The ''Old Saxon Baptismal Vow'', also called the ''Old Saxon Catechism'', ''Utrecht Baptismal Vow'' and ''Abrenuntiatio Diaboli'', is a baptismal vow that was found in a ninth-century manuscript in a monastery library in

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The vow mentions three Germanic pagan gods of the early

Saxons The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

which the reader is to forsake: Uuôden ("

Woden Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Emp ...

"), Thunaer and Saxnōt. Scholar

Rudolf Simek Rudolf Simek (born 21 February 1954) is an Austrian philologist and religious studies scholar who is Professor and Chair of Ancient German and Nordic Studies at the University of Bonn. Simek specializes in Germanic studies, and is the author ...

comments that the vow is of particular interest because it is the sole instance of the god Saxnōt mentioned in a religious context. One of many baptismal vows, it is now archived in the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...

Codex pal. 577.Simek, p. 276. Not withstanding the conventional name of the text, there is a dispute as to how the language of the text should be categorised, as it shows features of

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

Old Low Franconian In linguistics, Old Dutch ( Modern Dutch: ') or Old Low Franconian (Modern Dutch: ') is the set of dialects that evolved from Frankish spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages, from around the 6th Page 55: "''Uit de zesde eeuw ...

(Old Dutch) and

Old Saxon Old Saxon (), also known as Old Low German (), was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Eur ...

(Old Low German).

The Vow

The text (with Latin italicised) runs as follows:

Language dispute

While the manuscript of the vow is ninth-century, its language seems to be from the eighth. It is undoubtedly written in a mix of different

West Germanic The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic languages, Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic languages, North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages, East Germ ...

dialects, including features that could belong to

Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

Old Low German Old Saxon (), also known as Old Low German (), was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Europ ...

(also known as Old Saxon),

Old Frisian Old Frisian was a West Germanic language spoken between the late 13th century and the end of 16th century. It is the common ancestor of all the modern Frisian languages except for the North Frisian language#Insular North Frisian, Insular North ...

Old Dutch In linguistics, Old Dutch ( Modern Dutch: ') or Old Low Franconian (Modern Dutch: ') is the set of dialects that evolved from Frankish spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages, from around the 6th Page 55: "''Uit de zesde eeu ...

(also known as Old Low Franconian), and

. This has led to extensive debate about where the text originated, not least because the text would stand as an important early monument to the language and traditions of whatever modern country can claim it — yet it is possible that none of these distinctions seemed very important to the people who copied and adapted the text.Marco Mostert, 'Communicating the Faith: The Circle of Boniface, Germanic Vernaculars, Frisian and Saxon Converts', ''Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik'', 70 (2013), 87–130. Key layers seem to be: *

(probably specifically

Northumbrian Old English Northumbrian was a dialect of Old English spoken in the Anglo-Saxons, Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria. Together with Mercian dialect, Mercian, Kentish dialect (Old English), Kentish and West Saxon dialect, West Saxon, it forms one of the sub-ca ...

). This would be consistent with production in Northumbria, or by a Northumbrian missionary active alongside

Saint Boniface Boniface, OSB (born Wynfreth; 675 –5 June 754) was an English Benedictines, Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of Francia during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations of ...

on the Continent. *

, which could be consistent with production at or transmission via a monastery at

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

(in the modern Netherlands). *

, which would be consistent with copying of the surviving manuscript by a speaker of this variety, perhaps at

Hersfeld Abbey Hersfeld Abbey was an important Benedictine imperial abbey in the town of Bad Hersfeld in Hesse (formerly in Hesse-Nassau), Germany, at the confluence of the rivers Geisa, Haune and Fulda. The ruins are now a medieval festival venue. History ...

Comparison to present-day Dutch and Low German

In the glossary below, the spelling has been normalised: * is replaced with when a consonant * is replaced with and with

Editions

* ''Capitularia Regum Francorum I'', ed. by A. Boretius, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Legum sectio 11 (Hanover, 1883), p. 22 (no. 107) * 'Abrenuntiatio diaboli et prefessio fidei', ed. by E. Wadstein, ''Kleinere altsächsische Sprachdenkmäler'', Niederdeutsche Denkmäler, 6 (Norden: Soltau, 1899), pp. 119–21 * Hodgkin, R. H., ''A History of the Anglo-Saxons'', 3rd edn., 2 vols (Oxford, 1952), I, 302 acsimile

References

Sources