Ezzolied
The Ezzolied, also known as the Cantilena de miraculis Christi or the Anegenge, is an early Middle High German poem written in the 1060s by Ezzo, a German scholar and priest of Bamberg. It is the first poetic text of the High Middle Ages to join German vernacular and Latin learning.
Context
The "Vita Altmanni" relates that in 1065, when rumours of the approaching end of the world were rife, many people started on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem under the leadership of Bishop Gunther of Bamberg, and that Ezzo composed the poem on this occasion. The opening strophe of the Vorau manuscript does not mention the pilgrimage, but simply states that the bishop ordered Ezzo to write the song.It survives in two recensions, associated with Strasbourg and Vorau. The poem was found by Barack in a Strasbourg manuscript of the late 11th century; but only a seven strophes have survived. The version found in Vorau is completed and consists of 34 strophes. It is also expanded and the 7th strophe of the Strasbourg version is the 11th of the Vorau manuscript. Further, they also differ in genre as it seems that the Strasbourg version, which has strophes of equal length compared to the Vorau version, was sung while the later version probably not.
According to its origins in Bamberg, the song would probably have been composed in the East Franconian dialect, however, its two recensions, the Strasbourg and the Vorau, are written in Alemannic and Bavarian respectively; it relates in earnest language the creation, fall, and redemption of mankind.
Content
The subject of the poem is the life of Jesus Christ. The trinitarian concept of God forms an important link between the beginning, middle and end of the poem: in the beginning the Trinity is revealed at the creation of mankind, in the middle at the baptism of Christ and at the end in the redemption of man.Compared with the later Vorau version, the Strasbourg version does not include a section on Christ's childhood, showing the growing interest in this part of Christ's life during the twelfth century.