To the medievalist, Tannhauser is the author of ironical and highly original lyrical verse; to the folklorist, the subject of one of Germany's oldest ballads; to the musicologist, the composer of the only extant music for a Tanzleich and the hero of several operas. J. W. Thomas examines the content and style of Tannhauser's verse, discusses his sources and his influence on other medieval poets, and gives a history of the ballad material in which he appears. Also included is a diplomatic edition of Tannhauser's poems, both verse translations of the poems and a version of the ballad, and an extensive bibliography.

To the medievalist, Tannhauser is the author of ironical and highly original lyrical verse; to the folklorist, the subject of one of Germany's oldest ballads; to the musicologist, the composer of the only extant music for a Tanzleich and the hero of several operas. J. W. Thomas examines the content and style of Tannhauser's verse, discusses his sources and his influence on other medieval poets, and gives a history of the ballad material in which he appears. Also included is a diplomatic edition of Tannhauser's poems, both verse translations of the poems and a version of the ballad, and an extensive bibliography.

The book places Wagner's Tannhäuser within the German literary tradition. Separate chapters of the book are devoted to discussions of the medieval sources and the analogous works by Ludwig Tieck, E.T.A. Hoffmann, and Heinrich Heine. These studies, which converge on Wagner's opera, not only highlight various aspects or facets of Wagner's Tannhäuser, but at the same time show the transmission of the Tannhäuser and song contest legends into the nineteenth century and how Wagner combined them.

"I'm a poet, and I like my lies the way my mother used to make them." Aleister Crowley was a noted and controversial occultist, ceremonial magician and poet. He has been called "the wickedest man in the world" or "The Great Beast 666 " or "The Master Therion" but he remained a highly influential figure over Western esotericism and the counterculture. This prolific author wrote this five-act play based on the Venusberg legend (the well-known folk-tale type of a mortal visiting the Otherworld). The story centers on the struggle between sacred and profane love, and redemption through love, a theme running through much of Crowley's mature work.LARGE PRINT EDITION, easy to read layout.Excerpt: "This poem has been written in the blood of slain faith and hope; each foolish utterance of Tannhäuser stings me with shame and memory of old agony; each Ignis Fatuus that he so readily pursues, reminds me of my own delusions. But, these follies and delusions being the common property of mankind, I have thought them of sufficient interest, dramatic and philosophical, to form the basis of a poem. Let no man dare to reproach me with posing as the hero of my tale. I fall back on the last utterance of Tannhäuser himself: "I say, then, 'I': and yet it is not 'I' Distinct, but 'I' incorporate in All." Above all, pray understand that I do not pose as a teacher. I am but an asker of questions, such as may be found confronting those who have indeed freed their minds from the conventional commonplaces of the platitudinous, but have not year dared to uproot the mass of their convictions, and to examine the whole question of religion from its most fundamental source in the consciousness of mankind. Such persons may find the reasoning of Tannhäuser useful, if only to brace them to a more courageous attempt to understand the "Great Arcanum," and to attain at last, no matter at what cost, to "true Wisdom and perfect Happiness." So may all happen!"