In it he tells of the love of Willehalm for Giburc, a Saracen woman converted to Christianity, and its consequences. Seeking revenge for the insult to their faith, her relatives initiate a religious war but are finally routed. Wolfram's description of the two battles of Alischanz, with their massive slaughter and loss of hero's, and of the exploits of Willehalm and the quasicomic Rennewart, well displays the violence and courtliness of the medieval knightly ideal. Wolfram flavors his brutal account, however, with tender scenes between the lovers, asides to his audience, sympathetic cameos of his charactersespecially the womenand, most unusually for his time, a surprising tolerance for 'pagans'.
In it he tells of the love of Willehalm for Giburc, a Saracen woman converted to Christianity, and its consequences. Seeking revenge for the insult to their faith, her relatives initiate a religious war but are finally routed. Wolfram's description of the two battles of Alischanz, with their massive slaughter and loss of hero's, and of the exploits of Willehalm and the quasicomic Rennewart, well displays the violence and courtliness of the medieval knightly ideal. Wolfram flavors his brutal account, however, with tender scenes between the lovers, asides to his audience, sympathetic cameos of his charactersespecially the womenand, most unusually for his time, a surprising tolerance for 'pagans'.
Willehalm
320Willehalm
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Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780140443998 |
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Publisher: | Penguin Publishing Group |
Publication date: | 12/04/1984 |
Series: | Penguin Classics Series |
Pages: | 320 |
Product dimensions: | 5.08(w) x 7.72(h) x 0.70(d) |