This festschrift marking the 65th birthday of the well-known medieval German studies scholar Johannes Janota contains 17 articles by colleagues working in the same field. They cover various different aspects of German textual and literary production in the late Middle Ages: brief 13th century narratives, late medieval reflections and versions of the ANibelungenA material, religious and secular songs, the literature of the Teutonic Order, religious poetry and prose, and religious plays.

Within the group of Hessian passion plays, the Alsfeld play tradition is the one best and most comprehensively documented. Alongside a frequently revised and enlarged play text, the other sources that have come down to us are a director's book, various individual roles, and a catalogue of players. This is the first publication of these documents based on uniform editorial principles, together with the Fritzlar Passion Play Fragment and a new reconstruction of the no longer extant "Friedberg Dirigierrolle." To illustrate the intersection between the Frankfurt (Vol. 1) and Alsfeld traditions, the introduction presents the relevant text passages from the Frankfurt and Heidelberg Passion Plays on opposite pages, with the "Frankfurt Dirigierrolle" as lead reference text. The heart of the volume is the new edition of the Alsfeld Passion Play (with melodies) together with parallel passages from all relevant textual sources within the Hessian Passion Play collection.

The first volume to appear in the series "Altdeutsche Textbibliothek" in 1882 was Walther von der Vogelweide's "Poems," edited by Hermann Paul. This new edition will be published in two parts - Part 1: "Der Spruchdichter" (ATB 1) was published in February 1997; Part 2: "Der MinnesAnger" (ATB 110) will follow in due course. The revised edition reverts to the text as edited by Hermann Paul and last published in 1911 (in its 4th edition), as this gets closer to the text of the original than subsequent editions. The introduction, the notes on the editing of Walthers poems and the select bibliography have been brought up to date; the known melodies have been added.

Im Rahmen des mittelalterlichen Geschichtsbildes insbesondere des nicht-lateinkundigen weltlichen Oberschichtspublikum kam dem Trojanischen Krieg eine zentrale Bedeutung zu. Am Anfang der volkssprachlichen Romanliteratur, die um die Mitte des 12. Jahrhunderts erstmals das Selbstbewusstsein der laikalen Oberschicht formulierte, steht geradezu folgerichtig ein Trojaroman, der wohl um 1165 am englischen Konigshof entstand: Der altfranzosische "Roman de Troie" des Benoit de Sainte-Maure. Er wurde zum Ausgangspunkt einer sehr umfangreichen volkssprachlichen Trojaliteratur, die sich in die verschiedenen Literaturtypen verzweigte und Interessenten unterschiedlicher standischer Herkunft fand. Der vorliegende Band untersucht zunachst die komplizierte Uberlieferung. Er enthalt Artikel zu samtlichen selbstandigen deutschen Torjatexten, ferner zu grosseren Trojapartien in gereimten oder in Prosa abgefassten Weltchroniken des 13. bis 15. Jahrhunderts. Eine knappe Darstellung sowie eine Text-Dokumentation der Anspielungen auf Troja in der sonstigen Dichtung des 12. bis 14. Jahrhunderts rundet den Band ab.