Incantations as the Oldest Documents in Old High German
The Merseburg Imperial Cathedral, beautifully situated on the Saale river, is considered one of the most important cathedral buildings in Germany and is a jewel on the Romanesque Road. Merseburg Cathedral has been guarding a very special treasure for centuries: the Merseburg Incantations.
In the 9th or 10th century at the latest, two magical incantations that had been handed down orally from pre-Christian times were neatly written down on parchment by a monk. The single leaf was almost inconspicuously integrated into a collection of writings and came to Merseburg as a gift from the Fulda monastery. It was not until the 19th century that historian Georg Waitz rediscovered this unique piece of pagan writing by chance. The two incantations serve to free a prisoner and heal an injured horse's foot. But their magic goes far beyond the actual incantations. Thanks to this written tradition, we gain a direct insight into the culture of our region over 1,000 years ago, the rhythm and sound of the Old High German language and the world of the gods in pre-Christian times. Jakob Grimm chose the Merseburg spells as the subject of his inaugural lecture at the Berlin Academy of Sciences and Humanities and praised them as a "treasure that no library in Germany ... has anything equal to set beside."
For conservation reasons, the original is kept safe like a treasure in the Merseburg Cathedral Abbey Library and is only presented on very special occasions - and even then only for a short time.
A detailed handwritten copy of the magical lines, a so-called facsimile, is exhibited in the spell vault in the south cloister of Merseburg Cathedral and the mystical sound of the spoken words "Ben zibena bluot zibluoda" enchants the listener.
