Subsequently, a pure friendship develops between these two men (1472), as expressed by Stranmûr’s command that Gêrhart’s wishes all be fulfilled under any circumstances. For the merchant, all this appears a novelty, and he is deeply moved about the purity of the castellan’s extension of friendship and loyalty (“geselleclîcher triuwe,” 1477; loyalty of companionship). This then motivates Gêrhart to offer the personal ‘you’ to the castellan, a significant grammatical feature in German that underscores a close personal relationship: “daz er dutzen mich began,” (1480; that he address me with ‘you’). Subsequently, those two men enjoy their companionship and appear to have found equals in spirit, culture, and character (1482). Neither here nor elsewhere does religion matter, and since they both can communicate perfectly in French, the narrative entirely ignores the fact that the event takes place in the Muslim kingdom of Morocco.
However, the subsequent developments also signal a more problematic situation, which certainly has to be considered as well and which could undermine the positive perspective that has determined the narrative up to this point. First, the castellan asks his new friend to show him all of his merchandise, which he regards as precious and valuable (1489). In fact, it appears to him as the richest he has ever seen, although he himself commands over a comparable one, though it would be of no use for him in his own country (1508).
Subsequently, he suggests an exchange of all of Gêrhart’s goods with his own treasure, which would be of greatest value only in Europe (1511). The merchant is willing to consider this offer as long as they are talking about fairly acquired wares (1514). To his great surprise, Stranmûr’s valuables are not out of gold or silver but consist of a group of captives, that is, twelve young and twelve old English lords, and then also the Norwegian Princess Irene. The latter had been supposed to marry the English prince, and all arrangements had been made, but on the way back to England, the ships had been scattered by strong winds, and her fiancé Wilhelm is believed to have drowned. The lords and the maid had been driven to the coast of Morocco where they were taken prisoners.
For Stranmûr this proved to be a normal situation that allowed him to gain great treasures according to traditional Islamic laws, which Christian societies soon copied as well since the thirteenth century.39 We might wonder why the castellan had not taken possession of Gêrhart’s merchandise right away, since he does not demonstrate any qualms about his captives. The text remains quiet in that regard, but we may assume that the economic basis of this harbor city consisted of trading with merchants from all over the Mediterranean and elsewhere in a respectful, regulated, hence legal, manner. Robbing them of their goods would have threatened the position of that market place. Taking people as prisoners, however, in order to barter them, was a common practice and obviously regarded as a different category, as the castellan confirms himself (1756–60).
Scholarship has debated the economic and legal aspects quite intensively, but we do not need to consider the circumstances more in detail. Instead, our focus rests on the relationship between Stranmûr and Gêrhart and the mutual respect demonstrated by both.40 After all, once the merchant has met all the prisoners and learned about their destiny, the castellan takes him outside again, which provides the narrator the opportunity to qualify Stranmûr one more time as “der ellenthafte man” (1708; the worthy, virtuous man).
After a day deliberating the issue, during which Gêrhart is also visited by an angel in his dream at night, who gives him clear directions as to God’s will, he encounters the castellan again in the morning, who greets him laughingly (1900), which underscores one more time the friendly relationship between the two.41 Stranmûr uses the personal pronoun “dû” since Gêrhart had invited him to do so, but the latter resorts to the more respectful formulation, calling the castellan his ‘lord’. In the subsequent conversation, in which Gêrhart requests the privilege to talk to the prisoners first and to consult with them, but freed from their shackles, Stranmûr emphasizes that he would do so but only as a very special favor, since he would not entrust the captives to anyone else but to his own lord (1930–35). He does not worry about this arrangement because he has found Gêrhart to be completely honorable and faithful (1939–40).
Once the merchant has learned all about the captives and has received their pledges to substitute fully for the money that he would pay through his merchandise to free them from imprisonment, he returns to Stranmûr, whom he gives his greatest praise once again: “mit zuht der zühterîche” (2384; well endowed with great manners and self-control). At first, the protagonist inquires whether any of the prisoners’ goods had been taken, which was only indirectly the case since Stranmûr had ensured that everything had been properly taken care of, which signals how properly he operated in this case, not even taking a penny from them for himself (2392). Moreover, Gêrhart demands that he would receive full supplies for his ship to return home safely. As to be expected by now, the castellan happily complies with that and confirms thereby his great level of honesty and courtly manners, dealing with the Cologne merchant most honorably. The narrator refers to his “zuht” (2409; manner) and his “hübscheit” (2411; courtliness) and thus qualifies him as a most worthy partner, as a nobleman of equal status and education compared to the best contemporaries in Christian Europe, especially Gêrhart, despite their difference in social status.
Subsequently, these two men pledge security to each other (2420) and thus demonstrate that they would cooperate honestly and trustworthily. In terms of character, ethics, values, and ideals, Stranmûr constantly proves to be a model character in every regard. However, he is also mightily pleased with the good deal, earning all of Gêrhart’s merchandise in return for the entire group of captives (2445–51). Yet, there is no hidden agenda for him, and he operates entirely transparently, keeping his promise to supply the new friend with all the means necessary to return home safely, including a load of rocks to fill the bottom of the ship, which would provide it with the necessary balance (2452–56). The narrator returns to his previous concern to formulate worthy epithets for the castellan, calling him “degen wîse” (2457; wise knight) and “werde rîche” (2469; worthy nobleman).
Additionally, in the process of transporting the former captives from their cells to the ship, they burst out crying out of joy and relief. At the same time, the Muslim citizens observing this scene join in, shedding tears as well out of love for the princess (2478–79) since her beauty and tenderness create great empathy for her long-term suffering among all. For the narrator, this aspect serves primarily to highlight the extraordinary quality of the Norwegian princess, who can move people to tears or to laughter depending on her own emotions, but the context also illuminates the extent to which the narrator is prepared to characterize the Muslim population in most positive terms. In fact, we never even learn anything about their religion and can only speculate concerning the complete dominance of Islam in that Moroccan harbor city.
The fact that those nobles and the princess were prisoners in the castellan’s castle has no impact here at all, since the focus rests entirely on the display of a noble character and beauty. Emotionally, hence, the citizens who observe the procession of the entire company to the ship respond in a most worthy and sympathetic fashion, even though the narrator still resorts to the qualifier “heiden” (2478; heathens) for them all. We are not informed at all why all this compassion had not led to the liberation of the princess much earlier, which amounts to some inconsistency, but this is not uncommon for medieval literature.
The former captives receive a bath and are well taken care off, including hearing a mass, which they had been deprived of for the entire duration of their imprisonment (2530–33). Just before their departure, the castellan shows up and demonstrates, once again, what a worthy character he is. Like any other European prince, he is accompanied by knights and squires (2540) and displays the best possible courtly manners (2541), joining them all at their breakfast and extending to them his good wishes (2545), signali
ng thereby that he never had any personal interest in them as his prisoners and certainly did not keep them as his captives for religious reasons. As curious as the entire scene might seem, everyone now displays a happy mood, strong mutual respect, and excellent demeanor (2547).
Most importantly, Stranmûr then gives a speech that deserves highest attention because here we learn about his religious orientation, which proves to be a remarkable documentation of toleration, if not tolerance. At first, he wishes the Christian God’s grace upon Gêrhart, hoping that He would preserve his life. In the case that there might be any other god, he also requests their help and support (2553–54). In other words, for Stranmûr, there is no absolute religious truth, and he is happy to appeal to any god, as long as this would assist his new friend Gêrhart to return home safely. Of course, he is honest enough to admit that he has his own god, Jupiter (2555), and he also refers to the gods Pallas and Juno in the hope that their support would be forthcoming. Subsequently, the castellan refers to “Machmet und Mercûrius, / Thêtis unde Neptûnus” (2559–60), mixing divine figures from Islam and Roman antiquity. Further, he wishes Gêrhart to receive favorable winds from Aeolus (2566), hoping that his journey home would be successful (2570). Finally, Stranmûr blesses the merchant (2573), promises that from then on he would honor all of Christianity (2576–77), and hopes from the bottom of his heart that he would enjoy honor and respect until the end of his life (2579–81).
Both Stranmûr and Gêrhart then break out in tears (2584), deeply saddened that they would have to part from each other, both demonstrating the full degree of friendship as it had developed between them during that short visit. Both men are also quite happy about their purchase, but from here on, the narrative takes a complete turn and leaves the contact and exchange with the Muslim ruler behind.
Gêrhart never refers back to Stranmûr and does not discuss in detail what his relationship with him might have been like. The merchant is happily married back home, has an adult son, and is entirely self-composed and assured of himself because of his great ethical, moral, and religious standards. There is no indication of any homosexual connection, and instead, the narrator entirely relies on the concept of friendship between two men as it was commonly discussed in medieval courtly literature.42 In other words, to avoid any anachronistic reading of this episode, the castellan and the merchant simply enjoy each other’s company out of a strong sense that they both share the same value and cultural background, irrespective of their religious and ethnic differences.
Altogether, as we can conclude, Rudolf presents us with a curious but also impressive situation involving these two men, Gêrhart and Stranmûr. They belong to two clearly separate social classes, and yet they are immediately committed to their company and friendship. Both feel strongly attracted to the other because of the high level of shared cultural values. They recognize immediately that they represent two different religions, but the castellan welcomes the stranger without any restraints and concerns, obviously because he senses, due to the shared knowledge of French, that they are of equal minds.
By the same measure, the Cologne merchant finds the Muslim lord enormously appealing as a person because of his courtly manners and friendliness, and his entire stay at this Moroccan harbor turns out to be a sheer delight. Curiously, even though the Norwegian and English prisoners are suffering badly there, the urban population expresses great sympathy with them when they observe them moving to the ship in order to return home after such a long time in prison. Stranmûr has no hesitation to appeal to the Christian God, and then to address his own gods as well. Curiously, those are mostly Roman gods, so Rudolf did not bother particularly to investigate what the Islamic concept about God would be and how it would be manifested in public. In this respect, the poet reveals that he writes from a Eurocentric perspective and does not really understand or care for Islam. However, to demand the opposite, that is, an explicit demonstration of tolerance in the modern sense of the word, would amount to anachronism. Even the eighteenth-century philosophers and writers such as Locke, Voltaire, and Lessing could not break that mold, and yet we are accepting their ideas as reflecting true tolerance. In other words, it would not be fair to expect Rudolf to be more ‘tolerant’ than his successors hundreds of years after him, and maybe us today.
Although the event takes place in a Moroccan harbor city, there are no noticeable differences to Cologne or London. For Gêrhart, the entire world is open for his operations, and he never experiences any cultural or religious difficulties because the courtly values and material conditions are the same both in the Islamic and the Christian world.
Would we hence be able to talk about toleration or tolerance in this romance? The facts themselves are clear, while the implications require further analysis. After all, Rudolf projects here a most unusual situation where two men who represent strongly opposed religions meet by accident and immediately realize that they enjoy each other’s company. However, both are interested in making a good profit, and a cynic could argue here that economic advantages constitute the essential precondition that makes this friendship possible. Stranmûr cannot negotiate with the king of Norway or the king of England regarding the ransom since they live too far away for him to carry out this business transaction. Even Gêrhart later faces great difficulties to reach out to Irene’s father because all of his efforts to contact him are in vain. Only at the end, once Irene and the English prince Willehalm have married, does her father arrive to participate in the wedding. Logically, then, the castellan figured out quickly that this Cologne merchant would be the best option for him to release those foreigners and make a huge profit for them. Could we hence argue that he is driven by selfish, or at least simply economic, reasons?
But why did the castellan Stranmûr keep the princess and her entourage together with the English lords as captives in the first place? Was this not a sign of cruelty and despotism? How would this fit in with the notion that this Muslim ruler might represent a role model characterized by a sense of tolerance? The narrator does not engage with such issues and leaves us guessing, although the conditions for the English noblemen appear to have been grim, being chained and fettered for a whole year. They receive a bath only after Gêrhart has liberated them by ‘buying’ them from his friend. The princess might have been treated better, but details escape us. However, we would not do justice to medieval literature in general if we were to enforce a strict, if not even rigid, reading of the text.
There is no indication in the narrator’s comments or Stranmûr’s own remarks that holding such valuable prisoners for whom a huge ransom could be paid would have been regarded as particularly cruel or as a sign of hostile feelings between Muslims and Christians. The castellan had not searched for such noble individuals to make a business and had not operated like a pirate. On the contrary, as soon as he has met Gêrhart, does he extend his friendship not only to him, but also to all Christian merchants. The noble prisoners happened to arrive at his harbor, and since they were not merchants, he regarded them as his own, his possession to which he was entitled because of his position as ruler over the harbor city.
Gêrhart expresses great pity for their miserable situation, but he never voices outrage, anger, or bitterness over their fate in the Muslim prison. Nevertheless, he is willing to barter all of his merchandise for them, in the hope that these aristocrats would indeed repay him his goods. In other words, he accepts Stranmûr’s business deal and operates very similarly to him, considering profit and loss and balancing both options rather carefully since he is not a saint but an ordinary merchant operating down on earth, making his living through buying and selling. Of course, the narrator then changes the course of events since Gêrhart lets all the nobles return home without having paid him anything, and he keeps the princess with him in the hope that her father would redeem her. Since the Norwegian king never responds, or never seems to search for his daughter, Gêrhart finally decides to integrate Irene into his own family and marry her to his son, an
d this out of kindness and love for her.43 When the English prince Willehalm finally appears like a deus ex machina, the merchant immediately changes his course and cedes the princess to him, forcing his then grief-stricken son to forgo all marriage plans.
Altogether, this demonstrates Gêrhart’s virtuous life style, his noble ideals, his Christian devotion and piety, and hence his model character to which even the emperor should look up. To be sure, then, a cynical reading would not do justice to this fascinating romance because capitalistic thinking does not dominate the events, as important as money seems to be at all times. The narrative focus consistently rests on the protagonist and his high level of ethical ideals. Because of his outstanding character, the Muslim castellan Stranmûr immediately wants to strike a friendship with him and treats him most respectfully in all their dealings. At the same time, Gêrhart recognizes the same human qualities in the Muslim lord and happily offers his friendship, so both men ultimately overcome all potential hostility and disagreements and part in the best possible terms.
Toleration and Tolerance in Medieval European Literature Page 17