biography
| name: |
Neidhart
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| |
known as N von Reuenthal
|
pronunciation:
[niythah(r)t]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (c.1180–c.1240)
|
| biography:
| Poet, probably born in Bavaria. From a chivalric family, he was active as Minnesänger from c.1210, took part in crusades, and received a fief from Friedrich der Streitbarer of Austria. Neidhart was the first to introduce dörperliche village themes into Minnesang, creating in this ‘höfische Dorfpoesie’ a contrast between content and the prevailing courtly form. The Dörper figure occurs above all in the so-called Winterlieder, while the Sommerlieder are mainly love and dance songs in the form of a dialogue between girls and their mother, friends, or the singer. Some 150 poems survive in his name. As a knight, he did not identify himself in his works with peasants, and later writers (including Sachs) ascribed to him a certain hostility in this respect. A 19th-c cognomen ‘vale of tears’ is based on references in his poems. |
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