Karlmeinet
The Karlmeinet (stands for Charlemagne , Charlemagne ) is a large poetic Lower Rhine compilation from the 14th century.
Between reworked German and Dutch poems, parts from the Karlssage were inserted. a. from the Speculum historiale of Vincent de Beauvais .
In addition to a few fragments from earlier times, only a single, very comprehensive manuscript with 36,000 verses has survived, which is considered complete and dated to the 15th century.
Content and structure
The Karlmeinet is a compilation of various poems, which in the above. Handwriting are clearly separated from each other by paragraphs. The subdivision into six branches has therefore proven useful for literary studies.
part One
The so-called Karl and Galie novel tells a youth story of Charles in around 14,000 verses.
Charles is in childhood after the death of his father Pippin in the custody of the Stewards transferred Hanfrat and Hoderich who seek to kill him to inherit the kingdom. With cunning, Charles' allies, his aging tutor David and the daring tavern Diederich manage to flee with the Junker to Toledo, Spain , and to obtain asylum from the Pagan King Galaffer, who lives there.
Galaffer is at war with the African king Bremunt, who desires his beautiful daughter Galie. While Karl enjoyed a courtly upbringing at the king's court, he was watched by Galie, who was kept hidden from the public by her father in a high hall. At the sight of Karl, Galie falls in love with him and shortly afterwards decides to convert to Christianity.
Meanwhile, Karl is made a knight and only gets to know Galie when he is a sword master . He is also seized by love . After Karl overpowers the pagan knight Caiaphas, Bremunt's nephew, in a duel, the first secret encounter between Karl and Galie, who can now confess their love for one another, takes place. During this conversation, Galie reveals to Karl that she, too, is a Christian.
After Karl defeats King Bremunt in a solitary duel, Galaffers goes into battle with Karl against Hanfrat and Hoderich to recapture his kingdom. After an escape operation, Hanfrat and Hoderich are overwhelmed and sentenced to death, Karl is crowned king, Galaffers travels back to his home in Toledo.
Disguised as a pilgrim, Karl travels after him with David and the Schenken Diederich to kidnap Galie, as Karl had previously assured her. After numerous obstacles they reach Toledo, where the lovers unite, which is expressed in a Minneduet.
Now Galie and her closest confidante, Florette, also dress up as pilgrims and travel back to Paris with Karl, David and the Schenken Diederich. On the way they have to endure a lot of hardships: The knight with the spear is looking for Âventiure and challenges Karl to a duel, which the king can win. Galie's health deteriorates and they are forced to seek shelter in the city of Oriette, where Galie is harassed and almost raped by the pagan king Orias. The king's sister, Orie, also professes the Christian faith and helps Karl and Galie to escape to Termes, the fortress of a count who is a friend of Karl. After an extensive fight with Orias, he can finally be defeated by Karl in a duel.
After Galie, Florette and Orie have been baptized, there is a marriage between Karl and Galie and long festivities.
Part II
The second part comprises around 5,600 verses and is a continuation of the Karlmainet saga dealt with in Part I.
The king's confidants, Ruhart, Fukart and Hertwich, set up an intrigue at Charles's court by forcing the noble Morant von Riviere to have an affair with the beautiful Galie. The rumor triggers deep despair and mistrust in Karl; the allegations force him to initiate a lawsuit against his friend Morant and his own wife Galie. Ruhart pretends to be a pilgrim who, on a trip through Toledo, heard that Galaffer had promised Morant a considerable reward and that he would take the hand of Galie if he would kidnap his daughter and bring her back to her father. Ultimately, however, a divine judgment seals Morant's innocence. A great reconciliation ceremony takes place; Ruhart and his co-conspirators are left with their deaths to the devil.
Part III
The third branch describes in 5400 verses numerous events from the life of Charles, for example the campaigns against the Saxons, Bavaria, Lombards and Huns, the liberation of Pope Leo III. , Charles' coronation as emperor and his march towards Israel.
Part IV
The fourth part, comprising around 1350 verses, is an adaptation of the Central Dutch verse novella Karel ende Elegast .
An angel reveals to Karl the divine commission to go horse riding and stealing at night. When Karl pursues this request somewhat unsettled, he meets the black knight Elegast in the gloomy forest, who was once banished from Karl's kingdom and now ekes out a life as a thief. In the cover of the night, Karl does not reveal his true identity to Elegast; instead, the two riders join forces and decide to steal from Karl's brother-in-law Eggeric. During the theft, Elegast secretly overhears Eggeric while he is making plans to kill Karl.
When Elegast informs Karl of this, the king succeeds in setting a trap for Eggeric. There is a judicial duel between Elegast and the prisoner, in which a divine judgment seals the guilt of the latter and gives Elegast a new reputation at the court of Charles.
Part V
This branch is an extensive adaptation of the Rolandslied material and is probably based on the Rolandslied of Pfaff Konrad . What is striking about the branch, which comprises around 9,000 verses, is the insertion of the so-called Ospinel episode. The knight Ospinel challenges to battle at Karl's field camp. Karl's nephew Roland and his friend Olivier argue about which of the two can now accept the challenge. Karl acts here as a mediator between the two overzealous knights.
In addition, there are other smaller extensions, but also a number of shortenings of the well-known Rolandslied material.
Part VI
The last branch closes the Karlssage with a description of Karl's life and death. It comprises around 550 verses. This is followed by an eschatological outlook on the 15 omens of the Last Judgment , which is dealt with in around 330 verses.
Reading sample
The text of the above Manuscript was written in the Ripuars and is therefore shaped by the dialect present at the time .
The following excerpt from the Karl and Galie novel gives a small impression of this . It is the already mentioned love duet scene when Karl and Galie meet again.
"Nu horet, we sy sanck de gode
With hoger stymmen, with godem mode
Sy sanck alsus schone:
'De vogel syngen ane swygen,
De blomen spryngen an sygen,
Dat en can
still make me blyt
In myme hertzen enbynnen.
If I say droest van seinre mynnen,
So I want the bird sanck
Prysen ind the plomen planck. '
Nu hadde Karlle do alzo hant
Galien stymme balde Erkant.
Thu thought hey nauwe zo the stunt,
We hey sich ere kunt.
Id quame eme zo wonsche whales.
Alda vur Galien sale
Neman en was do up dem hove.
Dat lovede Karlle with great love.
Dyt something about eyner avent stunt,
Dat ys me van den boechen kunt.
As Karlle neman en vernam,
Vele waele yd eme do quam.
But hey up
ind neither.
Hey sach her ind dar.
Since hey nemantz en war was,
So en bede hey neit long seder,
Eyn leit sang hey Galien neither:
'The bird sanck, the plomen schyn
Wyl I prysen in the synne myn.
The hertze leve soesse mynne
Haen I hear syngene.
So I know more,
Dyt I have zo before,
Wyste me hye de wal Gedaen,
Sy soulde zo speak to me. '"
V. 8964-9001
expenditure
One edition was published by Adelbert von Keller in 1858 in the library of the Litterarian Society in Stuttgart (No. 45).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Beckers, Hartmut: The 'Karlmeinet' compilation. A German vita poetica Karoli Magni from the early 14th century . In: Cyclification. The development of narrative cycles in the Chanson de Geste and the Arthurian romances. Proceedings of the Colloquium , Amsterdam, December 17-18, 1992. Ed. by Bart Besamusca. Amsterdam: North-Holland 1994. (Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen; Afdeling Letterkunde 159), pp. 113–119.
- ↑ Bastert, Bernd: saint, wedding, Heidenschlächter. The 'Karlmeinet' compilation between Upper Germany and the 'Lower Lands' . In: Intersections. German-Dutch literary relations in the late Middle Ages. Edited by Angelika Lehmann-Benz. Münster: Waxmann 2003. (Studies on the history and culture of Northwest Europe 5), pp. 125–143.
- ↑ cf. also Geith, Karl-Ernst: Karl as minnitter. Observations on 'Karl and Galie' . In: Chevaliers errants, demouselles et l'Autre. Courtly and courtly literature in the European Middle Ages . Edited by Trude Ehlert. (Festschrift for Xenja von Ertzdorff on her 65th birthday), Göppingen: Kümmerle 1998, pp. 63–82.
- ↑ cf. also Kolb, Herbert: Chanson de geste parodistic. The Central German 'Karl and Elegast'. In: Wolfram-Studien (11) 1989, pp. 147-165.
- ↑ cf. Zagolla, Rüdiger: The Karlmeinet and his version of the Roland song of Pfaffen Konrad . Göppingen: Kümmerle 1988. (Göppinger papers on German studies 497).
- ↑ The text follows the edition: Karl and Galie . Imprint of the manuscript A (2290) of the Hessian State and University Library Darmstadt and the 8 fragments. Ed. U. explained by Dagmar Helm. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag 1986. (Karlmeinet 1; German texts of the Middle Ages 74).