Ulrich von Zatzikhoven

(late 12th century)

   Ulrich von Zatzikhoven composed his Middle High German version of the LANCELOT romance, the Lanzelet, after 1194 or 1195. He seems to have been closely connected with the imperial court of the Hohenstaufen. According to linguistic evidence, Ulrich originated in southwest Germany and based his German translation, as he states, on Huc of Morville’s Lanzelete, which does not exist today and which is not identical with CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES’s LANCELOT. Ulrich claims that he did not alter his source at all when he translated it into Middle High German, but there are clear signs of influence from Chrétiens’s and HARTMANN VON AUE’s Erec and Yvain (Iwein) and WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH’s PARZIVAL.

   Although the Lanzelet has survived in only five manuscripts (ms. S. burnt in 1870), Ulrich’s posterity remembered him with great respect. In the Manessische Liederhandschrift (ms. C), the fictionalized portrait of Waltram von Gresten shows the latter and his lady reading Ulrich’s Lanzelet. The romance deals with a young prince whom a mermaid kidnaps and raises in her fairyland.When he is 15, he wants to become a knight and learn his name. This will be revealed to him, however, only once he has defeated Iweret von Belforet.Many of the subsequent events bear great similarity to those experienced by Parzival in Wolfram’s romance, except that Lanzelet participates in a grand tournament and wins the prize.He rejects King ARTHUR’s invitation to his court, however, because he does not know his own name. Only once he has learned his identity does he travel to Arthur, but many battles and serious conflicts erupt, which Lanzelet overcomes all the time. At one point he is made prisoner, but can escape with the help ofWalwein, Tristant, Erec, and Karjet. Subsequently a mighty sorcerer has to be defeated, and finally the triumphant protagonist can assume the government of his inherited kingdom.

   Bibliography

   ■ McLelland, Nicola. Ulrich von Zatzikhoven’s Lanzelet: Narrative Style and Entertainment. Cambridge: Brewer, 2000.

   ■ Ulrich von Zatzikhoven. Lanzelet. Translated by Kenneth G. T.Webster.With an introduction by Roger Sherman Loomis.New York: Columbia University Press, 1951.

   ■ ———. Lanzelet: Eine Erzählung. Edited by K. A. Hahn. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Brönner, 1854. Reprinted with afterword and bibliography by Frederick Norman. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1965.

   Albrecht Classen