Die Jagd von Württemberg

Jagd von Württemberg, Die, an anonymous Middle High German poem of some 600 lines. It is also known by the title Der Württemberger, and two other versions are styled respectively Des von Wirtemberg Buch (436 lines) and Der Ritter mit den Seelen (713 lines). A knight participating in a hunting party given by the Count of Württemberg loses his way and falls in with a procession of knights and ladies. A lady riding alone warns him that they are all dead persons who must expiate a sinful love relationship, and he receives visible proof that they are tormented with purgatorial fire. The knight, who knows the lady's still living partner, informs him, and the two set out for the Holy Land in order to shorten the lady's period of torment. The poem was written in the 13th c.