Hartmann von Aue

Portrait of Hartmann von Aue from the Codex Manesse (folio 184v)

Hartmann von Aue, also known as Hartmann von Ouwe, (born c. 1160–70, died c. 1210–20) was a German knight and poet. With his works including Erec, Iwein, Gregorius, and Der arme Heinrich, he introduced the Arthurian romance into German literature and, with Wolfram von Eschenbach and Gottfried von Strassburg, was one of the three great epic poets of Middle High German literature.

Life

The only sources for Hartmann's life are his own works and references in those of contemporary and later poets. There is no other documentary evidence.

In the prologue of Der arme Heinrich he names himself (there is a similar passage in Iwein):

Ein ritter sô gelêret was,
daz er an den buochen las,
swaz er dar an geschriben vant.
der was Hartman genant,
dienstman was er zuo Ouwe.

Translation:

There was once a knight so well educated
that he was able to read
whatever he found written in books.
Hartmann was his name
and he served the House of Aue.

He describes himself as a dienstman, an unfree noble (ministerialis). Whether Ouwe is meant to indicate the noble family he serves or a simply a location is unclear. In Diu Crône Heinrich von dem Türlin refers to Hartmann as a poet from Swabia (von der Swâben lande), and this is confirmed by the traces of Alemannic dialect in Hartmann's rhymes. It locates him in the Duchy of Swabia in southwestern Germany. However, since Aue is a common place name in Swabia, it has not proved possible to identify a specific home for Hartmann. Among those places which have been suggested are Obernau on the Neckar, Owen (Teck), Reichenau, Au in the Breisgau, and Eglisau on the Rhine.

He was born circa 1160 or 1170. After receiving a monastic education where he learned Latin and later French. He also took part in the Crusade of 1197. The date of his death is as uncertain as that of his birth; he is mentioned in Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan (c. 1210) as still alive, and Heinrich von dem Türlin, writing in about 1220, mourns him as dead.

Works

Hartmann produced four narrative poems which are of importance for the evolution of the Middle High German court epic. The first of these, Erec, which may have been written as early as 1191 or 1192, and the last, Iwein, belong to the Arthurian cycle and are based on epics by Chrétien de Troyes (Erec and Enide and Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, respectively). While the story of Chretien's Yvain refers to events in Chretien's Lancelot, to explain that Arthur is not present to help because Guinevere has been kidnapped, Hartmann did not adapt Chretien's Lancelot. The result is that Hartmann's Erec introduces entirely different explanations for Guinevere's kidnapping, which do not correspond to what occurred in the shared literary tradition of Chretien's Arthurian romances.

His other two narrative poems are Gregorius, also an adaptation of a French epic, and Der arme Heinrich, which tells the story of a leper cured by a young girl who is willing to sacrifice her life for him. The source of this tale evidently came from the lore of the noble family whom Hartmann served. Gregorius, Der arme Heinrich and Hartmann's lyrics, which are all fervidly religious in tone, imply a tendency towards asceticism, but, on the whole, Hartmann's striving seems rather to have been to reconcile the extremes of life; to establish a middle way of human conduct between the worldly pursuits of knighthood and the ascetic ideals of medieval religion. Translations have been made into modern German of all Hartmann's poems, while Der arme Heinrich has repeatedly attracted the attention of modern poets, both English (Longfellow, Rossetti) and German (notably, Gerhart Hauptmann).

He was also a Minnesänger, and 18 of his songs survive.

Translations

• Hartmann von Aue (2001). Arthurian Romances, Tales, and Lyric Poetry: The Complete Works of Hartmann von Aue. Translated by Tobin, Frank; Vivian, Kim; Lawson, Richard H. University Park, PA: Penn State Press. ISBN 0-271-02112-8.

For translations of individual works, see the articles on Erec, Gregorius, Der arme Heinrich, and Iwein.

Sources

• Hartmann von Aue (2013). Busch, Nathanael; Wolf, Jürgen (eds.). Der arme Heinrich. Stuttgart: Reclam. ISBN 978-3-15-019131-6.
• Heinrich von dem Türlin (2012). Felder, Gudrun (ed.). Diu Crône. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-018627-7.

Bibliography

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hartmann von Aue". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• Bumke, Joachim (2006). Der Erec Hartmanns von Aue: Eine Einfuhrung. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3110189797.
• Cormeau C (1981). "Hartmann von Aue". In Ruh K, Keil G, Schröder W (eds.). Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters. Verfasserlexikon. Vol. 3. Berlin, New York: Walter De Gruyter. cols 500–520. ISBN 978-3-11-022248-7.
• Cormeau, Christoph; Störmer, Wilhelm (1993). Hartmann von Aue. Epoche - Werk - Wirkung (2nd] ed.). Munich: Beck. ISBN 3-406-30309-9.
• Gentry, Francis G., ed. (2005). A Companion to the Works of Hartmann von Aue. Rochester, NY: Camden House. ISBN 1571132384.

• Jackson, W.H. (1995). Chivalry in Twelfth-Century Germany: The Works of Hartmann von Aue. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer. ISBN 978-0859914314.
• Kropik, Cordula, ed. (2021). Hartmann von Aue: Eine literaturwissenschaftliche Einführung. UTB. Vol. 5562. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto. ISBN 978-3825255626.
• Neumann, Friedrich (1966). "Hartmann von Aue". Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German). Vol. 7. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 728–731. (full text online).
• Wapnewski, Peter (1976). Hartmann von Aue (6th ed.). Stuttgart: Metzler. ISBN 9783476160171.

External links

• Works by or about Hartmann von Aue at the Internet Archive
• Hartmann von Aue — digital
• Hartmann von Aue Knowledgebase Portal Archived 7 June 2026 at the Wayback Machine
• "Aue, Hartmann von" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
• "Aue, Hartmann von" . Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.