WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH, the most important and individual poet of mediaeval Germany, flourished during the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century. He was one of the brilliant group of Minnesingers whom the Landgrave Herr mann of Thuringia gathered round him at the historic castle of the Wartburg. We know by his own statement that he was a Bavar ian, and came of a knightly race, counting his achievements with spear and shield far above his poetical gifts. The Eschenbach from which he derived his name was most probably Ober-Eschenbach, not far from Pleinfeld and Nuremberg; there is no doubt that this was the place of his burial, and so late as the 17th century his tomb was to be seen in the church of Ober-Eschenbach, which was then the burial place of the Teutonic knights. Wolfram prob ably belonged to the small nobility, for he alludes to men of impor tance, such as the counts of Abenberg, and of Wertheim, as if he had been in their service. Certainly he was a poor man, for he makes frequent and jesting allusions to his poverty. Bartsch con cludes that he was a younger son, and that while the family seat was at Eschenbach, Wolfram's home was the insignificant estate of Wildenburg (to which he alludes), now the village of Wehlen berg. Wolfram seems to have disdained all literary accomplish ments, and in fact insists on his unlettered condition both in Par zival and in Willehalm. But this is somewhat perplexing, for these poems are beyond all doubt renderings of French originals. Were the poems read to him, and did he dictate his translation to a scribe? The date of Wolfram's death is uncertain. We know that he was alive in 1216, as in Willehalm he laments the death of the Landgrave Herrmann, which took place in that year.
Wolfram von Eschenbach lives in, and is revealed by, his work. He has left two long epic poems, Parzival and Willehalm (the latter a translation of the French chanson de geste Aliscans), cer tain fragments, Titurel (apparently intended as an introduction to the Parzival), and a group of lyrical poems, Wdchter-Lieder. These last derive their name from the fact that they record the feelings of lovers who, having passed the night in each other's company, are called to separate by the cry of the watchman, heralding the dawn. These Tage Lieder, or Wachter Lieder, are a feature of Old German folk-poetry, of which Wagner has pre served the tradition in the warning cry of Brangaene in the sec ond act of Tristan.
The problem of the source of the Parzival is the crux of mediaeval literary criticism. (See PERCEVAL. ) The Parzival is a
soul-drama; the conflict between light and darkness, faith and doubt, is its theme, and the evolution of the hero's character is steadily and consistently worked out. The teaching is of a char acter strangely at variance with the other romances of the cycle. Instead of an asceticism, based upon a fundamentally low and degrading view of women, Wolfram upholds a sane and healthy morality; chastity, rather than celibacy, is his ideal, and a loyal observance of the marriage bond is, in his eyes, the very highest virtue.
Wolfram has moments of the highest poetical inspiration, but his meaning, even for his compatriots, is often obscure. He is in no sense a master of language, as was Gottfried von Strassbourg. This latter, in a very interesting passage of the Tristan, passes in review the poets of the day, awarding to the majority praise for the excellence of their style, but one he does not name, only blam ing him as being so obscure and involved that none can tell what his meaning may be; this unnamed poet has always been under stood to be Wolfram von Eschenbach, and in a passage of Wille halm the author refers to the unfavourable criticisms passed on Parzival. Wolfram and Gottfried were both true poets, but of widely differing style. Wolfram was, above all, a man of deeply religious character, and it seems to have been this which specially impressed the mind of his compatriots; in the 13th-century poem of Der Wartburg-Krieg it is Wolfram who is chosen as the repre sentative of Christianity, to oppose the enchanter Klingsor von Ungerland. (J. L, W.) Parzival was printed at Augsburg in 1477; other editions were issued at Magdeburg (1833) and Leipzig (2 vols., 1858) by A. Schulz, and at Berlin (1898) by W. Hertz. Titurel was also printed, probably at Augsburg, in 1477; the Leben and Dichten Wolfram's von Eschen bach was edited by San Marte (A. Schulz) (2 vols., Magdeburg, 2836-45), and Wolfram von Eschenbach (Werke) by A. Leitzmann (Munich, 1902 etc.). See also S. Singer, Wolframs Willehalm (1918) ; A. Neue Bausteine zu einer Lebensgeschichte Wolframs von Eschenbach 0922) ; M. F. Richey, Gahmuret Anschevin: a contribu tion to the study of W. von Eschenbach (1923) W. Kupferschmid, Ueber den Wortschatz der Berner Parzival-Handschrift (1923) ; I. Buechel, Die Bezeichnungen fur psychologische Begriffe in Wolframs Parzival (1925) ; K. Laserstein, Wolfram von Eschenbach germanische Sendung (2928).