Category: Reception

“The poems of Apollinaris awaken a special love in me”

New on the Translations and Reception/Germany pages: entries on Karl Wolfskehl. The Jewish poet and translator Karl Wolfskehl (1869-1948), in the last decades of his life a refugee from Nazi Germany, first in Italy, then in New Zealand, extensively read and admired Sidonius’ work. An aestheticist in the tradition of Stefan George, he was sensitive to Sidonius’ particular style while his plight as an exile created a feeling of shared fates with Sidonius and his time “of festering and pregnant doom”.

Sidonius for Creative Writing

A brand-new historical novel on Sidonius is forthcoming. Annabelle Grierson (in arte J A Grierson) has recently got her Creative Writing Master degree at Auckland University of Technology with a two-part novel breathing life into fifth-century history, with Sidonius among its protagonists. She was inspired by his letters, and the novels actually quote them, including the famous letter to Bishop Graecus (Ep. 7.7), which is cited almost in full. The first volume, entitled The Wars with Attila, centred around a fictionalised Avitus, is expected to be published next Spring. The second volume, centred around Sidonius, will be called The Last Roman.
For information, go here.