Two Notes on Chrétien and Wolfram

Two Notes on Chrétien and WolframAuthor(s): A. T. HattoSource: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 42, No. 2 (Apr., 1947), pp. 243-246Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3717233 .

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Miscellaneous Notes

Two NOTES ON CHRETIEN AND WOLFRAM

(a) (Conte 1305ff. and 1706ff.; Parzival 161, 23ff. and 180, 15ff.): Since the appearance of Dr J. Fourquet's book on Wolfram von Eschenbach

and Chr6tien de Troyesl there can be no excuse for not believing that so far as Chretien went he was the main source of Wolfram's narrative. Indeed, so closely does Wolfram follow him at times that Dr Fourquet has succeeded in proving that Wolfram followed first one, then another and unrelated MS. of the Conte del Graal, the former belonging to the family of 'R' (Paris Bibl. Nat. f. fr. 1450, first half of thirteenth century), the latter probably unplaceable. Among the proofs adduced for this far-reaching discovery none was more striking than those which confirmed that Wolfram had misunderstood his French source. It transpired that a misunder- standing sometimes acted as an irritant on the sensitive mind of the German author and produced a pearl of fantasy.

It is the purpose of the present note to draw attention to a case, which, whether it be mistranslation or not, is as remarkable as any for the light it throws on Wolfram's creative process (though one which does not involve a variant of any known family of MSS. of the Conte).2 It is a case which no amount of comparison 'maille par maille'3 would reveal, since this time Wolfram has transferred his inspired mistranslation (if mistranslation it be) from the first of two similar scenes in Chretien to the second, in order of occurrence.

In Chr6tien we read that on leaving Arthur's court young Perceval 1306 S'an va poignant par la forest

Tant que as terres plainnes vint Sor une riviere, qui tint De 1e plus d'une arbalestee....

Although the ground is flat on one side of the river, a great rock rises on its further bank against whose foot the river beats as it rushes to the sea, faster than Loire. On a spur of this rock is built the castle of Gornemant de Goqrt. A bridge leads over the river to the castle.

Turning to see what Wolfram made of this at 161, 23ff. we are surprised to find no river and no bridge:

162, 6 Gumemanz de Graharz hiez der wirt uf dirre burc dar zuo er reit. da vor stuont ein linde breit uf einem griienen anger: der was breiter noch langer niht wan ze rehter maze....

But if we read on in Parzival we eventually come to a scene where the boy does arrive before a swift-flowing river spanned by a bridge:

180, 15 Doch reit er wenec irre, wan die slihte an der virre kom er des tages von Graharz in daz kiinecrich ze Brobarz durch wilde gebirge hoch....

1 Wolfram d'Eschenbach et le 'Conte del Graal' (Strasbourg, 1938). 2 Judging by the edition of A. Hilka, Der Percevalroman (Halle, 1932). 3 Fourquet, op. cit. p. 181.

243



244 Miscellaneous Notes

21 do kom er an ein wazzer snel: daz was von sime duzze hel: ez gabn die velse ein ander....

181, 3 dar iiber gienc ein briikken slac....

This, by contrast, is considerably in excess of what Chretien offers in the corre-

sponding passage at 1706ff.:

Et chevauche tant que il voit Un chastel fort et bien seant; Mes fors des murs n'avoit neant Fors mer et eve et terre gaste. D'errer vers le chastel se haste Tant que devant la porte vient; Mes un pont passer li covient....

One suspects immediately that Wolfram has drawn upon the earlier passage in Chretien at 1305ff., which for some reason he did not wish to utilize at the time. Is there any confirmation of this suspicion?

Describing the swift flow of the river at Belrepeire, Wolfram gives us one of his

strangest yet most powerful images:

180, 29 daz wazzer fuor nach polze siten, die wol gevidert unt gesniten sint, so si armbrustes span mit senewen swanke tribet dan....

The water shot like well-feathered bolts impelled by the drawn string of the cross-bow. The idea evidently derives from the word arbalestee = 'range of a cross-bow shot' at Conte 1309, though in what state of purity or corruption his French MS.

gave it him we have no means of knowing, since the extant MSS., including 'R', agree but for slight variants in the surrounding context.l In another sense arbalestee is indeed 'armbrustes span'. Wolfram did not commit himself at 161, 23ff. Was it because he found the French difficult? But even if he understood arbalestee, it had

engaged his fantasy and caused him to produce an image whose kinetic quality is wholly characteristic of him.2

(b) (Conte 3422ff.; Parzival 138, 9ff. and 249, 5ff.):

It is a fact well known to students of Parzival that whereas Chr6tien introduces the Damsel with the Slain Knight (whom Wolfram names Sigune and Schionatu- lander) after Perceval's visit to the Grail Castle,3 Wolfram first acquaints us with the pitiful couple well before this visit, namely at a point between the episode of the Damsel in the Marquee (Jeschute) and Parzival's visit to Arthur's Court,4 a fact which does not prevent him from reintroducing Sigune and Schionatulander after Parzival's visit to the Grail Castle at the point where Chretien first brings them forward.5

Again it is quite obvious-indeed Martin has noted it in his Commentary6-that when Wolfram tells us on the second occasion that Schionatulander has been

1 Line 1308 Lez S / tient T. 3 Hilka 3422ff. 2 Compare in this same passage the well-known 4 138, 9ff. Bk. In.

example Conte 1326: Et vitlestorz delchastel nestrel 5 249, 5ff., Bk. v, corresponding to Hilka Parz. 161, 25: den tumben duhte sere, wie der tiirne 3422 ff. wiehse mere.. .do wander si scet Artus; and the 6 Wolframs von Eschenbach Parzival und castle whose spiral paths made it seem to spin Titurel, 2ter Teil, Kommentar (1903), Sub round like a top (508, 1 ff.). 249, 16.



Miscellaneous Notes 245

embalmed, he is at pains to explain how it can be possible for Sigune to be holding in her arms a knight so long slain.'

But the fact that Wolfram doubles a scene that is single in Li contes del Graal, and the inference which can be drawn from the embalming of the knight at Parzival 249, 16, have so far as I know never been considered together.

To those who prefer to deal in unknowns only when the knowable is exhausted, that is, prefer to complete the comparison of Wolfram and Chretien before resorting to the utterly problematic Kyot, this doubling of a scene in conjunction with the embalming of the knight is challenging. Bemused by untimely speculations about Kyot, Martin failed to turn his inference concerning Parzival 249, 16 to account,2 although Lichtenstein had already pointed out that one could recover the data of the single scene at Conte 3422 ff. by addition of the two scenes at Parzival 138, 9ff. and 249, 5ff., which makes it unnecessary to postulate the interference of a Kyot at this point.3 Yet it is clear that having decided to have his cake here and eat it later as well,4 Wolfram is compelled to remove the disturbing thoughts which threaten our picture of an unburied knight, by embalming him. One fiction in excess of his source led to another. And this suggested others....What could be more stimulating to a temperament so given to elegiac utterance as Wolfram's, than the apparition of a love-lorn maiden with an embalmed knight in her arms- the very image of martyred love? Concerning the story which leads up to the knight's death, barely suggested in Parzival, amply told in Titurel, Miss Richey writes in her moving book on Schionatulander and Sigune:5 'Wolfram's story is unique: of its origin no more need be said than that, so far as is evident, the suggestion may well have come to him from a certain isolated scene in the Perceval of Chretien de Troyes', adding in a footnote 'vv. 4606-4864 in the edition of Potvin'.6 The present writer respectfully agrees, but with the added suggestion that the precise starting-point for the whole fabrication of Wolfram's story of Sigune and Schionatulander was the embalming of the dead knight which was forced upon him by his anticipation of Chretien at 138, 9ff., though not forgetting the suggestion of such lines in Chretien as

3630 Les morz as morz, les vis as vis.

How naturally Wolfram's mind ran to elegy of this kind is to be seen in Bk. I of Parzival. Like Sigune, Belekane, too, had driven a fine young knight to his death by placing too high a price upon her 'reward' as against his 'service '. Sigune says:

141, 20 ich hete kranke sinne, daz ich im niht minne gap: des hat der sorgen urhap mir freude verschroten; nu minne i'n also toten.

1 249, 16: ein gebalsemt ritter tot lent ir zwischenn 4 For reasons which need not be conjectured in armen. this note.

2 Dr Fourquet opens his work on Wolfram 5 Undated, p. 9. and Chretien with the pointed reminder that 6 I.e. Hilka's 3422ff. as above. scholars had to wait until 1932 for the first 7 Florie, too, had hunted Ilynot to his death critical edition of Li Contes del Graal, giving all in the same way (Parz. 585, 29ff.) and it is the variants of the many MSS. Wolfram himself who links her with Sigune in

3 Paul-Braune's Beitrage, xxu (1897), p. 36. his Titurel, str. 147f.




And Belekane:

26, 26 min wipheit was unbewart, do ich sin dienst nach minne enphienc, deiz im nach frouden niht ergienc. des muoz ich immer jamer tragen.

27, 8 er gap mir manege pine.'

Many of the accompanying circumstances are different, of course, but the inspiration of the story is the same: a maiden has driven her lover to an extravagant adventure which leads to his death, and she regrets it when it is too late. Sigune, we are told, was not one who would have taken Lunete's advice and married again before her lover's body was cold;2 Belekane on the other hand, after a lament for Isenhart which wins a tribute from Gahmuret for her heartfelt loyalty, soon begins to exchange amorous glances with him which win his love.3 These are variations of a common theme, of a kind which came naturally to Wolfram. In this his temperament was notably different from Chretien's. Indeed, there is no hint in Chretien's scene of the Damsel and the Slain Knight that the girl was in any way the cause of the young man's death, and in any case, as Miss Richey has said, Chretien quite failed to realize the girl's tragedy.4

Here this note would have to end but for the exciting vistas reopened (this time permanently) by Dr Fourquet. If, as he shows, Wolfram used one MS. of the Perceval for Bks. II-VI and another unrelated one for the later books, then there is room to suppose either that there was a pause between the writing of Bks. III-vI and Bks. vnff. or that Wolfram was busy at work on something for which there was no 'source' in the strict sense of that term-namely Bks. I-I !

Thus, if it was a fact that Wolfram's decision to anticipate Chretien at 138, 9ff. led in turn to the embalming of the slain knight and so to the rest of the sad, romantic story so peculiarly his creation; and if the story of Belekane and Isenhart is a variation of it (Isenhart, too, was embalmed! 51, 12): then this sequence of fabulation needs no distorting to make it accord with the sequence suggested by Dr Fourquet on the basis of comparisons of Wolfram's text with the variants of Perceval, namely the sequence Bks. II-Vi, I-n, VIIff. It would have the additional virtue of according with the findings of Dr Fourquet and others that the seeds of Wolfram's innovations are to be sought first of all in the text of Li Contes del Graal, of which we are now at last largely in possession.5

A. T. HATTO LONDON

MARQUARD VON LINDAU AND HIS USE OF (EXEMPLA'

The importance of the exemplum in literary evolution is now generally recognized. It is the source to which countless European authors are indebted for their themes; we need only mention the names of Boccaccio, Cervantes, Chaucer, Shakespeare, the compiler of Eulenspiegel, Hans Sachs, Lessing, Herder, Schiller, Geibel and

1 That is 'love pangs'. Belekane was in love 4 Op. cit. p. 10. with Isenhart. Thus Gahmuret's swift wooing is 5 However, I find Dr Fouirqucts formulation yet another of the compliments lavished on him of this counsel rather extreme, cf. op. cit. by his creator. pp. 183f.: 'Cc quc Wolfram trouve,-ou croit

2 253, lOf. trouver-dans le texte fran9ais, est pour lui 3 29, 6iff. parole d'evangile.'


And Belekane:

26, 26 min wipheit was unbewart, do ich sin dienst nach minne enphienc, deiz im nach frouden niht ergienc. des muoz ich immer jamer tragen.

27, 8 er gap mir manege pine.'

Many of the accompanying circumstances are different, of course, but the inspiration of the story is the same: a maiden has driven her lover to an extravagant adventure which leads to his death, and she regrets it when it is too late. Sigune, we are told, was not one who would have taken Lunete's advice and married again before her lover's body was cold;2 Belekane on the other hand, after a lament for Isenhart which wins a tribute from Gahmuret for her heartfelt loyalty, soon begins to exchange amorous glances with him which win his love.3 These are variations of a common theme, of a kind which came naturally to Wolfram. In this his temperament was notably different from Chretien's. Indeed, there is no hint in Chretien's scene of the Damsel and the Slain Knight that the girl was in any way the cause of the young man's death, and in any case, as Miss Richey has said, Chretien quite failed to realize the girl's tragedy.4

Here this note would have to end but for the exciting vistas reopened (this time permanently) by Dr Fourquet. If, as he shows, Wolfram used one MS. of the Perceval for Bks. II-VI and another unrelated one for the later books, then there is room to suppose either that there was a pause between the writing of Bks. III-vI and Bks. vnff. or that Wolfram was busy at work on something for which there was no 'source' in the strict sense of that term-namely Bks. I-I !

Thus, if it was a fact that Wolfram's decision to anticipate Chretien at 138, 9ff. led in turn to the embalming of the slain knight and so to the rest of the sad, romantic story so peculiarly his creation; and if the story of Belekane and Isenhart is a variation of it (Isenhart, too, was embalmed! 51, 12): then this sequence of fabulation needs no distorting to make it accord with the sequence suggested by Dr Fourquet on the basis of comparisons of Wolfram's text with the variants of Perceval, namely the sequence Bks. II-Vi, I-n, VIIff. It would have the additional virtue of according with the findings of Dr Fourquet and others that the seeds of Wolfram's innovations are to be sought first of all in the text of Li Contes del Graal, of which we are now at last largely in possession.5

A. T. HATTO LONDON

MARQUARD VON LINDAU AND HIS USE OF (EXEMPLA'

The importance of the exemplum in literary evolution is now generally recognized. It is the source to which countless European authors are indebted for their themes; we need only mention the names of Boccaccio, Cervantes, Chaucer, Shakespeare, the compiler of Eulenspiegel, Hans Sachs, Lessing, Herder, Schiller, Geibel and

1 That is 'love pangs'. Belekane was in love 4 Op. cit. p. 10. with Isenhart. Thus Gahmuret's swift wooing is 5 However, I find Dr Fouirqucts formulation yet another of the compliments lavished on him of this counsel rather extreme, cf. op. cit. by his creator. pp. 183f.: 'Cc quc Wolfram trouve,-ou croit

2 253, lOf. trouver-dans le texte fran9ais, est pour lui 3 29, 6iff. parole d'evangile.'



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Two Notes on Chrétien and Wolfram