Erec (Middle High German) Add a review

Erec (also Erek, Ereck) is a Middle High German poem written in rhyming couplets by Hartmann von Aue. It is thought to be the earliest of Hartmann's narrative works and dates from around 1185. An adaptation of Chrétien de Troyes' Erec et Enide, it is the first Arthurian Romance in German.

Erec tells the story of how Erec, a knight at King Arthur's court, wins the hand of the beautiful Enite, but then through excessive devotion to his wife, neglects his duties as a knight and lord. Realising his error, he sets out from the court on a series of increasingly challenging adventures in which he tests Enite's loyalty and gains insight into the purpose of knighthood.

Unlike Hartmann's later romance Iwein, which survives in 16 complete manuscripts, Erec is preserved in only a single, much later manuscript, the Ambraser Heldenbuch, and a few small fragments. In spite of this limited manuscript tradition, contemporary and later references show that the work was influential.