Table of Contents
SMGS Sessions at Kalamazoo 2008
New Books Roundtable
The Sidney M. Johnson Award for 2008
New Books Received for SMGS Review
SMGS Review
News from Colleagues

SMGS Sessions at Kalamazoo 2009

Session I (176)
Valley 1 109
Thursday 7 May, 7:30 p.m.
Emotions in Medieval German Literature
Organizer: Stephen Mark Carey (Georgia State University)
Presider: Karina Marie Ash (University of California-Los Angeles)

“The Medieval Sublime and Its Emotions: Gottfried’s Tristan”
C. Stephen Jaeger (University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign)

“Aporias of the Lament in Albrecht’s Jüngerer Titurel”
Alexander Sager (University of Georgia at Athens)

“In Praise of Amazons and Heathens: A Consideration of the Normative Role of Femininity in Wirnt von Gravenberg’s Wigalois” (SMJ Winner)
Karina Marie Ash (University of California–Los Angeles)
 

Session II (218)
Fetzer 2030
Friday 8 May, 10:00 a.m.
Lives and Legends of the Virgin Mary in Medieval German
Organizer: Steve Mark Carey (Georgia State University)
Presider: Rasma Lazda-Cazers (University of Alabama)

“The Monk’s Miraculous Vision of the Virgin Mary in Chronicles of the Teutonic Order“
Ernst Ralf Hintz (Truman State University)

“Comparing the Lives of Mary: From Priester Wernher’s Maria to an Anonymous Fifteenth-Century Marienleben from Konstanz”
Karina Marie Ash (University of California-Los Angeles)

Session III (279)
Fetzer 2030
Friday 8 May, 1:30 p.m.
Germania-Romania
Organizer: Stephen Mark Carey (Georgia State University)
Presider: Stephen Mark Carey (Georgia State University)

“Christianizing the Heathen? The Bridal-Quest Motif in Arabel and Rennewart”
Cordula Böcking-Politis (Trinity College, University of Dublin)

“Old High German in Ninth-Century Fulda”
Hailey LaVoy (University of Notre Dame)

“Germania und Romania in der Wielandsage? Der Meisterschutze Egil und das Runenkastchen von Auzon (British Museum, um 700)”
Max Siller (Universität Innsbruck)

Nuremberg Stadtlob, 1447-1530
Arthur Groos (Cornell University)
Session IV (331)
Valley I 109
Friday 8 May, 3:30 p.m.
C. Stephen Jaeger’s The Origins of Courtliness Twenty-Five Years Later
(A Roundtable Discussion)
Organizer: Stephen Mark Carey (Georgia State University)
Presider: Stephen Mark Carey (Georgia State University)

A roundtable discussion with Richard E. Barton (University of North Carolina-Greensboro); Albrecht Classen (University of Arizona-Tucson), and Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand (Appalachian State University) and C. Stephen Jaeger (University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
 

New Books Roundtable
Fetzer 1060
Friday 8 May, 8:00 p.m.
Sponsor: Society for Medieval German Studies
Organizer: Stephen Mark Carey (Georgia State University)
Presider: Ernst Ralf Hintz (Truman State University)
Alexander Sager (University of Georgia) presents his book:
Minne von maeren: On Wolfram’s Titurel (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 2006)

Related Sessions of Interest

Medieval German Heroic Epics about Roland, the Nibelungen,
Willehalm, and Others
(34) Schneider 1360
Thursday May 7, 10:00 a.m.
Organizer and Presider: Sibylle Jefferis (University of Pennsylvania)

Friendship in the Middle Ages I
(43) Bernard 212
Thursday May 7, 10:00 a.m.
Organizer: Albrecht Classen (University of Arizona)
Presider: Francis Brévart (University of Pennsylvania)
Further Friendship sessions are (93) and(164).

Deutschordensliteratur: Legends, Drama, Chronicle, Epics, Bible Translations
(408) Schneider 1125
Saturday May 9, 10:00 a.m.
Sponsor: Oswald-von-Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft
Organizers: Sibylle Jefferis (University of Pennsylvania) and
Ulrich Müller (Universität Salzburg)

The Poetics of Legends: Legends and Romance
(521) Schneider 1145
Saturday May 9, 3:30 p.m.
Organizer: Matthias Meyer and Constanza Cordoni (Universität Wien)�
Presider: Matthias Meyer (Universität Wien)

Chivalry and Courtliness
(556) Valley 1 106,
Sunday 10 May, 8:30 a.m.
Sponsor: International Courtly Literature Society
Organizer and Presider: Carol R. Dover (Georgetown University)

Walter von der Vogelweide: Text and Music
(605) Bernhard 105
Sunday 10 May, 10:30 a.m.
Sponsor: Oswald-von-Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft
Organizers: Sibylle Jefferis (University of Pennsylvania) and
Ulrich Müller (Universität Salzburg)

New Books Roundtable
Presider: Ernst Ralf Hintz (Truman State University)
Alexander Sager (University of Georgia at Athens) will be presenting his recent contribution to our field:
Minne von maeren: On Wolfram’s Titurel, Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 206

SMGS looks forward to seeing you at this well-received and enjoyable session at Kalamazoo, Friday evening, 8 May, Fetzer 1060, 8:00 p.m.

We will also introduce the SMGS Yearbook and present the Sidney M. Johnson Award. Copies of the inaugural edition of the SMGS Yearbook will be available for purchase at $30 each — a portion of the cost will supplement the traditional passing of the hat for the Sidney M. Johnson fund.

The Sidney M. Johnson Award for 2009
SMGS is delighted to announce the second Sidney M. Johnson Award for the best abstract submitted to SMGS from a graduate student.  The recipient for 2009 will be Hailey LaVoy  (University of  Notre Dame) for her submission “Old High German in Ninth-Century Fulda” We are looking forward to hearing her presentation at the SMGS Germania-Romania session at Kalamazoo, Friday 8 May 2009.
 

The SMGS Forum
SMGS invites you to inform our medievalist community of your forthcoming, new and recent publications. Email SMGS with the details of publication and we will notify our members for you.

The SMGS Yearbook
The Society for Medieval German Studies is pleased to offer members the opportunity to publish their presented papers from SMGS sessions at Kalamazoo. Reviews from The SMGS News & Reviews will also appear. The SMGS Yearbook accepts revised papers from 2009 sessions along with other articles submitted for consideration by the Editorial Board. The purchase price will be $30.00 to cover printing and distribution. A portion of the price will go to fund the Sidney M. Johnson Prize.
 

New Books Received for SMGS Review
A complete listing of books received will appear in each Fall/Winter edition of the SMGS News & Reviews.
 

SMGS Reviews
 minne von mæren: On Wolfram’s Titurel. By Alexander Sager. Göttigen: V&R unipress, 2006. 168 pages. $47.95.
Alexander Sager relies heavily on Wolfram’s Parzival, Albrecht’s Jüngerer Titurel and Bakhtin’s discourse theory to develop his treatment of the Titurel fragment. Yet, Nietzsche is first to come to mind, when attempting to summarize what Sager has achieved: Die Umwertung aller Werte. This study provides totally new answers to perennial questions of Titurel scholarship and in the process raises new questions which are of importance and interest far beyond any single work.  Certainly, this short work advances understanding of Titurel and Wolfram’s Parzival but also provides a unique and compelling portrait of the interplay between narrator, audience and the experience of the text in the Middle Ages as well as new insights into medieval childhood socialization.
In his introduction, Sager states the relatively straightforward aim of the study, “In the original text, Sigune’s and Schionatulander’s reactions to the leash stand forth in a hyperbolic contrast difficult to understand. To understand it will be the central task of this study.” (9)   The starting point for this understanding employs the poetological discourse in Parzival to provide insight into gendered representation of literary reception and interpretation of Gardeviaz’s leash. In chaper one, “Gendered Readership in Parzival,” Sager builds on the work of Arthur Groos (Romancing the Grail et al.) to flesh out a Bakhtinian reading which asserts that Titurel surpasses Parzival in the development towards the authentic novel. (23) Sager then provides a new reading of the literary program in the Parzival prologue, the Selbstverteidigung and other authorial asides which culminate in the assertion that Sigune of Titurel is a literary manifestation of the female audience constructed in Parzival. (32)
In chapter two, Sager’s innovative reading of the “tocken” or doll motif opens up entirely new aspects of Sigune’s agency as protagonist as well as uncovering yet another layer of Wolfram’s ferocious critique of the literary representation of the courtly love ideal and its construction of human intimacy.  On preparing to leave the company of her Cousin Condwiramurs and move to her Aunt Herzeloyde’s house, the five year old Sigune comments, “[. . .] please have my chest filled with dolls [. . .] That way, I’ll be well prepared for the journey. There are many knights alive who will one day bind themselves to my service.” Instead of following the traditional reading of these lines, which hold them to be an expression of the child-like notion that the young girl believes that she can satisfy the knights by giving them dolls as love tokens, Sager suggests that they are an expression of her “future status as obligatrix of knights” (36) and function as “transitional objects.” Drawing on work of James Schultz and Latin sources, Sager concludes “Sigune’s games with dolls are a quasi-hagiographic praeludium of her future as a courtly lady. They are not an indication of childhood foolishness of deficiency, but demonstrate an awareness and sensibility [. . .] of her path in life.” (46-47) Sager also sees this initial transition as one which clearly allies Sigune with the problematic (pre-motherhood) Herzeloyde-minne as opposed to the Condwiramurs-minne. Sager rounds out this discussion by including further Latin sources and comparing the parallel passages in Albrecht’s Jüngerer Titurel.
Chapter three, “sælde and socialization,” begins with a word study of sælde which demonstrates, similar to countless studies of words like triuwe and kiusch, that the semantic value of the concept is not fixed and is a dynamic part of the text as communication which unfolds in context and interpretation.  Sager approaches this problems with concept of court-as-narrator and seeks to establish a theory of “dialogically narrated representation (69)” to describe the multivalence in Wolfram’s work. Sager then continues with a discussion of socialization, focusing on Schionatulander’s  coming of age in the service of Gahmuret and the consequences thereof.�
In chapter four, Sager expands on ideas from his article on “Geheimnis und Subjekt in Wolframs Titurel” PBB 125.2 (2003):268-291. Sager’s focus on the socialization of the characters serves to make several key distinctions here that complicate traditional readings. Sager states the main problems of the secrecy in the text as follows, “The secrecy of Sigune’s and Schionatulander’s relationship proceeds from an unusual motivation – namely from no clear motivation at all.” (84) However, of course, with an eye on the socialization process, the meaning of the secrecy as an expression of zuht and art becomes clear. Of course, this plays a role in the complex critique of courtly mores. As Sager notes, “the expression ûzen tougenlîche condenses with sophisticated irony the incongruous characterological and narratological perspectives on amorous secrecy.” (88) Sager reveals an astonishingly realistic development of psychological traits consistent with the two very different processes of socialization (99). These same qualities can then be applied to the gendered differences that also appear in the passages in which Herzeloyde and Gahmuret advise the young lovers. This discussion sets the stage for Sager’s unique reading of the “Schuldfrage” or question of guilt in the Arthurian romances in general, with which the chapter concludes.
Sager concludes the study with full explication of the assertions of the first chapter. The final chapter, “Sigune as reader” argues for a reading of Sigune reading, which is precisely the adventure or mæare on the leash. Sager asserts that Sigune is far more than simply feminine parallel to Parzival  and holds that “Sigune’s voice, her private truth, and the whole narrative of Titurel is nothing less nor more than one of these mære (152) and that she “re-predicates the salvation of the entire Grail realm on a moment of profound ‘feminine’ insight into the relationship between love and discourse, between minne and mæren.” (157). With those final lines, which restate the title of the work itself, the author concludes a study which provides new insights into not only Wolfram’s Titurel but expands our understanding of the richness of medieval literary discourse. This wonderfully written work continued to surprise and please by challenging, expanding, or inverting almost every assumption I had about Titurel.  I will be returning to it over and over again and I highly recommend it.
 

Stephen Mark Carey (Georgia State University)
 

SMGS News from Colleagues

Winder McConnell (University of California–Davis) has co-edited together with Karen McConnell a new Festschrift entitled: “Er ist ein wol gevriunder man” Essays in Honor of Ernst S. Dick on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday, Hildesheim, Zürich, New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 2009, pp. 395. ISBN 978-3-487-13925-8.

Christoph Flüeler (Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland)
“It started as a preservation mission for a single abbey, but grew into a more ambitious effort to put medieval documents from all over Switzerland on a single web site. Now the Stiftsbibliothek is part of a network for digitizing medieval manuscripts called the ‘Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland.” – Spiegel Online – www.spiegel.de
“What started as a pilot project in 2005 grew sharply last year, when the Saint Gallen project was incorporated into a program to digitize all of Switzerland’s roughly 7,000 manuscripts.” The New York Times, October 18, 2008

This project of the Medieval Institute of the University of Fribourg is accessible at:
www.e-codices.ch
English: www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en
German: www.e-codices.unifr.ch/de

The site has been regularly updated to now include 380 complete manuscripts from 16 Swiss manuscript collections. It is sponsored by the Mellon Foundation and E-lib (Digital Library of Switzerland).

Alexander Sager (University of Georgia) has made an audiobook-type recording of Iwein, which is available for free download as a podcast. The site is:
http://sagemaere.libsyn.com/

The SMGS News & Reviews is edited by Ernst Ralf Hintz (Truman State University).
We wish to thank our new technical expert, Ben Ogden, for his expertise in providing the online version with both readability and elegance. We also wish to thank the Department of Classical & Modern Languages at Truman State University for its support of this publication. All errors and oversights are attributable solely to me as editor.

The SMGS readership continues to grow steadily as is the interest in receiving the SMGS News & Reviews online. Should you wish to contribute to the section on SMGS News from Colleagues or if you know of a colleague who would be interested in membership (there are no dues), you may contact me by at ehintz@truman.edu or fax (660-785-7486), or write to the following address: Ernst Ralf Hintz, German and Medieval Studies, Truman State University, McClain Hall 310, Kirksville, MO 63501-4221 (U.S.A.).

The next issue of the SMGS News & Reviews appears in November 2009.

On behalf of Stephen Mark Carey and Ernst Ralf Hintz,
All good wishes from SMGS!

Ex scientia misericordia

SMGS also wishes to thank everyone who donated to the Sidney M. Johnson Award for 2009 for their generosity with special thanks to Debra Stoudt (Virginia Tech).

Links to important websites are available under News from Colleagues.

Table of Contents
SMGS Sessions at Kalamazoo 2009
New Books Roundtable
The Sidney M. Johnson Award for 2009
New Books Received for SMGS Review
SMGS Review
News from Colleagues

SMGS Sessions at Kalamazoo 2009
New Research I
“Emotions in Medieval German Literature.”
Presider: Scott Pincikowski (Hood College)

“Emotions in Medieval German Literature.”Presider: Scott Pincikowski (Hood College)“in zorne wunders vil geschiht (Pz 152,13).
Keie and the Codification of Emotions in Middle High German Arthurian Romances”
Stefan Seeber (Universität Freiburg)

“The Medieval Sublime and its Emotions”
C. Stephen Jaeger (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

“Aporias of the Lament in Albrecht’s Juengerer Titurel”
Alexander Sager (University of Georgia at Athens)

New Research II
Rountable: “The Origins of Courtliness 25 Years Later”
Presider: Stephen Mark Carey (Georgia State University)

Discussion Panel: Richard Barton (University of North Carolina at Greensboro), Mark Chinca (University of Cambridge), Albrecht Classen (University of Arizona at Tucson), Rüdiger Schnell (Universität Basel), Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand (Appalachian State University)

New Research III
Germania-Romania
Presider: Stephen Mark Carey (Georgia State University)

“Old High German in 9th-Century Fulda”
Hailey LaVoy (University of Notre Dame)

“Germania und Romania in der ´Wielandsage`? Der Meisterschütze Egil und das Runenkästchen von Auzon (British Museum, um 700)”
Max Siller (Universität Innsbruck)

“Christianizing the Heathen? The Bridal-Quest Motif in Arabel und Rennewart”
Cordula Böcking-Politis (Trinity College Dublin)

“Nuremberg Stadtlob, 1447-1530”
Arthur Groos (Cornell University)

New Research IV
Lives and Legends of the Virgin Mary in Medieval German Literature
Presider: Ann Marie Rasmussen (Duke University)

“The Monk’s Miraculous Vision of the Virgin Mary in Chronicles of the Teutonic Order”
Ernst Ralf Hintz (Truman State University)

“Viewing the life of Mary: Bruder Philipps Marienleben in a Late Medieval Austrian Manuscript”
Alison Beringer (Colgate University)

“Comparing the Lives of Mary: from Priester Wernher’s Maria to an Anonymous Fifteenth-Century Marienleben from Konstanz”
Karina Marie Ash (University of California, Los Angeles)

The Sidney M. Johnson Award for 2009
SMGS is delighted to announce The Sidney M. Johnson Award for the best abstract submitted to SMGS from a graduate student. The recipient for 2009 will be Hailey LaVoy (University of Notre Dame) for her submission “Old High German in 9th Century Fulda.” We are looking forward to hearing her presentation in the SMGS New Research III session at Kalamazoo, May 2009.

New Books Received for SMGS Review
Colleagues interested in reviewing should contact SMGS

Hildegard Elisabeth Keller (editor), Jacob Ruf. Leben, Werk und Studien
5 Bände im Schuber mit 2 CD-Rom, 3350 Seiten, 450 s/w Abbildungen,
Format 17 x 24 cm, gebunden, NZZ libro, 2008
IBSN 978-3-03823-415-9.

Society for Medieval German Studies
Yearbook Spring 2009
You may subscribe to your SMGS Yearbook at the following website:

http://www.avaripress.com

Your $25 subscription also contributes to the Sidney M. Johnson Award.

SMGS Reviews
Claudia Brinker-von der Heyde: Die literarische Welt des Mittelalters. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 2007.

Das hier anzuzeigende Buch ist eine handliche, leicht lesbare Monographie zur Medien- und Literaturgeschichte zwischen dem 12. und 15. Jahrhundert im deutschen Sprachraum. Die Autorin navigiert klug zwischen Forschungsresümé und kultur-, sozial- und literaturgeschichtlicher Darstellung und Kontextualisierung von Texten, Themen sowie ausgewählten Handschriften. Dies macht den Gegenstand, der in der jüngeren Forschung mit dem Label „Materialität der Kommunikation“ versehen worden ist, überaus anschaulich und leicht zugänglich. Diese Darstellung ist deshalb sowohl als Übersichtsdarstellung wie auch als Sammlung von Fallstudien sehr willkommen.

Handschriften sind von ihrer Entstehung her immer lokal gebunden und tragen den Stempel ihrer historischen Entstehungsumstände. Beispielsweise ist ihr Schreibort an den dialektalen Einfärbungen der auf ihnen überlieferten Texte zu erkennen, Elemente wie der Prolog oder das Kolophon zeugen oft von involvierten Personen, sei dies nun der Auftraggeber, der Autor, Redaktor oder Kompilator oder auch der Schreiber. Manchmal sind ihre Auskünfte auch verwirrend, beispielsweise wenn ein zugewanderter Schreiber seiner Sprechsprache treu geblieben war oder auch wenn ein Schreiber seiner in einem anderen Dialekt gehaltenen Vorlage sehr eng folgte. Handschriften geben zudem auch Auskunft über die am Ort ansässigen Literaturfreunde und –förderer, über jene Kreise also, die ein Interesse an der mehr oder weniger exklusiv ausgestatteten Schriftlichkeit von Pergament- oder später Papierhandschriften hatten.

Handschriften sind auch heute noch – trotz den inzwischen intensiv vorangetriebenen Digitalisierungsprojekten, dank denen bereits zahlreiche Handschriften online zugänglich gemacht wurden – an einen spezifischen Ort gebunden. Es ist dies der Ort ihrer Aufbewahrung, sehr oft die letzte Station ihrer Überlieferung durch die Jahrhunderte hindurch. Claudia Brinkers Buch wendet sich zwei Orten und einigen herausragenden, dort entstandenen oder aufbewahrten Handschriften besonders eingehend zu: Kassel einerseits, Zürich andererseits. Es handelt sich um die beiden Städte, in denen Claudia Brinker als Professorin, Projektleiterin und Ausstellungskuratorin tätig war bzw. ist.

Das Buch ist wie folgt aufgebaut: Ein erstes, umfangreiches Kapitel („Ein Buch entsteht“) ist den unterschiedlichen buchhandwerklichen Aspekten gewidmet und führt bis knapp über die Schwelle des Buchdrucks. Dieses längste Kapitel stellt Beschreibstoffe vor, die seit der Antike und bis zum Beginn des Buchdrucks verwendet wurden (Papyrus, verschiedene Arten von Pergament, Papier, Wachstafeln), Schreibmaterialien (darunter die fünf grossen Schwungfedern von Gänsen, deren harter Kiel sie zum prädestinierten Schreibwerkzeug machten) sowie die damit verbundenen Tätigkeiten, also das Schreiben und Illuminieren. In diesem Teil wird auch das entsprechende Personal vorgestellt: Schreiberinnen und Schreiber, seien es nun Laien oder Berufsschreiber in der klösterlichen oder städtischen Schreibstube. Sie hinterliessen Spuren, die von ihrer Einstellung zur Schreibarbeit zeugen. Die Kolophone sprechen eine deutliche Sprache, was Freud und Mühsal des Schreibens sowie den von der Kopistin oder dem Schreiber erwarteten Gotteslohn angeht. Zur Mediengeschichte gehört somit auch eine verborgene Geschichte der Emotionen, denn es waren Menschen, die mit ihren Händen die Überlieferungsträger herstellten und beschrieben.

Das zweite Kapitel („Bücher auf Bestellung“) führt in die Literatursoziologie ein, vornehmlich jene der höfischen Gesellschaft des Hochmittelalters und jene der Städte. Mäzene und ihre Motive kommen dabei ebenso zur Sprache wie politische Repräsentationsprogramme durch Kulturleistungen. Besonders anschaulich wird dies bei den Ausführungen zum Codex Manesse.

Das dritte Kapitel („Das Buch und seine Rezipienten“) ist den Rezeptionsmodi und somit einer in der jüngsten Forschung stark beachteten Perspektive gewidmet. Im Zentrum stehen das Hören bzw. Lesen, deren Wechselbeziehung bei der mittelalterlichen und frühneuzeitlichen Wissensvermittlung sowie die jeweilige Funktion des Hörens, Zuhörens, Lesens und Vorlesens in der ‚privaten’ bzw. ‚öffentlichen’ Rezeption. Bereits für die mittelalterliche Medienästhetik sind indes auch andere kognitive Funktionen wesentlich, so die Imagination, die Vorstellungskraft als Grundbedingung sensorieller und intellektueller Aktivität schlechthin, wie Claudia Brinker mit Rekurs auf Thomasin von Zerclære erörtert. Zu dem hier behandelten Fragenkomplex gehören ferner die Wechselbeziehungen zwischen und Verschränkungen von textuellen und piktoralen Elementen in den Handschriften und Frühdrucken.

Das vierte und letzte Kapitel („Autoren und Texte“) sucht zahlreiche Beobachtungen und Lesefrüchte zu einzelnen Werken und deren Produktion und Rezeption zu synthetisieren. Intendiert ist dabei nicht ein systematisches literaturhistorisches oder poetologisches Panorama zur Literatur zwischen 1200 und 1500; vielmehr wollen die abschliessenden Darlegungen das Bewusstsein für verschiedene Autorschaftsprofile und Stile der Selbstdarstellung in der vormodernen Literatur schärfen und – im Einklang mit der jüngeren germanistischen Forschung – überlieferungs- und funktionsgeschichtliche Konstanten hinterfragen.

Das Buch bietet somit in einem grundlegenden Sinne Orientierung über zahlreiche Problemstellungen, welche in der gegenwärtigen Forschung grosse Beachtung funden. Ein besonderes Lob verdienen die zahlreichen Querbezüge, die sich Claudia Brinkers geschickter Technik der polyperspektivischen Argumentation verdanken. Rekurrente Figuren (so etwa Heinrich der Löwe) und Handschriften (beispielsweise prominente Kasseler Handschriften, die Gutenberg-Bibel), die in mehrfach und in ganz unterschiedlichen Zusammenhängen besprochen werden, tragen wesentlich zur Dichte und Anschaulichkeit der Darstellung bei. Die Leser gelangen nicht nur auf elegante Weise zu einer Fülle von Detailkenntnissen, sondern sie entwickeln auch eine Beweglichkeit in Bezug auf die Betrachtungsperspektiven. Mit Leichtigkeit und Anschaulichkeit werden hier Text-, Medien- und Literaturgeschichte verknüpft.

Die Autorin berücksichtigt die genuine Sinnlichkeit der geistig-intellektuellen Beschäftigung, welche die Medien des Mittelalters ermöglichten, in vielerlei Hinsicht. Das ist ein bedeutsamer Aspekt, der in einer Darstellung mit Übersichts- und Einführungscharakter kaum genug betont werden kann. Ein wenig verwunderlich bleibt deshalb, warum Claudia Brinker nicht wenigstens in ihrem Serviceteil auf die gegenwärtig auf dem Markt verfügbaren Audiomedien mit mittelalterlicher Literatur zu sprechen kommt. Sie tragen in unterschiedlicher Weise der vielzitierten Performativität Rechnung und machen die von der Autorin plausibilisierte Sinnlichkeit wohl mindestens so direkt erfahrbar als die (im Anhang erwähnten) CD-ROMs mit digitalisierten Handschriften. Die elektronischen Reproduktionen bleiben in der Regel meist ebenso stumm wie die in den Schatzkammern aufbewahrten Handschriften selbst – die mittelalterliche Literatur ist ohne Animation durch die menschliche Stimme (die Stimme des Rezitators, Vorlesers oder auch die Stimme des Einzelnen, die aktiv am privaten Leseakt teilnimmt) medienhistorisch kaum adäquat denkbar, wie die Autorin zu Recht darlegt.

Hildegard Elisabeth Keller (Indiana University Bloomington / Universität Zürich)

Judith J. Hurwich, Noble Strategies: Marriage and Sexuality in the Zimmern Chronicle. Sixteenth Century Essays & Studies, 75. Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2006. Pp. vii, 277. 19 figures and tables.

Cultural-historical information about a social class and its mentality can be easily gleaned from such chronicles as the famous but still much too little studied Zimmern Chronicle, composed by the Swabian Count Froben Christoph von Zimmern in the mid 1560s. This monumental family chronicle contains vast data on a variety of aspects, beginning with the narrow family itself, then extending to the wider circle of noble Swabian families, and also including references to general mores, mentality, ethics, and morality. On the one hand Froben discusses, on the basis of his own notes and those by his father and uncles (especially Johann Werner II) the family history, on the other he also includes a considerable number of short prose narratives with scandalous, erotic, or even sexual content (see now Albrecht Classen, Erotic Tales of Medieval Germany, 2007).

In her impressive monograph, Judith J. Hurwich utilizes this chronicle, and much parallel material, in order to shed light on the family strategies among the sixteenth-century nobility in the Southwest of Germany. She also endeavors to compare the legal and moral norms among that group with those in England, France, and the Iberian Peninsula. Whereas most other contemporary chronicles were composed by professional scribes, Froben wrote the chronicle himself with the assistance of his secretary Johannes Muller, thereby providing a unique, because personal, perspective.

This intriguing study is divided into three parts, the first dealing with the general family strategy pursued by the Zimmern family, focusing on inheritance and dowry, marriage age, intermarriage, and rank of spouse. The second analyzes the actual marriage practices, such as choice of marriage partner, marriage negotiations, and the personal experience of marriage, including happiness and hatred among the partners. The third section, most interestingly, discusses sexual practices, particular with an emphasis on the honor code regarding maintaining concubines, having bastards, and affairs by the male and female family members.

Some of the most fascinating aspects of Hurwich’s study prove to be her effort to examine how the noble families married off their children, that is, with whom, and at what time, and with how much dowry and inheritance, and this always in light of marriage practices in other parts of sixteenth-century Europe for comparison’s sake. One feature, for instance, proves to be that the nobility tended to marry the daughters off at a maximum rate, irrespective of the social class of the marriage partner (meaning, down), whereas the sons normally tried to marry up or were pushed to do so.

Of course, the situations often differed considerably, and the trend outlined above is then tested carefully in light of the Zimmern chronicle in the subsequent chapter. Hurwich observes, for instance, that there were numerous cases of young women who married without familial consent, but they did not experience a real financial loss thereby because increasingly individual wishes regarding marriage partners were accepted because “affection became an important factor in the choice of a spouse among urban elites” (124) and, as we can add now, among the nobility as well, though there pragmatic, i.e. economic and political, interests continued to dominate, leading to extensive negotiations concerning the marriage.

The author offers convincing supporting evidence both from general research and from the Zimmern chronicle, indeed a rich source of relevant material regarding sixteenth-century noble marriage practices. Of course, as she also illustrates in the seventh chapter, the nobility experienced many internal conflicts and faced many struggles because of illicit affairs. The chronicle proves to be most telling in this regard, both in its historiographical and fictional components, especially because both the author Froben and many of his contemporaries of whom he also reports experienced challenges of various kinds, although they hardly resorted to legal means to settle difficult or harsh cases.

The details within marriage, hence primarily the topic of sexuality, forms the focus of the eighth chapter where Hurwich discusses premarital sex, extramarital affairs, bastard children, and the subjective evaluation of affairs initiated by women (negatively viewed) and those initiated by men (mostly tolerated), strongly reflecting a continuing patriarchal power structure. The last two chapters turn to the role of concubines and bastard children in particular, as presented in the Zimmern chronicle, but also in many other sources in early-modern Europe. The legal status of illegitimate children differed widely, depending on local customs, dynastic approaches to this matter, and the role of the church, not counting the need of individual families to utilize bastard children to occupy important positions in the upper administration and the church. Froben von Zimmern did not criticize bastardy on the basis of religion and morality, but on the basis of pragmatic and financial concerns.

Over all, this is a remarkable study on social-economic, legal, religious, and cultural-historical conditions in Southwest Germany during the sixteenth century mostly based on this rich chronicle, but also on numerous other contemporary sources.

Albrecht Classen (University of Arizona)

SMGS News from Colleagues
Helmut Brall-Tuchel (Lehrstuhl für Ältere deutsche Sprache und Literatur, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf) has been a guest professor in Jakarta this past year as well as speaking at two exhibitions in a lecture series at Villa Erckens in Grevenbroich on his latest work: Helmut Brall-Tuchel, Folker Reichert, Rom Jerusalem Santiago: Das Pilgertagebuch des Ritters Arnold von Harff, , 2007, ISBN 978-3-412-20026-8. brall@phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de

Albrecht Classen (University of Arizona) has a new translation now available:

(University of Arizona) has a new translation now available:The Poems of Oswald von Wolkenstein: An English Translation of the Complete Works (1376/77-1445). In the series, The New Middle Ages (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), xi, 253 pp. 4.ill. aclassen@u.arizona.edu

Graeme Dunphy (Universität Regensburg), General Editor, has completed the final phase of the imposing Brill project: Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle.

Winfried Frey (Universität Frankfurt) has completed an extended study that SMGS recommends to all its members: Das Judenbild in den Flugschriften des 16. Jahrhunderts. Kontinuität und Wandel. Nordhausen: Bautz 2008. ISBN 978-3-88309-470-0.

Francis G. Gentry (The Pennsylvania State University/University of Wisconsin-Madison, emeritus), in addition to being one of the few scholars of his generation to be honored by a Festschrift: (Nu lôn’ ich iu der gâbe, Kümmerle Verlag 2003), was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz am Band on November 14, 2008 from the German Consul General in New York.

Karl Heinz (Institute for the Research on Ecclesiastical Sources IEEkQ) provides an expanded website for the Virtual Archive of Historical Documents in Central Europe. The website www.monasterium.net provides unlimited access to numerous original historical sources dating from the Early Middle Ages up to the present time The MOM archive offers valuable research opportunities to all interested SMGS colleagues.

You may contact Karl Heinz at karl.heinz@monasterium.net for additional information. SMGS wishes to thank him for continuing this invaluable work.

Sibylle Jefferis (University of Pennsylvania) has a new contribution that SMGS colleagues will find of interest:

Sibylle Jefferis (ed.):Current Topics in Medieval German Literature: Texts and Analyses (Kalamazoo Papers 2000-2006), Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik 748, Kümmerle Verlag, 2008. ISBN: 978-3-86758-003-8. Contributors include: Karina Marie Ash; Albrecht Classen; Maria Dobozy; Maria Elisabeth Dorninger; Ernst Ralf Hintz, and Sibylle Jefferis.

William Layher (Washington University in St. Louis) completed a successful sabbatical year in Bamberg (2007-2008) and has just presented at the MLA conference in San Francisco on “Sound as Narcotic in Gottfried’s Tristan: Petitcreiu’s Bell.”

Leslie Morgan (Loyola College in Maryland) invites colleagues in German Medieval Studies on behalf of The Société Rencevals to contribute to Olifant. You may contact: lmorgan@loyola.edu for additional information.

Ulrich Müller (Universität Salzburg), Werner Wunderlich (Universität St. Gallen) in colaboration with Bettina Hatheyer, Elke Renner, Margarete Springeth and Ruth Weichselbaumer have published the final volume in the Mittelalter Mythen-Serien: Burgen, Länder, Orte, Vol. 5. (UVK, 2008) ISBN 978-3-89669-636-6.

Sara S. Poor (Princeton University) won the John Nicholas Brown Prize for the best first book, Mechthild of Madgeburg and her Book: Gender and the Making of Textual Authority (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).

Alexander Sager (University of Georgia at Athens) has made an audiobook-type recording of Iwein, which is available for free download as a podcast. The site is:

http://sagemaere.libsyn.com/

Siegrid Schmidt (Universität Salzburg) and Paola Schulze-Belli (University of Triest) have recently conducted a colloquium entitled “Krieg und Frieden im Mittelalter” (in Literatur, bildenden Kunst und Historie) in Triest, Italy.

James A. Schultz (University of California, Los Angeles) presented his recent book, Courtly Love, the Love of Courtliness, and the History of Sexuality (University of Chicago Press 2006) at an exciting SMGS session in his honor this past Kalamazoo 2008.

Max Siller (Universität Innsbrück) presented at conferences in Sevilla, Amiens, Sterzing, Ravenna-Exkursion through out 2008. SMGS is delighted that he will be presenting for us again at Kalamazoo 2009.

Astrid M. Weigert (Georgetown University), book review editor for “The German Quarterly,” requests that SMGS colleagues interested in reviewing contact her at weigerta@georgetown.edu to insure that each volume of GQ has reviews from the medieval and early modern period. A major difficulty has been finding competent reviewers, especially when time and energy are in short supply. SMGS applauds everyone who contributes to our field in this capacity.

The SMGS News & Reviews is edited by Ernst Ralf Hintz (Truman State University).

We wish to thank our new technical expert, Ben Ogden, for his expertise in providing the online version with both readability and elegance. We also wish to thank the Division of Language & Literature at Truman State University for its support of this publication.

The SMGS readership continues to grow steadily as is the interest in receiving the SMGS News & Reviews online. Should you wish to contribute to the section on SMGS News from Colleagues or if you know of a colleague who would be interested in membership (there are no dues), you may contact me by at ehintz@truman.edu or fax (660-785-7486), or write to the following address: Ernst Ralf Hintz, German and Medieval Studies, Truman State University, Department of Classical & Modern Languages, McClain Hall 310, Kirksville, MO 63501-4221 (U.S.A.).

The next issue of the SMGS News & Reviews appears in April, 2009

On behalf of Stephen Mark Carey and Ernst Ralf Hintz,

All good wishes from SMGS for the New Year 2009!