blends with the notion of governing (Herrschaft und
Liebe), and fi nally modulates until notions of peace and
of rulership prevail.
Commentators have related various portions of the
text, especially those known as the Stauferpartien, to the
rule of Frederick I Barbarossa. These include references
to the great Hoffest at Mainz in 1184 and the fi nding of
Pallas’s grave by the emperor. At least one scholar, how-
ever, believes the work may have been written, at least
initially, on behalf of Henry the Lion. Although critics
debate many details of this work, they agree that Veldeke
refi ned and expanded upon his model, and in general
created an important work of art. Finally, Veldeke was
the fi rst to imitate French models in composing love
songs in the German vernacular.
Of less interest and importance is Heinrich’s St.
Servatius, a work that exists in total in a manuscript of
the fi fteenth century in a New Limburgian dialect. A
fragment remains of an Old Limburg version, though
there is also an Upper German Servatius. As with the
Eneasroman, text and critical problems have signifi -
cantly hampered understanding of this work. Like the
Eneide, the transcription of Heinrich’s lyric poetry is
entirely Upper German, though the impurity of his
rhymes in these poems and songs points to less care
and perhaps a greater affi nity for his mother tongue than
does his romance.
See also Eilhart von Oberge;
Frederick I Barbarossa
Further Reading
Bathgate, R. H. “Hendrik van Veldeke’s The Legend of St. Servaes
Translated.” Dutch Crossing 40 (1990): 3–22.
Behaghel, Otto, ed. Heinrichs von Veldeke Eneide, Heilbronn:
Gebr. Henninger, 1882.
Dittrich, Marie-Luise. Die ‘Eneide’ Heinrichs von Veldeke. Part
- Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1966.
Fromm, Hans. Arbeiten zur deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters.
Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1989.
Kasten, Ingrid. “Herrschaft und Liebe. Zur Rolle und Darstellung
des ‘Helden’ im Roman d’Eneas und in Veldeke’s Eneasro-
man.” Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für deutsche Literaturwis-
senschaft und Geistesgeschichte 62 (1988): 227–245.
Kistler, Renate. Heinrich von Veldeke und Ovid. Tübingen:
Niemeyer, 1993.
Klein, Thomas. “Heinrich von Veldeke und die mitteldeutschen
Literatursprachen. Untersuchungen zum Veldeke-Problem.”
Zwei Studien zu Veldeke und zum Strassburger Alexander.
Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1985.
von Veldeke, Heinrich. Eneasroman. Mittelhochdeutsch /
Neuhochdeutsch, trans. Dieter Kartschoke. Stuttgart: Rec-
lam, 1986.
——. Eneide, ed. Theodor Frings and Gabriele Schieb. 3 vols.
Berlin: Akademie, 1964–1970.
——. Eneit, trans. J. W. Thomas. New York: Garland, 1985.
——. Sente Servos, Sanctus Servatius, ed. Theodor Frings and
Gabriele Schieb. Die epischen Werke des Henric van Velde-
ken, vol. 1. Halle (Saale): Niemeyer, 1956.
Kristine K. SneeringerHÉLOÏSE (1100/01–1163/64)
Héloïse, abbess of the famous monastery of the Para-
clete and its six daughter houses, was raised as a pos-
sibly illegitimate child in the Benedictine convent of
Sainte-Marie of Argenteuil. At the age of seventeen,
she continued her studies at her uncle Fulbert’s house
in Paris, where she was tutored by the theologian Peter
Abélard (1079–1142). After a stormy love affair with
Héloïse, Abélard offered the Paraclete and its lands as
a refuge to Héloïse and her fellow nuns. Pope Innocent
II confi rmed the donation in 1131. Héloïse left us three
letters to Abélard and one letter to Peter the Venerable
(ca. 1092–1156). She is mentioned frequently in the
cartulary of the Paraclete as a competent and effi cient
abbess who turned her religious house into one of the
most prestigious women’s monasteries in France. Its rule
stressed the importance of education for all nuns, the
unusual relaxation of strict enclosure, and the authority
of the abbess over both male and female members of
the monastic community.
In Peter Abélard’s biographical Historia calamita-
tum and his moving correspondence with her, Héloïse
emerges as an articulate and heroic person who equals
Abélard in rhetorical sophistication and surpasses him
in personal integrity. Her letters reveal a woman of deep
love and devotion who remained attached to Abélard
with both the bond of friendship and the memory of
their earlier passion. Moreover, in her own mind, she
was convinced that she had acted throughout the entire
affair with disinterested love, devoted only to Abélard,
while he had begun with lust only and never achieved
her level of disinterested love, even though it was he
who had taught her the true understanding of love and
friendship.
See also Abélard, Peter; Peter the VenerableFurther Reading
Abélard, Peter. Historia calamitatum: texte critique avec intro-
duction, ed. Jacques Monfrin. 2nd ed. Paris: Vrin, 1962.
Charrier, Charlotte. Héloïse dans l’histoire et la légende. Paris:
Champion, 1933.
Newman, Barbara. “Authority, Authenticity, and the Repression
of Heloise.” Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies
22 (1992): 121–57.
Pernoud, Régine. Héloïse and Abélard, trans. Peter Wiles. Lon-
don: Collins, 1973.
Peter the Venerable. The Letters of Peter the Venerable, ed.
Giles Constable. 2 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1967.HEINRICH VON VELDEKE