Alte Newe Zeitung: A Sixteenth-Century Collection of Fables

Title

en_US Alte Newe Zeitung: A Sixteenth-Century Collection of Fables

en_US Folklore Studies: 10

Description

en_US Language note: Bilingual: English/German

en_US Eli Sobel, Georg Rollenhagen?

Creator

en_US Rollenhagen, Georg See all items with this value

Date

2016-01-25T19:02:10Z

en_US 1995-12

en_US 1958

Date Available

2016-01-25T19:02:10Z

Date Issued

en_US 1958

Abstract

en_US Here is a fascinating work on a fascinating collection by the man who was, I believe, Pack Carnes' Doktorvater. Sobel writes an excellent introduction. In it, he points out that the first problem that the Alte Newe Zeitung has had is that researchers tend to presume that it was a newspaper, whereas it is a collection of fables. Published in 1592, likely by Georg Rollenhagen, it remains today in only one known copy, in Göttingen. Each of its 54 fables has a tripartite form: Der Welt Lauf (promythic teaching), Exempel (fable), and Lehre (moral). After a straightforward presentation of the German fables, helpful notes starting on 47 have their own format for each fable, including a helpful English summary, story-type numbers, fable numbers, and bibliographical references. The English summaries make these notes the place for many of us to start with this booklet. I found one fable, #10, different from the tradition in that the argument here is about securing a house rather than a city. Eleven other fables were new to me, including #23, which Sobel says he finds nowhere else. A wolf who stole a lamb is pursued and drops the lamb, but tells his pursuers that he will report their carrying arms. In other fables new to me, a father helps his son to see that few friends are true, since only one will help him dispose of a corpse (#12). A mother swallow dissuades her daughter from marrying a bird from a different habitat (#13). A boar chooses to live with sheep, over whom he can dominate, but he finds that they are no help for protection (#15). A raven is killed by a coiled snake he attacks; his pleasure becomes his downfall (#21). A kite caught in a snare kills the mouse who chewed through the snare to free him (#25b). A lazy bee dies miserably in the cold, while the hard-working drones live through the winter from the fruits of their labors (#32). The wolf is unsuccessful in urging the porcupine to lay aside his quills (#38). A clever crow sees through a fox pretending to be dead: My eye is probably as false as your heart (#41). In a battle between quadrupeds and birds, the latter pact with fish and the former with worms and reptiles. But the fish will not leave the water, and the reptiles cannot follow where the animals go. A truce leads to an appeal to Jupiter to make a decision. None is ever made, the two sides go their separate ways, and as always the strong rule the weak. My favorite here is about the young man who picks up a hot piece of iron and burns himself. He is told to spit on the metal first to see if it hisses. At an inn, he spits into the hot stewed fruit. It does not hiss, but still burns his mouth. He is told to watch the vapors. He comes to a stream and almost dies of thirst waiting for the vapors to clear (#39).

Identifier

en_US 3981 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/79321

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US University of California Press

en_US Berkeley, CA

Subject

en_US PN985.A4 1958 See all items with this value

en_US Alte Newe Zeitung See all items with this value

en_US Title Page Scanned See all items with this value

Type

en_US Book, Whole