D. H . Green : Medieval Listening and Reading. The primary reception of German literature 800 – 1300. Cambridge University Press 1994.

Wenzel, Horst

doi:10.30965/25890530-0280304015

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“…Verse romances, such as Parzival , were not sung, but instead read aloud or recited by a performer (either the poets themselves or a literate clericus , cf. Green 1994: 191). This is in contrast to the Minnelieder (‘ minnesongs ’ or ‘love songs’), lyric poems which were sung and set to music; this was possibly also true of heroic epics, such as the Nibelungenlied (Jones & Jones 2019: 303).…”

Section: The Linguistic and Cultural Context Of Parzivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Instead, this claim can be regarded as a signal of identity, belonging to contemporary lay knightly culture and distinct from the court clerics and those knights who had received a clerical education in Latin (cf. Green 1994: 292; Curschmann 1984: 235). Regardless of Wolfram's supposed analphabetism, it is certain from references within the text that Parzival existed in a written form and in a culture where such texts were expected to be both read aloud and circulated for private reading by individuals, particularly noble women, who enjoyed a higher rate of literacy (cf.…”

Section: The Linguistic and Cultural Context Of Parzivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regardless of Wolfram's supposed analphabetism, it is certain from references within the text that Parzival existed in a written form and in a culture where such texts were expected to be both read aloud and circulated for private reading by individuals, particularly noble women, who enjoyed a higher rate of literacy (cf. Green 1994: 192).…”

Section: The Linguistic and Cultural Context Of Parzivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rethinking the Metre of Parzival: Iambic Verse for a Trochaic Language

Booth

2023

Trans of the Philol Soc

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The Middle High German (MHG) prosodic foot is uncontroversially considered to be trochaic, a fact which has traditionally led scholars to assume a preference for trochaic metre in poetry of the MHG Classical Period. However, given the trend elsewhere in mediaeval Europe (even in trochaic languages) to emulate French lyrics and compose verse in iambic metre, the uncritical assumption of a trochaic metre in all MHG poetry seems inadequate. A close examination of Parzival, an early thirteenth‐century grail romance by Wolfram von Eschenbach, suggests that the traditional analysis is not only insufficient but counter to the linguistic evidence. This paper argues for the first time that Parzival was in fact composed in iambic tetrameter, based on a close analysis of the rhythmic alternations within lines and the quantity and foot structure of line‐final syllables. Halle & Keyser's (1966) principles for iambic metre were used to produce a taxonomy of possible line structures in Parzival and the dominance of the wswswsws pattern, beginning on a weak beat and ending on a strong, offers convincing evidence in favour of iambic metre. The remaining lines can be neatly categorised as iambic by allowing feminine rhyme (with an extrametrical schwa syllable) or the construction of monosyllabic feet from a single heavy syllable. This analysis is further corroborated by the consistently iambic structure of line‐final feet, as well as the foot structures avoided by the poet, identified according to the weight of the final, penultimate and antepenultimate syllables. The present analysis has the advantage of explaining the various patterns of alternating prominence in the metre of Parzival much more consistently than the complex system advocated by the traditional literary view.

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Section: The Linguistic and Cultural Context Of Parzivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Linguistic and Cultural Context Of Parzivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Linguistic and Cultural Context Of Parzivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

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