Memory-induced variants: Textual Change in Heroic Epics: The 'Nibelungenlied'-Manuscripts B and C and the 'Wiener' and 'Heidelberger Virginal' [Memoriell bedingte Varianz: Zur Fassungsvarianz in der Heldendichtung anhand der 'Nibelungenlied'-Handschriften B und C sowie der 'Wiener' und 'Heidelberger Virginal']

Abstract

Textual criticism has not arrived at a thorough understanding of textual variants in the manuscript transmission of the 'Nibelungenlied'. A considerable number of variants has remained without explanation. The paper therefore suggests and develops a fundamentally different scenario of their emergence, i. e. as a result of reproducing the text from memory. Certain types of variants indicate this process: mishearings of words (mondegreens), misrememberings of phrases and stanzas, misattribution of speech, displacement of textual segments. Since medieval heroic epics are designed for recitation from memory, the 'Virginal' is used for comparison. The conclusion is that the C-version of the 'Nibelungenlied' is also a text reproduced from memory. © S. Hirzel Verlag, Stuttgart 2019