Terra Incognita? Mountains in Medieval and Early Modern German Literature

Summary

In the Middle Ages wild nature outside the courtly, aristocratic precinct, where it was delicately tamed and regulated in the garden, always seems to have represented a dangerous, uncivilized, uncanny, if not threatening territory. We hardly ever hear of any poet expressing his or her delight in simple nature scenes, unless these provided safe haven for lovers, such as the delightful meadow at the edge of the forest in Walther von der Vogelweide's famous poem “Under der linden” (Under the linden tree, ca. 1200). In Gottfried von Straßburg's romance Tristan (ca. 1210), Tristan and Isolde escape to their love cave when their existence at King Mark's castle has become intolerable, but that utopian space is situated in a remote forest where dangerous animals roam and human existence is possible only because the two lovers can withdraw into that magical grotto, nourished only by their mysterious love. The forest proves to be the space of lawlessness, the domain of robbers, giants, dwarfs, and other uncanny creatures. The same applies to the mountain, about which poets rarely reported positive aspects, and which appears to have evoked primarily negative feelings even among chroniclers and artists. Not surprisingly, we often observe the metaphoric use of the mountain as a space of hostility and extra-territoriality, hence as a threat to and danger for human existence.