Süßkind von Trimberg: Difference between revisions
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Süßkind (Suezkind) von Trimberg was, in all probability, the first documented [[Jewish]] [[poet]] of the [[German language]]. He is called a Jew three times in the manuscript (completed around 1330) and is painted with a [[Judenhut]] (the hat Jews were forced to wear by law in the latter [[middle-age]]). Besides that, the name “Süßkind” was then exclusive to Jews, and the ortography and language of his poems correspond to to the area he is supposed to have come from. His poems are generally assumed to have been written between 1250 and 1300. |
Süßkind (Suezkind) von Trimberg was, in all probability, the first documented [[Jewish]] [[poet]] of the [[German language]]. He is called a Jew three times in the manuscript (completed around 1330) and is painted with a [[Judenhut]] (the hat Jews were forced to wear by law in the latter [[middle-age]]). Besides that, the name “Süßkind” was then exclusive to Jews, and the ortography and language of his poems correspond to to the area he is supposed to have come from. His poems are generally assumed to have been written between 1250 and 1300. |
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Süßkind is named after his probable birthplace Trimberg, a town with a castle of the same name, now a part of the Elfershausen, in Bad Kissingen district, Franconia, near Würzburg. All that is really known about him are his six poems in the [[Codex Manesse]] (now at [[Heidelberg]]), and the accompanying picture, which show that he took high rank among the poets of his time. Everything else - assumptions that he might have been a physician, might have lived at the court of the bishop of Würzburg or Frankfurt - are pure speculation from later times, usually based on the interpretation of the his picture in the [[Codex Manesse]], which shows him before a bishop or a bishop's representative with a bishop's staff, but without his mitre, seated on a throne, under a flag which is variously said to be the flag of the town of Constance (whose bishop was closely associated with the Codex) or of Cologne. |
Süßkind is named after his probable birthplace Trimberg, a town with a castle of the same name, now a part of the Elfershausen, in Bad Kissingen district, Franconia, near Würzburg. All that is really known about him are his six poems in the [[Codex Manesse]] (now at [[Heidelberg]]), and the accompanying picture, which show that he took high rank among the poets of his time. Everything else - assumptions that he might have been a physician, might have lived at the court of the bishop of Würzburg or Frankfurt - are pure speculation from later times, usually based on the interpretation of the his picture in the [[Codex Manesse]], which shows him before a bishop or a bishop's representative with a bishop's staff, but without his mitre, seated on a throne, under a flag which is variously said to be the flag of the town of [[Constance]] (whose bishop was closely associated with the Codex), of [[Fulda]] (near [[Frankfurt/Main]]) or of [[Cologne]]. There is a tradition that his burial was mentioned in an old (now disappeared) memorbook of the Jewish community of [[Schlüchtern]] near [[Fulda]]. |
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Although most of the traveling minstrels - the class to which he seems to have belonged or tried to belong to - were unmarried, he sang of the worth of the virtuous wife (III,2), and of the hunger and misery of his children (V,1). There are possible allusions to Hebrew prayers and benedictions in his texts, as in I,3, where his comparison of the briefness of mans days and his salvation through God correspond to the 33rd benediction said on the eve of the Jewish New Year. He stated that nobility – and this at the high time of chivalry, in a collection where every singer of remotely noble descent is portrayed with a coat of arms – is not dependent on birth, but on one’s deeds: “Nobility is not dependent on a piece of paper / Who acts nobly, him will I account noble.” |
Although most of the traveling minstrels - the class to which he seems to have belonged or tried to belong to - were unmarried, he sang of the worth of the virtuous wife (III,2), and of the hunger and misery of his children (V,1). There are possible allusions to Hebrew prayers and benedictions in his texts, as in I,3, where his comparison of the briefness of mans days and his salvation through God correspond to the 33rd benediction said on the eve of the Jewish New Year. He stated that nobility – and this at the high time of chivalry, in a collection where every singer of remotely noble descent is portrayed with a coat of arms – is not dependent on birth, but on one’s deeds: “Nobility is not dependent on a piece of paper / Who acts nobly, him will I account noble.” |
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Revision as of 08:17, 27 May 2007
Süßkind (Suezkind) von Trimberg or Süßkind of Trimberg (ca. 1230 - ca. 1300) was a German minnesinger.
Süßkind (Suezkind) von Trimberg was, in all probability, the first documented Jewish poet of the German language. He is called a Jew three times in the manuscript (completed around 1330) and is painted with a Judenhut (the hat Jews were forced to wear by law in the latter middle-age). Besides that, the name “Süßkind” was then exclusive to Jews, and the ortography and language of his poems correspond to to the area he is supposed to have come from. His poems are generally assumed to have been written between 1250 and 1300.
Süßkind is named after his probable birthplace Trimberg, a town with a castle of the same name, now a part of the Elfershausen, in Bad Kissingen district, Franconia, near Würzburg. All that is really known about him are his six poems in the Codex Manesse (now at Heidelberg), and the accompanying picture, which show that he took high rank among the poets of his time. Everything else - assumptions that he might have been a physician, might have lived at the court of the bishop of Würzburg or Frankfurt - are pure speculation from later times, usually based on the interpretation of the his picture in the Codex Manesse, which shows him before a bishop or a bishop's representative with a bishop's staff, but without his mitre, seated on a throne, under a flag which is variously said to be the flag of the town of Constance (whose bishop was closely associated with the Codex), of Fulda (near Frankfurt/Main) or of Cologne. There is a tradition that his burial was mentioned in an old (now disappeared) memorbook of the Jewish community of Schlüchtern near Fulda.
Although most of the traveling minstrels - the class to which he seems to have belonged or tried to belong to - were unmarried, he sang of the worth of the virtuous wife (III,2), and of the hunger and misery of his children (V,1). There are possible allusions to Hebrew prayers and benedictions in his texts, as in I,3, where his comparison of the briefness of mans days and his salvation through God correspond to the 33rd benediction said on the eve of the Jewish New Year. He stated that nobility – and this at the high time of chivalry, in a collection where every singer of remotely noble descent is portrayed with a coat of arms – is not dependent on birth, but on one’s deeds: “Nobility is not dependent on a piece of paper / Who acts nobly, him will I account noble.”
In one of the last poems in the Codex (V,2) he bitterly complains that he fooled himself with his attempts to be an artist ("Ich var ûf der tôren vart / mit mîner künste zwâre"), that he is now determined to let his grey beard grow long and henceforth go his way humbly as a Jew, wrapped in a long coat, his hat pulled deep in his face, and won't sing any chivalrous ("hovelîchen") song, since the noblemen ("herren") won't grant him any further support.
The most characteristic of his poems is the Fable of the Wolf:
- "Ein Wolf viel jaemerlichen sprach:
- Wâ sol ich nû belîben,
- Sît ich dur mînes lîbes nâr
- Muoz wesen in der âhte?
- Darzuo sô bin ich geborn, diu schult, diun ist nicht mîn;
- Vil manic man hât guot gemach,
- den man siht valscheit trîben
- unt guot gewinnen offenbâr
- mit sündeclîher trâhte;
- der tuot wirser vil, dan ob ich naem ein genslein.
- Jân hab ich nicht, des goldes rôt
- Zegebene umb mîne spîse,
- des muoz ich rouben ûf den lip durch hungers nôt,
- der valsch in sîner wîse ist schedelîcher, dan ich,
- unt wil unschuldic sîn."
- A wolf spoke full of pain:
- Now where should I remain?
- Since I live off man
- I must remain in ban
- But I was born this way, the fault is not mine
- many a man is in pleasant circumstances
- whom one sees deal falsely
- and evidently acquire wealth
- with sinful aspirations
- He does much worse than if I take a goose
- I have not enough gold
- to pay for my food
- therefore I must steal it out of hunger
- In his way, the false man acts much worse than I
- and yet wishes to appear innocent
Evidently this fable refers to the author's own circumstances or at least to those of his coreligionists.
Bodmer (1759) and Von der Hagen (1838) reprinted the poems from Manesse's collection.
Literature
- Dietrich Gerhardt: Süsskind von Trimberg. Berichtigungen zu einer Erinnerung. Lang, Bern u.a. 1997, ISBN 3-906757-01-3
- Friedrich Torberg: Süsskind von Trimberg. Roman. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1972, ISBN 3-10-079002-2 (fiktive Biografie)
Bibliographies of Jewish Encyclopedia
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help)
- Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, xxxvii. 334-336;
- Grätz, Gesch. 3d ed., vi. 233 et seq.;
- Kurz, Gesch. der Deutschen Literatur, 8th ed., i. 76;
- Allg. Zeit. des Jud. 1896, p. 395.
- By : Isidore Singer & S. Mannheimer
External links
- Online-Gesamtkatalog Der Deutschen Bibliothek
- Art of the States: The Resounding Lyre Musical setting of "Wâhebûf und Nichtenvint"
- http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~harsch/germanica/Chronologie/13Jh/Suezkint/sue_intr.html