Le glosse “impoetiche” del testimone lipsiense del Heliand

The recent discovery of a new fragment of the Heliand (L), found at Leipzig in the binding of a volume, has aroused renewed interest in the Old Saxon poem. L (one sheet) contains lines 5823-5870 relevant to the most part of fit 69 and the beginning of the next one. This section of the Heliand was handed down so far only in the Cottonianus (C), as the Monacensis lacks the corresponding sheets. L contains also some readings, quite different from those of C, perhaps a proof that it retains a much older text than that of C. But the chief interest of L lies in the three vernacular glosses (written perhaps by the same hand of the main text), whose function was apparently to explain difficult or outdated words on the line.