Prussian Socialism Episode 8: The Nibelungenlied and Epic Literature

July 13, 20221h 9m

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Show Notes

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The Nibelungenlied is a medieval German story of heroism and bloody revenge. An epic poem written down about 1200 AD, it tells the tale of the Burgundian princess Kriemhild and her long-plotted retribution for the murder of her husband, the hero Siegfried.

In this lecture, Greg Conte overviews the characters and the plot, and then compares the Nibelungenlied to other epic poems, such as the Iliad and the Song of Roland. The epics are discussed in the frame of literary analysis with reference to the Canadian professor and theorist Northrop Frye. Comparison is also made to modern story-telling like (fake and gay) super-hero movies and the Turner Diaries.

Books discussed:
The Nibelungenlied (translated by A. T. Hatto)
Anatomy of Criticism by Northrop Frye

Books mentioned:
Middle High German A Grammar and Reader by Alfred Senn (best intro for beginners)
A Middle High German Reader by M. O'C. Walshe
(not mentioned but also worth-while:) A Middle High German Grammar by Joseph Wright
Das Nibelungenlied Mittelhochdeutscher Text und Übertragung (Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag)

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