mothwing: Image of a death head hawk moth (Photo)
Today, Crocky and I had a look at the ruin of the medieval Cistercian abbey in Hude (German Wiki here). In spite of the already rather frosty temperatures it was a lovely walk. We had a look at museum, ruins, nearby hamlet, and a mill and then went home before our feet froze even further. 



Read more... )

(no subject)

Monday, August 27th, 2012 03:25 pm
mothwing: The Crest of Cackle's Academy from The Worst Witch TV series. (Work)
Vil wol gelopter got, wie selten ich dich prîse!
sît ich von dir beide wort hân und wîse –
wie getar ich sô gefreveln under dîme rîse:
ich entuon diu rehten werk, ich enhân die wâren minne
ze mînem ebenkristen, hêrre vater, noch ze dir!
sô holt entwart ich ir dekeinem nie sô mir.
frôn krist, vater und sun, dîn geist berihte mîne sinne:
wie solde ich den geminnen der mir übel tuot?
mir muoz der iemer lieber sîn, der mir ist guot.
vergib mir anders mîne schulde, ich wil noch haben den muot.

-Walther von der Vogelweide.
mothwing: A wanderer standing on a cliff, looking over a distant city (Book)
« from: The Seafarer  »
Uton we hycgan hwær we ham agen,
ond þonne geþencan hu we þider cumen;
ond we þonne eac tilien þæt we to moten.
- Anonymous.

(Let us consider where our true home is;
and then let us think how to come thither;
and then also strive that we indeed come there.
[translation: J. Glenn])

Deor

Monday, January 2nd, 2012 07:14 pm
mothwing: A wanderer standing on a cliff, looking over a distant city (Book)
Before I post my resolutions (which I'll without a doubt break this year, too) I have to share what I spent most of my time procrastinating with today, the Old English poem Deor.

It's from the Exeter Book, and it's strangely encouraging to me. In it the singer describes the various misfortunes that have befallen various heroes and then, finally, himself, always closing, "þæs ofereode, þisses swa mæg", which is usually translated as, "this may overcome, so may this be", though it's more ambiguous in the original (for annotations, see here, and a modern English translation as well).

Cut for length.

Triggers: mention of rape, too, which goes for the modern version, too.

Welund him be wurman wræces cunnade,
anhydig eorl earfoþa dreag,
hæfde him to gesiþþe sorge and longaþ,
wintercealde wræce, wean oft onfond
siþþan hine Niðhad on nede legde,
swoncre seonobende on syllan monn.

Þæs ofereode, þisses swa mæg.

Read more... )

Reading of the translation on YT )

Something shiny.

Friday, January 28th, 2011 07:33 pm
mothwing: Image of a death head hawk moth (Default)
Someone pasted together twenty versions of Walther's Palästinalied, and I quite like the result.

The text in MHD and NHD: Álrêrst lébe ich mir werde...

Also.

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011 08:46 pm
mothwing: The Crest of Cackle's Academy from The Worst Witch TV series. (Work)
"Can anyone tell me anything about what people used to write on in the thirteenth and fourteenth century?"
"They used to carve things in stone."
"... In the thirteenth century, they took notes by carving them in stone...?"
"Well, yes. Until they started to print books."

This person?



NOT writing on this guy's head.
mothwing: A wanderer standing on a cliff, looking over a distant city (Book)
«  aus: Der Arme Heinrich, 1356-1370  »
do erkande ihr triuwe und ihr nôt
cordis speculator
vor dem deheines herzen tor
vürnames nicht beslozzen ist,
sît er durch sînen süezen list
an in beiden des geruochte,
daz er si versuochte
rehte alsô volleclîchen
sam Jôben den rîchen.
do er in des siechen hant
bärmde und triuwe vant
und ouch die vil reine maget
an triuwen vant sô unverzaget
daz si benamen ir leben
in gotes güete wolde geben,
dô erzeicte der heilic Krist
wie liep im triuwe und bärmde ist
und schiet si dô beide
von allem ir leide
und machete in dâ zestunt
reine unde wol gesunt.
~ Hartmann von Aue. 

mothwing: A wanderer standing on a cliff, looking over a distant city (Book)
This is the passage my written exam focused on:
«Gregoris v.3101-36»
Der arme Grêgôrius,
nû beleip er alsus
ûf dem wilden steine
aller gnâden eine.
er enhete andern gemach,
niuwan der himel was sîn dach.
Read more... )
Hartmann von Aue.
Pretty manageable, no? Especially given the fact that my topic was "Places and spaces of salvation in Hartmanns Gregorius". This is the passage in which Gregorius has arrived on the rocky island he spends his seventeen-year self-appointed exile as a penance for the double incest he was a result and part of - before he is chosen as pope - it is the ultimate place of salvation in the poem and thus a glaringly obvious and kind choice. I'm expecting that others had similar "kind" choices - he's your examiner, as well, isn't he, [livejournal.com profile] lordhellebore ? So, don't be worried.

Not sure what good that choice has done me, though, because as always, my exam is a huge, big blank in my memory.
mothwing: A wanderer standing on a cliff, looking over a distant city (Book)
To dussem dantse rope ik al gemene
Pawes keiser unde alle creaturen
Arm ryke groet unde kleine
Tredet vort went iu en helpet nen truren
Men dencket wol in aller tyd
Dat gy gude werke myt iu bringen
Unde juwer sunden werden quyd
Went gy moten na myner pypen springen.*

Last Saturday, my Middle High German course, [info]niaseath, other guests, and I went on an excursion to look at the Totentanzkapelle in Lübeck as well as an exhibition of modern-day hommages to the danse macabre from Lübeck in the St. Annen-Museum. We had a really lovely day enthusing about late medieval art, modern art, the church service and the beautiful church with other course members and our Professor.

While searching for the text of the Totentanz online I found this wonderful Danish site (click that link, you know you want to! Though be warned, it means goodbye to the rest of your day), which, in its introduction, mentions that the idiom "like death warmed over" is "at ligne Døden fra Lübeck" in Danish, which means, "like death from Lübeck".

"Death from Lübeck" used to look like this before the mural was destroyed in WWII:



...although that is the 1701 version, the original is believed to have looked something like this (Tallinn-fragment):



----
*To this dance I call everybody, / pope, emperor, and all creatures / poor, rich, great and small./ Step forward, because grieiving does not help you,/ but remember, at all times,/ to bring good works and deeds with you / and all your sins will be good again / because you must all dance to my pipe.
mothwing: An image of a man writing on a typewriter in front of a giant clockface. At the bottom is the VFD symbol and the inscription "the world is quiet here" (Pen)
Hartmann writes slash, too: 

"hie huop sich herzeminne
nâch starkem gewinne.
si minneten sunder bette:
diu minne stuont ze wette,
sweder nider gelæge,
dem wart der tôt wæge.
mit scheften si sich kusten
durch schilte zuo den brusten
mit solher minnekrefte
daz die eschînen schefte
kleine unz an die hant zekluben
und daz die spiltern ûfe stuben.
" (Erec, 9106-9117)
 
Translation )

Now, I know, male bonding, minne was a general term for love at the time this was written, the modes of feeling displayed in medieval texts are sometimes strange to our sensibilities, and Erec is all about different kinds of minne. I know that. But still.

Passionate kisses? With lances? Really?

I probably need to get from the medieval texts and get some coffee, or some fresh air.
mothwing: A wanderer standing on a cliff, looking over a distant city (Book)
Ich was ein chint so wolgetan from the Carmina Burana (carmina amatoria, no. 185) is one of  my favourite songs, even though it's basically about rape (the story is basically this: a young country girl, picking flowers, meets a man who lures her back to some linden trees and has sex with her against her will. The song is a mixture between Middle High German and Medieval Latin, and is clearly a comic song).

Crocky brought home a version from a music project and it's so awesome I fell in love with it, in spite of the text. It probably reflects the culture and the idea of humour from back in the day very well. I did not find the song from that project anywhere online, but an example of a similar idea of what the melody must have sounded like can be found on this CD, it's no.7.




Below is an excerpt from the codex, featuring the writing and the notation. In the space above the text you can see the earliest forms of musical notation, neumes, which allow a very rough idea of what this song must have sounded like.
These are unheightened neumes, neumes without staff-lines, and therefore allow only a very rough idea - oddly enough, as notation with staff lines was technically known in the days when the Codex Burensis was supposedly composed, which is around 1230, although possibly not so much for secular music. The songs for which they do have melodies thus were all assembled through concordances with other manuscripts. From what I know, there is no explanation for why adiastemic neumes were used in the collection, especially as the collectors were clearly learned enough to know about the other notation systems. (While trawling the internets for more information on this, I came across this utterly awesome project devoted to digitalising neumes.)

The songs in the collection are attributed to the Goliards, German, English, Italian and French vagrant monks from the profane order of "St Golias", who were, in contrast to other monks, not averse to wine, woman, and song. They were clerical students who travelled from university to university or just generally travelled. The songs do offer a lot of evidence of their education - there are both paragraphs in Latin as well as quotes from philosophers and scholars. The Goliards were following the probably fictional "St. Golias" and were very critical of the political powers and the church, and wrote satirical poems and songs to express their discontent, but also bawdy songs and tales.
If this attribution is correct, that would make the codex an example of around 778 years old student culture, which is somehow awesome.

 Page from the Codex Burensis with Ich was ein chint
mothwing: (Woman)
I just found the coolest thing online while not translating Plinius epistula on the eruption of the Vesuvius - this

Isn't it cool? Although I spent around fifteen minutes looking at all the portraits in the Codex to find the little guy with the fiddle. He's from the picture of the final singer - "Der Kanzler", the chancellor.

The pictures were all taken from the legendary Codex Manesse,  the most well-known collection of German love songs that was compiled in the 14th century - a hundred years after the genre had reached its peak, so sadly the portraits are not as accurate and the heraldry is also dodgy, but since it is one of the few sources of Minnelieder which exist, its worth is inestimable. Most of the songs we're reading with my Middle High German seminar are from the Codex. If anyone's interested, the University of Heidelberg has the it on their homepage here.

I know there is nothing like modern medicine, technology, but like many a good little literature student in postmodern days I sometimes wish I could be a scribe in the middle ages. These pages are so beautiful, and I daresay I'd be quite content if I could spend my life creating such things: 



Of course, it would also entail not marrying, but since Crocky would have been a nun as well (she better had!), I am convinced that I'd have had company. But then, as a nun, I would not have been allowed to copy out love songs, because there have been various concilliar and synodal edicts against this sort of thing thruought the middle ages, from the 8th century onwards. Hm. Life as a nun in love is hell. Hey, but I might have run away from the monastery at some point, I daresay that must have happened occasionally. Although that'd mean I'd ruin myself completely and break my vows. I might have been a novice.

On the other hand, it is very unlikely that I'd have been a novice, I would probably be married by now, and my dear brother would be on his way to become a smith. Well, my parents wouldn't even have met, but those are minor details. Crocky? Hmm... her father must have played on some kind of portative organ (like this one here), but those were not used in churches back then, were they? And if he had been a church musician, Crocky's very existence would probably be endangered. Ah, she'd exist, and might even have been in a convent, but that's not very likely. I might have taken the veil because no suitable husband could be found who'd marry me, and since my brother was going to take over the smithy, that wouldn't have mattered so much. Oh, hey, I probably would have worked in the smithy, anyway, maybe even as an official guild-member, as some guilds did have female members - only in the cities, though. Damn. I wouldn't have lived in a city.

So, I am this novice with a smith as a father and a smith-to-be as a brother, but Crocky's family consists almost entirely of musicians and teachers (music teachers) as I understand, so she'd have been what, the daughter of a minstrel at court, a church musician with lots to answer for or a wandering musician? I like the wandering musician. So, what does the daughter of a wandering musician do in the fourteenth century? She might have played the shawm like her father or sung to entertain people, or she might have been a dancer. But are novices allowed to attend this kind of mundane secular entertainment? Oh, yeah, this is the fourteenth century, no more enclosure - yes, I can go, if I want to. Or I met her at church. Oh, better not, as the seculisation had rather grave effects on the convents - more and more nuns have been accused of unchastity, apparently - so, not at church.

But then, she'd have had to move on, and would only have come back ages later! So even in the middle ages we'd have had a long-distance relationship. Typical, why can't she be in a convent?! Wasn't good enough for her, was it? 
Had to be the life on the road, no? 
Hrmph.

Good thing I can just phone her now.

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