Hendrik van Veldeke

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Hendrik van Veldeke (Dutch) or Heinrich von Veldeke (German; b. before 1140 – d. after 1190) is the first writer from the Low Countries who is known by name. He wrote in a Middle Dutch Limburgish dialect (also sometimes referred to in German sources as a Middle German dialect.

Van Veldeke was born in Spalbeek near the town of Hasselt in the County of Loon (present-day Belgian province of Limburg, then part of the Holy Roman Empire). He came from a noble family that was named for the village of Veldeke. Van Veldeke stayed at the court of the counts of Loon. For countess Agnes of Metz he wrote his first work, the Legend of Saint Servaes, a hagiography of Saint Servatius, the patron saint of nearby Maastricht (present day Netherlands).

His most important work was the Eneide about the Trojan hero Aeneas. This work, based on the French Roman d'Énéas, was written around 1175 at the court of the count of Cleves. Only the Middle High German translation of the Eneide has survived.

Hendrik van Veldeke was very influential on the German literature of the twelfth century and later because of his excellent technique. He was valued at the noble courts for his lyric poetry, of which about thirty examples survive.

It is not known for certain when Van Veldeke died, but it was after 1190 and before 1205, when he was mentioned by Wolfram von Eschenbach in his Parzifal.

In Maastricht, a square, a secondary school (the Henric van Veldeke College) and a bookshop were named after him.