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On the OHG Isidor and Its Significance for Early German Prose Writings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

George Nordmeyer
George Nordmeyer*
Affiliation:
Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
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Extract

The literary register of the German-speaking peoples begins with awkward eighth-century attempts at glossing Latin texts and dictionaries, followed by sundry pieces of translation of mostly catechumenal character, culminating toward the end of the century in the OHG Isidor. For previous generations of German philologists these earliest writing efforts in the German vernacular were of interest and value primarily as attestations of an early period of the language. Twentieth-century research, however, under the vigorous leadership of Georg Baesecke, has tried to assess their import for the history of German literature as the first manifestations of an indigenous literary culture, modest in its beginnings, tortuous in its course, but of a potential vitality that failed of realization only because of unfavorable external circumstances.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 73 , Issue 1 , March 1958 , pp. 23 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1958

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References

1 Esp. in Der deutsche Abrogans u.d. Herkunft d. dt. Schrifttums (Halle, 1930); Der Vocabularius Sti. Galli in der ags. Mission (Halle, 1933); Vor- und Frühgesch. des dt.Schrifttums (Halle, 1940–); “Die Karlische Renaissance u. d. dt. Schrifttum,” Dt. Vierteljahrsschr., Vol. xxiii (1949).

2 Quoted from his preface to Vor- u. Frühgesch.

3 Die dt. Literalur von Karl d. Grossen bis zum Beginn der höfischen Dichtung (München, 1949), p. 1.

4 See Eva Fiesel's excellent study, Die Sprachphilosophie der dt. Romanlik (Tübingen, 1927).

5 See R. Wellek, A History oj Mod. Criticism: 1750–1950 (New Haven, 1955–), ii, 7.

6 Zum Wortschatz des Keronischen Glossars (Heidelberg, 1912).

7 In Altdeutsches Wort- und Wortkunstwerk. Festschr. f. G. Baesecke (Halle, 1941), p. 124 ff.

8 According to W. Betz, Der Einftuss des Lat. auf den ahd. Sprachschatz (Heidelberg, 1936).

9 Deulsch u. Lateinisch. Die Lehnbildungen der ahd. Benediktinerregel (Bonn, 1949).

10 J. Trier, Der deulsche Worlschalz im Sinnbezirk des Verstandes (Heidelberg, 1931), p. 33.

11 See E. R. Curtius, Europäische Literatur u. lot. Mittelalter (Bern, 1948), p. 33.

12 Fully discussed in O. Springer, “Otfrid von Weissenburg: Barbarismus et Soloecismus. Studies in the Medieval Theory and Practice of Translation,” Symposium (May 1947).

13 Otfrids Sprache u. d. akd. Bibelglossare (Bonn, 1912).

14 R. Kögel, Gesch. d. dt. Litt. (Strassburg, 1894); Unwerth-Siebs, Gesch. d. dt. Lit. ... (Berlin u. Leipzig, 1920); G. Ehrismann, Gesch. d. dt. Lit. ..., Bd. I2 (Miinchen, 1932); J. K. Bostock, A Handbook on OHG Literature (Oxford, 1955); H. Kowalski-Fahrun, “Alkuin u. d. ahd. Isidor,” Beitr., Vol. xlvii (1921), 321 ff.; W. Bruckner, “Zur Orthographie d. ahd. Isidoriibersetzung und zur Frage nach der Heimat des Denkmals,” Festschr. Gustav Binz (Basel, 1935); on Murbach as place of origin, see de Boor, p. 32, rejecting Nutzhorn's thesis in ZfdPh, Vol. xliv (1912) very convincingly.

15 There are 4 genc in T, which may be archaisms according to W. G. Moulton, writing on Tatian in PMLA, lix (June 1944), 307–334.

16 Der ahd. Isidor (Strassburg, 1893), p. 66.

17 So Baesecke, Einfilhrung in das Ahd. (München, 1918).

18 So Schatz, Ahd. Grammatik (Göttingen, 1927).

19 Written as ilhniuuues, which Hench (p. 81) takes as an unusual development of Gmc. d; but it may be due to a confusion with the pronominal prefix ette(s)-, which the Isidor would most likely have had in the form eth-; cf. Is. fetltdhakha. It is curious in any case that in the 2 Alemannic vocables itniuuues and antlutli, scribal errors of th for t should appear; cf. anthlutte 5, 18.

20 See Th. Frings, Grundlegung einer Geschichte der dt. Sprache (Halle, 1948), pp. 12, 14, and map on p. 63.

21 Ueber syntaklische Mitlel des Ausdrucks im ahd. Isidor ... (Paderborn, 1888); Der Satzbau des ahd. Isidor ... (Berlin, 1888).

22 No specific references about occurrences in the Isidor are given where Hench's glossary permits quick spotting.

23 Annales regni Francorum for 792: “... Reganesburg. Heresis Feliciana primo ibi condempnata est”; for 794: “... in Franconofurt. ... Ibi tertio condempnata est heresis Feliciana, quam dampnationem per auctoritatem sanctorum patrum in libro conscripserunt, quem librum omnes sacerdotes manibus propriis subscripserunt.”

24 Alcuin rejected this emphatically, holding that the reference in Isaiah was to Cyrus the King; this is a strong reason for rejecting Alcuin as instigator of the OHG Isidor translation.

25 See esp. his “Eginhard, biographe de Charlemagne,” Bibl. d'Humanisme el Renaissance, Vol. xiii (1951), 217 ff.

26 In “Topos und Gedankengefüge bet Einhard,” Arch. f. Kulturgesch., Vol. xxxiii (1951), 337 ff.

27 The linguistic character of the names themselves points more to the Maingau (where Einhard was born) than to the presumed Frankish dialect of the Aachen court, which must have been closer to the language of the Isidor and the Strassburger Eide.

28 Cf. B. Gebhardt, Handbuch d. dt. Geschichte 8 (Stuttgart, 1954), p. 139 ff.