Medieval French epic. Features of the literature of the ancient Middle Ages. Heroic epic, courtly lyrics, chivalric romance. Heroic epic of the late Middle Ages

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The heroic epic is one of the most characteristic and popular genres of the European Middle Ages. In France, it existed in the form of poems called gestures, that is, songs about deeds, exploits. The thematic basis of the gesture is made up of real historical events, most of which date back to the 8th - 10th centuries. Probably, immediately after these events, legends and legends about them arose. It is also possible that these legends originally existed in the form of short episodic songs or prose stories that developed in the pre-knight's militia. However, very early, episodic tales went beyond this environment, spread among the masses and became the property of the whole society: they were listened with equal enthusiasm not only by the military estate, but also by the clergy, merchants, artisans, and peasants.

1) the cycle of Guillaume d "Orange (otherwise: the cycle of Garena de Montglan - named after great-grandfather Guillaume);

2) the cycle of "rebellious barons" (in other words: the cycle of Doon de Mayans);

3) the cycle of Charlemagne, King of France. The theme of the first cycle is the disinterested, driven only by love for the motherland, service of the faithful vassals from the Guillaume family to the weak, vacillating, often ungrateful king, who is constantly threatened by either internal or external enemies.

The theme of the second cycle is the rebellion of the proud and independent barons against the unjust king, as well as the cruel feuds of the barons among themselves. Finally, in the poems of the third cycle (“The Pilgrimage of Charlemagne”, “Big-Legs”, etc.), the sacred struggle of the Franks against the “pagan” Muslims is sung and the figure of Charlemagne is heroized, appearing as the center of virtues and the stronghold of the entire Christian world. The most remarkable poem of the royal cycle and of the entire French epic is the "Song of Roland", the recording of which dates back to the beginning of the 12th century.

Features of the heroic epic:

1) The epic was created in the conditions of the development of feudal relations.

2) The epic picture of the world reproduces feudal relations, idealizes a strong feudal state and reflects Christian beliefs, Christian ideals.

3) With regard to history, the historical basis is clearly visible, but at the same time it is idealized, exaggerated.

4) Heroes - defenders of the state, the king, the independence of the country and the Christian faith. All this is interpreted in the epic as a nationwide affair.

5) The epic is associated with a folk tale, with historical chronicles, sometimes with a chivalric romance.

6) The epic has been preserved in the countries of continental Europe (Germany, France).

The heroic epic is one of the most characteristic and popular genres of the European Middle Ages. In France, it existed in the form of poems called gestures, i.e. songs about deeds, exploits. The thematic basis of the gesture is made up of real historical events, most of which date back to the 8th - 10th centuries. Probably, immediately after these events, legends and legends about them arose. It is also possible that these legends originally existed in the form of short episodic songs or prose stories that developed in the pre-knight's militia. However, very early, episodic tales went beyond this environment, spread among the masses and became the property of the whole society: they were listened with equal enthusiasm not only by the military estate, but also by the clergy, merchants, artisans, and peasants.

Since initially these folk tales were intended for oral melodious performance by jugglers, the latter subjected them to intensive processing, which consisted in expanding the plots, in their cyclization, in the introduction of inserted episodes, sometimes very large ones, conversational scenes, etc. As a result, short episodic songs took gradually kind of plot and stylistically organized poems - a gesture. In addition, in the process of complex development, some of these poems were subject to a noticeable influence of church ideology, and all without exception - to the influence of knightly ideology. Since chivalry had a high prestige for all sectors of society, the heroic epic gained the widest popularity. Unlike Latin poetry, which was practically reserved for clerics alone, gestures were created in French and were understood by everyone. Originating from the early Middle Ages, the heroic epic took on a classical form and experienced a period of active existence in the 12th, 13th, and partly 14th centuries. Its written fixation also belongs to the same time. Gestures have a volume of 900 to 20,000 eight- or ten-syllable verses connected by assonances. They consist of special, unequal in size, but with relative semantic completeness "stanzas", called loess. In total, about a hundred heroic poems have been preserved. Gestures are usually divided into three cycles: 1) the cycle of Guillaume d "Orange (otherwise: the cycle of Garen de Monglan - named after Guillaume's great-grandfather); 2) the cycle of" rebellious barons "(otherwise: the cycle of Doon de Mayans); 3) the cycle of Charlemagne, King of France.The theme of the first cycle is the selfless, driven only by love for the motherland, the service of loyal vassals from the Guillaume family to the weak, wavering, often ungrateful king, who is constantly threatened by internal and external enemies.The theme of the second cycle is the revolt of proud and independent barons against the unjust king Finally, in the poems of the third cycle ("The Pilgrimage of Charlemagne", "Big Legs", etc.), the sacred struggle of the Franks against the "pagan" Muslims is glorified and the figure of Charlemagne, who appears as the focus of virtues, is glorified and the stronghold of the whole Christian world.The most remarkable poem of the royal cycle and of the whole French epic is the "Song of Roland", the recording of which dates back to the beginning of the 12th century.

Features of the heroic epic:

1. The epic was created in the conditions of the development of feudal relations.
2. The epic picture of the world reproduces feudal relations, idealizes a strong feudal state and reflects Christian beliefs, hr. ideals.
3. With regard to history, the historical basis is clearly visible, but at the same time it is idealized, exaggerated.
4. Heroes - defenders of the state, the king, the independence of the country and the Christian faith. All this is interpreted in the epic as a nationwide affair.
5. The epic is associated with a folk tale, with historical chronicles, sometimes with a chivalric romance.
6. The epic has been preserved in the countries of continental Europe (Germany, France).

Monuments of the heroic epic took shape by the XI - XIV centuries. The most important of them are the French "Song of Roland", the Spanish "Song of my Sid", the German "Song of the Nibelungs", the South Slavic songs of the Kosovo field and Marko Korolevich, the East Slavic "The Tale of Igor's Campaign". Most of the monuments of the mature Middle Ages have come down to us in the form of lengthy poems that arose as a result of the creative processing of older epic stories that traditionally existed in oral form. Gradually, both the content and style of the work changed: the plot became more complicated, the conciseness of the presentation in the song gave way to epic breadth, the number of characters and episodes increased, a description of the mental state of the characters appeared, etc. In the era of the mature Middle Ages, professional singers and storytellers acted as carriers of the epic tradition, its keepers, and often the authors of adaptations of folk heroic legends: jugglers- in France, shpilmans- in Germany, hooglars- in Spain. The surviving works of the epic genre do not have an author. The epic singer, reworking in a new way the traditional plots and images passed down from generation to generation before him, could not feel himself the sole author of the monument and remained unknown, like his predecessors. But the performance of an epic work was not just a mechanical repetition of the old one, but often was improvisation, creativity.

The leading genre of medieval literature was epic poems that arose at the final stage of the formation of nations and their unification into states under the auspices of the king. Medieval literature of any nation has its roots in ancient times.

Through the intricate outline of fairy tales, through the apparent simplicity of images, ancient wisdom emerges, passed down from generation to generation by the storytellers of foggy Albion - Great Britain and Brittany - a peninsula full of mysteries in western France ... Picts and Scots, Britons and Anglo-Saxons, mysterious Celts, the wise magician Merlin, who possessed prophetic gift and foretold many events that occurred centuries later. Fabulous-sounding names - Cornwall, Wales, Tintagel, Camelot, the mysterious Broseliand forest. In this forest, as legends say, many miracles happened, here the knights of the Round Table fought in duels, here, according to legend, is the grave of Merlin. Here, from under a flat stone, the magical spring of Bellanton beats. If you scoop up water from a spring and moisten this stone with it, then even on the hottest and calmest day, when there is not a cloud in the sky, a strong wind will blow and a downpour will pour. From time immemorial, the inhabitants of Brittany have surrounded with legends and legends standing stones - menhirs, and stone tables - dolmens. No one still knows for sure who and when erected these structures, and therefore people have long attributed magical powers to ancient stones ...

Myths and historical facts, legends and legends about miracles and deeds over many generations are gradually synthesized into a heroic epic, which reflects the long process of the formation of national identity. The epic forms the knowledge of the people about the historical past, and the epic hero embodies the ideal idea of the people about themselves.

Despite the differences in the condition and time of occurrence, content and style early medieval epics have a number of typological features that distinguish them from the epic monuments of the mature Middle Ages:

· in the epic of the early Middle Ages there is a kind of mythologization of the past, when the narrative of historical events is combined with myth and fairy tale;

The main theme of the epic cycles of this period is the struggle of man against the hostile forces of nature, embodied in the fabulous images of monsters, dragons, giants, etc.;

The hero, as a rule, is a fairy-tale mythological character endowed with miraculous properties and qualities (to fly through the air, to be invisible, to grow in size, etc.).

The Celtic (Irish) sagas, which were formed in the II-VII centuries, were quite branched in plot, their creators are considered philides- ancient keepers of secular learning, writers of martial songs and funeral laments. At the same time, bards developed a lyrical tradition. The most important cycle of Irish sagas is considered Uladian(named after one of the ancient tribes of Northern Ireland), where the central epic hero is Cuchulainn. Indicative in this cycle is the saga "Bull Stealing from Kualinge", which depicts a series of duels between Cuchulain and enemy heroes. The main narrative text has many branches, poetic inserts, it contains a lot of mythological, fantastic. The tormented hero comes to the aid of the god Lug in the form of a young warrior, the martial fairy Morrigan offers his support to him. The battle between Cuchulain and his sworn brother, the mighty hero Ferdiad, who had horny skin, becomes central in the saga. The battle lasts three days, and only by using the well-known combat technique of the "horned spear" to him alone, Cuchulain kills Ferdiad. He suffers greatly due to the fact that, while performing military duty, he was forced to kill a friend of his youth, falls unconscious, and then mourns. The brown bull of the Kualinge Ulads makes short work of the white-horned bull of their opponents of the Connachts and rushes, devastating their lands, until it crashes on a hill. Since the war started because of his theft, now it loses its meaning, peace is made, and the settlements capture a lot of booty.

Scandinavian songs about gods and heroes, which were also popular in 13th-century Iceland, date back to the 9th-12th centuries, the so-called "Viking Age", although much speaks of their more ancient origin. It can be assumed that at least some of them arose much earlier, even in the non-literate period. They are systematized in a book called " Elder Edda"(The name "Edda" was given in the 17th century by the first researcher of the manuscript, who transferred the name of the book of the Icelandic poet and historian of the 13th century Snorri Sturluson to it, since Snorri relied on songs about the gods in the story of myths. Therefore, Snorri's treatise is called " the younger Edda”, and a collection of mythological and heroic songs - “Elder Edda”. The etymology of the word "Edda" is unclear).

Unlike the songs of the Icelandic skaldic poets, for almost every one of which we know the author, Eddic mythological songs anonymous. Myths about the gods, stories about Sigurd, Brynhild, Atli, Gudrun were public property, and the person who retold or wrote down the song, even recreating it, did not consider himself its author. Of greatest interest are the Eddic songs, reflecting the mythological ideas of the ancient Scandinavians. They are noticeably close to real everyday life. The gods here are powerful, but not immortal, their behavior is easily correlated with the life of a primitive tribe: endless wars with neighbors, polygamy, seizure of prey and the constant threat of death. Everything that happens is especially rigidly predetermined by a fateful destiny: together with the whole world, the gods will die in the battle with the giants, but then they will be reborn again for a new, happy life. This is the content of the song "Divination of the Volva":

At the beginning of time
when Ymir lived,
was not in the world
no sand, no sea,
land was not yet
and sky,
the abyss yawned
the grass didn't grow.
While the sons of Bor
Midgard creators
fabulous,
did not raise the earth
sun from the south
shone on the stones
grew on the ground
green herbs.

Then the gods sat down
to the thrones of power
and confer
became sacred
the night was called
and offspring of the night -
evening, morning
and the middle of the day
given a nickname
to count the time.

... I will foresee everything
the fate of the mighty
glorious gods.

The brothers will start
fight each other
close relatives
perish in strife;
hard in the world
great fornication,
age of swords and axes,
shields cracked,
age of storms and wolves
until the death of the world;
spare the man
there will be no man.

The sun has faded
land sinks into the sea
falling from the sky
bright stars,
the flame is raging
feeder of life
unbearable heat
reaches the sky.

She sees:
uplifting again
land from the sea
green as before;
falling water,
eagle flies,
fish from the waves
he wants to catch.

Aces meet
on the Idavoll field,
about the belt of peace
mighty talk
and remember
about glorious events
and the runes of the ancients
great god.

According to the functions and names of the gods, the connection between Eddic mythology is traced not only with ancient, but also with ancient Germanic, which gives scientists grounds to speak of it as Germanic-Scandinavian. The supreme god is Odin, the creator of the world and people, he grants victories and patronizes the brave. The Valkyries, the winged warrior daughters of Odin, carry the heroes who died in battles to his palace of Valhalla and serve them during feasts with the supreme god himself. The majority is destined to dwell in the three worlds. The upper world (Asgard) is for the gods, the middle (Midgard) is for people, the underworld is the kingdom of the dead (Niflheim), where the giantess Hel rules (everyone goes there, except those who go to Valhalla).

The most archaic part of the Elder Edda, according to its researchers, is the so-called gnomic stanzas, which contain the rules of worldly wisdom and behavior. Most of them are contained in the "Speech of the High", that is, Odin. They reflect the life, customs and morality of the ancient Vikings, when such human qualities as courage, the desire for fame, loyalty to friends were encouraged, and cowardice, greed, and stupidity were condemned. Many of them amaze with the depth of wisdom contained in them and its enduring significance (some still sound very relevant today):

The heroic epic songs of the "Elder Edda" include a number of plots known from the all-German legends about Sigurd (Siegfried) and the treasure of the Nibelungs. They are characterized by high heroic pathos, the main thematic content in them is the rethinking of the major historical events of the times of the great migration of peoples and the Viking Age as a tribal feud, revenge for the violation of oath promises. Such is the tragic story of the giantess Brynhild, who seeks the death of Sigurd, who is guilty of breaking his vow to marry her and whom he still loves. Such are the bloody endings of the stories of Gudrun, Gunnar and Hegni, the blacksmith of Velund. Fate, circumstances lead to the death of worthy, noble heroes. Both mythological and heroic songs are attracted by the amazing expressiveness of Eddic poetry, based on the traditional folk poetic arsenal, a subtle combination of heroism and everyday life, epic and lyrics.

The ancient German folklore heritage is also represented by mythological and heroic songs, which were mentioned by the Roman historian Tacitus as early as the 1st century. The mythological songs told about the earthly god Tuisco and his son Mann, from whom the ancestors of the people descended. They meant the sons of Mann - the ancestors of the main German tribes. But, perhaps, the most common among the warlike Germans were songs that glorified their combat marching life, duels, and the courage of individual heroes. This is always a warrior, combatant, performing feats for the glory of the family, represented as an example of physical strength and valor. One of the surviving, and even then in an incomplete form, monuments of the heroic epic is written down around 800 "Song of Hildebrand". It is based on the events of the fall of the Roman Empire, and the motif of an accidental duel between father and son, common in the epic of many peoples. The work is almost devoid of a descriptive element and is a dialogue corresponding to a military ritual, full of heroism and drama.

The Anglo-Saxon folk epic can be represented by the reference to the VIII century. poem "Beowulf". Unlike those discussed above, this is a work of great epic form. Here the descriptive element is developed, the action unfolds gradually, the narrative is replete with digressions that slow down the story of events. The main plot of the poem is formed by two independent lines, united by the theme of the fight against monsters that encroached on the peaceful life of people. First, the glorious Gautian hero Beowulf helps the Danish king Hrothgar, the great-grandson of the first ruler Skild Skefing, defeat the humanoid monster Grendel, and then, having become the king of the Gaut lands, in a difficult duel he kills the fire-breathing dragon that devastated his land. . The poem begins with a mournful picture of the funeral of the ancestor of the Danish kings, Skild Skefing, and ends with a solemn scene of the burning of the Gautian king Beowulf on a funeral pyre and the construction of a barrow over his grave. We can assume the deep symbolism of such a roll call of the two lines: the leaders of only friendly tribes left, their descendants in the new lands are destined to create a single Anglo-Saxon people.

Epic of the mature Middle Ages differs from the poems of the early period:

Mythology occupies a much smaller place, it is not mythical creatures that act, but people, although they are endowed with hyperbolic properties (the age of Karl Vliky, the strength of Brynhilde, etc.);

· the main character fights with the pagans for the truth of the Christian faith;

First -. Second -. Third -. Some poems focus on one of these topics, others emphasize the main one for them, making the rest secondary.

The central theme changes. three directions can be distinguished in it: 1) defense of the homeland from external enemies (Moors (Saracens), Normans, Saxons); 2) the endless bloody feuds of the feudal lords; 3) loyal service to the king, protection of his rights and punishment of apostates

Now, in epic tales, a loyal vassal of his overlord plays a very important role. This was required by the ideology of feudal society. The process of consolidation of nations was coming to an end: previously disparate tribes united under the auspices of the king, who became a symbol of national unity. Serving the king was the embodiment of patriotism, as it was automatically serving the homeland and the state. The duty of loyal vassals is unquestioning obedience to the king.

Such, for example, is the hero of the French "Songs of Roland" who did not spare his life for the sake of serving King Charlemagne. He, at the head of a small detachment of Franks in the Ronceval Gorge, repels the attack of many thousands of Saracen troops. Dying on the battlefield, the hero covers his military armor with his body, lies down facing the enemies, "so that Karl tells his glorious squad that Count Roland died, but won."

Karl began to look for Roland on the hill.

There, the grass is not green - the color is red:

French blood is red on her.

Karl cried - there is no urine to cry,

He saw three blocks between two trees,

I saw Durandal's trail on them,

Near them I found my nephew in the grass.

How could the king not mourn with all his heart!

He dismounted where the dead man lay,

The dead man pressed to his chest

And with it, unconscious, prostrated on the ground.

Roland is the subject of numerous songs about robes, the so-called chansons de geste, performed by folk singers called jugglers. Probably, they did not mechanically repeat the lyrics of the songs, but often brought in something of their own.

The monument of folk poetry is based on historical events, significantly rethought. In 778, King Charles of the Franks made a campaign for the Pyrenees for the sake of rich booty. The Frankish invasion continued for several weeks. Then the army of Charles retreated, but the Basques attacked the rearguard in the Ronceval Gorge, commanded by the king's nephew Hruodland. The forces were unequal, the detachment of the Franks was defeated, and Hruodland died. Charles, who returned with a large army, avenged the death of his nephew.

Folk storytellers gave an exceptional character to everything that happened. The short campaign turned into a seven-year war, the goal of which, in the interpretation of the jugglers, became extremely noble: Charles wanted to convert the infidel Saracens to the Christian faith. The Saracens were the collective name for the Arab tribes that invaded the Iberian Peninsula, they were Muslims, not pagans. But for the narrators, they were just non-Christians who should be guided on the path of true faith. The king is pretty old, the song says that the gray-bearded old man is two hundred years old. This emphasizes his greatness and nobility.

Where the wild rose blossoms, under the pine,

A golden chased throne was placed.

Charles, King of France, sits on it.

He is gray-haired and gray-bearded,

Beautiful camp, majestic face.

It is easy to recognize from a distance.

The messengers dismounted when they saw him,

As they should, they bow to him.

He liked to weigh the answer slowly.

Your sovereign is both old and gray-haired.
He's over two hundred years old, I've heard.

Hruodland became Roland, but most importantly, he gained exceptional heroic power. Together with his associates: Knight Olivier, Bishop Turpin and other brave knights, he laid down thousands of enemies on the battlefield. Roland also has extraordinary battle armor: the Durandal sword and the magic horn Oliphant. As soon as he sounded his horn, the king, wherever he was, would hear him and come to his aid. But for Roland, the greatest honor is to die for the king and dear France.

In the armor of the Saracens, every Moor,

Each chain mail has three rows.

All in good Zaragoza cones,

With Viennese strong forged swords,

With Valencian spears and shields.

The badge on the pole is yellow, or white, or al.

The Arabs are in a hurry to jump off the mules,

An army sits on war horses.

The day is shining and the sun is in my eyes,

Armor on the fighters burns with fire.

Trumpets and horns call the Moors,

To the French noise flies from afar.

Roland says to Olivier: "Fellow,

The infidels want to attack us."

"Praise to the creator! - Roland answered him. -

We must stand up for the king.

The vassal is always happy to serve the seigneur,

To endure the heat for him and the cold.

It is not a pity to give blood for him.

Let everyone cut the infidels off the shoulder,

So that they do not lay down evil songs about us.

The Lord is for us - we are right, the enemy is wrong.

I won't set a bad example for you." Aoi!

Roland's patriotism contrasts with the betrayal of his stepfather Ganelon, who entered into a dastardly collusion with the opponents of the Franks.

The Song of Roland took shape over almost four centuries. The real details were partly forgotten, but its patriotic pathos intensified, the king was idealized as a symbol of the nation and state, the feat in the name of faith and people was glorified. For the characters of the poem, the belief in immortality, which the hero acquires thanks to his heroic deeds, is highly characteristic.

Ruy Diaz de Bivar also faithfully serves his king Alfonso VI, his nickname Cid Campeador (master-warrior) received from the conquerors forced to recognize his superiority. Start "Songs about Side"(XII century) is lost, but the exposition told that King Alfonso was angry with his faithful vassal Rodrigo and expelled him from Castile. Folk singers - in Spain they were called huglars - emphasize democracy in their favorite, and envy and slander of the nobility were the reason for royal disgrace. The new king Alfonso VI, who undeservedly condemned and expelled the hero, was wrong at first, supporting the arrogant aristocrats of Leon, who did not want to accept the loss of their former primacy. In many ways, it is precisely thanks to the reasonable, unhurried behavior of Sid, although unjustly offended by the king, but for the sake of national unity who did not succumb to the temptation of revenge, the much-needed reconciliation takes place. His vassal devotion to his king in the song appears no less valiant, significant act of the hero than military exploits and conquests. Reclaiming new lands from the Arabs, Sid each time sends part of the tribute to the king and thereby gradually seeks forgiveness.

In the first part of the song, the lengthy story about the exile of Cid, his farewell to his wife Dona Jimena and his young daughters Elvira and Sol are artistically convincingly complemented with a story about the hero’s increasingly significant victories over the Moors and rich booty, which he generously shares with the king. The second part is devoted to how, after the conquest of Valencia by Cid and the final reconciliation with him, Alfonso VI, the weddings of his daughters with the noble Infantes de Carrión are scheduled. Only the merits of the hero, an infanson by birth, especially noted by the king, allowed him to intermarry with the highest aristocracy. The third part is a story about how vile and mercenary the sons-in-law of Cid turned out to be, how decisively he seeks their punishment from the king and the Cortes, and how the princes of Navarre and Aragon send their attorneys to ask for the hands of Doña Elvira and Dona Sol.

The image of Sid captivates with its realistic versatility. He is not only a brave commander, but also a subtle diplomat. When he needed money, he did not disdain deceit, deftly deceived gullible usurers, leaving them chests with sand and stones as a pledge. Sid is going through a forced separation from his wife and daughters, and when the king married them off for noble swindlers, he suffers from the inflicted insult, cries out for justice to the king and the Cortes. Having restored the honor of the family, having won royal favor, Sid is satisfied and marries his daughters a second time, now for worthy suitors. The proximity of the epic hero of the Spanish epic to reality is explained by the fact that the "Song of Side" arose just a hundred years after Rodrigo accomplished his exploits. In the following centuries, the Romancero cycle arose, telling about the youth of the epic hero.

Germanic heroic epic "Nibelungenlied" was recorded around 1200, but its plot dates back to the era of the “great migration of peoples” and reflects a real historical event: the death of the Burgundian kingdom, destroyed by the Huns in 437. But, as mentioned above, the Nibelungen heroes have an even more ancient origin: heroes with similar names and destinies appear in the Scandinavian monument Elder Edda, which reflected the archaic Viking era. However, the Scandinavian and German heroes have significant differences. In the Edda, events are mainly mythological in nature, while in the Nibelungenlied, along with myths and legends, history and modernity are reflected. It is dominated not so much by the heroic as by the tragic flavor, the initiative belongs to people of strong, cruel passions, who bring death to everything sincere, pure (even good witchcraft forces), and to themselves. So, the brightest hero of the song of the Dutch prince Siegfried is not saved from death either by his heroic strength and invulnerability, obtained after he bathed in the blood of the dragon he killed, or by the invisibility cap. In turn, a terrible fate will befall everyone who was involved in the insidious murder of Siegfried, who appropriated and hid in the waters of the Rhine his untold wealth - the treasure of the Nibelungs (the name of the treasure just goes back to the Burgundian knights who captured the treasures, nicknamed the Nibelungs - the inhabitants of the "country of fogs") .

Due to the fact that the "Nibelungenlied" was formed over several centuries, its heroes act in different time dimensions, combining in their minds the boldness of valiant deeds with the observance of courtly etiquette. In particular, the courtly poetry of the 12th century left its mark on the German heroic epic with its cult of a beautiful lady and the motif of love for her by a knight who had never seen her, but burned with passion for her only because rumor glorified her beauty and virtue throughout the earth.

Large-scale in volume, the Nibelungenlied is divided into two rather independent parts. The events in the first center around the court of the Burgundian king Gunther, where Siegfried arrives at the beginning of the story. The prince from the Lower Rhine, the son of the Dutch king Sigmund and Queen Sieglinde, the winner of the Nibelungs, who took possession of their treasure - the gold of the Rhine, is endowed with all knightly virtues. He is noble, brave, courteous. Duty and honor are above all for him. The authors of the Nibelungenlied emphasize his extraordinary attractiveness and physical strength. His very name, consisting of two parts (Sieg - victory, Fried - peace), expresses national German self-consciousness at the time of medieval strife. He arrived at Gunther's court with the intention of getting his sister Kriemhilde as his wife. Rumors about her extraordinary beauty turned out to be so convincing for the hero that he fell in love with her in absentia and was ready to do anything to win her hand and heart. Gunter is not averse to intermarrying with the strongest of the knights, but first puts forward a number of conditions, the main of which is to help him take possession of the Icelandic warrior maiden Brunhilda, who he was unable to defeat in the most difficult sports competitions (namely, these are her conditions of marriage). Thanks to the cap of invisibility, Siegfried imperceptibly provides Gunther with the solution of not only athletic problems, but also removes the ring and belt of innocence from Brunhilde on their wedding night. Subsequently, these items will quarrel between the two queens, inflame the hatred of Brunhilda, who considered herself insulted, for Siegfried, and lead to a tragic denouement. Gunther will take the side of his wife, and with his consent, the vassal Hagen von Tronier will treacherously hit Siegfried in the only vulnerable spot on his back (while bathing in the dragon's blood, it turned out to be covered by a fallen linden leaf) and take possession of his treasure.

The second part takes us to the court of the king of the Huns, Etzel (Atilla), where the widow of Siegfried Kriemhild, who became his wife, will carry out bloody revenge for the past crime many years later. Pretending that everything has already been forgotten, she cordially invites the Burgundian knights, led by her brother Gunther, to visit her. When they finally dared to come, he orders everyone to be destroyed. She tries to find out from the wounded Hagen where the treasure is hidden, and when this fails, she cuts off his head. Both Etzel and Hildebrand, who was at his court, were so struck by the cruelty of the massacre of glorious men that Hildebrand himself kills Kriemhilda. The family of the Nibelungs perishes, the ill-fated treasure is forever lost in the depths of the Rhine, which will attract many more seekers.

The Nibelungenlied is a story about the vicissitudes of human destinies, about fratricidal wars that tore apart the feudal world.

Serbian heroic epic- one of the components of the folk poetic heritage of the southern Slavs (Serbs, Montenegrins, Slovenes, Croats, Bosnians, Macedonians, Bulgarians). Songs that tell about what happened in the 14th century are imbued with special drama. Turkish invasion and selfless opposition to it. The Kosovo cycle is central here, covering the heroic battle and the defeat of the Serbs in the battle with the Turks in 1389 on the Kosovo field in many ways. The epic narrative draws both the greatest tragedy and a vivid symbol of the valor and patriotism of the defenders of their native land. The death of the Serbian prince Lazar and his most prominent associates, the sacrifice of thousands of national heroes in an unequal struggle, the loss of independence appear as the greatest national disaster, sprinkled with bitter tears of the survivors. Their fate is unenviable, therefore, the images of grieving and courageous Serbian women are imbued with special warmth and lyricism: the mother of the Yugovichs, who lost nine sons, the young Miloszewski, the wife of the governor Obilich and many, many others. The heroism of the fallen echoes the heroism of the conquered, but not subjugated, who retain in their hearts faith in the coming freedom.

The main pathos of the epic tales of the mature Middle Ages, whether it be the "Song of Roland", "The Song of Side" or the East Slavic "Tale of Igor's Campaign", is a call for the consolidation of the nation, rallying around a strong central government. In the Nibelungenlied, this idea is not expressed directly, but throughout the poem the idea is consistently carried out of what disastrous consequences the struggle for power leads to, what catastrophes fratricidal strife entails, how dangerous strife is within one family clan and state.

Medieval Latin Literature. Poetry of the Vagants.

Clerical(that is, ecclesiastical) medieval literature in Latin, originating in the Roman Empire, created a whole system of its own genres. The most important of them are lives of the saints and visions.

Hagiography- church literature describing the lives of saints - was especially popular throughout the centuries-old development of the Middle Ages. By the X century. the canon of this literary genre was formed: the indestructible, firm spirit of the hero (martyr, missionary, fighter for the Christian faith), a classic set of virtues, constant formulas of praise. The life of the saint offered the highest moral lesson, fascinated by examples of a righteous life. Hagiographic literature is characterized by the motive of a miracle, which corresponded to popular ideas about holiness. The popularity of the lives led to the fact that excerpts from them - "legends" began to be read in the church, and the lives themselves were collected in the most extensive collections.

The tendency of the Middle Ages to allegory, allegory expressed the genre of visions. According to medieval ideas, the highest meaning is revealed only by revelation - vision. In the genre of visions, the fate of people and the world was revealed to the author in a dream. The visions were often about real historical figures, which contributed to the popularity of the genre. Visions had a significant impact on the development of later medieval literature, starting with the famous French "Romance of the Rose" (XIII century), in which the motif of visions ("revelations in a dream") is clearly expressed, to Dante's "Divine Comedy".

The genre adjoins the visions didactic-allegorical poem(about the Last Judgment, the Fall, etc.).

Didactic genres also include sermons, various kinds of maxims (a saying of a moralizing nature), borrowed both from the Bible and from ancient satirical poets. The maxims were collected in special collections, original textbooks of worldly wisdom.

Along with the epic genres of clerical literature, its lyrics also developed, developing their own poetic images and style. Among the lyrical genres of clerical literature, the dominant position was occupied by spiritual verses and hymns, glorifying the patron saints of monasteries, church holidays. The hymns had their own canon. The composition of the hymn about the saints, for example, included a beginning, a panegyric to the saint, a description of his deeds, a prayer to him asking for intercession, etc.

Of the secular literature in Latin, historical chronicles are of the greatest interest, in which truth and fiction were often intertwined. Such works as Jordan's "History of the Goths" (VI century), Gregory of Tours' "History of the Franks" (VI century), Saxo Grammar's "History of the Danes" (XII century) were of great artistic value and were often considered sources of plots for writers. Middle Ages and Renaissance (for example, Shakespeare drew the plot of the tragedy "Hamlet" in the chronicle of Saxo Grammar).

A special place in medieval Latin literature was occupied by a free-thinking, sometimes mischievous vagant poetry or (more rare term)) goliards (XI - XIII centuries). Its creators were wandering monks, schoolchildren, students, representatives of the urban plebs. Having arisen in the early Middle Ages (VIII century), the poetry of the Vagantes reached its peak in the XII-XIII centuries. in connection with the emergence of universities in Europe. The Vagants were educated people: they knew antiquity, folklore, church literature very well, their music was addressed to the spiritual elite of medieval society - its educated part, able to appreciate poetic creativity, but at the same time, wandering poets remained, as it were, “fallen out” of the social structure of medieval society, personally independent and financially unsecured - these features of their position contributed to the development of the thematic and stylistic unity of their lyrics.

Here, in the vagant environment, Latin poetry reached an exceptional and at first glance unexpected flowering. The Vagantes lived among the people, in terms of their way of life they differed little from folk singers and storytellers - jugglers and hairpins, but they were alien to their national language: they held on to Latin as the last pillar of their social superiority, their cultural aristocracy. They countered French and German songs with their own, Latin ones.

The poetic heritage of the Vagantes is wide and varied: these are poems glorifying sensual love, taverns and wine, and works denouncing the sins of monks and priests, parodies of liturgical texts, flattering and even impudent pleading verses. The Vagants also composed religious chants, didactic and allegorical poems, but this theme occupied an insignificant place in their work.

A huge number of Vagant poems and songs are scattered among Latin manuscripts and collections: the most extensive of them, Benediktbeyrensky (Carmina Burana), compiled in southern Germany in the 13th century, has over 200 poems. The vast majority of these poems are anonymous. Of course, this anonymity does not mean that there was no individual creativity here: here, as elsewhere, a few created new and original works, dozens reproduced them with their imitations, and hundreds were engaged in processing and correspondence of what had already been created. At the same time, of course, it was not at all necessary that the poet himself lead a vagant lifestyle: every respectable cleric had schoolboy youth behind him, and many had enough spiritual memory to find words for the feelings of their early years at rest. If these words fell into the tone of the ideas and emotions of the vagant mass, they were quickly assimilated by it, their poems became common property, lost their name, were added to, processed; it becomes almost hopeless to restore the appearance of individual authors of Vagant works.

Three names belonging to three generations stand out for us from this nameless element. The first of the Vagant poets known to us is Hugon, nicknamed the Primus (ie, the Elder) of Orleans, who wrote ca. 1130-1140s. Primate's poems are exceptional for the Middle Ages in terms of the abundance of everyday details: they are extremely "earthly", the author deliberately emphasizes the baseness of their themes - the gifts that he begs for, or the insults that he experiences. He is the only one of the Vagantes who depicts his beloved not as a conditional beauty, but as a prosaic city harlot:

This house is miserable, dirty, miserable and ugly in appearance,
And the table is sparse: one salad and cabbage -
That's all the food. And if you need ointments, -
Buy bovine fat from the carcass, whatever it is,
He will buy, spending a little, whether a sheep's or a goat's leg,
The bread will crush and soak, stale since last night,
He will add crumbs to the fat, season this prison with wine,
Or, rather, sludge, like wine slops ...

(Translated by M. Gasparov)

The second outstanding poet of the Vagantes is known only by the nickname Archipiita, the poet of poets; ten surviving poems of his were written in 1161-1165. and addressed for the most part to his patron, Reynald of Dassel, Chancellor of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, whom the poet accompanied during Frederick's Italian campaign and on the way back. Arkhipiita is also a wanderer, also a poor man, but in his poems there is not that caustic gloom that fills the poems of Primus: instead, he flaunts lightness, irony and brilliance. By his own admission, he was from a knightly family and went to the clergy only out of love for "literature". Instead of talking about his individual misadventures, he draws a general self-portrait: he owns the famous "Confession", one of the most popular Vagant poems:

Having condemned with bitterness of life the dishonorable path,
I pronounced a verdict on her strict and unflattering:
Created from matter weak, lightweight,
I am like a leaf that the surrounding wind drives across the field ...

Here the poet, with undisguised pleasure, repents of his devotion, firstly, to Venus, secondly, to the game, thirdly, to guilt; here are perhaps the most famous lines from all Vagant poetry:

Take me to the tavern, death, and not on the couch!
To be close to wine is dearest to me;
It will sing and the angels will have more fun too:
“Have mercy on the great drunkard, oh God!”

(Translated by O. Rumer)

Finally, the third classic of the vagant lyrics is Walter of Chatillon, already known to us, the author of Alexandreida. He was never an unemployed cleric, he has no begging poems at all, he hardly speaks about himself in his poems, but stands up for his entire learned class; most of his poems are satirical, exposing with pathos the love of money of the prelates and their indifference to true learning. Both Walter's accusatory poems and his no less brilliant love songs were widely known and aroused many imitations. Of the three poets, Walter is the most "literary": he takes popular motifs and, with the help of an arsenal of rhetorical means that he is fluent in, turns them into exemplary constructed poems. He especially loves spectacularly developed allegories, in which a broad picture is first sketched out, and then each of its details receives an accurate allegorical interpretation:

If the shadow covered
low fields,
We have to wait for the surge.
If the heights are mountain
A veil of black
Hidden in a formidable darkness, -
Visible in that apparition
doomsday
True signs.
low valleys -
This is the essence of the laity:
Kingdoms and thrones
Counts and nobles.
Luxury and vanity
Like a night of evil
They are overwhelmed;
God's punishment
mortal torment
Sinners await.

(Translated by M. Gasparov)

Primate is easier to imagine reading poetry in a tavern, the Archipee - at court, Walter - at the preaching pulpit.

The XII century is filled with the work of the founders of Vagant poetry, the XIII century is filled with the activities of nameless epigones, and by the XIV century. this Latin lyric is completely off the stage. The crisis of the overproduction of learned clerics resolved itself, the interests of the learned class switched from Ovidianism to scholasticism and mysticism, and instead of wandering scholars, itinerant preacher monks were drawn along the roads. And the artistic experience accumulated by the Latin lyrics of the Vagantes moved on to knightly lyrics in new languages, which had an incomparably wider audience.

Knightly (courtly) literature: lyrics of troubadours, chivalric romance.

In the XI-XII centuries. the church is noticeably bled in the crusades, intra-confessional confrontations, discussions of numerous heresies, discussions at church councils about the correction of faith and morals. Many of its educated ministers go out into the world, often becoming vagant clerics, especially skeptical of all kinds of prohibitions on the freedom of the human spirit and body. The growing spiritual breakthrough was more and more felt, which more and more insistently shifted cultural life from religious centers to knightly castles and cities taking on their own face. Secular culture remained Christian in character. At the same time, the very image and style of life of chivalry and townspeople predetermined their focus on the earthly, developed special views, ethical norms, traditions, and cultural values. Before the actual urban culture was formed, secular spirituality began to assert itself in chivalric culture.

The creator and bearer of chivalric culture was the military class, which originated in the 7th-8th centuries, when conditional forms of feudal landownership were developed. Chivalry, a special privileged layer of medieval society, over the centuries developed its own traditions and peculiar ethical norms, its own views on all life relationships. The formation of ideas, customs, morality of chivalry was largely facilitated by the Crusades, his acquaintance with the Eastern tradition.

The earliest centers of the new culture are noted in the French south, in Provence, and the secular poetry that originated there, where the knight and his Beautiful Lady are the central characters, is called courtly(court-aristocratic) (from the French court - yard).

courtesy, courtesy- a medieval concept of love, according to which the relationship between a lover and his Lady is similar to the relationship between a vassal and his master. The most important influence on the formation of the ideal of courtly love was exerted by the Roman poet Ovid (I century), whose poetic "treatise" - "The Art of Love" - became a kind of encyclopedia of the behavior of a knight in love with a Beautiful Lady: he trembles with love, does not sleep, he is pale, can die from the inseparability of his feelings. Ideas about such a model of behavior became more complicated due to Christian ideas about the cult of the Virgin Mary - in this case, the Beautiful Lady, whom the knight served, became the image of his spiritual love. The influence of Arab mystical philosophy, which developed the concept of Platonic feeling, was also significant. One of the centers of the emerging new culture was the code of knightly honor. A knight must not only be brave, loyal and generous, he must also become courteous, graceful, attractive in society, be able to feel subtly and tenderly. To the heroic ideal of former times, a moral and aesthetic one is added, which cannot be felt and mastered without art.

The creators of salon culture, where the mission of a kind of priestess is assigned to the Beautiful Lady - the mistress of the castle, were those who settled at large courts and were professionally engaged in writing, performing, teaching troubadours and minstrels. Their merit is great in that they not only make the increasingly complex world of chivalry, the new intra-family and social role of women (the 12th century in France was also marked by the fact that women receive the right to land inheritance), but also find, create, previously unknown in the native language, words expressing feelings, mental states and experiences of a person.

The main place in the Provencal lyrics is occupied by the theme of high courtly love, which acts as the strongest moral feeling that can change, ennoble and elevate a person. It is given to her to triumph over class barriers, she conquers the heart of a proud knight, who finds herself in vassal dependence on the Beautiful Lady. In understanding the place and role of poetry in people's lives, the troubadours were divided into adherents of clear and dark styles. Supporters of a clear manner considered it their duty to write for everyone and about things that are understandable, topical, using a simple common language. The dark style preferred vague hints, allegories, metaphors, complicated syntax, not being afraid to be difficult to access, requiring effort to understand. If in the first case a democratic tradition, coming from folklore, developed, then in the second, learned poetry, an orientation towards a narrow circle of initiates, had an effect.

Courtly lyrics had their own system of genres.

canson- the most popular genre, is a rather voluminous love poem, ending with the parting word of the poet to his offspring or recommendations to the juggler-performer. Its shorter form was called vers.

Love will sweep away all barriers

If two have one soul.

Love lives in reciprocity

Can't be a substitute here

The most precious gift!

After all, it's stupid to look for delights

The one to whom they abhor!

I look ahead with hope

Breathing tender love for that one,

Who blooms with pure beauty,

To that noble, not arrogant,

Who is taken from a humble fate,

Whose perfection they say

And kings everywhere are honored.

Serena- “evening song”, performed in front of the beloved’s house, in which the glorification of her beauty could be intertwined with subtle, incomprehensible to her husband, allusions to forbidden love that binds a knight and a lady.

Alba- “song of the dawn”, sung at dawn by a sleepless friend to wake up the knight, who spent the night in the bedchamber of his beloved, and prevent an unwanted meeting with her husband.

Hawthorn foliage in the garden wilted,

Where don and a friend catch every moment:

Just about the horn will be heard the first cry!

Alas. Dawn, you're in too much of a hurry!

Ah, if the Lord gave the night forever,

And my dear did not leave me,

And the guard forgot his morning signal...

Alas, dawn, dawn, you are too hasty!

Tenson- a dispute between poets on moral, literary, civil topics.

Sirventa- originally a soldier's song (service people), and later - a polemic on political topics.

Pastorela- a story about a meeting in the bosom of nature of a wandering knight and an attractive shepherdess. She can succumb to his affectionate speeches and, seduced, be immediately forgotten. But he can, in response to the knight's harassment, call the villagers, in front of whose pitchforks and clubs he hastily retreats. In self-justification, he can only curse the mob and its unworthy weapons.

I met a shepherdess yesterday

Here at the fence wandering.

Bold yet simple

I met a girl.

Fur coat on her

And colored katsaveyka,

Cap - cover from the wind.

Of the most prominent Provencal troubadours, one can name Guillaume VII, Count of Poitiers (1071–1127), Jauffre Rudel (c. 1140–1170), Bernart de Ventadorne (painted c. 1150–1180), Bertrand de Born (1140–1215), Arnaut Daniel (wrote c. 1180–1200).

The traditions of Provencal lyric poetry were continued by German poets - minnesingers("singers of love") - the authors of German secular poetry. German knightly lyrics - minnesang- experienced a strong influence of Provencal lyrics. At the same time, the work of the minnesingers has a number of features.

The Minnesingers themselves composed music for their works, but they were distributed, as a rule, by itinerant singers - shpilmans. Although the main theme of the Minnesinger's work was the singing of refined feelings for the Beautiful Lady, like their Provencal predecessors, their poetry is more restrained, sad, prone to didacticism, often painted in religious tones (remaining mostly secular). The most prominent minnesingers were Heinrich von Feldeke, Friedrich von Hausen, Wolfram von Eschenbach and others.

Along with the lyrics, the knights created a genre that replaced the epic poems - this novel .

The French-speaking territories of northwestern Europe are considered the birthplace of the chivalric romance, and established in the 12th century. the word novel at first simply meant a large poetic work in a living Romance language (as opposed to texts in Latin). But soon its own genre-thematic specificity becomes obvious.

The hero of the novel is still a noble knight, but his image is undergoing significant changes. So, the appearance of the hero-knight was unimportant to the epic (Roland's face, for example, is indistinguishable under the knight's visor), while the authors of chivalric novels, in addition to selfless courage, courage, nobility, note the external beauty of the hero (Tristan's broad shoulders, curls ...) and his ability to behave : he is always courteous, courteous, generous, restrained in expressing feelings. Refined manners convince of the noble origin of the knight. In addition, the attitude of the hero towards his overlord has changed. The noble paladin of his king, while remaining a vassal, often acquires a slightly different status: a friend and confidante of the monarch. And often they are relatives (Tristan, for example, the nephew of King Mark). The goal of knightly deeds has also changed: the hero is driven not only and not so much by the desire to fulfill the instructions of his master and devotion to him, but by the desire to become famous in order to win the love of the Beautiful Lady. In the novels (as well as in the lyrics), love for a knight is the delight of earthly life, and the one to whom he gave his heart is the living bodily embodiment of the Madonna.

Putting love at the center of its attention, the novel reinforces the story about it with legendary and historical images that appeal to that time. The novel also necessarily contains fantasy in its dual manifestation: as supernatural (wonderful) and as unusual (exceptional), elevating the hero above the prose of life. Both love and fantasy are covered with the concept of adventures (adventure), towards which the knights rush.

The chivalric romance spread throughout the territories of the future Germany and France, easily overcoming the language barrier. The authors of chivalric novels were called trouvers. The trouvères essentially made up entertaining tales of the endless adventures of a knight. Chronologically and thematically, three cycles of the chivalric romance were formed: antique, Breton, Eastern Byzantine.

In the ancient cycle, stories borrowed from the classics and legendary historical themes were reworked in a new knightly way. Love, adventure, fantasy dominate in one of the earliest works of the genre - "The Romance of Alexander" (second half of the 12th century) by Lambert le Thor, where the famous commander is represented by a sophisticated medieval knight. The anonymous “Romance of Aeneas” (c. 1160) goes back to Virgil’s Aeneid, where the hero’s differently developing love relationship with Dido and Lavinia comes to the fore. Approximately at the same time, Benoit de Sainte-Maur's "The Romance of Troy" appeared, built on love episodes from various adaptations of the Trojan cycle of myths.

The Breton cycle is the most branched and indicative of the chivalric romance. The material for it was Celtic folklore filled with sharp love adventures, a whole series of legends about the legendary King of the Britons Arthur (V-VI centuries) and his knights of the Round Table, the prose chronicle of Golfrid of Monmouth "History of the Kings of Britain" (c. 1136). The whole cycle can be divided into four groups: 1) short, akin to a short story, Breton le; 2) novels about Tristan and Isolde; 3) the novels of the Round Table are actually Arthurian; 4) Holy Grail novels.

Among the most popular novels of the Breton cycle is the legend of the love of the young man Tristan from Leonoi and the Queen of Cornwall, Iseult Blond. Having arisen in the Celtic folk environment, the legend then caused numerous literary fixations, first in Welsh, then in French, in revisions from which it entered all the main European literatures, without passing the Slavic ones.

The number of literary monuments in which the story of the strong but sinful love of Tristan and Isolde is developed is very large. Not all of them have survived to the same extent. Thus, according to Celtic sources, the legend is known only in the form of fragments, and its early French adaptations have been completely lost. French verse novels of the second half of the 12th century. also far from completely survived to our time, later versions are much better preserved, but they are much less original and original. In addition, the legend, having arisen in the deep Middle Ages, continued to attract writers and poets in modern times. Not to mention the mention of the main characters of the legend (say, by Dante, Boccaccio, Villon and many others), August Schlegel, Walter Scott, Richard Wagner and others dedicated their works to it. Alexander Blok was going to write a historical drama based on the plot of the legend.

A large number of literary works about the love of Tristan and Isolde has led to a large number of versions of the legend. The earliest evidence of the folklore existence of the legend of Tristan and Iseult (“The Triads of the Isle of Britain”), as well as its first literary adaptations, are fragments of Welsh texts. In them, the protagonists are "Tristan, son of Talluh, and Essild, wife of March". The lovers with two servants, having seized pies and wine, take refuge in the forest of Kelidon, but March, the husband of Essild, together with the soldiers, sought them out. “Tristan got up and, raising his sword, rushed into the first duel and, finally, met with March, the son of Mairkhion, who exclaimed: “And at the cost of my life I would like to kill him!” But his other warriors said, "Shame on us if we attack him!" And out of three fights, Tristan came out unscathed. The dispute between March and Tristan is trying to be resolved by King Arthur, to whom March turns. “Here Arthur reconciled him with March, the son of Mairkhion. But although Arthur persuaded everyone, no one wanted to leave Essild to another. And so Arthur decided: to one she will belong while the leaves turn green on the trees, to the other - the rest of the time. March chose him, because then the nights are longer. The decision of the wise king delighted the quick-witted Essild: “Exclaimed Essild when Arthur told her about this: “Blessed be this decision and the one who made it!” And she sang such an englin:

I will name three trees for you,

They keep their leaves all year round

Ivy, holly and yew -

As long as we live

No one can separate us from Tristan.

Another of the early versions of the novel, owned by the Norman trouveur Berul, is a detailed, lengthy and very colorful narrative in which Tristan and Isolde appear as innocent victims of a love drink served to them by mistake of a maid. The drink is charmed for three years, during these years lovers cannot live without each other.

Another major epic trend developed in the Breton cycle was the novels of the Round Table.

Arthur was a petty ruler of the Britons. But the Welsh author of the historical chronicle Geoffrey of Monmouth depicts him as a powerful ruler of Britain, Brittany and almost all of Western Europe, a semi-mythical figure, one of the heroes of the struggle of the Celts against the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Arthur and his twelve faithful knights defeat the Anglo-Saxons in many battles. He is the supreme authority in politics, his wife Genievra patronizes knights in love. Lancelot, Gauvin, Ywain, Parzival and other brave knights flock to the court of King Arthur, where everyone has a place of honor at the round table. His court is the center of courtesy, valor and honor. Another legend is closely connected with the legend of the kingdom of Arthur - about the Holy Grail - the sacrament cup, in which the blood of Christ was collected. The Grail has become a symbol of the mystical chivalric principle, the personification of the highest ethical perfection.

The group of Arthurian novels itself is distinguished by a variety of plots, love stories and the exploits of many glorious knights, for whom the only thing in common was that they worthily proved themselves at tournaments at the court of King Arthur, feasted at his famous Round Table. Chrétien de Troyes (c. 1130-1191), known both as a lyricist and as the author of stories about Tristan and Isolde, about the Holy Grail, developed this theme most successfully. His popularity was based not only on his ability to combine the real, the legendary and the fantastic in his own way, but also on new approaches to creating female images. An educated talented trouveur was patronized by Maria Champagne, who was fond of chivalric poetry. Chrétien de Troyes was prolific, five of his novels have come down to us: “Erec and Enida”, “Clizes, or Imaginary Death”, “Yvain, or the Knight with a Lion”, “Lancelot or the Knight of the Cart”. The main conflict of his novels lies in the solution of the question of how to combine a happy marriage with chivalrous deeds. Does the married knight Erek or Yvain have the right to sit in the castle when the small and the orphans are offended by cruel strangers? At the end of his life, for some unknown reason, he quarreled with Mary of Champagne and went to seek patronage from Philip of Alsace. "Parzival, or the Tale of the Grail" is the last novel that has not come down to us, but became known thanks to a very free interpretation of the Chretien text, made when translated into German by Wolfram von Eschenbach.

In the XIII-XIV centuries. are becoming more and more popular works in which knights show stamina and determination not in the service of duty, not in risky duels, but in recklessly idyllic love. For example, the story "Aucassin and Nicolette" (it is attributed to the Eastern Byzantine cycle) depicts the main characters in this vein. The count's son Aucassin, in love with the captive Saracen Nicolette, is ready to go against the will of his father, to despise religious and class differences. He does everything solely for the sake of happiness with his beloved, forgetting even about his patriotic duty. His only virtue is loyalty to his chosen one, in turn, passionately and touchingly devoted to his beloved. The unconcealed parodic background of such works, as it were, anticipated the onset of a new era, was an indirect evidence of the growing influence of urban literature on the chivalrous literature, which was losing its positions.

Urban and folk literature: fablio and schwanki; allegorical poetry; folk ballads; mysteries, miracles and farces.

With the invention of artillery pieces, chivalry gradually lost its social role, but the burghers grew stronger - the townspeople united in craft workshops and merchant guilds. With the receipt of special city rights by Magdeburg in 1188, the circle of European cities is rapidly expanding, seeking self-government in the main areas of legal, economic and social relations. Thanks to the emergence and spread of Magdeburg law, the successes of cities in their struggle against feudal power for independence, for the gradual self-affirmation of the third estate, were legally fixed.

By the beginning of the 12th century, a burgher literature had formed that was in opposition to the chivalric romance and courtly lyric poetry. The city dweller is distinguished by earthiness, the desire for practical-useful knowledge, interest not in knightly adventures in unknown lands, but in the familiar environment, everyday life. He does not need the miraculous, his own mind, industriousness, resourcefulness, and, in the end, cunning and dexterity, become his supports in overcoming everyday difficulties. Hence, literature shows attention to the details of everyday life, simplicity and conciseness of style, rude humor, in which a free interpretation of established ethical principles is visible. On the other hand, a significant place in it is occupied by works of an instructive, even protective orientation, where private enterprise, good manners, and fear of God are glorified, combined with sharp anti-feudal and anti-church satire.

The townspeople had their own genres, and turning to the already formed genres, the townspeople parodied them. The comic literature of the Middle Ages developed for a whole millennium and even more, since its beginnings date back to Christian antiquity. Over such a long period of its existence, this literature, of course, underwent quite significant changes (literature in Latin changed least of all). Various genre forms and stylistic variations were developed. The first, most developed genre of everyday satire of the 12th-13th centuries was the French fablio.

Fablio(the name comes from the Latin “plot” due to the initial identification of any funny, funny story with a fable already known under this old Latin name) were small (up to 250-400 lines, rarely more) stories in verse, mostly eight-syllable, with a pair rhyme, which had a simple and clear plot and a small number of characters. Fablio becomes perhaps the most widespread genre of urban French literature and flourishes in those years when the decline of chivalric literature begins, puts forward such masters as Henri d'Andely, Jean Baudel, Jacques Bezieu, Hugon Leroy from Cambrai, Bernier, and finally, how famous ruetboeuf, the first remarkable representative of French urban literature, who tried his hand at many poetic genres.

The works of heroic poetry presented in this volume belong to the Middle Ages - early (the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf) and classical (the Icelandic songs of the Elder Edda and the German Nibelungenlied). The origins of Germanic poetry about gods and heroes are much more ancient. Already Tacitus, who was one of the first to leave a description of the Germanic tribes, mentions their ancient songs about mythical ancestors and leaders: these songs, according to him, replaced history for the barbarians. The remark of the Roman historian is very significant: in the epic, memories of historical events are fused with myth and fairy tale, and the fantastic and historical elements are equally taken for reality. The distinction between "facts" and "fiction" in relation to the epic in that era was not carried out. But ancient Germanic poetry is unknown to us, there was no one to write it down. The themes and motifs that have existed in it orally for centuries are partly reproduced in the monuments published below. In any case, they reflect the events of the period of the Great Migration of Peoples (V-VI centuries). However, according to Beowulf or Scandinavian songs, not to mention the Nibelungenlied, it is impossible to restore the spiritual life of the Germans in the era of the dominance of the tribal system. The transition from the oral art of singers and storytellers to the "book epic" was accompanied by more or less significant changes in the composition, volume and content of the songs. Suffice it to recall that in the oral tradition, the songs from which these epic works then developed existed in the pagan period, while they acquired their written form centuries after Christianization. Nevertheless, Christian ideology does not determine the content and tone of epic poems, and this becomes especially clear when comparing the Germanic heroic epic with medieval Latin literature, which, as a rule, is deeply imbued with the church spirit ( However, how different assessments the ideological basis of epic poetry received is clear from at least the following two judgments about the Nibelungenlied: “basically pagan”; "Medieval Christian". The first assessment - Goethe, the second - A.-V. Schlegel.).

An epic work is universal in its functions. The fantastic is not separated from the real in it. The epic contains information about gods and other supernatural beings, fascinating stories and instructive examples, aphorisms of worldly wisdom and examples of heroic behavior; its edifying function is as inalienable as its cognitive one. It covers both the tragic and the comic. At the stage when the epic arises and develops, the Germanic peoples did not have knowledge about nature and history, philosophy, fiction or theater as separate spheres of intellectual activity - the epic gave a complete and comprehensive picture of the world, explained its origin and further destinies, including the most distant future, taught to distinguish good from evil, instructed how to live and how to die. The epic contained ancient wisdom, knowledge of it was considered necessary for every member of society.

The integrity of the life span corresponds to the integrity of the characters displayed in the epic. The heroes of the epic are carved from one piece, each personifies some quality that determines his essence. Beowulf is the ideal of a courageous and determined warrior, unchanging in loyalty and friendship, a generous and merciful king. Gudrun is the incarnation of devotion to the family, a woman who avenges the death of her brothers, not stopping at killing her own sons and husband, like (but at the same time in contrast to) Kriemhild, who destroys her brothers, punishing them for killing her beloved husband Siegfried and taking away she has a golden treasure. The epic hero is not tormented by doubts and hesitations, his character is revealed in actions; His words are as clear as his actions. This solidity of the hero of the epic is explained by the fact that he knows his fate, takes it for granted and inevitable, and boldly goes to meet it. The epic hero is not free in his decisions, in the choice of a line of behavior. Actually, his inner essence and the power that the heroic epic calls Fate coincide, are identical. Therefore, the only thing left for the hero is to fulfill his destiny in the best possible way. Hence - a peculiar, maybe a little primitive for a different taste, the greatness of epic heroes.

With all the differences in content, tonality, as well as in the conditions and time of their occurrence, epic poems do not have an author. It's not that the name of the author is unknown ( In science, there have been more than once - invariably unconvincing - attempts to establish the authors of the Eddic songs or the Nibelungenlied.) - the anonymity of epic works is fundamental: the persons who combined, expanded and reworked the poetic material at their disposal did not recognize themselves as the authors of the works they wrote. This, of course, does not mean that in that era the concept of authorship did not exist at all. The names of many Icelandic skalds are known, who claimed their "copyright" to the songs they performed. The Nibelungenlied arose at a time when the largest German minnesingers were writing and chivalric novels were created according to French models; this song was written by a contemporary of Wolfram von Eschenbach, Hartmann von Aue, Gottfried of Strassburg and Walter von der Vogelweide. Nevertheless, poetic work on the traditional epic plot, on heroic songs and legends, which in an earlier form were familiar to everyone, in the Middle Ages was not evaluated as creativity either by society or by the poet himself, who created such works, but did not think about it. to mention your name ( This also applies to certain types of prose writing, such as Icelandic sagas and Irish legends. See the preface by M. I. Steblin-Kamensky to the publication of the Icelandic sagas in the Library of World Literature.).

Drawing from the general poetic fund, the compiler of the epic poem focused on the heroes and plot chosen by him, pushing many other legends related to this plot to the periphery of the narrative. Just as a searchlight illuminates a separate piece of terrain, leaving most of it in darkness, so the author of an epic poem (the author in the sense now indicated, that is, a poet deprived of authorial self-consciousness), developing his theme, limited himself to allusions to its offshoots, being sure that his audience already knows all the events and characters, both sung by him, and those that he only mentioned in passing. The tales and myths of the Germanic peoples found only a partial embodiment in their epic poems, preserved in written form - the rest has either disappeared or can only be restored indirectly. In the songs of the Edda and in Beowulf, cursory references to kings, their wars and strife, mythological characters and legends are scattered in abundance. Laconic allusions were quite enough for the corresponding associations to arise in the minds of listeners or readers of the heroic epic. The epic usually does not report anything completely new. The strength of its aesthetic and emotional impact does not diminish in the least - on the contrary, in archaic and medieval society, the greatest satisfaction, apparently, was given not by obtaining original information, or not only it, but also by recognizing previously known, new confirmation of old ones, and therefore especially valuable truths ( Wouldn't a comparison with a child's perception of a fairy tale be appropriate here? The child knows its content, but his pleasure from listening to it again and again does not decrease.).

The epic poet, processing material that did not belong to him, a heroic song, myth, legend, legend, widely using traditional expressions, stable comparisons and formulas, figurative clichés borrowed from oral folk art, could not consider himself an independent creator, no matter how much he really was his contribution to the final creation of the heroic epic is great. This dialectical combination of the new and the perceived from the predecessors constantly gives rise to disputes in modern literary criticism: science tends either to emphasize the folk basis of the epic, or in favor of the individual creative principle in its creation.

The tonic alliterative verse remained the form of German poetry for an entire era. This form was preserved for a particularly long time in Iceland, while among the continental Germanic peoples already in the early Middle Ages it was replaced by verse with a final rhyme. "Beowulf" and the songs of "Elder Edda" are sustained in the traditional alliterative form, "The Nibelungenlied" - in a new, based on rhyme. Old German versification was based on rhythm, determined by the number of stressed syllables in a line of poetry. Alliteration is the consonance of the initial sounds of words that were under semantic stress and repeated with a certain regularity in two adjacent lines of a verse, which, by virtue of this, turned out to be connected. Alliteration is audible and significant in Germanic verse, since the stress in Germanic languages predominantly falls on the first syllable of the word, which is also its root. It is clear, therefore, that the reproduction of this form of versification in Russian translation is almost impossible. It is also very difficult to convey another feature of Scandinavian and Old English verse, the so-called kenning (literally, "designation") - a poetic paraphrase that replaces one noun in ordinary speech with two or more words. Kennings were used to designate the most essential concepts for heroic poetry: "leader", "warrior", "sword", "shield", "battle", "ship", "gold", "woman", "raven", and for each of these concepts, there were several or even many kennings. Instead of saying "prince", the expression "giver of rings" was used in poetry, the common kenning of a warrior was "battle ash", the sword was called the "battle stick", etc. In Beowulf and the Elder Edda, kennings are usually binomial , in skaldic poetry there are also polynomial kennings.

The Nibelungenlied is built on the "Kurenberg stanza", which consists of four rhyming verses in pairs. Each verse is divided into two half-lines with four stressed syllables in the first half-line, while in the second half-line of the first three lines there are three stresses, and in the second half-line of the last verse, which completes the stanza both formally and in meaning, four stresses. The translation of the Nibelungenlied from Middle High German into Russian does not face such difficulties as the translation of alliterated poetry, and gives an idea of its metrical structure.

Beowulf

The only existing manuscript of Beowulf dates from about the year 1000. But the epic itself belongs, according to most experts, to the end of the 7th or the first third of the 8th century. At that time, the Anglo-Saxons were already experiencing the beginning process of the emergence of feudal ties. The poem, however, is characterized by epic archaization. In addition, she draws reality from a specific point of view: the world of Beowulf is the world of kings and vigilantes, the world of feasts, battles and fights.

The plot of this largest of the Anglo-Saxon epics is simple. Beowulf, a young knight from the people of the Gauts, having learned about the disaster that befell the king of the Danes Higelak - about the attacks of the monster Grendel on his palace Heorot and about the gradual extermination of the king's warriors over the course of twelve years, goes overseas to destroy Grendel. Having defeated him, he then kills in a new single combat, this time in an underwater dwelling, another monster - Grendel's mother, who tried to avenge her son's death. Showered with awards and thanks, Beowulf returns to his homeland. Here he performs new feats, and later becomes the king of the Gauts and safely rules the country for fifty years. After this period, Beowulf enters into battle with the dragon, which devastates the surroundings, being angry at the attempt on the ancient treasure he guards. Beowulf manages to defeat this monster as well, but at the cost of his own life. The song ends with the scene of the solemn burning of the hero's body on the funeral pyre and the construction of a mound over his ashes and the treasure he conquered.

These fantastic feats, however, are transferred from the unreal world of a fairy tale to historical soil and take place among the peoples of Northern Europe: Danes, Swedes, Gauts appear in Beowulf ( Who are the Gauts of Beowulf remains debatable. Various interpretations have been proposed in science: the Goths of Southern Sweden or the island of Gotland, the Jutes of the Jutland Peninsula, and even the ancient Getae of Thrace, who, in turn, were confused with the biblical Gog and Magog in the Middle Ages.), other tribes are mentioned, the kings who once really ruled them are named. But this does not apply to the protagonist of the poem: Beowulf himself, apparently, had no historical prototype. Since then everyone unconditionally believed in the existence of giants and dragons, the combination of such stories with the story of wars between peoples and kings was quite natural. It is curious that the Anglo-Saxon epic ignores England (this gave rise, by the way, to the now rejected theory of its Scandinavian origin). But perhaps this feature of Beowulf will not seem so striking, if we keep in mind that in other works of Anglo-Saxon poetry we meet the most diverse peoples of Europe and that we will encounter the same fact in the songs of the Elder Edda, and partly in the Nibelungenlied.

In the spirit of the theories that prevailed in science in the middle of the 19th century, some commentators of Beowulf argued that the poem arose as a result of the combination of various songs; it was customary to cut it into four parts: a duel with Grendel, a duel with his mother, Beowulf's return to his homeland, a duel with a dragon. The point of view was expressed that the originally purely pagan poem was partially revised in the Christian spirit, as a result of which an interweaving of two worldviews arose in it. Then most researchers began to believe that the transition from oral songs to the "book epic" was not limited to their simple fixation; these scholars considered Beowulf as a single work, the "editor" of which, in his own way, combined and reworked the material at his disposal, setting out the traditional plots more extensively. However, it must be admitted that nothing is known about the process of becoming Beowulf.

There are many folklore motifs in the epic. At the very beginning, Skild Skevang - "foundling" is mentioned. The boat with the baby Skild washed up on the shores of Denmark, whose people were at that time defenseless due to the absence of the king; subsequently Skild became the ruler of Denmark and founded a dynasty. After the death of Skild, they put him back on the ship and sent him along with the treasures to where he came from - a purely fabulous story. The giants that Beowulf fights are akin to the giants of Scandinavian mythology, and combat with the dragon is a common theme in fairy tales and myths, including northern ones. In his youth, Beowulf, who, having grown up, acquired the strength of thirty people, was lazy and did not differ in valor - does this not remind you of the youth of other heroes of folk tales, for example, Ilya Muromets? The arrival of the hero on his own initiative to help those in distress, his quarrel with his opponent (exchange of speeches between Beowulf and Unferth), the test of the hero’s prowess (the story of the swimming contest between Beowulf and Breka), handing him a magic weapon (Hrunting sword), violation of the ban by the hero ( Beowulf takes away the treasure in a duel with the dragon, not knowing that a spell gravitates over the treasure), an assistant in the hero’s combat with the enemy (Wiglaf, who came to the rescue of Beowulf at a time when he was close to death), three battles that the hero gives, moreover each subsequent one turns out to be more difficult (the battles of Beowulf with Grendel, with his mother and with the dragon) - all these are elements of a fairy tale. The epic keeps many traces of its prehistory rooted in folk art. But the tragic ending - the death of Beowulf, as well as the historical background against which his fantastic exploits unfold, distinguish the poem from the fairy tale - these are signs of a heroic epic.

Representatives of the "mythological school" in the literary criticism of the last century tried to decipher this epic in this way: monsters personify the storms of the North Sea; Beowulf - a good deity, curbing the elements; his peaceful reign is a blessed summer, and his death is the onset of winter. Thus, the epic symbolically depicts the contrasts of nature, growth and decay, rise and fall, youth and old age. Other scholars understood these contrasts in ethical terms and saw in Beowulf the theme of the struggle between good and evil. The symbolic and allegorical interpretation of the poem is not alien to those researchers who generally deny its epic character and consider it to be the work of a cleric or monk who knew and used early Christian literature. These interpretations largely rest on the question of whether the "spirit of Christianity" is expressed in "Beowulf" or in front of us - a monument of pagan consciousness. Supporters of understanding it as a folk epic, in which the beliefs of the heroic era of the Great Migration are alive, naturally, found Germanic paganism in it and minimized the significance of church influence. On the contrary, those modern scholars who rank the poem in the category of written literature transfer the center of gravity to Christian motifs; in paganism, "Beowulf" is seen as nothing more than an antique pastiche. In the latest criticism, there is a noticeable tendency to shift attention from the analysis of the content of the poem to the study of its texture and style. In the middle of our century, the denial of the connection of "Beowulf" with the epic folklore tradition prevailed. Meanwhile, in recent years, a number of experts tend to consider the prevalence of stereotypical expressions and formulas in the text of the poem as evidence of its origin from oral creativity. There is no accepted concept in science that satisfactorily explains Beowulf. Meanwhile, interpretation is indispensable. "Beowulf" is difficult for the modern reader, brought up on a completely different literature and inclined, albeit involuntarily, to transfer to ancient monuments the ideas that have developed when getting acquainted with the artistic creations of modern times.

In the heat of scientific disputes, it is sometimes forgotten that regardless of how the poem arose, whether it was composed of different pieces or not, it was perceived by the medieval audience as something whole. This also applies to the composition of Beowulf and the interpretation of religion in it. The author and his characters often commemorate the Lord God; in the epic there are hints of biblical stories, apparently understandable to the "public" of that time; paganism is clearly condemned. At the same time, Beowulf is replete with references to Fate, which either acts as a tool of the creator and is identical to divine Providence, or appears as an independent force. But belief in Destiny was central to the pre-Christian ideology of the Germanic peoples. Family blood feud, which the church condemned, although it was often forced to endure, is glorified in the poem and considered an obligatory duty, and the impossibility of revenge is regarded as the greatest misfortune. In short, the ideological situation depicted in Beowulf is rather contradictory. But this is a contradiction of life, and not a simple inconsistency between earlier and subsequent editions of the poem. The Anglo-Saxons of the 7th-8th centuries were Christians, but the Christian religion at that time not so much overcame the pagan worldview as pushed it out of the official sphere into the background of public consciousness. The Church managed to destroy the old temples and the worship of pagan gods, sacrifices to them, as for the forms of human behavior, here the situation was much more complicated. The motives that drive the actions of the characters in Beowulf are by no means determined by the Christian ideals of humility and submission to the will of God. "What do Ingeld and Christ have in common?" - the famous church leader Alcuin asked a century after the creation of Beowulf and demanded that the monks not be distracted from prayer by heroic songs. Ingeld appears in a number of works; He is also mentioned in Beowulf. Alcuin was aware of the incompatibility of the ideals embodied in such characters of heroic tales with the ideals preached by the clergy.

The fact that the religious and ideological climate in which Beowulf arose was ambiguous is also confirmed by an archaeological find in Sutton Hoo (East Anglia). Here, in 1939, a burial in a boat of a noble person was discovered, dating back to the middle of the 7th century. The burial was performed according to a pagan rite, along with valuable things (swords, helmets, chain mail, goblets, a banner, musical instruments) that the king might need in another world.

It is difficult to agree with those researchers who are disappointed by the "banality" of the scenes of the hero's fights with monsters. These fights are placed in the center of the poem quite rightly - they express its main content. In fact, the world of culture, joyful and multicolored, is personified in Beowulf by Heorot - a hall whose radiance extends "to many countries"; in its banquet hall, the leader and his associates frolic and have fun, listening to the songs and legends of the osprey - a retinue singer and poet, glorifying their military deeds, as well as the deeds of their ancestors; here the leader generously presents the vigilantes with rings, weapons and other valuables. Such a reduction of the “middle world” (middangeard) to the palace of the king (for everything else in this world is passed over in silence) is explained by the fact that “Beowulf” is a heroic epic that has developed, at least in the form known to us, in a retinue environment.

Heorot, the “Deer Hall” (its roof is decorated with gilded deer horns) is opposed by wild, mysterious and full of horror rocks, wastelands, swamps and caves inhabited by monsters. The contrast of joy and fear corresponds in this opposition to the contrast of light and darkness. Feasts and fun in the shining golden hall take place in the light of day - the giants go out in search of bloody prey under the cover of night. The enmity between Grendel and the people of Heorot is not an isolated episode; this is emphasized not only by the fact that the giant raged for twelve winters before being slain by Beowulf, but above all by the very interpretation of Grendel. This is not just a giant - in his image combined (although, perhaps, they did not merge together) different hypostases of evil. The monster of German mythology, Grendel, at the same time, is a creature placed outside of communication with people, an outcast, an outcast, an “enemy”, and according to German beliefs, a person who stained himself with crimes that entailed expulsion from society, as if losing his human appearance, became a werewolf , hater of people. The poet's singing and the sounds of the harp coming from Heorot, where the king and his retinue are feasting, awaken rage in Grendel. But this is not enough - in the poem Grendel is called "a descendant of Cain." Old pagan beliefs are overlaid with Christian ideas. An ancient curse lies on Grendel, he is called a "pagan" and condemned to hellish torment. And at the same time, he himself is like the devil. The formation of the idea of a medieval devil at the time when Beowulf was being created was far from over, and in Grendel's interpretation, which is not without inconsistency, we find a curious intermediate moment in this evolution.

The fact that pagan and Christian ideas are intertwined in this “multi-layered” understanding of the forces of evil is not accidental. After all, the understanding of the rich man in Beowulf is no less peculiar. In the poem, which repeatedly mentions the "ruler of the world", "the mighty god", the Savior Christ is never named. In the minds of the author and his audience, apparently, there is no place for heaven in the theological sense, which so occupied the thoughts of medieval people. The Old Testament components of the new religion, more understandable to recent pagans, prevail over the gospel teaching about the Son of God and the afterlife reward. On the other hand, we read in Beowulf about a "hero under heaven", about a man who cares not about saving his soul, but about affirming his earthly glory in people's memory. The poem ends with the words: Of all the earthly leaders, Beowulf was the most generous, merciful to his people and greedy for glory!

The thirst for glory, prey and princely awards - these are the highest values for the German hero, as they are drawn in the epic, these are the main springs of his behavior. “Death awaits every mortal! - // let whoever can live deserve // eternal glory! For for a warrior // the best payment is a worthy memory! (Article 1386 following). Such is the credo of Beowulf. When he has to deliver a decisive blow to his opponent, he focuses on the thought of glory. “(So hand-to-hand // a warrior should go in order to gain eternal glory // without caring about life!)” (Article 1534 next) “It’s better for a warrior // to die than to live in disgrace!” (verses 2889 - 2890).

No less than glory, warriors covet the gifts of the leader. Neck rings, bracelets, twisted or plate gold constantly appear in the epic. The steady designation of the king is “breaking hryvnias” (sometimes they gave not a whole ring, it was significant wealth, but parts of it). The modern reader, perhaps, will be depressing and seem monotonous all the newly renewed descriptions and enumerations of awards and treasures. But he can be sure: stories about gifts did not tire the medieval audience at all and found a lively response in it. Vigilantes wait for the leader's gifts, first of all, as convincing signs of their valor and merit, so they show them and are proud of them. But in that era, a deeper, sacred meaning was also invested in the act of giving jewelry by the leader to a faithful person. As already mentioned, the pagan belief in fate persisted during the period of the creation of the poem. Fate was understood not as a universal fate, but as an individual share of an individual, his luck, happiness; some have more luck, others less. A mighty king, a glorious leader - the most “rich” person in happiness. Already at the beginning of the poem, we find the following characterization of Hrothgar: “Hrothgar has risen in battles, successful, / / his relatives submitted to him without disputes ...” (v. 64 following). There was a belief that the luck of the leader extended to the squad. Rewarding his warriors with weapons and precious items - the materialization of his luck, the leader could pass on to them a particle of this luck. “Keep, O Beowulf, to your own joy // Strong Warrior with our gifts - // ring and wrists, and may good luck accompany // you!” - says the queen of Walchteov to Beowulf. (Art. 1216 next)

But the motif of gold as a visible, tangible embodiment of the warrior's luck in Beowulf is supplanted, obviously under Christian influence, by its new interpretation as a source of misfortune. In this regard, of particular interest is the last part of the poem - the hero's single combat with the dragon. In retaliation for the theft of a treasure from the treasure, the dragon that guarded these ancient treasures attacks the villages, setting the surrounding country on fire and death. Beowulf fights the dragon, but it is easy to see that the author of the poem does not see the reason that prompted the hero to this feat in the atrocities committed by the monster. The goal of Beowulf is to take away the treasure from the dragon. The dragon sat on the treasure for three centuries, but even before these values belonged to people, and Beowulf wants to return them to the human race. Having killed a terrible enemy and himself having received a fatal wound, the hero expresses his dying wish: to see the gold that he pulled out from the claws of his guard. The contemplation of these riches gives him deep satisfaction. However, then something happens that directly contradicts the words of Beowulf that he conquered a treasure for his people, namely: on the funeral pyre, along with the body of the king, his associates lay all these treasures and burn them, and the remains are buried in a barrow. An ancient spell weighed over the treasure, and it is useless to people; because of this spell, broken out of ignorance, Beowulf, apparently, dies. The poem ends with a prediction of the calamities that will befall the Gauts after the death of their king.

The struggle for glory and jewels, loyalty to the leader, bloody revenge as an imperative of behavior, the dependence of a person on the Destiny reigning in the world and a courageous meeting with it, the tragic death of a hero - all these are the defining themes not only of Beowulf, but also of other monuments of the German epic.

Elder Edda

Songs about gods and heroes, conditionally united by the name "Elder Edda" ( The name "Edda" was given in the 17th century by the first researcher of the manuscript, who transferred to it the name of the book of the 13th-century Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson, since Snorri relied on songs about gods in his story about myths. Therefore, Snorri's treatise is usually called the "Younger Edda", and the collection of mythological and heroic songs - the "Elder Edda". The etymology of the word "Edda" is unclear.), are preserved in a manuscript that dates from the second half of the 13th century. It is not known whether this manuscript was the first, or whether it had any predecessors. The background of the manuscript is as unknown as the background of the Beowulf manuscript. There are, in addition, some other recordings of songs that are also classified as Eddic. The history of the songs themselves is also unknown, and a variety of points of view and contradictory theories have been put forward on this score. The range in the dating of songs often reaches several centuries. Not all songs originated in Iceland: among them there are songs that go back to South German prototypes; in the Edda there are motifs and characters familiar from the Anglo-Saxon epic; a lot was apparently brought from other Scandinavian countries. Without dwelling on countless controversies about the origin of the Elder Edda, we only note that in the most general form, the development in science went from romantic ideas about the extreme antiquity and archaic nature of songs expressing the “spirit of the people” to interpreting them as book compositions of medieval scholars. - "antiquarians" who imitated ancient poetry and stylized their religious and philosophical views as a myth.

One thing is clear: songs about gods and heroes were popular in Iceland in the 13th century. It can be assumed that at least some of them arose much earlier, even in the non-literate period. Unlike the songs of the Icelandic skaldic poets, for almost all of whom we know the author, the Eddic songs are anonymous. Myths about the gods, stories about Helgi, Sigurd, Brynhild, Atli, Gudrun were public property, and the person who retelled or wrote down the song, even recreating it, did not consider himself its author. Before us is an epic, but the epic is very peculiar. This originality cannot but be evident when reading the Elder Edda after Beowulf. Instead of a lengthy, leisurely flowing epic, here before us is a dynamic and concise song, in a few words or stanzas setting out the fate of heroes or gods, their speeches and actions. Specialists explain this unusual for the epic style compaction of Eddic songs by the specifics of the Icelandic language. But one more circumstance cannot be overlooked. A broad epic canvas like Beowulf or the Nibelungenlied contains several plots, many scenes, united by common characters and temporal sequence, while the songs of the Elder Edda usually (though not always) focus on one episode . True, their great "segmentation" does not prevent the presence in the text of songs of various associations with plots that are developed in other songs, as a result of which the isolated reading of a single song makes it difficult to understand it - of course, understanding by a modern reader, because medieval Icelanders, there is no doubt, knew the rest. This is evidenced not only by the hints of events scattered throughout the songs that are not described in them, but also by kennings. If only habit was enough to understand kennings such as “land of necklaces” (woman) or “blood serpent” (sword), then such kennings as, for example, “guardian of Midgard”, “son of Ygg”, “son of Odin”, “descendant Chlodyun", "husband of Siv", "father of Magni" or "owner of goats", "serpent killer", "charioteer", suggested that readers or listeners had knowledge of myths, from which it was only possible to learn that in all cases the god Thor was meant .

Songs about gods and heroes in Iceland did not "swell" into vast epics, as was the case in many other cases ( Beowulf has 3182 verses, the Nibelungenlied has three times as many (2379 stanzas of four verses each), while the longest of the Eddic songs, The High One's Orations, has only 164 stanzas (the number of verses in stanzas fluctuates), and no other song, except Atli's Greenlandic speeches, exceeds a hundred stanzas.). Of course, the length of the poem itself says little, but the contrast is nonetheless striking. The foregoing does not mean that the Eddic hymn in all cases was limited to the development of one episode. In the "Divination of the Volva" the mythological history of the world was preserved from its creation to the death predicted by the sorceress due to the evil that penetrated into it, and even to the rebirth and renewal of the world. A number of these plots are touched upon both in Vaftrudnir's Speeches and Grimnir's Speeches. The epic coverage also characterizes the “Prophecy of Gripir”, where the entire cycle of songs about Sigurd is summed up, as it were. But the broadest pictures of mythology or heroic life in the Elder Edda are always given very concisely and even, if you like, "concisely." This "conciseness" is especially visible in the so-called "tula" - lists of mythological (and sometimes historical) names ( See The Völva's Prophecy, v. 11-13, 15, 16, Grimnir's Speeches, vv. 27 next, "The Song of Hündl", p. 11 next.). The current reader is perplexed by the abundance of proper names, which are also given without further explanation, - they do not tell him anything. But for the Scandinavian of that time, the situation was completely different! Each name in his memory was associated with a certain episode of a myth or heroic epic, and this name served him as a sign, which was usually not difficult to decipher. To understand this or that name, a specialist is forced to turn to reference books, but the memory of a medieval Icelander, more capacious and active than ours, due to the fact that we had to rely only on it, without difficulty gave him the necessary information, and when meeting this name in his the whole story relating to him unfolded in his mind. In other words, there is much more content "encoded" in the concise and relatively laconic Eddic song than it might seem to the uninitiated.

The noted circumstances are that some features of the songs of the Elder Edda seem strange and devoid of aesthetic value to modern tastes (for what artistic pleasure can now be obtained from reading unknown whose names!), Equally, the fact that these songs do not unfold in a wide epic, like the works of the Anglo-Saxon and German epic, testify to their archaism. Folklore formulas, clichés and other stylistic devices characteristic of oral versification are widely used in songs. The typological comparison of the "Elder Edda" with other monuments of the epic also makes us attribute its genesis to very remote times, in many cases earlier than the beginning of the settlement of Iceland by the Scandinavians at the end of the 9th - beginning of the 10th century. Although the surviving manuscript of the Edda is a younger contemporary of the Nibelungenlied, Eddic poetry reflects an earlier stage of cultural and social development. This is explained by the fact that pre-class relations were not eliminated in Iceland even in the 13th century, and despite the adoption of Christianity back in 1000, the Icelanders learned it relatively superficially and retained a lively connection with the ideology of the pagan times. In the "Elder Edda" one can find traces of Christian influence, but in general its spirit and content are very far from it. It is rather the spirit of the warlike Vikings, and, probably, to the Viking Age, the period of wide military and migration expansion of the Scandinavians (IX-XI centuries) , a considerable part of the Eddic poetic heritage dates back. The heroes of the Edda songs are not concerned with the salvation of the soul, the posthumous reward is a long memory left by the hero among people, and the stay of the knights who fell in battle in the hall of Odin, where they feast and engage in military amusements.

Attention is drawn to the diversity of songs, tragic and comic, elegiac monologues and dramatized dialogues, teachings are replaced by riddles, divination - stories about the beginning of the world. The tense rhetoric and frank didacticism of many of the songs contrast with the calm objectivity of the narrative prose of the Icelandic sagas. This contrast is noticeable in the Edda itself, where verses are often interspersed with prose pieces. Perhaps these were comments added later, but it is possible that the combination of a poetic text with prose formed an organic whole even at the archaic stage of the existence of the epic, giving it additional tension.

Eddic songs do not constitute a coherent unity, and it is clear that only a part of them has come down to us. Individual songs seem to be versions of the same piece; thus, in songs about Helgi, about Atli, Sigurd and Gudrun, the same plot is interpreted in different ways. Atli's Speeches is sometimes interpreted as a later extended revision of the older Atli's Song.

In general, all Eddic songs are divided into songs about gods and songs about heroes. Songs about the gods contain the richest material on mythology, this is our most important source for the knowledge of Scandinavian paganism (albeit in a very late, so to speak, “posthumous” version of it).

The image of the world, developed by the thought of the peoples of Northern Europe, largely depended on their way of life. Pastoralists, hunters, fishermen and sailors, to a lesser extent farmers, they lived in an environment of harsh and poorly mastered nature, which their rich imagination easily inhabited by hostile forces. The center of their life is a separate rural yard. Accordingly, the entire universe was modeled by them in the form of a system of estates. Just as uncultivated wastelands or rocks stretched around their estates, so the whole world was conceived by them as consisting of spheres sharply opposed to each other: “the middle estate” (Midgard ( stress on the first syllable)), that is, the human world, is surrounded by a world of monsters, giants, constantly threatening the world of culture; this wild world of chaos was called Utgard (literally: “what is beyond the fence, outside the estate”) ( The composition of Utgard includes the Country of giants - jotuns, the Country of alves - dwarfs.). Above Midgard rises Asgard - the stronghold of the gods - aces. Asgard is connected to Midgard by a bridge formed by a rainbow. The world serpent swims in the sea, its body encircles the entire Midgard. In the mythological topography of the peoples of the North, an important place is occupied by the ash tree Yggdrasil, which connects all these worlds, including the lower one - the kingdom of the dead Hel.

The dramatic situations depicted in songs about the gods usually arise as a result of collisions or contacts in which different worlds enter, opposed to one another either vertically or horizontally. One visits the kingdom of the dead - in order to force the volva to reveal the secrets of the future, and the country of the giants, where he asks Vaftrudnir. Other gods also go to the world of giants (to get a bride or Thor's hammer). However, the songs do not mention the visits of aces or giants to Midgard. The opposition of the world of culture to the world of non-culture is common to both the Eddic songs and Beowulf; as we know, in the Anglo-Saxon epic the land of people is also called the “middle world”. With all the differences between monuments and plots, here and there we are faced with the theme of the struggle against the carriers of the world's evil - giants and monsters.

As Asgard is an idealized dwelling of people, so the gods of the Scandinavians are in many ways similar to people, possess their qualities, including vices. The gods differ from people in dexterity, knowledge, especially in the possession of magic, but they are not omniscient in nature and gain knowledge from more ancient families of giants and dwarfs. The giants are the main enemies of the gods, and the gods wage an ongoing war with them. The head and leader of the gods Odin and other aces try to outwit the giants, while Thor fights them with his hammer Mjolnir. The struggle against the giants is a necessary condition for the existence of the universe; if the gods had not led her, the giants would have long ago destroyed both themselves and the human race. In this conflict, gods and humans are allies. Thor was often called the "protector of the people." One helps courageous warriors and takes the fallen heroes to him. He got the honey of poetry, sacrificing himself, got the runes - the sacred secret signs with which you can do all kinds of witchcraft. In Odin, the features of a "cultural hero" are visible - a mythical ancestor who endowed people with the necessary skills and knowledge.

The anthropomorphism of aces brings them closer to the gods of antiquity, however, unlike the latter, aces are not immortal. In the coming cosmic catastrophe, they, along with the whole world, will die in the fight against the world wolf. This gives their struggle against monsters a tragic meaning. Just as the hero of the epic knows his fate and boldly goes towards the inevitable, so do the gods: in the “Divination of the Volva”, the sorceress tells Odin about the impending fatal battle. The cosmic catastrophe will be the result of moral decline, because the aces once violated their vows, and this leads to the unleashing of evil forces in the world, which it is already impossible to control. The Völva paints an impressive picture of the termination of all sacred ties: see stanza 45 of her prophecies, where the worst thing that can happen to a person is predicted, in the opinion of members of a society in which tribal traditions are still strong, feuds will break out between relatives, “brothers will begin to fight each other with friend...".

The Hellenic gods had their favorites and wards among the people, who were helped in every possible way. The main thing among the Scandinavians is not the patronage of a deity to a separate tribe or individual, but the consciousness of the common destinies of gods and people in their conflict with the forces that bring decline and final death to all living things. Therefore, instead of a bright and joyful picture of Hellenic mythology, the Eddic songs about the gods paint a situation full of tragedy of the universal world movement towards an inexorable fate.

The hero in the face of Fate is the central theme of heroic songs. Usually the hero is aware of his fate: either he is gifted with the ability to penetrate into the future, or someone has revealed it to him. What should be the position of a person who knows in advance about the troubles that threaten him and the final death? This is the problem to which the Eddic songs offer an unequivocal and courageous answer. The knowledge of fate does not plunge the hero into a fatalistic apathy and does not induce him to try to evade the doom that threatens him; on the contrary, being sure that what has fallen to him is inevitable, he defies fate, boldly accepts it, caring only for posthumous glory. Invited by the insidious Atli, Gunnar knows in advance about the danger that lies in wait for him, but without hesitation sets off on his way: this is what a sense of heroic honor tells him to do. Refusing to pay off death with gold, he perishes. “... So the brave one, who gives rings, should protect goodness!” ("The Greenlandic Song of Atli", 31).

But the highest good is the good name of a hero. Everything is transient, say the aphorisms of worldly wisdom, and relatives, and wealth, and one's own life, - only the glory of the exploits of the hero remains forever ("Speech of the High", 76, 77). As in Beowulf, in the Eddic songs, glory is denoted by a term that simultaneously had the meaning of “sentence” (Old Norse domr, Old English dom), the hero is concerned that his deeds should not be forgotten by people. For it is the people who judge him, and not any supreme authority. The heroic songs of the Edda, despite the fact that they existed in the Christian era, do not mention God's judgment, everything happens on earth, and the hero's attention is riveted to it.

Unlike the characters of the Anglo-Saxon epic - leaders who lead kingdoms or squads, Scandinavian heroes act alone. There is no historical background ( The "Song of Khlod", which keeps the echoes of some historical events, seems to be an exception.), and the kings of the era of the Great Migrations mentioned in the Edda [Atli - king of the Huns Attila, Jormunrekk - the Ostrogothic king Germanaric (Ermanarich), Gunnar - the Burgundian king Gundacharius] have lost all connection with history. Meanwhile, the Icelanders of that time were closely interested in history, and from the 12th and 13th centuries, many historical works created by them have been preserved. The point, therefore, is not in their lack of historical consciousness, but in the peculiarities of the interpretation of the material in Icelandic heroic songs. The author of the song focuses all his attention exclusively on the hero, on his position in life and fate ( There was no state in Iceland during the recording of heroic songs; meanwhile, historical motifs intensively penetrate into the epic, usually in conditions of state consolidation.).

Another difference between the Eddic epic and the Anglo-Saxon epic is a higher appreciation of women and interest in her. Queens appear in Beowulf, serving as an ornament to the court and a guarantee of peace and friendly ties between the tribes, but that's all. What a striking contrast to this are the heroines of Icelandic songs! Before us are bright, strong natures, capable of the most extreme, decisive actions that determine the entire course of events. The role of women in the heroic songs of the Edda is no less than that of men. Revenging for the deceit into which she was introduced, Brynhild achieves the death of her beloved Sigurd and kills herself, not wanting to live after his death: “... a wife was not weak if she goes alive // to the grave for a stranger’s husband ...” ("Short Song of Sigurd", 41). Sigurd's widow Gudrun is also seized with a thirst for revenge: but she takes revenge not on her brothers - the perpetrators of Sigurd's death, but on her second husband, Atli, who killed her brothers; in this case, the kindred duty operates flawlessly, and the victims of her revenge fall primarily on their sons, whose bloody meat Gudrun serves Atli as a treat, after which she kills her husband and dies herself in the fire ignited by her. These monstrous acts nevertheless have a certain logic: they do not mean that Gudrun was deprived of the feeling of motherhood. But her children from Atli were not members of her family, they were part of the Atli family; did not belong to her family and Sigurd. Therefore, Gudrun must take revenge on Atli for the death of her brothers, her closest relatives, but she does not take revenge on her brothers for killing Sigurd by them - even the thought of such a possibility does not occur to her! Let's remember this - after all, the plot of the Nibelungenlied goes back to the same legends, but develops in a completely different way.

Tribal consciousness generally dominates in songs about heroes. The convergence of legends of different origins, both borrowed from the south and Scandinavian ones proper, and combining them into cycles, was accompanied by the establishment of a common genealogy of the characters appearing in them. Högni was turned from a vassal of the Burgundian kings into their brother. Brynhild received a father and, more importantly, Atli's brother, as a result of which her death turned out to be causally connected with the death of the Burgundian Gyukungs: Atli lured them to him and killed them, carrying out blood vengeance for his sister. Sigurd had ancestors - the Volsungs, a clan that ascended to Odin. Sigurd also “married” with the hero of an initially completely separate legend - Helgi, they became brothers, sons of Sigmund. In the "Song of Hyundl" the lists of noble families are in the center of attention, and the giantess Hyundla, who tells the young man Ottar about his ancestors, reveals to him that he is related to all the famous families of the North, including the Volsungs, Gyukungs and eventually account even with the aces themselves.

The artistic and cultural-historical significance of the Elder Edda is enormous. It occupies one of the honorable places in the world literature. The images of the Eddic songs, along with the images of the sagas, supported the Icelanders throughout their difficult history, especially at a time when this small nation, deprived of national independence, was almost doomed to extinction as a result of foreign exploitation, and from hunger and epidemics. The memory of the heroic and legendary past gave the Icelanders the strength to hold out and not die.

Song of the Nibelungs

In the Nibelungenlied, we again meet with heroes known from Eddic poetry: Siegfried (Sigurd), Kriemhild (Gudrun), Brunhild (Brunhild), Gunther (Gunnar), Etzel (Atli), Hagen (Högni). Their deeds and destinies have captured the imagination of Scandinavians and Germans for centuries. But how different are the interpretations of the same characters and plots! A comparison of Icelandic songs with the German epic shows what great opportunities for original poetic interpretation existed within the framework of one epic tradition. The "historical core" to which this tradition ascended, the death of the Burgundian kingdom in 437 and the death of the Hunnic king Attila in 453, served as an occasion for the emergence of highly original artistic creations. On Icelandic and German soil, works have developed that are deeply dissimilar to each other both in artistic terms and in their assessment and understanding of the reality they depicted.

Researchers separate the elements of myth and fairy tale from historical facts and truthful sketches of morality and everyday life, discover in the Nibelungenlied old and new layers and contradictions between them, which were not smoothed out in the final version of the song. But were all these “seams”, inconsistencies and layers noticeable to people of that time? We have already had occasion to express doubt that "poetry" and "truth" were as clearly opposed in the Middle Ages as in modern times. Despite the fact that the true events of the history of the Burgundians or the Huns are distorted beyond recognition in the Nibelungenlied, it can be assumed that the author and his readers perceived the song as a historical narrative, truthfully, due to its artistic persuasiveness, depicting the affairs of past centuries.

Each era explains history in its own way, based on its inherent understanding of social causality. How does the Nibelungenlied paint the past of peoples and kingdoms? The historical destinies of the states are embodied in the history of the ruling houses. The Burgundians are, in fact, Gunther and his brothers, and the death of the Burgundian kingdom consists in the extermination of its rulers and their troops. In the same way, the Hunnic state is entirely concentrated in Etzel. The poetic consciousness of the Middle Ages draws historical conflicts in the form of a clash of individuals whose behavior is determined by their passions, relationships of personal loyalty or blood feud, the code of tribal and personal honor. But at the same time, the epic elevates the individual to the rank of the historical. In order to make this clear, it is enough to outline, in the most general terms, the plot of the Nibelungenlied.

At the court of the Burgundian kings, the famous hero Siegfried of the Netherlands appears and falls in love with their sister Kriemhild. King Gunther himself wants to marry the Icelandic queen Brynhild. Siegfried undertakes to help him in the matchmaking. But this help is connected with deceit: the heroic feat, the accomplishment of which is a condition for the success of the matchmaking, was actually not done by Gunther, but by Siegfried, who took refuge under an invisibility cloak. Brynhild could not fail to notice the valor of Siegfried, but she is assured that he is only a vassal of Gunther, and she grieves because of the misalliance that her husband's sister entered into, thereby infringing on her class pride. Years later, at the insistence of Brynhilde, Gunther invites Siegfried and Kriemhilda to his place in Worms, and here, during a skirmish between queens (whose husband is more valiant?), the deceit is revealed. The offended Brynhild takes revenge on the offender Siegfried, who had the imprudence to give his wife the ring and belt he had taken from Brynhild. Revenge is carried out by Gunther's vassal Hagen. The hero is treacherously killed on a hunt, and the golden treasure, once won by Siegfried from the fabulous Nibelungs, the kings manage to lure from Kriemhild, and Hagen hides it in the waters of the Rhine. Thirteen years have passed. The Hun ruler Etzel has become a widower and is looking for a new wife. Word of Kriemhild's beauty has reached his court, and he sends an embassy to Worms. After a long struggle, the inconsolable widow Siegfried agrees to a second marriage in order to obtain the means to avenge the murder of her beloved. Thirteen years later, she gets Etzel to invite her brothers to visit them. Despite Hagen's attempts to prevent a visit that threatens to be fatal, the Burgundians and their retinue set off from the Rhine to the Danube. (In this part of the song, the Burgundians are called Nibelungs.) Almost immediately after their arrival, a quarrel breaks out, developing into a general massacre, in which the Burgundian and Hun squads, the son of Kriemhild and Etzel, the closest close associates of the kings and Gunnar's brothers die. At last Gunnar and Hagen are in the hands of the vengeful queen; she orders her brother to be beheaded, after which she kills Hagen with her own hands. Old Hildebrand, the only surviving combatant of King Dietrich of Bern, punishes Kriemhilda. Etzel and Dietrich, groaning from grief, remain alive. Thus ends "the story of the death of the Nibelungs."

In a few sentences, only the bare bones of the plot of a huge poem can be recounted. The epic, unhurried narrative depicts in detail court leisure and knightly tournaments, feasts and wars, scenes of matchmaking and hunting, travel to distant lands, and all other aspects of the magnificent and refined courtly life. The poet literally with sensual joy tells about rich weapons and precious robes, gifts that the rulers reward the knights, and the owners give to the guests. All these static images were undoubtedly of no less interest to the medieval audience than the dramatic events themselves. The battles are also depicted in great detail, and although large numbers of warriors take part in them, the fights in which the main characters enter are given in a "close-up". The song constantly anticipates the tragic outcome. Often such predictions of a fatal fate emerge in pictures of well-being and festivities - the awareness of the contrast between the present and the future gave rise to a feeling of intense expectation in the reader, despite his notorious knowledge of the plot, and cemented the epic as an artistic whole. The characters are delineated with exceptional clarity, they can not be confused with each other. Of course, the hero of an epic work is not a character in the modern sense, not the owner of unique properties, a special individual psychology. An epic hero is a type, the embodiment of qualities that were recognized in that era as the most significant or exemplary. The Nibelungenlied originated in a society essentially different from the Icelandic "people's rule" and underwent final processing at a time when feudal relations in Germany, having reached their peak, revealed their inherent contradictions, in particular the contradictions between the aristocratic elite and petty chivalry. The song expresses the ideals of feudal society: the ideal of vassal loyalty to the master and chivalrous service to the lady, the ideal of the ruler, who cares about the welfare of his subjects and generously rewards the vassals.

However, the German heroic epic is not content with demonstrating these ideals. His heroes, unlike the heroes of the chivalric novel, which arose in France and was adopted in Germany just at that time, do not pass safely from one adventure to another; they find themselves in situations in which following the code of knightly honor leads them to their death. Glitter and joy go hand in hand with suffering and death. This awareness of the closeness of such opposite principles, which is also inherent in the heroic songs of the Edda, forms the leitmotif of the Nibelungenlied, in the very first stanza of which the theme is indicated: “feasts, fun, misfortune and grief”, as well as “bloody feuds”. Every joy ends in grief - the whole epic is permeated with this thought. The moral precepts of behavior, obligatory for a noble warrior, are tested in the song, and not all of its characters stand the test with honor.

In this regard, the figures of kings are indicative, courtly and generous, but at the same time constantly revealing their failure. Gunther takes possession of Brynhild only with the help of Siegfried, in comparison with whom he loses both as a man, and as a warrior, and as a man of honor. The scene in the royal bedchamber, when the angry Brynhilde, instead of giving herself to the groom, binds him and hangs him on a nail, naturally, caused laughter from the audience. In many situations, the Burgundian king shows treachery and cowardice. Courage awakens in Gunther only at the end of the poem. And Etzel? At a critical moment, his virtues turn into indecision, bordering on complete paralysis of the will. From the hall where his people are being killed and where Hagen has just hacked to death his son, the Hun king is saved by Dietrich; Etzel goes so far as to beg his vassal for help on his knees! He remains in a daze until the end, able only to mourn the innumerable victims. Among kings, the exception is Dietrich of Bern, who tries to play the role of conciliator of warring cliques, but without success. He is the only one, besides Etzel, who remains alive, and some researchers see in this a glimmer of hope left by the poet after he painted a picture of universal death; but Dietrich, a model of "courtly humanity", is left to live a lonely exile, deprived of all friends and vassals.

The heroic epic existed in Germany at the courts of large feudal lords. But the poets who created it, relying on German heroic traditions, apparently belonged to petty chivalry ( It is possible, however, that the Nibelungenlied was written by a clergyman. See notes.). This, in particular, explains their passion for praising princely generosity and for describing the gifts unrestrainedly squandered by lords to vassals, friends and guests. Is it not for this reason that the behavior of the faithful vassal turns out to be closer to the ideal in the epic than the behavior of the sovereign, who is increasingly turning into a static figure? Such is Margrave Rüdeger, faced with a dilemma: to take the side of friends or in defense of the lord, and who fell victim to fealty to Etzel. The symbol of his tragedy, very intelligible for a medieval person, was that the margrave died from the sword, which he himself presented, having given Hagen, a former friend, and now an enemy, his battle shield. Rüdeger embodies the ideal qualities of a knight, vassal and friend, but when faced with the harsh reality of their owner, a tragic fate awaits. The conflict between the requirements of vassal ethics, which does not take into account the personal inclinations and feelings of the participants in the fief treaty, and the moral principles of friendship are revealed in this episode with greater depth than anywhere else in medieval German poetry.

Högni does not play a major role in the Elder Edda. In the Nibelungenlied, Hagen rises to the forefront. His enmity with Kriemhild is the driving force behind the entire narrative. The gloomy, ruthless, prudent Hagen, without hesitation, goes to the treacherous murder of Siegfried, slays the innocent son of Krimhilda with a sword, makes every effort to drown the chaplain in the Rhine. At the same time, Hagen is a powerful, invincible and fearless warrior. Of all the Burgundians, he alone clearly understands the meaning of the invitation to Etzel: Kriemhild did not leave the thought of avenging Siegfried and considers him, Hagen, her main enemy. Nevertheless, energetically discouraging the Worms kings from going to the Hunnic state, he stops the disputes as soon as one of them reproaches him for cowardice. Having made up his mind, he shows maximum energy in the implementation of the adopted plan. Before crossing the Rhine, the prophetic wives reveal to Hagen that none of the Burgundians will return alive from the land of Etzel. But, knowing the fate to which they are doomed, Hagen destroys the canoe - the only way to cross the river so that no one can retreat. In Hagen, perhaps to a greater extent than in other heroes of the song, the old German faith in Fate is alive, which must be actively accepted. Not only does he not avoid a collision with Kriemhild, but he deliberately provokes it. What is the scene alone, when Hagen and his associate Shpilman Volker are sitting on a bench and Hagen refuses to stand in front of the approaching queen, defiantly playing with the sword, which he once removed from Siegfried, who he killed.

As gloomy as many of Hagen's deeds look, the song does not render him a moral verdict. This is probably explained both by the author's position (the author, who retells the "tellings of bygone days", refrains from active interference in the narrative and from assessments), and by the fact that Hagen was hardly presented as an unequivocal figure. He is a loyal vassal, serving his kings to the end. Unlike Rüdeger and other knights, Hagen is devoid of any courtesy. He has more of an old German hero than a refined knight familiar with the refined manners adopted from France. We know nothing about any of his marital and love affections. Meanwhile, serving a lady is an integral feature of courtesy. Hagen, as it were, personifies the past - heroic, but already overcome by a new, more complex culture.

In general, the difference between the old and the new is more clearly recognized in the Nibelungenlied than in the German poetry of the early Middle Ages. Fragments of earlier works that seem “undigested” to individual researchers in the context of the German epic (the themes of Siegfried’s fight with the dragon, his retaking of the treasure from the Nibelungs, martial arts with Brynhild, prophetic sisters predicting the death of the Burgundians, etc.), regardless of the author’s conscious intention , perform a certain function in it: they impart an archaic character to the narrative, which allows you to establish a temporal distance between modernity and bygone days. Probably, other scenes, marked by the seal of logical inconsistency, also served this purpose: the crossing of a huge army in one boat, which Hagen managed in a day, or the battle of hundreds and thousands of soldiers taking place in the banquet hall of Etzel, or the successful repulsion by two heroes of the attack of a whole horde of Huns . In an epic that tells about the past, such things are permissible, because in the old days the miraculous turned out to be possible. Time has brought great changes, as the poet says, and this also shows the medieval sense of history.

Of course, this sense of history is very peculiar. Time does not flow in the epic in a continuous stream - it goes, as it were, in jolts. Life is at rest rather than moving. Despite the fact that the song covers a time period of almost forty years, the characters do not age. But this state of rest is disturbed by the actions of the heroes, and then a significant time comes. At the end of the action, the time "turns off". "Spasmodic" is inherent in the characters of the characters. At the beginning Kriemhilda is a meek girl, then a heartbroken widow, in the second half of the song she is a “devil” seized with a thirst for revenge. These changes are outwardly conditioned by events, but there is no psychological motivation for such a sharp change in Krimhilda's state of mind in the song. Medieval people did not imagine the development of personality. Human types play in the epic the roles assigned to them by fate and the situation in which they are placed.

The Nibelungenlied was the result of reworking the material of Germanic heroic songs and tales into an epic on a large scale. This reworking was accompanied by gains and losses. Acquisitions - for the nameless author of the epic made the ancient legends sound in a new way and managed to unusually clearly and colorfully ( Colorful in the literal sense of the word: the author willingly and tastefully gives the color characteristics of the clothes, jewelry and weapons of the heroes. The contrasts and combinations of red, gold, white colors in his descriptions are vividly reminiscent of a medieval book miniature. The poet himself, as it were, has it before his eyes (see stanza 286).), to expand in detail every scene of the legends about Siegfried and Kriemhild, more concisely and concisely presented in the works of his predecessors. It took an outstanding talent and great art to ensure that the songs, which numbered more than one century, again acquired relevance and artistic power for the people of the 13th century, who in many respects already had completely different tastes and interests. Losses - for the transition from high heroism and pathos of the inexorable struggle with Fate, inherent in the early German epic, up to the "will to die", which owned the hero of ancient songs, to greater elegiacism and glorification of suffering, to lamentations of sorrows that invariably accompany human joys, the transition, certainly incomplete, but nonetheless quite clear, was accompanied by the loss of the epic hero's former integrity and solidity, as well as the well-known refinement of the subject matter due to a compromise between the pagan and Christian-knightly traditions; The "swelling" of old lapidary songs into a verbose epic abounding in inserted episodes led to some weakening of the dynamism and tension of presentation. The Nibelungenlied was born out of the needs of a new ethic and new aesthetics, which in many respects departed from the canons of the archaic epic of the barbarian era. The forms in which ideas about human honor and dignity are expressed here, about the methods of their assertion, belong to the feudal era. But the intensity of the passions that overwhelmed the heroes of the epic, the sharp conflicts in which fate collides them, still cannot but captivate and shock the reader.

The literature of the western early Middle Ages was created by new peoples inhabiting the western part of Europe, the Celts (Britons, Gauls, Belgae, Helvetians) and the ancient Germans living between the Danube and the Rhine, near the North Sea and in southern Scandinavia (Suevi, Goths, Burgundians, Cherusci, Angles, Saxons, etc.).

These peoples first worshiped pagan tribal gods, and later adopted Christianity and believed, but, in the end, the Germanic tribes conquered the Celts and occupied the territory of present-day France, England and Scandinavia. The literature of these peoples is represented by the following works:

1. Stories about the life of saints - hagiographies. "Lives of the Saints", visions and spells;
2. Encyclopedic, scientific and historiographic works.

Isidore of Seville (c.560-636) - "etymologies, or beginnings"; Bede the Venerable (ca. 637-735) - “about the nature of things” and “the church history of the people of the Angles”, Jordanes - “about the origin of the deeds of the Goths”; Alcuin (c.732-804) - treatises on rhetoric, grammar, dialectics; Einhard (c.770-840) "Biography of Charlemagne";

3. Mythology and heroic epic poems, sagas and songs of the Celtic and Germanic tribes. Icelandic sagas, Irish epic, Elder Edda, Younger Edda, Beowulf, Karelian-Finnish epic Kalevala.

The heroic epic is one of the most characteristic and popular genres of the European Middle Ages. In France, it existed in the form of poems called gestures, i.e. songs about deeds, exploits. The thematic basis of the gesture is made up of real historical events, most of which date back to the 8th - 10th centuries. Probably, immediately after these events, legends and legends about them arose. It is also possible that these legends originally existed in the form of short episodic songs or prose stories that developed in the pre-knight's militia. However, very early, episodic tales went beyond this environment, spread among the masses and became the property of the whole society: they were listened with equal enthusiasm not only by the military estate, but also by the clergy, merchants, artisans, and peasants.

The heroic epic, as an integral picture of folk life, was the most significant legacy of the literature of the early Middle Ages and occupied an important place in the artistic culture of Western Europe. According to Tacitus, songs about gods and heroes replaced history for the barbarians. The oldest is the Irish epic. It is formed from the 3rd to the 8th centuries. Created by the people in the pagan period, epic poems about warrior heroes first existed in oral form and were passed from mouth to mouth. They were sung and recited in a singsong voice by folk storytellers. Later, in the 7th and 8th centuries, after Christianization, they were revised and written down by learned poets, whose names remained unchanged. Epic works are characterized by the chanting of the exploits of heroes; interweaving of historical background and fiction; glorification of the heroic strength and exploits of the main characters; idealization of the feudal state.

Features of the heroic epic:

1. The epic was created in the conditions of the development of feudal relations;
2. The epic picture of the world reproduces feudal relations, idealizes a strong feudal state and reflects Christian beliefs, hr. ideals;
3. With regard to history, the historical basis is clearly visible, but at the same time it is idealized, hyperbolized;
4. Heroes - defenders of the state, the king, the independence of the country and the Christian faith. All this is interpreted in the epic as a public affair;
5. The epic is associated with a folk tale, with historical chronicles, sometimes with a chivalric romance;
6. The epic has been preserved in the countries of continental Europe (Germany, France).

The heroic epic was greatly influenced by Celtic and Norse mythology. Often epic and myths are so connected and intertwined with each other that it is quite difficult to draw a line between them. This connection is reflected in a special form of epic tales - sagas - Old Norse prose narratives (the Icelandic word "saga" comes from the verb "to say"). Sagas were composed by Scandinavian poets of the 9th-12th centuries. - scalds. The Old Icelandic sagas are very diverse: the sagas about kings, the saga of the Icelanders, the sagas of ancient times ("The Saga of the Velsungs").

The collection of these sagas has come down to us in the form of two Eddas: the Elder Edda and the Younger Edda. The Younger Edda is a prose retelling of ancient Germanic myths and legends, made by the Icelandic historian and poet Snorri Sjurluson in 1222-1223. The Elder Edda is a collection of twelve verse songs about gods and heroes. The compressed and dynamic songs of the Elder Edda, dating back to the 5th century and apparently written down in the 10th-11th centuries, are divided into two groups: tales about gods and tales about heroes. The chief of the gods is the one-eyed Odin, who was originally the god of war. The second most important after Odin is the god of thunder and fertility Thor. The third is the evil god Loki. And the most significant hero is the hero Sigurd. The heroic songs of the Elder Edda are based on all-Germanic epic tales about the gold of the Nibelungs, on which there is a curse and which brings misfortune to everyone.

Sagas also became widespread in Ireland, the largest center of Celtic culture in the Middle Ages. It was the only country in Western Europe where the foot of a Roman legionnaire had not set foot. Irish legends were created and passed on to their descendants by druids (priests), bards (singers-poets) and felids (soothsayers). A clear and concise Irish epic was formed not in verse, but in prose. It can be divided into heroic sagas and fantastic sagas. The main hero of the heroic sagas was the noble, just and courageous Cuchulainn. His mother is the king's sister and his father is the god of light. Cuchulainn had three faults: he was too young, too bold, and too beautiful. In the image of Cuchulainn, ancient Ireland embodied its ideal of valor and moral perfection.

In epic works, real historical events and fairy-tale fantasy are often intertwined. Thus, the "Song of Hildenbrand" was created on a historical basis - the struggle of the Ostrogothic king Theodoric with Odoacer. This ancient German epic of the era of the migration of peoples originated in the pagan era and was found in a manuscript of the 9th century. This is the only monument of the German epic that has come down to us in song form.

In the poem "Beowulf" - the heroic epic of the Anglo-Saxons, which has come down to us in a manuscript of the early 10th century, the fantastic adventures of the heroes also take place against the backdrop of historical events. The world of "Beowulf" is the world of kings and vigilantes, the world of feasts, battles and fights. The hero of the poem is Beowulf, a brave and generous warrior from the people of the Gauts, who performs feats and is always ready to help people. Beowulf is generous, merciful, faithful to the leader and greedy for glory and rewards, he accomplished many feats, opposed the monster and destroyed it; defeated another monster in an underwater dwelling - Grendel's mother; entered into battle with a fire-breathing dragon, which was enraged by the attempt on the ancient treasure guarded by him and devastated the country. At the cost of his own life, Beowulf managed to defeat the dragon. The song ends with a scene of the solemn burning of the hero's body on a funeral pyre and the construction of a mound over his ashes. Thus, the familiar theme of gold, which brings misfortune, appears in the poem. This theme would be used later in chivalric literature as well.

The immortal monument of folk art is "Kalevala" - the Karelian-Finnish epic about the exploits and adventures of the heroes of the fairy-tale land of Kalev. "Kalevala" is composed of folk songs (runes), which were collected and recorded by a native of a Finnish peasant family, Elias Lennrot, and published in 1835 and 1849. runes are the letters of the alphabet carved on wood or stone, which were used by the Scandinavian and other Germanic peoples for religious and commemorative inscriptions. The whole "Kalevala" is a tireless praise of human labor, there is not even a hint of "court" poetry in it.

In the French epic poem "The Song of Roland", which has come down to us in a manuscript of the 12th century, it tells about the Spanish campaign of Charlemagne in 778, and the main character of the poem, Roland, has his own historical prototype. True, the campaign against the Basques turned into a seven-year war with the "infidels" in the poem, and Charles himself - from a 36-year-old man into a gray-haired old man. The central episode of the poem - the Battle of Roncevalle, glorifies the courage of people who are faithful to their duty and "sweet France".

The ideological intent of the legend is revealed by comparing the "Song of Roland" with those historical facts that underlie this legend. In 778, Charlemagne intervened in the internal strife of the Spanish Moors, agreeing to help one of the Muslim kings against another. Having crossed the Pyrenees, Charles took several cities and laid siege to Zaragoza, but after standing under its walls for several weeks, he had to return to France with nothing. When he was returning back through the Pyrenees, the Basques, annoyed by the passage of foreign troops through their fields and villages, ambushed the Ronceval Gorge and, attacking the French rearguard, killed many of them. A short and fruitless expedition to northern Spain, which had nothing to do with religious struggle and ended in a not particularly significant, but still unfortunate military failure, was turned by storytellers into a picture of a seven-year war that ended in the conquest of all of Spain, then - a terrible catastrophe during the retreat of the French army, and here the enemies were not Basque Christians, but all the same Moors, and, finally, a picture of revenge from Charles in the form of a grandiose, truly “worldwide” battle of the French with the connecting forces of the entire Muslim world.

In addition to the hyperbolization typical of the entire folk epic, which affected not only the scale of the events depicted, but also in the pictures of the superhuman strength and dexterity of individual characters, as well as in the idealization of the main characters (Roland, Karl, Turpin), the saturation of the entire story with the idea of a religious struggle against Islam is characteristic. and the special mission of France in this struggle. This idea found its vivid expression in the numerous prayers, heavenly signs, religious appeals that fill the poem, in the denigration of the "pagans" - the Moors, in the repeated emphasis on the special protection provided to Charles by God, in the image of Roland as a knight-vassal of Charles and a vassal of the Lord, to whom he before his death, he stretches out his glove, as if to an overlord, finally, in the form of Archbishop Turpin, who with one hand blesses the French knights for battle and absolves the dying of sins, and with the other he himself strikes enemies, personifying the unity of the sword and the cross in the fight against the "infidels".

However, the "Song of Roland" is far from exhausted by its national-religious idea. It reflected with great force the socio-political contradictions characteristic of the intensively developing in the 10th - 11th centuries. feudalism. This problem is introduced into the poem by the episode of Ganelon's betrayal. The reason for including this episode in the legend could be the desire of the singer-narrators to explain the defeat of the “invincible” army of Charlemagne as an external fatal reason. But Ganelon is not just a traitor, but the expression of some evil principle, hostile to any public cause, the personification of feudal, anarchist egoism. This beginning is shown in the poem in all its strength, with great artistic objectivity. Ganelon is depicted by no means as some kind of physical and moral freak. This is a majestic and brave fighter. The Song of Roland does not so much reveal the blackness of an individual traitor - Ganelon, as it exposes the fatality for the native country of that feudal, anarchic egoism, of which Ganelon is, in some respects, a brilliant representative.

Along with this opposition of Roland and Ganelon, another opposition runs through the whole poem, less sharp, but just as fundamental - Roland and his beloved friend, the betrothed brother Olivier. Here not two hostile forces collide, but two variants of the same positive principle.

Roland in the poem is a mighty and brilliant knight, impeccable in the performance of his vassal duty. He is an example of knightly prowess and nobility. But the deep connection of the poem with folk songwriting and folk understanding of heroism was reflected in the fact that all the knightly traits of Roland were given by the poet in a humanized form, freed from class limitations. Roland is alien to heroism, cruelty, greed, anarchic willfulness of the feudal lords. He feels an excess of youthful strength, a joyful faith in the rightness of his cause and in his luck, a passionate thirst for a disinterested feat. Full of proud self-consciousness, but at the same time devoid of any arrogance or self-interest, he devotes his entire strength to serving the king, people, and homeland. Seriously wounded, having lost all his comrades-in-arms in battle, Roland climbs a high hill, lies down on the ground, puts his faithful sword and Olifan's horn next to him and turns his face towards Spain so that the emperor knows that he "died, but won in battle." For Roland, there is no more tender and sacred word than "dear France"; with the thought of her, he dies. All this made Roland, despite his knightly appearance, a true folk hero, understandable and close to everyone.

Olivier is a friend and brother, Roland's "dashing brother", a valiant knight who prefers death to the dishonor of retreat. In the poem, Olivier characterizes the epithet "reasonable". Three times Olivier tries to convince Roland to blow Olifan's horn to call for help from the army of Charlemagne, but three times Roland refuses to do so. Olivier dies along with a friend, praying before his death "for the dear native land."

Emperor Charlemagne is Roland's uncle. His image in the poem is a somewhat exaggerated image of the old wise leader. In the poem, Karl is 200 years old, although in fact, by the time of the real events in Spain, he was no more than 36. The power of his empire is also greatly exaggerated in the poem. The author includes in it both countries that really belonged to her, and those that were not included in it. The emperor can only be compared with God: in order to have time to punish the Saracens before sunset, he is able to stop the sun. On the eve of the death of Roland and his troops, Charlemagne sees a prophetic dream, but he can no longer prevent the betrayal, but only pours "streams of tears." The image of Charlemagne resembles the image of Jesus Christ - the reader is presented with his twelve peers (compare with the 12 apostles) and the traitor Ganelon.

Ganelon - vassal of Charlemagne, stepfather of the protagonist of the poem, Roland. The emperor, on the advice of Roland, sends Ganelon to negotiate with the Saracen king Marsilius. This is a very dangerous mission, and Ganelon decides to take revenge on his stepson. He enters into a treacherous agreement with Marsilius and, returning to the emperor, convinces him to leave Spain. At the instigation of Ganelon, in the Ronceval Gorge in the Pyrenees, the rearguard of Charlemagne's troops led by Roland is attacked by outnumbered Saracens. Roland, his friends and all his troops perish, without stepping back from Ronceval. Ganelon personifies in the poem feudal selfishness and arrogance, bordering on betrayal and dishonor. Outwardly, Ganelon is handsome and valiant (“he is fresh-faced, in appearance and bold and proud. That was a daring man, be honest with him”). Disregarding military honor and following only the desire to take revenge on Roland, Ganelon becomes a traitor. Because of him, the best warriors of France die, so the ending of the poem - the scene of the trial and execution of Ganelon - is natural. Archbishop Turpin is a warrior-priest who bravely fights the "infidels" and blesses the Franks for battle. The idea of a special mission of France in the national-religious struggle against the Saracens is connected with his image. Turpen is proud of his people, who in their fearlessness cannot be compared with any other.

The Spanish heroic epic "Song of Side" reflected the events of the reconquista - the Spaniards conquering their country from the Arabs. The protagonist of the poem is Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar (1040 - 1099), a well-known figure in the reconquista, whom the Arabs called Cid (lord).

The story of Cid has provided material for many gothapsego and chronicles.

The main poetic tales about Sid that have come down to us are:

1) a cycle of poems about King Sancho the 2nd and about the siege of Samara in the 13th - 14th centuries, according to the historian of Spanish literature F. Kel'in, “serving as a kind of prologue to“ The Song of My Side ”;
2) the “Song of My Sid” itself, created around 1140, probably by one of Sid’s warriors, and preserved in a single copy of the 14th century with heavy losses;
3) and a poem, or rhymed chronicle, "Rodrigo" in 1125 verses and adjoining romances about Side.

In the German epic "The Song of the Nibelungs", which finally took shape from individual songs into an epic legend in the 12th-13th centuries, there is both a historical basis and a fairy tale-fiction. The epic reflects the events of the Great Migration of Peoples of the 4th-5th centuries. there is also a real historical person - the formidable leader Atilla, who turned into a kind, weak-willed Etzel. The poem consists of 39 songs - "ventures". The action of the poem takes us to the world of court festivities, jousting tournaments and beautiful ladies. The protagonist of the poem is the Dutch prince Siegfried, a young knight who accomplished many miraculous feats. He is bold and courageous, young and handsome, bold and arrogant. But the fate of Siegfried and his future wife Kriemhild was tragic, for whom the treasure with the gold of the Nibelungs became fatal.

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