The Arthur of the Germans. The Arthurian Legend in Medieval German and Dutch Literature ed. by W. H. Jackson and S. A. Ranawake (review)

Abstract

ARTHURIANA Huston and Allen seem at least to be having fun with their parts. Huston maintains a gyno-sacerdotal demeanor appropriate to the Lady ofthe Lake, and Allen plays the vamp as heavy in a throwback to an acting style that seems inspired by Theda Bara. Margulies, try as she might, simply lacks gravitas—her still-intact-television ER midwestern accent making an already tinny dialogue sound only worse. Present in the miniseries is the battle between pagan/feminine/nurturing and Christian/masculine/destructive, with the Saxons thrown in for good measure as enemies to all. The time frame is correct, and some of the costuming and sets are close enough, but overall a great deal oftalent, time, money, and effort seems to have been for naught. It is encouraging that interest in movies and telefilms set in some version of the Middle Ages continues (cf. this Summer's A Knight's Tale which, for all its anachronisms, is still a better reimagining of the medieval). One only wishes that this interest provided us with something better to watch—and to write about. KEVIN J. HARTY 1.a Salle University w. H. Jackson and s. a. ranawake, eds., The Arthur ofthe Germans. The Arthurian Legendin Medieval German andDutch Literature. Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, III. Cardiff: University ofWales Press, 2000. Pp. xii, 337. isbn: o—7083-1595-x. $65. Volume III ofthe series Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, like the two previous volumes on Welsh (1991) and English (1999) Arthurian literature, was published in cooperation with the Vinaver Trust, established by the British Branch of the International Arthurian Society to commemorate the distinguished scholar Eugène Vinaver. The volumes in this series are intended to be successors to the now classic Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages (1959). In his Preface, W R. J. Barron notes that the volumes are 'primarily addressed to students of the individual culture in question, but also to those of other cultures who, for the appreciation of their own Arthurian literature, need to be aware ofthe various expressions ofthe legend' (p. ix). Therefore, 'the volumes aim to present the present state of knowledge as individual contributors see it' and who 'also address the needs ofspecialist scholars by discussing current academic controversies, and themselves treating open questions of research' (p. ix). The volume is divided into five parts: 1. 'Reception and Appropriation: The German Verse Romances, Twelfth Century to 1300'; 2. Continuity and Change in the Later Middle Ages'; 3. The Medieval Dutch Arthurian Material'; 4. Other Literary, Pictorial and Social Manifestations of Arthurian Culture'; 5. 'The Legacy' The Arthur ofthe Germans encompasses more than the subtitle would suggest, for the volume also contains a chapter on 'King Arthur and his Round Table in the Culture of Medieval Bohemia and in Medieval Czech Literature' by Alfred Thomas (pp. 249-56). In the Introduction (pp. 1-18), W. H. Jackson and Silvia Ranawake remark that 'the volume must be understood in the medieval, integrative sense ofthe words dietsch and tiutsch' REVIEWS123 (p. 1), that is, Middle High German and Middle Dutch respectively, which were just beginning to separate out as distinct languages. FIence also the inclusion of Czech literature, which shows 'a further eastward spread of Arthurian literature into the Slav world through the medium ofGerman' (p. 2). The first chapter, 'The Western Background' by Ingrid Kasten, sketches 'the early history of the Arthurian legend, which preceded its reception in German literature' (p. 21). And this is followed, as one would expect, by chapters on FIartmann von Aue, Ulrich von Zatzikhoven, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Heinrich von dem Türlin, Der Stricker, Der Pleier, and the late thirteenth-century anonymous Wigamur, Gauriel, Lohengrin, as well as fragments of Arthurian romances. Gottfried von Strassburg is saved for Part Two, where Mark Chinea discusses the entire German Tristan tradition in 'Tristan Narratives from the High to the Later Middle Ages' (pp. 117-34), to which chapter Volker Mertens has contributed an appendix on 'Arthur in the Tristan Tradition' (pp. 135-41). The second part also contains chapters on the Wigalois narratives, the Prosa-Lancelot, late medieval summations, such as Ulrich Fiietrer's Buch der Abenteuer, and Lorengel. Parts...