Wirnt von Grafenberg was a

Middle High German Middle High German (MHG; german: Mittelhochdeutsch (Mhd.)) is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. Hig ...

poet of the thirteenth century.

Biography

Grafenberg was a

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

n nobleman who between 1202 and 1205 wrote an epic, entitled ''Wigalois'', which describes the adventures of

Gawain Gawain (), also known in many other forms and spellings, is a character in Arthurian legend, in which he is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table. The prototype of Gawain is mentioned under the name Gwalchmei in the earliest ...

's son, the name being a corruption of Guinglain le Galois. Wirnt took his material from the French romance ''Le bel inconnu'' of Renaud de Beaujeu, and used it with great freedom. Though extravagant and didactic, the poem is one of the best romances of the

Arthurian cycle The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Western ...

written in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, apart from the work of

Wolfram von Eschenbach Wolfram von Eschenbach (; – ) was a German knight, poet and composer, regarded as one of the greatest epic poets of medieval German literature. As a Minnesinger, he also wrote lyric poetry. Life Little is known of Wolfram's life. There ar ...

and

Hartmann von Aue Hartmann von Aue, also known as Hartmann von Ouwe, (born ''c.'' 1160–70, died ''c.'' 1210–20) was a German knight and poet. With his works including ''Erec'', ''Iwein'', '' Gregorius'', and ''Der arme Heinrich'', he introduced the Arthuria ...

. A prose version was made toward the close of the fifteenth century and printed at Augsburg in 1493. ''Wigalois'' was edited by F. Pfeiffer (Leipzig, 1847).

References

* This work in turn cites: ** F. Saran, ''Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Litteratur'', vol. xxi. (Halle, 1896). {{authority control Date of birth unknown Date of death unknown German-language poets 13th-century German poets