Ulrich von Zatzikhoven was the author of the Middle High German

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...

 Arthurian

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...

 romance

Romance (genre)

As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...

 Lanzelet

Lanzelet

Lanzelet is a medieval romance written by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven after 1194. It is the first treatment of the Lancelot tradition in German, and contains the earliest known account of the hero's childhood with the Lady of the Lake in any language. The poem consists of about 9,400 lines arranged in...

.

Ulrich's name and his place of origin (Zezikon in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

) are only known definitively from the work itself. However, it is generally accepted that Ulrich is the same person as a lay priest ("Leutpriester") from Lommis

Lommis

Lommis is a municipality in the district of Münchwilen in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.-History:Lommis is first mentioned in 824 as Loubmeissa and Kalthäusern is first mentioned in 1296 as Kalthusiren....

 in the canton

Cantons of Switzerland

The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...

 of Thurgau

Thurgau

Thurgau is a northeast canton of Switzerland. The population, , is . In 2007, there were a total of 47,390 who were resident foreigners. The capital is Frauenfeld.-History:...

 by the name of Uolricus de Cecinchoven, who occurs as a witness to a deed of gift dated March 29, 1214, executed by the family of the Counts of Toggenburg

Counts of Toggenburg

The Counts of Toggenburg ruled the Toggenburg region of today's Canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland, as well as parts of the Canton of Glarus, Thurgau, Grisons, Vorarlberg, and Zurich when their influence was most extensive....

 in favor of the monastery of St. Peterzell

St. Peterzell

St. Peterzell is a municipality in the Wahlkreis of Toggenburg in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.It was an independent municipality until January 1, 2009, when it merged with Brunnadern and Mogelsberg to form the municipality of Neckertal.-External links:*...

.

The Middle High German verse romance Lanzelet is Ulrich's only known work, and is an imitation of an unknown 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...

 Arthurian romance. The hero of the work is Sir Lancelot

Lancelot

Sir Lancelot du Lac is one of the Knights of the Round Table in the Arthurian legend. He is the most trusted of King Arthur's knights and plays a part in many of Arthur's victories...

, whose story had also been told a little earlier by 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...

 in his Le Chevalier de la Charette (Knight of the Cart). However, the content of Ulrich's Lancelot romance differs considerably from that of Chrétien's. Ulrich himself calls his model daz welsche buoch von Lanzelete ("the French book of Lancelot"), and claims that it came to Germany in the luggage of the Anglo-Norman

Anglo-Norman

The Anglo-Normans were mainly the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the Norman conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066. A small number of Normans were already settled in England prior to the conquest...

 nobleman Hugh de Morville

Hugh de Morville, Lord of Westmorland

Sir Hugh de Morville was an Anglo-Norman knight who served King Henry II of England in the late 12th century. He is chiefly famous as one of the assassins of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1170...

, one of the hostages for King Richard the Lionheart

Richard I of England

Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...

. Richard was imprisoned by the Staufen

Hohenstaufen

The House of Hohenstaufen was a dynasty of German kings in the High Middle Ages, lasting from 1138 to 1254. Three of these kings were also crowned Holy Roman Emperor. In 1194 the Hohenstaufens also became Kings of Sicily...

 Emperor Henry VI

Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry VI was King of Germany from 1190 to 1197, Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 to 1197 and King of Sicily from 1194 to 1197.-Early years:Born in Nijmegen,...

 from December 21, 1192 to February 4, 1194, and Ulrich would have had to become acquainted with the book in this period. By extension, it is presumed that Lanzelet was produced not long after 1193 in an unknown place.

Ulrich was less well known to subsequent German writers than his contemporaries 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...

 and 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:...

. However, Heinrich von dem Türlin incorporated material from Lanzelet into his romance Diu Crône

Diu Crône

Diu Crône is a Middle High German Arthurian poem of about 30,000 lines, dating from around the 1220s and attributed to Heinrich von dem Türlin...

, and Rudolf von Ems

Rudolf von Ems

Rudolf von Ems was a mediaeval Austrian epic poet.-Life:Rudolf von Ems was born in the Vorarlberg in Austria. He took his name from the castle of Hohenems near Bregenz, and was a knight in the service of the Counts of Montfort. His works were written between 1220 and 1254...

 praised Ulrich in two of his works, Willehalm and the Alexanderroman

Alexander Romance

Alexander romance is any of several collections of legends concerning the mythical exploits of Alexander the Great. The earliest version is in Greek, dating to the 3rd century. Several late manuscripts attribute the work to Alexander's court historian Callisthenes, but the historical figure died...

.

External links

• E-Text in the Bibliotheca Augustana
• Cod. Pal. germ. 371: Ulrich von Zatzikhoven, Lanzelet (the late mediaeval illuminated Heidelberg Lanzelet MS)

This article draws heavily on that in the German Wikipedia.