The three monks at Kolmar

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The three monks at Kolmar is a mare in 404 verses from the 14th-15th centuries. Century. It uses typical elements of a swank and is considered a prime example of black humor in the Middle Ages. A central point for the meaning of this work is the epimythion , the moral or practical application attached to a fable.

Text, author and origin

The work “The three monks of Kolmar” is an anonymously written fairy tale. The author mystifies his authorship by using the nickname "Nobody". It has 404 verses and is written in a verse narrative form. The work has been handed down in Codex Donaueschingen 104 ("Liedersaal-Manschrift") and is now in the Badische Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe. The "Critical Edition" is by Niewöhner, followed by De Boor with arbitrary and unmarked changes. Grubmüller's critical edition is based on Niewöhner's version, with Grubmüller returning to the wording of the manuscript wherever it can be justified.

Nothing precise is known about the author or the genesis of the work. However, due to characteristics of the rhyme style and vocabulary, it is believed that the author was an Eastern Alemannic. It is generally assumed that the author comes from Kolmar . The author has been suspected to be among the secular clergy who quarreled with the order about the right to hear confession. In many places the late 14th century is assumed to be the time of origin. The last of the monasteries mentioned in the work was not founded until 1413, which is why the fair could have been created a little later. The surviving version in the Liedersaal manuscript dates from 1430.

Motif story

A number of other works are thematically similar to the work "The Three Monks of Kolmar". There are at least 14 versions of this type, mostly European. The complex of motifs spans a series of oriental, old French and Italian stories. The origin can be traced back to the oriental story of the three hunchbacks. One story from this complex of motifs is the French Fabliau Estormi from the 13th century. In terms of its basic features and various individual references, it is closely related to “The Three Monks of Kolmar” and may have served as a template for this work. It is also conceivable that the author made use of the motif complex directly, without knowledge of the Estormi. The historian Frauke Frosch-Freiburg is of the opinion that "nobody" "took up the material independently and without being influenced by the French versions available" .

List of works from the motif complex

  • Stories that continue the oriental constellation with three hunchbacked lovers:
  • Stories that introduce priests as lovers and thus enrich them with elements of clerical satire:
    • the Fabliau Des IV Prestres des Haiseau, 13th century
    • a novella by Giovanni Sercambi from the end of the 14th century
    • a story song by Jörg Graff, 1st half of the 16th century
    • the story of a bawren and dreyen pfaffen, also a landtsknecht by Valentin Schumann.

Content (summary)

The action takes place in Kolmar. Her main characters are a married couple who live there. The woman wants to make her Easter confession and for this purpose goes to a local monastery (vv. 24–30). After having made confession, the monk orders her to sleep with him as a penance for a fee of 30 marks (v. 50). She does not want to accept the offer and therefore puts him off on the pretext of having to check first at home whether the time is good. This is repeated twice in two other monasteries, each with increased amounts of money of 60 (v. 97) and 100 (v. 121) marks. The woman then goes home to ask her husband for advice. He does not think twice and devises a ruse to get the money and still punish the monks (v. 161ff). The woman then ordered the three monks to come to her home at different times of the night under the pretext that her husband had left the city. She encourages the monks to hand over the money in advance. After the money has been handed over, her husband hits the wall from the outside, and the frightened monks jump into a tub of boiling water, where they scald themselves to death (v. 212ff). Then the man pays a drunken hiking student who happens to be passing by 4 pfennigs to carry the first monk to the Rhine (v. 292ff). When he comes back to collect his wages, he has already put the next monk down for him and claims that it is the same monk. This is repeated a third time. On the way back, the student runs into an uninvolved monk, whom he then also transports into the Rhine, since he believes him to be the dead man who has risen again, so that he has finally fulfilled his task (v. 339ff).

If one examines the story of black humor , one can essentially divide it into two parts: the first part has the main purpose of gathering three corpses as similar as possible in the same place, while the second part deals with the disposal of the corpses.

Epimythion

Original
diz bîspel I say
and reassure yourself every day
and don't seldom deny
that the innocent muoz angels of
the guilty wrongdoing.
this is the end of your speech.
that
both poor and rîche guard
against solîcher abuse.
wan ez im niht wol ergât, he
tries unusually spil
and dâ von niht lâzen wil,
as this munich now hânt done.
des sol one in the harm lân,
sît si entangled di bîht.
add it to goth. sô Nieman speaks.



(390)




(395)




(400)



(404)

The transfer is:
This example that I am giving here,
which
happensevery dayand not infrequently,
that the innocent has to atone
for the wrongdoing of a guilty person.
That is the end of the story. Both poor and rich
should be equally wary of such an act, because it does not go well for those who have an immoral concern and do not want to give up, as these monks did. They deserve their punishment because they abused confession. God judges that. Nobody says that.








The Epimythion (v. 389–404), that is, the final part of the fairy tale, is of central importance for the meaning of the work. It is only here that the fairy is raised from an entertaining story to a bîspel (v. 389). In the case of this work, the Epimythion is particularly interesting because, on closer inspection, it is not conclusive. The Epimythion is the focus of various studies in this work. For Grubmüller and Haug this fairy tale is an example of the senseless, a “merciless absurdity of the world” . Schnell contradicted his remarks: because he only took part of the epimython into account, the contradiction contained therein escaped him. For Schnell, the Epimythion is a contribution to the theodicy problem, and the contradiction is intended to draw the reader's attention to the teaching on which the work is based. In his remarks, Waltenberger examined contingency centrally. The context of the theodicy question is relevant to this work, but the text stands out from the theoretical discourses of this context.

disagreements

First of all, there is a twofold request to always behave fairly: on the one hand, because such misdeeds threaten harm to innocent people (v. 391–397), and on the other hand, because God punishes evildoers (vv. 398–404). But on closer inspection, there is a contradiction in these two requests: God punishes the guilty and is thus the guarantor of justice. But on the other hand he cannot protect the innocent, here the fourth monk (v. 339ff) either. With this he is just ruled out as a guarantor of universal justice.

Theodicy question

In this contrast, according to Schnell, the theodicy problem is found again. It is a problem often dealt with in medieval texts as to why God does not protect the innocent and, on the contrary, does not punish the guilty. One sentence that has been emphasized again and again in this discussion is that people have no insight into God's plans. As a result, people are unable to recognize guilt or innocence. This is already hinted at in the work by the narrator: the allegedly impeccable couple acts out of selfish motives, namely profit-seeking, and the pious wife also has no problems with assisting in murder. Even the hiking student is only interested in money. The only one who is free from guilt is the fourth monk. But in the context of the theodicy question , one can also ask himself the question of whether he was not also guilty in an unknown way. The insight that the recipient should draw from this work is therefore the insight into the limitation of human judgments.

However, this interpretation would presuppose that the fourth monk is really guilty in some way. However, the text offers no evidence of this: the monk is described by the author as innocent, and the monk was just on the way to mass to atone for his sins (v. 339). With this atonement of sins thwarted by the student, the reader is again reminded of the injustice that began the whole story: the prevention of the cleansing of sin.

Worldly uncertainty

Michael Waltenberger examined the epimythion a little more closely. Only in the Epimythion does the story rise from a simple entertainment story to an example (v. 389). It exemplarily shows that an innocent person often has to atone for someone guilty. If the speech really had an end, as claimed in verse 394, the coincidences in the course of the plot which lead to the death of an innocent person would acquire a paradoxical meaning. The commentary speech is, however, continued a bit and derives a non-specific teaching from the previous one (vv. 395–397). The focus shifts from the death of an innocent to the guilt of the other three monks.

The Epimythion has a predetermined breaking point in verse 394 with the premature closing formula. This signals that it cannot cover the entire story. The story is more than a “vremdiu maere” (v. 4), but too special to be considered a bîspel (v. 389). So the Epimythion does not ascribe a comprehensive meaning to the text. On the contrary, the last verse calls into question the overall validity of the text: In verse 404 the highest authority in the narrated world is invoked, only to be immediately canceled again. The cancellation is made by choosing the author's synonym "Nobody".

In order to give the coincidental events in this work a superordinate meaning, one must either make it absolute or eliminate it. In the first case it would represent a radical alternative to the divine order, in the second the divine order itself. However, it is more likely that the punch line of the text does not represent the divine order or its opposite, but rather calls into question or even questions such a universal validity claim denied. Instead of depicting the divine order, it would depict the dependence between religion and economy. In the course of the story, these dependencies intertwine so strongly that they cannot be hierarchized within the boundaries of the text. This is probably based on the secular insecurity of the people of the Middle Ages : namely, the experience that everyday action is increasingly oriented towards partial orders of a religious or economic nature, the entirety of which can no longer be seen through.

Promythion

As a maere is by
my side for a whole truce
that this is Kolmaere.
Nu vernemet vremdiu maere,
like a man had seen us
riding from Kolmaere:





(5)

I have been told a story that
should be completely true It
happened in Kolmar.
Now hear this unusual story
as told by a man who
came from Kolmar.

The promythion of a mare often includes claims such as complete sphere of activity. In this case, however, this claim does not apply; the reader is instead attuned to a strange story (v.4), which should nevertheless be completely true. This truth is guaranteed by someone who came from Kolmar to tell this story. This turns this narrative into a particular individual case, which is also presented as truth by a guarantor. This shows a certain special position compared to their context.

Logical inconsistencies

In the original story, "The Three Hunchbacks", the corpses were resembled in a hump, while here it is in the robes of the monks. This is probably a clerical satire. This is confirmed by setting the plot to a well-known location such as Kolmar, as well as specifying three orders that actually exist there (Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians). A closer look reveals a number of inconsistencies: The greatest inconsistency is the distance from Kolmar to the Rhine, which you cannot cover four times there and back in one night, especially not with the burden that the hiking student has to carry. Furthermore, the student should actually notice that each of the three monks is wearing a different robe. According to the story, he grabs one of the monks' corpses by the hair (v. 290), which should not be possible with the traditional tonsure of monks. And the wife, who has such a tender conscience that she makes three attempts to fulfill her duty to confess at Easter, has no problem with murdering the monks. It can be assumed, however, that the author, by consciously choosing the three monasteries, took advantage of the opportunity to " wipe one out " of the clergy of Kolmar .

First part

Why the story was felt to be funny rather than cruel is due in part to the choice of genre. The narration of verse as a form of presentation of the swank already gave the audience a sign that they could laugh. It is the eternal scheme of farce applied, the About Trump Fung. In addition, a repeated three-way scheme is used, which contributes to the mechanization of the plot. The author has always modified and simplified the three-dimensional scheme to such an extent that the listener should have laughed a little more every time at the deceived fraudsters. In addition, the discrepancy between expected and expected, between monastic vows and behavior, serves as a factor in comedy. The figure of the monk himself already has its own comedy in the Schwank when it appears in an unsuitable environment. The type of death chosen by the author is strikingly bloodless and puts its own seal on the story. The reader is asked what one could do with the corpses.

dômen si in sâ zehant unt
guide in zuo one want.
the münich what ze hour
UF of heart grunde
been full wazzers.



(250)

Then they took it
and put it against the wall.
The monk was immediately full of water
to the heart
.

The willingness of the monks to plunge into the deadly water (v.246ff) also contributes to the comedy. This first part is dependent, since it is heading towards the punch line of the final part.

Second part

The second part is more complex in terms of comedy. Elements from the first part that do not amount to the punchline are not included. The woman has fulfilled her role and is not mentioned further, in order to disrupt comical effects with inappropriate repentance. Part of the comedy remains duplication and repetition. The man dragged out a dead monk three times so that the student could grab him and carry him away. These events are motivated in two ways: On the one hand, there is a driving student . Typically fluctuations are attributed to these lax moral concepts. Second, he was just drunk. Even a drunken student should have been surprised at least once, but this combination is enough to create a strange constellation. More justification would have hurt the comedy. His drunkenness leads him into the comical situation of deception. He has to compensate for insufficient intellectual performance with too much work. Without question or argument, he takes the monk to the Rhine, possibly without realizing that he is removing a corpse. His view of things is increased to the power of threefold repetition and exaggerated by the incident with the fourth monk. The comedy lies in the difference between the real facts, that he removes three different monks, and the pupil's imagination, in which he keeps dragging the same monk to the Rhine. If the difference for the first three monks is only in the number of monks, it is increased for the fourth monk, because he does not notice that this monk is still alive, unlike the others. This is also the macabre punch line of the story: life and death are not two opposing concepts, but just two states that can be neglected under the influence of alcohol. Furthermore, the increased amounts of money paid by the monks in the first part are in contrast to the decreasing wages of the student with each monk he is dragging away, up to a penny per monk.

Nobody as an author

There are generally several reasons why a writer chooses to remain anonymous. In the early Middle Ages, the word “nobody” was often used as a play on words. Around the 14th century, in which this work was probably also created, "Nobody" was often used simply as a way to remain anonymous. In the work dealt with here, it cannot be decided without a doubt whether the author merely wanted to remain anonymous or whether he consciously chose the pseudonym . But there are indications that it is actually a conscious pseudonym that gives the final sentence its special punch. Verses 401-404 say that God gave the monks their just punishment for abusing confession . However, this statement can only refer to the first three monks, since the fourth monk is described in the text as pious and loyal:

I want to go there ze mettî sîn
and the sin mîn

(351)

I wanted to go to early
mass and seek forgiveness for my sins.

and

he thinks: >> oh dear gentleman got,
what do you want dirre to me, to
whom I have passed? <<

(366)

He thought: "Oh dear Lord,
what does this person want to do to me to
whom I have not done any harm."

Hence, the final point is that there is no justice, and that God, at least in this case, does not advocate justice. Nobody can afford to hold such an opinion. Only nobody can do that. Alternatively, one can interpret from the statement that, despite the injustice that befell the fourth monk in this march, no one can doubt God's righteousness. One can refute this interpretation if one clearly understands nobody as a personal name, which the capitalization suggests.

Editions

  • Werner Simon (ed.): New total adventure: that is, Mrs. H. von der Hagens total adventure in a new selection: the collection of Middle High German mars and taunts of the 13th and 14th centuries , Weidmann 1967
  • De Boor, Helmut: The German literature: Middle Ages. Beck 1983.
  • Grubmüller, Klaus (Hrsg.): Novellistics of the Middle Ages: Märendichtung. Frankfurt am Main, Dt. Klassiker Verl. 1996

Translations

  • Fischer, Hans: The most beautiful quivering stories of the German Middle Ages. Selected and translated by Hanns Fischer. Hanser Verlag 1968 pp. 230-250.
  • Oettinger, Klaus; Weidhase, Helmut: Minnekunst and love affair on Lake Constance: songs, teasing, morals and cupids from old manuscripts. Faude 1985 pp. 16-29.
  • Wolfgang Spiewok (Ed.): Altdeutsches Decamerone , Rütten & Loening 1982 pp. 95-102 ISBN 3-352-00268-1 .

Secondary literature

  • Volker Schupp : The monks of Kolmar: A contribution to the phenomenology and the concept of black humor In: Karl-Heinz Schirmer (Hrsg.): Das Märe: the Middle High German verse novella of the later Middle Ages. Darmstadt, Wiss. Buchges., 1983, pp. [229] -255.
  • Rüdiger Schnell: narrative strategy, intertextuality and 'empirical knowledge'. In: Wolfgang Haubrichs (Hrsg.): Narrative technique and narrative strategies in German literature of the Middle Ages: Saarbrücker Kolloquium 2002. Schmidt, Berlin 2004, pp. 367–385.
  • Michael Waltenberger: The fourth monk in Kolmar. In: Cornelia Herberichs (Ed.): No coincidence: Conceptions of contingency in medieval literature. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2010, pp. 200–215.
  • Hannes Frickes: Nobody will read what I write here: about nobody in literature. Göttingen, Wallstein 1998.
  • Helmut de Boor: The German literature in the late Middle Ages. Munich 1962.
  • Frauke Frosch-Freiburg: Schwankmären and Fabliaux University of Michigan, A. Kümmerle 1971.
  • Joseph Bédier: Les fabliaux: études de littérature populaire et d'histoire littéraire du moyen age. Champion, 1925.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Spiewok, p. 776
  2. ↑ NGA, pp. 202-207.
  3. ↑ Middle Ages, pp. 1451-1456
  4. ↑ Grubmüller, Klaus (ed.): Novellistics of the Middle Ages: Märendichtung. Frankfurt am Main, Dt. Klassiker Verl. 1996 pp. 1300–1301
  5. ↑ line 5
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Spiewok, p. 776
  7. ↑ Grubmüller, Novellistik des MA, pp. 1301–1302
  8. ↑ Schupp, p. 233
  9. ↑ Schupp, p. 232
  10. ↑ Bedíer, Les Fabliaux, p. 244
  11. ^ Frosch-Freiburg, p. 205
  12. ↑ Nykrog, Fabliaux, No. 10; ed. Nouveau Recueil, Vol. 5, pp. 193-207; in German by Bahner, French stories , pp. 30–38, and Widmer, Hexameron. , Pp. 109-115
  13. ↑ Doni, Novelle, pp. 6-11
  14. ↑ Straparola, Piacevoli notti V, 3 [p. 227-237]; German by Floerke, Straparola, pp. 143–156
  15. ↑ Nykrog, Fabliaux, No. 120; ed. From Montaiglon / Raynaud, Vol. 6, pp. 45-45
  16. ↑ Sercambi, Novelliere, No. 10; Vol. 1, pp. 82-89
  17. ↑ ed. Von Keller, Erzählungen, pp. 345–349
  18. ↑ Schumann, Nachtbüchlein, pp. 60–63
  19. ↑ cf. Grubmüller, p. 1304
  20. ↑ Schnell, pp. 381-385
  21. ↑ Waltenberger, p. 243
  22. ↑ Schnell, p. 381
  23. ↑ Schnell, Rüdiger, p. 382
  24. ↑ Schnell, Rüdiger p. 385
  25. ↑ Waltenberger, p. 240
  26. ↑ Waltenberger, pp. 237-238
  27. ↑ Waltenberger, p. 241
  28. ↑ Waltenberger, p. 244
  29. ↑ Waltenberger, pp. 234-235
  30. ↑ Schupp, p. 232
  31. ↑ de Boor 1962, p. 267
  32. ↑ was it examined here how the Rhine meanders at this time?
  33. ↑ Schupp, p. 236
  34. ↑ Schupp, pp. 236-237
  35. ↑ Schupp, pp. 238–242
  36. ↑ Frickes, pp. 73-76