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Frau Minne (''vrowe minne'') is a
Frau Minne (''vrowe minne'') is a personification
Personification occurs when a thing or abstraction is represented as a person, in literature or art, as a type of anthropomorphic metaphor. The type of personification discussed here excludes passing literary effects such as "Shadows hold their b ...
of courtly love
Courtly love ( oc, fin'amor ; french: amour courtois ) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing vari ...
in Middle High German literature
Middle High German literature refers to literature written in German between the middle of the 11th century and the middle of the 14th. In the second half of the 12th century, there was a sudden intensification of activity, leading to a 60-year " ...
.
She is frequently addressed directly in Minnesang
(; "love song") was a tradition of lyric- and song-writing in Germany and Austria that flourished in the Middle High German period. This period of medieval German literature began in the 12th century and continued into the 14th. People who wr ...
poetry, usually by the pining lover complaining about his state, but she appears also in the longer Minnerede
The Minnerede is a form of late medieval rhyming speech. In contrast to the shorter Minnelieder in canzonal form, it was not sung but spoken. Most of the texts have only a few hundred verses, the Minnereden, which is assigned to around 600 texts ...
poems, and in prose works.
A rare allegorical painting of ca. 1400, showing Frau Minne presiding over suffering lovers having their hearts torn from their breasts, was discovered in a guild house in Zurich in 2009.
Frau Minne is sometimes referred to as the “goddess” of romantic love who instils in people feelings of passion and passionate behavior, which is differentiated from other religiously celebrated kinds of love such as Buddhist compassion
Compassion motivates people to go out of their way to relieve the physical, mental or emotional pains of others and themselves. Compassion is often regarded as being sensitive to the emotional aspects of the suffering of others. When based on n ...
or Christian charity (agape
In Christianity, agape (; ) is "the highest form of love, charity" and "the love of God for man and of man for God". This is in contrast to philia, brotherly love, or philautia, self-love, as it embraces a deep and profound sacrificial love tha ...
).Wright, Peter (2014), "‘Frau Minne’ The Goddess Who Steals Men's Hearts", in Wright, Peter, ed. (2014). Gynocentrism: From Feudalism to Modern Disney Princesses. Amazon Digital. p. 8. ISBN 9781520327327.
Literature
{{reflist * Dorothea Wiercinski, ''Minne'', Niederdeutsche Studien, 1964. * Konrad Falke, ''Frau Minne: ein mittelalterlicher Weltspiegel''. 1905. Personifications Minnesang