HEINRICH VON VELDEKE (fl. 12th century), German poet, was born near Maestricht, Holland, of a noble family. He served at the court of Cleves, where his poem Eneit (ed. by Behaghel, 1882) was begun. Eneit is modelled on a French version of the famous tale of the Roman d'Eneas, commonly attributed to Benoit de Ste. Mox (q.v.). Heinrich was in the service of Her mann, landgrave of Thuringia, and was present at the famous tournament at Mainz in 1184. He wrote his poem in Flemish, but the extant version is in the Thuringian dialect. It was begun some time after 1173, and completed in 1186, when he recovered it from a Count of Schwarzburg, by whom it had been stolen. The work is the first really important example of the courtly epic in German. Heinrich probably also wrote the Legende von San Servaes (St. Servatius). Gottfried of Strasbourg looked back to him as the father of German verse.
See C. Kraus, Heinrich von Veldeke and die mhd. Dichtersprache; F. Wilhelm, Sankt Servatius (191o) ; Jan van Dam, Das Veldeke Problem (1924) •