Harpestreng, H. Gamle danske Urtebøger, Stenbøger og Koge-
bøger. Ed. Marius Kristensen. Copenhagen: Thiele, 1908–20
[originally issued in 7 parts as Universitets-Jubilæets danske
Samfund, Skrifter Nr. 182, 192, 200, 215,226,236, and 253
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(K, ca. 1300), a fragment of Linköping T67 (L, ca. 1350),
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Johnson. Copenhagen: Hofboghandel, 1914.
Hauberg, P., ed. “En middelalderlig dansk lægebog.” Copenha-
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Harpestreng, Henrik, Liber Herbarum. Ed. Poul Hauberg. Co-
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Literature
Hauberg, Poul. “Lidt om Henrik Harpestrængs Lægebog.” Danske
Studier 19 (1919), 111–28.
Otto, Alfred. Liber Daticus Roskildensis. Tillæg 4. Copenhagen:
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Sigurd Kværndrup
HARTMANN VON AUE
(ca. 1160–after 1210)
Of the four major writers of the High Middle Ages
during the Hohenstaufen dynasty—Hartmann von Aue,
Walther von der Vogelweide, Wolfram von Eschenbach,
and Gottfried von Straßburg—Hartmann von Aue stands
out as the most prolifi c and diverse. His works include
a verse treatise on love, Diu Klage (The Lament, ca.
1180), two Arthurian epics, Erec (ca. 1180) and Iwen
(ca. 1200), two verse tales, Gregorius (ca. 1190) and
Armer Heinrich (Poor Heinrich, ca. 1195), and eighteen
poems—some spurious—spread out over much of his
writing career.
Both Gottfried von Strasbourg, author of Tristan, and
Wolfram von Eschenbach, author of Parzival, mention
Hartmann in their works, and their comments reveal the
esteem in which he was held by contemporary writers.
As the poet who introduced the Arthurian romance into
German-language literature, Hartmann infl uenced not
only his literary generation but those who followed, well
into the thirteenth century.
Like all of the major writers of the period, very little
is known about Hartmann’s life, and what is known
must be gleaned from comments in his works, as noth-
ing has come down to us in contemporary documents.
Setting aside the question of whether Hartmann speaks
in his works in an autobiographical or a literary voice,
current thinking generally agrees on a rough sketch
of Hartmann’s life. In Poor Heinrich Hartmann calls
himself a dienstman, consigning himself in an unembar-
rassed way to the class of ministeriales, an important,
emerging, diverse class of court functionaries dependent
for their living on the largesse of the nobility. Whether
Hartmann came from a family that was in the ascendant
or one that had fallen from free indentured status, is
uncertain. By designating himself a rîter (knight) in
the prologues to Poor Heinrich and Iwein, Hartmann
reveals his knowledge of country life, the backdrop
nor only of his Arthurian romances, but also his verse
tales and poetry.
Where Hartmann obtained the education he speaks of
in Poor Heinrich, and whose traces are evident through-
out his writings, is not known. Such an education could
only have been obtained at a cathedral school or in a
monastery; the setting of the monastery in Gregorius and
discussions of the life and education there would favor
the latter supposition. It appears that, in addition to
Latin, Hartmann knew Old French, the language of
Chrétien de Troyes and the infl uential French courtly
culture. His allusions to classical works and to church
philosophers confi rm that Hartmann was one of the most
learned poets of the age.
Hartmann must have had a wealthy, and thus pow-
erful, patron, for writers of Hartmann’s ministerial-
knightly class were dependent on the court not only for
the expensive outfi tting of a knight, but also for costly
writing resources, access to a courtly audience, and
the availability of precious manuscripts of the French
sources that Hartmann must have read. Numerous at-
tempts made to pinpoint Hartmann’s homeland have
been inconclusive. His Alemannic language—a dialect
covering a swath from northern Switzerland, southwest-
ern Germany, and southeastern France, that is, modern
Alsace—and a few scant descriptions in his works
point to modern southern or southwestern Germany as
his home. Two powerful families, the Zähringer and
the Hohenstaufen, have been posited as Hartmann’s
patrons, and the Zähringer, with their seat near Freiburg
at the crossroads of French and German culture, seem
more likely. Finally, it should be no surprise that even
the dates of Hartmann’s life are disputed, but the period
from around 1160 to shortly after 1210 would seem to
have encompassed most of his years.
The chronology of Hartmann’s writings is also dis-
puted. However, some consensus has been reached: the
Lament and some of the lyric poetry belong to an early
phase, followed by the Arthurian romance Erec. Most
critics agree that a dramatic metamorphosis then took
place in Hartmann’s life, something that shaped the
themes of his next two works, Gregorius and Poor Hein-
rich, and some of his later poetry. Finally, toward the
end of his life, Hartmann again turned to the Arthurian
epic, this time to Iwein. (The beginning of Iwein may,
however, have been written earlier and set aside, pos-
sibly during the presumed upheaval in the poet’s life.)HARPESTRENG, HENRIK