Zwischen den Sprachen: Modelle transkultureller Literatur bei Christian Levin Sander und Adam Oehlenschläger by Andreas Blödorn

Abstract

604 Reviews these expectations. Rory McTurk has assembled an impressive range of scholars to contribute to this project, including, unusually for an English-language venture, a good number of Icelanders, whose perspectives are particularly valuable. As might be predicted, the thirty-two short contributions (each coming in at around seventeen pages) will appeal differently to the various constituencies. Orri Vesteinsson's chapter on archaeology, for example, presupposes a readership which has some acquaintance with thehypothetical social structure ofCommonwealth Ice land. Terry Gunnell's account of the Poetic Edda gives a thorough account of the manuscript, its contents, and the problems of dating the poems, leaving little space fornew views about thecollection. This is tobe regretted,especially since summaries of theEdda's contents appear a couple of other times elsewhere in the book. Those scholars who were assigned such vast topics as the family sagas (Vesteinn Olason), skaldic verse (Diana Whaley), or romance (JiirgGlauser) are remarkably successful in keeping a balance between descriptive generalities, critical re-evaluations, and in Whaley's case providing a thoroughgoing demonstration of thenature and peculiari ties of skaldic verse. The section on runes is admirably illustrated, and gives a clear account of the links between poetry and runic texts, though an illustration of the runic alphabet would have been useful forneophytes. Guovarour Mar Gunnlaugs son' s introduction to manuscripts and palaeography isalso well illustrated and bound to be useful for novices inmanuscript studies. Sections on latermedieval writing (Matthew Driscoll on the lygisogurand Shaun Hughes on late secular poetry) intro duce lesswell-known works with persuasive cases for theirvalue. Other contributors take theopportunity to offersummaries of theirown recentwork: Gisli Sigurbsson's discussion oforality summarizes his latestbook, Armann Jakobsson' saccount of royal biographies depends heavily on his own articles. For the initiate and literary-minded reader, the greatest pleasure is derived from two types of contribution: thosewhich bring us up to date with recent thinking on history,archaeology, and laws, inways which will inform thinkingabout sagas of every subgenre, and thosewhich address broader cultural themes, such as the role ofwomen, and the compulsion of the Scandinavian peoples to travel across the known world. Judith Jesch's travel section reads as freshly conceived, pulling together historical, runic, and legal evidence and literary treatments in an exemplary way. JudyQuinn's chapter on women eschews the temptation to summarize recent debates or rehearse the usual stereotypes by offering snapshots of women in different genres, showing how distinctively theymove through the texts,embodying both the desires and the fears of differentkinds ofmen. The contributors were strictly limited in the amount of bibliography they could provide, a restriction ignored by some but not others. Nevertheless, the suggestions forfurther reading offera good starting-point for those who wish to investigate the topic in greater depth. The Companion is a remarkable achievement and a valuable resource; it is, however, to be regretted that it is so prohibitively priced thatmost readers will be likely to encounter itonly in a library. ST JOHN'SCOLLEGE,OXFORD CAROLYNELARRINGTON Zwischen den Sprachen: Modelle transkulturellerLiteratur beiChristian Levin Sander und Adam Oehlenschlager. By ANDREAS BLODORN. (Palaestra, 322) Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 2004. 426 pp. E69. ISBN 978-3-525-20595-2. Denmark in the early nineteenth century provides an interesting and in several ways unusual instance of political and linguistic tensions within a nation state which it tookmany years and considerable violence to sort out. Yet its major early nineteenth centurywriter,Adam Oehlenschlager, once much admired, demonstrated that itwas MLR, I02.2, 2007 605 possible tobe acclaimed as a poet and playwright both inDanish and German, the first language ofmany of his compatriots, and indeed ofhis ownmother, aswell as ofDen mark's politically divided but linguistically united and culturally dominant neighbour to the south. Oehlenschliger's mastery of both languages and his championship of a new Scandinavian cultural model arewell known, whereas the lifeand work of his older contemporary, Christian Levin Sander (I756-I8I9), are less familiar. Andreas Bl6dorn makes every effort to do this fascinating topic justice. The facts and figures he provides e.g. the dates of every performance of the plays of both authors at theRoyal Theatre, Copenhagen, between I796 and I822, alongside those of themost popular plays performed there...