Gottfried von Strassburg

Gottfried von Strassburg (died c. 1210) is the author of the Middle High German courtly romance Tristan, an adaptation of the 12th-century Tristan and Iseult legend. Gottfried's work is regarded, alongside Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and the Nibelungenlied, as one of the great narrative masterpieces of the German Middle Ages. He is probably also the composer of a small number of surviving lyrics. His work became a source of inspiration for Richard Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde.

Other than an origin in or close association with Strasbourg, nothing is known of his life. It would seem, however, that he was a man of good birth and position, who filled an important municipal office in his native city of Strasbourg, but since he is always referred to in German as Meister (master) and not Herr (sir), it seems safe to assume he was not a knight, a conclusion supported by the rather dismissive attitude toward knightly exploits shown in Tristan.

Tristan ends abruptly, and according to the testimony of Ulrich von Türheim and Heinrich von Freiberg, two people who provided endings for Tristan, Gottfried died before finishing the work. References in the work suggest it was written during the first decade of the 13th century, and 1210 is taken, conventionally, as the date of Gottfried's death.

His thorough familiarity with Latin literature and rhetorical theory suggest someone who had enjoyed a high level of monastic education. He also shows detailed technical knowledge of music and hunting, far beyond anything found in the works of his contemporaries. Gottfried draws more on the learned tradition of medieval humanism than on the chivalric ethos shared by his major literary contemporaries. He also appears to have been influenced by the writings of contemporary Christian mystics, in particular Bernard of Clairvaux. Although he was highly educated, it is almost certain that he was not a priest. Of this his occasional sneers at the clergy are perhaps a better proof than the morality of much of his work.

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