Mit ir herzen jâmers touwe: Herzeloyde como mater dolorosa em Parzival de Wolfram von Eschenbach

Abstract

In Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival (c. 1200-1210), which is acknowledged as a masterpiece of Middle High German literature, the female characters are ascribed prominent roles: among them is the protagonist's mother, Herzeloyde. Scholarship has noted the extent to which the poet has used a repertoire of paradigmatic Marian imagery to describe the character and this suggests a typological relationship to the mother of Christ. This becomes particularly apparent since much of Herzeloyde's trajectory is dominated by sorrow. In this article, I will focus on Herzeloyde's path of suffering, analysing the different moments in which she cries and attempting to contextualise the tears she sheds within the framework of important medieval exegetical traditions regarding the representation and perception of Mary.