#fulda

Saint Boniface

675-754

Feast Day: June 5

Patronage: Brewers, Fulda, Germany, World Youth Day

Saint Boniface was an English Benedictine monk known as the “Apostle of Germany” for evangelizing and reforming the Germanic church. He was a respected scholar, teacher, and priest, (then bishop) that was called to be a missionary. To convert the superstitious German pagans he cut down the giant oak tree dedicated to the god Thor, as a show of power of the true God, Christ. Boniface believed in Christian orthodoxy and fidelity to the Pope. He died, with 53 companions, a martyr.

The Merseburg Spells or Incantations are two magic spells found in a Latin Sacramentarium and are written in Carolingian minuskel. The manuscript originates from the Abbey of Fulda, Germany and are dated around 800-900 AD, but only rediscovered in 1841.

The spells do not show any sign of Christian influence and are the only written proof of Germanic mythology in Old High German.

The first spell tells of prisoners of war which are freed by the Idisi. An unknown kind of god-like figures, possibly a Germanic version of Valkyries.

The second spell is a healing incantation. Wotan rides through the woods with Balder, until Balders horse named Phol gets hurt. Wotan, Friia (Freya), her sister Volla and Sinthgund and her sister Sunna sing to the horse; let your wounds be cured.

There are other version of the second spell known, but in different rhyming couplets and turned into a Christian motive.

English and Dutch speakers may identify most of the words without knowing the lyrics first.