Carmen de bello saxonico

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Carmen de bello saxonico ( Song of the Saxon War ) is a hexametric poem about the conflicts between Henry IV and the Saxons .

The poem describes in three books with a total of 757 hexameters the first years of the Saxon uprising up to the final submission of the rebellious Saxons in Spier in October 1075. The representation of the Carmen is limited to the Harz area. The first book deals with the lawlessness that prevailed in Saxony when Henry IV was a minor. The Carmen makes it clear that these conditions prompted the king to intervene in Saxony. During this time there was no respect for the law, no difference between right and wrong. According to the law of the strongest, the churches, the poor, widows and orphans have their property taken by force. As an adult, Heinrich restored law and order and returned the stolen goods to the injured party. This crackdown caused fear and pain in the Saxons, so that they decided to go to war against the king. The second book describes how Heinrich gathered an imperial army in the autumn of 1073 and moved a small army against the numerically larger Saxon army. The royal campaign is celebrated as a brilliant success. It is not mentioned that Heinrich had to sign a contract in which he largely had to fulfill the Saxon demands for the castle to be destroyed. The third book tells of the destruction of the Harzburg by the Saxons in March 1074, which is presented as an illegal and criminal enterprise. It follows the royal victory in the battle of the Unstrut and the submission of the Saxons. The book ends with a warning to the king to show leniency towards the vanquished. The author fully adopts the royal view. From the beginning of Carmen, the king is presented as the ideal embodiment of Christian virtues. Thanks to pietas and virtus , which he inherited from his forefathers, he is at the forefront. The Saxons are portrayed as rampant and peace-breaking or similarly negative. Every success of the Saxons is based on cunning and crime or is completely concealed. The king, however, always wins and defeats are ignored.

The unknown author used Virgil in particular , but also Lukan and Horace . He knew Ovid and Sedulius, and his verses have echoes of Venantius Fortunatus and the Poeta Saxo . Except for an obvious proximity to the royal court, there are no direct references to the author in the verses. Assumptions by Albert Wilhelm Pannenborg the author of Carmen could be identified with Lampert von Hersfeld , were quickly refuted. Wilhelm Gundlach considered Gottschalk von Aachen to be the author of both Carmen and Vita Heinrici IV. Imperatoris . Gundlach was unable to assert himself with his interpretation that Gottschalk von Aachen was the author. It is now considered certain that the author of Carmen is identical to the Vita Heinrici IV. Imperatoris, which was written only three decades later. Due to the exact knowledge of the conditions in Saxony and his intention to put the king mildly through the Carmen, it is possible that the author of the Carmen was a king-friendly Saxon who, following the Carolingian model, reconciled his people with the king wanted to.

The handwritten epic has only come down to us in a copy from the 16th century. Georg Heinrich Pertz first introduced the poem to an academic audience in 1851 and identified its origins in humanism . However, it could be shown from certain peculiarities of the copy that it must have been based on a manuscript from the late 11th century or early 12th century. According to current research opinion, the poem was completed by the turn of the year 1075/76 at the latest.

Work editions

  • Franz-Josef Schmale , Irene Schmale-Ott : Sources on the history of Emperor Heinrich IV. Latin and German. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2006 (Selected Sources on German History of the Middle Ages Freiherr vom Stein Memorial Edition; 12). 5th edition, unchanged. Reprint of the 4th edition, Darmstadt 2006 ISBN 3-534-19876-X . (contains the Carmen de bello saxonico. Das Lied vom Sachsenkrieg (p. 143–189))

literature

  • Bernhard Vogel: On the source value of the Carmen de bello Saxonico. In: German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages , Vol. 52 (1996), pp. 85-133. ( Digitized version )
  • Manfred Schluck: The Vita Heinrici IV. Imperatoris. Her contemporary sources and her special relationship to Carmen de bello Saxonico (= lectures and research. Volume 26). Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1979, ISBN 3-7995-6686-4 (also: Marburg, University, dissertation, 1971).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Franz-Josef Schmale, Irene Schmale-Ott: Introduction to Carmen de bello saxonico. In: Sources on the history of Emperor Heinrich IV. 5th edition, unaltered reprint of the 4th edition, Darmstadt 2006, pp. 20–27, here: p. 23.
  2. ↑ Carmen I, 8ff.
  3. ^ Albert Wilhelm Pannenborg: The Carmen de bello Saxonico Lamberts von Hersfeld. Goettingen 1892.
  4. ^ Wilhelm Gundlach: About the author of the Carmen de bello Saxonico. In: A dictator from Heinrich IV's office , Innsbruck 1884, pp. 147–195.
  5. ↑ Franz-Josef Schmale, Irene Schmale-Ott: Introduction to Carmen de bello saxonico. In: Sources on the history of Emperor Heinrich IV. 5th edition, unchanged reprint of the 4th edition, Darmstadt 2006, pp. 20-27, here: p. 25.
  6. ↑ Bernhard Vogel: On the source value of Carmen de bello Saxonico In: German Archives for Research into the Middle Ages , Vol. 52 (1996), pp. 85-133, here: p. 132.
  7. ↑ Bernhard Vogel: On the source value of Carmen de bello Saxonico In: German Archives for Research into the Middle Ages , Vol. 52 (1996), pp. 85-133, here: p. 87.