Forwarded from Vault of Secrets - Unpopular History (M Himself)
The Wessobrunn Prayer / Das Wessobrunner Gebet (800AD)
he Wessobrunn Prayer is one of the only extant example of Old High German alliterative verse, in which alliteration is the primary poetic feature. Notably it was intentionally preserved in a codex (book) of collected texts, including several Latin texts and German glosses. This is unusual: most Old High German text was written in the margins and endpapers of manuscripts because Latin was preferred for church writing as the more prestigious and official language. It is similar thematically and formally to the Old High German poem “Muspilli”. The codex has been dated to around 810 CE, and the prayer is written in Carolingian Miniscule (the standard script of the time). The prayer was named for the abbey at Wessobrunn in Bavaria where the codex resided for centuries before it was discovered and studied by philologists and eventually moved to the state library in Munich. The location where it was written and the identity of the author are unknown.
he Wessobrunn Prayer is one of the only extant example of Old High German alliterative verse, in which alliteration is the primary poetic feature. Notably it was intentionally preserved in a codex (book) of collected texts, including several Latin texts and German glosses. This is unusual: most Old High German text was written in the margins and endpapers of manuscripts because Latin was preferred for church writing as the more prestigious and official language. It is similar thematically and formally to the Old High German poem “Muspilli”. The codex has been dated to around 810 CE, and the prayer is written in Carolingian Miniscule (the standard script of the time). The prayer was named for the abbey at Wessobrunn in Bavaria where the codex resided for centuries before it was discovered and studied by philologists and eventually moved to the state library in Munich. The location where it was written and the identity of the author are unknown.
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