Editing Wolfram von Eschenbach (section)

==Life==
[[Image:Abenberg 0008.jpg|thumb|upright|Statue of Wolfram at Burg Abenberg castle in [[Abenberg]]|left]]

Little is known of Wolfram's life. There are no historical documents which mention him, and his works are the sole source of evidence. In ''[[Parzival]]'', he talks of {{lang|de|wir Beier}} ("we [[Bavarians]]"); the dialect of his works is [[East Franconian German|East Franconian]]. On the basis of this and a number of geographical references, the present-day [[Wolframs-Eschenbach]], until 1917 Obereschenbach, near [[Ansbach]] in present-day [[Bavaria]], has been officially designated as his birthplace. However, the evidence is circumstantial and not without problems – there are at least four other places named [[Eschenbach (disambiguation)|Eschenbach]] in Bavaria, and Wolframs-Eschenbach was not part of the [[Duchy of Bavaria]] ({{lang|de|[[Altbayern]]}}, 'Old Bavaria') in Wolfram's time.{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}}

The [[coat of arms|arms]] shown in the [[Codex Manesse|Manesse manuscript]] come from the imagination of a 14th-century artist, drawing on the figure of the Red Knight in ''Parzival'', and have no [[heraldry|heraldic]] connection with Wolfram. Wolfram's work indicates a number of possible patrons (most reliably [[Hermann I, Landgrave of Thuringia|Hermann I]] of [[Thuringia]]), which suggests that he served at a number of courts during his life.{{Citation needed|date=September 2020}} He was presumably not a wealthy man, as he made frequent allusions to his own poverty.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In his ''Parzival'', Wolfram states that he is illiterate; while the claim is treated with scepticism by some scholars, the truth of the assertion, difficult for some moderns to believe,<ref>In the foreword to his translation of Wolfram's ''Parzival'', A. T. Hatto opines that "his claim not to know his A B C must be discounted as one of his tactical jokes". ''Parzival'', p. vi.</ref> is impossible to ascertain. But it has been credited by many commentators. It is noted in [[Thomas Mann]]'s ''[[The Magic Mountain]]'' that "the greatest poet of the [[Middle Ages]], Wolfram von Eschenbach, could neither read nor write",<ref>Thomas Mann, ''The Magic Mountain'', trans. H. T. Lowe-Porter (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946), p. 522; translation first published in 1927, the original published in 1924.</ref> and the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' observes: "Wolfram in his ''Parzival'' tells us explicitly that he could neither read nor write. His poems were written down from dictation. His knowledge was extensive and varied rather than accurate. He certainly knew [[French language|French]], but only imperfectly; for his proper names often show a curious misunderstanding of French words and phrases."<ref>''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' (1913).</ref>