MUSPILLI. — Title of a poetic fragment of 105 alliterative verses, in the Bavarian dialect of the 9th century, originating from the monastery of S. Emmerano in Regensburg, and so called, following the example of J. A. Schmeller, who was its first editor in 1832, from the word muspille, which occurs in the 57th verse of the fragment in the sense of “end of the world,” “Last Judgment.”
The brief composition, which is presumed to have been transcribed by the hand of Ludovicus the German,
because it was found on the blank pages of a Latin codex that had belonged to him, describes, in a prophetic tone and with striking imagery, the fate of souls after death, the struggle of celestial and infernal spirits for possession of the soul, and the duel between Elijah and the Antichrist, interwoven with various admonitions and counsels of piety. It is certainly the work of a layman, as is apparent from his not always perfect knowledge of Church doctrine, and it has little artistic merit, although at times a certain vivacity of description may be noted and here and there some fine poetic image admired. It must nevertheless have been very well known in its own time, Otfrid of Weissenburg (v.) inserted an entire verse (the 14th) in his Book of the Gospels. Since the fragment’s content displays some evident correspondences with Norse mythology, as it developed artistically in the books of the Edda (v.) and particularly in the description of ragnarök (“twilight of the gods”; V. GERMANIA, RELIGIONE dèi), some scholars formerly believed that they could trace in it the eschatological concepts of Germanic paganism, identifying Elijah with Odin and the Antichrist with the wolf Fenrir. Today, however, all agree that those elements—perhaps with the exception of the word m.—have their roots solely in Christian traditions, which also form the foundation of the Eddic epic, although in some respects freely renewed.