Diu Crône
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| Diu Crône | |
|---|---|
| by Heinrich von dem Türlin | |
Arthurian legend | |
| Genre(s) | Chivalric romance |
| Lines | 30,000 |
Diu Crône (English: The Crown) is a
Diu Crône also tells of the Knights of the Round Table's quest for the Grail but differs from the better-known "Percival" and "Galahad" versions of the narrative in that it is here Gawain who achieves the sacred object; it is the only work in the Arthurian corpus in which he does so. The 'crown' of the title is, in fact, the poem itself: Heinrich likens his work to a gem-set diadem - the 'gems' being the various Arthurian tales or episodes that he has 'set' in the gold of his verse; his avowed object in this endeavor being the delectation of ladies everywhere - the which accords well with the reputation of his chosen hero, Gawain as a ladies' man.
Noteworthy among these archaic episodes is that (lines 12611-13934) concerning the contention between two sisters for the bridle that confers mastery of a magic mule with the power to transport its rider in safety through terrors to an otherworldly, revolving castle adorned with severed human heads (Celts 6.1 and Headhunting 3.1). This is also to be found in the more condensed and cryptic form in the short poem La Mule sans frein by Paien de Maisieres (Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle 7.3). Both versions appear to derive, in part, from the Uath mac Imoman episode in the 9th-century Irish legend of Fled Bricrenn (Bricriu's Feast).
Scholarly editions of the poem were made in 1852 by Gottlob Heinrich Friedrich Scholl (1802-1870) and (in translation as The Crown) in 1989 by J.W. Thomas, a professor emeritus of German at the University of Kentucky.
Manuscripts
- Cologne, Universitäts- und Stadtbibliothek, Cod. 5 P 62
- Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. Pal. germ. 374
- Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 2779
- Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, mgf 923 Nr. 9
- Schwäbisch Hall, Stadtbibliothek, without signature [missing]
- Universitätsbibliothek, Ms. K.B. 48
References
- J.W. Thomas (1989) The Crown: A Tale of Sir Gawein and King Arthur's Court, translated by J.W. Thomas, pub. University of Nebraska Press.
- John Matthews (1990) Gawain, Knight of the Goddess : Restoring an Archetype pub. Aquarian Press, part of Thorsons Publishing Group.
- Marion E. Gibbs and Sidney M. Johnson (1997), Medieval German Literature pp. 358–361.
- Elizabeth Andersen (1987) "Heinrich von dem Tuerlin's Diu Crone and the Prose Lancelot: An Intertextual Study", Arthurian Literature Volume 7.
- Lewis Jillings (1980) "Diu Crone of Heinrich von dem Türlein: The attempted emancipation of secular narrative. "Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik Nr. 258.
- Neil Thomas (2002) Diu Crône and the Medieval Arthurian Cycle.
- C. Cormeau (1977), Wigalois und Diu Crone.
- H. Bleumer (1997), Die "Crône" Heinrichs von dem Türlin
- Reißenberger (1879), Zur Krone Heinrichs von dem Türlin.
- Ernst Martin (1880), Zur Gralssage.