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Although the concept of the Absurd seems to be characteristic only of modernity, especially since WWII, we face the intriguing opportunity to investigate its likely first emergence in the early thirteenth century in Der Stricker's Pfaffe Amîs (ca. 1220). While the narrative framework insinuates that meaning and relevance continue to be the key components of the priest's life, especially because he constantly seeks new sources of income for his own generosity and hospitality, his various victims increasingly face absurd situations and are abandoned even to the threat of insanity and death. The analysis of the verse narrative suggests that the protagonist begins to embrace crime and violence as the norm for his operations as a fake merchant. Thus, in some of the episodes of this famous Schwankbuch, elements of the absurd become visible, creating considerable irritation and frustration, if not horror and desperation, among the priest's innocent victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It ought to be an ongoing effort by all scholars/researchers to question the validity, legitimacy, and purposes of their own discipline because we live in an ever-changing world and must regularly reflect upon our academic self-justification. This also applies to the field of Medieval Studies that faces considerable difficulties and challenges today with declining numbers of students enrolling in respective classes and lacking support by university administrators. This study begins with a general consideration on where we are today in terms of justifying the humanities at large, that is, of the study of literature particularly, and hence of medieval literature. Then this paper focuses on two universal themes, tolerance and then love. While love has always been associated with the courtly world since the twelfth century, toleration and even tolerance do not seem to fit within the medieval context. However, the discussion of both phenomena can be utilized as a particularly effective catalyst for further investigations of medieval culture and literature within the framework of modern and postmodern responses to the Middle Ages. The exploration of this theme as it emerged already at that time offers intriguing opportunities to make the study of medieval literature relevant and important for us today, as does the examination of the love discourse through a historical lens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed a tremendous growth of globalism, at least in terms of European outreach and interest. We can identify this phenomenon particularly well through two different and independent sources, first, the publication of Adam Olearius's Vermehrte Newe Beschreibung der Muscowitischen vnd Persischen Reyse, 1647, and then the growth of Jesuit reports about their missionary activities all over the world carefully collected and published by Joseph Stoecklein ca. hundred years later in his highly popular Welt-Bott, compiled and published since 1726. Globalism is, of course a complex term, both for today and for the past. Everything depends on the narrator's perspective, the engagement with the other culture/s, and the reciprocity. Olearius appears to have achieved a major breakthrough with his travels to Russia and then later to Persia, introducing much of Persian culture to Germany. The Jesuits (Eusebio Kino, Ignaz Pfefferkorn, Joseph Och, et al.) provided their German (!) readers with astoundingly precise comments and reports about the New World in northern Mexico and in the province of Sonora (today, partly Arizona), while their many colleagues globally contributed their own reports about all four corners of this world. Combining these two perspectives, we can identify a very early but already very strong effort to learn more about the foreign world, to overcome the otherness (from a Eurocentric perspective), and to create a global platform far beyond what travelogue authors such as Marco Polo or Odorico da Pordenone had achieved in the fourteenth century, irrespective of their extraordinarily extensive travels to China. This paper, however, will begin, after I have reflected on the latest theoretical approaches to Global Studies, with a most unusual eye-witness account from ca. 1350, and then pursue the discourse on globalism as it developed over the following centuries, crossing several periodical barriers and bridging different narrative genres within the Germanlanguage context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of medieval literature, irrespective of the genre, contains considerable criticism of the hero or protagonist. In fact, in many cases the narrator voices rather harsh condemnation of his or her main characters who often demonstrate a lack of rationality, fail to observe basic rules and laws, and tend to act rather foolishly. In a survey at first, this article illustrates the presence of this phenomenon in a number of European literary texts from the twelfth through the fourteenth centuries. The focus of the present article, however, rests on the anonymous thirteenth-century Old French chanson de geste (or romance) Huon de Bordeaux. Here, more than in most other medieval narratives, the protagonist regularly rejects or disregards all concrete instructions, severe warnings, or commands and promptly runs into major problems. Although these contribute to the narrative development (more adventures), the critical analysis reveals, after all, a disturbingly negligent, irresponsible, and defiant character whose behavior might mirror profound social problems with late medieval knighthood and the political structure of that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout time, alcohol has been used by people all over the world, and its negative effects have commonly been the subject of many comments by critics and poets. Medieval literature is actually filled with references to wine and its excessive consumption. This paper examines the evidence we can find primarily in medieval German literature, but it also includes parallel remarks by didactic and religious writers, along with those by some English, French, and Italian contemporaries who addressed the same issue. While the criticism voiced is loud and clear, the literary treatment of drinking of wine ‒ rarely of beer, mead, or ale ‒ allows us to gain a deeper insight into the basic everyday-life conditions at that time. Reports about excess only reflect the common consumption of wine especially among aristocrats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many times, even scholars in the Humanities do not know how to deal with literature because they work only in the field of language acquisition, linguistics, or other data-driven study areas. Not surprisingly, when the issue emerges how to explain and to defend the Humanities, the literary areas seem to be the first on the chopping block. On the one hand, we can certainly argue that there is a specific literary canon that provides the readers/students with a sense of cultural identity and history. On the other hand, it seems more significant and effective to consider literature from whatever period or written in whatever language as a kind of laboratory of human behavior. The fictional framework makes it possible to experiment with unique types of situations in human life, often in an extreme fashion, which facilitates, as any scientist working in a lab would confirm, the critical analysis without too many outside distractions. The present paper argues that we can learn much about human communication through the study of literary texts. This finds an excellent illustration in the works of the late medieval German poet Heinrich Kaufringer (ca. 1400), in whose verse narratives we encounter a plethora of various situations and conditions reflecting on ordinary cases in people's lives, with all the shortcomings and potentials pertaining to the human language and the social community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Despite renewed efforts to establish world literature, most of the presently available theoretical models do not provide solid concepts as to the meaning and relevance of this approach. After a critical review of recent publications, this article analyzes a unique and most revealing case, the reception of medieval Persian literature (Sa'dī) through translations into European languages beginning in the seventeenth century, primarily by the German diplomat, traveler, librarian, philologist, and linguist Adam Olearius. Here we can observe what truly constitutes world literature, with Sa'dī serving as a major literary inspiration for early modern reflections on virtues and vices, relevant also for Western audiences. He was not a Christian, but the poet's truly noble ideals were to have a deep impression on his future readers in East and West, especially since the early modern age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a review of how the western world has viewed Persia and Persian culture since the turn of the eighteenth century, this article explores older forms of reception of Persia, first during the seventeenth century, but then, which is the main focus, in the high and late Middle Ages. As far as I can tell, Middle High German poets seem to have been at the forefront within the European context of engaging with the topic of Persia in their romances and other genres. Many of those references, of course, constitute nothing but fiction, and they were most likely not based on practical travel experiences or personal encounters. Nevertheless, we can identify a significant interest in that part of 'the East,' probably determined by the strong impact of the myth of Alexander the Great and his conquest of the Persian empire in the third century BCE on medieval literature. However, most of the references to Persia go far beyond that ancient topic and might signal a significant opening up toward non-European culture to the east already during the high and late Middle Ages. The thematic approach identified here facilitates the combination of a number of different texts from the late twelfth to the late fifteenth and even sixteenth century and intends to provide a new puzzle piece to the exploration of the notion of the Global Middle Ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dominican priest from Bern, Ulrich Bonerius, composed his collection of fables, Der Edelstein, at exactly the same time when Boccaccio created his collection of tales, Decameron, 1350. Even though there is no direct evidence of any kind of personal contacts between these two poets, the strong similarities between both works in formal and conceptual terms prove to be striking. This article illustrates the reasons why we would be justified to call Bonerius, more than just playfully, a Germanlanguage Boccaccio, since he created the first major compilation of narratives (in verse), framed by a prologue and an epilogue, in the history of late medieval German literature. While Boccaccio has ten storytellers entertain each other over ten days (ten stories per day = 100) reflecting on eroticism, love, adventures, or anticlericalism, Bonerius offers one hundred didactic fables illustrating human failings, shortcomings, and vices. Both contemporaries thus aimed at criticizing and improving their society through surprisingly similar literary means. Bonerius thus emerges as one of the most important fourteenthcentury poets in the German tongue who deserves to be placed close to Boccaccio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the dramatic, if not traumatic, experiences in life has always been enslavement and imprisonment, that is, the loss of personal freedom, and this for many different reasons. Curiously, medieval literature does not seem to address this topic extensively, at least at first sight, and research has paid rather little attention to this issue. A close analysis, however, demonstrates quickly that the theme of imprisonment was of significant concern throughout the Middle Ages, probably because the loss of individual freedom happened more often than not and could also affect members of the nobility. There were many cases of imprisonment as a result of criminal activities, sometimes also committed by knights or noble ladies. Worst, however, was the experience of those who were taken as captives after a battle and then were enslaved. This article provides a first framework for the study of this large topic in pre-modern literature and so-called ego-documents and then focuses on a most dramatic example, the report by the long-term slave Johannes Schiltberger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces a teaching concept for the upper level of an undergraduate program in German Studies at university level through which a successful balance between the traditional demands of the 'canon' and the emerging diversity of available readings can be achieved. Focusing on cities as literary hubs makes it possible to integrate a wide range of literary works that we would want our majors to have been exposed to before graduation, while also allowing them to gain a solid understanding of regional and historical differences. This concept also relies on digital resources and thus combines print material and online material, especially with respect to medieval literature, allowing for a productive interaction between aspects of the Digital Humanities and German Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much research has been done on the figure of the Carolingian emperor Charlemagne, who has certainly left an indelible mark on posterity. This study focuses on the reception history in late medieval German and Italian/Latin literature, including some references to artworks mirroring Charlemagne. Drawing on theoretical reflections on the universal process of mythmaking (Cassirer, Weber), we can recognize how much the historical figure of this mighty ruler became idealized and transmogrified throughout time and, in its charismatic function, could serve many different functions for the various writers and artists, such as Petrarch, Hans Waltheym, Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrucken, Hans Schondoch, Albrecht Durer, and Hans Sachs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Futhark is the property of Revista Futhark and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Even though we tend to assume that the concept of a sophisticated and complex city belongs to one of the constitutive factors of the modern age (maybe since ca. 1600), we can recognise an entire discourse on the dream city beginning already in the late twelfth century and continuing throughout the centuries, as illustrated by the cases of Herzog Ernst, Konrad von Würzburg's Partonopier und Meliur, and The Travels by Marco Polo. When Italo Calvino predicated his famous Invisible Cities on Marco Polo's account, he might not have been aware of the broad and deep literary tradition. This article identifies the crucial components of this discourse and builds distinct bridges between the Middle Ages and modernity. As the analysis will demonstrate, the dream city was not simply a well-fortified town, but a relatively expansive city with many luxuries and pleasures for the inhabitants, at least within literary imaginations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of our central challenges as medievalists consists of how to respond to the question regarding the relevance of medieval literature and other documents. This article suggests that we can easily draw from medieval heroic literature where ideal and also negative examples of successful/failed leadership are provided. The MHG Nibelungenlied , at least in the first part, illustrates dramatically the consequences of a weak, indecisive, impulsive, and manipulable ruler, whose actions ultimately trigger a whole sequence of hatred, violence, and slaughter. The Old Spanish El Poema de Mío Cid sets out almost at the same point, with the protagonist being exiled because of malignment, but in the course of events, he demonstrates convincingly what makes a true, honorable, admirable, and worthy leader. These two epic poems can serve powerfully as illustrations of failed and successful leadership, and can thus offer significant instructions for modern concerns in politics, business, administration, the church, schools, and universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late Middle Ages, at a time when the experience of massive death as a result of epidemics became common everywhere (dance of death, artes moriendi), poets discovered the theme of death as a convenient topic for many of their tales, perhaps intending thereby to trivialize death and to help their audiences to gain a healthy distance from this phenomenon. In the contemporary entertaining literature, especially in the Middle High German mæren (verse narratives), we encounter numerous examples of killing, murder, manslaughter, and accidental death. The poets tended to refer to such cases in order to ridicule or criticize people and institutions, especially the church. In this process, death turned into an ordinary incident and lost much of its frightfulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the assumption that literary texts can be employed already in the first German language classes, we are confronted with the question how to select the right texts and whether there might be historical criteria. This article argues that medieval German literature can also be included, if it is dealt with in a pedagogically and didactically skillful manner. The messages of the medieval texts often prove to be astoundingly meaningful, and this even for us today, not only because they develop alternative perspectives, but also because they address basically the same problems as today, even though from their own perspectives. Based on a selection of literary texts from the twelfth through the late thirteenth century this article illustrates what texts could be used well in German as a Foreign Language and in a literature class to meet specific learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores, informed by recent ecocritical thinking regarding the interpretation of literature in past and present, the symbolic function of the forest space in the Middle High German heroic epic Nibelungenlied. Intriguingly, both the protagonist Siegfried and his nemesis Hagen operate in, through, and with the forest, but only Siegfried emerges as a true master of the forest, which provides him, through various channels, with much of his true strength and power. In many respects, the poet projects the forest as an ominous space where the lives of the courtly protagonists are reflected and determined. However, each protagonist responds to and engages with the forest in different way. This ecocritical approach uncovers a heretofore mostly ignored perspective regarding the importance of the forest in the Nibelungenlied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As much as courtly life in the Middle Ages was determined by the royal and aristocratic celebrations and festivities, as much disruptions and dangerous tensions also emerged easily, as reflected by numerous late medieval poets. In the course of time, the ideals and the theatricality of courtly life seem to have become increasingly fragile and deceptive, which finds powerful expression in such works as the anonymous Mauritius von Craûn, Der Stricker's Daniel von dem Blühenden Tal, and Heinrich Wittenwiler's Der Ring. This paper presents the way how those poets utilized the concept of the courtly festivity and its radical disruption as subtle criticism of an ever more duplicitous and untrustworthy courtly existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the use of irony in medieval and early modern German literature including the poem "Nibelungenlied," the verse narrative "Mauritius von Craûn" and the dialogue poem "Ackermann" by Johannes von Tepl. It explores irony as a universal strategy in human communication. It notes that ironic strategies in the literature surface at critical junctures and the use of irony allows the poets to integrate a perspective toward the interior of their protagonists.

Every generation faces the same challenge, to engage with the past and to cope with the present, while building its future. However, the questions and problems inherent in human life remain the same. It is a given that our society can only progress if we work toward handling ever newly rising demands in appropriate ways based on what we know and understand in practical and theoretical terms; but the drumming toward the future cannot be a one-way street. Instead, we have to operate with a Janus-faced strategy, with one eye kept toward tomorrow, and the other eye toward yesterday. Culture is, however we want to define it, always a composite of many different elements. Here I argue that if one takes out the past as the foundation of culture, one endangers the further development of culture at large and becomes victim of an overarching and controlling master narrative. This article does not insist on the past being the absolute conditio sine qua non in all our activities, but it suggests that the metaphorical ship of our cultural existence will not operate successfully without an anchor, the past. I will illustrate this claim with reference to some examples from medieval literature, philosophy, and religion as they potentially impact our present in multiple fashions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While previous research has often reflected on the phenomenon of monsters in medieval literature, identifying them as existential threats, reflections of imagination, or as symbols of the monstrous and evil in an apotropaic sence, here I suggest to refine our investigations of monsters in light of their epistemological function. Examining literary examples from the early to the late Middle Ages ( Beowulf to  Melusine), we can recognize how much monsters indeed serve consistently for the development of the individual protagonists, for coping with otherness at large, which commonly rests within the heroes and heroines as part of their characters. External challenges thus prove to be reflections of internal problems and issues, and the struggle against the monsters constitutes a struggle against or with the self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to common assumptions, medieval poets did not shy away from discussing the various consequences of bad weather on the lives of their protagonists. In fact, a careful examination of a wide range of romances, verse narratives, goliardic epics, and prose tales, among other genres, reveals the true extent to which both Fall and Winter weather, but then also sudden tempests, surprising snow fall, flooding, scorching heat, the unexpected drop of temperature, mighty storms etc. could play a significant role in literary texts and often serve important functions as narrative catalysts both in the Middle Ages and in the early modern age. As this paper illustrates, bad weather, and hence the suffering of the protagonists, often proves to be instrumental in changing the course of events, in disrupting a hero's ordinary life, and in challenging an individual in his/her very existence. In particular love affairs could be severely impacted by bad weather, as some authors specifically explored in their texts that do not necessarily fall within the category of traditional courtly literature. Significantly, bad weather also served exceedingly well as the backdrop for the initiation of storytelling and so enjoyed a considerable metaphorical function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent discussions on living space and practiced space in medieval and early-modern cultures provide good theoretical concepts for a better understanding of some of the late-medieval German travelogues to the Holy Land, such as Arnold von Harff's report from 1496 to 1498. Von Harff approached space differently in his descriptions of Cairo versus Jerusalem—an Islamic versus a Christian city—the religious orientation limited the urban space in the Christian world to a rigid time-space continuum, whereas Islamic cities offered considerable freedom for the Christian spectator to elaborate on new concepts of urban space determined primarily by political, mercantile, and social criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article compares depictions of objects of memory in medieval German literature including "Gregorius" by Hartmann von Aue, "Parzival" by Wolfram von Eschenbach, and "Melusine" by Thüring von Ringoltingen. The powers and cultural aspects of the various objects described in the literature are analyzed.

Mauritius von Craûn (ca. 1220-1230), one of the most controversial erotic love tales ever composed, deeply challenges our understanding of medieval courtly love literature. A comparative analysis with Otto of Freising's chronicle The Two Cities (1143-1157), with its pessimistic world view, demonstrates that Mauritius also reflects this pessimism and might well have been influenced by Otto's negative perspective, as numerous similarities in the historical framework (Emperor Nero, general moral decline, history of knighthood) suggest. Mauritius's use of a deceptive ship to impress his lady and its subsequent destruction foreshadow the decline of his character and the failure of courtly love. The intertextual relationship between Mauritius and The Two Cities offers new insights into the severe criticism many of the leading 12th- and 13th-century intellectuals raised against the courtly world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stresses the significance of theatrical performances and rituals to the understanding of late-medieval literature in stage and written form. Role of medieval courtly literature in the discourse between singer and audience; Use of rituals and performances in several political and military operations during the high Middle Ages; Functions of literary performance in political and cultural self-representation.

Focuses on Ulrich von Liechtenstein's Middle Ages text 'Frauendienst,' which invites further pursuit of a better understanding of the intentions of courtly love literature in light of performance theory. Ulrich's creation of a type of autobiography grounded in a linguistic-poetic experiment; Combination of self-references and a projection of traditional erotic norms; Inclusion of many love songs and love letters in the text; Textual levels that operate in the text.

This essay examines the challenges and opportunities provided by transdisciplinarity from the point of view of medieval literature. This approach is situated within the universal framework of General Education or Liberal Arts, which in turn derives its essential inspiration from medieval and ancient learning. On the one hand, the various recent efforts to work transdisciplinarily are outlined and discussed; on the other, a selection of medieval narratives and one modern German novel plus one eighteenth-century ode are examined to illustrate how a transdisciplinary approach could work productively in order to innovate the principles of the modern university or all academic learning, putting the necessary tools of twenty-first century epistemology into the hands of the new generation. The specific angle pursued here consists of drawing from the world of medieval philosophy and literature as a new launching pad for future endeavors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the letters of writer Margareta von Schwangau, wife of German lyric poet Oswald von Wolkenstein. It emphasizes her letters for her husband, children and other people of her geographical region. It notes that her private letters were expressions of her innermost emotions and concerns as well as firsthand documents of a remarkable woman's life in the early fifteenth century. Furthermore, it mentions that her letters were considered to be noteworthy documentation for the history of women of the period and dated from a time which has been virtually ignored by scholars of epistolary literature.