Gottfried von Strassburg
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Gottfried von Strassburg, was one of the chief German poets of the middle ages.
The dates of his birth and death are alike unknown, but he was the contemporary of Hartmann von Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach and Walther von der Vogelweide, and his epic Tristan was written about the year 1210. In all probability he did not belong to the nobility, as he is entitled Meister, never Herr, by his contemporaries; his poem - the only work that can with any certainty be attributed to him besides two short lyric poems - bears witness to a learned education.
The story of Tristan had been evolved from its shadowy Celtic origins by the French trouvres of the early 12th century, and had already found its way into Germany before the close of that century, in the crude, unpolished version of Eilhart von Oberge. The Tristan legend developed further as a prose novel of substantial proportions in the French and Italian tradition, but its final form in the German-speaking world was essentially that of Gottfried until Richard Wagner re-wrote it in the nineteenth century. Contemporary references to Gottfried indicate that he died before he was able to complete his work, although the missing section can be extrapolated in broad outline from the surving fragments of the version by Thomas of Britain, whose work Gottfried directly informs us was his source.
The story centres on the life of Tristan, his parentage, youth, establishment at the court of his uncle King Marke of Kurnewal (Cornwall), two journeys to Ireland, the second of which he undertakes in order to to bring back Isolde, the Irish king's daughter as Marke's bride. On the return voyage Tristan and Isolde drink by mistake a love potion, which binds them irrevocably to each other. The epic resolves itself into a series of love intrigues in which the two lovers ingeniously outwit the trusting king. They are ultimately discovered, and Tristan flees to Normandy where he marries another Isolde—Isolde with the white hands without being able to forget the blond Isolde of Ireland.
At this point Gottfried's narrative breaks off and to learn the close of the story as it appears in the surviving manuscripts of the work we have to turn to the conclusions of two minor poets of the time, Ulrich von Trheim and Heinrich von Freiberg - the latter much the superior. The source of both continuators is generally reputed to be the version of Eilhart von Oberge, though this is disputed. As they do not use the version of Thomas of Britain, their continuations are unlikely to reflect Gottfried's intentions for his work.
After further adventures that differ in the two continuations Tristan is fatally wounded by a poisoned spear in Normandy; the blond Isolde, as the only person who has power to cure him, is summoned from Cornwall. The ship that brings her is to bear a white sail if she is on board, a black one if not. Tristan's wife, however, deceives him, announcing that the sail is black, and when Isolde arrives, she finds her lover dead. Marke at last learns the truth concerning the love potion, and has the two lovers buried side by side in Kurnewal. As
It is difficult to form an estimate of Gottfried's independence of his French source; but it seems clear that he followed closely the narrative of events he found in Thomas. He has, however, introduced into the story an astounding fineness of psychological motive, which, to judge from a general comparison of the Arthurian epic in both lands, is German rather than French; he has spiritualized and deepened the narrative; he has, above all, depicted with a variety and insight, unusual in medieval literature, the effects of an overpowering passion.
Yet, glowing and seductive as Gottfried's love-scenes are, they are never for a moment disfigured by frivolous hints or innuendo; the tragedy is unrolled with an earnestness that admits of no touch of humour, and also, it may be added, with a freedom from moralizing which was easier to attain in the 13th than in later centuries. The mastery of style is no less conspicuous. Gottfried had learned his best lessons from Hartmann von Aue, but he was a more original and daring artificer of rhymes and rhythms than that master; he delighted in the sheer music of words, and indulged in antitheses and allegorical conceits to an extent that proved fatal to his imitators. As far as beauty of expression is concerned, Gottfried's Tristan is the masterpiece of the German court epic but also a masterpiece of European Literature.
K Immermann left unfinished at his death an epic of Tristan und Isolde (1840); Richard Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde (1865) has proven more famous.
Editions and translations
Gottfried's Tristan has been frequently edited:
- H F Massman (Leipzig, 1843), with the continuation of Ulrich von Trheim
- R Bechstein (2 vols., 3rd ed., Leipzig, 1890, 1891), re-issued in a revised version by Peter Ganz (2 volumes, Wiesbaden 1978)
- Bechstein edited the continuation of Heinrich von Freiberg separately (Leipzig, 1877)
- W Golther (2 vols., Stuttgart, 1889)
- K Marold (1906).
Translations into modern German have been made by:
- Hermann Kurz (Stuttgart, 1844)
- K Simrock (Leipzig, 1855)
- W Hertz (Stuttgart, 1877).
There is also an abbreviated English translation by Jessie L. Weston (London, 1899). A more recent and complete translation (with the Tristan of Thomas) was made by A. T. Hatto (London: Penguin, 1960). ISBN 0140440984
Bibliography
- R. Bechstein, Tristan und Isolde in der deutschen Dichtung der Neuzeit (Leipzig, 1877).
- W. Golther, Die Sage von Tristan und Isolde (Munich, 1887)
- R. Heinzel, Gottfried's von Strassburg Tristan und seine Quelle in the Zeit. fr deut. Alt. xiv. (1869), pp. 272ff.
- W.T.H. Jackson, "Gottfried von Strassburg" in Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, Roger S. Loomis (ed.). Clarendon Press: Oxford University. 1959. ISBN 0198115881
- F. Piquet, L'Originalit de Gottfried de Strasbourg dans son pome de Tristan et Isolde (Lille, 1905)
- Mark Chinca, Gottfried von Strassburg Tristan. Cambridge 1997 ISBN 0521402948
- Christoph Huber, Gottfried von Straburg Tristan. Klassiker Lektren 3. Berlin 2000. ISBN 3503049592de:Gottfried von Straburg