The Return of King Arthur and the Nibelungen National Myth in Nineteenth-century English and German Literature

By placing the two phenomena next to each other and drawing on a variety of disciplines, Oergel (German, U. of Nottingham) demonstrates a parallel rise of interest in and interpretation of national identity in the two Germanic cultures. He looks at both the mythical and the national elements of national myth, and explores the new definitions of both Northern Germanic and the medieval. Focusing on Tennyson's Idylls of the King and Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen he questions assumptions about German particularity during the Victorian period. He also places the phenomena in a wider European context. Excerpts in German are translated in footnotes. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR