Didactic books about children published today would not necessarily differ very much from their medieval counterparts,133 and we just have to take into account different interests, concerns, and motifs that determine all those various sources relevant for childhood both in the past and today.134 Obviously, the further we go back in history, the less we hear or learn about children, but "Fewer people could write, and their reasons for writing had less to do with children. When it was relevant to them, in coroners' records or accounts of miracles, adults did so with the same care and consistency that they gave to themselves."135
1 3 0 Nicholas Orme, Medieval Children (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001), 5.
1 3 1 For a positive review, see Albrecht Classen, Mediaevistik 15 (2002): 192-94; for a surprisingly
negative, perhaps somewhat one-sided review, see James A. Schultz, Medievalia et Humanistica 30 (2004): 156-59. Cf. also Joel T. Rosenthal, in Journal of Social History (2003), Spring; here I have used the internet version at: http://www.findarticles.cOm/p/articles/mi_m2005/is_3_36/ai_99699507 (last accessed on March 14, 2005).
1 3 2 See, for example, the didactic verse treatise by Thomasin von Zerclaere, Der welsche Gast. Vol. 1:
Einleitung, Überlieferung, Text, die Varianten des Prosavorworts, ed. F. W. von Kries. Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik, 425/1 (Göppingen: Kümmerle, 1984), Book One, 755-1790; for many different references to children's didactic literature, see Orme, Medieval Children, 242-46, et passim.
1 3 3 See Nicole Clifton's contribution to this volume.
134
For new insights on didactic books for children in the Middle Ages, see the contributions by Nicole Clifton and Karen K. Jambeck in this volume.
1 3 5 Orme, Medieval Children, 9.
Some scholars have even taken the next step and are trying to reconstruct a psychological history of premodern childhood, but neither the theoretical framework nor the textual or material evidence easily lends itself to such an enterprise.136 Altogether, however, we would be justified to claim that the paradigm shift is about to happen since a critical mass of relevant data has been accumulated. Many chronicle accounts are now studied in light of quite different questions, such as those pertaining to the history of emotions concerning the relationship between parents and children. For instance, two Arabic chroniclers and Jean de Joinville, all reflecting upon the abduction of a three-month old baby from the Christian camp in Acre in May of 1191, consistently report on the dramatic scene when Sultan Saladin ordered the return of the baby. Both parents are said to have shed tears of joy when they saw their child again, and expressed their deep gratitude to Saladin.137
One final example would be the anonymous thirteenth-century courtly romance Wigamur, closely modeled after Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzwal. Again, the narrative follows the young man's personal development throughout his life, while searching for his name and hence his identity. Interesting for us, however, is the early stage of his knighthood as he appears in public without knowing much about the world of the adults at all, making a fool of himself, which significantly adds to the comic element. For our purposes, neither the source material nor the actual message of the text matters, whereas the presentation of the very young hero sheds significant light on the general question we are dealing with. The protagonist is, in surprising parallel to the narrative strategy in the various Lancelot romances,138 kidnapped by a wild woman, Lespia, and taken into her kingdom under the water of a lake. The narrator emphasizes, first, that this caused the father great sorrow ("groß laidt," 113), and that the prince was really only a little boy
136 Dorle Klika, "Methodische Zugänge zur historischen Kindheitsforschung," Handbuch qualitativer Forschungsmethoden in der Erziehungswissenschaft, ed. Barbara Friebertshäuser and Annedore Prengel (Weinheim and Munich: Juventa, 1997), 298-308; here 298; Edmund Hermsen, "Aries' 'Geschichte der Kindheit' in ihrer mentalitätsgeschichtlichen und psychohistorischen Problematik," Psychogenetische Geschichte der Kindheit: Beiträge zur Psychohistorie der Eltern-Kind-Beziehung, ed. Friedhelm Nyssen and Ludwig lanus (Gießen: Psychosozial-Verlag, 1997), 127-58;
Ralph Frenken, Kindheit und Autobiographie vom 14. bis 17. Jahrhundert: Psychohistorische Rekonstruktionen. 2 vols. PsychoHistorische Forschungen, 1/1-2 (Kiel: Oetker Verlag, 1999). All three German scholars, in their effort to deal critically with Aries, offer valuable theoretical observations, but they also create a number of new problems because of their excessive reliance on psychological concepts and do not seem to be as familiar with their medieval sources and the relevant contexts as necessary for their specific approaches.
137 Sabine Geldsetzer, Frauen auf Kreuzzügen: 1096-1291 (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2003), 167-68.
138 See the contribution by Carol Dover in this volume.
("kindlein," 130).139 One day, however, the king captures the wild woman again and threatens her with execution, which indicates how much he had been hurt by the loss of his child (240-49). Nevertheless, he offers to give back her freedom if she returns his son. Unfortunately, in the meantime another monster that she had captured had freed itself and killed the wild woman's two daughters, yet kept the prince alive and abducted him down into the deep sea. When the wild woman witnesses her dead children, she is gripped by so much grief ("sie begund luoen als ain rind," 323) that she lifts up a rock and slays herself (326-28). Although her death is gruesome, it forces us to accept that mothers—here the wild woman—felt as deeply for their children, especially when they suffered death, as modern mothers would.140 Wigamur, on the other hand, is raised by the other monster who introduces him into the basic chivalric skills, before he is allowed to return home into the world of people, although he has no social skills and truly does not understand anything about the courtly existence, emblematically illustrated through his armor, a bow and arrows (414). When Wigamur arrives at a castle, he observes an army in full siege, leading to a conquest and the slaughter of all those inside. The young man, who veritably acts just like a child, comments to himself that if these are truly people, "so künnen sy ain schönes spil; / doch wän ich, es vil wee tuot" (508-09; they consider it a nice game, but I think that it hurts badly).
Although Wigamur seems to be beyond teenage years in his bodily appearance, his mind and manners are those of a child who does not understand the gruesome reality around him: "er mainte, das sy all tag teglich / dise ding tryben ta" (515-16;
he thought that they did such things every day). In close parallel to Parzival's stepping onto the stage of chivalry as a naive and inexperienced young man in Wolfram's eponymous romance, Wigamur offers comical perspectives of the
"kindisch man" (552, childish man) who does not know anything about knightly trappings and acts most foolishly when he defends himself against the knight
139 Wigamur, ed. avec introduction et index par Danielle Buschinger. Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik, 320 (Göppingen: Kümmerle, 1987); for a critical reading of the comic elements in this text, see Albrecht Classen, "Der unfreiwillig komische Held Wigamur. Strukturelle und thematische Untersuchungen zu einem spätmittelalterlichen Artus-Roman," Euphorien 87, 2/3 (1993): 200-224; for sources, see David Blamires, "The Sources and Literary Structure olWigamur,"
W. Rothwell, W. R. J. Barron, David Blamires, Lewis Thorpe, Τ. Β. W. Reid, Studies in Medieval Literature and Languages in Memory of Frederick Whitehead (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1973), 27-i6.
This wild woman expresses as much maternal love for her children as Grendel's mother in Beowulf;
see Keith P. Taylor, "Beowulf1259a: The Inherent Nobility of Grendel's Mother," English Language Notes 31, 3 (1994): 13-25; for motherhood in general, see Atkinson, The Oldest Vocation (she also refers to Grendel's mother, 82). Carol Dover, in her contribution to this volume, discusses a very similar literary account of a child growing up with a (foster) mother, in the Old French prose Lancelot.
Glakotelesfloyr.141 After Wigamur has defeated him, he complains—again revealing his absolute naivite—"du hast mir vil we getan" (660; you hurt me mightily). And once his opponent has promised him his service in return for sparing his life ("und wil werden dein man," 675; I want to become your man), Wigamur expresses his astonishment about the seemingly sexual implication: "das du wildt mein man sein / und ich ain weyb nit entpin" (683-84; that you want to be my man although I am not a woman). Glakoteslesfloyr's laughter about this child in a man's body (687-92) invites the audience to laugh with him because of the discrepancy between adulthood and childhood. Emblematically, at a later point Wigamur wants his horse to lower itself so that his new young female companion can climb on its back. Using brute force, he simply presses the horse down and mishandles it just as a child would mistreat a toy that does not perform as it should (1001-09). Eventually, this young protagonist grows up into a responsible member of courtly society, but in the early stages of the narrative, he has a hard time shedding his childishness, especially when he is asked about his origin, his goals, and intentions, and does not know how to answer any of these questions by his host Yttra (1268-78).142
In the narrow sense of the word, Wigamur is not a child, but since he is portrayed as a childish person who does not easily comprehend what the adult world is all about, the narrator provides us a glimpse into thirteenth-century mentality regarding the relationship between adults and children. If Wigamur were not as old as he seems to be, judging by his physical development, his nonsensical statements, laughable behavior, and ignorance even of the most basic aspects of chivalric society, he would indeed serve as an ideal model of how people in the thirteenth century regarded children: they talk silly, they act without reason, and they behave without understanding the basic norms and rules of the adult world. Insofar as the narrative framework invites us to feel bemused by Wigamur's childishness, the stage of childhood itself gains in respect as a clearly separate period in life. Wigamur does not comprehend the meaning of death—even in face of mass slaughter, he does not show any feelings and seems to be ignorant of what has really happened to those who had been killed—he does
141 For the projection of childhood in Wolfram's Parzival, see Dennis H. Green, "The Young Parzival:
Naming and Anonymity," Interpretation und Edition deutscher Texte des Mittelalters: Festschrift für John Asherzum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Kathryn Smits, Werner Besch, and Victor Lange (Berlin: Schmidt;
1981), 103-118.
142 Matthias Meyer, "Intertextuality in the Later Thirteenth Century: Wigamur, Gauriel, Lohengrin and the Fragments of Arthurian Romances," The Arthur of the Germans: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval German and Dutch Literature, ed. W. H. Jackson and S. A. Ranawake. Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, 3 (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2000), 98-114, offers a good summary of the text, but does not comment on Wigamur's acting the role of a child.
not know how to sit on a horse, he is ignorant of how to arm himself, and he knows nothing about his own identity. It would be inappropriate to conclude that medieval writers generally disregarded children as foolish and nescient, but the comic descriptions strongly suggest that the author intended to create comic through the deliberate contrast between adults and a childish person.
Wigamur nicely illustrates the intricate nature of our search for how people viewed childhood in the premodern age. Similar to the many textual and visual illustrations of the Jesus child, or of many saints in their childhood, the author was obviously not interested in providing detailed information about that early stage in human development. Nevertheless, since the contrast between adulthood and childhood proved to be so entertaining, at least within the context of Arthurian knighthood and chivalry, the poet offers valuable evidence about how people in the thirteenth century perceived children in their individuality, personality, and emotional maturity.143
Whereas the anonymous author of Wigamur invites his audience to laugh about the foolish child in a man's body, the religious poet Frau Ava, ca. hundred years earlier, indicated how much children were loved by their parents, and how much their death caused heart-felt pain for them. Briefly commenting about herself at the end of her apocalyptic poem The Last Judgment (before 1127): "Dizze buoch dihtote / zweier chinde muoter. / diu sageten ir disen sin, / michel mandunge was under in. / der muoter waren diu chint liep, / der eine von der werlt seiet" (35,1-6;
This book was written / by the mother of two children. / They told her this meaning. / There was much blessed joy among them. / The children were dear to the mother. / One of them left this world).144
A most remarkable example of medieval awareness of childhood and children's psychology can be found in the thirteenth-century courtly romance Mai und.
Beaflor, closely modeled after the pan-European motif of the "innocently accused queen," such as Gautier de Coinci's Empress of Rome, Philippe de Remi's La
1 4 3 Surprisingly, James A. Schultz, The Knowledge of Childhood, 220, mentions Wigamur only in passing,
here reflecting only on its direct dependency on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival. In other words, when we search for children in medieval literature, we not only have to find new documents or new texts, but we also ought to reread those texts that have been combed through many times before, but then without the specific aspect of childhood in mind.
144
Ava's New Testament Narratives. See also the excellent analysis of this text by Eva Parra Membrives in her contribution to this volume, "Mutterliebe aus weiblicher Perspektive: Zur Bedeutung von Affektivität in Frau Avas Leben Jesu." For a brief introduction and overview, see Albrecht Classen,
"Ava, Frau," Women in the Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia. Vol. I, ed. Katharina Μ. Wilson and Nadia Margolis (Westport, CT, and London: Greenwood Press, 2004), 49-52.
Manekine, or Gower's Confessio Amantis,145 When Mai laments the assumed death of his wife Beaflor, he sings a song of praise of her beauty, virtues, and innocence.
He emphasizes, above all, her youth, which seems to make her murder even more heinous. Although Beaflor had delivered a child, Mai still describes her as such a young woman that she could have been delighted with the simple gift of dolls:
"dü waere noch in der jugende, / daz man dich mit den tocken / billich noch solde locken" (7030-32; you were so young that it would have been appropriate to delight you with dolls).146 In other words, the male protagonist is aware that girls enjoy playing with dolls, and the author has Mai state this observation in order to emphasize Beaflor's youthful charm and childlike appearance, almost equating her with an angel. In fact, as we know from an earlier passage, when Beaflor had arrived in Greece on her flight from her father, the Emperor of Rome, who had tried to rape her, she had hardly developed into a young woman. Mai's mother secretly observes the girl when she is given a bath, and remarks: "'ach, dü bist ein kint' / sprach si, 'wan dir nü erste sint / ensprungen dmiu brüstelin" (2381-83; col.
61, 11-13; "oh," she said, you are only a child since your breasts have hardly developed). The entire emotional development of this romance relies on the premise that children are innocent and must be protected from the evils of this world; hence Beaflor's childlike appearance intensifies the horror about the various attempts either to rape her or to have her killed evoke in the audience.147
In other words, wherever we look, medieval sources and documents reveal a wealth of information about intimate relationships between parents and children and about the great concern for children at large throughout the Middle Ages and the early modern age which Aries mostly discounted or was not even aware of. As Mary Martin McLaughlin observes, "The dramatic enactment of the Gospel story in art and liturgy was, in fact, among the novel experiences of the late eleventh and twelfth centuries, and her e a growing stress on the Infancy of Christ, and especially on such themes as the Nativity and the Adoration of the Magi, gave the images of Mother and Child a much greater prominence and often an appealing humanity."148 This observation also applies to a variety of courtly romances,
1 4 5 For the literary tradition, see Nancy B. Black, Medieval Narratives of Accused Queens (Gainesville,
Tallahassee, et al.: University Press of Florida, 2003). She also discusses Mai und Beaflor, but only in passing, 57-61.
146 Mai und Beaflor. Eine Erzählung aus dem dreizehnten Jahrhundert (Leipzig: G. J. Göschen'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1848), col. 175, 40-175, 2. I am presently in the process of preparing a modern German translation together with a new edition based on the Munich ms. cgm 57 (ms. A).
For a parallel, historically documented case where a Jewish mother argued to Pope Gregory IX in 1229 that her very young boy still needed her care and that he should stay with her instead of going with his recently converted father, see Baumgarten, Mothers and Children, 160-61.
Martin McLaughlin, "Survivors and Surrogates," 133.
hagiographical texts, saints' lives, and art work.149 Considering the wealth of new information, we are also in a much better position to understand the enigmatic allusion to the allegorical figure in the fourteenth-century narrative Middle English poem Pearl. When the narrator figure describes her as "Ho wat3 me nerre f>en aunte or nece" (233; She was nearer to me than aunt or niece, 233), and more or less identifies her as young as two years of age ("i>ou lyfed not two 3er in oure {jede" [483]; Thou livedst not two years in our land),150 he simply plays on the well-established motif of celestial children who evoke deep emotions in the spectators and, because of their affective appeal on parents—in this case perhaps the own deceased daughter—exert considerable influence on the listeners.151