German Romance III: Iwein, or The Knight with the Lion (Arthurian Archives)

451 Pages·2007·2.2 MB·English

by  Hartmann von Aue

ArthuriAn Archives
Xvi
German romance
volume iii
Iwein or The Knight with the Lion
Iwein, or The Knight with the Lion, is a free Middle high German adaptation of
chrétien de troyes’ Old French Arthurian romance Yvain. Written c. 1200 by a
swabian knight, hartmann von Aue, Iwein charts the development towards maturity
of a young knight who falls into error, neglecting his hard-won wife by devoting
himself excessively to chivalric pursuits.
this parallel-text edition is based on one of the two earliest complete
manuscripts, Gießen, university Library, no. 97 (iwein B), dating from the second
quarter of the thirteenth century. This is the first translation of Iwein B into English.
the Gießen text contains a large number of lines, particularly in the later stages of
the poem, which are not present in the other early manuscript, A (heidelberg, cpg
397). these show a special interest in the woman’s side of the story, expanding a
passage concerned with embroidery and weaving, and adding a marriage for the
maidservant Lunet, whose cunning brings about the reconciliation between iwein
and her mistress, Laudine. the authorship of these passages is uncertain, but they
may be hartmann’s own revision of his text.
Cyril Edwards is a Lecturer in German at st Peter’s college, Oxford and a
senior research Fellow of the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages,
university of Oxford.
ArthuriAn Archives
issn 1463-6670
General editor: norris J Lacy
Already published
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i,ii. eArL y French trist An POeMs
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iii. nOrse rOMAnce i: the trist An LeGend
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iX GerMAn rOMAnce i: dAnieL vOn deM BLuhendent AL
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Xiii French Arthuri An r OMAnce iii Le chev ALier As deus es Pees
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nArr Ative LAys
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Xv GerMAn rOMAnce ii: GAuriAeL vOn Munt ABeL
edited by siegfried christoph
German romance
volume iii
hartmann von Aue
iwein or the Knight with the Lion
edited from Manuscript B,
Gießen, universitätsbibliothek codex nr. 97,
and translated by
cyril edwards
d. s. BreWer
© cyril edwards 2007
All Rights Reserved. except as permitted under current legislation no part of this
work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in
public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by
any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner
First published 2007
d. s. Brewer, cambridge
isBn 978–1–84384–084–8
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PO Box 9, Woodbridge, suffolk iP12 3dF, uK
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this publication is printed on acid-free paper
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
introduction ix
Iwein or The Knight with the Lion 1
i Kalogreant’s Adventure in the Forest of Broceliande 3
ii iwein’s Battle with Ascalon. his captivity 41
iii Lunet’s Advice and Laudine’s change of Mind 83
iv Kay’s Mockery and Gawein’s Advice 119
v iwein’s Madness and his recovery 143
vi the Battle Against count Aliers and the rescuing of the Lion 177
vii Lunet’s captivity 189
viii the Giant harpin and Guinever’s Abduction 209
iX the Freeing of Lunet 245
X the daughters of the count of the Black thorn 267
Xi iwein Fights Against two Giants 289
Xii the combat Between iwein and Gawein 327
Xiii the reconciliation 371
Appendix: the endings of Iwein 391
notes 403
select Bibliography 417
index of names 423

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
i am indebted most of all to harry Jackson, who suggested i take on this task, and
whose guidance has proved invaluable.
Most of the work on the edition was done in the taylorian Library in Oxford,
which possesses excellent black-and-white photographs of the Gießen manuscript. i
also used the facsimile edition, Hartmann von Aue. Iwein. Handschrift B, deutsche
texte in handschriften, 2, ed. h. M. heinrichs (cologne: Böhlau verlag, 1964).
there is no substitute for consulting the original, and i am grateful to the staff
of the university Library of Gießen for allowing me to work on the manuscript,
which proved to be much clearer and easier to read than either the facsimile or the
photographs. the manuscript has suffered from water damage, but black-and-white
photography tends to exaggerate its effects. i am indebted to Anette syndikus and
Friederike viktor for facilitating access to the Gießen university Library. ulrich
seelbach’s unpublished, provisional description of the manuscript, kindly shown to
me in Gießen, was most helpful.
Jim Bradbury and richard Boys proved helpful with regard to warfare realia,
whilst heidi Kurtz, medievalist and knitter, helped solve the problems relating
to weaving and embroidery. My colleague at st Peter’s college, tony hunt, has
proved an invaluable source of advice.
Finally, i must thank my readers, Kate douglas and Katy hodgins.

cyril edwards
Abingdon 2006
this volume was published with the assistance of a generous subvention from the
vinaver trust.

INTRODUCTION
THE POET
in the absence of any mention of hartmann von Aue in historical records, we are
dependent upon what he himself tells us in his works, and what other poets tell us
about him. Both confirm his name and provenance. Like the hero of his courtly
legend, Der arme Heinrich, who is von Ouwe geborn (‘born of Aue’),1 hartmann’s
home was in the duchy of swabia, which corresponds today to the southern part
of Baden-Württemberg, vorarlberg, eastern switzerland and areas of the Alsace.
this is attested by his occasional use of Alemannic dialect rhymes, and by a later
author, heinrich von dem türlin, who in Diu Crône refers to hartmann as a poet
from ‘the swabians’ land’.2 Middle high German (MhG) Ouwe means ‘meadow’,
and place names ending in –au are common in south Germany and switzerland,
which renders greater precision difficult. There have, nevertheless, been attempts
to identify hartmann’s birthplace. Manfred scholz pleads for an Au near Freiburg
im Breisgau, not least on the basis of the coats of arms assigned to hartmann by
the illustrators of the Große heidelberger Liederhandschrift (the Manesse codex)
and the Weingartner Liederhandschrift.3 these manuscripts date from the early
fourteenth century, however, perhaps a hundred years after hartmann’s death, and
many of the arms in the miniatures are purely fanciful. the arms in the hartmann
miniatures have also been linked with the family of the dukes of Zähringen, and it
has been suggested that one of them may have been hartmann’s patron, but again
there is no concrete evidence.4 We do not know how high in rank hartmann’s patron
was; if he were a duke it might have been expected that hartmann would mention
him by name. Poets of this time are, however, often reticent about patronage.
We glean most about his life from the prologues to his works. Here he specifically
identifies himself as a ritter (‘knight’) and a dienstman, a servitor or ministerialis,
serving the house of Aue. Hartmann is the first German narrative author to identify
himself as a knight,5 and the only author of the ‘classical’ period of Middle high
German literature, which lasted from c. 1150 to 1230, to allot himself to the rank of
dienstman, but he does so seemingly with pride:
1 hartmann von Aue, Der arme Heinrich, ed. by hermann Paul, 16th revised edn by Kurt Gärtner,
Altdeutsche textbibliothek, 3 (tübingen: niemeyer, 1996), 49.
2 heinrich von dem türlin, Die Krone (Verse 1–12281), ed. by Fritz Peter Knapp and Manuela
niesner, Altdeutsche textbibliothek, 112 (tübingen: niemeyer, 2000), 2348–60.
3 hartmann von Aue, Erec, ed. by Manfred Günter scholz; trans. by susanne held, Bibliothek des
Mittelalters, 5 (Frankfurt am Main: deutscher Klassiker verlag, 2004), p. 569.
4 see Erec, ed. scholz, pp. 569–70.
5 see W. h. Jackson, Chivalry in Twelfth-Century Germany. The Works of Hartmann von Aue,
Arthurian studies, XXXiv (cambridge: d. s. Brewer, 1994), p. 194.