(b Veldeke, nr Maastricht, 1140–50; d c1190). German Minnesinger of Netherlandish origin. He was of ministerial rank. He received a religious education, went to the court of Hermann of Thuringia, and was presumably present at the court festivities of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in Mainz in 1184. He then completed his principal work, the Eneit, a free rendering of Virgil’s Aeneid in his native Lower Rhenish tongue, based on French models. Hendrik was one of the great representatives of the courtly epic and early Minnesang. Some 61 strophes survive with ascriptions to him, of which about 15 were previously considered unauthentic; but have more recently been counted among the authentic works. None survives with music, but their form shows French–Provençal influence, so it is thought that Hendrik probably sometimes used melodies of his Romance precursors, such as Gace Brule and Pierre de Molins. As the first to use ‘pure rhyme’ consistently in German verse, he may have had an influence on lyric poetry (Friedrich von Hûsen, Rudolf von Fenis-Neuenburg, and so on) and upon the epic verse of his day.
Text edition: Des Minnesangs Frühling, ed. K. Lachmann and M. Haupt (Leipzig, 1857, rev. 38/1988 by H. Moser and H. Tervooren) [MF]Music edition: Singweisen zur Liebeslyrik der deutschen Frühe, ed. U. Aarburg (Düsseldorf, 1956) [A]
none of the poems appears with music in any source
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Alse dî vogele blîdelîke, MF 65.28: ? contrafactum of Richart de Semilli, ‘Quant la sesons renouvele’, R.614; A |
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Ich bin blîde, sint dî dage, MF 57.10: ? contrafactum of Pierre de Molins, ‘Fine amours et bone esperance’, R.221; A |
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Sô wê der minnen is sô vrût, MF 61.33: ? contrafactum of Gace Brule, ‘Oiés por quoi plaing et sopir’, R.1465; A |
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Swenn diu zît alsô gestât, MF 67.9 (Pseudo-Veldeke): ? contrafactum of Bernart de Ventadorn, ‘Quan vei la lauzeta mover’, PC 70.43; A |
H. de Boor: Die höfische Literatur: Vorbereitung, Blüte, Ausklang, 1170–1250, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur, ed. H. de Boor and R. Newald, ii (Munich, 1953, rev. 11/1991 by U. Hennig)
H. Thomas: ‘Zu den Liedern und Sprüchen Heinrichs von Veldeke’, Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur [Halle], lxxviii (1956), 158–264
J. Smits van Waesberghe: De melodieën van Hendrik van Veldekes liederen (Amsterdam, 1957)
U. Aarburg: ‘Melodien zum frühen deutschen Minnesang’, Der deutsche Minnesang: Aufsätze zu seiner Erforschung, ed. H. Fromm, i (Darmstadt, 1961/R), 378–421
G. Schieb: Henric van Veldeken (Stuttgart, 1965)
Heinric van Veldeke: Ghent 1970, ed. G.A.R. de Smet (Antwerp, 1971)
L. Wolff and W. Schröder: ‘Heinrich von Veldeke’, Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon, ed. K. Ruh and others (Berlin, 2/1977–)
B. Bastert: ‘Möglichkeiten der Minnelyrik: des Beispiel Heinrichs von Veldeke’, Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, cxiii (1994), 321–44
H. Tervooren: ‘Wan si suochen birn ûf den buochen: zur Lyrik Heinrichs von Veldeke und zu seiner Stellung um deutschen Minnesang’, Queeste, iv (1997), 1–15
For further bibliography see Minnesang.
BURKHARD KIPPENBERG