Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 776 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH , ti,e most important and individual poet of See also:

medieval See also:Germany, flourished during the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th See also:century. He was one of the brilliant See also:group of See also:Minnesingers whom the See also:Landgrave Herrmann of Thuringia gathered See also:round him at the historiccastle of the See also:Wartburg. We know by his own statement that he was a Bavarian, and came of a knightly See also:race, counting his achievements with See also:spear and See also:shield far above his poetical gifts. The Eschenbach from which he derived his name was most probably Ober-Eschenbach, not far from Pleinfeld and See also:Nuremberg; there is no doubt that this was the See also:place of his See also:burial, and so See also:late as the 17th century his See also:tomb was to be seen in the See also:church of Ober-Eschenbach, which was then the burial place of the See also:Teutonic knights. Wolfram probably belonged to the small See also:nobility, for he alludes to men of importance, such as the See also:counts of Abenberg, and of Wertheim, as if he had been in their service. Certainly he was a poor See also:man, for he makes frequent and jesting allusions to his poverty. Bartsch concludes that he was a younger son, and that while the See also:family seat was at Eschenbach, Wolfram's See also:home was the insignificant See also:estate of Wildenburg (to which he alludes), now the See also:village of Wehlenberg. Wolfram seems to have disdained all See also:literary accomplishments, and in fact insists on his unlettered See also:condition both in Parzival and in Willehalm. But this is somewhat perplexing, for these poems are beyond all doubt renderings of See also:French originals. Were the poems read to him, and did he dictate his See also:translation to a See also:scribe? The date of Wolfram's See also:death is uncertain. We know that he was alive in 1216, as in Willehalm he laments the death of the Landgrave Herrmann, which took place in that See also:year, but how See also:long he survived his friend and See also:patron we do not know.

Wolfram von Eschenbach lives in, and is revealed by, his See also:

work, which shows him to have been a man of remarkable force and See also:personality. He has See also:left two long epic poems, Parzival and Willehalm (the latter a translation of the French chanson de geste Aliscans), certain fragments, Titurel (apparently intended as an introduction to the Parzival), and a group of lyrical poems, Wachter-Lieder. These last derive their name from the fact that they See also:record the feelings of lovers who, having passed the See also:night in each other's See also:company, are called to See also:separate by the cry of the watchman, heralding the See also:dawn. These Tage Lieder, or Wachter Lieder, are a feature of Old See also:German folk-See also:poetry, of which See also:Wagner has preserved the tradition in the warning cry of Brangaene in the second See also:act of See also:Tristan. But the See also:principal See also:interest of Wolfram's work lies in his Parzival, immeasurably the finest and most spiritual rendering of the See also:Perceval-See also:Grail See also:story. The problem of the source of the Parzival is the crux of medieval literary See also:criticism (see PERCEVAL). These are the leading points. The poem is divided into sixteen books. From iii. to xii., inclusive, the story See also:marches pari passu with the Perceval of Chretien de See also:Troyes, at one moment agreeing almost literally with the French See also:text, at the next introducing details quite unknown to it. Books i. and ii., unrepresented in Chretien, relate the fortunes of the See also:hero's See also:father, and connect the story closely with the See also:house of See also:Anjou; the four concluding books agree with the commencement, and further connect the Grail story with that of the See also:Swan See also:Knight, for the first See also:time identifying that hero with Parzival's son, a version followed by the later German See also:romance of See also:Lohengrin. At the conclusion Wolfram definitely blames Chretien for having mistold the See also:tale, while a certain Kiot, the Provencal (whom he has before named as his source), had told it aright from beginning to end. Other peculiarities of this version are the See also:representation of the Grail itself as a See also:stone, and of the inhabitants of the See also:castle as an ordered See also:knighthood, Templeisen; the numerous allusions to, and evident familiarity with, See also:Oriental learning in its various branches; and above all, the connecting See also:thread of ethical See also:interpretation which runs through the whole poem.

The Parzival is a soul-See also:

drama; the conflict between See also:light and darkness, faith and doubt, is its theme, and the See also:evolution of the hero's See also:character is steadily and consistently worked out. The teaching is of a character strangely ,at variance with the other romances of the See also:cycle. Instead of an See also:asceticism, based upon a fundamentally See also:low and degrading view of See also:women, Wolfram upholds a sane and healthy morality; chastity, rather than See also:celibacy, is his ideal, and a loyal observance of the See also:marriage See also:bond is in his eyes the highest virtue. Not retirement from the See also:world, but fulfilment of See also:duty in,the world, is the See also:goal he marks out for attainment. Whether views so large, so sane and so wholesome, are to be placed to the See also:credit of the German poet, or of his French source (and See also:modern criticism is leaning more and more to a belief in the existence of Kiot), the Parzival is the work of a remarkable personality, and, given the See also:age and the environment, a unique literary achievement. Wolfram has moments of the highest poetical See also:inspiration, but his meaning, even for his compatriots, is often obscure. He is in no sense a See also:master of See also:language, as was Gottfried von Strassbourg. This latter, in a very interesting passage of the Tristan, passes in See also:review the poets of the See also:day, awarding to the See also:majority praise for the excellence of their See also:style, but one he does not name, only blaming him as being so obscure and involved that none can tell what his meaning may be; this un-named poet has always been understood to be Wolfram von Eschenbach, and in a passage of Willehalm the author refers to the unfavourable criticisms passed on Parzival. Wolfram and Gottfried were both true poets, but of widely differing style. Wolfram was, above all, a man of deeply religious character (See also:witness his introduction to Willehalm), and it seems to have been this which specially impressed the mind of his compatriots; in the 13th-century poem of Der Wartburg-Krieg it is Wolfram who is chosen as the representative of See also:Christianity, to oppose the enchanter Klingsor von Ungerland. (J. L.

End of Article: WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
WOLFF, JOSEPH (1795–1862) 		[next]
WOLFRAMITE, or WOLFRAM

Site © 2006 - Net Industries