MS.

ms., formerly at bamberg, begins at line 85, and has many lacunae, but continues the history down to the last verse of st luke's gospel, ending, however, in the middle of a sentence. a ms. discovered at prague in 1881 contains lines 958-1106, and another, in the vatican library, discovered by k. zangemeister in 1894, contains lines 1279-1358. the poem is based, not directly on the new testament, but on the pseudo-tatian's harmony of the gospels, and it shows acquaintance with the commentaries of alcuin, baeda and hrabanus maurus. the questions relating to the _heliand_ cannot be adequately discussed without considering also the poem on the history of genesis, which, on the grounds of similarity in style and vocabulary, and for other reasons afterwards to be mentioned, may with some confidence be referred to the same author. a part of this poem, as is mentioned in the article caedmon, is extant only in an old english translation. the portions that have been preserved in the original language are contained in the same vatican ms. that includes the fragment of the _heliand_ referred to above. in the one language or the other, there are in existence the following three fragments: (1) the passage which appears as lines 235-851 in the so-called "caedmon's _genesis_," on the revolt of the angels and the temptation and fall of adam and eve. of this the part corresponding to lines 790-820 exists also in the original old saxon. (2) the story of cain and abel, in 124 lines. (3) the account of the destruction of sodom, in 187 lines. the main source of the _genesis_ is the bible, but professor e. sievers has shown that considerable use was made of the two latin poems by alcimus avitus, _de initio mundi_ and _de peccato originali_. the two poems give evidence of genius and trained skill, though the poet was no doubt hampered by the necessity of not deviating too widely from the sacred originals. within the limits imposed by the nature of his task, his treatment of his sources is remarkably free, the details unsuited for poetic handling being passed over, or, in some instances, boldly altered. in many passages his work gives the impression of being not so much an imitation of the ancient germanic epic, as a genuine example of it, though concerned with the deeds of other heroes than those of germanic tradition. in the _heliand_ the saviour and his apostles are conceived as a king and his faithful warriors, and the use of the traditional epic phrases appears to be not, as with cynewulf or the author of _andreas_, a mere following of accepted models, but the spontaneous mode of expression of one accustomed to sing of heroic themes. the _genesis_ fragments have less of the heroic tone, except in the splendid passage describing the rebellion of satan and his host. it is noteworthy that the poet, like milton, sees in satan no mere personification of evil, but the fallen archangel, whose awful guilt could not obliterate all traces of his native majesty. somewhat curiously, but very naturally, enoch the son of cain is confused with the enoch who was translated to heaven--an error which the author of the old english _genesis_ avoids, though (according to the existing text) he confounds the names of enoch and enos. such external evidence as exists bearing on the origin of the _heliand_ and the companion poem is contained in a latin document printed by flacius illyricus in 1562. this is in two parts; the one in prose, entitled (perhaps only by flacius himself) "_praefatio ad librum antiquum in lingua saxonica conscriptum_"; the other in verse, headed "_versus de poeta et interpreta hujus codicis_." the praefatio begins by stating that the emperor ludwig the pious, desirous that his subjects should possess the word of god in their own tongue, commanded a certain saxon, who was esteemed among his countrymen as an eminent poet, to translate poetically into the german language the old and new testaments. the poet willingly obeyed, all the more because he had previously received a divine command to undertake the task. he rendered into verse all the most important parts of the bible with admirable skill, dividing his work into _vitteas_, a term which, the writer says, may be rendered by "_lectiones_" or "_sententias_." the praefatio goes on to say that it was reported that the poet, till then knowing nothing of the art of poetry, had been admonished in a dream to turn into verse the precepts of the divine law, which he did with so much skill that his work surpasses in beauty all other german poetry (_ut cuncta theudisca poemata suo vincat decore_). the _versus_ practically reproduce in outline baeda's account of caedmon's dream, without mentioning the dream, but describing the poet as a herdsman, and adding that his poems, beginning with the creation, relate the history of the five ages of the world down to the coming of christ. the suspicion of some earlier scholars that the _praefatio_ and the _versus_ might be a modern forgery is refuted by the occurrence of the word _vitteas_, which is the old saxon _fittea_, corresponding to the old english _fitt_, which means a "canto" of a poem. it is impossible that a scholar of the 16th century could have been acquainted with this word, and internal evidence shows clearly that both the prose and the verse are of early origin. the _versus_, considered in themselves, might very well be supposed to relate to caedmon; but the mention of the five ages of the world in the concluding lines is obviously due to recollection of the opening of the _heliand_ (lines 46-47). it is therefore certain that the _versus_, as well as the _praefatio_, attribute to the author of the _heliand_ a poetic rendering of the old testament. their testimony, if accepted, confirms the ascription to him of the genesis fragments, which is further supported by the fact that they occur in the same ms. with a portion of the _heliand_. as the _praefatio_ speaks of the emperor ludwig in the present tense, the former part of it at least was probably written in his reign, i.e. not later than a.d. 840. the general opinion of scholars is that the latter part, which represents the poet as having received his vocation in a dream, is by a later hand, and that the sentences in the earlier part which refer to the dream are interpolations by this second author. the date of these additions, and of the _versus_, is of no importance, as their statements are incredible. that the author of the _heliand_ was, so to speak, another caedmon--an unlearned man who turned into poetry what was read to him from the sacred writings--is impossible, because in many passages the text of the sources is so closely followed that it is clear that the poet wrote with the latin books before him. on the other hand, there is no reason for rejecting the almost contemporary testimony of the first part of the _praefatio_ that the author of the _heliand_ had won renown as a poet before he undertook his great task at the emperor's command. it is certainly not impossible that a christian saxon, sufficiently educated to read latin easily, may have chosen to follow the calling of a _scop_ or minstrel[1] instead of entering the priesthood or the cloister; and if such a person existed, it would be natural that he should be selected by the emperor to execute his design. as has been said above, the tone of many portions of the _heliand_ is that of a man who was no mere imitator of the ancient epic, but who had himself been accustomed to sing of heroic themes. the commentary on the gospel of matthew by hrabanus maurus was finished about 821, which is therefore the superior limit of date for the composition of the _heliand_. it is usually maintained that this work was written before the old testament poems. the arguments for this view are that the _heliand_ contains no allusion to any foregoing poetical treatment of the antecedent history, and that the genesis fragments exhibit a higher degree of poetic skill. this reasoning does not appear conclusive, and if it be set aside, the limit of date for the beginning of the work is carried back to a.d. 814, the year of the accession of ludwig. bibliography.--the first complete edition of the _heliand_ was published by j. a. schmeller in 1830; the second volume, containing the glossary and grammar, appeared in 1840. the standard edition is that of e. sievers (1877), in which the texts of the cotton and munich mss. are printed side by side. it is not provided with a glossary, but contains an elaborate and most valuable analysis of the diction, synonymy and syntactical features of the poem. other useful editions are those of m. heyne (3rd ed., 1903), o. behaghel (1882) and p. piper (1897, containing also the genesis fragments). the fragments of the _heliand_ and the _genesis_ contained in the vatican ms. were edited in 1894 by k. zangemeister and w. braune under the title _bruchstucke der altsachsischen bibeldichtung_. among the works treating of the authorship, sources and place of origin of the poems, the most important are the following: e. windisch, _der heliand und seine quellen_ (1868); e. sievers, _der heliand und die angelsachsische genesis_ (1875); r. kogel, _deutsche literaturgeschichte_, bd. i. (1894) and _die altsachsische genesis_ (1895); r. kogel and w. bruckner, "althoch- und altniederdeutsche literatur," in paul's _grundriss der germanischen philologie_, bd. ii. (2nd ed., 1901), which contains references to many other works; hermann collitz, _zum dialekte des heliand_ (1901). (h. br.) footnote: [1] the term _volkssanger_, commonly used in german discussions of this question, is misleading; the audience for heroic poetry was not "the people" in the modern sense, but the nobles.