German Literature up to c.1600 Quiz

Answer: Ulfilas' translation of the parts of the Bible into Gothic

Ulfilas, also known as Wulfila (c.311-383) was a missionary to the Visigoths in Dacia (which corresponds roughly to modern Romania). Between c. 348 and 375 he translated about three-quarters of the New Testament and at least one book of the Old Testament from Greek into Gothic.

The Visigoths later moved westwards, sacked Rome in 410, and then set up kingdoms in Southern France and Spain.

The best known copy of Ulfilas' translation is the "Codex argentum". It was made in Ravenna during the reign of the Ostrogoth king, Theodric (reigned, 493-526). It was donated to the University of Uppsala in 1669, where it is one of the most important manuscripts in the library. The Gothic (or East Germanic) languages have all died out.

Answer: Merseburger Zaubersprüche

The "Merseburger Zaubersprüche" ("Merseburg Spells") are pagan spells or incantations dating from c. 750. The other works listed are later. (The text is named after Merseburg because the manuscript was found in the main library there: it doesn't mean that these spells were used in that area). The "Hildebrandslied" is a somewhat later heroic poem.

Answer: True

Roswitha was a nun at Gandersheim, near Brunswick, and her writings, which date from the second half of the 10th century, include six short plays and a biography in verse of Otto I. The feminists of the late 20th century did much to revive interest her writings.

Answer: Lohengrin (Author uncertain)

Of these epics, by far the most popular in the Middle Ages was the "Niebelungenlied". The last section of the epic is well known for its spectacular violence; and it ends amid utter gloom, doom and despair and with the death of all the key characters.

In the Renaissance period it fell from favour as 'barbaric'. Interest didn't revive till the second half of the 18th century. One of the main problems with "Lohengrin" is that much of the epic is concerned with the politics of the day. Moreover, it was written c. 1280, after the Golden Age.

Answer: Walther von der Vogelweide

Der von Kürenberg's poetry was written in c. 1150-70. In form, the verses are traditional Germanic, and his poetry clearly predates the influence of Provencal poetry in the German-speaking lands. He is best known for the poem 'Ich zoch mir einen Valken'. Dietmar von Aist's poems share some of these characteristics, too.

Heinrich von Morungen is widely regarded as the second greatest lyric poet of the time. However, in terms of quality and quantity, the work of Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1170-1228) is superior and covers a very wide range of subjects.

He is, arguably, the most outstanding German lyric poet before Goethe.

Answer: False

There were a number of conventions for courtly love poetry, and an adulterous relationship was only one of the options, albeit a very popular one. Perhaps the most important distinctive feature of many courtly love lyrics was that the lover (male) regarded himself as the voluntary vassal of his mistress, whom he treated as his feudal superior, his 'liege lady', to whom he paid homage. Many of the poems are essentially laments, but in some there are illicit, clandestine meetings, usually at night and just before dawn. (By a well established convention, the illicit meeting had to end before daybreak: the lady had to be back in her castle before it is fully light).

There was also what might be called 'uncourtly love poetry', much of which is fairly explicit. Already in medieval literature, women from the lower classes were not held to the same standards as upper class ladies. So the poems could describe lads and lasses heaving happily in the hay, with the lass shrieking with excitement.

Answer: All of these reasons

For example, in the case of the name "Gottfried von Strassburg" the apparent surname merely indicates that the author is the Gottfried "from Strasbourg": it was a nickname given during his lifetime. (In some cases, the authors did have family names). Note, however, Der von Kürenberg, which is a name invented by 19th editors (on the basis of an apparent allusion to himself in one of his poems) and means "The man from Kürenberg".

This should be looked up under "Kürenberg". In general reference works, not specifically concerned with German Studies, look up the authors in the usual way.

Answer: Nuremberg

The poet was the prolific Hans Sachs (1494-1576). Among his best known poems is 'Die wittenbergisch Nachtigall' ('The Nightingale of Wittenberg') which was published in 1523, some years before Nuremberg adopted Protestantism - and which drew a rebuke from the city council.
As a result of Wagner's opera "Die Meistersinger" (1868) these guilds and that of Nuremberg in particular have been much mythologized. The "Oxford Companion to German Literature" aptly observes that in this opera Hans Sachs "was converted into a German legend".

Answer: 1522

Luther translated the New Testament while staying at the Wartburg disguised as knight after he had been declared an outlaw of the Holy Roman Empire. His translation of the Old Testament was completed in 1534. Luther's translation of the Bible played a key role in establishing the linguistic norms of Early New High German and his preference for simplicity influenced other Bible translations.

Answer: False

The 'Deutschlandlied' was written in 1841 by August Hoffmann von Fallersleben. Admittedly, two motifs in Walther von der Vogelweide's poem 'Ir sult sprechen willekommen' - praise of German women and a very vague definition of Germany's frontiers - were developed by Hoffmann von Fallersleben.

However, the practice of some editors in second half of the 19th century of entitling the medieval poem 'Das Deutschlandlied' was highly misleading, to say the least.