Goldemar

Last updated
First page of the fragment of Albrecht von Kemenaten's Goldemar. Deutsches Nationalmuseum Ms. 80 fol. 6v. Goldemar Handschrift.jpg
First page of the fragment of Albrecht von Kemenaten's Goldemar. Deutsches Nationalmuseum Ms. 80 fol. 6v.

Goldemar is a fragmentary thirteenth-century Middle High German poem by Albrecht von Kemenaten about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is one of the so-called fantastical (aventiurehaft) Dietrich poems, so called because it more closely resembles a courtly romance than a heroic epic.

Contents

The poem concerns Dietrich's fight with the dwarf king Goldemar after he sees the dwarf absconding with a princess. It is the only poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic poetry with a named author that is accepted as genuine. [1]

Summary

Only the first nine stanzas of the Goldemar have survived. They tell that Dietrich once set off into the forest to defeat the giants who live in Trutmunt forest. While on this quest, he comes across a mountain where dwarfs make their home. He notices that the dwarfs have a girl with them, and immediately falls in love. The dwarfs attempt to hide the girl, and their king, Goldemar, responds when Dietrich asks them about her. The text breaks off in the middle of his speech. [2]

From the Heldenbuch-Prosa we know that the girl's name is Herlin, a princess from Portugal. King Goldemar had abducted her after her father was slain by heathens, but the girl had resisted Goldemar's attempts to sleep with her. Dietrich then rescued and married her. [3] From the late medieval romance Reinfrid von Braunschweig we also know that Dietrich had to defeat various giants who were at Goldemar's command. In the process, Dietrich and his companions destroyed the Trutmunt forest and the dwarfs' mountain. [4]

Manuscript transmission and dating

The Goldemar is transmitted in a single paper manuscript dating from the middle of the fourteenth-century (c. 1355-1357). Only eight leaves survive, on which, besides the Goldemar, medical recipes, a Latin-German glossary of the names of herbs, and a second Dietrich poem, the Virginal are found. The manuscript is found today in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg (Hs. 80). [5]

The poem itself probably dates to sometime around 1230, as this the time when its author is attested. [6] [7]

Authorship and metrical form

Goldemar is the only German heroic poem with a named author, Albrecht von Kemenaten. Though it is possible that this is an authorial fiction, Albrecht is generally accepted as the genuine author of the poem. [8] His being named, as opposed to the usual practice of anonymous heroic poems, likely marks Albrecht's ambition to write a poem more similar to a courtly romance. [9] [1] He is praised and mentioned as alive in Rudolf von Ems's Alexander (c. 1230), but dead in Rudolf's Willehalm von Orlens (c. 1235/40). [10] [7] The family name "von Kemenaten" is attested both in Tyrol and in Thurgau, meaning the poet may come from either area. [11] [12]

19th century scholars attempted to ascribe the authorship of the Eckenlied , the Virginal, and the Sigenot to Albrecht due to the use of the same stanzaic form (the "Berner Ton") in all, as well as various supposed stylistic similarities, [13] but this theory has been given up. [14] The "Berner Ton" consists of thirteen lines rhyming in the following scheme: aabccbdedefxf. [15] The following stanza from Lienert's edition of Goldemar can serve as a typical example:

Nu merkent, ir herren, daz ist reht:a (four feet)
Von Kemmenaten Albreht,a (four feet)
der tihtet dúse maere,b (three feet)
wie das der Bernaer vil gůtc (four feet)
nie gewan gen frovwen hohen můt.c (four feet)
Wan seitt uns, das er waereb (three feet)
gen frowen niht ein hofelicher mand (four feet)
(sin můt stůnt im ze strite)e (three feet)
unz er ein frowen wolgetand (four feet)
gesach bi einen ziten:e (three feet)
Die was ein hov gelopte mait,f (four feet)
die den Berner da betwang,x (three feet)
als úns die aufetúre sait.f (three feet)

Helmut de Boor argues that, even if Albrecht was not the author of all four poems in the "Berner Ton", he was clearly the inventor of such a complicated metrical form, [16] an opinion shared by Werner Hoffmann. [17] This would make Albrecht the "inventor" of the fantastical poems about Dietrich. [17] Joachim Heinzle, however, has argued that Albrecht's metrical form actually shows him to be using the form of the "Berner Ton" given above, rather than that found in the earliest attested example, the single Eckenlied stanza transmitted in the Codex Buranus. Heinzle concludes from this fact that Albrecht adapted an already existing form. [14]

Genre

The poem begins with a sharp critique of existing heroic poetry as a glorification of brutality. Albrecht will instead tell a tale of how Dietrich came to fall in love and behave in a courtly manner toward women, something which, the poem notes, he is never said to have done. [18] The poem thus appears to be turning away from the topic of heroic poetry to the subject matter of courtly romance. [19] Joachim Heinzle suggests that Albrecht may have had the Dietrich poem Laurin in mind specifically, as it also concerns Dietrich's battle against a dwarf king and is characterized by extreme violence. [18] Victor Millet argues that Albrecht, in deliberately turning away from traditional tales about Dietrich, shows that the heroic material could now be invented freely rather than told and retold. [20]

Relation to the oral tradition

Notwithstanding Millet's opinion, some aspects of the Goldemar may still be connected to an oral tradition. Goldemar, for instance, shares his name with a spirit said to haunt houses. [21] He is attested in the work of fifteenth-century historian Person Gobelinus as Rex Goldemer. Heinzle sees this a connection between this spirit and the figure in the poem as questionable. [22]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Hoffmann 1974, pp. 11–12.
  2. ↑ Heinzle 1999, pp. 105–106.
  3. ↑ Heinzle 1999, pp. 106.
  4. ↑ Heinzle 1999, pp. 106–107.
  5. ↑ Heinzle 1999, p. 104.
  6. ↑ Heinzle 1999, p. 105.
  7. 1 2 Millet 2008, p. 335.
  8. ↑ Hoffmann 1974, p. 12.
  9. ↑ Heinzle 1999, pp. 108–109.
  10. ↑ Heinzle 1999, pp. 104–105.
  11. ↑ Stammler 1953, p. 178.
  12. ↑ Heinzle 1978, pp. 195–196.
  13. ↑ Zupitza 1870, pp. xlvii–xlix.
  14. 1 2 Heinzle 1999, p. 103.
  15. ↑ Heinzle 1999, p. 100.
  16. ↑ de Boor 1964, pp. 198–208.
  17. 1 2 Hoffmann 1974, p. 196.
  18. 1 2 Heinzle 1999, p. 108.
  19. ↑ Millet 2008, p. 336.
  20. ↑ Millet 2008, p. 337.
  21. ↑ Gillespie 1973, p. 52.
  22. ↑ Heinzle 1978, p. 197.

Editions

Related Research Articles

<span title="German-language text"><i lang="de">Nibelungenlied</i></span> Middle High German epic poem from around 1200

The Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem written around 1200 in Middle High German. Its anonymous poet was likely from the region of Passau. The Nibelungenlied is based on an oral tradition of Germanic heroic legend that has some of its origin in historic events and individuals of the 5th and 6th centuries and that spread throughout almost all of Germanic-speaking Europe. Scandinavian parallels to the German poem are found especially in the heroic lays of the Poetic Edda and in the Völsunga saga.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heldenbuch</span>

Heldenbücher is the conventional title under which a group of German manuscripts and prints of the 15th and 16th centuries has come down to us. Each Heldenbuch contains a collection of primarily epic poetry, typically including material from the Theodoric cycle, and the cycle of Hugdietrich, Wolfdietrich and Ortnit. The Heldenbuch texts are thus based on medieval German literature, but adapted to the tastes of the Renaissance.

<i>Rosengarten zu Worms</i>

Der Rosengarten zu Worms, sometimes called Der große Rosengarten to differentiate it from Der kleine Rosengarten (Laurin), and often simply called the Rosengarten, is an anonymous thirteenth-century Middle High German heroic poem in the cycle of Dietrich von Bern. The Rosengarten may have been written as early as before 1250, but is securely attested by around 1300. It is unclear where it was written.

<i>Alpharts Tod</i> Anonymous medieval German poem

Alpharts Tod is an anonymous late medieval Middle High German poem in the poetic cycle of the hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is part of the so-called "historical" Dietrich material. It may have written as early as between 1245 and 1300, but it is only transmitted in a single manuscript from around 1470 or 1480. The place of composition is unknown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dietrich von Bern</span> Legendary character based on Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great

Dietrich von Bern is the name of a character in Germanic heroic legend who originated as a legendary version of the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great. The name "Dietrich", meaning "Ruler of the People", is a form of the Germanic name "Theodoric". In the legends, Dietrich is a king ruling from Verona (Bern) who was forced into exile with the Huns under Etzel by his evil uncle Ermenrich. The differences between the known life of Theodoric and the picture of Dietrich in the surviving legends are usually attributed to a long-standing oral tradition that continued into the sixteenth century. Most notably, Theodoric was an invader rather than the rightful king of Italy and was born shortly after the death of Attila and a hundred years after the death of the historical Gothic king Ermanaric. Differences between Dietrich and Theodoric were already noted in the Early Middle Ages and led to a long-standing criticism of the oral tradition as false.

<i>Sigenot</i>

Sigenot is an anonymous Middle High German poem about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is one of the so-called fantastical (aventiurehaft) Dietrich poems, so called because it more closely resembles a courtly romance than a heroic epic. It was likely written in the Alemannic dialect area, no later than 1300.

<i>Wunderer</i>

Der Wunderer, or Etzels Hofhaltung is an anonymous Early New High German poem about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is one of the so-called fantastical (aventiurehaft) Dietrich poems, so called because it more closely resembles a courtly romance than a heroic epic. The poem may have been written before 1300, but is not attested until the turn of the sixteenth century.

<i>Laurin</i> (poem)

Laurin or Der kleine Rosengarten is an anonymous Middle High German poem about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is one of the so-called fantastical (aventiurehaft) Dietrich poems, so called because it more closely resembles a courtly romance than a heroic epic. It likely originates from the region of South Tyrol, possibly as early as 1230, though all manuscripts are later.

<i>Virginal</i> (poem)

Virginal, also known as Dietrichs erste Ausfahrt, or Dietrich und seine Gesellen is an anonymous Middle High German poem about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is one of the so-called fantastical (aventiurehaft) Dietrich poems, so called because it more closely resembles a courtly romance than a heroic epic. The poem was composed by 1300 at the latest, and may have been composed as early as the second quarter of the thirteenth century.

Middle High German literature refers to literature written in German between the middle of the 11th century and the middle of the 14th. In the second half of the 12th century, there was a sudden intensification of activity, leading to a 60-year "golden age" of medieval German literature referred to as the mittelhochdeutsche Blütezeit. This was the period of the blossoming of Minnesang, MHG lyric poetry, initially influenced by the French and Provençal tradition of courtly love song. The same sixty years saw the composition of the most important courtly romances. again drawing on French models such as Chrétien de Troyes, many of them relating Arthurian material. The third literary movement of these years was a new revamping of the heroic tradition, in which the ancient Germanic oral tradition can still be discerned, but tamed and Christianized and adapted for the court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Germanic heroic legend</span> Heroic literary traditions of the Germanic-speaking peoples

Germanic heroic legend is the heroic literary tradition of the Germanic-speaking peoples, most of which originates or is set in the Migration Period. Stories from this time period, to which others were added later, were transmitted orally, traveled widely among the Germanic speaking peoples, and were known in many variants. These legends typically reworked historical events or personages in the manner of oral poetry, forming a heroic age. Heroes in these legends often display a heroic ethos emphasizing honor, glory, and loyalty above other concerns. Like Germanic mythology, heroic legend is a genre of Germanic folklore.

<i>Jüngeres Hildebrandslied</i>

The Jüngeres Hildebrandslied or Das Lied von dem alten Hildebrand is an anonymous Early New High German heroic ballad, first attested in the fifteenth century. A late attestation of Germanic heroic legend, the ballad features the same basic story as the much older Hildebrandslied, but was composed without knowledge of that text. Rather, it reworks the oral legend of the warrior Hildebrand and his fight against his son in accordance with late medieval and early modern taste. It is highly sentimentalized and focuses on Hildebrand's return home rather than the tragic conflict of the older tradition.

<i>Dietrichs Flucht</i>

Dietrichs Flucht or Das Buch von Bern is an anonymous 13th-century Middle High German poem about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the legendary counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is part of the so-called "historical" Dietrich material and is closely related to, and always transmitted together with, a second Dietrich poem, the Rabenschlacht. A Heinrich der Vogler is named as author in an excursus of the poem. Earlier scholarship considered him to be the author of Dietrichs Flucht and possibly also of the Rabenschlacht, however more recent scholarship believes he is only author of this excursus.

<i>Rabenschlacht</i>

Die Rabenschlacht is an anonymous 13th-century Middle High German poem about the hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is part of the so-called "historical" Dietrich material and is closely related to, and always transmitted together with, a second Dietrich poem, Dietrichs Flucht. At one time, both poems were thought to have the same author, possibly a certain Heinrich der Vogler, but stylistic differences have led more recent scholarship to abandon this idea.

<i>Eckenlied</i>

Das Eckenlied or Ecken Ausfahrt is an anonymous 13th-century Middle High German poem about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is one of the so-called fantastical (aventiurehaft) Dietrich poems, so called because it more closely resembles a courtly romance than a heroic epic.

Dietrich und Wenezlan is a fragmentary Middle High German poem about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It usually considered part of the so-called "historical" Dietrich material, as it appears to cite Dietrich's exile at the court of Etzel described in the "historical poems" Dietrichs Flucht and the Rabenschlacht. The fragment of about 500 lines tells of Dietrich's challenge by Wenezlan of Poland, who has captured one of Dietrich's warriors. It is unclear whether the fragment was the main focus of a poem or a single episode from a longer poem.

<i>Ermenrichs Tod</i> 16th century Continental Germanic ballad

Ermenrichs Tod or Koninc Ermenrîkes Dôt is an anonymous Middle Low German heroic ballad from the middle of the sixteenth century. It is a late attestation of Germanic heroic legend.

<i>Biterolf und Dietleib</i>

Biterolf und Dietleib is an anonymous Middle High German heroic poem concerning the heroes Biterolf of Toledo and his son Dietleib of Styria. It tells the tale of Biterolf and Dietleib's service at the court of Etzel, king of the Huns, in the course of which the heroes defeat Etzel's enemies, including an extended war/tournament against the Burgundian heroes of the Nibelungenlied. As a reward for their services, Dietleib and Biterolf receive the March of Styria as a fief. The text is characterized by its comedic parody of the traditions of heroic epic.

<i>Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid</i>

Das Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid, or Hürnen Seyfrid for short, is an anonymous Early New High German heroic ballad. The poem concerns the adventures of young Siegfried, hero of the Nibelungenlied and an important figure in Germanic heroic legend. It preserves traditions about Siegfried that are otherwise only known from Old Norse sources and thus attest their existence in oral traditions about Siegfried that circulated outside of the Nibelungenlied in Germany.

Die Nibelungenklage or Die Klage is an anonymous Middle High German heroic poem. The poem describes the laments for and burial of the dead from the Nibelungenlied, as well as the spread of the news of the catastrophe that ended the other poem, and the fates of the various characters who survived. It was likely written at around the same time as the Nibelungenlied, and is appended to it as though it were another episode (âventiure).

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.