Little is known about Walther von der Vogelweide’s
parentage, childhood, or later life. He was born
and grew up in Austria but later left the country to
seek patronage in the courts of Germany. Though
it is not clear into which social class the poet was
born, he was probably of noble birth and thus received
a classical education, which in turn served
as the basis for his poetry.
After the death of his first patron in Vienna,
Walther established himself at the Hohenstaufen
court in Germany. From there he traveled around
the surrounding countryside as a kind of itinerant
musician (called a Minnesinger), entertaining aristocratic
and royal families with his singing and
recitation. Later in life he settled at the court in
Würzburg in southeastern Germany, where he ultimately
died and was buried.
Probably the most important poet of his era in
the German language,Walther was greatly admired
by audiences, peers, and patrons. His body of work
consists of two crusaders’ songs (called Kreuzlieder),
a choir song (called a Leich), as well as more than 100
poems consisting of chivalric love poetry in the Minnesang
tradition, lyric poetry expressing the respect
and homage owed by a knight to his mistress.
Walther von der Vogelweide’s most accomplished
works are his Minnelieder, or love songs,
which he brought to an unrivaled level of artistic
refinement. His lasting importance as a poet lies
perhaps in his visions of love and women.
Walther’s concept of love was not one of one-sided
servile devotion but of mutual affection, and for
him feminine beauty consisted as much of inner
qualities as of outward appearances.
Walther’s collection of lyric poems is usually divided
into three groups: his earliest and most conventional
poems, reminiscent of court poet Reinmar
der Alte; poems in which courtly love and all the
trappings therein are cast off and replaced with
abandon and spontaneity; and the most mature of
his poems, those called Sprüche poems to denote the
aged poet’s responses to personal and political
events.
Scholar Günther Schweikle has written of
Walther von der Vogelweide, “He is the unparalleled
master of medieval German poetry.” The influence
of Walther’s work continues to be felt
today, and he is considered the first in a long line of
great Austrian poets.
English Versions of Works by
Walther von der Vogelweide
Selected poems of Walther von der Vogelweide. Edited
by Margaret Fitzgerald Richey. Oxford: Blackwell,
1965.
Songs and Sayings ofWalther Von Der Vogelweide,Minnesaenger.
Murieta, Calif.: Classic Books, 2001.
Walther von der Vogelweide: The Single-Stanza Lyrics.
Routledge Medieval Texts Series. Edited and translated
by Frederick Goldin. London: Taylor & Francis,
Inc., 2002.
A Work about Walther von der Vogelweide
Jones, George Fenwick. Walther von der Vogelweide.
New York: Twayne, 1968.