Maritime borders. The Beach as Place of Encounter and Precarious Evidence in Thirteenth-century Epic Texts (›Kudrun‹, ›Nibelungenlied‹, ›Tristan‹)

Abstract

This article focuses on the beach in epic texts of the 13th century in order to determine its narrative potential in more detail. Using the example of ›Kudrun‹ as well as scenes from the ›Nibelungenlied‹ and from ›Tristan‹, it can be shown how the beach is narrated as a place of crisis-laden stagnation on the threshold between sea and land, where various things come together in indeterminate ambiguity without, however, achieving unambiguity. By tracing moments of hybridization, dedifferentiation and ambiguation, the beach can be described as a place of encounter and precarious evidence, which on the one hand offers opportunities to raise questions of courtly culture, but on the other requires a narrative dynamic to produce unambiguity, which only finds its realization in the change of spaces.