Familie, Genealogie und Ursprungsmythen in der älteren deutschen Literatur

Abstract

The search of origins is a basic pattern of the society of the Middle Ages, which was also used by medieval poets. This essay examines the role of family, genealogy and the myth of noble or divine origins in the older German literature, above all in the medieval romances of the legendary king Artus/Arthur and of the Grail. On the basis of Le Roman de Perceval ou Le Conte du Graal from Chretien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach created a gigantic system of relationships which poets took over or changed later on. In it, Mazadan and the fairy Murgan (Terdelaschoye) are the earliest ancestors. The Pleier (an author of the 13th century) e.g. invented new protagonists and linked them to this system. Albrecht, however in his Grail-romance, changed those famous origins. The dynasty of the Grail, he let begin with the myth of Troja. In the Spruch von den Tafelrundern the well-known Merlin takes the position of the first ancestor. In following romances like Lohengrin and also in the Buch der Abenteuer from the bavarian author Ulrich Fuetrer, the relation between creatures of the other world and human beings become unstable. But nevertheless, all these texts worked together in the process of forming a great genealogy of poetic heroes.