Perspectives on the Old Saxon Heliand
Introductory and Critical Essays, With an Edition of the Leipzig Fragment
Publication Year: 2010
Published by: West Virginia University Press
Cover
Title Page, Copyright Page
Contents
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pp. v-vi
Preface
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pp. vii-x
This anthology is the first of its kind since J�rgen Eichhoff and Irmengard Rauch’s excellent Der Heliand (Wege der Forschung 321), which appeared in 1973, and it is the first collection of Heliand scholarship ever to be assembled entirely in English. Some have said that it would be pointless ...
I. Introductions to the Heliand and its Language
The Historical Setting of the Heliand, the Poem, and the Manuscripts
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pp. 3-33
The Old Saxon telling of the Gospel, titled Heliand, (Savior) by J. A. Schmeller in his edition of 1830, was not written in a vacuum but was, as is everything, a product of its place and time. The Heliand,was composed in what is now part of northern Germany in the first half of the ninth century. ...
The Old Saxon Heliand
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pp. 34-62
The Heliand is over a thousand years old, and is the oldest epic work of German literature, antedating the Nibelungenlied by four centuries. It consists of approximately 6,000 lines of alliterative verse, twice the length of Beowulf, which shares just enough imagery and poetic phraseology with the Heliand that it ...
An Overview of Old Saxon Linguistics, 1992–2008
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pp. 63-90
The early Germanic languages all tend to appeal to different constituencies. Old English and Old Norse tend to attract significant attention from both literary scholars and linguists; Gothic seems to appeal the most to Indo-Europeanists and theoretical phonologists (as demonstrated by the attention paid to ...
II. The Diatessaronic Tradition
The Parable of the Fisherman in the Heliand: The Old Saxon Version of Matthew 13:47–50
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pp. 93-119
The reason for this study is the interesting theory of my Utrecht colleague Prof. Dr. Gilles Quispel concerning the Tatianic background of the Heliand:.2 This theory may be illustrated with an example that appeals to our imagination, namely his view on the parable of the man who cast his net into the sea.3 ...
(Un)Desirable Origins: The Heliand and the Gospel of Thomas
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pp. 120-164
The appellation “Fifth Gospel” betrays the anxiety that has surrounded the Gospel of Thomas since its discovery, not sixty years ago, among the Nag Hammadi codices. The Fifth Gospel occupies a liminal position, since Western efforts to exteriorize this text, compelled by its “exotic” and “heretical” origins, ...
III. Orality and Narrative Tradition
Was the Heliand Poet Illiterate?
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pp. 167-207
The question posed in the title seems outlandish.2 The Heliand has come down to us in several manuscripts and may have been written to be read aloud at monastic tables, especially for the benefit of lay brothers, for whom it would make the Christian message, as it is in the Bible itself, accessible ...
The Hatred of Enemies: Germanic Heroic Poetry and the Narrative Design of the Heliand
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pp. 208-234
Germanic heroic poetry – like all heroic poetry – tells of conflict and hostility, but its hero, oddly enough, is not a victorious one. On the contrary, he often must accept his own demise and the death of those close to him, and his heroism displays itself with decidedly greater clarity in demise than in victory. ...
IV. The Portrayal of the Jews in the Heliand
The Jews in the Heliand
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pp. 237-253
In the beginning (of German literature) was the Heliand. There are a few other contenders for the honor – a few prayers, charms, and fragments – but the Heliand is our earliest epic. It is a unique work of literature in that it is the story of Jesus transposed, retold as if it had all occurred in the Viking-era ...
Jesus Christ between Jews and Heathens: The Germanic Mission and the Portrayal of Christ in the Old Saxon Heliand
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pp. 254-278
In 1934, the Berlin missiologist Johannes Witte wrote a brochure entitled How did Christianity Come to the Germanen?2 Contrary to the position of the nationalist movement (v�lkische Bewegung) of the time, he wanted to show that Christianity had been a blessing for them. The Germanen, he thought, were ripe ...
V. The Discovery of the Leipzig Fragment (2006)
A New Heliand Fragment from the Leipzig University Library; Image plates
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pp. 281-304
On April 20, 2006, Mr. Thomas D�ring and Dr. Falk Eisermann informed me over the telephone about the discovery of an early, clearly vernacular fragment in the Leipzig University Library that had been used as a cover for a seventeenth-century book.2 According to Mr. D�ring, the small volume ...
Works Cited
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pp. 305-335
E-ISBN-13: 9781935978350
E-ISBN-10: 1935978357
Print-ISBN-13: 9781933202495
Print-ISBN-10: 1933202491
Page Count: 336
Publication Year: 2010
Series Title: Medieval European Studies
Series Editor Byline: Patrick Conner
