Benedictine regula; also Charlemagne's Exhortatio ad plebem Christianam, which was an admonition to the people to learn the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. There are likewise general confessions of sins. Less dependent on a Latin original is the so-called Muspilli, a spirited description in alliterative verse of the last times and the Day of Judgment.
German qualities, however, express themselves more fully in two Gospel versions, the first the famous Saxon Heliand (cir. 835), (which follows Tatian's "Harmony"); the second the somewhat later Evangelienbuch of Otfrid the Frank. They were both composed in alliterative verse, though Otfrid also made use of rhyme.[1] The martial, Teutonic ring of the former is well known. Christ is the king, the disciples are His thanes whose duty is to stand by their lord to the death; He rewards them with the promised riches of heaven, excelling the earthly goods bestowed by other kings. In the "betrayal" they close around their Lord, saying: "Were it thy will, mighty Lord of ours, that we should set upon them with the spear, gladly would we strike and die for our Lord." Out broke the wrath of the "ready swordsman" (snel suerdthegan)[2] Simon Peter; he could not speak for anguish to think that his lord should be bound. Angrily strode the bold knight before his lord, drew his weapon, the sword by his side, and smote the nearest foe with might of hands. Before his fury and the spurting blood the people fled fearing the sword's bite.
The Heliand has also gentler qualities, as when it calls the infant Christ the fridubarn (peace-child), and pictures Mary watching over her "little man." But German love of wife and child and home speak more clearly in Otfrid's book. Although a learned monk, his pride of Frankish race rings in his oft-quoted reasons for writing theotisce, i.e. in German:
- ↑ There are numerous editions of the Heliand: by Sievers (1878), by Rückert (1876). Very complete is Heyne's third edition (Paderborn, 1883). Portions of it are given, with modern German interlinear translation, in Piper's Die älteste Literatur (Deutsche Nat. Lit.), pp. 164-186. Otfrid's book is elaborately edited by Piper (2nd edition with notes and glossary, Freiburg i. B., 1882). See also Piper's Die älteste Literatur, where portions of the work are given with modern German interlinear translation. Compare Ebert, Literatur des Mittelalters, iii. 100-117.
- ↑ The Heliand uses the epic phrases of popular poetry: they reappear three centuries later in the Nibelungenlied.
