Himmelsbrief
Himmelsbrief noun: a type of early chain letter alleged to have been written by God (and fallen from the sky), typically offering divine protection to its bearer.
Noun
Himmelsbrief (plural Himmelsbriefs or Himmelsbriefe)
- A type of early chain letter alleged to have been written by God (and fallen from the sky), typically offering divine protection to its bearer.
- The idea of the Himmelsbrief, the letter from heaven, cannot have been one of the most primitive religious ideas of men, because it presupposes a community in which writing is already familiar.1928, Edwyn Bevan, Sibyls and Seers, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., page 111
- Himmelsbriefe, as such letters are called in German folklore, have been recovered in manuscript from as early as the eleventh century, and in printed form from as early as 1500.1947, Wayland D. Hand, edited by Louis C. Jones, New York Folklore Quarterly, volume 3, number 2, Ithaca, New York: New York Folkore Society; Cornell University Press, via Internet Archive...
Examples of Himmelsbrief in a sentence
- All of the Himmelsbriefs contain biblical commandments and teachings, pointing the way to righteousness.1997, Tom Ogden, Wizards and Sorcerers: From Abracadabra to Zoroaster, New York, NY: Facts on File, →ISBN, page 101:
- The first chain letters, in VanArsdale’s analysis, were what folklorists sometimes call “heavenly letters,” or, more commonly, Himmelsbrief, a German term.[2020 January 24, Kaitlyn Tiffany, “The Divine Origins of the Horny Chain Text”, in The Atlantic:
Forms of Himmelsbrief
| plural | Himmelsbriefs |
|---|---|
| plural | Himmelsbriefe |
Origin of Himmelsbrief
Borrowed from German Himmelsbrief, probably via Pennsylvania German.
Questions about Himmelsbrief
- What does Himmelsbrief mean?
- Himmelsbrief means a type of early chain letter alleged to have been written by God (and fallen from the sky), typically offering divine protection to its bearer.
- How do you use Himmelsbrief in a sentence?
- All of the Himmelsbriefs contain biblical commandments and teachings, pointing the way to righteousness.
- What part of speech is Himmelsbrief?
- Himmelsbrief is a noun.
- What is the plural of Himmelsbrief?
- The plural of Himmelsbrief is Himmelsbriefs.
Words near Himmelsbrief in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Himmelsbrief (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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