Sie ist mir lieb, die werthe Magd

Sie ist mir lieb, die werthe Magd. Martin Luther* (1483-1546). First published in Geistliche Lieder (Wittenberg, 1535), this is a hymn on the church in three 12-line stanzas. It is based on Revelation 12, with its portrayal of the woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. This is used in stanza 2: ‘Sie tregt [trägt, wears] von gold so rein ein kron,/ da leuchten jnn zwelff sterne’. The title of the hymn was ‘Ein lied von der Heiligen Christlichen Kirchen, aus dem xij capitel Apocalypsis’. The ‘Magd’ (Maid) is the Church of God, and the hymn reflects Luther’s concern for the struggles of the German church in the 1530s. These struggles...