[gothic-l] Re: Danparstadir - Reidgotaland

[Alburysteve at AOL.COM]

Hi Dirk:

>
>  The Hildebrandlied starts with "Ik gihorta dat seggen ...", i.e. "I
>  heard them say...", which makes it clear that the story was passed on
>  (and distorted) from mouht to mouth.
>
>  The same is true for the Nibelungenlied. It also start by reporting
>  that "Uns ist in alten maeren wunders vil geseit ....", i.e. "
>  wonderous things have been told in old tales...".

These formulaic beginnings are part and parcel to most epics and artifacts of
an oral tradition.  They don't mean that the teller picked them up as bits of
gossip in the fish market.  Understand that there are finely honed mechanisms
that allow the tellers of oral tales to work their craft on epics as
extensive as the Iliad.: metrics, formulas, and a wide range of mnemonics.
Albert Lord's classic "Singer of Tales" explains all this and draws on
twentieth century Yugoslavian bards for examples and analogies with earlier
epics.  When you understand how oral epics work, it's very much easier to
pick the wheat out of the chaff.  Yes, they contain many motifs and themes
from myth, epic, and folk tradition.  But then so do some "histories".
Livy's history of Early Rome is replete with mythological themes because he
too relies on the oral tradition in his account of events from which he is as
chronologically removed as Homer was from the Trojan war.  Naturally, he's
taken seriously while Homer is discounted.

Rgds,

Steve O'Brien
Albury, Ontario



>
>  Especially the Nibelungenlied incorporates historical characters of
>   several centuries, e.g. Gunther/Gundahar (Burgundian king at Worms in
>  the 5th century), Brunhilde (Visigothic/Frankish princess in the 6th
>  century), Gero (Saxon Markgraf in the 9th century or so), Eckehard
>  (Saxon Markgraf in the 10th century or so) and Siegfried is even
>  thought to incorporate some memory of Arminius of the 1st century
>  (although this is rather doubtful).
>
>
>  cheers,
>
>  Dirk
>
>
>

You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>.

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/