Middle High German literature

250px|thumb|First page from Manuscript C ( 1230) The ' (, or ; or ), translated as The Song of the Nibelungs''', is an epic poem written around 1200 in Middle High German. Its anonymous poet was likely from the region of Passau. The is based on an oral tradition of Germanic heroic legend that has some of its origin in historic events and individuals of the 5th and 6th centuries and that spread throughout almost all of Germanic-speaking Europe. Scandinavian parallels to the German poem are found especially in the heroic lays of the Poetic Edda and in the Völsunga saga''.

German minstrel singer (c. 1170 – c. 1230)

German knight and poet (1170–1220)

leading poet of the Middle High German period

thumb|Choosing the king. Top: the three ecclesiastical princes choosing the king, pointing at him. Middle: the Electorate of the Palatinate|Count Palatine of the Rhine hands over a golden bowl, acting as a servant. Behind him, the Duke of Saxony with his marshall's staff and the [[Margrave of Brandenburg bringing a bowl of warm water, as a valet. Below, the new king in front of the great men of the empire (Heidelberg Sachsenspiegel, around 1300)]] thumb|Page in Sachsenspiegel about succession (Heidelberg edition)

German song manuscript of the Middle Ages

German poet, composer, and diplomat

240px|thumb|Tannhäuser, from the Codex Manesse (about 1300).

Margrave of Brandenburg

mythical character inspired by Theoderic the Great

medieval epic poet (1200-1254)

thumb|Title page of a 1901 printing thumb|Charlemagne depicted in a 15th-century manuscript of the Schwabenspiegel The Schwabenspiegel is a legal code, written in ca. 1275 by a Franciscan friar in Augsburg. It deals mainly with questions of land ownership and fiefdom, and it is based on the Pentateuch, Roman law as well as Canon law. Written in Middle High German, it draws on the early 13th century Sachsenspiegel, and is immediately dependent on the '''' code.

thumb|First page of Kudrun. Ambraser Heldenbuch, Austrian National Library Cod. ser. nova 2663 fol. 140t. Kudrun (sometimes known as the Gudrunlied or Gudrun), is an anonymous Middle High German heroic epic. The poem was likely composed in either Austria or Bavaria around 1250. It tells the story of three generations of the ruling house of Hetelings on the North Sea, but is primarily the story of Kudrun, who is abducted by the Norman prince Hartmut who desires to marry her. Kudrun remains true to her fiancé Herwig and eventually is rescued. After the defeat of the Normans, however, Kudrun ensu

Austrian poet and medieval chronicler

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.

German poet

writer (1190-1250)

The Lucidarius, an anonymous medieval book, was the first German language summa, written circa 1190–1195. It was based on different sources, the chief one being the Elucidarium and other texts by Honorius Augustodunensis. Other sources include De philosophia mundi by William of Conches and De divinis officiis by Rupert of Deutz. It has been preserved in 66 partial or complete manuscripts, and 85 printings in German. It is claimed to be the first original German language work in prose.

13th-century German literary work

thumb|Gregorius

German poet

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").

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."

heroic literary traditions of the Germanic-speaking peoples

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|Fol. 109a of the Munich ms. (Cgm 37, dated c. 1325–1350). The Kaiserchronik (Imperial Chronicle) is a 12th-century chronicle written in 17,283 lines of Middle High German verse. It runs from Julius Caesar to Conrad III, and seeks to give a complete account of the history of Roman and German emperors and kings, based on a historiographical view of the continuity of the Roman and German successions. The overall pattern is of a progression from pagan to Christian worlds, and theological disputations stand at the turning-points of the Christianization of the Empire. However, much of the mate

manuscript

Ortnit or Otnit is a Middle High German heroic epic about the eponymous king Ortnit. First written down in strophic form around 1230 by an anonymous author, it circulated in a number of distinct versions.

13th-century Middle High German poet

thumb|Jenaer Liederhandschrift, fol. 111v, with the melody of Meister Boppe's Spruch "O hoer vnde starker almechtiger got" Spruchdichtung or Sangspruchdichtung is the German term for a genre of Middle High German sung verse. An individual work in this genre is called a Spruch (plural Sprüche), literally a "saying", and may consist of one or more strophes.

thumb|Wigalois removing his armor. thumb|250px|Wigalois (on the left, wheel of fortune as shield device) versus heathen dwarf Karrioz (head of a moor/Mohammed on shield). Wigalois is a courtly romance of the Arthurian cycle set down in Middle High German verse by Wirnt von Grafenberg. The title character Wigalois becomes a knight of the Round Table, but he remains not knowing he is the son of Sir Gawain (here Gawein) whom he meets, having spent an upbringing entirely in the care of his mother's royal family, in the otherworldly kingdom, which became undiscoverable to Gawain once he left. The

thumb|upright=1.5|Wolfdietrich attacking the dragons. From Heidelberg, Universitätsbiblothek, Cpg 365, folios 1v and 2r.

Roman Catholic bishop

Middle High German epic poem, presumably from the early 14. century

thumb|Wittich (in red) dishonourably battles two against one with Heime to defeat Alphart. Witege, Witige or Wittich (; Gotho-) or Vidrik "Vidga" Verlandsson ( + Viðga or Videke + Verlandsson, Vallandsson, or Villandsson) is a character in several Germanic heroic legends, poems about Dietrich von Bern, and later Scandinavian ballads.