WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH

Wolfram von Eschenbach: translation

(ca. 1180–ca. 1220)

Being the author of one of the most important courtly romances in Middle High German literature,PARZIVAL(ca. 1205), Wolfram also gained great respect for his Crusade epicWillehalm(ca. 1218) and his dawn songs (see ALBA). No historical document speaks about him, but on the basis of internal evidence and references to him by other poets, we know that he lived from ca. 1170 to ca. 1225.He identifies himself as a Bavarian, but obviously hailed from a little town near Ansbach in Franconia, Ober-Eschenbach, which renamed itselfWolframs-Eschenbach in 1917, in honor of the poet. In his ParzivalWolfram mentions his family several times in a satirical fashion, but nothing concrete is known about them. TheManessische Liederhandschrift(MS. C, early 14th century) offers a fictionalized portrait of Wolfram, entirely covered by knightly armor, which implies that he might have been of noble origin. He confirms this observation by stating in hisParzivalthat he descended from an aristocratic family and belonged to the knightly class. Although he repeatedly emphasizes that he is illiterate (Parzival115, 27–30;Willehalm2, 19–22), this comment can only be meant as satirical with respect to Latin and learned literature, whereas the vast number of sources utilized by Wolfram demonstrates his extensive schooling. He was certainly familiar with the basic disciplines taught at the universities, thetriviumand thequadrivium(seeLIBERAL ARTS), but we do not know whether he ever received formal training. Insofar as he based both hisParzivaland hisWillehalmon Old French sources (CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES), he must have had very good knowledge of French.

Late-medieval myths allude to a major competition between Wolfram and contemporary authors during a poetic tournament at the Castle Wartburg in Eisenach, Thuringia, but we only know for sure that Wolfram spent some time there, sponsored by his patron, Landgrave Hermann I of Thuringia (1190–1217).In hisParzival, Wolfram refers to a war between Hermann and King Philipp of Swabia, during which a vineyard near Erfurt was destroyed in 1203, giving us a verifiable datepost quem(a date only after which the romance could have been composed).Wolfram also wrote a short fragmentary piece,Titurel(ca. 1220), in which he picked up narrative elements that he had left undeveloped in hisParzival.

Wolfram’s four dawn songs prove to be highly sophisticated representatives of this genre, especially as he was the first one to introduce the figure of the castle guardian who alerts the lovers to the approaching dawn and the need to separate. In his dawn song “Der helnden minne ir klage” (no. IV),Wolfram advocates marriage as a preferable alternative to illicit love affairs. He also composed three more traditional courtly love songs. In hisWillehalm,Wolfram explores, probably for the first time in the Middle Ages, concepts of religious and ethnic tolerance within the context of a highly bloody battle poem. In hisParzivalwe come across, for the first time in medieval literature, the idea of interracial marriage, as Parzival’s father Gahmuret marries the beautiful black Queen Belakane. He leaves her again, but not because of their racial or religious differences, as he pretends in a letter to her, but because of his irrepressible desire to pursue his knightly career.

In hisTiturel, finally, Wolfram experiments with the potentials of a literary fragment, the first medieval poet to do so.Not only has this text come down to us in two fragments, which would be a very common phenomenon, but the author also develops the idea of a fragment within his own text where an enigmatic and highly fascinating text is written on a dog leash. At the end the dog escapes the female protagonist, Sigune, who then forces her lover, Schionatulander, to recapture the dog and so the text; otherwise, he would never enjoy her love. Unfortunately, as we know fromParzival, the young man will die in his pursuit of the dog, unable to return either the dog or the text to his beloved. By the mid-century, a very little known poet, Albrecht (von Scharfenberg), composed a continuation of theTitureltext, today called theJüngere Titurel, in which Schionatulander wins the dog and eventually gives a communal reading of the text on the leash, transforming it into a quasiliturgical statement. This enormously popular text (56 manuscripts, one print) was long thought to have been Wolfram’s own creation, and Albrecht’s authorship was not recognized until the early 19th century.

■ Bumke, Joachim.Wolfram von Eschenbach. 7th ed. Stuttgart:Metzler, 1997.

■ Hasty,Will, ed.A Companion to Wolfram’s Parzival. Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, 1999.

■ Poag, James F.Wolfram von Eschenbach. New York: Twayne, 1972.

■ Wynn,Marianne.“Wolfram von Eschenbach,” inGerman Writers and Works of the High Middle Ages: 1170–1280, edited by James Hardin and Will Hasty. Detroit: Gale Research, 1994, 185–206.