Minnesang diesseits des Frauendienstes und der Kanzonenstrophe

In this paper, the author contests Helmut de Boor's widespread labelling of the early Minnesang verses as the ›Danubian tradition‹ by revealing his unfortunate blending of topographical, textual, formal and genre-related aspects. The argument is based on a selection of early stanzas that have not absorbed Franco-Provençal influences such as the strophic form of the canzone or the idea of love service. In the manuscript tradition, some of these in the first place anonymous verses have been attributed to Der von Kürenberg, the Burggraf von Regensburg, Leutholt von Seven, Waltram von Gresten and Niune. At this point they are newly conceptualized as witnesses of a collective art form. Therefore, these early verses constitute an own sub-genre and can be distinguished from the later corpora rightly attributed to the Burggraf von Rietenburg, Meinloh von Sevelingen and Dietmar von Ais