Volume 131, Issue 2

Die deutschen Präteritopräsentia sind, indem alte Perfektformen das heutige Präsens stellen, aus mehreren Gründen als hochgradig irregulär zu betrachten. Hinzu kommt ein bisher nicht geklärter Umlaut bei vier (von heute sieben) dieser Verben: müssen, dürfen, können und mögen . Bisherige Erklärungsversuche werden diesem Problem nicht gerecht: Zwar versuchen sie durchaus, den Umlaut im Präsens zu motivieren, doch vermögen sie es nicht, sein ausschließliches Vorkommen im Plural des Präsens zu erklären. Hier wird für die These argumentiert, dass es sich um einen (verbalen) Pluralumlaut handelt, der insbesondere auch im Nominalbereich gang und gäbe ist und dort zur gleichen Zeit einen massiven Ausbau (Morphologisierung) erfährt. Damit handelt es sich um einen sog. transkategorialen Marker. In deutschen Dialekten haben auch andere Verben zu solchen Pluralumlauten gegriffen.

The ›Scandinavian runic reform‹ has fundamentally affected our insights into the development of the younger fuþarks. The aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it questions the notion of an intentional reform on several grounds. Secondly, it aims at introducing new systematic factors which support the linguistic approach toward this transformation as an internally driven process based on language change (particularly syncope). The general focus is on the contextualization of the writing system in written culture as exemplified by literacy and particular societal structures in Scandinavia on the brink of the Viking Age.

Reading the strophes of Meinloh von Sevelingen in the form as they have been handed down, one can scarcely resist the impression of their telling a story. The article seeks to highlight the basis upon which the supposition of Minnesang being indeed narratively composed makes sense and the circumstances under which such a composition is likely. It is possible, under the present supposition, to show that Meinloh's strophes in their cyclical order are to be situated in the 13 th century as a work of collectors and manuscript-editors. The narrative tendencies turn out to be a phenomenon of reception, a form of ›Konkretisierung‹ typical of the period.

As human beings, we have neither chosen our own body nor can we change our physical appearance at will. However, in the stories known as the ›Rückkehrabenteuer‹ Tristan, in order to meet his beloved Isolde, not only masquerades himself, but also alters his physical appearance in various ways. By analysing these literary phantasms of ›body design‹ in the versions of Eilhart von Oberg, Ulrich von Türheim, Heinrich von Freiberg and in the short narration ›Tristan als Mönch‹, medieval concepts of body and identity become apparent. Deviating somewhat from modern conceptions, the ability to alter ones own body does not bring about a gain in self-awareness, but rather indicates an identity crisis.

The Vatican codex Borgh. 200 contains the earliest medieval collection of proverbs and sentences systematically dealing with German regions and territories. The compiler, an anonymous writer of the thirteenth century, is arranging and organizing the descriptions of each German countryside as a circle. Clockwise he is explaining moral characteristics and behavioural qualities of the inhabitants. As a consequence of such a mental cartography, he is drawing a profile of the slowly emerging German nation composed by different regional cultures. The article presents a critical edition and a literary evaluation of the poem.

The ›Catalogue of German Illustrated Manuscripts‹ aims to provide descriptions of all extant illustrated manuscripts of German medieval literature. From 1986 to 2005, 18 fascicles have been published. In 2008, departing from the schedule, three fascicles, each of them even of double extent, issued at once. The author takes this opportunity to draw the attention to some modifications concerning the conception of the ›Catalogue‹ and due to maintain its scope as a well-positioned interdisciplinary venture involving historians of literature as well as art.