Das Erbe des Lazarus : Recht und Religion bei Drogo de Altovillari und Hartmann von Aue

Abstract

Following the resurrection of the Arthurian knight Erec at the castle of Limors, this article attempts to review the question of the religious ties of the courtly romance by investigating figurations of re-entering life. These typological ties, when considered in detail, turn out to be ambivalent precisely when the religious horizon appears particularly affirmative, as in the case of Limors. This gets especially palpable in connection with returnees who, like Lazarus and Erec, become ambiguous between religious wonder and judicial discussion. The article explores their interferences in a 13th-century Latin debate poem as well as in a key scene of the first vernacular Arthurian romance, which both equally glorify and disempower their heroes.