page_title: Old Saxon
section_title: Literature
hierarchical_section_title: Old Saxon / Literature
caption_attribution_description: English: This is an excerpt (from Fragment P) of the Heliand from the German Historical Museum.
context_page_description: Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German. It is a West Germanic language, closely related to the Anglo-Frisian languages. It is documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it gradually evolved into Middle Low German. It was spoken throughout modern northwestern Germany, primarily in the coastal regions and in the eastern Netherlands by Saxons, a Germanic tribe that inhabited the region of Saxony. It partially shares Anglo-Frisian's Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law which sets it apart from Low Franconian and Irminonic languages, such as Dutch, Luxembourgish and German.
  The grammar of Old Saxon was fully inflected with five grammatical cases, three grammatical numbers and three grammatical genders. The dual forms occurred in the first and second persons only and referred to groups of two.
  Historically, Old Saxon and Old Dutch were considered to be distinct dialects of an otherwise unitary language rather than two languages, primarily because they were linked through a dialect continuum spanning the modern Netherlands and Germany.
context_section_description: Only a few texts survive, predominantly baptismal vows the Saxons were required to perform at the behest of Charlemagne. The only literary texts preserved are  Heliand and fragments of the Old Saxon Genesis. There is also:
  Beda homily (Homilie Bedas)
  Credo (Abrenunciatio diaboli et credo) → Old Saxon baptismal vow.
  Essener Heberegister
  Old Saxon Baptismal Vow (German: Sächsisches Taufgelöbnis)
  Penitentiary (altsächsische Beichte, altwestfälische Beichte)
  Trierer Blutsegen ( de.)
  Spurihalz (Wiener Pferdsegen) ( de.)
  Wurmsegen (Wiener Wurmsegen) ( de).
  Psalms commentary (Gernroder Psalmenkommentar)
caption: Heliand excerpt from the German Historical Museum
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