[MR] new vs. old

[SNSpies at aol.com]

The very best example I know of that shows how the incoming Church tried 
purposefully to overlay and supersede existing practices and beliefs is the 
"Heliand", the ninth-century gospels rewritten, well, actually retold, 
reconfigured but definitely not translated, in Old Saxon specifically for the 
local Germanic audience.  

The first "song" is subtitled "The Creator's spell, by which the whole world 
is held together, is taught to four heroes".  In Song 2, God the All-Ruler 
requests that Zachary raise John to practice the warrior virtue of 
'unflinching loyalty to one's chieftain, especially in battle".  The reason 
God gives is that He wishes to make John a 'warrior-companion of the King of 
Heaven', a very Saxon concept.

Song 5 concerns The Chieftain of mankind being born in David's hill-fort.  
The biblical sheep and shepherds become horses and horse-guards;  there is no 
"no room at the inn" as this was an unthinkable concept to Saxon hospitality 
beliefs.

In Song 7, three thanes come from the East, led by the workings of fate and 
following a bright shining beacon.  

Christ doesn't go into the desert for 40 days;  he enters a forest.  When He 
spoke to his warrior-companions on the mountain, he spoke in soothsaying 
rather than delivering beatitudes.  We read about the secret runes of the 
Lord's Prayer.  

At the marriage feast in the guest-hall at Fort Cana, "the conviviality of 
the earls in the drinking hall was a beautiful sight, and the men on the 
benches had reached a very high level of bliss, they were really happy!"  And 
in Song 66, the Chieftain is hanged on the criminal tree.

This is a fascinating document, and I would recommend it highly to anyone 
interested in how the Church spread throughout Europe during the Middle Ages.

Ingvild