On 25 May, 10am-5pm, there will be a workshop on The Reading and Reception of the Homeric Poems and the Nibelungenlied in Germany and Europe from the Eighteenth Century to the Present; papers in the morning, manuscript sessions and an exhibition opening in the afternoon. The workshop is open to all with no attendance fee. The papers will also be livestreamed. Please register your interest by emailing John Butcher; for online attendance, a link will be sent out 24 hours in advance. A selection of the papers and the two guided tours will also later be made available as podcasts. It should be a fascinating workshop for Modern Languages students, with the opportunity to study medieval German literature, reception history, translation bias and much more across the periods from antiquity to the present day.
- 10am Opening
- 10.20 Angus Bowie (University of Oxford) – A Homerist on Looking into the Nibelungenlied: Cortés or a Panamanian?
- 10.40 John Butcher (Meran Academy) – Henry Fuseli, Homer and the Nibelungenlied
- 11.00 Andrea Doda (University of Oxford) – Power and Passion: The Role of Women (and Female Figures) in Homer and the Nibelungenlied
- 11.50 Joanna Raisbeck (University of Verona / Oxford) – Between Homer and the Nibelungenlied: Literary and Aesthetic Debates in Heidelberg around 1800
- 12.10 Alan Murray (University of Leeds) – Chivalric Warfare and Heroic Combat in the Nibelungenlied
- 12.30 Christoph Schmitt-Maaß (University of Oxford / Munich) – The Reception of the Nibelungenlied in Eighteenth-century Leipzig
- 14.00 and 15.00 Weston Library (Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BG), Bahari Room – Viewing of Homeric manuscripts with Peter Tóth and Nigel Wilson in two groups
- 16.15 Taylor Institution Library, Voltaire Room. Guided tour of an exhibition of editions of the Homeric poems and the Nibelungenlied with Mary Boyle and Philip Flacke (University of Oxford); drinks reception
The exhibition Epic! Homer and the Nibelungenlied in Translation to coincide with the workshop will be open just for a week, so make sure to catch it between 22 and 29 May and / or download the exhibition catalogue which comes out as an open access publication as part of the ‘Cultural Memory’ series by Taylor Editions. Henrike Lähnemann, Emma Huber, and the authors of the introductory essays, were all delighted what a rich gathering the Taylorian stacks yielded from Bodmer to Draesner (and by the opportunity to revisit some of their own bookshelves for popular versions). If you would like a printed copy, come to the workshop on 25 May where all participants will get a free copy or buy it at the exhibition (or online).
Epic! Home and the Nibelungenlied in Translation: Essays and Catalogue
Philip Flacke – The Nibelungenlied as ‘German Iliad’ with an Appendix of Endorsements and Critique
Mary Boyle – The Victorian Nibelungenlied & Epic Adaptations for Children
Timothy Powell – The Nibelungenlied from National Socialist Epic to Socialist National Epic
Appendix: Epic Beginnings: Iliad, Odyssey, Nibelungenlied
The exhibition ‘Epic! Homer and the Nibelungenlied in Translation’ in the Taylor Institution Library, reveals the different stages, trends, key impulses, and idiosyncratic approaches to the translation and adaptation of Homer and the Nibelungenlied. Showcasing a range of material from the Taylor Institution Library’s collections, alongside additions from the Bodleian Library, and from private collections, ‘Epic!’ explores the deeply intwined history between these two cultural touchstones.
This entanglement began with the judgement of the Swiss critic Johann Jakob Bodmer ‘Dieses Gedicht hat etwas iliadisches’ – ‘There is something Iliad-like about this poem’, who set the tone for public perceptions of the Nibelungenlied shortly after its rediscovery in the mid-eighteenth century. With these words Bodmer prompted future generations to look at the medieval German epic in terms of Homer, some of whom grappled with this idea quite willingly, others reluctantly. As late as the 1970s, when the German writer Franz Fühmann attempted to re-envision the Nibelungenlied in the light of national identity in the GDR, he found it necessary first of all to distance himself from the deeply entrenched trope of the ‘German Iliad’. What does this trope mean exactly? What are the implications of looking at the Nibelungenlied through the prism of the Homeric epics – and vice versa? In what way did it affect dealing with the texts, with ideas about the epic and ideas about things which have been tied to it in different ways – about gender, nation, violence? And how do these readings still inform our world today?
The books featured in this exhibition tell a story, not simply of translation, but of the various attempts by authors to assert ownership of these epics for different national and pre-national identities, for specific ideas of masculinity and femininity, for militaristic agendas and racist ideologies, and also, more recently, for feminist and queer causes. Building on the 2022 exhibition ‘Violent Victorian Medievalism’ curated by Mary Boyle, ‘Epic!’ also shines particular light on adaptations that have been created for children, and to the fraught topic of women and violence.
Three essays by Mary Boyle, Philip Flacke, and Timothy Powell discuss various stages of the epics’ reception in four centuries where these ideological battles have been fought. These essays are accompanied by two extensive appendices that chronicle the inexhaustible possibilities of telling the same story, as well as the often bizarre and sometimes frightening endorsements and critiques of comparing the Nibelungenlied to Homer. The centre piece of the volume is the richly illustrated catalogue for the exhibition at the Taylor Institution Library in five sections: 1: Epic? 2: Translating Verse. 3: Mapping Myth. 4: Powerful Women. 5: The Pierced Body. 6: Violent Revenge. Concluding the volume is a catalogue of the Homeric Fragments in the collection of the Bodleian Library, curated by Nigel Wilson and Peter Tóth.
This book is part of the ‘Cultural Memory’ series of the ‘Treasures of the Taylorian’, which aims to bring the books from the collections into dialogue with wider topics outside. It accompanies the workshop ‘The Reading and Reception of the Homeric Poems and the Nibelungenlied in Germany and Europe from the Eighteenth Century to the Present’, co-hosted by the Meran Academy and Oxford Medieval Studies.