Heinrich Wittenwiler (c. 1370–1420) was a
late medieval
The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...
Alemannic Alemannic (''Alamannic'') or Alamanni may refer to:
* Alemannic German, a dialect family in the Upper German branch of the German languages and its speakers
* Alemanni, a confederation of Suebian Germanic tribes in the Roman period
* Alamanni (surna ...
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
Konstanz (, , locally: ; also written as Constance in English) is a university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south of Germany. The city houses the University of Konstanz and was th ...
, mentioned in 1395. He may be of the family of the former rulers of
Wittenwil in the
Thurgau
Thurgau (; french: Thurgovie; it, Turgovia), anglicized as Thurgovia, more formally the Canton of Thurgau, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of five districts and its capital is Frauenfeld.
Thurgau is par ...
, who became destitute and abandoned their castle in 1339. Throughout the early 15th century, most bearers of the name lived in the
Toggenburg
Toggenburg is a region of Switzerland. It corresponds to the upper valley of the river Thur and that of its main tributary, the Necker. Since 1 January 2003, Toggenburg has been a constituency (''Wahlkreis'') of the canton of St. Gallen ( ...
, 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
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...
, 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 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 Switzerland. It is t ...
. The handsome Bertschi woos the ugly Mätzli with
knightly pretensions. The wedding involves a "peasant
tournament
A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
# One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...
" 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