Relevant terms for this context, adapted for context from Dictionary.com unless otherwise noted and linked in parentheses:

• codex: (plural form: codices) a collection of manuscript pages held together by stitching: the earliest form of book, replacing the scrolls and wax tablets of earlier times.

• digital facsimile: a digitally produced or shared exact copy, as of a book, painting, or manuscript

• epic: a long poetic composition, usually centered upon a hero, in which a series of great achievements or events is narrated in elevated style

• Illumination: 1. decoration of a manuscript or book with a painted design in color, gold, etc. 2. a design used in such decoration

• manuscript: a book or document written before the invention of printing.

• paratext: most often associated with books, as they typically include a cover (with associated cover art), title, front matter (dedication, opening information, foreword), back matter (endpapers, colophon) footnotes, and many other materials not crafted by the author. Other editorial decisions can also fall into the category of paratext, such as the formatting or typography (Wikipedia, "Paratext"). [Bold text added for emphasis on paratext usage preferred in this context]

• punctus marks: (paleography) The basic dot (‧) used to end a sentence in medieval punctuation (ancestral to the full stop/period) (Wikipedia, "Punctus")

This is an introductory overview of the oldest surviving manuscripts of three medieval poetic epics in Western Europe: the Nibelungenlied, Beowulf, and La Chanson de Roland. Digital facsimiles are available online for each epic poem’s oldest surviving manuscript, and these will be the codices discussed here, as their original intended audiences, general historic eras of origin, genres (poetic epics), and manuscript developments share clear similarities. Please note that this site does not discuss these early books' stories or literary details, but rather the history of the manuscripts themselves. I have provided links to translations and further reading on the More Information page, linked above.

Beowulf is an epic poem from England, written in Old English and the one surviving manuscript (contained in the larger manuscript, Cotton MS Vitellius A XV) is believed to have been copied around 1000 CE from much earlier manuscripts that did not survive. Its digital facsimile is provided by the British Library online, and the British Library is where the original manuscript is owned and stored.

La Chanson de Roland (the English translated title is The Song of Roland) is a Medieval French epic poem that survived in seven manuscripts and a number of fragments. The manuscript focused on here, the Oxford version, was housed for centuries in Oxford, England, where it survived as the oldest surviving manuscript and is estimated to have been copied around 1125 CE, and the Bodleian Library both owns the manuscript and provides its facsimile.

The Nibelungenlied is from Germany, written in High Middle German, and of the three poems discussed here, it has the greatest number of surviving texts at around thirty-seven manuscripts and fragments. The oldest surviving manuscript is the St. Gallen (Switzerland) manuscript, and is dated around 1220-1250 CE. The digital facsimile can currently be found on the E-codices website, sponsored and mandated by Swiss Universities.

Most scholars' arguments about the history of the physical manuscripts (rather than the literary features of the stories) share several common thoughts:

• There is evidence within the text that the surviving manuscripts are not the original versions of the epic poems (they are merely the copies that survived and were often copied down more than a couple hundred years after the text was initially composed)

• They were written to be performed orally rather than read privately, whether through reading or memorized performances

• This copying of the text from earlier copies has created changes to the stories and the details over time that may or may not be intentional.

While all three manuscripts date from the first couple centuries of the millennium, each is separated from the others by roughly one century (1000 CE for Beowulf, ca. 1125 for Roland, and ca. 1225-1260 for the Nibelungdenlied), so the scripts reflect the change of preferred scribal scripts and bookmaking in a period of significant transition. Parts of Beowulf do not use any miniscule script, for instance (allowing us to date it firmly despite few other clear clues to its dating). Meanwhile both Roland and Nibelungenlied have embraced more paratext cues like punctus marks and illuminated letters, Nibelungenlied having the most elaborate and frequent usage, with visual cues at the start of each verse and stanza, while the others remain a much simpler script. Beowulf's manuscript is in the roughest shape of the three texts, with fire damage, stains, crumbling pages, and missing chunks. Roland is in better condition, though written on poor quality parchment whose color is dark, making the script difficult to read clearly, a fact exacerbated by poor alignment and a very angular script (Duggan, 2005, p. I/15-16). Nibelungenlied, the youngest of the three, has some staining on the parchment and some damage to the pages, with some faded script, but the overall quality is the best of the three, with multiple colors of ink in use, lighter-colored parchment, and clearer script using a more advanced form of miniscule script. All three contain illuminated letters, while Beowulf has illuminated illustrations, but these become more elaborate and more stylized over time from the oldest manuscript (Beowulf) to the youngest (Nibelungenlied).