Evangelienbuch

The Evangelienbuch (Book of the Gospels) is a significant work by Otfrid, a monk from Weissenburg in Alsace who lived in the 9th century. It is the first known poem in the South Rhine Franconian dialect of Old High German. This work, comprising 7,416 lines, is a selective paraphrase of the Gospels with added commentary.1

Otfrid's Evangelienbuch is notable for being the first German poem to move away from traditional alliterative verse and incorporate end rhymes. He wrote it partly to counter the German people's love for secular poetry, aiming to introduce Christian thought through the vernacular. The poem demonstrates a progression from early attempts at rhyme to a more skilled and graceful style. This work is considered a milestone in German literary history and provides valuable insight into early Christian thought in Germany.1