Gottfried

Gottfried, a meistersinger of Strasburg, who flourished between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Of his history little is known, but he seems to have been of good family and to have held some municipal office in his native city. His great but incomplete work, Tristan und Isolt, deals with the popular Keltic legend of the Middle Ages. The poem consists of 12,552 rhyming lines, and displays great artistic power as well as deep knowledge of human nature. It has had a powerful influence over German literature. There are no other authentic remains of Gottfried save a few lyrics, the Lobgesang and Gedicht von der Armuth no longer being regarded as his work.