This repository contains the corpus of the ONAMA project.
ONAMA (Ontology of the Narratives of the Middle Ages) is a two-year cooperation project between the MHDBDB - Middle High German Conceptual Database (MHDBDB, University of Salzburg) and the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Medieval Culture in Krems (IMAREAL, University of Salzburg), both of which are part of the IZMF - Interdisciplinary Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (IZMF) at the University of Salzburg. The aim of the project is to develop a semantic web ontology as a digital tool for the analysis of the imaginative potential and narratological patterns in literature and images of the Middle Ages. Based on case studies, the project will also illustrate how such an ontology can be used in medieval research.
Using the 'ONAMA query', a number of exemplary narratives can be found which illustrate how the ontology works. These narratives essentially revolve around two thematic focuses, which are often present in medieval literature and visual art. These are, on the one hand, the Story of Jason and the Argonauts with the Quest for the Golden Fleece, anchored in the context of the Trojan War; and on the other hand, narratives about Fighting with or Taming wild Animals.
The data on the Argonaut saga are based on the pictorial realisations in Codex 2773 of the Austrian National Library, a German-language adaptation of Guido de Columnis Historia destructionis Troiae with opulent miniatures by Martinus Opifex (c. 1450), and on the textual realisations in two romances, the Liet von Troye by Herbort von Fritzlâr (c. 1190) and Der Trojanische Krieg by Konrad von Würzburg (c. 1280).
The thematic area Fighting with or Taming wild Animals offers exciting, multifaceted realisations that span across texts from MHDBDB and images from REALonline. In connection with this theme are a number of recorded narratives that go beyond medieval literature and are taken from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, concerning the dragon Smaug.