- Docente: Giulio Garuti Simone
- Credits: 9
- Language: Italian
- Moduli: Giulio Garuti Simone (Modulo 1) Alessandro Zironi (Modulo 2)
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures (Modulo 1) Traditional lectures (Modulo 2)
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Foreign Languages and Literature (cod. 0979)
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course, the student will possess the theoretical and technical instruments which allow him/her to know those languages, literatures (which must be intended as texts' corpora without any opinion on their literary value) and, in conclusion, cultures which the Germanic ethnic groups created since Prehistory. The chronological extension in which the discipline pursues its investigations is restricted to the Middle Ages. In that age, the common cultural Germanic matrix is more directly perceivable thanks to the large amount of sources and documents produced in the old Germanic languages and literatures. The knowledges, which the student will acquire, will enable him/her to translate and to give a linguistic and philological commentary to a passage in an Old Germanic language.
Course contents
Unit A: The cultural peculiarities of the Germanic peoples
will be taken into account: the oral transmission of knowledge,
law, religion, social structure and the role of women inside the
Germanic society. Part of the module will be devoted to the
analysis of the literary genres of the Germanic literature of the
Middle Ages (heroic poetry, sagas, skaldic poetry, religious
poetry). During the module the main phonetic and morpho-syntactical
characteristics of the old Germanic languages will be examinated.
After having tackled the concepts of re-constituted language,
comparative system and reconstruction of the Indo-european
consonantic system, some lessons will focus the Germanic languages.
In particular, the consonantic peculiarities (Grimm's and Verner's
laws), the verbal system (strong, weak, and preterite-present
verbs, the verb to be) and the noun declension will be examined.
Unit B: The teaching of the runes: 1) comparison and survey
of the Eddic lay Sigrdrífomál with the wide poetic
section of the Saga of the Volsungs; 2) use of the
runic writing and diffusion of runelore, and runic culture in the
Older Germanic traditon with special regard for the Nordic area; 3)
circulation of the Nibelung cycle; 4) linguistical, philological
and textual survey of part of the text
of Sigrdrífomál and of the Saga of
the Volsungs.
Readings/Bibliography
Students of theFacoltà di Lettere e Filosofia
Atlante Storico Garzanti - Cronologia della Storia Universale. Milano: Garzanti Editore, 1994: 1-21, 32-33, 88-151, 154-157, 160-181, 186-191, 194-195, 198-205.
MOLINARI, Maria Vittoria: La filologia germanica. Seconda edizione. Bologna: Zanichelli, 1987.
TODD, Malcom: I Germani. Dalla tarda repubblica romana all'epoca carolingia. Genova: ECIG, 1992: 11-140.
PAGE, Raymund Inn: Runes. London: The British Museum Press, 1987.
RISARI, Elisabetta, (a cura di): Tacito, Germania. Milano: Mondadori, 1991 (= Oscar Classici Greci e Latini, 1).
LEHMANN, Winfred P: “La linguistica indoeuropea”. In: LEHMANN, Winfred P.: La linguistica indoeuropea. Storia, problemi e metodi. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1999: 31-67.
POLOMÉ, Edgar C.: “Germanic Religion”. In: ELIADE, Mircea: The Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. 5. New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1987: 520-536.
LUISELLI FADDA, Anna Maria: L'arte della filologia. Firenze: Franco Cesati Editore, 2007.
PARKES, Malcolm: “Le pratiche di lettura”. In: CAVALLO, Guglielmo, LEONARDI, Claudio, MENESTÒ, Enrico, (direttori), 1994: Lo spazio letterario del medioevo. 1. Il medioevo latino. Volume II. La circolazione del testo. Roma: Salerno Editrice: 465-486.
PÀROLI, Teresa: "La metrica germanica". In: BOITANI, Piero, MANCINI, Mario, VARVARO, Alberto, (direttori), 1999: Lo spazio letterario del medioevo. 2. Il medioevo volgare. Volume I. La produzione del testo. Tomo I. Roma: Salerno Editrice: 555-584.
BRUNETTI, Giuseppe, (a cura di): Beowulf. Roma: Carocci, 2003 (reading of the whole text).
Students of the Facoltà di Lingue e Letterature Straniere
Unit A:
Atlante Storico Garzanti - Cronologia della Storia
Universale. Milano: Garzanti Editore, 1994: 1-21, 32-33,
88-151, 154-157, 160-181, 186-191, 194-195, 198-205.
Maria Vittoria MOLINARI: La filologia germanica, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1987 (II edizione)
Malcom TODD: I Germani. Dalla tarda repubblica romana all'epoca carolingia, Genova, ECIG, 1992, pp. 11-140
Raymund Inn PAGE: Runes, London, The British Museum Press, 1987
Tacito, Germania, a cura di Elisabetta Risari, Milano, Mondadori, 1991 (Oscar Calssici Greci e Latini, 1)
Paolo Ramat, Le lingue germaniche, in P. Ramat, A. Giacalone Ramat, Le lingue indoeuropee, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1997, pp. 409-436 (escluso § 9).
Winfred P. Lehmann, La linguistica indoeuropea, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1999, pp. 31-67.
Edgar C. Polomé, Germanic Religion, in Mircea Eliade, The
Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. 5 , New York, MacMillan
Publishing Company, 1987, pp. 520-536.
PARKES, Malcolm, 1994: "Le pratiche di lettura". In: CAVALLO, Guglielmo, LEONARDI, Claudio, MENESTÒ, Enrico, (direttori), 1994: Lo spazio letterario del medioevo. 1. Il medioevo latino. Volume II. La circolazione del testo. Roma: Salerno Editrice: 465-486.
PÀROLI, Teresa, 1999: "La metrica germanica". In: BOITANI, Piero, MANCINI, Mario, VARVARO, Alberto, (direttori), 1999: Lo spazio letterario del medioevo. 2. Il medioevo volgare. Volume I. La produzione del testo. Tomo I. Roma: Salerno Editrice: 555-584.
Unit B:
SCARDIGLI, Piergiuseppe, (a cura di): Il canzoniere eddico. Milano: Garzanti, 1982 (Ristampa: 2004): I-XXXVIII, 341-358.
DEL ZOTTO, Carla, (a cura di): Edda poetica. Il Carme di Sigrdrifa. A cura di —. Postfazione di Jacopo Ricciardi. Milano: Libri Scheiwiller, 2003.
MELI, Marcello, (a cura di): La Saga dei Volsunghi. A cura di —. Prefazione di Laura Mancinelli. Alessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso, 1993.KOCH, Ludovica, (a cura di): La Saga dei Völsunghi. A cura di —. Traduzione di Annalisa Febbraro. Parma: Nuova Pratiche Editrice, 1994: 1-61.
BYOCK, Jesse L., [edited by]: The Saga of the Volsungs. The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer. Translated with an Introduction, Notes and Glossary by —. London: Penguin, 1990: I-X, 1-32.
PULSIANO, Phillip, (edited by): Medieval Scandinavia: an encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 1993: 9a-10a (= Alphabet), 100a-101a (= Codex Regius), 148a-149b (= Eddic Meters), 149b-152b (=Eddic Poetry), 206a-208b (= Fornaldarsögur), 279a-280a (= Heiti), 351a-352a (= Kennings), 545b-555b (= Runes and Runic Inscriptions), 561a-561b (= Saga), 581b-582a (= Sigrdrífumál), 587b-589a (= Skáld), 590a-592a (= Skaldic Meters), 592a-594b (= Skaldic Verse), 600a-603b (= Snorra Edda), 662a-663a (= Thidhreks saga af Bern), 693a-693b (= Viking Age), 707b-711a (= Völsung-Niflung Cycle), 711a-711b (= Völsunga saga).
HAYMES, Edward R., SAMPLES, Susann T.: Heroic Legends of the North. An Introduction to the Nibelung and Dietrich Cycles. New York: Garland, 1996.
ANDERSSON, Theodore M: “The Lays in the Lacuna of Codex Regius”. In: DRONKE, Ursula, (edited by): Specvlvm Norroenvm: Norse Studies in Memory of Gabriel Turville-Petre. Odense: Odense University Press, 1981: 6-26.Teaching methods
Lectures
Assessment methods
The final exam is written
Office hours
See the website of Giulio Garuti Simone
See the website of Alessandro Zironi