Bridal-Quest Epics in Medieval Germany. A Revisionary Approach

König Rother, Salman und Morolf, the Münchner Oswald and Grauer Rock (otherwise known as Orendel) have had a troubled position in the literary history of medieval Germany. Forced into a normative generic framework as either ‘Minstrel Epic’ (Spielmannsepik) or ‘Bridal-quest Epic’ (Brautwerbungsepik), these texts have been viewed conventionally according to an essentially teleological classification or a schematic ideal.
Bowden challenges the premises of such a view with a detailed history of the textual scholarship, and revaluates these so called ‘Bridal-quests’ on their own terms, offering detailed and suggestive readings of each work without the distortions or limitations inherent in the traditional interpretative model.

Bithell Series of Dissertations, 40/MHRA Texts and Dissertations, 85
ISBN 978-1-907322-46-4; 192 pp.; 30 May 2012