Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Front Matter

Quidditas

No abstract provided.

Deception And Distance In Béroul's Tristan: A Reconsideration, Norris J. Lacy

Quidditas

Some years ago, I suggested that the irony and the pervasive equivocations that characterize the text of Béroul's Tristan have the effect of precluding, on the narrator's part, an implicit ethical endorsement of the characters. Although that is still my view, I went on, perhaps too incautiously, to question Béroul's narrative reliability. Considering the importance of such matters for our understanding of Béroul's art, it is not inappropriate to reconsider this problem. In fact, I think it reasonable now to begin with the assertion that, although his work is full of ambiguities, ironies, and tricks, Béroul's narrator never deceives his …

The Fiction Of The "Livre" In Robert De Boron's Merlin, Stephen Maddux

Quidditas

Robert de Baron, thought to have been responsible for changing Chrétien's graal into a Christian relic and his tale of Perceval into a cycle, was also an innovator when it came to the convention of the bookish source for his story. Marie de France and Chrétien both were careful to supply their poems with some kind of external authority, which was often book-like, if not in fact always a written text. Chrétien twice refers to actual books; Marie de France's sources were presumably all oral, but she treats them as though they were written, that is, deserving the same treatment …

Gawain's "Anti-Feminism" Reconsidered, S. L. Clark, Julian N. Wasserman

Quidditas

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the protagonist survives the return blow for which he had contracted with the Green Knight but finds to his dismay that he has unwittingly failed a more significant test. As the awareness comes to Gawain that the Green Knight and his Yuletide host share one identity, that it was upon Bercilak's instructions that his wife attempted to seduce him, and that Morgan la Fée had, in effect, master-minded the whole plan, Gawain reacts with bursts of anger which, wen analyzed, speak not only to the Pearl-Poet's skill at characterization but also …

Adam's Dream: Fortune And The Tragedy Of The Chester 'Drapers Playe', George Ovitt Jr.

Quidditas

In glossing a passage from his translation of Boethius's De consolatione philosophiae, Chaucer provides a definition of tragedy which would have been familiar to any fourteenth-century reader and which, perhaps, still seems adequate to the twentieth-century reader: "What other thyng bywaylen the cryinges of tragedyes but oonly the dedes of Fortune, that this unwar strook overturneth the realmes of greet nobleye? (Glose. Tragedye is to seyn a dite of a prosperite for a tyme, that endeth in wrecchidnesse.)" The substance of this gloss is repeated in the 'Prologue' to the "Monk's Tale": "Tragedie is to seyn a certeyn storie, …

Belief, Justification, And Knowledge – Some Late-Medieval Epistemic Concerns, Ivan Boh

Quidditas

It has become a commonplace in contemporary analytic philosophy to offer a contextual definition of knowledge in terms of the following statement of necessary and sufficient conditions:

a knows that p if and only if

(i) a believes that p

(ii) p is the case

(iii) a is justified in believing that p

An enormous amount of literature on various aspects of this statement has been produced and the discussion continues.

Latin And Vernacular In Fourteenth- And Fifteenth-Century Italy, Paul Oskar Kristeller

Quidditas

The subject of this essay concerns Dante only indirectly and in part. Nevertheless I hope to be able, among other things, to explain Dante's historical position and his influence on the Italian Renaissance. I cannot avoid partially repeating what I wrote in some of my previous studies, especially in my early article on the Italian prose language. Some of my prior observations, which seemed new to me at the time, have since been widely accepted; but some new sources and literature have been added in the meantime, and on some points I have changed my opinion or paid attention to …

Rites And Passage In Leonardo Bruni's Dialogues To Pier Paolo Vergerio, Olga Zorzi Pugliese

Quidditas

The Dialogues to Pier Paolo Vergerio are a fairly brief, rather unassuming, yet much defamed work by Leonardo Bruni (c. 1370-1444), the Italian humanist from Arezzo who lived most of his life in Florence, the hub of early Renaissance civilization. Composed of two parts, the second of which is, apparently, a retraction of the first, and dating probably from a the years 1401 and 1405-06, respectively, the Dialogues constitute, because of the contradictions contained in them, a puzzling text that has elicited a variety of interpretations from critics in the historical as well as the literary fields. Although much research …

Great Black Goats And Evil Little Women: The Image Of The Witch In Sixteenth-Century German Aart, Jane P. Davidson

Quidditas

Witch imagery in German Renaissance art may strike the modern observer as something incongruous in an age noted for interest in humanism, reformation, science, appreciation of beauty and the like. Nonetheless, it existed. Further, we find a number of prominent German artists who depicted witches. The operative point here is probably an interest in realism. Renaissance artists, north and south, were preoccupied with reality. Too this end, their art stressed optical accuracy, factual anatomy, convincing natural details and so on.

Correspondence With Women: The Case Of John Knox, A. Daniel Frankforter

Quidditas

The Reformation opened an ambiguous era for women. There were risks of losses and opportunities for gain for women who made the transition to Protestant faith. Protestant women gave up some traditional religious supports. The Virgin Mary and the female saints, who provided Catholic women with role models and sisterly patronage, were thrust aside. Priestly intercession ended, the Protestant women, like men, stood alone with their consciences in the presence of God. Women were denied the option of careers as nuns in self-governing female communities, and virginity ceased to be a respected female vocation. All women were expected to marry, …

Chaucer And The Three Crowns Of Florence (Dante, Petrarch, And Boccaccio): Recent Comparative Scholarship, Madison U. Sowell

Quidditas

Chaucer and the Italian Trecento. Ed. Piero Boitani. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. 313 p. $49.50.

Howard H. Schless, Chaucer and Dante: A Revaluation. Norman, OK: Pilgrim Books, 1984. 268 p. $85.00.

R. A. Shoaf, Dante, Chaucer, and the Currency of the World: Money, Images, and Reference in Late Medieval Poetry. Norman, OK: Pilgrim Books, 1983. 313 p. $39.95.

Full Issue

Quidditas

No abstract provided.

King Alfred And The Latin Manuscripts Of Gregory's Regula Pastoralis, Richard W. Clement

Quidditas

King Alfred's translation of Pope Gregory the Great's Liber Regulae Pastoralis has long been recognized by students of Anglo-Saxon literature as one of the earliest and greatest monuments of Old English prose. Alfred's first translation, commonly referred to as the Pastoral Care, has been the focus of much scholarly attention by historians, philologists, and literary critics. Historians have seized upon the work more for Alfred's two prefaces and what they tell us in Ninth-century England than for the translation itself, but nonetheless the mode of translation is not without its biographical and historical implications. Philologists on the other hand …

Can We Speak Of An Islamic Middle Ages? A Conceptual Problem Examined Through Literature, Julie Scott Meisami

Quidditas

In his introduction to The Arabs and Medieval Europe Norman Daniel, after rejecting the "traditional" Gibbonian definition of the Middle Ages as "the age between a fixed classical civilization and the modern world which inherits it" in favor of a view which affirms the unbroken continuity of European history, concludes that "for all non-European peoples ... the concept of a Middle Age has no relevance, at least for their internal history. Any relevance it has must be in relation to Europe" (3). Similarly, in the area oof literature, Robert Rehder in a review article states categorically that "Medieval is …

Warren Stone Snow, A Man In Between: The Biography Of A Mormon Defender, John A. Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

Warren Stone Snow was an early convert to the LDS church who during the Church's first four decades was often involved in defensive roles as Mormonism encountered various conflicts on the American frontier. While he protected the lives of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and defended Illinois Saints from houseburning mobs and took a leading role in the Battle of Nauvoo, his greatest defensive contributions took place after the Mormons settled in Utah. As commander of the Sanpete Military District, he was one of the leading figures in Mormon defensive efforts during the Utah War in 1857 and later as …

Contents

The Bridge

No abstract provided.

Cornelius Jensen: One Of California's First Danes, Harlan Pedersen

The Bridge

Sixty miles east of Los Angeles, along the Santa Ana River near the community of Robidoux, lies the little Flabob Airport. Because of its difficult approach, it's a challenge to pilots in training and a good place to land for Sunday lunch, particularly on a clear winter's day with the snow-capped San Bernardinos off to the north. One-half mile off the departing end of the Flabob runway, one views a familiar Southern California sight; the inevitable encroachment of more housing tracts. As one of those pilots in training on a bright Sunday morning, I found my curosity aroused when my …

Jens Munk: The Story Of A Sailor Who Embraced His Fate, Inga W. Wiehl

The Bridge

"Jens Munk was one of the intrepid sixteenth-century explorers who navigated the Arctic seas with inadequate ships, faulty charts and primitive instruments. He was also one of the few who survived the arduous search for the Northwest Passage, who reached Hudson Bay in 1619, wintered there, buried most of his crew, and by a supreme effort of will and skill made the voyage home with the two crewmen left to him. "

The Jens Nyholm Papers, William K. Beatty

The Bridge

The Chicago area has benefited from the careers of two Danes who had the same first name but completely different occupations: the one indoors and the other out. Both men were alike in having achieved national reputations in their chosen fields. Jens Nyholm served for 24 years as a university librarian; Jens Jensen devoted many years to working with nature in the designing of private and public landscapes in the Midwest. Northwestern University has enjoyed, and still enjoys, the fruits of the labors of both these men for it was at this institution that Nyholm devoted over two decades of …

Niels Sorensen Lawdahl

The Bridge

The brief autobiography of Niels S0rensen Lawdahl is dated January, 1925, the day following his 61st birthday. It was written in the last days of his life, a little each day, as his health permitted after he became ill. He died March 4, 1925, in Des Moines, Iowa.

A. P. Andersen - Saga Of A Danish Immigrant, Henry Jorgensen

The Bridge

Pastor Ove Nielsen, retired assistant director of Lutheran World Relief, provided the initiative for this biography when he wrote to the author and suggested that research be done and a biography be written for The Bridge on Anders Peder Andersen. Andersen, a Danish immigrant and farmer in Montana, was knighted by the King of his native land at which time attention was called to his many accomplishments.

Front Cover

The Bridge

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Editorial Statement

The Bridge

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Front Matter

The Bridge

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The Danish Community Of Chicago, Philip S. Friedman

The Bridge

Although millions accepted the challenge of immigrating to America, that choice required extraordinary courage. Even the initial task of leaving the homeland and traveling to America often took on mythical proportions. Prior to the journey, the immigrant needed to settle his affairs, selling for cash the possessions which could be sold. Having decided to emigrate to the New World, he did not expect to make the long return trip for many years. 1 After gathering a few essential provisions and saying goodbye to his old home, the immigrant and his family boarded a ship for the two-week voyage. Every ship …

Chapter Ii: Chicago And The Danish Settlement

The Bridge

If two words characterized Chicago in its first halfcentury, they were "growth" and "change." In 1840 Chicago was a small prairie town of 4,500 inhabitants. But the forces that brought immigrants to the Midwest had already begun to transform Chicago. With the development of trade and commerce between the Midwest and the East, better transportation over land and water became essential. In the 1840s, the State of Illinois constructed the Illinois and Michigan Canal, connecting the Mississippi River with Lake Michigan by way of Chicago. For the first time, Midwestern produce could go to market through the Great Lakes, as …

Full Issue

The Bridge

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Contributors To This Issue

The Bridge

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Jens Munk: The Story Of A Sailor Who Embraced His Fate, Inga W. Wiehl

The Bridge

"Jens Munk was one of the intrepid sixteenth-century explorers who navigated the Arctic seas with inadequate ships, faulty charts and primitive instruments. He was also one of the few who survived the arduous search for the Northwest Passage, who reached Hudson Bay in 1619, wintered there, buried most of his crew, and by a supreme effort of will and skill made the voyage home with the two crewmen left to him. "

Niels Sorensen Lawdahl: Autobiography, Niels Sorensen Lawdahl

The Bridge

My name is Niels Sorensen Lawdahl. I was born in Sonder Stenderup, Bjert Strand near Kolding. This vicinity was my mother's native soil. Her name was Ane Sofie Hansen Stougaard. Father was from Givskud vicinity near Vejle. His name was Soren Nielsen. I was born January 25, 1864 (the war year). And before very long, I was baptized because of father's impending departure for the army. There was a little brother in the home, two years older than I. He died in Kasson, Minnesota in 1899.