Alexius song

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The song of Alexius (French Vie de Saint Alexis ) is an old French literary work that was created around 1050 .

This adaptation of a legend of saints originally written in Latin is considered to be the first surviving French text that shows clear literary, ie artistic, ambition beyond its religious intentions. In form and style, the Alexius song (as the work is usually called in German Romance studies ) is influenced by the genre heroic epic ( chanson de geste ), which was already flourishing when it was first written. It was evidently intended to be performed by Sing-Sang and consists of 125 stanzas of 5 associated ten- syllables each with a caesura after the 4th syllable, the first verses of this type known in French literature. It tells a story that is believed to be based on that of a real person from the early 5th century:

At the beginning of the “plot”, Alexius is the late-born only son of a Roman nobleman , longed for by his parents , who has been introduced to a beautiful career by his father and is appropriately engaged. On the eve of the marriage, however, he explained to his bride that he would not marry but would serve God. He leaves her and his parents without saying goodbye and is led via intermediate stops to Edessa , where he has lived on alms for 17 years as a pious ascetic . B. does not reveal his family members who are looking for him. When he begins to be venerated as a saint in Edessa and a heavenly voice confirms his holiness, he withdraws from worship. He goes on a journey again until the storm takes him back to Rome on a ship. There, unrecognized on the street, he asks his father to give him a place under the stairs in his house out of love for his missing son. Here he lives for another 17 years in poverty from the kitchen scraps and is patiently humiliated by the house staff. Before he dies, he draws up a document thanks to which the Pope, in the presence of his parents, his bride and the emperor, recognizes him as the son of the house and as a holy person. Afterwards he is buried with great pomp and great sympathy of the population, which shows that a place in heaven is certain for him.

The Alexius legend, which calls for an unconditional “ imitatio Christi ” (imitation of Christ), originally came from Syria, from there it reached Constantinople and was translated from Greek into Latin. This version became the basis for adaptations in various European languages ​​in the Middle Ages and early modern times, of which French is the oldest. This is in five z. Some incomplete copies from the 12th and 13th centuries have been preserved and probably come from the northeast of the French-speaking area. However, it has been handed down in a language that is Anglo- Norman colored, i.e. contains elements of the French dialect that the Norman conquerors took with them from Normandy to England in 1066 and spoke as the ruling class there for several generations (until it was absorbed by Anglo-Saxon and with merged him into English ). The author is not named in the text, but it could be Tetbald von Vernon , a canon in Rouen who, around 1050, translated many saints' lives from Latin into Old French.

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