Êrec der wunderære: On Epithet as Exegesis in Hartmann's Erec

by WILLIAM C. MCDONALD

The online-version of The Masterplots Cyclopedia of World Authors summarizes Erec (ca. 1185) by Hartmann von Aue: "His first work, Erec the Wonder-Worker, is one of the earliest known poems in German on the Arthurian cycle, the tale of an uxorious knight who neglects his chivalric duties." The title Erec the Wonder-Worker is the editors' translation of the Middle High German phrase žrec der wunderære, an epitheton ornans appearing twice toward the end of the tale (9308 and 10045). Applied to Erec only, this is the last of the epithets of personage commencing already in the second verse of the extant text žrec fil de roi Lac. Erec's story is thus framed by epithets, "son of King Lac" and "wonder-worker." Surprisingly, there is no systematic treatment of poetic epithets in Hartmann's writings, which comprise Arthurian romances, legendary narratives, and lyric poems. With the exception of a preliminary study intended to advance computer-aided lexicography, scholars have concentrated their interest elsewhere, believing perhaps that his epithets are purely ornamental, contribute little to epic portrayal, and promote oratorical effect. Some descriptive expressions in Erec are conventional. But others transcend formula and rhetorical schemes, functioning as a sort of shorthand that facilitates narrative exposition. One of these expository poetic epithets is žrec der wunderære, the subject of this essay. The phrase is worthy of examination, both because the meager scholarship on it is narrow in focus and range, and because interpretations of Hartmann's wunderære disregard the ascendant grounding of the epithet: sacred discourse. This essay argues that the poet imputes qualities to Erec that affirm the spiritual dimension of the phrase. The protagonist is truly "a worker of wonders" under divine guidance.