TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

MIXNE-DEINKING. 01
At Erek s departure : der wirt neig im an den fuoz, ze hand truog
er irn do ze lieiles gewinne sant Gertrude minne, Er. 4015. The
armed champion tranc sant Johannes segcn, Er. 8651. Hagene,
while killing Etzel s child, says, Nib. 1897,
mi trinken wir die minne unde gelten skiineges win,
iz mac anders niht gesin
wan trinkt und geltet Ezeln win; Helbl. 6, 160. 14. 86.
Here the very word gelten recalls the meaning it had acquired in
connexion with sacrificing ; conf. Schm. 2, 40. si do zucten di suert
unde scancten eine minne (drew their swords and poured out a m.);
Herz. Ernst in Hoffm. fundgr. 1, 230, 35. minne schenken,
Berthold 276-7. sant Jftliannis minne geben, Oswald 611. 1127.
1225 (see Suppl.). No doubt the same thing that was afterwards
called einen ehrenwein schenken ; for even in our older speech
era, ere denoted verehrung, reverence shown to higher
3 :
and loved
beings.
In the Mid. Ages then, it was two saints in particular that had
minne drunk in honour of them, John the evangelist and Gertrude.
John is said to have drunk poisoned wine without hurt, hence
a drink consecrated to him prevented all danger of poisoning.
Gertrude revered John above all saints, and therefore her memory
seems to have been linked with his. But she was also esteemed as
a peacemaker, and in the Latinarius metricus of a certain Andreas
rector scholarum she is invoked :
pia Gerdrudis, quae pacis commoda cudis
bellaque concludis, nos caeli mergito ludis !
A clerk prayed her daily, dass sie ihm schueffe herberg guot, to
find him lodging good; and in a MS. of the 15th cent, we are
informed : aliqui dicunt, quod quando anima egressa est, tune prima
nocte pernoctabit cum beata Gerdrude, secunda nocte cum arcli-
angelis, sed tertia nocte vadit sicut diffinitum est de ea. This
remarkable statement will be found further on to apply to Freya,
of whom, as well as of Hulda and Berhta, Gertrude reminds us the
more, as she was represented spinning. Both John s and Ger
trude s minne used especially to be drunk by parting friends,
travellers and lovers of peace, as the passages quoted have shown.
I know of no older testimony to Gertrude s minne (which presup
poses John s) than that in Paidlieb ; in later centuries we find