Altdeutsche Textb.115 Kudrun

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [xxvi]-xxviii) and indexes; Text in Middle High German; commentary in modern German. Publisher Marketing: The growing research interest in the ANibelungenliedA and problems of heroic literature in general has also led to heightened interest in AKudrunA. The verse epic is much influenced by the ANibelungenliedA and is cast in a stanza form derived from the ANibelungenA stanza. At the same time it presents a complementary view of the events in question. Here the decline of heroism is not the main theme of the plot but its replacement by the new, gentler spirit of courtly mores. In its central section the poem is a paean to the superiority of female constancy and capacity for uncomplaining suffering over the gory heroics of the declining era.