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vails and a redemptive future. They are unique in

the way Virgil combines the pastoral genre with

contemporary issues. The Eclogues were published

in 37 B.C., upon which Virgil became a famous

man, an enormously successful and highly re-

garded poet, and the beneficiary of the patronage

of Maecenas, a chief adviser to Augustus. Maecenas

was also patron to Virgil’s good friend and fellow

poet HORACE, whom Virgil had introduced to Mae-

cenas.

With Maecenas’s encouragement, Virgil went to

work on his next composition, the Georgics. Again,

he presents the cycles of nature central to a

farmer’s life and shows how those who wrest a liv-

ing from the land must toil assiduously to bring

forth fertility and rebirth. The Georgics is didactic

in nature, but in this work, as in the Eclogues, Vir-

gil transforms the genre in his praise of Roman

rural values and in the pathos he shows for the lack

of peace in recent years. He views peace as the only

condition under which agriculture and animal

husbandry can thrive, yet he describes how the

land has been desiccated by a century of warfare.

Virgil took seven years to write the Georgics, com-

pleting it in 29 B.C. The finished work comprises

four books on farming and cultivating corn, culti-

vating olives and vines, raising livestock, and bee-

keeping, respectively.

Virgil spent the rest of his life crafting his

EPIC

masterpiece, the Aeneid. Before completing it, he

became ill while traveling with Augustus and never

recovered. While he was dying, he pleaded with his

executors to destroy the unfinished manuscript,

since he feared it did not live up to his exacting

standards. Augustus, who had heard excerpts of

the work in progress and recognized its value,

countermanded the order and had it published

after the poet’s death.

Critical Analysis

The Aeneid recounts in iambic pentameter the epic

adventures of Aeneas, a Trojan warrior and the son

of a goddess. Aeneas sorrowfully leaves his ruined

homeland after it is sacked by the Greeks and

founds the city that is Rome’s predecessor. Virgil

summarizes the story in the opening lines, ren-

dered here in a prose translation:

I sing of arms and of the man, fated to be an

exile, who long since left the land of Troy and

came to Italy to the shores of Lavinium; and a

great pounding he took by land and sea at the

hands of the heavenly gods because of the

fierce and unforgetting anger of Juno. Great

too were his sufferings in war before he could

found his city and carry his gods into Latium.

This was the beginning of the Latin race, the

Alban fathers and the high walls of Rome.

Juno is queen of the gods and wife of Jupiter

(corresponding to the Greek Hera and Zeus). She

is Aeneas’s persistent adversary throughout the 12

books of the Aeneid. Juno maintains a furious

grudge against the Trojans, in part because of the

mythic “Judgment of Paris.” Paris, son of the king

of Troy, was commanded to decide which of three

goddesses was most beautiful: Hera, Athena, or

Aphrodite. He chose the third, incurring the wrath

of the other two.

In the Aeneid, Juno uses her powers to inflict a

succession of disasters upon the hero as he wan-

ders with his band of Trojan War survivors

through Sicily and Africa en route to fulfilling his

destiny. One of the most well-known incidents

takes place when the refugees are shipwrecked on

Carthage (now Tunisia), where Aeneas arouses the

ardor of Queen Dido. Ultimately he honors his fate

and sense of duty and leaves her. Tragically, she

throws herself on a funeral pyre.

Aeneas finally reaches Italy, where, after bitter

conflict, he establishes his city and founds the new

race that will unite Italy with a common language,

culture, and sense of nationality and ultimately

give rise to the Roman Empire.

As in his earlier works, Virgil’s themes in the

Aeneid are those of peace and order, the devasta-

tion of war, and a destructive past giving way to a

promising future. The work is also an eloquent

Virgil 321

hymn celebrating Rome’s glory and its imperial

destiny. In subject matter, it is like a blend of

HOMER’s Odyssey and Iliad; it is an epic adventure

combined with violence and warfare presented in

an original, almost novel style of poetry designed

to create an epic for Rome as Homer did for

Greece.

The Eclogues and Georgics became classroom

texts during Virgil’s lifetime, and quotations from

the Aeneid dating from a few years after its publica-

tion have been discovered in bathhouses and streets

in Rome and Pompeii. His impact on literature is

ongoing, but it was especially influential on the de-

velopment of medieval and Renaissance epics, such

as Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, D’Aubigné’s Les Trag-

iques, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Chaucer’s House of

Fame, and Spenser’s The Faerie Queen. Echoes of his

work also can be seen in the works of Edmund

Spencer, John Milton, DANTE, William Wordsworth,

Lord Tennyson, John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Vic-

tor Hugo, William Shakespeare, Jorge Luis Borges, T.

S. Eliot, and more.

English Versions of Works by Virgil

The Aeneid. Edited by Philip Hardie et al. New York:

Cambridge University Press, 1994.

The Aeneid. Translated by David West. London: Pen-

guin, 1990.

Virgil: Eclogues, Georgics, Aeneid 1–6, Vol. 1. Cam-

bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999.

Virgil: Selections from the Aeneid. Translated by Gra-

ham Tingay. New York: Cambridge University

Press, 1999.

Works about Virgil

Baswell, Christopher. Virgil in Medieval England: Fig-

uring The Aeneid from the Twelfth Century to

Chaucer. Edited by Alastair Minnis. New York:

Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Grandsden, K. W. and S. J. Harrison. Virgil: The

Aeneid. New York: Cambridge University Press,

2003.

Levi, Peter. Virgil: His Life and Times. New York: St.

Martin’s Press, 1998.

Rossi, Andreola. Contexts of War: Manipulation of

Genre in Virgilian Battle Narrative. Ann Arbor:

University of Michigan Press, 2003.

Spargo, John Webster. Virgil the Necromancer: Studies

in Virgilian Legends. Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger

Publishing, 2004.

Visnu Sarma

See PANCHATANTRA.

Vogelweide, Walther von der

See WALTHER VON DER VOGELWEIDE

322 Visnu Sarma

323



waikan (waikâ narratives) Winnebago

folklore

Waikan narratives are a distinct category of Win-

nebago prose stories, the other being WORAK NAR-

RATIVES. The literal translation of waika is “what is

old;” waikan translates as “what is sacred.” As part

of the ORAL LITERATURE/TRADITION of the Win-

nebago, the waikan narratives preserve part of the

Winnebago history and culture. They are consid-

ered the myth-proper literary form of Winnebago

mythology. They are set in a primordial past, a

time in which animals talked and spirits were com-

monly encountered on earth.

In Winnebago culture, waikan stories are con-

sidered private property and are owned by a par-

ticular person or family. Myths that are very sacred

or long can possess a high monetary value and are

often purchased in installments. As a waikan passes

from one owner to another, the storytellers skilled

in relating anecdotes add their own personal styles

and interests to the traditional stories. The liberties

taken in delivery are secondary, however, to the

traditional stories, plots, themes, and characters.

Waikan possess distinct literary characteristics,

and traditional waikan can be told only during the

winter, when snakes no longer dwell above the

ground; those who tell waikan when snakes are

aboveground risk supernatural retribution and the

wrath of their people. The action always takes

place in a past mystical era, and characters are al-

ways of divine origin. The heroes are either spirits

or deities such as the Thunderbird, Waterspirit,

and Sun; or animal deities such as the Hare, Turtle,

or Bear. Waikan cannot end tragically, so heroes

are always depicted as immortal; they cannot die

or permanently be killed unless they are evil.

Some waikan narratives include “The Adven-

tures of Redhorn’s Sons,” a tale about Redhorn’s

revenge against murderers; “The Animal Who

Would Eat Men,” a tale explaining why elk have no

front teeth; and “The Baldness of the Buzzard,”

which explains how the Trickster takes revenge on

a buzzard for mistreating him.

These sacred stories are of special importance

to the Winnebago tribe and to world literature.

They are told by elders with high prestige and pre-

serve the rich history of Winnebago culture as it

has been passed down through the ages.

An English Version of Waikan Narratives

Smith, David Lee. Folklore of the Winnebago Tribe.

Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997.

A Work about Waikan Narratives

Radin, Paul. The Trickster: A Study in American Indian

Mythology. New York: Philosophical Library, 1956.

Walther von der Vogelweide (ca. 1170–

ca. 1230) poet, songwriter

Little is known about Walther von der Vogelweide’s

parentage, childhood, or later life. He was born

and grew up in Austria but later left the country to

seek patronage in the courts of Germany. Though

it is not clear into which social class the poet was

born, he was probably of noble birth and thus re-

ceived a classical education, which in turn served

as the basis for his poetry.

After the death of his first patron in Vienna,

Walther established himself at the Hohenstaufen

court in Germany. From there he traveled around

the surrounding countryside as a kind of itinerant

musician (called a Minnesinger), entertaining aris-

tocratic and royal families with his singing and

recitation. Later in life he settled at the court in

Würzburg in southeastern Germany, where he ul-

timately died and was buried.

Probably the most important poet of his era in

the German language, Walther was greatly admired

by audiences, peers, and patrons. His body of work

consists of two crusaders’ songs (called Kreuzlieder),

a choir song (called a Leich), as well as more than 100

poems consisting of chivalric love poetry in the Min-

nesang tradition, lyric poetry expressing the respect

and homage owed by a knight to his mistress.

Walther von der Vogelweide’s most accom-

plished works are his Minnelieder, or love songs,

which he brought to an unrivaled level of artistic

refinement. His lasting importance as a poet lies

perhaps in his visions of love and women.

Walther’s concept of love was not one of one-sided

servile devotion but of mutual affection, and for

him feminine beauty consisted as much of inner

qualities as of outward appearances.

Walther’s collection of lyric poems is usually di-

vided into three groups: his earliest and most con-

ventional poems, reminiscent of court poet Reinmar

der Alte; poems in which courtly love and all the

trappings therein are cast off and replaced with

abandon and spontaneity; and the most mature of

his poems, those called Sprüche poems to denote the

aged poet’s responses to personal and political

events.

Scholar Günther Schweikle has written of

Walther von der Vogelweide, “He is the unparal-

leled master of medieval German poetry.” The in-

fluence of Walther’s work continues to be felt

today, and he is considered the first in a long line of

great Austrian poets.

English Versions of Works by

Walther von der Vogelweide

Selected poems of Walther von der Vogelweide. Edited

by Margaret Fitzgerald Richey. Oxford: Blackwell,

1965.

Songs and Sayings of Walther Von Der Vogelweide, Min-

nesaenger. Murieta, Calif.: Classic Books, 2001.

Walther von der Vogelweide: The Single-Stanza Lyrics.

Routledge Medieval Texts Series. Edited and trans-

lated by Frederick Goldin. London: Taylor & Fran-

cis, Inc., 2002.

A Work about Walther von der Vogelweide

Jones, George Fenwick. Walther von der Vogelweide.

New York: Twayne, 1968.

Wang Anshi (Wang An-Shih)

(1021–1086) poet, essayist

Wang Anshi was born in Linchuan (Lin-ch’uan), Fu

Prefecture (present-day Jiangxi [Jiangsu] Province).

His father was a magistrate of the Song (Sung) court,

and he spent most of his youth traveling with his

family. They finally settled in Jiangning (Chiang-

ning; present-day Nanjing [Nanking]). At age 21,

Wang became a local assistant district magistrate

after earning the “Presented Scholar”degree. He dis-

tinguished himself as an administrator and re-

former, and in 1067 he was summoned to the capital

as a Hanlin academician. The Hanlin Academy was a

national academy of scholars within the imperial bu-

reaucracy. In 1070 the emperor promoted Wang to

the position of prime minister, but he did not

enjoy the ruler’s favor for long, and in 1074 he was

forced to resign and return to Jiangning. It was

during this time that Wang became increasingly

interested in literary pursuits and Buddhist philos-

ophy. Twelve years later, he died embittered after

324 Walther von der Vogelweide

discovering that all his proposed reform policies

were dismantled by the regent of the Song court.

Wang wrote more than 1,500 poems, many of

which address the social issues and economic ills

of Chinese society. He is best known for his essays

in which he discusses various contemporary polit-

ical and social problems, ideas concerning moral

behavior, and historical issues. One such essay,“The

Mountain Where Huibao [Hui-pao] Meditated”

(1054), reveals the influence of thinkers such as

WANG WEI and Buddhist philosophical thought. In

the essay, Wang emphasizes the achievements of

Hui-pao, a Buddhist monk who built a meditation

retreat at the base of Mount Paochan. The essay

serves as an allegory for Wang’s own political ca-

reer. His inability to advance far into the dark caves

of the mountain represents his limited political ad-

vancement.

Despite his failed career, Wang’s works are an

important source of information on the political

ideology and philosophical ideals of a man and the

generation of scholars who influenced and were

influenced by him. In Inscribed Landscapes,

Richard Strassberg calls Wang a “major literary fig-

ure and influential poet” and “another of the Eight

Masters of T’ang and Sung Prose.”

Works about Wang Anshi

Freeman, Michael. Lo-Yang and the Opposition to

Wang An-Shih: The Rise of Confucian Conser-

vatism, 1068–86. Yale University Thesis. Ann

Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1974.

Liu, James T. C. Reform in Sung China: Wang An-Shih

(1021–1086) and His New Policies. Cambridge,

Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959.

Strassberg, Richard E., trans. Inscribed Landscapes:

Travel Writing from Imperial China. Berkeley: Uni-

versity of California Press, 1994.

Wang Shifu (Wang Shih-Fu) (ca. 1250–

1337) playwright

Although Wang Shifu was the leading playwright of

the Yuan dynasty in China, little is known of his

personal life. He wrote in the popular zaju (tsa-

chü), or comedy, genre and became one of the mas-

ters of the form. His work helped to popularize ver-

nacular literature. Scholars have inferred from his

plays that he received a good education in the Con-

fucian classics and was also was well acquainted

with the popular literature of the day. Fourteen

plays have been attributed to Wang Shifu, but only

three have survived to the present day. One of these

is Xixiangji (Hsi-hsiang-chi; The Story of the West-

ern Wing), one of the greatest early Chinese com-

edy-dramas, which remains popular even today.

Written in the late 13th century, The Story of the

Western Wing tells the story of star-crossed lovers

Zhang Gong (Chang Kung), an intelligent and

handsome young student, and Cui Yingying (Ts’ui

Ying-ying), or Oriole, a beautiful young girl from a

wealthy family. The couple is forced to endure the

meddling of Oriole’s overbearing family, who

choose another suitor for her to marry. In the end,

with the help of Oriole’s clever young servant,

Crimson, Zhang Gong and Oriole are able to be

married. The play established character types that

would appear in China’s vernacular literature for

centuries to come: the brilliant student; the beau-

tiful, thoughtful maiden; the forbidding, overpro-

tective parent; and the clever maid.

Wang Shifu based his play on The Tale of Oriole

by Yuan Zhen (Yuan Chen; 779–831), a Tang dy-

nasty poet, and on The Story of the Western Wing in

All Keys and Modes by Dong Jieyuan (Tung Chieh-

Yuan), which included spoken dialogue and songs.

Jieyuan’s version was written in the “tell-and-sing”

literary genre of the late 11th century. Wang Shifu

continued this tradition, but adapted some of the

lyrics and scenes to fit the zaju style of writing, a

form of drama in which all the songs of a single act

in the play were assigned to one role.

The Story of the Western Wing has been made

into popular musicals and been rewritten by nu-

merous playwrights. References to the play appear

in many novels, including Cao Xueqin’s (Ts’ao

Hsueh-Ch’in’s) Dream of the Red Chamber (or

Dream of Red Mansions), a famous 18th-century

novel about ill-fated lovers, and the anonymous

16th-century novel, Chin Ping Mei. The play was

Wang Shifu 325

also a favorite during the Chinese Revolution of

1911, because Zhang and Oriole were seen as

champions of freedom.

Wang Shifu’s two other surviving plays are

The Hall of Beautiful Spring and The Story of the

Dilapidated Kiln. The first involves a political

feud between two officials during the reign of

Emperor Zhangzong (Chang-tsung) in the late

1100s. The second is a dramatic rendering of a

popular story about a young student, Lu

Mengzheng (Meng-Cheng), who overcomes a

poor upbringing to make the top score on the

civil service examination and to marry a beauti-

ful young woman from a wealthy family. These

plays, however, are not of the same caliber as The

Story of the Western Wing and have received lit-

tle attention over the years. However, all three

plays established Wang Shifu’s place in literary

history for helping to popularize Chinese ver-

nacular literature.

English Versions of a Work by

Wang Shifu

The Moon and the Zither: Wang Shifu’s Story of the

Western Wing. Edited by Stephen H. West and Wilt

L. Idema. Berkeley: University of California Press,

1991.

The Story of the Western Wing. Translated by Stephen

H. West and Wilt L. Idema. Berkeley: University

of California Press, 1995.

A Work about Wang Shifu

Zhang, Jing. “Peeping through the Wall: Reading

Book III in The Story of the Western Wing.” Avail-

able online. URL: http://cosa.uchicago.edu/

shangjing 5htm. Downloaded on April 9, 2004.

Wang Wei (Mochi, Mo-ch’i) (699–759)

poet

Wang Wei lived in China during the Tang (T’ang)

period, regarded as the height of Chinese civiliza-

tion. He was born in Shanxi (Shansi) to a father

who was a local official and a mother who came

from a family distinguished in literature. At age 16

he moved to the capital with his brother Jin (Chin)

and entered the social circle of princely society.

After graduating from university, he was awarded a

court appointment as assistant secretary of music.

He bought an estate on the edge of the Wang River

next to the Zhongnan (Chungnan) Mountains and

lived there off and on for the rest of his life. After his

wife died when he was a little over 30, he never re-

married and continued with his official life, leading

a long and undistinguished career in public service.

A passionate but reflective man, Wang Wei

(known also as Mochi [Mo-ch’i]) poured his en-

ergy into poems, paintings, and music and was

known in his time for all of these arts. Today, his

poetic legacy is the only one that survives. Al-

though in retrospect he is overshadowed by the

creative genius of the other two major poets of the

Tang dynasty,

LI BAI and Du Fu, at the time that

they lived, Wang Wei was the most prominent

among them, famous for his delicate, detailed, and

loving descriptions of natural landscapes. He was a

devout, practicing Buddhist, and the quiet and

mystical aspects of his religion are portrayed in the

landscapes he evokes with words. His poems ex-

press tranquillity, purity, serenity, and a sense of

control. They also emphasize his love of solitude

and the sense that humankind is only part of a

larger natural order. In the poem “Deer Park,” for

example, he writes, “Returning light enters the

deep grove, / And again shines on the green moss.”

The serene and simple imagery in Wang Wei’s

poetry was often meant to extend beyond its lit-

eral meaning. Four common elements of his

poems are an empty mountain, rain, voice, and

white clouds, all of which combine to create a feel-

ing of something deeper than just a landscape. His

poetry, however, was not formal religious poetry.A

line in his poem “Return to Wang River,” in a trans-

lation by Tony Barnstone, Willis Barnstone and Xu

Hiaxin, illustrates the mystical and lyrical qualities

of his imagery: “Far off in the mountains is twi-

light / Alone I come back to white clouds.” The

contemplative nature of his writing emphasizes its

connection to his Buddhist identity and view of

the world.

326 Wang Wei

Wang Wei’s combination of a spiritual feeling

and sparse imagery appeals to today’s readers. He

has been translated more often than any other Chi-

nese poet in the 20th century. Western audiences re-

late to the tension he sometimes depicts between the

worldly and mystical sides of himself. In true Bud-

dhist fashion, he kept himself detached from the

materialistic world while holding his job in court.

Wang Wei seems to have saved his reserves of emo-

tion for his literary and other artistic activities. He

expressed his deep spiritual concerns also by con-

verting the house he had bought for his mother into

a monastery after her death. The monastery housed

seven monks, and although Wang Wei did not him-

self join them, he visited often and is buried on the

grounds beside his mother. Accordingly, a theme of

his work is a contrast between public life and seclu-

sion, a topic that attracts modern Western audiences

struggling to fulfill the demands of their hectic lives

while retaining some sense of inner peace.

English Versions of Works by Wang Wei

Laughing Lost in the Mountains: Poems of Wang Wei.

Translated by Tony Barnstone, Willis Barnstone,

and Xu Haixin. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of

New England, 1991.

Songs of the Woodcutter: Zen Poems of Wang Wei and

Taigu Ryokan. Audio CD. Translated by Larry

Smith. Huron, Ohio: Bottom Dog Press, 2003.

Three Chinese Poets: Translations of Poems by Wang

Wei, Li Bai, and Du Fu. Translated by Vikram Seth.

Boston: Faber and Faber, 1992.

Works about Wang Wei

Wagner, Marsha L. Wang Wei. Boston: Twayne Pub-

lishers, 1981.

Weinberger, Eliot and Octavio Paz. Nineteen Ways of

Looking at Wang Wei: How a Chinese Poem is

Translated. Kingston, R.I.: Moyer Bell, 1987.

Wei Zhuang (Wei Chuang) (ca. 834–910)

poet

Wei Zhuang was born in a town outside Chang’an,

China, between 834 and 836. He spent much of his

early life in Chang’an, the Tang dynasty capital,

where he began to develop his literary ability by

writing ci (tz’u), or lyric poems. Wei was one of the

first poets to popularize the ci form and probably

received much of his inspiration for his lyrics from

the booming social life in the Chinese capital.

Wei left the capital in 877 to study under and

work for a prefect in the Guozhou (Kuo-chou),

Henan (Honan), Province. He returned to Chang’-

an in 879 to prepare for the jinshi (chin-shih) civil

service examination, which he failed the following

year. Scholars have pointed out, however, that Wei’s

failure may have saved his life, because many gov-

ernment officials were singled out for execution

when Chang’an was overrun by rebel bandits in 881.

During the fall of the capital, Wei escaped to the

provinces, where he wrote his EPIC poem The

Lament of the Lady of Ch’in, which brought him

immediate fame. This poem describes the horrors

of the sack of Chang’an, during which more than

80,000 people were executed. Wei also completed

more than 1,000 poems and lyrics, though only

about 375 remain.

Most of Wei Zhuang’s early poetic and prose

writings were destroyed when Chang’an was in-

vaded. What little is known of his early life has

been pieced together by scholars through analysis

of his later poems.

A Work about Wei Zhuang

Yates, Robin D. S. The Life and Selected Poetry of Wei

Chuang (834?–910). Cambridge, Mass.: Council

on East Asian Studies, 1988.

White Mountain Apache myths and

tales

Native American folklore

The White Mountain Apache tribe currently oc-

cupies a region in east-central Arizona of the

United States. Before the White Mountain Apache

Reservation was established in 1891, the White

Mountain tribe, one of five groups belonging to

the Western Apache, was largely nomadic. In the

1920s and 1930s, scholars Pliny Earle Goddard and

Grenville Goodwin undertook efforts to record,

White Mountain Apache myths and tales 327

translate, and preserve the myths and legends of

the White Mountain Apache.

To the White Mountain Apache, as with the

ZUNI NARRATIVE POETRY, storytelling is a practice

that belongs to the winter months from November

to February and should be done only at night, after

dusk and before dawn. Telling stories in broad day-

light is dangerous, especially in the spring, sum-

mer, and fall months, when all sorts of creatures

are abroad; if snakes, insects, or even lightning

hear stories about them that they do not like, they

may seek to punish the narrator. This belief in the

power of storytelling is shared among many cul-

tures that preserve and transmit their histories,

teachings, and cultural beliefs through an ORAL LIT-

ERATURE/TRADITION. To societies that largely de-

pend on a spoken language to communicate,

stories preserve memory, genealogy, identity, and

understanding about how the world works.

Tales of the White Mountain Apache generally

take one of two forms. Holy tales explain the origin

of ceremonies and other religious practices; cre-

ation tales explain the creation of the earth, the

emergence of its creatures, and slaying of mon-

sters, and the foundation of Apache customs.

While adventure stories about cultural heroes or

fables about the doings of animals may be told for

purposes of entertaining children, the holy tales

are able to confer particular abilities or powers,

and therefore the audience for specific tales was

traditionally limited only to people who were

ready for instruction. Altogether, the myths and

tales contain a great deal of information about the

material culture, economic life, social and familial

organizations, and religious beliefs governing

tribal life.

The White Mountain Apache myths also pre-

serve a cycle of Coyote tales. While the creation

tales convey ritual knowledge, the Coyote tales

generally use an enjoyable story for a morally in-

structive purpose. Like the

COYOTE TALES of the

Hopi, the Coyote of the White Mountain Apache is

a prankster, a ludicrous figure who tries to be cun-

ning but who, more often than not, falls victim to

his own gullibility. Coyote, however, can have an

occasionally useful function. Big Owl, who has a

minor cycle of stories, is usually depicted as slow

and rather ignorant, causing only harm and de-

struction.

In the holy tales, the most important male fig-

ure, with the exception of the sun, is the hero

Naiyenezgani. He is the benefactor of human be-

ings who taught them important survival skills.

The most important female figure is Isdzanadlehe,

who taught humans how to plant and harvest

crops. She is variously described as Naiyenezgani’s

mother or grandmother, in keeping with the

Apache practice of tracing descent through the

mother and organizing families around matriar-

chal groups. Other holy tales describe the gan, a

class of beings who lived on earth before the White

Mountain Apache and later went away. They are

powerful spirits who, if properly invoked, can pro-

vide enormous benefits, but can also do great

harm if offended.

Like the book of Genesis in the Hebrew

BIBLE

and also in the Sumerian poem GILGAMESH, the

White Mountain Apache myths have a story about

a flood, which itself contains many origin stories.

This story explains why the tip of the turkey’s tail is

white, why the area where the White Mountain

Apache live is sandy and flat rather than moun-

tainous, and how corn was a gift of a turkey that

distributed food to those who had survived the

flood. As the story goes, the turkey provided gray,

red, yellow, and blue corn, simply by shaking his

feathers.

An indication that the White Mountain Apache

folklore continued to evolve and grow as a tradi-

tion is seen in some stories, preserved in modern

collections, that show the influence of the Spanish

and later Europeans. Stories that include horses,

firearms, and written documents all date from the

period after the first European interactions. While

certain stories preserve the origins and histories of

clans or families within the tribe, most of the

White Mountain myths are not clan-specific. To-

gether the myths represent a rich and flexible lit-

erary tradition and provide a valuable cultural

history of the White Mountain Apache tribe.

328 White Mountain Apache myths and tales

An English Version of White Mountain

Apache Myths

Goodwin, Grenville. Myths and Tales of the White

Mountain Apache. Tucson: University of Arizona

Press, 1994.

A Work about White Mountain

Apache Myths

Green, Bernard and Darlene Pienschke. Stories of

Faith: Among the White Mountain Apache. Lon-

don: Pen Press Publishers, 2001.

Wolfram von Eschenbach (ca. 1170–

ca. 1225)

poet, songwriter

Biographical information about Wolfram von Es-

chenbach is hazy at best. Though the precise span

of his life is not known, he lived at the same time as

his fellow poet GOTTFRIED VON STRASSBURG,who

makes references to his competitor Wolfram in his

works. Wolfram also lived at the same time as an-

other famous German writer, HARTMANN VON AUE.

He was probably born in the town of Eschenbach,

in Bavaria, and achieved the rank of knighthood

at a time when the both the Catholic Church and

the German emperor were trying to consolidate

their power into more centralized, hierarchical

structures. This left a man trained for fighting, like

Wolfram, on the fringes of society. He therefore

took up writing as a career, and for most of his life

the powerful Hermann of Thuringia was his pa-

tron and benefactor.

In his writings Wolfram sometimes refers to

himself as illiterate, meaning he could not read and

write Latin, the language of the clergy. He was,

however, fluent in French as well as his native Ger-

man. Wolfram’s poems are clearly meant for oral

performance and may have been composed orally

as well; he could have hired a scribe to record the

words for him. As a relatively impoverished noble-

man, he would not have had access to the best ed-

ucation of his day, as he himself testifies. This was

in no way a disadvantage in his writing, which

shows a narrative talent that takes its strength from

the message he seeks to communicate, not aca-

demic knowledge.

Along with his contemporaries, Wolfram lived

in a society where politics were governed by the

structure of feudalism and social codes were gov-

erned by

CHIVALRY/COURTLY LOVE, ideals that in-

fused the genre of the MEDIEVAL ROMANCE in which

Wolfram was writing. His early verse lyrics show

the influence of the TROUBADOURS of southern

France, and Wolfram first gained recognition for

his love songs (in German, Minnelieder). His great-

est skill was with the alba, or song of dawn, which

was highly cultivated by medieval French poets but

relatively unknown to the Middle High German

audience.

Wolfram’s longer verse narratives are difficult to

date, but his reference to his poem Parzifal (ca.

1210) in the opening to Willehalm (ca. 1217) may

indicate that Willehalm, which tells of the earlier

adventures of certain characters who appear in

Parzifal, was actually written later. Scholars argue

over whether Willehalm is complete or whether

Wolfram intended further books. Upon his death,

he left fragments of a work called Titurel, which

he most likely began composing after Parzifal but

never finished. His lieder (songs) cannot be dated

but are most likely early works.

Critical Analysis

Wolfram’s Parzifal is a complete work, which rep-

resents an achievement over the source he was

using, The Knight of the Grail by the French ro-

mancer CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES. Chrétien’s tale intro-

duces the early adventures of the hero Percival and

his quest for the HOLY GRAIL, but his tale strands the

hero far away from his chosen quest and actually

ends in the middle of the adventures of another

Arthurian knight, Gawain. Wolfram adopts the

characters of Parzifal and Gawain but completely

reimagines them, turning the original tale of

knightly battles into a deeply spiritual quest. Wol-

fram also draws on the epic tone of German heroic

poetry, of which the NIBELUNGENLIED is a classic ex-

ample. Translators Marion Gibbs and Sidney John-

son, in their introduction to Willehalm, call Parzifal

Wolfram von Eschenbach 329

“one of the great quests of world literature, acted

out in the idealized world of the courtly romance.”

They add: “It is also a search for man’s proper rela-

tionship to God, beginning in ignorance, and pass-

ing through disappointment, even antagonism, to

the ultimate realization of Divine Love.”

Written in rhyming verse, Parzival describes

various episodes in the life of its hero, beginning

with his birth and his youth as a laborer living in

the forest, ignorant that he is truly a knight and

destined to become a king. The story follows his

chivalrous education and reception at Arthur’s

court, then turns to his noble deeds and failings as

an Arthurian knight. Despite the numerous digres-

sions and the fact that several chapters are devoted

to the life and adventures of Gawain, another

knight in King Arthur’s court, at the heart of the

novel is the story of Parzival’s quest to find the

Holy Grail and heal King Anfortas, who is also his

uncle. Parzifal initially fails at his quest because,

when he witnesses the magnificent Grail proces-

sion, he neglects to ask the most important ques-

tion: Whom does the Grail serve?

To find the answer, he must take up a deeper

and even more challenging quest, one that takes

him to the very center of knightly ideals and moral

conduct. In Parzifal a reader can clearly see Wol-

fram’s faith in the ideals of “true” knighthood and

his earnest belief that a harmonious world order

can only rest on a return to these ideals. The qual-

ity that best describes Wolfram’s ideal life is triuwe,

or loyalty, which must underpin a knight’s rela-

tionships with his lord and his fellow knights, his

family, wife, and children, and his relationship to

God. Parzifal, then, is less about the quest for the

earthly Grail kingdom and more about the per-

sonal quest for understanding and devotion to the

greater spiritual laws. The depth and artistry with

which Wolfram portrays this quest make the 16

books of Parzifal one of the most astounding land-

marks of medieval literature.

In Parzifal we find the narrative technique that

most distinguishes Wolfram’s prose: his direct ad-

dress to the audience. Throughout the text, the

narrator interjects personal commentaries and

opinions into the story, which serve not only to

leaven the dramatic tension and provide comic re-

lief but also to give the reader insights into the

characters, action, and the author’s world vision.

Also appealing is the lively and unpredictable way

in which Wolfram relates the story. Ironic and

comic passages are juxtaposed with serious discus-

sions on religious and existential themes. Individ-

ual adventure scenes are described with great

dramatic tension but also with much irony, as if

Wolfram could not take the subject matter com-

pletely seriously. The following short passage from

the fifth book in Edwin H. Zeydel’s translation

might be considered characteristic of the work and

Wolfram’s style:

Who fain would hear where he may stray

Whom lust for deeds has lured away,

Great acts of wondrous daring

To them we shall be bearing.

The originality and mastery of Wolfram’s Parzi-

val lies also in its poetic sophistication. Metaphors,

similes, and hyperbole all come into play. The

work is often humorous, but it is not a comedy, as

its core is a harsh vision of the perplexing and hor-

rifying aspects of human existence.

Willehalm is quite different from Parzifal in

both tone and intent. The author retains his style

of the direct address, speaking conversationally to

his reader or listener. An early passage in the first

book of Willehalm reveals this characteristic style

as well as the author’s ambitions, when after mod-

estly pointing out his success with Parzifal, he

claims:

I shall tell of love and other grief which in

consequence

of their devotion men and women have

been suffering . . .

No tale in German tongue can easily match

this whole work

which I now have in mind. . . .

330 Wolfram von Eschenbach