#Germanic literature

[merovingian-marvels]

Merseburger Spells

The Merseburg Spells or Incantations are two magic spells found in a Latin Sacramentarium and are written in Carolingian minuskel. The manuscript originates from the Abbey of Fulda, Germany and are dated around 800-900 AD, but only rediscovered in 1841.

The spells do not show any sign of Christian influence and are the only written proof of Germanic mythology in Old High German.

The first spell tells of prisoners of war which are freed by the Idisi. An unknown kind of god-like figures, possibly a Germanic version of Valkyries.

The second spell is a healing incantation. Wotan rides through the woods with Balder, until Balders horse named Phol gets hurt. Wotan, Friia (Freya), her sister Volla and Sinthgund and her sister Sunna sing to the horse; let your wounds be cured.

There are other version of the second spell known, but in different rhyming couplets and turned into a Christian motive.

English and Dutch speakers may identify most of the words without knowing the lyrics first.

Merseburger Domstiftbibliothek, codex 136, f85r

[gawrkin]

I was today years old when I remembered that Beowulf, Hrolf Kraki, some of the Irish King cycle characters and Dietrich von Bern (Theodoric the Great) all lived together during the reign of King Arthur.

500 A.D./Early 6th Century was a wild time.

[daweyt]

Thomas Mann, from “Death in Venice”, originally published c. 1912.

[feral-ballad]

Rose Ausländer, tr. Eavan Boland, from After Every War: Twentieth-Century Women Poets; "My Nightingale"

[Text ID: "Her honey-brown eyes / and her loveliness"]

[rialtoir]

Richard Wagners Parsifal × das dinc (die Schüssel aus dem Schrank deiner (Groß-)Eltern)

[sictransitgloriamvndi]

[megairea]

I was in the land of the moon and I’ve come back, and here you are and you are life.

Erich Maria Remarque, Arch of Triumph (tr. by Walter Sorell & Denver Lindley), 1945

[eirene]

Ophelia, ca. 1869

Victor Müller

[luthienne]

Paul Celan, Selections

[Text ID: Memory, / set up your flag at half-mast. / At half-mast / today and forever.]

[itsagrummel]

just a normal day on german twitter with this tweet by El Hotzo

Harry Potter:

arrogant celeb

goes to a posh school in a castle in England

did not learn something proper

needed 7 books to kill the villain

Krabat:

normal dude

works at a mill in Lusatia

based apprenticeship as a miller

1 book, quick work with the villain

[lepetitdragonvert]

The Six Swans

Artist : Patrick James Lynch

[notforeveryonesk6666]

I always loved those autumn eyes of yours

[s-u-w-i]

Finally, after years of thinking about it I had a moment (because I was sick and not quite up to doing any actual work) to draw something for Otfried Preußler's Krabat 🦴 From left to right - Tonda, Jura, Hanzo, Lyško, Stašek, Petr, Merten, Michal, Kubo, Andruš, and Kito (I only know the Czech names, sorry!)

[kikihesterkamp]

Ich habe eigentlich gerne gelesen, aber manche Bücher im Deutschunterricht...

Gerne auch mit Begründung

[escapismsworld]

Two Skulls In A Window Niche, by Hans Holbein The Younger (German, 1497-1543), 1520

[noctilucentis]