Well, that was fast. After expressing a wish that A. S. Kline would live to complete his new verse translation of Wolfram’s Parzival, (as Chrétien de Troyes failed to do with his own Perceval), I got an email from him with a link to the finished product on April 14th. And I’m enjoying it very… Continue reading Yet more translations of Parzival
Category: Medieval Literature
Three translations of Parzival
Translating Wolfram’s Parzival has got to be a total nightmare, though it’s probably also fun. His style is, by his own admission, comparable to a startled hare darting this way and that. This applies to individual sentences but also to the entire narrative. Some questions you may ask yourself when reading Parzival include: Did we… Continue reading Three translations of Parzival
Ask your doctor if the blood of a virgin is right for you!
A summary of the medieval story Der arme Heinrich by Hartmann von Aue. If you enjoyed the now-defunct website The Toast, you might like this too. If not…I have other posts. Go here if you’ve never seen an American pharmaceutical ad. Are you covered in disgusting sores? Losing fingers and toes? Suffering from gangrene and blindness?… Continue reading Ask your doctor if the blood of a virgin is right for you!
Medieval love poetry: sexier than you might think
Richard Wagner mined most of his opera plots from medieval sources. Here’s an intro to Tannhäuser: Legend has it that back in 1207 or so, Landgrave Hermann of Thuringia invited the most accomplished minstrels in the land to battle it out at the Wartburg castle in Eisenach. In German they call this the Sängerkrieg auf der… Continue reading Medieval love poetry: sexier than you might think