German or Hungarian poet, possibly mythical. The name and some features of the tradition seem to go back to a literary figure created by Wolfram von Eschenbach, following Chretien de Troyes’ ‘clers sages d’astronomie’ in the Conte du Graal. In Wolfram’s Parzival (c1200) Klingsor appears as a descendant of the magician Virgil, a rich duke of Caps (Capua). In the poem of the Wartburgkrieg his background is given as ‘ûz Ungerlant’ (i.e. from Hungary). The wider tradition mentions that he had received an annual salary from the Hungarian king, and in the Elisabeth-Viten the prophecy of St Elisabeth’s birth is attributed to him.
It is uncertain whether there was a poet with the same name as the literary figure of Klingsor the magician. The possibility is supported by the attribution, in the Manessische Liederhandschrift, of the whole Wartburgkrieg complex to ‘Klingesor von vngerlant’. From the 15th century onwards the so-called Rätselspiel-Ton (now called the Schwarzer Ton) from the Wartburgkrieg was thought of as a work of Klingsor; in the poem itself Klingsor is mentioned together with other poets who are known to have existed. On the other hand, the Jenaer Liederhandschrift (D-Ju El.f.101) names ‘her wolueram’ as the author of the Rätselspiel-Ton. In early modern literature Klingsor is named as one of the 12 alte Meister in numerous Meistersinger manuscripts. Finally, in the 17th century, Klingsor is credited with writing one further Ton, the ‘Nachtweise’.
B. Wachinger: ‘Klingsor’; ‘Der Wartburgkrieg’, Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon, ed. K. Ruh and others (Berlin, 2/1977–)
H. Bayer: ‘Meister Klingsor und Heinrich von Ofterdingen: die Zeitkritik der Wartburgkrieg-Dichtung und ihre literarischen bzw. geistesgeschichtlichen Quellen’, Mittellateinisches Jb, xvii (1982), 157–92
L. Miklautsch: ‘Arnive und Klingsor in Albrechts “Jüngerem Titurel”’, Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift, new ser., xli (1991), 214–23
F. Schanze, B. Wachinger and others, eds.: Repertorium der Sangsprüche und Meisterlieder, v (Tübingen, 1991), 492–538 [Wartburgkrieg-Töne]
T. McFarland: ‘Clinschor: Wolfram’s Adaptation of the Conte du Graal: the Schastel Marveile Episode’, Chrétien de Troyes and the German Middle Ages: London 1988, ed. M.H. Jones and R. Wisbey (Cambridge, 1993), 277–94
S. Tuchel: ‘Macht ohne Minne: zu Konstruktion und Genealogie des Zauberers Clinschor im Parzifal Wolframs von Eschenbach’, Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, ccxxxi (1994), 241–57
K. Klein and H. Lomnitzer: ‘Ein wiederaufgefundenes Blatt aus dem “Wartburgkrieg”-Teil der Jenaer Liederhandschrift’, Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, cxvii (1995), 381–403
LORENZ WELKER