Women and the Perfect Hero: A Critical Re-reading of Heinrich von dem Türlîn’s Diu Crône

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Women and the Perfect Hero:
A Critical Re-reading of
Heinrich von dem Türlîn’s Diu Crône
Madelon Köhler-Busch
Heinrich von dem Türlîn wrote Diu Crône1 (The Crown, the pinnacle of all
adventures), at the end of the classical period of Middle High German (MHG)
courtly literature. By the time Heinrich wrote Diu Crône (c. 1220 CE), the Arthurian
tradition had become firmly established in the French and German vernacular,
from Chrestien de Troyes to Hartmann von Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach,
and Gottfried von Straßburg. The backdrop of the Arthurian court and the
framework of its stories and characters from different traditions were thus well
known to Heinrich and would have been familiar to his audience. While Diu
Crône is clearly beholden to the tradition of classical MHG Arthurian romances
as well as to their French predecessors, it has been classified since the nineteenth
century as one of the post-classical MHG Arthurian romances for a variety of
structural and stylistic reasons. These post-classical romances are generally read
in the shadow of the romances of the “Blütezeit”. Indeed, with 30,000 lines and
a great abundance of recurring Arthurian dramatis personae, motifs and chains
1 Diu Crône von Heinrich von dem Türlîn, ed. G. H. F. Scholl (Stuttgart, 1852). Heinrich
wrote Diu Crône probably between 1220 and not later then 1240. My citations are taken
from Scholl’s edition. Translations into English are mine unless otherwise noted. The manuscript
situation and provenance are discussed in Christopher Kolb, “Bruchstück aus der
Aventiure Krone“, Germania 31 (1886): 116. For manuscript descriptions and provenance
see the foreword by Fritz Peter Knapp and Manuela Niesner, ed., Heinrich von dem Türlin,
Die Krone (Verse 1-12281). Nach der Handschrift 2779 der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek
nach Vorarbeiten von Alfred Ebenbauer, Klaus Zatloukal und Horst P. Pütz (Tübingen:
Niemeyer, 2000), IX –XII. See Klaus Zatloukal, Heinrich von dem Türlin: Diu Krone.
Ausgewählte Abbildungen zur gesamten handschriftlichen Überlieferung (Göppingen:
Kümmerle, 1982) for facsimile reproductions and manuscript comparison. See also Arno
Menzel-Reuters, Vröude Artusbild, Fortuna- und Gralkonzeption in der Crône des Heinrich
von dem Türlin als Verteidiging des höfischen Lebensideals (Frankfurt a. M.: Peter Lang,
1989), 4-7, for the state of manuscript investigations; for a thorough overview of secondary
literature on Diu Crône see ibidem, 319-336.
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of adventure, this story has been deemed an “interpretative challenge.”2 Admittedly,
there are many aspects of the romance that contribute to this interpretive
challenge. Diu Crone, in contrast to earlier romances, does appear to be a long
and perhaps rather rambling story of Gawein, preceded by a short childhood
story of King Arthur. To date, numerous scholarly efforts have been made to
overcome this challenge and determine the structural, content and qualitative
shifts within this romance.3 These efforts have been largely unsuccessful in placing
Diu Crone appropriately in the Arthurian canon because they do have not
recognized the truly innovative quality of Heinrich’s narrative.
This innovation lies in the fact that the two narratives (of Arthur and of
Gawein) are connected thematically and structurally through adventures that offer
(to the modern interpreter) an unusual and comparatively impressive number
of independent, actively helping women. These women are essential to both
Arthur’s and Gawein’s survival, and they hold an unusual degree of prominence
and centrality in the structure and meaning.4 The overarching presence in both
the Arthur and Gawein narratives is the Goddess Fortuna, also named Vrouwe
Sælde, who shares strong similarities with Vladimir Propp’s category of helper,5
but her functions go beyond this supporting category. Clearly, most prominently
in the form of Vrouwe Sælde but also in the actions of other female figures, the
helper women are essential to the structure and narrative plot. This significance
has been duly noted; however, the scope of inquiry into this surprising number
of active women has been traditionally limited with respect to the Crone. This
2 Hartmann Bleumer, Die Crône Heinrichs von dem Türlîn. Formerfahrung und Konzeption
eines späten Artusromans (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1997), 1.
3 See Albrecht Classen, “Introduction,” in Women as Protagonists and Poets in the German
Middle Ages. An Anthology of Feminist Approaches to Middle High German Literature, ed.
idem (Göppingen: Kümmerle, 1991), i-xxi; Christopher Cormeau, Wigalois und Diu Crône.
Zwei Kapitel zur Gattungsgeschichte des nachklassischen Aventiurenromans (Munich: Artemis,
1977); Andreas Daiber, Bekannte Helden in neuen Gewändern? Intertextuelles Erzählen
im Biterolf und Dietlieb sowie am Beispiel Keies und Gaweins im Lanzelet, Wigalois
und der Crône (Frankfurt a. M.: Peter Lang, 1999); Lewis Jillings, Diu Crône of Heinrich
von dem Türlein: the Attempted Emancipation of Secular Narrative (Göppingen: Kümmerle,
1980); Werner Schröder, “Zur Literaturverarbeitung durch Heinrich von dem Türlîn in einem
Gawein-Roman Diu Crône,” Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur
121/2 (1992): 131-174; Peter Stein, Intergration-Variation-Destruktion. Die ‘Crône’ Heinrichs
von dem Türlin (Bern: Peter Lang, 2000); Neil Thomas, Diu Crône and the medieval
Arthurian Cycle (Woodbridge, UK: D.S. Brewer, 2002); Annegret Wagner-Harken, Märchenelemente
und ihre Funktion in der ‘Crône’ Heinrichs von dem Türlîn. Ein Beitrag zur
Unterscheidung zwischen ‘klassischer’ und ‘nachklassischer’ Artusepik, Deutsche Literatur
von den Anfängen bis 1700, 21 (Bern: Peter Lang, 1995); Ulrich Wyss, “Heinrich von dem
Türlîn: Diu Crône,” in Mittelhochdeutsche Romane und Heldenepen, ed. Horst Brunner
(Stuttgart: Reclam, 1993), 271-292.
4 Nancy N. Zach, The Portrayal of the Heroine in Chréstien de Troyes’s ‘Erec and Enide’,
Gottfried von Strassburg’s ‘Tristan’, and ‘Flamenca,’ Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik
347 (Göppingen: Kümmerle, 1983), 17.
5 Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale, 2nd ed. (Austin: Indiana UP, 1970), 79.
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limited scope is the result of a double “mis-interpretation” of Heinrich’s work in
the history of its criticism and interpretation. First, as noted above, the Crone
has been interpreted in the shadow of the romance “exempla” provided by
Hartmann von Aue and Wolfram von Eschenbach. Second, modern interpretations
of medieval were certainly influenced and shaped by some of the cultural
perspectives that existed in nineteenth century Europe at the time of the inception
of German medieval studies. Of particular interest to me here are the deepseated
reflections of ideals and possibilities in terms of female gender constructs.
6 Nadine Bourdessoule formulates the ongoing need and effort to avoid
these exclusionary practices:
Feminist critics are today rereading and analyzing medieval texts with a
view to bring out another, or other, voices. Contained in the text but
masked by more than a century of medieval studies that have either manipulated
or overlooked the feminine presence, these voices express
something that is not stated explicitly, and that therefore eludes philology
and taxonomy.7
The tendency to understate the role of women produces a skewed understanding
of medieval texts and of the societies that produced them. A slanted and incomplete
view of women, pre-defined by a restricted analytical code is the result.
Although Bourdessoule is referring specifically to French medieval texts, her
statement can also be applied to the literary analysis of MHG texts. Obviously,
interpretations of these texts have been influenced and shaped by the historical
and cultural limitations of the construct woman in nineteenth century Europe,
remaining from the time of their initial discovery and interpretation of these
texts. A refocusing of the critical lens is necessary if we wish to gain a more integrated
understanding of text and context, particularly in the example of the
Crone, a work that seems to offer even modern critics a challenge. In this light I
wish to examine the basic structural significance of women in Diu Crône as
Heinrich introduces them in the story of Arthur’s youth, which precedes the
Gawein story. Ultimately, a newly re-focused reading of this work may rehabilitate
it for the Middle High German canon in a way that will offer a new view of
Heinrich’s narrative innovations, a view that can only be found through a modern
feminist lens. This lens will, in turn, help us penetrate the nineteenth-century
6 Sheila Fisher and Janet E. Halley, ed., Seeking the Woman in Late Medieval and Renaissance
Writings. Essays in Feminist Contextual Criticism (Knoxville: U of Tennessee P,
1989); Classen, “Introduction;” Ingrid Bennewitz, “Frauenliteratur im Mittelalter oder feministische
Mediävistik? Überlegungen zur Entwicklung der geschlechtergeschichtichen Forschung
in der germanistischen Mediävistik der deutschsprachigen Länder,” Zeitschrift für
deutsche Philologie 112.3 (1993): 383-393; Thelma S. Fenster, ed., Arthurian Women. A
Casebook (New York: Garland, 1996).
7 Nadine Bourdessoule, “‘Fine Words on Closed Ears’: Impertinent Women, Discordant
Voices, Discourteous Words.” In Reassessing the Heroine in Medieval French Literature,
ed. Kathy M. Krause (Gainesville: UP of Florida, 2001), 123.
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“film” that has prevented us from seeing some very sophisticated thirteenth-century
discussions of gender.
Diu Crône is unique among Middle High German romances in its choice
of Gawein as a protagonist. The choice of Gawein as protagonist of an Arthurian
romance inevitably brings with it a change in plot development and a departure
from the narrative elements and structure of previous MHG Arthurian romances,
which exhibit the genre-defining bipartite structure of the hero’s loss of and subsequent
reintegration into the Arthurian court society. The major theme of the
classical MHG courtly Arthurian romance is the personal development of one
hero knight within the parameters of conduct set forth in courtly society. This
hero needs to find a healthy balance of his individual needs and external knightly
virtues, foremost the dominant virtue of maze (‘balance’). The generic story sequence
chronicles the hero’s journey to such balance. First, the hero attains his
personal goal and gains initial acceptance as a member of Arthurian society. The
hero then commits a transgression against the knightly code, signalling that he
has not yet internalized this code. The transgression results in the hero’s exclusion
from the Arthurian court; he then undergoes a lengthy process of personal
redemption, outwardly visible as adventures, during which he must face his
weakness. Once the hero shows that he has incorporated the true meaning of the
knightly code into his psyche, he achieves reintegration into Arthurian courtly
society. In other words, the narration of the social stress between a single hero’s
private behaviour at odds with society’s behavioural code results in the expected
generic bipartite structure, arguably present in all MHG Arthurian romances before
Diu Crône.
Volker Mertens states that the motivation behind such a developmental
narrative lies in Chrétien de Troyes’ concept, “eine Problematik der höfischen
Gesellschaft darzustellen und dem Hörer erfahrbar zu machen” (‘to present a
fault of courtly society to his audience and thus allow the audience to experience
it’).8 Hartmann von Aue’s protagonists Erec and Iwein will serve as examples of
such transgressions within the MHG tradition, presumably reflecting real issues
of courtly society. Erec’s transgression is verligen (‘to stay in bed too long’),
here an action resulting in ‘neglect’; in this case the protagonist’s obsessive attention
to his wife to the exclusion of his courtly obligations. In contrast Iwein’s
transgression is “versitzen” ‘to remain seated too long’, here an action resulting
in ‘disregard’; the protagonist’s fixation on combat and jousting to the detriment
of attention to his marriage and his obligations as ruler. The premised behavioural
weakness of the hero and the narration of his subsequent personal development
then supply the structure of classical MHG Arthurian courtly romance.9
8 Volker Mertens, “Artus,” in Epische Stoffe des Mittelalters, ed. idem and Ulrich Müller,
(Stuttgart: Kröner, 1984), 295.
9 Silvia Ranawake, „verligen und versitzen: Das Versäumnis des Helden un die Sünde der
Trägheit in den Artusromanen Hartmanns von Aue“, in Chrestien de Troyes and the German
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The narrative structure is determined by the outward actions, which signify the
internal learning process of the hero. The hero can reclaim his place in the
knightly brotherhood at the Arthurian court only by overcoming the thematic
weakness in his character and internalizing the true meaning of the knightly code.
The challenge to understanding the structure and the meaning of Diu
Crône, then, lies first in the fact that Gawein cannot exhibit a comparable flaw as
Erec’s or Iwein’s with similar far-reaching effects for him as an individual and
for the society to which he belongs. The reason for this is that, in the Arthurian
tradition of the time, Gawein is prefigured as the perfect and perfected knight and
he is presented as such in Diu Crône.10 With this designation the narrative cannot
logically revolve around Gawein’s failing the knightly code and the tale of his
subsequent internalization of that code. Furthermore, there can be no subsequent
re-attainment of his place in this society, as he has never lost it. In this sense, Diu
Crône cannot exhibit the expected bipartite structure centred on a knight’s psychological
and social development, nor can it revolve around a knight’s ethical
development. Gawein’s perfection precludes a narrative about the tension between
individual action and society’s differing demands.
Alfred Ebenbauer makes exactly this point, when he states that choosing
Gawein as hero must result in structural consequences. But he sees as alternative
to a meaningful narration of the hero’s personal development only a string of adventures
without an overarching ethical program:
Wählt man Gawein zum Helden einer Geschichte, so ergeben sich sofort notwendige
strukturelle Konsequenzen… Die Einbettung Gaweins in das traditionelle
Schema des Artusromans wäre wirklich Zerfall und kann, da Gawein
keine Geschichte hat wie Erec, Iwein, Lanzelot oder Parzival, nur zu einer
“programmlosen” Abenteuerkette oder im besseren Fall…zur Gestaltung eines
einzelnen besonderen Abenteuers führen.11
(If one chooses Gawein to be the hero of a story structural consequences will
result right away… To imbed Gawein into the traditional scheme of the Arthurian
romance would truly be disintegration, and because Gawein does not
have a story like Erec, Iwein, Lanzelot or Parzival this can only result in a series
of non-programmatic adventures or at best to the development of one
special adventure.)
Middle Ages. Papers from an International Symposium, ed. Martin H. Jones and Roy Wisbay
(Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk: St. Edmundbury Press, 1993), 19-35.
10 B. K. Ray (The Character of Gawein, London et al.: U of Dacca, 1926) traces the changing
character attributed to Gawein from an early entirely positive inscription, a derivation of a
pre-Christian sun deity, to deprecation in the French prose tradition and especially in the
Middle English compilations. These later regional negative reinterpretations of Gawein occur
after the writing of Diu Crône.
11 Alfred Ebenbauer, Fortuna und Artushof. Bemerkungen zum ‘Sinn’ der Krone Heinrichs
von dem Türlin, in Österreichische Literatur zur Zeit der Babenberger. Vorträge der Lilienfelder
Tagung 1976, ed. idem et al. (Vienna: Halosar, 1977), 32.
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Clearly, structural consequences are inevitable when Gawein is chosen as the
protagonist of an Arthurian romance, but Ebenbauer’s further point, that the result
must be, and in Diu Crône is, a mere recounting of a string of adventures,
devoid of programmatic intent needs to be examined further.12 Heinrich certainly
regales his listeners and readers with an overwhelming number of, often bizarre,
adventures, but he also fills the resultant content vacuum with a thematic shift
away from the developing individual knight and onto the Arthurian court itself.
The survival of the Arthurian court becomes the main theme and this survival is
guaranteed by extra-courtly women. This is a radical departure in the evolution
of the MHG Arthurian romance. I choose to read this departure not as a necessary
loss of narrative integrity of a post-classical Arthurian romance but as a deliberate
shift toward a different prominent narrative element, the extra-courtly
female helper figures.
In the prequel to the Gawein story, the account of Arthur’s childhood,
Heinrich announces that Arthur will die young. He also identifies Gawein as the
heir apparent to Arthur, and thus it can be argued that Gawein’s survival becomes
the metaphor for the survival of the Arthurian court, which is the true focal point
of the narrative. Cormeau13 states that the need both to safeguard the new Arthur
and to guarantee the survival of his court becomes paramount. In the Gawein
story there is the same shift in focus filled with the narrative of powerful, extracourtly
women figures and their efforts to protect Gawein and the court, both of
which depend on these women for survival.
For Gawein to become an epic character rather than remain the traditional,
perfect foil to the developing hero requires some changes in characterization.
Pickering14 describes the figure of Gawein as one of the oldest in the Arthurian
myth, a strong warrior and womanizer. Both characteristics are carried over into
the classical MHG romances, even though here the womanizing aspect is by no
means as developed as in the French sources or in later English versions and carries
no narrative stigma. In Diu Crône we certainly meet Gawein, the strong warrior,
but the womanizing aspect is not a major theme. By the end of the first half
of the Gawein narrative, at line 13861, he is safely married to Amurfina, who is
in her own right a powerful ruler over her own country. Yet unlike the heroes of
other Arthurian romances, Gawein does not leave the Arthurian court to fulfill
his role as co-ruler in his wife’s domain, rather Amurfina becomes a part of the
Arthurian court. With this move, the ever-present threat to the Arthurian court of
losing Arthur’s heir Gawein to marriage is neutralized. With a perfect Gawein
safely married at the Arthurian court, yet without the responsibilities of an extracourtly
rulership, the thematic shift of focus to the survival of the Arthurian court
is made possible.
12 Ibidem.
13 Cormeau, Wigalois, 10.
14 David Pickering, A Dictionary of Folklore (New York: Makays of Chatham, 1999), 118.
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Arthur’s Childhood:
Establishing the Pattern of Female Helpers and Protectors
Any literary analysis, which diminishes or excludes the female presence in a text
is more than mere illusion; it distorts the overall understanding of how the text is
a product of its social, historical and cultural context. In the case of Arthurian
literary criticism such exclusionary practices have long prevailed, and an incomplete,
skewed picture of the texts within this genre has evolved. Ralf Simon describes
the basic point of departure for the analysis of any medieval romance that
“Die Gattung Arthusroman definiert sich in jeder Funktion aus der Perspektive
des Helden”15 (‘The genre Arthurian romance is defined by the perspective of the
hero’). This fundamental premise of the absolute centrality of the hero could of
course be the reason for the pervasive bypassing of the analysis regarding the
guardian women and their structural importance to Diu Crône. In an introduction
to a study of Arthurian women Sharan Newman judges the level of exegesis of
female figures in the Arthurian literature with alarm:
… up until this century the canon of Arthurian legend has marginalized or
ejected women. I want to put them back where they belong. By abandoning
the female, the story was diminished. The lack of serious studies of
the feminine side of Camelot has meant that Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot, and
the other knights have received a disproportionate amount of attention.16
This still holds true for Crône criticism to date, where the centrality of the theme
and motif of female guardian and female helper continue to be overlooked.
There is, of course, no question that Gawein is the hero of this romance, and as
such, much scholarly attention has been paid to him. Yet a defining element of
the Gawein story, as well as the initial Arthur story, is the number of essential
women figures whose actions shape and define the structure and meaning of the
romance. This structural element warrants much more scholarly attention, as the
motif of the helping and protecting woman, with few notable exceptions,17 has
been ignored, glossed over or made light of. The need to address these women
and “put them back where they belong” into the discourse about the story is
clear. Furthermore, the lack of a unified interpretation of Diu Crône has resulted
precisely because of the failure to incorporate these female narrative elements
into the overall analysis of the hero’s activities, and by extension, those of the
court, as well as the social ideals and criticism of courtly society in general.
There certainly exist many fine analyses and interpretations touching on
aspects involving individual female figures. Yet these analyses stop short of
considering a shift of structural and meaningful incorporation of these women
into the poetological structure. As a case in point, I would like to examine two
15 Ralf Simon, Einführung in die strukturalistische Poetik des mittelalterlichen Romans
(Würzburg: Königshausen und Neumann, 1990), 9.
16 Sharan Newman, “Foreword,” in Arthurian Women. A Casebook, ed. Thelma Fenster (New
York: Garland, 1996), xiv.
17 Zach, The Portrayal; Wagner-Harken, Märchenelemente.
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studies, divergent in method and time: Alfred Ebenbauer’s article “Fortuna und
Arthushof”18 and Peter Stein’s monograph Integration-Variation-Destruktion.”19
Ebenbauer provides a synopsis of Gawein’s action-filled journey to Vrouwe
Sælde. He portrays Gawein as the active hero throughout this particular series of
adventures by using active voice verbs to describe Gawein’s involvement and
success in these adventures. Ebenbauer20 describes Gawein as actively overcoming
the dangers facing him and actively taking possession of a skein of thread,
the only thing that can lead the way to Vrouwe Sælde, and with it the protection
of the Arthurian court, which she represents.
Ebenbauer focuses on the final outcome of this particular cluster of
adventures rather than the actual process of getting through it. Later in his essay,
Ebenbauer does note that Gawein had two helpers, but he acknowledges this important
fact in passing. He mentions the female helper Siamerac in only one sentence,
in which he also mentions a male helper, but he makes no qualitative distinction
between Siamerac and the male helper, whose assistance is infinitely
less critical. Ebenbauer’s assertion that Gawein is the active creator of his success
is only partially accurate, because it ignores the underlying essential help
and advice given by Siamerac. By discounting this essential element of the
story, Ebenbauer disregards a motif pattern in this narrative; his analysis perpetuates
the traditional invisibility of women in Arthurian critical discourse.
A similar example of off-handedness toward women figures can be found
in Peter Stein’s monograph, even though Stein does give the female helper figures
considerable attention. Although Stein looks at the women helpers with
much greater scrutiny, he, too, fails to see the basic structural significance of
Siamerac and other women helpers for Gawein’s success and thus for the narrative
as a whole. He even argues that there is no structural logic for any motivation
for Siamerac or the other women helpers to give aid, and therefore there is
no meaning to their acts.21 Yet Stein does attach such meaning to the assistance
provided by the magician Gansguoter, uncle to Gawein’s wife Amurfina, when
he gives aid to Gawein and his three fellow knights Keiî, Lancelot, and Kalocreant,
on their quest to retrieve the stolen jewels of protection for the Arthurian
court. Stein asserts that Gansguoter gives aid because he is able to do so, because
he wants to, and because that is what a friend does, as represented in the
text:
In wart gedienet harte wol
Und wirdeclîchen, als man sol,
An allen dingen,
Als er ez volbringen
18 Ebenbauer, Fortuna und Artushof, 25-49.
19 Stein, Integration-Variation-Destruktion: Die Crône Heinrichs von dem Türlîn innerhalb
der Gattungsgeschichte des deutschen Artusromans, (Bern: Lang, 2000).
20 Ebenbauer, Fortuna und Artushof, 26-27.
21 Stein, Integration, 162 and 188.
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Mohte, und ez ouch gerne tete.
Sin gewerp mit vriundes bete (…) v. 27252-57
(They were served well and with honor, as it should be in all things, as
well as he [Gansguoter] could accomplish it, and he did so gladly. He
[Gawein’s uncle] spoke as a friend…)
While Heinrich does indeed make this assertion, the same argument must be
made for the women helpers, especially in light of the fact that many of them are
in some way connected to the Fortuna/Sælde figure, and it is she who had been
Arthur’s foster parent and a close, personal protector from childhood on. Fortuna/
Sælde is indeed the archetype of a motherly friend. It is Vrouwe Sælde,
who in the Gawein story identifies Gawein as her chosen favorite, when he arrives
at her castle Ordohoht; here she not only blesses Gawein, but also grants
him protection as Arthur’s successor, thus guaranteeing the continuation of the
Arthurian court, just as she had done with Arthur. The helping women in the
Gawein story are an amplification and development of the matrix of female
mythological figures that form, protect, educate Arthur. They are benefactrices
of Arthur, Arthur’s successor Gawein, and of the Arthurian court society. Their
intention is clear: to continue to protect and aid what they took part in creating.
In the following section I will shift the discussion toward the women figures in
Diu Crône to develop a more balanced understanding of this text.
The motif of the helping woman
My understanding of the motif, its inner content and structure and its function
within the greater narrative is indebted to Frenzel’s classical motif scholarship.22
‘Motif’ is to be understood as a narrow narrative element with typical content
and a formal scheme. The type and scheme however do not necessitate an inflexible,
one-dimensional realization, but rather they constitute the basic pattern
for variations. Although differing in meaning, these variations are recognizable
versions of the basic form. The basic form ‘aiding female’ shows the following
variations in Diu Crône: ‘protective goddess’, ‘aiding woman’, ‘counseling
woman’, and ‘prognosticating woman’. The situational specificity, the twist,
which creates the tension necessary for a ‘true motif’, lies in the apposition of
the directional activity: giving advice, aid, protection versus receiving advice,
aid, and protection. The recipient of the action is the hero, which gives the motif
a recognizable contour. In his analysis of folktale morphology Propp terms a
similarly acting dramatis personae the helper. He describes the sphere of action
of the helper as “ liquidation of misfortune or lack; rescue from pursuit; the solution
of difficult tasks.”23 Fortuna/Vrouwe Sælde’s actions overlap also with
22 Elisabeth Frenzel, Motive der Weltliteratur. Ein Lexikon dichtungsgeschichtlicher Längsschnitte
(Stuttgart: Kröner, 1992).
23 Propp, Morphology, 79.
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those of Propp’s donor function “provision of the hero with a magical agent.”24
To reflect the particular narrative situation in Diu Crône I find an extended additional
category useful, which I term the protectress. The narrative situations I
am investigating have the following basic fairytale pattern:
– a need arises or a danger looms
– a hero needs outside intervention to alleviate this need, or danger
– a [woman] helper provides assistance or a thing needed
– a need is fulfilled or a dangerous situation is resolved.
Within this structure, I am interested in specific situational aspects in Diu Crône.
I am posing the following questions:
– What is the nature of the need or danger?
– What is the qualitative content of the aiding-women motif?
– How does the narrator value the woman?
– What function does this woman have within the narrative?
Women creators and protectors in the story of Arthur’s childhood
My analysis focuses on the Arthurian prequel because it is the key to reading the
rest of the poem. Here the structure for the interpretation of both the Arthur and
Gawein narratives are put in place, by introducing the structural element of the
essential women.
Arthur’s story follows the prologue (v. 1-160), in which Heinrich promises
his readers a story about King Arthur. He announces that he will amend the
already known glorious deeds of King Arthur with heretofore unknown facts
about Arthur’s childhood and youth. This proclamation of new material is of the
utmost importance: it allows a paradigmatic shift.
Uns ist dicke geseit
Von maneger hant vrümekeit,
Wie Artûs der künec begienc.
Wâ ez sich êrste anevienc,
Daz ist ein teil unkunt,
Ich will es aber zu dirre stunt
Ein teil machen kunder
Und wil iu doch dar under
Sîner tugende anegenge sagen,
Wie ez in sînen kinttage
Im allererste ergienge (…) v. 161-171
(We have often heard from many sources of King Arthur’s deeds. But how it
all began is for the most part unknown. I will now tell you that story, what
happened to him during his early days of childhood. Emphasis mine.)
24 Ibidem.
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Arthur’s childhood is an uncommon theme in Arthurian romances, yet
Heinrich’s mission statement expressly focuses on Arthur’s first childhood experiences
Wie ez in sînen Kinttagen/Im aller êrste ergienge (v.170-71). Arthur’s
story begins before his birth and then continues into his auspicious birth hour,
the subsequent loss of his father and the resultant foster parenting of the Goddess
Fortuna/Vrouwe Sælde. With this initial story, Heinrich positions the reader
in a sphere of astrology and fate, but also of childhood, motherly protection, and
development.
The prequel to the Gawein story establishes the pattern of helping women
through which both stories are connected. The episodes of the Norns, Fortuna/
Vrouwe Sælde and Queen Lemonîe comprise the introductory childhood
narrative. In these three episodes, the pattern of female power through the intervention
and aid to the hero Arthur and his court is inaugurated. These episodes
establish the wide narrative structural pattern of female protection and assistance
over Arthur and his successor Gawein. The Sælde episode (v. 412-448) can be
considered the blueprint for all later hero-female helper interactions, as it exhibits
all structural elements under investigation. The child Arthur loses his father,
and Fortuna/Vrowe Sælde becomes his foster mother, who protects and guides
him into adulthood. Here then is the basic structural pattern: a need arises – the
hero needs outside intervention to alleviate his need; a woman helper intervenes
and through her actions the need is alleviated. I will discuss the Fortuna/Vrouwe
Sælde episode later in more detail.
The Norns
Arthur’s time of birth and the resultant character traits, which are necessary for
him to become the perfect ruler, are closely linked with the mythical Norns. Similar
to the classical Fates, the Norns are the embodiment of the pan-European
concept of fate, “…einer Schicksalsmacht, die in meist drei Gottheiten personifiziert
wurde. … die zentrale Gestalt der drei Nornen, die das Geschick der Götter
und Menschen bestimmen.“25 In Diu Crône, the first active group of women we
meet, who determine the future life of a hero, are these goddesses of fate. Here
they are more than an abstract power; they are capable of influencing and directing
the path and duration of human life; indeed, they create it.
Arthur is born in the month of May, the mythical time of rebirth in nature.
In a beautiful lyrical passage based on the inventory of the well known topos,
where the seasons of the year represent the stages of life, Heinrich interprets the
meaning of Arthur’s time of birth for his readers, stressing that it represents
happiness, purity, joy, and goodness:
Er wart in dem meien
Geboren, als daz buoch seit.
25 Peter Dinzelbacher, ed., Sachwörterbuch der Mediävistik (Stuttgart: Kröner), 733.
34
Daz was ein gewonheit,
Daz wir dâ bî erkanden,
Daz er, âne der werlde schanden,
Ie minre würde gemeilet,
Als nû diu zît erteilet,
Dar inne er geboern was,
Wan danne bluomen unde gras
Blüewent und entspringent,
Dar zuo die herze ringent,
Den her an vröuden gebrast,
Und sie twanc kumbers last,
Den gît er vröuden bilde.
Daz bezeichnent die milde,
Der Artus pflac sîne zît,
Wan uns der meie vröude gît
Mêr danne alle mâne,
Und tuot uns ouch âne
Des herten winters twancsal;
Swaz er der heide vindet val,
Daz niuwet er und rîchet:
Dâ von sich gelîchet
Dem meien Artûses leben,
Wan er kunde alsô geben. v. 260—285
(The book tells us, that he was born in the month of May. From this it is
to be understood, that he was not burdened with the evil of the world, just
as the time of the year, when he was born when the flowers bloom and the
grass springs up, which the hearts so desire and burst with joy, when they
overcome sorrow and receive happiness. This [May] signifies the kindness
Arthur always showed, because May gives us more joy than any
other month; it renews and enriches the gray heath and takes away the
discomfort of the hard winter: this is how Arthur’s life is like May, because
he was able to give in a way, that many rejoiced in him.)
This passage describes the state of nature during May, the renewal of life forces
after a long winter, and the association with people born during this time. Arthur
himself is likened to the joys incumbent in the return of spring. He is described
as a man Ane der werlde schanden (‘not burdened with the evil of the world;’ v.
264), perhaps without original sin, and possessing of vröuden, milde ´(‘joy and
kindness’). These attributes, ascribed to Arthur because of the auspicious time of
his birth, are immediately recognizable as part of the courtly catalogue of virtues,
whose attainment is a requirement for a perfect ruler, as epitomized by
Arthur. The attribute vröude (‘joy’) is repeated three times and thus holds special
significance. Mentzels-Reuter, for example, sees the attainment and per35
petuation of joy as the overarching structural and narrative theme of Diu Crône.
In addition, Heinrich later describes an Arthur who is blessed already in his
youth with good health, honor and good manners.
The Norns are introduced by their individual names and described by their
individual actions, which impact Arthur’s life. More important, we are given the
reasoning for their actions, if not the motivation. The Norn Clotho endows Arthur
with the ability to bring joy to the world, just like the month of May brings
joy to people Wan uns der meie vröude gît (v. 276). But Heinrich tells us also
that Clotho does not award this gift only for the purpose of increasing joy in the
world. The ability to create joy is a prerequisite for the underlying reason for
this gift. Heinrich asserts that Clotho wants Arthur to attain the greatest earthly
renown, second to none. A note of competitiveness and pride rings through:
… daz sîn wart vil maneger vrô.
Daz hâte im vrouwe Clôtô
Sô erteilet allen wîs,
Daz er werltlîchen prîs
Vor aller werlde trüege. v. 285 – 289
(…that many rejoiced in him. Vrouwe Clotho endowed him with this, so
he would earn more worldly renown than anybody else.)
Clotho gives Arthur the ability to bring joy to the world and Lachesis [N.B.: Lachesis
is Lachelis26;]. She endows him with a lengthy life span; she spins a long
thread. Here two of the three goddesses of fate set an agenda: they choose Arthur
to become the human with the greatest worldly fame:
Ouch was vil gevüege
Vrouwe Lachelis dar an,
Daz sie den vadem lange span. v. 290 – 292
(Vrouwe Lachesis was also well disposed, she spun a long thread.)
However, the third Norn, Atropos, notices this very long thread of life. She
chooses to not allow for this long thread to occur and cuts it short, thus causing
the world unbearable sorrow with the death of Arthur, but also setting the stages
for Arthur’s successor, Gawein:
Ich clage aber, daz Atropos
Disen vadem nicht verkôs
Und in sô schiere abe brach,
Dar an der werlt geschah
26 In the explanatory notes Scholl, Diu Crône, offers no indication of an error or a variant in
the manuscripts.
36
Ein unvertregelîcher schade (…) v. 293 – 297
(But I have to lament, that Atropos did not choose to leave this thread
long, that she cut it suddenly and because of this caused the world much
undescribable grief.)
The length of Arthur’s lifespan and his basic personality are prefigured by these
three goddesses of fate. Even though the fundamental information is clothed in
the archetypal figures of the mythical Norns, this opening to the narrative is
highly significant for the structure and the meaning of Diu Crône. The basic
conditions of Arthur’s life are set by three women. The theme of Arthur’s legacy
and the continuation of the Arthurian court thus stand expressly at the beginning
of the narrative. With the certainty of Arthur’s death, the questions of the continuation
and protection of the Arthurian court are the point of departure for
Arthur’s and Gawein’s narrative and the fundamental task for helper and protectors
is established.
The Norn episode fits the pattern of initial need partially; there is no need
in the conventional sense. However, there is the benevolent intervention of a
higher power that sets the premises so the story can unfold. It enables a yet unborn
hero to excel in life. The situation is presented without stated motivation;
one of the Fates, the Goddess Clotho, selects Arthur to become the most renowned
person, and she creates the result she desires. No overt reason for this
choice is given. Similarly, no overt reason is presented for Fortuna/Vrouwe
Sælde’s decision to become foster mother to Arthur and protectress to him and
his court. Indeed, no explicit reason needs to be given. Implied in the narration
is the premise that Arthur is chosen by the Norns Clotho and Lachesis; he, and
his successor Gawein, are favorites of the goddess Fortuna/Sælde, which carries
a promise of special attention and protection.
Goddess Fortuna/Vrouwe Sælde
The defining woman figure in both the Arthur and Gawein story is the Goddess/
Lady Fortuna. As mentioned previously Arthur’s father Uterpendragon
dies when Arthur is five years old. This death deprives the child of the person
who was to have raised him:
Er was niht sehs jâr alt,
Dô got nam in sînen gwalt
Sînen vater, der in ziehen solt (…) v. 314-316
(He was not yet six years old, when God took his father, who should have
raised him.)
In terms of the above suggested structure of the helper episodes the following
elements result: when the child loses his father, a great need arises. Arthur needs
37
a parental figure, a person, who protects and educates him, just as his father
would and should have done. This is the more urgent as this is a child who, as an
adult, will become the ruler of many; his upbringing will arguably affect the
wellbeing of many. Heinrich describes in detail Arthur’s deep lament at the loss
of a father, who was in all accounts a virtuous and powerful ruler (v. 347 ff.). He
would presumably also have been an effective parent, providing for his son
valuable training and guidance to become a similarly renowned knight and ruler.
Arthur’s demeanor as he mourns the loss of his father shows his good character
and his maturity at an early age, and thus the propensity to become a fine king.
Luckily, the child’s need is addressed: Filling in the vacant role of parental
caretaker and protectress is Vrouwe Sælde. She successfully protects and raises
the child Arthur. In addition, she extends her protection to Arthur’s household
and thus also becomes the protectress of Arthur’s court, in essence securing its
survival. With her role of foster parent and protector of the court Sælde is structured
as a powerful figure who parallels Arthur’s father in power and concern:
Vrowe Sælde pflac des kindes
Und ouch des ingesindes,
Und behuote ez vor valschem mein,
Als ez sît an im wol schein,
Wie sie in hâte gezogen;
Er was des gar unbetrogen;
Si teilte im mit vlîze mit
Der werlde wert heiles sît,
Sô sie beste kunde:
Daz schein an ir gunde
Nach vunfzehen jâren;
Dô diu vergangen wâren,
Wart er ritter und nam wîp
Und kêrte ouch guot und lîp
An milte und an êre
Als sîner tugende lêre
Gewissez urkünde gît. v. 412-428
(Vrouwe Sælde took care of the child and the members of his household,
and protected him from all falseness, and later it was evident how she had
raised him; he was upright/pure; as best as she could, she ardently imparted
on him the behaviour, which benefits the world’s well-being. After
fifteen years, she looked on him with affection. After these years had
passed, he became a knight, took a wife, and applied his wealth and body
to kindness and honor, as the account of his virtue verifies.)
38
For fifteen years Vrouwe Sælde is active as Arthur’s foster mother and she succeeds
in guiding him toward adulthood, to becoming a knight, a husband, and
the ruler of his inherited realm.
This first episode of Arthur’s need and the aid extended to him establishes
the basic structural pattern for subsequent women, who successfully aid the
hero-in-need, first Arthur, and later, Gawein. The text narrates a crisis point and
employs a female figure to overcome the impasse. Arthur loses his father and is
left without guidance and protection, a situation, which is dangerous not only for
him, but also for his lands and people. Arthur needs a parental figure for himself
and a protector for his court. Although precocious for his age, the child Arthur
needs appropriate protection and education to develop into the beneficial ruler
he indeed becomes. Vrouwe Sælde is willing and able to fill this vacuum, raising
Arthur according to his needs until those needs are met. It can be argued that
Arthur and his court society and all it stands for were made possible by the active
involvement of Vrouwe Sælde.
Heinrich also establishes an earlier protective relationship between
Vrouwe Sælde and Uterpendragon, Arthur’s father, when he tells us that Sælde
had previously played an instrumental role in Uterpendragon’s military successes
(v. 383). Her further involvement with this family as foster mother to
Arthur and protectress of the court is narrated as a matter of fact; Heinrich simply
announces that after Uterpendragon’s death, Sælde took care of the child and
his household. Her involvement with Arthur is treated simply as the logical continuation
of her previous aid to the father. Then and now she is successful. The
fact that Sælde herself regards her fostering as a success is clear; Heinrich tells
us that she feels affectionate toward Arthur even after fifteen years of parental
guidance, when he has become an adult, and Heinrich describes this adult Arthur
as a kind, honorable, and exemplary ruler. This is, writes Heinrich, because Arthur
followed the teachings of Sælde and did what was best:
Er wante sich zem besten,
Als ime vrouwe Sælde riet. v. 447-448
(He turned to what was best,
following the council of Vrouwe Sælde.)
In the short space of 97 lines (v. 314-411), Heinrich establishes the situational
need: Arthur is an orphan; his father had been an outstanding ruler, whose death
leaves a great void in the child’s life, and this need is met in a short narrative of
144 lines (v. 412-456). Lastly, Heinrich’s evaluation of Sælde’s effectiveness as
foster parent is entirely positive. With this episode Sælde has been established
not only as a major influence in Arthur’s life, but also as Arthur’s and his court’s
sole protectress. This protection will continue with Gawein. Sælde’s function
sets up her role as guardian and benefactress to Arthur and his court.
39
The great narrative economy in the telling of Arthur’s childhood crisis
and its resolution is quite uncharacteristic of Heinrich’s style. Its employment at
this early point suggests that Heinrich attempted to establish certain parameters
for the subsequent Gawein narrative, in which the discussed fundamental function
of Sælde is the basic narrative structure and assertion. This structure continues
into the central scene of Diu Crône, where it is developed particularly
strong. In this scene Gawein, who is at this point in the narrative Arthur’s successor,
visits Vrouwe Sælde in her castle Ordohorht (‘orderly garden’; the aspect
of order in this name suggests a place where order resides and from whence it
can be bestowed upon others) and there receives protection for the Arthurian
court once more, this time in the form of a magical ring. This ring is a sign, a
proxy of Sælde’s protection and its subsequent theft from the court is the catalyst
for a great many adventures in the ultimately successful attempt to return it
and the protection for which it stands to the Arthurian court.
Conclusion
In Arthur’s childhood story, a short prequel to the main Gawein story, Heinrich
von dem Türlin establishes the narrative structure for the independent helping
women, which defines this MHG Arthurian romance. The pattern consists of an
initial situation of danger to the hero, which he himself is unable to alleviate;
this is followed by the appearance of an independent female who proceeds to assuage
the danger or situation of need; the result for the hero is a re-established
situation of safety and control. This pattern of female assistance is used time and
again to secure the physical survival first of Arthur and then his successor
Gawein and ultimately of the Arthurian court. The parameters for the hero narrative
are formulated with the initial story of the Norns, the three fates, who impart
the gift of life onto Arthur. This first story establishes that the child Arthur
will be an orphan and as a result is in desperate need of a foster parent; it also
creates the need for the physical protection of the entire court society. In the
following story Vrouwe Sælde fulfills these needs, yet once Arthur reaches
adulthood and the need for parental guidance and protection are no longer acute,
Vrouwe Sælde retains her role of protectress; in the remainder of the narrative
she watches over and secures Gawein, the heir to the Arthurian court. However,
Heinrich also introduces his audience to a more ambivalent and complex view of
women in the scene following the story of Sælde’s foster parentage. Here Arthur
needs assistance in decorating the great hall of his castle for a great celebration
and his sister-in-law, Queen Lenomîe von Alexandrîe, does indeed provide a
lavish wall hanging into which are woven female figures from antiquity, Dido,
Helen and Lavinia. However beautiful the wall-hanging is, the emblematic
mentioning of these women in the description of this tapestry does also introduce
the recurring theme of the negative destructive power of love into the narrative.
These images also serve as the introduction to the negative examples of
women within the Arthurian court, who stand in direct contrast to the positive
40
helping figures outside of the court and will be the subject of another study.
Heinrich establishes the fundamental importance of helping and protecting extra-
courtly women early on in his romance. This overarching narrative pattern of
helping women constitutes a seismic shift away from the traditional sole significance
of the hero and thus must be considered the key to an integrated reading
of this romance. A larger poetological significance of this unique narrative pattern
is the obligation for an inclusive far more positive and complex reading of
its women, which helps us overcome old nineteenth-century patterns of interpretations
and criticism and the gender bias inherent in them.
M E D I U M A E V U M
Q U O T I D I A N U M
58
KREMS 2009
HERAUSGEGEBEN
VON GERHARD JARITZ
GEDRUCKT MIT UNTERSTÜTZUNG DER KULTURABTEILUNG
DES AMTES DER NIEDERÖSTERREICHISCHEN LANDESREGIERUNG
Titelgraphik: Stephan J. Tramèr
Copy editor: Parker Snyder
ISSN 1029-0737
Herausgeber: Medium Aevum Quotidianum. Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der
materiellen Kultur des Mittelalters, Körnermarkt 13, 3500 Krems, Österreich.
Für den Inhalt verantwortlich zeichnen die Autoren, ohne deren ausdrückliche
Zustimmung jeglicher Nachdruck, auch in Auszügen, nicht gestattet ist. –
Druck: Grafisches Zentrum an der Technischen Universität Wien, Wiedner
Hauptstraße 8-10, 1040 Wien.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Vorwort ……………………………………………………..…………….…… 4
Zoran Ladić and Goran Budeč, Violence and the Clergy
in Medieval Croatia: The Violent Death
of the Spalatin Archbishop Arnir (Rainerius) in 1180 ..………………… 5
Madelon Köhler-Busch, Women and the Perfect Hero:
A Critical Re-reading of Heinrich von dem Türlîn’s Diu Crône …… 23
Aušra Baniulytė, The Pazzi Family in Lithuania: Myth and Politics
in the European Court Society of the Early Modern Age .…………….. 41
Buchbesprechungen ..………………………………..……………………….. 58
Anschriften der Autoren ….….…………………………………………….… 70
4
Vorwort
Das vorliegende Heft von Medium Aevum Quotidianum vermittelt neuerlich die
verschiedenen Ansätze und das unterschiedliche Quellenmaterial, welche sich
in den Disziplinen der historischen Wissenschaften für eine Auseinandersetzung
mit dem Alltag des Mittelalters sowie seiner Konstruktion und Repräsentation in
der Überlieferung als relevant erweisen können. Zoran Ladić und Goran Budeč
zeigen, wie im Kroatien der zweiten Hälfte des 12. Jahrhunderts kirchliche und
adelige Gebietsansprüche recht allgemeine Auseinandersetzungen, Gewalttätigkeit
und Mord hervorriefen und sich ein ermorderter und heilig gesprochener
Bischof zum lokalen und regionalen Kultobjekt entwickeln konnte. Madelon
Köhler-Busch analysiert Muster der Rolle der Frau in der Crône des Heinrich
von dem Türlin (c. 1220). Aušra Baniulytė weist nach, wie im 17. Jahrhundert
der auf Namensähnlichkeit beruhende Konnex zwischen einer litauischen und
einer florentinischen Familie auch auf legendäre mittelalterliche Verbindungen
zurückgeführt wurde und dadurch mithalf, die Mitglieder der litauischen Familie
zu Repräsentanten einer modernen, europäischen Elite des Barock zu machen.
Gerhard Jaritz