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The Work
- West Virginia University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
The Work The Old Saxon Heliand is preserved in 5,983 lines of verse edited from the M and C manuscripts (cf. THE MANUSCRIPTS below). The work was composed during the long period of decline of Germanic culture and slow encroachment of European culture during which Christianity had begun to replace ancient forms of worship, while the poetic forms, although not given up, were abandoning their strict alliterative and metrical constraints everywhere on the continent . The Heliand shows a mixture of the more strictly controlled old poetic form and a discursive, prose-like overlay. (See HEllAND VERSE below.) Although the new culture was slowly and against considerable odds being introduced to northern Germany from the monasteries at Fulda or Werden (as Drogereit argued) or Corvey (Gantert, pp. 91 ff.), the old culture had very deep roots indeed. We will observe throughout the corpus of the Heliand words and phrases whose semantic content at least historically referred to conditions of earlier belief and behavior, although it seems clear that by the time of the composition of the work many of the meanings had changed. Nevertheless , we can wonder what reactions certain words and phrases would have triggered in a contemporary audience still cognizant of (or even still practicing) pre-Christian habits ofthought. The assumption here is that because of its traditional, alliterative form the Heliand was written to be read aloud. Taeger (1978) discusses the musical notation found over lines 310-313 in manuscript M and tentatively concludes"...daB auch der 'Heliand' vor dem Horizont halbliturgischen Gebrauchs zu sehen sein durfte.,,4 The question of which audience it addressed cannot be settled with finality. Perhaps it was intended as an exercise for monks or even as meal time devotionals read aloud to them. Perhaps it was written in order to be read (or 'sung') in episodes before groups of potential converts who had already suffered baptism by coercion and who now 4 " ...that the Heliand can also be viewed as intended for a 'half-liturgical' use." 16 The Work needed to be persuaded of the validity of the new faith. Drogereit (1970) hypothesizes that "der unbekannte Dichter, wohl ein Friese, [verfaJ3te] sein Predigt-Epos nicht einmal fUr Monche, sondern fUr adlige Damen in einem der zahlreichen Kanonissenstifte, namlich Essen,,5 (p. 465). The question of the site of composition has been debated for a century and a half. The general body of opinion tends to favor Fulda, for among other reasons because the Heliand reflects the commentary on Matthew written by the Abbot of Fulda, Hrabanus Maurus, and because there was a copy of the work known as Tatian there. A version of Tatian was used as a basis for the structure of the Heliand. There are, however, arguments in favor of other monasteries. Drogereit (1978) favors Werden on paleographic evidence, namely the fact that only at Werden was the letter used, which is characteristic of the M and P manuscripts, and on evidence of the presence of Frisian monks there. The Heliand evinces so-called Frisianisms in the spellings and in lines 223 and 224. These views are, however, challenged by Bischoff (1952) who claims that many manuscripts that Drogereit attributes to Werden were instead brought there from the monasteries at Corbie in France or its Saxon offshoot Corvey or from elsewhere or never were there at all. Another scholar, Krogmann, believes that Fulda must be excluded as the site of composition on the basis of the word pascha instead of 6star / 6starun for 'Easter.' The latter word was used only in the Archdiocese of Mainz, and Fulda was in its territory. Werden was under the Archdiocese of Cologne, where pascha was the term for 'Easter,' and Krogmann also adduces the paleographic evidence of in favor of Werden (cf. Krogmann [1973], pp. 25-26). Gantert (1993) points out that the sons of Saxon nobility had been schooled in Corbie in the Picardy and were then instrumental in founding the monastery at Corvey in 815 on Saxon territory, which at least would provide a fertile ground for the reception of the Heliand .6 5 "The unknown poet, probably a Frisian, [composed] his sermon-epic not for monks but for noble ladies in one of the many religious communities of canonesses , namely in Essen." 6 Markey (1976: 259 ff.) provides a summary of paleographic and other evidence (or lack of same) regarding the provenance ofthe Heliand. 17 [52.91.255.225] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 01:57 GMT) He/iaM In...