Heinrich Wittenwiler (c. 1370–1420) was a
late medieval Alemannic poet. He is the author of a satirical poem entitled ''The Ring'' (ca. 1410). He may be identical to an advocate to the bishop of
Konstanz, mentioned in 1395. He may be of the family of the former rulers of
Wittenwil in the
Thurgau, who became destitute and abandoned their castle in 1339. Throughout the early 15th century, most bearers of the name lived in the
Toggenburg, probably including one of the scribes of the
Cgm 558.
''The Ring'' is a poem of 9699 lines, preserved in a single manuscript, apparently an autograph of Wittenwiler's. Each line is marked with either red or green ink. In the prologue (verse 40f.) Wittenwiler explains that the red line marks "serious" material, while the green marks ''törpelleben'' (literally "village life", in the sense of "
rusticity,
peasantry, buffoonery"), but the actual division between "red" and "green" material is far from straightforward. The protagonists are Bertschi Triefnas and Mätzli Rüerenzumph, two peasant lovers of Lappenhausen, a fictitious village in the
Black Forest
The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and S ...
. The handsome Bertschi woos the ugly Mätzli with
knightly pretensions. The wedding involves a "peasant
tournament" and escalates into wild brawling, leading to a war between villages and the destruction of Lappenhausen.
Editions
*Edmund Wießner, Leipzig 1931
*Bernhard Sowinski, ''Heinrich Wittenwiler, Der Ring. Text mit neuhochdeutscher Übersetzung und Kommentar'', Stuttgart 1988.
*Bibliotheca Augustana
online edition
References
*George F. Jones, ''The Tournaments of Tottenham and Lappenhausen'', Modern Language Association (1951).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wittenwiler, Heinrich
Wittenweiler, Heinrich
1370 births
1420 deaths
German male poets