Hebrew And Jewish Epic Poetry
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Hebrew And Jewish Epic Poetry
Biblical poetry such as the Song of the Sea and the Song of Deborah may be considered early examples of Jewish epic poetry, though very short by normal epic standards. Both songs are compared by scholars to Canaanite and Assyrian epic poetry. There are a few medieval and later works, some translations or adaptations of works in other languages, and other adaptations of Biblical material. It is fair to say that few of these achieved very wide or lasting fame, even within the Jewish community. The most lasting were composed in Yiddish. It has been argued that Jewish attitudes discouraged the promotion of hero figures, generally a feature of the epic form. It has also been argued that few if any of the works mentioned below are truly epic, if only on the grounds of length. Antiquity Ezekiel the Tragedian was a Jewish dramatist who lived, according to some scholars, in the 3rd century BC Alexandria, and who wrote the five-act epic drama ''Exagōgē''. It's written in iambic trimete ...
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Song Of The Sea
The Song of the Sea ( he, שירת הים, ''Shirat HaYam'', also known as ''Az Yashir Moshe'' and Song of Moses, or ''Mi Chamocha'') is a poem that appears in the Book of Exodus of the Hebrew Bible, at . It is followed in verses 20 and 21 by a much shorter song sung by Miriam and the other women. The Song of the Sea was reputedly sung by the Israelites after their crossing the Red Sea in safety, and celebrates the destruction of the Egyptian army during the crossing, and looks forward to the future conquest of Canaan. The poem is included in Jewish prayer books, and recited daily in the morning shacharit services. The poem also comprises the first ode or hymn of the Eastern Orthodox canon, where it is known as the Song or Ode of Moses. It is also used in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and other Christian liturgies at the Easter Vigil when the history of salvation is recounted. These traditions follow Revelation 15:3 by calling it the "Song of Moses" (not to be confuse ...
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Nibelungenlied
The ( gmh, Der Nibelunge liet or ), translated as ''The Song of the Nibelungs'', is an epic poetry, epic poem written around 1200 in Middle High German. Its anonymous poet was likely from the region of Passau. The is based on an oral tradition of Germanic heroic legend that has some of its origin in historic events and individuals of the 5th and 6th centuries and that spread throughout almost all of Germanic languages, Germanic-speaking Europe. Scandinavian parallels to the German poem are found especially in the heroic lays of the ''Poetic Edda'' and in the ''Völsunga saga''. The poem is split into two parts. In the first part, the prince Sigurd, Siegfried comes to Worms, Germany, Worms to acquire the hand of the Burgundians, Burgundian princess Kriemhild from her brother King Gunther. Gunther agrees to let Siegfried marry Kriemhild if Siegfried helps Gunther acquire the warrior-queen Brünhild as his wife. Siegfried does this and marries Kriemhild; however, Brünhild and Krie ...
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The Jewish Encyclopedia
''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on the history, culture, and state of Judaism up to the early 20th century. The encyclopedia's managing editor was Isidore Singer and the editorial board was chaired by Isaac K. Funk and Frank H. Vizetelly. The work's scholarship is still highly regarded. The American Jewish Archives deemed it "the most monumental Jewish scientific work of modern times", and Rabbi Joshua L. Segal said "for events prior to 1900, it is considered to offer a level of scholarship superior to either of the more recent Jewish encyclopedias written in English." It was originally published in 12 volumes between 1901 and 1906 by Funk & Wagnalls of New York, and reprinted in the 1960s by KTAV Publishing House. It is now in the public domain. History Concept ...
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Isidore Singer
Isidore Singer (10 November 1859 – 20 February 1939) was an American encyclopedist and editor of ''The Jewish Encyclopedia'' and founder of the American League for the Rights of Man. Biography Singer was born in 1859 in Weisskirchen, Moravia, in the Austrian Empire. He studied at the University of Vienna and the Humboldt University of Berlin, receiving his Ph.D. in 1884. France After editing the ''Allgemeine oesterreichische Literaturzeitung'' (Austrian literary newspaper) from 1885 to 1886, he became literary secretary to the French ambassador in Vienna. From 1887, he worked in Paris in the press bureau of the French foreign office and was active in the campaign on behalf of Alfred Dreyfus. In 1893 he founded a short-lived biweekly called ''La Vraie Parole'' as a foil to the anti-Jewish ''La Libre Parole''. New York Singer moved to New York City in 1895 where he learned English and taught French, raising the money for the ''Jewish Encyclopedia'' he had envisioned ...
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Wigalois
Wirnt von Grafenberg was a Middle High German poet of the thirteenth century. Biography Grafenberg was a Bavarian nobleman who between 1202 and 1205 wrote an epic, entitled ''Wigalois'', which describes the adventures of Gawain's son, the name being a corruption of Guinglain le Galois. Wirnt took his material from the French romance ''Le bel inconnu'' of Renaud de Beaujeu, and used it with great freedom. Though extravagant and didactic, the poem is one of the best romances of the Arthurian cycle written in Germany, apart from the work of Wolfram von Eschenbach and Hartmann von Aue Hartmann von Aue, also known as Hartmann von Ouwe, (born ''c.'' 1160–70, died ''c.'' 1210–20) was a German knight and poet. With his works including ''Erec'', ''Iwein'', '' Gregorius'', and ''Der arme Heinrich'', he introduced the Arthuria .... A prose version was made toward the close of the fifteenth century and printed at Augsburg in 1493. ''Wigalois'' was edited by F. Pfeiffer (Leipzig, 1847) ...
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Sir Bevis Of Hampton
Bevis of Hampton ( fro, Beuve(s) or or ; Anglo-Norman: ; it, Buovo d'Antona) or Sir Bevois, was a legendary English hero and the subject of Anglo-Norman, Dutch, French, English, Venetian,Hasenohr, 173–4. and other medieval metrical chivalric romances that bear his name. The tale also exists in medieval prose, with translations to Romanian, Russian, Dutch, Irish, Welsh, Old Norse and Yiddish. Legend ''Sir Bevis of Hampton'' (c. 1324) is a Middle English romance. It contains many themes common to that genre: a hero whose exploits take him from callow youth to hard-won maturity, ending with a serene and almost sanctified death. Supporting him are a resourceful, appealing heroine and faithful servants set against dynastic intrigue, and a parade of interesting villains, both foreign and domestic. The plot has a geographical sweep which moves back and forth from England to the Near East and through most of western Europe, replete with battles against dragons, giants and other my ...
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Bovo-Bukh
The ''Bovo-Bukh'' ("Bovo book"; also known as ''Baba Buch'', etc.; Yiddish: ), written in 1507–1508 by Elia Levita, was the most popular chivalric romance in Yiddish. It was first printed in 1541, being the first non-religious book to be printed in Yiddish. For five centuries, it endured at least 40 editions. It is written in ''ottava rima'' and, according to Sol Liptzin, is "generally regarded as the most outstanding poetic work in Old Yiddish". iptzin, 1972, 5, 7 The theme derives from the Anglo-Norman romance of Bevis of Hampton, by way of an Italian poem that had modified the name ''Bevis of Hampton'' to ''Buovo d'Antona'' and had, itself, been through at least thirty editions at the time of translation and adaptation into Yiddish. The central theme is the love of Bovo and Druziane. iptzin, 1972, 6 ottheilThe story "had no basis in Jewish reality", but compared to other chivalric romances it "tone down the Christian symbols of his original" and "substitute Jewish cust ...
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Elia Levita
Elia Levita (13 February 146928 January 1549) ( he, אליהו בן אשר הלוי אשכנזי), also known as Elijah Levita, Elias Levita, Élie Lévita, Elia Levita Ashkenazi, Eliahu Levita, Eliyahu haBahur ("Elijah the Bachelor"), Elye Bokher, was a Renaissance Hebrew grammarian, scholar, and poet. He was the author of the ''Bovo-Bukh'' (written in 1507–1508), the most popular chivalric romance written in Yiddish. Living for a decade in the house of Cardinal Giles of Viterbo, he was one of the foremost teachers of Christian clergy, nobility, and intellectuals in Hebrew and in Jewish mysticism during the Renaissance. Life and work Born at Neustadt near Nuremberg, to a Jewish family of Levitical status, he was the youngest of nine brothers. He preferred to call himself "Ashkenazi," and bore also the nickname ''Bokher'' (Hebrew ''Baḥur''), meaning youth or student, which latter he gave as title to his Hebrew grammar. During his early adulthood, the Jews were expell ...
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Kudrun
''Kudrun'' (sometimes known as the ''Gudrunlied'' or ''Gudrun''), is an anonymous Middle High German heroic epic. The poem was likely composed in either Austria or Bavaria around 1250. It tells the story of three generations of the ruling house of Hetelings on the North Sea, but is primarily the story of Kudrun, who is abducted by the Norman prince Hartmut who desires to marry her. Kudrun remains true to her fiancé Herwig and eventually is rescued. After the defeat of the Normans, however, Kudrun ensures that peace will be kept between the two peoples by arranging for marriages and alliances. Although the story of Kudrun is very likely the invention of the poet, the story of her parents has its origins in a common Germanic tale known in Scandinavia as the ''Hjaðningavíg'': it tells how Kudrun's mother, Hilde, eloped with her father, Hetel, against the will of Hilde's father, Hagen. In ''Kudrun'', this originally tragic tale has been transformed into a happy one that serves as th ...
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Dukus Horant
''Dukus Horant'' is a 14th-century narrative poem in Judeo-German (Proto-Yiddish). Importance ''Dukus Horant'' is the best known of a number of works which survive in the Cambridge Codex T.-S.10.K.22. This manuscript was discovered in the Cairo Geniza in 1896, and contains a collection of narrative poems in a variant of Middle High German, written in Hebrew characters. There is some controversy over the extent to which the manuscript's language differs from the commonly spoken German of the time, but it is agreed there is a strong Jewish colouring to it. Therefore, these are the oldest known works (apart from a few short inscriptions dated to the 13th century) in the Ashkenazi Jewish vernacular which later developed into Yiddish. ''Dukus Horant'' is a heroic epic with thematic similarities to the German poem ''Kudrun''. It is thus a good example of the transfer of literary material between the Christian and Jewish communities in the German-speaking lands in the later Middle Age ...
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