The Heliand: The Saxon Gospel

By: Murphy, G. Ronald

Book Overview

A spirited retelling of the Gospel story in a Germanic setting, the ninth-century A.D. Old Saxon epic poem The Heliand is at last available in English in Ronald Murphy's graceful new translation. Representing the first full integration and poetic reworking of the Gospel story into Northern European warrior imagery and culture, the poem finds a place for many Old Northern religious concepts and images while remaining faithful to the orthodox Christian...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195073762
• ISBN13: 9780195073768
• Release Date: August 1992
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.2"

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An Important Fossil in the Evolution of Christianity

Christianity has not been as uniform and unchanging as many American evangelicals want to believe. People have notions of "primitive" Christianity before the transformation of the Church under the Roman Emperor Constantine, and protestants of all demoninations are well aware that their religion underwent drastic changes in the era of the so-called Reformation. These days, many are also aware of the Gnostic alternative that competed with orthodox Christianity for centuries. Likewise, most American Christians have a vague awareness that Coptic, Armenian, Greek, and Russian Orthodoxy all maintain uncomfortably different doctrines. But, unless I'm terribly mistaken, rather few devout fundamentalists are aware of the scope of alternatives in the history of Christianity, of the widespread and long-lasting "heresies" like Arianism, Donatism, the Albigensians, or the Bogomils. Then there are more recent alternatives, some of them quite drastic in their difference: Shakers, Quakers, the Kingdom of Matthias, the Latter Day Saints, the followers of Hauge in Scandinavia, the Swedenborgians, not to mention syncretic variants combining Judeo-Christian material with indigenous religious ideas in almost every country where missionaries have be active. Christianity is not a constant. The earliest translation of the Gospel stories into a northern European language was made by a Goth named Ulfilas; the Goths were strenuous adherents to the Arian heresy. Then, in approximately 835, an anonymous East Saxon "scop", or bard, synthesized the four Gospel narratives into a single text, large portions of which have survived. Given the name "Heliand" (Savior) by later scholars, this gospel narrates the life of Jesus in the alliterative epic style familiar from Beowolf, written at least 100 years later. In the Heliand, Jesus is portrayed as a warrior chieftain, and his disciples as warrior thanes. Much of the imagery used to depict Jesus comes directly from the images of Odin, who also sacrificed himself to himself to achieve "wisdom", or magical power. But Jesus is more powerful than Odin, as portrayed by the anonymous Saxon, because while Odin will perish in Ragnarok (the End of Time), Jesus will survive. Throughout the Heliand, not only the scenery and social structure of the New Testament but also the moral standards and expectations of Christianity are carefully modified to appeal to the Germanic tribesmen. Such accomodations were ultimately effective in conversion, particularly when backed up by the logistically superior military of Charlemagne. So what, you ask! It seems to me that a recognition of the diversity of "spiritual truths" in the history of Christianity should give the intolerant politicized fundamentalists of the USA today something to think about.

A Fresh Take on the Gospels

You know how the Message paraphrase helps you think about what the gospels really mean? The Heliand, a harmony of the gospels written by missionaries to the Saxons, does the same thing as well as giving you an insight into their culture. This was required reading in my Church History course, but I have given the book to many lay people who loved it too.