Old High German Poetry - Brian Murdoch

Support me on patreon (thank you!):   / grahamscheper  

Today's guest:
Brian Murdoch, who received his PhD from the University of Cambridge, is Professor Emeritus of German at Stirling University in Scotland, where he taught for most of his career. He has published widely on medieval German and Latin literatures, and as a literary translator, his works include Kudrun (Dent, 1987), All Quiet on the Western Front (Bodley Head, 1993), Three Political Tales from Medieval Germany (Boydell & Brewer, 2024), and Waltharius: The Latin Epic of Walther of Aquitaine (Uppsala Books, 2025).

His newest book, a translation and anthology of Old High German Poetry, is available here: https://amzn.to/49zTudN
See also his edition of Waltharius, which we discuss towards the end: https://amzn.to/4piOsHg
^ These are my affiliate links, so buying the books here (for no extra cost) supports the channel. Thank you!

Timestamps:
00:00 - What is Old High German?
06:28 - The Hildebrandslied
15:37 - Muspilli
26:34 - What are Charms?
32:05 - The Merseburg Charms
46:00 - The Waltharius
56:15 - How did you get into medieval languages?

#medieval #poetry #german

Social:
Twitter: https://x.com/grahamscheper
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/grahamschepe...