Portrait of Wolfram from the Codex Manesse.

Wolfram von Eschenbach Monument.

Wolfram von Eschenbach (born c. 1170, died c. 1220) was a German knight and poet, regarded as one of the greatest epic poets of his time. As a Minnesinger, he also wrote lyric poetry. Download high resolution version (619x850, 79 KB)Image of portrait of Wolfram von Eschenbach from the Codex Manesse. ... Download high resolution version (619x850, 79 KB)Image of portrait of Wolfram von Eschenbach from the Codex Manesse. ... Folio 371r shows Johannes Hadlaub Folio 124r shows Walther von der Vogelweide The Manesse Codex or Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift (Heidelberg, University of Heidelberg Library, Cod. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1151x1536, 385 KB)Wolfram von Eschenbach in Wolframs-Eschenbach 2005 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1151x1536, 385 KB)Wolfram von Eschenbach in Wolframs-Eschenbach 2005 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... December 29: Assassination of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, in Canterbury cathedral City of Dublin captured by the Normans According to folklore, the Welsh prince Madoc sailed to North America and founded a colony. ... // The world in 1220 Middle Ages in Europe Fifth Crusade (1217-1221) Events Mongols first invade Abbasid caliphate - Bukhara and Samarkand taken End of the Kara-Khitan Khanate, destroyed by Genghis Khans Mongolian cavalry Dominican Order approved by Pope Honorius III Frederick II crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope... The silver Anglia knight, commissioned as a trophy in 1850, intended to represent the Black Prince. ... The poor poet A poet is a person who writes poetry. ... The epic is a broadly defined genre of narrative poetry, characterized by great length, multiple settings, large numbers of characters, or long span of time involved. ... Walther von der Vogelweide (Codex Manesse, ca. ... omg holy crap| cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0 style=width:270px; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; background:#FFFFFF; border: 0px #aaaaaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 85%; float:right; | // |- |} Lyric be excepted. ...

Life

Little is known of Wolfram's life: there are no historical documents which mention him, and his works are the sole source of evidence. In Parzival he talks of wir Beier ("we Bavarians") and the dialect of his works is East Franconian. This and a number of geographical references has resulted in the present-day Wolframs-Eschenbach, previously Obereschenbach, near Ansbach in Bavaria, being officially designated as his birthplace. However, the evidence is circumstantial and not without problems - there are at least four other Eschenbachs in present-day Bavaria, and Wolframs-Eschenbach was not part of Bavaria in Wolfram's time. For other uses, see Bavaria (disambiguation). ... East Franconian (Ostfränkisch) is a dialect which is spoken in Bavaria and other areas in Germany around Bamberg, Würzburg and Bayreuth. ... Wolframs-Eschenbach is a town in the district of Ansbach, in Bavaria, Germany. ... Ansbach, or Anspach, originally Onolzbach, is a town in Bavaria, Germany. ... For other uses, see Bavaria (disambiguation). ... Eschenbach may refer to: Eschenbach Optik - Manufacturers of High Quality Magnifiers and Low Vision Aids - [1] Eschenbach (Göppingen), Göppingen district, Baden-Württemberg Eschenbach in der Oberpfalz, Neustadt (Waldnaab) district, Bavaria Windischeschenbach, Neustadt (Waldnaab) district, Bavaria Wolframs-Eschenbach, Ansbach district, Bavaria Eschenbach, Netphen, Siegen-Wittgenstein district, North Rhine... For other uses, see Bavaria (disambiguation). ... Wolframs-Eschenbach is a town in the district of Ansbach, in Bavaria, Germany. ...

The arms shown in the Manesse manuscript come from the imagination of a 14th century artist, drawing on the figure of the Red Knight in Parzival, and have no heraldic connection with Wolfram. A modern coat of arms is derived from the medi val practice of painting designs onto the shield and outer clothing of knights to enable them to be identified in battle, and later in tournaments. ... Folio 371r shows Johannes Hadlaub Folio 124r shows Walther von der Vogelweide The Manesse Codex or Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift (Heidelberg, University of Heidelberg Library, Cod. ... Heraldry in its most general sense encompasses all matters relating to the duties and responsibilities of officers of arms. ...

Wolfram's work indicates a number of possible patrons (most reliably Hermann I of Thuringia), which suggests that he served at a number of courts during his life. In his Parzival he claims he is illiterate and recorded the work by dictation, though the claim is treated with scepticism by scholars. The Free State of Thuringia (German: Freistaat Thüringen) is located in central Germany and is considered one of the smaller of Germanys sixteen Bundesländer (federal states), with an area of 16,200 km² and 2. ... Parzival is one of the two great epic poems in Middle High German. ... World illiteracy rates by country Literacy is the ability to read and write. ... Speech recognition technologies allow computers equipped with a source of sound input, such as a microphone, to interpret human speech, e. ...

Works

Wolfram is best known today for his Parzival, sometimes regarded as the greatest of all German epics from that time. Based on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, le Conte du Graal, it is the first extant work in German to have as its subject the Holy Grail. In the poem, Wolfram expresses disdain for Chrétien's (unfinished) version of the tale, and states that his source was a poet from Provence called Kyot. Some scholars believe Wolfram might have meant Guiot de Provins (though none of the latter's surviving works relate to the themes of Parzival), however others believe Kyot was simply a literary device invented by Wolfram to explain his deviations from Chrétien's version. Parzival is one of the two great epic poems in Middle High German. ... Chrétien de Troyes was a French poet and trouvère who flourished in the late 12th century. ... Perceval, the Story of the Grail (French:Perceval, le Conte du Graal) is the unfinished fifth romance of Chrétien de Troyes. ... For other uses, see Holy Grail (disambiguation). ... An unfinished portrait miniature of Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper. ... Coat of arms of Provence Provence (Provençal Occitan: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) was a Roman province and now is a region of southeastern France on the Mediterranean Sea adjacent to Italy. ... KYOT is a commercial Smooth Jazz music radio station located in Phoenix, Arizona, broadcasting on 95. ... Guiot de Provins (d. ...

Wolfram is the author of two other narrative works: the unfinished Willehalm and the fragmentary Titurel. These were both composed after Parzival, and Titurel mentions the death of the Hermann I, which dates it firmly after 1217. Wolfram's nine surviving songs, five of which are dawn-songs, are regarded as masterpieces of Minnesang. The Tagelied (dawn song) is a particular form of mediaeval German language lyric, taken and adapted from the Provençal troubadour tradition (in which it was known as the alba) by the German Minnesinger. ... Walther von der Vogelweide (Codex Manesse, ca. ...

Reception

The 84 surviving manuscripts of Parzival, both complete and fragmentary, indicate the immense popularity of Wolfram's major work in the following two centuries. Willehalm, with 78 manuscripts, comes not far behind. Many of these include a continuation written in the 1240s by Ulrich von Türheim under the title Rennewart. The unfinished Titurel was taken up and expanded by a poet named Albrecht, who retitled the work Jüngere Titurel (Younger Titurel) and claimed Wolfram himself had authored it. Ulrich von Türheim A German writer from the Augsburg area writing during the first half of the thirteenth century. ...

The modern rediscovery of Wolfram begins with the publication of a translation of Parzival in 1753 by the Swiss scholar Johann Jakob Bodmer. Parzival was the main source Richard Wagner used when writing the libretto to his opera, Parsifal. Wolfram himself appears as a character in another Wagner opera, Tannhäuser. Johann Jakob Bodmer (July 19, 1698 - January 2, 1783) was a Swiss-German author and critic. ... Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner (22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or music dramas as they were later called). ... Antonio Ghislanzoni, nineteenth century Italian librettist. ... This article is about Opera, the art form. ... Parsifal is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner. ... Tannhäuser or Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf die Wartburg (Tannhäuser and the Singers Contest on the Wartburg) is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two Germanic legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg. ...

In Hugo Pratt's comic book The Secret Rose, Corto Maltese speaks to a mural painting of Wolfram. In this book Corto is searching for the Holy Grail. Hugo Pratt (June 15, 1927, Rimini, Italy – August 20, 1995, Grandvaux, near Lausanne, Switzerland,) was an Italian comic book creator who combined his strong storytelling talent with extensive historical research on Corto Maltese and his other series. ... The Secret Rose is a poem written by the W.B. Yeats. ... Corto Maltese (Corto Maltese Venetsiassa is the title of the Finnish translation of Fable of Venice. ... Salle des illustres, ceiling painting, by Jean André Rixens. ...

References

• James F. Poag, Wolfram Von Eschenbach (Twayne's World Authors Series) Twayne Publishers 1972. ISBN 0-8290-1750-X
• Otto Springer. "Wolfram's Parzival" in Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, Roger S. Loomis (ed.). Clarendon Press: Oxford University. 1959. ISBN 0-19-811588-1
• Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival with Titurel and The Love-lyrics, trans. Cyril Edwards. Boydell Press, 2004. ISBN 1-84384-005-7. The evidence for Wolfram's life is treated extensively in the Introduction.

External links

Wikisource has original works written by or about:

Wolfram von Eschenbach

• Wolfram von Eschenbach in the Literary Encyclopedia
• Works (Middle High German)
• List of Parzival manuscripts (Marburger Repertorium)
• List of Willhalm manuscripts (Marburger Repertorium)
• Two of Wolfram's songs(Middle High German)