15398. Buber, Martin, 1878-1965, translator. Die vier Zweige des Mabinogi. Ein keltisches Sagenbuch. Leipzig: Insel, 1914, 121pp., very good original white decorated half-pergament with gray paper-covered boards, heavy foxing on endpapers, $85
Includes an unsigned 6pp. introduction. Epic prose from Wales, around the 11th to 13th century. Buber's introduction locates the bards somewhere after the separation of epic from myth as reality, but still within firm traditions of "race" and "type" (Artgleichheit, Rassentradition). They may be alienated from the sacred force of myth, but they serve the pure, powerful force of poetry. The conclusion suggests a leaning towards Simmel and away from ecstatic mysticism.

7652. Niedner, Felix, 1859-1934, hrsg. Edda. Erster Band: Heldendichtung. Zweiter Band: Götterdichtung und Spruchdichtung. Translated by Felix Genzmer with introductions and notes by Andreas Heusler. Jena: Eugen Diederichs Verlag, 1922, 1920, 1922, 14.- 18. Tausend; vol. 2 is 1.- 10. Tausend, 231, 201pp., very good white half cloth with blue titles, brown marbled paper-covered boards with blue eagle and ship decorations, corners bumped, hinges a bit creaky, previous owner's bookplate, $45
The two volume Edda translation was a response to the question of the sources for cultural renewal: in a Germanic middle ages or in the Latin legacy. Romano Guardini observed with respect to the Thule series (24 vols. 1911-1930) that Germany needed both Thule and Hellas. But this view was a strategic comment from the Catholic side in a longer interpretive debate. The series itself went back to the inspiration of Arthur Bonus, a private scholar who saw in Icelandic sagas a realistic prose literature powerful enough to motivate the Germanization of Christianity. The project involved most of the established scholars in Nordic studies. But their image of an Icelandic state of peasants and warriors was only plausible if they ignored the influence of early medieval european literature and culture in Iceland (Schier). In Diederichs' time the achievement of this literature was seen in its preservation of old-German culture free of West European dissipation. Later scholarship points instead to the innovative combination of different cultures in one literature. Genzmer worked for over 10 years on the Edda translation, but the form and text selection followed by him and Heusler involved major alterations of the saga. What remained authentic was the strength and idiosyncrasy of the characters who were not, as Guardini correctly emphasized, reduced to caricatures after the European heroic. [See Hübinger, Versammlungsort moderner Geister].

18785. Schröder, Walter Johannes. Spielmannsepik. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1962, viii, 81pp. 20 cm, small PAPERBACK, very good, previous owner's name, $10
Sammlung Metzler . Realienbücher für Germanisten. Abt. D: Literaturgeschichte, M19.

18245. Simrock, Karl Joseph, 1802-1876 / Heusler, Andreas, hrsg. Das Nibelungenlied Altdeutsch und Übertragen von Karl Simrock. Leipzig Tempel Verlag [1925?], no date, around 1925, 357, 381pp., very good white and blue hardcovers, two volumes, spines worn, $15
Tempel-Klassiker.

21660. Stimming, Albert, 1846-1922, ed. Der festländische Bueve de Hantone / Fassung I, nach allen Handschriften mit Einleitung, Anmerkungen und Glossar, zum ersten Male herausgegeben von Albert Stimming. Dresden: Gedruckt für die Gesellschaft für romanische Literatur, 1911, 534pp., very good large red cloth, spine a bit faded, previous owner's bookplate: Dr. Wolfgang v. Wurzba, $150
Gesellschaft für romanische Literatur. Bd. 25. There is what appears to be a printed dedication, as well, reading: "258. Dr. Wolfgang von Wurzbach. Wien.".

20420. Tonnelat, Ernest, 1877-1948. La chanson des Nibelungen: étude sur la composition et la formation du poème épique. Paris: Société d'édition: Les Belles lettres. London, New York: H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1926, 2pp. l., 396pp. fold. map. 26 cm, very good large sewn paper wraps, slight edgewear, $65
Publications de la Faculté des lettres de l'Université de Strasbourg. fasc. 30.