Reinmars Women

Book excerpt: Reinmar der Alte, the twelfth-century poet also known as Reinmar von Hagenau, wrote a considerable number of ‘Frauenlieder’ and ‘Frauenstrophen’, i.e. poems and stanzas in which the speaker is a woman. However, there has never been a satisfactory scholarly treatment of these poems. Throughout the history of scholarship dealing with his works, the evaluation has been based mainly on a characterization of his personality. This volume tries to fill this gap by presenting and analysing the Woman’s Song of Reinmar.