Wirnt von Grafenberg
Wirnt von Grafenberg was a Middle High German poet of the thirteenth century.
Grafenberg was a Bavarian nobleman who between 1202 and 1205 wrote an epic, entitled Wigalois, which describes the adventures of Gawain's son, the name being a corruption of Guinglain le Galois. Wirnt likely took material from French sources, and earlier portions of his work parallels the French romance Le bel inconnu of Renaud de Beaujeu,[1] but otherwise has taken great liberties with the material,[2] and his claim that he learned the material orally from some squire is thought to be a pretext for not constraining himself to the norm.[3] Though extravagant and didactic,[2][4] the poem was one of the most popular and distinguished romances of the Arthurian cycle written in Middle High German,[1] apart from the works of Wolfram von Eschenbach and Hartmann von Aue.[2]
Wirnt is thought by many to have been of an elite noble family in Gräfenberg, Bavaria,[1][2] possibly having served as ministerial (clerical administrator) for the town.[3] His literary patron was most likely Berthold IV of Andechs-Merania (d. 1204).[1][3]
The fully illustrated Wigalois manuscript produced in 1372 (MS LTK 537) is held at Leiden University Libraries and a digital version is available on its Digital Collections.[5] A prose version Wigoleis vom Rade was made toward the close of the fifteenth century and printed at Augsburg in 1493.[1] Wigalois has been edited by Georg Friedrich Benecke (Berlin, 1819), Franz Pfeiffer (Leipzig, 1847) and others.[6]
Wirnt appears a central character playing the role of the knightly servant of Frau Welt in Konrad von Würzburg's Der Welt Lohn, Wirnt von Grafenberg himself becomes a literary figure, but otherwise little is known about his life.[1][7][8][9]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Wailes, Stephen L. (1996). "Wirnt von Grafenberg". In Lacy, Norris J.; et al. (eds.). The Arthurian Encyclopedia. New York: Peter Bedrick. pp. 635–636. ISBN 9781136606335.; New edition 2013, "Wirnt von Grafenberg".
- ^ a b c d New International Encyclopedia (1905).
- ^ a b c Emmerson, Richard K., ed. (2013). "Wirnt von Grafenberg". Key Figures in Medieval Europe: An Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. p. 674. ISBN 9781136775192.; New edition 2013, "Wirnt von Grafenberg".
- ^ "many pious excurses"[1]
- ^ "Digital version of Wigalois / Wirnt von Gravenberg, LTK 537". Leiden University Libraries. Retrieved 2024-04-10.
- ^ Seelbach & Seelbach ed. tr. (2005), p. 323.
- ^ Thomas tr. (1977), p. 6.
- ^ Thomas (2004), p. 2.
- ^ Jones, Howard; Bratic, Martin H. (2024). "T2 Konrad von Würzburg: Der Welt Lohn". An Introduction to Middle High German. Oxford University Press. pp. 88–89. ISBN 9780198894001.
Bibliography
- Wirnt von Grafenberg (2005). Seelbach, Sabine [in German]; Seelbach, Ulrich [in German] (eds.). Wigalois: Text der Ausgabe von J. M. N. Kapteyn (in German) (1 ed.). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. ISBN 9783110897579. (Nachwort und Kommentar zu: Wirnt von Grafenberg: Wigalois. pp. 263–318)
- Wirnt von Grafenberg (1977). Wigalois: The Knight of Fortune's Wheel. Translated by Thomas, J. W. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 9780803298279. snippet
- Thomas, Neil E. (2004). "10. Wigalois and Parzival: Father and Son Roles in the German Romance of Gawain's Son". In Wheeler, Bonnie (ed.). Wirnt Von Gravenberg's Wigalois: Intertextuality and Interpretation. Arthurian studies 57. DS Brewer. pp. 101–116. ISBN 9781843840138.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: . New International Encyclopedia. 1905. This work in turn cites:
- F. Saran, Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Litteratur, vol. xxi. (Halle, 1896).
