MDT Ep. 93: Helmbrecht Returns, or The Dark Robber Knight

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We continue with Part 2 (of 3) of the 13th-century peasant epic Meier Helmbrecht, in which Helmbrecht returns to his family after a year as squire to a robber knight, and cultures clash accordingly.

Today’s Text

• Wernher der Gartenaere. Meier Helmbrecht. In Peasant Life in Old German Epics, translated by Clair Hayden Bell, Columbia UP, 1931. Archive.org.

References

• Bastow, A. “Peasant Customs and Superstitions in Thirteenth Century Germany.”Folklore, vol. 47, no. 3, Sept. 1936, pp. 313-328.JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1256867.
• Gardner, Roy, et al. “Tolling the Rhone in 1254: Complementary Monopoly Revisited.” Indiana University Bloomington, 2002, https://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/dlc/bitstream/handle/10535/5220/Tolling%20the%20rhine%20in%201254%20complementary%20monopoly%20revisited.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
• Jacobson, Evelyn M. “The Reader in ‘Helmbrecht.'” Colloquia Germanica, vol. 26, no. 3, 1993, pp. 201-210. JSTOR, hwww.jstor.org/stable/23982533.
• Lewis, Charlton T. A History of Germany from the Earliest Times. Harper & Brothers, 1874. Google Books.
• Nordmeyer, George. “The Judge in the Meier Helmbrecht.” Modern Language Notes, vol. 63, no. 2, Feb. 1948, pp. 95-104. JSTOR,www.jstor.org/stable/2909515.
• Nordmeyer, George. “Structure and Design in Wernher’s Meier Helbrecht.” PMLA, vol. 67, no. 2, Mar. 1952, pp. 259-287. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/460099.
• “Tilo.” Behind the Name, 2 July 2017, www.behindthename.com/name/tilo.
• “What are ‘Robber Knight’?” Reddit, r/AskHistorians, 12 Apr. 2021, www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/mphz5s/what_are_robber_knight/.

Image credit: detail of cabbage harvesting from a 15th-century manuscript of Ibn Butlan’s Tacuinum sanitatis, Paris, BnF, Département des manuscrits, Latin 9333 fol. 20.