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TANNHAUSER, or TANHUSER

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 399 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TANNHAUSER, or TANHUSER , See also:German Minnesinger of the 13th See also:century, who lived for a See also:time at the See also:court of See also:Frederick II., See also:duke of See also:Austria. After Duke Frederick's See also:death he was received at the court of See also:Otto II., duke of See also:Bavaria; but, being of a restless disposition, and having wasted his See also:fortune, he spent much time in wandering about See also:Germany. He also went as a Crusader to the See also:Holy See also:Land. His poems belong to the decadence of the Minnesang, and combine a didactic display of learning with descriptions of See also:peasant-See also:life in a somewhat coarse See also:tone. His adventurous life led him to be identified, in the popular See also:imagination, with the See also:knight Tannhauser who, after many wanderings, comes to the Venusberg, or Horselberg, near See also:Eisenach. He enters the See also:cave where the See also:Lady See also:Venus—the Fran See also:Hulda of German folk-See also:lore—holds her court, and abandons himself to a life of sensual See also:pleasure. By and by he is overcome by remorse, and, invoking the aid of the Virgin See also:Mary, he obtains permission to return for a while to the See also:outer See also:world. He then goes as a See also:pilgrim to See also:Rome, and entreats See also:Pope See also:Urban to secure for him the forgiveness of his sins. The pope declares it is as impossible for him to be pardoned as for the See also:staff he has in his See also:hand to blossom. Tannhauser departs in despair, and returns to the Venusberg. In three days the staff begins to put forth See also:green leaves, and the pope sends messengers in all directions in See also:search of the penitent, but he is never seen again. This See also:legend was at one time widely known in Germany, and as See also:late as 183o it survived in a popular See also:song at Entlebuch in See also:Switzerland, a version of which was given by See also:Uhland in his Alte hock- and niederdeutsche Volkslieder.

Among the attendants of Hulda was the faithful See also:

Eckhart, and in the See also:preface to the See also:Heldenbuch he is said to sit before the Venusberg, and to warn passers-by of the dangers to which they may be exposed if they linger in the neighbourhood. The legend has been reproduced by several See also:modern German poets, and by R. See also:Wagner in an See also:opera. For Tannhauser's lyric See also:poetry, see F. H. von der See also:Hagen's Minnesinger, ii. (1838); K. Bartsch, Deutsche Liederdichter See also:des 12. bis 14. Jahrhunderts (3rd ed. 1893), No. 47. See also F. Zander, See also:Die Tannhausersage and der Minnesinger Tannhauser (1858); J.

G. T. See also:

Grasse, Die See also:Sage von Tannhauser (1846; 2nd ed. 1861) ; A'. Ohlke Zu Tannhbusers Leben and Dichten (189o); J. Siebert, Tannhauser, Inhalt and See also:Form seiner Gedichte (1894).

End of Article: TANNHAUSER, or TANHUSER

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