1,721,015 research outputs found
Precious stones and ‘wondrous’ minerals in Old High German glosses
No full textThis essay will focus on the names of precious stones and minerals which were known and praised for their extraordinary properties in Old High German glosses and glossaries. The research aims to shed light on the circulation of stone lore in medieval Germany, and the strategies employed by the glossators when approaching this peculiar lexical field. In a number of cases, the interpretamentum takes the form of an explanatory gloss, providing a short description of the stone, which can include details on its colour, shape and physical properties. The features of the glosses under examination will hopefully yield relevant data on the knowledge of the precious stones and their physical appearance, as well as the sources available to the glossators
Il colore ‘blu’ nel medioevo frisone: afris. wēden, wēdan, wēdin
No full textThe colour words have always been a fascinating topic of study for
scholars of various disciplines, including linguists, philologists, psychologists,
philosophers
and
anthropologists.
A
survey
of
the
occurrences
of
the
Old Frisian word wēden,
wēdan, wēdin (cf. OE wǣden, OHG weit,
presumably stemming from a Gmc *waizda-, waidīna-, a root meaning
‘woad, plant yielding blue dye’), might allow us to specify the various
semantic fields covered by this lexeme, as well as the relevant contexts
of use
Il motivo del Descensus Christi ad inferos nella poesia inglese antica
No full textThe motif of the Harrowing of Hell (Latin: Descensus Christi ad Inferos) refers to the triumphal descent of Jesus into hell between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection to release the Patriarchs and bind Satan. This legend has a large circulation throughout the Middle Ages: references are found in various biblical loci as well as in the writings of the Church Fathers. Together with the account of the trial of Jesus, the Harrowing of Hell is the main topic of the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, translated into English around the mid-tenth century. In the early English literary tradition, the journey of Christ into hell occurs at various levels and is expressed in different forms. The theme is treated in a number of Old English poems, in some of them more obliquely (as in the Panther or Guthlac B), while in others it is integral to the narrative architecture (as in Christ and Satan); moreover, the Exeter Book preserves a minor poem entitled Descent into Hell. The purpose of the present essay is to survey the poetic passages dealing with the Harrowing of hell and to identify the interpretative keys of their eschatological content, also in connection with the themes of the Second Coming and Doomsday
Instances of Interactions and Conflicts in the North Sea in Medieval Times, with an Emphasis on Frisia
No full textIn the Early Middle Ages, the North Sea region – particularly the Frisian territory – served as the arena for deep and frequent contacts among the Germanic tribes settled on the coastal regions. This contribution aims to analyse samples of sources ranging from literary texts to runic inscriptions, which demonstrate that the nature of such interactions was neither distinctly peaceful nor warlike, but was rather marked by a degree of ambiguity and complexity
FILOLOGIA GERMANICA – GERMANIC PHILOLOGY Supplemento 2 - 2021. Incantesimi e formule magiche nella tradizione manoscritta germanica medievale / Charms and Magic Formulas in the Medieval Germanic Manuscript Tradition
No full textThe volume collects contributions devoted to charms and magical formulas of the medieval Germanic tradition, studied in the light of the relationship with the manuscript context that handed them down and the historical-cultural milieu of which they are produced. The approach to charms and magical formulas of the Germanic world has developed on an evolutionary path that has from time to time favoured perspectives of different scientific categories, and has been faced on philological, linguistic, semantic-pragmatic, semiotic and historical-literary basis.
The essays gathered in the volume offer different examples – but at the same time linked by some themes and a common purpose – of the magical literary tradition of the West and North Germanic world, with particular attention to the rituals of charms and magical formulas. The detailed examination of lesser known texts, as well as the re-examination of known texts of which a new interpretation is proposed, allows us to glimpse the breadth of the study horizon of magical literature
Review of Daniela Wagner, Die Fünfzehn Zeichen vor dem Jüngsten Gericht: Spätmittelalterliche Bildkonzepte für das Seelenheil, Berlin: Reimer, 2016. Pp. 336; many color plates and black-and-white figures, ISBN: 978-3-496-01553-6. doi:10.1086/702632
No full textIncantesimi e rituali magici nelle tradizioni germaniche medievali: una introduzione
No full textThe approach to charms and magical formulas of the Germanic world has developed on an evolutionary path that has from time to time favoured perspectives of different scientific categories, and has been faced on philological, linguistic, semantic-pragmatic, semiotic and historical-literary basis. Starting from different types of criteria and parameters, research has proposed in the past various classifications of charms, intended as specific textual forms, which are identified by the presence of characteristic contents and structural elements. Given the fluidity of matter, the phenomenon of charms and magical formulas of the Germanic area should be seen in a dynamic key, applying different interpretative strategies that take into account all the characteristic aspects of the texts (linguistic, diachronic, content, structural, stylistic)
L’immagine del nano nel Medioevo letterario germanico: da spirito immateriale a figura antropomorfa
No full textAmong the fantastic creatures of the Germanic literary traditions, a prominent place undoubtedly belongs to the dwarfs, usually described as small anthropomorphic beings living underground and inside the rocks, skilled metalworkers and experts in magical arts. However, the image of the dwarf in romantic folklore and fairy tales, culminating in Tolkien’s mythology, is the result of a long evolutionary process that sees the layering of heterogeneous motifs inherited from the Germanic traditions, as well as from other cultural areas of Western Europe (such as, for example, the Celtic one). The present study aims to analyse and compare nature and characteristics of the dwarfs in the various Germanic literary sources, from Old English to Old Norse texts, to Middle-High German heroic epics, trying to reconstruct (as far as possible) the development of the portrayal of the dwarf in the ancient and medieval Germanic world, in particular the shift from the image of an immaterial spirit to that of an anthropomorphic figure, and to recognize any mutual influences and interferences between the different literary traditions
Le iscrizioni runiche sullo sfondo della cultura Frisone altomedievale
No full textThe study offers a critical edition of the Old Frisian runic corpus, together with a linguistic and philological analysis of the inscriptions examined, also in the light of their context of occurrence
The Words for “Blue” in Old Frisian
No full textThe Old Frisian lexicon contains two words for ‘blue’: wēden, related to OE wǣden (MoE woaden arch.), OHG weitīn (MoG waiden arch.), and MLG wêden, with adjectival suffix *-īna stemming from PGmc *waida-, waidina- ‘woad, plant yielding blue dye’. The other one is blāw, a loanword through Middle Dutch or Middle Low German (from French), which is cognate with OE blǣhǣwen, OHG blāo, plāo, and ON blár, from PGmc *blēwa- < IE *bhel- ‘shining’ (cf. Lat. flavus ‘golden yellow’). This article analyses the occurrences of the words wēden and blāw in the Old Frisian text corpus in order to determine and contextualize the various semantic fields covered by these lexemes
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