Spiel als Kultur und Spiel als Medium der Lebensbewältigung im Mittelalter – Vom Schachspiel und Liebeswerben hin bis zur literarischen Spielführung

For research it has always been rather difficult to come to terms with the phenomenon of courtly love and to grasp the relevance of the pertinent texts in many different medieval languages. We also wonder how to interpret properly the nature of the courts themselves, where sociability mattered most, which was commonly expressed in terms of honor, dignity, and values. Here I suggest that courtly life was much more determined by the notion of ‘game’ in its metaphorical, intellectual, rhetorical, and philosophical concepts, which helps to explain much better the countless contradictions and enigmas contained in the literary and philosophical texts, above all. This model finds its best expression in works such as Andreas Capellanus’s De amore, Gottfried von Strasbourg’s Tristan und Isolde, in Heinrich von dem Türlin’s Diu Crône, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in the various mÆren by Heinrich Kaufringer, and in the theoretical reflections by Nicholas of Cusa.