Virtue and Equality in the Medieval Latin Ruodlieb

"Quidam prosapia vir progenitus generosa" [a certain man, born of noble family]¹ is driven from his home because of the enmities he has incurred in his lord's service—so begins the Ruodlieb, a work in Latin verse written circa 1050-1070² by a monk in the Cluniac monastery of Tegernsee in Southern Germany. Accompanied only by his shield-bearer, his horse, and his dog, Ruodlieb finds refuge at the court of the Greater King, who is impressed with his skill as a hunter and fisherman. When the forces of the Lesser King invade the Greater King's lands, the hero assists in negotiating a peace treaty and is rewarded in both good advice and treasure. Having decided to return home to take his rightful place, he becomes embroiled in a murder case, helps negotiate the marriage of his cousin, foils a thief, avoids a marriage to an unfaithful lady, and captures a dwarf who will lead him to untold riches. There the tale abruptly ends.

The Ruodlieb does not appear to have been a popular work in the centuries following its composition, and it has only come down to us as a number of fragments.³ Nevertheless it has interested scholars since its discovery by B. G. Docen in 1803. The critical response to the Ruodlieb has consequently been broad and surprisingly varied. There does not seem to be a consensus on the generic classification of the work.⁴ Some have commented on the remarkable range of literary sources the Ruodlieb draws on⁵ or have sought possible historical allusions in the text.⁶ Others have found parallels or antecedents even to the more outlandish aspects of the work, such as the Greater King's advice to Ruodlieb never to trust redheads and not to visit kinsmen too often.⁷ Peter Dronke has drawn attention to the creation of a distinct poetic individuality in the text and its combination of Germanic material with the epic Latin form of the Aeneid,⁸ while others such as Haijo Westra have commented on its fragmentary nature and limited success, given the fact that the only extant version is most likely the autograph.⁹

Most attention, however, has been devoted to the Ruodlieb's supposed didactic purpose.¹⁰ Its message is thought to rest in two of the central characters of the text, the Greater King and Ruodlieb himself, who are regarded as model practitioners of their professions. The former, wholly merciful and kind to both friend and foe, is considered a representation of ideal Christian kingship, perhaps drawing on the teachings of Anselm of Canterbury.¹¹ Ruodlieb, who throughout the work moves from a culture of vengeance to one of negotiation and forgiveness, has been read as the author's model of a new, more refined form of knighthood inclusive of Christian teaching.¹² He has consequently been described as the "primo eroe cortese"¹³ and as a "new Christian exemplar of epic heroism."¹⁴ In this approach, the text served as a mirror for princes as well as an early guide for a developing knighthood and was most likely intended to educate the young nobles schooled at Tegernsee in mores suitable to their social class.¹⁵

This reading of the Ruodlieb as a work dealing with upper-class characters, discussing ideal monarchic or chivalric behavior, and aimed at an audience of noblemen, displays a problematic aristocentrism. It wholly bypasses the fact that the text is populated by characters of inferior or even threatened social standing, such as villagers, farmers, women, and even animals, who share the ideal values ascribed to Ruodlieb and the Greater King, chiefly forgiveness, generosity, and the defense of the defenseless. This emphasis on the aristocracy ignores crucial aspects of the work; as I will argue, the Ruodlieb sets out to describe ideal behavior in all layers of society, behavior very much in keeping with the directions of the Peace and Truce of God movements of the late tenth and eleventh centuries. In doing so it parallels rather than differentiates between the social classes; indeed, the work describes king and townsman almost...