The Heliand
Pages 3-17
The Heliand
Song 1
The Creator's spell, by which the whole world is held together is taught
to four heroes: There were many whose hearts told them that they should
begin to tell the secret runes,2 the word of God, the famous feats that the
powerful Christ accomplished in words and in deeds among human beings.
There were many of the wise who wanted to praise the teaching
of Christ, the holy Word of God, and wanted to write a bright-shinini book
with their own hands, telling how the sons of men should carry out His
commands. Among all these, however , there were only four who had the
power of God, help from heaven, the Holy Spirit, the strength from Christ to do it.
They were chosen. They alone were to write down the evangelium in a book,
and to write down the commands of God, the holy heavenly word. No one else
among the heroic sons of men was to attempt it, since these four
1 Song titles do not appear in the original text but have been supplied by the translator.
2 girun;. The word not only implies that the gospel is a sccrct mystery, but that it is
of the power of the magic spells and charms written in the runes of the Northern
world. This same rich expression, ginmi, will be used by the author to introduce the ,
secret runes' of the Lord's Prayer.
3 berehtlico 'brightly' . P~ibly the poet is thinking of the brilliantly illuminated gospel
manuscripts of thc cighth and ninth ccnturies.
4 / The Heliand
had been picked by the power of God: Matthew and Mark, Luke and John were
their names. They were dear to God, worthy of the work. The ruling God had placed
the Holy Spirit firmly in those heroes' hearts, together with many a wise word, as well
as a devout attitude and a powerful mind, so that they could lift up their holy voices to
chant God's spell.4 There is nothing like it in words anywhere in this world! Nothing can
ever glorify the Ruler, our dear Chieftain, more! Nor is there anything that can
better fells every evil creature or work of wickedness, nor better withstand the hatred
and aggression of enemies. This is so, beCause the one who taught them God's Spell,
though generous and good, had a powerful mind: the noble, the almighty Creator Hintse1f.
These four were to write it down with their own fingers; they were to compose, sing,
and proclainl what they had seen and heard of Christ's powerful strength-all the many
wonderful things, in word and deed, that the mighty Chieftain Himself said, taught,
and accomplished among h~an beings-and also all the things which the Ruler spoke
from the beginning, when He, by His own power, fIrst made the world and
formed the whole universe with one word. The heavens and the earth and all that is
contained within them, both inorganic and organic, everything, was firmly held in
place by the Divine words.
6 He then determined which of the peoples was to rule
4 godspell 'God's speech, gospel'. Originally, in Anglo-Saxon, it was 'the good speech', but in the
Heliand the 'good' is understood as 'God's.' It is not possible to distinguish easily between the two words
by spelling, thus the change must have come easily. In addition, the author desires very much to explain
the gospel as not just good speech, but God's speech.
s fe/lie. The hidden image is that of the tree, the place of Woden worship in Germanic religion.
That worship included human sacrifice, usually by hanging the victims, often prisoners of war,
from the tree. While admitting that the tree of such religion must be felled, the author praises
'God's spell' as the proper weapon to do the task, thereby rendering small support, and implicitly
criticizing the violent conversion method of Charlemagne and Boniface in Saxony. See 17re Saxon Savior, Ch.2.
6 The author, who was obviouslyenamored of the power of words, seems to have been very much
impressed by the first chapter of the book of Genesis, where the entire universe is described as being
created by a series of spoken words. Each of the seven days of creation begins with God speaking
and saying, Fiat . . . 'Let there be .
The Saxon Gospel/ 5
the greatest territory, and at what times the ages of the world were to come to an end.
One age still stood before the sons of men; five were past.' The blessed sixth age was to
come by the power of God the Holy Spirit and the birth of Christ. He is the Best of Healers,
come here to the middle world to be a help to many, to give human beings an advantage
against the hatred of the enemy and the hidden snare.
At that time the Christian God granted to the Roman people the greatest kingdom.
He strengthened the heart of their army so that they had conquered every nation. Those
helmet-Iovers from hill-fort Rome8 had won an empire. Their military governors were in every
land and they had authority over the people of every noble race.
In Jerusalem, Herod was chosen to be king over the Jewish ,,"
'people. Caesar, ruling the empire from the hill-fort Rome, placed him there-among the
warrior-companions9-even though Herod did not belong by clan to the noble and well-born
descendants of Israel. He did not come from their kinsmen. It was only thanks to Caesar
in hill-fort Rome, who ruled the empire, that the descendants of Israel, those fighting men
renowned for their toughness, had to obey
6 / The Heliand
him. They were Herod's very unwavering friends-as long as he held power, for as long as
he had authority over the Jewish people.l°
At that time there was in that place an old man, a man of experience and wisdom. He was from
the people, from Levi's clan, Jacob's son, of good family. His name was Zachary. He was a blessedly
happy man, since he loved to serve God and acted according to God's will. His wife did the same.
She was an elderly woman. An heir had not been granted to them when they were young. They lived
far from any vice and were highly respected. Their obedience was to the King of Heaven, they
honored our Chieftain; they never desired to be the cause of anything bad or treacherous, illegal
or sinful, among mankind. But they did live in a worried state of mind because they did not have
an heir of their own; they had no children.
There, in Jerusalem, Zachary fulfilled the divine command whenever his turn came. Whenever the times
infor~ed him in their bright and clear way that he was to perform the holy worship of the Ruler at
the shrine,11 the divine service of God, the King of Heaven, he was very happy and carried it out
with a devout mind.
10 No doubt a description of a Saxon attitude of mind toward the Holy Roman Empire of
Charlemagne as much as the Hebrew one toward the old Roman Empire of the Caesars.
11 The word used here for the temple is uuiha. The word means 'holy place' and is the pagan word for
temple. The author also uses the word geld for worship, which means 'worth' and is thus quite
similar to our Anglo-Saxon 'worthship' or 'worship'. The word he uses parallel to geld is illngarskepi,
which means 'discipleship' and sounds much more like a more literally Christianized word for worship
and which I have thus translated as 'divine service'. This instance is almost paradigmatic for the
author's technique when dealing with a difficult and unfamiliar image. He first renders the concept
in a Northern, Germanic form, and immediately thereafter gives the more standard Southern and
more literal Mediterranean form.
The Saxon Gospel/ 7
Song 2
Zachary sees the Chieftain's angel in the shrine.
Then the time came which had been foretold in words by wise men that Zachary was to attend
to the shrine. Many of the Jewish people were gathered there in J erusalem at the shrine to ask the
Lord in His graciousness, to pray to the ruling God, the King of Heaven, most humbly, to remove
evil from them. The people stood around the holy house as the exalted man went inside. The rest
of the Hebrew people remained outside around the altar until the elder had fInished doing the will of God.
Inside, the old man was carrying his incense to the altar and going around the altar with
his censer, worshipping the Powerful One. He was performing his duty, the divine service,
enthusiastically and with a clear mind (the way one should gladly follow one's lord), when feelings
of fear came over him, and he became frightened at the altar. He saw, behind the altar, an angel of God
inside the shrine. The angel spoke to him in words and told the old man not to be afraid or
frightened of him. "Your deeds are precious to the Ruler," he said, "as well as your word. He is grateful for your
service to Him and grateful that you think so much of His power alone. I am His angel. My name is Gabriel,
I always stand before God, I am always in the presence of the All-Ruler, except when He
wishes to send me off on His affairs. Now He has sent me on this journey and told me to let
you know that a child will be born to you-from your elderly wife a child will be granted to you in
this world-and he will be wise in words. Never in his lifetime will he drink hard cider or wine in this
world: this is the way the workings of fate made him, time formed him, and the power of God as well!
2 God said that I should say to you that your child will be a warrior-companion of the
12 Fate and time are the highest entities in Germanic religion (along with the cosmic tree ).
Their existence as potent forces in the natural world is not denied by the Heliand, and they are
accorded a legitimate place in the author's scheme of things in tandem with (as here), or in
subordination to, the power of God. See 17Ie Saxon Savior, Ch. 3.
8 / The HeliaDd
King of Heaven. He said that you and your wife should care for him well and bring him up OD loyalty,
and that He would grant him many honors in God's kingdom!3 God said that this good man was to have
the Dame John and He commanded that you call the child by that name when he comes. He
said moreover that the child would become a warrior-companion of Christ, His own Son, in this
world, and that both of them would be coming here very soon on His mission." Zachary
then spoke in conversation with the Chieftain's very angel as he began to wonder about
these events and these words. "How can this happen, " he said, "at our age? It is all too late for
us to bring about what you are saying with your words. It was a long time ago, back when we
were twenty winters in this world, that this woman came to me. We have now been together,
sharing bed and board, for seventy years since the day I took her to be my wife. If we were not
able to accomplish this in our youth, if we were not able to produce our own heir , raised under
our own roof, back then, how are we to do it now that we are old? Old age has taken away our
physical strength. Our faces have gone slack, our loins are slow, our flesh is loose, our skin is not
beautiful, our sexual desire is gone, our bodies are dried out, our appearances have changed-and
so have our emotions and vitality-so many days have we been in this world.
13 In this truly remarkable passage we have the earliest known blending of Germanic ~'8rrior virtue
with Christian religion. God the AlI-Ruler is made to request that John be raised by Zachary to
practice the warrior virtue of treuwa 'unflinching loyalty to one's chieftain, especially in battle'. God's
reason is the astonishing Saxon concept that He wishes to make John gisid heDancuninges
'8 warrior-companion of the King of Heaven'. God then adds that John will also be a
warrior-companion of His own Son, John will be Kristes gisid. The Heliand uses the image of
warrior-companionship for discipleship throughout the poem to explain the role of Peter and the
apostles, very movingly so in the scenes of the Passion and Death of Christ.
In this ninth-ccntury synthesis lies the first full written expression and perhaps the origin itself of the
Germanic-Christian knighthood of the Middle Ages.
Song 3
John comes to the light of mankind.
14 Fundamental to Saxon (Christian and pagan) doubt about the Christian God must
have been doubt as to whether He was more powerfuJ than the neutral, ~mic forces of fate
and time. Neither Woden nor Thor, both Powerful but mortal in Germanic mythology, were
ever imagined as being capable of standing up to fate or time, much less of being capable
of reversing a process of fate or time. In Mediterranean mythology, both Grcco-Roman
and Jewish, the person-god[sJ are immortal, either defeating these neutral forces in battle
or creating t!1em by words 'in the Beginning.'
In Germanic mythology the personal gods have only a neutrally alloted time before
the irrational forces of time and matter bring them their doom, their famous
'twilight of the gods'. The author tries to do justice to Germanic religious feeling by
having a Saint Zachary present the case for the uncontrollable power of time in human
life in very realistic terms. Zachary himself is depicted unmistakably: he enters a Germanic
wiha 'shrine' to worship, and yet walks around the altar with the incense of Catholic ritual.
He is the embodiment of the complex psychological situation of the Converted Saxons.
The author then just as forcefully presents the Christian case by describing the birth
of John in glowing terms, both human and military. The invented reaction of the two elderly
men later in the story shows the possible rcsponscs of good earls to the demonstration of
the AlI-Ruling God's control of fate and time In the birth of John.
lO/The HeIiand
angel of the AU-Ruler said in the shrine came true: the old man lost his speech-though he
kept a clear mind in his head. Outside the shrine the people had been waiting all day
long and everyone was wondering why the revered and good man was taking so long
to perform his service. No other thane ever took so long at the shrine to perform the
worship service with his hands. Then the good man came out of the sanctuary.
The earls crowded in closer, they were extremely curious to hear what he would
say to them and what truth he would let them know. He was not able to saya single
spoken word to the warrior-companions of his retinue, he was only ~\ able to let
the people know with his right hand that they should follow the teachings of our Ruler.
The people understood that he had seen something directly from God, but that he could
not say anything nor let them know about it.
So it was. He had performed the worship of our Ruler when it was his turn as
determined by human beings:s
Soon thereafter the power of God, His mighty strength, was felt:
the wife [Elisabeth), a woman in her old age, became pregnant-sooD the husband,
that godly man, would have an heir, an infant boy born
in the hill-fort.
The woman awaited the workings of fate. The winter skidded by and the year measured its way past.
John came to the light of mankind. His body was beautiful and his skin was fair, as were his hair and
fingernails, and his cheeks shone! Many of their friends and many of the learned gathered there,
amazed at what had happened and wondering how two such old people could bear a child-unless
it was something ordained by God Himself. They recognized immediately that there was no other
way for such a happy event to occur . Then, a man of many years both very intelligent and gifted
with wise words, spoke and asked with great interest what the boy's name would be in this world:
"1 think that both in the manner of his birth and in the way he is, he is superior to us. For this reason
I believe that God Himself has sent him directly to us from heaven."
15 The idea seems to be: the sequence of the feasts of the year is determined by the cosmic
movements of the sun and moon in time; the determination of which priest will selVC at the altar
for a given feast is made by more humble procedures!
The Saxon Gospel/ 11
Soon thereafter the mother of the child spoke, the one who had - borne the child .as a baby in her
womb: " A solemn command came here last year from God," she said, "a solemn command that by
God's instruction he was to be called John. Even if I had the power, I would not dare even to think
about changing that in the slightest." Then an arrogant relative who was from her clan territory
spoke up. "No nobleman ever born of our clan or kin has had that name before," he said.
"Go and choose a more appealing name for him, one he might be able to like."
Then the older man spoke, the one who gave a great deal of good counsel. "1 never advise any
nobleman to start altering the Word of God. Just go and ask the father, a man of long experience,
who in his wisdom has seated himself over there in his mead-hall!6 Even though he cannot speak
a single word, he can give us a message by writing the name in letters." At that, he approached
Zachary and put a beech-wood stave17 on his lap, asking him very earnestly to carve in wisely
determined words what this holy child was to be called. Zachary took the book into his hands
and the thoughts of his mind turned gladly to God. He wisely carved the name John, and
immediately thereafter began speaking in his own words. He regained his power of speech
and spoke with intelligence and wisdom. The affliction had left him, the hard punishment
which holy God had powerfully inflicted upon him so that Zachary's memory would not forget Him,
should He ever again send him one of His followers!8
16 uuinseli lit. 'wine-hall' or 'drinking room'.
17 boc lit. 'beech[-wood]; book'. Zachary is depicted as carving runic letters on beechwood, in the
Germanic manner. The verb used, uuritan, signifies writing by incising letters in wood or stone;
scriDan (from Lat. scribere) is most commonly used for writing with ink on parchment.
18 iungron. The word adds a delightful and important undertone. Throughout the Zachary
story the author has carefully identified him with the Saxons: a nobleman-priest with his
band of armed companions before a Saxon temple. The angel is referred to throughout with
the two words one would expect: bodo 'messenger' and engil 'angel'. The ending of the story,
where the author gives his own reason for God's inflicting the punishment on Zachary
(so that his memory will not forget God, should He ever again send one of His 'angels'),
turns the warning toward the audience by using a word that doesn't so much mean 'angel'
at all but rather 'follower' , 'servant', or 'disciple'.
12 / The Heliand
Song 4
The AlI.Ruler's angel comes to Mary In Gallleeland.
It was not long thereafter that it was all accomplished just as the allmighty God had
so often promised mankind-that He would send His heavenly Child, His own Son, to
this world to free all the clans of people here from evil. His messenger Gabriel, the angel
of the AlIRuler, then came to GaIiIeeland. There he knew a lovely young woman, a girl who
had reached her maidenhood. Her name was Mary. Joseph, a nobleman, was engaged
to her, David's daughter. What a precious bride and virtuous woman she was! There
in hiIIfort Nazareth the angel of God addressed her face to face, calling her by her name
and saying to her from God: "Health be with you, Mary. Your Lord is very fond of yOU!9
You are precious to the Ruler for your wisdom, woman full of grace. You are to be sanctified
more than any other woman. Do not waver in your mind and do not let yourself fear for your
life. I have not come here to put you in any danger and I am not bringing you any kind of trick
or deception. You are to become the mother of our Chieftain here among human beings.
You will bear a child, the Son of the high King of Heaven. His name among the peoples
will be Healer. The broad kingdom over which He will rule as a great leader will never
come to an end." Then the maiden, the most beautiful and radiant of women, replied to
the angel of God: "How can that happen, " she said, "that
I would bear a child? I have never known man in my life." The angel of the AlI-Ruler had
his answer ready for the woman: "By the power of God, the Holy Spirit will come to you
from the meadows
19 thu bUt thinun heITon liof. It is interesting that this lovely way of rendering the
difficult Latin phrase gratia plena (which the poet repeats in the following line in a literal translation)
is almost identical with that fon:efully suggested by Martin Luthcr seven hundrcd years later.
In his Sendbriefvom Dolmetschen he ridicules the idea of rendering gratia plena by 'full of gracc'
on thc grounds that it makes gracc or favor seem like a liquid (beer) being poured into a vat (Mary).
Hc suggests instead du bUt deinem HemJ lieb expresses the Lonl's fondness far more movingly and
how favorcd and 'dear' (lieb) Mary is to hcr Lonl. Thc suggestion is idcntical with thc Saxon phrase
in the Heliand. Was Luthcr acquainted with thc Heliand?
The Saxon Gospel/ 13
of heaven. From Him a child, will be given to you in this world. Divine power from the most high
King of Heaven will shade you in its shadow. Never among human beings was there ever as
beautiful or so great a birth as this one, when it comes, by the power of God, to this wide world!"
After this explanation the woman's mind changed and was completely in accord with God's will.
"1 stand here ready," she said, "to perform any service He may wish to give me. I am the
maid-servant of mankind's God. I now trust this thing. Let it be done unto me according to
your words, whatever my Lord wills-nor is my mind in doubt, neither in word nor in deed."
And so I have heard it told that the woman very gladly received the message of God with an
easy mind, with good faith and with transparent loyalty. The Holy Spirit became the baby
in her womb.~ In her heart and feelings she realized what had happened and she told
whomever she wished, that the power of the A11-Ruler coming in holiness from
heaven had gotten her pregnant.
Joseph's mind and emotions, however, were in turmoil, since he had already bought the
maiden-this virtuous woman, this lady of the nobility-to be his bride. He could see that she had
a child in her body and ignored the fact that the woman had actually guarded
herself well. He did not yet know about the Ruler's merry
~ Uuard the helago gest that barn an ira bosma. This is a very unusual passage. In orthodox
Christian theology from the earliest councils of the church it has always been understood that it
is the Second Person of the Trinity (the Son) who becomes man in Jesus Christ. The First Person
(the Father) docs not, and the Third Person (the Holy Spirit) is seen as entering the generality
of the persons of the church at Pentecost, but never as repeating the incarnation of the Son in
one specific human being alone. The author may have misunderstood the Creed of Nicca's relevant
phrase et incamatUS est de Spiritu Sancto 'He was made flesh by the Holy Spirit', or possibly the
Annunciation scene in Luke's gospel. The author may also have been misled by his own purposes.
If Christ, including His hair and fingernails (contrast with John the Baptist), is entirely the product of
the Holy Spirit and not at all beholden to the workings of time and fate, then He is shown to be
above the highest Germanic divinities. This is a very docctist position. Cf. 77Je Saxon Savior, Ch. 3.
(An alternate suggestion that the passage might mean 'The Holy Spirit came; the baby was
in her womb' is too difficult to reconcile with the text.)
14 / The Heliand
message.21 He no longer wmted her to be his bride, his wife within his hall, and he began
to think in his mind how he could let her go in such a way that she would not at all get hurt
or feel hardship. He also did not want all this made known afterwards to people-he was
afraid that the sons of men might take her life. That was the custom of those people, the
Hebrews, back then, according to the old law. If ever a woman lived or slept with anyone
unlawfully, she always had to pay the price for it: her life for the love. There was no
woman so good that she could remain alive long thereafter among those people
or last long among the crowd.
Joseph, that wise and very good man, began to think in his heart of ways to let the girl
go secretly. It was not long then before the messenger of the King of Heaven, the Chieftain's
angel, came to him there and in a dream and told him to keep her and to love her in his
heart: "Do not be angry with Mary, your young lady, she is a proper wife. Do not think
too harshly of her. You are to keep her safe, you are to protect her well in this world.
Continue with the betrothal which you made, and foster loving friendship between you.
Do not let her be loathsome to you because there is a baby in her body. That child in her
womb comes from the meadows of heaven by the command of God, the Holy Spirit. It is
Jesus Christ, God's own boy, the Ruler's Son. Keep her well, in a holy way. Do not let
your mind doubt or your emotions be disturbed." Joseph's mind was changed after these
words. He took the maiden to be his wife and gave her his love. He acknowledged the
power of God and the command of the Ruler. He had a great desire to be able to keep
her in a holy way and he took care of her among his warrior-companions.
And she carried, all for the glory of God, the Holy Spirit, that Divine Man, until the workings
of fate informed her powerfully that she should bring forth to the light of men the Best
of all who have ever been born.
21 bli4i gibodskepi 'the happy (blithe] message'. A delightful allusion to the gospel itself as
well as to Christmas! This is a happy rendition of the Latin evangelium
(from the Greek eu- 'good' + angelion 'message'). In modern English one often hea~ 'the
good news' as its translation, and in modern German die frohe Botschaft 'the happy message'.
The Saxon Gospel/ 15
Song 5
The Chieftain of mankind is born in David's hill-fort.
Then there came a decree from Fort Rome, from the great Octavian
who had power over the whole world, an order from Caesar to his wide realm,
sent to every king enthroned in his homeland and to all \ Caesar's army commanders
governing the people of any territory.22 It said that everyone living outside their own
country should. return to their homeland upon receipt of the message. It stated that all
the warrior heroes were to return to their assembly place, each one was to go back to
the clan of which he was a family member by birth in a hill-fort.
That command was sent out over the whole world. People came together at all the hill-forts.
The messengers who had come from Caesar were men who could read and write, and they
wrote everyone's name down very carefully in a report-both name and nationality-so that no
human being could escape from paying the tax which each warrior had on his head.
The good J oseph went also with his household, just as God, ruling mightily, willed it. He
made his way to his shining home, the hill-fort at Bethlehem. This was the assembly place
for both of them, for Joseph the hero and for Mary the good, the holy girl. This was the place
where in olden days the throne of the great and noble good King David stood for as long as
he reigned, enthroned on high, an earl of the Hebrews. Joseph and Mary both belonged by
birth to his household, they were of good family lineage, of David's own clan.
I have heard it told23 that the shining workings [of fate] and the power of God told Mary
that on this journey a son would be granted
22 By eliminating the name of the specific governor given in Luke's gospel
(Lk 2:23: when Quirinius was governor of Syria) and by making the statement
on governorships a general statement in the plural, the author has created the
possibility of his audience identifying closely with his story, since the occupied
country of the Saxons was ruled by military legates (miss!) sent from .Caesar" in Aix-Ia-Chapelle.
23 11Iar gifragn ic 'Then, I have learned' or '1 found out'. This appears to be
an oral formula from heroic poetry indicating the beginning of an important passage.
I translate it I have heard it told. . . whenever it occurs.
16 / The Heliand
her, born in Bethlehem, the strongest child, the most powerful of all kings,
the Great One come powerfully to the light of mankind-just as foretold by
many visions and signs in this world many days before. At that time it all came to
pass, just as wise men had said long ago: that the Protector of People would come
in a humble way, by His own power, to visit this kingdom of earth. His mother, that
most beautiful woman, took Him, wrapped Him in clothes and precious jewels, and then
with her two hands laid Him gently, the little man, that child, in a fodder-crib, even though
He had the power of God, and was the Chieftain of mankind. There the mother sat in front
of Him and remained awake, watching over the holy Child and holding it. And there was
no doubt in the mind or in the heart of the holy maid.~
What had happened became known to many over this wide world. The guards heard it.
As horse-servants they were outside, they were men on sentry duty, watching over the
horses,2S the beasts of the field: they saw the darkness split in two in the sky, and the light
of God came shining through the clouds and surrounded the guards out in the fields.
Those men began to feel fear in their
~ This observation inscrted by the author is no doubt a side remark aimed at
his Saxons, urging them quietly, as he did in the Zachary story, not to doubt
their new faith.
2S The famous sheep and shepherds of Christmas Eve are transformed by the author
into horscs and horse-guards. This cannot be because sheep, wool, and shepherds
were unknown in the North. Quite the opposite should have been the case in a
climate where woolen clothing was preferred. The reason must lie in the social
unacceptability of shepherds. The Heliand is at great pains to show that Joseph
and Mary are upper class, of good family. . . born inside the hi11-fort, and
sheep herders cannot have been acceptable recipients for angelic messages
in the eyes of the Saxon warrior nobility.
Saxon and Carolingian law accepted a rigid stratification of society into three
classcs. The scrfs, scrvants, slaves were at the bottom of society; freemen:
farmers, rlShermen, artisans were the middle class; and the warrior nobility
of the hill-forts and mead-halls were the upper class. Since horses were a
prized item of the upper class, and the hon;e-guards
(the marshalls and equerries of the High Middle Ages) who were responsible
for the horses even at night, must have been their picked and trusted
servants, the Christmas Eve scene is made familiar to the warrior
class, and the alienation that might have been caused by retaining scrfs'
sheep and shepherds is avoided.
The Saxon Gospel/ 17
hearts. They saw the mighty angel of God ct>ming toward them. He spoke
to the guards face to face and told them that they should not fear any harm
from the light. "1 am going to tell you, " he said, "something very wonderful,
something very deeply desired. I want to let you know something very powerful:
Christ is now born, on this very night, God's holy Child, the good Chieftain,
at David's hill-fort. What happiness for the human race, a boon for all men! You
can find Him, the most powerful Child, at Fort Bethlehem. Take what I now tell
you in truthful words as a sign: He is there, wrapped up, lying in a fodder-crib-even
though He is king over all the earth and the heavens and over the sons of all the
peoples, the Ruler of the world." Just as he said that word, an enormous number
of the holy army, the shining people of God, came down to the one angel
from the meadows of heaven, saying many words of praise for the Lord of Peoples.
They then began to sing a holy song as they wended their way through the
clouds towards the meadows of heaven.
The guards heard how the angels in their power praised the allmighty God
most worshipfully in words: "Glory now be," they said, "to the Lord-Chieftain Himself,
in the highest reaches of heaven, and peace on earth to the sons of men, men
of good will, those who because of their clear minds recognize God!"
The herdsmen understood that something great had been told to them-a merry message!
They decided to go to Bethlehem that night, they wanted very much to be
able to see Christ Himself.26
26 The reader may have noticed the complete omission in the Heliand of the no
room for them at the inn part of the Nativity story. Apparently such inhospitable
treatment of a 'well-born, noble' couple would have been unthinkable in a Saxon hillfort,
especially if it were the home fort of their own clan
(and thus the author had transposed the story). The author would
have been obliged to omit it for consistency's sake.
Last Updated 10/23/01 : Questions or Comments about this page: e-mail: melvamc@aol.com
RELS 102, Introduction to Religious Studies - Western Kentucky University
Dr Alan Anderson 102 Handout:
Heliand/Saxon Gospel
http://www.wku.edu/~alan.anderson/102/Handouts/102Heiland-Saxon.html