Thietmar Of Merseburg Research Articles

Narzeczona Dobrawa i nawracanie księcia Mieszka (aspekty genealogiczne, polityczne i transformacyjne)

The marriage of Princess Doubravka to Prince Mieszko I is a specific example of acculturation in Central-Eastern Europe when Christianity came from Bohemia. It was striving to emancipate its own diocese, further east, to emerging Poland. The study first addresses the genealogical issues of Bolesław I the Braves family and considers the identification of Doubravkas mother (Biagota?, Slavníkovci?). The impulse for the Christianisation of Poland was Prince Mieszkos defeat in 963; he needed military allies while a certain crisis of identity could have arosen („culture shock” – the disfavour of ethnic „daemons”). In his chronicle, Thietmar of Merseburg rather obscured the information about the marriage, through a certain bias against Mieszko, and especially towards his son Bolesław. The baptism took place before the diocese was established; it was a cultural transfer „from court to court”, from Prague to Poznań, perhaps due to the similarities between the Czech and Polish dynastic traditions. The goals of Mieszkos marriage were achieved in 967 (victory of the combined Polish-Bohemian army over Wichmann, birth of Mieszkos son Bolesław).

How many churches burned in the Kyiv fire of 1017?

The article examines sources’ reports of a large-scale fire in Kyiv in 1017. The two parallel texts are: the German Latin chronicle by Thietmar of Merseburg (composed in 1018) and the Primary Chronicle of Rus (composed in around 1116), which relied on early Kyivan annals. Thietmar wrote about the fire that damaged the “monasterium sancte Sophiae”. The Primary Chronicle reported of the fire of one church or several churches without specifying them. The main focus of the article is on the textual analysis of two versions of the short account of the event in the copies of the Primary Chronicle. One of the versions implies that it was the fire of one church only. According to another version there were many churches that suffered from the fire. Remarkably, the textual difference between the variants is only two letters – the plural form ending of the verb (“погорѣша цр҃кви” versus “погорѣ цр҃кви”). The dilemma of determining the original variant correlates with the ambiguity of Thietmar’s words, which could denote the fire of either one building or several. The chronicler used the word “monasterium” which could denote both “monastery” (as a complex of church buildings) and “cathedral”. The article provides a comprehensive textual and philological analysis of the variant readings of the Primary Chronicle. At the same time, the authors did not resort to hypothetical reconstructions of the text but proceeded from those readings that are attested by the preserved manuscripts. The analysis revealed the advantages and disadvantages of two textual scenarios, which provided for the originality of one or another version of the fire of 1017. Based on the available copies of the Primary Chronicle, it appeared impossible to unambiguously choose between the variants. This led to modeling two historical scenarios of the event. However, as it was demonstrated recently, the German chronicler meant the Tithe Church (possibly, with a surrounding buildings) by St. Sophia monastery or cathedral. The palace complex centered around the first stone church of Kyiv included other buildings used for ecclesiastical needs. This can explain the ambiguous terminology of the Kyivan and German chronicles. Therefore, as it turned out, regardless of the textual choice, both competing readings can be interpreted in the same sense. Thietmar and the Primary Chronicle unanimously reported about the fire of the Tithe Church.

Gerbert of Aurillac (Pope Sylvester II) as a Clockmaker

The paper analyses three preserved reports, depicting Gerbert of Aurillac (also known as: of Reims, of Ravenna, of Bobbio, and in 999–1003 as Pope Sylvester II) as a clockmaker. The Benedictine monk William of Malmesbury (died around 1143) writes about clocks Gerbert made in Reims in The History of the English Kings and describes them as arte mechanica compositum. The Benedictine Arnold Wion (died around 1610) mentions clocks from Ravenna, where Gerbert allegedly constructed a clepsydra, in The Tree of Life. In his Chronicle, Thietmar of Merseburg (died around 1018) describes a horologium with an observation tube (fistula) from Magdeburg. These three references are analysed from a historical standpoint and especially Williams’s and Thietmar’s short reports are interpreted as possible references to timekeeping devices – the astrolabe and the nocturlabe.

Forms of Individuality and Literacy in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods ed. by Franz-Josef Arlinghaus

Reviewed by: Forms of Individuality and Literacy in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods ed. by Franz-Josef Arlinghaus Melissa Raine Arlinghaus, Franz-Josef, ed., Forms of Individuality and Literacy in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods (Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy, 31), Turnhout, Brepols, 2015; hardback; pp. viii, 317; 2 b/w, 13 colour illustrations; R.R.P. €90.00; ISBN 9782503552200. This collection began as a conference on the utility of Niklas Luhmann's systems theory for understanding premodern individuality, but the essays provide stimulating interdisciplinary discussions about individuality and premodern (mainly German-speaking) Europe independently of this framework. Three essays together offer a useful introduction to Luhmann's principles. Franz-Josef Arlinghaus applies the distinction he made between socially inclusive individuality—distinctive to medieval and early modern societies—and 'modern' individuality—grounded in its distance from society—to autobiography. Accordingly, premodern autobiography is characterized by a drive to be 'better' within the parameters of one's social affiliation (exemplified by the works of [End Page 142] Thietmar of Merseburg and Augsburg merchant Lucas Rem), as opposed to an emphasis on 'difference' in modern autobiography. David Gary Shaw rejects Luhmann's separation of 'the social and the psychic', arguing that, for a historian, the integration of these spheres through the concept of self is preferable (p. 125). Shaw is more positive about Luhmann's thinking around the individual and social structure, and pushes Luhmann's transition to the modern period back to the fifteenth century through considering 'self-expression' in sumptuary law, Thomas Hoccleve, and the almost unyieldingly 'impersonal' prose of William Worcester, all of which demonstrate 'the pressure coming from individual people to place themselves into the social world in ways that seem unpredictable sometimes, but always personal' (p. 147). When Gregor Rohmann argues that medieval inclusion identity was staged largely at the level of semantics, as shifting social structures did not offer a stable basis for identity, he inverts one of Luhmann's key oppositions. Changing medieval kinship structures and the transcendental focus of Christianity are central to this reconfiguration, which Rohrmann explores through the recollections of Hieronymus Koehler and the relationship of the 'I' to authority over a household in the writing-self of sixteenth-century house books: 'there is no "autobiographical pact" in house books, but the reciprocity of collective remembrance' (p. 227). In the 'ego documents' produced by Princess Elisabeth Charlotte, sister-in-law to Louis XIV, Marieke Böth finds that gender, nationality, and status are interwoven with health, virtue, and physical location in the maintenance of her self-identity. Brigitte Bedos-Rezak engages with the relationship of theory to historical context before turning to 'long twelfth-century' expressions of individuality, culminating in a consideration of the 'non-human' expression of individuality in the form of seals. Eva Kormann examines women's self-representation (with reference to lower-class masculine textual self-representation) c. 1800, when 'the genre of "autobiography" demands an autonomous self conception, but the contemporary gender order knows of no autonomous model for women' (p. 118), generically reflected in the frequent choice of letter format to write about their lives (a communicative medium, rather than the solipsistic genres used by men). Through the autobiography of Konrad Pellikan, Gabrielle Jancke critiques the spatial conceptualization of autobiography as 'interior' (private) for relegating other social, 'public' aspects of the individual self to a secondary exteriority. The more neutral 'person' is preferred to 'individuality' for opening up 'a complex field of entangled relations, actions, and flows of resources, i.e. considering them people busily involved in performative processes of "doing person" in relational and participative ways' (p. 174). Matthias Meyer deals explicitly with narratology's treatment of the individual (in which he finds little use for Luhmann's work). Of the three fifteenth-century texts he considers, the most truly 'autobiographical' is the non-narrative, predominantly account-keeping marginal notes of physician Johannes Tichtel— [End Page 143] 'an inventory of the self of a real-life individual' (p. 195)—,whereas the narrative characteristics of the others produce individuality as an organizing principle of the text itself. Christof Rolker examines names as practices of representation that contribute to individual and social identity. He considers...

The Spoken Word, the Book and the Image in the Work of Evangelization

Little is known about the ‘material’ equipment of the early missionaries who set out to evangelize pagans and apostates, since the authors of the sources focused mainly on the successes (or failures) of the missions. Information concerning the ‘infrastructure’ of missions is rather occasional and of fragmentary nature. The major part in the process of evangelization must have been played by the spoken word preached indirectly or through an interpreter, at least in the areas and milieus remote from the centers of ancient civilization. It could not have been otherwise when coming into contact with communities which did not know the art of reading, still less writing. A little more attention is devoted to the other two media, that is, the written word and the images. The significance of the written word was manifold, and – at least as the basic liturgical books are concerned (the missal, the evangeliary?) – the manuscripts were indispensable elements of missionaries’ equipment. In certain circumstances the books which the missionaries had at their disposal could acquire special – even magical – significance, the most comprehensible to the Christianized people (the examples given: the evangeliary of St. Winfried-Boniface in the face of death at the hands of a pagan Frisian, the episode with a manuscript in the story of Anskar’s mission written by Rimbert). The role of the plastic art representations (images) during the missions is much less frequently mentioned in the sources. After quoting a few relevant examples (Bede the Venerable, Ermoldus Nigellus, Paul the Deacon, Thietmar of Merseburg), the author also cites an interesting, although not entirely successful, attempt to use drama to instruct the Livonians in the faith while converting them to Christianity, which was reported by Henry of Latvia.

Conspiring in Dreams: between Misdeeds and saving one’s Soul

Thietmar of Merseburg was not an example of a virtuous, pious ecclesiastic; rather, he more closely exemplified an Amtsbischof and mentally anguished sinner. In the last book of his Chronicle, he narrates a dream in which he finds himself surrounded by a hostile crowd that incites him to consume a suspicious and peculiar drink: allegedly, it causes him to feel unpleasant sensations while performing his duties. Thietmar believes this apparition is the result of his sinful weakness. I will assess the role played by situations related to local conflicts in fomenting Thietmar´s growing preoccupation with his salvation and the repercussions of his actions on his bishopric, pointing to Thietmar’s concern about restoring the rights of the see and insuring that it was well-administered.

Gdzie walczył i jak miał na imię brat Mieszka I?

Where did the brother of Mieszko I fight and what was his name?
 The paper is an attempt to decipher the name of the brother of Mieszko I and place name where battle with german duke Hodon took place in 972, mentioned in Thietmar of Merseburg’s chronicle. They are only known from a single MLat. inscription as Cidebur, and from its Latinized form as Cidini. In an author’s view they should be delatinized as Siecebor and Sitno (Sitna). Based on a substition and transcription analysis, the author formulates a hypothesis concerning the location and progress of the battle.

Empress Theophanu, Sanctity, and Memory in Early Medieval Saxony

The Empress Theophanu, wife of Otto II and regent for her son Otto III, was by all accounts a woman skilled at maneuvering through the complicated world of Ottonian politics. When she died in 991 CE, around the age of thirty, she had accomplished much: after arriving in Italy from Constantinople in 972 at around the age of twelve, she became Otto II's queen and was crowned empress of the Western Empire. During her lifetime, she was among the wealthiest women in Europe and one of the continent's most powerful people. After her husband's death, she secured the succession of her son, Otto III, and actively ruled as regent, successfully navigating the dangerous political world of the Western Roman Empire. Her activities included building churches, placing her daughters in positions of power in key nunneries, issuing acts asimperatorandimperatrix, receiving ambassadors, waging war and negotiating peace—essentially doing everything expected of a male emperor with the exception of personally engaging in battle. Thietmar of Merseburg, writing around 1013, praises her rule as regent, stating that she held the kingdom for her son “in a manly fashion,” clearly intending this as a compliment. And yet, after her death and the premature death of her son a few years later, Theophanu seems to disappear from the historical record. Despite the great number of contemporary sources in which she figured during her lifetime and immediately after her death, including charters and donations, letters, chronicles, and annals, we know almost nothing about her. The few sources that do mention her in the period following her death have little good to say about her. Why did this woman fall into disfavor?

Revenants, Resurrection, and Burnt Sacrifice

ABSTRACT Shortly after the turn of the millennium, Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg incorporated several stories about the undead in his chronicle of the deeds of the Ottonian kings. His accounts feature embodied revenants (not insubstantial specters) at worship. The stories the bishop recounts likely circulated in oral form, as urban legends, for some time before he recorded them in writing. Perhaps because they featured revived bodies, Thietmar presented these stories as evidence for the Christian doctrine of Resurrection. However, the tales do not readily lend themselves to this project, not least because the revenants were presented as frightening, dangerous, and even murderous in nature. This article probes the dissonances of Thietmar's ghost stories, arguing that they represent the hybrid products of a syncretism between Slavic pagan and medieval Christian cultures.

Perceptions of Tenth-century European elites by Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim, Thietmar of Merseburg, Odilo of Cluny, the Quedlinburg Annales , and other contemporary chroniclers

Many of the actions of elites, especially kings, and their followers, are known through the writings and images of their contemporaries. However, the motives attributed to these privileged members of society by their peers, although often plausible, present only a partial picture. In the tenth century in the West, an age when authority resided predominantly with the ruler and when primogeniture was not firmly established, the motives of struggling or jealous elites often encompassed a naked search for power. Such motives meant that would-be rulers started arguments and battles to obtain such power, but perhaps disguised their motives under more worthy aims. The chroniclers of these deeds were at times themselves deceived or had their own agendas. Queens and other aristocratic women sought power no less often than their male counterparts. Bound more rigidly by an expected code of action their methods were more circumscribed. Nevertheless the ruling women in tenth-century Italian and German lands had in general more scope than women in other western kingdoms. They created favourable images of self which came to be accepted and promoted to a surprising degree by the chroniclers of their actions: Widukind of Corvey, Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim, the anonymous author of the Quedlinburg Annales, Odilo of Cluny, and Thietmar of Merseburg cooperated in these creations. With the greater access by modern readers to new edited volumes of these works and their availability via electronic means, it is possible to undertake new analysis and come to understandings not previously conceivable.

Beowulf <i>and Lejre</i> (review)

Reviewed by: Beowulf and Lejre Jennifer Neville Beowulf and Lejre. By John D. Niles, with contributions by Tom Christensen and Marijane Osborn, foreword by John Hines, and afterword by Tom Shippey. Edited by John D. Niles and Marijane Osborn. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 323. Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2007. Pp. xiv + 495; 48 illustrations. $89. This is a strange book. It contains a bewildering range of materials—from archaeological reports to critical essays to medieval texts (with translations) to geographical descriptions to accounts of museums and modern reenactment—so the first challenge in reading it lies in determining what the book is about. In some ways there is a simple answer to this question: it is simply a collection of everything that we can currently know about a place called Lejre. As the place itself is of so much interest, there may be little need to rationalize the making of such a collection. Yet the title of the book reveals that some need was felt to rationalize the production of such a lavishly illustrated and lengthy book, and the rationale behind bringing the fraught history of Lejre to the attention of the English-speaking world (as opposed to the Danish-speaking world, which has had the benefit of some of the included publications before) is the argument that Lejre is the real, [End Page 117] historical site of Heorot, the hall attacked by the monster Grendel in the Old English poem, Beowulf. This is not a new argument, as the essays by Niles and Osborn reveal. Many scholars from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Thorkelin, Grundtvig, Chambers, Clark Hall, and Klaeber, among other illustrious names) "have been willing, if pressed, to locate Heorot at Lejre even if with caution" (p. 290). Lately, however, this apparent consensus has not often been acknowledged. Since Tolkien in 1936 famously transformed Beowulf from a source of historical facts to a literary artefact, there has been much less interest in the poem's connections to sixth-century Denmark and much more in its connections to eighth-, ninth, tenth-, and eleventh-century England. Parts I and II of this book provide a corrective for that lack of interest and supply as much evidence for a physical reality behind the poem as modern archaeology can provide: plans of two great halls and their surrounding buildings and monuments, remains of weapons, jewelry, and other artefacts, and descriptions and photos of the surrounding landscape. The technical detail in the six separate contributions (most of which have been published previously) may prove a challenge for literary scholars, but there is no question that the information here is exciting and suggestive for the world of the poem. Much of this evidence is new, based on excavations that concluded in 2005, and thus it is worth considering the old theory again in the light of new information. For the benefit of those who had not previously considered the bases on which the old theory rested, Part IV of the book contains texts and translations of the texts that mention Lejre and the adventures of the Skjöldung kings that correspond with characters in the Old English poem. These include: Thietmar of Merseburg's Chronicon, Grottasöngr, The Lejre Chronicle, Sven Aggesen's A Short History of the Kings of Denmark, Skjölfunga saga (in Arngrímur Jónsson's Latin paraphrase), Saxo Grammaticus' History of the Danes, Snorri Sturluson's Ynglinga saga and "Hrolf Kraki and Vögg," and The Saga of Hrolf Kraki. The essays by Marijane Osborn and John D. Niles in Part III not only discuss these texts and their possible connections with Beowulf but also trace the history of previous scholarly (and less scholarly) examinations of them. Although the writers in this book are careful to acknowledge the absence of direct proof that Lejre is the site of Heorot, the amount of material amassed here seems in itself to form part of the argument for the connection. The problem with accepting an argument based on mass, of course, is that new accounts of the legendary past draw upon old accounts of the legendary past, and, once the idea of Lejre...

Queering the Canon: Defying Sights in German Literature and Culture by Christoph Lorey , John L. Plews (review)

MLR,96.3,200I 9o3 the author isunable toframe a question, much lessanswer it.Instead, the discussion remains superficial, andthe content ofthe bookconsists ofa listing ofthe works and hasty (andoften garbled) plot summaries ofthem. UNIVERSITY OFGLASGOW LAURA MARTIN Queering the Canon: Defjzing Sights inGerman Literature andCulture. Ed. byCHRISTOPH LOREYand JOHN L. PLEWS. Columbia,SC: CamdenHouse. I998. xxiv + 498 pp.£45 Facedwith thequestion 'Wassollen Schuler lesen?', KlausWagenbach famously commented, 'Die Idee,einemBurgertum, das inzwischen so ungebildet ist,wie nicht einmal polizeilich vorgesehen, einen literarischen Kanonnachzuwerfen, der ihmohnehin piepebleibt, istsoabsurd, daSichmich gern darauf einlasse.' Inthe event, theI997survey indicated that support for thefamiliar classics seemed notto havedeclined greatly. Thehopelives oninsome quarters that new perspectives will eventually prevail andthat the literary heavy-weights may onedaybetoppled from their seemingly unassailable position inthe charts. Readers ofthepresent compilation oftwenty-two essays plusintroduction are informed that'queering thecanon'neednotinvolve theadoption ofa resolutely 'gay'perspective. The emphasis is rather on the'openmeshofpossibilities' suggested byEnglish 'queer'as cognate toGerman 'quer',anetymological nexus thatrecalls recent attempts to focus on 'Querkopfe' as thetruetrailblazers of culture. Ifliterature is,inUlrichGreiner's words, theprivileged keeper ofthe 'dreams, fears andhopesofthepeople', itmust allowitself tobeinvestigated as a grandrepository ofpersonal data;thisis undertaken hereinpreference to the strategies of'mainstream' academic criticism. Thecontributors' pervasive belief is that alterity canonly beperceived inrelation toa norm, sothat although their focus isprimarily ongayandlesbian components, a lifting oftheformidable blinkers of heteronormality will serve the interests ofalldiscerning readers. Therelevance ofthis approach isunderlined byreminders ofthesignificance of the outsider inGerman literature. Theabused Woyzeck nolessthan the deracinated KasparHauser suggest that a collective, traumatic experience of'queerness' isone ofitsmost distinctive qualities. Many oftheauthors here discussed, from Thietmar ofMerseburg toFrank Ripploh, show a sympathetic awareness ofthemarginalized individual, andBrecht's Verfremdungseffekt isinterpreted asa culture-specific attempt atreversing traditional norms. Thecanon isqueered inthree stages: history, literature, andculture arereviewed inturn. Theapproach isessentially two-pronged; familiar works areinspected from anunfamiliar angle (aswhen, inSilke Falkner's paper, Mephisto's fond feelings for angels emerge as a key toredemption inFaust), andunfamiliar texts on(counter-) cultural topics areintroduced toa wider readership. Thisaloneshould ensure that thebookisrelevant toa range ofneeds, andshould haveanexpansive influence on thecontexts inwhich literature isdiscussed beyond a still narrow (butgrowing) bandof'gaystudies' courses. Themajority ofthepieces do,however, fall into the latter category; and the Ioo-pagesection on 'QueeringGermanCulture'is overwhelmingly concerned with therepresentation ofspecifically gaythemes in contemporary Germancinema,a topicthathas been exploredextensively elsewhere, notably byRichard Dyer.Thequeering ofother aspects ofcultural life would merit greater attention. There isscope for further volumes ofthis type. UNIVERSITY OFKENT OSMAN DURRANI ...

Men Viewing Women as Art Objects: Studies in German Literature by Christoph E. Schweitzer (review)

Reviews 902 Thismonograph takes thediscussion oftheBildungsroman innewdirections, not byschematically fitting thechosen texts into a theoretical framework, butbyusing some tools from critical theory tolookatthetexts themselves againwith fresh eyes. The carefully teased-out discussion of gender issuesis a welcome modelfor approaching 'masculine' andperhaps even'feminine' texts. Itbecomes cleartoo that the theme ofinheritance offiers a productive lineoffurther enquiry. UNIVERSITY OFSTANDREWS HELEN CHAMBERS MenViewing Women asArtObjects: Studies inGerman Literature. BYCHRISTOPH E. SCHWEITZER. (Studiesin GermanLiterature, Linguistics and Culture) Columbia, SC: Camden House. I998. XiV + IO3PP. £4°. Thisthin volume fails toliveuptothepromise ofthetitle: itisnotthestudy of (fictional) men viewing (fictional) women asartobjects, butofthem viewing theart objects themselves, andperhaps ofthem relating tothese objects as iftowomen. Thework isrelatively wide-ranging, anddoesbring together inoneplacevarious incidences ofa particular topos. In Chapter I, Schweitzer discusses the'Female Portrait as a SpurtoPossession' inEmilia Galotti, DieZaubefote andMariaStuart, having commenced hisargument with Eurandot. Other chapters dealwith howthe possession ofan artistic rendition ofa woman functions as thepossession ofthe woman herself (DieLeiden des jungen Werthers, DerWaldbruder, Dieneuen Leiden des jungen W., DerWriumph der Empfindsamkeit, Florentin, Jenny andFelix Krull); somewhat weakly, therendition asprophecy (Wilhelm Meisters Lehgahre andMaler SNolten); therendition as a substitute for thewoman (DieBettler7n vom Pont des Arts, Gradiva, Schimmgang's Intimitat oder dasMadchen mzt dem Perlengehange); therendition asthe'Transgression of TimeandSpace'(Nossack's Dorothea); as 'Enlightenment' (DieFermate, DerJWachsommer ) andas'Retrospective Vision' (Immensee). ThusSchweitzer's study spans a goodtwocenturies, right uptoSchimmgang's I995 novel, anditevenincludes someworks bywomen, which should tendto broaden thescope ofthestudy ina fruitful way. Yetthe reader isleft wondering just what thecriteria for selection arewhen theauthor admits rather ingenuously that chancehasruled:'Onlyrecently didI comeacross a story thatoffered striking similarities tothetwoworks I justdiscussed' (p.65).Elsewhere, too,thestyle isso flatthatI wondered ifI werereading a serious academic study or a first-year student's essay: 'Itwill beseenthat the relationship between the art works depicting women andthevarious malecharacters isdeveloped inmany diffierent ways and often with impressive artistry' (p.xiii). Furthermore, the text isdotted with strangely disconnected piecesofinformation whichseernto haveno relevance to the argument. Worse than anempty sentence ortwo, however, isthegeneral dearth ofcontent ofthebookasa whole. Nineteen texts arediscussed in97pages, soobviously none canbe investigated thoroughly. Furthermore, theauthor hasapparently nonew thesis toputforward inthis work, andtheonly unifying principle isthecontinual reference toLessing's Laokoon, though therelevance ofthis treatise totheworks of authors whomaynever havereaditorwhomayhavehadvery different motives andgoalsintheir writing isnever madeclear.The study lacksanyreference to feminism, psychoanalytic literary theory, post-modern theories, or anyother apparatus that might haveenabled Schweitzer togainthecritical distance from his object toallowhimtoview itina productive light. Itiscertainly notthecasethat heavy-handed theorizing isa must inmodern criticism, anditis,ina way, refreshing tofind a writer willing toforgo trendiness, butwithout a critical stance ofsome sort MLR,96.3,200I 9o3 the author isunable toframe a question, much lessanswer it.Instead, the discussion remains superficial, andthe content ofthe bookconsists ofa listing ofthe works and hasty (andoften garbled) plot summaries ofthem. UNIVERSITY OFGLASGOW LAURA MARTIN Queering the Canon: Defjzing Sights inGerman Literature andCulture. Ed. byCHRISTOPH LOREYand JOHN L. PLEWS. Columbia,SC: CamdenHouse. I998. xxiv + 498 pp.£45 Facedwith thequestion 'Wassollen Schuler lesen?', KlausWagenbach famously commented, 'Die Idee,einemBurgertum, das inzwischen so ungebildet ist,wie nicht einmal polizeilich vorgesehen, einen literarischen Kanonnachzuwerfen, der ihmohnehin piepebleibt, istsoabsurd, daSichmich gern darauf einlasse.' Inthe event, theI997survey indicated that support for thefamiliar classics seemed notto havedeclined greatly. Thehopelives oninsome quarters that new perspectives will eventually prevail andthat the literary heavy-weights may onedaybetoppled from their seemingly unassailable position inthe charts. Readers ofthepresent compilation oftwenty-two essays plusintroduction are informed that'queering thecanon'neednotinvolve theadoption ofa resolutely 'gay'perspective. The emphasis is rather on the'openmeshofpossibilities' suggested byEnglish 'queer'as cognate toGerman 'quer',anetymological nexus thatrecalls recent attempts to focus on 'Querkopfe' as thetruetrailblazers of culture. Ifliterature is,inUlrichGreiner's words, theprivileged keeper ofthe 'dreams, fears andhopesofthepeople', itmust allowitself tobeinvestigated as a grandrepository ofpersonal data;thisis undertaken hereinpreference to the strategies of'mainstream' academic criticism. Thecontributors' pervasive belief is that alterity canonly beperceived inrelation toa norm, sothat although their focus isprimarily ongayandlesbian components, a lifting oftheformidable blinkers of heteronormality will serve the interests ofalldiscerning readers. Therelevance ofthis approach isunderlined byreminders ofthesignificance of the outsider inGerman literature. Theabused Woyzeck nolessthan the deracinated KasparHauser suggest that a collective, traumatic experience of'queerness' isone ofitsmost distinctive qualities. Many oftheauthors here discussed, from Thietmar ofMerseburg toFrank Ripploh, show a sympathetic awareness...

Thietmar of Merseburg on Rituals of Kingship

"Thietmar of Merseburg on Rituals of Kingship." This study confronts a longstanding tendency to interpret the rituals of Ottonian kings exclusively as a means to represent theories of monarchy and to treat them as manifestations of a coherent system. Expanding on research pertaining to rites of submission or surrender, Warner argues that Ottonian views on the subject of ritual were not as systematic as they sometimes appear to be in modern studies and that rituals of kingship encompassed a variety of purposes and messages. Since perception was as important as form or content in ritual, accounts of ceremonial occasions could be manipulated to support an argument. For example, an examination of Thietmar's chronicle suggests that the level of detail and the interpretation accorded a specific ceremonial moment commonly depended on Thietmar's own prejudices and antipathies. Hence, such instances say as much about Thietmar as they do about kingship, government, or the character of ritual. Given the degree to which the image of Ottonian rulership relies on Thietmar's chronicle, Warner emphasizes the need to recognize that the chronicle's author was no dispassionate observer of history but rather a man of affairs with a distinct point of view and pragmatic interests.