Herbort of Fritzlar

Herbort Fritzlar was a German poet of the Middle Ages. His only known work, a Troy - epic of 18,458 verses in the Middle High German language is likely to have originated 1190-1200.

Life and work

Herbort calls himself in the epilogue of his " Liet of Troye " as " of fritslar herbort a gelarter schulere " ( " Herbort from Fritzlar, a learned Studied "). In the prologue, he mentioned that Landgrave Hermann of Thuringia had commissioned him with the work. It is not to decide whether he was Master at the Peter pin Fritzlar or part of the Thuringian Hofklerus.

The " Liet of Troye " ( " song " or " seal of Troy " ) is the oldest surviving Troy seal in German language. Herbort worked for an old French template, that of Benoît de Sainte -Maure shortened around 1165 wrote for the Anglo-Norman royal court " Estoire de Troie ", this, however, significantly and takes back their höfisierende trend. The ancient fabric is designed more as a historical epic and with less force than with Benoît than courtly novel. The suffering of the war is about illusions and Herbort Without qualifying palliation

Fabric and dissemination

The substance of the " Liet of Troye ," the destruction of Troy by the Greeks, is one of the most popular and influential ideological narrative themes of the Middle Ages. He also formed the prehistory to the few years earlier incurred on Landgrafenhof Eneasroman of Heinrich von Veldeke, a bestseller in Middle High German literature. Herbort is in formal terms (purity of rhymes ) While in the succession Veldeke, but it does not reach its poetic quality. His novel has perhaps that is why hardly found spread and is fully narrated in only a single manuscript of 1333.