The Georgslied (''Song of St. George'') is a set of poems and hymns to

Saint George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldier ...

Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...

. Its likely origin is Saint George's Abbey on the

Reichenau monastic island Reichenau Island () is an island in Lake Constance in Southern Germany. It lies almost due west of the city of Konstanz, between the Gnadensee and the Untersee, two parts of Lake Constance. With a total land surface of and a circumference of ...

Lake Constance Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three Body of water, bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, ca ...

in Germany, which was founded in 888 and was an important center for the veneration of Saint George. Georgslied was composed towards the end of the 9th century and was partially transcribed by around 1000. The poem in 57 or so verses is found in the

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

manuscript, which also contains one of the texts of the ''Evangelienbuch'' of Otfrid of Weissenburg (to whom it was formerly attributed). The partial transcription by a scribe named Wisolf ran into difficulties and he ended with the words: "nequeo Vuisolf" ("I am unable. Wisolf"). There is no indication of whether Wisolf was writing down an oral text or whether he was copying an earlier written version.

Sources

*John Bostock, ''A Handbook of Old High German'', 1976 * Mary Garland, ''The Oxford Companion to German Literature'' Oxford University Press, 1997 , page 274 * C. J. Wells, ''German, a linguistic history to 1945'' Oxford University Press, 1985 {{ISBN, 0-19-815795-9 page 48 9th-century poems Medieval German poems Old High German literature Saint George (martyr)