Widukind of Corvey. Deeds of the Saxons, tr., with introduction and notes, by Bernard S. Bachrach and David S. Bachrach
2016; Oxford University Press; Volume: 131; Issue: 553 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/ehr/cew267
ISSN1477-4534
Autores Tópico(s)Historical and Archaeological Studies
ResumoWithout the work of Widukind we would know very little about the consolidation of the Ottonian monarchy in tenth-century Germany, and its rise to imperial status. This makes it the more surprising that only now has an English translation of this relatively short work appeared. It will be very much welcomed by teachers of medieval history, and also by scholars working in the early medieval field, for, despite the translators’ modest disclaimer that ‘most of Widukind’s text is written in a straight-forward manner’, his heavily classicised and compressed style and allusiveness does not make the Latin text easy reading, and the meaning of a number of passages is problematic. The translation here is accurate and effective, making sense of the obscure sections, and the notes helpfully draw attention to the implications of Widukind’s vocabulary, which is carefully chosen and sometimes freighted with hidden meaning. One might occasionally quibble—I wondered, for example, whether the phrase iactu rotae in Gesta, III. 23, meant, as the Bachrachs translate this literally, that a man lost his arm through being hit by a (wagon) wheel thrown from the gate of the city of Mainz, or whether it may refer more allusively to a ‘turn of the wheel’ (of Fortune). Similarly, was the death of Duke Conrad at the battle of Lechfeld (III. 47) because he loosened (or took off) his helmet because of the heat, or because he loosened his hauberk, which is what the Latin suggests to me? But it is fair to say that in both cases the translators may be correct.
Referência(s)