SOURCE: Walshe, M. O'C. “The Courtly Love-Lyric.” In Medieval German Literature: A Survey, pp. 113-26. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962.

In the following excerpt, Walshe explains how Walther naturalized and humanized courtly literature and analyzes his shifting political allegiances.

The great blazer of new trails was Walther von der Vogelweide. We do not know with any certainty where Walther was born.

The statement, still sometimes repeated, that he came from the Layener Ried in the valley of the Eisack in what is now Italian South Tyrol is supported by no other evidence than the existence there of a Vogelweidhof, and is not inherently particularly probable. We know from his own statement that he learnt his art in Austria, which at that time almost certainly means Vienna, and by definition certainly excludes Tyrol.

He probably came from Lower Austria, and was of knightly birth, though it seems he never...