| FA-50152-04 | Research Programs: Fellowships for University Teachers | Barbara Newman | Frauenlob's "Marienleich": A Goddess-Hymn from Medieval Germany | 9/1/2004 - 8/31/2005 | $40,000.00 | Barbara | | Newman | | | | Northwestern University | Evanston | IL | 60208-0001 | USA | 2003 | Medieval Studies | Fellowships for University Teachers | Research Programs | 40000 | 0 | 40000 | 0 |
My project is a poetic translation, with introduction and commentary, of the Marienleich by the German poet-composer Frauenlob, also known as Heinrich von Meissen (d. 1318). It is to be published, by prior agreement, with a musical recording of the hour-long piece by the ensemble Sequentia. The Marienleich, regarded as the masterpiece of this late minnesinger, is a formally and philosophically daring poem composed in twenty strophic pairs, employing a complex musical/poetic form modeled on the Latin sequence. It celebrates the Virgin Mary in boldly erotic and esoteric fashion: she is not only the mother of God, the bride of the Song of Songs, and the Woman clothed with the sun, but also a cosmic creator-goddess who subsumes features of the goddess Natura celebrated by twelfth-century Latin poets. Since Frauenlob is virtually unknown in the English-speaking world, I mean to introduce him into the current medieval canon by producing an accessibly priced paperback suitable for classroom use. |