22 Jerold C. Frakes, Vernacular and Latin Literary Discourses of the Muslim Other in Medieval Germany (2011).
23 For a global introduction to Walther, see now Gerhard Hahn, Walter von der Vogelweide (1989); Manfred Günther Scholz, Walther von der Vogelweide (1999); Otfrid Ehrismann, Einführung in das Werk Walters von der Vogelweide (2008); Hermann Reichert, Walther von der Vogelweide für Anfänger. 3rd, completely rev. and expanded ed. (1992; 2009). See also Volker Zapf, “Walter von der Vogelweide” (2012), 193–214.
24 Frakes, Vernacular and Latin Literary Discourses (2011), 138; he also summarizes earlier research on German crusading poetry. Here I quote from the following edition: Walther von der Vogelweide, Leich, Lieder, Sangsprüche. 15., veränderte und um Fassungseditionen erweiterte Auflage der Ausgabe Karl Lachmanns, ed. Thomas Bein (2013), Ton 7 (no. 7), here presented in the versions from the mss. A, B, C, E, and Z, plus in the singular stanzas in F and M.
25 Thomas Bein, ed., Walther von der Vogelweide, Leich, Lieder, Sangsprüche (2013), commentary, 33. See also Matthias Nix, Untersuchungen zur Funktion der politischen Spruchdichtung Walthers von der Vogelweide (1993), 270–74. He radically rejects a reading by Wolfgang Haubrichs, “Grund und Hintergrund in der Kreuzzugsdichtung” (1977), 12–62, insisting that Walther did not intend to focus on Jerusalem alone and that he did not mean at all that the other religions believed in the one and only God. Nix operates quite radically, rejecting the alternative arguments without considering the narrative evidence closely enough. At least in this song Walther did not call for a new crusade.
26 Franz Viktor Spechtler, “Der Leich, Lieder zum Thema Heiliges Land und Kreuzzug, Alterslieder” (1996; 2009), 207–12, with a list of the relevant research literature. Spechtler only refers to the efforts by Emperor Frederick II (1194–1250) who negotiated with the Muslims at that time to carry out a peaceful solution regarding the Holy Land (1227–1229), which deeply angered the Pope but certainly achieved Frederick’s goal of regaining access to and control over Jerusalem, even if only in diplomatic terms. Spechtler hence dates Walther’s poem to the same time period (209–10).
27 Christopher R. Clason, “Walther von der Vogelweide and the Middle East” (2013), 411. This is the same conclusion as was drawn by Ulrich Müller, “Die mittelhochdeutsche Lyrik” (1983), 130. See also Nix, Untersuchungen zur Funktion der politischen Spruchdichtung Walthers von der Vogelweide (1993), 272–73.
28 Clason, “Walther von der Vogelweide” (2013), 419.
29 Clason, “Walther von der Vogelweide” (2013), 421.
30 Alfred Mundhenk, Walthers Zuhörer und andere Beiträge zur Dichtung der Stauferzeit (1993).
31 Karl der Große in den europäischen Literaturen des Mittelalters: Konstruktion eines Mythos, ed. Bernd Bastert (2004); Classen, Albrecht, “The Myth of Charlemagne” (2016), peer-reviewed online article at http://www.charlemagne-icon.ac.uk/further-reading/articles/, or: www.charlemagne-icon.ac.uk/wp-content/blogs.dir/332/files/2016/01/Classen-2016-The-Myth-of-Charle magne.pdf. I am currently in the process of getting into print a new monograph on the role of Charlemagne in medieval German and Dutch literature (Brepols).
32 Karel ende Elegast und Karl und Ellegast: mittelniederländisch, neuhochdeutsch, mitteldeutsch, neuhochdeutsch, ed. and trans. Bernd Bastert, Bart Besamusca, and Carla Dauven-van Knippenberg (2005).
33 Volker Zapf, “Karlmeinet” (2013), 962–72.
34 Karl und Galie: Karlmeinet, Teil I: Abdruck der Handschrift A (2290) der Hessischen Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek Darmstadt und der 8 Fragmente, ed. and explained by Dagmar Helm (1986). Here I draw from Karl Meinet, ed. Adelbert von Keller (1858; 1971).
35 See the contributions to Medieval Christian Perceptions of Islam, ed. John Victor Tolan (1996); John Tolan, L’Europe latine et le monde arabe au Moyen ge (2009); Europe and the Islamic World: A History, eds. John Tolan, Gilles Veinstein, and Henry Laurens (2013).
36 David Lawton, Voice in Later Medieval English Literature: Public Interiorities (2017); see also the contributions to Crime, Law and Society in the Later Middle Ages, transl. and ed. by Anthony Musson with Edward Powell (2009); War and Peace: Critical Issues in European Societies and Literature 800–1800, eds. Albrecht Classen and Nadia Margolis (2011). Langland is a famous author, and I cannot do full justice to the relevant scholarship here.
37 William Langland, Piers Plowman, A Modern Verse Translation, trans. by Peter Sutton (2014). For a critical edition, see William Langland, Piers Plowman: A Parallel-Text Edition of the A, B, C and Z Versions. Vol. I: Text, ed. A. V. C. Schmidt (1995); see also William Langland, The Vision of Piers Plowman: A Critical Edition of the B-Text Based on Trinity College Cambridge MS B.15.17. 2nd ed. (1995).
38 For an excellent overview of the various positions regarding Langland’s theological positions and viewpoints, see Robert Adams, “Langland’s Theology” (1988), 7–114.
39 For clarity’s sake I have drawn this passage from [William Langland,] Piers Plowman: The B Version: Will’s visions of Piers Plowman, Do-Well, Do-Better and Do-Best. An Edition in the Form of Trinity College Cambridge MS B.15.17, Corrected and Restored from the Known Evidence, with Variant Readings. Rev. ed. by George Kane and E. Talbot Donaldson (1975; 1988), 444. See also James Simpson, Piers Plowman: An Introduction to the B-Text (1990).
40 The Cambridge Companion to Piers Plowman, ed. Andrew Cole (2014); David Strong, The Philosophy of Piers Plowman (2017).
41 Alfred Ebenbauer, “Reinfried von Braunschweig” (1989), 1171–76; Mike Malm, “Reinfried von Braunschweig” (2012), 855–60 (Malm’s entry is basically a copy of Ebenbauer’s work, with some additional bibliographical references; unfortunately, that is the case throughout this entire encyclopedia; see my review in Mediaevistik 30 [forthcoming). See also Otto Neudeck, Continuum historiale: Zur Synthese von tradierter Geschichtsauffassung und Gegenwartserfahrung im ‘Reinfried von Braunschweig’ (1989); Herfried Vögel, Naturkundliches im ‘Reinfried von Braunschweig’ (1990); Dirk Ohlenroth, “Reinfried von Braunschweig – Vorüberlegungen zu einer Interpretation” (1991), 67–96; Klaus Ridder, Mittelhochdeutsche Minne- und Aventiureromane (1998); Wolfgang Achnitz, Babylon und Jerusalem: Sinnkonstituierung im “Reinfried von Braunschweig” und im “Apollonius von Tyrland” Heinrichs von Neustadt (2002); Christa Agnes Tuczay, “The Book of Zabulon – A Quest for Hidden Secrets” (2017), 395–420.
42 Wendy Scase, Piers Plowman and the New Anticlericalism (1989); Albrecht Classen, “Anti-Clericalism in Late Medieval German Verse” (1993), 91–114; L’anticléricalisme en France méridionale: (fin XIIe-début XIVe siècle) (2003); Albrecht Classen, “Anticlericalism and Criticism of Clerics in Medieval and Early-Modern German Literature” (2014): 283–306.
43 Albrecht Classen, “Tolerance in the Middle Ages?” (2006): 183–223; id., “The Crusader as Lover and Tourist: Utopian Elements in Late Medieval German Literature: From Herzog Ernst to Reinfried von Braunschweig and Fortunatus” (2008), 83–102.
44 See, for instance, Louise D’Arcens, Comic Medievalism (2010).
45 Sharon Kinoshita, “‘Pagans Are Wrong and Christians Are Right’: Alterity, Gender, and Nation in the Chanson de Roland” (2001): 79–111.
46 Sharon Kinoshita, “The Politics of Courtly Love: La Prise d’Orange and the Conversion of the Saracen Queen” (1995): 265–87; eadem, “Beyond Philology: Cross-Cultural Engagement in Literary History and Beyond” (2013), 15–42; Albrecht Classen, “Confrontation with the Foreign World of the East: Saracen Princesses in Medieval German Narratives” (1998): 277–295.
47 The King of Tars, ed. John H. Chandler (2015); online at http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/chandler-the-king-of-tars (last accessed on December 29, 2017).
48 Margaret Schlauch, Chaucer’s Constance and Accused Queens (1969); Siobhain Bly Calkin, Saracens and the Making of English Identity (2013).
49 Jamie Friedman, “Making Whiteness Matter: The King of Tars” (2015): 52–63; Cord J. Whitaker, “Black Metaphors in the ‘King of Tars’” (2013):
169–93.
50 Thomas Kerth, King Rother and His Bride (2010); Claudia Bornholdt, Engaging Moments: The Origins of Medieval Bridal-Quest Narrative (2005).
51 We cannot easily assess the literary quality in those cases, but optimism and trust are not necessarily negative criteria, not even in the Middle Ages. See, for instance, Christopher Köhler, Morungen-Rezeption in Thüringen? (2017). The large corpus of fabliaux, novelli, mæren, and tales is commonly predicated on simple entertainment, but this does not mean that the didactic element then would be missing. See also Max Wehrli, Literatur im deutschen Mittelalter (1984), 163–81. Cf. also the contributions to Laughter in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times, ed. Albrecht Classen (2010).
52 Aucassin et Nicolette. Édition critique, deuxième édition revue et corrigé par Jean Dufourner (1984); the text has been translated numerous times into English; see, for instance, Aucassin and Nicolette and Other Mediaeval Romances and Legends, trans., with an intro., by Eugene Mason (1958). This is now available online at www.yorku.ca/inpar/aucassin_mason.pdf (last accessed on December 29, 2017).
53 Aucassin et Nicolette. Texte critique accompagné de paradigmes et d’un lexique, par Hermann Suchier (1906), VII–VIII.
54 Aucassin et Nicolette: chantefable anonyme du XIIIe siècle, nouvelle traduction et mise en scène de Stéphanie Tesson (2014); Aucassin and Nicolette: A Facing-Page Edition and Translation by Robert S. Sturges (2015).
55 See, for instance, Barbara Nelson Sargent, “Parody in Aucassin et Nicolette” (1970): 591–605; Tony Hunt, “La Parodie médiévale: le cas d’Aucassin et Nicolette” (1979): 341–81; Joseph E. Garreau, “Et si Aucassin et Nicolette n’était qu’ ‘une histoire d’amour fort simple’?” (1985): 184–93.
56 Maria Segol, “Medieval Cosmopolitanism and the Saracen-Christian Ethos” (2004 June). She argues, according to her abstract, “the writers [of Floire and Blancheflor and Aucassin et Nicolette] work actively to incorporate Islamic culture and its accomplishments into a hybrid communal identity. The hybrid elements of this identity are demonstrated in two ways: first, through the portrayal of mixed couples and second, through depiction of a biculturally constituted landscape and culture. Intercultural relations between the characters are dramatized through the structures of religious conversion. Each romance features a mixed couple, with one member Christian and the other, formerly Muslim but converted at some point in the narrative. In each work, the validity of Muslim lover’s conversion is probed through an interrogation and a problematization of the process.” There are a number of problems with these claims, although I certainly agree with the observation that these narratives reflect on the creation of hybrid cultures. By contrast, there are no clear attempts to portray the Saracen culture, there is no explicit strategy to achieve religious conversion, and certainly no “interrogation and problematization of the process.” Modern theory here trumps solid critical philology and becomes a victory of galloping horses running away from the original text.
57 There are numerous examples of a woman working as a minstrel, such as Josiane in Beuve de Hanstone, Maugalie in Floovant, of Marthe in Ysaïe le Triste; see the commentary by Jean Dufourner, ed. (1984), 190, n. 6.
58 This would be another good example for the global claim that medieval and early modern hygiene was on a much higher standard than we commonly assume; see the contributions to Bodily and Spiritual Hygiene in Medieval and Early Modern Literature, ed. Albrecht Classen (2017). Aucassin et Nicolette is, however, not discussed there.
59 The original contains the relevant verse: “où Aucassin l’épousa” (XLI, 18), which the English translation skips, probably for the rhyme’s sake.
60 I know of only one example in medieval literature where this situation is explicitly mentioned, in Heinrich Rafold’s “Der Nussberg,” late thirteenth or early fourteenth century; for an English translation, see Erotic Tales of Medieval Germany. Sec. ed. rev. and expanded. Selected and trans. by Albrecht Classen (2007; 2009), 67–68.
61 Glyn S. Burgess, Aucassin et Nicolette (1995), 80; Albrecht Classen, Aucassin et Nicolette (2006), 44–46; Friedrich Wolfzettel, “Das gefährdete Paradis: Zum idyllischen Roman im französischen Mittelalter” (2009): 21–38; Robert S. Sturges, “Race, Sex, Slavery: Reading Fanon with Aucassin et Nicolette” (2015): 12–22.
62 Joachim Reinhold, Floire et Blancheflor: étude de littérature comparée (1906; 1970); Eliane Kolmerschlag, Interpretation und Übersetzung des Conte de Floire et Blancheflor (1995); Patricia E. Grieve, Floire and Blancheflor and the European Romance (1997). For a more detailed listing of the various language versions, which I have compiled, see http://aclassen.faculty.arizona.edu/content/ger-312-floris-and-blancheflor (last accessed on September 12, 2017).
63 Bodo Gotzkowsky, Volksbücher, Part I (1991), 49–53.
64 Ein Comedi mit fünfftzehen Personen Florio deß Königs Son auß Hispania mit der schön Bianceffora (Nuremberg: Sartorius, ca. 1640).
65 Christine Putzo, Konrad Fleck: ‘Flore und Blanscheflur’ (2015). See also Robert d’Orbigny, Le Conte de Floire et Blanchefleur (2003).
66 www.handschriftencensus.de/werke/204 (last accessed on December 29, 2017).
67 Mike Malm, “Fleck, Konrad” (2013), 256–62. The particular value of this article is the extended bibliography; otherwise it is pretty much a digestion of previous lexicon entries.
68 J. H. Winkelman, Die Brückenpächter- und die Turmwächterepisode im ‘Trierer Floyris’ und in der ‘Version Aristocratique’ des altfranzösischen Florisromans (1977).
69 This is one of the many interesting examples of courtly romances containing a narrative within the master narrative, which then in a way recounts the entire story once again. Ingrid Kasten, “Der Pokal in ‘Flore und Blanscheflur’” (1996), 189–98, only focuses on an ekphrastic element, but misses the opportunity in this context to reflect also on Flore’s retelling of all of his adventures.
70 Mireille Schnyder, “Lachen oder schweigen?: Inszenierungen von Macht und Ohnmacht an den Grenzen des Verstehens” (2017), 13–15.
71 Siegfried Christoph, “The Language and Culture of Joy” (2008), 319–33.
72 For instance, King Horn, Floriz and Blauncheflur, The Assumption of our Lady, ed. George H. McKnight (1962); Floire et Blancheflor, ed. Margaret M. Pelan (1956); Il Cantare di Fiorio e Biancifiore, ed. and ill. by Vincenzo Crescini (1889; 1969).
73 Romane des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts, ed. Jan-Dirk Müller (1990), 385–585; Albrecht Classen, The German Volksbuch. A Critical History of a Late-Medieval Genre (1995, reissued 1999), 163–83; for the print history, see Bodo Gotzkowsky, “Volksbücher” (1991), 420–36.
74 Hannes Kästner, Fortunatus – peregrinator mundi (1990); John Van Cleve, The Problem of Wealth in the Literature of Luther’s Germany (1991), 85–110; Albrecht Classen, “Die Welt eines spätmittelalterlichen Kaufmannsreisenden” (1994): 22–44; id., “Die Bedeutung von Geld in der Welt des hohen und späten Mittelalters” (2001): 565–604; Mara R. Wade, “Geld, Geschlecht und gute Ordnung im frühneuhochdeutschen Roman ‘Fortunatus’” (2016), 207–24.
75 Ulrich von Etzenbach, Wilhalm von Wenden: Text, Übersetzung, Kommentar, ed. and trans. by Mathias Herweg (2017); see also Albrecht Classen, “Emergence of Tolerance: An Unsuspected Medieval Phenomenon” (1992): 586–99.
76 Sharon Kinoshita, Medieval Boundaries: Rethinking Difference in Old French Literature (2006); see also the contributions to A Companion to Mediterranean History, eds. Peregrine Horden and Sharon Kinoshita (2014); Albrecht Classen, “Transcultural Experiences in the Late Middle Ages: The German Literary Discourse on the Mediterranean World” (2015): 676–701; doi:10.3390/h4040676.
77 Though not necessarily addressing toleration or tolerance, Mathias Herweg, Wege zur Verbindlichkeit: Studien zum deutschen Roman um 1300 (2010), offers valuable insights into the transformation of late medieval German literature with respect to the discovery of innovative narrative spaces, the concept of the miracle, memory, and the relevance of an encyclopedic wo
rld view.
78 I would like to express my gratitude to my dear colleague Marilyn Sandidge, Westfield State University, MA, for her critical reading of this chapter.
7 Philosophical and Religious Outreaches to the Other Faiths from the High to the Late Middle Ages
Peter Abelard, Ramon Llull, and Nicholas of Cusa
Christianity in a Sea of Other Religions
In the introduction, I remarked that this book could not pursue the goal of identifying intellectuals of the caliber of Voltaire, Locke, or Lessing in the Middle Ages, true and outspoken representatives of an emerging discourse on tolerance. We all can easily agree that these eighteenth-century individuals were indeed major spokespersons of a new approach toward the intra-human exchange, intra-religious dialogue, and open-ended discourse, and each one of them would deserve a whole book-length study to do justice to their thoughts and ideas, especially because they laid the foundation for the modern concepts of tolerance as it constitutes a cornerstone of Western democracy and freedom.1
Toleration and Tolerance in Medieval European Literature Page 30