Heliand

At the beginning of fitt XIX of the Heliand one of the disciples asks Christ to teach
them how to pray to the Lord in the Heavens; in the following verses the poet adds
a rendering of the Pater noster according to Matthew’s Gospel. Instead of his usual
flourishing and elaborate style, the poet displays here a simpler and more sober poetic
diction; at the same time the text of the prayer shows some meaningful additions
and original wordings, which diverge noticeably from the Latin model. The most
remarkable variations can be found in the second part of the prayer, from the fourth
petition onwards, in which complex religious notions occur. The aim of this paper is
to investigate these aspects of the Old Saxon translation and also to question, on the
basis of some established readings of the Lord’s Prayer in Old Saxon, the occasionally
misused theory of the so-called ‘Germanization’ of the Gospel.

Ein althochdeutsches Gedicht, das uns fragmentarisch in einer Handschrift aus der zweiten Hälfte des 9. Jahrhunderts überliefert wurde, ist von J. A. Schmeller erstmals im Jahre 1832 herausgegeben worden. 1 In dieser Edition benannte er dieses Gedicht, das von dem Schicksal der menschlichen Seele nach dem Tod handelt, nach dem immer noch ungeklärten Wort muspilli (im ahd. Text Dat. Sg. muspille) aus Vers 57. Das "Muspilli" ist wahrscheinlich das Werk, das in der althochdeutschen Forschung am meisten mit dem Begriff der Verzweiflung in Verbindung gebracht wird. Egal ob in Einleitungen oder Überschriften einzelner Forschungsbeiträge, wie zum Beispiel "Das >Muspilli< oder Über das Glück literaturwissenschaftlicher Verzweiflung" 2 oder in Äußerungen, wie der Steinmeyers, dass dieses Gedicht "das verzweifelste Stück der ahd. Literatur" 3 sei. Einmal mehr, einmal weniger, lässt sich diese Tendenz zum Verzweifeln finden, was auf den ersten Blick nicht gerade dazu beiträgt, sich mit diesem Gedicht beschäftigen zu wollen. Diese Verzweiflung rührt daher, dass während der langen Forschungsgeschichte des "Muspilli" viele problematische Aspekte aufgezeigt worden sind, für die es zwar zahlreiche Lösungsvorschläge gibt, die jedoch oftmals nie endgültig gelöst werden konnten. Diese Forschungsproblematiken reichen von der Etymologie des einzelnen Wortes muspilli, über die möglichen Quellen, bis hin zu der Überlegung, ob es sich bei dem überlieferten Gedicht überhaupt um einen einheitlichen Text handelt. Damit sind nur einige Aspekte kurz angeführt. Mit Verzweiflung in diese Arbeit zu starten, wäre jedoch nicht der richtige Weg.

The author of the Heliand offers a picture of Judas which diverges from that of the Gospels and medieval Christian tradition: a fact which opens-yet again-the question about the poet's sources and the extent to which he reconfigured biblical material. The aim of this paper is to analyse the figure of Judas and its divergence from that of the biblical story. With respect to latter, the author deviates principally in the scene introducing the apostles and in the description of Judas' destiny after his suicide, namely by placing him in hell. In the first case, the poet innovates independently; in the second, he follows a non-evangelical tradition. Judas is depicted as a criminal within Saxon culture. He disobeys the convention of loyalty, according to which a thane-as indeed the apostles are represented -is expected to maintain a faithful relationship of mutual defence and protection with his chieftain. The words and images used to refer to him-treulôs, treulogo, mênscaðo, mêngithâht, uuarag-recall the «shame culture» of the author and belong to a social code that diverges from that presented in early medieval Christian literature.

This chapter argues for the benefits of comparative linguistic analysis between Old English and Old Saxon, on the basis that the two languages derive from Proto-Germanic, and considering the influence of Anglo-Saxon missionaries in the conversion of early medieval Saxony to Frankish Christianity. I will argue against conventional translations of the Old Saxon geruni as a synonym for the related Old Saxon runa meaning "mystery" or "secret." Rather, I will suggest geruni in the Heliand constitutes something more explicitly spiritual. Based on the lexicographical evidence offered by Latin glosses of the Old English geryne, this chapter will reinterpret the semantics of the Old Saxon geruni, and consider how the narrative contexts, in which the word appears in the Heliand, suggests an affinity between these cognates.

Scholars of the ninth-century Old Saxon Heliand have often argued that the poem's author held or was influenced by various heretical positions on the nature of Christ. This essay attempts to counter these charges through an examination of three significant episodes in the Heliand: the Annunciation, Christ's Temptation in the Desert, and his Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. Comparing these parts of the poem with biblical commentaries, Old English religious literature, and other medieval texts not only reveals that the Christological ideas in the Heliand were in line with Carolingian orthodoxy, but also suggests that the poet was concerned with refuting certain heretical ideas on Christ's nature that concerned his contemporaries.

Anglo-Saxons were tied to the continent in many ways. Above all, Germania was their cradle: Bede tells a detailed story about their Germanic roots; to Boniface, these roots were an incentive for his missionary zeal; for the narrator of the voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan, a fact to be mentioned with awe. Artefacts betray the Germanic origin of the settlers who arrived in Britain from 400 onwards. By 600, the culture of the ruling elite shows a much wider horizon: the gifts that accompanied the ship burial at Sutton Hoo hail from as distant places as Byzantium and Egypt. The conversion drew the Anglo- Saxons into a cultural world in which the Mediterranean and Judaeo- Christian element was dominant but which afforded a legitimate place for the Germanic world from which the Anglo-Saxons originated and to which they remained tied not only linguistically. The seventh-century Franks Casket emits this identity in both image and word (see Chapter 3 above): visually, Weland the Smith flanks the adoration of the Magi, and Old English text in runic characters accompanies Latin text in roman script. The Anglo-Saxons so much belonged to the ‘old world’ that Beowulf, though written in England and in English, is set completely in the (north) Germanic world. This chapter, then, charts relations between continental Germanic cultures in and beyond the British Isles from Tacitus and Bede to such poems as Waldere, Widsith, Finnsburh, the Leiden Riddle, the Hildebrandslied, Heliand and Genesis, and examines the cultural and aesthetic work of texts such as these. The chapter also invites a meditation on the powerful cultural traffic between the Germanic world (Francia, Frisia, Saxony) and the English.

This article contributes to current discussions of Anglo-Saxon charms and their interaction with other texts of their manuscripts. The only surviving text of the Æcerbot charm is found in London, British Library, Cotton Caligula A. vii, a manuscript which also contains the C version of the Heliand, and its texts have never been discussed together. My analysis undertakes a literary approach to the manuscript and highlights the interactions between its texts through their emphasis on sacred words of power in different circumstances. This approach offers a solution to the manuscript’s inconclusive material evidence and argues that the Æcerbot was added to the Heliand by the Anglo Saxons. The article also shows how this common focus reflects the agenda of communal edification during the Benedictine Reform.

1 Observed most closely in Beowulf resolution in Old English meter: after a stressed syllable, only short disyllables ending in pre-OE *-i or *-u (-V$Ci$ or -V$Cu$) are subject to resolution, thereby constituting a single position; by contrast, the remaining disyllables (--OE *-i or *-u -V$CVC$) count as two metrical positions through suspension of resolution. This paper in the Old Saxon Heliand in comparison with Beowulf and late Old English poetry. Drawing on statistical analysis as appropriate, I will argue that, no longer sensitive to the original distinction between short and long disyllables, the law was replaced by another generalization that was predicated on the distinction between open and closed disyllables: in the Heliand, open disyllables (-V$CV$) are susceptible to resolution, whereas closed ones (-V$CVC$) are immune to it. I will then identify a complex of metrical, phonological, and morphological factors that can be held responsible for the metrical reorganization in question: (i) loss of type A2a; (ii) diminished use of poetic compounds; (iii) leveling of unstressed vowels; (iv) reduced functional load of high vowel endings; (v) analogical loss of the original alternation between -i/-u and zero; (vi) extensive occurrence of vowel epenthesis.

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution. The Heliand, written shortly after the conquest and conversion of the Saxons at the hands
of Charlemagne, maintains a vexed place in the study of medieval European Christianity(ies). Some
argue that the Heliand’s overarching intent was pastoral, meant to ease the fears and calm the rage
of the defeated Saxons, while others posit that the Heliand reflects a “dissident gospel,” aimed at
subverting the official theological outlook of the Carolingian empire. This study argues that while
both theories capture something of the Heliand’s ingenious contextual impact, they underestimate
one of its key themes: the role of wurd (fate) and its co-identification with the “power of God,” which
drives Jesus to the cross and scaffolds his submission to the violence of the divine will. Thus, the
Heliand presents compliant victimization as the proper “fate” of those who submit to God’s purposes,
promising a heavenly reward and countermanding the Saxon ethos of resistance.

Resumo:
Este artigo visa analisar as transformações causadas pelo processo de conversão da Saxônia ao Cristianismo entre os séculos VIII e X através do estudo do Heliand, reformulação dos Evangelhos para a língua e cultura saxônias, e as Res Gestae Saxoniae do monge Widukind de Corvey, detendo-nos em como as figuras de Cristo e dos apóstolos, assim como dos reis são apresentadas.

Abstract:
This paper intends to analyze the changes motivated by the process of conversion to Christianism in Saxony between the 8th and 10th centuries, through the study of the Heliand, a reformulation of the Gospels to the Saxon culture and language, and Widukind of Corvey’s Res Gestae Saxoniae. I will focus on how the figures of Christ and the apostles, as well as the kings, are presented.

The recent discovery of a new fragment of the Heliand (L), found at Leipzig in the
binding of a volume, has aroused renewed interest in the Old Saxon poem. L (one
sheet) contains lines 5823-5870 relevant to the most part of fit 69 and the beginning
of the next one. This section of the Heliand was handed down so far only in the
Cottonianus (C), as the Monacensis lacks the corresponding sheets. L contains also
some readings, quite different from those of C, perhaps a proof that it retains a
much older text than that of C. But the chief interest of L lies in the three
vernacular glosses (written perhaps by the same hand of the main text), whose
function was apparently to explain difficult or outdated words on the line.

The Æcerbot is an eleventh-century agricultural ritual that contains an enigmatic address to Mother Earth. This text is also contained in the same manuscript as the Heliand, which is an Old Saxon poem that retells the gospel story in heroic verse. There are two tenth-century marginal annotations beside key scenes of the Heliand that reflect the Anglo-Saxons' political concerns over foreign policy. In the Heliand’s Annunciation scene there is an eleventh-century marginal note that draws attention to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and it is likely that it is written in the same hand as the Æcerbot scribe. There are strong connections between the Annunciation scene and the figure of Mother Earth in the Æcerbot, reflecting different cultural concerns of the Anglo-Saxons in the eleventh century.

This study addresses the Old Saxon Heliand's expanded version of the "Massacre of the Innocents" narrative in light of contemporary Germanic infanticide practices. It is well established that one of the primary purposes of the Heliand, a vernacular adaptation of the Gospel that refigures Jesus as a Germanic king, was to draw the newly converted Saxons away from indigenous practices that conflicted with Christian beliefs. I argue that the Heliand's brutal descriptions of the Massacre's violence and its pathos-laden accounts of the mothers' sorrow at the loss of their children served as a way to condemn the Saxons' practice of killing unwanted children through abandonment or exposure, as well as a means to acknowledge the trauma that victims of the practice undoubtedly experienced. Particular attention is paid to the lexical choices the poet makes while describing Herod's soldiers, the slain children, and the sorrowful mothers.

The recent discovery of a new fragment of the Heliand (L), found at Leipzig in the binding of a volume, has aroused renewed interest in the Old Saxon poem. L (one sheet) contains lines 5823-5870 relevant to the most part of fit 69 and the beginning of the next one. This section of the Heliand was handed down so far only in the Cottonianus (C), as the Monacensis lacks the corresponding sheets. L contains also some readings, quite different from those of C, perhaps a proof that it retains a much older text than that of C. But the chief interest of L lies in the three vernacular glosses (written perhaps by the same hand of the main text), whose function was apparently to explain difficult or outdated words on the line.

Rebooting the Gospel for a Germanic audience -The case of Heliand.

Charlemagne’s wars against, and forced Christianization of, the Saxons at the end of the 8th century was a long and bloody affair. One of its legacies is Heliand the Saxon Gospel, a retelling of the life of Christ reimagined in a Saxon context and written in the Saxon language and the alliterative style of a Germanic epic poem. Written by a monk in the early 9th century with the purpose of making the Gospel understandable for the new Saxon converts it is a remarkable document showing us how the change in religions was facilitated and what parts of the Gospel the 9th century Saxons found puzzling as well as familiar.   
  Heliand is also contemporary with Ansgar, the Apostle of the North, and produced in the very same monastic environment from which he set out on his mission to the Swedes. The version of the Gospel conveyed in the Heliand is therefor very likely the same Gospel that was introduced to them.
  This paper is a structural analysis of the Heliand, from the viewpoint of the Journey of Civilization, the ideal transformative journey of a Germanic hero. The structural analysis shows how the 9th century author of Heliand effortlessly transformed Odin into Christ and Christ into a Germanic Hero. Moreover, through the construction of this poem the author gives us a unique glimpse of the Christianization process in the Viking Age.