Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2021 12:35:16 GMT
Old High German Literature ~750-1050
www3.nd.edu/~gantho/anth1-163/Hildebrandslied13-20.html
"It has already been pointed out that there is little in the Old High German period which can be classified as literature. In this anthology the period is represented by the Hildebrandslied, passages from two Gospel harmonies, Heliand and the Evangelienbuch of Otfried von Weißenburg, and the Ludwigslied. The various creeds, Pater nosters, and confessions are linguistic and cultural, but not literary monuments. To be sure, the Wessobrunner Gebet (c.790) does contain some fine descriptions, and the Muspilli (early ninth century) has an account of the Day of Judgment that has provided generations of scholars with the opportunity of speculating about its immediate and ultimate origins.
The end of the century is marked by the appearance of some shorter poems of a religious nature, most of which are really vernacular versions of Latin poems, e.g. the Georgslied, Christus und die Samariterin, and the Galluslied. Although didactic in purpose, their style is simple and largely narrative. The best of these short poems is the Ludwigslied.
It is hardly necessary to state that throughout the period in which these works were being written there was also a flourishing Latin literature of much greater sophistication. Both poetry and prose experienced a revival under Charlemagne and his immediate successors, a period sometimes referred to as the Carolingian Renaissance. The term is misleading, for there was little of real moment produced. The most significant contribution of the period is that it assured that the classical heritage did not perish and that it was made available to a wider public. During the tenth and early eleventh centuries the impetus for writing in the vernacular seems to have weakened, and little of significance appeared that was not written in Latin. This was at least in part due to the chaotic state of society, a condition that ensured that any literary works produced were written in monasteries or at least by persons close to the Church. One or two of the Latin works are significant, not because they were written by Germans but because they very probably incorporated material from native Germanic sources. The Waltharius, an account of the escape of Walther of Aquitaine from the court of Attila and his fight with Gunther and Hagen near Worms, belongs in this category. Some scholars have claimed that the poem is little more than a cento of scenes and passages from Vergil and Statius, but this is not true. It is essentially a Germanic poem written in Latin and is of great value in showing that there already existed in western Germany a tradition of a weak King Gunther and a strong and..."
www3.nd.edu/~gantho/anth1-163/Hildebrandslied13-20.html
"It has already been pointed out that there is little in the Old High German period which can be classified as literature. In this anthology the period is represented by the Hildebrandslied, passages from two Gospel harmonies, Heliand and the Evangelienbuch of Otfried von Weißenburg, and the Ludwigslied. The various creeds, Pater nosters, and confessions are linguistic and cultural, but not literary monuments. To be sure, the Wessobrunner Gebet (c.790) does contain some fine descriptions, and the Muspilli (early ninth century) has an account of the Day of Judgment that has provided generations of scholars with the opportunity of speculating about its immediate and ultimate origins.
The end of the century is marked by the appearance of some shorter poems of a religious nature, most of which are really vernacular versions of Latin poems, e.g. the Georgslied, Christus und die Samariterin, and the Galluslied. Although didactic in purpose, their style is simple and largely narrative. The best of these short poems is the Ludwigslied.
It is hardly necessary to state that throughout the period in which these works were being written there was also a flourishing Latin literature of much greater sophistication. Both poetry and prose experienced a revival under Charlemagne and his immediate successors, a period sometimes referred to as the Carolingian Renaissance. The term is misleading, for there was little of real moment produced. The most significant contribution of the period is that it assured that the classical heritage did not perish and that it was made available to a wider public. During the tenth and early eleventh centuries the impetus for writing in the vernacular seems to have weakened, and little of significance appeared that was not written in Latin. This was at least in part due to the chaotic state of society, a condition that ensured that any literary works produced were written in monasteries or at least by persons close to the Church. One or two of the Latin works are significant, not because they were written by Germans but because they very probably incorporated material from native Germanic sources. The Waltharius, an account of the escape of Walther of Aquitaine from the court of Attila and his fight with Gunther and Hagen near Worms, belongs in this category. Some scholars have claimed that the poem is little more than a cento of scenes and passages from Vergil and Statius, but this is not true. It is essentially a Germanic poem written in Latin and is of great value in showing that there already existed in western Germany a tradition of a weak King Gunther and a strong and..."