The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages. The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into three branches: Ingvaeonic, which includes English and Frisian, Istvaeonic, which includes Dutch and its close relatives, and Irminonic, which includes German and its close relatives and variants.
Wolfram von Eschenbach was a German knight, poet and composer, regarded as one of the greatest epic poets of medieval German literature. As a Minnesinger, he also wrote lyric poetry.
Karl Joseph Simrock was a German poet and writer. He is primarily known for his translation of Das Nibelungenlied into modern German.
The Fisher King is a figure in Arthurian legend, the last in a long line of British kings tasked with guarding the Holy Grail. The Fisher King is both the protector and physical embodiment of his lands, but a wound renders him infertile and his kingdom barren. Unable to walk or ride a horse, he is sometimes depicted as spending his time fishing while he awaits a "chosen one" who can heal him. Versions of the story vary widely, but the Fisher King is typically depicted as being wounded in the groin, legs, or thigh. The healing of these wounds always depends upon the completion of a hero-knight's task.
Parzival is a medieval romance by the knight-poet Wolfram von Eschenbach in Middle High German. The poem, commonly dated to the first quarter of the 13th century, centers on the Arthurian hero Parzival and his long quest for the Holy Grail following his initial failure to achieve it.
Lohengrin is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, is a version of the Knight of the Swan legend known from a variety of medieval sources. Wolfram's story was expanded in two later romances. Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin of 1848 is based upon the legend.
German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German history, and German politics in addition to the language and literature component. Common German names for the field are Germanistik, Deutsche Philologie, and Deutsche Sprachwissenschaft und Literaturwissenschaft. In English, the terms Germanistics or Germanics are sometimes used, but the subject is more often referred to as German studies, German language and literature, or German philology.
The Ludwigslied is an Old High German (OHG) poem of 59 rhyming couplets, celebrating the victory of the Frankish army, led by Louis III of France, over Danish (Viking) raiders at the Battle of Saucourt-en-Vimeu on 3 August 881.
Titurel is a fragmentary Middle High German romance written by Wolfram von Eschenbach after 1217. The fragments which survive indicate that the story would have served as a prequel to Wolfram's earlier work, Parzival, expanding on the stories of characters from that work and on the theme of the Holy Grail. Titurel was continued by a later poet named Albrecht, who tied the story together in a work generally known as Jüngere Titurel.
Willehalm is an unfinished Middle High German poem from the early 13th century, written by the poet Wolfram von Eschenbach. In terms of genre, the poem is "a unique fusion of the courtly and the heroic, with elements of the saintly legend attaching to it."
Dennis Howard Green was an English philologist who was Schröder Professor of German at the University of Cambridge. He specialized in Germanic philology, particularly the study of Medieval German literature, Germanic languages and Germanic antiquity. Green was considered one of the world's leading authorities in these subjects, on which he was the author of numerous influential works.
Ernst Eduard Martin was a German philologist of Romance and Germanic studies. He was the son of gynecologist Eduard Arnold Martin (1809–1875).
Richard Heinzel was an Austrian philologist who specialized in Germanic studies.
Arndt Wigger is a German linguist. A specialist in Modern Irish (Nua-Ghaeilge), Wigger has published many articles on different aspects of the modern form of the language. He is a fluent speaker of the Connemara dialect. He also studies Hungarian, Portuguese and Arabic. He is closely associated with the Studienhaus für Keltische Sprachen und Kulturen - SKSK, at the University of Bonn.
Cyril William Edwards was a British medievalist and translator. Teaching in London and Oxford, he published extensively on the medieval German lyric and Old High German literature, and translated four of the major Middle High German verse narratives.
Leslie Peter Johnson, also known as Peter Johnson, L. Peter Johnson, or L. P. Johnson, was a British Germanist, who specialized in the literature of the Middle High German "golden age". He was Reader in Medieval German Literature at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Pembroke College.
Roy Albert Wisbey was a British medievalist, Professor of German at King's College, London, and one of the leading figures in British German studies. He was also a pioneer in the field of digital humanities, founding the Literary and Linguistic Computing Centre in Cambridge in 1964 and later promoting the establishment of the Centre for Computing in the Humanities at King's. Over a period of 40 years he led the transformation of the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) into a major scholarly publisher. He was recognised by both the German and Austrian governments for his contribution to German Studies.
Michael Stolz is a Swiss and German medievalist and professor at the University of Bern.
In the Middle High German (MHG) period (1050–1350) the courtly romance, written in rhyming couplets, was the dominant narrative genre in the literature of the noble courts, and the romances of Hartmann von Aue, Gottfried von Strassburg and Wolfram von Eschenbach, written c. 1185 – c. 1210, are recognized as classics.
Elsa von Brabant is a figure from the Middle High German Swan knight legend from the late 13th century. She is a marginal figure in Wolfram von Eschenbach's epic Parzival. She gained new fame as the main female protagonist in Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin.
