Early Germanic Literature and Culture

A collection of fresh essays examining the wide scope and significance of early Germanic culture and literature.

A collection of fresh essays examining the wide scope and significance of early Germanic culture and literature.

The first volume of this set views the development of writing in German with respect to broad aspects of the early Germanic past, drawing on a range of disciplines including archaeology, anthropology, and philology in addition toliterary history. The first part considers the whole concept of Germanic antiquity and the way in which it has been approached, examines classical writings about Germanic origins and the earliest Germanic tribes, and looks at thetwo great influences on the early Germanic world: the confrontation with the Roman Empire and the displacement of Germanic religion by Christianity. A chapter on orality -- the earliest stage of all literature -- provides a bridgeto the earliest Germanic writings. The second part of the book is devoted to written Germanic -- rather than German -- materials, with a series of chapters looking first at the Runic inscriptions, then at Gothic, the first Germanic language to find its way onto parchment (in Ulfilas's Bible translation). The topic turns finally to what we now understand as literature, with general surveys of the three great areas of early Germanic literature: Old Norse, Old English, and Old High and Low German. A final chapter is devoted to the Old SaxonHeliand.
Contributors: T. M. Andersson, Heinrich Beck, Graeme Dunphy, Klaus Düwel, G. Ronald Murphy, Adrian Murdoch, Brian Murdoch, Rudolf Simek, Herwig Wolfram.
Brian Murdoch and Malcolm Read both teach in the German Department of the University of Stirling in Scotland.

Introduction (this chapter has two authors) - Malcolm Read and
The Concept of Germanic Antiquity - Heinrich Beck
The Literature of German Origins - Herwig Wolfram
Germania Romana - Adrian Murdoch
Germanic Religion and the Conversion to Christianity - Rudolph Simek
Orality - R. Graeme Dunphy
Runic - Klaus Duewel
Gothic
Old Norse-Icelandic Literature - Theodore Andersson
Old English - Fred C. Robinson
Old High and Continental Old Low German
The Old SaxonHeliand - G. Ronald Murphy