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Lanzelet by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven

2007; Scriptoriun Press; Volume: 17; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/art.2007.0034

1934-1539

Joseph M. Sullivan,

Linguistics and language evolution

122ARTHURIANA should be a 'must-read' for anyone with interests in those geographical areas. This book is a mine of ideas and source material, as well as being easy and extremely interesting to read. Other interesting points are the decline ofattribution to Merlin from the late seventeenth century, and in the same period the linking of what Thornton terms 'ancient prophecy' with astrology (a factor largely missing from medieval 'prophetic' textual communities). As Thornton notes, however, it is interesting to see the persistence of non-rational texts such as Nixon's prophecies well after the rise of rational historiography. Has the 'non-rational' ever really left the arena of political discourse and interpretation? LESLEY COOTE University of Hull, UK Ulrich von ZATZIKHOVEN, Lanzelet, Florian Kragl, ed., Vol. ?, Text und Übersetzung. Vol. 2, Forschungsbericht undKommentar. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2006. Pp. xv, 1389, and cd-ROM. isbn: 978-3-11-018936-0; 3-1-018936-4. $402.30. Likely written about 1194 or soon thereafter, Ulrich's Lanzelet, the subject of this impressive and successful editorial project, belongs to the first generation ofMiddle High German Arthurian romance. The primary literary significance ofthe romance, however, lies less in its position in the German literary tradition than in its place in the larger European context ofmedieval Arthurian literature. Almost certainly based on a now lost Anglo-Norman romance that itself either predated or was roughly simultaneous with Chretien's Charrete, Ulrich's work preserves what is, with little question, some ofthe oldest Lancelot material. Importantly, much ofthat material, which will turn up again in the post-1200 Lancelot tradition—for instance, in the Old French Prose Lancelotand in Malory's LeMorteDarthur—is present in Lanzelet but not in the Charrete. At the center of what is the most comprehensive collection of materials on Lanzelet published to date is Florian Kragl's superbly edited text. For over a century, a new Lanzelet edition has been a chief desideratum of Germanistik scholars, who have sought a replacement for Karl August Hahn's 1845 edition. That earlier edition is marred by a critical apparatus both imprecise and incomplete, especially in its presentation of the variant transmissions among the Lanzelet manuscripts. Additionally, Hahn's attempt to recreate an archetypal text based on a mélange of the two complete manuscripts, W and P, represents an editing practice long out of scholarly favor. Lastly, Hahn's edition could not take into account the two Lanzelet fragments B and GK that have surfaced since its publication. Kragl's newly edited text fully addresses the deficiencies of its predecessor. Following more current editing practices for medieval German texts, Kragl chooses a Leithandschrift to construct his main text. In contrast to Hahn, who gave preference to manuscript P, Kragl chooses W, which he correctly notes is older, more archaic in its language, and consistently more coherent in meaning than P. In accordance with prevailing trends for editing Middle High German works, Kragl inserts modern punctuation and uses standard normalization for spelling. In a REVIEWS123 departure from more traditional editing practices, however, he selectively presents in a second column, direcdy alongside his presentation of W, those passages from P and the four manuscript fragments that produce a significantly different reading than those based on W. By presenting these alternate passages, which he also fully edits, Kragl gives researchers a valuable window onto the different readings that the various manuscripts and manuscript fragments suggest, and especially onto the quite important and frequent divergences in meaning between the two complete manuscripts, P and W. The edited text also features a more standard critical apparatus at the bottom of the page, detailing, most importantly, the more minor variations among the manuscripts. In addition to producing an edited text, Kragl also provides several highly valuable tools related to the manuscriprs. For example, following rhe edited text, he presents in three facing columns his complete transcription ofW, his transcription ofP, and the Middle High German text of Hahn's edition. More significantly, on a separate CD-ROM, he includes high quality photographic reproductions of all the surviving manuscripts as well as the un-normalized version of his edition. In conjunction with his edited text, Kragl also presents...