Musik und Gewalt. Die akustische Dimension des Krieges in narrativen Texten des Mittelalters

Abstract

Medieval war was full of sounds and several medieval authors refer to a variety of acoustic aspects of warfare. This paper examines some of these references that reflect on the use of music in warfare and on its representation in literary texts. The first part of the paper explores what historiographical sources can tell us about how and why music was used in medieval battle, focusing on the battle of Worringen (1288). This battle is the main topic of a historical poem written by Jan van Heelu that mentions a variety of signals and gives some indications on the psychological implications of music in warfare. The second part of the paper focuses on the effects of music on the body using literary texts as an example. The meaning and effect of voice is described on the basis of the late court novel “Daniel von dem blühenden Tal” written by Stricker in the 13th century. Finally, the correlation between music and combat is to be analysed on the example of the “Nibelungenlied”.