TANNHAUSER, or TANHUSER  , German Minnesinger of the 13th century, who lived for a time at the court of Frederick II., duke of Austria . After Duke Frederick's death he was received at the court of Otto II., duke of Bavaria; but, being of a restless disposition, and having wasted his fortune, he spent much time in wandering about Germany . He also went as a Crusader to the Holy Land . His poems belong to the decadence of the Minnesang, and combine a didactic display of learning with descriptions of peasant-life in a somewhat coarse tone . His adventurous life led him to be identified, in the popular imagination, with the knight Tannhauser who, after many wanderings, comes to the Venusberg, or Horselberg, near Eisenach . He enters the cave where the Lady Venus—the Fran Hulda of German folk-lore—holds her court, and abandons himself to a life of sensual pleasure . By and by he is overcome by remorse, and, invoking the aid of the Virgin Mary, he obtains permission to return for a while to the outer world . He then goes as a pilgrim to Rome, and entreats Pope Urban to secure for him the forgiveness of his sins . The pope declares it is as impossible for him to be pardoned as for the staff he has in his hand to blossom . Tannhauser departs in despair, and returns to the Venusberg . In three days the staff begins to put forth green leaves, and the pope sends messengers in all directions in search of the penitent, but he is never seen again . This legend was at one time widely known in Germany, and as late as 183o it survived in a popular song at Entlebuch in Switzerland, a version of which was given by Uhland in his Alte hock- and niederdeutsche Volkslieder .

Among the attendants of Hulda was the faithful

Eckhart, and in the preface to the Heldenbuch he is said to sit before the Venusberg, and to warn passers-by of the dangers to which they may be exposed if they linger in the neighbourhood . The legend has been reproduced by several modern German poets, and by R . Wagner in an opera . For Tannhauser's lyric poetry, see F . H. von der Hagen's Minnesinger, ii . (1838); K . Bartsch, Deutsche Liederdichter des 12. bis 14 . Jahrhunderts (3rd ed . 1893), No . 47 . See also F . Zander, Die Tannhausersage and der Minnesinger Tannhauser (1858); J .

G . T .

Grasse, Die Sage von Tannhauser (1846; 2nd ed . 1861) ; A' . Ohlke Zu Tannhbusers Leben and Dichten (189o); J . Siebert, Tannhauser, Inhalt and Form seiner Gedichte (1894) .