viding a mythical-historical background for the ruling
House of Hapsburg. Duke Leopold of Austria and the
heathen king Agrant of Zyzia make a pilgrimage to the
holy site of John of Ephesus to pray for an heir. They
meet by chance and make their sacrifi ces together.
Leopold’s wife delivers a son, Wilhelm, and Agrant’s
wife has a daughter, Aglye. The goddess Venus awakens
love in both children through dreams and instigates
Wilhelm to leave home on a search for Aglye. After
exotic travels he meets Aglye, and the children fall
in love. Her father, Agrant, separates them, however,
because he wants to marry his daughter to a heathen
prince. The lovers exchange an extensive correspon-
dence that documents the high level of literacy that
members of the higher aristocracy could acquire in the
later Middle Ages. Aglye is twice promised as wife to
heathen princes, but Wilhelm kills them both in battles
and jousts. Only after he has liberated Queen Crispin of
Belgalgan’s kingdom of monsters are the lovers able to
meet again. Soon afterwards a massive battle involves
the heathen and Christian forces, which concludes
with the Christians’ victory and the heathens’ baptism.
Finally, King Agrant agrees with the marriage of Aglye
and Wilhelm, to whom a son is born called Friedrich.
Wilhelm dies thereafter when he is ambushed by an
envious brother-in-law. Aglye’s heart breaks when she
hears the news and dies as well.
Wilhelm experiences a large number of allegorical
adventures throughout his quest for his beloved. These,
and other aspects, are often commented on by the narra-
tor, who fully enjoyed the use of the so-called geblümter
Stil (fl owery style). Johann von Würzburg refers to
Gottfried von Strafl burg, Wolfram von Eschenbach,
and Rudolf von Ems as his literary models. He also
knows Albrecht’s Jüngeren Titurel and other thirteenth
century romances.
Wilhelm von Österreich displays a surprising open-
ness toward the heathen culture, although the paradigm
of Christianity as the only true religion is not abandoned
in favor of global tolerance. Johann von Würzburg
enjoyed considerable success with his work, which
glorifi es the House of Austria and combines the exotic
world of the Orient with the world of Arthurian romance.
The text was copied far into the fi fteenth century and
discussed by other writers such as Püterich of Reichert-
shausen and Ulrich Fuetrer. Anton Sorg printed a prose
version in 1481 and 1491 in Augsburg, which was also
reprinted, probably in Wittenberg in 1530–1540. Wil-
helm and Aglye, the main characters in the romance,
are portrayed in the fi fteenth-century frescoes on Castle
Runkelstein as ideal lovers, next to Tristan and Isolde,
and Wilhelm of Orleans and Amelie.
See also Gottfried von Straßburg;
Wolfram von Eschenbach
Further Reading
Brackert, Helmut: “Da stuont daz minne wol gezam,” Zeitschrift
fur deutsche Philologie, Sonderheft, 93 (1974): 1–18.
Juergens, Albrecht: ‘Wilhelm von Österreich’. Johanns von Würz-
burg ‘Historia Poetica von 1314 und Aufgabenstellung einer
narrativen Fürstenlehre. Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 1990.
Johanns von Würzburg “Wilhelm von Österreich. “Aus der
Gothaer Hs., ed. Ernst Regel. Berlin: Weidmann, 1906; rpt.
Zurich: Weidmann, 1970.
Mayser, Eugen. Studien zur Dichtung Johanns von Würzburg.
Berlin: Ebering, 1931.
Ridder, Klaus. Mittelhochdeutsche Minne- und Aventiure-ro-
mane: Fiktion, Geschichte und literarische Tradition im
späthöfi schen Roman: Reinfried von Braunschweig, Wilbelm
von Österreich, Friedrich von Schwaben. Berlin: de Gruyter,
1998.
Straub, Veronika: Entstehung und Entwicklung des frühneuho-
chdeut schen Prosaromans. Studien zur Prosaauflösung
‘Wilbelm von Österreich’. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1974.
Wentzlaff-Eggebert, Friedrich-Wilhelm: Kreuzzugsdichtung des
Mittelalters. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, I960, pp. 290–293.
Albrecht ClassenJOHANNES VON TEPL
(ca. 1350–early 15th c.)
Born in German and Czech-speaking Bohemia, Tepl
(also known as Johannes von Saaz or Johannes Henslini
de Sitbor) has been identifi ed as the author of the Acker-
mann aus Böhmen (The Bohemian Plowman) by means
of the acrostic IOHANNES, and by the signature de
Tepla (“of Tepl”) in a letter accompanying the work
sent to friend Peter Rothirsch of Prague. Appointments
as rector of the Latin school and notary of the cities
of Saaz and later Prague-Neustadt show Tepl to have
been literate in both Czech and Latin as well as Ger-
man. Besides the Ackermann aus Böhmen, only a few
German and Latin verses, plus parts of a Latin votive
offi ce (1404), have been identifi ed as Tepl’s work. It is
unclear whether the Czech Tkadlecek (ca. 1407), a text
similar to the Ackermann in which a weaver laments the
loss of his unfaithful sweetheart, might also have been
composed by him. The Ackermann is preserved whole
or in part in sixteen manuscript editions, mostly of up-
per German provenance, as well as in seventeen early
printed editions. The Pfi ster edition of 1460 is one of
the two earliest printed books in German.
The work, an audacious debate with death, is framed
as a legal proceeding in which a grief-stricken widower,
a “plowman of the pen” (i.e., a scribe) brings a com-
plaint against the justice and justifi cation of death in
God’s world order. The plowman bewails the loss of his
virtuous young wife, Margaretha, and rails at Death’s
cruelty and unfairness. In sixteen rounds of spirited
debate, the plowman condemns Death while defend-
ing life, love, and man, God’s fi nest creation. Death,
in his turn, denies any dignity of man and any right toJOHANNES VON TEPL