Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The monster outside and within: medieval literary reflections on ethical epistemology. From Beowulf to Marie de France, the Nibelungenlied, and Thüring von Ringoltingen’s Melusine

  • Published:
Neohelicon Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

While previous research has often reflected on the phenomenon of monsters in medieval literature, identifying them as existential threats, reflections of imagination, or as symbols of the monstrous and evil in an apotropaic sence, here I suggest to refine our investigations of monsters in light of their epistemological function. Examining literary examples from the early to the late Middle Ages (Beowulf to Melusine), we can recognize how much monsters indeed serve consistently for the development of the individual protagonists, for coping with otherness at large, which commonly rests within the heroes and heroines as part of their characters. External challenges thus prove to be reflections of internal problems and issues, and the struggle against the monsters constitutes a struggle against or with the self.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. See, for instance, Speaking of Monsters (2012). But this anthology deals mostly with monsters in modern horror films and similar media. For the Middle Ages, see, for example, Lecouteux (1993), Pochat (1997).

  2. Much has already been written on Yvain’s/Iwein’s critical problem; see, for instance, Frey (2008).

  3. Asthma (2009), offers a nice historical overview of monsters as they appeared on the literary and religious stages throughout time, including the Middle Ages.

  4. See, for example, the contributions to Interpretations of Beowulf (Fulk 1991), see the study by Hill (1995), the articles in A Critical Companion to Beowulf by Orchard (2003), and in A Companion to Beowulf by Johnston Staver (2005). Research on this epic poem is, of course, legion.

  5. For a typical example, see Oswald (2010). She is especially concerned with how medieval thinkers categorized monsters, hence she focuses primarily on the monster’s body and its presence and representation. See also Mittman and Kim (2008).

  6. For a bibliographical survey of critical studies on medieval monstrosity, see Bildhauer and Mills (2003, pp. 219–226). See also Wunderlich (1999).

  7. Much work has been done on psychological, comparative, and mythological readings of Beowulf; see, for instance, the contributions to The Postmodern Beowulf (Joy and Ramsey 2006). See also the impressive study by Anlezark (2006, pp. 291–367).

  8. Here I quote from Das Nibelungenlied, ed. Schulze (2010), for the English trans., see The Nibelungenlied, trans. A. T. Hatto, 1965, 1969. The number of critical studies on this epic poem are also legion; but see the contributions to A Companion to the Nibelungenlied; cf. also Die Nibelungen: Sage—Epos—Mythos, ed. Joachim Heinzle, Klaus Klein, and Ute Obhof (2003).

  9. Here I quote from The Lays of Marie de France (2010), for the critical edition, see Die Lais der Marie de France (1925). Gallagher also reprinted some of Marie’s lais from Warnke’s edition, which I utilize here, when necessary.

  10. Bisclavret is discussed, or at least mentioned, numerous times in the contributions to A Companion to Marie de France, ed. Logan E. Whalen (2011). But none of the authors engages more in depth with this lai.

  11. Baring-Gould (1865, 2006), Bernhardt-House (2010); see also the useful survey article online at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycanthropy (last accessed on Jan. 15, 2013).

  12. Classen (1995, pp. 141–146). For a solid text edition, see Romane des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts (1990). For an extensive commentary, see there, pp. 1012–1087.

  13. For a variety of recent scholarly approaches, though none considering the appearance of the monstrous in the Melusine narrative in the first place, see Drittenbass and Schnyder (2010).

  14. See the commentary by Jan-Dirk Müller, ed., Romane, 1990, pp. 1020–1087; esp. p. 1073. He emphasizes that while Raimon in Couldrette’s version accuses “Dame Fortune” of having caused his own downfall, here in Thüring’s text Reymond identifies his own responsibility, guilt, and tragic shortcomings, which veils the central breaking of the taboo.

References

  • Acosta, V. (1995). Animales e imaginario: La zooligía maravillosa medieval. Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, E. R. (2010). Understanding Beowulf as an Indo-European epic: A study in comparative mythology, with a foreword by Mary P. Richards. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press.

  • Anlezark, D. (2006). Water and fire: The myth of the flood in Anglo-Saxon England. Manchester medieval literature. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press

  • Asthma, S. T. (2009). On monsters: An unnatural history of our worst fears. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baring-Gould, S. (1865/2006). The book of werewolves. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications.

  • Bernhardt-House, P. A. (2010). Werewolves, magical hounds, and dog-headed men in Celtic literature: A typological study of shape-shifting. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bildhauer, B. & Mills, R. (Eds). (2003). The monstrous Middle Ages. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

  • Bloch, R. H. (2003). The anonymous Marie de France. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bovey, A. (2002). Monsters and grotesques in medieval manuscripts. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruckner, M. T. (1991). Of men and beasts in Bisclavret. Romance Review, 81(3), 251–269.

    Google Scholar 

  • Classen, A. (1995). The German Volksbuch: A critical history of a late-medieval genre. Studies in German Language and Literature, 15. Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press.

  • Classen, A. (1999). Gargoyles—Wasserspeier. In U. Müller & W. Wunderlich (Eds.), Dämonen, Monster, Fabelwesen (pp. 127–133). Mittelalter-Mythen, 2. St. Gall: UVK.

  • Classen, A. (2003). The downfall of a hero: Siegfried’s self-destruction and the end of heroism in the Nibelungenlied. German Studies Review, XXVI(2), 295–314.

  • Classen, A. (2004). Love and fear of the foreign: Thüring von Ringoltingen’s Melusine (1456). A xenological analysis. In M. Wade & G. Ehrstine (Eds.), Foreign encounters: Case studies in German literature. Daphnis 33(1–2), 97–122.

  • Classen, A. (2011). Sexual violence and rape in the middle ages: A critical discourse in premodern German and European literature. Fundamentals of medieval and early modern culture, 7. Berlin: De Gruyter.

  • Classen, A. (2012). The epistemological function of monsters in the middle ages: From The Voyage of Saint Brendan to Herzog Ernst, Marie de France, Marco Polo and John Mandeville. What would we be without monsters in past and present! Lo Sguardo: Rivista di Filologia, 9(2), 13–34. http://www.losguardo.net.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J. J. (1999). On giants: Sex, monsters and the Middle Ages. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J. J. (2006). Hybridity, identity, and monstrosity in medieval Britain: On difficult middles. The new Middle Ages. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Cohen, J. J. (2012). The promise of monsters. In A. S. Mittman & P. J. Dendle (Eds.), The Ashgate research companion to monsters and the monstrous (pp. 449–464). Surrey, England: Ashgate.

  • Das Nibelungenlied: Mittelhochdeutsch/Neuhochdeutsch (2010). Nach der Handschrift B herausgegeben von Ursula Schulze. Ins Neuhochdeutsche übersetzt und kommentiert von Siegfried Grosse. Stuttgart: Reclam.

  • Daston, L., & Park, K. (1998). Wonders and the order of nature: 1150–1750. New York: Zone Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Vries, J. (1959/1963). Heroic song and heroic legend, trans. B. J. Timmer. London: Oxford University Press.

  • Die Lais der Marie de France (Warnke, K. Ed.). (1925). 3rd ed. Halle a. d. S.: Max Niemeyer.

  • Drittenbass, C. & Schnyder, A. (Eds.). (2010). Eulenspiegel trifft Melusine: Der frühneuhochdeutsche Prosaroman im Licht neuer Forschungen und Methoden. Akten der Lausanner Tagung vom 2. bis 4. Oktober 2008. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

  • Frey, J. (2008). Spielräume des Erzählens: zur Rolle der Figuren in den Erzählkonzeptionen von Yvain, Îwein, Ywain und Ívens saga. Literaturen und Künste der Vormoderne, 4. Stuttgart: Hirzel.

  • Friedman, J. B. (1981). The monstrous races in medieval art and thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fulk, R. D. (Ed.). (1991). Interpretations of Beowulf: A critical anthology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

  • Gephart, I. (2005). Der Zorn der Nibelungen: Rivalität und Rache im “Nibelungenlied”. Cologne: Böhlau Verlag.

  • Gilmore, D. D. (2003). Monsters: Evil beings, mythical beasts, and all manner of imaginary terrors. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffin, M. (2010). The beastly and the courtly in medieval tales of transformation: Bisclavret, Melion and Mélusine. In A. Damlé & A. L’Hostis (Eds.), The beautiful and the monstrous: Essays in French literature, thought and culture (pp. 139–150). Modern French identities, 87. Oxford: Peter Lang.

  • Hahn, S. (2012). Crime, punishment and the hybrid in medieval French romance: Robert the Devil and Geoffrey Big Tooth. In A. Classen & C. Scarborough (Eds.), Crime and punishment in the middle ages and early modern age: Mental-historical investigations of basic human problems and social responses (pp. 87–108). Fundamentals of medieval and early modern culture, 11. Berlin: De Gruyter.

  • Haymes, E. R. (1986). Preface. In E. R. Haymes & S. Cain Van D’Elden (Eds.), The dark figure in medieval German and Germanic literature (pp. iii–vi). Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik, 448. Göppingen: Kümmerle.

  • Heinzle, J., Klein, K. & Obhof U. (Eds.). (2003). Die Nibelungen: Sage—Epos—Mythos. Wiesbaden: Reichert.

  • Hill, J. M. (1995). The cultural world in Beowulf. Anthropological Horizons. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

  • James, M. R. (1951). Pictor in Carmine. Archeologia, 94, 141–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnston Staver, R. (2005). A companion to Beowulf. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

  • Joy, E. A. & Ramsey, M. K. with the assistance of Gilchrist, B. D. (Eds.) (2006). The postmodern Beowulf: A critical casebook. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press.

  • Kappler, C. (1980). Monstres, démons et merveilles à la fin du Moyen Âge. Paris: Payot.

  • Lecouteux, C. (1993). Les monstres dans la pensée médiévale européenne: essai de présentation. Cultures et civilisations médiévales, 10. Paris: Presses de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne.

  • Lee, A. A. (1998). Gold-hall and earth-dragon: Beowulf as Metaphor. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

  • Lindahl, C., McNamara, J., & Lindow, J. (Ed.). (2000). Medieval folklore: An encyclopedia of myths, legends, tales, beliefs, and customs. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

  • Lionarons, J. T. (1998). The otherworld and its inhabitants in the Nibelungenlied. In W. McConnell (Ed.), A companion to the Nibelungenlied (pp. 153–171). Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture. Columbia, SC: Camden House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd-Jones, H. (1980). Mythical Beasts. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • McConnell, W. (Ed.). (1998). A companion to the Nibelungenlied. Columbia, SC: Camden House.

  • Mittman, A. S., & Kim, S. M. (2008). The exposed body and the gendered blemmye: Reading the Wonders of the East. In A. Classen (Ed.), Sexuality in the Middle Ages and early modern times: New approaches to a fundamental cultural-historical and literary-anthropological theme (pp. 171–215). Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture, 3. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

  • Müller, J.-D. (Ed.). (1990). Romane des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts: Nach den Erstdrucken mit sämtlichen Holzschnitten. In Bibliothek der Frühen Neuzeit, 1. Frankfurt a. M.: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag.

  • Müller, J.-D. (1998). Spielregeln für den Untergang: Die Welt des Nibelungenlieds. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Müller, J.-D. (2001/2009). Das Nibelungenlied. Klassiker Lektüren, 5. 3rd., newly rev. and expanded ed. Berlin: Erich Schmidt.

  • Nelson, C. G. (1992). Virginity (de)valued: Kriemhild, Brünhild, and all that. In W. Wunderlich & U. Müller, with the assistance of D. Scholz (Eds.),“Waz sider da geschach”: American-German Studies on the Nibelungenlied: Text and Reception (pp. 111–130). Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik, 564. Göppingen: Kümmerle.

  • Orchard, A. (2003). A critical companion to Beowulf. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.

  • Osborn, M. (1999). Die Monster in Beowulf. In U. Müller & W. Wunderlich (Eds.), Dämonen, Monster, Fabelwesen (pp. 161–69). Mittelalter Mythen, 2. St. Gallen: UVK Fachverlag für Wissenschaft und Studium.

  • Oswald, D. M. (2010). Monsters, gender and sexuality in medieval English literature. Gender in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.

  • Picart, C. J. S., & Browning, J. E. (2012). Speaking of monsters: A teratological anthology. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pochat, G. (1997). Das Fremde im Mittelalter: Darstellung in Kunst und Literatur. Würzburg: Echter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Renz, T. (2006). Brünhilds Kraft: Zur Logik des einen Geschlechts im “Nibelungenlied”. Zeitschrift für Germanistik, 16(1), 8–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riches, S. J. E. (2003). Encountering the monstrous: Saints and dragons in medieval thought. In B. Bildhauer & R. Mills (Eds.), The monstrous Middle Ages (pp. 196–218). Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rudolph, C. (1990). The “Things of Greater Importance”: Bernard of Clairvaux’s Apologia and the medieval attitude toward art. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russom, G. (2010). Historicity and anachronism in Beowulf. In D. Konstan & K. A. Raaflaub (Eds.), Epic and history (pp. 243–261). The ancient world: Comparative histories. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

  • Savage, A. (2010). The grave, the sword, and the lament: Mourning for the future in Beowulf. In J. Tolmie & M. J. Toswell (Eds.), Laments for the lost in medieval literature (pp. 67–80). Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe (MTCNE), 19. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols.

  • Simons, P. (2012). The significance of rural space in Guillaume de Palerne. In A. Classen, with the collaboration of C. R. Clason (Eds.), Rural space in the Middle Ages and early modern age: The spatial turn in premodern studies (pp. 407–431). Fundamentals of medieval and early modern culture, 9. Berlin: De Gruyter.

  • Steger, P. (1996). Brünhild. In U. Müller & W. Wunderlich (Eds.), Herrscher, Helden, Heilige (pp. 341–366). Mittelalter-Mythen, 1. St. Gall: Universitäts-Verlag Konstanz.

  • The Lays of Marie de France (2010), trans., with intro. and commentary by E. J. Gallagher. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.

  • The Nibelungenlied (1965/1969), trans. A. T. Hatto. London: Penguin.

  • The travels of Sir John Mandeville (1983/2005), trans. with an intro. by C. W. R. D. Moseley. London: Penguin.

  • The wonders of the East (2010), in The Beowulf manuscript: Complete texts and the fight at Finnsburg, ed. and trans. R. D. Fulk. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library (pp. 15–31). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

  • Tolkien, J. R. R. (1981). Beowulf: The monsters and the critics. In Tolkien, J. R. R., The monsters and the critics, and other essays (Tolkien, C., Ed.) (pp. 5–48). London: George Allen & Unwin.

  • Verner, L. (2005). The epistemology of the monstrous in the Middle Ages. Medieval history. New York and London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker Bynum C. (1999). Miracles and marvels the limits of alterity. In F. J. Felten & N. Jaspert (Eds.), Vita Religiosa im Mittelalter: Festschrift für Kaspar Elm zum 70. Geburtstag (pp. 799–817). Berliner historische Studien, 31; Ordensstudien, 13. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot.

  • Weir, A., & Jerman, J. (1986/1999). Images of lust: Sexual carvings on medieval churches. London: Routledge.

  • Whalen, L. E. (Ed.). (2011). A companion to Marie de France. Leiden: Brill.

  • Williams, W. (2011). Monsters and their meaning in early modern culture: Mighty magic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Wunderlich, W. (1999). Dämonen, Monster, Fabelwesen: Eine kleine Einführung in Mythen und Typen phantastischer Geschöpfe. In U. Müller & W. Wunderlich (Eds.), Dämonen, Monster, Fabelwesen (pp. 11–38). Mittelalter Mythen, 2. St. Gallen: UVK Fachverlag für Wissenschaft und Studium.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of German Studies, University of Arizona, 301 Learning Services Building, 1512 E. First Street, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

    Albrecht Classen

Authors
  1. Albrecht Classen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Albrecht Classen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Classen, A. The monster outside and within: medieval literary reflections on ethical epistemology. From Beowulf to Marie de France, the Nibelungenlied, and Thüring von Ringoltingen’s Melusine . Neohelicon 40, 521–542 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-013-0198-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-013-0198-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation