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Frau Minne (''vrowe minne'') is a
Frau Minne (''vrowe minne'') is a personification
Personification is the representation of a thing or abstraction as a person, often as an embodiment or incarnation. In the arts, many things are commonly personified, including: places, especially cities, National personification, countries, an ...
of courtly love
Courtly love ( ; ) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing various deeds or services for ladies b ...
in Middle High German literature
Middle High German literature refers to literature written in German between the middle of the 11th century and the middle of the 14th. In the second half of the 12th century, there was a sudden intensification of activity, leading to a 60-year " ...
.
She is frequently addressed directly in Minnesang
(; "love song") was a tradition of German lyric- and song-writing that flourished in the Middle High German period (12th to 14th centuries). The name derives from '' minne'', the Middle High German word for love, as that was ''Minnesangs m ...
poetry, usually by the pining lover complaining about his state, but she appears also in the longer Minnerede
The Minnerede is a form of Late Middle Ages, late medieval rhyming speech. In contrast to the shorter Minnesang, Minnelieder in canzonal form, it was not sung but spoken. Most of the texts have only a few hundred verses, the Minnereden, which is ...
poems, and in prose works.
A rare allegorical painting of ca. 1400, showing Frau Minne presiding over suffering lovers having their hearts torn from their breasts, was discovered in a guild house in Zurich
Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
in 2009.
Frau Minne is sometimes referred to as the “goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hinduism, Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all re ...
” of romantic love who instils in people feelings of passion and passionate behavior, which is differentiated from other religiously celebrated kinds of love such as Buddhist compassion
Compassion is a social feeling that motivates people to go out of their way to relieve the physical, mental, or emotional pains of others and themselves. Compassion is sensitivity to the emotional aspects of the suffering of others. When based ...
or Christian charity (agape
(; ) is "the highest form of love, charity" and "the love of God for uman beingsand of uman beingsfor God". This is in contrast to , brotherly love, or , self-love, as it embraces a profound sacrificial love that transcends and persists rega ...
).Wright, Peter (2014), "‘Frau Minne’ The Goddess Who Steals Men's Hearts", in Wright, Peter, ed. (2014). Gynocentrism: From Feudalism to Modern Disney Princesses. Amazon Digital. p. 8. ISBN 9781520327327.
See also
* ''Das Kloster der Minne ( The Monastery of Love)''Literature
{{reflist * Dorothea Wiercinski, ''Minne'', Niederdeutsche Studien, 1964. * Konrad Falke, ''Frau Minne: ein mittelalterlicher Weltspiegel''. 1905. Personifications Minnesang Fictional goddesses Love and lust goddesses