Iwein is a Middle High German verse romance by the poet Hartmann von Aue, written around 1200. An Arthurian tale freely adapted from Chrétien de Troyes' Old French Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, it tells the story of Iwein (Yvain), a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. It was written after Hartmann's Erec, and is generally taken to be his last work.
Fresco from the Iwein cycle at Castle Rodenegg: Iwein fights Aschelon (Askalon).
Two scenes from the Iwein frescoes at Schloss Rodenegg: The stone on the spring is watered (left), and the Woodsman (right).
Middle High German is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. High German is defined as those varieties of German which were affected by the Second Sound Shift; the Middle Low German and Middle Dutch languages spoken to the North and North West, which did not participate in this sound change, are not part of MHG.
German territorial expansion before 1400 from F. W. Putzger
Middle High German dialect boundaries
Manuscript B of Hartmann von Aue's Iwein (Gießen, UB, Hs. 97), folio 1r
Manuscript C of the Nibelungenlied, fol. 1r