Medieval German poems

collection of medieval Latin poetry

Parzival () is a medieval chivalric romance by the poet and knight Wolfram von Eschenbach in Middle High German. The poem, commonly dated to the first quarter of the 13th century, centers on the Arthurian hero Parzival (Percival in English) and his long quest for the Holy Grail following his initial failure to achieve it.

thumb|200px|The second page of the Hildebrandslied manuscript The Hildebrandslied (; ) is a heroic lay written in Old High German alliterative verse. It is the earliest poetic text in German, and it tells of the tragic encounter in battle between a father (Hildebrand) and a son (Hadubrand) who does not recognize him. It is the only surviving example in German of a genre which must have been important in the oral literature of the Germanic tribes.

Muspilli is an Old High German alliterative verse poem known in incomplete form (103 lines) from a ninth-century Bavarian manuscript. Its subject is the fate of the soul immediately after death and at the Last Judgment. Many aspects of the interpretation of the poem, including its title, remain controversial among scholars.

literary work

thumb|The first two pages of the Ludwigslied The Ludwigslied (in English, Lay or Song of Ludwig) is an Old High German (OHG) poem of 59 rhyming couplets, celebrating the victory of the Frankish army, led by Louis III of France, over Danish (Viking) raiders at the Battle of Saucourt-en-Vimeu on 3 August 881.

Arthurian romance by Hartmann von Aue

literary work by Hartmann von Aue

thumb|Anno II. (right) installs Erpho (left) as first abbot of Michaelsberg Abbey, Siegburg|Siegburg Abbey (from a 12th century manuscript).

Iwein is a Middle High German verse romance by the poet Hartmann von Aue, written around 1200. An Arthurian tale freely adapted from Chrétien de Troyes' Old French Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, it tells the story of Iwein (Yvain), a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. It was written after Hartmann's Erec, and is generally taken to be his last work.

1400 or 1401 literary debate in prose by Johannes von Tepl

thumb|Gregorius

Willehalm is an unfinished Middle High German poem from the early 13th century, written by the poet Wolfram von Eschenbach. In terms of genre, the poem is "a unique fusion of the courtly and the heroic, with elements of the saintly legend attaching to it."

Titurel is a fragmentary Middle High German romance written by Wolfram von Eschenbach after 1217. The fragments which survive indicate that the story would have served as a prequel to Wolfram's earlier work, Parzival, expanding on the stories of characters from that work and on the theme of the Holy Grail. Titurel was continued by a later poet named Albrecht, who tied the story together in a work generally known as Jüngere Titurel ("Younger Titurel").

Lanzelet is a medieval romance written by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven after 1194.

The Ezzolied, also known as the Cantilena de miraculis Christi (Song of the miracles of Christ) or the Anegenge (Beginning), is an early Middle High German poem written in the 1060s by Ezzo, a German scholar and priest of Bamberg. It is the first poetic text of the High Middle Ages to join German vernacular and Latin learning.

thumb|Titlepage of the 1553 edition thumb|Woodcut illustration by [[Leonhard Beck]] Theuerdank (Teuerdank, Tewerdanck, Teuerdannckh) is a poetic work the composition of which is attributed to the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I (1486-1519). Written in German, it tells the fictionalised and romanticised story of Maximilian's journey to marry Mary of Burgundy in 1477. The published poem was accompanied by 118 woodcuts designed by the artists Leonhard Beck, Hans Burgkmair, Hans Schäufelein and others. Its newly designed blackletter typeface was influential.

12th-century German novel