Text File

OHTFRID'S LETTER TO LIUDBERT

[Provided courtesy of James Marchand, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, 24 December 1992]

Dignitatis culmine gratia divinas praecelso Liutberto Mogontiacensis urbis archiepiscopo Otfridus quamvis indignus tamen devotione monachus presbyterque exiguus aeternae vitae gaudium optat semper in Christo.

Vestrae excellentissimae prudentiae presentis libri stilum comprobare transmittens in capite causam qua illum dictare praesumpsi, primitus vobis enarrare curavi, ne ullorum fidelium mentes, si vilesceret, vilitatis meae praesumptioni deputare procurent. Dum rerum quondam sonus inutilium pulsaret aures quorundam probatissimorum virorum, eorumque sanctitatem laicoirum cantus inquietaret obscenus, a quibusdam memoriae dignis fratribus rogatus, maximeque cujusdam venerandae matronae verbis nimium flagitantis, nomine Judith, partem evangeliorum eis theotisce conscriberem, ut aliquantulum hujus cantus lectionis ludum saecularium vocum deleret, et in evangeliorvm propria lingua occupati dulcedine, sonum inutilium rerun noverint declinare; petitione quoque jungentes queremoniam, quod gentilium vates, ut Virgilius, Lucanus, Ovidius caeterique quam plurimi suorum facta decorarent lingua nativa, quorum jam voluminum dictis fluctuare cognoscimus mundum, nostrae etiam sectae probatissimorum virorum facta laudahant, Juvenci, Aratoris, Prudentii caeterorumque multorum, qui sua lingua dicta et miracula Christi decenter ornabant; nos vero, quamvis eadem fide eademque gratia instructi, divinorum verborum splendorem clarissimum proferre propria lingua dicebant pigrescere. Hoc dum eorum caritati importune mihi instanti, negare nequivi, feci, non quasi peritus, sed fraterna petitione coactus; scripsi namque eorum precum suffultus juvamine evangeliorum partem francisce compositam, interdum spiritalia moraliaque verba permiscens, ut qui in illis alienae linguae difficultatem horrescit, hic propria lingua cognoscat sanctissima verba, deique legem sua lingua intelligens, inde se vel parum quid deviare mente propria pertimescat. Scripsi itaque in primis et in ultimis hujus libri partibus inter quattuor evangelistas incedens medius, ut modo quid iste quidqve alius caeterique scriberent, inter illos ordinatim, prout potui, penitus pene dictavi. In medio vero, ne graviter forte pro superfluitate verborum ferrent legentes, multa et parabularum Christi et miraculorum ejusque doctrinae, quamvis jam fessus (hoc enin novissime edidi), ob necessitatem, tamen praedictam pretermisi invitus et non jam ordinatim, ut caeperam, procuravi dictare, sed qualiter meae parvae occurerunt memoriae. Volumen namque istud in quinque libros distinxi, quorum primus nativitatem Christi memorat, finem facit baptismo doctrinaque Jobannis. Secundus jam accersitis ejus discipulis refert, quomodo se et quibusdam signis et doctrina sua praeclara mundo innotuit. Tertius signorum claritudinem et doctrinam ad Judaeos aliquantulum narrat. Quartus jam qualiter suae passioni propinquans pro nobis mortem sponte pertulerit dicit. Quintus ejus resurrectionem, cum discipulis suam postea conlocutionem, ascensionem et diem judicii memorat. Hos, ut dixi, in quinque, quamvis evangeliorum libri quatuor sunt, ideo distinxi, quia eorum quadrata aequalitas sancta nostrorum quinque sensuum inaequalitatem ornat, et superflua in nobis quaeque non solum actuum, verum etiam cogitationum vertunt in elevationem caelestium. Quicqvid vistu, olfactu, tactu, gustu, audituque delinquimus, in eorum lectionis memoria pravitatem ipsam purgamus. Visus obscuretur inutilis, inluminatus evangelicis verbis; auditus pravus non sit cordi nostro obnoxius; olfactus et gustus sese pravitate constringant Christique dulcedine jungant; cordisque praecordia lectiones has theotisce conscriptas semper memoria tangent.

Hujus enim linguae barbaries ut est inculta et indisciplinabilis atque insueta capi regulari freno grammaticae artis, sic etiam in multis dictis scriptio est propter literarum aut congeriem aut incognitam sonoritatem difficilis. Nam interdum tria u u u, ut puto, quaerit in sono, priores duo consonantes, ut mihi videtur, tertium vocali sono manente; interdum vero nec a, nec e, nec i, nec u vocalium sonos praecavero potui: ibi y grecum mihi videbatur ascribi. Et etiam hoc elementum lingua haec horrescit interdum, nulli se caracteri aliquotiens in quodam sono nisi difficile, jungens; k et z sepius haec lingua extra usum latinitatis utitur, quae grammatici inter litteras dicunt esse superfluas. Ob stridorem autem interdum dentium, ut puto, in hac lingua z utuntur, k autem ob faucium sonoritatem. Patitur quoque metaplasmi figuram nimium (non tamen assidue), quam doctores grammaticae artis vocant sinalipham (et hoc nisi legentes praevideant, rationis dicta deformius sonant), literas interdum scriptione servantes, interdum vero ebraicae linguae more vitantes, quibus ipsas litteras ratione sinaliphae in lineis, ut quidam dicunt, penitus amittere et transilire moris hahetur; non quo series scriptionis hujus metrica sit subtilitate constricta, sed schema omoeoteleuton assidue quaerit. Aptam enim in hac lectione et priori decentem et consimilem quaerunt verba in fine sonoritatem, et non tantum per hanc inter duas vocales, sed etiam inter alias literas saepissime patitur conlisionem sinaliphae; et hoc nisi fiat, extensio sepius literarum inepte sonat dicta verborum. Quod in communi quoque nostra locutione, si sollerter intendimus, nos agere nimium invenimus. Quaerit enim linguae hujus ornatus et a legentibus sinaliphae lenem et conlisionem lubricam praecavere et a dictantibus omoeoteleuton (id est consimiiem verborum terminationem) observare. Sensus enim hic interdum ultra duo vel tres versus vei etiam quattuor in lectionc debet esse suspensus, ut legentibus (quod lectio signat) apertior fiat. Hic sepius i et o ceteraeque similiter cum illo vocales simul inveniuntur inscriptae, interdum in sono divisae vocales manentes, interdum conjunctae (priore transeunte in consonantium potestatem). Duo etiam negativi, dum in latinitate rationis dicta confirmant, in hujus lingtiae usu pene assidue negant; et quamvis hos interdum praecavere valerem, ob usum tamen cotidianum, ut morum se locutio praebuit, dictare curavi. Hujus enim linguae proprietas nec numervm nec genera me conservare sinebat. Interdum enim masculinum latinae linguae in hac feminino protuli, et cetera genera necessarie simili modo permiscui; numerum pluralem singulari, singularem plurali variavi et tali modo in barbarismum et soloecismum sepius coactus incidi. Horum supra scriptorum omnium vitiorvm exempla de hoc libro theotisce ponerem, nisi inrisionem legentium devitarem; nam dum agrestis linguae inculta verba inseruntur latinitatis planities, cachinnum legentibus prebent. Lingua enim haec velut agrestis habetur, dum a propriis nec scriptura nec arte atiqua ullis est temporibus expolita; quippe qui nec historias suorum antecessorum, ut multae gentes caeterae, commendant memoriae, nec eorum gesta vel vitam ornant dignitatis amore. Quod si raro contigit, aliarum gentium lingua, id est latinorum vel Grecorum, potius explanant; cavent aliarum et deformitatem non verecundant suarum. Stupent in aliis vel litterula parva artem transgredi, et pene propria lingua vitium generat per singula verba. Res mira tam magnos viros, prudentia deditos, eautela praecipuos, agilitate suffultos, sapientia latos, sanctitate praeclaros cuncta haec in alienae linguae gloriam transferre et usum scripturae in propria lingua non habere. Est tamen conveniens, ut qualicumque modo, sive corrupta seu lingua integrae artis, humanum genus auctorem omnium laudent, qui plectrum eis dederat linguae verbum in eis suae laudis sonare; qui non verborum adulationem politorum, sed quaerit in nobis pium cogtationis affectum operumque pio labore congeriem, non labrorum inanem servitiem. Hunc igitur librum vestrae sagaci prudentiae probandum curavi transmittere et quia a Rhabano venerandae memoriae, digno vestrae sedis quondam praesule, edueata parum mea parvitas est, praesulatus vestrae dignitati sapientiaeque in vobis pari commendare curavi. Qui si sanctitatis vestrae placet optutibus, et non dejiciendum judicaverit, uti licenter fidelibus vestra auctoritas concedat; sin vero minus aptus parque meae neglegentiae paret, eadem vsneranda sanctaque contempnet auctoritas. Utriusque enim facti causam arbitrio vestro decernendam mea parva commendat humilitas. Trinitas summa unitasque perfecta cunctorum vos utilitati multa tempora incolomem rectaque vita manentem conservare dignetur. Amen.

1- dcicieiidtim V. 132 deccnienium Y.

From: James Marchand <marchand@UX1.CSO.UIUC.EDU> Subject: Otfrid's ad Liutbertum, English To: LYNN NELSON <LHNELSON@UKANVM.BITNET>, "Richard W. Clement" <RCLEMENT@UKANVM.BITNET>

The mention of grammar and translation and the like, along with the fact thatI am teaching him in the Old High German class at this very moment, led me to dig out this old translation of Otfrid's preface to his Gospel Harmony, the first _long_ rhyming poem in any language, written about 870. There is a better translation of it in PMLA 58 (1943) 869-890, but Frank Magoun was unfortunately ignorant of technical grammar of the 9th century. Every line of this cries out for commentary. To see the Latin (I have followed Duemmler), look at Magoun or at Erdmann's edition (never mind; I'll send out a Latin version I have scanned in). A small example: Otfrid explains that z sounds like "stridor dentium". Since this collocation is found so frequently in the Bible ("gnashing of teeth" in the KJV), it is not likely that Otfrid missed this. I should point out also that Martianus says (Dick, p. 96): Z uero icdirco Appius Claudius detestatur, quod / dentes mortui, dum exprimitur, imitatur. Otfrid writes in in centonic kind of manner, weaving together strands he has gotten from others, as one was supposed to do: culling the ancients. Otfrids Evangelienbuch, ed. Oskar Erdman, 6th ed., by Ludwig Wolff. Altdeutsche Textbibliothek 49 (Tuebingen: Niemeyer, 1973). For bibliography: Johanna Belkin and Ju"rgen Meier, Bibliographie zu Otfrid von Weissenburg und zur altsaechsischen Bibeldichtung (Heliand und Genesis). Bibliographien zur deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters, Heft 7 (Berlin: Schmidt, 1975). Note the mention of Hebrew.

Otfrid's Ad Liudbertum

To the peak of merit, Liutbert, Archbishop of Mainz, outstanding by divine grace, Otfrid, although unworthy, nevertheless by calling a monk and lowly priest, wishes the joy of eternal life evermore in Christ. Handing the present book over to your most excellent good sense, so that you may judge its style, at the outset I have taken care to tell you the reason why I presumed to write it, so that, if it is worthless, the minds of any of the faithful might not try to attribute it to the presumption of my worthlessness. When at times the sound of useless things beat on the ears of some well-tested men, and the obscene song of laymen disturbed their sanctity (Quid Hinieldus cum Cristo?), asked by certain brothers worthy of memory, and especially when the words of a certain reverend lady, by the name of Judith, urged me to write for them in German part of the Gospels, so that a small amount of the reading of this song might cancel out the play of worldly voices and, occupied with the sweetness of the Gospels in their own language, they would be able to forego the sound of useless things (adding to their petition the complaint that the poets of the pagans, such as Virgil, Lucan and Ovid and many others, embellished their deeds in their native language -- by the sayings of whose works (pun) we know the world to be now in peril (shipwreck metaphor, naufragium) -- they praised the deeds of the most-tried men of our religion, of Juvencus, Arator, Prudentius and many others, who embellished the sayings and miracles of Christ properly in their tongue, we, on the other hand, although instructed by grace in that same faith, were, they said, lazy in putting forth the most brilliant splendor of the divine words in our own language. Therefore, since through love of those who were spurring me on, I could not refuse (topos), I acted, not as a skilled person, but as one forced by brotherly petition. I wrote, you see, supported by the demand of their prayers, a portion of the Gospels set down in Frankish, mixing in now and then spiritual and moral (4 senses) words, in order that whoever is put off by the difficulty of a foreign language as to them, might comprehend the most holy words here in his own language, and understanding the law of God in his own language, might shrink from deviating from it evan a little through his own thinking. I wrote therefore in the first and the last parts of this book as a mediator between the four gospel writers, in order that now whatever this one then whatever that one wrote, as far as I was able, I set down in order. In the middle, however, so that the readers might not suffer greatly because of verbosity, I omitted many things, of the parables of Christ and His miracles and His teaching, though quite weary already (for I put this out last), spurred by the above mentioned need; and now I did not try as I started out to set them down in order, but just as they occurred to my poor memory. I have, then, divided this book into five books. Of them the first commemorates the birth of Christ; it ends with the baptism and the teaching of John. The second, His disciples already having been called together, tells how He revealed Himself to the world both by by certain signs and by His most brilliant teaching. The third tells a little about the brilliance of the signs and the teaching to the Jews. The fourth tells then how, approaching His passion, He willingly suffered death for us. The fifth callsto memory His resurrection, His conversation afterwards with His disciples, His ascension and the Day of Judgment. I have divided these into five, as I said, although there are four books of the Gospels, because their fourfold evenness decorates the oddness of our five senses and turn the superfluous things in us, not only of actions but also of thoughts, towards the exaltation of heavenly things. Whatever sins we commit by sight, by smell, by touch, by taste or by hearing, we purge that depravity in the memory of that reading: let useless sight be obscured, illuminated by the gospel words; let evil hearing not be harmful to our hearts; let smell and taste restrict themselves from depravity and join in the sweetness of Christ, and let the innermost parts of the heart ever be touched by the memory of these readings written in German. The barbarism (term. tech., see Springer) of this language you see, for it is uncultivated and undisciplined and unaccustomed to being held in by the curbing rein of the art of grammar; thus, for example, in the writing of many words it is difficult to spell because of the piling up of letters (e.g. vvv) or the unknown sound. For sometimes, it requires three u u u, as I think, in its sound, the first two consonants, it seems to me, the third remaining a vowel sound. Sometimes again I have been unable to avoid the sounds of the vowels a, e, i or u, where y seemed to me to be appropriate. And even this element this language spurns sometimes, joining itself to no character at all in any sound except with difficulty. K and z are frequently extended in this language beyond the usage of good Latin; the grammarians often say that these letters are superfluous; because of the grinding of the teeth (cf. Vulgate; Martianus) z is used in this language, k because of the sound of the throat. Quite often, though not always, it permits that figure of metaplasm (cf. Donatus) which those learned in the grammatical arts call synaloephe (he means ellipsis, but we, too, are careless with such terms) (and unless the readers (listeners) pay attention to this, the words of a sentence sound wrong), now preserving the letters in writing, now leaving them off in the manner of the Hebrew language, among whom there is the custom of leaving off or passing over the very letters in a sentence by synaloephe within lines, as some call it. Not that the flow of this writing is held in by metrical subtlety, but it requires always the scheme of homoeoteleuton. For in this book the words at the beginning require a fitting and proper and similar sound at the end. And not only because of this between two vowels, but also between other letters does it permit the collision of synaloephe, and unless this is done, the saying of the words sounds frequently inelegant in the stretching out of the sounds. Which we will find that we also do in our ordinary speech, if we but listen carefully. For the poetics of this language requires from the readers that they avoid a soft and slippery collision of synaloephe and that authors observe homoeoteleuton, that is, the like ending of words. The sense, then, must be suspended here for two or three verses or even four in reading, so that is made clearer to the readers what the reading means. Here often i and o and other vowels like them are found written together, sometimes remaining in distinct vowel sounds, sometimes joined, the first going over into the force of consonants. Two negatives, as you know, when found in the words of a sentence in Latin, affirm; in the use of this language they almost always negate. And though now and again I might have avoided this, because of daily usage, I took care to write as the rule of custom has it. The propriety of this language permitted me to preserve neither number nor gender, for sometimes I have rendered a masculine of Latin by a feminine, and I have mixed the other genders as needed in a similar way. I have varied the plural with the singular, the singular with the plural, and thus have been forced to commit a barbarism and a soloecism (see Donatus, Barbarismus). I could set down from this book examples in German of all the above written vices, if I did not want to avoid the laughter of the readers, for when the uncultivated words of a country language are placed in the smoothness of Latin, they give rise to laughter among the readers. This language, you see, is considered to be country, because by its own speakers it has never been polished in writing nor by any art at any time. Indeed, they do not commit to memory the stories of their forbears, as many other peoples do, nor do they embellish their deeds or life for love of their worth. On the other hand, if, though rarely, this does happen, they expound rather in the language of other peoples, that is, Latin or Greek. They guard against errors in the others, but are not ashamed of them in their own, they are shocked to transgress grammatical rule in others even by a little letter, and in their own language they make errors almost in every word. A remarkable thing: that such great men, given to good judgment, outstanding in carefulness, supported by quick wit, known for wisdom, famous for sanctity, should translate all these things into the glory of a foreign language and not have the custom of writing in their own language. It is fitting, however, that in whatever way, be it in corrupt or in language of perfect grammar, that mankind praise the author of all things, Who gave them the instrument of the tongue (Alcuin & Pippin) to sound the word of His praise among themselves, Who seeks in us not the worship of polished words but the pious mood of thought, the piling up of works in pious labor, not useless lip-service. This book, therefore, I have taken care to transmit to your wise judgment for approval -- because my humble self was educated by Rhaban of blessed memory, formerly worthy Bishop of your see -- I have taken care to commend it to the dignity of your Bishopness and to the equal wisdom in you. If it pleases the vision of Your Holiness and should it not judge it to be to be rejected, may your authority grant that it be used freely by the faithful; but, if indeed it appears less fitting and is commensurate with my carelessness, may that same venerable and holy authority condemn it. My humble little person, indeed, recommends that the judgment of either action be left up to your will. May the Supreme Trinity and the Perfect Unity of all things deign to keep you for a long time in an office of value, remaining in upright life. Amen.