Waltharius
Edited by A. Ring
The Waltharius, a medieval Latin epic poem of over 1400 lines, richly retells the story of a vigorous Germanic saga in the language and style of classical and Christian Latin poetry. Walter, its hero, is a pagan warrior ready to mock his enemies and mercilessly decapitate them, but also a pious Christian who refrains from premarital sex and stops to pray and ask for God’s mercy in the middle of a battle. The poem varies remarkably in tone, providing both fervent moral commentary and bitter black comedy. The growing scholarship on the poem outside of Germany, where it has always been popular, no doubt results from its weird allure and eclectic nature. It has something for everyone. This new edition uses a fresh review of manuscripts–especially the recently discovered fragments at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign–in order to provide a text and apparatus that will aid the reader in understanding the poem’s tangled manuscript history. The notes are rather fuller than those of previous English-language editions, providing useful context to understand the complicated relationships among the Germanic, classical Latin, and Christian Latin traditions as well as tracking various themes and stylistic features that the poet employs.
- Edited by A. Ring
"...As with other books in the Dallas Medieval Texts and Translations series, it is useful for scholars to have an authoritative text and a reliable prose translation for a historically significant text with intermittently challenging Latin. The book's greatest value, however, comes from its well-written and thorough commentary, which is admirably precise about details and thoughtful about context." --A.M. Juster, The University Bookman, Winter 2018
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Other Titles in this Series
Robert Grosseteste at Munich
The Abbreviatio by Frater Andreas, O.F.M., of the Commentaries by Robert Grosseteste on the Pseudo-Dionysius
Volume 14
A Thirteenth-Century Textbook of Mystical Theology at the University of Paris
The «Mystical Theology» of Dionysius the Aeropagite in Eriugena's Latin Translation with the Scholia translated by Anastasius the Librarian and Excerpts from Eriugena's «Periphyseon»
Volume 4
Paul of Venice, ‘Logica magna’: The Treatise on Insolubles
Edited with an Introduction, English Translation, and Commentary
Volume 27
Education of Nuns, Feast of Fools, Letters of Love
Medieval Religious Life in Twelfth-Century Lyric Anthologies from Regensburg, Ripoll, and Chartres
Volume 26
The Notory Art of Shorthand (Ars notoria notarie)
A Curious Chapter in the History of Writing in the West
Volume 20
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