Scientific Essay from the year 2016 in the subject German Studies - Older German Literature, Medieval Studies, grade: -, , language: English, abstract: Around the year 1200, an unknown poet from today's Germany composed the epic 'The Nibelungenlied' or 'Song of the Nibelungs' which became the national epic at the early 19th century. The Georgian national epic of the 'Knight in the Panther Skin' was created at around the same time as the 'Nibelungenlied' by Shota Rustaveli. This coincidence was the motivation to draw a comparison between both medieval poems. The paper includes synopses of both epics, followed by the description of the origin of courtly epic and the national epics in Western Europe and Georgia. After a general comparison of the 'Knight in the Panther Skin' with Western European medieval poetry, a detailed comparison with 'The Nibelungenlied' is provided.

In the heart of Asia, straddling the western Tien Shan mountain range, lies the former Soviet republic Kyrgyzstan. The country prides itself in an age old oral epic tradition that recounts the mighty deeds of the hero Manas. When explorers first encountered Manas performers in the late nineteenth century, they hailed their art as a true representation of the heroic age, and compared it to masterpieces such as the Kalevala and the Iliad. Today there are still many excellent performers who can keep their audiences spellbound. They are believed to draw their inspiration from the spirit of Manas himself. This book portrays the meaning of this huge work of art in Kyrgyz society. Based on extended periods of anthropological fieldwork between 1996 and 2000, it explores the calling of its performers, describes the transformations of the oral tradition in printed media and other forms of art, and examines its use as a key symbol for identity politics. It deals extensively with the impact of the Soviet period, during which Kyrgyzstan became an autonomous republic for the first time in history. The tremendous changes initiated during these years had far-reaching consequences for the transmission and reception of the Manas epic. The specific Soviet approach to ethnicity was also elementary in the decisions to assign the Manas epic the role of national symbol after 1991, when Kyrzygstan was thrown into the turnoil of a post-socialist existence.

Stemmatology studies aspects of textual criticism that use genealogical methods to analyse a set of copies of a text whose autograph has been lost. This handbook is the first to cover the entire field, encompassing both theoretical and practical aspects of traditional as well as modern digital methods and their history. As an art (ars), stemmatology’s main goal is editing and thus presenting to the reader a historical text in the most satisfactory way. As a more abstract discipline (scientia), it is interested in the general principles of how texts change in the process of being copied. Thirty eight experts from all of the fields involved have joined forces to write this handbook, whose eight chapters cover material aspects of text traditions, the genesis and methods of traditional "Lachmannian" textual criticism and the objections raised against it, as well as modern digital methods used in the field. The two concluding chapters take a closer look at how this approach towards texts and textual criticism has developed in some disciplines of textual scholarship and compare methods used in other fields that deal with "descent with modification". The handbook thus serves as an introduction to this interdisciplinary field.

The Devil's Historians offers a passionate corrective to common - and very dangerous - myths about the medieval world.

This classic medieval romance of chivalry by an outstanding figure in a brilliant period of Georgian literature has affinities with both the Persian tradition and that of the West.