Old & Middle German language & literature

This book explores for the first time the moral education of the Western European nobility in the high Middle Ages. The medieval nobility created and utilized values and ideals such as chivalry and courtliness to legitimize their exalted position in society and these values were largely the same across Europe. Noble codes of conduct communicated these ideals in everyday interactions and symbolic acts at court that formed the basis of European courtly society. This book asks how noble men and women were taught about morality and good conduct and how the values of their society were disseminated. While a major part of moral education took place in person this period also produced a growing corpus of writing on the subject in both Latin and the vernacular languages addressing audiences that encompassed the lay elites from kings to the knightly class men as well as women. Participation in this teaching became a distinguishing feature of the nobility who actively promoted their moral superiority through their self-fashioning as they evolved into a social class. This book brings together analyses of several major European didactic texts and miscellanies examining the way nobles learned about norms and values. Investigating the didactic writings of the Middle Ages helps us to better understand the role of moral education in the formation of class gender and social identities and its long-term contribution to a shared European aristocratic culture.

In the Middle Ages the sermon was a powerful and versatile means of bringing the Word of God to the people. In fact in the oral culture of that period it was the primary medium for Christian clergy to convey religious education to lay audiences. Moreover the sermon played an important role in the liturgy and life of the religious orders. With the growth of lay literacy the sermon collection also developed into a vernacular literary genre of its own.

Two aspects of Christian piety hopeful expectation on the one hand and fearful anticipation on the other were decisive factors for the shaping of religious life and practical pastoral care. Both these aspects were often brought to the fore in sermons on the Last Judgement as part of a recurrent argument against a life too much oriented towards the world. The preachers dwell on both the Particular Judgement occurring immediately after death and the General Judgement over the whole of creation at the end of times.

This volume brings together scholars from several European countries with the purpose to present their research on the theme of the Last Judgement in medieval sermons. The scope of scholars is broadened to incorporate not only specialists in sermon studies but also historians theologians and literary historians to encourage research along new multi-perspectival lines.

This book examines the social and cultural conditions that governed performance art in the German Middle Ages from 1170 to 1400. Poet-performers are central to understanding both literature and performance art because these entertainers more than any other group created disseminated and interpreted the medieval poetic oeuvre. Performance theory is used as a framework throughout.

Since no social history of poet-performers exists in English part I presents a social history that re-examines what is known about social status cultural image and employment. Part II investigates the affective nature of performance and focuses on poet-composer-performers. This study argues that performance techniques (gesture voice instrumentation) that create an electrifying experience for audiences determine the performer's lifestyle and also the thematic and rhetorical strategies of their compositions.

The itinerant poet-performer presented himself as a moral judge and critic of epoch-making political events. His performances transform time place and people and thus become a socializing process that can change people's attitudes. Poet-minstrels were capable of re-membering the listeners' memories of the past during the intense present of the performance. Readings of several texts are offered including romances the political songs of well-known poet-performers (i.e. Walther von der Vogelweide) and the gnomic poets (Spruchdichter) whose songs have been neglected until recently. The songs are quite intricate and multivalent as they masterfully display an aesthetic totally integrated with their performative context.

Selected Proceedings of the International Medieval Congress University of Leeds

This second volume in this series International Medieval Research presents Forschungsberichte as well as papers on twelve current lexicographical projects on medieval Germanic languages. Each Forschungsbericht gives information about the dictionary (title editors institute address) about the contents of the dictionary (type subject/corpus described period described era example of an entry) about the history of the project and planning (short history of the project (planned) year of publication form of publication) and details on lexicographical tools and methods (the hardware the sofware). The papers were read at the first International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds (4-7 July 1994) in the three sessions on Dictionaries of Medieval Languages (Projects Historical Background Scribes and Scholars). The volume contains valuable information not only for editors of exisitng lexicographical projects but also for editors of future projects. It will also give non-lexicographers a better insight into modern historical lexicography.

K.H. van Dalen-Oskam K.A.C. Depuydt W.J.J. Pijnenburg and T.H. Schoonheim are the editors of the Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek (Dictionary of Early Middle Dutch) at the Institute for Dutch Lexicology Leiden (the Nederlands).