The German Reception of Geoffrey of Monmouth

Abstract

Geoffrey’s German reception appears meagre in light of what we might expect.1 No vernacular translation exists, and the number of manuscripts connected to German libraries is comparatively small, with only seven in Crick’s Summary Catalogue.2 Of course, Arthurian literature was popular in German-speaking lands, but, with very few exceptions, the intermediary sources seem to have been French. Indeed, one reads with regularity statements like the following: “There is little reason to doubt that the German authors who introduced Arthurian romance in southern Germany in the years around 1200 were indeed working from French sources.”3 However, two somewhat recent studies have suggested that Geoffrey’s Latin works did have an influence, however small, on popular German literature. Hartmann von Aue might have used Geoffrey’s DGB as a source for some of the names in Erek, though the poor textual transmission of this important work makes it difficult to say anything with certainty.4 Another vernacular work that might betray Geoffrey’s influence is Wirnt von Grafenberg’s Wigalois. Wigalois contains a full-on military expedition and siege, matters which are usually not present in Arthurian romance, but a recent study has attempted to rehabilitate this narrative “defect” by arguing that Wirnt took inspiration from the DGB’s description of King Arthur’s military campaign against Rome.5 Both studies acknowledge the tension between Geoffrey’s wider popularity and his lack of overt influence on vernacular German literature: “Although there are no marked intertextual references to Geoffrey’s work in German-language Arthurian romances, the