Wirnt von Gravenberg's Wigalois and Heinrich von dem Türlin's Diu Crône

Summary

Wirnt's Wigalois

WIGALOIS IS A COURTLY ROMANCE of some twelve thousand lines (following the three and four stress metrical pattern typical of this genre) composed by Wirnt von Gravenberg. Little is known of the author of Wigalois beyond his given name and his connection with Gravenberg (the modern Gräfenberg northeast of Nuremberg and Bayreuth). Dating is also uncertain with competent scholars having issued conjectures ranging from 1205 to 1235. While it was once supposed that Wirnt knew only the first six books of Wolfram's Parzival (which probably came into circulation ca. 1204–10), his lofty praise of Wolfram, of whom Wirnt says “leien munt nie baz gesprach” (No layman ever spoke better, 6343–46), has more recently been taken to imply an acquaintance with the whole of Parzival. Although the exact chronology remains unclear, it appears that Wigalois was enriched by a broader acquaintance with Wolfram's work(s) than was once supposed by an earlier generation of scholars.

Preceded by an account of Gawein's marriage to Florie in a wondrous kingdom where the goddess Fortuna resides as the tutelary deity, the story of Wigalois, son of Gawein, begins after his father has forsaken his wife and infant son, Wigalois, by riding back to Camelot. In early manhood the son is prompted to seek out his unknown father at the Arthurian Court where Gawein (whom, we are told, the son does not recognize) is appointed as his chivalric mentor.