Dr Aletta Leipold
„The word world of Merseburg spells: Understanding spells with a dictionary„
Lecture in the court parlour of Merseburg Castle
With the two 'Merseburg spells' in Codex I,136, the Merseburg Cathedral Abbey Library houses the oldest and most famous spells of the Old High German period. How the content of the spells with the archaic and sometimes difficult to interpret word material is being analysed in the 'Old High German Dictionary', a project of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig, is the subject of this lecture.
On the way to becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the knowledge of the Merseburg spells is to be anchored even more broadly in society. The lecture illustrates what a treasure the spells also represent for the study of Old High German.