Heinrich von Morungen

Heinrich von Morungen or Henry of Morungen (died c. 1220 or 1222) was a German Minnesinger.

Almost nothing about his life can be deduced from Heinrich's songs. Possibly he is identical with the Hendricus de Morungen who is documented in Thuringia. This Hendricus belonged to the class of minor knights and presumably originated from the castle of Morungen near Sangerhausen. As a "retired knight" (miles emeritus) he received from his patron, Dietrich IV, Margrave of Meissen, a pension for his "high personal merits" (alta suae vitae merita). He transferred this in 1213 to the monastery of St Thomas in Leipzig, which he entered himself in 1217. According to 16th century sources, he died there in 1222 after a journey to India. In the Late Middle Ages, there was extant a "Ballad of the Noble Moringer", which transferred onto Heinrich von Morungen the stock theme of the return of a husband believed lost.

There survive 35 Minnelieder by Heinrich, with 115 verses, of which only 104 are to be found in the great collection of the Codex Manesse. The melodies have not survived.

Heinrich is a very graphic lyricist: he particularly often makes use of images of shining (sun, moon, evening star, gold, jewels, mirror) as comparisons by which to describe the lady who is being sung and praised.

An essential theme in Heinrich's work is the demonic nature of Minne, the Middle High German word for this type of love, which for the mediaeval writers was embodied by the ancient classical goddess of love, Venus. Minne is experienced partly as a magical, pathological, even fatal power, but also as a religious and mystical experience.

In form and content the poems are influenced by the Provençal troubadour lyric: dactylic rhythms and through-rhymes (Durchreimung) occur frequently. Motifs in the content have also been taken over from the same source: for example, the motif, otherwise rare in German Minnesang, of the "notice of termination of the service of love" (Lied XXVII), the roots of which are to be found in classical literature (for example Ovid).

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