Lorsch Bee Blessing

The Lorsch Bee Blessing (German: Lorscher Bienensegen) is a bee-keeping prayer intended to bring home honey bees in good health to their hives. It is believed to have been written in the 9th century, and was discovered in a manuscript (on fol. 58r of the Pal. lat. 220 in the Vatican Library, a copy of the Apocalypse of Paul) from the monastery in Lorsch, Germany, famous for the Lorsch Codex. Despite being a Christian prayer written in Old High German, it has remarkable similarities to the Anglo-Saxon and apparently pagan "For a Swarm of Bees" (Old English "wiþ ymbe") magic charm, and may reflect a common pre-Christian Germanic cultural heritage.[1]

Lorsch Bee Blessing (Lorscher Bienensegen) manuscript (Pal. lat. 220, fol. 58r)

Detail (rotated)

Text

Old High German

Kirst, imbi ist hûcze

Nû fliuc dû, vihu mînaz, hera

Fridu frôno in munt godes

gisunt heim zi comonne

Sizi, sizi bîna

Inbôt dir sancte Maria

Hurolob ni habe dû

Zi holce ni flûc dû

Noh dû mir nindrinnês

Noh dû mir nintuuinnêst

Sizi vilu stillo

Uuirki godes uuillon

Translation

Christ, the bee swarm is out here!

Now fly, you my animal, come.

In the Lord's peace, in God's protection,

come home in good health.

Sit, sit bee.

The command to you from the Holy Mary.

You have no vacation;

Don't fly into the woods;

Neither should you slip away from me.

Nor escape from me.

Sit completely still.

Do God's will.

Notes

1. Grendon (1909:209)

External links

• Pal. lat. 220 (Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana) – digital facsimile (Bibliotheca Laureshamensis - digital)
• Meinolf Schumacher: Majas Ahnfrauen? Über Bienen in der mittelalterlichen Literatur

References

Grendon, Felix (1909), The Anglo-Saxon Charms, hdl:2027/njp.32101007059163