Studia Waweliana (9/10.2000-2001)

The first elements enabling preliminary identification of the
figural representations on the crown with the literary subject
conceming Erec, are as follows: the key figurę of the dwarf, holding
an oblong object (riding-whip) and twice making a motion as if to
strike (once against the non-extant figurine of a lady-in-waiting, and
for the second time against an unarmed knight - Erec; see figs 8 and
10), a stag hunt with the participation of the king (see fig. 12), and,
finally, the bird (sparrow-hawk) between two female figures,
distinctly tumed towards only one of them (see fig. 8). Enid, the
legitimate owner of the sparrow-hawk (which in the course of
narration assumes the function of her attribute; see figs 10-11),
reaches out for it with both hands, while the defeated rival tums
away in a gesture of resignation. The dwarf armed with a riding-
whip. the stag hunt, and the presence of a sparrow-hawk are
undoubtedly identification signs of the story cited here, though
pointing to it in a generał sense alone. Only close analysis of the
cycle reveals in the characteristics of the figures and in the content
expressed by them a considerable concordance with the German
adaptation of the story of Erec, created about 1180 by Hartmann
von Aue. Some details appear to be simply “citations” from this
writing. The most important arguments for the use - in any form -
of Hartmann’s work and not its French prototype by Chretien de
Troyes, are: the significant scene of Erec ‘s meeting with Prince
Imain (see fig. 7), which precedes the single combat with Iders, the
punishment meted out by Erec to the despicable Maliclisier (see
figs 8-9), and the characteristic appearance of Enid’s father, leaning
on a stick and wearing a “fur” cap (chased similarly as the stag’s
coat; see figs 10-11). Nonę of the surviving French texts of Erec
contains these elements. It is in the German romance alone that we
find Erec’s long conversation with Imam, the situation being implied
by the figurines of the young knight and the organizer of the
entertainment at the Tulmein castle, facing each other (2.E-2.F). Erec
declares here his readmess for combat and presents his opinion on
Enid’s attire: he decidedly rejects the suggestion of changing her
modest and wom out clothes for elegant garments. Furthermore, only
in this text does the dwarf pay dearly for his offence: first, he is
threatened with the severe penalty of losing his hand, which, however,
is finally commuted to a solid whipping. Maliclisieris sorry plight is
rendered in the crown’s cycle with great expression: his predicament
is emphasized by a gesture of despair (4.H), contrasted with Erec’s
face and attitude, expressing self-confidence and satisfaction (4.G).
Finally, only here is Enid’s father strongly individualized - the figurę
of Coralus m the crown's cycle (6.F, 8.H) gives the impression of
being modelled precisely on Hartmann’s design.

Nevertheless, from the point of view of a literaturę specialist
this concordance, as demonstrated on the above-chosen exampłes,
can hardly be treated literally. The very condition of the German
manuscript of Erec makes it impossible. Hartmann’s version of the
romance, containing the cycle on the Cracow crown, exists virtually
only in the form of manuscript A, that is, in the Ambraser Heldenbuch
codex of 1504-1515/16; this is the single text of the tale to survive
almost complete. The few older fragments contain poems whose
content extends far beyond the first adventure, hence they are not
directly comparable here. And yet these very fragments - and
especially those at Wolfenbtittel (W) - have largely contributed to
the development of studies on the Middle High German Erec and
have changed the attitude to the Ambras manuscript (A), long
considered as the main and real document of the romance, in a way
the equivalent of the Hartmann original. The irritating deviations
from A noted in the so-called new fragments of W (first half of 13lh
century), though still variously interpreted, led to a revision of the
prevalent view of this romance as a closed and homogeneous work,
setting it in the context - characteristic of the manuscripts of the
Middle High German knightly epic - of writings with early

(freąuently reaching back to the period of the first dating) and at the
same time multiple variants in terms of form and content.

The scanty, and in the overwhelming majority of cases very late,
versions of the Middle High German romance of Erec, still arousing
much controversy owing to some discrepancy between A and W, is
but one of the factors circumscnbing the investigation of the sources
of the cycle on the Cracow crown. (This concems a literary aspect of
investigations.) The second is a total lack of comparative iconographic
materiał. Today we do not have a single surviving example of the
reception of the German Erec in medieval art. Summing up the situation
in a chronological comparison of image and text, it would be necessary
agam to point out the following problems connected with the issue:
Today the figural scenes on the Cracow crown, dating from the second
quarter of the 13Ul century, as an echo of a romance created about half
a century earłier. meet half-way only one of the few extant documents
-a 16th century text from the Ambras Book of Heroes. In these
circumstances the establishment of the direct prototypes of the cycle,
in other words, the answer to the question: Which of the Middle High
German variants of the Erec (written. orał. or especially iconographic
ones) contemporary with the crown, would have served the author of
the cycle as a narrative basis or provided impulses for artistic rendition?,
is impossible. The cautious statement that it derives from the
knowledge of the Hartmann literary tradition is all that for the time
being we can afford to offer.

The adventure of the knight Erec, represented on the crown
overlying the transverse beam of the cross of coronets is by no means
an isolated phenomenon but a natural result of the assimilation of
familiar epic materials in the sphere of iconography. Its essence,
analysed in the group of similar cases, that is, plastic representations
based on the motives of familiar, heard of or read stories, may be
defmed - on application of Franz Josef Worstbrock’s theory which
characterizes the medieval modę of creation as “telling anew” - as a
loose transłation into the pictorial idiom and reduced to a typical
mechanism of assimilation and active shaping of the contents drawn
from literaturę. This is a series of scenes detached from the text, not
illustrating it but referring to it in a receptive-reflective way -
individual, with an independent organization (structure of the plot,
semantic system, aesthetic expression) and practical purpose.

When discussing the programme and rangę of the cycle against
the whole avaiłable content of the romance, regarded here as a literary
basis, we should again stress the non-accidental choice of only one
part of it and its rendition in a closed set in terms of subject matter and
composition. The story (extracted from a literary context) of the test
of strength, bravery, and gallantry of a young Arthurian knight, who
meets an exceptionally modest maiden, a paragon of humility, and
outstandingly fair-faced at that, comes to an end here prior to a tuming-
point in the romance, that is, before the ideał pair of lovers begin to
err. The isolation of the heroes’ ascent from their subsequent fali is
deliberately aimed at avoiding the crisis of the promoted values. By
depriving Erec and Enid of their weaknesses (which would compel
them to work hard on fashioning their characters) the expression of
the Cracow cycle has been reduced to the affirmation of the courtly
ideals of chivalry and beauty. Thus the union of the best warrior with
the most noble lady, devoid of any problem, is immediately raised to
the status of an ideał pair. Freed from the classical model of Arthurian
romance, the First adventure here becomes finał.

The use of the story of Erec’s rapid success, extracted from the
cause-and-effect relationship between all the adventures that he
encounters in the romance (following one another in a two-stage
scheme), that is, the actual separation of only one segment of the
hero’s “way” from the entire process of development, is in keeping
with a tendency regarding subject matter and composition in the
overwhelming majority of the so-called iconographic objects of
literary origin. The latest researches carried out by Norbert H. Ott

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