Heinrich von Veldeke's Song Cycle of `Hohe Minne'

Abstract

Theodor Frings and Gabriele Schieb contend that seven mediaeval lyrics of Heinrich von V eldeke constitute a cycle showing a development they call the education of a knight by a lady in the ways of love. Their schematization presupposes that the man and woman in the first two songs (56,1 and 57,10), which reveal how the knight angered his lady by asking for an embrace, are the same as those in the others, particularly 59,23, which is an expression of joy by a man who has found fulfilment in love. The attempt to account for the lady's change of heart by the theory of the ennobling power of love is unsuccessful, however, since an analysis of the texts discloses no evidence of the lady's edifying role or of any change in the man making him worthy of what he did not deserve before. Instead of connecting the poems as Frings and Schieb did, it is possible to avoid the difficulties involved by not expecting the lady in 59,23 to be the same person as the woman in the first songs and by viewing the situations as variations on the theme of the possible relationships between a knight and a lady.