Ein' Feste (Wart)Burg
Today my daytrip was to the Wartburg castle, just outside of Eisenach. The castle is most famous for being the year-long hiding place of Junker Jörg (Martin Luther's pseudonym while in hiding) after his appearance at the Diet of Worms. Here, in the span of ten weeks, Luther made the first translation of the New Testament from its original Greek into German.
When asked what he did during his year in the Wartburg, he reportedly replied, "I fought the devil with ink," referring to his translation. Sadly, many tourists during the last four hundred years (the first "so-and-so was here" I saw etched into the wall was from 1602) have taken his statement a bit too literally and took home souvenir pieces from a large ink-stain on his wall, leaving a large hole. They also destroyed his original desk, and thus the one you see in the picture is a different one from his parents' house.
Luther's small study isn't much bigger than my own small room in Göttingen, so if he can do it for a year, so can. Although I probably won't be changing the course of history by putting the Bible in common hands for the first time. Or will I....?
No, I won't.
When asked what he did during his year in the Wartburg, he reportedly replied, "I fought the devil with ink," referring to his translation. Sadly, many tourists during the last four hundred years (the first "so-and-so was here" I saw etched into the wall was from 1602) have taken his statement a bit too literally and took home souvenir pieces from a large ink-stain on his wall, leaving a large hole. They also destroyed his original desk, and thus the one you see in the picture is a different one from his parents' house.
Luther's small study isn't much bigger than my own small room in Göttingen, so if he can do it for a year, so can. Although I probably won't be changing the course of history by putting the Bible in common hands for the first time. Or will I....?
No, I won't.
So that's where he made the mistranslation of trombones sounding the end of the world...
Posted by
Heath |
7:17 PM
Isn't this where he also wrote "A Mighty Fortress"? Which, is written above the doors into our chapel: Eine Feste Burg Unser Gott.
Posted by
Lindsey |
9:32 PM
"Dude, what's a bulwark?"
Posted by
Anonymous |
10:14 PM
Hmm...Wikipedia says it was written a few years later: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ein_feste_Burg_ist_unser_Gott
Posted by
andrew |
8:41 AM
And I do recall that inscription when I visited JBU in my youth. :)
Posted by
andrew |
8:43 AM
to bethany--
"it's like a really strong wall."
"then why don't they just say that?"
Posted by
skoenig |
5:13 PM