Hartmann von Aue

Hartmann von Aue ranks next after Wolfram von Eschenbach and Gottfried von Strasburg as a poet of the Middle High German period. He was born about 1170, of a noble Swabian family, took part in the Crusade of 1187, and died between 1210 and 1220. His writings consist of narrative poems and songs. The most popular of the former is Der arme Heinrich, based upon a Swabian traditional story. Erec, which relates the legend reproduced in Tennyson's 'Enid' in Idylls of the King, and Iwein, are both drawn from the Arthurian cycle, and closely follow French poems by Chretien de Troyes. In Gregor vom Steine, the plot of which is of a repulsive nature, Hartmann depicts worldly passion subdued and purified by the power of religious faith, the faith of the ascetic of the church at that date. The songs belong to the erotic class and are marked by freshness and naïveté. His longer works have each been edited several times separately. F. Bech published a critical edition of Hartmann's collected writings in 1866-69 (2d ed. 1870-73).