Einhard: Vita Karoli Magni, The Life of Charlemagne: The Latin Text with a New English Translation, Introduction, Notes and Illustrations, by Evelyn S. Firchow and E.H. Zeydel. Coral Gables, FL.: University of Miami Press, 1972. 144 pp. 

From the Reviews

The Latin text and a new parallel English translation of this work comprise the bulk of the volume now under review, which deserves to supplant all its rivals so far as the serious student is concerned. ... The translation is very good. It is not only exact and readable, but commendable for the manner in which it conveys the precise shade of meaning of the Latin whilst eschewing all traces of ‘translatese’. Without any sacrifice of accuracy, Einhard’s lengthy and involved sentences are broken down and recast so as to convey his meaning in clear and natural English. This translation has obviously been polished many times before being committed to print... The volume, which is attractively produced, is enhanced by the inclusion of several illustrations and maps. It can be strongly recommended on all counts.

—  J.W. Binns, Birmingham, The Modern Language Review 69 (1974), 838 

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The book under review offers the Latin text of Einhard’s Life in the revised critical edition by O. Holder-Egger published in the series Monumenta Germaniae Historica in 1911, omitting, however, the critical apparatus. Printed side by side with the text is a new translation into English. ... The translators here make the justified claim that theirs is the only translation based on the revised critical edition, which does make a difference. ... This English version, with its shorter sentences and idiomatic phrases is much more fluent and palatable than the older translations. ... It is also less wordy and more readable, at least in the opinion of this reviewer, than Lewis Thorpe’s recent translation in the Penguin Classics. ... The notes are informative and helpful.

— Bernhard W. Scholz, History: Review of New Books 4 (1973), 243

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Unbestritten ist Einhards Lebensbeschreibung Karls des Großen die bekannteste Herrscherbiographie des gesamten Mittelalters. ... E. Scherabon Firchow und E. H. Zeydel legen nun eine weitere Ausgabe mit einer neu angefertigten englischen Übersetzung vor, die für die Schulzwecke gedacht und somit - was bisher übrigens noch nie der Fall war - der besseren Anschauung halber mit einigen Bildern und Karten ausgestattet wurde. ... Die Übersetzung will, wie im Vorwort (S.10) vermerkt wird, zuverlässig, aber auch flüssig und lesbar sein; das letzte gelingt ihr gut. ...

— Wolfgang Eggert, Deutsche Literaturzeitung 95 (1974), 356

Evelyn S. Firchow, K. Grimstad, N. Hasselmo and W.A. O’Neil, editors: Studies by Einar Haugen. The Hague: Mouton. 1972. 641 pp. 

From the Reviews

This magnificent volume of large format presents fifty-one studies from the pen of the great Scandinavian specialist and general linguist, Einar Haugen. ... It is not easy accurately to pinpoint all the areas which Haugen has cultivated in his research. ... This brief précis has given some idea of the great variety and abiding unity of Haugen’s research. It will also have shown the value of the present collection, which is further enhanced by the fact that each contribution is supplemented by a comment, in which Haugen evaluates his own work and motives.

— Oswald Szémerenyi, Linguistics 186 (1977), 64-68

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This mighty volume of 641 pages is the second collection of studies presented to Professor Einar Haugen on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday. ... The present volume is a selection from Einar Haugen’s own work. ... It has been worth waiting for. ... The selection reflects the wide variety of fields in which EH has been active - language history, linguistic theory, bilingualism, sociolinguistics, language planning, lexicography, and the practical teaching and translating of foreign languages. Of a special interest to Scandinavian readers are the Scandinavian studies - linguistics, literature, mythology, and history. All this has given the editors a number of difficult choices, and in my opinion they have come out with success .

— Dag Gundersen, Norwegian Journal of Linguistics 27 (1973), 159-160  

Evelyn S. Firchow, K. Grimstad, N. Hasselmo and W.A. O’Neil, editors: Studies for Einar Haugen. The Hague: Mouton. 1972. 573 pp. 

From the Reviews

Die Festschrift wurde zum 65. Geburstag von Einar Haugen herausgegeben. Sie umfaßt 47 Aufsätze im Rahmen des Hauptinteressentenkreises des Jubilars. ... Unter den hier abgedruckten Aufsätzen dominieren natürlich die nordistischen Arbeiten und nicht zuletzt Interferenzstudien und phonematische Untersuchungen zumeist im Bereich der nordischen Sprachen.

— Georg F. Meier, Zeitschrift für Phonetik, Sprachwissenschaft
 und Kommunikationsforschung 31 (1978), 429

Brigitte Schludermann, V.G. Doerksen, R.J. Glendinning and Evelyn S. Firchow, editors: Deutung und Bedeutung: Studies in German and Comparative Literature. The Hague: Mouton 1973. 397 pp.

Karl Van D’Elden and Evelyn S. Firchow, editors: Was Deutsche lesen: Modern German Short Stories. New York: McGraw Hill, 1973. XII + 210 pp. 

From the Reviews

Was Deutsche lesen is ... a solid package of ten short stories, chosen for their relevance and readability. ... The stories are unchanged and unabridged and arranged in order of difficulty; each selection is preceeded by a short biography of the author and followed by a series of grammatical exercises based on the text. ... Since it is the editor’s expressed belief that the students should work exclusively in German and avoid interference from their native tongue, all biographical data are presented in German, as are grammatical instruction and paraphrases for the vocabulary. ... Aside from the good quality of its reading selections, Was Deutsche lesen is outstanding in the presentation of its working vocabulary. ... One of the most impressive features of this text is the arrangement and use of the grammatical materials. ... Its exercises are brief yet varied, straightforward yet challenging, and never repetitive to the point of engendering boredom. ... In all, Was Deutsche lesen is an excellent reader, carefully conceived and executed and suitable to the interests and needs of the intermediate student.

— Charlotte Anderson, Die Unterrichtspraxis 9 (1976), 149-151

Evelyn S. Firchow, editor and translator. Icelandic Short Stories, with an introduction by Sigurdur A. Magnússon. New York: Twayne Publishers, American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1974. XIV + 214 pp. 251 pp. 

From the Reviews

Icelandic Short Stories, edited by Evelyn Scherabon Firchow, is a comprehensive and varied collection of tales by twenty-five different authors representing the Saga Isle. The life of the people of Iceland, farmers and fishermen as well as city dwellers, form the background for a collection that not only makes entertaining reading but is also great literature.

— Paul Schach, Scandinavian Review 64/3 (1976), 74

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The anthology itself spans nearly 150 years and offers the reader a ... selection of Icelandic short stories ... on the principle of how well each story reflected the ‘unique’ aspects of Icelandic life during the period in which it was written. ... The translations are ... accurate and readable.

— Njördur P. Njardvík, Books Abroad 50/1 (1976), 178 

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It was an excellent idea of Professor Evelyn Firchow to bring out an anthology of Modern Icelandic stories. This volume contains twenty-five tales, by as many authors, written during the past ninety years or so. The selection is fair and representative.

— Hermann Pálsson, Scandinavica 17 (1976), 74

East German Short Stories: An Introductory Anthology, translated and edited by Peter and Evelyn Firchow. Twayne Publishers, Inc., New York-Boston, 1979. 251 pp. 

From the reviews

The Firchows are to be commended for editing and translating such a fine addition to the small number of English translations of the German Democratic Republic. The works chosen, with their straightforward plots and plentiful actions, translated into crisp, contemporary English, lend themselves well to an introductory course on German literature in English translation on the high school or university levels... The concise but incisive introduction presents an excellent overview of GDR history and its effects upon the literary scene in the German Democratic Republic.

— Dagmar Cäcilia Stern, Modern Language Journal, 65 (Spring 1981), 114 

Elucidarius in Old Norse Translation. Evelyn S. Firchow and Kaaren Grimstad, eds. Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi, Rit 36, Reykjavík 1989. CLIX+159 pp. 

From the Reviews

This book is especially remarkable for two reasons: it is the first and only edition to present the entire Old Norse tradition of this important medieval text, and it is the first edition of an Old Norse text to make extensive use of the computer from the very start through all stages of the editing process. In the introduction, which amounts to almost 100 pages, the editors ... have done a very fine job discussing previous scholarship about the manuscripts and comparing it with their research, correcting and augmenting where necessary and possible. ... The edition itself (nearly 160 pages) gives up to five parallel Old Norse texts plus the Latin text. A comparison of the facsimile plates, other facsimiles, and photographs of the manuscripts with corresponding text passages shows that the editors have worked with great diligence, maintaining a high standard of accuracy. ... This will surely be the definitive edition of the Old Norse Elucidarius for many years to come and will undoubtedly prove its usefulness as a basis for future scholarship in the field.

— Hubert Seelow, Speculum 68 (1993), 144-146

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In der vorliegenden Edition wird der Text aller Hss. synoptisch abgedruckt, ergänzt durch einen lateinischen Text des Elucidarius nach der Ausg. von Lefèvre (1954). Der Text wird unter weitgehender Beibehaltung auch der graphischen Eigenheiten wiedergegeben, Abkürzungen werden aufgelöst. Insgesamt hat die Edition den hohen Standard, der für die Ausgabe des Isländischen Hss.instituts (Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi) üblich ist, und damit ist dieses für die Entwicklung der altisländischen Literatur sehr wichtige Werk zum ersten Mal in einer alle Hss. umfassenden zuverlässigen Edition greifbar. ... Ausführlich geben die Hrsg. Rechenschaft über die Methoden und Probleme bei der Anwendung des Computers für die Herausgabe des Textes. ... Der maschinenlesbare Text ermöglicht nun aber viele weiterführende computergestützte Untersuchungen z.B. im Bereich der Paläographie, Orthographie, der Lautlehre, des Wortschatzes usw. ... Das Verdienst der Herausgeber geht somit über die Erarbeitung einer guten Edition eines wichtigen Textes hinaus.

— Kurt Schier, Germanistik 32 (1991), 400-401

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... For the first time, all eight variants [are edited] in parallel, and the texts are presented synoptically in a diplomatic edition with comments and corrections kept below each manuscript text. Manuscript punctuation and spelling have been followed exactly, suspensions have been resolved, and an attempt has been made to reproduce the spacing of the originals ... Each of the extant Icelandic parchment manuscripts is described in detail, and the orthography is discussed clearly and concisely. ... For every manuscript the editors are able to use their computerized data base to supply statistical information about the frequency and place of occurrence of graphemic variants. This is especially valuable for AM 675, 4to, where the editors are able to refine Finnur Jónsson’s presentation of the vowel system ... There is no doubt that this edition represents the state of our knowledge about the Old Norse Elucidarius ... It is useful to have collected in one volume so much information about such an important work in the learned tradition of Iceland. Firchow and Grimstad have succeeded in doing justice to this popular monument of theological thought and have produced a thorough, exacting scholarly edition...

— Peter A. Jorgensen, Scandinavian Studies 64 (1992), 140-142. 

The Old Norse ‘Elucidarius’: Original Text and English Translation. Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1992. XV+114 pp. 

From the Reviews

The most distinctive feature of Evelyn Firchow’s ‘text’ is that it is a composite of AM 647a and three other fragments written up to three centuries or more later. Comparison with the standard Latin edition shows that this, the longest possible version of the text in Old Norse, is about 80 per cent of the whole. Because Firchow has not normalized the language of the fragments, and has marked the boundaries between them, readers can clearly see how Old Norse has changed during those three centuries and can...get a sense of what this text is really like... This central concern with ‘the preserved “raw” versions of the manuscripts without active intervention - or interference - by a contemporary editorial mind’ has produced a most valuable and illuminating text. ... The translation, into contemporary American English, is lucid and readable, and helpfully faithful without being stiltedly slavish.

— Heather O’Donoghue, Notes and Queries June 1994, 234

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Dr. Firchow now assembles the major fragments so as to make the nearest that we can get to a continuous Icelandic version of the work, while admitting that the extant fragments may not all derive from the same translation. There may have been more than one translator and he/they may have been either Icelandic or Norwegian. ... Firchow’s Icelandic text is accompanied by a facing English translation. ... A brief introduction sets out the basic facts about the original Latin work and the Icelandic version, and explains the rationale of the present edition, which has a twofold purpose. First, it can serve as an introduction to a work that was influential over a large part of Europe for more than 200 years and which should therefore be part of the background knowledge of all students of medieval thought and literature, and secondly, it can serve as an introduction to editorial problems and methods in Old Norse/Icelandic texts. Firchow, on quite reasonable grounds, rejects the possibility of printing a text in normalized spelling and gives a diplomatic edition that exemplifies the linguistic, especially orthographic, variety of Icelandic manuscripts. The edition will thus enable advanced students to grapple with forms of thought and language very different from anything they will have experienced in reading normalized Icelandic saga-texts, but which are fundamental to the study of medieval Icelandic language and literature. The aims underlying this edition are excellent and have been carried through with great skill: the text is carefully presented and the translation is generally good. ... This is a valuable book: one only hopes that there will be a sufficient supply of advanced students to use it as it deserves to be used and to profit from all the possibilities of learning that it offers.

— John Frankis, Scandinavica 43 (1994), 123-125. 

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For better or worse, English-speaking students of Old Norse-Icelandic have traditionally cut their teeth on E.V. Gordon’s Introduction to Old Norse. Any attempt to supersede it would have to correct at least two of its cardinal shortcomings: the exclusive use of Íslenzk Fornrit-style normalization and the dearth of examples of anything Continental or Christian, however popular such may have been for the twelfth and thirteenth-century Icelandic and Norwegian reading public. ... [This] Elucidarius addresses itself to Gordon’s shortcomings, explicitly to the first, and implicitly to the second. Unlike Gordon and most modern editions designed for learners, this is a diplomatic edition, “an ‘advanced readers version’” ... made up of the four largest of the eight fragments. ... These four fragments span three hundred years, making clear to the student the very large changes over time in the language, in spelling and in punctuation that a normalized text would obscure. ... This new Elucidarius ... is presented as a seamless text. The editor has kept her promise “to make readers appreciate and enjoy the work”. ... The basis of all scholarly work in the medieval period must always remain the extant manuscript texts themselves despite claims to the contrary.

— Norman R. Spencer, German Quarterly 68 (1995), 92-93

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L’Elucidarium d’Honoré d’Augsbourg (1080-1156) est l’un des textes fondamentaux du Moyen Age, aussi a-t-il éte traduit en 9 langues. Evelyn Scherabon Firchow presente ici une reconstitution du texte norrois á partir des mss. fragmentaires....La traduction est fluide...La tentative est interessante et merite attention et respect.

— C. Lecouteux, Études Germaniques 50 (1995), 615-616.

Evelyn S. Firchow ed. Notker der Deutsche von St. Gallen: De interpretatione. Boethius’ Bearbeitung von Aristoteles’ Schrift peri hermeneias. Konkordanzen, Wortlisten und Abdruck des Textes nach dem Codex Sangallensis 818. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1995. 690 pp. 

From the Reviews

This is a remarkable undertaking, one which most assuredly will be welcomed by all scholars with an interest not only in the monk Notker III of St. Gall (also called Notker Teutonicus and Notker Labeo: 949/950 – 1022 AD), but also by those who appreciate philology which is pursued with a rigor that has regrettably proved elusive of late in our discipline. Firchow’s work on Notker extends back over a quarter century and has earned her a pivotal place in Notker scholarship. ... Firchow’s edition of Notker’s De interpretatione represents philology at its best. It also offers eloquent testimony to the continued need for such meticulous, painstaking work in the attempt to make available texts from a variety of medieval areas and localities in diplomatic editions that meet the expectations of modern scholarship. With its accompanying concordances and reverse word lists, Firchow’s transcription of De interpretatione is a veritable treasure trove for medievalists, linguistics, Latinists, and cultural historians. It is without question a work of high calibre, which most certainly would have harvested the praise of the editor’s doctoral advisor, Taylor Starck.

— Winder McConnell, Colloquia Germanica 31 (1998), 75

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Jedoch bietet Firchows Ausgabe, als erstes Fünftel des Buches, den Text in nie gesehener drucktechnischer Differenziertheit und Klarheit. Das gleiche gilt für die weiteren vier Fünftel, in denen nacheinander der ahd. und lat. Gesamtanteil der Wörter in Konkordanzen jeweils im größeren Satzverbund augenfällig erschlossen ist. ... Alles in allem ist Notkers De interpretatione ein Zeugnis der frühen deutschen Sprachgeschichte, der Wissenschafts- und Bildungsgeschichte in der ahd. Zeit. Seine jüngste Ausgabe respektiert formal und inhaltlich den Sinn der Klassizität als eines seit der Antike den abendländischen Intellekt formenden Instruments.

— Herbert Backes, Germanistik 37 (1996), 873-874

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This new data may call for a reappraisal of the details of Notker’s Anlaut(s)gesetz. And of even greater historical import, we can better assess the variation among full and weakened (i.e., tending toward schwa) inflectional vowel sounds. Herbert Penzl (1986) would have appreciated the diplomatic details as much as anyone. These concordances provide access to conveniently organized data on a wide range of phenomena, including but not limited to orthography, phonetics/phonology, morphology, and syntax. ... In fact, together with size and mass of the near-folio format, reading the diplomatic text itself provides an aesthetic experience in some ways medieval.

— John Jeep, American Journal of Germanic Linguistics & Literatures 9 (1997), 144.

Notker der Deutsche von St. Gallen: Categoriae. Boethius’ Bearbeitung von Aristoteles’ Schrift “kategoriai”. Konkordanzen, Wortlisten und Abdruck der Texte nach den Codices Sangallensis 818 und 825. 2 volumes. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1996. 1243 pp. 

From the reviews

This exemplary multivolume diplomatic edition of Categoriae follows the editor’s 1995 edition of Notker’s Boethius. De interpretatione. It embodies the same well-thought-out editorial principles and, to the extent possible, the same method of presenting and analyzing Notker’s Mischsprache texts and of drawing linguistic data from them. ... Firchow’s edition of Categoriae is not based on previous editions. Rather, microfilms and xerographic reproductions of the Notker texts were entered directly into the computer, and the resultant transcriptions were then meticulously compared with the original manuscripts at St. Gall. Why not instead a facsimile edition? The answer: it would have been prohibitively expensive. Confronted with that reality, Firchow, exploiting the capabilities of modern computer typography, supplies the transcribed texts with all necessary interpunctuation, diacritical marks, and range of type size. The result, after the reader has dwelt on the table of abbreviations for a bit and then moved to the texts, is a quite readable Notker.

— Richard H. Lawson, Germanic Notes and Reviews 28 (1997), 153

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Zum ersten Mal erscheint das Werk, nach dem Wortlaut der beiden Hss. in synoptischer Gegenüberstellung, diplomatisch abgedruckt. ... Die akribische editorische Leistung und der buchtechnische Aufwand entsprechen der eminenten Bedeutung der Categoriae für die frühe deutsche Bildungs- und Sprachgeschichte.

— Herbert Backes, Germanistik 38 (1997), 478-479

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Mit diesem Buch und seinem Vorgänger ist der Notkerforschung ein gründliches und auf breiter Ebene anwendbares Hilfsmittel in die Hand gelegt. Seinen vollen Wert wird es natürlich erst in Kombination mit den noch erscheinenden Bänden erreichen.

— Andrea de Leeuw van Weenen,
Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 48 (1997), 221-224

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In this her second diplomatic transcription of a work by Notker Labeo, ... Evelyn Scherabon Firchow presents both manuscript versions of the Categoriae, an accomplishment of great importance to scholars since this is apparently the first time that these two extant versions (both held in the Stiftsbibliothek of St. Gall) have been presented on facing pages. Because CSg 818 is the more complete of the two, it appears on the left and the corresponding pages from CSg 825 on the right. The Notker specialist will be pleased to encounter here the same highly commendable conservative editorial principles that Firchow employed in her diplomatic transcription of De interpretatione...A striking color facsimile follows the title page in each of these handsome volumes. Indeed, this reviewer was delighted during their perusal by the illusion that he actually had medieval folios in hand. Firchow deserves much praise for this truly remarkable accomplishment. One can only hope that her efforts will serve as a model for other scholars.

— Charles M. Barrack, The German Quarterly 71.4. (Fall 1998), 392

Einhard: Vita Karoli Magni, Das Leben Karls des Großen. Übersetzung, Nachwort und Anmerkungen. Third revised edition. Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam, 1997. 96 pp. 

From the Reviews of the first edition (1968)

Die synoptische Ausgabe bietet den lateinischen Text nach Pertz/Waitz/Holder-Egger (MGH, SS rer.germ.,1911); er ist originalnah, flüssig und in moderner Diktion neu übertragen worden. ... Im Nachwort wird mit Einhart und seinem Werk (Entstehung, Vorbilder, historischer Zeugniswert) vertraut gemacht. Anmerkungen bringen Sacherklärungen und - besonders wichtig - an Einharts Darstellung Korrekturen im Faktischen. Eine Übersicht der Karlschen Familie ist eine hilfreiche Beigabe.

— Manfred Lemmer, Germanistik 10 (1996), 776

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... das wohlfeile zweisprachige Reclam-Büchlein von Einhards “Vita Karoli Magni” [entwirft] in einer mehrseitigen Einleitung bzw. im Anhang ein kurzes Porträt des dichtenden Staatsmannes. ...[Es] ist zunächst einmal bedeutend billiger, und kaum ein Bücherfreund würde und sollte hier den Preis als Hemmschwelle ansehen. Zudem sind Übersetzung und auch Nachwort in leicht faßlichem Stil gehalten.

— Christoph Münch, Lorscher Tageszeitung 14.8.1993

Alois Brandstetter: The Abbey. A Novel. Peter and Evelyn Firchow, translators. Foreword by Alois Brandstetter. Riverside, Cal.: Ariadne Press, 1998. IV+ 224pp. 

From the reviews

Academic critics have mostly ignored Brandstetter, who has characterized himself as ‘a writer of cultivated boredom’ preferring Stifter’s idyllic model but criticizing what is dear to him from a position of intellectual and moral exile. The Abbey, a who done it, but I wont tell you novel, was published in 1976 by merry Alois, the other Austrian novelist who does not humorously rant and rave, and who does not take us into an insane asylum like Thomas Bernhard might. Brandstetter uses a breathtakingly wide range of narrative devices with humor and irony to lead his reader through a labyrinth of carefully researched information that functions with esprit as sociopolitical criticism with hilariously edifying results. Authority represented by the church, politics, and the university is satirized with inimitable subtlety. The particularity of local events (Heimat) is the basis of the novel’s satire, confronting the universality of the Viennese attitude of neglectful superiority. The translators have done an outstanding and exemplary job in making this extremely European novel and its author available in English.

— Hans H. Rudnick, World Literature Today 74:1 (Winter 2000), 153

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Although he is an important contemporary author in Austria, Brandstetter (b.1939) is not well known in the US. Ariadne may correct this situation with this fine volume, the first of Brandstetter’s novels to be made available in English translation... The translators (both Univ. of Minnesota) have provided a smooth and clear text; their extensive afterword serves to greatly elucidate the author and his text.

— R. Acker, Choice 37 (September 1999), 149

Evelyn S. Firchow, editor, in collaboration with Richard Hotchkiss and Rick Treece. Notker der Deutsche von St. Gallen: Martianus Capellas “De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii.” Textabdruck, Konkordanzen und Wortlisten nach dem Codex Sangallensis 872. 2 volumes. Hildesheim: Olms, 1999. 1230 pp.

From the Reviews

Die Bedeutung dieser neuen Ausgabe liegt an erster Stelle in der möglichst genauen Wiedergabe des handschriftlichen Texts, denn wie die Herausgeberin mit Recht bemerkt, eben diese handschriftliche Überlieferung sollte einer Textanalyse zugrundeliegen. Daneben nehmen aus denselben Gründen die unterschiedlichen Konkordanzen einen Grossteil der Bände ein....Es ist denn auch nicht wenig, was dem Forscher zugänglich gemacht wird.... Der Ruf ad fontes hat also noch nichts von seiner Bedeutung verloren.... Natürlich wäre ein Faksimile mit exakter Transkription das allerbeste, aber aus Kostengründen ist die Lösung, die Firchow gefunden hat auch annehmbar....Wichtig dabei ist die Autopsie der Handschrift, die auch vorgenommen wurde....Eigentümlichkeiten wie Nachträge, Korrekturen usw. werden im Text bezeichnet, sodaß eine weitgehend mit der Handschrift identische Fassung entstanden ist....Man hofft nur, daß es [Firchow] gelingen wird, auch die anderen Werke Notkers in ähnlicher Form vorzulegen.

— Arend Quak, Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 56 (2002)

Evelyn S. Firchow, editor. Notker der Deutsche von St. Gallen (950-1022): Ausführliche Bibliographie. Studium zum Althochdeutschen Bd. 38. Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000. 123 pp. 

From the Reviews

Seit dem 19. Jahrhundert haben sich vor allem Sprachhistoriker intensiv mit... [Notkers] Werken befasst, wovon die vorliegende titelreiche Personalbibliographie Zeugnis ablegt. Die in Minneapolis lehrende Bearbeiterin, eine ausgewiesene Kennerin von Notkers Schriften, hat bereits 1968 und 1983 in Beiträgen zu zwei Festschriften Bibliographien zu Notker vorgelegt. Sie macht im Vorwort darauf aufmerksam, dass im Untertitel bewusst eine ausführliche Bibliographie angekündigt werde, da Vollständigkeit nicht erreichbar sei. Sie verweist in diesem Zusammenhang auf die Schwierigkeiten, die sich in den USA bei der Beschaffung älterer Speziallliteratur noch immer stellten, dankt aber auch zahlreichen Helfern in Europa, unter denen die Mitarbeiter der Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen hervorgehoben werden. Die Bibliographie zählt 734 Titel und ist in vier Teile untergliedert.

— Christian Heitzmann, Informationsmittel für Bibliotheken 8 (2000), 358-9

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[Evelyn Firchow’s] zwei erste Notkerbibliographien [1968 und 1983].... boten bislang die umfangreichste Erfassung von dem, was zu Notker veröffentlicht worden war. Und das ist nicht wenig: rechnet man die ungezählten Rezensionen zu den etwa 743 Einträgen... kommt man wohl auf über eintausend Veröffentlichungen seit Johannes
Schilters Ausgabe der Psalmenbearbeitungen von 1726.... Die Namenvielfalt Notkers ... [ist] nicht das Mindeste, was bei der doch sehr mühsamen Erstellung und folglich auch bei der Ausnutzung einer großen Bibliographie zu beachten ist. Wer sich seit Jahren mit dem Themenreichtum der Forschung um Notker Labeo und zum Althochdeutschen überhaupt auseinandersetzt, weiß, wie verstreut und zum Teil wie versteckt sich wissenschaftlich relevantes Material bietet.... Evelyn Scherabon Firchow hat die vorliegende Bibliographie mehrmals versprochen. Es ist ein berechtigter Verdienst, dass ihr Name mit diesem wichtigen Projekt durch ihre hervorragende Leistung verbunden bleibt.

— John Jeep, Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 55 (2001), 239-247

Evelyn S. Firchow and Bernfried Nugel, editors. Reluctant Modernists: Aldous Huxley and Some Contemporaries. A Collection of Essays by Peter E. Firchow. (Human Potentialities Series of the International Aldous Huxley Society, volume 4). Münster: LIT, 2002. XXV+315 pp.

From the Reviews

Firchow’s meticulously researched studies clearly reveal that “reluctance” is a defining characteristic of modernism not only in Huxley’s case. Continuity is the larger force moderating ruthless and radical rupture. Continuity is predestined to prevail, because we are human beings inevitably bound by time into the larger web of history which necessarily creates an awareness in us prompting understanding, knowledge, participation, and creativity, all factors favoring various degrees of reluctance to leave proven measures behind. The larger perspective provided by intellectual and cultural history posits the founding principle of Western culture to be a steady and conscious building of human achievement upon human achievement within the framework of the Judeo-Christian tradition. The great accomplishments of scholarship and scientific discovery have become possible exactly because of the sane reliance, sine ira et studio, on the edifice built by past generations so that the following generations could take it from there and trustingly add to it. That there is a certain degree of reluctance must be taken for granted, since individual, tradition, and talent must find the modus operandi to drive the cause meaningfully forward. Peter Firchow knows that his understanding of modernism represents during these times a minority view, and it is for this reason that he is all the more eager to put it forward - deservedly so - since his research is immaculate, his evidence well documented, and his achievement and contribution to modernism studies without blemish.

— Hans H. Rudnick, to be published in English Literature in Transition 47:4 (2004)

Evelyn S. Firchow, editor, in collaboration with Richard Hotchkiss and Rick Treece. Notker der Deutsche von St.Gallen: Lateinischer Text und althochdeutsche Übersetzung der Tröstung der Philosophie (De consolatione Philosophiae) von Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius. Diplomatische Textausgabe, Konkordanzen und Wortlisten nach den Codices Sangallensis 825 und 844, Codex Turicensis C121 und Codex Vindobonensis 242. 3 volumes. Hildesheim: Olms, 2003. XLVIII+1773 pp.

From the Reviews

.... Evelyn Firchow has increased the indebtedness of the Notker specialists, the OHG scholar, indeed scholarship in general by this new work [Notker’s Boethius, Die
Tröstung der Philosophie] in her series of editions of Notker,following upon editions of De interpretatione (1995), Categoriae (1996) and De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii (1999).Unfortunately, she indicates that this most probably will be her last such work....The work under review here consists of various parts: a diplomatic edition, various concordances and word-lists.... Only someone who has done likewise recognizes the enormous difficulties this involves....This is an excellent piece of work, as are the others in this series, and Evelyn Firchow and her co-workers have every reason to be proud of it.

— James Marchand, Germanic Notes and Reviews 35/1(2004), 52-55

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Es ist eine schöne und gute Ausgabe... Es dürfte mit diesem Werk eine gediegene Grundlage für die weitere Beschäftigung mit Notkers Sprache geschaffen worden sein, wofür wir der Herausgeberin dankbar sein können.

– Arend Quak, Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 61 (2006), 331-33

Evelyn S. Firchow, editor, in collaboration with Richard Hotchkiss. Gottfried von Strassburg: Tristan und Isolde. Stuttgart: Hirzel, 2004. XLIII+260 pp. <http://www.hirzel.de/titel/53691.html>

From the Reviews

Durch die sehr akribische Publikation von W und dem Fragment w ... wird ... zweifellos eine Lücke in der Tristan-Überlieferung geschlossen... In jedem Fall ist dieser diplomatische Abdruck der Hs. W und des Fragments w für den jetzt allgemein zugänglichen Kenntnisstand dieser Überlieferung von Gottfrieds Tristan eine Bereicherung. Vielleicht wirkt auch diese Ausgabe motivierend, die vielfach in der Mediaevistik veralteten Editionen aus dem 19. und Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts mit den gegenwärtig praktizierten Editionsprinzipien neu herauszugeben. Die Zeit ist mehr als reif hierfür.

– Carola Gottzmann in Editionen in der Kritik.
Hans-Gert Roloff ed. vol. 1. Berlin: Weidler, 2005: 95-99

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Angesichts der als ausgezeichnet geltenden Textqualität und der schon früh erkannten überlieferungsgeschichtlichen Bedeutung der Hs. W ist der anspruchsvoll edierte und auch äußerlich sehr ansprechend gestaltete Band zweifelsohne ein editorisches Ereignis von einigem Gewicht...[D]iese diplomatische Ausgabe der Handschrift W ist ein philologisches Meisterstück, wie nur ein Germanist mit dem Können und der editorischen Erfahrung Firchows es zustandebringen konnte. Zugleich füllt sie angesichts der unbefriedigenden Situation der kritischen Ausgaben eine empfindliche Lücke in der Tristanforschung, indem sie den authentischen Wortlaut eines der wichtigsten Textzeugen der Tristanüberlieferung zugänglich macht... Wenn es wirklich um die Authentizität des Textes geht, kann man jede zuverlässige Handschriftenausgabe nur als einen Erkenntnisgewinn begrüßen.

– Ernst S. Dick, Germanic Notes and Reviews 36/2 (2006), 82-85

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Firchow’s edition takes the reader as close to the actual manuscript as the typographic medium will allow. Not only does the edition reproduce the layout of the original by page, column, and line, it exactly records the punctuation, spelling, and word division used by the two scribes who wrote out the text. And endleaf pasted in at the front of the codex, which tontains a further fragment of Gottfried plus some Latin and MHG verses, is also transcribed. Concordances, word lists, and frequency tables are provided on an accompanying CD-ROM.... Gottfried scholars are bound to be grateful to the editor for giving us this excellent edition which we cannot afford to ignore.

— Mark Chinca, The Modern Language Review 101/4 (2006), 1159-1161

Evelyn S. Firchow. Wege und Irrwege Mittelalterlicher Texteditionen. Stuttgart: Hirzel, 2007. XIX + 272 pp. <http://www.hirzel.de/titel/55550.html>

Evelyn S. Firchow, Sabine Heidi Walther and Richard Louis Hotchkiss eds. Notker der Deutsche von St. Gallen: Althochdeutscher und lateinischer Wortindex. 2 vols. Hildesheim: Olms, 2008. XXVI + 672 pp.

From the Reviews

The publication of this index and the editions upon which it is based should ... be hailed as a great leap forward in Notker scholarship... [T]he edition brings together material from all of Notker’s major works in Alemannic. And it is indeed a treasure trove for both Old High German and Notker’s Latin, with one volume being reserved for each language... The exhaustive lists of occurrences and inclusion of all variant spellings under systematized entries will be an invaluable tool for anyone interested in Notker’s use of either language. In addition, the entire material is also available in electronic format (PDF) on a CD-ROM included in the book. ... Any philologist or historical linguist interested in Notker or the history of the High Alemannic dialect will ignore this book at his or her peril.

– Michel van der Hoek, Germanic Notes and Reviews 40/2 (2009), 49-51

Evelyn S. Firchow, editor in collaboration with Richard L. Hotchkiss. Der Codex Vindobonensis 2681 aus dem bayerischen Kloster Wessobrunn um 1100. Diplomatische Textausgabe der Wiener Notker Psalmen, Cantica, Wessobrunner Predigten und katechetischen Denkmäler. Mit Konkordanzen und Wortlisten auf einer CD.  Hildesheim: Olms-Weidmann, 2009. LII + 468pp.

Anna Grotans, Heinrich Beck and Anton Schwob, editors. De consolatione Philologiae: Studies in Honor of Evelyn S. Firchow. 2 volumes. Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik No.682, I and II. Göppingen: Kümmerle, 2000. XIV + 448 + X + 326 pp.