The Annunciation
Sacramentary, c. 1030, from Fulda, Germany
All Illustrations in this article courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
A long time ago a monk faced a formidable task: how to re-imagine the Gospel story so that it could appeal to the Saxons, a group of warlike Northern Germans, many of whom had migrated to England four centuries earlier along with the Angles to become the pagan English. The unknown monk began writing the story of Christ for the Saxons, who had been forced into Christian conversion through a bloody 30-year war with Charlemagne and baptized by force.
The resentment they felt against their Christian conquerors continued with sporadic guerilla warfare every winter as soon as Charlemagne and his army returned to Aix-la-Chapelle. With the first snows of the approaching winter solstice, the holly and the ivy mysteriously reappeared in Saxon houses as they returned defiantly and gladly to the worship of the old gods and the practices of the old ways.
The time was what we call the Dark Ages, the time of the Vikings. Charlemagne's son was on the throne, it was approximately a.d. 830, and a monk was dreaming of another way to present Christ's story to the Saxons: as if Christ had become one of them. He began by imagining what the story of Christmas would have been like if Bethlehem had been a hillfort settlement in Northern Europe and if the Nativity had been the birth of a new chieftain for humankind.
Six years ago I completed the first full English translation of this monk's work, the Heliand, and was sitting in the chapel at the monastery in Fulda, established by St. Boniface in what is now central Germany, newly built with pagan rune-stones in the walls when the author was living there. I looked above the altar and saw a fragment of an ancient painting of an angel on the wall, announcing the birth of Christ. Perhaps, I thought, I am looking at the very sight the author of the Heliand was looking at over a thousand years ago when he began his epic work in this monastery. Let me introduce you to the monk's words and his world in these Christmas passages from the Heliand:
The Annunciation Sacramentary, c. 1030, from Fulda, Germany All Illustrations in this article courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. |
It was not long thereafter that it was all accomplished just as the all-mighty God had so often promised mankind — that He would send His heavenly Child, His own Son, to this world to free all the clans of people here from evil. His messenger Gabriel, the angel of the All-Ruler, then came to Galileeland. There he knew a lovely young woman, a girl who had reached her maidenhood. Her name was Mary. Joseph, a nobleman, was engaged to her, David's daughter. What a precious bride and virtuous woman she was! There in hillfort Nazareth the angel of God addressed her face to face, calling her by name and saying to her from God: "Health be with you, Mary. Your Lord is very fond of you. You are precious to the Ruler for your wisdom, woman full of grace. You are to be sanctified more than any other woman. Do not waver in your mind and do not let yourself fear for your life. I have not come here to put you in any danger and I am not bringing you any kind of trick or deception. You are to become the mother of our Chieftain here among human beings. You will bear a child, the Son of the high King of Heaven. His name among the peoples will be Healer. The broad kingdom over which He will rule as a great leader will never come to an end."
Then the maiden, the most beautiful and radiant of women, replied to the angel of God: "How can that happen," she said, "that I would bear a child? I have never known man in my life." The angel of the All-Ruler had his answer ready for the woman: "By the Power of God, the Holy Spirit will come to you from the meadows of heaven. From Him a child will be given to you in this world. Divine power from the most high King of Heaven will shade you in its shadow. Never among human beings was there ever as beautiful or so great a birth as this one, when it comes, by the power of God, to this wide world!" After this explanation the woman's mind changed and was completely in accord with God's will. "I stand here ready," she said, "to perform any service He may wish to give me. I am the maid-servant of mankind's God. I now trust this thing. Let it be done unto me according to your words, whatever my Lord wills—nor is my mind in doubt, neither in word nor in deed."
Note the geographical and social changes made to the scene: the hillforts, chieftain and clan, Joseph the warrior nobleman. Most interesting is the author's attempt to make the concept of grace familiar to Saxons, who would not understand an abstraction that could flow like water, something that Mary can be "full" of. The author thought that if grace is a form of love, then for his audience he could describe it as "fondness." Mary's response, "Let it be done unto me" is augmented with a phrase intended to steady the vacillating Saxon converts: Mary's mind was not "in doubt, neither in word nor in deed."
Then there came a decree from fort Rome, from the great Octavian who had power over the whole world, an order from Caesar to his wide realm, sent to every king enthroned in his homeland and to all Caesar's army commanders governing the people of any territory. The decree said that everyone living outside their own country should return to their homeland upon receipt of the message. It stated that all the warrior heroes were to return to their assembly place, each one was to go back to the clan of which he was a family member by birth in a hillfort ... The good Joseph went also with his household, just as God, ruling mightily, willed it. He made his way to his shining home, the hillfort at Bethlehem. This was the clan assembly place for both of them, for Joseph the hero and for Mary, the holy girl. This was the place where in olden days the throne of the great and noble king David stood for as long as he reigned, enthroned on high, an earl of the Hebrews. Joseph and Mary both belonged by birth to his household, they were of good family lineage, of David's own clan.
Notice how this part of the story replaces the reference to Quirinius, governor of Syria, with army commanders governing occupied territories — exactly the situation of the defeated Saxons. And the last line is evidence that even as early as the Dark Ages, Europeans needed extra reassurance that Jesus came from noble blood.
 to the Shepherds Sacramentary, c. 1030, from Fulda, Germany |
At that time it all came to pass, just as wise men had said long ago: that the Protector of People would come in a humble way, by His own power, to visit this kingdom of earth. His mother, that most beautiful woman, took Him, wrapped Him in clothes and precious jewels, and then with her two hands laid him gently, the little man, that child, in a fodder-crib, even though he had the power of God, and was the Chieftain of mankind. There the mother sat in front of Him and remained awake, watching over the holy Child and holding it. And there was no doubt in the heart or mind of the holy maid.
What had happened became known to many over this wide world. The guards heard it. As horse-servants they were outside, they were men on sentry duty, watching over the horses, the beasts of the field.
They saw the darkness split in two in the sky, and the light of God came shining through the clouds and surrounded the guards in the fields. Those men began to feel fear in their hearts. They saw the mighty angel of God coming toward them. He spoke to the guards face to face and told them that they should not fear any harm from the light.
"I am going to tell you," he said, "something very powerful: Christ is now born, on this very night, God's holy Child, the good Chieftain, at David's hillfort. What happiness for the human race, a boon for all men! You can find Him, the most powerful Child, at Fort Bethlehem. Take what I now tell you in truthful words as a sign: He is there, wrapped up, lying in a fodder-crib — even though He is king over all the earth and the heavens and over the sons of all the peoples, the Ruler of the world." Just as he said that word, an enormous number of the holy army, the shining people of God, came down to the one angel from the meadows of heaven, saying many words of praise for the Lord of Peoples ... The guards heard how the angels in their power praised the all-mighty God most worshipfully in words: "Glory now be," they said, "to the Lord Chieftain Himself, in the highest reaches of heaven, and peace on earth to the sons of men, men of good will, who because of their clear minds recognize God!"
The herdsmen understood that something great had been told to them—a merry message! They decided to go to Bethlehem that night, they wanted very much to be able to see Christ Himself.
The "Protector" in the first sentence of this section is a title given to Saxon chieftains by their subordinates. The author also transforms the sheep and shepherds of Christmas Eve into horses and horse-guards. Since horses were a prized item of the Saxon warrior class and horse-guards must have been trusted servants, this scene is made familiar and appealing to the Saxons. Another reason for the author to change shepherds to horse-guards lay in the social unacceptability of shepherds and the unlikelihood that angels would talk to serfs. In the Heliand there are two light-worlds, earth and heaven, and Jesus is revealed in the Transfiguration scene to be the 'light road' between the two worlds.
Though Luke's gospel says that there was no room for Mary and Joseph in the inn, the author omits that completely. Such inhospitable treatment would have been unthinkable to the Saxons in a hillfort, especially the home fort of Mary and Joseph's own clan. The "merry message" is the author's charming alliterative echo of "the good news."
The Adoration of the Magi Benedictional, c. 1030, from Regensburg, Germany |
The Wise Men are depicted as "road-weary warriors," "thanes whose hearts became merry within them" when the star showed them the way. When they see Christ, they behave like good Saxons:
The foreign fighting men fell on their knees to the good Child and greeted Him in the royal manner. They carried the gifts to Him: gold and incense as a sign of divinity, and myrrh as well. The men stood there attentively, respectful in the presence of their Lord, and soon received It [the Child] in a fitting manner in their hands.
The Magi come, like the Saxons, from the East. Though Matthew's gospel says nothing about the Magi holding the child, the author of the Heliand makes this very beautiful addition to the story of the Magi by portraying them standing respectfully, waiting to receive Christ in their hands; this is a mystical catechesis on the situation when the Saxon converts approach the altar at mass to receive communion and stand there in God's sanctifying fondness at a time when communicants received the host in their hands. In the Heliand the Incarnation is shown twice in this touching way, in the scene with Mary holding Christ in her hands at his birth and now once again. The Saxon warriors are being told that if they recognize Christ, they too will stand there like the "fighting men" from the East.
The Jesuit tradition of reexpressing the Gospel in terms that are native to many
cultures, translating and retranslating the story wherever they go, did not begin with the
founding of the order. The very form in which Ignatius understood the Gospel as a
young man is very close to that of the Heliand. The European warrior imagery in which
he loved to think of his "service" was even for him an inherited gift that had come down
through Europeanized Gospel legend and story, a tradition partly begun by an
unknown but devout soldier-poet who had lived 700 years before the time when
Ignatius was wounded in battle at Pamplona. 
Fr. G. Ronald Murphy, SJ, professor of German at Georgetown University, has written two books on the Heliand: The Saxon Savior and The Heliand: The Saxon Gospel (both by Oxford University Press). He has just finished a book on the religious meaning of the Grimms' fairy tales: The Owl, the Raven, and the Dove (forthcoming, Oxford University Press).
Passages from The Heliand: The Saxon Gospel translated by G. Ronald Murphy, SJ, (©1992 Oxford University Press) used by permission of Oxford University Press.