Kristan von Hamle (or Christan von Hamle) was a

Middle High German Middle High German (MHG; or ; , shortened as ''Mhdt.'' or ''Mhd.'') is the term for the form of High German, High German language, German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High ...

poet from

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

who flourished in the mid-thirteenth century.Henry Garland and Mary Garland (eds.), ''The Oxford Companion to German Literature'', 3rd ed. (Oxford University Press, 1997), s.v. "Kristan von Hamle". Nothing is known about his life or his family, as he has not been identified in any documentary record.Simone Leidinger (2021)
"Christan von Hamle"
in Manuel Braun, Sonja Glauch and Florian Kragl (eds.), ''Lyrik des deutschen Mittelalters''. Six "pleasing",. yet unoriginal songs of the ''

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 ...

'' (

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 ...

) tradition are attributed to him. His main influences were

Heinrich von Morungen Heinrich von Morungen (died 1222) was a Minnesinger, whose 35 surviving Middle High German songs are dated on both literary and biographical grounds to around the period 1190–1200. Alongside Walter von der Vogelweide and Reinmar von Hagenau, Re ...

Walther von der Vogelweide Walther von der Vogelweide (; ) was a Minnesänger who composed and performed love-songs and political songs ('' Sprüche'') in Middle High German. Walther has been described as the greatest German lyrical poet before Goethe; his hundred or s ...

and Gottfried von Neifen. All of his work is preserved in the

Codex Manesse The Codex Manesse (also or Pariser Handschrift) is a (a German term for a manuscript containing songs) which is the single most comprehensive source of Middle High German ''Minnesang'' poetry. It was written and illustrated manuscript, illustr ...

. There he is depicted in a barrel being winched up into a castle by a lady. The image is based on the legend of Virgil in the basket, although it may be that, unlike Virgil, Kristan actually reaches the lady's room. The German philologist

Jacob Grimm Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He formulated Grimm's law of linguistics, and was the co-author of the ''Deutsch ...

had, according to his own account from 1850, his first encounter with medieval German literature when in 1803 he picked up a copy of

Johann Jakob Bodmer Johann Jakob Bodmer (19 July 16982 January 1783) was a Swiss author, academic, critic and poet. Life Born at Greifensee, near Zürich, and first studying theology and then trying a commercial career, he finally found his vocation in letters. In ...

's ''Minnelieder'' in Karl von Savigny's library and opened it to the "poems in a curoius, barely comprehensible German" of Kristan von Hamle and .

Works

*''Der meie kumt mit schalle'' *''Ich bin der, der lieben liebu̍ mere singet'', a

dawn song Dawn Song is a Chinese American academic and is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. She received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2010. Education Song earne ...

, in which the watchman asks God's blessing on the adulterous coupleJonathon Saville, ''The Medieval Erotic Alba: Structure as Meaning'' (Columbia University Press, 1999), p. 98. *''Ich wolte, daz der anger sprechen solte'' *''Mit froͤlichem libe, mit armen umbevangen'' *''Wol mich des sliessens, des si slos'' *''Wunneclichen sol man schowen''

References

{{reflist 13th-century German poets Minnesingers Musicians from Thuringia