Die mittelalterliche Literatur Thüringens: Ein Lexikon by Reinhard Hahn (review)

This is an exemplary book as regards both content and manner of exposition. Even if Thuringia had only Landgrave Hermann I with his unruly court but extravagantly generous ruler, it would have secured a place of honor in the literary history of Germany and beyond; yet its cultural heritage is much richer than that.

As an independent kingdom, Thuringia stopped existing in 531. This event made no lasting impression on medieval Europe comparable to the shock left by the destruction of the Burgundian kingdom; however, it did not pass unnoticed, despite the absence of a Thuringian analog of the Nibelungenlied. A heroic poem, or perhaps more than one poem, commemorating the death of Kind Herminafrid and the deeds of his evil counselor Iring must have existed, but only disjointed echoes of such songs have come down to us, and the reader will find a summary of the lost tradition on pp. 310–12, with a page and a half of references to the sources and scholarly literature.

Among the authors featured in the Lexikon, several greats figure prominently, including Heinrich von Morungen, Walther von der Vogelweide, and Wolfram von Eschenbach. But Meister Eckhart and Johannes Rothe are also there. Sometimes an entry is devoted to a character who wrote nothing but supported poets (like Hermann) or whose life inspired other people’s works, like Elizabeth of Thuringia, for instance.

The literary output of the medieval Thuringians is huge, and, though, as could be expected in such a survey, poetic works predominate in it, we find discussion of treatises on medicine and medicinal plants (simples, as they are called), of early vocabularies, and even of the Iwein frescoes (“Iwein-Fresken in Schmalkalden,” pp. 162–65).

As usual in works of encyclopedic nature, Hahn arranged the entries alphabetically. But many works are anonymous, or discussion focuses on items like the lost epic of the fall of the Thuringian kingdom. The relevant entry on that event is titled “Verlorene Heldensage: Die Iring-Überlieferung” (that is, the records of the lost heroic tale) and appears at the letter V, where it can be discovered only by chance. Such examples are rather numerous. The titles of two entries begin with the word Innsbrucker; we find Ereignislieder (approximateley, “songs about ordinary events,” as they are called in English folklore) at E; Historienbibeln at H; Die Kreuzfahrt Landgraf Ludwigs des Frommen (The Crusade of Landgrave Ludwig the Pious) at K; Vita Mathildis reginae at V; and quite a few others. Hahn provided regular cross-references in the text and made every effort to make his material accessible. In addition to a list of abbreviations and an explanatory list of special terms (both are provided), it would, I believe, have been useful to offer an index of references (names and subjects combined) to the hidden items, such as Herminafried, Irrig, Mathilde, Bibel, Heldensage, and so forth.

The Lexikon deals with the High Middle Ages. The concept of literature is loose, and doubly so in relation to the medieval period (one has to draw the line between creative work, however broadly defined, and the entire written output of the period). Predictably, Hahn’s book opens with a detailed discussion of the problems he faced. Additionally, he had to decide who has the right to be called a Thuringian author. Which criteria are definitive: the place of birth, affiliation with a certain institution (including the person’s education), and so forth? Fortunately, this theoretical discussion, though instructive and useful, is relatively short and did not detract Hahn from coming to the point and presenting a picture so full and so well-balanced that his book can be recommended to students and specialists alike. In a way, it is a mini-encyclopedia of Middle High German literature.

The entries vary in length, depending on the importance of the author. Thus, the summary of Dietrich Engelhus’s achievements (p. 79) runs to one page, while almost seven pages are devoted...