The Christian Message and the Laity: The Heliand in Post-Conquest Saxony

Quasi una gens: Saxony and the Frankish world, c. 772–888

“…In the field of religion, Hedwig Röckelein has illuminated the Christianization of the region, with particular attention paid to the role of relics in society, and Theo Kölzer has refined our view of Carolingian involvement in fledgling Saxon foundations through the diplomatic analysis of imperial charters (Kölzer, , , ; Röckelein, , , , , , , , , ). The last 20‐odd years have also marked the emergence of interest in Carolingian Saxony by English‐language historians such as Ian Wood, Eric Goldberg, Eric Knibbs, and Robert Flierman, among others (see here especially Appleby, ; Bachrach & Bachrach, ; Carroll, ; Flierman, , , forthcoming ; Goldberg, ; Hen, ; Karras, ; Knibbs, ; Mayr‐Harting, ; Palmer, , , ; Rembold, , , forthcoming , ; Shuler, ; van Egmond, ; Wood, , , , ). Finally, it is worth noting that the role that published conference proceedings and exhibition catalogues have played in the field, especially those resulting from an 1999 exhibition and associated conferences organized by the Diözesanmuseum Paderborn, and likewise from a conference held in the same year by the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Social Stress in San Marino (Green & Siegmund, ; Hässler, Jarnut, & Wemhoff, ; Stiegemann & Wemhoff, ).…”

“…Alongside such Latin compositions, ninth‐century Saxony saw the composition of two vernacular biblical epics, the Heliand and Genesis , alongside other shorter works; this burgeoning vernacular culture has been the focus of considerable scholarly focus. Particular attention has been showered on the Heliand , a poetic rendering of the four Gospels in a unified narrative; debates centre on its place of composition (with the monasteries of Fulda, Werden, and Corvey emerging as the main contenders), its date of composition (whether in the reign of Louis the Pious or that of his son, Louis the German), its intended audience (whether recent converts, converted elites, and/or monks and nuns), its potentially “syncretic” nature (with particular attention allotted to the use of fate in the narrative), and its role in intercultural communication ( Heliand , in Behaghel & Taeger, ; for a selection of scholarship on this subject, see Augustyn, ; Bischoff, , ; Cathey, ; Drögereit, ; Eichhoff & Rauch, ; Gantert, ; Hagenlocher, ; Matzner, ; Mierke, ; Murphy, ; Pakis, ; Price, ; Rathofer, ; Rembold, forthcoming ; Taeger, , ; Zurla, ). Somewhat surprisingly, its Old Testament counterpart, the Genesis , has been largely overlooked save for its excellent treatment in the work of Alger Doane (Doane, ; see also Raw, ; Sievers, ).…”