I have compiled the libretto for this work from authentic graffiti and epitaphs collected from twenty medieval churches around Europe. All words sung have once been carved into stone or wood by mostly anonymous human beings inside or on a church. My main sources have been the three legendary buildings of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (Constantinople), the Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv and the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim. These landmarks represent three different centres of cultural gravity, different paths of Christianity and linguistic diversity. At the same time, they are historically bound together by thousands of years old trade routes between Scandinavia and Constantinople, from the Baltic Sea through the rivers of Eastern Europe, crossing the Black Sea and down the Bosphorus Strait to the Byzantian Capital, called Miklagard (The Great City) in Norse. The nearly thousand years old runic carving with the Viking name of "Halfdan" is still readable on the top of a fence in the Western Gallery of Hagia Sophia (a simple fact and evidence that can bring tears to my eyes). The Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim was built above the grave of the Norwegian king St Olav. His death at the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030 marks the transition from paganism to Christianity in Norway (in reality a much more complex process, of course). Olav spent several years in Kyivan Rus. Although he never went all the way to Constantinople himself, his brother was there, and a Chapel was later built there in his honour.

In addition to these three iconic cathedrals, I have collected single inscriptions from local stone churches in England, wooden stave churches in Norway, a pagan epitaph found underneath the Basilica of St Peter in Rome, the quite famous epitaph of Alcuin of York, who was one of the leading scholars in the Carolingian court and laid to rest in St Martin's Church in Tours in 804, as well as the famous Latin SATOR palindrome, which exists in numerous places around Europe, among them in the Abbey of St Peter ad Oratorium in Capestrano.

Hagia Sophia was built in the middle of the 6th century. Constantinople was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453, who then converted the church into a Mosque. The large collection of Greek inscriptions in Hagia Sophia, then, were mainly carved during the 900 years it served as the main church of the Byzantian Capital. The famous runic graffiti in Hagia Sophia, already mentioned, are likely carved during the 11th century by Vikings serving as mercenaries for the Byzantian Emperor. The St Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv was built during the 11th century and the many inscriptions there in Old Church Slavonic language were carved throughout the following couple of hundred years, both before and after the Mongolian conquest of Rus in the 13th century. The Nidaros Cathedral was built during the 12th and 13th centuries. Its inscriptions are both in Latin and Norse, the earliest carved probably late 12th century and the youngest late 15th century. I have not included graffiti carved after the Reformation in Denmark-Norway in 1537 since most of the existing research focus on Pre-Reformation period in Norway. The youngest texts included in the work are epitaphs in Latin from the early modern times in English churches.

A graffito can be defined as an unauthorized text, drawing or symbol carved on a surface not intended for inscriptions. In churches graffiti are found on walls, columns, portals and fences. Some of my sources are carved into wooden sticks or animal bones found underneath the church floor. I have limited my selection to graffiti consisting of words. Even though crosses, boats, symbols and other drawings are very common they cannot be sung. Authors of these texts have likely been stonemasons, clergies, pilgrims or members of the local congregations, that is, anyone who lived near or travelled by the church. Although illiteracy was widespread and few could read complex texts such as the Bible, many people could read and write a little. It is telling that one often finds variants of: "Can you read this?" or "You who read this, pray for me." While the graffiti is unauthorized, epitaphs are usually carved by professionals. Tombs were placed under church floors, in walls or in vaults underneath the nave. The fact that these graves were placed inside the churches and provided with costly inscriptions connects them to the wealthy and the upper classes of Mideval society. What all the selected texts, graffiti or epitaphs, have in common is that they were found inside or on the outer wall of a church.

Concerning the contents of the graffiti, names and prayers, often in combination are most common. Phrasings like "Lord, help your servant [+ a name]" is highly representative for both Hagia Sophia (Greek) and the St Sophia Cathedral (Old Church Slavonic). Variants of "God owns my soul" is more common in the Norwegian sources. Some of the names may be carved by pilgrims to testify their presence at the destination. Some may also express more "earthly" needs of marking one's territory, i.e. types of signatures we often see in metro stations and elsewhere in modern cities too. Otherwise, church graffiti expresses love, fear, eroticism, curses, peace treaties, philosophy, bullying, witness proves, riddles, puns etc. etc., all type of statements we can recognize from modern public spaces too. The epitaphs, however, tell a different story. Sometimes they consist of a short biography of the dead. A very touching example, I think, is: "Mary Hooper bore nine children, and while giving birth to the tenth, she gave her soul to God." Other address the reader, asking for a prayer. One example is the opening words: "Whoever you are who passes by, stand, read, weep and pray: I am what you will be, for I had been what you are". This is a memento mori which exists in numerous variations around Europe all the way back to pagan Antiquity. It is as the dead still speaks directly to us continuously through history.

The Greek, Norse and Old Church Slavonic texts are transliterated into Latin letters in the score. The question of pronunciation is difficult because the matter of local dialects and historical variants throughout the Middle Ages is a very complex one and clues are few. How did a Norwegian clergy pronounce Latin during the 1200s, for instance? Nevertheless, I have made some likely adjustments of the spelling for practical use in the score: The Greek letter of "b" (β) was already pronounced "v" in Byzantian Middle Ages rather than "b" as in Greek antiquity. Hence, the Greek word for "help" ("βοήθει") has been transliterated as "voethei", rather than "boethei". The word "Kyrie" which is commonly pronounced with a "y" in the mass ordinary today, I suggest to be pronounced "i", as the Greek did and still do. To remind the singers of this, I have actually spelled it "Kirie" in the score. While a common transliteration of the Slavonic word for "church" would be "cerky", I have spelled it "tserky" in the score to reflect a more likely pronunciation.

The texts are mainly to be sung in their original languages. But in a few passages, they should be sung in English translation too, to communicate their messages more directly.

Writing this work involved extensive research into inscriptions of the past. Firstly, to achieve some kind of overview of what kind of material exists and who the carvers were seemed necessary to make a reasonable and representative selection for a libretto. Secondly, many sources are worn-out and appear only fragmentary, which make it more difficult to keep a sense authenticity of the "original voice" and message all the way through the score. Numerous inscriptions consist of only a few letters which leaves their intentions extremely open. Others are evidently fragments of complete sentences or even paragraphs, but still have too many blank spots to be useful here. On the other hand, often I struck into inscriptions that immediately spoke to me and made me sense a personality and feel some sort of "closeness" to the thoughts of a human being living a thousand years ago. I wish I could have included many more of the unique voices I have become familiar with during this process.

I have visited some of the churches in question during research and observed inscriptions there myself, most importantly Hagia Sophia and Nidaros Cathedral. (To visit Kyiv is difficult due to the ongoing war.) It can be quite overwhelming to see and sometimes even touch the expressed carvings of a person. Though long dead it is like he or she still lives in that very carving. You can see how a sharp object like a knife has moved through the material of wood or stone. You can reflect on the laborious work behind a short message from a medieval pilgrim compared to the spontaneity of a tweet by a friend from Yesterday. Having said this, only occasionally I could actually read bits of the content at the location. I neither speak nor read Greek, Slavonic or Norse. (I know enough Latin to stitch together reasonable translations of shorter texts.) Fortunately, epigraphy is a century old, highly developed and complex field of science. Through innumerable books and articles researches meticulously have laid forth their transcriptions, transliterations and interpretations of worn-out inscriptions letter by letter. The patience, thoroughness and slowness behind these scholarly works is impressive, overwhelming and quite moving, I think. The existence of this research express the strongest urge among humans to understand, to learn from, to pay attention to and respect each other, I think. The field of epigraphy makes me feel a strong sense of historical community.

In addition to published books and articles I owe my deepest gratitude to a few people. Searching for inscriptions from Kyiv, I banged my head against the wall for a long time until I finally came across Antoaneta Krastanova Andonova Granberg, Docent at the Gothenburg University. She opened the door into a flourishing world of inscription collected from the St Sophia Cathedral: Prayers, names, curses, confessions, philosophy, peace treatises and other historic events have been documented. Antoaneta presented an extensive selection of inscriptions for me. She transliterated and translated and we discussed the content and meaning of many curious inscriptions. She also recorded sound samples of pronunciations, which turned out to quite a delicate matter. The texts are nearly thousand years old and no one knows exactly how the Old Slavonic Language was pronounced around in Kyivan Rus. And due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, which is both military brutal and culturally inflamed, Antoaneta felt she had to consider carefully and consult her colleagues whether to lean towards Ukrainian, Russian or a pronunciation in between.

For the material from Hagia Sophia, I particularly owe my gratitude to Rachael Helen Banes, Post Doc. at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. She pulled out a selection for me and have been most helpful describing how it represents the bulk of inscriptions and answered my questions patiently. I will also thank archaeologist Maria Hielte for translations of Greek scholarly works on Hagia Sophia.

The inscriptions in Norwegian churches have been much more accessible. I have particularly relied on Johan Bollaert's Doctoral thesis which contain a complete catalogue of inscriptions from Medieval churches in Norway. Bollaert has also recorded pronunciations of the Norse inscriptions and has been most helpful answering my questions.

I would also like to thank Øystein Ekroll and Rune Langås at the Nidaros Cathedral Restoration Workshop for letting me observe the work of stonemasons, blacksmiths and glaziers working patiently still with the same techniques and tools as in the Middle Ages.

Finally, I would like to thank Frank Havrøy, baritone singer and artistic leader of Trondheim Vocal Ensemble who in 2023 introduced me to Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and Olavfest, which led to the commission of this work to be premiered during Olavfest in Nidaros Cathedral 3 August 2026.

B. Morten Christophersen
Oslo, 1 March 2026

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