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The Irish St. Brendan Legend in Lower Germany and on the Baltic Coast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2017

Carl Selmer
Carl Selmer*
Affiliation:
Hunter College of the City of New York
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Extract

No Irish-born Saint played a role in continental Europe's folklore and literature comparable to that of St. Brendan, the Navigator (484–c. 577). To judge by the frequency and provenance of the earliest manuscripts, the Vita and Navigatio, the two written sources which deal with his life and exploits, the legend was best known in France and Bretagne, Lorraine and Southern Germany. For obvious reasons, the German Low Countries, particularly the shores of the Baltic Sea and the adjacent territories to the north and northwest, were less susceptible to any such distant literary or religious influence. If it is a surprise to find St. Brendan taking so strong a foothold in Southern Germany, far enough removed from his native Kerry, how much more astonishing is it to note traces of his legend evident even in Northern Germany and Prussia proper, an area which only in late medieval centuries began to enter the literary orbit of Western Europe. This area is the one-hundred-mile stretch between the former Hanseatic cities of Lübeck and Stralsund, comprising chiefly Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania, along the shores of the Baltic.

Type
Miscellany
Information
Traditio , Volume 4 , 1946 , pp. 408 - 413
Copyright
Copyright © 1946 by Cosmopolitan Science & Art Service Co., Inc. 

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References

1 For St. Brendan in Southern Germany cf. Selmer, C., ‘The St. Brendan-Legend in Old German Literature,’ Journal of the American Irish Historical Society 32 (1941) 161–169.Google Scholar

2 This feast is ordinarily celebrated on the 16th of May. Owing to the fact that the Festum Patronorum sive Reliquiarum of the City of Lübeck was annually celebrated on the 16th of May, St. Brendan's Day is here listed for the 17th. Cf. Grotefend, H., Zeitrechnung des dt. Mittelalters und der Neuzeit (Hannover 1892) II, 103. For the celebration of St. Brendan's Day in connection with Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas cf. idem, ‘Das Fest des heiligen Brendanus,’ Korrespondenzblatt des Gesamtvereins der dt. Geschichts-und Altertumsvereine 57 (Berlin 1909) 395–6.Google Scholar

3 ‘Brandanies’ is mentioned twice in the Records of the year 1581 of the City of Grevesmühlen (20 miles east of Lübeck), cf. Grotefend, H., ‘Vornamen in Mecklenburg,’ Jahrbücher des Vereins für Mecklenburg. Geschichte und Alterthumskunde 56 (1890) 14. For ‘Brand’ in the 15th and 16th centuries cf. idem, ibid. 57, 11. ‘Brandanus’ was the name of the famous Magister von Schöneich, chancellor of Mecklenburg (magister Brandanus de Schoeneich, cancellarius Ducum Magnopolensium †1507), who was rector of the University of Leipzig from 1501–2; cf. Lisch, G.C.F., ‘Der Canzler Brandanus von Schöneich,’ Jahrbücher des Vereins f.M.G.u.A. 23 (1858) 152.Google Scholar

4 Cf. Link, H., ‘Die geistlichen Brüderschaften des dt. Mittelalters, insbesondere die Lübecker Antoniusbruderschaft,’ Verein für Lübecker Geschichte und Altertumskunde 20 (1920) 208. A St. Brendan-Brotherhood, which used to meet in St. Peter's Church, Lübeck, is also mentioned by Neumann, K., ‘Das geistige und religiöse Leben Lübecks im Ausgange des Mittelalters,’ ibid. 22 (1925) 88.Google Scholar

5 Otte, H., Handbuch der kirchlichen Kunst-Archäologie des deutschen Mittelalters (1883) I, 563.Google Scholar

6 Cf. Gumbley, F. W., Patron Saints (Ditchling 1930) 8. St. Brendan is mentioned for December 17.Google Scholar

7 Cf. Gougaud, L., ‘Les Saints Irlandais dans les traditions populaires des pays continentaux,’ Revue Celtique 39 (1922) 211.Google Scholar

8 Many Latin and High German manuscripts offer the name ‘Brandanus’. Other forms found in MSS are: ‘Brendinus’, ‘Blandanus’, ‘Grandanus’, etc.Google Scholar

9 Cf. Groth, P., ‘Die Entstehung der mecklenburgischen Polizeiordnung vom Jahre 1516,’ Jahrb. des Vereins f. M.G. u.A. 57, 151.Google Scholar

10 This book written in Low German in 1550 was edited by Zober in 1837 as Gelegenheitsschrift zum Jubiläum des Stralsunder Superintendenten Droysen. Google Scholar

11 Cf. Otte, H., op. cit. 563.Google Scholar

12 Cf. Annales Misc. Pommeraniae Nr. 110, II, 233 (ed. University of Greifswald). Since 1301, Malchin belonged to the parish of Güstrow.Google Scholar

13 Cf. Lisch, G. C. F., ‘Die Domkirche zu Güstrow’, Jahrbücher des Vereins f.M.G.u.A. 35 (1870) 175.Google Scholar

14 A picture of the main altar is found in Schlie, F., Kunstdenkmäler Meckleriburgs TV, 206. The statue is on the right side and shows the inscription: ‘Sanctus Brñdā.’ Cf. Lisch, , op. cit. (n. 13) 172.Google Scholar

15 The candle, St. Brendan's attribute, is derived from an incident in the legend in which it is related how once a candle miraculously lit itself. A Low German edition of the year 1517 (Leuent der Hylgen, Samerdel, Basel), p. CCXLIIb (also Lisch, , op. cit.) relates the following incident: ‘Do quam en vurich schote in eyn vynster vnde entsengede alle de lampen vor den altaren; do vloech dat schoet wedder vth dem vinster. Do fragede sunthe Brandanus: We deyt des morgens de kersen wedder vth? De abbet sede: Kum vnde see dat wunder ghades; see, du süest de kersen bernen, men dat wert nicht vormynret, wente dat is eyn geystlik lycht. Do fregete sunte Brandanus: Wo mach ein geystlik lycht in einen licham bernen? De abbet antworde vnde sprak: Heffstu nicht gelesen, da de busk Moysi brande up dem berge Sinai vnde bleeff doch vngeseriget.’ This tripartite candle may easily be mistaken for a branch. It is perhaps this ‘branch’ which, according to Bond, F. (Dedications of Patron Saints of English Churches [1914] 98), St. Brendan is supposed to be holding in his hands.Google Scholar

16 This inventory, made at the time of secularization, mentions ‘Ein silbern Brandanus, mit einer silbern Monstrantze, wiget XI mark II loth.’ Cf. Lisch, , op. cit. 172.Google Scholar

17 Preserved in the City Archives of Schwerin (Mecklenburg). It had been issued in St. James' Church in Rostock (cf.Grotefend, , op. cit. 395).Google Scholar

18 Cf. Grotefend, , op. cit. 395.Google Scholar

19 v. Bruiningk, H., ‘Messe und Kanonisches Stundengebet nách dem Brauche der Rigaschen Kirche im späteren Mittelalter,’ Mitteilungen aus der Geschichte Liv-, Est- und Kurlands 19 (1904) 378 (Brieflade I no. 1247).Google Scholar

20 About the reconstruction of this poem, its dialect, its adaptation to prose and relation to later MSS cf. Meyer, Wilhelm, Die Ueberlieferung der deutschen Brendanlegende, Prosatext, I. (Göttingen 1918).Google Scholar

21 Cf. Schröder, C., Sanct Brendan, Ein lateinischer und drei deutsche Texte (Erlangen 1871) 13–50: MS Germ. Oct. 56 of the Prussian State Library, Berlin.Google Scholar

22 Cf. Bruns, P. J., Romantische und andere Gedichte in altplattdeutscher Sprache (Berlin 1798); Schröder, C., op. cit. 81–107.Google Scholar

23 This (lost) Middle Netherlendish MS was the Vorlage for the Comburger prose text (C) and Hulthemscher poetic version (H).Google Scholar

24 The credit for having first called attention to these MSS goes to F. J. Mone who gave excerpts in Uebersicht der niederländischen Literatur alter Zeit (Tübingen 1838) 100ff.— Editions: Blommaert, Ph., Oudvlaemsche Gedichten der XII, XIII en XIV eeuwen (Gent 1838 and 1841); Brill, W. G., ‘Van Sinte Brandane,’ Bibliotheek van middelnederlandsche Letterkunde (Gronningen 1871); Bonebakker, E., Van Sente Brandane naar het Comburgsche on het Hulthemsche Handschrift (Amsterdam 1894); Jonckbloet, , Geschiedenis der middelnederlandsche Dichtkunst (Amsterdam 1851) I, 414ff.Google Scholar

25 Ed. Moltzer, H. E., Levens en legenden van Heiligen. Eerste gedeelte. Brandaen en Panthalioen (Leiden 1891). The MS is preserved in the Utrecht Library.Google Scholar

26 In Ter Schelling, an island in the Zuider Sea, a church is dedicated to St. Brendan, the so-called ‘Brandariskerke’. Cf. Schiller, K. und Lübben, A., Mittelniederdeutsches Wörterbuch I (Münster 1931) 414.Google Scholar

27 Some episodes of the Brendan legend were later taken over into the Dutch novel of Malegijs of the year 1563 (ed. Kniper, , 1903); cf. Bolte, I., ‘Die Legende von Augustinus und dem Knäblein am Meere,’ Zeitschr. des Ver für Volkskunde 1906, p. 93.Google Scholar

28 Cf. LThK s.v. (I, 139); recently Nottarp, H., ‘Die Brüder vom gemeinsamen Leben,’ Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stift. für Rechtsgesch. Kan. Abt. 32 (1943) 384–418 [not seen].Google Scholar

29 Cf. Lisch, G.C.F., ‘Geschichte der Buchdruckerkunst in Mecklenburg bis zum Jahre 1540,’ Jahrbücher des Vereins f.M.G.u.A. 4, 8.Google Scholar

30 Ibid. p. 36: ‘de Frater-mönneke darsuelvest eine gemeine düdische schole hedden geholden.’ Google Scholar

31 Ibid. 37.Google Scholar

32 Lisch, G. C. F., ‘Nachtrag,’ ibid. 21 (1856) 162.Google Scholar

33 Cf. Hofmeister, D., ‘Weitere Beiträge zur Geschichte der Buchdruckerkunst in Mecklenburg,’ Jahrbücher … 54 (1889) 184; also Lisch, , op. cit. 4, 44. It is an interesting coincidence that a Brendanus-fragment is still preserved in Rostock (cf. note 38).Google Scholar

34 Cf. Hofmeister, , op. cit. 183.Google Scholar

35 Hofmeister, , op. cit. 182.Google Scholar

36 About their houses in Holland and the Rhinelands cf. Hyma, A., The Christian Rennaissance (Grand Rapids 1924) 111.Google Scholar

37 Cf. Bayerschmidt, C. F., A Low German Book of Kings (New York 1934) xx-xxi.Google Scholar

38 Cf. Claussen, Bruno, ‘Van Sunte Brandanus,’ Nordisk Tidskrift for Bok- och Biblioteksväsen 1 (1914) 33; also Collijn, I., Zeitschr. des Ver.für Lübeckische Gesch. 9, 300. The MS (fragment) is preserved in the University Library of Rostock.Google Scholar

39 Cf. Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke 4 (1930) 611 no. 5012. It is. preserved in the State Library, Vienna. Two additional passionals are still preserved in the Library of the Nicolai Church, Greifswald (E 26 and E 27).Google Scholar

40 In 1511, and again in 1517, Adam Petri printed the first High German editions of this type, both based upon the Low German ones. This High German version in turn was used by G. Rollenhagen for the Brendan legend in his Vier Bücher wunderlicher Reisen p. 411ff.Google Scholar

41 Preserved in the British Museum (3851 e e 16); Inc. ‘Sanct brandan gwas ein helgen abt gebarn vam lande hibernde.’ Google Scholar