Hartmann von Aue

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Portrait of Hartmann von Aue from the Codex Manesse (folio 184v)

Hartmann von Aue, also known as Hartmann von Ouwe, (born c. 1160–70, died c. 1210–20) was a German knight and poet. With his works including Erec, Iwein, Gregorius, and Der arme Heinrich, he introduced the Arthurian romance into German literature and, with Wolfram von Eschenbach and Gottfried von Strassburg, was one of the three great epic poets of Middle High German literature.

Life

Hartmann belonged to the lower nobility of

Heinrich von dem Türlin
, written about 1220, he is mourned for as dead.

Works

Hartmann produced four narrative poems which are of importance for the evolution of the Middle High German court epic. The first of these,

Arthurian cycle and are based on epics by Chrétien de Troyes (Erec and Enide and Yvain, the Knight of the Lion
, respectively). While the story of Chretien's Yvain refers to events in Chretien's Lancelot, to explain that Arthur is not present to help because Guinevere has been kidnapped, Hartmann did not adapt Chretien's Lancelot. The result is that Hartmann's Erec introduces entirely different explanations for Guinevere's kidnapping, which do not correspond to what occurred in the shared literary tradition of Chretien's Arthurian romances.

His other two narrative poems are

medieval religion. Translations have been made into modern German of all Hartmann's poems, while Der arme Heinrich has repeatedly attracted the attention of modern poets, both English (Longfellow, Rossetti) and German (notably, Gerhart Hauptmann
).

He was also a Minnesänger, and 18 of his songs survive.

Editions and translations

  • Tobin, Frank, Kim Vivian, and Richard H. Lawson, trans. Arthurian Romances, Tales, and Lyric Poetry: The Complete Works of Hartmann von Aue, Penn State Press, 2001
  • Hartmann Von Aue, "Iwein: The Knight with the Lion", translated by J.W. Thomas, 1979, .
  • Hartmann Von Aue, "Erec," translated by J.W. Thomas, 2001, .

References

External links