Heinrich von Veldeke

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Heinrich von Veldeke (German) or Hendrik van Veldeke (Dutch); b. before 1140 – d. after 1190) is the first writer from the Low Countries who is known by name. He is claimed by both Dutch and German literature as the first great author. His influence on the Middle High German literature of the courtly period was enormous.

Von Veldeke was born in Spalbeek near 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. Von Veldeke stayed at the court of the counts of Loon.

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

[edit] Works

For the 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). This work survives nearly complete in a 15th century Middle Dutch version as well as in a 13th century fragment written in the Maastricht dialect.

His most important work was the Eneas (also called Eneide or, Eneasroman) about the Trojan hero Aeneas. This work, based on the Anglo-Norman Roman d'Énéas, was written around 1175 at the court of the count of Cleves. It has often been supposed by scholars that the author wrote this in his native dialect. At least two editions of his Eneas appear in a reconstructed Middle Limburgic dialect: the edition by Otto Behaghel from 1882 and the one by Theodor Frings and Gabriele Schieb from 1964-1970. However, all surviving manuscripts contain the text in a Middle High German version, a fact that has led many scholars to reject the reconstructed editions as philological fantasies.

[edit] Influence

Heinrich von 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.

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