Poetry
The Last Knight
Der letzte Ritter
Anastasius Grün · 1830
Opening lines
Wohin, ihr Reiterheere? Wohin, du trüber Kumpan?
Wohin, ihr Schiffer zu Meere? Wohin, du Krückenmann?
Whither, you hosts of horsemen? Whither, gloomy companion?
Whither, you sailors at sea? Whither, man on crutches?
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from zeno.org
Synopsis
A garland of narrative poems devoted to the Habsburg Maximilian, whom German memory calls the last knight. Each piece takes up an episode from his life and adventures, and the cycle composes, from romance to romance, the portrait of a sovereign placed between two worlds: that of dying chivalry, whose customs he keeps, and that of the Renaissance princes, whose ambition he already shares.
Context
The cycle appeared in 1830, the same year as a first collection of love verse that went almost unnoticed, and it was this cycle that made Grün known. In it he celebrates the deeds and adventures of the emperor in the rhymed stanza of the Nibelungenlied, and the subtitle presents it as a wreath of romances. John O. Sargent produced an English translation in 1871, published under the title The Last Knight.
Who it is for
A long narrative poem in stanzas, easy to approach for anyone who reads German; no French translation. It is worth knowing a little about the figure of Maximilian I.
Prizes and reception
The poet's first success, before the political verse that made his fame; the poem popularised Maximilian's nickname.
Sources for this page 9
The pages consulted to check this page.