Wolfram von Eschenbach, Willehalm

Marion E. Gibbs
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

The name of Wolfram von Eschenbach, certainly outside academic circles, is known primarily for his

Parzival

, a remarkable adaptation of the unfinished

Perceval

of Chrétien de Troyes. In it, Wolfram moves the Arthurian romance into a new dimension and demonstrates his power as narrator and thinker. For a long time his other great poem,

Willehalm

, remained in the shadow of its predecessor, despite some early work by German scholars of the status of Samuel Singer (1918), Ludwig Wolff (1934) and Bodo Mergell (1936), but a ground-breaking study by Joachim Bumke (1959) brought it more to the fore. Even if many of Bumke's arguments have been questioned, not least by himself, in the light of subsequent scholarship, this book probably more than any other drew attention to the poem and…

1316 words

Citation: Gibbs, Marion E.. "Willehalm". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 January 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=14452, accessed 29 March 2024.]

14452 Willehalm 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.