Justice and the Social Context of Early Middle High German Literature [Reprint ed.] 0415936853, 9780415936859, 1138973947, 9781138973947

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STUDIES IN

MEDIEVAL HISTORY AND CULTUR.E

edited by

Francis G. Gentry Professor of German Pennsylvania State University

I~ ~~o~;~~n~~~up LONDON AND NEW YORK

OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES

1. "AND THEN THE END WILL COME" Early Latill Christiall Ifllerpretations of the Opellillg cif the Sevell Seals Douglas W. Lumsden 2. TOPOGRAPHIES OF GENDER IN MIDDLE HIGH GERMAN ARTHURIAN ROMANCE Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand

3. CHRISTIAN, SARACEN AND GENRE IN MEDIEVAL FRENCH LITERATURE

Imagillatioll and Cultural lrlleraction in the French Middle Ages Lynn Tarte Ramey 4. WORD OUTWARD

Medieval Perspectives on the Elltry into La/lguage Corey J. Marvin

JUSTICE AND THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF EARLY MIDDLE HIGH GERMAN LITERATURE

I~obert

G. Sullivan

I~ ~~o~~~~n~~:up LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published 2001 by Routledge Published 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright © 2001 by Robert G, Sullivan All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invellted, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission limn the publishers.

Library oj Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sullivan, Robert G., 1957Justice and the social context of early middle high German literature / Robert G. Sullivan. p. cm. - (Studies in medieval history and culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. German poetry- Middle High German, 1050- 1500-History and criticism. 2. Religious poetry, German- History and criticism . 3.Justice in literature. 4. Holy Roman Empire-History-843-1273 . 5. Holy Roman Empire-Social conditions. 1. Title. II. Series. PT221 .S85 2001 831'.209382-dc21 2001019649 ISBN 13: 978-0-415-93685-9 (hbk)

Series Editor Foreword

Far from providing just a musty whiff of yesteryear, research in Medieval Studies enters the new century as fresh and vigorous as never before. Scholars representing all disciplines and generations are consistently producing works of research of the highest caliber, utilizing new approaches and methodologies. Volumes in the Medieval History and Culture series will include studies on individual works and authors of Latin and vernacular literatures, historical personalities and events, theological and philosophical issues, and new critical approaches to medieval literatme and culture. Momentous changes have occurred in Medieval Studies in the past thirty years in teaching as well as in scholarship. Thus the goal of the Medieval History and Culture series is to enhance research in the field by providing an outlet for monographs by scholars in the early stages of their careers on all topics related to the broad scope of Medieval Studies, while at the same time pointing to and highlighting new directions that will shape and define scholarly discourse in the future. Francis G. Gentry

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pour Meriem

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Table of Contents

PREFACE

Xlll

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

xv

INTRODUCTION: The Historical Context of Early Middle High German Literature

1

CHAPTER I: Early Middle High German relit

21

CHAPTER II: /lIst;t;a and Ordo 1. /lIst;t;a A. The Medieval Concept of ;Hst;t;a B. The Variety of ,-cht 2. O,-do A. Frlc and scale B, Arl1l and rich C. Hhyc and kllcht

45 45 45 54

CHAPTER III: The Practice of Justice 1. Introduction: FrlC and scale 2. H(1 rrc and kllcht and rich and arm A. Dcr llerrc and der rfclle in "Vom Rechte" B. The yellt of d;e r,eilm and d;e herrell

x;

59 59 67 73

93 93 100 100

116

CHAPTER IV: Conclusion 1. Ordo and Rhetoric 2. History and reht A. Die Jrfen and die scalee B. Die rfehen and die armen C. Die Mrren and die knehte 3. Conclusion: milme IIlld relit

141 141 147 147 148 150 155

BIBLIOGRAPHY

171

INDEX

183

Preface

My intellectual debt to Francis G. Gentry will be obvious to anyone who reads the following pages, at least insofar as there is anything of value to be found there. Gentry has long pleaded for an ideal of medieval studies characterized by a crossfertilization of traditionally isolated disciplines, particularly literary studies and social history. Such interdisciplinary scholarship is, of course, now scarcely as rare as when Gentry first advocated and practiced it, but its execution remains as difficult as ever. In my quest better to understand and historically situate Early Middle High German religious literature, I had frequent occasion to refer to extraliterary works and to consult historians of medieval society and law. While I hope that both legal and social scholars might in turn find something of use or interest here, I know too well that they may also object to my transgressing their fields. I make no claim to their specialist competence; instead, in my use of non-literary sources, I have deliberately tried to restrict myself to the traditional literary methods of the dose reading of texts and the philological investigation of key words and concepts. To read legal documents and historical works as literature, so to speak, does not necessarily imply a philosophy in which all the world is text; this is certainly very £olr from my own view. The virtue of traditional dose readings and conceptual analysis lies rather in their drawing attention to aspects of sources that had perhaps been neglected or overlooked. In the interest of furthering interdisciplinary studies, I have translated all quotations in the body of the text from modern German into English, and I have provided translations of all medieval German texts in my notes. In the latter translations, which are often in themselves instances of interpretation, my aim has been to render these often ditlicult poems and prose works as literally as possible. I am painfully aware that with my literalness there comes a corresponding loss of felicity and good English style. I trust the relative accuracy for which I have striven may provide some compensation. Beside my professional debt to Prof. Gentry, lowe to him and Edda Gentry a personal one for their kindness, generosity, and decency that I cannot possibly xi;;

xiv

Priface

repay. I would like to acknowledge here, too, my thanks to my extraordinarily supportive colleagues at the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, to the unfailing encouragement and inspiration of my parents George and Alyce Sullivan, and to my beloved children, Stephanie and Nicholas. May their world be one in which justice will finally reign supreme.

Abbreviations used in this work ABaG AII/lales ESC B.4W

BMZ

CC DA DTM DV;s

Amsterdamer Beitrage ZHr alterm Germanistik Annales EWl10lllies Socii:tcs CilJilisatiolls Ba)'eriscl!e Akadel1lie drr ~VissCflschq(retl Georg F. Benecke, Wilhelm Miiller, and Friedrich Zarncke. Mittclhochdeutsciles Wiirterbuch. 3 vols. Leipzig, 1854-1861. Corpus ChristiarlOrwII. Series Latina Delltsches Arcl!illfiir Eif