The Wessobrunn Prayer, sometimes called the Wessobrunn Creation Poem , believed to date from c790, is among the earliest known poetic works in Old High German

Old High German

The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...

.

Origins

The poem is named after Wessobrunn Abbey

Wessobrunn Abbey

Wessobrunn Abbey was a Benedictine monastery near Weilheim in Bavaria, Germany.It is celebrated as the home of the famous Wessobrunn Prayer and also of a Baroque school of stucco workers and plasterers in the 18th century....

, a Benedictine monastery at in Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

, for centuries the repository of the sole manuscript, which is now in the Bavarian State Library

Bavarian State Library

The Bavarian State Library in Munich is the central "Landesbibliothek", i. e. the state library of the Free State of Bavaria and one of Europe's most important universal libraries. With its collections currently comprising around 9.39 million books, it ranks among the best research libraries...

 in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

 http://www.bsb-muenchen.de/ (ref: Clm 22053, III, ff 65b/66a).

The date of composition is put at around 790 or a little later, while the surviving manuscript dates from about 814. The author of the verses is unknown, although from the content and a couple of linguistic features (see below), it seems highly probable that it was composed after an Anglo-Saxon model for use in the Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 missions to the heathen taking place in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 at this time.

The place of origin of the manuscript is also unknown. It was not written in Wessobrunn; a number of Bavarian religious establishments could have produced it, the most likely being Augsburg

Augsburg

Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...

 or Regensburg

Regensburg

Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...

. The conspicuous oddity in this manuscript of the use of the star-rune as a shorthand symbol for the syllable "ga-" is shared by only one other manuscript, also Bavarian, viz., Arundel MS. 393 in the British Library

British Library

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...

.

Description

The poem is in two sections: the first is a praise of creation in nine lines of alliterative

Alliteration

In language, alliteration refers to the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of Three or more words or phrases. Alliteration has historically developed largely through poetry, in which it more narrowly refers to the repetition of a consonant in any syllables that, according to...

 verse, and the second is the actual prayer, in free prose. The two together constitute a prayer for the wisdom and strength to avoid sin.

The two-part structure is reminiscent of Germanic magic spells (as evidenced for example in the Merseburg Spells

Merseburg Incantations

The Merseburg Incantations are two medieval magic spells, charms or incantations, written in Old High German. They are the only known examples of Germanic pagan belief preserved in this language...

): a transcendental precedent is first evoked (in this instance the gift of creation made to human beings by the Creator), according to the pattern of which the thing prayed for may be performed.

Some features in the first section reflect the language and idiom of Old German oral epics, using stem- and introductory formulae known from the Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

 and Old Saxon

Old Saxon

Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, is the earliest recorded form of Low German, documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it evolved into Middle Low German. It was spoken on the north-west coast of Germany and in the Netherlands by Saxon peoples...

 traditions (manno miltisto, dat gafregin ih). The concept of creation from nothing (creatio ex nihilo) described here is however genuinely Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

. It has been speculated that the first five lines may once have been, or formed part of, an independent cosmogony.

Text

Original text	English translation
De Poeta Dat gafregin ih mit firahim firiuuizzo meista Dat ero ni uuas noh ufhimil noh paum noh pereg ni uuas ni [...] nohheinig noh sunna ni scein noh mano ni liuhta noh der mareo seo Do dar niuuiht ni uuas enteo ni uuenteo enti do uuas der eino almahtico cot manno miltisto enti dar uuarun auh manake mit inan cootlihhe geista enti cot heilac [...] Cot almahtico, du himil enti erda gauuorahtos enti du mannun so manac coot forgapi forgip mir in dina ganada rehta galaupa enti cotan uuilleon uuistom enti spahida enti craft tiuflun za uuidarstantanne enti arc za piuuisanne enti dinan uuilleon za gauurchanne	Of the Creator This I learnt among mortal men as the greatest wonder That there was neither the earth nor the heaven above Nor was there any tree nor mountain Neither any [star] at all, nor did the sun shine Nor the moon gleam, nor [was there] the glorious sea. When there was nothing, no ending and no limits, There was the One Almighty God Of all beings the greatest in grace, and many with him, Good spirits, and God [is] holy. Almighty God, Who created heaven and earth and gave so much good to men, in Your grace give me right belief and good will, wisdom, wit and strength to resist devils and turn from evil and do Your will.

Adaptations

The poem has been set to music many times in the 20th century. Arrangements include those by Heinrich Kaminski

Heinrich Kaminski

- Life :Kaminski was born in Tiengen in the Schwarzwald, the son of an Old Catholic priest of Jewish parentage. After a short period working in a bank in Offenbach, he moved to Heidelberg, originally to study politics. However, a chance meeting with Martha Warburg changed his mind: she recognised...

 as part of the work Triptychon for voice and organ (1931), and by his pupil Carl Orff

Carl Orff

Carl Orff was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana . In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential method of music education for children.-Early life:...

, published as part of the series Schulwerk (1950–54). Other settings include those by Hans Josef Wedig, op. 11, (Version 1) (1937), for male choir and organ, and the motet

Motet

In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...

 Mir gestand der Sterblichen Staunen als der Wunder grösstes... by Leopold Katt (d 1965).

More recent interpretations by composers in the classical tradition include those by Felix Werder

Felix Werder

Felix Werder is an Australian-based German composer of classical and electronic music; also a noted critic and educator. The son of a distinguished liturgical composer, he has composed all his life; he has an international reputation and is one of Australia's most performed composers...

 in 1975 for voice and small orchestra, and by Michael Radulescu

Michael Radulescu

Michael Radulescu is a Romanian-German composer, organist, and professor.He was born to a Romanian father and a German mother. He studied with Anton Heiller and Hans Swarowsky at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria....

 in two works: De Poëta in 1988 for four choirs and bells, and in another arrangement of 1991 re-worked in 1998 for soprano and organ.

One of the most unusual settings is by the German composer Helmut Lachenmann

Helmut Lachenmann

Helmut Lachenmann is a German composer associated with musique concrète instrumentale.-Life and works:...

 in his Consolation II (1968), in which component phonetic parts of the words of the prayer are vocalised separately by the 16 solo voices in a texture of vocal 'music concrete'.

The Wessobrunner Gebet has also been set by the German mediaevally-inspired groups Estampie

Estampie

The Estampie is a medieval dance and musical form, it was a popular instrumental style of the 13th and 14th centuries.-Musical Form:The estampie consists of four to seven sections, called puncta, each of which is repeated, in the form...

 on their CD Fin Amor (2002) and In Extremo

In Extremo

In Extremo is a German medieval metal band originating from Berlin. The band's musical style combines metal with medieval traditional songs, blending the sound of the standard rock/metal instruments with historical instruments...

 on theirs, Mein rasend Herz

Mein Rasend Herz

Mein Rasend Herz is the fifth folk metal album by the German band In Extremo. It was released on May 30, 2005 by Island Records and entered the German Media Control Charts at #3, its eventual peak position. It was preceded by the singles Nur Ihr Allein , Horizont , and Liam , all featured on this...

(2005).

External links

E-Text of the Wessobrunner Prayer (Bibliotheca Augustana)

• Another translation into modern German, with notes(University of Dallas)