The Abrogans – our first German book

As explained in the article on the beginnings of German literature , the first written records of German literature originated in the 8th century, and every truly enthusiastic reader would now like to know exactly what insights can be gleaned from the first book of German literature.

However, this article also unfortunately had to show that everything that interests the leisure reader, i.e., love stories, horror stories, fairy tales and exciting stories of all kinds from the early days of the German language's development, was not transmitted in writing, but only orally.

When the first written records in what can be called the German language began in the 8th century, people were initially thinking about more important things than love and fantasy. The first book we have in a language that falls under the category of German , therefore, doesn't necessarily offer the most exciting content in the world. But the surrounding circumstances are fascinating enough:

The first German book is a Latin-Old High German glossary, usually called the "Abrogans." It is sometimes also referred to as the Keronian Dictionary , because the Benedictine monk Kero is considered its author. However, this is not entirely certain; the South Tyrolean cleric Arbeo of Freising could also be the author.

There is almost unanimous agreement that the Abrogans originated in the old Bavarian diocese of Freising, which was under the control of Arbeo, who was bishop there from 764 to 783.

There is general agreement that this dictionary was translated into German in the second half of the 8th century by glossing Latin headwords and their Latin renderings with Old High German equivalents; only the exact dates vary considerably, between 750 and 790.

In any case, the Abrogans, or Codex Abrogans, is astonishingly comprehensive, containing approximately 3,670 Old High German words and over 14,600 attestations for these words. While the Abrogans, with its many entries, is praised as a valuable source for researching the oldest Upper German language, this praise has its pitfalls: this Latin-Old High German synonym dictionary was evidently one of the first of its kind, and according to scholars, it is based on a purely Latin synonym dictionary.

This Latin Abrogans, the template, was therefore a Latin-Latin glossary, probably compiled in Italy from many older glossaries dating from late antiquity to the early Middle Ages.

In this way, a dictionary was created in which rare expressions, some from biblical Latin, were explained by more common words from popular Latin.

A huge source of error, which becomes immediately clear when you consider which words are considered “common” today; even in the middle of the 8th century, this approach most likely led to a great many incorrect translations, as even the use of a different word class quickly causes an inaccuracy.

Against this background, it is not surprising that the Abrogans has not been fully analyzed by linguists to this day; there are around 700 words that do not appear in any other Old High German text and therefore remain enigmatic to this day.

of the truly authentic “first German book” has survived; scholars can only rely on three later Alemannic copies of the Bavarian original. The best-preserved of these manuscripts is a slightly mutilated copy of the archetype, which can be viewed today in the library of the former Benedictine Abbey of St. Gall.

The “name of the whole thing” makes some people smile and murmur “typically German”: The work was named after the first entry, and this first entry “abrogans” (Old High German “dheomodi”) means nothing other than modest or humble.

Are the circumstances surrounding our first German book not exciting enough for you to reconcile yourself with its prosaic content?

If you are interested in learning about the origins of books in general, this insight into the beginnings of literature will probably suffice. Regarding the origins of books, you might be interested in, for example, the “Book of the Book” by Marion Janzin and Joachim Güntner. In this work, you could learn about 5000 years of book history, if you can get a copy of this book, published in 1995, for example on Kunstplaza .

Perhaps you would prefer to explore more exciting evidence of our literary beginnings? Then you might be interested in the Merseburg Charms, which also originated around 750, although you certainly won't be able to get your hands on an original copy.

That leaves only the surrounding literature, although you don't necessarily have to stick to purely linguistic works to gain new insights.

For example, you could look for a copy of the book “Healing with Soul Codes” by Roswitha Stark and find not only the content of the Merseburg Charms, but also everything about the mysterious meaning of the magic words Abracadabra and Hocus Pocus and Simsalabim, which are known to every child.

Perhaps you can derive valuable therapeutic benefit from such an approach to the oldest literature, or perhaps you will simply have a lot of fun exploring ancient symbols and keywords.