Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Egerton MS 2323
- Record Id:
- 040-001983272
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001983208
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000116.0x000269
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100174687973.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Egerton MS 2323
- Title:
-
Fragments of Middle Dutch verse: the Nevelingenlied and Van den bere Wisselau
- Scope & Content:
-
Three fragments, dated to the second half of the thirteenth century or first half of the fourteenth century, joined together with a paper booklet during the nineteenth century. The first two fragments are the only witnesses of the otherwise lost Middle Dutch Nevelingenlied, probably translated from the Early Middle High German Nibelungenlied (c 1200). The third fragment is a larger bifolium containing Van den bere Wisselau (About Wisselau the Bear): a unique Charlemagne epic about a bear (Wisselau) and his 'master' Geernout. The story tells of how Geernout instructs Wisselau in a secret language to defend Charlemagne at the court of Espriaen, king of giants. The work, which is thought to have been written in the twelfth century, apparently was well-known in the late medieval Low Countries. The poet Jacob van Maerlant (b. c. 1230, d. c. 1300) refers to 'the tale of the bear Wisselau' ('van bere Wisslau die saghe' ) in his Spiegel Historiael (Mirror of History). Nevertheless, Egerton MS 2323 contains the only known version of the narrative that survives.
Contents:
ff. 1r-1v: Fragment of the Nevelingenlied.
ff. 2r-2v: Fragment of the Nevelingenlied.
ff. 3r-4v: Fragment of Van den bere Wisselau (partially legible due to torn leaves, and stains of ink, reagent, and glue).
Decoration:
Large initials in red (ff. 3r-4v).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Egerton Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001983208
040-001983272 - Is part of:
- Egerton MS 2264-2327 : Farnborough Fund
Egerton MS 2323 : Fragments of Middle Dutch verse: the Nevelingenlied and Van den bere Wisselau - Hierarchy:
- 032-001983208[0007]/040-001983272
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Egerton MS 2264-2327
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
4 leaves
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100174687973.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Dutch, Middle
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1251
- End Date:
- 1349
- Date Range:
- c 1250 - c 1350
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 145/265 x 90/200 (text space: 130/230 x 80/190), in two or four columns.
Foliation: ff. 4 (+ 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning +28 unfoliated modern paper leaves at the end); a modern paper pastdown on f. [32].
Script: Gothic.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house.
- Custodial History:
-
Origins: Netherlands, S.
Provenance:
Carmelites of Louvain, 1704: J. F. de Laval (fragment of the Nevelingenlied), librarian, claimed to have removed f. 2 as a flyleaf from a book that had belonged to the Carmelites of Louvain in 1704.
J. F. de Laval, before 1835: owner of f. 2.
Karel Parmentier, Ghent archivist, before 1838: owner of f. 1 (fragment of Wisselau).
Constant-Philippe Serrure (b. 1805, d. 1872), historian and provincial archivist for East Flanders: Serrure received f. 2 in 1835 from J. F. de Laval, and acquired f. 1 in 1838 at an auction of the collection of Karel Parmentier. Serrure claims that the Wisselau fragment was used as a binding (rather than a flyleaf) for an old (unspecified) register. Serrure probably kept the three fragments together with two fragments of the Historie van Troyen, Jacob van Maerlant's Middle Dutch translation of Benoit de Saint-Maure's Roman de Troie; a 19th-century inscription on a paper flyleaf (f. [ii]recto) introduces these two fragments ('Trojaensche Oorlog. - Twee fragmenten. onuitgegeven. - Einde der XIVe eeuw'), but are not part of Egerton MS 2323 (see Kienhorst, Handschriften (1988), I, pp. 146-47 and pp. 222-23).
The British Museum acquired the three fragments from him on 13 December 1873, using the Farnborough Fund (£3,000 bequeathed in 1838 by Charles Long, Baron Farnborough (b. 1761, d. 1838), a cousin of Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater (b. 1756, d. 1829), founder of the collection.
- Information About Copies:
-
Complete digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Digital Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Constant-Philippe Serrure, ‘Het Nevelingen-lied’, Vaderlandsch Museum voor Nederduitsche letterkunde, oudheid en geschiedenis, I (1855), 1-33 [An edition of the Nevelingenlied fragments].
Constant-Philippe Serrure, ‘De beer Wisselau’, Vaderlandsch Museum voor Nederduitsche letterkunde, oudheid en geschiedenis, 2 (1858), 253-84 [An edition of Wisselau].
François-Jean Olivier, Catalogue de la bibliothèque de M. C. P. Serrure, 2 vols (Brussels: Rossel, 1872-1873), II, p. 93, nos 2548 and 2549.
Gerrit Kalff, Middelnederlandsche epische fragmenten (Groningen: Wolters, 1885; repr. Arnhem: Gysbers & Van Loon, 1968), pp. 1-7 [An edition of the Nevelingenlied]; 9-32 [An edition of Wisselau].
Karel de Flou and Edward Gailliard, Beschrijving van Middelnederlandse andere handschriften die in Engeland bewaard worden, Verslagen en Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Taal- en Letterkunde, 3 vols (Ghent: Koninklijke Vlaamsche Academie voor Taal- en Letterkunde, 1895-1897), I, pp. 192-93 [Catalogue entry for Egerton MS 2323].
Ernst Martin, ‘Neue Fragmente des Gedichts Van den Vos Reinaerde und das Bruchstück Van Bere Wisselauwe’, Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach- und Culturgeschichte der germanischen Vö1ker, 65 (1889), 37-73 [An edition of Wisselau]
Robert Priebsch, Deutsche Handschriften in England, 2 vols (Erlangen: Junge, 1896-1901), II, p. 87 [Catalogue entry for Egerton MS 2323].
Jan de Vries, ‘Van bere Wisselauwe’, Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde, 41 (1922), 143-72 [A comparison of Wisselau and the Old Norse þiðrekssaga].
Michael S. Batts, Das Nibelungenlied. Paralelldruck der Handschriften A, B und C nebst Lesarten der übrigen Handschriften (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1971), pp. 797-99 [An edition of the Nevelingenlied]; pp. 806-07 [Description of the Nevelingenlied fragments].
Maurits Gysseling and Willy Pijnenburg, Corpus van Middelnederlandse teksten (tot en met het jaar 1300), Series 2, 6 vols (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1980-1987), I, pp. 529-46 [An edition of Wisselau].
Bart Besamusca, Repertorium van de middelnederlandse Karelepiek: een beknopte beschrijving van de handschriftelijke en gedrukte overlevering (Utrecht: Hes, 1983), pp. 134-35 [A description of the Wisselau fragment].
J. Peeters, 'Die mittelniederlandische Übersetzung des 'Nibelungenliedes'', in Ars & Ingenium: Studien zum Übersetzen: Festgabe für Frans Stoks zum sechzigsten Geburtstag, ed. by Hans Ester, Guillaume van Gemert, and Jan van Megen (Amsterdam: Holland University Press, 1983), 117-38 [A discussion of the Nevelingenlied with greyscale reproductions of ff. 1r-2v, on plates 6-9].
Hans Kienhorst, De handschriften van de Middelnederlandse ridderepiek: een codicologische beschrijving, Deventer studiën 9, 2 vols (Deventer: Sub Rosa, 1988), I: pp. 146-47 and 222-23 [Descriptions of the three fragments]; II: pp. 102 and 153 [Greyscale reproductions of Egerton MS 2323, f. 2r and f. 4v]
Frank Brandsma, ‘Van den bere Wisselau’, Olifant, 24.1 (2005), 9-21 [A discussion of Wisselau].
Frits van Oostrom, Stemmen op schrift: Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse literatuur vanaf het begin tot 1300 (Amsterdam: Bakker, 2006), pp. 83-87 [A summary and discussion of the text].
Ben van der Have, ‘De Middelnederlandse Karelepiek: de fragmenten en het geheel’, in Karolus Rex. Studies over de middeleeuwse verhaaltraditie rond Karel de Grote, ed. by Bart Besamusca and Jaap Tigelaar (Hilversum: Verloren, 2005), pp. 77-92 (p. 87) [A discussion of Wisselau in the context of the Middle Dutch Charlemagne epic].
Joris Reynaert, ‘De kok in het vuur’, in Karolus Rex. Studies over de middeleeuwse verhaaltraditie rond Karel de Grote, ed. by Bart Besamusca and Jaap Tigelaar (Hilversum: Verloren, 2005), p. 123 [A study of an episode in Wisselau].
Norbert Voorwinden, ‘Dat mittelniederländische Fragment ‘Van Bere Wisselau’ und sein Verhältnis zur deutschen Heldensage’, Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik, 41 (1995), 161-73 [A discussion of Wisselau's relation to the German epic literature]
Raymond Harper, ‘Beer of geen beer…Intimidatie, list en bedrog in de Bere Wisselau’, Nederlandse letterkunde, 6 (2001), 113-23 [A literary analysis of Wisselau].
Klaus Klein, ‘Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Handschriften des Nibelungenliedes’, in Die Nibelungen. Sage - Epos - Mythos, ed. by Joachim Heinzle, Klaus Klein and Ute Obhof (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2003), pp. 213-38 (p. 226) [A description of the Nevelingenlied fragments].
Hans Kienhorst, Lering en stichting op klein formaat. Middelnederlandse rijmteksten in eenkolomsboekjes van perkament, Miscellanea Neerlandica 31-32, 2 vols (Leuven: Peeters, 2005), I: Onderzoek, Plate 44 [Greyscale reproduction of Egerton MS 2323, f. 1r]; II: Handschriften, pp. 205-07 [A description of the Nevelingenlied fragments].
Thomas Klein, ‘Umschrift - Übersetzung - Wiedererzählung. Texttransfer im westgermanischen Bereich’, Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, Sonderheft, 127 (2008), 225- 62 (pp. 255-57) [A comparison of the Nibelungenlied and Nevelingenlied].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)