Jump to content

Virginal (poem)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Ermenrich (talk | contribs) at 13:54, 12 April 2018 (→Summary: template error). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Exterior Sculpture of Église Saints-Pierre-et-Paul dite Sainte-Richarde in Andlau, Alsace, possibly inspired by the scene of Hildebrand saving Rentwin recorded in Virginal

Virginal, also known as Dietrichs erste Ausfahrt (Dietrich's first quest), or Dietrich und seine Gesellen (Dietrich and his companions) is an anonymous Middle High German poem about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the legendary counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great. It is one of the so-called fantastical (aventiurehaft) Dietrich poems, so called because it more closely resembles a courtly romance than a heroic epic. It concerns the still young and inexperienced Dietrich's quest to save the dwarf queen Virginal in Tyrol from a force of attacking heathens.

Summary

There are three complete versions of the Virginal, the Heidelberg, the Vienna, and the Dresden versions.[1] Here follows a summary of each version.

Heidelberg Version (V10): Young Dietrich does not yet know what adventure (Middle High German "âventiure") means, so Hildebrand takes him into the wooded mountains of Tyrol to fight against the heathen Orkise, who has invaded the kingdom of the dwarf king Virginal and demands a virgin as tribute to eat. Hildebrand finds a girl who is being sacrificed to Orkise, and slays a group of heathens who have come to collect her. Hildebrand returns to Dietrich, only to discover that his pupil is himself under attack—with Hildebrand's help, Dietrich defeats the heathens. The girl invites Dietrich and Hildebrand to Virginal's palace at Jeraspunt, heading there herself as messenger to announce the heroes. Virginal sends the dwarf Bibung as a messenger to Dietrich and Hildebrand. When Bibung finds the heroes, they are in the midst of fighting a swarm of dragons. Hildebrand rescues a knight who has been half-swallowed by a dragon. The knight is named Rentwin, son of Helferich von Lune und der Portalaphe, and thus great nephew of Hildebrand. He invites his rescuers to his father's castle at Arona. Bibung also goes to the castle, bringing Virginal's invitation. Dietrich rides alone ahead when the heroes head to Virginal's palace, and gets lost, arriving at the castle Muter. There the giant Wicram, together with other giants, overpowers him and takes him captive on behalf of his master, Nitger. Meanwhile, the other heroes arrive at Jeraspunt and notice that Dietrich is missing. In Muter, Nitger's sister Ibelin takes care of Dietrich, and with her help he is able to send a message to his friends telling them of his predicament. Hildebrand and Helferich decide to gather a force to free Dietrich, calling for the aid King Imian of Hungary, Witege, Heime, and Biterolf and Dietleib. The heroes go to Muter and arrange combat with Nitger. There are eleven cases of single combat, with Nitger even allowing Dietrich himself to fight, and all the giants are slain. The heroes head back to Jeraspunt, on the way slaying even more dragons and giants. Finally, there is an enormous feast at Virginal's palace. However, Dietrich receives news of a threatened siege of Bern (Verona, so Dietrich must hurry back home to further hardships.[2]

Dresden Virginal (V11): The Dresden version has been radically reduced in length by the scribe of the Dresdner Heldenbuch. This version does not contain the episode of Dietrich's capture at Muter. During Dietrich's stay at Arona, further adventures are told: Dietrich is challenged by Prince Libertin of Palermo, defeats him, and becomes his friend. Hildebrand, Helferich, Rentwin, and Libertin are invited to the castle Orteneck by the heathen Janapas, Orkise's son, while they were heading to Jeraspunt. The heathen ambushes them there, and the heroes must fight against lions and heathens. Their victory frees three maidens who the heathens had taken from Virginal. Dietrich, meanwhile, fights a ferocious boar and then a giant, who objects to Dietrich hunting on his land, while all this is happening. Dietrich defeats the giant as his friends arrive and see, taking the giant captive. The heroes finally arrive at Jeraspunt, where Dietrich marries Virginal. For two nights he is unable to consummate his union, while Hildebrand hides under the bed and counsels the young warrior. On the third night, he is successful.[3]

Vienna Virginal (V12): A much longer version of the events also contained in the Dresden version, but without detail that Dietrich was at first unable to consummate his marriage. It also contains the Muter episode.[4]

Transmissions, Versions, and Dating

The Virginal must have been composed prior by 1300 at the latest, based on the dating of the earliest fragments. Because of the oldest fragments of the poem come from the Swabian-Alemannic area, the poem is thought to have been composed there.[4] Like almost all German heroic poetry, the Virginal is anonymous.[5]

The three complete manuscripts, the Heidelberg V10, Dresden V11, and Vienna V12 versions, each contains an independent version of the poem. Most of the fragments match the Heidelberg version most closely, but due to the extreme variability of the fantastical Dietrich epic, each individual manuscript can be considered an equally valid version.[6]

The Virginal has the following manuscript attestations:

  • V1 (U): University College London, Ms. Frag. Germ. 2. Fragment of a parchment manuscript, first half of the fourteenth century. Alemmanic dialect.[7]
  • V2 (D): Badische Landesbibliothek Karlsruhe, Cod. Donaueschingen 91. Fragment of a parchment manuscript, first half of the fourteenth century. Alemannic dialect.[7]
  • V3 (B): formerly Archive of the Evangelical-Lutheran Dekanat Ansbach. First half of the 14th century, Rhine-Franconian dialect. Fragmentary oldest Heldenbuch. Lost.[7][8]
  • V4 (M): Kathedral-Pfarramt St. Stephanus in Grevenbroich(-Elsen). Fragment of a paper manuscript, beginning of fourteenth century, Rhine-Franconian or Alemannic dialect.[7]
  • V5 (n): Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg, Hs. 80. Fragment of a paper manuscript, around 1355-1357, Swabian dialect. Contains the only surviving fragment of Goldemar, the Virginal, and various medical recipees and a glossary of plant names.[9][7]
  • V6 (L): Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig, Rep. II fol. 70a. Fragment of a parchment manuscript, middle of fourteenth century, probably from the Mid-Rhine region. Known as the "Niederrheinische Liederhandschrift:" a collection of lyric, including parts of the Virginal.[10]
  • V7: (E): Kongelige Bibliotek Kopenhagen, Fragmenter 18 I; and Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg, Bestand 147 Hr 1 Nr. 6; and Klosterbibliothek Erbstorf, VI 8a. Parchment, fifteenth century, Bavarian dialect. Fragment of a manuscript containing various literary texts, including the Rosengarten zu Worms and Virginal.[11]
  • V8: Bibliothek der Abtei Metten, Fragm. Cart. I. Fragment of a paper manuscript, around 1400, Rhine-Franconian dialect.[11]
  • V9 (s/f): Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart, HB VII 37 and Cod. Fragm. 63; and Universitätsbibliothek Freiburg im Breisgau, Hs. 531. Fragment of a paper manuscript, first half of the fifteenth century, Swabian dialect.[11]
  • V10 (h): Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, Cpg. 324. paper, around 1440, from the manuscript workshop of Diebolt Lauber in Hagenau.[11]
  • V11 (d): The Dresdner Heldenbuch. Sächsische Landesbibliothek Dresden, Msc. M 201. Paper, 1472, from Nuremberg(?).[12][11]
  • V12 (w): Linhart Scheubel's Heldenbuch: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Wienna, Cod. 15478. Paper, around 1480-1490, from Nuremberg.[13]
  • V13: Staats- und Stadtbibliothek Augsburg, Fragm. germ. 33. Fragment of a parchment manuscript, first half of the fourteenth century, Bavarian dialect.[1]

Creation and Relation to the Oral Tradition

Coat of arms of the Visconti of Milan depicting the biscione, a serpent who appears to be swallowing a human

The text is thought to have originated no later than 1300, probably in Swabian-Alemanic territory.[4] However, elements seem to be much older. Dietrich's captivity among giants is referenced in Waldere, for instance.[14] The saga of the man half-swallowed by a dragon is also thought to be older, and is probably connected with the coat of arms of the Visconti, a family which owned the castle of Arona (Arone) at the time of the tale's composition, and whose coat of arms depict a man being swallowed by a serpent. The same story is also told in the Thidrekssaga, where the knight rescued is named Sintram. This difference of names means that the two texts are not directly related, but are probably both descended from a lost oral story. Interestingly, Sintram also appears as the name of the man being swallowed by the dragon also in a 15th-century Swiss chronicle, the Berner Chronicle of Konrad Justinger, which relocates the action to Bern, Switzerland, and does not include Dietrich's name. It is thus not clear if the motif was transferred onto Dietrich from an independent legend or whether the Swiss version had lost the original connection with Dietrich.[14]

19th century scholarship attempted to connect Orkise with Ork, a demon of Tyrolian and North Italian folklore.[15][16] Although queen Virginal's name strongly resembles the romance word "virgin", it may in fact be connected with Gothic fairguni, meaning mountain.[17] Compare also Anglo-Saxon firgen, meaning mountain woodland.[17]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Heinzle 1999, p. 137.
  2. ^ Heinzle 1999, pp. 137–138.
  3. ^ Heinzle 1999, pp. 138–139.
  4. ^ a b c Heinzle 1999, p. 139.
  5. ^ Hoffmann 1974, pp. 11–12.
  6. ^ Heinzle, p. 137.
  7. ^ a b c d e Heinzle 1999, p. 135.
  8. ^ Heinzle 1999, p. 110.
  9. ^ Heinzle 1999, p. 104.
  10. ^ Heinzle 1999, pp. 135–136.
  11. ^ a b c d e Heinzle 1999, p. 136.
  12. ^ Heinzle 1999, p. 111.
  13. ^ Heinzle 1999, pp. 136–137.
  14. ^ a b Heinzle 1999, pp. 140–141.
  15. ^ Heinzle 1999, p. 140.
  16. ^ Gillespie 1973, p. 100.
  17. ^ a b Gillespie 1973, p. 45.

Editions

  • Lienert, Elisabeth; Pontini, Elisa; Schumacher, Katrin (eds.) (2017). Virginal. Goldemar. Berlin and Boston: de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110476781. {{cite book}}: |first3= has generic name (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)

References

Facsimiles

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Virginal_(poem)&oldid=836066140"