!!!Neidhart von Reuental

Neidhart von Reuental, 
d. probably before 1246, no written account of his name, which seems 
to have been chosen in self-irony ("Nithart" or "Neithart" meaning 
heathen, devil, and "von Riuwental" meaning from the vale of sorrows, 
metaphorical for life as such). Of his works 56 - 132 songs and 55 
tunes have survived in 21 manuscripts, although some are only 
fragmentary. N. lived in Vienna and probably worked for the court. Is 
regarded as the most successful poet of the post-classical era. His 
poetry can be divided into the so-called summer and winter songs. The 
summer songs, mostly clearly structured round dance songs, deal with 
courtly love: a knightly bard plays dance music in the village and 
wins the heart of a peasant girl. In their parody of knightly values 
and their criticism of the uncouth peasants the summer songs break 
with the poetic tradition of courtly love. The winter songs contrast 
verses following the tradition of courtly love poetry with 
descriptions of wild dance scenes and village peasant life. The social 
satire characteristic of N.´s work targets the peasantry. It 
might well reflect the growing tensions between knights and peasants, 
the former threatened by decline, the latter striving for 
emancipation. N. tomb (St. Stephen´s Cathedral, Vienna), N. 
frescoes (Vienna, Tuchlauben).

\\
Edition: H. Fischer (ed.), Die Lieder N., %%sup 4/%1984.

!Literature
J. Bumke, Ministerialitaet und Ritterdichtung, 1976; H. 
Birkhan, N. v. R., 1983; V. F. Spechtler (ed.), Lyrik 
des ausgehenden 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts, 1984; G. Blaschitz (ed.), 
N.-Rezeption in Wort und Bild, 2000.



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