The Forest in Medieval German Literature

Albrecht Classen is University Distinguished Professor of German studies at the University of Arizona.

Acknowledgements

Introduction and Theoretical Reflections:
The Forest as an Epistemological Challenge in the Middle Ages

Chapter One:
Hartmann von Aue’s Concept of the Forest:
The Arthurian Adventure in the Forest and the Consequences

Chapter Two:
The Forest as Staging Ground for the Heroic Protagonist:
Glory and Demise in the Nibelungenlied

Chapter Three:
The Forest in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Works:
The Passage from the Arthurian Court
to the Grail Kingdom Through the Forest

Chapter Four:
The Forest in Gottfried von Straßburg’s Tristan
and in Alternative Tristan Versions

Chapter Five:
The Forest in Der Melerantz von Frankreich by The Pleier

Chapter Six:
The Forest as the Transitional and Transformative Space
in Konrad von Würzburg’s Partonopier und Meliur

Chapter Seven:
The Ambivalence of the Forest: Exile or Safe Haven?
The Destiny of the Female Protagonist Refracted in the Forest:
Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken’s Königin Sibille

Chapter Eight:
Forest in Thüring von Ringoltingen’s Melusine:
Dark Spaces, Mysterious Origins, Meaningful Connections:
The Forest and the Establishment of Dynasties

Epilogue

Bibliography
Index