Mittelhochdeutsch -- Middle High German

 In an earlier post on this blog I wrote about Althochdeutsch, Old High German, written from around AD 750 to 1050. High German written from around 1050 to 1350 is called Mittelhochdeutsch, Middle High German. As with Old High German, the adjective "High" in Middle High German refers to the higher elevations of the hilly and mountainous regions of southern Germany where it is spoken, as opposed to the Plattdeutsch, Low German, spoken in the geographically flatter northern regions bordering on Belgium and the Netherlands.

With Mittelhochdeutsch, German became somewhat more sophisticated and assured, less of a mere exercise in translating from Latin and more of a legitimate literary language of its own. Much has been said about the relative literary merits of Old and Middle High German. I don't wish to take part in this debate. It seems only natural that those who specialize in Old High German would have a higher opinion of the best artistic efforts in that language, than those who don't. I will say, and this is, I believe, entirely uncontroversial, that the earliest works in German which are still widely read today are from the Mittelhochdeutsch era. 

Above all, the work of four Middle High German authors remains very popular: the anonymous author of the Nibelungenlied; Hartmann von Aue; Gottfried von Strassburg; and Wolfram von Eschenbach. In the extraordinarily fruitful period from 1170 to 1250, these four writers published book-length epic poems which a reader fluent in German can read untranslated, although she will probably wish to make frequent use of a Middle-German-to-New-German dictionary. 

The Nibelungenlied is a story of pre-Christian Germanic heroes, mixed with historic elements from the time of Attila the Hun (the character Etzel in the poem is based on Attila). Richard Wagner based his four-part operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen partly on the Nibelungenlied, and partly on the earlier Germanic versions. 

The Nibelungenlied is known as a Heldenepos or heroic epic. The works of Hartmann von Aue, Gottfried von Strassburg and Wolfram von Eschenbach, on the other hand are called hoefische Epen, or courtly epics. They were written by knights, members of the courts of monarchs, for other members of those courts. 

Hartmann von Aue wrote a number of hoefische Epen which survive whole or nearly whole to our time, including Erec, Der arme Heinrich, and Gregorius, all well-known and highly regarded, but he is probably best known for Iwein, his retelling of the story of King Arthur's knight Gawain.

Gottfried von Strassburg's poem Tristan is no doubt best known today from Wagner's operatic version of it, Tristan und Isolde. 

Like Iwein and Tristan, Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival is the tale of a knight of King Arthur's court, and like them it was adapted from a popular French version. Once again, Wagner made an opera based on it, Parsifal. Did Wagner change the v in Wolfram's title to an f in order to help people tell the medieval poem and the 19th century opera apart? Could be, I don't know. This story's hero is known to English Arthurians as Percival, the childlike, simple and innocent knight who catches a glimpse of the Grail. Eschnenbach telling of the tale is quite long, and includes many asides to the reader in which he muses about the meaning of life, or its senselessness, depending on the particular aside. Both Wolfram's skill as a storyteller, and the depth of his frequent asides, are quite remarkable.

These four authors stand rather far above others of the Middle High German era in popularity, perhaps in critical regard as well, but many others are still published and read today, including other epic poets such as Konrad Wuerzburg and Werner der Gaertner as well as some more anonymous authors; lyric poets, some anonymous, some known by name, as far example, Walther von der Vogelweide and Reinmar der Alte; as well as authors of didactic poetry, plays, and theological, legal and historical prose.

Kauft mittelhochdeutsche Lesebuecher bei Amazon: https://amzn.to/4j57RsO

Matthew Paris

Matthew Paris lived from c AD 1200-1259. Just now, Amazon delivered the 3rd volume of Matthew Paris' Historia Minor. I now have all 3 volumes. That is, I have all 3 volumes in the Rolls Series, published in the 19th century. I believe this 19th century edition is still the standard edition. Things sometimes move slowly in the world of publishing in Latin, and compared to ancient Latin, publishing in Medieval Latin is much slower still.

Matthew Paris is generally considered to be one of the best Medieval historians. In addition to the Historia Minor, he wrote the Chronica Maiora, which runs to 7 volumes in the Rolls Series. I have a few of those volumes.

A few years ago the Cartography Department of the U of M had an open house, and I went, and I learned that this same Matthew Paris is considered one of the best medieval cartographers. One of the Department's big displays was one of Matthew Paris' maps. I'm not sure whether the people in that department had ever given much thought to Matthew's historical writings. They were definitely much more interested in his maps.

Once, long ago, must have been in the 1990's, I was in a hotel room which had a small TV and either no cable or just basic cable, so I ended up watching some women's bowling. And one of the bowlers was Lisa Wagner. Turned out, Lisa Wagner is one of the greatest female bowlers of all time.

While she was kicking ass in this bowling competition, as she did in many competitions, the commentators were talking about her. And, besides mentioning how much ass she was kicking those days, they also mentioned her very long fingers. She had an exceptionally good grip on the ball for a woman.

And that was when they mentioned that Lisa Wagner was a direct descendant of the famous 19th-century pianist Franz Liszt.

And that was when I realized that she was probably also a direct descendant of Richard Wagner,  who composed operas and wrote books, and married Cosima Liszt, Franz Liszt' daughter, and had 2 children with her.

And that those bowling commentators probably didn't know who Richard Wagner was. And I wondered whether Lisa Wagner knew who Richard Wagner was. Among other things, he was, and is, much, much more famous than his friend and father-in-law, the star pianist Franz Liszt.

And I wondered what Richard Wagner would think about one of female descendants becoming a professional bowler.

Bob Dylan Ist Nicht Richard Wagner

(Ich kommentiere jetzt einen Aufsatz, der auf Englisch erschien, auf Deutsch. The End is Near.)

Alex Ross schreibt im New Yorker, Bob Dylan sei Richard Wagner.

Finde ich nicht. Ja, Wagner war einmal de riguer fuer gewisse Kreisen, die sich fuer die ganze Welt hielten, and dann spaeter passierte dem Dylan etwas aehnliches. Aber ein Kuenstler kann nichts fuer seine Anhaenger und was alles fuer Quatsch sie sagen ueber ihn und sich selbst. Wagner begruesste den Wagner-Kult und strengte sich an, ihn nach Moeglichkeiten auszunuetzen und aufzubauen, und machte sich zum nicht-ganz-heimlichen Koenig von Bayreuth, wo sein Geist immer noch regiert.

Dylan hat sich immer sehr skeptisch jeglichen Dylan-Kult gegenueber gehalten, und gegen Kulte um Kuenstler ueberhaupt.

Ross erwaehnt, dass Dylan einmal den Antisemit Wagner einen Erzkriminell genannt hat. Und nicht ohne Gruende, erwaehnt Ross leider nicht.

Ross schreibt:

"As the novelist Hari Kunzru has observed, a Nobel citation can exponentially increase a writer’s audience and help keep independent publishers afloat; in 2016, that opportunity was lost."

Der Literature-Nobel ist nie humanitaere Nothilfe gewesen. Dylan ist nicht der erste reiche Preistraeger. Wenn er denn reich ist. Ich weiss nicht, ob Dylan alles weggegeben hat fuer karitative Zwecke. Vielleicht kennt ihn Alex Ross persoenlich, und vielleicht ist Dylan tatsaechlich erstaeunlich steinreich. Aber wenn schon, er waere damit nicht der erste Steinreiche, der einen Nobel in Literatur bekam. Weder Mann noch Churchill war ein Obdachloser.

"What matters is the explosive fusion of words and music, and in both cases" [In dem Fall Wagner wie in dem Fall Dylan] "music is the igniting element."

So. Ross, wie viele Anderen, die behaupten, Dylan bekaeme den Preis zu Unrecht, hat verstanden, dass Dylan ein Musiker ist. Stimmt, ist er. Ross weiss auch, dass etwas Besonderes passiert in der Kombination von Dylans Wortern und Dylans Musik. Das stimmt auch, und ist auch der Fall immer wenn ein gutes Lied gut vorgetragen wird.

Aber wenn man von Dylans Musik wegsieht, und die Worte allein, an und fuer sich betrachtet, auch dann sind sie etwas preiswuerdiges. Noergler wie Ross -- es gibt deren sehr viele -- wollen Dylan dafuer bestrafen, dass er auch, darueber hinaus, ein Musiker ist, was seine Leistung nur noch imposanter macht, anstatt seine Talente als Dichter zu relativieren.

Am Ende dieses Stueck Noergelei schreibt Ross ueber Dylan:

"He deserves the Nobel Prize."

Gut, dass Ross nicht vergisst, das zu erwaehnen; naemlich, anderenfalls haette man nie wissen koennen, dass er so meint. Am Anfang seiner Essay behauptet Ross:

"My Dylan fandom is as immoderate as anyone’s."

Sehr viele Stuecke in den letzten paar Tagen fangen so an: "Es gibt gar keinen groesseren Dylan-Fan, als ich" -- Nur um fortzufahren: "Aber [...]"