Patronage and literary context in a fourteenth-century German Arthurian romance: the Rappoltstein Parzifal

Patronage and literary context in a fourteenthcentury German Arthurian romance: the Rappoltstein Parzifal Between the years 1331 and 1336 two Strassburg goldsmiths, Claus Wisse and Phitipp Colin, were commissioned by their patron, Ulrich von Rappoltstein, to translate various French continuations of Chr6tien de Troyes' Perceval which had arisen since the death of the French author. The result of their labours was a massive work of over 36,000 lines,1 which they inserted between Books fourteen and fifteen of the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach. This continuation was conventionally termed Der NUwe Parzifal, but Dorothee Wittmann-Klemm has recently put forward thetitleRappoltsteiner Parzifal,2 which appears to be more appropriate for reasons which will become apparent below. W e are fortunate in having an Epilogue, signed by Philipp Colin, which explains the genesis of this large work in considerable detail. It starts thus: Diz het gerimet her Wotfram von Eschebach, als er ez vemam von eins welschen meisters munt dertetimme den ursprung kunt von Parzefales kintheit. so vene ez her Wolfram in tiischen seit daz het imme meister Cristian in welschen rimen kunt getan. (845.18-26) (This work was composed by Wolfram von Eschenbach when he received the account from the mouth of a French master who told him about Parzival's early life. Whatever Wolfram writes in German has been done before by Master Chretien in French.) From these lines it may be inferred that Colin understood the Chretien/ Wolfram versiontobe an account of the hero's early years (kintheit). He then goes on to assert that there is far more to the Perceval/ Parzival tradition than this, and correcdy cites the name of one of Chretien's continuators, Manessier: der aventiire ist michels me, denne ez in tutzsche geschriben ste. daz het Maneschier gar bedoht unde aUez zuo eime ende broht in welsch, wan er waz ouch ein franczeis, 1 Parzival von Claus Wisse und Philipp Colin, ed. Karl Schorbach, ElsSssische Litteraturdenkmaler aus dem XTV-XVII Jahrhundert 5, Strassburg, 1888, repr. Berlin, 1974. All references are to this edition, giving page and line number; translations are m y own. 2 See her Studien zum 'Rappoltsteiner Parzival', Gdppinger Arbeiten zur Alteren Germanistik 224, Gdppingen, 1977. 104 N. Thomas wise und darzuo kurteiz. (845.31-36) (There is more to the tradition than that which is written in German. Master Manessier conceived the rest, and brought the work to a conclusion in French, for he was a Frenchman, wise and weU-bred.) Eartier in the nanative there is a mention of 'Walther von Dunsin . . . / der dise ystorie vollebroht het' ('Walther von Dunsin . . . who has completed this story', 582.20-21), a reference to another writer associated with the Continuations, Wauchier de Denain. Essentially the Rappoltstein Parzifal is a conflation of the First Continuation of Perceval (anonymous, sometimes termed PseudoWauehier , and sometimes thought to be the work of more than one writer), the Second Continuation, attributed to Wauchier, and the Third, by Manessier.3 It also contains a 'Prologus', which corresponds to the so-called 'Elucidation',4 a narrative of somefivehundred verses prefixedtoChretien's romance (reflecting a knowledge of the First and Second Continuations and thus evidently later than them), as well as various interpolations which Wisse and Colin themselves made. The Epilogue furnishes further details concerning the composition of the work. W e are told of the circumstances in which Manessier's manuscript crossed over into German-speaking territory: N u ist ez kommen in tiizsche lant an eins werden henen hant, der grosze kost het dran gleit als unz ein cluoger goltsmit seit, von Strasburg Philippez Colin. der het diz buoch dem herren sin von welsch in tiiczsch gerimet. (846.17-23) (Now it has passed to Germanyterritory,and into the hands of a noble lord who has spent much money on it, as we are told by a distinguished goldsmith, Phdipp Colin of Strassburg. The latter has translated the book from French into German at the behest of his lord.) The cost of production alluded to in these lines turns out to be 'zwei hundert pfunt* ('two hundred pounds', 854.39), and the 'werder hen' ('patron of the work'), 'von Ropoltzstein Uolriche' (858.4). Included in Colin...