Tannhäuser

unexpectedly absolved by the Pope for sinning in the Venusberg. [Ger. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 932]

Tannhäuser

as a sign that the Pope should absolve him, the papal scepter suddenly sprouts green leaves. [Ger. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 932]

See: Miracle

Tannhäuser

seeking salvation, takes pilgrimage to Rome. [Ger. Opera: Wagner, Tannhauser, Westerman, 211]

See: Penitence

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Tannhäuser

(in Middle High German, Tannhuser). Born circa 1205 in Salzburg or near Neumarkt, Bavaria; died 1270. German minnesinger and poet.

Tannhäuser traveled widely, and he took part in the Sixth Crusade (1228–29). He wrote dance songs for the court nobility and for the peasants, parodies of love lyrics, and didactic verse. He influenced the work of medieval German courtly poets and 19th-century German romantic poets, such as Novalis, L. Tieck, and E. T. A. Hoffmann. Tannhäuser is the hero of R. Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser (1845). In the 14th century a legend arose that Tannhäuser resided in the magic grotto of the ancient German goddess Holda near Eisenach.

WORKS

In J. Siebert, Der Dichler Tannhäuser: Leben, Gedichte, Sage. Halle, 1934.

REFERENCES

Istoriia zarubezhnoi literatury: Rannee Srednevekov’e i Vozrozhdenie. Moscow, 1959: Pages 123–25.
100 oper, 5th ed. [Compiled and edited by M. Druskin.] Leningrad, 1973. Pages 62–67, 79.