The sacred and the profane in German courtly romances and late medieval verse narratives: With an emphasis on Ulrich Bonerius and Heinrich Kaufringer

It might amount to carrying coals to Newcastle to re-emphasize the great importance of Christianity for medieval literature. The sacred and the profane constantly interlace each other throughout the pre-modern world, both in narratives and poetry, in music, and in art works. But what does the interplay actually entail for the various texts, and how do various poets inject the spiritual into their commonly secular accounts? By drawing our attention to a selection of some of the most famous Middle High German romances (including a heroic epic) and courtly love, and then of some late medieval didactic and entertaining verse narratives, this study carefully profiles the powerful interplay of these two dimensions within the literary discourse, illustrating the extent to which both contributed significantly to the deeper development of the message contained in each text or groups of texts.