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Meier Helmbrecht
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Meier Helmbrecht

work by Wernher der Gartenaere
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Article History

Meier Helmbrecht, realistic medieval epic poem (c. 1250), remarkable for its portrayal of the seamy decline of chivalry, when knights became robbers and peasants rebelled against their masters. In the poem the young peasant Helmbrecht prefers knightly adventure to farming. His family outfits him at great expense, and he enters the service of a knight (i.e., a robber). He returns home insufferably proud of his stolen riches and his smattering of foreign words and arranges a marriage between his sister and one of his gang. A splendid celebration, made possible by a series of new robberies, is held, but the gang is caught at the wedding breakfast. Nine of them are hanged. Helmbrecht is blinded and loses a hand and foot. He returns home, but his brokenhearted father turns him away to wander the forests, where he is finally caught by peasants and hanged.

(Read Sir Walter Scott’s 1824 Britannica essay on chivalry.)

The poem is about 1,900 lines in length and was written in the region of the Austrian-Bavarian border by Wernher der Gartenaere (Gärtner), who includes his name in the poem’s last line.

This article was most recently revised and updated by J.E. Luebering.