Elisabeth of Lorraine

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Elisabeth of Lorraine
St. Arnual Collegiate Church
Tumba in the collegiate church of St. Arnual
Elisabeth: Portrait on her tumba in the collegiate church of St. Arnual

Elisabeth von Lothringen, Countess of Nassau-Saarbrücken (* around 1395 in Lorraine  ; † January 17, 1456 in Saarbrücken ) was a pioneer of the prose novel in early New High German . She translated and edited four French courtly novels ( Chanson de geste ) around 1437 : " Herpin ", "Sibille", "Loher and Maller" and " Huge Scheppel ".

biography

Elisabeth was a daughter of the Count of Vaudémont, Friedrich von Lothringen (1368-1415), and his wife Margarete von Vaudémont-Joinville (Margarete von Widmont, approx. 1354-1418). Her exact year of birth is unknown, but she must have been born after 1393, the year her parents married. On August 11, 1412, she became the second wife of Count Philip I of Nassau-Saarbrücken (1368-1429). After his death in 1429, she took over the reign for her underage sons Philip II (1418–1492) and Johann III until 1438 and 1442 respectively . (1423-1472). Margarethe von Rodemachern (1426–1490) was one of Elisabeth's children .

The Nassau-Saarbrücker territory comprised areas on the central Saar , on the Blies , in eastern Lorraine, in today's Donnersbergkreis around the town of Kirchheimbolanden , in the Taunus , on the Lahn and in Commercy on the Maas in Lorraine . Elisabeth managed to keep her empire together in sometimes turbulent times and avoid disputes with the surrounding territories. Under their aegis, Saarbrücken developed into a residential city with the Count's Castle on the castle rock that slopes steeply to the Saar as its core. Until then existed no localized centralized management, the rulers traveled rather incessantly their often scattered possessions to claim to power by their presence to support ( travel rule ).

Elisabeth died on January 17th, 1456. Contrary to the custom of the old Counts of Saarbrücken, who were buried in Wadgassen , Elisabeth chose St. Arnual (Saarbrücken) as her final resting place. Her tomb is in the collegiate church there , which subsequently became the hereditary burial place of the Nassau-Saarbrücken family for 200 years .

Literary work

Although there are many women in medieval German literature such as B. Mechthild von Magdeburg , who wrote sacred texts, there are no authors of secular works. It was not until the 15th century that some noble women were associated with secular German literary production, such as Elisabeth of Lorraine and Eleanor of Scotland . Elisabeth, who had grown up in the French cultural area, had family ties to French and southwest German literary-promoting courts, such as the one in Nancy , where her uncle Karl von Lorraine gathered artists and humanist scholars. Karl's wife Margarete established personal contacts between Elisabeth and the “Musenhof” in Heidelberg and Mechthild von der Pfalz . Elisabeth's brother Antoine also belonged to the circle of poets around Charles d'Orleans . The cultural exchange between the courts was an important prerequisite for Elisabeth's literary mediation work.

In the first half of the 15th century, four younger French chansons de geste from the cycle of novels about Charlemagne and his descendants, namely Herpin , Sibille , Loher and Maller and Huge Scheppel , were translated into early New High German prose in the vicinity of Elisabeth . Elisabeth is explicitly named as the author in the subscription to the Loher and Maller manuscripts and in the second preface to the oldest print by Huge Scheppel , published by Hans Grüninger in Strasbourg in 1500 . Wolfgang Liepe ( Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken , 1920) tried to show that Elisabeth also translated Herpin and Sibille . In contrast to older research, however, some newer researchers such as Ute von Bloh consider it unlikely that Elisabeth herself translated the Chansons de geste . At least the countess was probably the initiator of the transmissions with which - despite isolated precursors such as the prose Lancelot (middle of the 13th century) - the prose novel in German only began and soon established itself.

According to Loher and Maller's subscription , Elisabeth's mother commissioned a copy of the four French chansons mentioned in 1405. In the 1430s, this copy was transferred into Early New High German, which was revised on the basis of a new copy of the Chansons de geste sent by Johann to his mother Elisabeth in the 1450s . These direct French models have not been preserved; a few verses by Loher and Maller can only be found in a Wiesbaden fragment .

The oldest surviving manuscripts of the translated German prose novels date from the second half of the 15th century, so they were only created after Elisabeth's death. Six of them belonged to Elisabeth's relatives. Johann III, Elisabeth's younger son, owned three large-format and illustrated manuscripts that were in Hamburg and Wolfenbüttel and contained all four prose forms, Elisabeth's daughter Margarethe von Rodemachern owned a Codex of Loher and Maller , which was kept in Heidelberg, and the Counts of Manderscheid, who were distantly related to Elisabeth -Blankenheim a Cologne manuscript of the same epic as well as Margarethe von Savoyen, who is also related to Elisabeth, a manuscript by Herpin kept in Heidelberg . There are five manuscripts written in the late 15th century by Loher and Maller and three by Herpin ; on the other hand, there is only one manuscript in Hamburg, dated 1455/72, which contains the text of Huge Scheppel and then that of Sibille .

Herpin

The name of this prose novel as Herpin comes from Karl Goedeke , while the three manuscripts from the late 15th century preserved in Berlin, Wolfenbüttel and Heidelberg call the work the Lewen book by Burges in Berrye . In terms of content, the Herpin is derived from the old French Lion de Bourges (14th century), but neither of its two traditional versions was the direct template for the German translation.

At the beginning of the novel is the description of false accusations against Duke Herpin von Bourges , († around 1109) who appears here as a vassal of Charlemagne. Karl is portrayed as a weak character who listens to the whispers of evil advisers and enemies of Herpins. Together with his pregnant wife, Herpin flees into the woods and is able to avoid various stalkings. However, the family is separated after Herpin's wife gives birth to a boy. A lioness nurses the abandoned baby, which is why it is later named Löw. A knight who finds Löw ensures that he is properly educated. In the meantime, Herpin's wife is sent to Toledo , kills the leader of the army besieging this city and thus decides the war. When he grew up, Löw married a king's daughter, had the sons Ölbaum and Wilhelm with her, and was ultimately recognized by Charlemagne as the master of his regained inherited property by Bourges. His returned parents die a violent death. Löw's sons go out into the world, get married and have children, but also find a violent end when they return home. After all, the next generation avenges the death of their parents.

The Herpin , in which the erotic passages of his original are shortened, but which is otherwise a very faithful translation, was first printed in 1514 in Strasbourg and in 1865 in an edited form by Karl Simrock in the German People's Books (vol. 11, pp. 213–445 ) published.

Sibille

The Chanson de geste by the Reine Sebile , which was written around 1250, has only survived in fragments; a total of 507 verses from three different versions are known. Not only the German transmission, but also a French and a Spanish prose version were based on this chanson. Of the German version, Queen Sibille , there is only one manuscript, dated 1455/72 and kept in the Hamburg State and University Library; the prose novel was never printed either.

The heroine Sibille is the daughter of the Emperor of Constantinople , who is courted by Charlemagne, who eventually follows him to France and marries him. In the further course of the plot, the motif of the unjustly cast out wife is taken up: An unsightly dwarf tries to sleep with the queen, but is repulsed by her. Thereupon the dwarf crawls under Sibille's blanket in the church during Karl's absence, so that after his return Karl believes in an adultery of his pregnant wife and wants to have her burned first, but finally banished. Accompanied by a loyal farmer, Sibille has many adventures in exile, gives birth to her son Ludwig and finally returns to Constantinople. Her father leads his armed forces against France in order to force Karl to take his wife back. After many entanglements, Karl finally lets Sibille's friends convince him that he acted unfairly and that the queen's enemies deserve death.

Loher and Maller

The model for Loher and Maller , written in 1437, was a chanson de geste from the 14th century, based on several sources , of which only one Central Dutch version, written down at the end of the 14th century, has survived in fragments. A total of five manuscripts by Loher and Maller are known that were written in the later 15th century and are now deposited in Hamburg, Heidelberg, Cologne, Křivoklát and Vienna. The novel adheres little to historical facts; the controversy for the succession of Lothar I , son of Louis the Pious , is transferred here to Loher, who is depicted as the younger son of Charlemagne and behind whom the figure of the Merovingian king Chlothar I is probably standing.

The novel first tells that Charlemagne banned his young son Loher, whom he fathered with Sibille, for seven years because he lived too dissolute. But Karl gives him a retinue and ample financial means to take with him. In the company of Lohers, who is now going on adventures, is his loyal companion Maller, son of King Galien and Queen Rosemunde. Loher often gets into dire straits, is caught, but is able to free himself every time thanks to his courage and Maller's cunning. He wins the favor of the Byzantine emperor Orscher, marries his daughter and follows him to the throne. The Pope elevated him to Roman Emperor, but then emasculated him by the evil advisors of his brother Ludwig near Paris. Loher then fought hard against his adversaries with the support of Mallers, defeated his brother, took revenge on the traitors and made up with Ludwig. Later he unwillingly kills his friend Maller by throwing a knife, is therefore war on by his family, but ultimately makes a settlement with them and then lives as a hermit.

Loosely attached to the main story is a story in which Loher's brother Ludwig comes to the fore. Ludwig fights his nephew Isembart, who married a pagan nobleman and then wars against Christians. This final part is an adaptation of the Gormont - Isembart epic from the 11th / 12th, which has only survived in fragments . Century.

Loher und Maller was first printed in Strasbourg in 1514, translated in a shortened form into contemporary German by Dorothea Schlegel in 1805 and published in a modernized language by Karl Simrock in 1868.

Huge Scheppel

Of the prose novel Huge Scheppel only made to 1455/72 manuscript in Hamburg remained. This book is a transfer of the little-known, dating from the early 14th century chanson de geste Hugues Capet , a late work of the Carolingian - gesture . However, the German translation differs from the surviving version of Hugues Capet . The focus is on the title hero Hugo Capet , who succeeded the last Carolingian Ludwig V as French king in 987 and founded a new ruling dynasty, the Capetians . Contrary to historical facts, the epic recounts the popular fable that went back to the 13th century and made Huge the son of a wealthy nobleman and a butcher's daughter. In addition, in order to connect him more closely with Charlemagne, Huge is portrayed as the successor to his son Ludwig the Pious, who ruled in the first half of the 9th century.

According to the prologue of Huge Scheppel , Ludwig the Pious left only one daughter, Marie, who was entitled to the throne. But since war broke out among the suitors for their hand, in later times only king sons were admitted as entitled to inheritance. The actual plot begins with the story of the young Huge, who after the death of his father wasted his father's fortune on love adventures and fathered ten illegitimate sons. He then went on adventures in Brabant and Friesland and subsequently, as the protector of the heiress to the throne Marie, successfully fought her many suitors striving for the crown of France in several very brutal battles, with the support of the Parisians and his ten illegitimate sons. Finally, as thanks for his efforts, he is allowed to marry the Crown Princess and becomes King of France.

In his new rulership, Huge has to assert himself against Count Friedrich von der Champagne and his friend Duke Asselin, who march against Orléans , where the Queen is staying, and conquer the city. However, the pregnant Marie is able to flee into a tower that the attackers cannot take. In order to save her mother, who has fallen into Friedrich's power, the queen surrenders to her adversary. Meanwhile, Huge is ambushed and barely escapes death. Disguised as a hermit, he returned to Orléans and was finally able to bring down his enemies and win back his wife. Friedrich and Asselin are captured and later beheaded. The last chapter briefly describes Huge's successful campaign against the Muslims and other events of his government as the French king. His eldest son Ruprecht succeeded him on the throne.

Although the German translation, like the three prose novels described above, reproduces the French model fairly precisely, it is stylistically somewhat freer and smooths out the Laissen paragraphs that still clearly shimmer through in Herpin , Loher and Maller . Inconsistencies are also eliminated, the political situation is presented in more detail and Huge's frequent love affairs are subtly shortened, while the brutality of the fighting is only slightly subdued.

Huge Scheppel was more popular than the other three novels mentioned above, was the first to be printed by Hans Grüninger in Strasbourg in 1500 (in the abridged version by Conrat Heyndörffer after the older version, which has not survived by hand), and was dramatized and experienced in 1556 by Hans Sachs numerous new editions as an anonymous folk book mostly titled Hug Schapler . The further spread of the novel from the 16th century onwards can be explained by the unusual and for Elisabeth's contemporaries topical issue of the rise to rulers on their own, despite improper descent. However, the Huge Scheppel can hardly be seen as evidence of a bourgeois desire for advancement, as the title hero does not embody bourgeois values, but rather represents a young, power-conscious knight from the start. His minor background corresponds to the initial situation of the exiled heroes of the other three novels, his will to rise to their drive to gain power. In 1810 Achim von Arnim integrated the story of Hug Schapler based on the version of the print from 1537 into Countess Dolores' novel Poverty, Wealth, Guilt and Penance .

Afterlife

Elisabeth took care of her succession while she was still alive. In 1439 she divided her possessions between her two sons: she assigned an area on the right bank of the Rhine to her older son Philipp, Count of Nassau- Weilburg , and gave the area on the left bank of the Rhine to her younger son Johann Graf von Nassau-Saarbrücken. In contrast to his brother, the latter probably also had a personal connection to his mother's literary activity. Among other things, he had splendidly decorated manuscripts of chivalric novels that Elisabeth had translated. Manuscript copies and early prints are in the Herzog August Library ( Wolfenbüttel ) and the State and University Library Hamburg .

In April 2007, on the occasion of Saarbrücken's participation in the activities of the European Capital of Culture Luxembourg, an extensive poster exhibition on Elisabeth's novels took place. The motto of the European Writers ' Congress in Saarbrücken on October 16, 2007 was “Ir herren machent fryden” , with which Elisabeth began her translations. Her life was taken up in the novel Die Grenzgängerin by Ulrike and Manfred Jacobs (published by Gollenstein) in 2007 .

expenditure

  • A nice read and a warlike hystory like one of those who was called Hug schäpler and wz metzgers gschlecht a huge küng to Franckrich , Grüninger, Strasbourg 1500 ( incunable , in the possession of the Staats- u. Univ.-Bibl. Hamburg)
  • A beautiful real hystory by Keizer Karolus sun called Loher or Lotarius: how he was connected to the kingdom of the king and how he was so chivalrous at the same time , Grieninger, Strasbourg 1514 (printed in the possession of the Staats- u. Univ.-Bibl . Hamburg)
  • A beautiful and rich history of the dearly hearted and mankind Huge Schappler ... Printed by newen . Grübninger, Strasbourg 1537 (print in the possession of the Staats- u. Univ.-Bibl. Hamburg)
  • Hermann Urtel (Ed.): The Huge Scheppel of Countess Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken after the handwriting of the Hamburg city library . Gräfe, Hamburg 1905 (reprint: Ruland & Raetzer, Saarbrücken 2007, ISBN 3-9811546-0-6 )
  • Sibille - The book by King Karl von Frankrich and his Husfrouen Sibillen, who were chased away for the sake of one thing , free translation into High German by Yvonne Rech with illustrations by Uwe Loebens, ed. by the Foundation for Franco-German Cultural Cooperation, publisher: books build bridges ISBN 978-3-9809584-4-8 (jewelery box also contains editions in French - traduit en francais par Maxime-Olivier Lieser - and in Luxembourgish - eng Translation to d'Letzebuergescht vum Chantal Keller - based on the edition in High German and the illustrations in this edition)

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ In some specialist literature (e.g. BV Mertens: Elisabeth 14 , in: Lexikon des Mittelalters , Bd. 3 (1986), Col. 1836–1837, here: Col. 1836) Vézelise is given as Elisabeth's place of birth; According to Ute von Bloh ( Elisabeth von Lothringen and Nassau-Saarbrücken , in: Kindlers Literatur Lexikon , 3rd edition, 2009, vol. 5, p. 188 f., here: p. 188) Elisabeth's place of birth is unknown.
  2. ↑ The fact that Elisabeth's parents married in 1393 is reported by Ute von Bloh ( Elisabeth, Countess of Lothringen and Nassau-Saarbrücken , in: Killy Literaturlexikon , 2nd edition, Vol. 3 (2008), pp. 255-257, here: P. 255).
  3. ^ V. Mertens: Elisabeth 14 , in: Lexikon des Mittelalters , Vol. 3 (1986), Sp. 1836–1837, here: 1836; Albrecht Classen: Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken , in: Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB), Vol. 179 (1997), pp. 42-47, here: pp. 42 f.
  4. ↑ Hans Hugo Steinhoff: Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken , in: Author's Lexicon, 2nd Edition, Vol. 2 (1980), Sp. 482–488, here: Sp. 482; Ute von Bloh: Elisabeth, Countess of Lothringen and Nassau-Saarbrücken , in: Killy Literaturlexikon , 2nd edition, Vol. 3 (2008), pp. 255–257, here: p. 255.
  5. ↑ Ute von Bloh: Dislocated order. Four prose from the circle of Countess Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken: "Herzog Herpin", "Loher und Maller", "Huge Scheppel", "'Königin Sibille" , Tübingen 2002, p. 32.
  6. ^ Hans Hugo Steinhoff: Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken , in: Author's Lexicon, 2nd Edition, Vol. 2 (1980), Sp. 482–488, here: Sp. 483; Ute von Bloh: Elisabeth, Countess of Lothringen and Nassau-Saarbrücken , in: Killy Literaturlexikon , 2nd edition, Vol. 3 (2008), pp. 255-257, here: pp. 255 f.
  7. ↑ Karl Goedeke: Ground plan for the history of German poetry , 1859–1881, vol. 1, p. 358.
  8. ↑ Hans Hugo Steinhoff: Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken , in: author lexicon , 2nd edition, vol. 2 (1980), columns 482-488, here: columns 484 f .; Ute von Bloh: Elisabeth, Countess of Lothringen and Nassau-Saarbrücken , in: Killy Literaturlexikon , 2nd edition, Vol. 3 (2008), pp. 255-257, here: pp. 255 f.
  9. ↑ Summary of the contents of Herpin by Albrecht Classen: Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken , in: Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB), Vol. 179 (1997), pp. 42-47, here: pp. 43 f.
  10. ↑ Hans Hugo Steinhoff: Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken , in: author lexicon , 2nd edition, vol. 2 (1980), columns 482-488, here: columns 484 f.
  11. ↑ Summary of the contents of the Sibille by Albrecht Classen: Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken , in: Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB), Vol. 179 (1997), pp. 42–47, here: pp. 44 f.
  12. ↑ Hans Hugo Steinhoff: Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken , in: Author's Lexicon, 2nd Edition, Vol. 2 (1980), Sp. 482-488, here: Sp. 485.
  13. ↑ Summary of the content of Loher and Maller by Albrecht Classen: Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken , in: Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB), Vol. 179 (1997), pp. 42–47, here: p. 45.
  14. ↑ a b Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken , in: Kindlers Literatur Lexikon , 2nd edition, 1988–1992, Vol. 5, pp. 150–152, here: p. 151.
  15. ↑ Summary of the content of Huge Scheppel by Albrecht Classen: Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken , in: Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB), Vol. 179 (1997), pp. 42–47, here: pp. 45 f.
  16. ↑ Hans Hugo Steinhoff: Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken , in: author's lexicon , 2nd edition, vol. 2 (1980), columns 482-488, here: columns 486 f .; Ute von Bloh: Elisabeth von Lothringen and Nassau-Saarbrücken , in: Kindlers Literatur Lexikon , 3rd edition, 2009, vol. 5, p. 188 f., Here: p. 189.
personal data
SURNAME Elisabeth of Lorraine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Elisabeth of Nassau-Saarbrücken
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Pioneer of the prose novel
DATE OF BIRTH around 1395
PLACE OF BIRTH Lorraine
DATE OF DEATH January 17, 1456
Place of death Saarbrücken