A Love Poem from the 15th Century: Baltist from Greifswald Offers New Interpretation of an Old Prussian Find

Prof. Dr. Stephan Kessler was captured in a portrait at the Greifswald 'Bereichsbibliothek' (Departmental Library).
© Žan Vidmar Zorc/UG
Portrait of Prof. Dr. Stephan Kessler
Around 1440, people wrote differently than they do today. The Old Prussian word shown here can be read as ‘wargan’ (evil), ‘waitian’ (speech) or ‘wartian’ (penance).
© Antiquarian Booksellers Les Enluminures
Around 1440, people wrote differently than they do today. The Old Prussian word shown here can be read as ‘wargan’ (evil), ‘waitian’ (speech) or ‘wartian’ (penance).

Petrus Wickerau’s twenty-five words are among the oldest surviving texts written in Old Prussian. When the manuscript was discovered and published in 2013, Baltic scholars hailed it as a sensation. Source material on Old Prussian is scarce; every new find has a great significance. The Greifswald-based Baltic scholar Prof. Dr. Stephan Kessler played a part in the rediscovery and first translation from the very beginning. Thirteen years on, he is now presenting a new interpretation. It broadens our view of the language, culture and society of the Old Prussians and provides fresh insights for research.

“About thirteen years ago, Wickerau’s manuscript was put up for sale,” says Kessler. The sellers asked the expert Prof. Dr. Stephen Mossman from the University of Manchester for his assessment. He consulted Kessler due to an addendum that he was unsure about. “Apart from the fact that it had to be Old Prussian, nothing was clear when we started out,” says the researcher from Greifswald.

In his new interpretation, Stephan Kessler demonstrates that the twenty-five words were not just a random entry, but a poem. Wickerau addresses it to an unknown recipient. Kessler suspects that this person may be the person who commissioned the transcript. It seems the two knew each other well.

Love, rejection and two false horses

The poem speaks openly of desire and rejection: “You longed for my love, / Albeit, you did not secure my consent.” It goes on to say that the rejected man ‘somewhat destroyed himself’. Wickerau, however, advises him not to stand there ‘dressed in linen’ like a penitent, but to go and stand under a lime tree to sing.

It culminates in a metaphor: “Two false horses shun the hunt.” Two people with little in common will not accomplish anything together. The content and tone clearly set this literary relic apart from all other records of Old Prussian.

The poem appears at the end of a Latin transcript, completed by Petrus Wickerau in Crete in 1440. Very little is known about him. Although experts had noticed this idiosyncratic Old Prussian addition, for a long time they were unable to identify the language in which it was written. It is only the most recent interpretation that reveals its poetic nature.

Further information
Publication details: Prof. Dr. Stephan Kessler A New Interpretation of Petrus Wickerau’s Old Prussian Verses (1440). Greifswald (University Library’s digital repository) 2026. Free Download [de]
About the project [de]
Website of Prof. Dr. Stephan Kessler

Contact at the University of Greifswald 
Prof. Dr. Stephan Kessler
Department of Baltic Studies 
Ernst-Lohmeyer-Platz 3, 17489 Greifswald
Tel.: +49 3834 420 3200
https://baltistik.uni-greifswald.de/en/

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