Legends of the Middle Ages - Narrated with Special Reference to Literature and Art

H. A. Guerber

Description

The object of this work is to familiarize young students with the legends which form the staple of mediaeval literature. While they may owe more than is apparent at first sight to the classical writings of the palmy days of Greece and Rome, these legends are very characteristic of the people who told them, and they are the best exponents of the customs, manners, and beliefs of the time to which they belong.... It is extensively illustrated throughout and will appeal greatly to all historians. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Sujets

• Dark Ages (album)
• Ragnar Lodbrok
• Charlemagne

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 28 octobre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781473370784
• Langue: English

Extrait

Legends of the Middle Ages
Narrated with Special Reference to Literature and Art
by
H. A. Guerber


Copyright © 2013 Read Books Ltd.
This book is copyright and may not be
reproduced or copied in any way without
the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library


Contents
Legends of the Middle Ages
Folklore
PREFACE.
CHAPTER I. BEOWULF.
CHAPTER II. GUDRUN.
CHAPTER III. REYNARD THE FOX.
CHAPTER IV. THE NIBELUNGENLIED.
CHAPTER V. LANGOBARDIAN CYCLE OF MYTHS.
CHAPTER VI. THE AMBLINGS.
CHAPTER VII. DIETRICH VON BERN.
CHAPTER VIII. CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS PALADINS.
CHAPTER IX. THE SONS OF AYMON.
CHAPTER X. HUON OF BORDEAUX.
CHAPTER XI. TITUREL AND THE HOLY GRAIL.
CHAPTER XII. MERLIN.
CHAPTER XIII. THE ROUND TABLE.
CHAPTER XIV. TRISTAN AND ISEULT.
CHAPTER XV. THE STORY OF FRITHIOF.
CHAPTER XVI. RAGNAR LODBROK.
CHAPTER XVII. THE CID.
CHAPTER XVIII. GENERAL SURVEY OF ROMANCE LITERATURE.


Folklore
Folklore, or often, simply ‘lore’ consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, popular beliefs, fairytales, stories and customs included in the traditions of a culture, subculture or group. The English antiquarian William Thoms was the first person to introduce the term ‘folklore’ specifically, in a letter published in the London journal The Athenaeum in 1846. He invented this compound word to replace the various other terms used at the time, including ‘popular antiquities’ or ‘popular literature.’ In usage, folklore and mythology usually signify the same thing and there are four general areas of study; artefacts, describable and transmissible entity (oral tradition), culture, and behaviour (rituals). These areas do not stand alone however, as often a particular element may fit into more than one of these groupings.
While folklore can contain religious or mythic elements, such as the Icelandic skaldic poetry or the Christian stories of Saint George or Saint Christopher, it equally concerns itself with the sometimes mundane traditions of everyday life. Though many argue this is a successful method of demonstrating societal relationships, in the Jungian view, folklore pertains to unconscious psychological patterns; instincts or archetypes of the mind. These folktales may or may not emerge from a religious tradition, but nevertheless speak to deep psychological issues. The familiar folktale, ‘Hansel and Gretel’ is an example of this fine line. The manifest purpose of the tale may primarily be one of mundane instruction regarding forest safety or secondarily a cautionary tale about the dangers of famine to large families, but its latent meaning may evoke a strong emotional response. This is largely due to the widely understood themes and motifs such as ‘the terrible mother’, ‘death’ and ‘atonement with the father.’
The critical interpretation of myths and folklore goes as far back as the tales themselves. For instance, Sallustius (a fourth century Roman writer) divided myths into five categories; theological, physical (or concerning natural laws) animastic (or concerning soul), material and mixed. And although Plato famously condemned poetic myth when discussing the education of the young in the Republic, primarily on the grounds that there was a danger that the young and uneducated might take the stories of Gods and heroes literally, nevertheless he constantly refers to myths of all kinds throughout his writings. Interest in folkloric story telling continued well into the Renaissance, and notably during the nineteenth century, folktales and fairy tales were perceived as eroded fragments of earlier mythology (famously by the Brothers Grimm and Elias Lönnrot). Mythological themes are also very often consciously employed in literature, beginning with Homer – and the foundational Iliad and the Odyssey.
Legends are very closely tied to the history of folklore and mythology, but they are generally narratives of human actions that are perceived by both teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude. Whilst legends will not include happenings outside the realm of ‘possibility’, they often contain miracles - believable in a specific religious context. The Brothers Grimm, the chief collectors of Germanic folk and fairy tales of the nineteenth century, defined legend as specifically historically grounded, as opposed to their own Märchen. Legends and folklore often both serve the purpose of romantic nationalism though; in which a people derive their legitimacy from a common culture, language, race and customs.
The telling of stories appears to be a cultural universal, common to basic and complex societies alike. Even the forms folktales take are similar from culture to culture, and comparative studies of their themes and narratives have been successful in showing these relationships. Although folktales are exceptionally similar to myths, mythology does differ slightly in that it will often refer to ‘ideology.’ They have most famously been analysed by Roland Barthes (1950s, Mythologies ), who argued that modern culture explores religious experience in many more ways than we realise. He further posited that because it is not the job of science to define human morality, this is where myths (and to some extent folklore) come in – as pseudo-religious experiences attempting to connect the present with a perceived moral past.
There are many forms of contemporary folklore that are so common that most people do not realize they are folklore, such as riddles , children’s rhymes and ghost stories, rumours (including conspiracy theories), ethnic stereotypes and holiday customs. Although myth was traditionally transmitted through the oral tradition on a small scale, the technology of the film industry has enabled filmmakers to transmit myths to large audiences via film dissemination. The basis of modern storytelling in both cinema and television lies deeply rooted in the mythological tradition. The Disney Corporation is notorious among cultural study scholars for ‘reinventing’ traditional childhood myths. While many films are not as obvious as Disney fairy tales in respect to the employment of myth, the plots of many films are largely based on the rough structure of the myth such as the cautionary tale regarding the abuse of technology, battles between gods, and creation stories are often the subject of major film productions. Folklore, myths and legends are very much a part of our life today, and it is hoped that the current reader is inspired to find out more about this fascinating subject.


LEGENDS OF THE MIDDLE AGES NARRATED WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO LITERATURE AND ART BY H.A. GUERBER “Saddle the Hippogriffs, ye Muses nine, And straight we’ll ride to the land of old Romance” - WIELAND


DEDICATED TO MY SISTER ADELE E. GUERBER
“Men lykyn jestis for to here, And romans rede in diuers manere
“Of Brute that baron bold of hond, The first conqueroure of Englond; Of kyng Artour that was so riche, Was non in his tyme him liche.
“How kyng Charlis and Rowlond fawght With sarzyns nold they be cawght; Of Tristrem and of Ysoude the swete, How they with love first gan mete;
“Stories of diuerce thynggis, Of pryncis, prelatis, and of kynggis; Many songgis of diuers ryme, As english, frensh, and latyne.” Curser Mundi .


PREFACE.
The object of this work is to familiarize young students with the legends which form the staple of mediaeval literature.
While they may owe more than is apparent at first sight to the classical writings of the palmy days of Greece and Rome, these legends are very characteristic of the people who told them, and they are the best exponents of the customs, manners, and beliefs of the time to which they belong. They have been repeated in poetry and prose with endless variations, and some of our greatest modern writers have deemed them worthy of a new dress, as is seen in Tennyson’s “Idyls of the King,” Goethe’s “Reineke Fuchs,” Tegnér’s “Frithiof Saga,” Wieland’s “Oberon,” Morris’s “Story of Sigurd,” and many shorter works by these and less noted writers.
These mediaeval legends form a sort of literary quarry, from which, consciously or unconsciously, each writer takes some stones wherewith to build his own edifice. Many allusions in the literature of our own day lose much of their force simply because these legends are not available to the general reader.
It is the aim of this volume to bring them within reach of all, and to condense them so that they may readily be understood. Of course in so limited a space only an outline of each legend can be given, with a few short quotations from ancient and modern writings to illustrate the style of the poem in which they are embodied, or to lend additional force to some point in the story.
This book is, therefore, not a manual of mediaeval literature, or a series of critical essays, but rather a synopsis of some of the epics and romances which formed the main part of the culture of those days. Very little prominence has been given to the obscure early versions, all disquisitions have been carefully avoided, and explanations have been given only where they seemed essential.
The wealth and variety of imagination displayed in these legends will, I hope, prove that the epoch to which they belong has been greatly maligned by the term “dark ages,” often applied to it. Such was the favor which the legendary style of composition enjoyed with our ancestors that several of the poems analyzed in this