Der Wilde Alexander

[micrologus]

Der Wilde Alexander is the name attributed to a Middle High German poet of the late 13th c. He was of South German or more probably Swiss origin, and has usually been taken for a commoner, though some hold him to be of minor nobility. He was clearly, like Walther von der Vogelweide, a wandering singer, who depended on his reception at courts and castles.

Der wilde Alexander sets a high value upon poetic art, insisting upon its descent from kings. The majority of his poems are Sprüche, and some of them deplore the decadence of the age, of which the disaster of the fall of Acre (to which one poem alludes) is a symptom. Though some of his poetry is obscure, Alexander can also write with great simplicity and apparent feeling. Yet even his most homely and direct poems are given a spiritual interpretation, as in the attractive poem beginning "Hie vor, dô wir kinder waren", with its picture of the strawberry-picking children, which turns into a warning against sensual pleasures.

Der wilde Alexander also wrote a noble Christmas poem and a minneleich