Notker und die ›taube Erde‹ – Dialog mit der ›Consolatio‹ und dem Buch der Natur

Abstract

Abstract Although Notker III. is known for his highly sensitive language and rhetorical skills, his texts are not considered to be poetic works. Yet, in his translation-cum-commentary on a Latin poem from Boethius’ ›Consolatio‹ Notker uses poetic techniques – figurative and especially acoustic references and a modified rhetorical structure – to communicate a new meaning. Scholarship is thus confronted with the particularities of commentary aesthetics. The article also shows that Notker’s text, interwoven with the phrases of the Latin poem, is dialogical on the level of commentary (Christian answers to Boethius’ lines), on the level of content (answers to the mysteries of nature and their hidden meanings) and on the pragmatic level of his monastic school (communication with the students).