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Table of Contents
New Books Round Table 2005 Sidney M.
Johnson Award
SMGS
Review
News from Colleagues
New Books for Review
SMGS News & Reviews
Dear Colleagues,
Our society thanks each and everyone for an abiding love of
Medieval German Studies and continued support as we celebrate our 20th
anniversary since Sid Johnson coined the
acronym SMGS in 1985. Our
gratitude also goes to Scott Pincikowski (Hood College), our Session Organizer,
for his successful efforts in planning four sessions for us in New Research at
the 40th Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, 5-8 May, 2005,
as well as the first jointly sponsored session together with Matthew Z.
Heintzelman of The Hill Museum and Manuscript Library. At the New Books Roundtable, Sara S. Poor
(Princeton University) will talk about her recent study on Mechthild von
Magdeburg. We would be delighted if you could join us there!
SMGS expresses its gratitude to our colleagues who have
served as Organizers: Albrecht Classen (University of Arizona); Stephanie Jaeger
(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); Ernst Ralf Hintz (Truman State University);
Susanne Hafner (University of Texas at Austin); Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand
(Appalachian State University), and Scott E. Pincikowski (Hood College). We are
also grateful to those who have rendered service to our scholarly community as
Presidents of SMGS: Sidney M. Johnson† (Indiana
University); Edward R. Haymes (Cleveland State University); Francis G. Gentry
(Pennsylvania State University), and Ernst Ralf Hintz (Truman State University).
Four sessions in New
Research in Medieval German Literature
New Research in Medieval
German Studies I
Organizer and Presider: Scott E. Pincikowski (Hood College)
Session 105
Thursday, 5 May, 1:30 p.m.
Bernhard 212
“An ein Permint entworfen”: Poetological Reflections on the
Possibility of the Unified Character in the Nibelungenlied.
Presenter: Joshua M.H. Davis (University of Virginia)
Perverted Paradise: “Rosengarten” as Minneroman
Presenter: William Layher (Washington University in St.
Louis)
The Nibelungen Line: A Continuation of the Germanic Long
Line?
Presenter: Edward R. Haymes (Cleveland State University)
New Research in Medieval
German Literature II
Organizer: Scott E. Pincikowski (Hood College)
Presider: Matthias Meyer (Freie Universität Berlin)
Session 281
Friday, 6 May, 1:30 p.m.
Schneider
1360
“das hat diu Harpfe getan”: The Performance of Culture
in Middle High German Courtly Literature
Presenter: Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand (Appalachian State
University)
“Der teufel behält sein Recht/Der Teufel hat kein Recht”:
Understanding the Defeat
of the Devil in Late-Medieval German Religious Drama
Presenter: Kevin J. Ruth (Independent Scholar)
Zu Inhalt und Struktur in einem Passionsspielfragment aus
Pfäfers (Schweiz)
Presenter: Klaus Amann (Leopold-Franzens-Universität
Innsbruck)
New Research in Medieval
German Literature III
Organizer: Scott E. Pincikowski (Hood College)
Presider: Stephen Mark Carey (Georgia State University)
Session 405
Saturday, 7 May, 10:00 a.m.
Bernhard
208
The Bedevilment of Morgan Le Fay: Ethnographic Perspective
and Hartmann’s Erec
Presenter: Kristen Elena Dachler (Duke University)
Thomasîn von Zerclaere’s Mirror Stage: (Self) reflection and
the Use of Images in the Formation of the Courtly Subject
Presenter: Kathryn Starkey (University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill)
Trilingual Tribulations: Abbot Ellinger and his Book
Presenter: Susanne Hafner (The University of Texas–Austin)
New Research in Medieval
German Studies IV
Organizer: Scott E. Pincikowski (Hood College)
Presider: Siegfried Christoph (University of
Wisconsin-Parkside)
Session 607
Sunday, 8 May, 10:30 a.m.
Fetzer
1035
“Nieman Siht gelîches Iht”: Femininity, Laughter, and Power
in Ulrich von Liechtenstein’s Frauenbuch
Presenter: Olga Trakhimenko (Duke University)
Gender Attributes for Spiritual Warfare in the Hêliand
Presenter: Ernst Ralf Hintz (Truman State University)
Masculinity and the Minnerede: Berlin, Staatsbibliothek
Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Mgo 186 (Livonia, 1431)
Presenter: Ann Marie Rasmussen (Duke University)
New Books Roundtable
Organizer: Scott E. Pincikowski (Hood College)
Presider: Ernst Ralf Hintz (Truman State University)
Sponsor: The Society for Medieval German Studies
Friday evening, 6 May, 8:00 p.m.
Fetzer
2020
Presenter: Sara S. Poor (Princeton University)
will be speaking to us about Mechthild of Magdeburg and
Her Book: Gender and the Making of Authority
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).
Once again SMGS is delighted to present an exciting new
contribution to our field.
We are look forward to seeing you at the Roundtable 2005.
SMGS Co-Sponsored Session
Together with the Hill
Museum and Manuscript Library
Organizer: Matthew Z. Heintzelman (Hill Museum and Manuscript
Library)
Sponsor: Hill Museum and Manuscript Library and the Society for Medieval German
Studies
Presider: Glenn Ehrstine (University of Iowa)
Session 331
Friday, 6 May, 3:30 p.m.
Fetzer
1060
Teaching the Middle Ages in a Digital Environment: A Systems
Approach to Mechthild von Magdeburg’s The Flowing Light of the Godhead
Presenter: David O. Neville (Utah State University)
MOM: Virtual Archives of Central European Monasteries’
Charters
Presenter: Thomas Aigner (Institut zur Erschließung und
Erforschung kirchlicher Quellen)
Manuscripts Electronically: Austrian Literature Online and
Digitization-on-Demand
Presenter: Guenter Muehlberger (Leopold-Franzens-Universität
Innsbruck)
Other Kalamazoo Sessions
Organized by our SMGS Colleagues
Albrecht Classen (University of Arizona)
Hans Sachs and the Sixteenth Century
Session 78
Valley 1
107
Old Age in Medieval Literature I
Session 168
Bernhard Faculty Lounge
Old Age in Medieval Literature II
Session 244
Valley III
311
Matthew Z. Heintzelman (Hill Museum and Manuscript Library)
Hill Museum and Manuscript Library
Keeping the Past Alive: Programs to Preserve Medieval
Manuscripts and Resources
Session 451
Fetzer
1005
Sibylle Jefferis (University of Pennsylvania)
Fifteenth Century Studies
Germanic Languages and Literatures of the Fifteenth and
Sixteenth Centuries I:
In Honor of Edelgard E. DuBruck
Session 221
Bernhard 204
Germanic Languages and Literatures of the Fifteenth and
Sixteenth Centuries II
Session 529
Sangren
2209
Medieval German Heroic Epics about Roland, the
Nibelungen, Willehalm, Dietrich, and Others
Session 576
Bernhard
209
Matthias Meyer (Freie Universität Berlin) and Peggy
McCracken (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor)
Gender and the Grail I
Session 406
Bernhard
209
Gender and the Grail II
Session 446
Valley I
106
Rosmarie Thee Morewedge (Binghamton University)
International Courtly Literature Society
Court and Social Mobility
Session 32
Fetzer
2030
Ulrich Müller (Universität Salzburg)
Oswald-von-Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft
The Early German Novel or Volksbuch
Session 141
Fetzer
1005
Medieval German Literature Based on Chansons de Geste
Oswald-von-Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft
Session 326
Fetzer
1005
Marc Pierce (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor)
West Virginia University Press
The Old Saxon Hêliand
Session 117
Sangren
3311
Susann Samples (Mount St. Mary’s College)
International Courtly Literature Society
Sorcery in Courtly Literature
Session 324
Valley 1
110
Christoph J. Steppich (Texas A&M University)
Wolfram von Eschenbach
Session 485
Sangren
3313
Siegrid Schmidt (Universität Salzburg)
Mittelalter-Zentrum, Universität Salzburg
Mittelalter-Mythen in modernen Medien: Die Erlösung von
Leib und Seele I
Session 42
Bernhard
204
Mittelalter-Mythen in modernen Medien: Die Erlösung von
Leib und Seele II
Mittelalter-Zentrum, Universität Salzburg
Session 282
nota bene
Bernhard
105
MGS Reviews
German Literature of the Early Middle Ages.
Edited by Brian Murdoch. Camden House History of German
Literature, Vol. 2.
Camden House: Rochester, NY, 2004. 283 pages, Cloth (ISBN
1–57113–240–6)
Volume 2 of this most recent contribution to German literary
history, the Camden House History of German Literature, edited by Brian Murdoch takes its place among a
long and often distinguished lineage extending from: Gervinius (1853);
Scherer’s Geschichte der deutschen Literatur (1889); via De Boor (1949); Bertau (1972/73); Erb (1976); and arguably, to the
best German language history of early German literature (volume 1/1) edited by
Wolfgang Haubrichs, Die Anfänge: Versuche volkssprachiger
Schriftlichkeit im frühen Mittelalter (1988)
in Joachim Heinzle’s series: Geschichte der deutschen Literatur von
den Anfängen bus zum Neuzeit; Gisela
Brinker-Gabler’s Deutsche Literatur von Frauen (1988, volumes 1 & 2); Deutsche
Literatur Geschichte by Wolfgang Beutin et
al. (5th 1994); Deutsche
Dichter / Leben und Werk edited by Gunter
E. Grimm and Frank Rainer Max, and further to Kartschoke (1990, 3rd
2000). Notable, too, are four additional entries, namely, German
Writers and Works of the Early Middle Ages: 800-1170, edited by Will Hasty and James Hardin (1995), Medieval
German Literature: A Companion, by Marion
E. Gibbs and Sidney M. Johnson (1997), D.H. Green’s Language and
History in the Early Germanic World (1998),
and a recent contribution, A Companion to Middle High German
Literature to the 14th Century,
edited by Francis G. Gentry (2003).
Brian Murdoch deserves considerable recognition for this
well-edited, well-structured history of a literary period that remains
undervalued today and often relegated to the periphery of medieval German
studies—in contrast to the lavish attention 19th-century
literary historians and philologists once paid to it. Despite some deficits and
unevenness discernable in Volume 1 of the Camden House series, Early
Germanic Literature and Culture, Volume 2
more than redeems and validates the intent of the series to present a history
of German literature of value both to undergraduate and graduate students, yet
of interest as well to scholar/teachers in our field.
This second volume of the series consists of an introduction
by Brian Murdoch that provides the reader with a clear and useful orientation
to the Early Middle Ages, followed by nine contributions, two of which are also
from Murdoch.
Jonathan West in his section, “Into German: The Language of
the Earliest German Literature,” aptly deals with the development of Old High
German texts amid the antique Latin literary culture: “The origins of German
literature lie in the oral tradition of the pre-literary period but the origins
of German literacy are to be found in the Latin literary culture of the
post-Roman world. Indeed, a division between primarily oral German and
primarily written Latin, and essentially regional German contrasting with
supra-regional Latin, is a defining feature of German literary and linguistic
history from the beginnings of writing in German in the middle of the eighth
century to the dawn of the early modern period in the middle of the
fourteenth.” West offers a range of examples to substantiate these origins and
their development from scribal glossing to early translations of Latin texts
into Old High German, e.g., Isidore of Seville’s De fide catholica ex veteri
et novo testamento contra Iudaeos. The
reader new to this period will find the footnotes especially useful (35). The
next section by Murdoch deals with the “Charms, Recipes, and Prayers” as
“functional, Gebrauchsliteratur in
the strictest sense” with performative powers to shape human affairs. Of
particular interest in various German texts transcribed by monks is the indication
of “pre-Christian, pagan writings and religious thought.” In section three, “Latin Prose: Latin
Writing in the Frankish World, 700-1100,” Linda Archibald presents the reader
with a convincing argument why the heritage of German writers in Latin “should
not be neglected within the context of the beginnings of German vernacular
literature, even if the connections are not always close or immediately
apparent” (84). Archibald’s contribution fits in well with the two-strand
approach of Volume 2 that views German literature of the Early Middle Ages in
each of its two facets, both the Latin and the vernacular with attention paid
to the interrelation of both. Stephen Penn’s illuminating section of “Latin
Verse” continues the above approach by dealing first with Carolingian poetry,
Ottonian and Salian literature, then with “Latin epic in Germany: from Waltharius to the Messiad of Eupolemius “(107-115). The reader will welcome the thematic bridge
that leads directly to the section that follows, “Heroic Verse” by Murdoch.
Murdoch begins by affirming his underlying premise. “It is a
valid assumption that there must have been in and before the Old High German
period a tradition of orally transmitted heroic poetry associated with the
warrior aristocracy and consisting of tales of kings, warriors and heroes, a
poetry of action and conflict, set within a particular class of society, and
comparable with early poetry in many other cultures” (121). He then exemplifies
his assumption with a compelling analysis of the Hildebrandlied, Waltharius, and the Ludwigslied.
A second contribution from Linda Archibald discusses the
literary, linguistic, and religious significance of Otfrid of Weissenburg’s Evangelienbuch while providing an overview of its narrative
character. She concludes: “His work is not a poorly executed Christian epic,
but a carefully crafted textbook for use in an educational context, and a
monastic one at that” (154). The article that follows from Christopher Wells on
“The Shorter German Verse Texts” thematically complements the previous section.
In the light of the Old High German- to the Early Middle High German texts
examined, Wells insightfully notes: “But most German poetic texts, including
all the verse considered here, should be seen as innovations, opening up a
space between native German oral and Latin Christian written culture in a
continuing dialogue. They should be assessed as effective vehicles for
spreading knowledge of Christian faith and practice, not bewailed as the sad,
fragmentary relics of a Germanic national heritage”(159). Archibald and Wells
both demonstrate an exuberant interest in a dynamic period often viewed merely as
a premature beginning.
The final two sections lend contour and balance to the
overall presentation. In “Historical Writing in and after the Old High German
Period,” R. Graeme Dunphy acquaints the reader with medieval historiography. He
rightly focuses on an event of unparalleled medieval significance: “The most
incisive caesura marking the transition from late classical to early medieval
historical writing was the development of a specifically Christian worldview
centering on a historical event, the incarnation of Christ, and incorporating a
series of theological concepts that impinge on the way history must be
presented” (201). Among these concepts are “the doctrine of creation as a
divine act,”
“the concept of regress,” and the “notion of divine economy of history” (202).
Dunphy also takes care to differentiate annals, chronicles, and biography, and offer
abundant examples of each. In the section that concludes Volume 2, Jonathan
West again shows his expertise in the literature of the period by dealing with
“Late Old High German Prose.” He neatly completes the two-strand approach in
this volume by noting the contributions of Notker III, also called Labeo (“thick-lipped)” or Teutonicus (the German), such as the dual language Old High
German-Latin De syllogismis, the
commentary on the Psalter, and especially “Notker’s ‘canon’(Notker’s Auslautgesetz, his ‘Law of Consonants in Final Position’)” (231).
West skillfully follows the influence of Notker to Williram of Ebersberg and
his paraphrase of the Song of Songs
(ca. 1060).
Together with the notes at the end of each section, the
reader will also benefit from a bibliography of primary and secondary
literature, as well as a useful index. Occasionally, the reader may also find
repeated references to the same Old High German texts (though in differing
contexts) from one section to another somewhat tiresome, yet unavoidable due to
the number of texts extant from the period. In sum, Volume 2, German
Literature of the Early Middle Ages,
reveals sound editing by Brian Murdoch and provides useful contributions of value
to everyone already in our field and to those aspiring to enter it.
Ernst Ralf Hintz (Truman State University)
New Books for Review
Carol Piper Heming, Protestants and the Cult of the
Saints in German-Speaking Europe, 1517-1531.
Kirksville: Truman State University Press, 2003. 170 pp., Cloth.
ISBN 1–931112–24–X $48.95.
Albrecht Classen, editor. Childhood in the Middle Ages
and the Renaissance: The Results of a Paradigm Shift in the History of
Mentality, Berlin: de Gruyter, forthcoming 06/2005.
vi, 445 pp., Cloth.
ISBN 3-11-018421-4 circa.
€98.00.US$127.99
Francis G. Gentry, editor. A Companion to Middle High
German Literature to the 14th Century, Leiden: Brill, 2002. 502 pp., Cloth. ISBN 9004120947.
Should you be interested in reviewing one of these books,
please contact SMGS at ehintz@truman.edu
for further information.
The Sidney M. Johnson
Award
SMGS is pleased to present the first Sidney M. Johnson Award for the best abstract
submitted by a graduate student to Carola Dwyer (Comparative Literature/Medieval
Studies Program, University of Illinois-Urbana). The prize includes the
registration and accommodation fees at the 41st International
Congress on Medieval Studies in 2006, and inclusion of her paper on the topic:
“Schreiben mit dem Schmerz: Heinrich Seuses Vita” in the SMGS 2006 Kalamazoo program.
All graduate students
are encouraged to submit before January 16, 2006.
News from SMGS Members
Albrecht Classen (University
of Arizona) has edited a new contribution entitled: Childhood in the Middle
Ages and the Renaissance, Berlin: de Gruyter, forthcoming 06/2005. ISBN 3-11-018421-4.
He has also organized a conference at the University of
Arizona in Tucson, April 29-May 1, 2005 on the theme: “Words of Love and Love
of Words in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.” Should you require more
information: aclassen@u.arizona.edu
Roy Boggs (Florida
Gulf Coast University) is continuing work on the Hartmann von Aue web site,
which will also be supported in Trier and Innsbruck: http://www.fgcu.edu/rboggs/hartmann
You may also wish to contact the following address: rboggs@fgcu.edu for additional information. A review
of the history of the project is scheduled for ZfdA, and an introduction to the entire project may be
found in the first issue of the new Hartmann Jahrbuch.
Arthur Groos
(Cornell University) together with Hans-Jochen Schiewer (Universität Freiburg)
have edited: Kulturen des Manuskriptzeitalters: Ergebnisse der
Amerikanisch-Deutschen Arbeitstagung an der Georg-Karl-August-Universität
Göttingen vom 17. bis 20. Oktober 2002, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck &
Rupprecht unipress, 2004, 364 pp. Articles are by Martin Baisch, Kirsten M.
Christensen, Arthur Groos, Albrecht Hausmann, Gert Huebner, Marrianne Kalinke,
William Layher, Freimut Loeser, Volker Mertens, Matthias Meyer, Marian Polhill,
James Rushing, Uta Störmer-Caysa, and Sara Westphal. The work also constitutes
the first volume in a new monograph series, Transatlantische Studien zu
Mittelalter and Früher Neuzeit / Transatlantic Studies on Medieval and Early
Modern Literature and Culture, edited by
Ann Marie Rasmussen, Arthur Gross, Volker Mertens, and Hans-Jochen Schiewer. The
third American-German colloquium, Topographies of the Early Modern
City, held in September 2004 at Cornell,
will also appear in the series.
Susanne Hafner
(University of Texas at Austin) has recently contributed a new book to our
field: Maskulinität in der höfischen Erzählliteratur, In:
Hamburger Beiträge zur Germanistik, vol. 40. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang,
2004. ISBN 3-631-37056-3
Charles Nelson (Tufts
University) is currently working on an extensive interdisciplinary project on
the Sachsenspiegel.
To announce a recent contribution of yours to our field, please
inform SMGS at ehintz@truman.edu by
August 15, 2005 and it will appear in the Fall 2005 issue of the SMGS News
& Reviews.
Thank you from Brill and
SMGS for your opinion on a proposed paperback edition of A
Companion to Medieval German Literature to the 14th Century, edited by Francis G. Gentry, Brill 2002 (ISBN
90-04-120947). The response received was a positive one. The major concern
expressed was that a paperback version be affordable for students.
The SMGS News & Reviews is edited by Ernst Ralf Hintz, ehintz@truman.edu
and produced by Truman State University. We wish to thank Steven Chau
for his technical expertise in providing the online version with both
readability and elegance.
The SMGS membership is growing rapidly as is the interest in
receiving the SMGS News & Reviews online.
Should you know of colleagues who
would be interested in membership, they may contact me by email or by fax at
(660) 785-7486, or write to the following address: Ernst Ralf Hintz, Truman
State University, Division of Language & Literature, McClain Hall 310,
Kirksville, MO 63501-4221, U.S.A.
On behalf of Scott Pincikowski and Ernst Ralf Hintz,
All good wishes from SMGS!
Information:
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