Page - 144 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

144 Margit Dahm-Kruse These symbolic or spiritual meanings, however, are not restricted to sacred contexts, but also play a significant role in secular writings.4 Even genuinely literary or fictional texts fre- quentlymadeuseof religiousmotifs andconcepts ofmeanings. According to the thematic frameof this volume, themain focusof this essaywill beon the thematic connectionofwater andurbanstructureswithinmedievalworksof fiction. Therefore, Iwill analyse literary descriptions ofwaterworks andwater supplies connected to urban land- scapesandarchitectures. It canbeshownthat there ismore to theextensivedepictionsofartful waterworks than just being a random element within the general descriptions of cityscapes or single buildings; they relate, rather, to particular Christianmeanings.Water is part of the iconographicprogrammesof theHeavenly Jerusalemand theEarthlyParadise towhich literary representationsofcities,palaces,andpalacegardensoftenrefer.At thesametime, the fictional texts mirror the representative impact of artfully designed waterworks.5 The artificially con- trolled element of water is a highly suitable motif for the symbolic representation of power, authority, andcultural refinement, aswell as for the ambivalent configurationof theOrient. Water in aperfect cityscape– the false Jerusalem inHerzogErnstB In the courtly literature of the 12th and 13thcenturies, themain focus is onaristocratic protago- nists andon thecourt as themainplaceof action.Due to this setting, extensivedescriptionsof cities are rare. If cities arementioned in the narrativeworlds of courtly novels, their presenta- tions aremostly brief and focused on theirmaterial or architectural features, while the social structuresor theeconomic, cultural, andpolitical complexityof cities are seldomreflected.The descriptions are, inmost cases, limited to certain topical elements, such as the fortificationby walls, gates, towersandmoats, aswell as thesovereign’s residence.Water is certainlya typical feature of these short depictions, since the cities are almost always surrounded bymoats or naturalwaterways, but further elaborations on the importance ofwater inurban surroundings are rarely found. Against this background, the significance of the first text example taken from the courtly novel ‘HerzogErnst’ becomesapparent, as it goes far beyond these typical patterns. Thisnovel contains not only one of themost elaborated representations of a city from the entire courtly literature, but also anextensivedescriptionofwaterwithin anurban landscape. This anonymous narrative, dating back to themiddle of the 12th century, was one of the most popular and widespread novels of the German Middle Ages. It is handed down in ten different versions dating from the 12th to the 16th century which testify to the enormous and long-lasting interest in this text. Iwill refer to versionBas theoldest complete one.6 The novel is divided into two parts. The first part tells of the rise and fall of the Bavarian Duke Ernst, who in the first instance enjoys a high reputationwith theGerman emperor Otto, but becomes disgraced through defamation. The emperor attacks Ernst’s Bavarian homeland; neither theempress’nor theGerman lords’ interventioncandissuadehimfromhisunjust furor 4 Untilwell into the lateMiddleAges, literacyand literaryproductionwereclosely linked toecclesiastical institu- tions and their personnel. Accordingly, sacredand secularwritingswerenot dichotomously separated fields. 5 Theparticularpotential ofwater-art toovertop theknownand to create somethingunprecedented ismentioned invonReden–Wieland 2015, 22. 6 The oldest version A from the 12th century has only survived in three fragments that altogether contain about 10% of the entire text. B, commonly dated to the early 13th century, is considered to be very closely related to versionA(cf.Bumke2000,413).Anoverviewof thedifferentversions isgivenbyBehr2011,61–63andStock2002, 152–158.