Christus als Lichtbringer und Held. Polarität im Heliand und in zeitgenössischen Bildzeugnissen

Abstract

This paper explores corresponding motifs in the Old Saxon Heliand and the iconography of Christ in some rare artefacts which have survived from that time. The context of mission may have endorsed the employment of the oppositional pairs of light and darkness, world above and underworld in the Heliand, and they also appear in the iconographic representations. Light mediates salvation in the Heliand and Christ is divine light. A likely source for the significance of light is Paschasius Rad-bertus’ Commentary on Matthew, whereas oppositional pairs such as light/darkness and heaven/hell might be traced back to the role of binary thinking in the indigenous culture. The context of mission is in itself structured by opposition and in the focal figure of Christ, a number of oppositions become established. The heroic quality of Christ becomes apparent in his capacity for reducing the oppositions to just one of the two sides.