The Waltharius, a medieval Latin epic poem of over 1400 lines, richly
retells the story of a vigorous Germanic saga in the language and style
of classical and Christian Latin poetry. Walter, its hero, is a pagan
warrior ready to mock his enemies and mercilessly decapitate them, but
also a pious Christian who refrains from premarital sex and stops to
pray and ask for God's mercy in the middle of a battle. The poem varies
remarkably in tone, providing both fervent moral commentary and bitter
black comedy. The growing scholarship on the poem outside of Germany,
where it has always been popular, no doubt results from its weird allure
and eclectic nature. It has something for everyone. This new edition
uses a fresh review of manuscripts--especially the recently discovered
fragments at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign--in order to
provide a text and apparatus that will aid the reader in understanding
the poem's tangled manuscript history. The notes are rather fuller than
those of previous English-language editions, providing useful context to
understand the complicated relationships among the Germanic, classical
Latin, and Christian Latin traditions as well as tracking various themes
and stylistic features that the poet employs.
