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  • Germanische Heldendichtung im Mittelalter. Eine Einführung
  • Anatoly Liberman
Germanische Heldendichtung im Mittelalter. Eine Einführung. By Viktor Millet. de Gruyter Studienbuch. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2008. Pp. IX + 503; 24 illustrations. EUR 24.95; $39.

This is a typical introduction, German style: immensely erudite and nearly all-encompassing. Hardly anyone will read the volume from cover to cover, for, in a way, it is a reference book, but those who need to be "introduced" to Germanic heroic literature will find in it reliable information, solid judgment, and generous suggestions for further reading. The exposition is lively and completely jargon-free. Germanic in the title promises more than would have been possible to embrace even in 500 pages. Chivalric literature is also heroic, but the Arthurian cycle has been (most prudently) left out. Nor is the Dutch-Flemish scene as much as mentioned, and Scandinavian plots are overshadowed by German ones. With some reservations, the same holds even for Beowulf. This book is mainly about German heroic literature, and Millet's choice is easy to understand: a close analysis of Beowulf, the Sigurðr cycle in the Edda, and the Helgi lays would have taken him too far afield. Also, like any scholar, he has his favorite topics. His "hero" is clearly Dietrich, and we follow the trials and tribulations of this hapless literary figure as they are related in the Hildebrandslied, Thiðreks saga, and the countless tales down to the early modern period.

Among many strong points of this book is the author's attention to the nature of heroic poetry, the origin of legends, authorship, ties between written and oral tradition, the differences between the various versions of the same story, and the reception of the works. The iconography of heroic plots and the appearance of the first printed books have not been neglected either. But his main goal was to acquaint the readers with the enormous breadth of the genre. Although Lachmann, Heusler, Parry-Lord, and many others turn up where they are expected, they remain in the background. The focus invariably remains on the texts. Millet never tires of giving summaries of the works in their multiple versions. Hardly any specialist wants a reminder of what happens in Atlakviða or Beowulf (and students, the prospective users of this Studienbuch, should ignore retellings), but when it comes to tens of thousands of not particularly memorable couplets and strophes in the Heldenbücher, even when the protagonist is well-known (like Ortnit, for example), many will be grateful to the author for his help.

Heroic literature made a long way. Brave, superhuman warriors purged the world of monsters and dragons and usually overcame their opponents, but national traditions differed. The Greek and Germanic heroes perished in the end, while the Slavic warriors—who in this respect share common ground with the Arthurian knights—returned home ready for new exploits. The Celtic pattern is another [End Page 108] special case. Some fighters strove for renown and an untarnished reputation in the eyes of posterity, others were satisfied with obtaining a bride; still others tried to combine both. Millet shows how the public's thirst for fabulous adventure (giants, dwarfs, and the rest) gradually came more and more to the foreground and traces the growth of heroic poetry and its eventual decline. Despite the fact that he never loses sight of minutiae, he succeeds in drawing a coherent picture of the whole.

The book offers a well-selected list of contributions on the subjects discussed. Most of the titles are in German, for Germanische Heldendichtung im Mittelalter has been written mainly for a German audience. The six chapters of the book are as follows: 1. "Frühe Heldendichtung in der Volkssprache (the Hildebrandslied, Atlakviða, Beowulf, and the "Finnsburg fragment"), 2. "Klerikerkultur und Heldendichtung bis zum 12. Jahrhundert" (here, among others, a long section is devoted to Waltharius), 3. "Die Anfänge der Heldenepik im deutschen Sprachraum" (the Nibelungenlied, the *C version of Klage, and Kudrun), 4. "Kontinentale heroische Stoffe in der skandinavischen Literatur des 13. Jahrhunderts: Eddas und Sagas" (Thiðreks saga is here), 5. "Die mittelhochdeutsche Heldenepik im 13. Jahrhundert," and 6...

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