Ziegler Review

Clergy participation in trials by ordeal was outlawed by the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215. However, while this marked a shift towards “rational” process in the judicial systems governed by Rome, the concept of ordeal left a strong imaginative legacy in medieval literature. Students have long benefited from Robert Bartlett’s study Trial by Fire and Water: the Medieval Judicial Ordeal (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986). While the title of Vickie L. Ziegler’s 2004 book echoes Bartlett’s, she moves beyond his comprehensive examination of the concept of the ordeal to focus on its function in German writing.

Ziegler’s introduction provides an useful summary of the historical background and legal context to the literary texts that she will discuss in the main three chapters of the book. Trials by fire and battle are motivated by the need to find proof. In contrast to many critics who emphasise the strangeness of irrational proof-seeking to modern judicial systems, Ziegler shows consonance and continuity between medieval beliefs and our own dependence on remnants of irrationality, reminding us that ‘if we look at the weight given today to sworn testimony, in which the name of God is invoked and which can involve criminal penalties if the testimony is false, we can catch a glimpse of the situation in medieval times’ (p.2). The sense of continuity established here is key to Ziegler’s stated desire to move away from preconceived ideas about the texts she discusses, rejecting the ‘anachronistic attitudes’ (p.72) which can cloud our ability to view objectively matters of pain and suffering. Instead, she seeks to allow examples of medieval German literature themselves ‘to determine what they, created as they were in the legal and literary context of their time, can tell us about the contemporary attitudes to the law that they reflect’ (p.10). The implication that other critics shape their interpretation of these texts to fit their own agendas interestingly echoes Ziegler’s view of the way that medieval authors use the imaginative legacy of the ordeal: ‘For the medieval writer past and present were intimately connected; since the present was legitimized through its connection to the past, the past was changed to reflect the desired picture, dependent on the time, the place, and the predilections of the writer/compiler’ (p.22).

The first chapter examines the transition between the treatment of Genelun’s ordeal in different versions of the late medieval Karlsepik, contrasting Der Stricker’s Karl der Grosse and the Karlmeinet. Ziegler shows how the themes of Karl and Roland’s family ties, the role of the feud and the exposition of detailed legal argument become of less interest in the century that separates the two texts. She argues convincingly that this reflects a ‘decline in usage and prestige of the Germanic system of compensatory law’ (p.52). Ziegler’s detailed examination of Germanic legal history conveys the contrast between the emerging English Common Law (so often the focus of studies on the ordeal) and the situation on the continent, where the suppression of the ordeal coincided with increased secrecy in the trial process with private inquisitions replacing public truth-seeking.

Ziegler follows her discussion of the Karlsepik with a treatment of the ordeal in Tristan and Isolde. This analysis surprisingly does not mention Ralph J Hexter’s Equivocal Oaths and Ordeals in Medieval Literature (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 1975) which examines the Middle English version of the episode. Ziegler’s chapter sets out to situate Gottfried’s version of the Isolde story in the ‘legal and literary context of ordeals in the early thirteenth century’ (p.116). This approach is particularly valid since the date of Gottfried’s text is thought to coincide neatly with Lateran IV. Furthermore, Ziegler’s work is enhanced by her decision to use the duel between Tristan and Morolt to establish the way that God’s capacity to judge is viewed earlier in Gottfried’s work. This provides a welcome change from those critics who focus exclusively on Isolde’s equivocal oath. Participation in the duel exhibits honourable aspects of Tristan’s character. Yet Ziegler sees the portrayal of the latter proof-seeking to be constructed very differently, arguing that ‘Gottfried seems to have made changes, whether by omission or addition, that underscore the difference between Isolde and the saintly consorts of legend (p.126). This contributes to Gottfried’s ironic examination of the two possible ways of understanding the oath which were current: the Christian belief that an oath must be true in all senses met and collided with the nonclerical understanding, which Ziegler explains thus: they ‘still saw the oath largely as a matter of form: if performed correctly, it constituted truth. Truth resided not outside but in the oath itself’ (p.128).

The final chapter sees a shift in emphasis as Ziegler’s discussion moves from secular texts to hagiographical narratives of saintly queens. Consequently, the function of ordeal in the two texts she examines, the Kaiserchronik and Heinrich und Kunegunde, is less to do with the ethics of legal process than with establishing the saintly character of the heroine. While this transition does not fit easily with the argument of the other two chapters (that legal context is essential to an understanding of ordeals in literature), it does augment the discussion of Isolde since it shows the sharp contrast between Gottfried’s treatment of her ordeal and the ordeals of legend. This is important for, as Ziegler rightly suggests, legend provided a contemporary source of cross-referencing and comparison for secular German literature.

Ziegler’s book concludes with a coda which uses Der Stricker’s “Das heisse Eisen” to show how the post-Lateran period allowed the ordeal to become part of less serious literature. This piece is a “märe”, a short fictional narrative with elements of burlesque, and is not concerned with the legal, theological or hagiographical themes of the previous texts discussed. As the ordeal became less pressingly controversial, it was able to settle into a literary role as a version of testing. Ziegler’s point here is also well illustrated in Middle English texts including Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde in which the heroine offers to prove her constancy ‘By ordal or by oth’ (3.1046) when Troilus believes that she loves someone else.

Ziegler’s book includes many beneficial appendices, summarising and translating the texts that she uses in her argument, a detailed bibliography and a comprehensive index. This work will be a valuable resource for students of German literature and of medieval legal process alike.

Linda R. Bates, U. of Cambridge