Tannhäuser, the hero of one of the most beautiful of mediæval German legends, is a knight who, in the course of his travels, comes to the Venusberg, and enters the cave-palace to behold the wonders of the Lady Venus and her court. After having lived there some time in every kind of sensual delight, his conscience smites him, he invokes the Virgin Mary, and makes a pilgrimage to Rome, to Pope Urban, to seek, through confession and penance, remission of his sins, and escape from damnation. But the pope, when he hears his story, tells him that he can as little obtain God's mercy as the rod in his hand can become green again. Thereupon Tannhäuser departs in despair, and returns to the Lady Venus in the mountain. Three days after he had gone the dry rod begins to sprout and bear green leaves; and the pope immediately sends out messengers to every country, but in vain, for the knight can nowhere be found. Such is the story as told in the popular ballad once common all over Germany, and even beyond it. Elsewhere it is added that 'the faithful Eckhart,' of many German heroic legends, sits before the mountain, and warns the people of its dangers. In this shape the story may be traced as far back as the 14th century, but the substance of the legend is much older, and goes back to the days of German paganism. Some traditions connect it with the Heselberg or Hörselberg, near Eisenach, in which the Lady Hilda (see BERCHTA) held her court, who again suggests
Freyja the Scandinavian Venus. Grimm sees in the legend a touching portrayal of the regret that lingered in the popular heart for the dying paganism, and of the sternness of the Christian priesthood in regard to it. This idea of subterranean palaces in which the king or queen of dwarfs, pignies, and fairies held their court seems to be universal. Everywhere stories are told of men, like Thomas of Ercildoun, being enticed to enter, and finding it difficult or altogether impossible ever again to obtain their liberty. The visit of Ulysses to the isle of Calypso, and that of Circe are amplifications of the same idea. In later times the story has been treated by Tieck, and gave the subject for an opera to Wagner.
About the middle of the 13th century, and contemporary with Pope Urban IV. (1261-65), there lived in reality in Germany a Bavarian knight named Tannhäuser, who, as Neidhart relates, after returning from the wars, lived as a minnesinger at the court of the Austrian Duke Frederick II. the Quarrelsome, and after his death either with Duke Otto II. of Bavaria, or wandering from place to place. Tannhäuser composed fine spirited ballads.
For the legend, see Zander, Die Tannhäusersage und der Minnesänger Tannhäuser (1858); Grässe, Der Tannhäuser und ewige Jude (2d ed. 1861); also a slight paper in Baring-Gould's Popular Myths of the Middle Ages.