Tristan (Gottfried of Strasbourg)

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Gottfried von Straßburg, the author of Tristan, in Codex Manesse , 1st quarter of the 14th century

Tristan is the most important work of the medieval poet Gottfried von Strasbourg .

The Middle High German verse novel, which was created around 1210 and has remained a fragment, is an adaptation of the " Tristan and Isolde " material; the treatment by Gottfried is considered a classic form of this material.

The fragment contains nearly 20,000 verses; the entire work was probably planned to have about 30,000 verses (for comparison: Wolfram's Parzival is about 25,000 verses long).

Sources of the sad announcement

The material of his epic belongs to the Irish saga and had already been edited in German in the 12th century in a less artistic way by Eilhart von Oberg based on a French source. Eilhart probably wrote his work Tristrant around 1175–1180, but research advocates late dating. Early fragments and late, differently processed, complete versions of him have survived. However, it is no longer possible to restore the original through smoothing and trimming. The Irish announcement of the Tristan had already experienced poetic treatment in French and English, then in Spanish, Danish, Norwegian, Slavic (Bohemian) and even in Middle Greek. Gottfried's source for his epic is the work of Thomas, which Gottfried calls Tomas von Britanje , Thomas von Britannien , which in Gottfried's linguistic usage means 'Brittany', but could also mean 'Britain'. The Thomas-Tristan (approx. 1155–1170) is only preserved in fragments; these allow a direct comparison on three small pieces. In 1995 the Carlisle fragment written by Thomas was discovered, which allows a more precise comparison to Gottfried, because this part includes the place of the Minne potion up to Brangänes' bridal shelter. However, there is a prose version of Thomas-Tristan that has been translated into Old Norse in Norway: the Tristrams saga ok Ísondar by brother Robert (1226). The Norwegian broadcast limits itself to rendering the plot thread and omits Thomas' philosophical and psychological comments. Gottfried, on the other hand, takes over exactly the external action of the original - in accordance with the principles outlined in the prologue and in the “literature excursion” - but colors the material with his own interpretations. In interpreting the action and evaluating the characters, he is completely independent of Thomas, and in places even opposite. We can see that the external plot runs parallel to Thomas by comparing it with the Norwegian version; that the interpretation is far removed from Thomas can be seen in the three places where we have both the text of Thomas and Gottfried. Another editor of the Tristan material is Breri, whose versions are completely lost. In the 13th century, Béroul also wrote a list episode of Tristan in south-western France . However, this is very idiosyncratic and accentuated dramatically by leaps and bounds. In research, the processing of the Tristan material is therefore also differentiated into the version commune , the playman's version, to which Eilhart and Béroul belong, and the version courtoise , the courtly version, to which Gottfried and Thomas belong.

Summary of Tristan

Tristan, the son of Riwalin of Parmenia and Blanscheflurs, the sister of Markes of Cornwall , is brought up by his father's faithful Marshal, Rual li Foitenant, after the early death of his parents and, after many adventures, comes to his uncle, King Marke of Cornwall.
After Tristan helped his uncle against Morold (an envoy from Ireland who brought tribute claims) and he defeated and killed Morold in a duel, Tristan has to travel to Ireland because he was mortally wounded by Morold's poisoned sword. Only Queen Isolde of Ireland has the knowledge and skills to heal this wound, as it was she who soaked her brother Morold's sword with the poison.
Tristan hides his identity with a ruse: He pretends to be a minstrel Tantris, because he has to fear revenge. Eventually he will be healed. In return for his healing, Queen Isolde made him the tutor of her daughter of the same name, the beautiful Isolde, to whom he then gave lessons in music, languages ​​and ethics for a certain time.
After Tristan's return to Cornwall, Marke decides to marry. Tristan recommends Isolde as a suitable bride, and so Marke sends him out as a messenger to ask for Isolde's hand from King Gurmun and Queen Isolde of Ireland for him.
Tristan first kills a dragon in Ireland, for whose killing the king offered his daughter as a price. Isolde recognizes Tristan as the supposed minstrel Tantris. His true identity as Morold's victor is also discovered. Despite these revelations, Tristan is left alive and Isolde is given to him as a bride for King Marke.
The two leave by ship. Brangaene, one of the ladies-in-waiting in Isolde's entourage, secretly receives a "Minne Potion" from the queen, which she is supposed to give Isolde and her husband to drink at the wedding, so that both would be chained to one another with unchanging love . In Brangaene's absence, Tristan and Isolde unsuspectingly quench their thirst with the drink, and so these two become entangled in an unchanging love.
Already on the crossing they give themselves completely to their love and thus get into great difficulties: Isolde will not enter the marriage virgin. So they come up with a ruse to hide this: On Isolde's and Markes wedding night, the virgin Brangaene sleeps with Marke without him noticing. From then on, Tristan and Isolde's husband is masterfully betrayed by every means of the cleverness of love - often with the support of the clever Brangaene. When it becomes known at court that Isolde and Tristan are closer than allowed, Marke begins to question whether his wife and his nephew are loyal to him. After a series of love adventures from Tristan and Isolden and just as many deception maneuvers, the lovers are finally discovered red-handed by Marke. Tristan moves to Normandy. Here he meets another Isolde, Isolde Weißhand , who falls in love with him. Tristan is reminded of "his" Isolde by the name and now comes into conflict with his feelings for the two Isolden. With the description of this conflict in Tristan Gottfried breaks off the story.

reception

Soon after the poem was written, two poets tried to continue Tristan , Ulrich von Türheim and Heinrich von Freiberg , but both of them used a source other than Gottfried.

In Herzmaere , Konrad von Würzburg alludes to numerous motifs from Gottfried's Tristan and imitates his style.

Prologue and digressions

Gottfried's Tristan is characterized by an unusually high number of excursions; the four large excursions (literature excursion, talk of minnen excursion, cave allegorese excursion, huote excursion) stand alongside around 40 other, smaller excursions.

Prologue (vv. 1 - 244)

The prologue is one of the most researched parts of Tristan . At the beginning of this there is the sentence Remembers ir ze guote niht, / of whom the guot is happening, / sô would be ez allez alse niht, / swaz guotes in the werlde. (If one did not think of those who are good, from whom good happens to the world, then everything would be like nothing that good happens in the world.)

Literature excursion (v. 4555 - 4974)

In the so-called "literature excursion" on the occasion of Tristan's sword , Gottfried doesn't let knights fight against each other, but rather poets, divided into two disciplines: courtly epic and minstrel. In the epic contest, Gottfried awards Hartmann von Aue the victory over his challenger, presumably Wolfram von Eschenbach , and explains his idea of ​​good poetry in the grounds of the judgment. Among the poets, among the deceased, he awards first place to the 'Nachtigall von Hagenau', by which he means Reinmar , and, after his recent death, among the living, Walther von der Vogelweide. Gottfried's reason for Hartmann's victory is: his words are "crystal clear" and let the meaning shine through. A good epic writer acts like a dyer: he takes a “fabric” (the undyed textile as a metaphor for the basis of action in a poem is common) and “colors” it with his own interpretation. It is the model of the poeta doctus that Gottfried praises here using Hartmann's example and that the author of Tristan himself represents. According to the rules of rhetoric, the name of the bad opponent is not mentioned, but it is marked in such a way that everyone in the audience knows who is meant (these principles still apply today: politicians usually do not mention the names of their opponents in election speeches). The opponent who is made ridiculous is characterized by the image of the hare from Wolframs von Eschenbach Parzival's prologue . Gottfried accuses the scolded poet of sleight of hand and lack of clarity. It is not completely clear whether this criticism really means Wolfram von Eschenbach, even if the majority of the researchers support this assumption, precisely because of the "rabbit metaphor" and Wolfram's difficult to understand language. In the Parzival prologue, Wolfram explains the world, and thus poetry, as in principle indefinable. He is admired for that. Wolfram makes fun of Hartmann several times in Parzival . Gottfried thinks that it is true art to actually find an interpretation of the world and to present it clearly and beautifully. Hartmann realizes this ideal. But that does not mean that Gottfried interprets the world in the same way as Hartmann; then he would be epigonal. At the end of his novels ( Erec and Iwein ), Hartmann's heroes are able to unite the essential prerequisites for courtly joy, namely the love of a partner and the honor, the recognition by society, and to restore joy for themselves and for society, which was lost through a misunderstanding of these values. For Gottfried, pure joy is not the goal at all; his audience are the “noble hearts” who understand that joy can never exist without suffering, especially in love, but that love is such a high value and is associated with such joy that they are happy to be ready, even the greatest suffering to endure for love's sake: swem nie from love leit geschach, the geschach ouch liep from love never (“whoever has never suffered from love , never received love from love”; v. 204 f.).

talk of minnen - excursion (v. 12183 - 12357)

The talk of minnen excursion is also known in research as the Minnebuss Sermon and follows directly on from the Minne Potion episode; This section does not exist in Gottfried's original, the Tristan version of Thomas von Britanje . The excursus deals with true love, which is strongly linked to the idea of triuwe (loyalty). The narrator also describes a wrong way of dealing with minne . He denounces a minne who wrongly bears her name because she is operated with velschlîchen things (12226). He uses terms from the economic area that indicate a purely material love and marriage practice as well as a misunderstood minne that is not based on feelings, but only on economic interests.

Cave Allegory excursion (V. 16923 - 17099)

In the so-called Grotten Allegorese excursus, the narrator describes the Minnegrotto into which Tristan and Isolde withdraw, whereby the nature of this grotto is interpreted allegorically.

huote excursion (V. 17858 - 18114)

In the so-called huote excursion, which has received and is much attention in research, the effects of the huote , the guarding of women (especially the guarding of Isolde at the Markes court), are described and the external determination of women is criticized. Either the woman herself is able to behave appropriately, in which case surveillance is unnecessary; or if the woman behaves wrongly, then surveillance is useless. The monitoring of correctly behaving women could lead to the fact that they only behaved incorrectly because of this surveillance. Different types of women are designed: the pure wîp , who renounces his desires and thereby becomes “masculine” (v. 17975); the saelige wîp , who can bring honor and desire into unity ( mâze ) and loves herself and - in return - a woman who does not love herself. The narrator finally calls for a search for the saelige wîp that minne and êre acquire at the same time: this is, as it were, a paradise.

Text example

Tristan V. 2003–2017 :

from triste Tristan was sîn nam.
the name was ime gevallesam
and all wîs gebaere.
daz pebbles on the maere.
we see trûreclîch ez what,
dâ sîn sîn muoter recovered.
see how vruo at work
and nôt ze jerk was escorted.
see how trûreclîchen a life in the life was
given.
see in the trûreclîchen tôt,
which beslôz all sîne herznôt
with an end,
daz all tôdes übergenôz
and all triure a gall.

literature

Text output

  • Gottfried von Straßburg: Tristan , Vol. I .: Text, 5th edition, Berlin a. a .: De Gruyter 2004, ISBN 3-11-017696-3 .
  • Gottfried von Straßburg: Tristan , re-edited based on the text by Friedrich Ranke , translated into New High German, with a commentary and an afterword by Rüdiger Krohn. 3 vols., Reclam, Stuttgart 1980 a. ö. (RUB 4471-4473).
  • Günter de Bruyn : Tristan and Isolde. Retold after Gottfried von Straßburg , Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1975.
  • Walter Haug and Manfred Günter Scholz (eds.): Gottfried von Strasbourg: Tristan and Isold. With the text of Thomas , translated and commented by WH, 2 vols. (Library of the Middle Ages 10–11, Library of German Classics 192), Frankfurt a. M. 2011.

Secondary literature

  • Anina Barandun: The Tristan Trigonometry of Gottfried von Strasbourg. Two lovers and a third . Tübingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-77-208323-5 .
  • Karl Bertau : Poetry as a Comment. Gotfrid's "Tristan" fragment . In: ders .: German Literature in the European Middle Ages , Vol. 2: 1195–1220 . CH Beck, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-406-03894-8 , pp. 918-965.
  • Wolfgang Dilg: The literature excursion of "Tristan" as an access to Gottfried's poetry , in: Stauferzeit . Karlsruhe cultural studies 1. History, literature, art, ed. v. Rüdiger Krohn, Bernd Tuhm and Peter Wapnewski, Karlsruhe 1979, p. 270 ff.
  • Christoph Huber: Gottfried von Strasbourg: Tristan . Berlin 2001, ISBN 978-3-503-06112-9 .
  • Anna Keck: The concept of love in the medieval Tristan novels. On the narrative logic of the works of Béroul, Eilhart, Thomas and Gottfried . Munich 1998 (Supplements to Poetica, 22), ISBN 978-3-77-053212-4 .
  • Morsch Klaus: nice there is nice. Studies on Tristan Gottfried of Strasbourg . Erlangen 1984 (Erlanger Studies 50), ISBN 978-3-78-960150-7 .
  • Eva Kröner: Adultery in Gottfried's 'Tristan' as provocation and fascination, University Library Würzburg 2013, DNB 103202397X , OCLC 828809924 (Dissertation University of Würzburg 2012, 372 pages full text online PDF, free of charge, 369 pages, 2,078 KB).
  • Maria Meyer: The term “edelez herze” in Gottfried von Strasbourg's “Tristan und Isolde” , [1946], DNB 481654267 (Frankfurt am Main) / DNB 570903939 (Leipzig), OCLC 38656311 (dissertation University of Bonn, Philosophical Faculty, October 30th 1946, 91 pages, microfiche, microfilm (negative) Bonn, University).
  • Sigrid Müller-Kleimann: Gottfried's judgment on the contemporary German novel. A comment on Tristanversen 4619-4748 , Stuttgart, 1990.
  • Monika Schausten: Narrative worlds of the Tristan history in the high Middle Ages. Investigations into the German-language versions of Tristan from the 12th and 13th centuries . Munich 1999 (Research on the History of Older German Literature 24), ISBN 3-7705-3435-2 .
  • Rüdiger Schnell : Search for truth. Gottfried's “Tristan und Isold” as an epistemological novel (= Hermaea . German Research NF, Volume 67). Niemeyer, Tübingen 1992, ISBN 3-484-15067-X .
  • Ulrich Schoenwald: Hermes' footsteps. Spirit and structure in Gottfried's Tristan . Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-86537-584-7 .
  • Tomas Tomasek : Gottfried von Strasbourg . Reclams Universal Library; No. 17665, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-15-017665-8 .
  • Melanie Uttenreuther: The (dis) order of the sexes. On the interdependence of passion, gender and genre in Gottfrieds von Straßburg's “Tristan” (= Bamberg interdisciplinary medieval studies , volume 2). University of Bamberg Press, Bamberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-923507-44-3 (Dissertation University of Bamberg 2008, 301 pages full text online , PDF, free of charge, 303 pages, 7.6 MB).

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