HELIAND

(Old Saxon: Saviour), epic on the life of Christ in Old Saxon alliterative verse dating from about 830. It attempted to make the newly imposed Christian religion intelligible to the warlike Saxons. Christ was made a Germanic king who rewarded his retainers (the disciples) with arm rings; Herod's feast became a drinking bout; and Nazarethburg, Bethleemaburg, and Rumuburg had the homely familiarity of Saxon towns. The poem consists of almost 6,000 lines. A Latin commentary, published in 1562 and usually dated to the 9th century, stated that Heliand was undertaken by an unnamed, eminent Saxon poet at the behest of Louis the Pious, who reigned 813-840. Heliand, extant in four manuscripts, and the fragmentary Old Saxon Genesis are all that remain of Old Saxon poetry.