Curialitas und dissimulatio im Mittelalter. Zur Interdependenz von Hofkritik und Hofideal

Schnell, Rüdiger

doi:10.1007/bf03380034

Cited by 3 publications

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“…Medieval society was dominated by many different power groups that often got into conflict with each other. A close reading of significant courtly romances can easily lay bare major disagreements between the royal ruler and the major barons of his country, at least in political terms, and we also notice, beyond that conflict, further charges of the king as powerless, ignorant, naive, greedy, gluttonous, envious, or tyrannical (Schnell, 2017;Sunderland, 2017;Classen, 2022). After an overview of major literary documents addressing this issue, this article will examine the probably most vehement and acerbic example of court criticism from the pre-modern era, the Middle High German verse narrative Reinhart Fuchs from ca.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Medieval Royal Courts and Their Critics: A New Perspective on Courtly Romances and Verse Narratives, with an Emphasis on Heinrich der Glîchezâre’s Reinhart Fuchs

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2023

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The topic of court criticism coupled with severe warnings about the dangers of a royal dictator or tyrant was well represented in medieval and early modern literature.Despite our common assumptions about the harmony and idyllic nature of King Arthur's court and the knights of the Round Table, a closer analysis quickly reveals the horrendous problems vexing medieval society (and our own, perhaps). However, medieval poets were careful not to take off their masks when they depicted evil rulers because they normally depended on their patrons. Nevertheless, the criticism of the evil ruler, and then especially of the criminally minded royal councilor (such as in the much later case of Iago in Shakespeare's Othello) finds vivid expression in more medieval texts than we might have assumed. After a survey of dramatic cases from pre-modern literature as a basis for the subsequent analysis, this article focuses on the Middle High German version of the Old French Roman de Renart by Heinrich der Glîchezâre (late twelfth century) where the protagonist, the fox Reinhart, operates with astounding intellectual acumen and sophistication to deceive, betray, hurt, and even get his opponents killed without any bad conscience.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Medieval Royal Courts and Their Critics: A New Perspective on Courtly Romances and Verse Narratives, with an Emphasis on Heinrich der Glîchezâre’s Reinhart Fuchs

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2023

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“…SCHNELL (2011): 'Curialitas' und 'dissimulatio' im Mittelalter, S. 93. 857 SCHNELL (2011): 'Curialitas' und 'dissimulatio' im Mittelalter, S. 99.…”

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“…SCHNELL (2011): 'Curialitas' und 'dissimulatio' im Mittelalter, S. 81. Anders verhalte es sich bei der 'Literaturgattung Fürstenspiegel', was SCHNELL folgendermassen begründet: Erstens werde in Fürstenspiegeln die Person des Herrschers, nicht die Institution des Hofes fokussiert.…”

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Konzepte von Ehre und Treue in der mittelalterlichen deutschen und niederländischen Tierepik

Fuchs¹

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This dissertation presents the results of a comparative study of concepts of honour and loyalty in medieval German and Dutch animal epics. It concerns analyses of three Germanic fox stories: Reinhart Fuchs, Van den vos Reynaerde, and Reynaerts historie. They are examined here from a systematic comparative perspective for the first time. The emphasis is on the categories 'honour' and 'loyalty', which play a central role in the relationship between a king and his servants in the Middle Ages. The courtly categories 'honour' and 'loyalty' have previously been studied through other texts, but not yet through Germanic animal epics. This dissertation shows that the Germanic animal epic is a sustained and fierce critique of courtly ideals and thus provides new insights into courtly culture. This thesis consists of four chapters. The first chapter describes the research question and objective. It gives an overview of the state of research within German and Dutch Medieval Studies. It also explains the thesis's theoretical and methodological framework. Finally, it explains the text corpus and the study's structure. The second chapter provides an overview of Western European animal epics. The focus here is on the distribution of Old French narrative material in the German-speaking lands. The German and Dutch traditions and the stories Reinhart Fuchs, Van den vos Reynaerde and Reynaerts historie are examined in more detail. The chapter ends with a comparison of the three stories, identifying important differences and similarities in the story of the meeting of the court. In all three cases, the king seems to be able to retain his honour at the beginning of the court, but at the end there is always a loss of honour. The manner in which honour is retained and honour lost is different in all three stories. This observation forms the starting point for the further analysis. The third chapter focuses on analyses of concepts of honour and loyalty in Reinhart Fuchs, Van den vos Reynaerde, and the second half of Reynaerts historie. The three analyses have a systematic structure to allow for comparison between the individual sections. The focus is on the following topics: the story of the court day; the king as main character; the fox as main character; the feudal relationship between the king and fox; and, finally, the end of the court day. Semantic analyses discuss the usage of the words honour and loyalty. Each analysis ends with an intermediate review that summarises the main findings. The fourth chapter describes the results of this study. The chapter ends with a concluding review.

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The medieval Hero and anti-hero in one and the same person: Huon de Bordeaux deconstructive perspectives on medieval literature

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2022

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Curialitas und dissimulatio im Mittelalter. Zur Interdependenz von Hofkritik und Hofideal

Cited by 3 publications

References 32 publications

Medieval Royal Courts and Their Critics: A New Perspective on Courtly Romances and Verse Narratives, with an Emphasis on Heinrich der Glîchezâre’s Reinhart Fuchs

Medieval Royal Courts and Their Critics: A New Perspective on Courtly Romances and Verse Narratives, with an Emphasis on Heinrich der Glîchezâre’s Reinhart Fuchs

Konzepte von Ehre und Treue in der mittelalterlichen deutschen und niederländischen Tierepik

The medieval Hero and anti-hero in one and the same person: Huon de Bordeaux deconstructive perspectives on medieval literature

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