Herzog Ernst
Herzog Ernst, a medieval epic poem, the subject of which appears later in various other forms. It was composed towards the end of the 12th c. by a cleric living possibly in Bamberg. It tells of a quarrel between an emperor and his stepson, which ends in reconciliation. The poem falls into two parts. In the first, Duke Ernst's mother marries the Emperor Otto, and a harmonious relationship ensues, which is disturbed by an intriguer (Pfalzgraf Heinrich) who poisons the Emperor's mind against his stepson. The Emperor turns against Ernst, who, with his faithful follower Wetzel, avenges himself by assassinating Heinrich. Ernst is outlawed, resists for a time, until, finally overcome, he sets out with his followers on a crusade. Ernst's journey, which occupies the second part, takes him to legendary regions and adventures in the Orient. He encounters a people with cranes' bills, and rescues an Indian princess, whom they have made captive. His ships are wrecked on a magnetic cliff, though he and his companions escape by an ingenious ruse. He secures a magic stone (Waise), which later becomes an ornament of the imperial crown. He serves the king of the Arimaspi, and defeats various strange peoples. Eventually he returns and is reconciled with his stepfather, the Emperor.
The first part of Herzog Ernst fuses two historical occurrences, the quarrel of Duke Liudolf with his father Otto I in 953-4, and the revolts of Duke Ernst II (born c.1007) against his stepfather, King Konrad II in 1026 and 1027, which ended with Ernst's death in 1030. The journeys of the second part have late classical and oriental origins, reflecting new horizons opened by the crusades. Behind all the interest of story-telling is a political element, favourable to Bavaria, but firmly rooted in a sense of unity of the Empire (see Deutsches Reich, Altes) and harmony between its princes.
The great popularity of the story of Herzog Ernst is attested by its recurrence over centuries in new adaptations. The original exists only in two fragments, but a complete MS. written in 1441 and preserved at Nürnberg, though an adaptation, is not far removed from the original. There are two other versions of less importance, one of which may be by Ulrich von Etzenbach. Herzog Ernst also exists in two Latin translations of the 13th c., one in verse by Odo, a priest of Magdeburg, and one in prose. This prose version was in turn translated into German prose, and became in this form a popular Volksbuch. Interest in the story was revived again in the Romantic period, and it is the subject of a verse tragedy, Ernst, Herzog von Schwaben, by Ludwig Uhland (1817). Das Volksbuch vom Herzog Ernst oder Der Held und sein Gefolge is a play by P. Hacks (1953). Based on the Volksbuch of 1493, it serves his aim of debunking misguided nationalistic and fascist notions of heroism during two World Wars. An annotated edition of Herzog Ernst, with translation and postscript by B. Sowinski, appeared in 1970.
