The Mengeldichten (Mixed Poems) of Hadewijch
Hadewijch's Mengeldichten ('Mixed Poems') are her didactic verse corpus — sixteen poems by Hadewijch herself, with a further group (Poems XVII-XXIX) traditionally attributed to a slightly later writer called 'Hadewijch II' in the Hadewijch-school tradition. Unlike the lyrical Strofische Gedichten (stanzaic with refrains, in the troubadour tradition), the Mengeldichten are in rhymed couplets, more didactic in tone, and often function as verse-letters addressed to an unnamed correspondent — typically a younger Beguine in formation. Sections I-IV currently shipped cover Poems I-XVII — Poem XVII being the famous Seven Names of Love canonical Hadewijch-authentic; together approximately 15K English words. Sections V-VI ship the COMPLETE 'Hadewijch II'-school appendix (Poems XVIII-XXXII). The combined Mengeldichten work — Hadewijch-authentic plus the Hadewijch II school appendix — is now SHIPPED IN FULL at approximately 22K English words across six sections. Section I covers Poems I-V: Poem I, the long 300-line opening verse-letter on Love's nature (with the famous modesty-topos Love's nature is unknown to me; her being and her ground are hidden against me) and Hadewijch's canonical four-virtues of Love (attainment, lacking, hope, despair); Poem II, the medieval quaestio-poem of the Four Masters and the Strongest Thing (wine, a king, a woman, truth — read spiritually as sorrow-of-lowness, poverty-of-spirit, humility, and truth-itself-as-Love); Poem III, the Magdalene-as-model-of-steady-Love verse-letter with the rare direct Patristic citation to Origen's Commentary on the Song of Songs; Poem IV, the verse-letter of formation to a young reader (Hold your three-foldness in good order, and love God sweetly); Poem V, the short companion-verse on the discipline of suffering (Love herself is best adorned with suffering, from which many gladly flee). Source: Heremans/Vercoullie 1875 diplomatic edition (DBNL hade002werk01 Vol 1: Gedichten, PD by US 95-year rule). Section I crosses the 5K-word judge threshold (5,601 EN words) following the same deferred-judge pattern as Mechthild V-VI-VII and Hadewijch Visioenen Section VI. Section II adds Poems VI-X: Poem VI's right Love and weak deceit cannot well agree; Poem VII's upon Love shall you let yourself, to rightly love and rightly hate; Poem VIII's when the iron is hot, then one shall strike; Poem IX's Wisdom 3:15 citation glorious fruit shall he know who much suffers for the heightening of Love; and Poem X's Christological program closing with I have no Love at all; I will nothing else, whether she be good or fell to me. Section III closes the inner Hadewijch-authentic Mengeldichten with Poems XI-XVI: the canonical edele ontrouwe doctrinal poem XI; Poem XII's inverted-counsel quatrain; Poem XIII's Psalm 45 echo (Audi filia / the King desires your beauty); Poem XIV's twenty-three-paired-antitheses Song; Poem XV's Nine-Months Conception of Love; and Poem XVI's famous closing sound-play poem ending in the Ay lief hebbic lief een lief... / Ay minne om minne ghevet dat minne / De minne al minne volkinne coda. *Section IV is the famous canonical Hadewijch-authentic Poem XVII — De minne hevet vij namen — The Seven Names of Love (bant / licht / cole / vier — bond, light, coal, fire — the four fier names; and dau / levende borne / hille — dew, living spring, hell — the three great and severe names), closing with the striking doctrinal compression hell is her highest name — the doctrinal ancestor of Marguerite Porete's willed-annihilation in God and Eckhart's abegescheidenheit. Section V opens the transparently-marked Hadewijch II-school appendix with Poems XVIII-XX: the famous In dat blote apophatic poem (In the bare stand the great who attain) in proto-Eckhartian register; the Ezekiel-four-living-creatures poem XIX (a noble I-know-not-how — neither this nor that — that leads us into our beginning); and Poem XX's without why love you for yourself prayer-poem (the Bernardian amare Deum propter Deum in apophatic Beguine register, anticipating Eckhart's sine cur and Porete's sonder enich waeromme). Section VI completes the Mengeldichten with Hadewijch II XXI-XXXII: the Trinity-form poem XXI; XXII's Many-kinds-of-Love are pure Love's hindrance; XXIII's Trinity-generation poem; the apophatic prayer-poems XXIV-XXVI; XXVII's famous Love-wine-tavern image; XXVIII's I desire what is unknown to me; for in un-knowing without ground I find myself caught; XXIX's poor-of-spirit in the wide single-foldness; and most importantly the proto-Eckhart-Seelenfunklein passage of XXX (the pure spark, the little ember, the livingness of my soul, that must always be one with God) — the canonical Hadewijch-school articulation of the Vünkelîn der Seele doctrine in late-13th-c. Middle Dutch, predating Eckhart by some thirty years. XXXI's Ah Love, your tricks are too swift. XXXII's closing Welcome inner origin*.
Source context· Greco-Christian stream · Greco-Latin cultural age
- Stream
- Greco-Christian
- Cultural age
- Greco-Latin (4th post-Atlantean cultural age)
- Composed
- c. 1240 CE
- 1Section I — Poems I-V — verse-letters in rhymed couplets
The opening five Mixed Poems. Unlike the Stanzaic Songs, the Mengeldichten are in rhymed couplets and more didactic in tone — verse-letters typically addressed to an unnamed younger Beguine being formed in the way of Love. Establishes the work's pastoral-instructional register.
6,014 words - 2Section II — Poems VI-X — strike while the iron is hot
Five doctrinal verse-letters. VI: 'right Love and weak deceit cannot well agree.' VII: 'upon Love shall you let yourself.' VIII: the famous strike-while-the-iron-is-hot stanza — 'when the iron is hot, then one shall strike. So shall you make haste while you have your youth.' IX: 'one must with Love undertake all Love.' X: the close of the first verse-letter sequence.
2,007 words - 3Section III — Poems XI-XVI — closing the Hadewijch-authentic Mengeldichten
The closing six poems of the certifiably-Hadewijch Mengeldichten. The arc moves toward the apophatic register that culminates in Poem XVII (Section IV). The traditional manuscript ordering preserves Poems I-XVI as a continuous sequence before the masterwork that closes the authentic corpus.
5,585 words - 4Section IV — Poem XVII — De minne hevet vij namen (Love Has Seven Names)
Among the most-cited Hadewijch poems and the canonical doctrinal climax of the Mengeldichten. The seven names of Love are unfolded — four fier (bold) names and three great and severe / always short and eternally long names. The manuscripts close the Hadewijch-authentic corpus with this poem; subsequent poems (XVIII-XXIX) are by a later Hadewijch II.
2,030 words - 5Section V — Attribution Note — Poems XVIII-XX — the Hadewijch II appendix begins
These poems are not by Hadewijch herself. The manuscripts mark this division explicitly with the explicit formula Dilata, ira decrescit. Explicit liber iste. Deo gratias. Amen. The poems that follow are in a markedly different bloet sonder figure (bare without figure) apophatic register, identified by Van Mierlo onward as the work of a later writer in Hadewijch's school — an early-Eckhartian precursor.
1,885 words - 6Section VI — COMPLETES THE MENGELDICHTEN — Poems XXI-XXXII — completes the Mengeldichten corpus
Completes the project translation of the entire Mengeldichten corpus as found in the 1875 Heremans/Vercoullie edition. Twelve further Hadewijch-II school poems in the apophatic bare without figure tradition, anticipating Eckhart's abegescheidenheit by some thirty years and likely influencing Ruusbroec.
3,443 words
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