land of Midian(London, 1879); J. S. Hurgronje,Mekka(Hague, 1888); C. M. Doughty,Arabia Deserta(Cambridge, 1888); Auler Pasha,Die Hedschasbahn(Gotha, 1906).

(R. A. W.)

HEJIRA,1orHegira(Arab.hijra, flight, departure from one’s country, fromhajara, to go away), the name of the Mahommedan era. It dates from 622, the year in which Mahomet “fled” from Mecca to Medina to escape the persecution of his kinsmen of the Koreish tribe. The years of this era are distinguished by the initials “A.H.” (anno hegirae). The Mahommedan year is a lunar one, about 11 days shorter than the Christian; allowance must be made for this in translatingHegiradates into Christian dates; thusA.H.1321 corresponds roughly toA.D.1903. The actual date of the “flight” is fixed as 8 Rabia I.,i.e.20th of September 622, by the tradition that Mahomet arrived at Kufa on the Hebrew Day of Atonement. Although Mahomet himself appears to have dated events by his flight, it was not till seventeen years later that the actual era was systematized by Omar, the second caliph (seeCaliphate), as beginning from the 1st day of Muharram (the first lunar month of the year) which in that year (639) corresponded to July 16. The termhejirais also applied in its more general sense to other “emigrations” of the faithful,e.g.to that to Abyssinia (seeMahomet), and to that of Mahomet’s followers to Medina before the capture of Mecca. These latter are known asMuhajirun.

For the problems of Moslem chronology and comparative tables of dates see (beside the articlesCalendar,ChronologyandMahomet), Wüstenfeld,Vergleichungstabellen der muhammedanischen und christlichen Zeitrechnung(2nd ed., Leipzig, 1903); Mas Latrie,Trésor de chronologie(Paris, 1889); Durbaneh,Universal Calendar(Cairo, 1896); Winckler,Altorientalische Forschungen, ii. 326-350; D. Nielson,Die altarabische Mondreligion(Strassburg, 1904); Hughes,Dictionary of Islam, s.v. “Hijrah.”

1Theiin the second syllable is short.

HEL,orHela, in Scandinavian mythology, the goddess of the dead. She was a child of Loki and the giantess Angurboda, and dwelt beneath the roots of the sacred ash, Yggdrasil. She was given dominion over the nine worlds of Helheim. In early myth all the dead went to her: in later legend only those who died of old age or sickness, and she then became synonymous with suffering and horror. Her dwelling wasElvidnir(dark clouds), her dishHungr(hunger), her knifeSullt(starvation), her servantsGanglate(tardy feet), her bedKör(sickness), and her bed-curtainsBlikiandabol(splendid misery).

HELDENBUCH, DAS,the title under which a large body of German epic poetry of the 13th century has come down to us. The subjects of the individual poems are taken from national German sagas which originated in the epoch of the Migrations (Völkerwanderung), although doubtless here, as in all purely popular sagas, motives borrowed from the forces and phenomena of nature were, in course of time, woven into events originally historical. While the saga of the Nibelungs crystallized in the 13th century into theNibelungenlied(q.v.), and the Low German Hilde-saga into the epic ofGudrun(q.v.) the poems of theHeldenbuch, in the more restricted use of that term, belong almost exclusively to two cycles, (1) the Ostrogothic saga of Ermanrich, Dietrich von Bern (i.e.Dietrich of Verona, Theodorich the Great) and Etzel (Attila), and (2) the cycle of Hugdietrich, Wolfdietrich and Ortnit, which like theNibelungensaga, was probably of Franconian origin. The romances of theHeldenbuchare of varying poetic value; only occasionally do they rise to the height of the two chief epics, theNibelungenliedandGudrun. Dietrich von Bern, the central figure of the first and more important group, was the ideal type of German medieval hero, and, under more favourable literary conditions, he might have become the centre of an epic more nationally German than even theNibelungenlieditself. Of the romances of this group, the chief areBiterolf und Dietlieb, evidently the work of an Austrian poet, who introduced many elements from the court epic of chivalry into a milieu and amongst characters familiar to us from theNibelungenlied.Der Rosengartentells of the conflicts which took place round Kriemhild’s “rose garden” in Worms—conflicts from which Dietrich always emerges victor, even when he is confronted by Siegfried himself. InLaurin und der kleine Rosengarten, the Heldensage is mingled with elements of popular fairy-lore; it deals with the adventures of Dietrich and his henchman Witege with the wily dwarf Laurin, who watches over another rose garden, that of the Tyrol. Similar in character are the adventures of Dietrich with the giants Ecke (Eckenlied) and Sigenot, with the dwarf Goldemar, and the deeds of chivalry he performs for queen Virginal (Dietrichs erste Ausfahrt)—all of these romances being written in the fresh and popular tone characteristic of the wandering singers orSpielleute. Other elements of the Dietrich saga are represented by the poemsAlpharts Tod,Dietrichs FluchtandDie Rabenschlacht(“Battle of Ravenna”). Of these, the first is much the finest poem of the entire cycle and worthy of a place beside the best popular poetry of the Middle High German epoch. Alphart, a young hero in Dietrich’s army, goes out to fight single-handed with Witege and Heime, who had deserted to Ermanrich, and he falls, not in fair battle, but by the treachery of Witege whose life he had spared. The other two Dietrich epics belong to a later period, the end of the 13th century—the author being an Austrian, Heinrich der Vogler—and show only too plainly the decay that had by this time set in in Middle High German poetry.

The second cycle of sagas is represented by several long romances, all of them unmistakably “popular” in tone—conflicts with dragons, supernatural adventures, the wonderland of the East providing the chief features of interest. The epics of this group areOrtnit,Hugdietrich,Wolfdietrich, the latter with itspathetic episode of the unswerving loyalty of Wolfdietrich’s vassal Duke Berchtung and his ten sons. Although many of the incidents and motives of this cycle are drawn from the best traditions of theHeldensage, its literary value is not very high.

This collection of popular romances was one of the first German books to be printed. The date of the first edition is unknown, but the second edition appeared in the year 1491 and was followed by later reprints in 1509, 1545, 1560 and 1590. The last of these forms the basis of the text edited by A. von Keller for the StuttgartLiterarische Vereinin 1867. In 1472 theHeldenbuchwas adapted to the popular tastes of the time by being remodelled in roughKnittelversor doggerel; the author, or at least copyist, of the MS. was a certain Kaspar von dor Roen, of Münnerstadt in Franconia. This version was printed by F. von der Hagen and S. Primisser in theirHeldenbuch(1820-1825).Das Heldenbuch, which F. von der Hagen published in 2 vols, in 1855, was the first attempt to reproduce the original text by collating the MSS. A critical edition, based not merely on the oldest printed text—the only one which has any value for this purpose, as the others are all copies of it—but also on the MSS., was published in 5 vols. by O. Jänicke, E. Martin, A. Amelung and J. Zupitza at Berlin (1866-1873). A selection, edited by E. Henrici, will be found in Kürschner’sDeutsche Nationalliteratur, vol. 7 (1887). Recent editions have appeared ofDer RosengartenandLaurin, by G. Holz (1893 and 1897). All the poems have been translated into modern German by K. Simrock and others. See F. E. Sandbach,The Heroic Saga-Cycle of Dietrich of Bern(1906). The literature of theHeldensageis very extensive. See especially W. Grimm,Die deutsche Heldensage(3rd ed., 1889); L. Uhland, “Geschichte der deutschen Poesie im Mittelalter,”Schriften, vol. i. (1866); O. L. Jiriczek,Deutsche Heldensage, vol. i. (1898); and especially B. Symons, “Germanische Heldensage,” in Paul’sGrundriss der germanischen Philologie(2nd ed., 1898).

HELDER,a seaport town at the northern extremity of the province of North Holland, in the kingdom of Holland, 51 m. by rail N.N.W. of Amsterdam. Pop. (1900) 25,842. It is situated on the Marsdiep, the channel separating the island of Texel from the mainland, and the main entrance to the Zuider Zee, and besides being the terminus of the North Holland canal from Amsterdam, it is an important naval and military station. On the east side of the town, called the Nieuwe Diep, is situated the fine harbour, which formerly served, as Ymuiden now does, as the outer port of Amsterdam. In this neighbourhood are the naval wharves and magazines, wet and dry docks, and the naval cadet school of Holland, the name Willemsoord being given to the whole naval establishment. From Nieuwe Diep to Fort Erfprins on the west side of the town, a distance of about 5 m., stretches the great sea-dike which here takes the place of the dunes. This dike descends at an angle of 40° for a distance of 200 ft. into the sea, and is composed of Norwegian granite and Belgian limestone, strengthened at intervals by projecting jetties of piles and fascines. A circle of forts and batteries defends the town and coast, and there is a permanent garrison of 7000 to 9000 men, while 30,000 men can be accommodated within the lines, and the province flooded from this point. Besides several churches and a synagogue, there are a town hall (1836), a hospital, an orphan asylum, the “palace” of the board of marine, a meteorological observatory, a zoological station and a lighthouse. The industries of the town are sustained by the garrison and marine establishments.

HELEN,orHelena(Gr.Ἑλένη),in Greek mythology, daughter of Zeus by Leda (wife of Tyndareus, king of Sparta), sister of Castor, Pollux and Clytaemnestra, and wife of Menelaus. Other accounts make her the daughter of Zeus and Nemesis, or of Oceanus and Tethys. She was the most beautiful woman in Greece, and indirectly the cause of the Trojan war. When a child she was carried off from Sparta by Theseus to Attica, but was recovered and taken back by her brothers. When she grew up, the most famous of the princes of Greece sought her hand in marriage, and her father’s choice fell upon Menelaus. During her husband’s absence she was induced by Paris, son of Priam, with the connivance of Aphrodite, to flee with him to Troy. After the death of Paris she married his brother Deïphobus, whom she is said to have betrayed into the hands of Menelaus at the capture of the city (Aeneid, vi. 517 ff.). Menelaus thereupon took her back, and they returned together to Sparta, where they lived happily till their death, and were buried at Therapnae in Laconia. According to another story, Helen survived her husband, and was driven out by her stepsons. She fled to Rhodes, where she was hanged on a tree by her former friend Polyxo, to avenge the loss of her husband Tlepolemus in the Trojan War (Pausanias iii. 19). After death, Helen was said to have married Achilles in his home in the island of Leukē. In another version, Paris, on his voyage to Troy with Helen, was driven ashore on the coast of Egypt, where King Proteus, upon learning the facts of the case, detained the real Helen in Egypt, while a phantom Helen was carried off to Troy. Menelaus on his way home was also driven by stress of winds to Egypt, where he found his wife and took her home (Herodotus ii. 112-120; Euripides,Helena). Helen was worshipped as the goddess of beauty at Therapnae in Laconia, where a festival was held in her honour. At Rhodes she was worshipped under the name of Dendritis (the tree goddess), where the inhabitants built a temple in her honour to expiate the crime of Polyxo. The Rhodian story probably contains a reference to the worship connected with her name (cf. Theocritus xviii. 48σέβου μ᾽, Ἑλένας φυτὸν εἰμί). She was the subject of a tragedy by Euripides and an epic by Colluthus. Originally, Helen was perhaps a goddess of light, a moon-goddess, who was gradually transformed into the beautiful heroine round whom the action of theIliadrevolves. Like her brothers, the Dioscuri, she was a patron deity of sailors.

See E. Oswald,The Legend of Fair Helen(1905); J. A. Symonds,Studies of the Greek Poets, i. (1893); F. Decker,Die griechische Helena in Mythos und Epos(1894); Andrew Lang,Helen of Troy(1883); P. Paris in Daremberg and Saglio’sDictionnaire des antiquités; the exhaustive article by R. Engelmann in Roscher’sLexikon der Mythologie; and O. Gruppe,Griechische Mythologie, i. 163, according to whom Helen originally represented, in the Helenephoria (a mystic festival of Artemis, Iphigeneia or Tauropolos), the sacred basket (ἑλένη) in which the holy objects were carried; and hence, as the personification of the initiation ceremony, she was connected with or identified with the moon, the first appearance of which probably marked the beginning of the festivity.

HELENA, ST(c.247-c.327) the wife of the emperor Constantius I. Chlorus, and mother of Constantine the Great. She was a woman of humble origin, born probably at Drepanum, a town on the Gulf of Nicomedia, which Constantine named Helenopolis in her honour. Very little is known of her history. It is certain that, at an advanced age, she undertook a pilgrimage to Palestine, visited the holy places, and founded several churches. She was still living at the time of the murder of Crispus (326). Constantine had coins struck with the effigy of his mother. The name of Helena is intimately connected with the commonly received story of the discovery of the Cross. But the accounts which connect her with the discovery are much later than the date of the event. The Pilgrim of Bordeaux (333), Eusebius and Cyril of Jerusalem were unaware of this important episode in the life of the empress. It was only at the end of the 4th century and in the West that the legend appeared. The principal centre of the cult of St Helena in the West seems to be the abbey of Hautvilliers, near Reims, where since the 9th century they have claimed to be in possession of her body. In England legends arose representing her as the daughter of a prince of Britain. Following these Geoffrey of Monmouth makes her the daughter of Coel, the king who is supposed to have given his name to the town of Colchester. These legends have doubtless not been without influence on the cult of the saint in England, where a great number of churches are dedicated either to St Helena alone, or to St Cross and St Helena. Her festival is celebrated in the Latin Church on the 18th of August. The Greeks make no distinction between her festival and that of Constantine, the 21st of May.

SeeActa sanctorum, Augusti iii. 548-580; Tixeront,Les Origines de l’église d’Édesse(Paris, 1888); F. Arnold-Forster,Studies in Church Dedications or England’s Patron Saints, i. 181-189, iii. 16, 365-366 (1899).

(H. De.)

HELENA,a city and the county-seat of Phillips county, Arkansas, U.S.A., situated on and at the foot of Crowly’s Ridge, about 150 ft. above sea-level, in the alluvial bottoms of the Mississippi river, about 65 m. by rail S.W. of Memphis, Tennessee. Pop. (1890) 5189, (1900) 5550, of whom 3400were negroes; (1910) 8772. It is served by the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley (Illinois Central), the St Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern (Missouri Pacific), the Arkansas Midland, and the Missouri & North Arkansas railways. Built in part upon “made land,” well protected by levees, and lying within the richest cotton-producing region of the south, the rich timber country of the St Francis river, and the Mississippi “bottom lands,” Helena concentrates its economic interests in cotton-compressing and shipping, the manufacture of cotton-seed products, lumbering and wood-working. The city was founded about 1821, but so late as 1860 the population was only 800. During the Civil War the place was of considerable strategic importance. It was occupied in July 1862 by the Union forces, who strongly fortified it to guard their communications with the lower Mississippi; on the 4th of July 1863, when occupied by General Benjamin M. Prentiss (1819-1901) with 4500 men, it was attacked by a force of 9000 Confederates under General Theophilus H. Holmes (1804-1880), who hoped to raise the siege of Vicksburg or close the river to the Union forces. The attack was repulsed, with a loss to the Confederates of one-fifth their numbers, the Union loss being slight.

HELENA,a city and the county-seat of Lewis and Clark county, Montana, U.S.A., and the capital of the state, at the E. base of the main range of the Rocky Mountains, 80 m. N.E. of Butte, at an altitude of about 4000 ft. Pop. (1880) 3624; (1890) 13,834; (1900) 10,770, of whom 2793 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 12,515. It is served by the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific railways. Helena is delightfully situated with Mt Helena as a background in the hollow of the Prickly Pear valley, a rich agricultural region surrounded by rolling hills and lofty mountains, and contains many fine buildings, including the state capitol, county court house, the Montana club house, high school, the cathedral of St Helena, a federal building, and the United States assay office. It is the seat of the Montana Wesleyan University (Methodist Episcopal), founded in 1890; St Aloysius College and St Vincent’s Academy (Roman Catholic); and has a public library with about 35,000 volumes, the Montana state library with about 40,000 volumes, and the state law library with about 24,000 volumes. The city is the commercial and financial centre of the state (Butte being the mining centre), and is one of the richest cities in the United States in proportion to its population. It has large railway car-shops, extensive smelters and quartz crushers (at East Helena), and various manufacturing establishments; the value of the factory product in 1905 was $1,309,746, an increase of 68.7% over that of 1900. The surrounding country abounds in gold- and silver-bearing quartz deposits, and it is estimated that from the famous Last Chance Gulch alone, which runs across the city, more than $40,000,000 in gold has been taken. The street railway and the lighting system of the city are run by power generated at a plant and 40 ft. dam at Canyon Ferry, on the Missouri river, 18 m. E. of Helena. There is another great power plant at Hauser Plant, 20 m. N. of Helena. Three miles W. of the city is the Broadwater Natatorium with swimming pool, 300 ft. long and 100 ft. wide, the water for which is furnished by hot springs with a temperature at the source of 160°. Fort Harrison, a United States army post, is situated 3 m. W. of the city. Helena was established as a placer mining camp in 1864 upon the discovery of gold in Last Chance Gulch. The town was laid out in the same year, and after the organization of Montana Territory it was designated as the capital. Helena was burned down in 1869 and in 1874. It was chartered as a city in 1881.

HELENSBURGH,a municipal and police burgh and watering-place of Dumbartonshire, Scotland, on the N. shore of the Firth of Clyde, opposite Greenock, 24 m. N.W. of Glasgow by the North British railway. Pop. (1901) 8554. There is a station at Upper Helensburgh on the West Highland railway, and from the railway pier at Craigendoran there is steamer communication with Garelochhead, Dunoon and other pleasure resorts on the western coast. In 1776 the site began to be built upon, and in 1802 the town, named after Lady Helen, wife of Sir James Colquhoun of Luss, the ground landlord, was erected into a burgh of barony, under a provost and council. The public buildings include the burgh hall, municipal buildings, Hermitage schools and two hospitals. On the esplanade stands an obelisk to Henry Bell, the pioneer of steam navigation, who died at Helensburgh in 1830.

HELENUS,in Greek legend, son of Priam and Hecuba, and twin-brother of Cassandra. He is said to have been originally called Scamandrius, and to have received the name of Helenus from a Thracian soothsayer who instructed him in the prophetic art. In theIliadhe is described as the prince of augurs and a brave warrior; in theOdysseyhe is not mentioned at all. Various details concerning him are added by later writers. It is related that he and his sister fell asleep in the temple of Apollo Thymbraeus and that snakes came and cleansed their ears, whereby they obtained the gift of prophecy and were able to understand the language of birds. After the death of Paris, Helenus and his brother Deïphobus became rivals for the hand of Helen. Deïphobus was preferred, and Helenus withdrew in indignation to Mount Ida, where he was captured by the Greeks, whom he advised to build the wooden horse and carry off the Palladium. According to other accounts, having been made prisoner by a stratagem of Odysseus, he declared that Philoctetes must be fetched from Lemnos before Troy could be taken; or he surrendered to Diomedes and Odysseus in the temple of Apollo, whither he had fled in disgust at the sacrilegious murder of Achilles by Paris in the sanctuary. After the capture of Troy, he and his sister-in-law Andromache accompanied Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus) as captives to Epirus, where Helenus persuaded him to settle. After the death of Neoptolemus, Helenus married Andromache and became ruler of the country. He was the reputed founder of Buthrotum and Chaonia, named after a brother or companion whom he had accidentally slain while hunting. He was said to have been buried at Argos, where his tomb was shown. When Aeneas, in the course of his wanderings, reached Epirus, he was hospitably received by Helenus, who predicted his future destiny.

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