Julia Lorenz
University of Oxford
Time in the Middle High German romances “Tristan” by Gottfried of Straßburg and “Engelhard” by Konrad of Würzburg are structured by the romances’ main topic: love. This drives narration and turns the space-time continuum into a function of the principles of love. Consequently, time does not represent itself as a reliable quantity; but as variable and adaptable, bending around spaces and figures within it. Love in “Tristan” is all-consuming and incompatible with social norms, cutting through, and even stopping, time completely in the “Minnegrotte”. This interference with time shows the power of love and its conflict with what is perceived as the natural order. In “Engelhard” time progresses and is continually visible, even in moments of love, highlighting that love is compatible with societal expectations in this conception. These specific alignments of the course of time cause the formation of a narrative gravitational centre in “Tristan”, interrupting figure development and anticipating the final catastrophe while allowing a linear progression for the figures in “Engelhard”. In both cases the structuring of time and space go hand in hand, causing a strict separation and isolation of spaces in “Tristan” while allowing figures a continuous progression through spaces in “Engelhard”.