Willehalm (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Wolfram Von Eschenbach

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140443991 ISBN 13: 9780140443998

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1984

Synopsis

Wolfram von Eschenbach (fl. c. 1195-1225), best known as the author of Parzival, based Willehalm, his epic poem of military prowess and courtly love, on the style and subject matter of an Old French "chanson de geste." In it he tells of the love of Willehalm for Giburc, a Saracen woman converted to Christianity, and its consequences. Seeking revenge for the insult to their faith, her relatives initiate a religious war but are finally routed. Wolfram's description of the two battles of Alischanz, with their massive slaughter and loss of heroes, and of the exploits of Willehalm and the quasicomic Rennewart, well displays the violence and courtliness of the medieval knightly ideal. Wolfram flavors his brutal account, however, with tender scenes between the lovers, asides to his audience, sympathetic cameos of his charactersespecially the womenand, most unusually for his time, a surprising tolerance for 'pagans'."

About this title

About the Author:

Wolfram von Eschenbach was the greatest of the medieval German narrative poets. Very little is known about his life, but it is generally accepted that he belonged to a Bavarian family of the lower nobility, that he may have served a Franconian lord, and that for the better part of his creative period he enjoyed the patronage of the great medieval German Maecenas Hermann I, landgrave of Thuringia. He probably died between 1220 and 1230.

Synopsis:

This epic poem of military prowess and courtly love tells the story of the love of Willehalm for Giburc, a Saracen woman converted to Christianity, and its consequences. Seeking revenge for the insult to their faith, her relatives initiate a religious war but are finally routed.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1984
• ISBN 10: 0140443991
• ISBN 13: 9780140443998
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320