Titurel ; and, the Songs /

The Gibbs/Johnson edition of Titurel follows by three years that translation of the late Charles Passage (Titurel, CH, Sep '85). The two books are quite different in purpose and structure. Passage's translation is followed by some 190 pages of commentary relating Wolfram's Titurel-fragments to a later continuation and to its sources. The Gibbs/Johnson book contains the original text, a facing-page translation, a 50-page introduction, and copious notes. Passage's book is primarily literary criticism; Gibbs and Johnson's, text and information. The Gibbs/Johnson translation does not flow as felicitously, though it is far more literal and accurate. With the Titurel are included the texts, translations, and annotations to Wolfram's seven extant dawn songs. The renderings are accurate, although they barely suggest the powerful lyricism of Wolfram's songs. Comparing them to the English versions of Frederick Goldin (German and Italian Lyrics of the Middle Ages, CH, Apr '74, which, however, contains only two of the seven songs), they come out better for accuracy, worse for conveying the spirit of the original. A graduate library would do well with both books; undergraduates would be better served with the Gibbs/Johnson volume alone. -P. M. Frenzel, Wesleyan University