Heroic Legends Of The North
(EDWARD HAYMES ,SUSAN SAMPLES)
Heroic Legends of the North is a study of two of
the central themes of medieval German mythology, the Dietrich and Nibelung
legends. Part one provides the necessary background. It contains a skeleton
outline of the historical events and figures (the fourth to sixth century
Germanic migrations, Theoderic, Attila) to which the medieval stories can be
traced back, along with a description of the historical sources for these and
the written/historical tradition which ran parallel to the oral/literary one.
There is also a brief account of the historiographical debates over the forms
of oral transmission in the Germanic Heroic tradition.
Part two is a systematic survey of the literary sources. It covers all the
primary texts within the Dietrich and Nibelung cycles, as well as a number of
early works and related legends which contribute to our knowledge of them. For
each source there is a summary, a brief description of its connection with
other works and, if important, an account of the critical issues involved and a
sentence or two about the manuscript tradition. This is followed immediately by
a mini-bibliography listing editions (and translations into English where
available), key critical studies and review articles, and further bibliographic
resources.
The extensive bibliographic information makes Heroic Legends of the
North an excellent guide for anyone planning serious study of the subject.
A chronology, a table of motifs and a glossary of names make it a handy
reference for anyone trying to unravel artistic, literary, or musical
references. And, since it assumes no background knowledge (either of German
literature, late Roman history, or the theory of oral transmission), Heroic
Legends of the North is also a book for the merely curious ? those who
have, perhaps, read the Nibelungenlied in translation and want to
understand its place in the broader scheme of things.
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