Lilie unter Dornen. Vermessungen menschlicher Liebeskompetenz in Hartmanns ›Erec‹

Reuvekamp Silvia

Abstract

Abstract: The echoes of the Song of Songs in Hartmann’s ›Erec‹ culminate in the famous comparison of Enite with a lily among thorns. Against the background of the exegetical tradition, in which the lily stands for an exceptional love competence, it is shown that this comparison is much more important to an appropriate understanding of ›Erec‹ than has been commonly assumed. This example illustrates, moreover, how precisely vernacular-language authors make usage of sacred contents and how autonomously they create processes of literary meaning-making.