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. The literature of all nations and all ages; history, character, and incident. ears later thevarious tales were col-lected, forming a myth-ical history of Charle-magnes career. Thereare discrepancies be-tween the stories, andthe dramatis personcBoccasionally vzxy; butRoland and Oliver, whohave become proverbial,maintain their placesthroughout. But muchof this Charlemagne literature belongs to French and Italianrather than to German categories. The eleventh century is a literary blank. The so-calledSuabian Age began with the succession of the Hohenstauflfendynasty in 1138, and ended with the d
. The literature of all nations and all ages; history, character, and incident. ears later thevarious tales were col-lected, forming a myth-ical history of Charle-magnes career. Thereare discrepancies be-tween the stories, andthe dramatis personcBoccasionally vzxy; butRoland and Oliver, whohave become proverbial,maintain their placesthroughout. But muchof this Charlemagne literature belongs to French and Italianrather than to German categories. The eleventh century is a literary blank. The so-calledSuabian Age began with the succession of the Hohenstauflfendynasty in 1138, and ended with the decapitation of the lastmonarch at Naples, in 1268. This period covers that of allthe Crusades but the first and the seventh and last; and theinstitution of Chivalry attained its apogee during the sameera. The Germans and the French became more closely asso-ciated than for some centuries past, and influenced each -A,t- GERMAN LITERATURE. 281 The Suabian Minnesingers—so named because their songswere of love and chivalry—were everywhere renowned, andmost of them were men of princely or noble birth. They metat the great courts of monarchs, and vied with each other intheir songs, accompanying themselves on the viol. Suabiaand Austria were the headquarters of the Minnesingers; thelanguage in which their compositions were delivered was, forthe most part, the Suabian dialect. The poetry of Provencewas the model for these effusions, but the themes were takenfrom life, and the treatment was original. They marked thefirst reaction from the purely narrative and ecclesiastical a literary movement so widespread, but few of the par-takers could achieve permanent fame. Wolfram von Eschen-bach, who lived during the latter part of the twelfth and thefirst quarter of the thirteenth century, is accounted the greatestepic poet of mediaeval Germany. His birth was noble, but hisestate poor, and he cou
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Keywords: ., bookautho, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectliterature