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An Introduction to the thesis presents a "Forschungsbericht" which summarises and discusses research to date. Both Heinrich von Beringen and Jacobus de Cessolis are introduced, and the German and Latin manuscripts used in the production of the texts are described. The text of Heinrich von Beringen's "Schachbuch" edited from manu-script Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Cod. poet. et phil. 4o Nr. 25 follows: Part 1 (the poet's introduction to his text), Part 2 (the noble chess-pieces), Part 3 (the pawns) and Part 4 (the moves in the game of chess). This is accompanied by readings from manuscript London, British Library, Additional Manuscript 24946 and in Part 3 by a Latin parallel text from Bloomington (Indiana), Lilly Library, Indiana University, Ricketts 194 (or from Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard University, Houghton Library, MS Lat 169 where the Bloomington text fails). Endnotes relating to the text have been added. Appendix I correlates verses in the Stuttgart and London manuscripts, and Appendix II presents an up-to-date list (with references) of extant manuscripts of the "Liber de ludo scaccorum".

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Hölderlin's interpretation of Greek religion provides the unifying thread in his interest in Greek literature. It was because he saw Apollo and Zeus as the embodiment of sun and 'Aether', the central phenomena of nature, that his interest was in those works connected with them: the Orphic Hymn to the Sun and Pindar's Pythian and Olympian Odes are concerned with the worship of these gods, Hölderlin's translations of Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus, Antigone and Ajax with man's union with them. At the same time a development can be traced in Hölderlin's attitude to those writers who were important for him. He began by imposing his own idea of the cosmic principle of love on Orpheus and Homer, but in his youthful enthusiasm for action he then acquired an objective understanding of the heroic epic. He came closest to Greek thought in accepting Platonic solutions to his own problems: the accessibility of the divine in beauty and the alternation of moods as the basis of, rather than a hindrance to, unity with nature. The similarity of Hölderlin's elements to those of Empedocles is, however, only apparent, for they owe their character to their function in his poetry. His subjectivity becomes more obvious in his Sophocles-translations and is undisguised in his interpretation of the Pindar-fragments. His Sophocles-translations provided Hölderlin with progressively convincing confirmation of his idea of the process by which 'Natur' and 'Kunst' are reunited. By the ascription of madness to Antigone he introduced the interchange of the opposite poles which is missing in Oedipus der Tyrann, while Ajax's madness makes Hölderlin's last translation the most complete expression of his thought. The 'Anmerkungen' to these translations provide the key to his preoccupation in Mnemosyne and the Pindar-fragments, the problem of how to survive this destructive reunion of God and man. He now clung to those values which he had previously rejected and as 'ein Sohn der Zeit' devoted himself to the interpretation of the past with the aim of remaining within the sphere of 'Kunst' and so avoiding the union with 'Natur' in madness which had overtaken his heroes and by which he felt himself threatened.

This thesis examines the development of the theme of death in individual works and in groups of related works, attempting to explain its importance as a major and unifying theme of Hofmannsthal's writing. The first two chapters treat the relationship of death and pre-existence, its symbolic use as a sign of growth and change and its metaphorical function in the poet's struggle to overcome aestheticism. The third and fourth chapters show the experimental treatment of death in the middle period of Hofmannsthal's creative life and discuss the parallel treatment of death and love. They discuss the depiction of death as a moment of ecstatic release from life, indicating that such ecstatic moments also belong to Hofmannsthal's depiction of love and of poetic creation. The fifth chapter considers Hofmannsthal's use of a traditional, Christian portrayal of death. The nature of his belief in this portrayal and his reasons for using it are examined against a background of contemporary history. The link with his earlier work is shown in the translation of figures, images and themes from personal, secular terms into specifically Christian terms. The sixth chapter is concerned with the reasons for Hofmannstnal's mystical treatment of death in the first version of Der Turm and his political treatment in the second version. It discusses his desire to establish a myth and a system of moral values in a void, treating death as the only certainty in human existence and therefore as an abiding determinant of human behaviour. The conclusion summarises the constant elements in Hofmannsthal's characterisation of the theme of death and the problems which they produce. It attempts to resolve the tension between magical-mystical and moral-didactic elements in the context of neo-platonic thought.

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This thesis presents a comparative analysis of Hartmann von Aue’s \(Gregorius\), Kafka’s \( Die\) \(Verwandlung\) and Thomas Mann’s \(Der\) \(Erwählte\), focusing on their uses of biblical motifs. Connected by pervasive themes of guilt and atonement, each text also relies similarly in its expression of these ideas on the use of images which are familiar from the biblical context, and thus suggest archetypal instances of sin and redemption as points of comparison for the protagonist’s fate. In this way all three texts create a manifest sense of helpless affliction by guilt by implementing echoes of the fate of Adam, both in the relationships of their characters, and in structures of recurring loss, decline and expulsion. Each narrative, moreover, also suggests allusions to the opposing figure of Christ through concurrent echoes of the Passion in its imagery of degradation and exile, and, to varying degrees, through the introduction of complementary images of restoration and rehabilitation drawing on patterns of resurrection. The texts diverge, however, in the way in which they relate these fields of imagery, as the correlation of Fall and redemption which is symbolically affirmed in Hartmann’s narrative, and echoed in Mann’s, is disrupted by Kafka’s introduction of a tragic conclusion.

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