Ludwigslied
The Ludwigslied (in English, Lay or Song of Ludwig) is an Old High German (OHG) poem of 59 rhyming couplets, celebrating the victory of the Frankish army, led by Louis III of France, over Danish (Viking) raiders at the Battle of Saucourt-en-Vimeu on 3 August 881.
[2] The poem speaks of Louis in the present tense: it opens, "I know a king called Ludwig who willingly serves God.
[3] Dennis Green summarises the poem as follows: After a general introductory formula in which the poet claims to know of King Ludwig (thereby implying the reliability of what he has to say) this king's prehistory is briefly sketched: the loss of his father at an early age, his adoption by God for his upbringing, his enthronement by divine authority as ruler of the Franks, and the sharing of his kingdom with his brother Karlmann.
1–8] After these succinct eight lines the narrative action starts with God's testing of the young ruler in sending the Northmen across the sea to attack the Franks as a punishment for their sinfulness, who are thereby prompted to mend their ways by due penance.
Ludwig holds a council of war with his battle-companions, the powerful ones in his realm, and with the promise of reward encourages them to follow him into battle.
[ll 27–41] He sets out, discovers the whereabouts of the enemy and, after a Christian battle-song, joins battle, which is described briefly, but in noticeably more stirring terms.
Bischoff's localising of the script to an unidentified known scriptorium Lower Lotharingia on the left bank of the Rhine strengthens this conclusion.
A number of solutions have been suggested: The first of these options seems implausible: God gives Ludwig "a throne here in Francia" (Stuol hier in Vrankōn, l. 6), which only makes sense from a Western perspective.
[2] The codex itself dates from the early 9th century and originally contained only works by Gregory of Nazianzus in the Latin translation by Tyrannius Rufinus (fol.
[24] The text of the Ludwigslied is presumed to be a copy made after August 882 as the poem describes a living king, while the rubric refers to Ludwig as being "of blessed memory" (Latin: piae memoriae).
The hand of the Sequence of Saint Eulalia and the Ludwigslied does not show the characteristics of the scriptorium of St Amand, and the limp binding is untypical of the library.
[25][30] In 1672 the manuscript was discovered in St Amand by the Benedictine monk Jean Mabillon, who commissioned a transcription, though, unfamiliar with Old High German, he was unable to appreciate its shortcomings (Willems later counted 125 errors).
)[33] Subsequent editions by Herder (1779), Bodmer (1780), and Lachmann (1825) were necessarily based on Mabillon's text, though attempts were made to identify and correct likely errors.
