Iwein
Encyclopedia
Iwein is a Middle High German
verse romance by the poet Hartmann von Aue
, written around 1203. An Arthurian tale freely adapted from Chrétien de Troyes
' Old French
Yvain, the Knight of the Lion
, it tells the story of Iwein
(Ywain), a knight of King Arthur
's Round Table
. It was written after Hartmann's Erec, and may have been his last work.
, written around 1180, is considered the founder of German Arthurian Legend.
Iwein is his second courtly novel; on the basis of stylistic evidence, it is considered to be the last of Hartmann's total of four works. Between Erec and Iwein he created his two legendary stories Gregorius
and Der arme Heinrich
.
Iwein must have been produced by 1205, as Wolfram von Eschenbach
makes mention of it in his "Parzival
". The earliest possible creation date is usually taken to be the year 1190. Linguistic investigations seem to suggest that Iwein was begun shortly after Erec, but that Hartmann's work on it was interrupted after approximately 1000 verses. It is possible this is the result of the death of the patron. According to this theory, Hartmann only finished the poem at a later date. It is not known who commissioned Iwein, but the Zähringer, the Staufer and the Welfen have all been considered as possible patrons.
As in other courtly epics, all of Hartmann's works are written in four-footed rhyming couplets.
Hartmann's immediate source was the Old French epic Yvain, le Chevalier au Lion by Chrétien de Troyes
, which was created either around 1177 or between 1185 and 1188.
In contrast to his rather free version of Erec
, Hartmann's translation of Iwein remains much closer to the French original. As the themes of the courtly epic had in the meantime become common knowledge for his German listeners, he was able to avoid lengthy explanatory digressions.
The subject matter of King Arthur belongs to the matière de bretagne, originally orally transmitted Celtic materials, which found entry to European literature through Chrétiens' reworkings.
:
The misbegotten adventure of the Arthurian knight Kalogrenant gives the court of Arthur a legitimate challenge - that of avenging the dishonour. Iwein, who as a relation of Kalogrenant's is doubly hit by the scandal, rides ahead of a procession of the entire court and heads secretly into the Fountain-Kingdom. The adventure repeats itself, but with deadly consequences for Askalon. Iwein chases the mortally wounded, fleeing Askalon into his castle. The falling portcullis cuts Iwein's horse in two; though he himself remains uninjured, he is sealed in the gatehouse.
Only with the help of Lunete
, the confidante of the mistress of the castle, Laudine, does Iwein succeed in escaping the castle guards. Out of thankfulness for earlier assistance at the court of Arthur he receives from Lunete a ring which makes him invisible. The dead Askalon is mourned by his beautiful wife Laudine. Iwein sees the castle-mistress through a window and becomes inflaimed with love (Minne) for her.
The wounds of the dead man begin to bleed again, due to the presence of the killer, and thus a burlesque search for the invisible man begins. Once again Lunete solves the paradoxical situation and convinces Laudine that the victor over Askalon would be a worthy successor as husband, Lord of the land and protector of the fountain. In a comedic enactment (as all the parties are already aware of the intentions of the other) Iwein and Laudine come together under the mediation of Lunete. Soon thereafter the wedding is celebrated.
Then the court of Arthur arrives at the source, and Iwein must try out his role as fountain-protector for the first time. This succeeds against Keie, the exemplarily resentful knight of the court of Arthur. The entire court now celebrate the marriage of Iwein and Laudine. Thereby the plot arrives at a temporary ending - as well as the êre of victory Iwein has, unlooked for, achieved a wife and Lordship.
, who uses the verligen (long-term idleness) of Erec
as an example, Iwein leaves Laudine shortly after the wedding, and goes in search of Tournaments and âventiure. Laudine extracts from Iwein a promise to return after a year and a day. This timeframe implies a legally effective deadline after which his claims against possible usurpers would have lapsed. (This knowledge is left to the reader, and is not made explicit in the text).
The painful parting of the lovers is characterised by 'Minneharmonie'. In a dialogue between the narrator and Lady Love
it is stated that Iwein and Laudine have swapped their hearts, which will lead to momentous consequences.
Iwein gives himself to the excitement of Tournaments and notices only too late that he had already missed the pre-appointed deadline by six weeks. Lunete sues him before the Table Round for betrayal and takes the ring from him. All his honour is lost in Arthur's court and Laudine breaks off all connections with him. Thus Iwein loses his identity. Gripped by madness
he rips the clothes from his body and becomes a wildman in the woods. His only social attachment is a silent exchange agreement with a hermit. Only through the help of the Lady of Narison and her companion, who treat his madness with a fairy-salve, can Iwein return to proper consciousness. His earlier identity as a knight seems to him as a dream. He must recognise that he no longer belongs to courtly society
Iwein rescues a lion from a dragon. This remains to be faithful to his side and gives Iwein a new identity as the knight with the lion.
The accident leads him back to the source where it can bring down the memory of his loss of fainting from his horse. Iwein is the verge of losing his mind again. Because he finds the source Lunete, because of their role in marriage and infidelity Iwein (untriuwe) is sentenced to death. Only a court battle may yet prove their innocence, the deadline for starting the following day. Iwein acknowledges his guilt and assures Lunete defense.
Immediately thereafter, he committed his host but also to help in the fight against the giant Harpin and thereby gets the next morning in a meeting conflict. Iwein there but in time with the lions fight with the giants, so that it can successfully defend Lunete. The fighters of the prosecution suffered the one punishment that would actually Lunete been intended: they are burned at the stake. Laudine, the knights will not recognize the lion in his new identity, learns it, that this Knight of the Lion, the grace of a lady had been withdrawn. It condemns it - unaware that she herself is this lady.
Because the relationship is not yet clear both leaves again Iwein Laudine. He now takes over the defense of the younger daughter of the Earl from the Black Thorn in a dispute over inheritance from her older sister. Together with the girl Iwein makes his way and arrives at the castle for the worse adventures, where he may have to fight two giants to three hundred prisoners and imprisoned in a workhouse liberate noble ladies.
Then Iwein rides with his companion to Arthur's court, where it arrives at the court martial. The defense of the nurse has calculated Iwein friend, the exemplary Arthurian knight Gawain accepted. Undetected Iwein Gawain and fight each other, that no one can defeat the other. When the darkness falls and the fight is postponed until the next day, Gawain Iwein and recognize each other in conversation again. King Arthur brings the older sister by a trick question to himself to betray and helps the younger sister to her right. Now there Iwein to identify themselves and will happily resumed in the Arthurian.
Although Iwein has gained great honor, he is sure that he will die of a broken heart. Again in camouflage as Knight of the Lion, he returns to the court Laudine wins this but not return for a comedic intrigue Lunete: Laudine committed under oath, which help to lion knight the stone watered at the well, to return the favor of his lady to obtain. So forgive must Laudine Iwein who protested his repentance and promises to never again lose their grace. Both renew their marriage and their love.
Middle High German
Middle High German , abbreviated MHG , is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German...
verse romance by the poet Hartmann von Aue
Hartmann von Aue
Hartmann von Aue was a Middle High German poet. He introduced the courtly romance into German literature and, with Wolfram von Eschenbach and Gottfried von Strassburg, was one of the three great epic poets of Middle High German literature...
, written around 1203. An Arthurian tale freely adapted from Chrétien de Troyes
Chrétien de Troyes
Chrétien de Troyes was a French poet and trouvère who flourished in the late 12th century. Perhaps he named himself Christian of Troyes in contrast to the illustrious Rashi, also of Troyes...
' Old French
Old French
Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...
Yvain, the Knight of the Lion
Yvain, the Knight of the Lion
Yvain, the Knight with the Lion is a romance by Chrétien de Troyes. It was probably written in the 1170s simultaneously with Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, and includes several references to the action in that poem...
, it tells the story of Iwein
Ywain
Sir Ywain is a Knight of the Round Table and the son of King Urien in Arthurian legend...
(Ywain), a knight of King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
's Round Table
Round Table
The Round Table is King Arthur's famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his Knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status. The table was first described in 1155 by Wace, who relied on previous depictions of...
. It was written after Hartmann's Erec, and may have been his last work.
Iwein's Position in Hartmann's Work
Hartmann von Aue, because of his novel ErecErec
Sir Erec, the son of King Lac, is a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend. He features in numerous Arthurian tales , but he is most famous as the protagonist in Chrétien de Troyes' first romance, Erec and Enide...
, written around 1180, is considered the founder of German Arthurian Legend.
Iwein is his second courtly novel; on the basis of stylistic evidence, it is considered to be the last of Hartmann's total of four works. Between Erec and Iwein he created his two legendary stories Gregorius
Gregorius
Gregorius or The Good Sinner is a Middle High German narrative poem by Hartmann von Aue. Written around 1190 in rhyming couplets, it tells the story of a child born of the incestuous union of a brother and sister, who is brought up in a monastery, ignorant of his origins, marries his mother,...
and Der arme Heinrich
Der arme Heinrich
Der Arme Heinrich is a Middle High German narrative poem by Hartmann von Aue. It was probably written in the 1190s and was the second to last of Hartmann's four epic works...
.
Iwein must have been produced by 1205, as Wolfram von Eschenbach
Wolfram von Eschenbach
Wolfram von Eschenbach 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.-Life:...
makes mention of it in his "Parzival
Parzival
Parzival is a major medieval German romance by the poet Wolfram von Eschenbach, in the Middle High German language. The poem, commonly dated to the first quarter of the 13th century, is itself largely based on Chrétien de Troyes’s Perceval, the Story of the Grail and mainly centers on the Arthurian...
". The earliest possible creation date is usually taken to be the year 1190. Linguistic investigations seem to suggest that Iwein was begun shortly after Erec, but that Hartmann's work on it was interrupted after approximately 1000 verses. It is possible this is the result of the death of the patron. According to this theory, Hartmann only finished the poem at a later date. It is not known who commissioned Iwein, but the Zähringer, the Staufer and the Welfen have all been considered as possible patrons.
As in other courtly epics, all of Hartmann's works are written in four-footed rhyming couplets.
Material and Sources
Chrétien de Troyes
Chrétien de Troyes was a French poet and trouvère who flourished in the late 12th century. Perhaps he named himself Christian of Troyes in contrast to the illustrious Rashi, also of Troyes...
, which was created either around 1177 or between 1185 and 1188.
In contrast to his rather free version of Erec
Erec
Sir Erec, the son of King Lac, is a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend. He features in numerous Arthurian tales , but he is most famous as the protagonist in Chrétien de Troyes' first romance, Erec and Enide...
, Hartmann's translation of Iwein remains much closer to the French original. As the themes of the courtly epic had in the meantime become common knowledge for his German listeners, he was able to avoid lengthy explanatory digressions.
The subject matter of King Arthur belongs to the matière de bretagne, originally orally transmitted Celtic materials, which found entry to European literature through Chrétiens' reworkings.
Prologue
As was normal for medieval epics, Hartmann begins the tale with a Prologue (V. 1-85)- A reference to the literary genre of Arthurian epics, and programmatic statements about the morality of the poetry .Arthur is praised as an example of chivalry whose name is eternal. Thereto Hartmann adds a self-proclamation, which is written in much the same way as in Der arme HeinrichDer arme Heinrich
Der Arme Heinrich is a Middle High German narrative poem by Hartmann von Aue. It was probably written in the 1190s and was the second to last of Hartmann's four epic works...
:
|
A knight, he was learned and read in books, so that if he with his time could begin nothing better, he also wrote poetry. That one could gladly hear, there he set his eagerness to. He was called Hartmann and he was from Aue. He wrote this story as poetry. |
- (Hartmann von Aue: Iwein, V. 21-30. G.F. Benecke, K. Lachmann, L. Wolf. Übersetzt von Thomas Cramer. Berlin, New York ³1981)
First Plot Cycle
The novel begins with a Whitsun celebration at the court of Arthur, the epitome of courtly festivities. While there, Iwein hears the story of the Knight Kalogrenant, which is structured by Hartmann as a sort of novel in the novel. Kalogrenant reports how he happened across a clearing full of wild beasts on his way from a hospitable castle. In the middle of these beasts had stood a giant,ugly and uncultivated Wildman, who nevertheless singled himself out not as a brute or fiend, but as a peaceful herdsman. Kalogrenant's attempt to figure out the secret of a magic well-idyll in the Woods, whereof he spoke to the wild man, failed utterly however. With the watering of a stone, he unleashed a powerful thunderstorm, which thereby aided the defence of the spring by Askalon, the territorial Lord, and protector of the magic fountain. He was defeated by him, and had to return home without horse and armour.The misbegotten adventure of the Arthurian knight Kalogrenant gives the court of Arthur a legitimate challenge - that of avenging the dishonour. Iwein, who as a relation of Kalogrenant's is doubly hit by the scandal, rides ahead of a procession of the entire court and heads secretly into the Fountain-Kingdom. The adventure repeats itself, but with deadly consequences for Askalon. Iwein chases the mortally wounded, fleeing Askalon into his castle. The falling portcullis cuts Iwein's horse in two; though he himself remains uninjured, he is sealed in the gatehouse.
Only with the help of Lunete
Lunete
Lunete, in Arthurian legend, was the handmaiden and advisor to the Lady of the Fountain . She is described in Chrétien de Troyes' Yvain, the Knight of the Lion as being "a charming brunette, prudent, clever and polite..."...
, the confidante of the mistress of the castle, Laudine, does Iwein succeed in escaping the castle guards. Out of thankfulness for earlier assistance at the court of Arthur he receives from Lunete a ring which makes him invisible. The dead Askalon is mourned by his beautiful wife Laudine. Iwein sees the castle-mistress through a window and becomes inflaimed with love (Minne) for her.
The wounds of the dead man begin to bleed again, due to the presence of the killer, and thus a burlesque search for the invisible man begins. Once again Lunete solves the paradoxical situation and convinces Laudine that the victor over Askalon would be a worthy successor as husband, Lord of the land and protector of the fountain. In a comedic enactment (as all the parties are already aware of the intentions of the other) Iwein and Laudine come together under the mediation of Lunete. Soon thereafter the wedding is celebrated.
Then the court of Arthur arrives at the source, and Iwein must try out his role as fountain-protector for the first time. This succeeds against Keie, the exemplarily resentful knight of the court of Arthur. The entire court now celebrate the marriage of Iwein and Laudine. Thereby the plot arrives at a temporary ending - as well as the êre of victory Iwein has, unlooked for, achieved a wife and Lordship.
The Breakdown and Madness of Iwein
On the urging of his friend GawainGawain
Gawain is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table who appears very early in the Arthurian legend's development. He is one of a select number of Round Table members to be referred to as the greatest knight, most notably in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight...
, who uses the verligen (long-term idleness) of Erec
Erec
Sir Erec, the son of King Lac, is a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend. He features in numerous Arthurian tales , but he is most famous as the protagonist in Chrétien de Troyes' first romance, Erec and Enide...
as an example, Iwein leaves Laudine shortly after the wedding, and goes in search of Tournaments and âventiure. Laudine extracts from Iwein a promise to return after a year and a day. This timeframe implies a legally effective deadline after which his claims against possible usurpers would have lapsed. (This knowledge is left to the reader, and is not made explicit in the text).
The painful parting of the lovers is characterised by 'Minneharmonie'. In a dialogue between the narrator and Lady Love
Lady Love
"Lady Love" was the highest-ranking single cut from Lou Rawls's 1977 album When You Hear Lou, You've Heard It All."Lady Love" was written by Von Gray and Marshall Sherman. It was released as a single in January 1978 and peaked at #24 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also rose to #21 on the R&B charts...
it is stated that Iwein and Laudine have swapped their hearts, which will lead to momentous consequences.
Iwein gives himself to the excitement of Tournaments and notices only too late that he had already missed the pre-appointed deadline by six weeks. Lunete sues him before the Table Round for betrayal and takes the ring from him. All his honour is lost in Arthur's court and Laudine breaks off all connections with him. Thus Iwein loses his identity. Gripped by madness
Insanity
Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity...
he rips the clothes from his body and becomes a wildman in the woods. His only social attachment is a silent exchange agreement with a hermit. Only through the help of the Lady of Narison and her companion, who treat his madness with a fairy-salve, can Iwein return to proper consciousness. His earlier identity as a knight seems to him as a dream. He must recognise that he no longer belongs to courtly society
Second Plot Cycle
Iwein freed the land of the lady of the Earl of Narison Aliers who asserts a claim to it. The lady of the land Narison and wish him the sovereign, but he does not want this and breaks up in a hurry. Two more times, he rejected in the course of history of loyalty to Laudine marriage.Iwein rescues a lion from a dragon. This remains to be faithful to his side and gives Iwein a new identity as the knight with the lion.
The accident leads him back to the source where it can bring down the memory of his loss of fainting from his horse. Iwein is the verge of losing his mind again. Because he finds the source Lunete, because of their role in marriage and infidelity Iwein (untriuwe) is sentenced to death. Only a court battle may yet prove their innocence, the deadline for starting the following day. Iwein acknowledges his guilt and assures Lunete defense.
Immediately thereafter, he committed his host but also to help in the fight against the giant Harpin and thereby gets the next morning in a meeting conflict. Iwein there but in time with the lions fight with the giants, so that it can successfully defend Lunete. The fighters of the prosecution suffered the one punishment that would actually Lunete been intended: they are burned at the stake. Laudine, the knights will not recognize the lion in his new identity, learns it, that this Knight of the Lion, the grace of a lady had been withdrawn. It condemns it - unaware that she herself is this lady.
Because the relationship is not yet clear both leaves again Iwein Laudine. He now takes over the defense of the younger daughter of the Earl from the Black Thorn in a dispute over inheritance from her older sister. Together with the girl Iwein makes his way and arrives at the castle for the worse adventures, where he may have to fight two giants to three hundred prisoners and imprisoned in a workhouse liberate noble ladies.
Then Iwein rides with his companion to Arthur's court, where it arrives at the court martial. The defense of the nurse has calculated Iwein friend, the exemplary Arthurian knight Gawain accepted. Undetected Iwein Gawain and fight each other, that no one can defeat the other. When the darkness falls and the fight is postponed until the next day, Gawain Iwein and recognize each other in conversation again. King Arthur brings the older sister by a trick question to himself to betray and helps the younger sister to her right. Now there Iwein to identify themselves and will happily resumed in the Arthurian.
Although Iwein has gained great honor, he is sure that he will die of a broken heart. Again in camouflage as Knight of the Lion, he returns to the court Laudine wins this but not return for a comedic intrigue Lunete: Laudine committed under oath, which help to lion knight the stone watered at the well, to return the favor of his lady to obtain. So forgive must Laudine Iwein who protested his repentance and promises to never again lose their grace. Both renew their marriage and their love.
External links
- Iwein at the Hartmann von Aue Knowledgebase