The Script of Vorauer Alexander - Some Remarks

Along with the Kaiserchronik and other minor texts, the Vorauer Handschrift (the most prominent poetic miscellany of Early Middle High German book production), contains an epic on Alexander the Great. This Austrian poem has been aknowledged as a version of Lambrecht’s Alexanderlied (also transmitted in the Straßburger and Basler Handschrift). Historical and literary details have traditionally been matched to determine the poem’s birthplace(s) – conjecturally posited in the Middle Rhine, in Cologne or Trier – and Mundartforschung has been employed to validate philological hypotheses. The scripta of the codex, however, is hard to classify in grammatical terms and no univocal dialectal identity emerges from its analysis. Textual peculiarities that are claimed to evidence traces of the Middle German original appear inextricably interlaced with Austrian features and scribal oddities, so that the rationale behind editors’ choices is not always apparent. Straßburger Alexander, by contrast, though partially displaying similar script peculiarities, amends old-fashioned irregular words and couplets, in order to normalise its Mischsprache in compliance with the usages of regularised rhyme. This paper will test the usefulness of the editions as repositories of linguistic data, considering current dialectal interpretations against scribal hallmarks of both Vorauer and Straßburger Alexander. Renewed attention will be devoted to the calligraphic late Caroline hand of the Vorau codex, as well as to its inconsistent spellings, variable regionalisms and obscure features (such as the reversibility of diphthongs and consonant clusters), which prevent a unique and indisputable regional attribution. The rationale of editorial decisions will be reappraised through the consideration of specific questionable features (involving superscripts, consonant usage, verbal morphology and rhyme). This examination has the eventual aim of highlighting the hybrid linguistic character and erratic vernacular orthography of the whole Vorau poem, evidencing methodical difficulties in its normalisation.