The Influence of India and Persia on the Poetry of Germany

Information of Medi?val Europe Concerning India and Persia-Travellers-India and Persia in Medi?val German Poetry.

The knowledge which medi?val Europe had of India and Persia was mostly indirect, and, as might be expected, deficient both in correctness and extent, resting, as it did, on the statements of classical and patristic writers, on hearsay and on oral communication. In the accounts of the classic writers, especially in those of Pliny, Strabo, Ptolemy, truth and fiction were already strangely blended. Still more was this the case with such compilers and encyclop?dists as Solinus, Cassiodorus and Isidorus of Sevilla, on whom the medi?val scholar depended largely for information. All these writers, in so far as they speak of India, deal almost entirely with its physical description, its cities and rivers, its wealth of precious stones and metals, its spices and silks, and in particular its marvels and wonders. Of its religion we hear but little, and as to its literature we have only a few vague statements of Arrian,1 Aelian2 and Dio Chrysostomus.3 When the last mentioned author tells us that the ancient Hindus sang in their own language the poems of Homer, it shows that he had no idea of the fact that the great Sanskrit epics, to which the passage undoubtedly alludes, were independent poems. To him they appeared to be nothing more than versions of Homer. Aelian makes a similar statement, but cautiously adds ε? τι χρ? πιστε?ειν τοι? ?π?ρ το?των ?στορουσιν. Philostratus represents the Hindu sage Iarchas as well acquainted with the Homeric poems, but nowhere does his hero Apollonius of Tyana show the slightest knowledge of Sanskrit literature.4

Nor do the classic authors give us any more information about the literature of Persia, though the Iranian religion received some attention. Aristotle and Theopompus were more or less familiar with Zoroastrian tenets,5 and allusions to the prophet of ancient Iran are not infrequent in classic writers. But their information concerning him is very scanty and inaccurate. To them Zoroaster is simply the great Magian, more renowned for his magic art than for his religious system. Of the national Iranian legends, glimpses of which we catch in the Avesta (esp. Yt. 19), and which must have existed long before the Sassanian period and the time of Firdausī, the Greek and Roman authors have recorded nothing.

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But Europe was not limited to the classic and patristic writers for information about the Orient. The points of contact between the Eastern and Western world were numerous even before the Portuguese showed the way to India. Alexandria was the seat of a lively commerce between the Roman Empire and India during the first six centuries of the Christian era; the Byzantine Empire was always in close relations, hostile or friendly, with Persia; the Arabs had settled in Spain, Southern Italy and Sicily; and the Mongols ruled for almost two centuries in Russia. All these were factors in the transmission of Oriental influence.6 And, as far as Germany is concerned, we must remember that in the tenth century, owing to the marriage of the emperor Otto II to the Greek princess Theophano, the relations between the German and Byzantine Empires were especially close. Furthermore the Hohenstaufen emperor, Frederick II, it will be remembered, was a friend and patron of the Saracens in Italy and Sicily, who in turn supported him loyally in his struggle against the papacy. Above all, the crusades, which brought the civilization of the West face to face with that of the East, were a powerful factor in bringing Oriental influence into Europe. The effect they had on the European mind is shown by the great number of French and German poems which lay their scene of action in Eastern lands, or, as will be shown presently, introduce persons and things from India and Persia.7

Of course it is as a rule impossible to tell precisely how and when the Oriental influence came into Europe, but that it did come is absolutely certain. The transformation of the Buddha-legend into the Christian legend of Barlaam and Josaphat, the migration of fables and stories, and the introduction of the game of chess furnish the clearest proofs of this.

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But direct information about the East was also available. A number of merchants and missionaries penetrated even as far as China, and have left accounts of their travels. Such an account of India and Ceylon was given as early as the sixth century by Cosmas, surnamed Indicopleustes. The names of Benjamin of Tudela (about 1160 A.D.) and of Marco Polo (1271-1295) are familiar to every student of historical geography. The Mongol rulers during the period of their dominion over China were in active communication with the popes and allowed Western missionaries free access to their realm. A number of these missionaries also came to India or Persia, for instance Giovanni de Montecorvino (1289-1293),8 Odorico da Pordenone (1316-1318),9 Friar Jordanus (1321-1323, and 1330)10 and Giovanni de Marignolli (1347).11 In the fifteenth century Henry III of Castile sent Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo as ambassador to Timur, and towards the end of that century several Venetian Ambassadors, Caterino Zeno (1472), Josaphat Barbaro (1473) and Ambrosio Contarini (1473), were at the Persian Court in order to bring about united action on the part of Venice and Persia against the Turks.12 These embassies attracted considerable attention in Europe, as is shown by numerous pamphlets concerning them, published in several European countries.13 In this same century Nicolo de Conti travelled in India and the account of his wanderings has been recorded by Poggio.14

As we see, most of these travellers are Italians. We know of but one German, before the year 1500, who went further than the Holy Land, and that is Johann Schildberger of Munich, whose book of travel was printed in 1473. Taken prisoner while fighting in Turkish service against Timur at Angora, he remained in the East from 1395 to 1417, and got as far as Persia. His description of that country is very meagre; India, as he expressly states,15 he never visited, his statements about that land being mostly plagiarized from Mandeville.16

These accounts, however, while they give valuable information concerning the physical geography, the wealth, size, and wonderful things of the countries they describe, have little or nothing to say about the languages or literatures. All that Conti for instance has to say on this important subject is contained in a single sentence: "Loquendi idiomata sunt apud Indos plurima, atque inter se varia."17

In these accounts it was not so much truthfulness that appealed to the public, as strangeness and fancifulness. Thus Marco Polo's narrative, marvelous as it was, never became as popular as the spurious memoirs of Mandeville, who in serving up his monstrosities ransacked almost every author, classic or medi?val, on whom he could lay his hands.18 In fact a class of books arose which bore the significant name of Mirabilia Mundi and purported to treat of the whole world, and especially of India. Such are, for instance, Les Merveilles de l'Inde by Jean Vauquelin, Fenix de las maravillas del mondo by Raymundus Lullius, and similar works by Nicolaus Donis, Arnaldus de Badeto and others.19 But the great store-house of Oriental marvels on which the medi?val poets drew for material was the Alexander-romance of pseudo-Callisthenes, of which there were a number of Latin versions, the most important being the epitome made by Julius Valerius and the Historia de Preliis written by the archpresbyter Leo in the tenth century. The character of the Oriental lore offered in these writings is best shown by a cursory examination of the work last mentioned.20 There we are introduced to a bewildering array of mirabilia, snakes, hippopotami, scorpions, giant-lobsters, forest-men, bats, elephants, bearded women, dog-headed people, griffins, white women with long hair and canine teeth, fire-spouting birds, trees that grow and vanish in the course of a single day, mountains of adamant, and finally sacred sun-trees and moon-trees that possess the gift of prophecy. But beyond some vague reference to asceticism not a trace of knowledge of Brahmanic life can be found. While the Brahman King Didimus is well versed in Roman and Greek mythology, he never mentions the name of any of his own gods. Of real information concerning India there is almost nothing.

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From what we have seen thus far we shall not expect in medi?val literature conscious imitation or reproduction of works from Persian or Sanskrit literature. Whatever influence these literatures exerted in Europe was indirect. If a subject was transmitted from East to West it was as a rule stripped of its Oriental names and characteristics, and even its Oriental origin was often forgotten. This is the case with the greater part of the fables and stories that can be traced to Eastern sources and have found their way into such works as the Gesta Romanorum, or the writings of Boccaccio, Straparola and Lafontaine. Sometimes, however, the history of the origin is still remembered, as for instance in the famous Buch der Beispiele, where the preface begins thus: "Es ist von den alten wysen der geschl?cht der welt dis buoch des ersten jn yndischer sprauch gedicht und darnach in die buochstaben der Persen verwandelt,...."21

Poems whose subjects are of Eastern origin are not frequent in the German literature of the middle ages. The most striking example of such a poem is the "Barlaam und Josaphat" of Rudolph von Ems (about 1225), the story of which, as has been conclusively proved, is nothing more or less than the legend of Buddha in Christian garb.22 The well known "Herzmaere" of the same author has likewise been shown to be of Indic origin.23 Then there is a poem of the fourteenth or fifteenth century on the same subject as Rückert's parable of the man in the well, which undoubtedly goes back to Buddhistic sources.24 Besides these we mention "Vrouwenzuht" (also called "von dem Zornbraten") by a poet Sībote of the thirteenth century,25 and Hans von Bühel's "Diocletianus Leben" (about 1412), the well known story of the seven wise masters.26

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The great interest which the East aroused in Europe, especially after the period of the first crusades, is shown by the great number of poems which have their scene of action in Oriental lands, especially in India or Persia, or which introduce persons and things from those countries. To indulge this fondness for Oriental scenery poets do not hesitate to violate historical truth. Thus Charlemagne and his paladins are sent to the Holy Land in the "Pèlerinage de Charlesmagne"27 and in the poem called the "Karl Meinet," a German compilation of various legends about the Frankish hero.28 Purely Germanic legends like those of Ortnit-Wolfdietrich and King Rother were orientalized in much the same manner.29 As might be expected, it is in the court-epic and minstrel-poetry (Spielmannsdichtung) where this Oriental tendency manifests itself most markedly. A typical poem of this kind is "Herzog Ernst." The hero, a purely German character, is made to go through a series of marvelous adventures in the East some of which bear a striking resemblance to those of Sindbad.30 The later strophic version (14th century) and the prose-version of the Volksbuch (probably 15th century) localize some of these adventures definitely in the fernen India.31 Probably under the influence of this story the author of the incompleted "Reinfrit von Braunschweig" (about 1300) was induced to send his hero into Persia, to meet with somewhat similar experiences.32 Heinrich von Neustadt likewise lays the scene of Apollonius' adventures in the golden valley Crysia bordering on India.33 In the continuation of the Parzifal-story entitled "Der Jüngere Titurel," which was written by Albrecht von Scharffenberg (about 1280), the Holy Grail is to be removed from a sinful world and to be carried to the East to be given to Feirefiz, half brother to Parzifal.34 The meeting of Feirefiz with the knights furnishes the poet an opportunity of bringing in a learned disquisition on Prester John and his drī India die wīten, and finally this mythical monarch offers his crown to Parzifal, who henceforth is called Priester Johanni. In the poem of "Lohengrin", of unknown authorship, the knight when about to depart declares he has come from India where there is a house fairer than that at Montsalvatsch.35

Princes and princesses from India or Persia abound in the poems of the court-writers and minstrels. Thus in "Solomon und Morolf" Salme is the daughter of the King of Endian;36 in Wolfram's "Willehalm" King Alofel of Persia and King Gorhant from the Ganjes figure in the battle of Alischanz.37 In Konrad von Würzburg's "Trojanischer Krieg" the kings Panfilias of Persia and Achalmus of India are on the Trojan side.38 In the same poet's "Partenopier" the Sultan of Persia is the hero's chief rival.39 In "Der Jüngere Titurel" Gatschiloe, a princess from India, becomes bearer of the Grail; similarly in a poem by Der Pleiaere, Flordibel, who comes to the Knights of the Round Table to learn courtly manners, reveals herself as a princess from India.40 According to a poem of the fourteenth century the father of St. Christopher is king of Arabia and Persia.41 Even the folk-epic "Kudrun" knows of Hilde of India, Hagen's wife.42

Again, wonderful things from India are abundant in this class of poetry. The magic lance which Wigalois receives, when he is about to do battle with a fire-spitting dragon, is from that land.43 So also is the magic ring given to Reinfrit when he sets out on his crusade.44 Wigamur's bride Dulceflur wears woven gold from the castle Gramrimort in India,45 and in the "Nibelungen" Hagen and Dancwart, when going to the Isenstein, wear precious stones from that land.46

To some poets India and Persia are a sort of Ultima Thule to denote the furthest limits of the earth, as for instance, when in the "Rolandslied" Ganelun complains that for the ambition of Roland even Persia is not too far,47 or, when in the "Willehalm" King Tybalt, whose daughter has been carried off, lets his complaint ring out as far as India.48

Examples might be multiplied. But they would all prove the same thing. India and Persia were magic names to conjure with; their languages and literatures were a book with seven seals to medi?val Europe.

FOOTNOTES:

1 Indica, ch. 10.

2 Var. Hist. xii. 48.

3 De Homero, Oratio liii., ed. Dindorf, Lips. 1857, vol. ii. p. 165.

4 Apollonii Vita, iii. 19 et passim.

5 See Jackson, Zoroaster, p. 8.

6 See Benfey, Pantschatantra, Vorrede, p. xxiv and note.

7 See Gaston Paris, La Littérature Fran?aise au Moyen Age, Paris, 1888, p. 49 seq. A striking illustration of oral transmission is the origin of the tradition about Prester John, for which see Cathay and the Way thither, ed. Henry Yule, Lond. 1866, Hakluyt Soc. No. 36, 37, vol. i. p. 174 and n. 1.

8 Yule, op. cit. vol. i. pp. 165-167 and p. 197 seq.

9 Ib. pp. 1-161; Latin text in appendix i of vol. ii.

10 Mirabilia Descripta, ed. Henry Yule, London, 1863. Hakluyt Society, No. 31.

11 Yule, Cathay, vol. ii. pp. 311-381.

12 For their accounts see the publications of the Hakluyt Society, 1859 and 1873. Nos. 26 and 49.

13 See Paul Horn, Gesch. Irans in Islamitischer Zeit, in Grdr. iran. Phil. II. p. 578 and note 4; also p. 579. See also Bibl. Asiat. et Afric. par H. Ternaux-Compans, Paris, 1841, under the years 1508, 1512, 1514, 1515, 1516, 1535, 1543, 1579, 1583, etc.

14 English tr. in R.H. Major, India in the Fifteenth Century, London, 1857. Hakluyt Society, No. 22.

15 Hans Schiltbergers Reisebuch ed. Val. Langmantel (BLVS. vol. 172) Tübingen, 1885, p. 79: "In der grossen India pin ich nicht gewesen...."

16 Ibid. p. 164.

17 Friedr. Kunstmann, Die Kenntnis Indiens im 15ten Jahrhunderte, München, 1863, p. 59; Major, op. cit. p. 31.

18 See Albert Bovenschen, Quellen für die Reisebeschreibung des Joh. v. Mandeville, Berl. 1888.

19 See Gr?sse, J.G.Th., Lehrbuch einer allgem. Liter?rgesch., 9 vols., Dresd. u. Leipz. 1837-59, Vol. II. pt. 2, pp. 783-785.

20 Latin text publ. by Oswald Zingerle as an appendix to Die Quellen zum Alexander des Rudolf v. Ems in Weinhold Germ. Abhandl. Breslau. 1885, pt. iv.

21 Das Buch der Beispiele der alten Weisen, ed. Wilh. Ludw. Holland, Stuttg. 1860, BLVS. vol. 56.

22 Piper, H.E. iii. pp. 562-632. Joseph Langen, Johannes von Damaskus, Gotha, 1879, pp. 239-255, esp. p. 252, n. 1.

23 Piper, H.E. iii. pp. 216-219.

24 Vetter, Lehrhafte Litteratur des 14. u. 15. Jahrhunderts (KDNL. vol. 12), I. pp. 496-499. For a bibliography of this poem see C. Beyer, Nachgelassene Ged. Friedr. Rückert's, Wien, 1877, pp. 311-320. For a translation of the version in the Mahābhārata see Boxberger, Rückert Studien, p. 94 seq. A translation of a Buddhist sutta on the same subject is given in Edm. Hardy, Indische Religionsgeschichte, Leipz. 1898, pp. 72, 73. Cf. also E. Kuhn, in B?htlingks Festgruss, Stuttg. 1888, pp. 74, 75.

25 Piper, H.E. iii. pp. 531, 532. See also Hagen, Gesammtabenteuer, i. LXXXV and n. 2.

26 Edited by Keller, Quedl. 1841. See art. by Goedeke in Orient und Occident, iii. 2. pp. 385 seq.

27 See edition by Koschwitz, in Altfranz. Bibl., vol. ii. p. 7 seq., and consult Gaston Paris, La Poésie du Moyen Age, Paris, 1887, p. 119 seq.

28 See ed. Adelb. von Keller, Stuttg. 1858 (BLVS. vol. 45), pp. 507 seq. Cf. also Uhland's K?nig Karls Meerfart.

29 Jiriczek, Die deutsche Heldensage, Leipz. 1897, pp. 144, 153.

30 On this see Karl Bartsch, Herzog Ernst, Wien, 1869, Einl. p. cliii.

31 Bartsch, op. cit. p. 204 seq. and p. 279 seq.

32 See ed. Bartsch, Tüb. 1871 (BLVS. vol. 108), ll. 16749 seq.

33 Piper, H.E. iii. p. 389.

34 Piper, H.E. ii. p. 530 seq.

35 See ed. by Heinr. Rückert, Quedlinb. u. Leipz. 1858, l. 7141 seq. p. 189.

36 Piper, Spielmannsdichtung, I. p. 215. See also ed. by Hagen u. Büsching in Ged. d. Mittel., Berl. 1808, i. l. 6.

37 Piper, Wolfr. v. Eschenbach (KDNL, vol. 5), I. p. 214.

38 See ed. v. Keller, Stuttg. 1858 (BLVS. vol. 44), ll. 24840, 24939, pp. 296, 298.

39 Piper, H.E. iii. pp. 299, 300.

40 Piper, H.E. ii. p. 325.

41 Piper, Die geistliche Dichtung des Mittelalters (KDNL. vol. 3), ii. pp. 71, 72.

42 See ed. Bartsch (KDNL. vol. 6), pp. 26, 27.

43 Piper, H.E. ii. p. 222.

44 See ed. Bartsch, l. 15067, p. 440.

45 See ed. by Hagen in Ged. d. Mittel. i. p. 46, l. 4462 seq.

46 Das Nibelungenlied, ed. Friedr. Zarncke, Leipz. 1894, p. 62, v. 3.

47 Piper, Spielm., p. 30.

48 Piper, Wolfr. v. Eschenbach, i. p. 208; cf. Dante's Paradiso, cant. 29, ll. 100-102.

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