The Crown: A Tale of Sir Cawein and King Arthur’s Court by Heinrich von dem Türlin (1991)

REVIEWS HEINRICH VON DEM TDRLIN. The Crown: A Tale ofSir Cawein andKing Arthur's Court. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1989. Pp. xxvii, 335. $25.00. Arthurian scholars will welcome this translation of Heinrich van dem Tiirlin's Diu Crone, an early-thirteenth-century German poem which its authorapparently planned to be the very pinnacle of romance, surpassing and simply outdoing all that had come before. The title comes from the conclusion of the work, where the author claims (p. 334): This is the end ofthe crown that my hands have wrought skillfully as I conceived it from a model. Yet you must know that fickle and faithless cowards cannot wear it very well, for it is too tight for them, but those who are noble and good can wear it for a long time. The crown is set all over with such precious stones that it is quite in keeping with their honor. Whoever does not disdain it in advance through igno­ rance orill will but examinesit carefully may well observe many strange figures ofall kinds the like of which he has never seen before. Time, however, has not agreed with the author, and the romance has remained little known until the beginning of the present century, when Jessie Weston spotlighted it in her Sir Gawain at the Grat! Castle and made it a part of popular Grail studies. In fact, those who cannot read the original language (and the sole complete edition of the original is difficult of access) usually know the work only through Weston's translation of the final episode, which presents only part of the romance's Grail material. Although that episode is fairly well known among Arthurian scholars, to know it is not to know the romance. Although the familiar Grail account caps Gawein's adventures, it only accounts for about one-twentieth of the larger work, and there is a great deal remaining of equal and sometimes greater interest. The Crown con­ tains enough battles, monsters, chastity tests, invisible assailants, dragons, dwarfs, scantily clad damsels, wonders, and members of the living dead to satisfy any enthusiast. The present version is a massive accomplishment, translating (warts and all) the entire 30,000-line original. The translator, J. W Thomas, is well qualified for the task, having previously rendered Eilhart's Tristrant, Hartmann van Aue's Bree and Iwein, and Wirnt von Grafenberg's Wigalois-all for the University of Nebraska Press- as well as Medieval 251 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER German Lyric Vtme and other works under different imprints, in addition to a number of other scholarly books and articles. The Crown is Thomas's most ambitious translation to date. The text in this handsome and well­ bound volume reads fairly well and smoothly and accomplishes all that one expects of a plain and literal translation, practice consistent with that of Thomas in the past. Ifone compares Thomas's to Weston's pseudo-archaic version ("The Burg was fairly builded, and therein dwelt a great folk, knights and ladies, who were right joyful as was fitting, that did Sir Gawain right well, and drew comfort therefrom" [pp. 36-37]), one could easily wish for something between. Although Heinrich could make only modest claims as poet, the metrics and the rhyme serve frequently to animate the narrative, a quality that fails to come through in this translation, which often falls very flat indeed. Here is an example among hundreds ofsimilar passages (p. 162): Gawein lost track of the mysterious sword and spear here. He did not ride l�ng before he reached a large forest on a mountain range that the horses in front ofhim hadclimbed. At the edge ofthe forest he saw a shield lying under a tree to which a saddled horse was tied. From the saddlebow hung a splendid helmet and at the side hung a drawn sword with a gleaming blade. A costly hauberk and two fine mail stockings lay on the shield. Everything was drenched with fresh blood. Such translation, though painstakingly accurate, quickly wears one down and fails to give any impression of the tone of the original. The humor mentioned by Thomas in the...