(Note: This module is a continuation from Middle High German 1)

Middle High German (MHG) is the umbrella term for the German dialects used in the Holy Roman Empire from about 1050 to 1350. Its written form was the language of the court, and most MHG poetry embraces chivalric intellectual interests—adventure, romances, and courtly love! Come join us this month to continue learning Middle High German, and you’ll learn how to read some of the greatest monuments of medieval literature—The Nibelungenlied, Gottfried von Strassburg’s Tristan und Isolde, Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, the poems of the Minnesänger (courtly poets)—in the original language!

Generally speaking, it takes about three months to read Middle High German competently, but after completing the sequence, students should be able to participate in SPACE’s Readings in Middle High German series. Middle High German offers tons of adventure, including Heroic Epic (Das Nibelungenlied, Kudrun), Crusader Epic (König Rother, Willehalm), Arthurian Romance (Parzival), and the Tristan story (Tristan und Isolde). Completing this sequence will prepare students for their journey into a new and large world of medieval literature.