LC 679 / GER 679 / LING 689 / ENGL 696/ OLD SAXON

Fall 2016 Fall Semester Tues & Thurs 10:30-11:45 am

"The Heliand has a unique aura Prof. John in the history of literature. Sundquist Its contemplative integration of Northern-European magic, sooth- saying, wizardry, fatalistic warrior [email protected] virtues, personal mysticism, and the Christian gospel story give it a compelling power and charm."

Ronald G. Murphy in The Heliand (1992) Old Saxon (Fall 2016)

Old Saxon was the language There are various short textual Goals for the course: spoken and written in north- fragments from this period, but 1. Students will become familiar western and parts of most of our understanding of the with various aspects of Old Saxon between the 9th and Old Saxon language and culture grammar and vocabulary. 12th centuries. The language has a comes from the long epic poem-- 2. Students will become familiar number of similarities with Old the Hêliand -- from ca. 825. The with scholarship on the Old Saxon English, , and Old Hêliand is a translation of the language and literature and earlier High German. gospel written in Germanic long- Germanic culture. In this course, students will line form. It is a unique text which 3. Knowledge of the Old Saxon learn to read and translate Old synthesizes Christian and early language and scholarship will help Saxon while familiarizing Germanic religious tradition by serve as a foundation or themselves with previous retelling the gospel story through compliment to subsequent or scholarship on the language and the perspective of the previous studies in the areas of literature of this period. In contemporary Germanic value medieval literature and culture. addition to translation and system. We will primarily linguistic analysis of the texts, the concentrate on the Hêliand in this Note: knowledge of German or course will examine cultural and course, although some attention another early Germanic language literary topics relevant to the will be paid to the short Genesis (e.g., ) is useful but not readings. Assignments will consist fragment. required. of daily translation, oral presentations, a midterm This course is ideal for students in For any questions, feel free to examination, and a seminar paper. linguistics or medieval studies. contact: [email protected]