Arthurian Romances, Tales, and Lyric Poetry. The Complete Works of Hartmann von Aue trans. by Frank Tobin, Kim Vivian, and Richard H. Lawson (review)

REVIEWS Arthurian Romances, Tales, andLyric Poetry. The Complete Works of Hartmann von Aue. Trans, with commentary by FrankTobin, Kim Vivian, Richard H. Lawson. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001. 329p. Albrecht Classen University of Arizona Hartmann von Aue was the first Middle High German poet who introduced his audiences to the Arthurian material direcdy borrowed from Chrétien de Troyes, who in turn had borrowed it from Celtic sources. Nevertheless, Hartmann's romances Erec and Iwein, his verse novellaPoorHenry, and his religious verse narrative Gregorius, not to mention his wonderful courtly love poetry and his dialogue poem Das Klagebüchlein, are rightly considered masterpieces oflate twelfth-century German literature and prove to be far more than simple translations from Old French. In fact, Hartmann's œuvre constitutes one of the pillars of the late twelfth-century Middle High German literary canon and has enjoyed uninterrupted popularity since rediscovery more than 200 years ago. Translations and interpretive studies abound, and the present volume does not necessarily add anything new, except for the fact that Tobin, Vivian, and Lawson have put together English translations of all of Hartmann's texts in one affordable paperback. Instead ofreprinting previous translations, they have made the effort ofretranslating and have indeed succeeded in rendering the Middle High German original into a smooth and yet precise modern English. They stay close enough to their sources to meet their primary function as translators, and at the same time their texts read well and are easily understandable. Hartmann's verse structure is transformed into straightforward prose, which proves to be the only reasonable and most pragmatic approach to a medieval text today. Random checks have not unearthed any significant problems in the translations—after all, all three translators have proven their supreme expertise in this field many times before the publication ofthis volume—although one could easilyimagine avariant formulation here and there without necessarily improving the translation overall. Briefintroductions to each individual text provide some general information about the context and content which will be useful for the novice reader, but at times these also SPRING 2002 * ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW * 95 contain erroneous statements andviewpoints (e.g., regardingAndreas Capellanus' De amore, allegedlywritten at the court ofMarie de Champagne, but in reality at the royal court in Paris) which have by now been superseded by much new research . The translations are accompanied by some useful comments in the footnotes which barely interrupt the pleasure ofreading but offer helpful explanations. Unfortunately, two subtle but significant problems mar the overall positive impression of this volume. First, all translations are based on outdated editions of the original Middle High German text; and second, the bibliography ofthe secondary literature does hardly anyjustice to the expansive and constantly growing body ofHartmann research in the last ten to fifteen years. With the exception of two titles published in 1996 and 1997, respectively, the vast majority of entries date from pre-1990. Even though this volume is targeted at students and other non-German medievalists, the bibliography should have been updated considerably . The fact, however, that nowwe have available all Hartmann texts in English translation in onevolumewill prove to bea step in the right direction for the teaching ofGerman medieval literature to non-German speakers at least in the Englishspeaking world. ^ Rob Pope. How to Study Chaucer. 2nd edition. NewYork: St. Martin's, 2001.223p. Rick McDonald Utah Valley State College Rob Pope wants his book to help readers ofChaucer do two things: read Chaucer in the original Middle English, and develop their own critical judgment about his poetry and how it works. Pope's two basic goals are particularly ambitious when one considers the heterogeneity ofChaucer studies, but I have no doubt that his book does everything itclaims. Recently, I read the 2nd edition ofPope's textwhile teaching my biannual Chaucer class. Although the book is written to be especially valuable for beginning readers of Chaucer, it reminds any reader ofa wealth of information concerning Chaucer the Man, theWork, and the Exam. This book is helpful to beginning students, graduate students, and all readers who want to remember what their problems were (or might have been) upon first encountering Chaucer. Pope's section on "How...