Gottfried von Strassburg [key], fl. 13th cent., German poet, also called Godfrey of Strasbourg. He is thought to have been official scribe of Strasbourg, but little is known of him. As author of the Middle High German Tristan (c.1210), he ranks as one of the great medieval German poets and is noted for his fluency and psychological depth. His style, although smooth and artful, is sometimes mannered. Gottfried's Tristan breaks off at the meeting of Tristan with Isolt of the White Hands. The poem was concluded by Ulrich von Türheim and Heinrich von Freiberg. See Tristram and Isolde.
See translations of Gottfried's Tristan by J. L. Weston (1899) and E. H. Zeydel (1948) and studies by M. S. Balls (1971) and W. T. H. Jackson (1971).
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