Strasbourg oaths

The text is preserved in the composition of the Latin works of the historian Nitgard "On the discord of the sons of Louis the Pious." Nitgard was a contemporary of the events described and wrote shortly after them (he died in 844 ). In addition, he was a cousin of the direct participants in the events, being the grandson of Charlemagne. According to Nitgard, during the internecine struggle of the sons of Louis I the Pious (grandchildren of Charlemagne ), the middle brother, Louis, and the younger, 19-year-old Karl, united against the eldest brother, Lothar . Karl, who led the Roman-speaking army, and Louis, who commanded the German-speaking "Teutons", gathered on February 14, 842 in Strasbourg . Before the oath was made, the brothers gave a speech to the assembled people: Karl spoke “Teutonic” so that the soldiers of Louis could understand him, Louis - “like romance.” The first began to speak Louis, as a senior. In his speech, he pointed out the persecution of Charles by Lothar and the provision of their judgment to God to decide which of them is right; but as he continued to feud and devastate their lands, then, “taken to the extreme,” they decided to secure the welfare of the state, not guided by lawless passions, to hold together loyalty and brotherly love with a mutual oath in the presence of warriors. If the oath is broken by one of the brothers, then the soldiers of the violator are released from obedience and oath to their sovereign. After the speech, Louis first took the oath in the Romanesque language (again, to be understandable to his brother's army). Karl made the same oath in Teutonic style. This was followed by an oath of troops: each army swore in its own language.

The following year, in 843 , the sons of Louis the Pious entered into the Treaty of Verdun and divided the empire's grandfather among themselves.

The Strasbourg oaths were one of the earliest evidence that a single Latin-speaking space, inherited from the Roman Empire and preserved in the era of barbarian kingdoms, began to give way to new nations of Europe - in this case French and German, whose languages ​​are being used semi-official.

Nitgard leads these texts in the original, calling the language of Charles’s troops “Romanesque” ( lat. Lingua romana ), and the language of Louis’s troops “Tedesque” or “Germanic” ( lat. Lingua teudisca ). From the point of view of language, the first is the oldest known monument of the old French language, the second is one of the old monuments of the Old High German language (probably reflects the dialect of the Rhineland).

The first studies refer to the XIX century. The “ Monumenta Germaniae Historica ” (II, 666) contains a study of Grimm on the Strasbourg oaths. Then Gaston Barry examined the text of Nythgard from the philological side.

The monument was further attracted mainly the attention of novelists, and the old French text is being studied primarily. Opinions regarding the properties of the Romance language "Oaths" diverge. Some see in it the Romanesque language of the region of Lyon , but others localize the dialectal base of the oaths in the northeast of Gaul ; some linguists consider the text to reflect the living Gallo-Romance speech of the time, others consider the artificial artificialization of the text to be significant. The text of the oaths reflects the early loss of the Latin final vowels, the instability of the realization of the final vowels that became such in the Romanesque era ( Karle - Karlo ) is a unique testimony to the aspirated consonants that fell out early ( cadhuna <cada una ).

The text of Nitgard is usually quoted from the manuscript of the National Library in Paris (list lat. 9768 of the end of the X century ). See reproduction of the manuscript on the Internet: https://web.archive.org/web/20060419082403/http://www.restena.lu/cul/BABEL/T_SERMENTS.html

(translation into Russian by V.I. Tomashpolsky )

The oath read by Louis the German before the army of Charles:

Pro deo amur et pro christian poblo et nostro commun salvament, d'ist di en avant, in quant. Deus savir et podir me dunat, si salvarai eo cist meon fradre Karlo, et in aiudha et in cadhuna cosa, si cum per dreit son fradra salvar dift, in o quid il mi altresi fazet, et ab Ludher nul plaid num quam prindrai qui meon vol cist meon fradre Karl in damno sit.

"In the name of love for God and in the name of the Christian people and our common salvation from this day onwards, as far as God gives wisdom and power to me (or: gave), so I will save this my brother Karl and in help and in every deed as my I have to save my brother so that he would do the same to me, and I will not conclude any agreement with Lothar, which, according to my will, this would have caused my brother Karl to be injured. ”

Oath, read by the army of Charles:

Si Lodhuvigs sagrament que fradre Karlo jurat condo, et Karos metera de suo part non lostanit, si jo returnar non l'int pois, ne neulsi neo cui eo returnar int pois, in nulla aiudha contra Lodhuuvig nun li iv er .

“If Louis oath, which he gives his brother Carl, will keep, and Karl, my lord, for his part will break it, if I cannot prevent him from doing this, neither I nor the other, whom I can interfere with, against Louis will not render him. "

• The Strasbourg Oath // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 tons (82 tons and 4 extras). - SPb. , 1890-1907.