Fragment of the Heliand

This is a fragment of the Heliand (Fragment P) from 830 AD, written as an epic poem in the Old Saxon language, depicting the life of Christ in a familiar way for the German people.

The Heliand was written at the request of the Emperor to combat Saxon ambivalence toward Christianity.

The Saxons were forced to convert to Christianity in the late 8th to early 9th century after 33 years of conflict between the Saxons and the Franks under Charlemagne.

The Heliand created a cultural synthesis between Christianity and Germanic warrior society.

The poem is a Biblical paraphrase that recounts the life of Jesus in the alliterative verse style of a Germanic epic. Christ is presented as the hero who does not enter Jerusalem, but rather a castle.

This approach to the narrative of Christ made it more relevant to the then prevailing German culture. The Heliand was in Old Saxon, and the title means savior in Old Saxon.

Heliand is the most extensive known work of written Old Saxon, but the identity of the author is uncertain, and there is a scholarly debate about the authorship.

The poem must have been relatively popular and widespread because it exists in two manuscript versions and four fragmentary versions. It takes up about 6,000 lines.

It was first printed in 1562, and while it has no authority in the scriptures, it is generally deemed to be authentic to 9th century Germany.

“Then he spoke and said there would come a wise king,
magnificent and mighty, to this middle realm;
he would be of the best birth; he said that he would be the Son of God,
he said that he would rule this world,
earth and sky, always and forevermore.”
– from the Heliand

Fragment of the Heliand

Title: Fragment of the Heliand (Facsimile, Original Eigentum des DHM)
Date: 830
Origins: Germany
Material: Parchment, handwritten
Category: Ancient Texts
Museum: Deutsches Historisches Museum

The Saxon Heliand

A Reading of The Heliand (The Saxon Gospel)

Virtual Tour of Ancient Texts

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Lament for Ur – 1800 BC
Law Code of Hammurabi – 1754 BC
Complaint Tablet To Ea-nasir – 1750 BC
Egyptian–Hittite Peace Treaty – 1259 BC
Book of the Dead – Papyrus of Ani and Hunefe – 1250 BC
Cyrus Cylinder – 539–538 BC
The Rosetta Stone – 196 BC
Constitution of the Athenians by Aristotle – 100
Vindolanda Tablets – 1st-century
Codex Vaticanus – 300–325
Vienna Dioscurides – Juliana Anicia Codex – 515
Lindisfarne Gospels – 715-720
Fragment of the Heliand, The Saxon and Viking Bible – 830
Beowulf – Nowell Codex – 975–1025
Blue Qur’an – 9th – 10th century
Miroslav Gospel – 1186
Magna Carta – 1215
Hadith Bayad wa Riyad – 13th-century
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