This thesis explores the representation of the sixth-century Merovingian Queen Brunhild. By examining seven of the divergent sources which present the queen, the construction of Brunhild, or multiple Brunhilds, is analysed through gendered, literary and political lenses. Rather than attempting to reconcile the extremities of depictions of this queen, during her life and after her death, I demonstrate that Brunhild is a series of historical and textual problems at different political moments. I also show that the themes damnatio memoriae, feud and queenship, commonly used to analyse her career, are inadequate to understand the queen herself, the authors who wrote about her, and the age in which they lived. Three main themes within Brunhild’s extensive career allow the exploration of the tensions inherent within the seven main sources which present her. The ‘construction of queenship’ is an examination into Brunhild’s move from Visigothic princess to Frankish queen, a transition often dismissed, but one which proves pivotal to understanding the queen’s later Visigothic dealings. The ways in which authors recognised her at the point of marriage is nuanced by their political context, looking back on the queen upon her husband’s death. The ‘politics of survival’ goes on to study Brunhild’s relationship with the church: first, the positive associations between a queen and piety, and then, the results when that relationship goes awry. It is Brunhild’s tension with the church which labels her ‘the second Jezebel’. Finally, ‘dynasty and destruction’ explores Brunhild’s relationship with her offspring. During three regencies, spanning three generations, the queen’s connection to her family was critiqued in different ways. Her involvement in Visigothic succession politics to the end of her career is examined, alongside Brunhild’s maternal image, and finally the accounts of her death. How Brunhild’s physical and political body is neutralised is crucial to understanding each author’s motives. There is no other early medieval queen with the textual afterlife of Brunhild and this thesis is the first full examination of the extremities of her representation. Subjected, it has been said, to damnatio memoriae, the vilification, or more literally, destruction of memory, Brunhild and her textual manifestation is read in an entirely new way. The contemporary recognition of this queen, together with her textual representation, betray a tension which illustrates that Brunhild was, in fact, more alive after she was dead.

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This thesis investigates the medieval genre of the Tagelied or dawn-song to examine its diachronic development from the Middle Ages to today. The genre in its origin is best represented by the Middle High German songs, Slâfest du, vriedel ziere by Dietmar von Aist, Owê, sol aber mir iemer mê by Heinrich von Morungen, Wolfram von Eschenbach‘s Den morgenblic bî wahtaers sange, Otto von Botenlauben‘s Wie sol ich den ritter nû gescheiden, as well as Ich wache umbe eines ritters lîp by Marktgraf von Hohenburg. All these songs exemplify the original motifs of the Middle-High-German “Tagelied.” The distinctiveness of this thesis is that it takes the medieval motifs – such as the separation of two lovers at dawn and the role of the watchman who announces the approach of day – as well as the thematics of sexual, gender, and class relations between the lovers to examine their reappearance in eleven New High German poems and songs, including works by Brentano, Goethe, Borchardt, Rilke and Rühmkorf. A number of folksongs from the Romantic era to today are also taken into consideration, including popular songs by such contemporary “medieval” German bands as Faun and Schandmaul. Each poem is analysed separately, whereby their intertextual connections are simultaneously drawn out. This approach not only shows that the motifs resurface up to the present but also, and even more importantly, how they have changed over the centuries. By looking at the poems and comparing them we are able to recognize important changes in society which strongly influence the poems’ contents. Of course, love, sexuality, gender, and class relations are still expressed in each poem, but they have undergone modifications over time. This thesis brings these changes into focus by analysing the development of the motifs step by step.

The Sibyl's importance as an authorizing figure in Christine de Pizan's oeuvre is widely acknowledged but universally under-estimated. Scholars have focused almost exclusively on Christine's use of the detached and serenely wise Cumaean Sibyl, notably in the Chemin de lonc estude and the Epistre Othea, and on close allegorized equivalents. This is to overlook the protean, cross-pollinating diversity of Christine's sibylline sources, and the variety and scope of their influence upon her writings. Here Christine's use of sibylline characters, themes, and authority will be scrutinized in texts that exemplify radical departures from the tropes generally recognized by scholars. They show selective reshapings of polymorphous classical and medieval tradition to meet the shifting contingencies of Christine's career as a writer. Explicitly, Sibyls are invoked as authorizing precedents for her self-fashioning as a woman of wisdom and foresight in political, social, moral, and theological matters; but implicitly, sibylline attributes are also incorporated in other characters and authorial voices. Furthermore, Christine draws from the full panorama of source traditions, embodying not only wisdom and foresight but also recklessness and regret; not only serenity but also frenzy and tears; not only detachment but also polemical engagement in national destiny. In her attack on courtly love, the Livre du duc des vrais amans , sibylline typologies underlie not only the unimpeachable Dame Sebille but also the transgressive Lady, whose fate evokes that of entrapped, shamed, or regretful Sibyls seen in Ovidian and later traditions. In the Epistre a la reine and the Lamentation sur les maux de la France, Christine evokes classical sibylline frenzy; calls upon the example of famous prophets who were ignored but ultimately vindicated; and she links foresight and maternal tears in an appeal to the queen, Isabel of Bavaria, to intercede as France's mother. In the Queen's Manuscript Epistre Othea, Christine pursues similar goals as sibylline tutor to Isabel and the dauphin. In the Ditie de Jehanne d'Arc , Christine addresses national crisis by inscribing Charles VII, Jehanne, and herself in a millennial prophecy of the End of Days, assuming the voice of an Apocalyptic Sibyl of judgment and divine revelation.

John of Biclar, a Gothic abbot (later bishop) in sixth-century Spain, wrote a chronicle in Latin for the years A.D. 567 to 590 in the tradition of Christian chronicles begun by Eusebius of Caesarea. He records a period of political consolidation of the Spanish peninsula under the Arian Visigothic king, Leovigild, as well as events during the reigns of the contemporary Roman emperors. John's accomplishment is unusual for a Goth at this time, as is his education in Greek and Latin, received during a stay of seventeen years in Constantinople. John's Chronicle reflects ideas from his predecessors (Victor of Tunnuna and Prosper of Aquitaine) as well as Byzantine and Gothic influences. An English translation of the Chronicle is included in this study.

In the Legend, Chaucer manipulates the language of the narrator and the women, turning analytic attention toward the problem of gender categories, thereby undermining proscribed behavior and the language that represents that behavior. Nominalism, with its emphasis on singularity, is particularly suited to the problem of gender categories because it forces attention to the particulars of the man or woman, eventually draining the category of that which gives it substance. Examining the legends closely with the nominalist principle of the particularity of language firmly in mind reveals women who are radically different from one another, who are not faceless victims. Cleopatra, Hypermnestra and Thisbe, for example, are imprisoned in a patriarchial system which rewards passivity and punishes independent thought and action. However, Chaucer allows these three characters to use their bodies and linguistic license to reach beyond the bars of the hierarchical prison, thereby disgendering the text in complex ways. Again, the legends of Lucrece and Dido are connected to Troilus and Criseyde through the exploration of the tension between public and private experiences and the imagery of seeing and invisibility. Finally, Philomela's story is the most anomalous story in the poem, and thus it reveals Chaucer's attempt to reassert a particularized view of experience. These surprisingly clear-cut distinctions between characters, behavior, and reader expectations grow out of attention to the particulars of experience and language. The demand for universals made by Alceste and the God of Love provides a contrast for the close attention to language and experience in the legends themselves.

This study discusses the L'Homme arme tradition in Burgundy and places the six Naples L'Homme arme masses in that tradition. The first part of the thesis describes the court of Burgundy and the Order of the Golden Fleece as well as masses based on L'homme arme possibly connected to the Court. The second part shows how the six anonymous masses based on L'homme arme, now conserved in Naples, are connected to the Burgundian court and, by extension, the Order of the Golden Fleece. I show how the coat of arms in the manuscript of the masses could be of Burgundian origin. I then show how the language of the dedication and also the Kyrie tropes points to a Burgundian genesis.

In a atemporal space where the real and the fantastic intertwine, the heroes of Chretien de Troyes represent projections of an ideal personality. Their symbolic quest is but means of individuation, since, through voyage, the heroes undertake a task of double exploration: that of the exterior and that of the interior world. The confrontation with Evil is the expression of the hero's internal struggle and his adventures translate into initiatic terms. The plot of Chretien de Troyes' works evinces a mythical structure: the voyage of the hero into the "Other World" and his triumphant return. His characteristics of "the chosen one", of the champion of order, as well as his newly acquired status will be acknowledged by the community. Redeemed either by a religious experience or by submission to a lady and/or to the code of conduct, the hero reconquers his place in the world. An approach based on parallelism and juxtaposition has allowed this study to look into the archetypal nature of Chretien de Troyes' heroes, to interpret the recurrent motifs and patterns, which lend the hero an archetypal dimension. Structured around the hero's identity crisis and quest this study explores the relationship between myth, tale and romance.

Solarljo∂ is an Old Icelandic poem in which a deceased father advises his son from beyond the grave. The poem consists of a series of parables and proverbs, a moving description of dying, and accounts of both heaven and hell. Solarljo∂ is concerned with eschatological mystery, and this mystery is reinforced by the poet through the use of obscure imagery and enigmatic presentation. This study begins with an introduction to the general form, content and composition of Solarljo∂. There then follows a description of the manuscripts in which Solarljo∂ has been preserved, adding several new records to the list recently begun by Njor∂ur P. Njar∂vik. The manuscripts are cross referenced to the editions which have been based upon them. Previous research has traditionally resulted in new readings of Solarljo∂ which have been embodied in new editions or rewritings of the poem. This has produced a confusing proliferation of different poems claiming to be Solarljo∂. No "improved" edition is offered here. Instead, the editorial tradition is broken and previous editions are compared on their merits. The versions in Sophus Bugge's Norroen Fornkvae∂i and Finnur Jonsson's Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning are supported as standards to be used pending a more accessible and legible version of Njor∂ur Njar∂vik's Solsangen . The literature is otherwise examined with the aim of clarifying bibliographical contradictions and providing a critical evaluation of the sources regularly cited in connection with Solarljo∂ . Finally, Solarljo∂ is examined within the context of gnomic poetry, particularly the Disticha Catonis, Hugsvinnsmal , and Havamal. Solarljo∂ is stylistically related to these works less in terms of direct influence than in an attempt by Solarljo∂'s poet to appropriate the authority of the genre in order to reinforce his or her own didactic message. This message is one simply of memento mori , comprehensible on a strong emotional level even today, despite or, indeed, because of a great deal of ambiguity in the poem's symbolism and imagery. This reading of Solarljo∂ breaks away from the philological hermeneutics of previous studies to take a broader view of Solarljo∂ as literary art, seen as a living work with a voice that can still be understood.

Gerbert of Aurillac lived at the end of the millenium preceding our own. He was born an obscure peasant. But by virtue of his excellent education, political acumen and good fortune, he ascended to the highest post in Christendom, becoming Pope Sylvester II at the end of the tenth century. His meteoric rise in power helped bring about the genesis of "the legend of Gerbert" after his death. A renowned teacher, Gerbert was accomplished in all the liberal arts and distinguished himself in nearly every field of human endeavor. It was in the context of his role as a teacher and a mathematician that he acquired a reputation as an organbuilder. Among his contributions in that area is a treatise on pipe measurements which is attributed to him in a 12th-century manuscript. Gerbert's reputation as an organbuilder has rested mainly, however, not on any actual deeds he may have accomplished, but on the testimony of William of Malmesbury, a 12th-century English historian. William completed the legend surrounding Gerbert's life, which began in the eleventh century. In the course of his narrative, William credited Gerbert with having built a hydraulic organ in the cathedral of Reims. William's account of the organ is examined in its context, perhaps for the first time. This study reveals that William's account must be dismissed as pure fancy. A feature unique to this study is the use of sources from a variety of disciplines. In order not to present a one-dimensional (and therefore false) appraisal of Gerbert as an organbuilder, we have examined him in his various roles as letter-writer, mathematician, scientist, politician and churchman. Only when we know Gerbert in the context of his life and times can we make a valid assessment of his contribution to the art and craft of organbuilding.