Eilhart von Oberg

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Eilhart von Oberg (also: Oberge; after the assumed mhd. Dative of the place name) is considered to be the author of the Middle High German verse Tristrant , the first surviving German-language adaptation of the Tristan material, which is widespread throughout Europe . However, neither its authorship nor the name is certain.

origin

Eilhart's origin is no longer uncertain. For a long time it was assumed that Eilhart's area of ​​activity was to be found on the Lower Rhine. All reasons for this assumption are inherent in the text, i.e. that is, they were inferred from allusions in the "Tristrant". Above all, Eilhart's mention of the river Rhine within a curse in verse 3162, behind which a regional phraseologism was suspected, seems to support the Lower Rhine thesis. In addition, his knowledge of French, which becomes visible in the German-speaking Tristrant, suggests an origin close to the French (language) border. And the use of the unusual name form Isalde (instead of Isolde) points to an origin in the Lower Rhine region, as these name forms are attested at the courts of the Limburg dukes and counts of Looz .

However, if one considers the dialectal coloring of Eilhart's language, then the Lower Rhine origin must be clearly questioned, since it can be characterized as Central German. Even if one cannot make a more precise localization due to missing features and has to assume that Eilhart used a learned artificial language, the model of which is to be found in the Middle Franconian poetry, based on the linguistic analysis, a Low German origin can be largely excluded. Eilhart's newly found, alleged second 'mainstay' in Mainfranken (see following paragraph) makes the identity with the Low German Ministerial Emperor Otto IV more likely.

A historical finding could shed light on the darkness; These are ten documented mentions of an Eilhardus de Oberch between the years 1189 and 1227, in which he appears as a witness to Henry the Lion , Emperor Otto IV and Count Palatine Heinrich. In addition, there is a mention in the property register of Count Siegfried II. Von Blankenburg. Accordingly, Eilhart would be a Brunswick ministerial from the family of the Lords of Oberg , who was in the service of the Roman-German King Otto IV., The Guelph, and then from whose brother was Count Palatine Heinrich. The Oberg servant family had their headquarters on the Oberg manor, which still exists today, between Braunschweig and Hildesheim .

The medievalist Bernd Ulrich Hucker ( University of Vechta ) recently made two observations on the historical classification of the poet: In his Tristrant, he alludes to the tragic death of the English king Richard the Lionheart (1199). The hidden allusion in verse 8848 ff. Represents a kind of lament for the dead of Richard, as it is unique in contemporary German literature, and thus fits in with the court circle of Otto IV, Richard's favorite nephew. The knight Eilhardus Saxo, with a different name de Ilsede , who appeared in 1215/17 in the vicinity of the bishop of Würzburg who was close to the emperor and as a benefactor of the Cistercian Abbey of Walkenried in the Harz Mountains, who also enjoyed Otto's favor, is to be regarded as a follower of Otto IV . In the Franconian environment, Saxo simply meant “the Saxon”, the “from the tribal duchy of Saxony ”. Klein and Groß Ilsede are knights' seats , immediately adjacent to that of Oberg (the names of ministerials, who were not yet established family names, but only names of origin, could vary according to their current place of residence). Saxo's confidante was another Welf servant, the knight Johann von Esbeck. In Würzburg Eilhard von Ilsede had married Gisela, a daughter or sister of the mayor and (Vice) Count Eckart. Since the von Oberg and von Ilsede were partly in the relationship of a dual ministry to the Guelphs and the Hildesheimer Hochkirche, Eilhard's Würzburg position is easily explained by the advancement of Hildesheim Bishop Konrad von Querfurt to Bishop of Würzburg. Konrad fell victim to an assassination attempt by ministerials close to the Hohenstaufen in 1202 - Count Eckart, who was murdered by the same group of people in 1199/1200, was one of the bishop's closest confidants.

Other forms of name

The equation of the documentary Eilhardus de Oberch with the author of the Tristrant is problematic, however, since the name form of the poet used today only occurs in a traditional text (Dresden manuscript, see below) and it was only the documentary evidence that led to this name form becoming common .

In other manuscripts of the Tristrant there are other forms of name for the author; Which is ultimately to be regarded as correct is still unclear today:

  • by Ogerengen Enthartte or Ebhart (Berlin manuscript)
  • by Baubenberg Segehart or Seghart (Heidelberg manuscript)
  • from Hobergin her Eylhart (Dresden manuscript)
  • Dilhart von Oberet (Augsburg print of the prose Tristan )

Life as a knightly servant (ministerial)

If, despite all doubts, one assumes that Eilhart's assignment is correct, further hypotheses can be made about the poet. Due to his ministerial status as "double ministerial" of the Guelphs and the Hildesheim bishops, although no free change of location is possible for him, a certain mobility is conceivable, which is evident from his presence in the entourage of the Roman-German king (and then emperor) Otto IV. should have intensified. As several examples of a Guelph- Anglo-Norman cultural exchange show, it seems quite possible to get hold of the Tristanstoff at a Welfenhof , earlier at the time of Heinrich's ostracism by Emperor Friedrich I (HRR) Barbarossa and his exile to England and more under Otto IV (1198–1218) and at his court, for whom a number of writers worked (including Gervasius von Tilbury).

plant

The only known work by Eilhart is the Tristrant , a version of the Tristan material that belongs to the " playful " lineage , the so-called version commune . The work was probably written around 1170 and is the first German adaptation of the material, which Gottfried von Straßburg found linguistically perfect. The dating is based, among other things, on linguistic and stylistic analogies to Heinrich von Veldeke's Eneas novel. The year 1202 is the terminus ante quem .

Both Heinrich the Lion and the influential Truchsess Jordan von Blankenburg come into question as possible clients . The traditional type of Eilhart's style, the implicit religious theme of the material and the detailed description of struggles around the political issues of succession and loyalty to vassals speak in favor of the former. The latter assumption, the patronage of the Truchsessen, would be conceivable if one were to see Eilhart's designation Blankinlande (v. 6284) for King Marke's hunting grounds as a reminiscence of Jordan. Even if a part in the creation of a poetry by a ministerial is rather rare, it has been proven in a few cases and could easily be explained by a mediator - here between the poet and the Welfenhof. The important ministerial family von Blankenburg belonged partly to the service team of Emperor Otto IV., Partly to that of his brother Wilhelm von Lüneburg, so that if the late dating of the Tristrant (1199 or soon after) applies , this is more likely to be her father than her father Heinrich the Lion Patrons may assume.

Appreciation

The importance of Eilhart's Tristrant lies on the one hand in the fact that it is the oldest surviving German-language Tristan arrangement. On the other hand, it must be mentioned that his Tristrant is the first completely surviving adaptation of the saga and is therefore of great value not only for German-speaking but for the entire European literary history. Nevertheless, Eilhart only plays a subordinate role in medieval literature . The reason for this is certainly the (recently controversial) negative evaluation of his literary work, according to which his work is formal and narrative simplicity and he introduces the Tristan material in a very inadequate and unsatisfactory manner in Germany .

Doubts about Eilhart's authorship

The theory that Eilhart is ultimately not the true creator of the Tristrant is also widespread . The work therefore comes from an anonymous author, while Eilhart is only a later editor of the work. This thesis is justified primarily by the fact that the name is mentioned in a section that is stylistically clearly different from the rest of the text corpus. It is also pointed out that although numerous Middle High German poets such as Gottfried von Strasbourg , Ulrich von Türheim or Heinrich von Freiberg refer to the Tristrant , they never mention the name of the author. This suggests that the work was initially distributed anonymously and only later associated with the name Eilhart von Oberg. In fact, the name is documented again at a later time, namely as a servant of Duke Albrecht the Great . The evidence comes from the late 13th century, at a time when the Tristan fabric with the Wienhausen Tristant carpet is also tangible on another level.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Helmut de Boor: The courtly literature. Preparation, flowering, conclusion. 1170–1250 (= history of German literature from the beginnings to the present. Vol. 2). 11th edition, edited by Ursula Hennig. Beck, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-406-35132-8 , p. 32 .
personal data
SURNAME Eilhart von Oberg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Middle High German poet
DATE OF BIRTH 12th Century
DATE OF DEATH 12th century or 13th century