Volume 141, Issue 4

This study examines the use of punctuation in the two main manuscripts of the Old Saxon ›Hêliand‹. Data are presented on the use of punctūs in MS M and MS C and the occurrence of such elevated points to mark syntactic and metrical boundaries. As a point of departure, I challenge a claim by Sievers (1878) who stated that punctuation in the ›Hêliand‹ is completely arbitrary. Contrary to Sievers, I suggest that pointing in the two manuscripts is relatively systematic as a means to indicate syntactic and metrical boundaries and that each manuscript exhibits its own unique pattern. This evidence sheds light on the issue of how the manuscripts were used at the time that they were transcribed.

Since MHG times, W-exclamatives show variation between verb-second and verb-last word order. Contrary to Näf’s pilot study on Gottfried von Straßburg’s ›Tristan‹ (1992), I demonstrate that verb-last is in fact the more common pattern for W-exclamatives in MHG. This means that a syntactic change must have happened as the language develeped into Modern German, in which verb-second is the predominant order. As for the latter period, the long-standing assumption has been that there are no functional differences between these types. I show that at least for MHG, this null hypothesis is still valid, so that recent suggestions by Repp (2016) about present-day German that gradation is the distinguishing feature, cannot be supported for older stages of German.

Although Notker III. is known for his highly sensitive language and rhetorical skills, his texts are not considered to be poetic works. Yet, in his translation-cum-commentary on a Latin poem from Boethius’ ›Consolatio‹ Notker uses poetic techniques – figurative and especially acoustic references and a modified rhetorical structure – to communicate a new meaning. Scholarship is thus confronted with the particularities of commentary aesthetics. The article also shows that Notker’s text, interwoven with the phrases of the Latin poem, is dialogical on the level of commentary (Christian answers to Boethius’ lines), on the level of content (answers to the mysteries of nature and their hidden meanings) and on the pragmatic level of his monastic school (communication with the students).

The Migration Period (c. 375–568 AD) left its mark on most of the Germanic heroic poems: Three medieval empires – Burgundy, Hunland, and Lombardy – are involved in struggles for power, reputation, and vengeance. But the poems were also influenced by contemporary political conditions – particularly by the presence of the Holy Roman Empire as a great power in Europe. The ›Klage‹, a sequel to the ›Nibelungenlied‹, presents not only ancient kings like Etzel and Dietrich but also the Roman-German emperor. This examination looks for parallels between the ›Klage‹ and related poems like ›Nibelungenlied‹ and ›Biterolf und Dietleib‹ dealing with a medieval empire.