Wine, drunkenness, morality, and satire in der wiener meerfahrt

Many late medieval German verse narratives, mæren, still await their rediscovery by modern scholarship. One of these, sometimes called the best representative of its genre, Der Wiener Meerfahrt (before 1291) has tempted scholars to pursue rather radical, perhaps even speculative perspectives, as if violence, laughter, or social satire mattered centrally. Although the audience was certainly invited to laugh about the group of drunken revelers in Vienna, we must be careful in applying strongly moral or ethical criteria in our interpretation. The narrative is predicated on a brilliant study of the effects of alcohol when drunk in excess and aims for an ironic treatment of people who, irrespective of their high social status, are liable to transgress when under the strong influence of wine.