German Literature in the High Middle Ages: Exciting Tales and Tender Minnesang

Right at the beginning: Literature in crisis

We are roughly in the year 1000 , and the Germans were only one or two generations old (the name "Regnum teutonicum" recorded in 920) when they began to embellish the rather unartistic beginnings of the German written language (translations from Latin, mostly laws or rules of conduct, early historiography) with a bit more flair. The first linguistic works of art were created.

A few knights had already been innovative and, above all, wealthy enough to acquire the secrets of written expression, and they had immediately used this knowledge to record their own heroic deeds in writing or to write to their sweethearts about their love, but these were really still very hesitant and rare beginnings.

Furthermore, the mid-9th century saw the first major crisis in German literature. The Frankish Empire collapsed under the descendants of Charlemagne, and a new dynasty (the Ottonians) had to fight for power. In this turmoil, everything that had previously sprouted as the tender seedlings of early German literature in monasteries and royal courts was initially lost. The works of a solitary literary star, the monk Notker Labeo of St. Gallen , faded into obscurity amidst a flood of pious devotional literature.

But at least: We now became the Germans; the last Ottonian to rule “Regnum teutonicum” Henry II (973 – 978), also became the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (of the German Nation, although this addition only became common in the late 15th century) in 1014; the German territory was outlined.

Henry had left behind a well-ordered empire. However, because his marriage to Empress Kunigunde remained childless, his death marked the end of the Ottonian dynasty. A new ruler was needed, and in such cases, this was determined through negotiations among the magnates of the realm; the Salian Conrad II prevailed.

He remained Holy Roman Emperor until 1039 and didn't have much to offer that would have significantly advanced the literary life of the time. Conrad II first had to justify why the Salian dynasty were the true "born kings." The ruler's "literary energy" was primarily channeled into writings produced by his court historian, Wipo, to justify Conrad's kingship in a way quite different from that of his predecessor. Conrad had married a Carolingian woman and wanted to identify more closely with Charlemagne, who was considered the ideal ruler figure in the Middle Ages.

Konrad doesn't seem to have had much literary energy anyway. His father died early, and his mother hardly cared for him. By the time he was entrusted to a bishop's care at around the age of ten, it was probably too late to make up for lost time and provide a solid foundation in his education.

According to Wipo, Konrad couldn't even read. The (unknown) contemporary author of the Chronicle of Novalese described Konrad as an ignorant, inept man, inexperienced in all sciences – when the ruler is so uneducated, the people usually don't feel encouraged to engage in literary endeavors.

The cultural climate is improving

Conrad II's successor in 1039 was Henry III, who received a very different upbringing than his father: Conrad ensured his son had an excellent education, with two leading bishops of the realm and the historian Wipo recorded as his tutors. In this upbringing, education, scholarship, and wisdom shaped the foundations of royal ethics, and Henry III is accordingly praised in eulogies as a peace-loving ruler of a new age of harmony and peace.

The turbulent times became somewhat calmer, and the scent of learning permeated the land. This climate essentially remained under Henry IV (despite his conflict with the popes, which led to the Walk to Canossa in 1077 and subsequently to a period of rival kings) and his successor Henry V (King of the Romans in 1106 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1111 to 1125).

From around 1050 onwards, a great deal was happening in "German literature": the first early Middle High German rhymed couplets were presented by clergymen, and the first salvation narratives, such as the Ezzolied (1065), and legendary poems, such as the Annolied (1077), were written. Narrative literature explained the Old and New Testaments in the vernacular, and numerous Marian poems aimed to help German-speaking readers attain eternal salvation through devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Mother of God.

Around the middle of the 12th century, a decisive change began: Literature became more diverse, addressing topics that had previously never been considered worthy of written treatment or recording – thus creating writings that were not only decreed by clergy and rulers in the vernacular, but also genuinely interested the people.

At the same time, this also made the forms of this early literature considerably more diverse: courtly lyric poetry and entertaining narratives in German emerged, as well as historiography in German and secularly oriented poetry.

Even in the legendary poems of that time, the authors had discovered a previously unthinkable interest in the individual; life stories were told for the first time not only symbolically, but with a concrete personality at the center – thus the German novel got its protagonist (the term itself, however, is somewhat older, it comes from classical Greek tragedy and refers to the actor playing the first role).

As soon as German literature exists, the first bestsellers appear

Even in the Middle Ages, people found stories revolving around real people and individual fates more interesting than legal texts or edifying writings about the exemplary behavior of a symbolic figure; the “first German novels” were enthusiastically received:

In his Alexanderlied, around 1150, the priest Lamprecht described the life and deeds of the ancient superstar Alexander the Great in memorable verses. Around 1170, Heinrich von Veldeke translated the legend of (Saint) Servatius into the vernacular. According to the legend, Servatius was able to warn the citizens of Tongeren of the Hunnic attack and thus save them because Peter had foretold this very fall of the Huns to him in an apparition.

For particularly captivating stories, several writers would often collaborate to create a version for the people: The Visio Tnugdali, for example, was considered especially exciting at the time. It recounts the visions of the dissolute knight Tnugdali and how he is purified through life, or rather, through an angel.

This very first “religious science fiction tale” was translated into the vernacular in (at least) two versions: Sometime between 1160 and 1190, an unknown author created the Lower Rhine Tundalus, of which only fragments survive today. Probably in 1190, Priest Alber of Windberg Abbey put his “Tundalus” into a substantial 2,200 Middle High German verses.

The first German bestsellers followed immediately: Around 1150, some clergymen at the Regensburg court wrote the first German imperial chronicle – in an incredible 17,283 verses, it tells the story of the empire from Caesar to the reigning Conrad III.

This work was a mega-seller of its time and has survived to this day in around 40 different versions. The Kaiserchronik is thus the most comprehensive and complete text of early Middle High German literature available to us today.

The Song of Roland (1170), in which priest Konrad describes the battle of Charlemagne and his followers against the Spanish Saracens, also became a hit. Although the hero Roland doesn't fare well here, dying a martyr's death, he is at least able to save Charlemagne (aided by divine intervention).

The first literary flowering of the German language

These new subjects gave rise to an initial golden age of German-language literature; in the decades after 1150, important literary centers developed at individual aristocratic courts, fostering a vibrant literary culture and practice. This is where so-called "courtly literature" .

Tristant und Isalde" is considered a somewhat less elegant "early courtly" precursor of this courtly poetry. It is an extremely colorful, intricately embellished story, written in a style that sounds more like it was told orally, and its slightly awkward immediacy may stem from the fact that it was probably written as a kind of "teenage adventure novel" for the 17-year-old son of Henry the Lion.

"Eneas Romance," written between 1170 and 1188, presents itself as new and unusually flawless in rhyme and meter – and it is also the first work that not only considers the chivalric combat and its drama and values ​​worthy of description, but also emphasizes the previously rather underestimated value of courtly love (which in courtly culture stands both for refinement in social interaction and for the emotional-erotic relationship between man and woman)...

Following this groundbreaking transitional work, the literary High Middle Ages developed an extremely rich courtly narrative art, often based on French-language models (Chrétien de Troyes), with many outstanding courtly epics written in Middle High German.

Formally, it followed more French-language models (Chrétien de Troyes). It generally followed Western models, but in terms of content, it was more oriented towards Anglo-Saxon culture with the cycle of legends surrounding King Arthur (from which Chrétien de Troyes' Old French Perceval also originates).

Classical Middle High German literature shines here, for example, with "Erec" (written between 1180 and 1190), the first German Arthurian romance told in Middle High German verse; the same author presented "Iwein" , also a Middle High German Arthurian romance written in verse, which tells the story of a knight of the Round Table at King Arthur's court.

Around 1200, Gottfried von Straßburg also took up a subject that was extremely popular at the time: the legend of Tristan and Isolde, which really offers almost everything that a captivating story can contain – adventures and intrigues, deceptions and miracles, eternal and endless love and its failure, truly great cinema.

Still relevant today – Parzival and the Nibelungenlied

The undisputed pinnacle of Middle High German literature is Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival , completed around 1210. This work, comprising a mighty 25,000 rhyming couplets, is divided into 16 books in modern editions. The protagonist's journey from ignorant man to Grail King, recounted by Wolfram von Eschenbach in intricately interwoven plot lines, captivated the Germans for a very long time, appearing in numerous literary, artistic, and musical adaptations.

Another of our "eternal bestsellers" also originated at the beginning of the 13th century: the Nibelungenlied . The core of this narrative traces its origins back to the Migration Period, a so-called "heroic age" in our history, in which our ancestors suffered particularly heavy losses and therefore needed a great many heroes. The historical core of the Nibelung saga consists of various massacres during the Migration Period, which were increasingly interwoven in later works.

This heroic epic had previously been passed down orally; the Romans, who were the only ones who had written down anything, naturally had little interest in recording the heroic deeds of the Germanic peoples. It was now written down for the first time in Middle High German, the still young written language of German.

It therefore differs somewhat in quality from Parzival, with which the authors first established a kind of "modern" narrative culture, its origins lying in foreign cultural spheres. The Nibelungenlied, on the other hand, recounts "primordial German" heroic deeds and probably for this reason later attained the status of an important national epic of the Germans.

Among the outstanding works of this period are Wigalois, an Arthurian romance written by Wirnt von Grafenberg between 1210 and 1220, and the verse romance Willehalm von Orlens, completed around 1240, written by Rudolf von Ems, an important and learned epic poet, who tells the story of the childhood love between Willehalm and Amelie, one of the most famous lovers of the Middle Ages, with grace and tenderness.

Finally – the “interpersonal” is discovered

This period also marks the birth of German lyric poetry. With "Hohe Minne ," the stylization of courtly love into an ideal and platonic love, expressed through the chivalric wooing of a lady's favor, Minnesang developed with the poetry of verses and sayings.

The first works of this type were presented by an unidentified author (or group of authors) “Der von Kürenberg” in the middle of the 12th century; Reinmar the Elder or Reinmar von Hagenau also contributed his first works to Minnesang in the second half of the 12th century.

Masters of this love poetry of the High Middle Ages included Heinrich von Morungen, born around 1220 in Leipzig, of whom 35 Minnesang (love songs) with 115 stanzas have been preserved. Above all, Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1170 to 1230) was considered the most important German-language lyric poet of the Middle Ages.

He left behind 90 love songs and 150 aphorisms, in which he artfully invokes the ideal of "equal love," which goes beyond the adoring, unfulfilled love: Here, in a very modern way, a non-class-related, reciprocal and fulfilling love is assumed, and Walther von der Vogelweide also describes love experiences that take place in nature.

Walther von der Vogelweide, however, was not limited to the "erotic literature" of his time; he also criticized imperial politics in political writings, sometimes employing harsh language, as in his discontented tone from 1213. Walther von der Vogelweide is arguably the first star writer who was revered as a literary role model in his own day. He was already considered a legend by late medieval literary figures.

Lina Sahne

Passionate author with a keen interest in art

www.kunstplaza.de