This comprehensive and accessible book, co-written by linguist Howard Jones and literary scholar Martin H. Jones, is a welcome new resource for the study of Middle High German (MHG), the form of German in which texts composed between 1050 and 1350 were written. The corpus of extant MHG texts is rich, diverse, and extensive. It includes devotional and religious literature, natural histories, chronicles, didactic literature and poetry, legal texts, documents, letters, narratives in many genres, and many genres of poetry, including love lyrics (minnesang). This Guide provides an excellent linguistic and cultural introduction to this corpus of texts and the language in which they were composed. The book is directed both at beginners and at more advanced students of MHG, with specific instructions for each type of user on which chapters and sample texts to start with (2-3). The authors state their assumption that their readers will have studied modern German, and indeed knowing some modern German is helpful in following some of the examples and parallels drawn between MHG and its modern counterpart. Readers who conscientiously work through this book from beginning to end and translate its sample texts will achieve advanced proficiency in Middle High German.
While there exist some excellent introductory books on MHG written in German (e.g., those by Thordis Hennings and Klaus-Peter Wegera et al.), in English the only available MHG textbook in print has long been M. O’C. Walshe’s Middle High German Grammar, first published in 1974, and based on Joseph Wright’s Middle High German Primer, which first appeared in 1888. For the students I teach, who have generally have very limited knowledge of formal grammar, linguistics, and philology, Walshe’s book does not provide adequate linguistic background or explanatory notes. Many colleagues, including myself, who have taught MHG over the years using Walshe have developed their own copious supplementary materials, and some colleagues have given up using a textbook altogether. This Oxford Guide thus meets a dire need for English pedagogical materials for teaching and studying MHG. Jones and Jones have produced what is likely to become a foundational resource for beginning and advanced learners; it is a superb replacement for Walshe.
The book is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 (Introduction) presents the structure of the book and guidelines on how to use it, as well as an introduction to the linguistic landscape of medieval Germany and the language we today call MHG. Chapter 2 provides a thorough discussion of MHG grammar, with subsections on phonology, morphology, and syntax. Under the rubric “lexis,” this chapter also covers word formation, borrowing, and “special vocabulary,” by which is meant words in MHG that appear similar to their modern German counterparts but have different meanings (such “false friends” include arbeit, triuwe, vrouwe, and zuht). Chapter 3 addresses versification, in my experience a particularly challenging topic for students. Here, as throughout the book, the authors provide clear and jargon-free explanations--including definitions of the standard German metrical terminology, such as Auftakt, Aufgesang, and Stollenstrophe. Many of the examples usefully draw from and are cross-referenced with sample texts in Chapter 5. Chapter 4 covers in brief the historical, cultural, and literary background necessary to understand the sample texts in context.
In Chapter 5, which comprises almost half of this weighty tome, the authors have compiled twenty-three sample texts for translation and reading practice. This substantial and various collection of texts, together with the authors’ detailed notes and glossary, is itself a significant contribution to existing pedagogical materials for teaching and learning MHG. The texts include poetry and prose, and canonical works alongside lesser-known texts: a sermon by Berthold von Regensburg, excerpts from the most famous epic narratives (e.g., Nibelungenlied, Parzival, Erec, Tristan), a selection of lyric poetry, excerpts of religious literature, natural history, chronicles, and legal texts. I was surprised to see that didactic poetry does not warrant its own subsection. It is represented under Lyric Poetry by eight examples of Walther von der Vogelweide’s Spruchdichtung (gnomic lyric poetry). An excerpt from one of the epic-length didactic texts not readily available in translation (e.g., Freidank’s Bescheidenheit) would have rounded out the otherwise quite comprehensive collection of texts nicely. While the bulk of the texts is in Classical MHG, the authors include sample texts in Early Middle High German, West Central German, East Central German, Late Middle High German, and Middle Low German--all the major linguistic and dialectal forms.
Many of the provided texts are well-known even outside German Studies, but some well-chosen but more obscure examples give a broader view of the kinds of texts that started to be written in the vernacular in the MHG period. One intriguing choice is an excerpt from the Livländische Reimchronik, a late-thirteenth century chronicle that recounts--from a Christian perspective--the German expansion (military, religious, and economic) into the eastern Baltic. The excerpt provided by the authors documents a cross-cultural encounter between Christian merchants and pagan Livs (563). Another astute decision on the part of the authors was to include excerpts on the elephant from three texts: the eleventh-century Ältere Physiologus (written in a mixture of Old High German and MHG), the early twelfth-century Jüngere Physiologus, and Konrad von Megenberg’s fourteenth-century Das Buch der Natur. Taken together, these three texts allow students to study linguistic variation across a period of some 300 years. In terms of content, this trilogy will provide an excellent basis for classroom discussions about medieval notions of knowledge and education, conceptions of nature, and the relationship between humans and animals. All told, the authors have provided a major service to the field in curating a diverse and extensive selection of texts and in providing ample notes as translation aids.
Two additional aspects of the Guide are worth noting here. First, the authors have included an appendix (Appendix 2) that addresses the differences between manuscripts and editions. Given the interest in recent decades in producing manuscript-specific editions or using the manuscript itself as a source of study, the authors’ clear and concise explanation of standard editorial principles and practices is a welcome and valuable addition to the book. In my view it is crucial for students to understand editorial principles (and why the texts that they encounter in this book do not look like those they will see in manuscripts), and so I find this section very useful. However, it could easily have been incorporated into the introduction rather than relegated to an appendix. Finally, the book provides a link to a companion website that offers supplementary materials, including links to online resources such as digital facsimiles and dictionaries. It also offers a diplomatic transcription of the song by Wolfram von Eschenbach, Sîne klâwen, which serves to illustrate some of the discussion presented in Appendix 2, and appears, in edited form, in the collection of texts in Chapter 5 (T9.XI).
In sum, Jones and Jones have produced a superlative and comprehensive Guide. It is unfortunate that its cost ($130) will preclude many students from purchasing it, but I look forward to using it in class and highly recommend it to anyone invested in learning MHG.