View source for Hartmann von Aue

{{Short description|12th and 13th-century German knight and poet}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2018}}
{{refimprove|date=January 2015}}
[[Image:Codex Manesse Hartmann von Aue.jpg|thumb|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 (poem)|Erec]]'', ''[[Iwein]]'', ''[[Gregorius]]'', and ''[[Der arme Heinrich]]'', he introduced the [[German courtly romance |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==
Hartmann belonged to the lower nobility of [[Swabia]], where he was born. After receiving a monastic education, he became [[Ministerialis|retainer]] (''Dienstmann'') of a nobleman whose domain, Aue, has been identified with [[Obernau (Rottenburg)|Obernau]] on the River [[Neckar]]. 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]]'' ({{Circa|1210}}) as still alive, and in the ''[[Crône]]'' of [[Heinrich von dem Türlin]], written about 1220, he is mourned for 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 (poem)|Erec]]'', which may have been written as early as 1191 or 1192, and the last, ''[[Iwein]]'', belong to the [[Arthurian legend|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 ([[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow|Longfellow]], [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti|Rossetti]]) and German (notably, [[Gerhart Hauptmann]]).

He was also a [[Minnesang|Minnesänger]], and 18 of his songs survive.

==Editions and translations==
*Tobin, Frank, Kim Vivian, and Richard H. Lawson, trans. ''Arthurian Romances, Tales, and Lyric Poetry: The Complete Works of Hartmann von Aue'', Penn State Press, 2001 {{ISBN|0-271-02112-8}}
* Hartmann Von Aue, "Iwein: The Knight with the Lion", translated by J.W. Thomas, 1979, {{ISBN|0-8032-7331-2}}.
* Hartmann Von Aue, "Erec," translated by J.W. Thomas, 2001, {{ISBN|0-8032-7329-0}}.

==References==
{{Reflist}}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Hartmann von Aue}}
* {{cite encyclopedia | last=Cormeau| first=Christoph | veditors=Ruh K, Keil G, Schröder W  | encyclopedia=Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters. Verfasserlexikon | title=Hartmann von Aue   | year=1981 | publisher=Walter De Gruyter| location=Berlin, New York | volume=3| at=cols 500–520|isbn=978-3-11-022248-7}}
*{{cite book|last1=Cormeau|first1=Christoph|last2=Störmer|first2=Wilhelm|title=Hartmann von Aue. Epoche - Werk - Wirkung |url=https://archive.org/details/hartmannvonaueep0000corm|url-access=registration|date=1993 |publisher=Beck |location=Munich |isbn=3-406-30309-9|edition=2nd| pages=[https://archive.org/details/hartmannvonaueep0000corm/page/160 160–193]}}
*{{cite book |editor1-last=Gentry |editor1-first=Francis G. |title=A Companion to the Works of Hartmann von Aue |date=2005 |publisher=Camden House |location=Rochester, NY |isbn=1571132384 }}

*{{cite book |author-last=Jackson|author-first=W.H. |title=Chivalry in Twelfth-Century Germany: The Works of Hartmann von Aue. |date=1995 |publisher=D.S. Brewer |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0859914314}}
*{{NDB|7|728|731|Hartmann von Aue|Neumann, Friedrich|118546228}}

== External links ==
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Hartmann von Aue}}
*[http://www.fgcu.edu/rboggs/hartmann/ Roy Boggs and Kurt Gärtner: Hartmann von Aue (Knowledge Base) Portal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202001506/http://www.fgcu.edu/rboggs/hartmann/ |date=2 February 2016 }}
*{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Aue, Hartmann von|year=1905 |short=x}}
*{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Aue, Hartmann von|year=1920  |short=x}}

{{Hartmann von Aue}}
{{German literature}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartmann von Aue}}
[[Category:12th-century births]]
[[Category:12th-century German poets]]
[[Category:13th-century German poets]]
[[Category:1210s deaths]]
[[Category:Middle High German literature]]
[[Category:Minnesingers]]
[[Category:Writers of Arthurian literature]]
[[Category:German male poets]]
[[Category:12th-century German writers]]