Early Middle High German literature

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The early Middle High German literature is the phase of literary history that works in the second half of the 11th century and extends to about the 1170th Above all, religiously instructive and admonishing texts are created in Middle High German rhyming verses , which are particularly aimed at lay people .

Development phases

Depictions of salvation history, for example the “ Ezzo song ” (around 1065), legend poetry , the “ Annolied ” (around 1077), Old and New Testament biblical epics (Genesis, Exodus, Judith, etc., life of Jesus and others), dogmatic explanations, for example that " Anegenge " , the talk of faith, eschatological poetry (Last Judgment, Antichrist) shaped the first phase of this clerical poetry, which is determined by religious influence on the lay nobility . It is characteristic of the numerous, mostly shorter poems that there was no literary life in which they could have found a wider distribution. Most of the pieces are only accidentally preserved in a single manuscript . In general, the written dissemination of German spiritual texts (in contrast to Latin texts) was limited until around 1150 to the monasteries and monasteries in which or for which they were created. The only prominent exception is Williram's Song of Songs paraphrase, of which numerous copies were soon circulating.

Around the middle of the 12th century there was a profound change in every respect. Repentance and humility literature, influenced by the Cluniac reform movement , is replaced by softer and gentler themes. This is particularly evident in the Marian poetry . Mary as virgin and mother begins to play a bigger role alongside the trinity . She embodies the ideal image of the woman who opens her heart to the suffering and fear-driven creature. This is z. B. in Melker Marienlied (around 1150) and in the Marienleben of Wernher von Augsburg (around 1172) clearly. The subjects and forms of literature are becoming more diverse; the written distribution now also includes matters of secular content (courtly poetry, entertaining narratives). Sacred poetry also developed a new interest in the individual and their life story (legend poems, for example Albers “ Tundalus ” , Lamprecht's “Tobias” , Veldeke's “Servatius” ).

In addition, around the middle of the 12th century, the epic of history gains poetic status for the first time as a more secularly oriented poetry. The most important work, the " Imperial Chronicle " with around 17,000 verses, tells the episodic story of the Roman Empire from the founding of Rome to Conrad III . The “ Roland song ” by Pfaffen Konrad describes the struggle of Charlemagne and his paladins against the Saracens in Spain and Roland's death after a betrayal. With the Roland song and the “ Alexander ” by Pfaffen Lamprecht , the influence of French materials and design methods is also noticeable for the first time, which is to shape German literature for the next decades and centuries.

Those secular poems that had been given the name Spielmannsepik because of their fantastic adventures had to defend themselves at first against the accusation of lack of seriousness, because at first one suspected minstrels as authors of these works. Today one is relatively convinced that poems like “ Herzog Ernst ” , “ König Rother ” , “ Salman und Morolf ” with their connection of historical interest with distant adventures come from the pen of men of spiritual learning.

Eilhard von Oberge wrote an early court epic Tristanepos around 1170, probably at the court of Henry the Lion , based on French models .

At the end of this period and the beginning of the next there is Heinrich von Veldeke's “ Eneasroman ” , which, with its pure rhymes and the emphasis on love, creates the transition to the courtly epic of the High Middle Ages in addition to the knightly fighting ethic . Their models - such as the prototypical novel Erec et Enide by Chrétien de Troyes - reached Germany at the end of the 12th century from the Anglo-Norman area and France via Flanders and the Netherlands.

Authors and texts

See also

literature

  • Dieter Kartschoke: History of German Literature in the Early Middle Ages . DTV, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-423-04551-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Glaser , Jakob Lehmann, Arno Lubos: Ways of German literature . Propylaea, no year, ISBN 3-548-26511-1 , p. 32 f.