Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Hêliand

HÊLIAND (i.e., Heiland) is an Old Saxon poem of the 9th century. According to some critics it is a fragment of a larger work which dealt with the entire historical material of the Old and New Testaments. The part which we now possess sets forth the life of Christ as told by the four evangelists, whose various narratives the author seeks to harmonize. The poem is said to have been composed by a Saxon writer at the request of the emperor Louis the Pious; but who the author was, except that he was a Saxon, we have no means of knowing. The general opinion is that he lived in Westphalia, but even this is uncertain. Like all the most ancient remains of Teutonic poetry, Hêliand is written in alliterative verse, of which the writer had a perfect mastery. It is almost the only remnant of the Old Saxon dialect, and has therefore a high philological value, but it is still more interesting from a literary point of view. The poet does not merely repeat his authorities; while true to the main facts of the original story, he allows his imagination to play upon them in a free and poetic spirit. He realized with intense force the incidents in the career of the Founder of Christianity, and gives vitality and definiteness to the received conception of His character. The diction is simple and popular, but marked by an elevation of sentiment adapted to the theme and to its epic treatment; and by a happy phrase the author often succeeds in imparting to his style colour, variety, and animation. The 9th century is remarkable in the history of Old English and of Old Norse poetry; the Hêliand affords proof that the impulse which revealed itself in these two literatures was also experienced to the full by the higher minds of Germany. The historical aspects of this great work are hardly less important than those which claim the attention of the purely literary student. Of all the German tribes the Saxons were the last to submit to the influence of Christianity. They regarded baptism as the symbol of Frankish supremacy, and clung as long as they could to the ancient Teutonic faith. Not until Charlemagne, after more than thirty years of warfare, forced upon them Frankish institutions did they generally accept the new creed, and even then, while they talked of Christ and the saints, they thought of Wodan and Thor, and took delight in the heathen poetry which had been handed down from remote periods. Louis the Pious was of a gentle and conciliatory nature, and by treating the Saxons with kindness obliterated to a large extent the recollection of his father’s severity. Hêliand was one of the works with which he and the clergy endeavoured to replace pagan literature, so that we may regard it as the monument of a struggle between two civilizations. The author is dominated by the ideals and the sympathies of the Catholic Church, but occasional touches remind us of the order of life that was passing away, and these have been found suggestive by writers on German archæology.

Hêliand received its name from A. Schmeller, who edited it (Munich, 1830–40) from the two existing manuscripts, one of which is in the British Museum, the other in Munich (formerly in Bamberg). More recent editions have been issued by Köne (Münster, 1855, accompanied by a modern rendering), Heyne (2d ed. Paderborn, 1873), and Rückert (4th volume of Deutsche Dichtungen des Mittelalters, Leipsic, 1876). There are renderings into modern German by Kannegiesser (Berlin, 1847), Grein (Rinteln, 1854; improved edition, Cassel, 1869), Rapp (Stuttgart, 1856), and Simrock (2d ed. Elberfeld, 1866). See also Vilmar, Deutsche Alterthümer im Hêliand (2d ed., Marburg, 1862); Windisch, Der Hêliand und seine Quellen (Leipsic, 1868); Grein, Die Quellen des Hêliands (Cassel, 1869); and Sievers Der Hêliand und die angelsächsische Genesis (Halle, 1875).