The Influence of India and Persia on the Poetry of Germany. Arthur F. J. Remy
Holy Land in the "Pèlerinage de Charlesmagne"27 and in the poem called the "Karl Meinet," a German compilation of various legends about the Frankish hero.28 Purely Germanic legends like those of Ortnit-Wolfdietrich and King Rother were orientalized in much the same manner.29 As might be expected, it is in the court-epic and minstrel-poetry (Spielmannsdichtung) where this Oriental tendency manifests itself most markedly. A typical poem of this kind is "Herzog Ernst." The hero, a purely German character, is made to go through a series of marvelous adventures in the East some of which bear a striking resemblance to those of Sindbad.30 The later strophic version (14th century) and the prose-version of the Volksbuch (probably 15th century) localize some of these adventures definitely in the fernen India.31 Probably under the influence of this story the author of the incompleted "Reinfrit von Braunschweig" (about 1300) was induced to send his hero into Persia, to meet with somewhat similar experiences.32 Heinrich von Neustadt likewise lays the scene of Apollonius' adventures in the golden valley Crysia bordering on India.33 In the continuation of the Parzifal-story entitled "Der Jüngere Titurel," which was written by Albrecht von Scharffenberg (about 1280), the Holy Grail is to be removed from a sinful world and to be carried to the East to be given to Feirefiz, half brother to Parzifal.34 The meeting of Feirefiz with the knights furnishes the poet an opportunity of bringing in a learned disquisition on Prester John and his drī India die wīten, and finally this mythical monarch offers his crown to Parzifal, who henceforth is called Priester Johanni. In the poem of "Lohengrin", of unknown authorship, the knight when about to depart declares he has come from India where there is a house fairer than that at Montsalvatsch.35
Princes and princesses from India or Persia abound in the poems of the court-writers and minstrels. Thus in "Solomon und Morolf" Salme is the daughter of the King of Endian;36 in Wolfram's "Willehalm" King Alofel of Persia and King Gorhant from the Ganjes figure in the battle of Alischanz.37 In Konrad von Würzburg's "Trojanischer Krieg" the kings Panfilias of Persia and Achalmus of India are on the Trojan side.38 In the same poet's "Partenopier" the Sultan of Persia is the hero's chief rival.39 In "Der Jüngere Titurel" Gatschiloe, a princess from India, becomes bearer of the Grail; similarly in a poem by Der Pleiaere, Flordibel, who comes to the Knights of the Round Table to learn courtly manners, reveals herself as a princess from India.40 According to a poem of the fourteenth century the father of St. Christopher is king of Arabia and Persia.41 Even the folk-epic "Kudrun" knows of Hilde of India, Hagen's wife.42
Again, wonderful things from India are abundant in this class of poetry. The magic lance which Wigalois receives, when he is about to do battle with a fire-spitting dragon, is from that land.43 So also is the magic ring given to Reinfrit when he sets out on his crusade.44 Wigamur's bride Dulceflur wears woven gold from the castle Gramrimort in India,45 and in the "Nibelungen" Hagen and Dancwart, when going to the Isenstein, wear precious stones from that land.46
To some poets India and Persia are a sort of Ultima Thule to denote the furthest limits of the earth, as for instance, when in the "Rolandslied" Ganelun complains that for the ambition of Roland even Persia is not too far,47 or, when in the "Willehalm" King Tybalt, whose daughter has been carried off, lets his complaint ring out as far as India.48
Examples might be multiplied. But they would all prove the same thing. India and Persia were magic names to conjure with; their languages and literatures were a book with seven seals to mediæval Europe.
FOOTNOTES:
1 Indica, ch. 10.
2 Var. Hist. xii. 48.
3 De Homero, Oratio liii., ed. Dindorf, Lips. 1857, vol. ii. p. 165.
4 Apollonii Vita, iii. 19 et passim.
5 See Jackson, Zoroaster, p. 8.
6 See Benfey, Pantschatantra, Vorrede, p. xxiv and note.
7 See Gaston Paris, La Littérature Française au Moyen Age, Paris, 1888, p. 49 seq. A striking illustration of oral transmission is the origin of the tradition about Prester John, for which see Cathay and the Way thither, ed. Henry Yule, Lond. 1866, Hakluyt Soc. No. 36, 37, vol. i. p. 174 and n. 1.
8 Yule, op. cit. vol. i. pp. 165–167 and p. 197 seq.
9 Ib. pp. 1–161; Latin text in appendix i of vol. ii.
10 Mirabilia Descripta, ed. Henry Yule, London, 1863. Hakluyt Society, No. 31.
11 Yule, Cathay, vol. ii. pp. 311–381.
12 For their accounts see the publications of the Hakluyt Society, 1859 and 1873. Nos. 26 and 49.
13 See Paul Horn, Gesch. Irans in Islamitischer Zeit, in Grdr. iran. Phil. II. p. 578 and note 4; also p. 579. See also Bibl. Asiat. et Afric. par H. Ternaux-Compans, Paris, 1841, under the years 1508, 1512, 1514, 1515, 1516, 1535, 1543, 1579, 1583, etc.
14 English tr. in R.H. Major, India in the Fifteenth Century, London, 1857. Hakluyt Society, No. 22.
15 Hans Schiltbergers Reisebuch ed. Val. Langmantel (BLVS. vol. 172) Tübingen, 1885, p. 79: "In der grossen India pin ich nicht gewesen. … "