Songs

Hadewijch (ca. 1240) is the beating heart of Dutch-language  literature. This mystic was the first woman in Europe to have dared to sing of mystical love in pure love poetry. Hadewijch created with astounding mastery and linguistic skill a mysticism of desire.

Hadewijch is a passionate and uncompromising poet, whose poetry is complex, sensitive and ingenious, and whose songs are direct and intense. In her courtly love lyrics she sings of love and despair, of terrible desolation and the longing for union. For the reader and the listener, her passion is almost palpable.

This edition of her ‘Songs’ is based on the oldest manuscript known to us. The editors, Frank Willaert and Veerle Fraeters, have provided an exact reproduction of the original Middle Dutch text along with a translation. Louis Peter Grijp reconstructed melodies to which Hadewijch wrote her mystical love songs.