Hildebrandslied

In this study I propose a reconsideration of several textual critical aspects of the Lay of Ildebrand, restricted to a comparison among its different editions in the anthology edited by Wilhelm Braune (1st ed. 1875), which has reached the seventeenth edition (1994), with the contribution formerly by Helm (from the 9th ed. 1928) and then by Ebbinghaus (from the 14th ed. 1962). As a matter of fact, I believe that Braune’s anthology, thanks to its 130 years of history, constitutes a unique and precious source of analysis for a reflection upon the trends of textual criticism, with particular regard to the problems arising from a work transmitted by a sole manuscript (“codex unicus”), which is a very frequent condition in the manuscript tradition of Medieval Germanic Literatures.

In questo studio propongo una riconsiderazione di alcuni aspetti critico-testuali del Canto di Ildebrando limitatamente a un confronto tra le sue diverse edizioni nell’antologia curata da Wilhelm Braune (I ed. 1875), giunta nel frattempo alla XVII edizione (1994), col contributo prima di Helm (dalla IX ed. 1928) e poi di Ebbinghaus (dalla XIV ed. 1962). Ritengo infatti che, per il successo ottenuto dall’Althochdeutsches Lesebuch e soprattutto per i suoi 130 anni di storia, l’antologia di Braune costituisca un osservatorio speciale e privilegiato per una riflessione sugli orientamenti della critica del testo, con particolare riferimento ai problemi posti da un’opera tramandata da un solo manoscritto (“codex unicus”), caso questo peraltro assai frequente nella tradizione manoscritta delle letterature germaniche medievali.

Writing the Barbarian Past examines the presentation of the non-Roman, pre-Christian past in Latin and vernacular historical narratives composed between c.550 and c.1000: the Gothic histories of Jordanes and Isidore of Seville, the Fredegar chronicle, the Liber Historiae Francorum, Paul the Deacon’s Historia Langobardorum, Waltharius, and Beowulf; it also examines the evidence for an oral vernacular tradition of historical narrative in this period.
In this book, Shami Ghosh analyses the relative significance granted to the Roman and non-Roman inheritances in narratives of the distant past, and what the use of this past reveals about the historical consciousness of early medieval elites, and demonstrates that for them, cultural identity was conceived of in less binary terms than in most modern scholarship.

Dans cette communication on examine a) le motif du duel entre père et fils dans la chanson populaire néo-grecque de La Lutte de Tsamados avec son Fils (Tὸ Πάλεμα τοῦ Τσαμαδοῦ μὲ τὸν γιό του), aux origines remontant aux cantilènes akritiques de l’époque byzantine mais restée encore vivante jusqu’au milieu du 20e siècle et dont une variante a une issue particulièrement sanglante (le fils tue le père) et b) la défloration de l’amazone, en insistant sur le motif du vol -par l’amant- de l’anneau de la reine guerrière -à la fois symbole de virginité et signe en vue d’une  reconnaissance ultérieure-, tel qu’il apparaît dans le conte populaire serbe “У лажи су кратке ноге”/ littéralement: “Le mensonge a les jambes courtes” (c.à.d. le menteur va tôt ou tard être découvert).