Stabreimende Wortpaare in Deutsche Versnovellistik des 13. bis 15. Jahrhunderts

Abstract

Abstract The recently published compendium of 175 German verse tales from the 13th–15th century (Deutsche Versnovellistik des 13. bis 15. Jahrhunderts) includes never-before-published material in critical edition, so that a survey of the alliterating word-pairs within this arguably hard to define genre seems desirable. Some 380 pairs are collected and analysed within the context of each tale, with special attention paid to earlier transmission of the pairs or their innovative nature, respectively. Following a methodology that has been employed to cover all of Old and Early Middle High German and much of classical High German, the history of this durable rhetorical device is extended well into the late medieval era. Further surveys will help to fill in remaining gaps in coverage of the history of the alliterating word-pair in German.