A Cluster of Old Frisian Wisdom Texts in the First Emsingo Manuscript

Abstract

Within the surviving corpus of Old Frisian literature, the First Emsingo Manuscript includes a group of brief texts, intertwined with the predominantly legal core of the codex, that seems to rather belong to the realm of wisdom literature. This ‘wisdom cluster’ is part of a larger group of miscellaneous pieces, and comprises three riddles on three brothers, a statement of general truth, a treatise on the growth of the foetus, a list of the clerical grades, and a text on the eight elements out of which Adam was created. In fact, it has been claimed by previous scholars, such as Murdoch (1996) and Elsakkers (Scient Hist 30:107–154, 2004), that these texts—taken in their individuality—also possess a legal rationale that justifies their inclusion in a legal miscellany. The present essay offers an assessment of this cluster of wisdom texts in their manuscript context and provides a detailed discussion of their sources and analogues, linking them to a wider North-Western European textual tradition.