The Holy Rood in the Netherlands and North Germany A comparative study of nine Middle Dutch and two Middle Low German recensions of the legend about the Provenance of the Cross

Abstract

A comparison was made of all the known recensions and fragments in Middle Dutch (9) and Middle Low German (2) of the medieval legend of the Provenance of the Cross. Variants were written and weighted, and a computer-assisted stemma was produced. The stemma arranges the recensions into a few groups, but only a small number of conclusions can be drawn from it, e.g. that the two Low German texts, not surprisingly, are to be found at a larger distance from their nearest relatives than any of the Middle Dutch recensions. Both were very obviously translated from Middle Dutch, and it was already clear from the differing ways they solve translating problems that one was not copied from the other, nor did they have a close common ancestor; this is corroborated in the stemma. The dialects of the Middle Dutch texts were then determined by means of the computer-controlled method Rem and Wattel developed for the Corpus of 14th century charters and deeds; the results were entered into the stemma. It now turned out that one of the Low German recensions was relatively closely related to a Dutch text with Northern and Eastern traits. Both Low German texts, however, have as their second closest relatives early recensions which localise in Southern Brabant. All the early Middle Dutch recensions do in fact localise in Southern Brabant. The obvious conclusion is that an archetypical text must have been written in Southern Brabant.