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Epic poetry depicts single combat between champions as a substitute for pitched battle.
By analyzing poetic representations of warfare, this study reconstructs the circumstances under which the duel emerges as a mechanism for avoiding catastrophic battlefield losses. Thus the duel proves to be the pivotal element in a complex system of practices and institutions that define "epic culture".
Individual chapters focus on the dynamics of battle, the protocols of dueling, the roles of champion, king, and queen, and the talesinger’s function in presenting these relations to epic-cultural audiences.
Offering new insights into the Nibelungenlied, Beowulf, the Iliad and Odyssey, "Hildebrandslied" and the Bible, this volume will appeal particularly to medievalists, classicists, historians, and cultural theorists interested in epic poetry, ancient warfare, and Dark Age culture.
By analyzing poetic representations of warfare, this study reconstructs the circumstances under which the duel emerges as a mechanism for avoiding catastrophic battlefield losses. Thus the duel proves to be the pivotal element in a complex system of practices and institutions that define "epic culture".
Individual chapters focus on the dynamics of battle, the protocols of dueling, the roles of champion, king, and queen, and the talesinger’s function in presenting these relations to epic-cultural audiences.
Offering new insights into the Nibelungenlied, Beowulf, the Iliad and Odyssey, "Hildebrandslied" and the Bible, this volume will appeal particularly to medievalists, classicists, historians, and cultural theorists interested in epic poetry, ancient warfare, and Dark Age culture.
Price: $219.00
Pages: 238
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: Davis Medieval Texts and Studies
Publication Date:
20 November 1998
ISBN: 9789004110380
Format: Other
'...Udwin's volume, with its broad, intense and unpretentious treatment of epic poetry, ancient warfare and Dark Age culture, will find a grateful readership among classicists, medievalists, and cultural theorists.'
Raymond Cormier, The Medieval Review, 2001.
Raymond Cormier, The Medieval Review, 2001.
Victor M. Udwin, Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, University of California at Berkeley, is Associate Professor of German and Comparative Literature at the University of Tulsa. He has published articles on the phenomenology of reading and autopoiesis and poetry.