Benedikt Gletting was a 16th-century
Swiss poet.
Little is known about his life, but his ballads were popular in
early modern Switzerland
The early modern history of the Old Swiss Confederacy ('' Eidgenossenschaft'', also known as the "Swiss Republic" or ''Republica Helvetiorum'') and its constituent Thirteen Cantons encompasses the time of the Thirty Years' War (1618–164 ...
and were repeatedly edited during the 17th century.
A native of
Bütschwil
Bütschwil is a former municipality in the ''Wahlkreis'' (constituency) of Toggenburg in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. On 1 January 2013 the former municipalities of Bütschwil and Ganterschwil merged to form the new municipality of B ...
, he lived in
Bern from at least 1540, and later in various places in the
Bernese Oberland
The Bernese Oberland ( en, Bernese Highlands, german: Berner Oberland; gsw, Bärner Oberland; french: Oberland bernois), the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern, is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context ...
before again taking residence in Berne in 1561.
He has composed a number of songs praising individual sites in the Bernese Oberland, including
Frutigen
Frutigen is a municipality in the Bernese Oberland in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is the capital of the Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district.
History
The area around Frutigen may have been settled since possibly the Bro ...
,
Mülenen Mülenen is a village in the Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district of the Swiss canton of Bern. The village is divided between the municipalities of Reichenbach im Kandertal and Aeschi bei Spiez.
Mülenen station, on the Lötschberg ...
,
Aeschi
Aeschi is a municipality in the district of Wasseramt in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. Burgäschisee is a lake in the forest on the border with Seeberg.
Geography
Aeschi has an area, , of . Of this area, or 63.2% is used for ag ...
and Reichenbach, as well as songs about
Bern and
Murten
Murten (German) or Morat (French, ; frp, Morât ) is a bilingual municipality and a city in the See district of the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland.
It is located on the southern shores of Lake Morat (also known as Lake Murten). Morat is si ...
.
He is also the author of religious ballads, including a long song about the biblical
Joseph
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
.
A song beginning ''O usserwölte Eydgnoschafft'' called for unity at a time of confessional division in the wake of the
Swiss Reformation. This song was edited by
Hanns In der Gand in a shortened version (shortened from 26 to 4 verses) in 1934 under the title ''Vermahnlied an die Eidgenossenschaft'' ("song of warning for the
Confederacy") and in this form was reprinted in various Swiss songbooks during the 20th century.
[Rudolf Schwarzenbach, "'... wol uff den hohen alpen fruch'? : ein Lied Benedikt Glettings als Quelle des 'Vermahnlieds an die Eidgenossenschaft' von Hans In der Gand", ''Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde'' 74, 1978, 1-19.
]
Editions
*''Der geystlich Joseph'
1685*''Zwey geystliche newe Lieder'', Marburg 1565, Basel 1592
*''Das geystlich Vogel gsang'', Berne 1574.
*ed. Theodor Odinga 1891, ''Benedikt Gletting: Ein Berner Volksdichter des 16. Jh.''
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gletting, Benedikt
Swiss male poets
16th-century Swiss writers
People from Bern