TANNHAUSER, or TANHUSER

This article appears in Volume V26, Page 399 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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TANNHAUSER, or TANHUSER , German Minnesinger of the 13th century, who lived for a time at the court of Frederick II., duke of Austria. After Duke Frederick's death he was received at the court of Otto II., duke of Bavaria; but, being of a restless disposition, and having wasted his fortune, he spent much time in wandering about Germany. He also went as a Crusader to the Holy Land. His poems belong to the decadence of the Minnesang, and combine a didactic display of learning with descriptions of peasant-life in a somewhat coarse tone. His adventurous life led him to be identified, in the popular

imagination

IMAGINATION

, with the knight

Tannhauser

TANNHAUSER, or TANHUSER

who, after many wanderings, comes to the Venusberg, or Horselberg, near Eisenach. He enters the cave where the Lady Venusthe Fran Hulda of German folk-loreholds her court, and abandons himself to a life of sensual pleasure. By and by he is overcome by remorse, and, invoking the aid of the Virgin Mary, he obtains permission to return for a while to the outer world. He then goes as a

pilgrim

PILGRIM

to Rome, and entreats

Pope

Urban to secure for him the forgiveness of his sins. The

pope

declares it is as impossible for him to be pardoned as for the staff he has in his hand to blossom.

Tannhauser

TANNHAUSER, or TANHUSER

departs in despair, and returns to the Venusberg. In three days the staff begins to put forth green leaves, and the pope sends messengers in all directions in

SEARCH, or VISIT AND SEARCH

of the penitent, but he is never seen again. This legend was at one time widely known in Germany, and as

late

LATE

as 183o it survived in a popular song at Entlebuch in Switzerland, a version of which was given by Uhland in his Alte hock- and niederdeutsche Volkslieder. Among the attendants of Hulda was the faithful Eckhart, and in the

preface

PREFACE (Med. Lat. prefatia, for classical praefatio, praefari, to speak beforehand)

to the Heldenbuch he is said to sit before the Venusberg, and to warn passers-by of the dangers to which they may be exposed if they linger in the neighbourhood. The legend has been reproduced by several modern German poets, and by R. Wagner in an opera.
For Tannhauser's lyric poetry, see F. H. von der

Hagen

HAGEN
HAGEN,
FRIEDRICH
- FRIEDRICH, JOHANN (1836— )
HEINRICH VON DER (178o-1856)

's Minnesinger, ii. (1838); K. Bartsch, Deutsche Liederdichter des 12. bis 14. Jahrhunderts (3rd ed. 1893), No. 47. See also F. Zander, Die Tannhausersage and der Minnesinger Tannhauser (1858); J. G. T. Grasse, Die Sage von Tannhauser (1846; 2nd ed. 1861) ; A'. Ohlke Zu Tannhbusers Leben and Dichten (189o); J. Siebert, Tannhauser, Inhalt and Form seiner Gedichte (1894).

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