Academic literature on the topic 'Virginal (Middle High German poem)'

The aim of the study is the analysis of the presence of the three classic Latin author’s works in two aristocratic libraries of the 18th–19th centuries. The motivations of reading and collecting books are similar and more catalogues make possible the comparison of the two collections. The members of the Károlyi family were significant in distributing education and culture in the 17th-18th centuries. Two remaining manuscript catalogues (1830, 1843) shows that the Fót library was a live collection throughout its existence. It was constantly growing and diminishing, it served to entertain and inform its owners. Therefore seeking philological or bibliophile aspects in its composition is not worthwhile. Concerning the items of the manuscript catalogues: the subsequent researcher can more or less identify the individual works based on the fragmented descriptions but doesn’t hold the copy that served as a base for the previous categorisation. The two library catalogues can surely be linked to István Károlyi who studied in the Piarist high school in Vienna, later in Pest. The first catalogue contains one edition of Horace and two of Virgil, the second attests eight Horace, three Ovid and seven Virgil. The Keszthely Library is a baronial library like the one in Fót. For the Festetics family, who moved to Keszthely in the second half or the 1740s, books were important. The Hungarian National Archives conserves twelve library catalogues of the Festetics estates in one and a half century, between 1746 and 1894. On the basis of these twelve catalogues, five Horatius, twelve Ovidius- and five Vergilius-editions can be identified from the 16th–18th-centuries. The currant collection contains also several 19th-century editions. In the Helikon Library of the Festetics Castle there is an unpublished two sheet print in Hungarian and German, titled ‘The adaptation of Virgil’s known poems for the Hungarian coronation”. The distich believed to be written by Virgil, the starting point of the pamphlet published in Pest in the printing house of Mátyás Trattner in 1792, on the coronation of Ferenc I. The version of the poem adapted for the coronation is as follows: “Rain by night: We are crowning our King in the morning: / With Nature shares thus our beloved Ferenc”. And in German: “Des Nachts ein Regen: des Morgens fröhliche Krönung: / So theilt Theurer FRANZ mit dir die Zeit – die Natur ein.” At the bottom of the sheet this note can be read: “NB. That all happened like so, can those present in Buda and Pest attest.” As a work of propaganda it is intended to bolster the image of the king himself. The epigram ascribed to Vergil by the so-called Vita Vergilii by Donatus was frequently used in the Middle Ages. The hexameter furnishes the standard example for 'spectaculum' in the Latin grammar manuals. It was imitated for example in the Silva by the Milanese doctor and humanist Bernardino Rincio which narrates the splendid festival of the reign of Francis I, the Bastille festival of 1518. “Luce pluit tota, redeunt spectacular nocte, Imperium iunctum cum Iove Rex habeas.” “It has rained throughout the day, the spectacles return with the night, may you O King have your empire joined with Jupiter.”

Abstract Up until now, the Early Middle High German text ›Anegenge‹ has been discredited in academic research for various different reasons, including claims that it is merely a bad didactic poem, whose sole purpose is to portray the complete history of salvation. This paper aims to illustrate that the main topic of the poem is not, as has been the common consensus thus far, the history of salvation, but, instead, the Holy Trinity. This allows for a reevaluation of the text.

The present article offers an overview of several poems written by Frau Ava (1060–1127), a German poetess whose literary works are virtually unknown in Lithuania. Ava, an anchoress in Melk Abbey, is the first named German female writer, who broke ‘the deep silence of German literature’ lasting over a century (Stein 1976, 5). All poems attributed to Frau Ava are of religious character: Johannes ‘John the Baptist’ (446 lines), Leben Jesu ‘Life of Jesus’ (2418 lines), Antichrist (118 lines) and Jüngstes Gericht ‘The Last Judgement’ (406 lines), which make up an impressive biblical epic of 3388 lines. Leben Jesu, Antichrist and Jüngstes Gericht are found in the Vorau Manuscript dating the first half of the 12th century (Codex 276, 115va-125ra), whereas the Görlitz Manuscript (Codex A III. 1. 10), compiled in the 14th century but lost during World War II, contains the poem Johannes as well as the other poems mentioned above, excluding the epilogue of Jüngstes Gericht (lines 393-406).The article presents an overview of Frau Ava’s life and works as well as a Lithuanian translation of her poem Jüngstes Gericht, written in Early Middle High German (Ger. Frümittelhochdeutsch). The translation is based on Maike Glaußnitzer and Kassnadra Sperl’s text, published in 2014.

The article deals with two incomplete handwritten copies of the poem Facetus with a Czech translation. The poem Facetus, or more specifically its version referred to as ‘Cum nihil utilius’ based on its incipit, probably originated in the 12th century; in the high Middle Ages, it was the second most widespread of moral lessons in verse. It was also used in school instruction, with which both copies are associated. The fragment of the National Museum Library 1 H b 179, most likely from the second decade of the 15th century, contains the beginning of the poem’s interpretation and a part of the text accompanied by a Latin explanation and Czech interlinear glosses on individual verses. This Czech version reveals a certain continuity with the tradition of Czech scientific terminology of St Vitus School and Bartholomew of Chlumec, called Claretus. The second copy is written on the front free endpaper of the manuscript of the National Library of the Czech Republic X F 19; it comes from the turn of the 15th century; it is an incomplete record of the beginning of the text of the poem, with the Latin and Czech versions alternating after individual words or short sections. The study further provides a transcription of both fragments and records the manuscript preservation of the Latin text of Facetus, excerpts from it and German translations in Czech libraries.

In the study of mediaeval European literature, especially that of France and Germany, the terms chanson de femme and Frauenlied have come to be conventional designations for a distinct type of poem—more broadly defined than a genre: a female-voice love-lyric in a popular rather than a courtly mode. To use the language of Pierre Bec, femininity here is “textual” rather than “genetic.” Most of these “women’s songs” are attributed to male authors, although there has been a tendency to trace the type back to preliterate songs actually composed by women. Goethe, Jakob Grimm, and others saw in the early German and Balkan Frauenlieder and Frauenstrophen the traces of “das älteste Volkspoesie.” The use of this terminology to designate a lyric in the female voice—irrespective of its authorship—goes back to Alfred Jeanroy, at the end of the last century, who defined chanson de femme as a woman’s monologue, usually sad, relating to love (158). Theodor Frings, whose description of the Frauenlied is probably the one that has been the most influential, makes clear that it is a universal, not merely a mediaeval, type. Although he focusses on Middle High German, Provençal, and Old French poetry, he includes examples ranging from Greek to Chinese.

This article analyzes the existing translations of the German medieval epic poem Nibelungenlied into Russian. Russian translations, made by M. I. Kudryashev in 1889 and Yu. B. Korneev in 1972, were based on the outdated publication of the Nibelungenlied edited by K. Bartsch. The edition by K. Bartsch is rather a compilation than a critical study. The basis for this edition was the manuscript B, in which K. Bartsch made a great number of amendments. That is why K. Bartsch’s edition cannot be regarded as a suitable source for translation. In contrast, the translation by Yu. B. Korneev contains a number of factual inaccuracies and additions caused by the translator’s aim to keep the original metre. The article shows that it is necessary to make a new Russian translation of the Middle High German masterpiece. The article provides a review of possible problems facing a translator: accuracy of translation; making comments that give missing information or explain unclear places in the text. It argues in favour of overt translation with comments that help readers to understand the text which is a product of both another culture and another time. The article features a new translation of the first chapter of the Nibelungenlied (the manuscript B) with comments.

One of the indicators for the global importance of the anonymous Nibelungenlied certainly proves to be the great interest to develop new translations into modern languages, here English. William Whobrey, who used to teach at Yale University, endeavors to render this major epic poem, along with the sequel, the Klage, once again into an updated English version. He is fully aware of the many previous efforts and acknowledges them, but he insists that his translation deserves particular attention especially for three reasons. First, he worked hard to offer a maximum level of clarity particularly for the modern student reader, without moving too far away from the original Middle High German. Overall, Whobrey has achieved that goal, as numerous spot checks have confirmed. One can always quibble somewhat, so when he renders, for instance, “der Nibelungen nôt” in the very last line as “the downfall of the Nibelungen” (199). Moreover, there are many small issues that make me wonder, so when in stanza 208 it clearly says that “the warrior Hagen spoke,” which here is rendered as “commanded Hagen” (168). Hagen emphasizes that he and his companions (pl.) will keep watch, which Whobrey makes into the singular “My companion and I.” This could make sense, but it should have been annotated.

The article highlights the imagological intentions in the poetry of Wlodzimierz Wysocki, a famous Kiev photographer of the second half of the 19th century, in relation to ethnic images that form artistic representations of the multi-ethnic and multicultural world of Volyn in the middle of the 19th century. The starting point of reasoning is E. D. Hirsch's thesis, which is important for imagology, about the textual meaning as the author's verbal intentions, which must be adequately read and restored. Wysocki consistently operates in his work with images with the indicated ethnicity, therefore, the fact of the presence of the author's imagological intentions is difficult to deny. The poet's texts are full of messages about the ethnic and cultural Others who form the ethnocultural imago of a Jew, a German, a Ukrainian, and proper the imago of a Pole, for the study of which the imagological method and definitions proposed by foreign (M. Beller, H. Dyserinck, D. Leerssen, D.-H. Pageaux) and Ukrainian (D. Nalyvaiko, I. Pupurs, T. Sverbilova, G. Sivachenko and others) scientists were used. In the reconstruction of imagological intentions it is important to consider the subject of perception and expression – the author of the constructs, because the Other's imago is built at the expense of the author's factors: the imagological point of view, the imagological position and textual strategies in relation to the Other. The imagological point of view, that is, the perception of the Other through one's own national or ethnic identity, is transparent: Wysocki’s letters to the Polish writer Eliza Orzeszko testify to the unambiguous and unshakable national and ethnic identity of the Pole and the perception of the world through the prism of Polish national values. But the author's imagological position – the perception of the Other through his own social identity and psychological attitude – is twofold. On the one hand, Wysocki writes about the Others and about Himself as a financially secure businessman and bourgeois, born into a poor noble family, but thanks to his perseverance and hard work, achieved a high position in society. This position determines Wysocki's views on Own (Pole) and the Other (Jew, German) in relations with Own: it allows him to criticize and ironic, to express sharp, and sometimes even controversial judgments. On the other hand, having a position in society and financial support, Wysocki formed the position of a supporter of the idea of Polish-Ukrainian ethnic and social solidarity and formulated it in a poetic form. The psychological component in these positions is also different: if in the first case the author's mood can be defined as moralizing, instructive, in the second it is romanticized-sentimental. Accordingly, the author's intentions in relation to the images of a Pole, a Jew, a German, a Ukrainian are realized in various genres: the moralizing imago position is embodied in satirical forms, and the romanticized sentimental – in a historical and social poem.

The present dissertation investigates similes and their importance in Eichendorff’s narrative work. The sources of the investigation consist of seven of Eichendorff’s narratives. Their 734 similes make up the corpus, which is presented in its entirety in the appendix. The context of the similes is partly included as well. Initially, I define the concept of “simile” more precisely, partly distancing myself from the definitions found in classical dictionaries of literary terms. After this, I describe my procedure for analysis in detail. This turned out to be necessary, since there was no similar study to be found on this topic in the extensive literature on Eichendorff. The search for models of types of similes brought me back to antique rhetoric as well as to Middle High German epic poems. In the first analysis, the types of similes occurring in the corpus are presented. The syntactic structures of image receivers and image givers are used as criteria. Four structures of similes occurred: a) classical similes and b) similes with image givers, which represent adverbial clauses and c) as / as if – clauses or are d) subject-related. The frequency and the development of frequency of types of similes are presented as well. In the second step of the thesis, I investigate whether similes tend to depict conditions/qualities or procedures/actions. It turned out that similes reflecting conditions/qualities, i.e. epic similes, dominated strongly. The high number of similes could possibly be explained by the functions carried out by epic similes in narrative texts. In the third part, I concern myself with the question whether the similes of the corpus are imaginative representations only and what kind of sensorial perceptions they express. Admittedly, the dominating percentage of the similes proved to be images, but more than fifteen per cent consist of sounds and other sensorial perceptions. Furthermore, imaginative similes, but also sounding similes express motion, so that they illustrate pictures in motion and sounding motion respectively. These come close to synaesthesia, whereas only five similes illustrate „pure“ synaesthesia. In contrast, subject-related similes are perceptions of different sensations and feelings, illustrating the inner life of a character not shared by any other character. Finally, the semantic content of the similes is investigated in order to determine the metamorphosis, i.e. the trope transfer from proprium to improprium. It turned out that only the classical simile originating in antique rhetoric is suitable for a semantic analysis. Above all, there is great variation in the trope transfer. The metamorphosis human being → nature dominates strongly, which makes the narrative text appear as a palimpsest, in which yet another world glimmer in front of the human being behind every character. However, the many trope transfers that convey reality → unreality could be interpreted as transitions and as a “magical code” of Eichendorff. Furthermore, the semantic analysis uncovers content and motives of classical similes. It becomes clear that pre-constructed – and only pre-constructed - content is imitated here. Consequently, it can be asserted that Eichendorff’s great number of similes constitute or at least contribute to the formulaic manner (according to Kohlschmidt) and the intertextuality (according to Nienhaus) in Eichendorff’s narrative work. Above all, the subject-related simile type turns out to be a typical representative of Romanticism because of its subjectivism. Together with its preformed semantic content, it constitutes the “romantic formula” of Eichendorff’s work.

This chapter studies accounts of contemporary paganism circulating in Eastern and Northern Europe from the eleventh century onward. In the mid-thirteenth century, when the Mongols had conquered a vast empire, two Franciscan travellers, John of Piano Carpini and William of Rubruk, were received by the Great Khan and wrote about the life and traditions of a pagan society at first hand. Medieval readers also knew a mass of partly fantastical material, much of it inherited from antiquity, about the remote lands of Asia and their pagan inhabitants. In the mid-fourteenth century, an anonymous writer wove this material together with the reports of genuine travellers into The Book of John Mandeville, a medieval best seller which takes a surprisingly deep and original look at the Problem of Paganism. In addition, this chapter takes a look at Willehalm, a Middle High German poem written c. 1210–20 by Wolfram von Eschenbach.

This, the first of four chapters on the Middle Ages, explores the rise of vernacular verse from the fifth to eleventh centuries. There is a little surviving evidence for oral poetry in the vernacular languages prior to the fifth century, and the first written example comes from the beginning of that century. The story of Caedmon’s inspired poetry is examined, as is Bede’s ‘death song’ and other evidence for poetic activity in England in the seventh and eighth centuries. Several Old High German poems of the ninth century are considered, as well as Alfred the Great’s interest in poetry. Beowulf, dated somewhere between the late seventh and the eleventh century, includes scenes of poetic performance and may be itself an example of the kind of poem it depicts in performance. Also discussed are the Old English poems Deor and Widsith and the Viking and Viking-influenced poems of the tenth century.

The current study is dedicated to anthroponymy in the Middle High German epic poem “Song of the Nibelungs”, delving into the problem of rendering anthroponyms with detoponymic bynames. It was carried out with the aim to develop strategies for their depiction in the Latvian language in order to form a scientific basis for the translation of this epic poem. Methods such as quantitative and qualitative corpus analysis and empirical research were used to find out how anthroponyms with detoponymic bynames are realized in the “Song of the Nibelungs”, what is their role in text structure and message and how these properties can be reproduced in the target language. It has been found that detoponyms not only provide information about the origins of epic characters, but also perform formally stylistic functions, and their reproduction requires creative solutions to preserve their unique features. In conclusion, practical examples of the implementation of rendering strategies in translation are presented, which clearly show the close connections between anthroponyms with detoponymic bynames and the structure of the text and justify the choice of specific approaches