DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3825#0214
WALTER VOGELWEIDE. 199
free communication.—" From the Elbe to the Rhine,
and thence to Hungary, had he," as he says, " sur-
veyed. From the Seine to the Mur, from the Po to
the Drave, had he learned the customs of mankind:"
yet he ends with a patriotic eulogium on the excel-
lence of his native land, on the good-breeding of the
men, and the angel-forms of the women :—
Tiutsche man sint wol gezogen,
Als engel sint diu wib getan, &c.
The court of Herman Landgrave of Thuringia is
his next resting-place ; and we are not surprised to
see our poet at a spot which has been already noticed
as the great fostering-place of the Minnesinging art.
Here, in 1207, was the famous battle or poetic con-
tention of Wartburg, at which Walter is placed as a
principal character ; and we find him rejoicing in one
of his songs at his good fortune in having entered the
service of the Landgrave, " the flower that shines
through the snow." There are several of our author's
pieces which belong to this period of his life, and are
more or less interesting, as referring to his com-
panions at the court, to its customs, and even jokes.
Many of them are devoted to the inculcation of moral
and knightly virtue, often of a highly liberal and phi-
losophic, and not unfrequently of a religious and de-
votional, turn.
We next find him engaging in the controversy be-
tween Otho and Frederic, the rivals for the Imperial
free communication.—" From the Elbe to the Rhine,
and thence to Hungary, had he," as he says, " sur-
veyed. From the Seine to the Mur, from the Po to
the Drave, had he learned the customs of mankind:"
yet he ends with a patriotic eulogium on the excel-
lence of his native land, on the good-breeding of the
men, and the angel-forms of the women :—
Tiutsche man sint wol gezogen,
Als engel sint diu wib getan, &c.
The court of Herman Landgrave of Thuringia is
his next resting-place ; and we are not surprised to
see our poet at a spot which has been already noticed
as the great fostering-place of the Minnesinging art.
Here, in 1207, was the famous battle or poetic con-
tention of Wartburg, at which Walter is placed as a
principal character ; and we find him rejoicing in one
of his songs at his good fortune in having entered the
service of the Landgrave, " the flower that shines
through the snow." There are several of our author's
pieces which belong to this period of his life, and are
more or less interesting, as referring to his com-
panions at the court, to its customs, and even jokes.
Many of them are devoted to the inculcation of moral
and knightly virtue, often of a highly liberal and phi-
losophic, and not unfrequently of a religious and de-
votional, turn.
We next find him engaging in the controversy be-
tween Otho and Frederic, the rivals for the Imperial