Introduction

The title of this essay comes from one of the most iconic scenes in medieval German Arthurian romance. The episode occurs near the beginning of Hartmann von Aue's Iwein. Riding through the forest in search of adventure, the knight Kalogrenant comes upon a clearing, where he finds a flock of wild animals presided over by a ferocious-looking herdsman. Kalogrenant states the purpose of his journey, namely, to seek adventure, and receives the title question in response: “Adventure,” asks the herdsman, “what is that?” (âventiure, waz ist daz). Taken aback, Kalogrenant goes on to explain that he is a knight and knights seek adventure. The bemused herdsman finally points Kalogrenant toward a fountain where, if the knight pours water on the stone nearby, he may find what he seeks. Kalogrenant follows these directions, only to be unhorsed by the knight who defends the fountain. Kalogrenant returns to Arthur's court, where he then relates his unfortunate encounter to Iwein and his comrades ten years later.

The question “adventure, what is that?” is never again explicitly asked in the poem. I suggest, however, that the romance of Iwein itself becomes an answer. The herdsman's query resonates through Iwein's subsequent encounters, revealing an underlying anxiety about the nature of knightly adventure (Is adventure good? Are knights good?). Hartmann's contemporary Wolfram von Eschenbach even more overtly interrogates the concept of adventure through frequent use of gaming analogies and metaphors. In book VI of Parzival, for example, Segramors downplays his defeat at Parzival's hand, saying that “chivalry is diceplay”(ritterschaft ist topelspil; line 289.24), likening knightly pursuits to a game of chance, or a roll of the dice. Parzival believes he has played the chivalric game well thus far, and the Arthurian court reinforces this belief with its acclaim, until Cundrie's rebuke drives him from the Round Table to search for the Grail. His prior success is illusory. In fact, Parzival's mother has died of grief, he has assaulted a woman who was then further mistreated by her angry husband, and he has ignored the suffering at the Grail castle.