The first "literature legends" of the Germans ...

The first "literature legends" of the Germans-Rolandslied, Tristan and Isolde, Parzival, Nibelungenlied-almost only descriptions of slaughter

German literature began its development with translations of Latin prose texts such as laws and contract texts and religious behavioral instructions, this beginning on the way in expression in the German written language is perhaps the reason why we are still the masters in writing bureaucratic texts today (we Germans can boast of 200 tax laws and almost 100,000 tax regulations, lonely world tip).

The texts that arose in these beginnings are in no way particularly inspiring and not very suitable to move people to read who do not have to read these texts - although the normal, inquisitive citizen also wanted to participate in the written language.

And so in the high Middle Ages, for example in the middle, i.e. around the middle of the 12th century, the first literary texts of the world at that time were created , including some "eternal bestsellers" , whose mention at least every German teacher with a sense of tradition is still in the eye today.

Who, from today's perspective, let doubts. If you take a closer look at the topics of the star publications at the time, one is happy about every future fiction worlds inventing narrative, every enthusiastic novella about everyday life in a modern metropolis, every satirical short story about the unfilling of everyday life and every novel, which does not have a war stag, regardless of whether it is the long-awaited story of a family synasty or the kitsch description of one complicated relationship.

Because these first “novels”, who were delighting the people, mainly revolved out which ruler really fell down when and where another ruler, of course supported by hordes of testosterone -spraying young men from the people who let their lives in droves in these hands.

After all, the rulers at that time still led the battles themselves and personally and mostly at the forefront (if not always), in contrast to modern war commanders and war drivers who control the deadly events from their command centers.

Read a brief consideration of the first, but streamlined literary works by the Germans, and the beneficial exception:

Around 1170 the famous Rolandslied , the first of the German heroic heroic heroic heroic heroic self , which until recently was a foundation of German culture for many. The author is said to be a man named Pfaffe Konrad, but this is certainly by no means, this authorship is only documented by a voluntary decree of the alleged author, and you don't know anything about his life.

This "hero admirer" describes the struggle of Charlemagne and his followers against the Spanish Saracens. The title, unfortunate Roland is one of these followers, one of the first scapegoats in the literature that has to pay for the misery of his stepfather when the Christian army of Charles of the Great attacks Muslims in Spain.

Stieffather Genelun has forged a plot with Muslimian king Marsilie, the Spaniards should pretend as if they bow to the foreign faith. In the end, the Franconian Empire should be forced to doom, Roland's death was also planned.

This plot causes the withdrawal from Karls Heer to Aachen by deception, only the poor Roland remains as a loan lord in Spain.

In reality, however, the Spaniards do not think about taking over the foreign faith, they only faked that to get rid of Karl. Now they beat back, Roland and his couple follow -up men have little chance, they all die martyrdom.

Karl wanted to help, but comes too late, and there are more peoples who don't want to be imposed on a foreign faith, so Karl is caught up in another battle by the Persian King Paligan to help the Spanish king.

Karl and his men fight, can even win through divine intervention, King Marsilie dies out of grief about the suffering of his people, his wife Brechmunda is baptized and also moves the remaining surviving Muslims to transition to Christianity.

Roland's wife Alda falls dead when she learns from the death of her husband, Genelun is made and then divided, his followers are beheaded.

The first crime thriller could be said, and now enlightened literature lovers of today can also shudder vigorously at the thought that almost 900 years later, conflicts between Muslims and Christians can give the script of a "crime scene".

The next "fabric from which legends" was no better.

Around 1200 Gottfried von Strasbourg, probably an intellectual cleric with university training, took up an extremely popular substance at the time:

The legend about Tristan and Isolde , which really offers almost everything that can contain a captivating story. Tristan grows up as an orphan, which probably promises even more than today an adventurous youth that can be described excellently for the structure of tension.

Finally he reaches the courtyard of his uncle's King brand of Cornwall, where he can save it in a duel. Unfortunately, he is injured with a poisoned sword and has to travel to Queen Isolde to Ireland who poisoned the sword and is able to heal the wound alone.

Tristan introduces herself as a playman Tantris (he killed her brother Morold in a duel), is healed and has to educate Isolde's daughter Isolde in return.

Hardly back in Cornwall, Tristan is allowed to go back to Ireland, because brand wants to get married and Tristan has of course recommended his pupil Isolde, he is sent off as a bridal. Bridal advertising alone is not enough, Tristan has to succumb to a kite as prize money for Isolde and is allowed to take Isolde as a bride for King brand.

Mother Isolde also gives a make -up potion so that the daughter falls into indissoluble love to the king with horse ears, but accidentally drink Tristan and Isolde - the unchangeable love caught the wrong people who are already practicing violently in the practice of this love.

Isolde therefore no longer goes into marriage as a virgin to cover this up, the king is put in bed with the king on the wedding night, of course noticing anything and is masterfully cheated by Tristan and Isolde for a while.

At some point there are rumors, King brand begins to doubt and finally exposes the lovers. Tristan is banished to Normandy, gets to know the next isolde, which also falls in love with him. Tristan, who is reminiscent of his love by the name, gets into a feeling of feeling ...

Gottfried von Strasbourg is said to have died when he had reached an open narrative, even with star writers of the time was not yet Vogue.

Overall, an adventurous smorgasbord of child neglect, high stacking, fraudness and fraud, and actually completely unclear why any person should read this substance.

A pleasant exception follows

The idea of ​​the enlightenment "Parzival" by the "Dear Minninger of the Germans" Wolfram von Eschenbach is literarily outstanding for the first decade of the 13th century: 25,000 pair rhymes in (today) 16 books, double -romantic structure with artistically interlinked action strands, and penetrated from a masterly imagination in terms of content.

But not only, the "Parzival" is not an easy substance that initially affects all the problems of the literary era at that time, Minne problem, demands for Aventiure (adventure), the question of whether a person is suitable for the ruler, through religious conviction caused to certain actions-everything in a framework that does not make it in the least lacking in the most really fantastic involvement.

The verse romance is once polemically pejorative by Wolfram's literary opponent Gottfried of Strasbourg as "wild Maere" (wild fairy tales), obviously literary competitors did not necessarily mingle with each other at the time.

But the Parzival goes much further, it is also critically ironic, it gives rise to many problems for his time, dares to do new thoughts and is sometimes cheeky to cynical - that is an extraordinary piece of German literature.

So Wolfram begins the Parzival with a commitment to narrow -minded intolerance: in the parenting of the Elster, he uses the two -tone feather dress of the Elster as an analogy to contrast with Wankelmuth and Faithfulness and - for the time, highly clarified for the situation - to the conclusion that it was not only black and white and good and evil, but these values ​​such as the plumage of an elster merged and would have to be weighed after individual cases.

Anyone who takes a closer look at all of the topics dealt with in Parzival sees a variety of fundamental conflicts: Life in society In contrast to learned seclusion, how different men and women experience the world, the conflicts between court society and the spiritual community of grail keepers, it is about guilt and sexuality, redemption and healing. If you look closely and think carefully, you will find all these problems in the world of today ...

Parzival is the hero because he manages to develop from absolute self -relevantness to empathy, such a hero is the actual form of Redeemer for Wolfram von Eschenbach. The whole figure of the parzival, which starts as the ignorant, is so different from the brain-long, but not criticizing blows-drain heroes of the time, and the almost fallible Parzival (presumably with mocking smile) is deliberately putting an almost perfect nerd.

Parzival experiences a lot during his upbringing to the knight and his search for the grail, a number of adventures and personal conflicts, and he keeps blame for himself, sometimes out of ignorance and sometimes because he does not look closely enough. The Gawan, who also started a knighthood (crusade, grail search), is the impeccable nerd among the knights, which always successfully passes its adventure and, incidentally, quickly brings the culprits of grievances in the world order to a RAIFE.

Nevertheless, it is the searching and crazy parzival who ends up gaining the grail, Wolfram gives the reader a hope of the way that still includes a large number of writers today.

Another of our "eternal bestsellers" is less humanitarian and subtle, although it was created at the same time at the beginning of the 13th century:

The Nibelungenlied

This narrative (song was taken from the Middle High German "Liet" , but which is more likely to be translated as a "stanza" or "epic" ) goes back to its origins, except for the migration, a so -called "heroic age" of our history, in which the ancestors received a lot on the face "and therefore needed a lot of heroes (heroes).

A slaughter around the Burgundian Empire in 436 is considered the decisive historical core of the Nibelungen saga, against the Western Roman army under Aetius, which hired thousands of Huns and slaughtered the unsuspecting Burgunden leader Gunhar and most of his people.

Many other names and elements controlled for the Germanic epochale historical events, such as the battle in the Catalunic fields (451, heralded the downfall of the West Roman Empire), death of Attilas (453, actually less bad, because on the wedding night) and the death of Brunichildis (613, the opponents of the Franconian queen let them grind through a horse) Always mixed more colorfully in the later work.

So far, this heroic epic has been continued orally, which at that time alone had not so much interest in the written language of the powerful Romans alone in writing down the heroic deeds of the Germanic tribes.

At the beginning of the 13th century, the Nibelungenlied was finally written down in the German written language , the bloodthirsty story was enthusiastically accepted and gained the status of a national one of the Germans .

The consequences of this initially initially initially initially in heroic disorders can still be felt today, and they make us more and more headaches today.

The Rolandslied is still a subject of teaching in schools, but now as part of the ethics lessons, in which it maintains a negative example of the establishment of an enemy image between Islam and Christianity since the Middle Ages.

Also in the German studies, the Rolandslied is still an object, which is treated under titles such as "The Satanation of the stranger in the" Rolandslied "of the Pfaffen Konrad" (Yvonne Holländer, 2002) - there is still hope ...?