DIETMAR VON AIST

(late 12th century)

Dietmar von Aist hailed from the Austro-Bavarian region and wrote some of the earliest Middle High German courtly love poems, preserved in the famousManesse Manuscript(ms. C; see Der von Kürenberg) and the contemporaryWeingartner Liederhandschrift(ms. B). Some historical documents refer to a Dietmar von Aist between 1139 and 1171, but it is difficult to say whether he was identical with this poet. He is, along with Der von Kürenberg, one of the earliest contributors to the so-calledDes Minnesangs Frühling(Spring of courtly poetry) collection, and he composed 16 songs.Dietmar, however, develops the COURTLY LOVE themes further and employs many different poetic genres. He explores the meaning of sorrow resulting from love (I), addresses a messenger whom he is sending to his lady (II), develops the first Middle High German spring poem in praise of love (III), and utilizes the falcon motif for a discussion of how a lady chooses a lover for herself (IV). Dietmar also wrote two winter songs (VIII, XI), and experimented with the genre ofWechsel(XII, XIV, XV) where man and woman exchange opinions about love in separate stanzas.Most important, Dietmar also composed one of the earliest Middle High German dawn songs (XIII) (seeALBA) in which the two lovers wake up early in the morning, alerted by a bird sitting on a linden tree outside their window, and lament that he has to depart before anybody can discover them. The woman cries and begs him to return as soon as possible because he is taking all her happiness with him.

■ Groos, Arthur. “Modern Stereotyping and Medieval Topoi: The Lovers’ Exchange in Dietmar von Aist’s ‘Ûf der Linden obene,’ ”Journal of English and Germanic Philology88, no. 2 (1989): 157–167.

■ Moser, Hugo, and Helmut Tervooren.Des Minnesangs Frühling. 38th ed. Stuttgart, Germany: Hirzel, 1988.