Lanzelet by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven, Florian Kragl

Abstract

MLR, I03. I, 2oo8 265 In short,while the factual contents may benefit readers who are entirely new to Middle High German literature, thevolume has relatively little tooffer to thosewho are already familiarwith the field-and even newcomers may be bored by the gener ally unambitious mode of discourse. However, certain individual chapters are to be exempted from thisnegative assessment. Nicola McLelland's chapter on Ulrich von Zatzikhoven highlights promising avenues forfuture research; Sara S. Poor's discus sion ofMechthild von Magdeburg, Beatrijs van Nazareth, and Hadewijch includes a cogent analysis of the difficulties involved in accommodating thenotion of author ship to the output of these femalemystics; and Nigel Harris's chapter constitutes a rare English-language examination of the genre of 'Spruchdichtung' (set against the backdrop of other forms of didactic writing). While remaining accessible to the general reader, these chapters stand out for the clarity of their argument and will make welcome additions toundergraduate reading-lists. ORIEL COLLEGE,OXFORD ANNETTEVOLFING Lanzelet. By ULRICH VON ZATZIKHOVEN. Ed. by FLORIAN KRAGL. 2 vols + CD. Berlin: de Gruyter. 2006. I400 pp. E298. ISBN 978-3-I I-OI8936-0. This long-needed new edition ofUlrich von Zatzikhoven's Lanzelet is a substantial and welcome contribution toLanzelet scholarship. Florian Kragl is to be congratu lated forbringing it to fruitionwithin threeyears of his dissertation (Vienna), where others have foundered along theway. Lanzelet is preserved in twomanuscripts and four fragments,and todate, theonly edition available has been Hahn's critical edition (I845), which was done on Lachmann principles but which gives, as Kragl tells us (p. 798), an unjustified preference to readings inMS P.Hahn's critical apparatus is also inconveniently located at theback of thebook and is inany case very incomplete. Kragl has in my view wisely chosen to use a Leithandschrift, W (Vienna, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 2698, early fourteenth century), for his edition. Careful inspection of thedifferences betweenW and P (Heidelberg, Univer sitatsbibliothek, Cod. Pal. Germ. 37I, dated I420) in language, content, and rhyme, summarized pp. 803-I0, leadsKragl toconclude thatwhile slightpatterns in thevari ants can be discerned, including a slight tendency inP tobemore expansive (pp. 809 io), it isnot possible inmany cases to decide which reading is tobe preferred. Kragl considers and rejects the option of a parallel edition of the twomanuscripts because it makes the text far less readable for the average reader, and because it isunjustified overall, given that the differences between them areminor over long stretches. The reader-friendly printed edition thatKragl offers involume I, then, follows the 'more reliable' (p. 812) andmore complete W, giving significantvariants fromP and the frag ments inan adjacent column, with other editorial points noted at the footof thepage. For specialist users of theedition, however, Kragl does provide a parallel printing of W, P, and Hahn's edition (pp. 533-793). The accompanying CD furtheroffersa tran scription of bothmanuscripts and of the three surviving fragments,and marvellously clear photographs inPDF formatof every page of each manuscript (complete with a key so that it ispossible to find the appropriate page fora given line number; manu script pages and transcriptions are also linked directly via hypertext). There is even an unnormalized version of the edition (preserving orthographic variants including superscripts and diacritics). All this is a splendid basis for future research-though also for teaching editorial principles. For students or others with limitedMHG, Kragl also provides a straightforward facing-page translation intomodern German alongside the text in volume I, for,as he notes, Lanzelet has long attracted the interest of scholars from other disciplines; 266 Reviews furthermore, students' knowledge ofMHG is declining. (Indeed, students' know ledge of any kind ofGerman isdeclining, so thateditions ofMHG textswith English translations such as that planned by Kathleen Meyer (see Kragl, pp. 799-800) are becoming evermore common.) In volume IIKragl presents his editorial principles (pp. 797-830), gives a detailed description of themanuscripts and fragments (pp. 830-96), and has also produced a thorough, critical, and lucid-in short,very useful!-overview of research on Lanzelet todate, though he consciously refrains fromofferinghis own full interpretation of the work (pp. 897-1020). Finally, he provides a useful commentary on the text (pp. IQ7 1 I280). In sum, this is an...