Abstrakt
The monography deals with the various aspects of writing and literacy in Middle High German epic texts during the courtly period of the 13th century. The time around 1200 is concerned to be a time of change in many areas, especially refering to literacy and the dissemination and availability of written knowledge.
Taking our knowledge about the historic situation only as a vague background, the author is interested in every act of reading and writing, in every written document or metaphor mentioned in selected courtly texts, in every figure who reads or writes as well as in the narrator's utterances about literacy. Although there is a pretty large number of isolated examinations about literacy in the Middle Ages, a systematical approach to the negotiation of reading, writing and literacy in literary texts tries to bring forth results which are quite different from what one might have expected and maybe change what we think to know about the past. - Including a presentation of the Middle High German texts and a concordance of important words and phrases.