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GER6041/LIN6041 History of the German Language GER/COM5014 Medieval Epic Week 2 Dr Doriane Zerka [email protected] Arts One 2.04 A&F hours: Monday 10-11, Tuesday 2.30-3.30 The Middle Ages? often disregarded as an era of decay in European culture, e.g. ‘Dark Ages’ Giovanni Andrea Bussi, Vatican Librarian, 1469 ‘media tempesta’ = middle season ‘medium aevum’ = middle age Christoph Martin Keller (Christophorus Cellarius), The Nucleus of Middle History Between Ancient and Modern (1688) The Middle Ages? c. 500/800 – 1500 CE Possible beginnings: Fall of Rome in 476 CE, linked to Migration Period (Völkerwanderung) until c. 800 CE Possible end points: invention of European printing press by Gutenberg c. 1440-50 conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 Christopher Columbus’ first journey to America and conquest of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand in 1492 the Protestant Reformation in 1517 The Middle Ages? c. 500/800 – 1500 CE Early Middle Ages (up to c. 1150) High Middle Ages (c.1150–c.1300/50) Late Middle Ages (c. 1350–1500) The Provinces of the Roman Empire, c. 120 CE Germanic tribes c. 50-100 CE Charlemagne’s monogram Reproduction Bust of Charlemagne, 14th century Aachen Cathedral Treasury translatio imperii Treaty of Verdun (843) West Francia Charles the Bald Middle Francia Lothar I East Francia Louis the German The Future Holy Roman Empire under Ottonian and Salian rule Holy Roman Empire: The Empire of the Staufer Rulers c.1215-50 Holy Roman Empire c. 1400 1512 Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation Medieval literature and medieval epic latin/vernacular orality/literacy fiction/history “Uns ist in alten maeren wunders vil geseit” Codex Manesse, Cod. Pal. germ. 848 (c. 1300-1340) Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival Munich, Staatsbibl., Cgm 18 early 14th century Nibelungenlied Manuscript C Badische Landesbibliothek, Karlsruhe, Codex Donaueschingen 63, f. 1r. c. 1220-1250. Some medieval literary genres •courtly romance •heroic epic •Love lyric (Minnesang in German) •saints’ lives (vitae) •religious poetry •Fabliaux or Mären Thinking through medieval genres • Summarise articles : what are main points conveyed by the authors of the two pieces you had to read for today? • Following Bowden, what have been the three main genres of medieval literature ? Why is this division problematic ? • Following Cohen, what are the unifying/dividing markers of different medieval epic traditions ? → What are the advantages/problems of classifying medieval texts into genres ? Defining the medieval epic • Imagine you are an author asked to write a heroic epic : • What would you bear in mind ? • What subject matter would you choose ? • How do you think your answers would change if you were doing this exercise around 1200, and now ? • Summarise key points that might be things to bear in mind when dealing with medieval epic: what is our own working definition of a medieval epic? Medieval epic: general guidelines Medieval epic genre usually defined in three ways: - develop from oral stories - formal characteristic: heroic epic are written in stanzas and verses - content characteristic: presentation of some form of heroic past, distant age of heroes, who perform exorbitant deeds, often including what we might think of as a supernatural element, sort of mythology. Concluding thoughts • Middle Ages as period of change and complexity • Medieval literature as phenomenon developing in between Latin and vernacular, orality and literacy and fiction and history • Medieval epic as genre that escapes strict definition but can be considered within general guidelines: inspired by orality, written in stanzas and verse, narrating distant heroic past inspired by some form of historical truth.
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