Millstatt blood blessing

The Millstaetter blood blessing (also Millstaetter blood spell ) is a rhyme medieval magic blessing from the group of Jordan blessing (including the so-called Selestat blood blessing is one) or a prayer that the Wenten was therefore, used for "telling of" diseases and in its function Spell corresponds. The blessing or prayer should be used to stop bleeding (for example in case of nosebleeds) and comes from the early 12th century and was probably written in an older Latin-language code in the later storage location, the Millstatt Benedictine Abbey in Carinthia. The language of the text is Bavarian - Alemannic Middle High German , but before the New High German diphthongization that spread from this region in the same century .

origin

The Millstätter Blutsegen has been preserved in two medieval versions. The older one is now in the Austrian National Library in Vienna and can be found in Codex 1705 on page 32r. This codex comes from the Millstatt Abbey and was only bound from individual pieces in the 15th century. For this reason, it was assumed that the sheet on which the blessing of blood is actually from the monastery of St. Blasien in the former Upper Austrian southern Black Forest and was brought to Carinthia after the monastery was dissolved in 1806. This assumption has not yet been confirmed or refuted. In phonetic history, the Bavarian-Austrian and Alemannic dialects only drifted apart as a result of the diphthongization in the 12th century, which is why it is not exactly clear from the relatively short text at this time whether the language of the blood blessing is more suitable for the Carinthia region or the Black Forest.

A second version can be found in a Northern Italian codex from the 9th century, which was located north of the Alps from the 11th century and in which several blessings were inscribed in the 12th and 13th centuries, including the blood blessing. Later this codex was in the possession of the Strasbourg Senator Sebastian Mieg and after his death in 1609 it was acquired by the Swedish scholar Johannes Scheffer and brought from Alsace to Uppsala . In 1719, his heirs donated the codex to the local university, where it is still in the archive today.

text

Original version	translation
The heligo Christ was born ce Bethlehem then quam return ce Jerusalem there he was disguised bye Johanne in demo Jordane Duo understuont the Jordanis fluz und der sin runst So you verstant - bluotrinna by the holy Christes minna you verstant on the note so the Jordan did duo the guote sancte Johannes the holy Christ toufta verstant du - bluotrinna durh des heliges Christes minna	The holy Christ was born in Bethlehem then he came back to Jerusalem there he was baptized by John in the Jordan There the river Jordan stopped and also its channels So stop you - blood channels through the holy Christ's love you stop exactly out of trouble just as the Jordan did, where the good Saint John baptized the holy Christ, stand still you gullies of blood through the holy Christ's love.

See also

• Abdinghof blood blessing

literature

• Hans-Hugo Steinhoff: Millstatt blood blessing. In: Author's Lexicon . Volume VI, Col. 531.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ruhr-Uni Bochum: Millstätter Blutspruch ( Memento of the original from March 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Blood blessing to conjure up bleeding with motifs from the Bible (passage of the Israelites through the Jordan and the Red Sea, baptism of Jesus Christ in the standing Jordan). See Hans-Hugo Steinhoff: 'Ad fluxum sanguinis narium'. In: Author's Lexicon . 2nd Edition. Volume 1, Col. 29.
3. ↑ Wolf-Dieter Müller-Jahncke : Jordan blessing. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 704 f. ("Magical blessing based on the standstill of the water according to biblical tradition. [...]").
4. ↑ Hans-Hugo Steinhoff: 'Schlettstädter Blutsegen Wazzer fluzit Iordan heizzit'. In: Author's Lexicon . 2nd Edition. Volume 8, Col. 714. f.
5. ^ Marburg Repertory: Vienna, Österr. Nationalbibl., Cod. 1705  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ^ Rolf Bergmann, et al .: Catalog of the Old High German and Old Saxon gloss manuscripts ; Uppsala, Universitetsbiblioteket C. 664 ; Walter de Gruyter, 2005, ISBN 3-11-018272-6
7. ↑ Marburg Repertory: Uppsala, Universitätsbibl., Cod. C 664, rear mirror sheet ( Memento of the original from June 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( Writing language: ostalem.-bair. ) 
8. ^ Heinrich Beck, Heiko Uecker: Studies on the old Germanic ; Page 567; Walter de Gruyter, 1994, ISBN 3-11-012978-7