![]() ![]() ![]() The result is great for study, especially with the excellent notes and glossaries that fill the Oxford Worlds Classics edition in print. Unfortunately Cyril Edwards’ translation is one that tries to capture some of the difficulty of Eschenbach’s style in English - at least so the translator himself says. He writes in a digressive, allusive style, and his syntax is reportedly knotty and obscure. After that, everything runs smoothly.Įschenbach is a tough nut to crack at the best of times. Leighton Pugh’s performance gets off to a rocky start, due either to a technical issue with the first few minutes of the recording or a hesitancy on Pugh’s part as he settles into the rhythm of Edwards’ prose. As always with audiobooks, the narrator has a lot to do with that enjoyment. Be that as it may, it is also extremely enjoyable. Even Wolfram’s contemporaries thought this one a bit much. But as Edwards observes, the French poet, “is, if you like, Romanesque, clean-lined and restrained, while Wolfram is exuberant and Gothic”. Given the date of authorship (1200-1210?), I expected something akin to Chretien de Troye's romances. Beyond tracing the development of the Arthurian tradition and placing Wolfram’s poem within that tradition, he offers a helpful roadmap through this rather tangled Germanic wildwood. You'll find the entire introduction included in the print sample of Cyril Edwards’ translation on Amazon, and a good thing, too. Before Hearing the Story, Read the Introduction ![]()
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