Wolfram von Eschenbach

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(fl 1170-1220). German poet who, on the basis of his epic Parzival (?c1200), is ranked as probably the greatest medieval German poet. He was named as one of the 12 ‘old Masters’ by the Meistersinger, but no music survives for his seven extant lyric poems. Two melodies (from later Meistersinger MSS) are associated with him; that for his fragmentary epic Titurel (afterc1217), is important as one of the few known examples of a melody appropriate for epic singing.

Wolfram von Eschenbach (ca. 1170-ca. 1230), a German writer of chivalric romances, was one of the greatest poets of the Middle Ages. His masterpiece, "Parzival", deals with the problem of man's attitude and relationship to God.

Wolfram von Eschenbach was born into a family of ministerial or lackland knights, probably in Wolframs Eschenbach (so named since 1917) in central Franconia near Ansbach. Roving, he practiced knighthood in Bavaria, Swabia, and Styria, as well as at home. In 1203 he visited the Wartburg court of Landgrave Hermann I of Thuringia. Wolfram probably wrote a part of his 25,000-line Parzival in Wildenberg Castle in the Odenwald. He held an unproductive fief near his home-town and thus was a vassal of the Count of Wertheim.

Early in his career Wolfram composed nine short poems, mostly "dawn songs" - a genre based upon the alba of Provençal troubadours, in which two lovers must end their nocturnal tryst. With their taunting mood and mastery of language they exhibit Wolfram's superiority to the courtly minnesingers.

From 1197 to 1210 Wolfram worked on Parzival, revising, filing, deepening, and completing it in conventional four-foot couplets, with only three beats when the rhyme is feminine. It is written in a lapidary language pregnant with meaning and in a versatile style, the whole revealing stern independence, creative power, and sly humor.

Parzival is based only in part upon the fragmentary Perceval (ca. 1179) of the French trouve're Chrestien de Troyes. Wolfram's basic themes of morality and respect for others, richness of humor, and individuality of style derive little from Chrestien. Nor does Chrestien dwell upon the slow, painful educative development of Perceval from an eager, well-meaning lad, gauche but pure of heart, to noble, mature manhood, embodying the medieval ideals of human perfection, as does Wolfram in Parzival. Parzival progresses from despair of heaven to compassion and to humble, confident reliance upon God. His story is one of the gradual awakening of man's best instincts. Wolfram employs much symbolism but little allegory. Parzival's quest for purity and nobility and his struggle for true religious devotion are symbolized by his search for the Grail, which succeeds only upon his second attempt. The Grail, a familiar object in the romances of chivalry, acquires a deeper meaning in Wolfram's treatment. He describes it as a "stone" from heaven with miraculous powers. It becomes a cornucopia, a preserver of life, and a bearer of divine messages. Significant too is the poet's idea of the fellowship of knights sworn to perform noble deeds - a fellowship on two levels: the worldly Arthurian Round Table and the sacred company of the Knights of the Grail.

Wolfram not only deepened the meaning of Chrestien's tale; he also expanded the plot. He added the story of Gahmuret, Parzival's father, and his first marriage to a Moorish princess, Balakane, who bore him the pagan piebald son Feirefiz, the exemplar of heathen nobility, which Wolfram rated as high as its Christian counterpart. This receives stress when Feirefiz and Parzival meet in combat unrecognized.

Perhaps to conceal his originality, which was no asset to a medieval poet, Wolfram emphasized another source, the work of Kyot, a mysterious writer of Provençal provenance. Scholars have vainly expended much ingenuity to ferret out Kyot. To account for Wolfram's not always orthodox religious views, some critics have discovered traces of Albigensian heresies in Parzival, but most writers credit Wolfram with a devout layman's piety.

Titurel, one of Wolfram's two unfinished epic poems, is written in four-line stanzas with feminine rhyme, each line divided by a caesura. Only two fragments of this poem exist. It deals with the earlier history and love of two of the minor characters of Parzival. More important is the compactly written but also incomplete knightly legend of Willehalm, composed between 1212 and Wolfram's death. It is based upon several chansons de geste. The titular hero, a vassal of Louis the Pious, is a devout fighter for God who does not share the scruples that trouble young Parzival. His heathen wife, Gyburg, converted to Christianity, is drawn as a noble character.

Wolfram's reputation remained high even after knighthood had faded. In the Wartburgkrieg of the late 13th century, he is pictured as the defender of Christianity against the heathen sorcerer Klingsor. The Meistersingers of the 15th century regarded him as one of their founders. In the 19th century Richard Wagner paid Wolfram homage in his operas Tannhäuser and Parsifal. In the latter opera he dealt freely with the source but showed respect for the poem's deeper meaning.

Further Reading

Two recent English translations of Parzival, both of which contain a critical introduction, are Edwin H. Zeydel and Bayard Q. Morgan, Parzival (1951), which, with the exception of less important passages, is in the original meter; and Helen M. Mustard and Charles E. Passage, Parzival (1961), presented in prose, which divorces the highly important form from the content. See the chapter on Parzival by Otto Springer in Roger S. Loomis, ed., Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages: A Collaborative History (1959). Recommended for historical background are Frederick B. Artz, The Mind of the Middle Ages, A.D. 200-1500: An Historical Survey (1953; 3d rev. ed. 1965), and Maurice O. Walshe, Medieval German Literature: A Survey (1962).

Wolfram von Eschenbach (c.1170-c.1220), Middle High German poet, was the author of three epic poems, Parzival, Willehalm, and Titurel, and of eight lyric poems. Wolfram's life is known, rather sketchily, from allusions in his own poems. His home was at Eschenbach, probably the still existing village near Ansbach. He was a nobleman, but poor, and was dependent on patronage. Although he himself stated, perhaps ironically, that he was unlettered, it is no longer believed that he was truly illiterate. In spite of his insistence on the profession of arms, he may well have been a professional poet. He himself mentions as his patron Landgraf Hermann of Thuringia.

Parzival, originating from the first decade of the 13th c., was followed by Willehalm, which remained unfinished, and by two fragments of a third epic, Titurel. Of Wolfram's eight extant poems only three are Minnelieder, and one of these is a rejection of Minnedienst. The remaining five are powerful and idiosyncratic Tagelieder; the last, ‘Ez ist nu tac’, extols marital love, forsaking altogether the conventions of minne.

Wolfram's works were widely read and applauded, though perhaps not universally, since it has often been supposed that he is the subject of some scathing criticism directed by Gottfried von Straßburg at an unnamed poet. Wolfram was a highly individual poet with deep moral convictions, combining sincere religious belief, a sense of the worth of knighthood, and a profound humanity. His eccentric and difficult style corresponds to his idiosyncratic personality. In romanticized form Wolfram appears as a character in R. Wagner's Tannhäuser.

Wolfram's Gesamtwerk was edited by K. Lachmann (1833, reprinted 1968, revised E. Hartl, 7th edn. 1952). Parzival and Titurel were edited by K. Bartsch (3 vols., 1870-1, 4th edn. M. Marti, 1927-32); Willehalm and Titurel, ed. W. J. Schröder and G. Hollandt, appeared in 1971, a comprehensive critical edition of Willehalm by W. Schröder in 1978, and Die Lyrik von Wolfram von Eschenbach, ed. P. Wapnewski, in 1972.

Portrait of Wolfram from the Codex Manesse.

Wolfram von Eschenbach (born c. 1170, died c. 1220) was a German knight and poet, regarded as one of the greatest epic poets of his time. As a Minnesinger, he also wrote lyric poetry.

Contents 1 Life 2 Works 3 Reception 4 References 5 External links

Life

Little is known of Wolfram's life: there are no historical documents which mention him, and his works are the sole source of evidence. In Parzival he talks of wir Beier ("we Bavarians") and the dialect of his works is East Franconian. This and a number of geographical references has resulted in the present-day Wolframs-Eschenbach, previously Obereschenbach, near Ansbach in Bavaria, being officially designated as his birthplace. However, the evidence is circumstantial and not without problems - there are at least four other places named Eschenbachs in present-day Bavaria, and Wolframs-Eschenbach was not part of Bavaria in Wolfram's time.^{[citation needed]}

The arms shown in the Manesse manuscript come from the imagination of a 14th century artist, drawing on the figure of the Red Knight in Parzival, and have no heraldic connection with Wolfram.

Wolfram's work indicates a number of possible patrons (most reliably Hermann I of Thuringia), which suggests that he served at a number of courts during his life. In his Parzival he claims he is illiterate and recorded the work by dictation, though the claim is treated with scepticism by scholars.

Statue of Wolfram at Burg Abenberg

Works

Wolfram is best known today for his Parzival, sometimes regarded as the greatest of all German epics from that time. Based on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, le Conte du Graal, it is the first extant work in German to have as its subject the Holy Grail. In the poem, Wolfram expresses disdain for Chrétien's (unfinished) version of the tale, and states that his source was a poet from Provence called Kyot. Some scholars believe Wolfram might have meant Guiot de Provins (though none of the latter's surviving works relate to the themes of Parzival), however others believe Kyot was simply a literary device invented by Wolfram to explain his deviations from Chrétien's version.

Wolfram is the author of two other narrative works: the unfinished Willehalm and the fragmentary Titurel. These were both composed after Parzival, and Titurel mentions the death of Hermann I, which dates it firmly after 1217. Wolfram's nine surviving songs, five of which are dawn-songs, are regarded as masterpieces of Minnesang.

Reception

The 84 surviving manuscripts of Parzival, both complete and fragmentary, indicate the immense popularity of Wolfram's major work in the following two centuries. Willehalm, with 78 manuscripts, comes not far behind. Many of these include a continuation written in the 1240s by Ulrich von Türheim under the title Rennewart. The unfinished Titurel was taken up and expanded around 1272 by a poet named Albrecht, who is generally presumed to be Albrecht von Scharfenberg and who adopts the narrative persona of Wolfram. This work is referred to as the Jüngere Titurel (Younger Titurel).

The modern rediscovery of Wolfram begins with the publication of a translation of Parzival in 1753 by the Swiss scholar Johann Jakob Bodmer. Parzival was the main source Richard Wagner used when writing the libretto to his opera, Parsifal. Wolfram himself appears as a character in another Wagner opera, Tannhäuser.

In Hugo Pratt's comic book The Secret Rose, Corto Maltese speaks to a mural painting of Wolfram. In this book Corto is searching for the Holy Grail.

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References

• James F. Poag, Wolfram Von Eschenbach (Twayne's World Authors Series) Twayne Publishers 1972. ISBN 0-8290-1750-X
• Otto Springer. "Wolfram's Parzival" in Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, Roger S. Loomis (ed.). Clarendon Press: Oxford University. 1959. ISBN 0-19-811588-1
• Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival with Titurel and The Love-lyrics, trans. Cyril Edwards. Boydell Press, 2004. ISBN 1-84384-005-7. The evidence for Wolfram's life is treated extensively in the Introduction.

External links

• Wolfram von Eschenbach in the Literary Encyclopedia
• Works (Middle High German)
• List of Parzival manuscripts (Marburger Repertorium)
• List of Willhalm manuscripts (Marburger Repertorium)
• Two of Wolfram's songs(Middle High German)

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