This episode we conclude the story of the peasant lad who spurned a humble farming life to go off live the high life with a robber knight and, as we shall see, did not ultimately get the life he expected. Here is the final part of Meier Helmbrecht. Today's Text Wernher der Gartenaere. Meier Helmbrecht. In Peasant Life in Old German Epics, translated by Clair Hayden Bell, Columbia UP, 1931. Audio Credit: A Clockwork Orange. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Warner Bros., 1972.
A quick content warning.
This episode does contain brief references to sexual assault alongside other forms of gruesome bodily harm.
This is medieval death trip for Sunday, August 21, 2022.
Episode 94 Helmbrecht v.
Sheriff Eve of.
Justice hello and welcome to medieval death trip, the show where we explore the wit and weirdness of medieval texts.
I'm your host, Patrick Lane.
Well, we've come to the final act of 13th century peasant epic Meyer Helmbrecht.
We know that this poem was written by Werner de Gartnera because as well here today, he names himself at the end of the poem.
As with so many medieval authors, that's really the only concrete information we have about him.
His byline.
Everything else is speculation.
Based on the geographical details contained in the poem, it seems likely that Werner grew up or lived in the lower Inn river region in order to be as familiar with it as he is.
The content of the poem also suggests possibilities for his vocation.
When hes complaining that he never received as good a reception as young Helmrecht got when he returned home, he rather offhandedly mentions that he has wandered the land and visited many places.
He also compares himself as a dancer to young Helmrecht.
He seems familiar with both courtly and village customs.
Based on this, some scholars think he was by profession a wandering minstrel.
And in todays reading well hear him specifically including a detail about the minstrels at a wedding getting paid, which might be one of those winking at the audience bits during one imagines a live performance of this poem at some festivity, similar to those jokes Shakespeare likes to make about theatre going.
Now, Werner as a minstrel doesn't really fit the appellation Der Gartnera or the gardener, but it is possible that this was a family name and that's why it doesn't align with his vocation.