Artusroman und Mythos ed. by Friedrich Wolfzettel, Cora Dietl, and Matthias Däumer (review)

In the current age of “myth busting” in popular culture and the extreme privileging of scientific-historical discourses among academicians, it is often difficult to appreciate the role mythos plays in competition with logos in the production of literary texts of the Middle Ages. For example, in the case of Arthurian narratives, the authentication of represented figures, locales, and events often takes precedence over a tale’s “archaic” mythological content among modern readers. Nevertheless, interest in the mythic elements ubiquitous in Arthurian narratives remains persistent among at least some scholars, as this volume illustrates.

Artusroman und Mythos represents the published proceedings of the German-Austrian section of the International Arthurian Society, which met in Strassbourg from the 24th through the 27th of February 2010. As the editors state in the very brief introduction (a scant five pages for the almost five hundred pages of essay texts), the provocation for the thematic treatment of myth arises from, first, the claim stated again and again in the critical literature since roughly the third decade of the twentieth century, that mythology provides a psychologically indispensable explanation of the world as an alternative to the rationalized, logical or scientific discourses that have gained an increasingly privileged status since the rise of scholasticism; and second, the often clashing roles of mythology and religion in Arthurian literature of the Middle Ages, arising from the incompatibility of Christian dogma and beliefs that attempt to order the surface structure of the literary work with older mythic impulses, active on a far deeper level, which move the text in contrary and subversive directions.

The editors’ introduction then proceeds to establish the historical-critical framework for their approach to myth as well as their rationale for the book’s structure. The twenty-three essays comprising the volume are divided into three major parts: 1) “Mythos und Geschichte,” wherein “myth” is primarily understood as an alternative to history, as an “Other” to reason, and as a timeless and cyclical narrative form that defies logic and causality; 2) “Arbeit am Mythos” (taking its name from Blumenberg’s seminal 1979 critical study), in which myth is considered an underlying textual layer that carries remnants of archaic explanations of the cosmos and reasserts them in the Romances, while it influences and becomes influenced by Christian dogma; and 3) “Wider den Mythos,” presenting a series of essays that focus on the distancing of the Arthurian Romances from mythological elements via their fictional, poetic-literary, and religious properties (i.e., those that attempt to “make sense” out of the material and thereby counter mythic ambivalence and irrationality).

The volume is a welcome addition to the critical discussion of myth and its role in Arthurian romance, especially in contrast to the chronological, historical, and documentary functions that the texts serve. The presentation of the material in sections offering “pro” and “contra” arguments, separated by a central section mediating the two of them, is most effective, and makes for good reading. Furthermore, as the publisher’s summary states on the rear cover of the volume, each essay offers its own, unique perspective on what myth is; thus, the great diversity and eclecticism of approach characterizing the predominantly interdisciplinary essays in Artusroman und Mythos convince the reader that no single, generalized definition of mythos fits all the Romances.

However, the volume holds together very well, and the skill with which many of the contributors move between general, theoretical utterances and specific examples in their treatment of myth becomes a major factor in the volume’s cohesion. From Jürgen Wolf’s astute study of attempts to historicize the Arthur-figure in German medieval and Early Modern literature, to Elisabeth Schmid’s search for Arthur’s origins in three different Merlin tales, or from Friedrich Wolfzettel’s investigation of the well/fountain typology as a symbol of entry to the underworld, to Matthias D...