4 - The Myth of Charlemagne in Fourteenth-century German Literature: The Karl Meinet Compilation

Summary

The Literary–Historical Background

IN THE first half of the fourteenth century an anonymous author in the north-western part of Germany compiled a biography of Charlemagne, calling it dat boich van eme, which is today known, though not quite appropriately, as Karl Meinet, or the Karlmeinet-Kompilation. This huge work consists of about 36,000 verses written in a Ripuarian – that is, a north-western German – dialect. The poet combined numerous older poetic works dedicated to Charlemagne, but he did not attempt to blend them together harmoniously. The text has survived only in one late medieval manuscript from c. 1470, written in Cologne, Ms. A, today kept in the Darmstadt Landesbibliothek und Hochschulbibliothek, HS 2290. Then there are various fragmentary manuscripts, but their filiations remain unclear.

The first part, Karl und Galie, consists of about 13,500 verses and thus makes up the longest part of the compilation (oldest manuscript in Cologne, cod. 5 P 63, c. 1270‒c. 1280). Here, the young Charles escapes an assassination attempt by the imperial governors Hoderich and Hanffrade by fleeing to Muslim-controlled Spain, where he assumes a fake identity as Meinet and thus finds refuge at the court of the Saracen king/sultan Galaffers of Toledo. During the two years of his exile there, he grows into a formidable knight and wins the love of the king's daughter Galie. He defeats the wild African King Bremunt and his nephew Kayphas. Subsequently, King Galaffers helps him to regain his original kingdom, so he can finally be crowned as the legitimate ruler of France. Secretly, Charles then returns to Toledo to collect Galie, to whom he has become engaged without her father's knowledge. On their way, the couple is challenged by the Saracen Prince Otias (or Orias), who wants to claim Galie for himself. When Charlemagne and Galie reach the border fortress Termis, his own troops come to his rescue and defeat the Saracen army that had pursued the couple. Charles himself kills Otias. Charles then takes his bride to Saint-Denis, where she is baptized as a Christian, and they marry, thus laying the foundation for the future Christian kingdom.