Staročeský "Jetřich Berúnský" a středohornoněmecký "Laurin"

• Main Author: Hon, Jan
• Other Authors: Jiroušková, Lenka
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: Czech
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-294174

This thesis paper analyzes the old Czech epic poem 'Jetřich Berúnský', with special regards to its Middle High German model 'Laurin'. It summarizes the context of the origin of the German poem and the cultural and historical conditions for its interpretation, and explores the question of how these aspects were recontextualized in the new cultural and language environment. Thus, its main topic is the heroic and courtly epic tradition on the one hand, and the means of fulfilling the expectational horizon of the Czech audience in the 14th century on the other. The latter of these two aspects is, moreover, related to the issue of the Czech poem's estimated time of origin -the paper presents new evidence supporting the theory that the epics might have been originally written at the beginning of the 14th century, i.e. not in its second half as it is so far generally accepted. This evidence is partly based on additions to its older linguistic analysis, partly on a textological analysis comparing the only known version of the Czech text with the complicated genesis of the German epics; and, above all, on a motivical and narrative comparison with 'Dalimil's Chronicle'. At the end the paper concludes issues for the further research of the 14th century Bohemian literature.