Süßkind von Trimberg

[Liam]

Süßkind von Trimberg (ca. 1230-1300) was a mysterious medieval Jewish troubadour. Wandering from castle to castle, the Jewish minstrel sang his songs among the Christians. Between six and twelve of his poems (some of disputed authorship) have been preserved. The famous Manesse Manuscript of songs also contains a picture of him "with a pointed yellow Jew's hat and long beard" (isolated figure on the right in the first illumination):

He sang of constancy of spirit and of virtuous wives, extolled kindness and generosity. One of his verses runs: "I praise him as a noble man who nobly acts, not him who merely boasts a patent of nobility. Do we not see roses blooming among thorns and wickedness flourishing among noblemen?"

We know very few details of this Jewish minnesinger's life. One day, however, Süßkind von Trimberg abandoned his art. Among the few statements of his that have come down to us is the following: "I mean to flee the courts of the lords, grow a long beard and gray hair, and henceforth live the life of the ancient Jews, for the lords have withdrawn their favor from me."

In 1979, this poem was set to music by the American composer Miriam Gideon.

...

[Biographical information about the poet borrowed from Werner Keller's wonderful book Diaspora: The Post-Biblical History of the Jews (1969), translated from the German].

[Liam]

The Fable of the Wolf

A wolf spoke full of pain:
Now where should I remain?
Since I live off man
I must remain in ban.
But I was born this way, the fault is not mine;
many a man is in pleasant circumstances
whom one sees deal falsely
and evidently acquire wealth
with sinful aspirations.
He does much worse than if I take a goose;
I have not enough gold
to pay for my food,
therefore I must steal it out of hunger.
In his way, the false man acts much worse than I
and yet wishes to appear innocent.

[Mirabell]

YAY! Good thread! As his biographer, Dietrich Gerhardt has pointed out, we don't even know for sure he was Jewish, but from a very early point in German literary history he was a rallying point for Gernan Jews, a figure to identify with. There is a weirdly clich?d biographical novel by the great Friedrich Torberg that cemented this status.

[Liam]

...his biographer, Dietrich Gerhardt...

...a weirdly clich?d biographical novel by the great Friedrich Torberg...

Ah, see, I don't have access to these resources as I don't read German.

Is the novel still in print and available in Germany? Was it ever translated into other languages?

I might do a class presentation on this poet at some point in the Fall.