Eulalia sequence

The Eulalia sequence (French Chanson / Séquence / Cantilène de sainte Eulalie ), which was created around 880, is considered the earliest example of French hagiography and the first literary language monument of French. It is probably much closer to the spoken language of the time than the Strasbourg oaths .

content

The text tells of the martyrdom of the young Eulalia, who drew the wrath of the pagan ruler through her piety. Through torture, she should turn away from Christianity and instead serve the devil. But neither gold nor jewelry could change their mind. She preferred physical agony to loss of her (spiritual) innocence and betrayal of God and was ultimately burned at the stake. However, since her heart was pure from sin, the flames could not harm her, and so she was to suffer death by beheading. She surrendered to the will of God and asked for redemption. When this death penalty was carried out, her soul flew out of her mouth into the sky in the form of a white dove. The brief epilogue closes the poem with a request for intercession .

background

Eulalia of Mérida is a Spanish saint. Her name is made up of the Greek, eu , 'good' and lalein ' to speak' and thus means 'the eloquent'. Their veneration is widespread in the West and in Roman Africa. She appears on mosaic pictures in Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna , and several inscriptions mention her relics . According to the Passio of Prudentius ( Peristephanon , 3rd hymn), as a young girl, she is said to have secretly gone from her parents' estate to the city of Mérida in order to object to the persecution of her fellow believers, which the anger of the ruling emperor Maximian made her brought in. She was captured and tortured with fire (sprinkled with hot oil, burned knees, thrown into the furnace), but miraculously remained unharmed. According to the later legend, when she died, her freed soul rose to heaven as a white dove by the sword. Snow fell, enveloping the corpse. She died on December 10th, 304. This day is also her memorial day. In depictions she is often seen robbed of her breasts by sharp iron hooks, sometimes also crucified. She is also shown standing on a burning pyre, with a martyr's crown and a fiery furnace, which indicates her torture in the fire. However, this furnace is mistakenly interpreted as their cause of death.

The veneration of a martyr of the same name in Barcelona has been attested since the 7th century. Since the sources between the 4th and 6th centuries only know St. Eulalia of Mérida, both are probably identical. Eulalia of Barcelona is said to have been crucified under Emperor Diocletian around 305 at the age of fourteen . In many depictions a man scorches her face with a torch. In Barcelona, a church dedicated to St. Eulalia was built early on, with relics cast into the altar stone. Later legends made her the local saint of Barcelona. Her feast day is February 12th. She is also the patroness of travelers and pregnant women. Parts of her relics are also in the cross altar of the Wroclaw Cathedral .

Tradition, dating and place of origin

The Eulalia sequence has been handed down in a manuscript in the library of Valenciennes (Hs. 150, formerly 143, fol. 141v) and originally comes from the library of the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Amand . It was rediscovered there in 1837 by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben . Researchers are unanimous about the date of their drafting. The sequence is on the last pages of a manuscript by the church father Gregor von Nazianz . It is preceded by its Latin version (Hs. 150, fol. 141r), followed by a poem written in German, the Ludwigslied ( Rithmus teutonicus / Chanson de Louis ), which seems to come from the same writer. This was in honor of Ludwig III. , King of France (son of Louis II. ) ( Einan kuning uueiz ih / Heizsit her hluduig ; Hs. 150, fol. 141v-143r). From the wording it can be concluded that it was created during the king's lifetime, but it was only shortly after the death of Ludwig III. (August 5, 882) transferred into manuscript. There the victory over the Normans at Saucourt (August 3rd, 881) is celebrated. Thus the Eulalia sequence can also be dated to this time (probably no later than 882). According to today's consensus, it was recorded by a monk from the monastery of Saint-Amand shortly after the relics of Eulalia from Barcelona were transferred to the women's monastery in Hasnon near Saint-Amand-les-Eaux in 878. Whether it is about the musician and poet Hucbald († 930) who was active there is, however, controversial.

Due to the language or dialect in which the sequence was written, its place of origin is to be sought in northern France, perhaps even near the Saint-Amand monastery north of Valenciennes, which in the 9th century was an important spiritual, cultural, literary one and represented artistic center. The dialect is therefore to be set in the border area between Picardy and Walloon . The linguistic features from this dialect area are clear (e.g. loss of the unstressed final t in perdesse and arde ; lei is an accented feminine pronoun in the singular as a typical form of the north-eastern dialects), but there are also peculiarities that only exist about the tradition of a supraregional literary language that was predominant at the time, a scripta (inserted d in sostendreiet , voldrent ). So the Eulalia sequence is not a faithful reproduction of the spoken language of the 9th century either. In addition, some words, especially the Latinisms, were probably chosen for their meter rather than the prevailing usage.

The sequence in full

Original text

Buona pulcella fut Eulalia,
Bel auret corps, bellezour anima.
Voldrent la veintre li Deo inimi,
Voldrent la faire diaule servir.
Elle no'nt eskoltet les mals conselliers,
Qu'elle Deo raneiet, chi maent sus en ciel,
Ne por or ned argent ne paramenz
Por manatce regiel ne preiement;
Niule cose non la pouret omque pleier
La polle semper non amast lo deodorant menestier.
E por o fut presentede maximiien,
Chi rex eret a cels dis soure pagiens.
Il li is located, dont lei nonque chielt,
Qued elle fuiet lo nom chrestiien.
Ell'ent adunet lo suon element;
Melz sostendreiet les empedementz
Qu'elle perdesse sa virginitét;
Por os furet morte a grand honestét.
Enz enl fou lo getterent com arde tost;
Elle colpes non avret, por o nos coist.
A czo nos voldret concreidre li rex pagiens;
Ad une spede li roveret tolir lo chieef.
La domnizelle celle kose non contredist:
Volt lo seule lazsier, si ruovet Krist;
In figure de colomb volat a ciel.
Tuit oram que por nos degnet preier
Qued auuisset de nos Christ mercit
Post la mort et a lui nos laist venir
Par souue clementia.

(Version taken from Ayres-Bennett 1996: 31)

New French

Eulalie était une bonne jeune fille.
Elle avait le corps beau et l'âme plus belle encore.
Les ennemis de Dieu voulurent la vaincre;
Ils voulurent lui faire servir le Diable.
Elle n'écoute pas les mauvais conseillers
Qui lui demandent de renier Dieu qui demeure au ciel là-haut,
Ni pour de l'or, ni pour de l'argent, ni pour des bijoux
Ni par la menace ni par les prières du roi.
Rien ne put jamais la faire plier ni amener
La jeune fille à ne pas aimer toujours le service de Dieu.
Et pour cette raison elle fut présentée à Maximien
Qui était en ces temps-là le roi des païens.
Il lui ordonna, corn peu lui chaut,
De renoncer au titre de chrétienne.
Elle rassemble sa force.
Elle préfère subir la torture plutôt
Que de perdre sa virginité.
C'est pourquoi elle mourut avec un grand honor.
Ils la jetèrent dans le feu pour qu'elle brûlât vite.
Elle n'avait pas commis de faute, also elle ne brûla point.
Le roi païen ne voulut pas accepter cela.
Avec une épée, il ordonna de lui couper la tête.
La jeune fille ne protesta pas contre cela.
Elle veut quitter le monde; elle prie le Christ.
Sous la forme d'une colombe, elle s'envole au ciel.
Prions tous qu'elle daigne intercéder pour nous,
Afin que le Christ ait pitié de nous
Après la mort et nous laisse venir à lui
Par sa clémence.

(Version taken from web link no.1 (July 27, 2006).)

German

Eulalia was a good maiden,
Her body was beautiful, her soul even more beautiful.
If they wanted to defeat the enemies of God,
They wanted to make serve the devil.
She didn't listen to the evil advisers
That they renounce God who is enthroned above in heaven.
Not for gold, not for silver, not for jewelry
Nor by royal threat, nor by request;
Nothing could ever bend her
The girl not loving the service to God.
And that's why she was brought before Maximian,
The king was over the Gentiles at this time.
He admonished her, but she didn't care
That she renounce the name of Christ.
She gathered her strength;
She would rather endure the torture
Instead of losing their [spiritual] innocence.
For this she died with great honor.
They threw it into the fire so that it would burn up immediately.
She had no sin, so she did not burn.
The pagan king would not believe that;
With a sword he ordered her head to be cut off
The girl of this thing did not disagree:
Wanted to leave this earthly life, she asked Christ;
She flies into the sky in the shape of a dove.
Let us all ask that she pray for us
That Christ may have grace with us
After death, and let us come to him
Through his mildness.

(Translation by the author of the article. The translation is deliberately based as closely as possible on the old French structure.)

Formal and content properties

Formally, the Eulalia sequence follows the hymn of Prudentius, the Canticum Virginis Eulaliae , which, however, comprises over two hundred verses. The 29 verses of the sequence are of different lengths, and the researchers disagree about the exact metric scheme (mostly 9 to 13 silver and a 7 silver are counted as the final verse). The verses are also characterized by assonance . The original text is written in Carolingian minuscule and is very legible. The genus Sequence (or Cantilène ) owes its origin to the liturgy . It is a melody-independent form of sacred (hagiographic) poetry that emerged in the 9th century. A melody as it is assumed by some researchers is not known. Formally, the Eulalia sequence has remained without a successor. In terms of content, it is in the tradition of the Latin saints' lives . It differs from the Latin version when, for example, Emperor Maximian appears as a judge and Eulalia dies by the sword because the flames cannot harm her.

language

The Eulalia sequence is written in Old French , a language developed from Vulgar Latin . This text has some of the main features of this romana lingua on, such as a profound change in the phonemic system , simplifications in the declension , development towards Verbalperiphrase , the first appearance of the article, of the personal pronoun in the third person, the conditional ( conditionnel ) etc. The form of writing of Old French in the Eulalia sequence is already quite well developed in the rendering of the Phonie. In addition to the decreasing Latinity, one can see an increasing French habitus. Nevertheless, there are still Latinisms ( anima , Deo , inimi , rex , Christ , post , clementia ) and semi-Latinisms ( menestier , colpes , virginitét ). The church was already much closer to the people and the vernacular than, for example, legal texts like the Strasbourg oaths. Many of these words were used in the theological sense, borrowed directly from the Latin liturgy into the vernacular.

Phonology

Vowels

Particularly noticeable are the diphthongized forms of the accented o > uo in free position ( buona , ruovet ), but also e > ei ( concreidere ) or o > ou ( bellezour ). The a in the same position becomes e ( presentede , spede ) or is retained ( buona , pulcella ). However, diphthongization does not appear in monosyllabic words such as por . This word is also an example of metathesis ( por <PRO). Likewise, the lack prosthetic e in Spede (not espede > neufrz. Épée ).

Consonants

The palatalization of the [j] (MINACIA> manatce [ts], BELLATIOREM> bellezour , FUGIAT> fuiet), k or g disappears completely within the word (PLICARE> pleier , PRECAMENTUM> preiement ).

Morphosyntax

Adjective morphology

The new Romance analytical comparative is not yet used here. Bellezour can be seen as a relic of the Latin synthetic comparative (BELLATIOREM).

items

For the first time, definite and indefinite articles are documented in a text. The definite article comes from the Latin demonstrative pronoun ILLE, ILLA ( li Deo inimi , les mals conselliers , lo Deo menestier ). It is used where people or things have already been introduced. If a person or thing is mentioned for the first time, it is preceded by the indefinite article ( ad une spede ). The indefinite article is derived from the Latin numeralia UNUS, UNA. Diaule 'Teufel' is still without an article.

Verbs

Remnants of the Latin past perfect are used here in function of the simple past (HABUERAT> auret ; POTUERAT> pouret ; FUERAT> furet etc.). In addition, the development from synthetic to analytical forms is already evident (e.g. fut presentede as a passive form). There are numerous subjunctive forms (AMAVISSET> amast , PERDIDESSET> perdesse , HABUISSET> auuisset ). These forms of the imperfect subjunctive in French are formed from the Latin past perfect forms, but some have the present tense meaning. The form fut in verse 1 is typical of Old French, where imperfect tends to occur very rarely. However, Eret already appears and is derived from the Latin past tense .

Klitika

Contracted forms are often found in old French texts. In the present text, it is mainly enclitics . If two monosyllabic words follow one another, the last unstressed vowel of the second word is omitted if it is followed by a consonant, and the remaining consonant follows the preceding syllable ( enl < en le ; nos < non se ; no'nt < non inde , whereby ent is also reduced).

sentence position

The sentence order in Old French still shows great flexibility. For example, the first part of verse 2 is characterized by the fact that the subject is not explicitly named and the adjective is separated from its noun by the verb ( Bel auret corps [...] ). In verse 20 the order is S [ubjekt] O [bjekt] V [erb], in verse 27 it is VSO etc.

Lexicons

The vocabulary comes mainly from the religious area and emphasizes the difference between body and mind or soul ( corps / anima ). It also shows that French comes from Vulgar Latin. So fou (> neufrz. Feu ) developed from FOCUS 'fireplace' and not from IGNIS 'fire', the classic Latin form. In contrast, is still found chieef <CAPUT (Head ') rather than the metaphorical form TESTA, clay pot', as evidenced in Vulgar Latin is (neufrz. Tête ).

orthography

The stressed a in an open syllable already appears as e ( spede , portede ), but sometimes also as a ( buona , pulcella , anima ). Here the tradition of Latin orthography is more likely than a phonetic opposition. The lack of standardized orthography is also evident in the case of Krist / Christ . The document manatce with the graphic tc for [ts] confirms the pronunciation with clasp frictional sound , which only later becomes [s]. The sound [k] is rendered orthographically before o as a c ( cose 'chose') and ch before i ( chi 'qui'). Hilty (1990) assumes an anagram for alleluia for the first verse : BuonA puLcELla fUt EulalIA .

Particular difficulties of interpretation

In verse 17, the word virginitét is particularly difficult. Price (1990) emphasizes that Eulalia hardly had to worry about the loss of her virginity, as she was threatened with death. He advocates the interpretation pureté , intégrité , innocence , i.e. spiritual purity, integrity or innocence. Barnett (1959) already saw a metaphorical use in virginitét . So spiritual purity was a fundamental quality of a Christian.

However, verse 15 presents the main problems in the interpretation: ell'ent aduret lo suon element . Three words cause difficulties: ent , aduret and element . The latter can only be explained in context, because element is a direct object of the verb aduret .

Hilty (1990) interprets ent as follows: The adverb has a temporal as well as a causal meaning (after and as a consequence). By ent the negative outcome of entertainment Eulalia with Maximian represented (verses 11-14), but also - global considered - the first part of the sequence with the following logically linked: because it is good and resist all temptations, their martyrdom beginning (vs. 19ff.).

For a long time, researchers and editors only considered the form adunet . In 1938, the American researcher HD Learned examined handwriting more closely. Due to the different ink strengths, he came to the conclusion that the scribe at the time had initially noted an r . In Learned's view, this smudged the still wet ink, and so the r became an n (Learned uses the English word “smear”). As a result, researchers such as Barnett (1961), Avalle (1966) or Hilty (1968) adopted the form aduret . The form adu [?] Et seems to represent a paleographic rather than a philological problem. According to Hilty (1990), aduret , which belongs to the infinitive adurer , has the meaning 'endurer' (to endure). Element should be understood in the sense of one of the four elements, here fire. Fire, Eulalia's instrument of torture, is her element. It becomes her ally who does not want to harm her. In the Latin version, her star shines so brightly after her death because an inner fire glows inside. Thus the verse according to Hilty means "elle endure le feu" (she endures the fire). According to Barnett (1961), however , the letter u stands for the sound [o] or [u] instead of [y], which would result in the verb adorare . Element would then mean 'faux dieu' (false god, idol), which would result in the following interpretation: "Maximien l'exhorte à fuir le nom chrétien et à adorer son faux dieu [le dieu à Maximien]" (Maximian admonishes them, the title To renounce Christianity and [instead] to worship his [the Maximians] idols). Price (1990) agrees with Hilty. However, he also takes the adunet reading into account. Unlike Learned, he sees a conscious correction in the form n . In addition to adurer, adunare is actually also used in late Latin with the meaning of 'réunir' (to gather). So the verse could be: "elle rassemble tout son courage" (she gathers all her courage). At the same time, Price refers to Barnett (1961), according to which neither element nor the Latin etymon ELEMENTUM have the meanings 'courage, force'. Other interpretations of the word element go very far and largely did not find their way into the current doctrine: MENTEM 'esprit' (spirit), ALA MENTE (for ALLA MENTE), 'autrement' (otherwise) or even lenement <LINAMENTUM 'drap de lin', 'Vêtement de lin' (item of laundry).

credentials

source

La Sequence de sainte Eulalie . Manuscript 150, fol. 141v. Bibliothèque municipale de Valenciennes.

literature

Auty, Robert / Robert-Henri Bautier et al. (Ed.): Lexicon of the Middle Ages . Munich: Artemis Verlag 1989, Vol. IV.
Ayres-Bennett, Wendy: A history of the French language through texts . London: Routledge 1996.
Barnett, FJ: 'Virginity' in the old French Sequence of Saint Eulalie. In: French Studies XIII (1959), pp. 252-256.
Barnett, FJ: Some Notes on the Sequence of Saint Eulalia. In: Studies in Medieval French presented to Alfred Ewert in Honor of his Seventieth Birthday . Oxford: Clarendon Press 1961, pp. 1-25.
Bossuat, Robert / Geneviève Hasenohr: Dictionnaire des Lettres Françaises . Vol .: Le Moyen Âge . OO: Fayard 1992.
Hilty, Gerold: La Cantilène de sainte Eulalie: analyze linguistique et stylistique. In: Dion, Marie-Pierre: La Cantilène de sainte Eulalie. Actes du colloque de Valencienne, 21 March 1989 . Lille: ACCES / Valenciennes: Bibliothèque municipale de Valenciennes 1990, pp. 73-79.
Höfer, Josef / Karl Rahmer (Hrsg.): Lexicon for theology and church . Freiburg: Herder 1959, 3rd vol.
Huchon, Mireille: Histoire de la langue française . Paris: Le livre de poche 2002.
Keller, Hiltgart: Reclam's Lexicon of Saints and Biblical Figures . Stuttgart: Reclam 1968.
Klare, Johannes: French language history . Stuttgart et al .: Klett 1998.
Learned, Henry Dexter: The Eulalia Ms. at Line 15 Reads Aduret, not 'Adunet'. In: Speculum 16/3 (1941), pp. 334-335.
Price, Glanville: La Cantilène de sainte Eulalie et leproblemème du vers 15. In: Dion, Marie-Pierre: La Cantilène de sainte Eulalie. Actes du colloque de Valencienne, 21 March 1989 . Lille: ACCES / Valenciennes: Bibliothèque municipale de Valenciennes 1990, pp. 81-87.
Sampson, Rodney: Early Romance Texts: An Anthology . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1980.
Tagliavini, Carlo: Introduction to Romance Philology . From the Ital. transfer by R. Meisterfeld and U. Petersen. 2. verb. Edition. Tübingen et al .: Francke 1998.
Wimmer, Otto / Hartmann Melzer: Lexicon of names and saints . 4th edition. Innsbruck et al .: Tyrolia-Verlag 1982.